Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Meet the Press’ visit will be re-aired

The 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington is next week, and to commemorate the occasion, NBC News is planning to re-air the Aug. 25, 1963, edition of “Meet the Press,� which featured King as the guest, on Sunday.

The half-hour program, “‘Meet the Press’ Special Edition: Remembering the Dream,� will re-broadcast the entirety of King’s appearance, alongside NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins. King talked about his hopes for the march and the reasons behind it three days before the historic event, in which he delivered his famed “I Have a Dream� speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

The episode, which will air 50 years to the day after its original broadcast, will join the regularly scheduled “Meet the Press� that day, which will be a retrospective of the March on Washington.

PHOTOS: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. -- and the civil rights struggle

In a statement, “Meet the Press’� current moderator, David Gregory, said, “Dr. King’s message resonates as strongly today as it did 50 years ago. This Sunday, we will relive this powerful moment in our nation’s history through the lens of the ‘Meet the Press’ archives as we reflect on the state of the American dream.�

The march was widely believed to be an instrumental step toward the Civil Rights Act being passed by Congress the following year and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, declaring it unconstitutional. The provision was responsible for determining which jurisdictions in the U.S. would need to have all changes to voting qualifications approved by a three-judge panel in Washington.

[Updated, 3:55 p.m. Aug. 21: The special “Meet the Press� will air in Los Angeles on KNBC at 9 a.m. on Sunday.]

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