Breaking News, December 10th, 1964

King's Work is Not Yet Done
-Rachael Pineiro

Civil rights hero Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tells the world his work is not yet finished, but through the perseverance of nonviolent demonstration, King's mission of humanity will not fail.
As his slow and deliberate words rang out in the City Hall of Oslo, Norway, on the 10th of December, the magnitude of his people’s struggle settled into the consciousness of every distinguished guest in the company. King spoke of the 22 million Negros, struggling presently in the heat of injustice and indignity in the United States of America and elsewhere in the wide world. He questioned why he should receive such an award when the accomplishment of the movement is yet so premature.
Merely nine years have passed since he organized the first bus boycott, the incipience of his spirited campaign for equality, and King has found himself to be in a position of the highest prestige and honor. He is the youngest of the laureates, throughout the 20th century, to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to promoting global peace. King accepted the award with grace, but illuminated the situation in light of its position in reality: his work is far from being done.
“I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice,” he said at the commencement of his speech. The risk that King has taken in his ministry has lead to his being stabbed in 1958, and stoned, as of just last summer.
Dr. King alluded to several recent incidents which highlight the reality of the civil rights struggle: fire hose assaults, bombings, and brutal murders. He articulated the extent to which the colored person is degraded in the construction of society and the work that is yet to be done. He acknowledged the debilitating scorn his people have faced and the struggle of the movement in its cry for brotherhood, but the tenor of his speech was far from despairing.
“After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of the movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression,” he said.
Rejecting the pessimism of a non-progressive future, King’s speech bounded toward a future of optimism with the fire of possibility. He stated his refusal to despair, his refusal to believe that nations are bound to destroy one another, and his refusal to accept that men, as they are today, are not capable of fashioning the world the way it ought to be. Man, according to King, is not a powerless character in fate, unable to improve or perfect the future. His voice rang with optimism: “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”
His message is not confined, only, to the people of the United States. Basing his civil rights campaign on the foundation of Christianity and the philosophies of Ghandi, King affirms that the dignity of all people will soon be realized as love and truth will inevitably succeed in the scheme of the entire world, and that this will be attained only through the persistence of non-violent ambitions.
“I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow,” he said. “I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.”
After nine years of demonstrations, fraught with multiple arrests, and with the repeated debasement of racial attacks and violent assaults, King accepted the award with a renewed air for his mission of humanity. The faith and burning optimism with which he spoke exposed his elevated expectation of mankind’s ethical capabilities, although these capabilities have not been exercised.
“I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land,” he said.
King concluded his speech, reiterating his stewardship of the award he received. The Nobel Peace Prize of 1964 belongs to every individual “to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty – and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”