Welcoming EVERYONE

On March 14, 1968, Nobel-prize winning activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. arrived at Grosse Pointe High School (now Grosse Pointe South High School) to deliver a passionate speech entitled, "The Other America." He spoke to a crowd of over 2,500 people in the packed gymnasium while hundreds of picketers from the right-wing organization, "Breakthrough" protested out front. The speech was delivered just three weeks before Dr. King's assassination.

According to the Grosse Pointe Historical Society, on the ride to deliver his speech, the Grosse Pointe police chief sat on the lap of Dr. King, fearing an attack. Despite concerns, the speech was delivered without incident.

Now, 53 years later, We GP and the Grosse Pointes & Harper Woods  NAACP branch will celebrate the anniversary of this historic speech at 9am on Sunday March 14 by reciting it and streaming it via Facebook Live.

For more information, see the links below:

Dr. Martin Luther King's 1968 Speech (gphistorical.org)

MLK’s Grosse Pointe speech heard nearly 50 years later (detroitnews.com)

The night Martin Luther King Jr. came to Grosse Pointe (freep.com)

That time Martin Luther King Jr. defied hecklers in Grosse Pointe speech in 1968 (motorcitymuckraker.com)

Remembering the day Martin Luther King Jr. came to Grosse Pointe (michiganradio.org)

For more information about race in Grosse Pointe, please visit our Justice Is The Pointe series.