Pasadena Black History Month Magazine - February 2023 | Pages 11 & 12
KING TO CALTECH STUDENTS: 'SEEK TO SOLVE LOCAL PROBLEMS'
Martin Luther King Jr. came to Pasadena three times during the Civil Rights Movement. What follows below is an interview with the California Tech newspaper during King's 1958 first visit to the college. The visit came less than a year after President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law. The law was the first major civil rights legislation since post-Civil War Reconstruction and allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to interfere or prevent someone from voting.
The law also created a commission to investigate voter fraud.
King was just 29 when he gave two speeches at Caltech —"A Great Time to Be Alive" and "Facing the Challenges of a New Age." He gave a third address, "Progress in Race Relations" the following day.
MARTIN KING URGES ACTIVE CONCERN IN RAGE PROBLEMS
By Cleve Moler
"We must have active commitment rather than mere academic acceptance if we are to solve the racial problems that face America today," concludes Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., second Leader of America to visit Caltech this year.
King, a Negro Baptist minister, President of the Montgomery, Alabama, Improvement Association and leader of the integration movement, spent three days on campus under the sponsorship of the YMCA.