YouTube Looks Back on MLK in the Media

On this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, San Bruno-based commemorates the civil rights icon and martyr by compiling a series of videos from old news reports that give you a snippet of King's story and message.

The first video is a clip from a "Meet the Press" episode in which King was interviewed a week after leading the march from Selma to Montgomery, AL. When peppered with skeptical questions from white reporters, King kept his poise and emphasized that the demostration was not only necessary to push through the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but also to draw attention to a culture in Alabama that, at the time, openly allowed police brutality and racially-motivated murder against African Americans.

The second video is from the "CBS Evening News" report when King's assassination was announced. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to watch the news on that night.

The third video is from an ABC News report, aired shortly after King's death, about a march in Memphis for garbage workers who were on strike. It reminds us that, later in his life, King wasn't just speaking up for black people or civil rights but also about injustices facing all people.

The fourth clip is a CBS News story about how the Civil Rights Movement strategically used the media to shame Jim Crow laws and the intransigence of segregation.

I added the last clip of King's "I Have a Dream" speech because it is one of the best speeches of the 20th century, and its message still rings true today.