Martin Luther King, Jr. Signed Peace and Freedom Award Ceremony Program.

KING, Jr..

Item Number: 101268

Rare original program from the 1965 Davenport Catholic Interracial Council Pacem In Terris: Peace and Freedom Award ceremony. Boldly signed by Martin Luther King Jr. on the front panel. On April 28, 1965 at the Masonic Temple of Davenport, Iowa the Davenport Catholic Interracial Council Peace and Freedom Award was awarded to four individuals including King. After accepting the award, King delivered a powerful speech to a crowd of over 800 viewers, demanding their participation in social action to end racial segregation, asserting, “To make justice a reality, we must develop massive action programs. With a strong action program—picketing when necessary, demonstrating when necessary, marching when necessary—all undergirded with the philosophy of non-violence we can bring the American dream into full reality.” In fine condition. Matted and framed with a photograph of King accepting the award and a plaque describing the event. The entire piece measures 29.5 inches by 17 inches.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 through 1968. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and inspired by the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and in 1957 became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). With the SCLC, he led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. He also helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the following year he and the SCLC took the movement north to Chicago to work on segregated housing. In his final years he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971, and as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011.