Ten years ago, Negroes seemed almost invisible to the larger society, and the facts of their harsh lives were unknown to the majority of the nation. (Oh yeah) It is no longer possible to count the number of public establishments that are open to Negroes. This is an accomplishment whose consequences are deeply felt by every southern Negro in his daily life. During this era the entire edifice of segregation was profoundly shaken. In assault after assault, we caused the sagging walls of segregation to come tumbling down. Ten years ago, all too many Negroes were still harried by day and haunted by night by a corroding sense of fear and a nagging sense of nobody-ness. A decade ago, not a single Negro entered the legislative chambers of the South except as a porter or a chauffeur. Ten years ago, legislative halls of the South were still ringing loud with such words as “interposition” and “nullification.” All types of conniving methods were still being used to keep the Negro from becoming a registered voter. Negroes in desperate need of allowing their mental buckets to sink deep into the wells of knowledge were confronted with a firm “no” when they sought to use the city libraries. Negro boys and girls in dire need of recreational activities were not allowed to inhale the fresh air of the big city parks. Negroes, burdened with the fatigue of travel, were still barred from the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. The downtown restaurants were still off-limits for the black man. Negroes with the pangs of hunger and the anguish of thirst were denied access to the average lunch counter. It was this meeting that gave birth to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.Īnd when our organization was formed ten years ago, racial segregation was still a structured part of the architecture of southern society. Abernathy, our distinguished vice president, fellow delegates to this, the tenth annual session of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, my brothers and sisters from not only all over the South, but from all over the United States of America: ten years ago during the piercing chill of a January day and on the heels of the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, a group of approximately one hundred Negro leaders from across the South assembled in this church and agreed on the need for an organization to be formed that could serve as a channel through which local protest organizations in the South could coordinate their protest activities.

Chapter 15: Atlanta Arrest and Presidential Politicsĭr.Chapter 8: The Violence of Desperate Men.

Chapter 6: Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.Major King Events Chronology: 1929-1968.

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