Lost and found, tape preserves Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to Western Michigan University
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — For 30 years, a recording of Martin Luther King Jr's speech at Western Michigan University was lost. Then in 1997, it was found.
The recording and related items at the Zhang Legacy Collection Center preserve a glimpse of the 1960s.
'I believe that we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice,' King said during his Dec. 18, 1963, visit to the Kalamazoo campus.
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His presence was the culmination of decades of WMU students challenging racial discrimination on stage and on the air. In the late 1940s, the Western Michigan College Players performed 'Deep are the Roots.' The stage drama centered around a Black World War II veteran returning home to the South and his experience challenging the status quo, said Sharon Carlson, former director of the Zhang Legacy Collection Center. She said it was the first nonprofessional performance of the play using a mixed-race cast in the United States.
'I know that there were rumblings, even back in the late '40s into the '50s. But I think by the time you get into the '60s, students are questioning a lot of things about culture and society,' Carlson said.
As protests against segregation were at a height around the country, students invited then-Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett, a staunch segregationist, to speak on campus that September. King was invited for an early December visit. Carlson said WMU President James Miller received pressure from then-Michigan Gov. George Romney to reconsider the visit.
'Too much to Dr. Miller's credit, he upheld the students' wishes to bring both of these speakers to campus. The campus prepared in both instances. I think there was some thought that both speakers might bring demonstrations, might bring possibly disruption,' Carlson said. 'I think in both instances, that didn't happen.'
King's visit had to be postponed to later in the month instead of Dec. 2. Carlson said his dedication to keeping the WMU appointment was significant.
'Both Ross Barnett, the governor of Mississippi, and Dr. King were both trying to visit a lot of college campuses. But I've always thought that Dr. King must have been particularly committed to this appearance at Western,' she said.
Before Washington: MLK's famous 'I Have a Dream' speech debuted in Detroit
King's speech echoed in the Read Fieldhouse, where 2,000 people lined the bleachers. It was just four months after his 'I Have a Dream' speech in Washington D.C. A transcript shoed he called for the passing of the Civil Rights Act a year before it was ultimately signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1968, King was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. His voice was heard on the airwaves again when public radio station WMUK rebroadcasted his speech in the aftermath.
That recording would be lost until 1997, when Carlson says it was found at an eastside Kalamazoo grocery store. Phillip Novess, grandson of the store owner, restored the recording with another audio production business owner. It then made its way back to the university and WMUK.
'They were actual tapes. They created a cassette tape for me, and we were doing the transcriptions from the cassette tapes, so we had the speech, we had the introductory remarks, we had the question-and-answer session,' Carlson said.
Interest in transcribing the event soon turned into an operation to further preserve the visit in the form of a website.
'We were trying to put this together and it was rather a quick affair. We'd had the access to the tape, just to give you a sense of the technology, WMUK took these, they were actual tapes. They created a cassette tape for me, and we were doing the transcriptions from the cassette tapes, so we had the speech, we had the introductory remarks, we had the question-and-answer session,' said Carlson.
She said the idea was to put the transcription with photos of the visit.
'Then it became a librarywide effort. The university libraries added to this website. We put some books there. We put some links to other sites regarding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was a website that we frequently referred people to over the years,' Carlson said.
The 1999 website later became inactive due to age, but its content would move on to a .
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While King's Kalamazoo visit was brief, Carlson said it established a legacy. Students were quick to demand aid that made college accessible for everyone, efforts that turned into scholarship programs that continue to this day, like the Martin Luther King Jr. Students Scholars Academy, which provides scholarships and structure for students that leads them to graduation.
'It wasn't really surprising that students, when he was assassinated, were clearly shocked and wanted to try and make some positive things come out of this very unfortunate situation,' Carlson said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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