Excerpt from his antiwar speech "Beyond Vietnam"

Delivered April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City

"[The world] demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam."

When the United States sent ground troops into Vietnam in 1964, one out of every seven (about 14 percent) of those soldiers was African American. In the time leading up to the Vietnam War, blacks tended to view military service as a very positive thing. Many African Americans joined the armed forces out of high school in order to receive training, career opportunities, and wages that were not readily available to them in civilian (non-military) society due to segregation.

At that time in American history, there were laws that segregated (separated) people by race. For example, white people and people of color were required to use separate restrooms, drinking...