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On 3 April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered what would become his final speech: "I've Been to the Mountaintop." He spoke to the crowd gathered at the Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. King came to Memphis to support the Sanitation Workers' Strike. He believed the struggle in Memphis exposed the nationwide need for social and economic justice that he was planning to highlight later that summer during the  Poor People's Campaign.

The next day, on 4 April 1968, while preparing to go out to dinner, King stepped outside the Lorraine motel room 306 to speak with Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) colleagues standing in the parking area below. While standing on the balcony outside his second-floor room, Martin Luther King Jr., was shot. James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped fugitive, fired a single shot that killed King.

Listen to the final episode of this season, where Dr. Carson discusses King's last speech, his sudden death, and the unanswered question King left us with: Where do we go from here?

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In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., began working on his most ambitious and also his last major campaign; the Poor People's Campaign (PPC). He announced it during the staff retreat for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in November 1967. King planned for a nationwide, interracial coalition of activists to convene in Washington, D.C. They would meet with government officials to demand jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage, and education for poor adults and children. Desegregation and voting rights were essential, but King understood that African Americans and other minorities wouldn't experience equality until they had economic security. Through nonviolent direct action, King and the SCLC planned to draw the nation's attention to economic inequality and poverty.

While working on the PPC, King was invited to Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers. He believed the struggle in Memphis exemplified the need for economic equality and social justice that King hoped the Poor People's Campaign would highlight nationally. However, King neither had a chance to march with the Memphis sanitation workers nor to participate in the PPC. On April 4, 1969, King was shot outside his motel room and died just a few hours later.

For more information and educational resources visit: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

In January of 1966, Martin Luther King, Jr., moved to Chicago to support the local activists in the Chicago Freedom Movement, a campaign against poverty, housing discrimination, and other urban problems. 

In this episode, Dr. Carson discusses how King experienced and dealt with impoverished living conditions in the ghettos, segregated schools, lack of employment opportunities, and other forms of discrimination in the North. As black political activism shifted from the rural south to northern cities, King's nonviolent principles were tested and proven less successful. Despite numerous mass marches, the Chicago Campaign produced few tangible gains and weakened King's reputation as an effective civil rights leader.  

For more information and educational resources visit: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

Photo: Chicago, IL Freedom Festival, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Martin Luther King Jr., Al Raby, Mahalia Jackson 1966. Bob Fitch, Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections.

When James Meredith - who desegregated the University of Mississippi - was shot and injured during his solitary "March Against Fear" in June 1966, civil rights leaders and activists convened in Mississippi to resume the march. They knew that despite the 1965 Voting Rights Act, white supremacists continued to terrorize many African Americans who dared to register and vote.  To prove that fear won't intimidate them, hundreds of participates rallied behind Meredith's cause as they completed the march.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by Martin Luther King, Jr., Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE), represented by  Floyd McKissick, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), with Stokely Carmichael as SNCC's new chairman,  joined together to co-lead Meredith's March Against Fear.

During the march, Stokely Carmichael (SNCC) attracted national attention. Calling for "Black Power,"  Carmichael gave voice to younger activists disillusioned with the nonviolent principles, which exposed the growing differences within the civil rights movement. "Black Power" resonated with those who grew impatient and angry with African Americans' situation - poor and powerless despite civil rights reforms.



This episode includes excerpts from an interview with Stokely Carmichael, conducted by Blackside, Inc. on November 7, 1988, for Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965 to 1985. Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection.

This episode's picture:  Meredith March Against Fear, from left to right, Floyd McKissick (Congress of Racial Equality, president), Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, 1966; Bob Fitch photography archive, © Stanford University Libraries

When conservative Arizona Senator Barry M. Goldwater ran for president in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed his opposition, explaining: "I feel that the prospect of Senator Goldwater being president of the United States so threatens the health, morality, and survival of our nation that I can not in good conscience fail to take a stand against what he represents" (King, 16 July 1964). Goldwater lost the election to President Lyndon Johnson in a landslide, winning majorities only in his native Arizona and five states of the Deep South.

This bonus episode features a speech Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered exactly one week before the Presidential Election of 1964, in Compton, California. With the Presidential Elections of 2020 only a few days away, King's speech sounds as relevant and meaningful as in 1964.

To see the video of the speech, go to https://vimeo.com/471792367

On Wednesday, 11 August 1965, Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, became a battleground for one of the most violent confrontations between police and  African Americans during the 1960s. The arrest of Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old black man, triggered six days of unrest, resulting in 34 deaths, over 1,000 injuries, nearly 4,000 arrests, and the destruction of property valued at $40 million. 

At that time, Clayborne Carson lived in Los Angeles and witnessed these events as they unfolded in the late summer of 1965.  In this episode, Carson talks about his activism as a member of the Non-Violent Action Committee (N-VAC). He recalls the Watts Rebellion and explains its impact on the civil rights struggle. The Watts uprising confirmed Martin Luther King Jr.'s urge to expands the movement from the segregated South to include the urban North. Simultaneously, young black activists grew increasingly impatient with King's nonviolent tactics and, embracing a greater degree of militancy, began demanding black power for black people. 



Photo: Bob Fitch, Martin Luther King Jr., Selma, AL, reading news report of Watts Riots, Aug. 1965
Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections.