I’ve just returned from lunch with a former priest from Chicago who marched in Selma and Montgomery with Martin Luther King Jr. He vividly recalled the hoof marks embedded in the Capitol lawn from police horses brought in to scare the marchers. He spoke of receiving King’s blessing before kneeling on the first two steps of the Capitol in prayer — a prayer that had to be negotiated with police, as the group was prohibited from moving even one step higher (though one priest suggested they make a break for it and run to the top).

Driving between Montgomery and Birmingham in a convertible with black and white priests, they were stopped at a highway roadblock. They were eventually let through, but the fear he felt that day is still evident, more than 40 years later.

Two additions to Jaclyn’s post below — Slate is featuring a Magnum Photos retrospective of MLK. Though the individual photo descriptions are brief, the 43 images are stunningly powerful. And today on Fresh Air, Terri Gross interviews author Taylor Branch, whose most recent book, At Canaan’s Edge, was recently released. It is the third in a trilogy of books about King’s life and the events that shaped a nation. Read Michiko Kakutani’s review in The New York Times here; more reviews from the Chicago Tribune and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.