In the 1960s, Motown founder Berry Gordy reached out to Martin Luther King Jr. to see if the record label could help the civil rights leader in his cause for equality. “I saw Motown much like the world he was fighting for — people of all races and religions, working together harmoniously for a common goal,” Gordy told TIME magazine. That resulted in Motown recording and releasing King’s “Walk to Freedom” speech and rally at Detroit’s then-Cobo Hall in June 1963, a precursor to the famous “I have a dream” speech King would later deliver in Washington, D.C. The effort also marked Motown’s first spoken-word recording; the label would later release a posthumous compilation of King’s major speeches, Free at Last.
This MLK Day, Detroit’s Motown Museum will host a special tour about the label’s role in the civil rights movement including the history of its political subsidiary the Black Forum Label, and also offer attendees the chance to listen to the “Walk to Freedom” speech in full in its Studio A. The tours start at 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 20 and run every half hour with the last tour at 5 p.m. Tickets are available at motownmuseum.org for $20, with free admission for children accompanied by an adult.
