Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Today at the information desk, we had a patron looking for Martin Luther King Jr.'s  "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." The patron wanted a printed copy to read in order to celebrate MLK day which is this coming Monday. While looking for this letter online, we came across Stanford University's collection of King's papers which have been digitized. We found a digitized version of an early draft of the letter along with a recording of King reading the letter. You can see other items like King's birth certificate, an invitation to the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, and much more on the site.

The library also has a nice collection of books, DVDs, sound recordings about Martin Luther King Jr. Here are a few you can check-out for your own MLK day celebration:

The movie, Selma, depicts the march led my Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. It won an Academy Award for Best Original song.

Checkout the library's sound recording of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" read by Dion Graham.

Or one of many great books or biographies on Martin Luther King Jr. like Death of a King: the Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year by Tavis Smiley with David Ritz or The Speech: the Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream by Gary Younge.