Television icon Dick Van Dyke recently threw his support behind Kamala Harris for president by sharing a powerful speech he delivered at a civil rights event in 1964 alongside Martin Luther King. In a video titled “VOTE!! @KamalaHarris,” the 98-year-old star reminisced about reading the remarks, penned by “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling, to a crowd of approximately 60,000 people in the Coliseum in Los Angeles.
Van Dyke passionately recited, “Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm. Suspicion, dislike, jealousy, scapegoating, none of those are the transcendent facet of the human personality. They’re diseases. They are cancers of the soul.” He continued with a poignant message, stating, “There will be moments of violence and expressions of hatred and an ugly echo of intolerance, but these are the clinging vestiges of a decayed past, not the harbingers of the better, cleaner future. To those who tell us the inequality of the human animal is a necessary evil, we must respond by simply saying that first, it is evil, but not necessary.”
After concluding the speech, Van Dyke reflected, “1964 — a lot’s happened. Not so much as Martin Luther dreamed of, but it’s a start. Thank you, and God bless.” This endorsement comes after Van Dyke initially supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential primary and later endorsed Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June, Van Dyke expressed his belief that Donald Trump is “disturbed,” pointing out that he has “never seen him laugh.” The actor’s endorsement of Harris comes as a significant moment in the current political landscape.
Watch Dick Van Dyke’s heartfelt endorsement video for Kamala Harris below.
