To honor of the life + legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and in observance of MLK Day, we dug into his ties to the Lowcountry. More specifically, his ties to South Carolina.
Here’s some Palmetto State-centric history about the civil rights leader:
MLK in Columbia
King visited the state capital to give an honorary banquet at the Township Auditorium on September 28, 1959.
While in town for a few days, he delivered an address at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the Township.
MLK at Emanuel AME Church
In 1962, the civil rights leader visited Charleston’s Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church to speak to about the importance of registering to vote. There were ~3,000 people in attendance.
MLK’s speech in Charleston
King was also in Charleston five years later. On July 30, 1967, he gave a speech:
“We live in America. We have to face the fact that, honestly, racial discrimination is present. So don’t get complacent. We made some strides. We made some progress here and there and it hasn’t been enough. It hasn’t been fast enough. We still have a long, long, way to go.”
Dr. King in Columbia, SC to address a meeting held in his honor at the Township Auditorium on September 30, 1959. | Photo courtesy of The State Newspaper Photograph Archive at Richland Library.
MLK’s “lost tapes” in Summerville
Decades later, a Summerville family found a recording of the 1967 speech:
The 40 minute recording was found in a box and included the civil rights leader saying, “[They] said I came to Charleston to start a riot, been here a week organizing. As much as I talk about love, how could anybody accuse me of organizing a riot?”
Dr. King in Kingstree
On May 8, 1966, King spoke at Tomlinson High School to encourage voter participation in elections. He urged voters in the state to protect + expand civil rights with a “march on the ballot boxes.”
Recording of MLK in Charleston
In 2019, a rare recording of one of his Charleston speeches sold for $68,000 in a civil rights auction in New York City. The speech includes King’s calls for the crowd to help build the Black community.
