From the Archives: Dr Martin Luther King at the White House

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Martin Luther King, Jr. leaves the West Wing after meeting with President Johnson. August 5, 1968. Abbie Rowe, NPS: National Archive and Records Administration. (by Abbie Rowe, NPS: National Archive and Records Administration)


To mark Martin Luther King Day, the White House Historical Association has searched their archives and created a slideshow of historic images that show the impact the civil rights leader has had on several administrations. Dr King's interactions with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson leading up to the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the 1968 Civil Rights Act are well documented, but his first visit to the White House was actually in 1958, when he and other prominent civil rights leaders met with President Dwight Eisenhower. Celebrating Martin Luther King,Jr's Life and Legacy features images of Dr King himself at the White House and also includes photos of President Reagan signing the King Holiday Bill in 1983 with Coretta Scott King at his side, and President Obama and his family at the national memorial that was dedicated just last year.


See the slideshow on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehousehistory/6680245345/


President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Civil Rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., Whitney Young, and James Farmer in the Oval Office. January 18, 1964. . (by Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/16/archives-dr-martin-luther-king-white-house