Sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. facts for kids

"Dr. King addresses the subject of individual greatness within society and how to truly go about achieving such a status. He begins by dispelling common signifiers of greatness before indicating that greatness can only be substantively measured through the ability to put others before self. Dr. King cites the life of Jesus Christ as an example of humility culminating into greatness."

"King traveled to Atlantic City on 28 June to attend the National Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress.1 The subject matter of the following undated, typed manuscript indicates that it may have served as the basis for an address at the conference. King lays out three primary challenges facing local communities: economics, religious sectarianism, and race."

"In this address to executives of the Home Mission Societies of Christian Friends, sponsored by the American Baptist Assembly, King responds to the question: "How will the oppressed peoples of the world wage their struggle against the forces of injustice?" Dismissing the use of violence as "both impractical and immoral," he endorses the method of nonviolent protest. This "mentally and spiritually aggressive" technique not only avoids "external physical violence," but "seeks to avoid internal violence [to the] spirit." He delivered the same speech on 16 October to the 131st Universalist Convention in Cortland, New York; it was edited for publication in the organization's journal. Significant variations between the Green Lake speech and the article are noted."

From the Archival Description:
"Referring to his recent experience with segregated dining policies at the Atlanta airport, King claims that equality is not only quantitative but also qualitative, "not only a matter of mathematics and geometry," but "a matter of psychology.""

"Dr. King addresses the student body and officials of Howard University with a poignant sermon entitled, "Remember Who You Are." The content of the sermon makes various references between Jesus, Shakespeare and Greek philosophers who sought to identify the mechanisms that made man important to society."

Rally

"In celebration of the ninety-fourth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, King addresses seven thousand people at a NAACP rally at Big Bethel AME Church on Auburn Avenue. Atlanta police covering the event reported that people in the church were "over packed, standing on the sidewalks and the basement of the church and every available place.""

"Dr. King gave this 1957 address to the Institute of Adult Education at Brandeis University in Boston, Massachusetts."

"The Citizens Committee of Greater St. Louis, a federation of several area ministerial groups, sponsored King's address at a Freedom Rally held to raise funds for the MIA. John E. Nance, a Morehouse classmate of Martin Luther King Sr. introduced King, who captivated the "intensely integrated inter-racial audience" of eight thousand people at Kiel Auditorium."

"The day after receiving the Social Justice Award from the Religion and Labor Foundation in New York, King addressed the final morning session of the Conference on Christian Faith and Human Relations."

From the Archival Description:
"In his second of two addresses during the annual meeting of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the US, King charges that "all too many ministers are still silent while evil rages."1 He calls on church leaders to be "maladjusted" to social injustice and asserts that "the aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.""

"In a November letter King invited local pastors and their congregations to the December institute marking the second anniversary of the MIA. King described the four-day event as "the school in which our people will be prepared to lead the freedom movement in the spirit of love and non-violence.""

From the Archival Description:
"On 1 March 1957 Detroit Council of Churches executive director G. Merrill Lenox invited King to preach during the Council's 1958 Noon Lenten series."

"King offers two possible titles for this handwritten sermon. He criticizes those who rely too much on their own power, as well as those who "wait on God to do everything" and believe they "don't need to do anything about the race problem.""

"In this typescript of his final address as president of the MIA, King summarizes the past year's accomplishments, highlighting attempts to desegregate the city's public schools and parks: "I think this is enough to say to the cynics, skeptics, and destructive critics that the MIA is still in business, and that while it does not have the drama of a bus boycott, it is doing a day to day job that is a persistent threat to the power structure of Montgomery." He outlines the MIA's "threefold task": challenging segregation, suffering and sacrificing for freedom, and making full and constructive use of existing freedoms."

"In this Founder's Day address at Spelman College, King identifies four symbolic mountains—relativism, materialism, segregation, and violence—that must be overcome."

"In this typed draft of his address, King asserts that 'there need be no essential conflict' between the Urban League's efforts to help 'the Negro adjust to urban living' and the need for 'more militant civil rights organizations' to present a 'frontal attack on the system of segregation'. He advises that 'the NAACP'er must not look upon the Urban Leaguer as a quiet conservative and the Urban Leaguer must not look upon the NAACP'er as a militant troublemaker. Each must accept the other as a necessary partner in the complex yet exciting struggle to free the Negro."

"In the spring of 1960, African Americans in Savannah, Georgia, began a boycott of the white downtown merchants to protest their segregationist practices.1 Speaking before a capacity crowd in honor of the ninety-eighth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, King calls on protesters to remain nonviolent as they continue their "program of economic withdrawal."

"While insisting that "no Christian can be a communist," King calls on his congregation to consider communism "a necessary corrective for a Christianity that has been all too passive and a democracy that has been all too inert." Frustrated by the church's unwillingness to take a stand against racial discrimination, he complains, "This morning if we stand at eleven o'clock to sing 'In Christ There Is No East or West,' we stand in the most segregated hour of America.""

"Dr. King discusses the issues of segregation, poverty and discrimination within the City of Atlanta, in this 1963 speech at the Pilgrimage for Democracy. He explains that although Atlanta was thought to be a place of "racial harmony," the reality of glaring discrimination in Atlanta's schools, restaurants, and housing has left the local Negro community "tired," and hungry for change."

"Dr. King gave this speech at the Berlin Freedom Festival in Berlin, West Germany, in memorial to the recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Dr. King reflects on the personality, achievements and enormous influence Kennedy had on the world. He highlights Kennedy's commitment to international human rights, which included recognition of Negro rights, and his leadership in concluding the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty. On June 26, 1963, Kennedy captured the hearts of the citizens of West Germany when he challenged the Soviet Union and proclaimed "Ich bin ein Berliner." This copy of the speech, presumably the version Dr. King read off of when delivering it, features a handwritten conclusion not found on other typed versions."

Howard University contains a longer version of this speech in their collection.

"In this sermon Dr. King contemplates "who are we?" and "what is man?". He differentiates between the pessimistic attitudes of the materialistic understandings of man and the optimistic attitudes of humanistic definitions of man. King also states that man is neither all good nor all bad, but a combination. Man is both an everlasting miracle and mystery."

"Dr. King addresses the staff of the SCLC at a retreat in Frogmore, South Carolina. He divides his speech into three parts: "whence we have come, where we have come, and where do we go from here." Dr. King thoroughly discusses his thoughts on Communism, the practice of nonviolence, the belief that racism is an "ontological affirmation,"and the weaknesses of Black Power."

"The Centennial Address delivered by Nobel laureate Dr. Martin Luther King at Carnegie Hall in New York City, February 23, 1968. The occasion was the International Cultural Evening sponsored by Freedomways magazine on the 100th birthday of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and launching an "International Year".

"The editor of Conservative Judaism introduced this transcription with the following head note; "On the evening of March 25, 1968, ten days before he was killed, Dr. Martin Luther King appeared at the sixty-eighth annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly. He responded to questions which had been submitted in advance to Rabbi Everett Gendler, who chaired the meeting."