On the 1957 PBS program, The Open Mind, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared his thoughts on the question, “what and who is the New Negro,” from host Richard D. Heffner.
“The new Negro is a person with a new sense of dignity and destiny, with a new self-respect along which is this like, a fear which once characterized the Negro, this willingness to stand up courageously for what he feels is just and what he feels he deserves on the basis of the laws of the land. I think also included would be this self assertive attitude that you just mentioned and all of these factors come together to make what seems to me to be the new Negro.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.