Story posted January 11, 2010
During the 1963-1964 academic year, Bowdoin's Political Forum, a non-partisan student organization, invited black leaders involved in the civil rights movement to come to campus to speak about the movement and the importance of ending segregation.
Both Dr. Martin Luther King and Bayard Rustin, the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, accepted the Political Forum's invitation. Rustin spoke in Pickard Theater on May 5, 1964, and Dr. King spoke the next evening to an overflowing crowd of 1,100 at First Parish Church.
As part of Bowdoin's observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and upcoming Black History Month, a recording of the speech can be heard on the Bowdoin Web site. Listen to King's speech here
Dr. King's hour-long address was recorded by the Bowdoin radio station WBOR. While the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, holds the copyright to the speech, Bowdoin has permission to make the audio available online in conjunction with occasions such as the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month. (Listen at right.)
At other times, individuals are welcome to listen to the recording and read the transcript at the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, third floor, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. The Department is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information call (207) 725-3288.