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8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MLK DAY JANUARY 12, 2024 Remembering Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. visit to Ann Arbor and Detroit Dr. King came to Ann Arbor in the fall of 1962. Brian A. Williams of the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library wrote that “King spoke on a cool fall day.” Williams also noted, “No recordings of King’s lectures are known to exist and newspaper coverage is scant at best.” In her January 16, 2023 article titled, “In Pictures: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visits Ann Arbor,” Meredith Bruckner of the Ann Arbor News confirmed Williams’ assertion and added, “Although no copies of his speeches exist, according to school records, King told U-M students, ‘We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish as fools.’” It is fair to say that the coverage of Dr. King’s visit to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was inadequate for a transformative national civil rights leader. Bentley Historical Library Archivist, Ms. Karen Lee Jania, told the Michigan Daily newspaper that “there was little press coverage of King’s visit and details about his lecture were sparse.” Perspectives on Dr. King’s Visit to U-M Campus As the U-M’s Office of the President continues to support the new campus-wide initiative known as “The Inclusive History Project,” there is public interest in learning more about important events which have shaped the Michigan experience. In 2014, Michigan Radio’s Mark Brush reported on, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s forgotten visit to the University of Michigan’s Campus.” He mentioned what former U-M President, James Duderstadt told one Michigan Daily reporter, Haley Goldberg, in 2012. Duderstadt said, “There apparently was a controversy because in his speech, King suggested the importance of civil disobedience, and I guess a couple of the University regents raised concern about that.” He continued, “It was almost 50 years ago, and it was a time when Martin Luther King was a pretty controversial person. The FBI was tracking him and so forth.” A few weeks before Dr. King arrived on the Ann Arbor Campus, University President Harlan Hatcher admonished the students to obey the law and avoid holding large-scale demonstrations and rallies outside the Michigan campus. As the Bentley Historical Library noted, “King was on campus as the leader of the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference and was advocating student civil disobedience — something that the leaders of the University at the time were likely weary of.” and Alan Haber were on the tentative program list. U-M President Harlan Hatcher and his three vice presidents were also on the tentative list to lunch with Dr. King. Student reporters for the Michigan WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 The University of Michigan Office of Religious Affairs invited King to their annual religious lecture on November 5, 1962. They also invited University of Chicago Theology professor Preston Roberts and Northwestern University Philosophy professor Paul Schllpp. The Office of Religious Affairs asked other groups on campus to co-sponsor King’s visit; the U-M Office of Special Projects became a co-sponsor. The Women’s International League, Challenge and Voice also supported the event. The Bentley Historical Library noted “that all three associated organizations were sympathetic to the causes espoused by King." The Voice campus political party was established in 1960 by Tom Hayden. The Voice also became a key chapter of the new campus organization known as Students for a Democratic Society. The Voice platform called for “eliminating inequality, especially economic, social and racial inequality.” Although the Voice supported the civil rights bill proposed by President Kennedy in 1962, they felt that it did not go far enough. The Voice also supported what John Lewis’ Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was trying to accomplish in the segregated South. The Challenge was a student organization established in 1960 in order to bring prominent national figures on campus to help discuss problems and issues of national importance. It originated at Yale University and spread to other campuses, including Michigan. The U-M student organizers who co-sponsored King’s visit were able to include the names of 23 faculty faculty sponsors. They included Robert C. Angell, Kenneth Boulding, Angus Campbell, William Haber, E. Lowell Kelly, Theodore Newcomb and Alan F. Smith. Planners of King’s visit wanted him to give a lecture in the morning, and another lecture in the evening. Invitations were made to 50 to 60 people, including student organizers, to join King for a luncheon at the Michigan Union. Voice Members Tom Hayden Daily — Majorie Brahms and Martha MacNeal — said that King framed his lecture and discussion by stating that every man is “heir to a legacy of dignity and worthiness,” and that man’s essential rights do not originate from the State, but rather are established by God. King touched upon integration and the immoral nature of racial discrimination. He expanded on that theme, pointing out that the American dream cannot be separated from the world dream of brotherhood. King told his audience at the Hill Auditorium that, “We must learn to live together as brothers or we will die together as fools.” The Bentley Historical Library mentioned that King condemned the concept which stated that one race is superior to another as outdated, and called for its abolition. The Historical Library also said the portion of King’s lecture which he directed specifically to students urged them to take action and join the growing student movement. Apparently, he had been briefed about the recent State of the University address given by President Hatcher in which Hatcher had encouraged students to limit their involvement in student movements and to restrict their activities to the campus. King sharply disagreed, telling students that they "have a responsibility to participate in the movement." He went on to tell them that to him, education meant "being true to studies yet devoting oneself to a significant cause like integration.” Dr. King inspired so many students who heard his lectures and/or talked with him on November 5, 1962. One such student became Dr. Larry Brilliant. In his 2013 commencement speech at the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Brilliant gave credit to Dr. King for “inspiring him to his life’s work, which included eradicating the world of smallpox and working for global sustainability.” Unfortunately, King did not agree to a second visit despite repeated attempts to bring him back to the Ann Arbor campus. We are grateful that he visited Ann Arbor during the heyday of the civil rights movement. He brought his perspectives on the concepts and techniques of citizen participation, humanity, moral compass, civil rights and of course, David Thoreau’s ideas of civil disobedience for peace and justice. Dr. King’s Visit to Detroit Detroit was a paradox in the early 1960s. It was the fourth largest city in the nation and the population was close to 2 million. There was extreme poverty alongside middle-class prosperity. Dr. King was invited by the Detroit Council for Human Right to participate in a civil rights march on the streets and a rally at Cobo Arena. What Dr. King called the “greatest demonstration for freedom” happened on June 23, 1963. More than 125,000 people walked down Woodward Avenue in Detroit as part of the Detroit Walk to Freedom. They also held a big rally inside and outside the Cobo Arena after the street March. They were marching in Detroit to promote civil rights. Writer Ken Coleman of the Michigan Advance newspaper noted that the idea behind the rally was “to highlight social inequities in the Motor City which included housing discrimination, poor police-community relations and lack of economic opportunities for Blacks and other people of color.” Participants who joined Dr. King in the street march and Cobo Arena rally were thousands of ordinary folks. Other influential people included Reverend C.L. Franklin, the father of famous singer, Aretha Franklin. Rev. Franklin was also the Pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church. There were other clergymen, such as Pastor Albert Cleage of Central Congregational Church; and Rev. Nicholas Hood, Pastor of Plymouth United Church of Christ. Former Michigan Governor John Swainson, Detroit Mayor James Cavanaugh, UAW President Walter Reuthers and many more community leaders participated in the march. Michigan Advance noted that during the June 23, 1963 event at Cobo Arena, King delivered a precursor to the “I Have A Dream” speech which he gave in frontof the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. In King’s Detroit speech, he said: “Almost hundred and one years ago, on September the 22, 1862, to be exact, a great and noble American, Abraham Lincoln, signed an executive order, which was to take effect on January the first, 1863. This executive order was called the Emancipation Proclamation and it served to free the Negro from the bondage of physical slavery. But one hundred years later, the Negro in the United States of America still isn’t free.” The Detroit Walk to Freedom and the Cobo Arena speech by Dr. King gave much needed impetus to the “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington D.C. Subsequently, the Detroit and see MLK VISITS next page 

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