Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tells S.U. audience ‘we must learn to live together as brothers’ or ‘perish together as fools’

In June 1961, Syracuse University announced its lineup for that year’s “Summer Sessions” guest speakers.

It included U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey, poet Allen Tate, Metropolitan Opera star Eleanor Steber, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would be making his first appearance in Syracuse.

King had been the driving force behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott and was president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was committed to achieving full equality for America’s Black population through non-violent protests.

His speech at S.U. was scheduled for July 13 and, due to the high demand for tickets, it had to be moved from Sadler Hall to the Sims Dining Hall on the main campus. More than 700 students, educators, and others wanted to hear King speak.

Those who could not attend could hear his full address on WAER radio, starting at 7 p.m.

In a morning preview of King’s speech, The Post-Standard reported that the title of his address was “Facing the Challenge of a New World.”

His words that evening would be far loftier and meaningful than that generic title would indicate.

In many ways, his speech at S.U. had many of the same sentiments and elements that King would use just over two years later at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963, during his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

At Syracuse, he spoke of an “American Dream,” where “men of all nationalities can live together as brothers.” If they did not, they “would perish together as fools.”

The Post-Standard ran many excerpts from his 50-minute speech the following morning, though it is difficult to tell if the newspaper repeated the words in the same order in which Dr. King delivered them.

Here is a selection of many of the most meaningful statements that he made night.

“We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools.”

“The problem that we confront in the world and in our own nation is that of unity. This can be summed up as the American Dream, which essentially depicts that place where men of all nationalities can live together as brothers and is epitomized by these words, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.’ This does not mean all white men or all Christians but all men, Jews, Catholics and Negroes.”

“Never in the history of the world was there a document (the Declaration of Independence) that so completely expressed the ideal of the dignity of man. We have enunciated the principles of democracy but have enacted the antithesis in the institution of slavery. The exploitation of the Negro and other minority people is the price of our own destruction.”

“Racism and colonialism must go: The clock of destiny is ticking. If America is to be a first-class nation, it must have no second-class citizens. This must go because it is morally wrong, not because it is diplomatically expedient. We must get rid of the notion that there are superior and inferior races or the fetish of the supremacy of the white race.”

“There may be superior or inferior individuals in any race, but no one race holds a prerogative. There are subtle sociological arguments used to hold the colored people back. But remove these and Negroes will rise to their greatest potential.”

“Let me remind you of such people as Booker T. Washington, Roland Hayes, and Marian Anderson, all of whom rose from poverty and humble habitations. Look at George Washington Carver, who rose up and carved an imperishable niche in the universe.”

“These have revealed that the myth of racial inferiority cannot stand. We are challenged to break down these barriers and build the American dream. As a people, we will someday have to repent not only the vitriolic words of bad people but the silent indifference of the good.”

“We must work through legislation. The law may not make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me. Our most potent weapon is nonviolence. It has moral aspects which react not only upon the oppressed but on the oppressor. We say, ‘We will match your capacity to inflict violence with our capacity to suffer. We will not only win freedom for ourselves but will win you in the process.’”

“The nonviolent movement has already accomplished desegregation in 146 cities in the South by the elimination of separate lunch and waiting rooms in the bus or railroad stations. The Freedom Riders have accomplished much and all of it without any violence on their part.”

He concluded with this:

“We do not struggle alone. Before victory is won, many may suffer and die but we know the universe tends toward justice, and we are assured the day will come when we can all sing together that old hymn of slavery, “Free at last, thanks be to God.”’

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would return to the Syracuse University campus near four years later.

On July 15, 1965, King called for education reform and a “Bill of Rights for the disadvantaged.”

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This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle at jcroyle@syracuse.com or call 315-416-3882.

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