Summer Student Project – Martin Luther King, Jr.

While a student at Morehouse College, Martin Luther King, Jr. worked in the Simsbury, CT, tobacco fields.  He later wrote and spoke about his summers in Simsbury.  Under the leadership of Social Studies Department Supervisor Richard Curtiss, fifteen Simsbury High School students used sources at the Simsbury Free Library, Simsbury Historical Society, and oral history interviews to document King’s time in Simsbury.  Through guided research, the students also attempted to answer questions posed to them by Curtiss:  Why did King come to Simsbury?  What did he do while in Simsbury?  What effect (if any) did Simsbury have on King?  What was Simsbury like in 1944 and 1947?