Honoring the
78th Birthday of |
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant ‘Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

— Excerpted from “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
April 16, 1963

Dr. Martin Luther King’s early years in Boston	full story
Dr. King’s April 22, 1965 Joint session of the Massachusetts State legislature	full story
King’s message plays out through tennis	full story
Dr. King’s Boston years: a 1982 letter from Michael E. Haynes	full story
In death, King widow joins holiday tributes	full story
Survey: Mass. race relations still lacking	full story
Education reform key to competing in future	full story
Decades later, civil rights gains may be lost in court	full story