Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day to celebrate the life and work of the civil rights pioneer, to reflect on the progress that’s been made in the many decades since his assassination, and to realize that, good grief, it wasn’t until the year 2000 that all 50 states recognized today’s federal holiday. But all of that was in the distant future on November 23, 1965, the day King spoke to a crowd of approximately 1,000 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Union Ballroom.
In an archival clip from that appearance, the 36-year-old Dr. King discusses school segregation, economic depravation, raising the minimum wage (“to at least $1.75 an hour”), unemployment, and more. “All people of good will must work together in a very vigorous and determined manner to solve this problem, which I think is a basic social evil,” King says of school segregation. That sentiment could apply to anything and everything, especially today.
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