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Martin Luther King: London plaque honours civil rights activist

BBC Martin Luther King speaking in London for the first time in October 1961, at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church.BBC
Martin Luther King speaking in London for the first time in October 1961, at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church

The UK's first blue heritage plaque honouring Martin Luther King has been unveiled in central London.

It has been installed on Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, Shaftesbury Avenue, where Dr King spoke in 1961.

He made a flying visit to the capital two years before his iconic "I have a dream" speech.

Camden Council and the Nubian Jak Community Trust collaborated on the plaque, which is also the first to be put on a place of worship.

The event was attended by the US ambassador to the UK, Jane Hartley, who said the world needs Dr King's message today as much as then.

plaque on wall
The plaque was installed after the ceremony inside the church

The 1961 sermon urged people to live lives of "equal length, breadth, and height".

A "long" life was one where a person's talents are developed to the full, a "broad" life had a concern for the welfare of others, and a life of "height" recognised the need for God as the pinnacle of a complete life.

Martin Luther King was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

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