Remembering MLK

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center will be closed Saturday through Monday, January 17th-January 19th.  While we’re closed, take a look at a selection of resources relating to Dr. King and the dream of equality to which he devoted his life.

• The King Center

  The definitive resource for digital resources pertaining to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the King Center hosts nearly one million documents relating to his life and his work.  Find speeches, telegrams, scribbled notes, and photographs of the civil rights leader throughout his life.

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service

  In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service with leading this effort.  The MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a “day on, not a day off.”   It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems.  This website include toolkits and project registration to organize other volunteers to join in a national day of civic service.

• Civil Rights History Project (Library of Congress)

  Includes video interviews from a number of people sharing their experiences and impressions of Dr. King, including their reflections on his assassination, and the civil rights movement in general. Some of the participants include other civil rights activists of the time, friends, and colleagues who worked closely with Dr. King.

• Martin Luther King, Jr. [FBI file].

  Collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, this free, government resource contains pages of government information relating to FBI surveillance of King during the 1960’s, as well as documents relating to his assassination investigation.

When the library re-opens on Tuesday, January 20th, check-out these additional resources:

• Citizen King

  Produced by PBS, this documentary pushes past the myths that have obscured King’s story to reclaim the history of a people’s leader.  Using the personal recollections, diaries, letters, and eyewitness accounts of friends, family, journalists, law enforcement officers and historians, this film brings fresh insights to King’s difficult journey, his charismatic — if at times flawed — leadership, and his truly remarkable impact.  Available for check-out in the Music Lab, 2nd floor.

• A testament of hope : the essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Includes the speeches, writings, interviews, and excerpts from five of Martin Luther King’s books.  Presented in chronological order within topical groupings.  Available in the Stacks, 2nd floor.

• Martin Luther King, Jr. : the essential box set, the landmark speeches and sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  This audiobook box set includes readings of all the landmark speeches of the great orator and American leader Martin Luther King, Jr. from his inspirational “I have a dream” to his fiery “Give us the ballot.”  Available in Audiobooks, 1st floor.

• The autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

  First-person account of the extraordinary life of America’s greatest civil rights leader. With thousands of King’s essays, notes, letters, speeches, and sermons at his disposal, the author has organized King’s writings into a posthumous autobiography.  Available in the Stacks, 2nd floor.