Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the preeminent leader of the movement to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means, arrived in Sioux Falls on January 12, 1961, a guest of nearby St. John's Baptist Church.

Because of mob violence, the governor of Georgia earlier that day had suspended two black students from the University of Georgia and ordered state troopers to removed them from the school. When interviewed at Joe Foss Field, Dr. King was asked about the upheaval in Georgia. He bluntly answered, "When public officials predict violence, it is an invitation to violence. Mobs function when they feel they are being aided and abetted by law enforcement authorities."

In the afternoon an informal reception was held for Dr. King at the First Baptist Church. That evening he addressed a dinner meeting of the Knife & Fork Club at the Cataract Hotel.

Two years later his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., electrified the nation, and he was honored as Time Magazine "Man of the Year." In 1964 King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday, began in 1986