Living Well 60+ September-October 2014

SEPT/OCT 2 0 1 4
50 YEARS AGO:
Warren Commission report
delivered to president; King
awarded Nobel Peace Prize
by Tanya J. Tyler,
Editor
After President
John F. Kennedy
was killed on Nov.
22, 1963, his successor, Lyndon B.
Johnson, created a commission to
glean out the facts behind the assassination.
The seven-man commission
was named after its reluctant
chair, Supreme Court Chief
Justice Earl Warren. In its 888-
page report, delivered to Johnson
on Sept. 24, 1964, the commission
concluded Lee Harvey Oswald
had acted alone in the shooting,
but never gave an explanation
for why he did it. The report did
not put to rest the questions and
speculations about the assassination
that continue to this day.
Some say Warren suppressed key
evidence, such as not allowing the
other members of the commission
to view the autopsy photos or to
interview other possible witnesses
to the slaying. Some members of
the commission had doubts about
the report, especially the so-called
“single bullet” theory. Approximately
1,100 records that have
been kept from the public will be
available in 2017.
On Oct. 15, 1964, Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. received
the Nobel Peace Prize for his work
in the struggle for civil rights.
Gunnar Jahn, chair of the Nobel
Committee, said in his presentation
speech: “[King] is the first
person in the Western world to
have shown us that a struggle can
be waged without violence. He
is the first to make the message
of brotherly love a reality in the
course of his struggle, and he has
brought this message to all men,
to all nations and races.” He called
King “an undaunted champion
of peace.” At age 35, King was
the youngest man to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize.
King said he would give the
prize money of $54,123 to the
civil rights movement to ensure it
would continue. His Nobel lecture
was on “The Quest for Peace and
Justice.” In his acceptance speech
made on Dec. 10 of that same
year, he said, “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 he was mindful of the
2 9
struggles going on at the time
in Philadelphia, Miss. and in
Birmingham, Ala. “I must ask
why this prize is awarded to a
movement which is beleaguered
and committed to unrelenting
struggle, to a movement which has
not won the very peace and brotherhood
which is the essence of the
Nobel Prize,” he said. “After contemplation,
I conclude that this
award which I receive on behalf
of that 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.
I accept this award today
with an abiding faith in America
and an audacious faith in the future
of mankind. I still believe that
we shall overcome.”
On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated
in Memphis, Tenn.
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