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Color close-up portrait of Martin Luther King Jr

PEOPLE WORTH GETTING TO KNOW

Martin Luther King Jr.

Minister & civil rights leader

Then explore the Lorraine Motel and The Sword and the Shield for a wider view of the struggle.

The collection’s links are starting points for exploring that life.

HistoryCivil rightsLeadership
FIND MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

A CLOSER LOOK

The story behind it.

The words, work, and places connected to the struggle for civil rights.

A movement with particular places

Birmingham Jail, the Memphis sanitation workers’ struggle, and the Lorraine Motel locate the selected works in specific campaigns and events.

The two selected texts

Letter from Birmingham Jail answers criticism of direct action. The Mountaintop speech addresses a movement facing danger while envisioning a future beyond one person’s lifetime.

START HERE

King Institute · chronology (opens in a new tab)

Source for Martin Luther King Jr.: King Institute · chronology.

Sources for this closer lookKing Institute · chronology (opens in a new tab)

FOLLOW THE CONNECTIONS

There’s a thread here.

HOPPER THREAD · 3 CONNECTIONS

A mother’s witness, a movement’s resolve

A decision to let the public see, a remembered child, an activist’s resolve, and a community that organized. The connections are real; none requires treating a movement as the work of only four people.

Mamie Till-Mobley seated beside her son Emmett, both smilingEmmett Till alive, wearing a hat in a black-and-white portraitBlack-and-white portrait of Rosa ParksColor close-up portrait of Martin Luther King Jr

A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN

If you only explore two things.

01 — 02

FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY

More worth your time.

Sources & credits

Introductions are grounded in the sources below. Collection notes and reading prompts provide an editorial starting point; personal opinions are identified in the collection’s content.

Color close-up portrait of Martin Luther King Jr

Marion S. Trikosko / Library of Congress · public domain

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