Martin Luther King Jr.

Sesame Street Episode 4911

From The Sesame Street 1976 Calendar

The kids watch an excerpt from King's "I Have a Dream" speech on Sesame Street in Episode 5210.

"New Day" painting by Don Miller from a season 22 Sesame Street segment.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement in the United States of America. His activism and oratory (notably the famous "I have a dream" speech) were nationally influential.

King was assassinated in April of 1968, during the development period of Sesame Street. As Joan Ganz Cooney recalled, "Dr. King was the American hero of my lifetime." Samuel Y. Gibbon, Jr., who had previously turned Cooney's offer of a CTW position down, attended King's memorial service. He recalled that afterwards, "The notion that maybe it was time to do something useful was pretty overpowering" and called Cooney to accept soon afterwards.

References

• Years before the recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, Sesame Street calendars routinely marked his birthday on January 15th.

• King is one of several people named by Roosevelt Franklin's class when he asks them to identify some great people in a 1973 Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School‎ sketch (First: Episode 0515).

• The 1974 album Pete Seeger & Brother Kirk Visit Sesame Street featured "The Ballad of Martin Luther King" performed by Brother Kirk and The Kids.

• The 1979 book Learn at Home the Sesame Street Way includes a section on National Heroes: "You might celebrate a famous person's birthday in a jolly way -- a cherry pie for George Washington -- or with reverence -- a minute of silence in honor of Martin Luther King."

• A painting of King, called "New Day" by Don Miller, appears in a Sesame Street Season 22 filmed segment of a Caucasian boy visiting his African American friend Jamal. He narrates, "that's Dr. Martin Luther King. He was a great African American leader." (First: Episode 2787).

• In Sesame Street Episode 3578 (1997), Miles reads a poem he wrote about his heroes, including Martin Luther King Jr.

• A mock biography of King is seen in the biography section of the Sesame Street Library in Episode 4911 of Sesame Street.

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day serves as the focus for Episode 5210 of Sesame Street. Archival footage of King's famous 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial is used.