Happy Monday, for real. Since today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, you’re most likely relaxing at home, nursing the remnants of your weekend hangover, while reflecting upon Martin Luther King Jr.’s transformative contributions to the African-American Civil Rights Movement. With the racial unrest of 2014 still fresh in our minds, it’s fair to say that Martin Luther King Day may be more profound today than it has ever been, which is why I’ve assembled the some of the most compelling photos of Martin Luther King Jr. I could find.
©Associated Press
Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested for “loitering” in Montgomery, AL in 1958.
An image taken by White House Press Office Photographer Yoichi R. Okamoto, documenting Martin Luther King’s meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House in 1966.
A photo of Martin Luther King Jr.’s giving a speech with Ralph Abernathy in St. Augustine, Florida in 1968.
Martin Luther King Jr. in St. Augustine, Florida on June 12, 1964.
© Yoichi R. Okamoto via Wikimedia Commons
President Lyndon Johnson meeting with Martin Luther King in December of 1963
Martin Luther King, Jr. kisses Betsy Berry, wife of Edwin “Bill” Berry, the leader of the Chicago Urban League.
Dr. King marches in “The Walk to Freedom” during his visit to Detroit in June, 1963. The march drew an estimated 125,000 people and was the biggest event of it’s kind up to that date.
Dr. King sits in jail in April, 1963, following his arrest in Birmingham, AL.
Dr. King addressing an interfaith civil rights rally in San Francisco, 1964
Dr. King meeting Malcom X as they wait for a Senate debate on the 1964 Civil Rights. This was the only time the two Civil Rights leaders ever met.
Dr. King giving a passionate speech in 1962 at Washington Temple in Brooklyn, NY.