The major events of the civil rights movement are well known: Montgomery. Selma. Birmingham. But cities like Fresno and Bakersfield were also dealing with the same issues of racial injustice and inequality. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots the story of Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Bakersfield.
Let’s go back to February 25, 1960. King had just moved to Atlanta from Montgomery to run the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and to be more involved in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. With those big changes underway, he flew to California for a series of meetings and speeches, including one at Bakersfield’s Harvey Auditorium.
In Bakersfield, King led a march from Lowell Park, down Chester Avenue to the Bakersfield High School campus. Participants in the march met with opponents, who reportedly threw bottles and bricks at the marchers, but the march and King’s speech went on. Unfortunately, the text, or even an account of King’s Bakersfield speech doesn’t exist today.
Roughly four years later, King would return to the Central Valley, leading a march and rally in Fresno against discrimination in housing. More on that in another episode.
