Stories for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, deepen your understanding of the history of civil rights in America by listening to the voices of people who lived it. Below is a collection of StoryCorps conversations between civil rights activists, trailblazers, and loved ones about Martin Luther King Jr. and the enduring legacy of the civil rights movement.

Help us honor the many voices of the civil rights movement by recording the stories of someone you know. By sitting down with someone you love for a StoryCorps conversation, you’re showing them that their stories matter and preserving them for generations. You can record in person using the StoryCorps App, or remotely using StoryCorps Connect.

Historic Black Voices

podcast

We Go Up Together Or We Go Down Together

16:16

We Go Up Together Or We Go Down Together

On this episode of the StoryCorps podcast, we revisit the final hours of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life through the experiences of some people who were there with him.
Read the full transcript here.

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“Kneeling over his body, all I could hear was, ‘I may not get there with you.'”

2:26

“Kneeling over his body, all I could hear was, ‘I may not get there with you.'”

Dr. King Did His Own Eulogy

Clara Jean Ester, 72, remembers bearing witness to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech in 1968, and rushing to his side the next day when he was assassinated.
Read the full transcript here.

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“I said, ‘Dr. King, I am John Robert Lewis.’”

3:16

“I said, ‘Dr. King, I am John Robert Lewis.’”

How Dr. King Inspired a Young John Lewis

Congressman John Lewis remembers how Dr. King’s words inspired him to join the Civil Rights Movement.

Read the full transcript here.

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"We walked every day from sunup to sunset."

2:38

"We walked every day from sunup to sunset."

We Walked From Sunup to Sunset

Lawrence Cumberbatch tells his son Simeon about what it was like to be present on the podium behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Read the full transcript here.

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"All of a sudden Dr. King drove down the street..."

When Dr. King Drove Down the Street

Tom Houck shares memories of dropping out of high school in 1965 to fight for civil rights, and becoming Dr. King’s personal driver.

Read the full transcript here.

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“Being in a place like that, I didn’t feel like we was human.”

3:00

“Being in a place like that, I didn’t feel like we was human.”

The Leesburg Stockade Girls

In 1963, more than a dozen African American girls, including Carol Barner-Seay, Shirley Reese, Diane Bowens, and Verna Hollis, were arrested for protesting segregation in Americus, Georgia. At StoryCorps, they remember being held in a small makeshift jail for nearly two months.

Read the full transcript here.

A More Perfect Union

When Theresa Burroughs came of voting age, she was ready to cast her ballot — but she had a long fight ahead of her. During the Jim Crow era, the board of registrars at Alabama’s Hale County Courthouse prevented African American people from registering to vote. Undeterred, Theresa remembers venturing to the courthouse on the first and third Monday of each month, in pursuit of her right to vote.

Driven

Wendell Scott was the first African American person inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. His son, Frank, remembers what it took for his father to cross the finish line at tracks throughout the South.

Eyes on the Stars

On January 28, 1986, NASA Challenger mission STS-51-L ended in tragedy when the shuttle exploded after takeoff. On board was physicist Ronald E. McNair, the second African American person to enter space. But first, he was a kid with big dreams in Lake City, South Carolina.