GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made stops in North Carolina a constant part of his mission to expand the civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

He followed up on the launch of the sit-in movement at the Woolworth’s counter in downtown Greensboro on Feb. 1, 1960, but that was by no means the first event that inspired his time he felt the need to speak in the state.

You likely know that one of King’s most loyal and enduring protégés is the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a graduate of NC A&T and a continuing vocal proponent for civil rights everywhere.

What you may not know is that Rev. King was scheduled to speak in Greensboro and in Durham on April 4, 1968, a report in the Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project recounts.

Apparently, he canceled at the last minute because there were greater needs elsewhere. He instead went to Memphis, and that day he was shot and killed on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel.

The celebration of the national holiday in his honor gives us the opportunity to remember five times that King was in North Carolina.

1. Inspiring action

Almost exactly two years before those NC A&T students stood up to discrimination by sitting in, in February 1958, King made what has become a long-celebrated speech at nearby Bennett College that seems almost prescient given today’s political divide and discourse.

King spoke to students – and community members who supported the civil rights movement – jammed inside the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel on Bennett’s campus about elections and the two major parties: “I’m not here to tell you how to vote,” he said. “That isn’t my concern. I’m not a politician. I have no political ambitions. I don’t think the Republican party is a party full of the almighty God nor is the Democratic party. They both have weaknesses. And I’m not inextricably bound to either party. I’m not concerned about telling you what party to vote for. But what I’m saying is this, that we must gain the ballot and use it wisely.”

That was an inspiration to some in attendance who later were involved in the sit-in.

2. Preaching nonviolence

About two weeks after the first sit-in at Woolworth’s, on Feb. 16, 1960, King went to Durham for a speech sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition. The lunch counter boycotts had expanded to Durham – as they had across North Carolina – so when King spoke to what was described as a large evening rally at White Rock Baptist Church, he told the students present to remain nonviolent and not be afraid.

“Let us not fear going to jail,” he said. “If the officials threaten to arrest us for standing up for our rights, we must answer by saying that we are willing and prepared to fill up the jails of the South.”

3. Frontier in the basement

On May 8-9, 1960, a few months after the sit-in, King gave four separate speeches in Chapel Hill, some of them on the UNC campus. One student group had invited King to speak on Sunday night at University Baptist Church, but that sparked controversy, historian Mike Ogle wrote in The News & Observer. The church’s leadership didn’t want King to speak in the sanctuary, not only because he was Black but also because he was controversial. A judge who was a member of the church vehemently opposed his visit, and church members ultimately allowed King to speak in the basement, where the student group met on Sunday nights. The subject of King’s speech? “The Church is the Frontier for Racial Justice.”

4. In Winston-Salem

In 1964, King made the second of two visits to Winston-Salem, the Winston-Salem Journal reported, when he gave what was described as a “rousing sermon” at Golor Metropolitan AME Zion Church. Previously King has spoken at Wake Forest University. He was there to promote voter registration drives, and his remarks were described as a “ fiery, 40-minute sermon.” He encouraged the audience to vote and hold nonviolent protests as a way to change society.

5. A ‘dream’ born

Some historians say it was in a speech that King gave in North Carolina that gave birth to the “I have a dream” phrase that became his hallmark. He used those exact words in speaking to a crowd estimated at 1,800 on Nov. 27, 1962, in a gymnasium in Rocky Mount. Near the end of his speech, he said this, as recounted by oiofamerica.org: “I have a dream that one day right here in Rocky Mount, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will meet at the table of brotherhood, knowing that one God brought man to the face of the Earth. I have a dream tonight that one day my little daughter and my two sons will grow up in a world not conscious of the color of their skin, but only conscious of the fact that they are members of the human race.” He gave his famous speech in Washington, D.C., the next year.