Born Michael King, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. became the face of the African-American struggle for civil rights in the mid-1950's. Famed for using the principles of nonviolence and civil disobedience, King was the most visible and influential member of the American Civil Rights movement up until his assassination on April 4th, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

As a liberal newspaper promoting a lot of the same ideas as Dr. King, the Bird 's staffers were obviously and evidently very depressed to hear of his passing, and dedicate a significant portion of the issue to remembering both King and his ideals. The cover page displays a button created by the Industrial Workers of the World union memorializing Joe Hill, one of their members who was executed on allegedly trumped-up charges by the state of Utah. In doing so, the Bird is clearly drawing a parallel between King and Hill as two men murdered for fighting for their anti-establishment beliefs.

The second page features an excerpt from an essay King wrote calling for an end to the Vietnam War, as well as King's famous "I have a dream" quote decorated with a bullet. Both King and the Bird carried a common disdain for the Vietnam War, which certainly endeared King to its staff.

Throughout the issue, the Bird allows for multiple voices to speak on King's legacy. One of the editors, for example, expresses his anger at liberals attempting to use King's famed expression of nonviolence as a way to quell dissent but not also adopting his activism and goals: "Their assumption of non-violent posture without King's critical understanding of the American sickness is a blasphemy on his name." This displays the passion of the New Left; far from content with how their fellow leftists are mourning, the Bird challenges them to actively take up his causes instead of just asking for peace.

Another, a guest author, pens a poem called zebrapower dedicated to King. In the poem, the author tells the story of a panther attempting to escape the jackals, whose "sirens whine out of the cities," and heal his wounds. The poem ends with a call for the zebrapeople, who are described as "WHITEBLACKBLACKWHITEREDABITWHITEABITBLACKABITREDALLOV" to distract the "whitehunters" and save the panther. The reference to King as a panther shows the author's solidarity with the Black Panther Party, which may have been considered too radical by some but not by the New Left. The description of the zebrapeople as mulitcolor is meant to expand the call of action to people of all races, also displaying the New Left's intent to liberate and unify all races.