Coretta Scott King’s ’10 Commandments of Vietnam’
Coretta Scott King is remembered by many as the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., but she was also an activist and author in her own right. She delivered her own powerful speeches and captivated audiences, but one of her most important speeches came when she spoke in the place of her husband after he had been assassinated. In the midst of her grief in 1968, she delivered the 10 commandments that King wrote down before his death. These commandments included “Thou shalt not believe in a military victory,” “Thou shall not believe in a political victory,” “Thou shall not believe that the majority of the South Vietnamese look upon the Vietcong as terrorists,” and, of course, “Thou shall not kill.”
She continued to point out all the progress that had been made even a year after King was killed. However, she also encouraged the masses to stay focused and take a serious look at political issues such as welfare and exploitation of cheap labor.
Ida B. Wells’ ‘This Awful Slaughter’
In 1909, Wells delivered a powerful speech at the NAACP’s first annual conference that busted the myth that lynchings were happening to protect women. “Crimes against women is the excuse, not the cause,” she explained in the speech.
“What is the cause of this awful slaughter? This question is answered almost daily — always the same shameless falsehood that ‘Negroes are lynched to protect womanhood’… This is the never-varying answer of lynchers and their apologists. All know that it is untrue. The cowardly lyncher revels in murder, then seeks to shield himself from public execration by claiming devotion to a woman. But truth is might and the lynching record discloses the hypocrisy of the lyncher as well as his crime.”
