Dr. Martin Luther King, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, tells a news conference in Philadelphia Feb. 9, 1968 that he will go to Washington in April with thousands of supporters to demand a comprehensive job and income program from the Federal Government. He opened the first office in Philadelphia February 9 in conjunction with this effort. Dr. King said that the temper of the program will be nonviolent, but his people will be prepared to stay until the government responds and legislation to that aim is reached. (AP Photo)
Russ Walker joined PA Post in 2019 as executive editor. He previously worked at KING 5 News, the NBC-affiliated TV station serving Seattle and Western Washington. At KING, Russ oversaw the award-winning investigative unit and managed the newsroom’s daily operations. His background includes stints as an editor for POLITICO, washingtonpost.com, FreedomChannel.com, American Health Line and U.N. Wire. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. Russ and his wife, journalist and cookbook author Kim O’Donnel, live in Lancaster.
AP Photo
Dr. Martin Luther King, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, tells a news conference in Philadelphia Feb. 9, 1968 that he will go to Washington in April with thousands of supporters to demand a comprehensive job and income program from the Federal Government. He opened the first office in Philadelphia February 9 in conjunction with this effort. Dr. King said that the temper of the program will be nonviolent, but his people will be prepared to stay until the government responds and legislation to that aim is reached. (AP Photo)
A moment of silence, please, as we pour one out in memory of our beloved grandparents and great-grandparents who suffered through our country’s experiment with prohibition. On January 17, 1920, the 18th Amendment went into effect. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Bob Batz Jr. looks back at how citizens of Steel City marked the occasion 100 years ago. –Russ Walker, PA Post editor
AP Photo
Dr. Martin Luther King, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, tells a news conference in Philadelphia Feb. 9, 1968 that he will go to Washington in April with thousands of supporters to demand a comprehensive job and income program from the Federal Government. He opened the first office in Philadelphia February 9 in conjunction with this effort. Dr. King said that the temper of the program will be nonviolent, but his people will be prepared to stay until the government responds and legislation to that aim is reached. (AP Photo)
On Monday, Americans celebrate the 91st anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the man whose leadership and ideas helped achieve the great civil rights victories of the 1960s.
What I didn’t know (but should have) is that Dr. King began his career studying in Chester, Pa., earning his divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary.
King’s experiences during his three years at the school, the excellent ExplorePAhistory.com site notes, “proved critical in the development of his thinking,” particularly the notion that pacifism and nonviolent protest could help African Americans gain the rights and dignity denied to them.
More from ExplorePAhistory: “In November 1949, A. J. Muste, the executive director of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, gave a lecture at Crozer which “deeply moved” King, but failed to convince him of the “practicability” of pacifism. However, in the spring, he began to take pacifism more seriously after hearing Dr. Mordecai Johnson, the president of Howard University, speak about Mahatma Gandhi at Philadelphia’s Fellowship House, an inter-faith and inter-racial community center with Quaker roots. Finding Johnson’s message ‘profound and electrifying’ King became ‘deeply fascinated’ with Gandhi.”
Dr. King came back to Pennsylvania many times during his career:
Last year, The Philly Voice published a great collection of photos of the civil rights leader’s visits to Philadelphia.
The Independence Hall Association compiled this list of King’s ties to Philadelphia.
King spoke at Penn State in 1965. Read his remarks here. On nonviolence, he said: “In the long run of history, destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends, and it is a marvelous thing to have a method of struggle which says that means and ends must cohere.”
MLK Day, as it’s known, always falls on the third Monday in January (though the actual anniversary of his birth is Jan. 15). It’s a holiday for most government offices, schools, libraries and many businesses. Many observations focus on service to community. Here’s an incomplete list of events across Pennsylvania:
There are many more events. Try searching online using the keywords “MLK events YOUR TOWN.”
Best of the rest
In this image from video, presiding officer Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts swears in members of the Senate for the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)
For only the third time since the Constitution was ratified nearly 232 years ago, the U.S. Senate convened for an impeachment trial of a U.S. president. Pennsylvania’s two senators, like rest of the chamber, took an oath administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, then signed a book acknowledging their duty as jurors. Both Keystone senators issued statements: Bob Casey (D) and Pat Toomey (R). Here’s a primer on impeachment from senate.gov.
You may not think of hard-hitting investigative journalism when you pass the Cosmopolitan shelf of your nearest magazine rack. But that’s exactly what “Cosmo” brought to the table when it published reporter Sarah McClure’s exposé on sex abuse, rape and incest in Amish communities across the country. Read the story here. Lancaster County Judge Craig Stedman is quoted throughout.
