Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - 2026

I was a student at Cornell College (Mt. Vernon, Iowa), when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke there on October 15, 1962. You can read his speech here. 

Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929. He died on April 4, 1968, 5½ years after this speech. 

Every few years I re-read this speech. I was sitting in the front row in King Chapel*, on the left side facing the stage. The podium had been placed on the left side of the stage, as the audience faced it. I was seated about 25 feet from where he was speaking.

In April 1968 I was living in a near-west suburb of Chicago, and my office was downtown in the Loop. The riots in Chicago were serious, and I was nearly caught in one after I left my office on a Monday evening.

What has improved in race relations since then? Not much. Maybe nothing. Riots in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, and throughout the country solve nothing. Now they are instigated on social media and well-funded organizations.

* King Chapel was completed in 1882 and is named for Dr. William T. King, who was the college president after the Civil War.

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