LibGuides: Heritage &amp; Awareness Celebrations: Martin Luther King Day

MLK Day at PEA

A Brief History of Martin Luther King Day at Phillips Exeter Academy

This day at Phillips Exeter is a day in which the entire community gathers to honor and celebrate the legacy of Dr. King, to consider the ways in which his legacy has endured and to consider how the work he and others began must continue in new and essential ways. This day began on December 9th, 1989 at PEA when a faculty member, James Montford, went on a hunger strike, a fast for six days, to protest the absence of an institutional celebration, or commemoration of Dr. King. At the time, the state of New Hampshire did not celebrate MLK Day. Since then, we have been blessed to hear keynote speeches from so many involved in the crucial work of social justice and civil rights: James Farmer, Jr., Rev. Samuel Proctor, Julian Bond, Yolanda King, Chai Ling, Sonia Sanchez, Dr. Vincent Harding, Randall Kennedy, William Johnston, John Lewis, Dr. Cornel West, Judy Richardson, Rebecca Walker, Frank Wu, Kenji Yoshino, Gyasi Ross, the ASE Drumming Circle, John Forte, and for two years PEA student stories/testimonies. Our workshops offer a range of perspectives and work, along with a range of pedagogical styles: visual art, theater, poetry, lectures, interactive discussions, films, performance artists, writers, photography exhibits, etc. With each workshop, our hope is that our leaders create the possibility for our students to learn, to unlearn, to find ways in which they can play an active role in the essential changing of culture.

In Celebrating the Dream: 20 Years of MLK Day at Exeter published by The Exeter Bulletin in Spring 2011 you will find examples of past workshops and the philosophy of the day within our community.

MLK Resources at the Library

Books, films, and other resources by and about MLK. Available in the libraries print and online collections.

Works by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Books, Films and Music about Martin Luther King
A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.
FILMS ABOUT MLK (KANOPY)

Books on Display

A selection of books related to this year's poster exhibit on Activism: Dr. King's Inspiration and Legacy

ATHLETE ACTIVISM

We Matter: Athletes and Activism by Etan Thomas
Publication Date: 2018
For "activists who want to hear athletes using their voices to address social justice."
Featuring interviews by former NBA player Etan Thomas with over fifty athletes, executives, media figures including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, John Carlos, Laila Ali and Chamique Holdsclaw.
Ways of Grace: Stories of Activism Adversity, and How Sports Can Bring Us Together by James Blake; Carol Taylor
Publication Date: 2017
Inspired by Arthur Ashe's bestselling memoir Days of Grace, a collection of positive, uplifting stories of seemingly small acts of grace from across the sports world that have helped to bridge cultural and racial divides. Like many people of color, James Blake has experienced the effects of racism firsthand...In Ways of Grace he reflects on his experiences and explores those of other sports stars and public figures who have not only overcome adversity, but have used them to unite rather than divide.... Weaving together these and other poignant and unforgettable stories, Blake reveals how, through seemingly small acts of grace, we can confront hatred, bigotry, and injustice with virtue--and use it to propel ourselves to greater heights."
It Was Always a Choice by David Steele
Publication Date: 2022
The recent flashpoint of Colin Kaepernick taking a knee renews a long tradition of athlete-activists speaking out against racism, injustice, and oppression. Like Kaepernick, Jackie Robinson, Paul Robeson, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos--among many others, of all races, male and female, pro and amateur--all made the choice to take a side to command public awareness and attention rather than "shut up and play," as O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods did. Using their celebrity to demand change, these activists inspired fans but faced great personal and professional risks in doing so. It Was Always a Choice traces the history and impact of these decisive moments throughout the history of U.S. sports.
We Will Win the Day: The Civil Rights Movement, the Black Athlete, and the Quest for Equality by Louis Moore
Publication Date: 2017
This exceedingly timely book looks at the history of black activist athletes and the important role of the black community in making sure fair play existed, not only in sports, but across U.S. society. Most books that focus on ties between sports, black athletes, and the Civil Rights Movement focus on specific issues or people. They discuss, for example, how baseball was integrated or tell the stories of individuals like Jackie Robinson or Muhammad Ali. This book approaches the topic differently. By examining the connection between sports, black athletes and the Civil Rights Movement overall, it puts the athletes and their stories into the proper context. Rather than romanticizing the stories and the men and women who lived them, it uses the roles these individuals played--or chose not to play--to illuminate the complexities and nuances in the relationship between black athletes and the fight for racial equality.
The John Carlos Story by Dave Zirin; John Wesley Carlos; Cornel West (Foreword by)
Publication Date: 2011
Seen around the world, John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s Black Power salute on the 1968 Olympic podium sparked controversy and career fallout. Yet their show of defiance remains one of the most iconic images of Olympic history and the Black Power movement. Here is the remarkable story of one of the men behind the salute, lifelong activist John Carlos. John Carlos is an African American former track and field athlete, professional football player, and a founding member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. He won the bronze medal in the 200 meters race at the 1968 Olympics, where his Black Power salute on the podium with Tommie Smith caused much political controversy.

BLACK WOMEN ACTIVISTS

Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell
Publication Date: 2018
During the Civil Rights Movement, African American women were generally not in the headlines; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. Beyond Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Dorothy Height, most Americans, black and white alike, would be hard-pressed to name other leaders at the community, local, and national levels. In Lighting the Fires of Freedom Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women's all-too-often overlooked achievements in the Movement.
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All by Martha S. Jones
Publication Date: 2020
The epic history of African American women's pursuit of political power -- and how it transformed America. In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this overwhelmingly white women's movement did not win the vote for most black women. Securing their rights required a movement of their own. In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women's political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of black women--Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more--who were the vanguard of women's rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals.
Power Hungry by Suzanne Cope: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement
Publication Date: 2021
Two unsung women whose power using food as a political weapon during the civil rights movement was so great it brought the ire of government agents working against them. In early 1969 Cleo Silvers and a few Black Panther Party members met at a community center laden with boxes of donated food to cook for the neighborhood children. By the end of the year, the Black Panthers would be feeding more children daily in all of their breakfast programs than the state of California was at that time. More than a thousand miles away, Aylene Quin had spent the decade using her restaurant in McComb, Mississippi, to host secret planning meetings of civil rights leaders and organizations, feed the hungry, and cement herself as a community leader who could bring people together--physically and philosophically--over a meal. These two women's tales, separated by a handful of years, tell the same story: how food was used by women as a potent and necessary ideological tool in both the rural south and urban north to create lasting social and political change.
In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America by Kabria Baumgartner
Publication Date: 2019
Uncovers the hidden role of girls and women in the desegregation of American education The story of school desegregation in the United States often begins in the mid-twentieth-century South. Drawing on archival sources and genealogical records, Kabria Baumgartner uncovers the story's origins in the nineteenth-century Northeast and identifies a previously overlooked group of activists: African American girls and women. In their quest for education, African American girls and women faced numerous obstacles--from threats and harassment to violence. For them, education was a daring undertaking that put them in harm's way. Yet bold and brave young women such as Sarah Harris, Sarah Parker Remond, Rosetta Morrison, Susan Paul, and Sarah Mapps Douglass persisted. In Pursuit of Knowledge argues that African American girls and women strategized, organized, wrote, and protested for equal school rights--not just for themselves, but for all. Their activism gave rise to a new vision of womanhood: the purposeful woman, who was learned, active, resilient, and forward-thinking. Moreover, these young women set in motion equal-school-rights victories at the local and state level, and laid the groundwork for further action to democratize schools in twentieth-century America. In this thought-provoking book, Baumgartner demonstrates that the confluence of race and gender has shaped the long history of school desegregation in the United States right up to the present.
Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kate Clifford Larson
Publication Date: 2021
Few figures embody the physical courage, unstinting sacrifice, and inspired heroism behind the Civil Rights movement more than Fannie Lou Hamer. For millions hers was the voice that made "This Little Light of Mine" an anthem. Her impassioned rhetoric electrified audiences. At the Democratic Convention in 1964, Hamer's televised speech took not just Democrats but the entire nation to task for abetting racial injustice, searing the conscience of everyone who heard it. Based on new sources, including recently opened FBI files and Oval Office transcripts, the biography features interviews with some of the people closest to Hamer and conversations with Civil Rights leaders who fought alongside her.Larson's biography will become the standard account of an extraordinary life.

Films

A selection of films related to this year's poster exhibit on Activism: Dr. King's Inspiration and Legacy

A Place of Rage: African American Women who Revolutionized Society
Publication Date: 1991
This exuberant celebration of African American women and their achievements features interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. Within the context of the civil rights, Black power and feminist movements, the trio reassess how women such as Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer revolutionized American society. Official Selection at the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. (Women Make Moves, 52 minutes)
Brother Outsider: The Life of Freedom Fighter Bayard Rustin
On November 20, 2013, Bayard Rustin was posthumously awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Who was this man? One of the first "freedom riders," an adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and A. Philip Randolph, organizer of the march on Washington, intelligent, gregarious and charismatic, Bayard Rustin was denied his place in the limelight for one reason - he was gay. This film contributes a fascinating new chapter to our understanding of both progressive movements and gay life in 20th-century America. Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival. (1 hr. 25 min.)
Not Just a Game: Power, Politics & American Sports
Publication Date: 2010
In NOT JUST A GAME, the powerful documentary based on his bestselling book The People's History of Sports in the United States, Zirin argues that far from providing merely escapist entertainment, American sports have long been at the centre of some of the major political debates and struggles of our time. In a fascinating tour of the good, the bad, and the ugly of American sports culture, Zirin first traces how American sports have glamorized militarism, racism, sexism, and homophobia, then excavates a largely forgotten history of rebel athletes who stood up to power and fought for social justice beyond the field of play. (1 hour).