MLK’s Last Days and Final Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last speech, known colloquially as his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968. The next day, he would be assassinated. The full address (Part 1Part 2) ranges widely. It sweeps through European and American history, eventually bringing us into 1960s America, a moment fraught with tension, when African-Americans were fighting for equal rights at home, and a divisive Vietnam War dragged on abroad. Tracing the important moments of the civil rights movement, the speech ends (highlighted above) with Mr. King prophetically foreseeing his own death (see the Life gallery of his last day), but knowing that his personal sacrifice had created something bullets could never stop. A great American and world citizen.

Related Content:

I Have a Dream

What Would MLK Say About the USA Today?


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Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.