50 Years Ago Today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was Assassinated

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.

American civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stands and holds his hand out as he addresses a large crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington in Washington, D.C., 1963.

© Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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There is a little song that we sing in the movement taking place in the South. It goes something like this. "We shall overcome. We shall overcome. Deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome." And somehow all over America we must believe that we shall overcome and that these problems can be solved. They will be solved before the victory is won.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s address to the AFL-CIO Convention, December 11, 1961.

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To learn more about the life of Dr. King, the civil rights activist who we remember today, visit the Library's Biography database page, which contains summaries, articles, primary documents, speeches, images, and more. (Available to all SWC students, faculty, and staff).

To read more about the FBI investigation into the assassination, go to the official report on the U.S. National Archives page.

Want to know more? The Library has many books, e-books, and videos available about Dr. King.

I Have a Dream

AFP/Getty Images

Forty-nine years ago today - August 28, 1963 -- Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of nearly a quarter of a million people.

"The three major television networks were to provide live television coverage of the speech, so King had carefully prepared a formal text. In an interview a few months after giving the speech, he recalled he was so moved by the emotion of the crowd spread out before him on that August afternoon in the nation’s capital that he abandoned the prepared text and began to preach from the heart, using the phrase, 'I have a dream.'

In one of the speech’s most memorable passages, King said, 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.'

His words conveyed, to a television audience of millions, the moral power of the great crusade for civil rights in the 1960’s. No longer could the country ignore the injustices of poverty, segregation, and violence against African Americans in the United States. King’s eloquent plea for justice and freedom was one of the decade’s shining moments; however, it also served as a powerful reminder that much still needed to be done."

Exerpts taken from Frey, Raymond. "“I Have a Dream” Speech." The Sixties in America. Ed. Carl Singleton. 3 vols. Salem Press, 1999. Salem History Web. 27 Aug. 2012. Library database accessible from off campus.

Full text of King's "I have a dream" speech


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Library Closed Monday

All SWC Libraries are closed on Monday, January 16, 2012, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Regular hours resume on Tuesday, January 17.

There are several celebrations taking place around town this weekend and on Monday. San Diego's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. parade will be held on Sunday, January 15.

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Martin Luther King Jr Day

In honor of Martin Luther King Day here is a list of resources about Dr King.

• The King Center - http://www.thekingcenter.org/
  Established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, The King Center is the official, living memorial dedicated to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
  
  
• Martin Luther King Jr Project Paper - http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/
  A collection of primary and secondary documents pertaining to Martin Luther King , Jr., held at Stanford University.
  
  
• Martin Luther King Jr Speeches - http://www.mlkonline.net/speeches.html
  A collection of some of the most famous, and thought provoking speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King's. This also includes video content of Dr King.
  
  
• Presidential Proclamation--Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday -
  President Obama's written proclamation, of January 17, 2011, as the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday.
  
  
• Southwestern College Library - This list includes 56 resources about Dr King. It includes print, electronic and media resources in the Southwestern College library .