Martin Luther King, Jr. Readings

1. Letter from Birmingham Jail (Google Slides) (12 slides)

Primary Source Reading of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. Includes questions for comprehension and discussion.

2. I Have a Dream Speech Analysis (Google Slides) (13 slides)

Primary Source Reading of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous I Have a Dream speech. Includes questions for comprehension and discussion.

3. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Comparison Reading (Google Docs) (2 pages)

4. Crash Course Black American History #36 - Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC (Google Doc and PDF - 10 pages total)

Today we're going to learn about perhaps the best-known leader in the Civil Rights Era, Martin Luther King, Jr. From his rise to notoriety during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, his leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the March on Washington in 1963, his work toward the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the mid-1960s, and his assassination in 1968, Dr. King is very broadly known. But maybe he isn't that well understood. Like many extremely famous people, Martin Luther King can sometimes be drawn as a bit of a flat character, and his ideas can be reduced to platitudes. Today we'll try to give you a fuller picture of the man and leader he was.