Buddhism and the civil rights movement

Dear Doctor Trinh,
Passionate about American history and literature, especially the period of the late 60s and the civil rights movement, I navigate between my passion for this period and my spiritual encounter about three years ago for Buddhism. Hence my question: have Buddhists been engaged against racial segregation in the United States? Have there been bridges between Buddhists and civil rights activists?

Doctor Dinh Hy Trinh: Dear Sir,
Yes, indeed there was a bridge between so-called “committed” Buddhists and civil rights activists. In the 1960s, at the same time as the movement for civil rights and against racial segregation in the United States, was born a pacifist citizens' movement calling for an end to the war in Vietnam, inside the country and abroad. the stranger. Representatives of these movements have joined their action, such as Reverend Martin Luther King Jr and Zen Master Thich Nhât Hanh, who met in 1966 (photo attached). Both were committed to peace, non-violence, equality and brotherhood among men. Unfortunately, shortly after, Martin Luther King, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1964, was assassinated in 1968, at the age of 39. Zen Master Thich Nhât Hanh lived for a long time in exile in France, where he founded the Inter-Being Order, in Plum Village, until 2018, when he returned to Vietnam permanently.