MLK's "Walk to Freedom" in 1963

[JL2648]

Today there are big doings in Detroit to mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Walk to Freedom" in the city. Does anyone know if Motown had an involvement with this 1963 event? -Jeff

[Kamasu_Jr]

Motown was very involved. It released an album of Dr. King's speech in Detroit that day. Gordy 906. The recorrd contains a version of the I Have A Dream speech that preceeded the same titled speech King gave in Washington that summer.

[JL2648]

Motown was very involved. It released an album of Dr. King's speech in Detroit that day. Gordy 906. The recorrd contains a version of the I Have A Dream speech that preceeded the same titled speech King gave in Washington that summer.

Ah, good to know. I just assumed that album was a recording of the later Washington speech. -Jeff

[Kamasu_Jr]

Motown released two or three albums on Dr. King, the March On Washington and The Detroit Walk To Freedom. At one time, Dr. King was considered a Motown artist.

[nabob]

Motown released two or three albums on Dr. King, the March On Washington and The Detroit Walk To Freedom. At one time, Dr. King was considered a Motown artist.The third album appeared on the Black Forum label - 451 as Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam released in 1970. I was never fortunate enough to locate a vinyl copy of the album, but eventually obtained a poor quality cassette from the King Center here in Atlanta. The speech was delivered from Riverside Church in New York. Taking a political stance made Dr King view more of a "subversive" since he was playing in an arena larger than Civil Rights.

[splanky]

The Black Forum label was Motown's first real attempt at showing the company had BALLS...
I had vinyl of a few of their albums and was pissed when they discontinued it...

[booty]

There were three albums issued on Gordy, "The Great March To Freedom
Detroit" - June 23rd, 1963 [[Gordy 906), "The Great March On Washington
Washington" - August 28th, 1963 [[Gordy 908) & "Free At Last" [[Gordy 929). In 1970 "Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam" was issued on Black Forum 451 and since then two further compliations were issued "Compact Command Performances - His Greatest Speeches In Their Original Form" [[Gordy 6220) 1994 and "In Search Of Freedom - Excerpts From His Most Memorable Speeches" [[PGD Special Markets 520330) 1996.

[marv2]

http://www.freep.com/article/20130621/COL10/306210017/Martin-LUther-King-NAACP-Detroit-march-anniversary-Wendell-Anthony

[carole cucumber]

On a visit to Hitsville in the 1980's, [[the pre-elaborate gift-shop era), there was a tall metal cabinet on the 2nd floor which contained copies of most of the Black Forum albums for sale along with 'In Loving Memory' and 1 or 2 other titles that obviously had not sold as well as expected when issued.
With the number of Motown albums that had ended up in the $1/$1.99 cut-out bins at budget level department stores in the 1970's, I don't remember seeing those titles then. I remember feeling fortunate to find them at Hitsville in the 1980's at a cost of $5 per album.

[carole cucumber]

Now that I think of it, at least 2 of the [[Gordy) MLK albums were also for sale on that same trip to Hitsville.

[reese]

I remember seeing the first two MLK Gordy albums at a Strawberries record store in the early 80s. This was before Motown started their reissue program. So I don't know if these were cut-outs or albums that had stayed in print.

In any event, I wish I had bought them as the only ones I've seen since have been used and in very bad shape.

[R. Mark Desjardins]

A quick search on eBay Tuesday, July 02, for Martin Luther King showed several copies of all the various Motown associated releases of his famous speeches available at very reasonable prices. Hopefully some of the previous posters on this thread who expressed an interest in these recordings can take advantage of this. To facilitate your search, type in "music" in the category designation.