http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php Wed, 01 May 2013 16:21:00 PDT Recent News and Featured Documents from the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/month_in_the_movement_the_freedom_rides/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/month_in_the_movement_the_freedom_rides/#id:2612#date:15:21
The violence that met the freedom riders brought national attention to institutionalized segregation in the South and pressured the Kennedy Administration into sending federal marshals to the South to protect the riders. Under direction from the Kennedy Administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in all facilities under its jurisdiction. The ban took effect on 1 November 1961.

To read more about the Freedom Rides, visit the Online King Encyclopedia entries for the Freedom Rides, James Farmer, and Diane Nash.]]> Fri, 03 May 2013 00:36 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement_fiftieth_anniversary_of_the_letter_from_birmingh/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement_fiftieth_anniversary_of_the_letter_from_birmingh/#id:2610#date:19:10
For more information on the letter and events surrounding its publication, make sure to visit the following resources:

Letter from Birmingham Jail, text

Letter from Birmingham Jail, King Online Encyclopedia entry

Birmingham Campaign (1963), King Online Encyclopedia entry

Children’s Crusade, King Online Encyclopedia entry]]> Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:19 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/james_m_nabrit_civil_rights_lawyer_dead_at_80/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/james_m_nabrit_civil_rights_lawyer_dead_at_80/#id:2608#date:15:28 Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:01 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/olen_burrage_suspect_in_1964_civil_rights_murders_dead_at_84/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/olen_burrage_suspect_in_1964_civil_rights_murders_dead_at_84/#id:2607#date:23:23 Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:30 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/cartha_d_deloach_former_fbi_liaison_to_the_white_house_dead_at_92/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/cartha_d_deloach_former_fbi_liaison_to_the_white_house_dead_at_92/#id:2606#date:16:23 Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:01 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/liberation_curriculum_and_nea/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/liberation_curriculum_and_nea/#id:2158#date:15:56 Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:59 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/st_paul_5th_grade/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/st_paul_5th_grade/#id:2515#date:15:23 Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:55 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/commemorate_human_rights_day/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/commemorate_human_rights_day/#id:2169#date:23:47 LC lesson on global human rights issues during Dr. King's time and today.]]> Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:51 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/fay_bellamy_powell_sncc_worker_in_selma_alabama_dead/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/fay_bellamy_powell_sncc_worker_in_selma_alabama_dead/#id:2605#date:15:55 Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:14 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement_atlanta_business_leaders_agree_to_desegregate_do/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement_atlanta_business_leaders_agree_to_desegregate_do/#id:2604#date:15:36
Click here to read more.

Also, for more information surrounding these events, be sure to check out the following resources:

King Encyclopedia entry on sit-ins

King's statement to student activists on direct action techniques]]> Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:32 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_diane_nash/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_diane_nash/#id:2603#date:15:44
In 1960, Nash participated in the organized sit-in demonstrations that took place in Nashville in conjunction with similar protests across the South. During the sit-ins, Nash's displayed an unerring determination and an intrinsic leadership ability that quickly made her one of the most prominent figures in the emerging student movement.

Nash took a critical role in the Freedom Rides during which she coordinated the continuation of student involvement in the demonstrations. Having attended the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960, Nash's poise and leadership during the Freedom Rides earned her the head position of the SNCC's direct action campaigns in 1961.

To read more about Diane Nash, visit her King Encyclopedia page here.

To learn more about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, click here.]]> Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:24 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_president_kennedy_proposes_civil_rights_ref/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_president_kennedy_proposes_civil_rights_ref/#id:2602#date:15:40
Congress did not immediately heed Kennedy's message, but just three months later, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other movement leaders brought civil rights back to the forefront with the Birmingham Campaign. During these events, police brutality against peaceful protestors resulted in a backlash against segregationist forces and helped to turn the tide of the civil rights movement. Afterwards, King and other leaders planned the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to prod the federal government into taking action on civil rights.

On June 19, 1963, Kennedy's proposed legislation was formally introduced in Congress, but it failed to gain substantial traction. Only after Kennedy's assassination in November 1963 and President Lyndon Johnson's subsequent advocacy was Congress finally moved to act. After enduring a months-long filibuster in the Senate, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was adopted on July 2, 1964. The measure outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin in all public facilities, and provided for federal enforcement of desegregation in schools and other public settings.

For more information on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, visit its entry in the King Online Encyclopedia here.

To read the text of the 1964 act, click here. ]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:28 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_kings_ordination_into_the_ministry/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_kings_ordination_into_the_ministry/#id:2601#date:18:09
To read more about the history of Ebenezer Baptist Church, visit the Online King Encyclopedia, here. ]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:19 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_harry_belafonte/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_harry_belafonte/#id:2600#date:16:06 Calypso.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Belafonte participated in the Civil Rights Movement and used his popular status to spearhead fundraising efforts for civil rights organizations. He helped finance the Freedom Rides in 1961 and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the 1964 "Freedom Summer."

Belafonte maintained a close relationship with the King family. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested and held in jail in Birmingham, Belafonte organized fundraising efforts that allowed the Birmingham Movement to continue in King's absence.

To read more about Belafonte, visit his King Encyclopedia page here.

To visit Belafonte's entry on the National Park Service's International Civil Rights Walk of Fame, click here.]]> Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:44 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_dorothy_cotton/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_dorothy_cotton/#id:2599#date:16:28
Cotton’s involvement with the civil rights movement began in the late 1950s, when she joined Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg and met its pastor Wyatt Tee Walker. Under his leadership she became involved in local protests targeting segregation, and eventually became secretary of the Petersburg Improvement Association. Cotton first met King at a dinner while she was working in Petersburg, and recalls that he had “some intangible magnetic quality.… That something that made people want to be with him … because he had a way of really being with you when he was with you.”

To read more about Ms. Cotton, click here.

To visit Ms. Cotton’s website, click here. ]]> Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:34 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_the_supreme_court_ruling_in_edwards_v_south/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_the_supreme_court_ruling_in_edwards_v_south/#id:2598#date:15:43
The Court stepped in to resolve the question of whether South Carolina had infringed on black citizens' rights to peaceably assemble after state police officers arrested demonstrators at the state capitol who did not disperse after being told to do so. Involved were 187 black high school and college students who had not posed any threat and had not elicited a threatening reaction from the crowd watching them.

In its ruling, the Court held that the state infringed not only on the demonstrators' First Amendment right to peaceably assemble, but also on their Fourteenth Amendment right to do so without interference by the states. The Court defended its holding, stating that the Fourteenth Amendment "does not permit a State to make criminal the peaceful expression of unpopular views."

To read the full text of the opinion of the Court, click here. ]]> Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:25 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_solomon_snowden_seay_sr/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_solomon_snowden_seay_sr/#id:2597#date:15:40
Seay continued his activism after the boycott ended and served as a key figure in Montgomery during the Freedom Rides. During the rides Seay volunteered to shelter riders in his home and was shot in the arm by an unidentified assailant from a passing car.

In 1962, after the departure of King and Ralph Abernathy to Atlanta, Seay was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement association. He continued to serve in the ministry until his retirement in 1982.

To read more about Solomon Snowden Seay, Sr. visit his page in the King Encyclopedia here.

To learn more about the Montgomery Improvement Association, click here]]> Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:23 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_morehouse_college/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_morehouse_college/#id:2596#date:16:16
In September 1944, Martin Luther King began his studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta, following in the footsteps of his father, Martin Luther King, Sr., and his maternal grandfather, A. D. Williams. Although King’s years at Morehouse were characterized by middling academic performance, his experiences outside the classroom set him on a path toward the ministry and the struggle for civil rights.

To read more about Dr. King’s experience at Morehouse, click here.

To visit the Morehouse University website, click here. ]]> Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:24 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement_the_southern_christian_leadership_conference/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement_the_southern_christian_leadership_conference/#id:2595#date:15:54 Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC, which linked hundreds of African-American churches across the United States, functioned as a key coordinating mechanism for the activities of civil rights workers on the ground.

King’s title for the organization was a natural choice that followed from the moral terms in which he framed the civil rights movement. Writing on this subject, King said, “This conference is called because we have no moral choice, before God, but to delve deeper into the struggle—and to do so with greater reliance on nonviolence and with greater unity, coordination, sharing, and Christian understanding.”

The SCLC was involved in number of major initiatives, including the Crusade for Citizenship, the Albany Movement, and the March on Washington. Later on the SCLC worked to counteract economic inequality through programs as Operation Breadbasket and the Poor People’s Campaign. Today the organization remains committed to the causes of economic and social justice for which it was founded.

For more on King's activities with the SCLC, visit the King Encyclopedia here.

For the SCLC's website and information on its current activities, click here.]]> Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:38 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_the_national_association_for_the_advancemen/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_the_national_association_for_the_advancemen/#id:2594#date:15:57
The NAACP was formed on 12 February 1909 when progressive whites joined forces with W. E. B. DuBois and other young blacks from the Niagara Movement, a group dedicated to full political and civil rights for African Americans. The NAACP initially focused on ending the practice of lynching, and although lobbying efforts did not persuade Congress to pass anti-lynching laws, the 1919 publication of the NAACP report entitled, Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, convinced President Woodrow Wilson and other politicians to condemn mob violence.

To read more about the NAACP, visit the King Online Encyclopedia, here.

To visit the official NAACP website, and learn more about their history, mission, and current projects, click here. ]]> Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:02 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_operation_breadbasket/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_operation_breadbasket/#id:2593#date:20:42
Over 200 ministers attended the kick-off meeting for Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. Under the leadership of Jesse Jackson, a student at the time, Chicago's Operation Breadbasket quickly achieved substantial gains in equitable employment practices. In 1967, Jackson became the national director of Operation Breadbasket. The accomplishments of the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket led King to declare it SCLC's "most spectacularly successful program" in Chicago (King, January 1967).

To read more about Operation Breadbasket, click here.

To read more about Jesse Jackson, click here.]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:10 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_kings_visit_to_india/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_kings_visit_to_india/#id:2592#date:15:40
After raising funds through numerous organizations, King and Coretta Scott King departed for India on 3 February 1959. While traveling throughout the country, King met with political officials and participants from the nonviolent Indian independence movement.

During his trip, King noted that India's leaders publicly endorsed integration laws, but he also drew parallels between the discrimination against India's untouchables and the race issues in the United States.

The trip to India further cemented King's faith in the power of nonviolent resistance, noting that "since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity" (Papers 5:136).

To read more about King's visit to India, visit the King Online Encyclopedia.

To read more about King and nonviolent resistance, vist the King Online Encyclopedia entry for nonviolent resistance here.]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:22 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/this_month_in_the_movement/#id:2591#date:20:53
In his letter, King responded to the White House's statement from one month prior that it would be unable to schedule a time for President Eisenhower to make a speech in the South. Emphasizing the gravity of the situation, King informed Eisenhower of some of the measures that African-Americans had to take in order to ensure their physical security, and wrote that they were now confronting what appeared to be "an organized campaign of violence and terror."

Imploring the President to visit the South in order to see what was occurring firsthand, King wrote, "While we are sensitive to the burden of your responsible office, we are aware that human life and orderly, decent conduct of our communities are at stake. These imperative considerations make it difficult for us to accept as final your message that you cannot make a speech in the south at this time. It is our sincere belief that action on your part at this moment can avert tragic situations by cooling passions, fostering reasonableness, and encouraging respect for law."

King also used the occasion to state that if Eisenhower did not respond in a timely manner to the events in the South, the Southern Leadership Conference would lead a pilgramage for prayer to Washington, D.C. The purpose of this, according to King, would be to make the nation aware of the violence in the South and to advocate for what he called "first-class citizenship" on behalf of all the men, women and children who did not have it.

To read the full text of King's letter to Eisenhower, visit the document's page at The King Institute here.]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:57 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_maya_angelou/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_maya_angelou/#id:2590#date:22:14
After hearing King speak at a church in Harlem in early 1960, Angelou resolved to help SCLC raise funds by staging a revue, “Cabaret for Freedom.” The revue was a rousing success, with well-known black celebrities Sidney Poitier, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Lorraine Hansberry attending opening night.

Following Bayard Rustin’s departure from SCLC in 1960, Angelou succeeded him as director of the New York office. After two months on the job, Angelou met King on one of his visits to New York. In her autobiography, The Heart of a Woman, she discussed her first impressions of King: “He was shorter than I expected and so young. He had an easy friendliness, which was unsettling” (Angelou, 107). After leaving SCLC, Angelou went onto have a remarkable career as a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director. Angelou continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom.

To learn more about Angelou’s relationship with Dr. King and SCLC, visit the King Online Encyclopedia, here.

To learn more about Angelou’s extraordinary life, visit her official website, here. ]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:24 PDT http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_coretta_scott_king_meets_with_malcolm_x/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/celebrating_black_history_month_coretta_scott_king_meets_with_malcolm_x/#id:2589#date:15:50
On 5 February 1965, while Martin Luther King, Jr. was in jail in Selma, Alabama, Malcolm X traveled to Selma where he had a private meeting with Coretta Scott King. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X had each voiced public criticisms of the other's tactics in the past. The primary point of disagreement between the two stemmed from King's adherence to the philosophy of nonviolence, and Malcolm's rejection of it. In 1963, Malcolm publicly criticized the nonviolent movement, arguing that "the only revolution based on loving your enemy is the Negro revolution...That's no revolution" (Malcolm X, "Mesages to the Grass Roots," 9).

In early January 1965, Malcolm gave an interview encouraging closer cooperation between civil rights groups. He asserted that his recently created Organization of African American Unity (OAAU) would "support fully and without compromise any action by any group that is designed to get meaningful immediate results" (Malcolm X, Two Speeches, 31). During his meeting with Coretta the following month he assured her that he "really did come here thinking that I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King." (Scott King, My Life, 256). In a press conference the same day, he gave his support for the jailed King and the issue of voting rights, stating, "I think the people in this part of the world would do well to listen to Dr. Martin Luther King and give him what he's asking for and give it to him fast before some other factions come along and try to do it another way" (Malcolm X, Press Conference).

To read more about Malcolm X, visit the King Online Encyclopedia here.

To read more about King's philosophy of nonviolent resistance, click here.]]> Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:49 PDT