Journal
The National Civil Rights Museum stands as a reminder of how far we’ve come, and how far we still need to go. As seen in Memphis magazine by Tom Jones, June 29, 2026 It was an improbable journey that took the run-down…
Letter from the President
National Civil Rights Museum Op-Ed as published in The Daily Memphian Dr. Russ Wigginton, President On June 19, 1865, a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas, and read aloud four sentences that changed lives: the…
Voices
By Hasan Jeffries Few people are more deserving of the praise they receive than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His commitment to social justice and racial equality was unshakable. His belief in nonviolence was unwavering.
Voices
By Ashley Farmer By 1966, calls for “Black Power” electrified the nation. In the preceding year alone, black Americans had witnessed the assassination of Malcolm X, riots it Watts, the black section of Los Angeles, and…
Voices
By Amy Nathan Wright In May 1967, Dr. King announced to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), “We have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights,” from a “reform movement,” into “an…
Voices
By Jeanne Theoharis The air was hot and sticky. Surrounded by clergy, Rev. William Barber lambasted the voter suppression that had compromised the 2016 presidential election. “Long before Russia hacked our election, our…
Voices
By Yohuru Williams Seeking perspective on the current chaotic state of U.S. politics, I reread a powerful speech delivered fifty years ago by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in September 1967.
Voices
By Danielle L. McGuire On September 3, 1944, Mrs. Recy Taylor, a slender, copper-colored and beautiful twenty-four-year-old mother and sharecropper, walked home from a church revival in Abbeville, Alabama.
Voices
Each generation looks at history from a different perspective. As someone who came of age in the 1960s, I followed King’s agenda closely. When he urged young men to refuse the draft, I became a conscientious objector.
Voices
By Ibram X. Kendi When Americans remember Martin Luther King Jr., we first and foremost remember his “dream” that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of…
Voices
By Aram Goudsouzian As Sidney Poitier strode across the stage of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the audience erupted in cheers. People stood, they clapped, they whistled and roared, they yelled Bravo!
Voices
By Jakobi Williams Several political and media pundits have drawn parallels between activists of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement of today.