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Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King
By The Associated Press
- Oct. 11, 1991
A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded today that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized passages in his dissertation for a doctoral degree at the university 36 years ago.
"There is no question," the committee said in a report to the university's provost, "but that Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation by appropriating material from sources not explicitly credited in notes, or mistakenly credited, or credited generally and at some distance in the text from a close paraphrase or verbatim quotation."
Despite its finding, the committee said that "no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King's doctoral degree," an action that the panel said would serve no purpose.
But the committee did recommend that a letter stating its finding be placed with the official copy of Dr. King's dissertation in the university's library.
The four-member committee was appointed by the university a year ago to determine whether plagiarism charges against Dr. King that had recently surfaced were in fact true. Today the university's provost, Jon Westling, accepted the committee's recommendations and said its members had "conducted the investigation with scholarly thoroughness, scrupulous attention to detail and a determination not to be influenced by non-scholarly consideration."
The dissertation at issue is "A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman." Dr. King wrote it in 1955 as part of his requirements for a doctor of philosophy degree, which he subsequently received from the university's Division of Religious and Theological Studies.
One member of the investigating committee, John Cartwright, the university's Martin Luther King Professor of Social Ethics, said the panel had refrained from speculating about the reasons why Dr. King had not properly attributed material, which came from a variety of other interpreters of the works of Tillich and Wieman.
The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume II
Volume II begins with King’s doctoral work at Boston University and ends with his first year as pastor of the historic Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
It includes papers from his graduate courses and a fully annotated text of his dissertation. There is correspondence with people King knew in his years before graduate school and a transcription of the first known recording of a King sermon. We learn, too, of King’s marriage to Coretta Scott.
Accepting the call to serve Dexter, King followed the church’s tradition of socially active pastors by becoming involved in voter registration and other issues of social justice. In Montgomery he completed his doctoral work, and he and Coretta Scott began their married life.
Download the Introduction to Volume 2 (pdf)
I: Boston University
Date | Title |
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15 Oct 1951 | |
26 Oct 1951 | |
4 Dec 1951 | |
6 Dec 1951 | |
6 Dec 1951 | , and William E. Hocking’s with Those Set Forth in Edgar S. Brightman’s Course on ‘Philosophy of Religion’” |
12 Dec 1951 | ” |
2 Jan 1952 | |
9 Jan 1952 | |
Jan 1952 | |
13 Sept 1951–15 Jan 1952 | |
2 Apr 1952 | |
9 May 1952 | |
26 May 1952–5 Jul 1952 | |
29 Jul 1952 | |
14 Aug 1952 | |
18 Sept 1952 | |
31 Oct 1952 | |
6 Nov 1952 | |
18 Nov 1952 | |
3 Dec 1952 | |
22 Sept 1952–28 Jan 1953 | |
22 Sept 1952–28 Jan 1953 | |
4 Feb 1953 | |
17 Feb 1953 | |
Mar 1953 | |
Mar 1953 | |
15 May 1953 | |
19 May 1953 | |
4 Feb 1953–22 May 1953 | |
2 Jun 1953 | |
23 Jun 1953 | |
14 Aug 1953 | |
22 Sept 1953 | |
2 Nov 1953 | |
3 Nov 1953 | |
16 Nov 1953 | |
19 Nov 1953 | |
20 Nov 1953 | |
24 Nov 1953 | |
24 Nov 1953 | |
24 Nov 1953 | |
24 Nov 1953 | |
1 Dec 1953 | |
1 Dec 1953 | |
1 Dec 1953 | |
3 Dec 1953 | |
7 Dec 1953 | |
8 Dec 1953 | |
9 Dec 1953 | |
17 Dec 1953 | |
30 Dec 1953 | |
12 Jan 1954 | |
16 Jan 1954 | |
17 Jan 1954 | |
25 Jan 1954 | |
25 Jan 1954 | |
4 Feb 1954 | |
8 Feb 1954 | |
8 Feb 1954 | |
13 Feb 1954 | |
19 Feb 1954 | |
24 Feb 1954 | |
28 Feb 1954 | |
7 Mar 1954 | |
10 Mar 1954 | |
10 Mar 1954 | |
15 Mar 1954 | |
14 Apr 1954 | |
15 Apr 1954 | |
16 Apr 1954 | |
19 Apr 1954 | |
8 May 1954 | |
13 May 1954 | |
15 May 1954 | |
15 May 1954 | |
15 May 1954 | |
22 May 1954 | |
24 Jun 1954 | |
24 Jun 1954 | |
Apr 1953–June 1954 | |
26 Jul 1954 | |
29 Jul 1954 | |
3 Aug 1954 | |
5 Aug 1954 |
II: Montgomery, Alabama
Date | Title |
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5 Sept 1954 | |
1954 | |
15 Sept 1954 | |
21 Sept 1954 | |
24 Sept 1954 | |
Oct 1954 | |
4 Oct 1954 | |
9 Oct 1954 | |
19 Oct 1954 | |
19 Oct 1954 | |
19 Oct 1954 | |
20 Oct 1954 | |
21 Oct 1954 | |
26 Oct 1954 | |
Oct 1954 | |
Nov 1954 | |
1 Nov 1954 | |
2 Nov 1954 | |
2 Nov 1954 | |
3 Nov 1954 | |
4 Nov 1954 | |
4 Nov 1954 | |
6 Nov 1954 | |
18 Nov 1954 | |
24 Nov 1954 | |
24 Nov 1954 | |
24 Nov 1954 | |
29 Nov 1954 | |
30 Nov 1954 | |
2 Dec 1954 | |
10 Dec 1954 | |
15 Dec 1954 | |
21 Dec 1954 | |
1955 | |
1951–1955 | |
1951–1955 | |
1951–1955 | |
12 Jan 1955 | |
14 Jan 1955 | |
25 Jan 1955 | |
5 Feb 1955 | |
24 Feb 1955 | |
26 Feb 1955 | |
26 Feb 1955 | |
2 Mar 1955 | |
3 Mar 1955 | |
14 Mar 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
15 Apr 1955 | |
18 Apr 1955 | |
19 Apr 1955 | |
2 May 1955 | |
6 May 1955 | |
6 May 1955 | |
11 May 1955 | |
12 May 1955 | |
12 May 1955 | |
16 May 1955 | |
28 May 1955 | |
31 May 1955 | |
May 1955 | |
June 1955 | |
4 Jun 1955 | |
7 Jun 1955 | |
7 Jun 1955 | |
28 Jun 1955 | |
June 1955 | |
21 Jul 1955 | |
25 Jul 1955 | |
Aug 1955 | |
1 Aug 1955 | |
8 Aug 1955 | |
20 Aug 1955 | |
26 Aug 1955 | |
26 Aug 1955 | |
28 Sept 1955 | |
29 Sept 1955 | |
22 Oct 1955 | |
27 Oct 1955 | |
27 Oct 1955 | |
1 Oct 1954–31 Oct 1955 | |
31 Oct 1955 | |
2 Nov 1955 | |
2 Nov 1955 | |
2 Nov 1955 | |
3 Nov 1955 | |
14 Nov 1955 | |
15 Nov 1955 | |
16 Nov 1955 | |
18 Nov 1955 | |
18 Nov 1955 | |
25 Nov 1955 | |
29 Nov 1955 | |
30 Nov 1955 |
Chronology
Date | Event |
---|---|
2 Sept 1951 | Martin Luther King, Jr., preaches “What Is Man?” and “What Think Ye of Christ?” at Ebenezer. |
13 Sept 1951–15 Jan 1952 | During his first term at Boston University’s School of Theology, King enrolls in Personalism, Formal Logic, Philosophy of Religion, Directed Study in Systematic Theology, and Seminar in Systematic Theology. |
16 Sept | King is the guest preacher at the Reverend Gardner Taylor’s Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn. |
2 Oct | Boston University approves King’s outline of study. |
22 Nov | King, Jr., attends his parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration in Atlanta. |
23 Jan–16 May 1952 | For his second semester at Boston, King takes three courses: Religious Teachings of the New Testament, Directed Study in Systematic Theology, and Seminar in Systematic Theology. |
Feb | King begins to date Coretta Scott, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music. |
4 Feb–10 June | As a “special student” at Harvard University, King enrolls in the History of Modern Philosophy. |
15 Feb | King passes French examination at Boston University, partially fulfilling the language requirement. |
16 Mar | King preaches at Ebenezer’s celebration of its sixty-fifth anniversary and of King, Sr.’s twentieth anniversary as its pastor. |
18 May | King preaches “The Relevance of the Holy Spirit” at Ebenezer. |
25 May | King delivers “The Prevalence of Practical Atheism” at Ebenezer. |
26 May–5 July | King takes two courses during the intersession at Boston University: Seminar in Historical Theology and History of Recent Philosophy. |
22 June | King is initiated into Boston’s Sigma chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha social fraternity. |
12 July–7 Sept | King serves as pastor in charge at Ebenezer. |
24 July | King attends the annual session of Georgia’s Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress in Atlanta. |
Aug | Coretta Scott visits Atlanta and meets the King family for the first time. |
10 Aug | King preaches “The Challenge of Communism to Christianity” at Ebenezer. |
24 Aug | King is Youth Day speaker at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Atlanta. |
7 Sept | King preaches “Mental and Spiritual Slavery” at Ebenezer. |
22 Sept 1952–28 Jan 1953 | During the first term of his second year at Boston, King takes four courses: Religious Teachings of the Old Testament, History of Christian Doctrine I, Seminar in Philosophy (Hegel), and Seminar in the History of Philosophy. |
22 Sept 1952–26 Jan 1953 | King enrolls in the Philosophy of Plato at Harvard. |
10 Oct | King fails Boston University’s German examination. |
6 Nov | Shaw University President William R. Strassner asks King to apply to become the university’s dean of religion. |
Nov | King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King visit Boston. |
Fall | King preaches at John Street Baptist Church in Worcester, Massachusetts. |
26 Jan–2 June 1953 | King’s final course at Harvard is on the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. |
4 Feb–22 May | King enrolls in his last courses at Boston: History of Christian Doctrine 11, Seminar in Philosophy (Hegel), and Directed Study in Thesis and Dissertation Writing. |
18 Feb | On his second attempt, King passes the German examination, thus completing Boston University’s language requirement. |
25 Feb | King’s academic advisor at Boston University, Edgar S. Brightman, dies. King later chooses L. Harold DeWolf as his new advisor. |
Apr | Obadiah and Bernice Scott announce the engagement of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Jr. |
19 Apr | King speaks at First United Baptist Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, at the invitation of its pastor, the Reverend Otto R. Loverude. King gives a talk on “What it means to be a Negro in the Deep South” and preaches the sermon “What Does It Mean to Believe in God?” |
7 May | In a public debate with John Wesley Dobbs, King, Sr., supports Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield’s campaign for reelection. |
18 June | King, Sr., performs the marriage ceremony of King, Jr., and Coretta Scott at the Scott home near Marion, Alabama. |
21 June | King preaches “By These Things Men Live” at Ebenezer’s morning services and “Does It Pay to Be Faithful?” in the evening. King, Sr., baptizes Coretta Scott King. |
Summer | Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King spend the summer in Atlanta. King serves as Ebenezer’s pastor in charge, and Coretta Scott King works in a local bank. |
Summer | King attends an interseminary conference at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. |
28 June | King preaches “Accepting Responsibility for Your Actions” at Ebenezer. |
5 July | Atlanta’s WERD, the nation’s first radio station owned and operated by African-Americans, begins broadcasting from Ebenezer for several months. |
12 July | King preaches “Transformed Non-Conformists” at Ebenezer. |
19 July | Clark College Dean of Women Phoebe Burney is the Women’s Day speaker at Ebenezer. Coretta Scott King is the featured soloist at the morning service. |
26 July | King preaches “God’s Revelation to the World” at Ebenezer. |
2 Aug | King preaches “Dressing Christ in False Robes” at Ebenezer. |
9 Aug | King delivers the sermon “The Tragedy of Almost” at Ebenezer. |
16 Aug | King preaches, “Lord, Is It I?” at Ebenezer. |
23 Aug | King delivers the sermon “Self-Examination” at Ebenezer. |
30 Aug | King delivers the sermon “Opportunity, Fidelity, and Reward” at Ebenezer’s morning services; in the evening, he preaches at Pilgrim Baptist Church |
6 Sept | King preaches “The Dimensions of a Complete Life” at Ebenezer. |
8–14 Sept | King attends the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention in Miami. The Reverend J. H. Jackson, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago, is elected president of the convention. |
Sept | The Kings rent an apartment at 396 Northampton Street in Boston and resume their studies. |
Nov | Alberta Williams King and King, Sr., spend two weeks in New York and Boston. |
15 Nov | King preaches at the Reverend J. Timothy Boddie’s New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. |
22 Nov | King preaches at the Reverend J. L. Henry’s Tenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. |
21 Dec | King leaves Boston for vacation in Atlanta. |
1 Jan 1954 | King attends the Emancipation Day celebration sponsored by the Atlanta branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at the City Auditorium. The Reverend J. H. Jackson gives the annual address. |
3 Jan | King preaches in the morning at Ebenezer. |
10 Jan | King preaches in the morning at Ebenezer. |
17 Jan | King delivers a trial sermon at First Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. |
24 Jan | King delivers a trial sermon, “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life,” at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Dexter’s former pastor Vernon Johns preaches “Segregation After Death” at Ebenezer. |
28 Feb | At the invitation of the Reverend A. A. Banks, Jr., King preaches “Rediscovering Lost Values” at Second Baptist Church in Detroit. |
7 Mar | King is in Lansing, Michigan, to preach at his uncle Joel Lawrence King’s church in the morning and evening. He also addresses the local branch of the NAACP in the afternoon. By a unanimous vote, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church calls King to its pastorate. |
1 Apr | King’s Boston University transcript indicates that he has passed his qualifying examinations. |
4 Apr | King meets with the pulpit committee at Dexter. |
9 Apr | Boston University approves King’s outline of his dissertation. |
14 Apr | King accepts the call to Dexter’s pastorate. |
25 Apr | King preaches at the Reverend Leonard G. Carr’s Vine Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia. |
26 Apr | The Kings host a meeting of a black graduate study group, the Dialectical Society, at their Boston apartment. |
10 May | Professor L. Harold DeWolf lectures at a meeting of the Dialectical Society; King offers the opening prayer. |
16 May | King preaches at the Thirty-third Annual Memorial Service of the Pullman Porters’ Benefit Association of America at Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
17 May | In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the U.S. Supreme Court declares racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. |
30 May | King preaches “Loving Your Enemies” at Dexter and presides over the ordination of deacons. He spends the summer commuting between Boston and Montgomery. |
13 June | At the invitation of the Reverend Thomas Kilgore, Jr., King preaches at Friendship Baptist Church in Harlem, New York City. |
15 June | Coretta Scott King receives her bachelor of music degree in music education from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. |
22 June | King, Sr., addresses the opening session of the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress in Birmingham, Alabama. |
11 July | King preaches “What Is Man?” for Men’s Day at Dexter. |
1 Sept | King begins his pastorate at Dexter. |
5 Sept | King delivers his first sermon as pastor of Dexter and presents his “Recommendations to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church for the Fiscal Year 1954–1955,” which are accepted by the congregation. |
6-11 Sept | King, Jr., Alberta Williams King, and King, Sr., attend the National Baptist Convention in St. Louis. |
9 Sept | King, Jr., speaks to the Women’s Convention at the request of its president, Nannie Helen Burroughs. King’s noonday message is “The Vision of the World Made New.” |
4-10 Oct | Phoebe Burney is the guest speaker for Women’s Emphasis Week at Dexter. |
20-21 Oct | King attends the Montgomery-Antioch District Association’s annual meeting at Hutchinson Street Baptist Church in Montgomery. King is appointed to serve as reporter. |
31 Oct | At King, Jr.’s installation as pastor of Dexter, King, Sr., preaches the sermon, and Alberta Williams King conducts Ebenezer’s choir. |
Nov | King and Coretta Scott King spend two weeks in Boston working on a draft of his dissertation. |
14 Nov | King preaches at the Reverend William H. Hester’s Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston. |
25 Nov | The annual Thanksgiving program at Montgomery’s First Baptist Church features a solo by Coretta Scott King. |
28 Nov | King delivers the Men’s Day sermon at Atlanta’s Friendship Baptist Church, whose pastor is the Reverend Samuel W. Williams, his Morehouse philosophy professor. |
12 Dec | The Reverend Melvin H. Watson, the son of Ebenezer clerk P. O. Watson, delivers the Seventy-eighth Anniversary sermon at Dexter. |
Jan 1955 | King and H. Councill Trenholm, president of Alabama State College, Montgomery, deliver eulogies at the funeral of Alabama State professor James Milton Reynolds. |
1 Jan | Coretta Scott King sings a solo at an Emancipation Proclamation anniversary celebration at Holt Street Baptist Church. |
11-13 Jan | King attends the national board meeting of the National Baptist Convention in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The featured preacher is the Reverend C. L. Franklin, who delivers the sermon “God’s Wheels of Progress.” |
23 Jan | King delivers the speech “A Realistic Look at Race Relations” at a meeting of the Birmingham NAACP. |
2 Feb | The adjourned session of the Alabama Baptist State Convention meets at First Baptist Church. On 1 Feb King gives the invocation at a service for the group’s newly elected officers. |
25 Feb | King delivers the evening inspirational message on the final day of the Montgomery Baptist Bible Institute at the Holt Street Baptist Church. |
1 Mar | Following the Reverend M. C. Cleveland’s sermon, King speaks at a mass meeting for the National Baptist Convention’s Home Mission Board. The event, sponsored by the Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Montgomery, is held at Beulah Baptist Church. |
2 Mar | Claudette Colvin, 15, is arrested for allegedly violating Montgomery’s ordinance requiring segregation on the city’s buses. King, Jo Ann Robinson of the Women’s Political Council, Rosa Parks of the Montgomery NAACP, and others later meet with city and bus company officials. |
6 Mar | Coretta Scott King gives a voice recital at First Baptist Church. |
8 Mar | Coretta Scott King directs a “talent night” featuring local youth as part of Dexter’s Youth Emphasis Week. |
13 Mar | King’s Morehouse and Crozer classmate the Reverend Walter R. McCall is the guest speaker for Youth Emphasis Week at Dexter. The church’s Baptist Youth Fellowship holds a symposium on “The Meaning of Integration for American Society,” featuring among other speakers Dexter member Cleveland Dennard and the Reverend Robert E. Hughes, executive director of the Alabama Council on Human Relations. |
20 Mar | King delivers the Sixty-eighth Anniversary sermon at Ebenezer. |
23-24 Mar | King attends a meeting in Nashville of the Advisory Council on Literature and Curriculum, National Baptist Training Union Board of the National Baptist Convention. |
10 Apr | King preaches for Easter services at Dexter. |
15 Apr | King delivers the final draft of his dissertation to Boston University. |
17 Apr | At the invitation of the Reverend Marvin Gibson, King preaches at Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
21 Apr | King defends his dissertation before a faculty committee at Boston University. |
24 Apr | Alberta Williams King directs Ebenezer’s choir in a Sunday afternoon concert at Dexter. |
27-29 Apr | The Reverend Samuel D. Proctor, president of Virginia Union University in Richmond, gives a series of speeches for Dexter’s Spring Lecture Series. |
30 Apr | King serves as a resource and discussion leader at the annual state meeting of Hi-Y clubs at Alabama State College in Montgomery. |
8 May | King preaches “[The] Crisis Facing Present-Day Family Life in America” at Dexter’s Mother’s Day service. |
15 May | King delivers the baccalaureate sermon at the Alabama State College commencement in Montgomery. |
22 May | King preaches the baccalaureate sermon at Talladega County Training School in Renfroe, Alabama. |
31 May | The faculty of Boston University votes to confer the doctorate on King. The Supreme Court issues an order to implement the May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation ruling. |
1 June | The Reverend Archibald J. Carey, Jr., speaks at a citizenship rally sponsored by Alabama State College’s Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. King gives the benediction. |
5 June | King is awarded his doctorate from Boston University; he does not attend the commencement ceremony. |
12 June | The Reverend Major J. Jones preaches at Ebenezer. |
19 June | King preaches “Who Is Truly Great?” at Dexter. King delivers the keynote address at an Alabama NAACP regional mass meeting at Holt Street CME Church. |
26 June | King delivers a sermon titled “Discerning the Signs of History” at Dexter. |
27 June–3 July | King attends the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress in Atlantic City, New Jersey. |
3 July | King preaches at Friendship Baptist Church in Harlem. |
8 July–3 Aug | King, Sr., Alberta Williams King, and Christine King attend the Baptist World Alliance meeting in London, England. |
10 July | Morehouse president Benjamin Mays is the guest speaker for Men’s Day at Dexter. |
17 July | King preaches “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?” at Dexter. |
22 July | At the invitation of Dillard University president Albert W. Dent, King flies to New Orleans to discuss taking a position as dean of the new university chapel. |
24 July | King preaches “The Death of Evil upon the Seashore” at Dexter. |
31 July | King delivers “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life” at the Tuskegee Institute chapel. |
July | King speaks on “The Three Levels of Love” at the monthly meeting of Dexter’s Young Matrons Club. |
2–5 Aug | King attends the Alabama Baptist State Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress at Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery. He serves on the Committee on Youth Parade with the Reverends Ralph D. Abernathy, U. J. Fields, J. C. Parker, A. W. Wilson, and other local ministers. |
14 Aug | King addresses the Montgomery NAACP. |
18 Aug | King hosts the monthly meeting of the Montgomery chapter of the Alabama Council of Human Relations at Dexter. |
26 Aug | Rosa Parks, secretary of the Montgomery NAACP, informs King that he has been elected to the executive committee. |
28 Aug | King preaches in the morning and evening for Men’s Day at the Reverend J. E. Moss’s Jackson Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, is murdered while vacationing with relatives near Money, Mississippi. |
Aug | The Montgomery NAACP submits a petition to the school board to integrate the city’s public schools. |
6–11 Sept | King, Jr., Alberta Williams King, and King, Sr., attend the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention in Memphis, Tennessee. King, Sr., serves as a member of the convention’s board of directors. |
9 Oct | Lynette Saine Bickers, associate professor of education at Atlanta University, is the guest speaker for Women’s Day at Dexter. |
16 Oct | King delivers “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life” at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. |
17-23 Oct | At the invitation of Dean of Students Walter R. McCall, King is the guest speaker for Religious Emphasis Week at Fort Valley State College in Fort Valley, Georgia. The theme of the week is “Christ in Human Relations.” King preaches “The Dimensions of a Complete Life,” “What Is Man?” “Going Forward by Turning Back,” and “The Death of Evil upon the Seashore.” He also participates in panel discussions on “How Christianity Affects Our Fears,” “Christ and Race Relations,” “What Has Christianity to Say About Sex Standards?” “Christ and Business Relations,” and “Christ and Our Physical Surroundings.” |
30 Oct | King preaches “The Seeking God” at Dexter. |
7 Nov | King speaks at the fall institute of the local Baptist Training Union in Chattanooga, Tennessee. |
17 Nov | Yolanda Denise King, the Kings’ first child, is born. |
20 Nov | King preaches “The One-sided Approach of the Good Samaritan” at Dexter. |
In this Publication
To ebenezer baptist church members.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Dexter Avenue Baptist Church) November 06, 1954
Abstract of “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman”
King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Boston University) April 15, 1955
How do we determine conjectured information?
More Publications
The martin luther king, jr., encyclopedia, the papers of martin luther king, jr. volume iii, the papers of martin luther king, jr. volume vii.
“I Have A Dream”: Annotated
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic speech, annotated with relevant scholarship on the literary, political, and religious roots of his words.
For this month’s Annotations, we’ve taken Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech, and provided scholarly analysis of its groundings and inspirations—the speech’s religious, political, historical and cultural underpinnings are wide-ranging and have been read as jeremiad, call to action, and literature. While the speech itself has been used (and sometimes misused) to call for a “color-blind” country, its power is only increased by knowing its rhetorical and intellectual antecedents.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation . This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now . This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred .
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream .
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted , every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood . With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
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This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
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Volumes I and II of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., have demonstrated that while his bibliographies contained the authors and books that he drew on in his own compositions, his papers often lacked the footnotes and quotation marks that identified his use of these sources in his text.
Authorship issues concerning Martin Luther King Jr. fall into two general categories: Plagiarism in King's academic research papers (including his doctoral dissertation) and his use of borrowed phrases in speeches.
A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded today that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized passages in his dissertation for a doctoral degree at the university 36...
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Education. Details. This paper, written at the beginning of the second term of Davis’s course Christian Theology for Today, indicates King’s estrangement from the conservative Baptist theology he learned as a child.
It includes papers from his graduate courses and a fully annotated text of his dissertation. There is correspondence with people King knew in his years before graduate school and a transcription of the first known recording of a King sermon. We learn, too, of King’s marriage to Coretta Scott.
American Prophet: Martin Luther King, Jr. Thesis directed by Professor Ira Chernus. Abstract: In August 2011, after more than two decades of planning, fund-raising and construction, the Martin. Luther King Jr. National Memorial— a four-acre tract south of the Mall featuring a granite statue of King.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic speech, annotated with relevant scholarship on the literary, political, and religious roots of his words.
In theses 56–66, Martin Luther criticizes the doctrine of the treasury of merit on which the doctrine of indulgences is based. He states that everyday Christians do not understand the doctrine and are being misled. For Luther, the true treasure of the church is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Through an analysis of his speeches, writings, and actions, this essay will argue that Martin Luther King Jr. was not only a champion of civil rights, but also a visionary leader whose influence continues to shape our world today.
In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King bases his thesis on two main ideas: (1) African Americans still are not free; and (2) now is the time for African Americans to fight for...