Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Speech At Sproul Plaza (1967)

KQED News footage from May 17th 1967 which features extended scenes from what was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final large-scale public address in the Bay Area: an antiwar speech in front of 7,000 people at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza. Dr. King talks about: the need for a "revolution of values"; the support UC Berkeley provided to the civil rights movement; America's technological development and "poverty of the spirit"; racial injustice and segregation; the civil rights movement and a new "struggle for genuine equality"; the need for a redistribution of economic wealth and political power; "white backlash"; poverty and unemployment; his opposition to the Vietnam War and the need for U.S. citizens to engage in "creative discontent" to try and effect real change in society. Sproul Plaza is packed out with onlookers, who are sitting in trees and pushing right up to the podium itself. TV journalist Belva Davis can be seen standing behind Dr. King towards the end of his speech, reporting for Ch.5 KPIX-TV. There are interruptions and gaps in Dr. King's speech throughout, caused by the KQED news camera being switched off and on, as their operator moved around and tried to find different vantage points to shoot from. The Rev. Dr. King is introduced at the start by UC Berkeley's Student Body President Richard Beahrs.

Note that Movette Film Transfer of San Francisco remastered this 16mm negative film print in December 2016 in 2K resolution (2048x1556 pixels), using a Lasergraphics film scanner. Opening graphic designed by Carrie Hawks.