Customer Reviews

Conscience for Change (Massey Lecture Series)

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This is a set of 5 tapes which includes Dr. King's 4 talks that were part of the Massey Lecture series in Canada and his 1967 Christmas Eve sermon he gave at his church in Atlanta. The tapes also include a couple of panel discussions. These discussions are reactions to Dr. King's speeches. One of the discussions is between two academics and their views of Dr. King's protests against the Vietnam War. The other discussion is a larger group and it focuses on race relations in Canada and the U.S. For people who are only familiar with Dr. King's "I have a Dream" speech, the four lectures may be disappointing because they are lectures and, as such, they are not delivered in the manner that many people associate with King. However, the lectures are great if you want to understand Dr. King's thinking during this time period because he goes into great detail outlining the justifications for his views on the Vietnam war, the War on Poverty, and racism. In my view, the 1967 Christmas Eve sermon is one of Dr. King's best speeches ever. It is certainly better than the Nobel Prize acceptance speech and, I think, the April 4, 1967 anti-war speech that he gave (what many historians identify as his first major anti-war speech). In this sermon, King elaborates on his theme of the interconnectedness of all people, but he also has a sequence toward the end of the speech on "I watched this dream turn into a nightmare" which is amazing because you get a real sense of the dispair that Dr. King felt at times during the movement because the country just didn't seem to really understand what his philosophy of justice and nonviolence was all about. It is an amazing speech. I am glad that it is finally available for people to hear.
My only complaint is that this set is only available on cassette tape and not as a cd.