Video: Watch Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s previously lost speech from 1962

Eva Terry
·2 min read
Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., center, talks with Francis Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York, left, and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller at a dinner in New York commemorating the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, Sept. 12, 1962.
Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., center, talks with Francis Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York, left, and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller at a dinner in New York commemorating the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, Sept. 12, 1962. | Associated Press
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Jan. 15 was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 95th birthday. The globally known civil rights leader grew up to become one of the most influential men in history.

In his 39 years, King led the 1955 bus boycott inspired by Rosa Parks, began “lunch counter sit-ins” demanding restaurants give all people equal respect, conducted peaceful protests and led the entire 1960s civil rights movement with an attitude of love and kindness, according to Eastern Illinois University.

King was assassinated in the spring of 1968 on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The King Institute at Stanford University reported that King was in Memphis to lead a sanitation workers strike the following Monday.

After his death, violence broke out in over 125 cities in 29 states. The National Museum of African American History & Culture added, amid 50,000 federal troops deployed across the U.S., “Thirty-nine people were killed and 3,500 injured. These uprisings produced more property damage, arrests, and injuries than any other uprising of the 1960s.”

Six years before King’s assassination, he spoke at the Park-Sheraton Hotel in New York City. The only recording of this 26-minute speech was lost until 2013 when an intern discovered it while working for the New York State Museum.

In the speech, King called for a moral reckoning for Americans to act in accordance with the documents that built their country — the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation.

He began, “Mankind through the ages has been a ceaseless struggle to give dignity and meaning to human life. It is that quest which distinguishes man from the lower animals.”

“If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable,” he continued. “The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation.”

Watch and listen to the full speech here.