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Stories

Celebrating MLK

January 14, 2026
updated 1/2025

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day, UW Libraries encourages you to explore resources within our collections and across campus that reflect Dr. King’s work and collective efforts to combat racism, inequality, and injustice in our community and beyond.

  • MLK visit to Seattle – Seattle Labor History Project At the invitation of his friend, Reverend Samuel B McKinney, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Seattle in November 1961. The visit proved to be much more controversial than expected. Rev. McKinney tells the story in a dramatic video interview.
  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – Streaming Video Guide from UW Bothell Library:  a virtual display highlighting streaming videos in our collections that touch on themes related to fights for racial and social justice in the United States since the mid-20th century. More specifically, we have grouped the videos by their specific themes to enable “browsing” across this display. Examples of titles include:

film cover image

Whose Streets?  “Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising.”

I am Not Your Negro “Using James Baldwin’s unfinished final manuscript, Remember This House, this documentary follows the lives and successive assassinations of three of the author’s friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., delving into the legacy of these iconic figures and narrating historic events using Baldwin’s original words and a flood of rich archival material.”

Arc of justice: the rise, fall and rebirth of a beloved community  “This film traces the remarkable journey of New Communities, Inc. and the struggle for racial justice and economic empowerment among African Americans in southwest Georgia.”

UW Libraries Reading Groups with a Social Justice Focus

REAL Lit[erature]:

Real Lit is an online, peer-based book club led by UW Tacoma Library, in collaboration with the Center for Equity and Inclusion. In the context of the chosen book, students, staff, and community participants share their perspectives and collective experiences.    Real Lit is open to anyone in the UW community.  Learn more.

Community Reads:

Hosted by the UW Bothell/Cascadia College Library, this annual program facilitates quarterly events and/or creative projects in the Library centered around common books or other media. Our intention is to choose readings and other media which will cultivate engagement among the campus community around topics of equity, social justice, and anti-oppression. This program is open to everyone.  Learn more. 

Additional Resources

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