To commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Media Preservation Unit is happy to share a digitization of open reel audio from MLK’s visit to the MSU campus in 1965. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks at MSU Auditorium to nearly 4,000 students and community members, to launch the Student Education Program (later called the Student Tutorial Education Program, or STEP). King addresses three challenges facing the world: achieving a world brotherhood perspective, abolishing the notion of superior and inferior races, and ridding the world of segregation.”

2000 MLK Day panel introduced by Dorothy Harper-Jones, featuring Truman Morrison, Robert Green, and John Duley

For additional, more recent context, be sure to also check out a Martin Luther King Day panel from January 27th, 2000, “People Who Marched with King,” featuring three speakers who worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. during his lifetime.