Martin Luther King In Newcastle

by Brian Ward

He wasn’t even supposed to speak; his office in Atlanta had made that very clear. Yet there he was, in the heart of Newcastle upon Martin Luther King, Jr., the foremost figure in the US civil rights movement, making an impromptu speech in which he linked the African American freedom struggle to developments in British race relations and issued a call for all people of goodwill to meet the global challenges of war, poverty and racism. The date was November 13, 1967. The occasion was the award to King of an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Law by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. This book tells the inside story of King’s visit. It explains why he was invited, describes the events of the day itself, and investigates why King flew across the Atlantic to spend less than eleven hours in a city that he knew little about in the midst of his brutal work schedule and at a time of enormous professional strain and personal doubt. It also reveals how film of King’s ‘lost speech’ wa

308 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Gabrielle Tymkow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea King had received an honorary doctorate from Newcastle University - here is the story.