How Huntsville people heard a version of MLK’s iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech first

When considering the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., especially today on the national celebration of his birthday, one cannot help but recall his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered in Washington, DC, on Aug. 28, 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

But did you know he delivered an earlier version of the speech here in the Rocket City over a year before, or that within a few months, we became Alabama’s first city to begin desegregation?

Read on to learn more about King’s visit to Huntsville, the group that brought him here and their tremendous impact.

“I have a dream…”

King delivered a version of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at Huntsville’s Oakwood College on March 19. 1962. A 2022 report by FOX-54 shared how students at Oakwood remembered his visit.

“It was major, I mean the campus was just on fire that Dr. Martin Luther King was coming to Oakwood. People didn’t even know Oakwood. We were rather a small insignificant church-supported college. But to have that kind of notoriety was big, and as students, we were just pumped. It was fantastic. Many of the themes that he presented at the Mall in Washington D.C. a year later, you can hear on that tape in 1962. So you might say [this was a] proving ground.”

Oakwood College graduate D. Tim McDonald in a FOX-54 interview

Huntsville becomes a civil rights catalyst

According to PBS’s “American Experience,” a local civil rights group, the Community Service Committee, extended the invitation to King as part of its strategy to shape national public perception of Huntsville as its role evolved in the country’s race to the moon. The CSC’s protests began in earnest in 1962 with nonviolent protests and demonstrations.

King delivered two speeches during his time here, one at Oakwood College and another at First Missionary Baptist Church. Over the months that followed, the CSC continued its efforts, targeting the business community with boycotts and picketing, and garnering national attention. In May, city leadership responded, making Huntsville the first city in Alabama to begin desegregation—two full years before the Civil Rights Act was passed.

In September of 1963, Huntsville City Schools became the first public school system in the state to end segregation.

This feature was originally published in a shorter format in January 2023.

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