Perspectives on Community Organizing: Previously Unreleased MLK Interviews

NPR, Previously Unreleased Interviews with The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 2013)

Watching you all work during Tara and Ladji’s excellent workshops today made me think of a series of interviews I heard in January.  The interviews, conducted by a Canadian journalist with the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., had not previously been released in the U.S.  They aired on National Public Radio (NPR) and were recorded in 1961 and 1966 - 1967 in Atlanta.  In the recordings, you’ll hear MLK’s perspective on community activism, his ministry, and the processes he and his community of allies engaged.  Reviewing the interview may reinforce some of the work you all explored today. It’s also quite a treat to hear a giant of history in a relatively intimate setting.

I feel that any religion which professes to be concerned about the souls of men, and is not concerned about the slums, let us say, that damn men's souls, the economic conditions and the social conditions that cripple the soul, is a dry-- and really a dead-- religion which is need of new blood.

Tape 1, 13:30- 14:15