King was accepted into the graduate program at the University of California, Berkeley, and soon became politically active. She helped to organize protests against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1970. She says: "The single most effective thing we did was on the day after the US invaded Cambodia, we got out our suit jackets and shirtwaist dresses – not clothes that any of us had worn since coming to Berkeley – and went to the synagogues and churches and by the end of Sunday we had 30,000 letters opposing the action."