Love Lives Here's Annual Martin Luther King Celebration is January 18!
Still Dreaming: A Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration
of the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Freedom
An MTPR 90-Minute Radio Special, Monday, January 18 at 8 pm
For 13 years, Love Lives Here in the Flathead Valley has presented live in-person tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year will be different. Montana Public Radio will broadcast a 90-minute radio special featuring a special lineup of speakers on Monday, January 18, at 8 pm, commemorating the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The 1963 March on Washington is best remembered for Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. But so much more happened that hot summer day.
It was August 28, 1963, when 250,000 marchers rallied in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Thousands traveled by road, rail and air to Washington, D.C. More than 2,000 buses, 21 chartered trains, 10-chartered airliners and uncounted cars converged on the Capitol. All regularly scheduled planes, trains and buses were filled to capacity, and yet there were no incidents of civil unrest or violence.
The March on Washington was organized by A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and vice-president of the AFL-CIO, with Bayard Rustin, leader of social movements for civil rights, nonviolence and gay rights. They focused on the core goals of the civil rights movement: jobs and freedom.
The crowd rallied for ten hours listening to ten speakers including John Lewis, a future Congressman, a series of clergy, and Dr. King and to performances by opera singer Marian Anderson, Mahalia Jackson, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Odetta. The Freedom Singers lifted the crowd to new heights singing “Oh Freedom.”
This year’s Martin Luther King Celebration will feature selections from the other fiery speeches that day that are rarely mentioned. The Rev. Dr. King, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, and others spoke of the ways that America had delivered a “bounced check” to its African-American citizens.
We have gathered several distinguished civil rights activists and leaders to reflect on these speeches and give us a progress report on how America is delivering on those promises from 1963. The featured speakers are:
Rev. David Rommereim, civil rights leader
Judith Heilman, Executive Director of the Montana Racial Equity Project
Samantha Francine, civil rights activist
Franke Wilmer, Professor of Political Science at Montana State University
Eldena Bear Don’t Walk, Chair of Montana Human Rights Network
Jamar Galbreath
Murray Pierce, Director of Multi-Cultural Affairs at the University of Montana
Professor David Krugler, Professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin
This presentation is a lesson in hope and humility as we consider the violence that erupted in our nation’s Capitol on January 6. Love Lives Here and MTPR invite you to listen as Americans today offer hope and remind us of how far we must go to fulfil the vision of equality and opportunity that fueled the civil rights era. That hope and desire for making the beloved community and keeps us moving forward today, even through violent opposition.
This radio special was produced by Allen Secher and Bruce Guthrie and will be broadcast at 8 pm, January 18 on your local MTPR station or streaming the program on mtpr.org. You can tune in at one of these FM stations.
89.1 Missoula
89.5 Polson
89.9 Great Falls
90.1 Kalispell
90.5 Libby
91.3 Butte
91.5 N. Missoula
91.7 Helena
91.7 Dillon
91.7 Whitefish
91.9 Hamilton
98.3 Swan Lake
107.1 Marysville