The sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., comprise an extensive catalog of American writing and oratory â some of which are internationally well-known, while others remain unheralded and await rediscovery.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a prominent African-American clergyman, a leader in the civil rights movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
King himself observed, "In the quiet recesses of my heart, I am fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher."
Speechwriter and orator
The famous "I Have a Dream" address was delivered in August 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Less well-remembered are the early sermons of that young, 25-year-old pastor who first began preaching at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. As a political leader in the Civil Rights Movement and as a modest preacher in a Baptist church, King evolved and matured across the span of a life cut short. The range of his rhetoric was anticipated and encompassed within "The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life," which he preached as his trial sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in 1954 and every year thereafter for the rest of his life.
Sermons
- 1953 â "The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life"
- 1954 â "Rediscovering Lost Values", Sunday February 28, Detroit, Michigan.
- 1955 - "The Impassable Gulf (The Parable of Dives and Lazarus)", Sunday October 2, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1956 - "The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore", Wednesday May 17, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City
- 1956 - "Living Under the Tensions of Modern Life", Sunday September (exact date unknown), Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1956 â "Paul's Letter to American Christians", Sunday November 4, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1957 â "The Birth of a New Nation", Sunday April 7, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1957 â "Garden of Gethsemane", Sunday April 14, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1957 â "Loving Your Enemies", Sunday November 17, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1960 â "Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool", Sunday May 15, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta
- Possibly the first time King delivered a variation of this sermon, see 27 August 1967 below
- 1963 â "Eulogy for the Martyred Children" (victims of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing), Wednesday September 18, Birmingham, Alabama
- 1964 - "Religious Witness for Human Dignity," May 31, Los Angeles Coliseum, California
- 1964 - "Religious Witness for Human Dignity," June 3, Goodwin Stadium, Arizona State University, and Tanner Chapel AME Church, Phoenix, Arizona
- 1966 â "Guidelines for a Constructive Church", Sunday June 5, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta
- 1967 â "The Three Dimensions Of A Complete Life", Sunday April 9, New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago.
- 1967 - "Three Evils of Society" Address Delivered to the First Annual National Conference for New Politics
- 1967 - "The Casualties of the War in Vietnam" Address delivered at the Nation Institute
- 1967 â "Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool", Sunday August 27, Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago
- Possibly the last time King delivered a variation of this sermon, which started at least as early as May 15, 1960 (see above)
- 1967 â "A Knock at Midnight", Delivered on several occasions, including the Installation Service of Ralph Abernathy at Atlanta's West Hunter Baptist Church February 11, 1962.
- 1968 â "The Drum Major Instinct", Sunday February 4, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta.
- 1968 â "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution", Sunday March 31, National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
- King's last Sunday sermon.
- 1968 â "I've Been to the Mountaintop", Wednesday April 3, Mason Temple, Memphis, Tennessee.
- 1968 â "Why America May Go to Hell", planned to be delivered on Sunday April 7, but never delivered due to his assassination.
Speeches
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Notes
References
External links