By Anastasia Benstead, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
The life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther is well known to most of us living in the United States today. His birthday, Jan. 15, is a federal holiday and school children often spend the week leading up to the holiday studying history and doing fun thematic activities.
King is most famous for his “I Have a Dream” speech which he delivered on the Washington Mall in Aug. 1963. A lesser known fact is that he debuted that speech two months earlier in Detroit during the “Walk To Freedom” on June 23, 1963.
The date of the walk was chosen to commemorate the Detroit Riots which took place on June 23, 1943, in which 34 people were killed exactly 20 years earlier.
An estimated 125,000 people gathered to march the streets of Detroit, to protest for civil rights, higher wages and indiscriminate hiring practices, housing equality and equal education. The staging area was that of 21 blocks near Adelaide St. Up to that point, the “Walk To Freedom” was the largest civil rights demonstration the United States had ever seen.
“[This is] one of the most wonderful things that has happened in America,” King said, describing the event and its unprecedented attendance. King also made it a point to mention that not a single act of violence had been committed during their demonstration– a stark distinction from the events in Birmingham and other southern cities only a month earlier.
“Like the Aquinas faculty, students, and staff of the early 1960s,” Sr. Justine Kane, Dean of the Aquinas COllege School of Education, said. “We strive to emulate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who gave his life in service to the people most in need in our society. We live in hope that his message of nonviolent action for justice will flourish in our world.”
The “Walk To Freedom” lasted 90 minutes and ended at Cobo Hall for King’s speech. Only 25,000 people could fit into the building, so the rest listened to the broadcast of the speech outside. A vinyl pressing of the broadcast was made and released for purchase– historically significant as Motown Record’s first spoken word pressing.
King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at Cobo Hall 1963 – Photo by the Detroit Free Press; The original album cover of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech 2 months before he delivered it in Washington – Photo by Walter P. Reuther Library
King has other connections to Michigan as well– being invited to speak at the University of Michigan in 1962, Western Michigan University in 1963 and Michigan State University in 1965.
King delivering his speech at Michigan State University – Photo by MSU historical Archives (top left); King on the air at WMU – Photo Western Michigan University (bottom left) King giving a speech at U of M – Photo by MLive (right)
Gary Eberle, Emeritus professor of English at Aquinas College, does not personally remember King’s speech in Detroit, but he can recall the day King addressed Washington.
“I was 12 years old in 1963…and I remember being excited and inspired,” Eberle said. “The speech was a moment of hope and optimism and idealism.”
Eberle’s church at the time even partnered with a nearby church with African American congregants. They began initial discussions of racial equality. “Of course, where race relations went next was depressing as we descended into the race riots of the late 1960’s and, ultimately, King’s assassination in 1968,” Eberle said.
King was assassinated on April 3, 1968 on the balcony of his hotel room at the Lorraine Motel by convicted ex-convict James Earl Ray. Ray pled guilty to lessen his sentence and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He served 29 years before attempting to escape; after he was caught an additional year was added to his sentence. Ray died in 1977 from liver failure after only serving 30 years in prison. King would have turned 90 years old this month.
The Saint 