Tape of lost MLK speech found among Amherst College archives
More than 50 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at New York’s New School, his hour-long speech is finally available for the public to hear.
It was just a few years ago that researchers realized King had given a speech at the New School in 1964, but couldn’t track it down in their archives, The Boston Globe reported. Instead, a recording was nestled in a box of tapes from Amherst College’s student radio station, where it had sat from 1989 until last October, when an archivist stumbled upon it. It’s the only known recording of the New School speech.
Worried that they might damage the recording, the archivists at Amherst couldn’t even listen to the tape to verify that it matched the label until it was digitized and sent back to the university at the end of the year, the Globe reported. It was then they heard a clear recording of King’s speech, “The Summer of Our Discontent,’’ in which he discussed low income levels in black communities, political leaders resistance to enact civil rights legislation, and inequality in public schools.
“While it is very exciting to be able to add this small piece to the documentation of the rich and important life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this recording can be heard not just as an historical artifact, but as a call to reflect on current events,’’ Amherst archivist Mariah Leavitt wrote in a blog post announcing the recording’s discovery last week.
Listen to the recording here and read the full Globe story here.
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