Martin Luther King Archives

Columnists

Why Voting Rights Are Still Necessary Trouble

Just a year after Representative Lewis’s death, the rights for which he fought are under greater threat than they have been since 1965

July 21, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ A year ago last week, Georgia Representative John Lewis passed away from pancreatic cancer at 80 years old. As a young adult, Lewis was a “troublemaker,” breaking the laws of his state: the laws upholding racial segregation. He organized voting registration drives and in 1960 was one of the thirteen ...

Why Voting Rights Are Still Necessary Trouble

Feature

Crusader Without Violence 60 Years Later

The first biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is reissued

January 21, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Lawrence D. Reddick was a history professor at Alabama State College — the state school for blacks — when the Montgomery Bus Boycott brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to national prominence in 1955-56. They had known each other casually in Atlanta; both had moved to Montgomery to accept jobs only recently. On ...

Crusader Without Violence 60 Years Later

Feature

Remembering the Civil Rights Movement

An interview with poet Cheryl Clarke about the 1963 March on Washington

December 29, 2018 • by Claire Potter

In August 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, I had the opportunity to interview African-American feminist and lesbian Cheryl Clarke about her participation in the March on Washington. A poet, essayist and literary critic, Cheryl has been an activist, a teacher and an artist for her entire ...

Education

What Black History Month Could Contribute

Teaching the truth of the Civil Rights Movement

February 15, 2017 • by Michael McQuillan

This trivialization denies young people their rightful awareness of the systemic nature of Jim Crow racism, along with the law-breaking and abuse of power by the southern state and local officials who sustained it. This prevents our youth from inheriting the magnificent legacy of unsung heroes and heroines who risked ...

Martin Luther King

Why Voting Rights Are Still Necessary Trouble

Just a year after Representative Lewis’s death, the rights for which he fought are under greater threat than they have been since 1965

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