One of our patrons, a long-time resident of Springfield, came in last Saturday and asked a really interesting question. He remembers hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak at Jonathan Dayton High School in the 60's but couldn't remember the exact date.

Well, that was something we were happy to look into and we found out some really interesting info and talked to some interesting people on the way. Click the read more link below to read about Dr. King's visit to JDHS which really did happen in April of 1966, to find out who the gentleman on the right is and to see a couple more pictures.

Dr. King had visited Springfield once before in January of 1963. It turns out that Rabbi Israel Dresner - yes, he's the gentleman to the right of Dr. King in the picture and the spiritual leader at Temple Sha'arey Shalom at that time - was a personal friend of Dr. King. Rabbi Dresner had been a leader in civil rights drives in Springfield, Newark and the South. He took part in the Florida freedom rides, the Albany GA prayer pilgrimage and the Selma march to Montgomery, AL.

Dr. King spoke at a Friday Sabbath service in January of 1963. Later that year, in August, he gave the famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in which he said "I have a dream..." In 1964, King accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest man ever to do so. By the time he came back to Springfield in April of 1966, his stature and fame warranted Rabbi Dresner and Temple Sha'arey Shalom who sponsored the event to rent out the auditorium of Jonathan Dayton High School for the event. Dr. King's address was entitled "Revolution in Religion" and in it he described a "moral and spiritual lag" of the nation's religious leaders and organizations vis a vis technical and industrial advances. Pictured below with Dr. King and Rabbi Dresner are other community and spiritual leaders and the mayor at the time, Robert G. Planer on the far right.

900 people came to hear Dr. King. Despite the packed hall, there was an organized group of pickets in front of the high school, mostly from out of town. Picketers had been distributing literature that evening and in the days before the talk accusing King of having Communist affiliations. Dr. King , in his talk urged that Communist China be accepted into the United Nations as it was the most populous country in the world.

He also was in favor of a negotiated solution to the Viet Nam war and a halt to US bombing of North Viet Nam. King said, "Someone must speak out. We may be going down the wrong course. Our foreign policy should follow an affirmative course and not continue purely as a negative reaction to Communism." This was a controversial view and Mayor Planer, who was seated on the platform behind King, had a statement read to declare his disagreement with King over the issues of Viet Nam and Communist China.

Picketers carried signs that said "King is NO Prince of Peace", "For non-violent riots see MLK" and "Martin L. King in Commie training school." The Springfield Leader editorial came down in favor of King's eloquence, saying his views were nothing new and that somebody who fought for the rights of all Americans could never be prey to Communism. It also praised the non-violence of the picketers, declared their rights to demonstrate and praised the Springfield Police Department for their handling of what could have been a dangerous situation.

All quotes here are taken from the Springfield Leader front page story of April 28, 1966 as are the photos in this section. The complete issue can be read online at the library. The first picture was made available courtesy of Rabbi Joshua Goldstein, current spiritual leader of Temple Sha'arey Shalom. The original hangs in the lobby of the Temple.

Thanks go to Margaret Bandrowski and Larry Burnes of the Historical Society, Mr. Keel in the library at Jonathan Dayton and Rabbi Dresner's son for putting the pieces together for us about the dates and events. Thanks also to Mara Friedman for some detective work and to Mr. Jerry Jones for asking the question in the first place!