A nonpartisan student organization invited Dr. King to the College, part of the group’s effort to invite Black civil rights leaders to campus to inspire students to action.
Bayard Rustin, chief organizer for the 1963 March on Washington, spoke at the College a day before King, on May 5, in Pickard Theater.
King was scheduled to speak in Pickard as well, but the buzz had become so great following Rustin's speech and for King's upcoming appearance that the organizers realized they'd have to find an alternative location.
So on May 6, Bowdoin President James Stacy Coles introduced Reverend King to a crowd of about 1,100 people at First Parish Church. The church is at located at the northwest corner of campus.
King’s hour-long address was recorded by the Bowdoin radio station WBOR. But it went missing for many years until Bowdoin archivist Caroline Moseley came upon it when she was reviewing boxes of uncatalogued WBOR recordings.
The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, holds the copyright to the speech, allowing Bowdoin to make the audio available online in conjunction with annual occasions such as the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month.
