Martin Luther King Jr
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Martin Luther King Jr
A Black church leader, King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches during the 1965 Selma voting rights movement. There were dramatic standoffs with segregationist authorities, who often responded violently. The civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
There’s Infinitely More to Martin Luther King Jr. Than ‘I Have a Dream’
by Craig Gordon 2021 ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT
Back in 2001, I was trying to get my eleventh grade U.S. history class to focus on a passage from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Unfortunately, I was not surprised when a student protested, “We already know about him. We’re tired of hearing about Martin Luther King.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Day: When & Why We Celebrate
by Beatrice Alvarez 16/1/21 PBS
In 1994 Congress passed a bill to dedicate the national holiday as a national day of service. The King Holiday and Service Act was introduced by Congressman John Lewis and Senator Harris Wofford, both of whom had worked alongside Dr. King in civil rights activism. Since then, it has become a day to remember Dr. King’s work and, as importantly, to continue on the path towards justice he paved for us.
Challenging Ourselves: Martin Luther King, the Movement, and Its Lessons for Today
by Charles E. Cobb 2017 ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT
My friend and former co-worker in the movement Julian Bond, who is greatly missed, used to say that the primary misconception in the public’s perception of the Southern Civil Rights Movement can be boiled down to three short sentences.
Remembering Martin Luther King Jr., the Organizer
Martin Luther King Jr. is rightly celebrated as a transformative political and moral leader who championed racial equality, but he is less often credited as a brilliant strategic and tactical organizer who led cutting edge campaigns to deliver the rights for which he is known. As an organizer, I am struck by the mastery of the organizing craft that infuses King’s writing, so on this holiday remembering his legacy, I’ll share several of King’s lessons that all activists can benefit from today.
16 Martin Luther King quotes to remember
by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 15/1/19
Today we honour the birthday of Martin Luther King, American civil rights activist and champion of non-violent resistance. Here we remember some of his more powerful words.
Dr. Martin Luther King in 1967: “We as a Nation Must Undergo a Radical Revolution of Values”
by Martin Luther King 21/1/13 Democracy Now
President Obama’s inauguration comes on the federal holiday in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech 50 years ago. We end our broadcast show with an excerpt from Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” address, given at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values,” Dr. King said. [includes rush transcript]
Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., we have compiled archival videos, documentaries, commentaries, discussions and reports about his life, legacy and the Civil Rights movement.
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy Jailed in Birmingham
On October 30, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy were arrested and forced to begin serving sentences in Birmingham jail because they led peaceful protests against unconstitutional bans on "race mixing" in Birmingham in 1963.
52 Individuals, Including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Arrested in Atlanta Sit-In Protest
On October 19, 1960, 52 individuals, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were arrested in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, after refusing to leave their seats at segregated department store lunch counters.
The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 1961
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his powerful speech on August 28, 1963. Sixty years later, the speech endures as a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement and remains a beacon in the ongoing struggle for racial equality.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated in Memphis
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in the city to speak on his growing Poor People's Campaign and to support an economic protest by Black sanitation workers.
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Lesson plan: MLK Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," racism and Jan. 6
Martin Luther King: how a rebel leader was lost to history
by Gary Younge 4/4/18 The Guardian
On 15 January 1998, what would have been Martin Luther King’s 69th birthday, James Farmer was awarded the presidential medal of freedom in the White House’s East Room. “He has never sought the limelight,” said the then president, Bill Clinton. “And until today, I frankly think he’s never got the credit he deserves. His long overdue recognition has come to pass.”
Martin Luther King Stood for More Than Love
by Jeffery Robinson 16/1/18 ACLU
Martin Luther King often spoke of the need for unconditional love. In 1955, he told Black America, “We want to love our enemies — be good to them. This is what we must live by; we must meet hate with love. We must love our white brothers no matter what they do to us.” In his remarks on the King holiday, President Trump referred to love five times in three sentences.
King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 1961
King of the North fundamentally reshapes how we understand the evolution of Martin Luther King Jr.’s politics and partnerships. While most accounts frame King’s activism as a Southern story culminating in the March on Washington, Theoharis insists we follow him north — into the segregated schools, redlined housing, and brutally policed neighborhoods of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and beyond.
People’s Historians Online: Rethinking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 2/5/20
On International Workers’ Day (May 1), close to 300 educators, parents, and students joined the session with Jeanne Theoharis and Jesse Hagopian on the radical history of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Bull Connor Orders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dozens More Civil Rights Marchers Violently Arrested in Birmingham
On April 12, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and at least 55 others, almost all of whom were Black, were jailed for “parading without a permit” during a march against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Remembered With Day of Service
The president will host a conversation at the White House with African-American seniors and their grandchildren, and will speak at a concert at the Kennedy Center. He’ll also attend a public-service event in Washington, D.C.
Rare Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. signatures found in Alabama jail logbook
Rare documents with 12 signatures of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sold on Wednesday for more than $130,000. They were penned in an Alabama jail logbook after King was arrested in April 1963 for leading a march against racial segregation. Rikki Klaus reports on the unprecedented item. It's part of our arts and culture series, "CANVAS."
Dr. King and Hundreds of Voting Rights Activists Arrested
In early 1965, civil rights groups including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began concentrating on voter registration in Selma, Alabama—a city with the lowest voter registration record in the state's Black Belt region.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
King of the North fundamentally reshapes how we understand the evolution of Martin Luther King Jr.’s politics and partnerships. While most accounts frame King’s activism as a Southern story culminating in the March on Washington, Theoharis insists we follow him north — into the segregated schools, redlined housing, and brutally policed neighborhoods of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and beyond.
March 22, 1968: March for Justice and Jobs
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 1961
On March 22, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Community on the Move for Equality called for a march in Memphis, Tennessee in solidarity with sanitation workers who were on strike.
Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. and Religious Freedom
The First Amendment guarantees two interrelated aspects of religious freedom: the freedom to believe and to practice one’s religion and the freedom from government sponsorship of religion. Both are integral to ensuring religious liberty flourishes. Because the First Amendment’s religion clauses ensure we all have true freedom of conscience, we are not told what to believe or prohibited from practicing religion.
Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did
by HamdenRice 29/8/11 DAILY KOS
What most people who reference Dr. King seem not to know is how Dr. King actually changed the subjective experience of life in the United States for African Americans. And yeah, I said for African Americans, not for Americans, because his main impact was his effect on the lives of African Americans, not on Americans in general. His main impact was not to make white people nicer or fairer. That's why some of us who are African Americans get a bit possessive about his legacy. Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy, despite what our civil religion tells us, is not color blind.
SPECIAL: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words
by Martin Luther King 20/1/14 DEMOCRACY NOW
Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15th, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice.
King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Freedom Struggle Outside of the South
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 27/3/25
This talk marks the fifth anniversary of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online class series, which Theoharis co-founded. Watch our 60 previous Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online classes and register for upcoming classes here.
The Martin Luther King You Don’t See on TV
by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon 4/1/1995 FAIR
It’s become a TV ritual: Every year in mid-January, around the time of Martin Luther King’s birthday, we get perfunctory network news reports about “the slain civil rights leader.”
Dr. Martin Luther King on Reconstruction
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 13/1/22
We recommend reading what Dr. Martin Luther King said about Reconstruction as part of his tribute to W. E. B. Du Bois on Feb. 23, 1968. King explains that myths about Reconstruction poisoned “the collective mind of America with racism” and he describes how Du Bois set out to demolish those myths in his vital text, Black Reconstruction in America.
Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign Reborn
by Martin Luther King 11/1/18 DEMOCRACY NOW
Martin Luther King Jr. would have turned 89 years old this Jan. 15. Assassinated at the age of 39 on April 4, 1968, his much-too-short life forever changed America.
Martin Luther King's last 31 hours: the story of his final prophetic speech
by Joseph Rosenbloom 4/4/18 The Guardian
While the man who would assassinate him the next day was holed up in the New Rebel motel, hundreds of people were filtering into Mason Temple, in Memphis, Tennessee, to hear Martin Luther King Jr, speak. Outside, a thunderstorm was raging. The people clustered in the front of the church, shedding their rain-spattered jackets as they took their seats.
The Limits of Master Narratives in History Textbooks: An Analysis of Representations of Martin Luther King Jr.
During my years as a high school history teacher in the early 1990s, I observed the extent to which history textbooks often presented simplistic, one-dimensional interpretations of American history within a heroic and celebratory master narrative.
MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words
Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words
by Martin Luther King 15/1/24 DEMOCRACY NOW
Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
March 26, 1964: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 1961
The traditional curriculum portrays the Malcolm X and the Black Power Movement as the evil twins of the Civil Rights Movement while over simplifying the Civil Rights Movement and treating the Black Power Movement as “too hot to touch.”
Martin Luther King’s Radical Legacy, From the Poor People’s Campaign to Black Lives Matter
by Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou 15/1/17 DISSENT
“The only thing I ask is that they not take the freeways. Dr. King would never take a freeway.” So said Kasim Reed, the liberal African American mayor of Atlanta, in response to Black Lives Matter protests in King’s birth city last summer. Noted conservative talk show host Bill O’Reilly has likewise postulated with great confidence that “Dr. King would not participate in a Black Lives Matter protest.” Reed and O’Reilly were quickly lambasted for their lack of historical accuracy: Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, led the iconic 1965 march across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge and countless other acts of disruptive civil disobedience. But their sentiment reveals our popular misunderstanding of the life and legacy of America’s favorite civil rights leader.
Remembering Dr. King's Defense of Voting Rights
by Eunice Hyon Min Rho 16/1/12 ACLU
During the summer of 1964, a coalition of civil rights groups and almost a thousand student volunteers converged in Mississippi to register African-American voters. The “Mississippi Summer Project” was met with unrelenting violence: 1,000 arrests, 35 shootings, 30 bombed buildings, 35 burned churches, 80 beatings, and at least six murders.
Martin Luther King: his life and legacy – in pictures
by Sarah Gilbert 4/4/18 The Guardian
King, front row third from left, listens to a speaker during an assembly at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1948.
March 25, 1965: Last Selma March
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 25/3/1965
If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You Won’t Read About in Textbooks
by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT 11/1/22
On January 10, the Zinn Education Project hosted historian Jeanne Theoharis in conversation with Jesse Hagopian about the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that is not found in textbooks and school curricula. This was for the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle series of classes with people’s historians.
Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
by Dr. Martin Luther King 4/4/18 EJI
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he’d come to support Black sanitation workers striking for job safety and better wages. Dr. King led an earlier march that ended in looting and violence, but after talking with local activists, he returned for another march scheduled for April 5.
Memorializing Martin Luther King, Jr.
by Michael Yates - Paul Le Blanc 28/8/13 COUNTERPUNCH
We often visit the monuments and museums along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and each time I am surprised at my heightened emotions when we are there. Maybe it is because the museums are free and some of the memorials grand and inspiring, and I can imagine for a few hours that this country will one day live up to its professed ideals. In the city a few weeks ago, we looked forward to seeing our old favorites and were excited to see for the first time the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
The one thing about Martin Luther King Jr.’s greatness everyone keeps missing
Most people recall what the cameras caught: King declaring “I have a dream!” before 250,000 jubilant supporters at the March on Washington during a muggy, sun-splashed summer day. But there was one crucial exchange that the cameras didn’t catch.
< Everyone from the Tea Party to immigrants rights groups want a piece of Dr. King
What's good, y'all? You're listening to CODE SWITCH. I'm Gene Demby. So way back in the very early days of CODE SWITCH, in 2013, way before we had a podcast, even, some of my colleagues on the team ran this Twitter feed, back when, you know, it was still called Twitter. That account was named @todayin1963, and the idea behind it was really simple. Every day the account would tweet out news items from newspapers from that same corresponding day but 50 years earlier, in 1963.
Memphis Remembers Martin Luther King Jr.
WALTER CRONKITE: Good evening. Dr. Martin Luther King, the apostle of nonviolence in the civil rights movement, has been shot to death in Memphis, Tenn. Police have issued an all-points bulletin for a well-dressed young white man seen running from the scene.
Funeral Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.
by L. Harold DeWolf 13/1/06 PBS
It was my privilege to teach Martin Luther King, to march with him in Mississippi, agonize and pray with him in the midst of the worst violence at St. Augustine, to spend many hours counseling with him, to go through great volumes of his private papers organizing them, to spend many days and nights in his home. I know the innermost thoughts of this man as deeply as I know that of any man on earth. It has been the highest privilege of my life, this personal friendship.
White people, don’t tell me what Martin Luther King would think of Black Lives Matter
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Martin Luther King Jr. Fast Facts
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 28/12/20 CNN
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was best known for his role in the civil rights movement and nonviolent protests. His life's work has been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on the National Mall in Washington. Take a look back at the late civil rights leader's defining years. Here, King speaks in Washington in 1968, the year he was assassinated.
When I Met Dr. King
by Charlayne Hunter-Gault 4/4/18 THE NEW YORKER
My one and only encounter with Martin Luther King, Jr., was during a chance meeting on what was then called “Sweet Auburn Avenue,” the prosperous hub of black-owned businesses in Atlanta. It was the summer of 1961, when King had earned the love and respect of the city’s young civil-rights demonstrators with whom he had marched.
The sanctification — and sanitization — of Martin Luther King Jr.
MLK was murdered more than 50 years ago. His legacy has been distorted ever since.
Important parts of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy are often glossed over
For many Americans, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is a day of public service, a time to volunteer in their communities. It's also a day when many of us reflect on the legacy of the late civil rights leader. NPR's Adrian Florido reports that ongoing fights for voting and racial justice have also sparked a reckoning over how King's legacy is often invoked in that work.
News: 4 of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most memorable speeches
Before he was assassinated at age 39, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and non-violent protest, and became one of the most influential figures in American history.
How Martin Luther King Persuaded John Kennedy to Support the Civil Rights Cause
by James Goodman 29/6/17 The New York Times
Early in this absorbing history, Steven Levingston tells the story of John F. Kennedy’s telephone call to one Coretta Scott King two weeks before the 1960 presidential election. Her husband had been arrested during a sit-in at an Atlanta department store, and then, after all those arrested with him were released, held for violating the terms of his “probation” for an earlier traffic violation: driving (while black) with an expired license.
Martin Luther King is not your mascot
One cold January evening about 10 years ago, I was walking in Philadelphia, when a stranger called out to me from across the narrow street. "Hey," he said, "Can I get your number?" I smiled politely and kept walking, but he gave it one more shot. "C'mon — it's what Dr. King would've wanted!" And that is how I met the love of my life.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In January 1968, Public Broadcast Laboratory sent a camera crew to Mississippi to document Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he traveled all over the South to rally support for the Poor People's Campaign scheduled for May. The documentary was never finished due to King's assassination on April 4, 1968. The film crew was with King at the hotel when he was shot and killed.
Malcolm and Martin, closer than we ever thought
(CNN) -- The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was leaving a news conference one afternoon when a tall man with a coppery complexion stepped out of the crowd and blocked his path.
Jonathan Eig's new biography examines the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
The life of Martin Luther King is one of the most famous in American history. But in that life, one thing is easy to overlook - how young he was. King became a nationally known civil rights leader in his mid-20s. When he gave the famous "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington in 1963, he was in his early 30s, though his voice suggested the gravity of long experience.
'Why?': Remembering Nina Simone's Tribute To The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Three days after the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, performer Nina Simone and her band played at the Westbury Music Festival on Long Island, N.Y. They performed "Why? (The King of Love is Dead)," a song they had just learned, written by their bass player Gene Taylor in reaction to King's death.
Star Trek's Uhura Reflects On MLK Encounter
Nichelle Nichols caused a sensation in the 1960s for her role as Lieutenant Uhura in the classic television series, "Star Trek." It was one of the first times a black woman was cast as a main character in a major television show. But Nichols almost quit the show to pursue other dreams. She talks to host Michel Martin about her character's importance during the civil rights movement, and how Martin Luther King Junior convinced her to stay on "Star Trek".
The Power Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Anger
by Nell Greenfieldboyce 20/2/19 npr
When Martin Luther King, Jr. was in high school, he won an oratorical contest sponsored by the Negro Elks. He and a beloved teacher were returning home in triumph, riding on a bus, when some white passengers got on. The white bus driver ordered King and his teacher to give up their seats, and cursed them. King wanted to stay seated, but his teacher urged him to obey the law. They had to stand in the aisle for the 90 miles back to Atlanta, Ga.
How Martin Luther King Jr.’s Imprisonment Changed American Politics Forever
by Raymond Arsenault 12/1/21 The New York Times
The African-American struggle for freedom and civil rights is replete with dramatic and harrowing stories, many involving intimidation and threats of violence from white supremacist defenders of the status quo. One of the most consequential of these stories is the subject of “Nine Days,” a compelling narrative written by the father-and-son team of Stephen and Paul Kendrick, co-authors of two previous books on race, law and politics.
An 'Exhausted' Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final 31 Hours
by Noel King , Jeffrey Pierre 4/4/18 npr
"While the plane was about to take off, there was a bomb threat that was specifically targeted at King and that delayed the departure of the flight," says Joseph Rosenbloom, author of the new book Redemption: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last 31 Hours. "They brought dogs onto the plane, they evacuated the passengers. And so the plane arrived an hour or so late in Memphis."
