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

From National Humanities Center Dr. King’s iconic refrain “I Have a Dream” was actually first delivered in Rocky Mount, NC, nine months before the March on Washington in 1963. By listening to this long lost reel-to-reel audio tape from November of 1962, we discover how this phrase actually has its origins in the poetry of Langston Hughes (1901–67). While Hughes was harassed by the FBI from as early as 1941, King’s every movement was traced, photographed, recorded, and even fi

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 Har

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By Chris Saunders From NC State Magazine It doesn’t take long talking to NC State English professor Jason Miller to understand that for him, everything begins and ends with 20th century American poet Langston Hughes. “I was drawn to Hughes’ accessibility,” Miller says of a leader of the Harlem Renaissance movement in the 1920s and ’30s. “Here is somebody with some profound thoughts that aren’t very nuanced or so ambiguous that they’re really hard to tease out.” Read More...

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