While he had visited Louisville many times during the 1960s, this 1967 visit was his only visit to the University of Louisville, and the law school was his only stop on campus.

Just five days after speaking to a packed Allen Courtroom, he delivered his famous antiwar speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” at Riverside Church in New York.

To celebrate the anniversary of this momentous visit, the Brandeis Law Library hosted a panel featuring three speakers who reflected on King’s legacy and the civil rights work that remains to be done: law Professor Cedric Powell; attorney Stephen Porter, who as a law student helped organize King’s visit; and Dr. Ricky Jones, chair of UofL’s Pan-African Studies Department.

“Dr. King’s law school speech is profoundly meaningful to us today,” said Powell, calling on the attendees to embrace their role as public citizens.Ěý

“As scholars, we have an institutional and public duty to enlighten,” he said. “As students, it means holding on to your dreams and recognizing that their will be difficult times in your life and career but that there is power in study and struggle.

“Dr. King said that a time comes when silence is betrayal. As we commemorate Dr. King’s historic visit to our law school, the best way to honor his memory is to break the silence,” Powell said.

Also, on April 4 the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research hosted an MLK Read-In where members of the UofL community read King’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech, largely considered King’s most radical critique of the war and policies that created it. Photos from the read-in are .Ěý

Video from the Law School event is below: 

His first and only visit to this campus happened about a week before his notable anti-war speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” on April 4, 1967 in New York City’s Riverside Church.

UofL will mark both milestones in the coming week; first with a free, public celebration March 30 in Room 275 of the law school, where a speaker panel will share memories of the event and discuss King’s legacy. The event, from noon to 1:30 p.m., will include Stephen Porter, a 1968 law school graduate who invited King to speak at UofL in 1967. Porter, a local attorney, will be joined by professors , Pan-African studies, and , law.

“He loved to speak at colleges,” said Porter in a 2014 UofL video about King’s visit. “As a matter of fact, the ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, he gave that dozens of times before he gave it in Washington and he gave it mostly to college groups.”

According to researchers in the law school, King came to Louisville many times during the 1960s, but March 30, 1967, was the only time he visited UofL.

In 2014, the university unveiled never-before-seen photos of King’s law school stopover. The photo negatives were found among some old files and records. Those photos were reprinted and are now part of a permanent  in the foyer of the law school’s Allen Court Room.

“This was not a very big room, so there were people outside, people literally hanging from the windows,” said Porter, recounting the overwhelming student interest in the event.

Another university MLK-focused 50^th anniversary celebration will be hosted April 4 by the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research. That  marks the anniversary of the civil rights leader’s anti-war speech, which was considered King’s most radical critique of the war and policies that created it; the social justice activist delivered it one year before his assassination.

The institute invites groups and individuals to participate in the 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. read-in of King’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech and have discussions about its relevance today. Locations will be the quad entrance to Ekstrom Library and the ramp (weather permitting) to the Swain Student Activities Center on the Belknap Campus.

Read-in participants can contact the institute via email or 502-852-6142.

Later that day, the institute plans a public open house with refreshments at its office in Room 258, Ekstrom Library, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Below, UofL remembers the MLK visit: