The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began writing the “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” in the margins of newspapers, on scraps of paper, paper towels and slips of yellow legal paper smuggled into his cell, where he was kept in solitary confinement after being arrested April 12, 1963, on charges of violating Alabama’s law against mass public demonstrations.
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Bessie Rogers and Taylor Rogers | StoryCorps
Retired Memphis, Tennessee sanitation worker Taylor Rodgers and his wife, Bessie, were at the Mason Temple on April 3, 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”.
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From the archives: Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about ‘new age’ of race relations in moving Des Moines speech | Des Moines Register
This story by Register reporter Robert Barewald originally ran on Nov. 13, 1959. April 4, 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.
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The New Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Refuses to Sugarcoat History | The New York Times
Our critic visits a museum whose story is still unfolding, from 1960s Jackson, to Ferguson and Charlottesville. It leaves us upset —and that’s good.
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Woman of the Year: Tamika Mallory | New York Amsterdam News
“This year was full of power struggle and we’ve been extremely committed and victorious in so many ways…”
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The police beating that opened America’s eyes to Jim Crow’s brutality | The Conversation
On the evening of February 12, 1946, Isaac Woodard, a 26-year-old black Army veteran, boarded a bus in Augusta, Georgia. Earlier that day, he’d been honorably discharged, and he was heading to Winnsboro, South Carolina to reunite with his wife.
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Mississippi’s bold new Civil Rights Museum offers unflinching view of US history | The Guardian
Jackson’s new Civil Rights Museum and its neighbour, the Museum of Mississippi History, have a joint launch on 9 December, in advance of a year of events across the south marking 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination.
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Jesse Jackson says he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease | The Washington Post
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, the civil rights leader and former presidential candidate, announced Friday that he has Parkinson’s disease.
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Sitting down with poet Nikki Giovanni for a ‘A Good Cry’ | Chicago Tribune
When she writes about her godmother and grandparents, she recalls the overlooked sacrifices the elders made to smooth the path for her.
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Black Lives Matter Is Democracy in Action | The New York Times
CHICAGO — Why has this generation of black activists failed to produce a Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or a Malcolm X — a charismatic, messiah-like figure who can lead a major movement?
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