Watch Online: MLK's Bowdoin Speech in the News

Story posted January 19, 2009

Two Maine media outlets marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day by recalling the civil rights leader's visit to Bowdoin in May 1964 and the audio recording of his speech.

The Portland Press Herald article, "'It was transcendent,'" chronicled King's visit and quoted Frederick Stoddard '64.

Audio of Martin Luther King Jr. at Bowdoin
Sadik_King200.jpg
Dr. King visited the Bowdoin College Museum of Art to view the groundbreaking exhibition The Portrayal of the Negro in American Painting. He is pictured with Curator Marvin Sadik.

As part of Bowdoin's observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and upcoming Black History Month, a recording of the speech can be heard on the Bowdoin Web site. Listen to King's speech here.










Copyright Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. All rights reserved.




"King's visit was a very big deal," said Stoddard in the article.

In 1964 he was president of Bowdoin's Political Forum, the group that invited King to speak.

"For many of us, Bowdoin felt like an island of progressive thinking in a very conservative state. King's coming to Bowdoin succeeded in bringing the college and the state more into the present."

Read the article.

WMTW (Channel 8) also looked back at King's visit, interviewing Rob Jarrett '64.

"I think it was an opportunity for us to see the man firsthand," Jarrett said.

"He spoke with great, long pauses, sort of fist-pounding as I recall."

Watch the segment.

Read more about the significance of Dr. King's visit and about Bowdoin's legacy of inclusion.

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