University Library News
Georgia State University

New Resources: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 15, 2018)

image of Martin Luther King Jr. made up of smaller photos of service activitiesMartin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal holiday designated by Congress in 1994 as a day of service. The holiday falls on the third Monday of January, and will be observed on January 15 this year. Because King’s birthday was January 15, 1929, this year’s day of service falls on what would have been King’s 89th birthday.

The Georgia State University Library has many resources for learning more about King’s life and impact, the broader civil rights movement, and the Civil Rights Movement’s legacy for the 21st century.

Our newest acquisitions include:cover, Clemons, Brown, and Dorsey, Dream and Legacy: Dr. Martin Luther King in the Post-Civil Rights Era

On King and his legacy:

On the Civil Rights Movement more broadly:

cover, Sarah Azaransky, This Worldwide Struggle: Religion and the International Routes of the Civil Rights Movement

Films and Audiovisual:
poster image, I Am Not Your Negro, with James Baldwin's face

  • I Am Not Your Negro (2017; available to GSU affiliates through the Kanopy database; click here and then click on “Kanopy DDA” to access.)
  • The classic civil-rights documentary series Eyes on the Prize is also available through Kanopy; click here for a list of episodes available through Kanopy).
  • Kanopy also includes many other films/videos relating to the Civil Rights movement and its legacy. Try searches with terms like “Civil Rights,” “Martin Luther King,” and other relevant names, or locations (“Selma,” “Ferguson,” and so on) to see more titles.

On the legacy of Civil Rights into the 21st Century:

These are only our newest resources. We have many more resources about King and the Civil Rights Movement.

  • To find resources by King in our library type “King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968″ into the search box on the Catalog tab or the Advanced Discover Search box (both on the library’s homepage), and select “Author” from the dropdown menu.
  • To find resources about King, try the same search, but select “Subject” from the dropdown menu.

The GSU Library also provides access to a number of databases which include many documents and other materials created as part of the Civil Rights Movement; these databases are accessible to GSU students, faculty, and staff (Campus ID and password needed):

image from ProQuest brochure for History Vault
Image from ProQuest History Vault Black Freedom brochure.

These websites are examples of freely available digital collections of similar materials:

cover, William J. Maxwell, F. B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostwriters Framed African American Literature

The federal government’s Corporation for National and Community Service website for Martin Luther King Day of Service contains toolkits and other resources for locating and carrying out service projects for January 15.

Please note that the GSU Library will be closed on January 15, but our databases are accessible from off campus with your GSU Campus ID and password.

Featured image (at top) from Corporation for National and Community Service’s Martin Luther King Day of Service site.