This month in history

42 years ago

On April 27, 1965, more than 4,500 people gathered around Janss Steps to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speak out against racial injustice and the evils of segregation. Just one month after his successful march from Selma to Montgomery, the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize recipient spoke to a campus audience about the need for racial integration, educational opportunity for all and guaranteed voting rights. He appealed to students to join a campaign that summer to double the number of registered black voters in the South. With TV cameras recording his address, King said, "If democracy is to live, segregation must die." Three years later, he was assassinated. Visit www.uclahistoryproject.ucla.edu.