Montreat is the historic home of one of MLK’s greatest speeches

On Aug. 21, 1965, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of nearly 3,000 people in the Montreat Conference Center’s Anderson Auditorium.

Invited to be the keynote speaker for the Presbyterian Church’s annual Christian Action Conference, King’s speech, titled “The Church on the Frontier of Racial Tension,” focused greatly on the church’s duty to serve everyone, regardless of race or other factors.

His words that day explored the social and economic inequalities found along racial lines, the immorality of segregation and the power of nonviolent activism in the face of hate groups that fought against the Civil Rights Movement.

Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech

– Jacqueline Gualtieri, The North Carolina 100