By: Shane Roerk
Ekstrom Library was host this week for a travelling exhibit displaying the writings of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.Ekstrom Library, and was the only KY stop on the exhibit’s tour.
The King Center Imaging Project is a coordinated effort created by JPMorganChase Bank in an attempt to raise awareness of the King Center’s digital database headquartered in Atlanta. According to Amy Purcell, the head of the library exhibit committee and one of the project’s overseer’s here at the University of Louisville, said the King Center has digitized over 100,000 key documents from King’s life.
Purcell saw this exhibit now only as an opportunity to raise awareness of the exhibit but also of his visit in the spring of 1967. King came to Louisville to visit family and spoke to a mass of students in the Allen Courtroom at the Brandeis School of Law.
The database included his famous speeches, sermons and letters of correspondence. The exhibit utilized touch screen computers to allow visitors with direct access to the database.
The exhibit also offered two interactive features: a dream wall where visitors could write their dream down and allow it to be hung behind the exhibit for the duration of the exhibit, and an electronic guest book.
The exhibit was in the Ekstrom Library lobby from Monday the 21st through Friday the 25th for all who wished to come by and explore the documents.
Photo Courtesy of Google Images
