“It is time now to meet the escalation of the War in Vietnam with an escalation of opposition to that War. I think the time has come for all people of good will to engage in a massive program of organization, of mobilization. This is the purpose of Vietnam Summer. And I’m happy to join as one of the sponsors of what I consider a most necessary program, a program that may well determine the destiny of our nation.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at press conference announcing VIETNAM SUMMER, Cambridge, Mass., April 23, 1967
In 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project mobilized thousands of students, clergymen and concerned citizens in the struggle against racial injustice.
The time has come for an even more massive effort to arouse the conscience of the nation—this time against the brutal and unjust war in Vietnam.
VIETNAM SUMMER is a call for 10,000 volunteers, including 2,000 full-time workers, to spend the summer in 500 communities organizing and educating against the war. During the next four weeks speakers and field organizers will visit campuses and cities around the country recruiting participants for VIETNAM SUMMER. All peace, civil rights and civic groups and all concerned citizens are invited to join in this nationwide effort and to begin preparation in local communities for a VIETNAM SUMMER project.
VIETNAM SUMMER is a project to reach the millions of citizens in communities across the nation who oppose the war in Vietnam but whose voices have not yet been heard. The goal is to create a new, independent force in America which will undertake a broad range of concrete actions to end the war. In many communities, VIETNAM SUMMER will focus on establishing a powerful political base of anti-war sentiment capable of electing candidates in 1968 who call for an immediate peaceful settlement of the war. VIETNAM SUMMER will support and organize opposition to the war in ghetto areas of the nation and among young men of draft age who in ever greater numbers are refusing to fight.
VIETNAM SUMMER is an unprecedented attempt to bring together the hundreds of thousands who marched against the war on April 15, who voted against the war in 1964 and again in 1966, and the millions of Americans who want peace.
Dr. King’s call for VIETNAM SUMMER is supported by Dr. Benjamin Spock, Robert Scheer, Dr. John C. Bennett, Dr. Albert Szent-Gvorgi, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan, Rabbi Abraham Heschni, Carl Oglesby, William Pepper, Carey McWilliams, and many others.
VIETNAM SUMMER urgently needs your support (a minimum budget of $350,000 is required). Let us hear from you right away.
FILL OUT COUPON & RETURN TO VIETNAM SUMMER, 2631 WOODWARD, DETROIT