Martin Luther King, Jr.

Object Details

Exhibition Label: Get out the vote effort in Baltimore, Maryland, October 31, 1964; In the weeks leading up to the 1964 presidential election, King crisscrossed the country urging African Americans to exercise the voting rights guaranteed to them by the Civil Rights Act and to go to the polls in large numbers. Although King stopped short of formally endorsing Lyndon Johnson’s candidacy, he argued that a victory by Republican challenger Barry Goldwater—who had voted against the civil rights legislation—would pose "a threat to freedom." Besides spotlighting the presidential contest, King spoke out on local ballot initiatives affecting civil rights. When discussing the impact of his recently announced Nobel Prize, King told a Baltimore audience, "It helps . . . to know that the tide of world opinion is on our side." Afterward, as he rode through the city in an open-air motorcade, exuberant bystanders surged toward his car, eager to greet him and reach for his hand.

1964

National Portrait Gallery

Topic: Vehicle\Automobile; Costume\Headgear\Hat\Police; Human Figures\Policeman; Human Figures\Crowd; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Male; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist\Civil rights leader; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Religion and Spirituality\Clergy\Minister; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nobel Prize; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Presidential Medal of Freedom; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Congressional Gold Medal; Portrait

GUID (Link to Original Record): http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4ce7ceb3e-2d5f-414e-bc5b-4c5d5761925d