Throughout his civil rights ministry, the cross was a burden King could not escape. During the violence in Birmingham, St. Augustine, Selma, Chicago, and the Meredith March and the rise of Black Power in Mississippi, King had to bear the cross of black leadership as he struggled against white supremacy—trying to keep hope alive in the midst of burning cities in America and Vietnam. In May 1967, about six weeks after his great “Beyond Vietnam” address at New York’s Riverside Church (April 4, 1967), King reflected at a staff retreat on the flood of criticism coming from the media, government,
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