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Who Speaks for the Negro? Martin Luther King, Jr
1964 Interview with Robert Penn Warren
You’ve heard Martin Luther King, Jr in quotes and speeches. Rarely do you see him when engaged in discussions like his 1964 interview with Robert Penn Warren. In this interview, King compares himself to his father and discusses the Civil Rights Movement as only an insider could. The following link includes the audio with the full transcript to follow.
Martin Luther King Jr. | Who Speaks for the Negro?
King discusses the continuity between his and his father’s work as civil rights activists, pointing to his formal training in nonviolence as a difference. He discusses the next phase of the civil rights movement and the goals of integration. Prompted by Warren, he discusses Gunnar Myrdal’s view of how Reconstruction could have been better handled, including compensation to slaveowners for the loss of their slaves. He discusses the leadership of the civil rights movement. He talks about the need for school integration and the obstacles to it, and approves of busing to improve the education of both African Americans and whites. He sees a middle ground in the dilemma of maintaining black identity on one hand and being a part of American culture on the other. He discusses the slogan “Freedom Now,” acknowledging the social realities that make change…
