In April 1956, Jet magazine featured a young pastor from Montgomery, Alabama: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At the time, Dr. King had recently emerged as a leader, heading the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Montgomery Improvement Association after Rosa Parks’ historic refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.
Dubbed “Alabama’s modern Moses” by Jet, the article provided an in-depth look at King’s upbringing as a quiet boy from Georgia, raised in a family deeply rooted in the church and a tradition of social action. These formative experiences shaped his philosophy of peaceful, nonviolent activism, which would define his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement.
Twelve years later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, outside his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. This event stunned the nation, including the Salem State community.
King had arrived in Memphis to support a strike by African American city sanitation workers. The night before his death, King addressed the city’s Mason Temple Church, where he stated: “I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”
A week after the assassination, Salem State’s student newspaper The Log ran a two-page spread in tribute to Dr. King. The accompanying articles focused on King’s death as the end of an era and highlighted the uncertainty that faced the nation in his absence. Professor Henry Burns wrote: “Martin Luther King, Jr. is dead and dead too is the American dream. The dream is a long established belief in our country that anyone could find here a spiritually exciting life. The dream was probably dead before King was shot in Memphis, but somehow with King alive there seemed always the possibility that we would find a way for each American to make himself an existence that was spiritually meaningful.” (The Log, Vol. XLI, No. 21)
After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Salem State College President Fred Meier requested permission from the Massachusetts Department of Education to actively recruit African American students, highlighting the lack of Black student enrollment on campus in the post-World War II era. In response, the Afro-American Society was established, playing a pivotal role in Salem State's outreach efforts, including organizing Black High School Days. The society also advocated for the creation of a Black Studies major and pushed for the hiring of more Black faculty and administrators.
Arthur Gerald joined the campus community in 1972 as the adviser to the Afro-American Society. He was appointed Director of the Minority Affairs Program in 1973 and subsequently Associate Dean and Director of the Learning Center. He was a mentor to many students over the 38 years he was associated with the college. He retired in 2010.
For 35 years years, Salem State has honored Dr. King’s legacy with an annual celebration of his life and work. His daughter, Dr. Bernice King, has been among the distinguished keynote speakers at these events.
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Digitized Archives
African Americans at Salem State Photographs and Ephemera
African Americans in Essex County: An Annotated Guide
Charlotte Hawkins Brown Blog Post
Charlotte Forten Blog Post
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