Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King Jr. Meet the Press Transcript, March 28, 1965

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Ephemera and pamphlets

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Meet the Press: America’s Press Conference of the Air. Volume 9, Number 11, Sunday March 28, 1965, preserves the printed transcription of King’s nationally broadcast NBC appearance during the climactic phase of the Selma voting rights campaign. Issued only weeks after the violence of “Bloody Sunday” and shortly before passage of the Voting Rights Act, the transcript documents King’s articulation of strategy, nonviolence, federal intervention, and Southern resistance before a national television audience. Questioned by producer Lawrence Spivak and journalists John Chancellor, Tom Wicker, and James J. Kilpatrick, and moderated by Ned Brooks, King responds to challenges regarding protest tactics, federal authority, and the moral basis of civil rights agitation. The printed record captures a critical moment when civil rights leadership engaged directly with mass media to shape national public opinion and legislative momentum.

Martin Luther, King, Jr. Meet the Press—America’s Press Conference of the Air. Washington, D.C.: Merkle Press Inc., 1965. Edition not stated, presumed first. 8vo. Stapled printed wrappers. 10 pages. No illustrations. Typographic transcription of the March 28, 1965 NBC broadcast produced by Lawrence Spivak. Together with: King, Martin Luther, Jr. The Civil Rights Struggle in the United States Today: An Address Delivered at the House of the Association on Wednesday April 21, 1965. New York: The Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 1965. Edition not stated, presumed first. 8vo. Stapled printed wrappers. 24 pages. No illustrations. Supplement to Volume 20, Number 5 of The Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, containing King’s April 21, 1965 address and introductory remarks by Judge Rosenman. Both publications are contemporary printed transcriptions intended for limited professional and civic circulation.

Issued within one month of each other, these two pamphlet publications document King’s dual strategy in spring 1965: direct engagement with national broadcast journalism and formal address before elite legal institutions. The Meet the Press transcript records King under adversarial questioning at the height of the Selma campaign, while the New York Bar address situates civil rights within constitutional and jurisprudential discourse as Congress debated federal voting protections. Together they illuminate how movement leadership navigated media, law, and public opinion in the months immediately preceding the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Light handling creases to wrappers; interiors bright and clean; staples secure; overall near fine condition for the Merkle Press offprint and fine condition for the Bar Association supplement. A cohesive pair of ephemeral 1965 printings preserving King’s public argument at a decisive legislative and media moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

Item #16742

Price: $1,200.00