In early May 1964, while the spread of communism dominated politics in the United States, the Civil Rights Movement was nearing a major goal in America, and two famed civil rights leaders came to Brunswick to drum up support for passage of the pending legislation.

The bill sought to grant civil rights to all Americans, and it was hotly debated in Congress and was now set for a vote. It had the full support of President Lyndon B. Johnson, but it faced a great deal of resistance from southern congressional representatives.

On May 5, 1964, Bayard Rustin stepped before a packed house at the Pickard Theater at Bowdoin College. Rustin was a gay, 52-year-old civil rights leader from Pennsylvania who was a major force in the 1963 “March on Washington for jobs and freedom,” and he was an advocate for nonviolent protests.

Rustin’s speech addressed the question of “what to do with the Negro?” For over an hour, Rustin talked about the restoration of dignity through work, saying “a man is what he does.” Rustin’s speech was a powerful and integral lecture to “help people to understand what they are fighting for” in the struggle for civil rights in America.

Rustin described the Civil Rights Movement as “a struggle for [the] emancipation of our nation, for the poor, the dispossessed, regardless of color, race or creed.” Although Rustin’s speech was thought-provoking and moving, Rustin was merely the opening salvo of a two-shot assault on social injustice in America.

At 8 p.m. the next evening, over 1,200 people filed into the First Parish Church as microphones from Bowdoin College’s radio station, WBOR, were in place to record the event. Moments later, the most well-known civil rights leader in American history stepped into the church pulpit to great applause.

For an over an hour, a 35-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, addressed a crowd of Bowdoin students, faculty, staff and “free ticket” holders.

King’s speech asked if “we are making any great progress in the area of race relations in our nation.” And he discussed racial segregation in the American south. “We have come a long, long, way. But, we have a long, long way to go before this problem is solved.”

King discussed the historic use of religious doctrine and biblical quotations in order to create “a thin rationalization to clothe an obvious wrong in the beautiful garments of righteousness.” Yet, King added, “the Sunday school is the most segregated school in America.”

King talked of the “crumbling walls of legal segregation,” and he remarked that “we stand on the border of the promised land of integration” with the hopeful passage of the upcoming civil rights bill.

Although, “we have come a long, long, way,” King explained, “many conniving methods are [still] used to keep Negroes from voting” and they are often “threatened with physical violence and economic reprisals.” And he explained that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated,” King explained, “and although the law cannot make a man love me, it can restrain him from lynching me … and I think that is important, also.”

As serious as King’s historic talk was, it also had its moments of humor receiving grand laughter from the crowd, when early on in the talk he remarked that, “this would be a wonderful place for me to end my talk tonight,” but “it would mean giving a short speech … which would be a magnificent accomplishment for a Baptist preacher.”

King’s Brunswick speech was reminiscent of his famous “I have a dream” speech, held nearly a year before at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

While in Brunswick, King had a “meaningful discussion” with students and he was given a tour of the art museum at Bowdoin College, where a special exhibition on “the portrayal of the Negro in American paintings” was installed. The exhibition included 80 painting by 60 artists, including Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer and John Singleton Copley. King called the exhibition “a breathtaking experience.”

On July 2, 1964, just shy of two months after King’s speech in Brunswick, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the groundbreaking Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. Standing behind him and receiving special recognition for his great efforts in the long and perilous struggle was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The State of Maine was born in a great balancing act for racial freedom in America, and this now legendary visit by Bayard Rustin and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. adds another great moment in Maine’s fight for freedom and another chapter in our long and legendary Stories from Maine.

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.