In one, she found the transcript of a speech given at a meatpacking union conference in Chicago, in 1957. The speaker: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
He delivered the remarks at a moment when he had just come to national prominence and was emphasizing the connections between workers’ rights and civil rights.
“It was a really serendipitous moment,” Deng said. “I was very skeptical that I had found something actually important.”
She had: It is one of only two known transcripts of the speech. And it is the missing puzzle piece to other Kheel holdings discovered in 2022, including a rare one-minute audio excerpt and photos of King speaking at the conference – perhaps the only color shots of that event in existence. Only the Wisconsin Historical Society has the same materials; their photos are black and white.
She had: It is one of only two known transcripts of the speech. And it is the missing puzzle piece to other Kheel holdings discovered in 2022, including a rare one-minute audio excerpt and photos of King speaking at the conference – perhaps the only color shots of that event in existence. Only the Wisconsin Historical Society has the same materials; their photos are black and white.
“This transcript is very important – it is one of the earliest materials that we have from Dr. King’s involvement with unions,” said Steven Calco, interim assistant director at the Kheel Center, in Catherwood Library, which is part of Cornell University Library and located in the ILR School.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
