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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 8h

We are honored to be entrusted with preserving and promoting the King legacy. Thank you to Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King for joining us on this historic occasion!

Reposted by Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute

Arndrea Waters King @arndreaking.bsky.social · 9h

There’s something powerful about being in a sacred space — you can feel the weight of history, the celebrations held, the tears shed, the prayers that have been whispered, the peace that lingers in the air.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 8h

We are honored to be entrusted with preserving and promoting the King legacy! Thank you to Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King for joining us on this historic occasion.

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Reposted by Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute

Martin Luther King III @officialmlk3.bsky.social · 13h

Wonderful evening at Stanford celebrating the grand opening of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Honored to reflect on my father’s legacy of scholarship and activism and moved by the passion of young people continuing his work.

stanforddaily.com/2025/10/15/s...

Stanford celebrates grand opening of Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

The grand opening in Memorial Church included a panel highlighting King’s legacy as a scholar, activist and human being. The Institute will digitize the King Papers to expand global access, inspiring ...

stanforddaily.com

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 5d

Grand Opening of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute

Including special guest speakers, a tour of the space, and reception

www.eventbrite.com

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 5d

🎉 It's #Friday and we're more focused on our party prep than King is on sinking that tricky shot 🎱️!

Don't forget to RSVP for our Tuesday, October 14th Grand Opening. See the link below for details!

King plays pool in Chicago in 1966. Photograph by Bob Fitch, courtesy of the Bob Fitch Photography Archive, Stanford University Libraries.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 7d

During a meeting between the attorney general and agent Courtney Evans on 10 October, the FBI weaponized King aide Stanley Levison's alleged Communist ties to justify expanding surveillance on King and the broader civil rights movement. Learn more here: kinginstitute.stanford.edu/federal-bure...

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

kinginstitute.stanford.edu

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 7d

The FBI had requested to wiretap King adviser Clarence Jones as well as King himself in July 1963, but Kennedy left the authorization for King's wiretap unsigned at that time. Despite his misgivings, Kennedy ultimately bowed to FBI pressure after they sent a new authorization form on 7 October.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 7d

This week in 1963, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy authorized the FBI to wiretap the phones at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Atlanta headquarters as well as at King's home. He later claimed there would have been “no living with the Bureau” if he had not signed the authorization.

Attorney general Robert F. Kennedy (left) meets with civil rights leaders including King, Dorothy Height, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and A. Philip Randolph in the White House's Rose Garden on 22 June 1963. Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, White House Photographs.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 9d

"All you have to have is a heart to serve. All you have to do is figure out how you can use your time, your talent, or your treasure, to help bring about the end of the triple evils.”

- Dr. Lerone Martin, Kaleidoscope Community Conversations, 10/2/2025

MLK & today: Fostoria native, Stanford professor delivers Kaleidoscope address

Dr. Lerone Martin spoke about Martin Luther King Jr.'s work and how it pertains to today at a Kaleidoscope Community event in Mansfield.

www.knoxpages.com

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 13d

Dream big with us as we unveil our brand new space, featured in today's Stanford Report! 🌟 Learn more about how King's life influenced the design of the space by clicking below, and join us for our Open House on Tuesday, October 14th to experience the King Institute's new home in person.

King Institute embraces new home on Main Quad

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute has moved to Building 370 and will officially open its doors with an Oct. 14 event featuring a pane

humsci.stanford.edu

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 14d

Learn more:

Kaleidoscope Series brings Lerone Martin to Mansfield Oct. 2

Scholar and author Lerone Martin will speak Oct. 2 as part of the Kaleidoscope Speaker Series at the Renaissance Theatre.

www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 14d

Get ready, Ohio! 💫 Dr. Lerone Martin is bringing MLK's powerful message of community and compassion to the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield on Thursday, October 2. 🕊

The event invitation reads: "Richland County Foundation presents Kaleidoscope Community Conversations, featuring Dr. Lerone Martin, nationally respected educator and scholar. Dr. Lerone A. Martin is the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University and a leading national voice on religion, race, and American public life. An award-winning scholar and educator, his work has been featured by NPR, PBS, and The New York Times. Thursday, October 2 at 5:30 p.m., hosted on the Renaissance Stage."

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 21d

Join us as we make history at the King Institute's grand opening on October 14th!

Register here: conta.cc/4mxQxYrs

The invitation to the King Institute's October 14th grand opening on the Stanford campus lists featured speakers for the event, including Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, Evan Spiegel, Dr. Lerone Martin, and Marina Limón. The event will also feature remarks from School of Humanities and Sciences Dean Debra Satz and Stanford President Jonathan Levin.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 26d

In his 18 September 1963 eulogy for Wesley, Collins, and McNair, King encouraged mourners to “be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 26d

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church had been used as a headquarters for demonstrations during the Birmingham campaign earlier that year. At the time of the 15 September 1963 bombing, local and state officials were also attempting to circumvent federal court orders to desegregate schools.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · 26d

62 years ago, white supremacists bombed Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls: Cynthia Dionne Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Rosamond Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. In the aftermath, Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson, both teenage boys, were also murdered.

The 25 February 2010 photograph shows the interior of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, courtesy of The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Sep 11

"We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action . . . Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world." --Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam," 4 April 1967

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Sep 9

The Kings recently explored the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute's new exhibits with Director Dr. Lerone Martin. Come check them out for yourself at our Grand Opening on October 14th!

Director Dr. Lerone Martin shows the King family exhibits on Dr. King's life within the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute's new office on Stanford's campus.

Dr. Lerone Martin shows the King family an exhibit on Dr. King's life within the new office space for the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.

Members of the King family examine a document within the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute's new exhibit on Dr. King's life.

Martin Luther King III sits and laughs at a conference table with Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute Director Dr. Lerone Martin.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Sep 5

This Labor Day weekend, we were honored to welcome @officialmlk3.bsky.social and his family to the new home of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute! Thank you Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, and Yolanda Renee King for your continued support of our work.

King Institute director Dr. Lerone Martin shows the King family the Institute's new exhibit on Dr. King's life while current staff and students converse at the conference table.

The King family speaks with current King Institute students within the Institute's new conference room and exhibit.

The King family poses with King Institute staff and students as well as other members of the Stanford community within the King Institute's new conference room and exhibit.

The King family poses with King Institute staff and students within the King Institute's new conference room and exhibit.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 28

Learn about how the 28 August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom placed pressure on Congress to pass comprehensive civil rights legislation:

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

kinginstitute.stanford.edu

Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 28

He later remembered of the March, "And all of a sudden this thing came to me that … I'd used many times before … 'I have a dream.' And I just felt that I wanted to use it here … I used it, and at that point I just turned aside from the manuscript altogether. I didn’t come back to it." Read more:

"I Have a Dream"

kinginstitute.stanford.edu

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 28

King had previously given iterations of his “I Have a Dream” speech at least six times in 1962 and 1963—in Albany, Georgia; Rochester, New York; Rocky Mount, North Carolina; Birmingham, Alabama; Detroit, Michigan; and Chicago, Illinois.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 28

#OnThisDay in 1963, 200,000 demonstrators gathered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In the final address of the day, following musical performances and speeches from other leaders, King departed from his prepared remarks to speak extemporaneously about his dream for the nation.

The photograph depicts a procession of March on Washington demonstrators, many of whom are holding signs demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing, and an end to bias. The two women in the foreground are sisters Delores Coleman (left) and Elsie Eatman (right). Photograph by Warren K. Leffler, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute @mlkinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 28

King Institute director Dr. Lerone Martin discusses insights from the recent release of King assassination files: “The real story here is not about the purported failings of a human being; it is about what happens when you have a government that is not accountable to the people that it governs."

Three things to know about the recently released MLK records

So far, scholars haven’t found anything surprising in the newly unsealed federal documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., says Leron

humsci.stanford.edu