The Ballad of Martin Luther King

Written by	Cleveland Francis, Jr.
Date	1968
Publisher	Man Over Music, ASCAP

"The Ballad of Martin Luther King" is a song recorded for the Sesame Street album Pete Seeger & Brother Kirk Visit Sesame Street released in 1974.

Performed by Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, with The Kids on backup in the chorus, the song tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr. The first verse establishes King as a legend who was hated by bigots, but also as a pacifist who never owned a gun. The second verse chronicles his work in Montgomery, Alabama and the march he led as part of a bus boycott in response to segregation. In the third verse, Dr. King's assassination is attributed to "some sick man" who shot him down. The final verse asks the listener to question their relationship to the events that led to King's murder and describes killing a man out of fear as a symptom of a "sickness in this nation".

The song's lyrics are included in the script for Sesame Street Episode 0362 as meant to be used in item #48. However, the script's outline for item #48 instead describes the closing scene of the episode as a square dance led by Kirkpatrick performing "Stay By Me" as Bob bids the viewer goodbye. The lyrics from the script match the recording for the record, with the exception of the reference to "some sick man" as a redneck.

Ballad of Martin Luther King