Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Philadelphia on August 3, 1965 to protest the discriminatory admission policies of Girard College. Photographs of that visit are now in the Print and Picture Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia and they inspire our discussion today.

Joining us is Mharlyn Merritt, an author and former Free Library employee who attended the march as a teenager; today’s podcast is based in part on her personal account. Kathy Haas, Director of Historical Resources at Girard College, will talk about how Stephen Girard connects to Toussaint Louverture and the importance of that connection to the Civil Rights narrative in the 1960s. And Professor Marlene Daut, specialist in early and 19th-century American and Caribbean literary and cultural studies at the University of Virginia, will discuss Toussaint Louverture’s role as leader of the only successful slave revolt against European powers in modern history.