Remembering and Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Primer

May 17, 1957: “But even more, all types of conniving methods are still being used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters. The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition. And so our most urgent request to the president of the United States and every member of Congress is to give us the right to vote.”

April 16, 1963: “We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.”

August 28, 1963: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

December 11, 1964: “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”

April 4, 1967: “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors.”

April 14, 1967: “In a sense, the greatest tragedy of this other America is what it does to little children. Little children in this other America are forced to grow up with clouds of inferiority forming every day in their little mental skies.”

April 3, 1968, MLK‘s final speech: “But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”

The struggle to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day took place over half a century. As we celebrate it today, we should not forget that King’s holiday, his legacy, and his dream are still under siege.

Pop culture’s watered-down version of MLK diminishes the man behind the myth.

Rapper and activist Common retells how MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech was born.

The cover story for Time Magazine’s January 1964 issue honoring Dr. King as “Man of the Year.”

Dr. Clayborne Carson, director of The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, and Dr. Mira Foster, director of the Liberation Curriculum, talk about anything and everything related to Martin Luther King, Jr., and the freedom struggles he inspired.

The day after King’s death, the writer-activist wrote a poem about what his loss meant to a movement. Fifty years later, she discusses how his model of leadership lives on.

On the trail to Montgomery.

An oral history of the remarkable behind-the-scenes effort to stage Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 funeral and keep peace in Atlanta while 110 other cities burned.

A timeline of Dr. King‘s remarkable life, from the Pages of EBONY.

Street art depicting MLK as the preeminent spokesperson for peace, justice and freedom now includes the messages of Black Lives Matter.

All thanks to a former Hiroshima mayor who was also an MLK superfan.

Observed each year on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off,” MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.

A list of books by and about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his family, as well as about civil rights and nonviolence.

A nonprofit Memphis newsroom focused on poverty, power, and public policy—issues about which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. cared deeply.