"N.A.A.C.P. Decries Stand Of Dr. King on Vietnam."
New York Times, April 11, 1967, p. 1, 17.
Saying "it was time to make a declaration, to make our position clear,"
the N.A.A.C.P. issued a statement effectively separating the organization
apart from the anti-Vietnam movement. Coming only a week after Martin
Luther King's Riverside Church speech the N.A.A.C.P. statement read in
part:
"Civil rights battles will have to be fought and won on their own
merits, irrespective of the state of war or peace in the world. We
are not a peace organization nor a foreign policy association. We are
a civil rights organization. The N.A.A.C.P. remains committed to its
primary goal of eliminating all forms of racial discrimination and
achieving equal rights and equal opportunities for all Americans.
We are, of course, for a just peace. But there already exist
dedicated organizations whose No. 1 task is to work for peace
just as our No. 1 job is to work for civil rights."
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