When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, visited UN Headquarters in the 1960s to protest the Viet Nam conflict, the civil rights leader likened the anti-war movement to the struggle for equality for Black people in the United States, declaring then what has today become a slogan in the country's continuing battle against racism.

On 15 April 1967, a delegation led by Dr. King met with the legendary Ralph Bunche and other top UN officials. Mr. Bunche was the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and Dr. King was the second.