Hymn to Freedom - arranged for violin
To read about this project, look here: A Meditation on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The text I'm writing out: (Taken from Dr. King's speech, Beyond Vietnam, April 4, 1967, at New York’s Riverside Church - to read the full speech, go here: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/beyond-vietnam)

"As I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path.

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady... and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing “clergy and laymen concerned” committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. So such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see than an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action.

The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace."

The music: Hymn to Freedom - Oscar Peterson (1962) Arrangement - Zoë Robertson Original Oscar Peterson recording from "Night Train" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjKZUViwPHc