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Experience the speech
Just days after the start of the Greensboro sit-ins In February 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered what would become a widely influential speech titled, “A Creative Protest.” Despite the historical and rhetorical significance of what is commonly known as the “Fill Up the Jails” speech, no recordings exist. Here, for the first time, using advanced digital and audio technology, we provide an opportunity for scholars, students and citizens to experience and explore this important speech.
View a video about the Virtual MLK project
Audience perspective (floor)
The Virtual Martin Luther King project is a multi-phase project of North Carolina State University’s Communication department, led by Dr. Victoria Gallagher. The first phase began with a public performance and follow-up studio recording of the text of the speech by MLK voice actor Mr. Marvin Blanks. To learn more about how the public performance of the speech was staged for an audience of over 200 people on June 8, 2014 visit the Phase One Development page.
The second phase of this project is to build this website to make the different immersive audio recordings available to scholars, students, and the North Carolina and national public. The ultimate goal is the creation of an immersive experience that will place audiences/visitors into a multimedia representation of the White Rock Baptist Church (projected on the walls of the lab) as they listen to the speech from various positions around the sanctuary.
Hear the live reenactment (historical perspective)
Hear the live reenactment (speaker’s perspective)
Hear the live reenactment (balcony perspective)
See the Virtual MLK Project interview with WRAL TV 5