Journalism

By Jason Miller From The Dylan Review Over twenty pages of Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to “Tangled Up in Blue” (1974) are now available for study at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These lyrics are located in two small 5 in. x 3 in. spiral notebooks from 1974. All forty-five pages of each notebook are filled, and one contains personal notes commingled with revised song lyrics to what would become the iconic 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. The album chronicles Dylan wo

By Jason Miller From NC State University News Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. first delivered the now famous refrain “I have a dream” in Rocky Mount, N.C., on Nov. 27, 1962. Dr. King ended his fifty-five minute speech in the Booker T. Washington Gymnasium by invoking the “How Long, Not Long” set-piece he made famous when he spoke from the steps of the capital at the end of the final march in Selma, Alabama on March 25, 1965. He then continued with eight consecutive lines of “I ha

By Jason Miller From Grove, Working Papers on English Studies Dylan’s 1967 song “All Along the Watchtower” can be understood as a sequel to Browning’s 1855 poem. This sequel addresses the dilemmas of what happens to an artist once they arrive as a musician. By bringing Browning’s neglected poem into the conversation, this essay extends the exemplary work of connecting Dylan and Browning finely documented by Michael Gray. “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” supplies all the

By Jason Miller From The News & Observer Rev. Douglas Moore, pastor of the Asbury Temple Methodist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Ralph Abernathy and NCCU student Lacy Streeter walk along West Main Street on their way to the Woolworth Lunch Counter in this file photo from Feb. 16, 1960. Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article298682198.html#storylink=cpy With the unique 2025 overlap of Martin Luther King Day and the Inauguration of Donald Trump, Am

By Jason Miller From Walter Magazine A disheveled manuscript titled The Bondwoman’s Narrative was listed only as “Lot 30: Unpublished Original Manuscript” when it appeared in a Swann Auction Galleries catalog in 2001. Written between 1853-1859, few people knew the hand-sewn pages pressed clumsily between two boards even existed. Barely meeting its retainer, the manuscript received only one bid. But The Bondwoman’s Narrative became a bestseller when it was published in 2002

From New York Daily News Protesters supporting President Trump gather near the east front door of the U.S. Capitol after groups breached the building’s security on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images. This Martin Luther King Day, I am reminded anew of the FBI’s remorseless treatment of Dr. King, and how sharply it contrasts with tactics the same agency has apparently failed to employ against white supremacists and would-be revolutionaries. While Capit

By Jason Miller From The Conversation A leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, the inspiration behind Lorraine Hansberry’s play “ A Raisin in the Sun ” and an uncompromising voice for social justice, Langston Hughes is heralded as one of America’s greatest poets. It wasn’t always this way. During his career, Hughes was routinely harassed by his own government. And the nation’s literati, balking at his subversive politics, tended to overlook his work. Read More...

By Jason Miller From Literary Hub Canceling a 60-day tour through Russia that he was slated to lead, Langston Hughes left to cover the Spanish Civil War on June 30th, 1937. The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper sent him abroad to write “trench-coat prose” about black Americans volunteering in the International Brigades with articles being picked up by other news outlets such as Cleveland’s Call-post and Globe magazine. Hughes’s 22 articles covered an angle no one else in the

By Jason Miller From The Conversation In a 2019 article published in Standpoint Magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning Martin Luther King Jr. biographer David Garrow detailed new information about King he discovered in FBI documents. The most damaging is that King may have witnessed – and encouraged – a sexual assault at a Washington, D.C. hotel in January 1964. Some historians have cautioned against taking too much stock of Garrow’s findings; the FBI, after all, has a well-known

By Jason Miller From The Conversation David Garrow , the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Martin Luther King Jr., has unearthed information that may forever change King’s legacy. In an 8,000-word article published in the British periodical Standpoint Magazine on May 30, 2019, Garrow details the contents of FBI memos he discovered after spending weeks sifting through more than 54,000 documents located on the National Archive’s website . Initially sealed by court order unt

By Jason Miller From The News & Observer Nearly forgotten, Dr. King spoke in Raleigh to an integrated audience of about 5,000 at Reynolds Coliseum at 4 p.m. on July 31, 1966. A counter-protest began two hours earlier with speeches at Memorial Auditorium and continued with a march by members from two factions of the Ku Klux Klan. FBI files reveal these white supremacists had to reschedule their rally when King’s visit was postponed from July 10 due to his involvement in protes

From The Conversation Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream – which alternated between shattered and hopeful – can be traced back to Hughes’ poetry. AP Photo For years, Martin Luther King Jr. and poet Langston Hughes maintained a friendship, exchanging letters and favors and even traveling to Nigeria together in 1960. In 1956, King recited Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son” from the pulpit to honor his wife Coretta, who was celebrating her first Mother’s Day. That same year, Hughes wrote

From NC State University News Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. first delivered the now famous refrain “I have a dream” in Rocky Mount, N.C., on Nov. 27, 1962. Dr. King ended his fifty-five minute speech in the Booker T. Washington Gymnasium by invoking the “How Long, Not Long” set-piece he made famous when he spoke from the steps of the capital at the end of the final march in Selma, Alabama on March 25, 1965. He then continued with eight consecutive lines of “I have a dream” befo