Category: History || By

They packed the ballroom at the University of Pittsburgh's student union in Oakland on Nov. 1, 1966, to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speak --- more than 1,000 people, according to the Post-Gazette, the largest turnout ever at an event in the Pitt student union.

A later report in the student newspaper, The Pitt News, said the university estimated the real crowd was almost double that --- at least 2,000 people, counting those who overflowed the ballroom and listened to the speech over the public address system in the cafeteria and lounge areas.

According to the Pittsburgh Courier, King --- who was kicking off a nationwide speaking tour --- made no public comment about civil rights, slum or housing issues affecting the Pittsburgh area.

While The King Center in Atlanta, Ga., does not seem to have an online copy of King's remarks at the University of Pittsburgh, the local news coverage of his speech gives the flavor of his remarks. King had plenty to say --- and his words still seem timely almost 50 years later.

According to the Post-Gazette, King told his listeners, "America cannot continue to live with hard core centers of poverty, adding: 'I don't see any answer to the problem until we meet it on a massive scale. We must spend as much on the war on poverty as on the other war'" in Vietnam.

Although riots over injustice may seem "self-destructive" and "self-defeating," King said they represented the frustration that many people felt. "A riot is the language of the unheard," he said.

. . .

"That 'time will heal all evil' is a myth," King said, according to the Pitt News. "Time is neutral. It can be used for either good or bad. If good people remain silent while bigots stand up and play on the fears of the popular mind, time will cure nothing."

Another myth, he said, was that civil rights laws are not useful because they do not change people's hearts. "While morality can't be changed, behavior can be controlled ... law can change the habits of men, and with this, the attitudes of men will change."

King also attacked the U.S. Army's draft policies. African-Americans made up 10 percent of the U.S. population, but as much as 40 percent of combat units in Vietnam, King said. Although teen-agers and young adults attending college were exempt from the draft, many African-American students couldn't afford college tuition, he noted.

"It goes back to the economic problems of the country," King said. "The basic solution is to solve the Negro's economic situation so that so many young men without hope will not try to find a solution to their plight in military service. The draft system should be revised. There have to be some changes in the exemptions. We've got to re-study and revise the whole draft."

. . .

There was some controversy surrounding King's arrival in Pittsburgh, although it's not clear that King knew about it until he arrived in the city.

The head of Pitt's student union had planned to pick King up at Greater Pittsburgh Airport in his Ford Mustang convertible. When students and community leaders found out, they protested that a figure of King's national importance deserved something more comfortable and dignified.

An embarrassed Pitt Chancellor David Kurtzman sent a university-owned Cadillac to meet King at the airport. Members of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority --- Greek-letter organizations serving African-American students --- also met King's plane when it landed and together with the car carrying King, formed a motorcade to escort him to the Pitt campus.

. . .

The Courier reported that King met privately with several local community leaders, members of the clergy, and educators, including Clifford Hamm, director of Pitt's Division of Urban Affairs and a nationally recognized authority on slums, housing and tension between cities and suburbs.

King also met with James McCoy, vice president of the Pittsburgh NAACP and chairman of the United Negro Protest Committee, and with Matthew Moore, state organizer for the Pennsylvania NAACP.

. . .

Sources:

• Dan Booker, "Huge Crowd Hears King Speak," The Pitt News, Nov. 4, 1966, p. 1


• Kenneth Eskey, "Riots Self-Defeating, Dr. King Says at Pitt," The Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 2, 1966, p. 1


• "King Urges Draft Changes to Thin Negro Ranks in War," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 3, 1966, p. 3


• "Dr. King Met in Style," Pittsburgh Courier, Nov. 5-10, 1966, p. 1A


• "Dr. King Hears Pgh.'s Rights Story, Stresses Bigger Nat'l Goal," Pittsburgh Courier, Nov. 12-17, 1966, p. 2A


• Archives, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change