From the archives: Remembering when Martin Luther King Jr. came to Durham

This story was originally published Jan. 7, 2018.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew Durham well. He visited several times, usually staying at the home of N.C. Rep. H.M. “Mickey” Michaux Jr., D-Durham, then a young man.

King’s footsteps in downtown Durham are covered by construction fencing right now for One City Center, which will soon be the city’s tallest building.

But in the early 1960s, that block at Corcoran, Parrish and Main streets was a Woolworth’s. In the wave of civil rights movement sit-ins, King visited Durham and went to Woolworth’s with Rev. Douglas Moore, the Durham pastor behind this city’s sit-in at Royal Ice Cream, and Ralph Abernathy. They were photographed by a Herald-Sun photographer walking down West Main Street and at Woolworth’s, which ended up being closed that day — Feb. 16, 1960.

MLK’s first visit to Durham

King’s first visit to Durham was at the invitation of the Durham Business and Professional Chain. He spoke at the old Hillside High School on Oct. 15, 1956.

Michaux, 87, told The Herald-Sun about how that first visit came to be for a story in 2008. October 1956 was toward the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Michaux was 26 then, and chairman of the Professional Chain’s trade week program.

Michaux brought up a connection to a potential guest speaker, King, as he had gone to boarding school with King’s younger brother A.D. A few in the Chain questioned bringing a Baptist preacher to speak to a business organization, Michaux told me.

But he and Louis Alston made the call, and King accepted the invitation.

Michaux was a graduate student at the then-North Carolina College at Durham — now N.C. Central University — and was living at home with his parents, Henry Sr. and Isadore. King came to the house for dinner, then they walked together to Hillside for his speech, which Michaux recalled was about love for one’s fellow man. King stayed after the speech to talk with folks, then returned to the Michaux living room, talking until 2 or 3 a.m.

‘Fill up the jails’ sermon

During his Feb. 16, 1960, visit to Durham, King preached in White Rock Baptist Church’s original building. King gave his “Fill Up the Jails” speech. White Rock was packed for his visit.

On other returns to Durham, King also spoke at the Jack Tar Hotel, a name that’s been renewed with a new diner in what is now the Unscripted Hotel downtown.

And King spoke at N.C. Central University and Duke University, too. You can listen to King’s 1964 speech at Duke at mlk.duke.edu/king-at-duke/.

An invitation to Durham

King was invited to Durham once again in early April 1968 to help with a political campaign. But he changed his plans, going instead to Memphis to help with the sanitation workers’ strike. It was on that trip in Memphis that he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

There is no historical marker in downtown Durham where King walked. But Durham remembers.

At the Durham City Council meeting on Jan. 2, the council issued a proclamation honoring and remembering King as a “champion of justice.”

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "From the archives: Remembering when Martin Luther King Jr. came to Durham."