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The third Monday in January is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a time to remember a great, Black leader. A baptist minister who went on to earn a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University in 1955, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King is known as a civil rights leader and orator. He was a strong advocate of ending racial segregation through nonviolent protest.
While these are all accurate descriptions, they understate his influence and achievements. In honor of MLK Day, experience the power of his own words through video links, included below.
What follows are short descriptions of some of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's speeches, republished with permission from the Stacker article,"5o Essential Civil Rights Speeches."
By Karen Johanson, Stacker
"The Montgomery Bus Boycott"
Four days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed thousands of people who were part of the subsequent boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. He talked about the longtime intimidation of Black bus riders, and the importance of continuing the protest.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail"
The civil rights leader penned this speech in 1963 while jailed for continuing to protest the mistreatment of Black people. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the interconnectedness of humanity, reminding us that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere—we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
"I Have a Dream"
The civil rights icon called for an end to racism in front of more than 250,000 people in 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the lack of progress at that time, but almost 60 years later, the police brutality decried in this speech still exists, visible in the deaths of unarmed Black citizens and the protests that followed—perhaps most demonstratively were the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued following the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in 2020.
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"Our God is Marching On"
After a four-day march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the crowd, asking the question “How long will prejudice blind the visions of men?”—with the often-repeated answer, “Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” King hoped that racist brutality was coming to an end, but progress has continued to be spiked with beatings and deaths and new records in the number of hate groups.
"The Three Evils of Society"
Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the “triple evils” of war, poverty, and racism at the 1967 National Conference on New Politics in Chicago. His thoughts on war talk about “guided missiles and misguided men,” while his insights on poverty and racism note that “capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor both black and white, both here and abroad.”
"The Other America"
Equality for all was another of Martin Luther King Jr.’s rallying cries. In this 1967 speech, he recognized that some people live on a “lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”
"I’ve Been to the Mountaintop"
No collection of civil rights speeches would be complete without the hopeful presentation by Martin Luther King Jr. from the night before his assassination in 1968. Despite the roadblocks along the way, including the beatings and deaths of numerous people in the movement, the civil rights leader was still convinced that “we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
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The excerpts above have been republished pursuant to an CC BY-NC 4.0 License. Read the original Stacker article here.
