The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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Last updated: 04/04/03
For Immediate Release: February 1, 1999
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced today that it will sponsor a program in celebration of Black History Month 1999 that will feature excerpts of a recently rediscovered and previously unpublished speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The speech was originally given at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1958. The BLM's program, which is open to the general public, will be held on Thursday, February 25, 1999, from 10:00-11:30 a.m. at the Interior Department's Sidney Yates Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
In the speech, the 29-year-old King described the progress made by the civil rights movement and eloquently outlined the challenges that loomed in the struggle to secure rights for black Americans. "One of the biggest steps that the Negro can take is that short walk to the ballot box," Dr. King can be heard to say. Although King's visit to the Greensboro chapter of the NAACP had been nearly cancelled because of threats of violence, Dr. Willa Player, then president of Bennett College, offered the use of the school as a venue for the speech. "Bennett College is a liberal arts school where freedom rings," wrote Dr. Player, "so Martin Luther King, Jr. can speak here."
The BLM program will include displays, a video presentation, a discussion of the civil rights movement, and taped excerpts of Dr. King's speech. Bennett College's current president, Dr. Gloria Dean Randle Scott, will provide commentary. A cassette tape of Dr. King's speech in its entirety will be available for purchase at the event. The tape also includes an interview of Dr. King conducted by students from the college's student newspaper. Proceeds from the sale of these historic materials will be used to fund scholarships for students attending Bennett College.
The BLM is pleased to sponsor this program in support of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday observance and Black History Month for 1999. The Sidney Yates Auditorium is at 1849 C Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. For more information, please call Mr. William E. Nunn, manager of BLM's Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program, at (202) 452-5090.
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