Six Cities to Explore Martin Luther King’s History

Lists: From Atlanta to Washington, D.C., Larry Bleiberg highlights the must-see places where the civil rights leader lived and made history

Washington, D.C.

King made international headlines during the March on Washington. Visit the site of his stirring address at the Lincoln Memorial.

The most famous words of the 20th century were delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech will be remembered long after our civilization is gone. He delivered the final address during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event drew 200,000 spectators, a quarter of them white. Celebrities on hand ranged from Sammy Davis Jr. to Marlon Brando to Bob Dylan.

A marker, dedicated in 2003 by King’s widow Coretta Scott, memorializes the moment. The memorial has been the site of many other pivotal moments in U.S. history. Some say the modern civil-rights movement got its start with Marian Anderson’s 1939 Easter Sunday concert at the memorial. The African-American performer had been banned from performing at Constitution Hall by the owners, the Daughters of the American Revolution.

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Larry Bleiberg is the creator of CivilRightsTravel.com. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, he served on a Pulitzer Prize team, and was honored for producing the best newspaper travel section in North America. He has been published around the world, and his work has been cited in volumes as varied as "The Everything Creative Writing Book" and "The Dangerous World of Butterflies."


2 Comments for Six Cities to Explore Martin Luther King’s History

daniel 01.19.10 | 2:04 AM ET

I would add Chicago to this list, arguably the site of his greatest failure.

Larry Bleiberg 01.20.10 | 11:02 AM ET

Good suggestion. King said that he had never seen resistance like he had in Chicago. Said it was worse than anything he had seen in the Deep South. The Chicago Tribune just ran a good overview, including video: http://bit.ly/60t6OH

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