The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. has become the definitive record of the most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts of one of America's most well-known advocates for peace and justice.

Our lesson plans provide historically accurate and pedagogically effective curriculum that addresses issues of social justice, transformation, and reconciliation. Photo by AP/Wide World Photos.

Professor of History, Stanford University
Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute

Selected in 1985 by the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King to edit and publish the papers of her late husband, Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson has devoted most his professional life to studying Martin Luther King, Jr., and the movements King inspired. Under his direction, the King Papers Project has produced six volumes of a definitive, comprehensive edition of King's speeches, sermons, correspondence, publications, and unpublished writings. This project is now a component of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute that Carson founded at Stanford University in 2005.
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This month we'd like to hightlight a few signifiicant events that occured in February. Please use the links below to read more about:
Browder v. Gayle The case that ended the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
King travels to India, 1959 King travels to the land of Gandhi and massive nonviolent resistance.
Student Sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C., 1960 Students demand service at lunchcounters sparking a nationwide movement.

Reacting to southern racial violence, Dr. King, C. K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth issued an “urgent plea” for a two day conference of southern black leaders to be held at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King’s father was pastor.
See Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Montgomery Improvement Association Press Release
Southern Christian Leadership Conference "Statement to the South and the Nation"

Find out about 2012 King Holiday events occurring on campus and in the local area!

The King Holiday Celebration will take place 3 pm - 5 pm at Tresidder Memorial Union, 459 Lagunita Drive, on the Stanford campus.
The event is free and open to the public.

Judge Carter spent years doing research in law and history to construct the legal theory that was used to challenge the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson during the infamous 1954, Brown v. Board of Education case.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute invites you to our 2012 King Holiday Celebration! A schedule of King Holiday events occurring on campus and in the local area can be viewed here.

Robert Mants, who helped lead the first march from Selma to Montgomery to press for equal voting rights in 1965, died 7 December 2011 while visiting relatives in Atlanta.

December marks anniversaries of both the foundation of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and the successful conclusion of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Begun in December 1955, the year-long campaign resulted in the desegregation of the city bus system of Montgomery, Alabama, provided one of the most memorable examples of direct action demonstrations in the history of the United States, and vaulted Dr. King into the national spotlight as the leader of the civil rights movement.

Check out some of the major highlights of the boycott:

Leaflet, "Don't Ride The Bus".
Listen to Dr. King's Address to the First MIA Mass Meeting.
Read the "Integrated Bus Suggestions" distributed by the MIA following the integreation of city buses.

Click here to read more.

Initially planned as a one day boycott of Montgomery’s buses, in response to the arrest and conviction of Rosa Parks on December 1, the boycott far exceeded the organizer's expectations and continued for the next year.

Human and civil rights activist, Eddie Brown, Jr. died at his home on Wednesday 23 November at the age of 70, from complications from cancer. He leaves behind a legacy of human and civil rights advocacy.

King announces his support for the Thanksgiving Fast for Freedom, a youth movement in which students abstain from one meal the Thursday before Thanksgiving and donate the money to feeding families in the Mississippi Delta region.

In support of the sit-in movement, Dr. King participated along side hundreds of students as they demonstrated against segregation through out major businesses in Atlanta, Ga. In this press release from SNCC, an appeal is made for people across the nation to write letters to local government officials calling for the release of those arrested.

In honor of Rev. Shuttlesworth's passing, please find additional information about his life here.

Once refered to by Dr. King as "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South," Fred Lee Shuttlesworth put his life on the line time and time again as he fought against Jim Crow. He died this morning at 89.

Register today for Teachers 4 Social Justice's 11th annual conference to be held at Mission High School in San Francisco. University of Wisconsin professor of education Gloria Ladson-Billings and Patrick Camangian, assistant professor at the University of San Francisco's Urban Education and Social Justice program are scheduled to speak. Admission is free! Click here for more details.

Clayborne Carson, editor of the King's Papers and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, tells USA Today that King "symbolizes a movement that changed America. Whatever people might say about whether the movement would have happened without him, it's clear that he was a central part of the movement." To read more about the King memorial and its relevancy to our national history, click on the title.

In a featured radio interview on CNN, Clay Carson and Bob Fitch reflect upon the relevancy and meaning of the stone monument soon to be dedicated on the Washington Mall. Click on the title to listen.

In anticipation of the King Memorial dedication, the Michael Eric Dyson show focuses on the life and legacy of Dr. King. In this radio interview, Clay Carson analyzes the importance of the memorial and its relevancy to King's legacy. To listen to the interview, click on the title.

On 28 August 1963, more than 200,000 demonstrators took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in the nation’s capital. During this event, Martin Luther King delivered his memorable ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech. Click on the links below for more information on King's speech and the March on Washington event.
I Have a Dream
March on Washington

Find out what is going on this week in regard to the opening and dedication of the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C.
MLK Memorial Events Calendar

King Institute Scholar-in-Residence, Clarence B. Jones, personal friend and adviser to Dr. King gives a personal account of his experience at the 1963 March on Washington.
In Tribute To Martin Luther King, Jr: The Opening Of The King Memorial

The unveiling of the King National Memorial will have special meaning for me, because I attended the 1963 March on Washington where King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech and contributed to the King Memorial’s initial design. On August 28 – the forty-eighth anniversary of the march – I’ll return to the National Mall to see the final result of a collaboration with ROMA that began in the spring of 2000.

During the summer after his sophomore year at Morehouse, King wrote this letter to the editor of Atlanta's largest newspaper. Although King does not make clear his reasons for writing, it was likely in response to recent racially motivated murders. In the letter, King is critical of those who attempt to "obscure the real question of rights and opportunities." Years later, King, Sr., observed that he and his wife had "no intimation of [King, Jr.'s] developing greatness . . . until as a teenager he wrote a letter to the editor of a local paper which received widespread and favorable comment."

U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Perry, a formidable civil rights figure who used intelligence, work ethic and perseverance to end segregation in South Carolina, was found dead of natural causes at his home on Sunday. He would have turned 90 this week.

Rev. Howard Creecy Jr., prominent Atlanta minister and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, died suddenly Thursday, 28 June 2011.

Brooklyn-born assistant president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Guy Tyler, died 3 June in Florida. He was 99.

Edythe Scott Bagley, the older sister of Coretta Scott King, died Saturday at her home in Cheney, Pa. Read more

Before the March on Washington, there was the Walk to Freedom in Detroit, Mich.

Edgar Zivanai Tekere, described by current President Robert Mugabe as “fearless and highly temperamental,” was an outspoken and often controversial leader in the struggle for Zwimbabwe national independance.

An educator and civil rights leader, Clara Luper died Wednesday, June 8, at her home in Oklahoma City. She was 88.

Greensboro has tumultuous history as civil rights battleground

Albertina Sisulu, South African freedom fighter and wife of Walter Sisulu, died on Thursday, 2 June 2011. Upon news of her death, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said of Sisulu: "But try as they might, they could not break her spirit, they could not make her bitter, they could not defeat her love.”

King encourages the Lincoln Unversity class of 1961 to fulfill the whole American Dream by engaging in non-violent direct action, and calls on the graduates to not be "detached spectators, but involved participants, in this great drama that is taking place in our nation and around the world." For full text of the speech, click here.

In 1970 Pratt was convicted for the murder of Caroline Olsen and spent 27 years in prison before the conviction was overturned in 1997. Pratt's conviction became a rallying cry for rights groups who believed he had been framed for his involvement in the Black Panther Party. After his release, Pratt told CNN that he held no bitterness about the many years he spent behind bars.

Abdias do Nascimento, Brazilian artist, politican, and scholar, died in Rio de Janeiro from complications of diabetes on 23 May. He was 97.

Gil Scott-Heron, musician and poet of black culture in 1970s, died 27 May 2011 at age 62 in a New York City hospital.

John Seigenthaler, aide to Robert F. Kennedy during the 1960 Presidential campaign and Administrative Assistant to the Attorney General, Department of Justice (1961), joined the Freedom Riders in Brimingham; and was attacked and hospitalized along with fellows SNCC riders in Montgomery, Alabama. Fifty years later, Seigenthaler recalls his experience and passes down the legacy of the Freedom Rides to his young grandchild. "Race still matters," he concludes. Click here to watch the PBS clip

As the Freedom Riders caught the nation's attention, SCLC, CORE, SNCC, and other civil rights organizations came together to form the Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee to provide planning for and enhanced execution of the Freedom Ride movement.
Click here to see the report of the meeting

George Houser, staff member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and founding member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), talks about his involvement in the 1947 Journey for Reconciliation and how it served as a model for the later Freedom Ride movement.

Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour thanked Freedom Riders for their courage and sacrifices in welcoming the Freedom Riders back to the state. As they did fifty years ago, the Riders than traveled by bus to Jackson, Mississippi, this time for the dedication of a Mississippi Freedom Trail sign outside the house of Medgar Evers.

On the heels of attacks on Freedom Riders at the city's bus station and the beseiging of First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Edward King, executive secretary of SNCC, wires President Kennedy urging he publically denounce the actions of the anti-integrationists. Click here to see the telegram.

In an op-ed piece written for the New York Times, Bernard LaFayette, Jr. describes the events that took place fifty years ago on the Freedom Ride from Birmingham to Montgomery.

In an interview that took place in 1966, John Seigenthaler of the Department of Justice, recounts his experience in Alabama during the Freedom Rides.

Ten members of SNCC continued the Freedom Rides, leaving Nashville for Birmingham on May 17, 1961.

Just days after the violence of Anniston and Birmingham, Dr. King speaks to an overflowing crowd in North Carolina, calling continued direct mass action in Alabama and Mississippi.

Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg talks about life after the beating he received in May 1961.

Octavia Geans Vivian, wife of Rev. C.T. Vivian, passed away on May 5, 2011, she was 83. As an author, scholar, activist, wife and mother Mrs. Vivian filled many roles in the Civil Rights Movement. Rev. Vivian says he married a soul mate, someone "as close to perfect as any human being I have ever known."

Charles Anthony Person, a student from Morehouse College and veteran of the Atlanta sit-ins, volunteered to join the Freedom Rides after receiving a letter from CORE in April 1961. The following document is his statement given to FBI agents after the Freedom Riders were attacked and beaten in Birmingham, Ala.

As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Rides in the month of May, and leading up to the major events of the Rides, each day this week we will profile a different Freedom Rider.
Original, partial list of Freedom Riders, sent to President Kennedy by James Farmer, 26 April 1961
James Farmer
Genevieve Hughes Houghton
Benjamin Elton Cox
Mae Francis Moultrie
Jim Zwerg
James Peck

As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Rides in the month of May, and leading up to the major events of the Rides, each day this week we will profile a different Freedom Rider.
Original, partial list of Freedom Riders, sent to President Kennedy by James Farmer, 26 April 1961
James Farmer
Genevieve Hughes Houghton
Benjamin Elton Cox
Mae Francis Moultrie
Jim Zwerg

As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Rides in the month of May, and leading up to the major events of the Rides, each day this week we will profile a different Freedom Rider.
Original, partial list of Freedom Riders, sent to President Kennedy by James Farmer, 26 April 1961
James Farmer
Genevieve Hughes Houghton
Benjamin Elton Cox
Mae Francis Moultrie

The Reverend Kelvin Croom discusses why he forgives former segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace.

As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Rides in the month of May, and leading up to the major events of the Rides, each day this week we will profile a different Freedom Rider.
Original, partial list of Freedom Riders, sent to President Kennedy by James Farmer, 26 April 1961
James Farmer
Genevieve Hughes Houghton
Benjamin Elton Cox

As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Rides in the month of May, and leading up to the major events of the Rides, each day this week we will profile a different Freedom Rider.
Original, partial list of Freedom Riders, sent to President Kennedy by James Farmer, 26 April 1961
James Farmer
Genevieve Hughes Houghton

James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality, sent a letter to John F. Kennedy on 26 April 1961 announcing the intention of fifteen CORE members to travel through out the South "testing every form of segregation met by the bus passenger."

As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Rides in the month of May, and leading up to the major events of the Rides, each day this week we will profile a different Freedom Rider.
Original, partial list of Freedom Riders, sent to President Kennedy by James Farmer, 26 April 1961
James Farmer

On 4 May 1961, a group of freedom riders, under the direction of CORE national director James Farmer, left Washington, D. C. enroute to New Orleans, Louisiana. Click here for pictures

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides of 1961. Following the Supreme Court ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), declaring segregation in interstate travel facilities unconstitutional, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) began recruiting volunteers to participate in the Freedom Rides. The group of thirteen freedom riders, seven black and six white, would board a Greyhouse bus on 4 May in Washington, D.C. headed toward New Orleans, where they hoped to arrive on 17 May to celebrate the seventh anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Read more

Cynthia Haven of the Stanford News Service recently met with Dr. Clayborne Carson to discuss the production of his play in Palestinian last month.

Dr. King preached twice at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church before accepting the offer to become it's pastor. This letter of 14 April 1954 states that King will accept their offer if they will provide furniture for the parsonage, allow him to finish his dissertation, and pay him a salary of $4,200 a year.

On 3 April 1968, Martin Luther King spoke before a group of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, saying: “We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through.” The stike, brought on by the deaths of two sanitation workers in February, was marked by uncooperative city officials, violent confrontations between police and demonstrators, and finally the presence of the National Guard.

To learn more about Dr. King's final speech and Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike use the following links.
Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike
I've Been to the Mountain Top
Speech, I've Been to the Mountain Top

Hazel Robinson Gregory, secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Association during the 1955-1956 Bus Boycott, died 28 March in Montgomery at the age of 90.

Civil rights activist and long time black politician John L. Cashin, Jr. died Monday, 21 March in Washington, D.C. He was 82.

"Passages of Martin Luther King," written by Clayborne Carson, professor of history at Stanford and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, will open March 22 for four performances in East Jerusalem before moving to various West Bank venues through April 5. Program Booklet

Reverend Peter John Gomes died on Monday, 28 February 2011 at age 68.

D. L. Cox, member of the Black Panther Party, died on February 19 at his home in Camps-sur-l'Agly, France.

Stanford’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute will collaborate with the Palestinian National Theater, Al Hakawati, to produce the first play about Martin Luther King, Jr., to be performed in Arabic. “Passages of Martin Luther King,” written by Stanford scholar Clayborne Carson, will open on Tuesday evening, March 22, for four performances in East Jerusalem before moving to various West Bank venues through April 5.

In his sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on Easter Sunday, King frames Christ's obedient sacrifice on the cross as the ultimate symbol of hope. King argues: "We’ve been buried in numerous graves—the grave of economic insecurity, the grave of exploitation, the grave of oppression. We’ve watched justice trampled over and truth crucified. But I’m here to tell you this morning, Easter reminds us that it won’t be like that all the way. It reminds us that God has a light that can shine amid all of the darkness.” Although King's sermon was tailored to the tribulations of the Freedom Struggle in 1959, the lesson still bears repeating.

National Football League veteran Ollie Matson died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 80 years old.

A.M.E. Logan, “Mother of the Jackson Civil Rights Movement,” died after suffering a fall at her home in Jackson, Mississippi on February 5. She was 96.

While February seems to be identified by the romantic love of Valentine's Day, we take a moment this month to present you with Dr. King's reminder that there are more types of love than simply romantic love. For King, the highest form of love, and the level of love we should all strive to reach is agape, an all-inclusive love stemming from God's love that transcends physical characteristics. So this Valentine's Day, keep fresh in your mind Dr. King's prayer that you "love every man, not for your sake but for his sake. And you love every man because God loves him."

"Levels of Love," King's Sermon at Ebenzer Baptist Church
Agape Encyclopedia entry
King explains the use of agape to change the hearts of those who oppose you

On 1 February 1960, four black students in Greensboro, N.C. sat down at a segregated lunch counter. Their actions demonstrated the vitality of student direct protest, a key ingredient in later civil rights campaigns. To learn more about the sit-ins and their impact, make sure to view these resources below!
Encyclopedia entry
King's February speech to the students
Volume Introduction covering the sit-ins

Honoring the richness and diversity of the San Francisco Bay Area, KQED has selected Clay Carson as 2011 Black History Hero. For more information on Clay Carson and KQED's Black History Month program click on the link.

Gandhi and his philosophy were of special interest to the progressive African American community, including Howard Thurman, Benjamin E. Mays, William Stuart Nelson, Mordecai Johnson and King.

List of Events and Opportunities to celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday 2011.

On 10 December 1964 Dr. King became the second African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize when it was awarded to him for his leadership in the civil rights struggle in the United States. Deflecting the spotlight away from himself personally, King states in his acceptance speech that he receives the award "on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood," and as recognition of the countless others engaged in freedom struggles around the world. Click on the links below for more information about King's Nobel Peace Prize.

Acceptance Speech at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony
Nobel Peace Prize Encyclopedia Entry
Congratulatory Telegram from Edward Kennedy
Video of King receiving the award, courtesy of the King Center in Atlanta

Arguably one of the most well known and successful labor mediators and arbitrators of the 1950s and 1960s, Theodore W. Kheel, died Friday, 12 November 2010.

Modern efforts towards peace and social justice create paradigm shifts in how we view existing societal norms and systems.

October marks the time of year where cultures around the world honor their dead. In keeping with this tradition, this month's In the Movement document features King's eulogy of three children—Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley—killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, September 1963. In this moving acclamation King proclaims, "These children—unoffending, innocent, and beautiful—were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity."

Click on the link to listen or read more.

Fifty-two years ago this month Dr. King published his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, his memoir of the struggle in Montgomery, Alabama. While aiming to clearly explain the motives behind the boycott and his leadership, King also outlines the ideological influences which led him to his philosophy of nonviolence. Click on the links below for more information and to read an excerpt of his book.

Stride Toward Freedom Encyclopedia Entry
An excerpt from chapter six, "My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence"
More on the writing of Stride Toward Freedom

Founder of the Pastors for Peace and long time worker in the struggle of oppressed people, Rev. Walker died 7 September 2010 in New York.

The civil rights legend who helped pave the way for school desegregation in 1957 by integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas died 5 September 2010.