Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., twentieth-century American civil rights icon, made his only known visit to the Tri-Valley 50 years ago this month.On January 14, 1968, Dr. King flew to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit singer Joan Baez and other anti-Vietnam War activists who were incarcerated in Santa Rita jail near Pleasanton. This would be Dr. King's final visit to northern California as he was assassinated less than three months later in Memphis, Tennessee.
Joan Baez was the most famous of the anti-Vietnam War protestors held in Santa Rita jail in December 1967-January 1968. Ms. Baez participated in "Stop the Draft Week" protests at the Army Induction Center in downtown Oakland (Clay Street) in October and on December 18-19, 1967. She was among the hundreds of demonstrators who called out to Army inductees as they entered the building for processing. On December 19, 1967, Ms. Baez, Ms. Baez's mother, activist Ira Sandperl and 146 other anti-war demonstrators (95 men and 54 women) were arrested at Oakland Army Induction Center, arraigned at the county courthouse and brought to Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center to begin serving "Christmas prison terms," according to the Livermore Herald & News of Dec. 20, 1967. Their jail sentences were an average of "20 days plus 1." Ms. Baez and Mr. Sandperl received 45-day sentences.
Dr. King sent a Western Union telegram to Ms. Baez at Santa Rita on Dec. 29, 1967. It read: "At a time when our nation wages such an inhuman effort against the right to life and self-determination of the people of Vietnam, jail is the most moral place to be. Your witness in behalf of peace and against our nation's policy stands in the highest traditions of the faith and wisdom of the ages. I know full well the frustrations of confinement but I pray that this imprisonment, for conscious sake, will lead to a new level of inner awareness and spiritual strength, enabling you to give even greater leadership to mankind's quest for peace and justice."
As Dr. King stated in his telegram to Ms. Baez, he was no stranger to prisons and jails. His 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a renowned piece of civil disobedience literature.
Ms. Baez's lawyer, Sherwood M. Sullivan replied to Dr. King on January 3, 1968, "We are certain that your message was very well received by Miss Baez and the other women who made a witness with her on December 18 and 19, 1967."
On January 13, 1968, the Livermore Herald & News reported an announcement by the War Resisters League that Dr. King would join a "vigil protest" at Santa Rita jail on the afternoon of January 14th, sometime between 12:30 and 3 p.m. A War Resisters League spokesperson said that Dr. King would visit "some of his friends arrested in the pre-Christmas demonstrations at the Oakland Induction Center." Ms. Baez and Ira Sandperl were among the protestors who were sentenced to 45 days; many of the protestors who received 20-day sentences were already released and planned to join Dr. King in the vigil. According to the Alameda County Sheriff's office at the time, Mr. Sandperl was among the male demonstrators who refused to shave their beards or bathe at least once a week in compliance with Santa Rita rules, and so had mail and visiting privileges suspended.
Joan Baez and Ira Sandperl had a long history of activism with Dr. King. Mr. Sandperl was director of Ms. Baez's Institute for the Study of Non-Violence. Both joined Dr. King on civil rights marches in the South. Their relationship with Dr. King was strained at times due to their disagreement with the aims and activities of Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "We feel that time is running out and that we must attempt to fight the political and economic nationalism that is doing us all in," Sandperl and Baez wrote to Dr. King on December 10, 1966, "And in our assessment S.C.L.C. is not only entrapped by this nationalism, but it actually buttresses it and never does serious battle with it."
Sunday, January 14, 1968: Dr. King Visits Joan Baez & Other Protestors at Santa Rita Jail
Dr. King likely drove to Santa Rita jail from San Francisco or Oakland airport. He almost certainly drove on U.S. 50 (now I-580) through Dublin Canyon, then a four-lane expressway (today an eight-lane freeway with BART tracks in the median). Dr. King exited U.S. 50 at Tassajara Road and took a frontage road westerly to Santa Rita jail. It's presently unknown where he parked his car. It's possible that he parked outside the jail gate and walked some distance to the front door of the jail. (The 1968 jail and frontage road are gone as of 2018. The jail moved to a new location in the late 1980s and the frontage road became obsolete after Dublin Boulevard was extended to Tassajara Road in the 1990s.)
Some 200 people maintained a vigil in front of Santa Rita jail that day. Many lined the frontage road leading to the jail, according to Barry Schrader, then-managing editor of the Herald & News and retired in De Kalb County, Illinois in 2018. Mr. Schrader joined Herald & News reporter John Oliver and photographer Jim Lewis in covering Dr. King's visit to Santa Rita jail. Mr. Schrader made one of two known audio recordings of Dr. King's impromptu speech outside of Santa Rita on the afternoon of January 14, 1968, after Dr. King exited the jail. Colin Edwards of Pacifica Radio made the other known recording, which can be listened to here.
Dr. Martin Luther King's Impromptu Speech To the Vigil at Santa Rita Jail
Dr. King spoke for around fifteen minutes to the crowd of approximately 200 people who attended the vigil outside of Santa Rita jail on Sunday afternoon, January 14, 1968. Barry Schrader of the Herald & News was a few feet away from Dr. King as he spoke. Mr. Schrader recalls that Dr. King addressed the crowd while standing on the running board of his car. Mr. Schrader snapped the photo of Dr. King that appeared on the front page of the January 15, 1968 Herald & News (erroneously credited to Jim Lewis).
Dr. King noted the "inclement weather." He spoke about his visit with Ms. Baez, Ms. Baez's mother and Mr. Sandperl inside the jail. He compared the civil rights and anti-war movements.
Among the attendees of the vigil was Stanford University student David Harris, who later would became Joan Baez's husband. Mr. Harris challenged his own induction into the armed forces.
Thursday, January 18, 1968: Joan Baez Quietly Released from Santa Rita Jail
On January 18, 1968, Joan Baez, her mother and several other protestors were quietly released from Santa Rita jail. Oakland Municipal Court Judge Delmar Probst issued the order. Ms. Baez was released 15 days before her 45-day sentence was due to expire. Judge Probst explained the release of Ms. Baez to the Herald & News in its January 19, 1968 edition, "What we run is a rehabilitation center. It isn't a prison. She's shown respect for law and order. We do this for everybody ... They watch all the prisoners. When the penalty has had the desired effect, then we release them."
Ms. Baez told a press conference in San Francisco after her release on January 18th, "Jail is really peanuts, nothing for people like us." She indicated that she possibly would return to jail "when it's politically relevant." Judge Probst warned Ms. Baez through the Herald & News that she was still on probation, "If she reverts back, she has 60 days facing her. We feel the penalty has had its effect. Otherwise, we wouldn't have released her ... She wasn't treated any differently than anyone else. She didn't even know we were watching her." Ms. Baez had worked in the supply office during her sentence.
Andrew Young accompanied Dr. King on his visit to Santa Rita Jail. Mr. Young later would become a congressman, U.S. ambassador and Atlanta mayor.
Dr. King's Santa Rita Jail visit came on the eve of his 39th and final birthday anniversary. Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929. His birthday became a federal holiday by act of Congress and President Ronald Reagan in 1983. The nation has commemorated the "Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr." on the third Monday in January since 1986.
The Santa Rita jail complex that Dr. King visited in 1968 was replaced in the late 1980s by the "new" Santa Rita jail. The "old" Santa Rita was much closer to the highway that is today known as Interstate 580. When Dr. King visited in 1968, the area was largely rural and the highway was a four-lane expressway known as U.S. 50. Today I-580 freeway is at least ten lanes wide. The site where Dr. King addressed the crowd of anti-war protestors is now likely covered by an automobile dealership (Toyota or Chevrolet).
The Vietnam War was a major topic of political discourse in mid-January 1968. The same day that Dr. King visited the anti-war protestors at Santa Rita Jail, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota addressed the California Democratic Party convention in Fresno. "We find ourselves becoming not just the arsenal of democracy, but the arsenal of dictatorships all around the world, "Sen. McCarthy said. The Vietnam War took a bad turn for the Americans and South Vietnamese later that month with the Tet Offensive. Sen. McCarthy and his anti-war platform stunned President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire presidential primary election on March 12, 1968 (Johnson 49% vs. McCarthy 42%), leading to President Johnson's March 31st announcement that he would retire instead of continuing his re-election campaign.
April 4, 1968: Dr. King Murdered in Memphis: Tri-Valley Reaction
Dr. King was assassinated on Thursday, April 4, 1968 at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee where he was aiding sanitation workers in their strike for better employment conditions. Beneath the headline, "Martin Luther King Murdered," the Herald & News ran a photo of Dr. King's January 14, 1968 visit to Santa Rita jail on its front page on April 5th. The caption read, "DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING SPOKE RECENTLY IN PLEASANTON. He Re-Emphasized His Commitment To Non-Violence."
A photo of the American flag at half-mast at the tall flagpole in downtown Livermore ran on the front page of the April 6, 1968 Herald & News with the caption, "LIVERMORE PAYS TRIBUTE." John Oliver of the Herald & News reported on the memorial tributes to Dr. King at the Jobs Corps center then operating at Camp Parks under the headline, "Corpsmen Shocked: Camp Parks Prayerfully Mourns King." Many economically disadvantaged young men from across the country lived, studied and worked there. Mr. Oliver reported, "These were boys from the ghettoes, from the streets, from broken homes and disadvantaged lives. Many were still in their teens and had not yet reached manhood. Shocked and stunned and overwhelmed by a monstrous problem made more ominous by the death of Martin Luther King, they felt the assault on him as an assault on each one of them." One young man at the Job Corps gathering said, "Martin Luther King died in the belief of his Bible and his belief in brotherhood. The Bible says 'turn the other cheek.' I dunno ... The main thing to understand is that the black people have got all the power, the strength. But we don't have the minds. We need the minds, we need education."
On Sunday, April 7, 1968, sixteen religious leaders from the Tri-Valley's Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths jointly conducted a memorial service for Dr. King. Organized by the Interfaith Religious Association of the Livermore-Amador Valley, the event was held at Livermore First Presbyterian Church at 2 p.m. Rev. Denton Roberts of First Christian Church provided personal recollections of the 1965 Selma, Alabama march. Hymns sung included "Precious Lord Take My Hand," "We Shall Overcome" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." The Herald & News reported on April 8, 1968 that 500 attended the 90-minute program. The interfaith council prepared a resolution encouraging Livermore and Pleasanton school and city officials to increase the proportion of minority persons in their employment.
The Monday, April 8, 1968 Herald & News ran an editorial about Martin Luther King and his legacy. It stated in part, "For the second time in less than five years, America has been shocked and saddened by the senseless assassination of a national figure ... He did not court death, but he knew that the forces which he was so largely responsible for putting into motion might make this ultimate sacrifice inevitable. He was prepared to pay it. ... While we had frequent cause to complain of Dr. King's tactics, there can be no argument with his dream and his faith in achieving it without violence."
