The photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is part of several items in the University Archive which document King’s visit to Newcastle. The visit was organised as part of a strategy to use honorary degrees to publicise the University’s mission and values to the general public.
King had been nominated by Lord Wynne-Jones, a Labour Party peer and Professor of Chemistry at Newcastle University.
Prior to the visit, there was some concern that King would not be able to make it. He was jailed in Alabama on 30 October 1967 – two weeks before the congregation was scheduled. However, King did arrive in Newcastle on the morning of 13 November 1967. He spent the morning at the Vice Chancellor’s apartment, before heading to King’s Hall in the Armstrong Building for the ceremony.
After the formalities of the Degree Ceremony, King gave a passionate, unscripted speech, during which he connected the African American freedom struggle to developments in contemporary British race relations. A portion of this speech, along with a clip of the academic procession, is available to view online.
Just five months after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s visit to Newcastle, on the 4 April 1968, King was shot dead in Memphis. Newcastle University held a Memorial Service, during which the Vice Chancellor gave a particularly moving eulogy. The university continued to commemorate King through a series of Martin Luther King Memorial Lectures, which have been held sporadically since 1972. In 2017, to mark the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to Newcastle, a statue of Dr. King was unveiled at Newcastle University.
Reference: NUA/052589/14, Photograph of Martin Luther King Degree Procession with C.B. Nicholson (1967), University Archives, Newcastle University Special Collections, GB 186.
