Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was no stranger to Charlotte. During the ’50s and ’60s, King made several trips to the Queen City and was scheduled to return just before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

by Sharon Smith

A few months before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C., he came to Charlotte for the convocation of six Black high schools. Behind the podium, a focused and deliberate King addressed the crowd. It was May 30, 1963.

The visit came at a critical time. Days earlier, Johnson C. Smith University students and community members marched uptown to protest segregation. Black and white civic leaders responded by agreeing to meet and talk solutions, which Dr. King commended as a positive step. It’s one snapshot of a moment that helped mobilize a generation seeking equality.

Three years earlier in Charlotte, King seemed to test an early version of the famous speech during an NAACP rally. In a draft archived by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute of Stanford University, King wrote: “In a real sense America is essentially a dream — a dream yet unfulfilled. It is the dream of a land where men of all races, colors and creeds will live together as brothers.”

In September of 1966, King was back in Charlotte speaking at a packed Brayboy Gymnasium at JCSU. He sounded passionate and steady as he said, “I’m not only worried about the violence of the bad people, I’m gravely disturbed about the silence and indifference of the good people.” Thunderous applause erupted, forcing King to pause a moment before he continued. Listen to an excerpt of the speech here.

On April 2,1968, Charlotte civil rights leader and dentist Dr. Reginald Hawkins received word that King’s North Carolina tour and trip to Charlotte would have to be postponed because King was needed in Memphis. He was assassinated there two days later.  SP

Featured photo: MLK at a podium in Charlotte speaking to high school students May 30, 1963. Photograph by James Peeler, courtesy the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.