Government Resources on Martin Luther King: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy

The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives at Catherwood Library in Cornell's ILR School contains a rich treasure trove of primary sources pertaining to Dr. King and Coretta Scott King’s work with unions, particularly Local 1199, ILGWU, ACWA, Fur Workers’ Union, and noted arbitrator Theodore Kheel and Ann Sustein Kheel.

The King Institute provides access to thousands of documents, photographs, and publications about the modern African American Freedom Struggle. Use this page to navigate to resources about King's life and work.

Initiated by The King Center in Atlanta, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project is one of only a few large-scale research ventures focusing on an African American. In 1985, King Center's founder and president Coretta Scott King invited Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson to become the Project's director.

The Howard Gotlieb Archival Center at Boston University, the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, and the Morehouse King Collection established a collaborative partnership of King’s papers. Working closely together, these three academic institutions formed the MLK Jr. Archival Collaborative in 2007 to coordinate efforts to preserve King historical materials.

The Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection represents much of Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work spanning from 1944 to 1968. The collection of approximately 10,000 items includes hundreds of handwritten notes, famous and lesser-known speeches, manuscripts, sermons, and other writings of unparalleled historical significance.

This guide is divided into 10 different categories. Each is designed to give the researcher ideas on how to track down material relating to King's legacy. In the first category a rare video clip from a 1967 interview with King on the civil rights movement

Freedom's Ring is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, annotated. Here you can compare the written and spoken speech, explore multimedia images, listen to movement activists and uncover historical context.

A list of iconic Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes, plus how to listen to his speeches and read his work.

Watch and read Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, 10 December 1964

On September 12, 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech in New York City to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The New York State Museum has the only known audio recording of this speech. For the first time, the public can listen to the speech in an online exhibition on the New York State Museum's website.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his contributions to the fight for civil rights in the face of Jim Crow laws have had quite a lasting, international impact. This sentiment holds within every event, tribute, or art piece created in his honor. Over the decades, artists have shared their admiration for MLK through various mediums. Whether in sculpture, wood engraving, painted portrait, or mural, these artworks prove Dr. King's influence is everlasting.

Here are some of the most notable MLK statues and some of the stories behind them.