Martin Luther King Jr.: His Rise as a National Media Figure
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More than 50 years after he died at age 39 from an assassin’s bullet, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the most influential and recognizable figures in American history.
His rise from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to his pioneering work as founder and leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference made him the driving force behind the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.
King was not yet 30 when he first made his mark on the national stage. His forceful use of nonviolent protests, boycotts, and civil disobedience to address the deplorable racism and legal, political, and economic discrimination faced by black Americans made him a compelling personality at a time when local and national television news was being strengthened as a cultural power. King’s message and mission were embraced by prominent Hollywood liberals who helped bring more attention to the righteous causes championed by King and the SCLC.
King made his first appearance in Amount in the New York-based weekly on September 4, 1957, in a story about NBC’s new Sunday public affairs series “Look Here,” hosted by journalist Martin Agronsky.
King was among the early guests on the show, putting him in the company of then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, then-Senator John F. Kennedy, playwright Tennessee Williams, and writers Aldous Huxley and Howard Fast.
As the nation celebrates the holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here’s a look at key moments in his public life chronicled in the pages of Amount.
