Vigil #2
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | Network, Mike Rich in New York reporting. | 0:02 |
The funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King | 0:05 | |
will be held Tuesday morning. | 0:07 | |
(bouncy music) | 0:32 | |
- | No sir. | 0:37 |
- | Do you say that is presently being held | 0:39 |
in say, protective custody? | 0:41 | |
- | There is no one being held to my knowledge at this time | 0:42 |
who is connected with this crime. | 0:46 | |
- | Are you holding the suspect right now, sir? | 0:55 |
- | No sir. | 0:56 |
- | Do you have a material witness, sir? | 0:57 |
- | No sir. | 0:59 |
- | Do you say that is presently being held | 1:01 |
in say, protective custody? | 1:04 | |
- | There is no one being held to my knowledge at this time | 1:05 |
who is connected with this crime. | 1:09 | |
(bouncy music) | 1:13 | |
- | He used to be on the stage. | 1:25 |
- | Never in a million years. | 1:26 |
- | Just a minute Jerry, it wasn't anybody we know. | 1:27 |
- | This is petition entitled Shall Democracy | 1:29 |
Also Die at Our Hands? | 1:32 | |
Dr. Martin Luther King has been murdered. | 1:33 | |
Now we must choose between the promise of America the free | 1:35 | |
or a harvest of death in humanity which is the result | 1:38 | |
of continued oppression of black Americans. | 1:42 | |
We are all implicated. | 1:44 | |
We have allowed to flourish a society so disturbed | 1:45 | |
by the idea of racial equality that it could take the life | 1:47 | |
of a man who asked only freedom for his people | 1:50 | |
for humanity from his white brothers. | 1:53 | |
Not one man, woman, or child in this country | 1:56 | |
should be kept from any goal, denied any dignity, | 1:58 | |
forced to go hungry because the color God made his skin | 2:00 | |
does not please some of them. | 2:02 | |
We can refuse no longer. | 2:04 | |
We ask that our fellow white citizens save their own freedom | 2:06 | |
by insisting upon absolute equality | 2:09 | |
and dignity for black citizens now. | 2:12 | |
We ask that every white citizen who believes in the promise | 2:14 | |
of the American Dream take the following steps. | 2:16 | |
One, observe the call for a day of national mourning | 2:19 | |
and respect for Dr. King. | 2:23 | |
Two, write or wire the President of the United States | 2:24 | |
insisting that he give the recommendation | 2:26 | |
of the President's Commission on Civil Disorders | 2:28 | |
immediate priority by sending legislation to Congress | 2:30 | |
implementing those recommendations. | 2:33 | |
Three, write or wire your senators and congressmen | 2:35 | |
saying that you recognize the time for equality is now, | 2:38 | |
that open housing legislation requires immediate passing. | 2:41 | |
Call city officials insisting that they show greater concern | 2:44 | |
for the grievances and problems of the black community. | 2:47 | |
Okay, you want an actuality? | 2:53 | |
- | Yeah. | 2:56 |
- | You want a chant of hell no we won't go. | 2:57 |
- | Uh. | 2:59 |
- | Or is that too inflammatory? | 3:01 |
Okay, let me get to the very end when Huck was in here, | 3:05 | |
this'll take a time. | 3:09 | |
Is that good enough? | 3:13 | |
Just a second. | 3:14 | |
(light scuffling) | 3:15 | |
Okay, you ready? | 3:18 | |
- | Yeah it's rolling. | 3:19 |
- | Tonight at the house of Duke University President, | 3:21 |
Dr. Douglas Knight, some 200 students are staying there | 3:23 | |
until Dr. Knight meets a series of demands. | 3:27 | |
So far Dr. Knight has said that he sympathizes | 3:30 | |
with the demands, however he feels that if he went along | 3:32 | |
with the demands he would be taken as speaking | 3:36 | |
for the university rather than speaking his own opinion. | 3:39 | |
The students have vowed to stay here. | 3:42 | |
This is the way Dave Birkhead put it. | 3:44 | |
- | Another point I'd like to make is Dr. King died | 3:46 |
fighting the kind of things he fought for. | 3:50 | |
The black people are dying on the streets. | 3:53 | |
Although we don't have casualty rates, | 3:54 | |
I assure you that they're dying on the streets | 3:56 | |
tonight all over the country. | 3:58 | |
I think the least we can do is sit around | 3:59 | |
in these nice plush chairs and this six inch pyle carpet | 4:01 | |
and stick together in this thing. | 4:05 | |
He's not gonna throw all of us out of school. | 4:06 | |
(cheering) | 4:08 | |
- | That was Dave Birkhead, one of the negotiators | 4:09 |
with President Knight. | 4:11 | |
That's the story from President Douglas M. Knight's house | 4:12 | |
in Durham, North Carolina, Bob Conroy, | 4:15 | |
Kicks Full Power News. | 4:16 | |
- | It's rolling. | 4:19 |
- | Tonight some 300 students are at the house of President | 4:21 |
Dr. Douglas M. Knight of Duke University. | 4:24 | |
Duke students sitting in | 4:26 | |
until Dr. Knight meets a series of demands. | 4:27 | |
Those demands are that one, observe the call | 4:29 | |
for a day of national mourning and respect for Dr. King. | 4:33 | |
Two, write or wire the President of the United States | 4:35 | |
insisting that he give the recommendation | 4:38 | |
for the President's Commission on Civil Disorders | 4:39 | |
immediate priority by sending legislation | 4:41 | |
to Congress implementing those recommendations. | 4:43 | |
Three, write or wire your senators and congressmen | 4:46 | |
saying that you recognize the time for equality is now, | 4:49 | |
and that open housing legislation | 4:52 | |
requires immediate passage. | 4:54 | |
And four, call city officials insisting | 4:55 | |
that they show greater concern for the grievances | 4:58 | |
and problems of the black community. | 5:00 | |
Dr. Knight has said to the student negotiators | 5:02 | |
that he in sympathy with these four demands. | 5:04 | |
However he cannot sign the petition because it would reflect | 5:07 | |
upon the university rather than his own personal beliefs. | 5:11 | |
The students have said they will stay | 5:13 | |
until he changes his mind. | 5:15 | |
As Dave Birkhead put it. | 5:17 | |
- | Dr. King died fighting these, fight for. | 5:18 |
(light scuffling) | 5:45 | |
- | And individuals to do so. | 5:47 |
- | I don't see you taping in there? | 5:49 |
- | Huh? | 5:51 |
- | Are you taping in there? | 5:52 |
- | No. | 5:53 |
- | Okay, I got it. | 5:54 |
- | Wait a minute, we don't need a tape, do we? | 5:55 |
- | We have Ken Ross on the line. | 5:57 |
What's going on now? | 5:59 | |
- | Yes Evans Dr. Knight has just finished | 6:00 |
a rather lengthy discussion with the students | 6:02 | |
here at his home and ending up with what best | 6:04 | |
could be described as a stalemate. | 6:06 | |
Our microphones were there | 6:08 | |
for the duration of the discussion, I will now relay to you. | 6:09 | |
The discussion just ended but a few minutes ago. | 6:12 | |
I will now relay to you via our tape recorder | 6:14 | |
the general gist of what was happening. | 6:17 | |
The tape runs some 15 minutes. | 6:19 | |
I might add that this tape has not yet been edited, | 6:20 | |
we have not had time to edit it. | 6:22 | |
There are points that are very choppy, some questions, | 6:23 | |
but I think it is important enough to air right now. | 6:26 | |
I will pick up roughly 20 minutes ago | 6:28 | |
when I spoke into the microphones announcing that | 6:32 | |
Dr. Douglas Knight was coming into the living room. | 6:36 | |
(crowd shouting) | 6:41 | |
Dave Birkhead speaking to the crowd at Dr. Knight's house. | 6:42 | |
Dr. Knight will be coming out shortly. | 6:45 | |
This is Ken Ross for WDBS Contemporary News. | 6:47 | |
Dr. Knight is now coming out. | 6:50 | |
Has emerged from the room where he was in conference. | 6:52 | |
He is standing next to Duke Student Body President | 6:54 | |
John Kinney and surveying the room. | 6:57 | |
He is now descending the stairs and is apparently | 6:59 | |
going to be making a statement to students here at his home. | 7:01 | |
His wife is standing next to him. | 7:05 | |
He is speaking with her and is now moving up to the balcony | 7:07 | |
where I'm standing, I assume, | 7:10 | |
to make a statement to the students here at Duke. | 7:12 | |
This is Dr. Knight's statement. | 7:15 | |
- | I believe Dr. Knight would like to say something. | 7:19 |
- | Ideally not in that atmosphere and I assure you | 7:25 |
I've got no wish at all | 7:30 | |
to be combative with you | 7:34 | |
because I meant what I said outside beforehand. | 7:37 | |
- | This is Dr. Knight's response to the chants | 7:41 |
of students of hell no we won't go. | 7:43 | |
- | I don't think we're gonna settle | 7:46 |
the questions that torment us and tear us apart | 7:49 | |
by your operating as though you were a mob | 7:55 | |
which I don't believe you are. | 7:59 | |
Yeah, well I'm concerned too. | 8:05 | |
(shouting) | 8:07 | |
Alright, alright. | 8:09 | |
Here's what I'd like to ask of you. | 8:11 | |
You came, you expressed your concern this evening | 8:14 | |
about some very specific things. | 8:16 | |
I've got some concerns about those. | 8:20 | |
Some of them I agree with, | 8:24 | |
some of them I don't. | 8:28 | |
- | Which ones? | 8:29 |
- | What I'd | 8:33 |
like to ask | 8:35 | |
is the chance to start articulating the concerns we have | 8:39 | |
together at the memorial service tomorrow, | 8:42 | |
for I am gonna speak. | 8:46 | |
And that doesn't mean one way articulation. | 8:48 | |
If you're trying to find as I'm trying to find | 8:52 | |
and all of us are, I think, | 8:56 | |
some ways to keep our society together, | 9:00 | |
then I don't think pushing one another | 9:06 | |
is the answer to it even though you see a society | 9:10 | |
where you feel all the horror of the people | 9:13 | |
who have pushed one another in the most brutal way. | 9:16 | |
I don't think we can solve it here by pushing one another. | 9:19 | |
I'm not setting out to push you. | 9:23 | |
I don't want to feel that I myself have pushed | 9:26 | |
and therefore I say yes, this, this, this, and this. | 9:30 | |
And I can tell you that if I were a mathematician | 9:34 | |
I wouldn't be of any use to you | 9:38 | |
or anybody else for very long. | 9:42 | |
What I would like to do is to speak tomorrow | 9:47 | |
a little bit to the meaning | 9:53 | |
of the bit that we're all in. | 9:59 | |
I can't call it anything else. | 10:02 | |
I'd like to suggest some of the concrete things | 10:05 | |
that I feel we have been doing in the university. | 10:07 | |
I'd like to suggest some of the things we can do beyond it. | 10:13 | |
If we don't try to meet | 10:18 | |
the frustrations of this world with violence, | 10:23 | |
either the pressure of numbers | 10:30 | |
or the pressure of violent actions. | 10:32 | |
I still believe there are some things, | 10:36 | |
I think they're crucial ones. | 10:40 | |
I think we've got to have enough order | 10:42 | |
so that we can accomplish them | 10:44 | |
and I'm asking you | 10:47 | |
for the privilege of our working those out together. | 10:52 | |
The idea of a combined group | 10:56 | |
to work on certain of them as hard as we can | 10:59 | |
is a crucial idea. | 11:03 | |
The idea of salaries for our employees | 11:06 | |
that are as good as we can make them | 11:10 | |
and that half, no that isn't fair, | 11:13 | |
that are as good as we can make them | 11:17 | |
(crowd murmuring) | 11:19 | |
is a crucial idea. | 11:21 | |
I don't think you can deliver it to me as a mandate, | 11:25 | |
however, an order, a demand. | 11:28 | |
I think you have to understand how we try to do our best | 11:34 | |
in the light of the other things we also have to do | 11:39 | |
in the university and I'm not trying to pussyfoot with you, | 11:42 | |
I'm just telling you the truth about it. | 11:45 | |
And I'd like a chance to put these, | 11:49 | |
but also I'd like the chance to put some other things | 11:51 | |
that weren't on your list this evening | 11:54 | |
because I think there are some positive things | 11:57 | |
in this community, this inner community | 12:02 | |
and this regional community that we can do | 12:05 | |
but we can't ever do just by expressing | 12:10 | |
our frustration of what is. | 12:13 | |
As much as I feel that frustration and have felt it, | 12:16 | |
as much as you feel it, | 12:21 | |
I did try to do some of that. | 12:25 | |
I'm not saying this to justify myself | 12:27 | |
but I tried hard enough to do some of that | 12:30 | |
and get the needs muzzled, | 12:33 | |
so that I finally went and talked with, | 12:37 | |
had the privilege really, if you'll let me put it that way, | 12:41 | |
of talking with the Secretary of State | 12:45 | |
and the Secretary of Defense | 12:47 | |
about some of the things you were feeling | 12:48 | |
and I don't think I'm one small person as you are. | 12:53 | |
But I don't think it was useless talk | 12:58 | |
cause I was talking about what you and I both felt | 13:01 | |
and why we felt it. | 13:04 | |
I'd say that some of the same things can be done | 13:08 | |
with the fearful internal problem. | 13:12 | |
I don't think they'll be done if we feel so violently | 13:16 | |
toward one another that we can't either communicate | 13:21 | |
or accomplish anything together. | 13:27 | |
- | Dr. Knight, we've come here tonight in nonviolence. | 13:30 |
- | The question from the floor is by Jack Boger. | 13:33 |
This was the President's opening address. | 13:36 | |
As you will see, a debate between Dr. Knight | 13:38 | |
and principally Jack Boger and other students | 13:41 | |
on the floor below the balcony and so Jack Boger | 13:43 | |
continues his questioning. | 13:47 | |
- | We cannot be moved. | 13:48 |
If I may be allowed to say one or two things | 13:49 | |
to you in response. | 13:51 | |
I really feel that an old order has changed | 13:53 | |
the United States of America. | 13:57 | |
I think the tanks right now rumbling down the streets | 13:58 | |
of Washington witnessed this change. | 14:01 | |
And one of the things that we as young people | 14:03 | |
will not allow in the future are institutions | 14:06 | |
that can remain in a sense immoral. | 14:10 | |
Good men involved at all levels of Duke University | 14:12 | |
who somehow cannot take moral stands | 14:15 | |
because of various forces seemingly beyond anyone's control. | 14:19 | |
This is what has put the violence in the streets tonight. | 14:23 | |
It's one of the major causes and in this new order | 14:25 | |
we have to stand up morally as institutions. | 14:30 | |
We have to make stands and we have to make stands | 14:33 | |
that meet the situation at hand. | 14:36 | |
We cannot the situation when the country | 14:39 | |
seems to be falling apart and meet it with maybes | 14:41 | |
and it might happen in the future and we're very concerned. | 14:44 | |
I have no doubt of your deep concern | 14:48 | |
but we've come here nonviolently as students | 14:50 | |
of this university saying we must do something important. | 14:54 | |
Duke University, we must do it now. | 14:59 | |
We are nonviolent, but we will not be moved. | 15:01 | |
(applause and cheering) | 15:04 | |
- | As you can see the crowd responded quite positively | 15:10 |
in reply to Dr. Knight's opening statement | 15:13 | |
and the discussion continues at Dr. Knight's home. | 15:16 | |
(crowd applauding) | 15:19 | |
- | We shall not we shall not be moved. | 15:31 |
- | At this point the students began singing | 15:38 |
but they were quieted in and effort on the part | 15:40 | |
of some students to allow Dr. Knight to speak. | 15:42 | |
One student said, | 15:44 | |
"We would like to stand behind you, Dr. Knight." | 15:45 | |
The discussion continues from that point. | 15:47 | |
- | Yeah, we're here to stand behind you. | 15:51 |
We're not here to oppose you, let's hear a Negro student. | 15:53 | |
They not only have the right to it, | 15:59 | |
I think that they're probably thinking | 16:00 | |
there ought to be our friends right now. | 16:01 | |
- | Someone has made a request that one of the Negro students | 16:05 |
present speak for those here. | 16:07 | |
Questions from the floor. | 16:12 | |
- | So that we may, all of us who are working for degrees | 16:15 |
at this university find that our time and our money | 16:17 | |
and our effort and our whole future may be ruined | 16:20 | |
because there is the possibility that something | 16:24 | |
can happen to use here tonight | 16:26 | |
because of university ordinances. | 16:29 | |
We often put something on the line. | 16:31 | |
We realize for you to do something, | 16:33 | |
it means for you to put something on the line, too. | 16:35 | |
And we're not asking any more from you | 16:38 | |
than we're willing to give ourselves | 16:39 | |
and I think we have a right to ask that of you. | 16:41 | |
(applause) | 16:44 | |
- | Your own school, Yale, that gave in 1964 | 16:47 |
a degree to Martin Luther King, | 16:50 | |
I hate to see us giving one in 1972 or 1980 | 16:51 | |
when we can finally come around to it. | 16:54 | |
This is the time for dramatic action, direct action. | 16:56 | |
Duke is a very, very explosive situation in this town. | 16:59 | |
- | This is Jack Boger addressing the president | 17:04 |
from the floor of his home. | 17:06 | |
- | We're fortunate enough to have black leaders | 17:07 |
that have some modicum in opposition to some of the forces | 17:09 | |
in the town that would keep them suppressed. | 17:12 | |
I think Duke is one of the strongest elements | 17:14 | |
in this town in most cases at this point in dramatic stand. | 17:16 | |
(applauding) | 17:20 | |
- | Jack, I think I'd have to use | 17:23 |
the words out of my own generation | 17:26 | |
and say that maybe a dramatic stand | 17:30 | |
isn't as important as a determined and wise one | 17:34 | |
that will itself stand. | 17:39 | |
- | Right now it is. | 17:41 |
(electronic beeping) | 17:43 | |
- | Evans? | 18:02 |
- | Yes, Ken? | 18:03 |
- | This is again Dr. Knight's home. | 18:04 |
As you can imagine, there are a number of reporters | 18:06 | |
in Dr. Knight's home trying to get outside lines | 18:08 | |
and there are only five lines here so we were having | 18:10 | |
momentary difficulty in maintaining our connection. | 18:12 | |
However our broadcast will now continue | 18:14 | |
as Jack Boger questions from the floor. | 18:16 | |
- | Now with the march on Washington, these things do matter | 18:18 |
and in the midst of great crisis, men of morality | 18:21 | |
can not afford to be bound by institutions | 18:24 | |
that claim to be immoral. | 18:27 | |
(applauding and cheering) | 18:30 | |
- | If I may. | 18:39 |
I'm simply trying to say to you | 18:43 | |
that the way to take our actions | 18:45 | |
is not under this kind of pressure, | 18:48 | |
I don't care whether you call it nonviolent or not, | 18:50 | |
it's pressure of a sort that makes it impossible | 18:53 | |
to accomplish the goal of things you asked me to accomplish | 18:58 | |
and you might know that. | 19:01 | |
(murmuring and shouting) | 19:02 | |
- | Would the authorities of Delta, Alabama | 19:05 |
have done what they did if there wasn't pressure | 19:07 | |
put upon them by people who are interested enough | 19:09 | |
in the common interest of humanity get out and say | 19:11 | |
we're not gonna take this anymore. | 19:13 | |
That's what we're saying and you don't seem | 19:15 | |
to understand that, I mean it's that simple. | 19:16 | |
Today. | 19:20 | |
(applause) | ||
- | I know that, I know that. | 19:27 |
- | Can you promise some of the things tonight? | 19:33 |
Take a stand. | 19:38 | |
- | You know. | 19:40 |
(murmuring and laughing) | 19:42 | |
- | The crowd is reacting with amusement to a question | 19:55 |
if Dr. Knight would run for President in November. | 19:58 | |
We continue. | 20:00 | |
- | Stand if they will satisfy you, | 20:02 |
some of you. | 20:06 | |
The stand that you call dramatic, | 20:09 | |
maybe even melodramatic | 20:11 | |
and I have to say this. | 20:17 | |
(murmuring) | 20:19 | |
Look, look. | 20:25 | |
I guess that at the moment I would simply like | 20:27 | |
the privilege of articulating what I think | 20:30 | |
some of these stands are and I don't think | 20:32 | |
this is the setting in which I can do it | 20:34 | |
and I don't think that's unreasonable. | 20:37 | |
- | But then I don't think we can leave. | 20:39 |
(applauding) | 20:41 | |
- | That will get done and what have you accomplished by that? | 20:45 |
- | What did Martin Luther King accomplish? | 20:48 |
- | How do we know what we're gonna accomplish yet? | 20:50 |
- | We'll try. | 20:53 |
- | We're trying, you know. | 20:54 |
- | Dr. Knight. | 20:55 |
- | I'm trying too, I'm trying too. | 20:56 |
I'm simply telling you this isn't the setting | 20:59 | |
in which to put together the why's | 21:02 | |
and the dramatic action Jack was speaking of | 21:06 | |
a few moments ago. | 21:08 | |
(crowd murmuring) | 21:09 | |
- | I'm not just talking about dramatic action, | 21:12 |
I'm talking about meaningful action. | 21:14 | |
- | I know that. | 21:18 |
But one thing that I | 21:19 | |
regret more than any of you know | 21:25 | |
is that evidently you don't believe I really have fought | 21:28 | |
for some of these things that you're talking about. | 21:30 | |
- | This is what I meant, I trust you. | 21:33 |
I trust that you fought for these things | 21:35 | |
but I think there comes a time when we can't dip our eyes | 21:36 | |
and we can't work this way, | 21:39 | |
and we've got to make some stands now. | 21:41 | |
Some of these demands we've asked don't take | 21:47 | |
a great deal of time to make a decision | 21:50 | |
on the part of the university or the part of an individual | 21:52 | |
that can be made without a great deal of consultation. | 21:58 | |
It's a dramatic decision but it's also | 22:00 | |
a meaningful decision. | 22:02 | |
It's one that breaks some ties, it's one that makes others. | 22:03 | |
- | Jack, we can say many things back and forth. | 22:07 |
I do agree with Dr. Knight this is not the time | 22:12 | |
or the place for a statement. | 22:15 | |
(crowd booing) | 22:17 | |
I think. | ||
- | As you can hear the reaction of the students, | 22:20 |
this iS John Kinney, Student Body President | 22:22 | |
speaking to the students. | 22:23 | |
President Kinney said that he at this time did not feel | 22:24 | |
that anything could be achieved by staying there. | 22:28 | |
If you will stay with us you will see that his position | 22:30 | |
later changed, however at this time, he continued and said. | 22:33 | |
- | We'll wait until tomorrow morning at the chapel service | 22:35 |
to hear what Dr. Knight has to say. | 22:38 | |
(crowd booing) | 22:40 | |
If we wait here, we'll wait. | 22:41 | |
(crowd murmuring) | 22:44 | |
- | We don't give them what they want. | 22:50 |
Easy to stay because we're here. | 22:53 | |
We keep the machine going and camp here if we have to. | 22:55 | |
(crowd murmuring and applauding) | 22:59 | |
- | Can I point something out to you? | 23:07 |
You say make a stand as though | 23:10 | |
I have taken no stand in these matters. | 23:12 | |
- | What about the country club? | 23:15 |
What's your stand on the country club? | 23:20 | |
- | Yeah what about it? | 23:21 |
(light scuffling) | 23:23 | |
- | I saw that that's your feeling about it. | 23:27 |
I'd have to tell you that I hadn't looked on that | 23:33 | |
as the important issue, not nearly as important | 23:38 | |
as the chance to work with members of my community | 23:43 | |
who may not see the matter of country club membership | 23:47 | |
as you do and to cut myself off from that, | 23:50 | |
I haven't seen and don't see it's a wise thing. | 23:53 | |
- | How has it helped in the past as we've approached | 23:57 |
you before to help this type of situation | 23:59 | |
for these people? | 24:02 | |
(light scuffling) | 24:04 | |
- | A great many ways that I can't | 24:06 |
put on television and tape for you. | 24:09 | |
- | The question was what has Dr. Knight done in the past | 24:12 |
to ease racial tensions in the Hope Valley Country Club? | 24:14 | |
Dr. Knight continues. | 24:17 | |
- | No. | 24:21 |
- | Dr. Knight, why can't you give us a promise | 24:25 |
that Duke University will give a higher wage | 24:27 | |
before we plan any new building programs? | 24:30 | |
Don't peoples' lives come before buildings? | 24:32 | |
That's the kind of thing that- | 24:35 | |
- | Now, now listen to me. | 24:37 |
This is exactly the kind of thing we've been doing | 24:39 | |
for the last five years, we have every intention | 24:41 | |
of going on doing it. | 24:43 | |
The money, to get quite specific. | 24:45 | |
- | What is the minimum wage? | 24:48 |
- | To get quite specific, those salaries have gone up | 24:49 |
50% in the last five years, I'm not trying to justify. | 24:53 | |
- | Not high enough. | 24:56 |
- | Alright, alright. | 24:57 |
This has to be done in relationship | 25:00 | |
not to the buildings you're speaking of | 25:03 | |
but because the money for the buildings doesn't come | 25:05 | |
from the same source, the money for faculty salary does. | 25:07 | |
And there we have to work out this constant balance | 25:13 | |
between the human needs and I don't think | 25:18 | |
that's an immoral or amoral position to take. | 25:21 | |
We not only have worked at it, | 25:26 | |
we intend to go right on working at it. | 25:28 | |
It's perfectly clear to me that this has to be | 25:31 | |
as high a priority as anything in the university. | 25:33 | |
I can't say to you that this is the one thing we do | 25:36 | |
to the exclusion of everything else, that wouldn't be true | 25:38 | |
and it wouldn't be fair to the whole place | 25:41 | |
or even to the people who work in it | 25:43 | |
in non-academic jobs. | 25:45 | |
Let's not let it degenerate into that, | 25:49 | |
that isn't going to solve what I gather you want to resolve. | 25:52 | |
- | Dr. Knight's response as you just heard | 25:55 |
was in response to a question posed from the floor | 25:57 | |
to the extent Dr. Knight, how can you live | 26:00 | |
in this expensive house, this $500,000 house, | 26:03 | |
I believe was the sum when other people | 26:05 | |
that work for the university are living in slums? | 26:08 | |
This question was met with a great deal of displeasure | 26:11 | |
by the people in the audience that did not feel | 26:13 | |
that it was the proper line of questioning, we continue. | 26:15 | |
- | Can I tell a few things? | 26:20 |
One of the reasons I'm very concerned about this | 26:25 | |
and about some of the remarks you have made, | 26:27 | |
especially with the country club. | 26:29 | |
To me, it's the least important issue. | 26:30 | |
- | Right. | 26:32 |
(applauding) | 26:33 | |
- | This is Jack Boger questioning from the floor. | 26:35 |
- | It worries me a great deal in this respect. | 26:37 |
When I talked about an old order that had changed, | 26:39 | |
what I meant was this. | 26:43 | |
Tonight tanks are in Washington, | 26:46 | |
machine guns are on Capitol Hill. | 26:48 | |
The time has come when this country has become polarized | 26:50 | |
to a certain extent, polarized. | 26:54 | |
Now that's bad but it's here, particularly here. | 26:57 | |
I'd hate to see a further polarization. | 27:00 | |
At the same time, it's a time when men allow | 27:03 | |
to set certain elements in society | 27:07 | |
they're gonna work or they're gonna work for other elements | 27:08 | |
and when you say that you won't stay in this country club | 27:12 | |
to deal with issues in this community, | 27:15 | |
it may be that we've come to a time where we're gonna | 27:18 | |
have to start working somewhat in opposition | 27:20 | |
to some of the aims of these people in the community. | 27:23 | |
I think you must take a stand in that time. | 27:25 | |
(applauding) | 27:28 | |
- | This is Jack Boger asking President Knight | 27:32 |
to take a stand on his membership | 27:33 | |
in the Hope Valley Country Club. | 27:35 | |
The crowd responded quite positively to his demand | 27:36 | |
on Boger's part from the floor | 27:39 | |
as Dr. Knight prepares to speak. | 27:41 | |
- | That is not a fair representation of it. | 27:44 |
- | You said you would not say those things, why? | 27:46 |
- | I said I had some other things that I thought | 27:48 |
were also truly important. | 27:50 | |
- | That's what I just said. | 27:52 |
- | Alright, but that doesn't say I'm not talking about these, | 27:53 |
I've already talked about these. | 27:56 | |
(crowd murmuring) | 27:58 | |
I've tried to say a little about them to you. | 28:00 | |
And I'm willing to try to say a lot more | 28:04 | |
but not in this setting, not in this way. | 28:06 | |
All I'm saying to you is that, | 28:10 | |
and you will say to me, | 28:13 | |
"Why not, why not right now right this minute?" | 28:14 | |
All I'm saying to you is to put real substance | 28:17 | |
to that meaningful action isn't something | 28:21 | |
that we pull out of this kind of setting, | 28:23 | |
this kind of moment and maybe I'm saying to you | 28:27 | |
nothing more impressive than that like many of you | 28:31 | |
I've made the mistake of staying up too many nights | 28:37 | |
til one in the morning trying to do | 28:40 | |
some of the university's business. | 28:41 | |
Maybe I'm just plain weary enough not to do a good job | 28:43 | |
of articulating the things that all of us | 28:49 | |
want to get out in the open. | 28:52 | |
But let me point this out to you also. | 28:54 | |
You've said take a stand, we must do something | 28:56 | |
meaningful, significant, dramatic. | 29:00 | |
You expressed what all of us in the country feel, I think. | 29:02 | |
You expressed a frustration almost beyond belief | 29:08 | |
that we can't solve or seemingly can't solve | 29:13 | |
what's so obviously right in front of us | 29:16 | |
and I can't pretend to you | 29:19 | |
that tonight, even if I were | 29:23 | |
rested instead of exhausted as you're exhausted, | 29:27 | |
I can't pretend to you that I've got all the answers | 29:31 | |
but I would say this. | 29:33 | |
I've got answers to some of the specific questions | 29:35 | |
you raised this evening, I've got some other suggestions | 29:37 | |
and in particular, I would like to suggest the kind | 29:41 | |
of combined organization that can try to find out | 29:46 | |
inside the university what is meaningful | 29:51 | |
as between us and our society. | 29:54 | |
That was one of the things that you suggested to me. | 29:55 | |
It seems to me the soundest kind of idea | 29:58 | |
because I don't believe, granted that tonight | 30:02 | |
is the night of terrible violence of one kind | 30:05 | |
after a previous night of individual violence, | 30:08 | |
I don't believe the meaning we're all looking for | 30:13 | |
can be found and expressed and carried out in one evening. | 30:17 | |
I'm not trying to put you off, I'm telling you the truth. | 30:20 | |
If you think you have the answers to this | 30:23 | |
then I admire you. | 30:28 | |
I know I don't, I think I've got some parts of answers. | 30:31 | |
I think I know where the limitations of my own power | 30:35 | |
to do something about them lie. | 30:39 | |
I can't help those limitations any more | 30:42 | |
than you can help some of yours, but I'd like the chance | 30:44 | |
to work this out with you | 30:47 | |
in an orderly way, in an orderly way. | 30:49 | |
- | Thank you, Dr. Knight. | 30:55 |
- | You when you talked to Mr. McImayer and Mr. Ross | 30:56 |
were acting as a big person. | 31:01 | |
- | I said as a little person. | 31:03 |
I said as a little person, excuse me. | 31:05 | |
- | Alright as a little person | 31:07 |
but not we little people could do something. | 31:08 | |
We're asking you as a little person who represents | 31:10 | |
all of us. | 31:13 | |
- | Right. | |
- | Go and say something symbolic, dramatic | 31:15 |
outside the institution. | 31:17 | |
Don't let the institution coral you this time. | 31:19 | |
Say something that you mean that we cannot say. | 31:22 | |
- | Dr. Knight has made it clear, through exhaustion, | 31:27 |
I think we're all tired that he is going to speak tomorrow | 31:30 | |
and I think we as students and faculty | 31:33 | |
have some decisions to make right now | 31:35 | |
in what our response is to this. | 31:37 | |
(crowd murmuring) | 31:41 | |
- | The Reverend Dr. King and his 1964 march on Washington, | 31:45 |
one of his finest moments, he got up and told | 31:48 | |
the whole nation that he had a dream that someday, | 31:51 | |
someday in this country all men would be equal | 31:54 | |
and that's why we're here, we have that dream. | 31:57 |
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