UofL Libraries: MLK Visit 50th Anniversary Commemoration: 1967 Visit

MLK Visit

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the Law School on March 30, 1967, and spoke in the overflowing Allen Court Room. Consolidating information about this historic event took several years, and the dedicated research of Librarian Robin Harris and others.

Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Clayborne Carson
Call Number: E185.97.K5 A52 2001
ISBN: 0613999908
Publication Date: 2001
Drawing on King's unpublished writings and other materials, a civil rights scholar assembles a first-person narrative of King's life.
A Testament of Hope by Martin Luther King; James M. Washington (Editor)
Call Number: E185.97.K5 A25 1991
ISBN: 0060646918
Publication Date: 2003
The only major one-volume collection of King's writings, speeches, interviews, and autobiographical reflections.

Historical Context

King's visit occurred during the highly contentious debate over racial discrimination in the Louisville housing market. Protests surged in the lead-up to the 1967 Kentucky Derby, when national media attention focused on Louisville provided a platform for leaders from the community and around the country to highlight the struggle for open housing.

Civil Rights Digital Library
Online films, texts, images, and audio recordings related to the Civil Rights movement in the United States in the 1950's and 1960's.
Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky : Anne Braden
Interview with Braden about one of Louisville’s most notorious incidents of race-based violence. She and her husband, both white, bought a house in an all-white Louisville neighborhood in order to resell it to a black family.

Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South by Tracy E. K'Meyer
Call Number: F459.L89 N444 2009
ISBN: 0813125391
Publication Date: 2009
In their struggles against racial injustice in the mid-twentieth century, activists in Louisville crossed racial, economic, and political dividing lines to form a wide array of alliances not seen in other cities of its size.
Freedom on the Border by Catherine Fosl; Tracy E. K'Meyer
Call Number: E185.93.K3 F74 2009
ISBN: 0813126061
Publication Date: 2010
The stories behind the marches, vigils, court cases, and other struggles to overcome racial discrimination in Kentucky.