Gordan Martin, Jr., a retired judge, will tell the stories of unsung people – of teachers, lawyers and others – who opened the door for African-Americans to vote in 1960s Mississippi. on Monday Martin will address the annual Martin Luther King Jr. dinner and program at First Congregational Church in Melrose.

When Martin arrived in Mississippi in 1962, he was a Boston native and newly minted lawyer. Martin was inspired by then-President John F. Kennedy charge to do “what (I can) do for my country?” His responded by proving how local registrars were keeping blacks, who already couldn’t eat or wash alongside whites, from voting. In 2010, his book, "Count Them One By One," was published.

When Martin has addressed local groups, such as the League of Women’s Voters of Wellesley, he’s emphasized the importance of ordinary citizens giving personal accounts of injustice they’ve encountered. Here, he points out pages of his book with photographs and an old newspaper clipping.

Reproduced in the book as a black and white photo, Martin poses in this 1989 image with T.F. Williams in Palmers Crossing, Miss. Williams was a witness in the U.S. v. Theron Lynd case.

Martin said Americans must still be vigilant to defend their rights under the Constitution’s 15th amendment, adopted after the Civil War in 1870. It grants all citizens the right to vote regardless of color or race and empowers Congress to enforce the article with appropriate legislation.