The King’s Speech: When MLK Visited NC State’s Campus
- Jan 1, 2024
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 9
By Ayn-Monique Klahre
From Walter Magazine
On July 31, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of North Carolina State University. A crowd of 4,000 — described by The News & Observer as“3,000 Negroes and 1,000 white persons” — gathered to hear him speak. King’s visit was sponsored by the Martin Luther King Forum, described by the paper as “a local ad hoc committee served by Romallus O. Murphy and the Rev. W. B. Lewis, as co-chairmen.”
Ira Harris, who was 13 at the time, attended the speech with his grandfather. They drove in from Franklin County, but it was a harrowing trip. “Some of the usual roads to get us to US-1 were blocked off, so we had to take some detours,” he says.
