The remarks, titled “A Long, Long Way to Go” by historians, appear for the first time in “Ripples of Hope,” a collection of civil-rights speeches published last week to coincide with the 35th anniversary of King’s death. Editor Josh Gottheimer received the remarks from King biographer Taylor Branch, who transcribed them from a police-surveillance tape he was granted access to after years of requests.
As eloquent as it is, this is not an address that King spent months crafting. It was part of a steady stream of speeches reminding followers of his doctrine of nonviolence–at the time, the black-power movement was questioning the ability to effect change with his methods. King delivered many of these pep talks to voting-rights activists in the months leading up to what would be the “darkest hour”: the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., on March 7. “We know his famous speeches,” says Gottheimer, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton. “We don’t often get a chance to hear his day-in-day-out message to the foot soldiers.”
