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President Clinton was in Atlanta today, to commemorate the birthday of Martine Luther King, Junior. We hear remarks the President made at The Reverend Doctor King's former pulpit at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. (1:30) 11. LETTER FROM THE BIRMINGHAM JAIL - On this observance of the birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., we hear an excerpt of a letter written by King while he was imprisoned in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. He is responding to a letter written by several white clergymen who criticized King's acts of civil disobedience and suggested his civil rights agenda could best be achieved in the courts. The exceprt is read by actor Wilson Cain III.

Noah talks to Steve Delsohn (del-SON), author of 'The Fire Inside: Firefighters Talk About Their Lives.' Delsohn interviewed 108 firefighters for his book. Two of those firefighters, Phillip Buffa of Washington, D.C.'s Rescue 3 and Keith Walker, Jr. of Alexandria, Virginia's Engine 55, met with Delsohn while he was visiting the Washington area. The firefighters talked about their fears of flashovers (when entire rooms ignite all at once) and of being trapped alone in a burning building. Delsohn says that about 100 firefighters are killed in the line of duty every year while another 100,000 are injured. (The Fire Inside: Firefighters Talk About Their Lives' is published by Harper-Collins.)

Gulf War veteran Louis Jones, Jr., admits he kidnapped, raped and killed a young soldier. He was sentenced to death for the crime in 1995. He says chemical exposure during the war caused organic brain damage, and he wants President Bush to grant him executive clemency. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Jones' lawyer, Timothy Floyd.

The 1960's civil rights struggle was documented on Motown Records Black Forum label. Suzanne Smith, author of Dancing in the Street : Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit (Harvard University Press), tells Frank Stasio about these rare recordings, which include an early version of the I Have A Dream speech of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Detroit in 1963. (NOTE: These recordings are not currently in print. To obtain rare recordings, check used record shops, search internet auction sites such as e-bay, or post your wants in music or oldies newsgroups on the web.)

In 1994, legendary singer Pops Staples, the partriarch of the gospel group The Staples Singers, spoke with NPR's Liane Hansen about his friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The two men last spoke in Memphis just a few weeks before Dr. King was assasinated there in 1968. In an excerpt from that interview, Pops Staples, who died this past December, remembers the great civil rights leader, and performs one of Dr. King's favorite songs, Why Am I Treated So Bad.

Morehouse College in Atlanta is looking for a site to house the private collection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. following a deal that will prevent the papers from being auctioned off.

As an aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Andrew Young helped draft the legislation that became the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Young talks with Scott Simon about the ongoing fight to protect minorities' voting rights.

Wesley Brown graduated from the Naval Academy in 1949 — the first African American to do so. Others had tried, but were forced out by racism and even violence. Brown and author Robert J. Schneller, Jr., tell John Ydstie about efforts to integrate the Academy.

Pentagon officials confirm that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, will give up his command this summer. But officials deny the move is linked to allegations that Sanchez knew about abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's second-ranking general, will replace Sanchez. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Michele Kelemen.

In 1949, when he was 24, Greenberg joined the Inc. Fund, which would later be called the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He worked on some of the most important civil rights cases, including representing Martin Luther King, Jr. He also led the Fund's campaigns to help integrate the University of Alabama and the University of Mississippi. With others, he tried the Delaware and Topeka cases of Brown v. Board of Education. His memoir and history of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is called Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement.