"The Relevance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Today"

On January 21, 2009, hours after the nation’s historic presidential inauguration, Dr. Harvard Sitkoff, professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, lectured in the North Lounge of Cushing on “The Relevance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Today.”

A Martin Luther King, Jr. biographer, Sitkoff, reminded students, faculty, and staff that the United States has not fulfilled King’s dream of peaceful equality. After illustrating the tumultuous social and political landscape of King’s day, he stressed King’s radicalism and the decline in popularity that preceded his death.

Sitkoff explained King’s primary occupation as a preacher, proving “ordinary people can bring about social change.” In the spirit of passive resistance, King worked to eliminate the evil ingrained in American society by using moral persuasion.

King’s compelling rhetoric coupled with his spirit of radicalism demonstrated “King made history and was made by history,” Sitkoff concluded. He emphasized that the passage of the voting rights act ultimately led to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, a historic moment in the nation’s history.

Sitkoff has published numerous books on King, civil rights, and postwar America; his latest publication, King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop, was released in 2007.

This event is part of a series of lectures, film screenings, and discussions titled “Race Matters” running Monday, January 12 through Thursday, January 27, 2009.

Harvard Sitkoff, professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, received his Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop (2008), The Struggle for Black Equality (25th Anniversary Edition, 2008), A New Deal for Blacks (30th Anniversary Edition, 2009), The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People (6th edition, 2008), Postwar America: A Student Companion (2000), Racial Desegregation in Public Education in the United States (2000), The World War II Homefront (2003), and A History of Our Time (7th edition, 2008).

His articles have appeared in the American Quarterly, Journal of American History, and Journal of Southern History, among others. He has taught at Queens College, Washington University, and San Diego State University, lectured at nearly a hundred universities abroad, and has been awarded the Fulbright Commission’s John Adams Professorship of American Civilization in the Netherlands and the Mary Ball Washington Professorship of American History in Ireland.