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50th Anniversary of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

by on April 17, 2013

On April 16, organizations around the world  held events to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”  The ALA Headquarters in Chicago was one of several hundred sites that held events where the letter was read aloud. At the ALA event,  two of  the readers, Haki R. Madhubuti and Bennett Johnson, had worked with King during the civil rights movement. Other readers included Carolyn Anthony, PLA President-elect and director of the Skokie (Ill.) Public Library; Ben Rodriguez, chair of the Spectrum Scholarship Program Advisory Committee; Keshia Garnett, manager of Chicago Public Library’s West Englewood Branch; Satia M. Orange, former director of ALA’s Office for Library Outreach Services; Kim Belware, associate Chicago editor, Huffington Post; Felicia R. Shakespeare, library media specialist at Ross Elementary School, and Lian Sze, editorial assistant for PLonline.  Read the full text of the letter here.

Read more:

http://www.bplonline.org/programs/1963/Letter.aspx

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/04162013/ala-celebrates-50th-anniversary-letter-birmingham-jail

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/16/177355381/50-years-later-kings-birmingham-letter-still-resonates

 


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