The Smithsonian Channel debuts a new documentary tonight on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that includes rare footage of the days leading up to the iconic Civil Rights leader's murder in Memphis in April 1968.
"MLK: The Assassination Tapes" relies solely on archival films, photographs and recordings from television and radio news coverage, as well as audio recordings of local police scrambling to secure the Lorraine Hotel minutes after King's shooting was reported.
The C-Span Campaign 2012 Bus will be in downtown Raleigh on Monday with special programs highlighting Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.
The bus, which will open to the public at 9:30 a.m. on Edenton Street near the capital, comes to Raleigh as part of C-SPAN's "Road to the White House" tour. It will move at 10:45 a.m. and reopen at 11 next to the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts at the Corner of Wilmington Street and South Street.
Visitors will be able to access information both inside and outside the bus on HD TVs, touch screen computers, laptops, and mobile devices. The content will consist of archival clips and historical programming focusing on Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.
We're not going to find out, at least anytime soon, the results of a recent poll that Public Policy Polling did on the Wake County school system.
PPP says the poll conducted two weeks ago was for a private client and not for public release. PPP is a Democratic-leaning polling firm so you can guess who might have asked for the questions.
According to two people who were robocalled by PPP, they were asked questions such as:
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday has come and gone, but there is one item of observance left to come.
That would be the City-County Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Program, at noon Feb. 16.
Durham's sixth annual observance was originally set on Jan. 12. That day turned out too icy to encourage anyone getting out and around, so authorities called for a rain (so to speak) check.
Among the observances involved are presentation of Humanitarian Awards to city and county employees and a speech by David C. Forbes, a Raleigh minister and veteran of the 1960s civil-rights movement.
The event, at First Presbyterian Church, 305 E. Main St., is free to the public.
Wake County school board member John Tedesco says Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker's latest criticism of the school board "disappointing" and fanning the fires in the community.
In an interview today on The Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF, Tedesco criticized Meeker for making politically charged comments on Martin Luther King Day. In an interview in which Tedesco also tried to claim King's legacy, he called Meeker a "liberal elitist lawyer" who wants to "tell the rest of us what to do."
"I think it's very disappointing that just a couple of days after the President has come out and made a national call to move beyond the rhetoric and work together, you have this mayor in this city would chose a day of honor, of peace in someone like Dr. Martin Luther King's name to fan the fire even more," Tedesco said.
Like Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, Gov. Bev. Perdue used today's Capitol Broadcasting MLK Interfaith Prayer Breakfast to take some shots at the Wake County school board.
Perdue's criticism of the school board and the elimination of the diversity policy was a bit more veiled than the remarks made by Meeker. But she clearly conveyed to the audience that she wasn't happy with what was happening in the Wake school system.
"I have never heard a tribute to Martin Luther King on any day anywhere in North Carolina or America where somebody didn't say during their talk, 'His work is not done,'" Perdue said. "And if you live in Wake County, his work is not done."
Invoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker issued a call to arms today for the public to get involved in this fall's Wake County school board elections "to get the board back on track."
Speaking this morning at Capitol Broadcasting's MLK Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, Meeker said "we have four members of the school board who are way off track." Presumably, he's excluding Debra Goldman from this group because of her splits with the other GOP members on some student assignment votes.
Here are Meeker's complete remarks, which were repeatedly interrupted with applause:
At N.C. Central University, a Martin Luther King march and rally scheduled for Tuesday has been pushed back a week due to the winter weather.
The rally will be held Tuesday, Jan. 18. Participants are asked to meet at 10:40 a.m. that day in front of the student union.
Evening classes tonight (Monday) have been canceled and classes resume Tuesday at 11 a.m.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, (D-GA) will speak at N.C. Central University next week as part of the university's Martin Luther King Convocation.
Lewis, a giant of the civil rights movement, will speak Thursday, Jan. 13 at 9:45 a.m. in the McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium.
The event is part of a weeklong observance of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
While a student at Fisk University, Lewis organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn. In 1961, he participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at southern bus terminals.
In 1963, he became head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which helped shape student activism during the civil rights movement.
Later in life he got into politics, first with the Atlanta City Council and later in the U.S. House of Representatives, to which he was first elected in 1986.
Ask around about favorite months, and some people might name June — a nice month for weddings. There’s also October (great leaf colors, depending on where you are), or March madness and the onset of spring.
Almost no one, however, will say January, which might be the most dreaded, hated month of the year. February isn’t too popular, either, but does at least have the advantage of being short. By contrast, January can seem interminable — 31 short dreary days and long frigid nights, with not much to do except contemplate another year long gone.
Or as an old-English rhyme puts it: "The blackest month in all the year is the month of Janiveer."
With so much stacked against it, it’s no surprise that January can seem...well, cranky about its lot. Now that another January is upon us, we rang it up for a chat.
Q: Hello, January, how are you?
A: Swell. Just...swell.
Q: What's the matter?
A: For starters, do you have to say my name like that? It almost sounds like you're holding your nose.
Q: I thought I was just saying it normally.
A: Yeah, that's the problem with my name. January. I've always hated it, you know. Other months have all the fun, and better names, too. "March," that's nice and short and active. Forceful, even. "June," same thing, almost sounds like "jump." "August," what better adjective could you ask for? And all those "-ber" months at the end of the year — September, October, November, December — they just roll right off the tongue. But my name, people almost wince when they say it.
Q: Where does your name come from anyway?
A: The Greek god Janus, whose name means "door." The god of beginnings. He also has two faces, one to look to the past and one to look to the future. February gets the god of purification, March the god of war, May the goddess of spring. But I get this two-faced freak who can't make up his mind if he's living in the past or the future. Just my luck.
Q: Don't you think you’re being just a little defensive?
A: Maybe so. But how would you feel if the only things people associated with you were hangovers, maxed-out credit card bills, busted new year's resolutions and Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Q: Oh, come on. You get all the good football bowl games.
A: But not the Super Bowl, not anymore. That little punk February gets it, the no good so-and-so.
Q: Do things get pretty heated among the months? Do you spend a lot of time ribbing each other?
A: God, yes. March still gets pretty uppity with me, since he used to be the first month of the year under the old 10-month Roman calendar. December is always such a pompous goody-goody. And ever since 9/11, September has been just insufferable. There's talk of retiring that date now.
Q: I'm sure lots of fascinating, important things have happened in January.
A: Name one.
Q: Uh...
A: The Challenger space shuttle blew up on Jan. 28, 1986.
Q: Oh, no.
A: Jesus was circumcised on new year’s day.
Q: Uh...
A: And the drinking straw was patented on Jan. 3, 1888.
Q: January, I think we're really reaching now.
A: See what I mean?
Q: Don't you get Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday?
A: Yes, there’s that — Jan. 15. I also get Mozart (Jan. 27) and Elvis Presley (Jan. 8). But also Richard Nixon (Jan. 9).
Q: Hey, a lot of people would probably call that a good thing.
A: You're too kind.
