Dallas, Dallas County
SMU students were becoming more active in civil rights when at least 50 traveled from Dallas to march from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965. A few months later, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accepted an invitation to the campus from the SMU Student Senate. On March 17, 1966, he spoke to a crowd of 2,700 at McFarlin Auditorium. Citing history and longstanding challenges, he listed practical reasons why segregation should end before stating, "in the final analysis, racial injustice must be uprooted from American society because it is morally wrong." Dr. King received a standing ovation in his first Texas visit to a predominantly White university. His speech influenced many to engage in movements for equality on campus, in their city and in the nation. (2021)