BU Libraries welcome community to tour the Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room
The BU Libraries is hosting a series of tours of its Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room to provide a space for community members to engage with Dr. King’s life and work through his papers. The archivist-led tours will be held in the afternoon of Saturday, January 25, as part of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day Celebration hosted by Howard Thurman Center and the City of Boston. The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of the BU Libraries holds the University’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection and, for the first time, is providing these formal tours of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room during the annual celebration of Dr. King’s legacy.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room exhibition provides an intimate view of Dr. King’s time at the University, and his leadership of the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement for racial equality in the United States through photographs, handwritten letters and other materials in his papers. King earned his PhD in systematic theology from Boston University in 1955, donating his papers to the University in 1964, saying:
“…many people, as the years unfold, will want to know more about non-violence and they will want to know about the ethical and historical roots of non-violence and there are many things in the collection, from letters to manuscripts, that may be helpful in getting people to see the roots of non-violence in my own thinking and in the movement that I have been a part of in the South.” 1
All are welcome to join this meaningful program and to engage more deeply with Dr. King’s legacy.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Reading Room is in Mugar Memorial Library (771 Commonwealth Avenue). Tours will start at the below times. Click the tour times below to learn more and register:
Learn more about the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Day Celebration 2025 here.
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1 Source of Quote: September 11, 1964 Press Conference with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Boston University, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.