On behalf of the Community Organizing Committee for the 2026 Toledo MLK Our Time to Break Silence, along with our cosponsors Toledo Public Schools and the UToledo Black Student Union, we invite you to participate in this year’s Toledo MLK Our Time to Break Silence on Sunday, April 19, at 3 pm at Monroe Street Church, 3613 Monroe Street. Please put it on your calendar!
Given one year to the day before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King’s Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence motivated the American public across lines that had formerly divided groups, urging all to break silence and to fight against the “evil triplets” of militarism, materialism, and racism and against violence of all types. (You can hear speech at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJhgXKGldUk or read the transcript at https://www.crmvet.org/docs/mlk-viet.htm.)
Today, the speech inspires us to ask: WHAT ARE YOU and OTHERS BREAKING SILENCE ABOUT? ARE WE LISTENING AND ACTING? The event acknowledges all the ways individuals and groups today break silence on vitally important issues and needs, while providing a networking space where we can learn about and support each other’s voices and efforts.
Many of you have already participated in the event, reading a part of the speech and representing one of the 75+ organizations that have participated since our first event in 2017; many of you would be new participants. All of you are welcome. We encourage you to share this information with any other individuals and groups you know whose work is consistent with the organization’s mission to:
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Honor Dr. King by sharing his words, so that they can continue to inspire us today,
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Inform and educate young people about Dr. King’s important impact,
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Expand outreach to be fully inclusive of all groups and individuals in Greater Toledo and Northwest Ohio seeking to realize civil rights and to improve and protect our community and world,
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Build the movement to break silence, promote dialogue, and engage in nonviolent direct action, and
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Recognize the relevance of Dr. King’s words half a century later and continue to “Break the Silence” today.