In this WSB newsfilm clip from Atlanta, Georgia on June 12, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. responds to a reporter's questions about president John F. Kennedy's speech on civil rights and the murder of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) field officer Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi. King asserts that the events of the evening will encourage African Americans in the struggle for civil rights. When asked of a connection between Kennedy's speech and Evers' murder, King recognizes that those who murdered the NAACP worker may have been upset at Kennedy's public support of civil rights. On June 12, 1963 following the peaceful integration of the University of Alabama, United States president John F. Kennedy spoke in a televised address in which he highlighted the national importance of the civil rights struggle. That same evening, NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers, leader of a civil rights campaign in Jackson, Mississippi, was shot to death as he walked between his car and his home.

Title supplied by cataloger.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for digital conversion and description of the WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection.

1 clip (about 1 min.): black-and-white, sound ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. responding to a reporter's question about president John F. Kennedy's speech on civil rights and the murder of Medgar Evers, Atlanta, Georgia, 1963 June 12, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0870, 32:13/33:20, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.