Introduction for Volume VII: To Save the Soul of America

And those people who are working to bring into being the dream of democracy are not the agitators. They are not the dangerous people in America. They are not the un-American people. They are people who are doing more for America than anybody that we can point to. And I submit to you that it may well be that the Negro is God’s instrument to save the soul of America.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
2 January 1961

When forty-three-year-old John F. Kennedy took office on 20 January 1961 as the youngest elected American president, Martin Luther King Jr. had just turned thirty-two but had already risen to national prominence as a result of his leadership role in the Montgomery bus boycott that ended four years earlier. Early in 1957 he had become founding president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and subsequently was in great demand as a speaker throughout the nation. His understanding of Gandhian principles had deepened as a result of his 1959 trip to India, but, during the following year, college student sit-in protesters, rather than King, became the vanguard of a sustained civil disobedience campaign. Having already weathered a near-fatal stabbing and six arrests, King was uncertain about how best to support the new militancy. Moving to Atlanta to be near SCLC head­quarters and to serve as co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church, he had assumed a wide range of responsibilities. He relied on his wife, Coretta Scott, to take the lead role of raising their two small children with a third due any day. Cautious about initiating major protests, King sought to enhance SCLC’s ability to aid local protest movements that he hoped would prod the federal government to support southern civil rights reform. Aware that Kennedy had voted against a key provision of the 1957 civil rights bill while serving in the Senate, King was nonetheless optimistic that the new president would reward the crucial support he received from black vot­ers by backing the civil rights cause.¹

“The new Administration,” King wrote in The Nation during the initial weeks of Kennedy’s presidency, “has the opportunity to be the first in one hundred years of American history to adopt a radically new approach to the question of civil rights.” King insisted that the “intolerably slow pace of civil rights is due at least as much to the limits which the federal government has imposed on its own actions as it is to the actions of the segregationist opposition.” By eliminating federal support and sponsorship of discrimination, the president would be setting “a clear example for Americans everywhere.” King cited historic precedents for the use of federal action in times of crisis and called on Kennedy to redefine federal leadership during his presidency. “It is no exaggeration to say that the President could give segregation its death blow through a stroke of the pen.” In King’s estimation, executive power had never been fully “exploited”; instead “its use in recent years has been microscopic in scope and timid in conception.”²

Ignoring King’s calls for immediate presidential action, Kennedy decided against proposing new civil rights legislation. After signing Executive Order 10925, estab­lishing the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, Kennedy acknowledged the usefulness of legislation but argued that his administration had not yet exhausted all means of enforcing laws previously passed by Congress. At a press conference, he asserted that no new laws would be proposed until he felt “that there is a necessity for a congressional action, with a chance of getting that congressional action.”³ Soon afterward, King expressed impatience with the admin­istration during a question-and-answer session at Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts. He said that he was “willing to wait a few more days; not many more; but a few more days to see what he’s gonna do.” King surmised that Kennedy was hesitant to push for civil rights legislation for fear of jeopardizing other legislative proposals before Congress.⁴ On 16 March King sent the president “belated congratulations” and offered him “support and prayers” as he led the nation “through the difficult yet challenging days ahead.” Acknowledging Kennedy’s busy schedule, King requested a White House meeting, explaining that “a brief discussion on the present status of the civil rights struggle may prove to be mutually beneficial.”⁵

While King waited for a response from Kennedy, the administration partially fulfilled a campaign promise by asking a federal court to add the U.S. Department of Justice as a plaintiff in the Prince Edward County, Virginia, school desegrega­tion case.⁶ King sent Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy a telegram applauding the Justice Department’s “forthrightness and courage in a sincere attempt to solve many of the crises that face our Southland” and promised to support the attorney general’s efforts “to bring our country closer to the fulfillment of its ideals of equal opportunities for all.”⁷ Soon after receiving King’s praise, Kennedy gave his first for­mal address as attorney general at the University of Georgia Law School and called for compliance with federal court orders regarding civil rights. “We know that if one man’s rights are denied, the rights of all are endangered. In our country the courts have a most important role in safeguarding these rights.” He insisted that court decisions “must be followed and respected” and “if we disagree with a court decision and, thereafter, irresponsibly assail the court and defy its rulings, we challenge the foundations of our society.”⁸

As King pressed the Kennedy administration to support civil rights reform, he also recognized that his 1960 tax evasion trial had been a major distraction from his effort to increase SCLC’s effectiveness.⁹ During the winter and spring of 1961, his speaking invitations brought in contributions for the group’s depleted coffers. A celebrity gala in January at New York’s Carnegie Hall netted over $20,000, and a direct mail appeal brought in $30,000 more by May.¹⁰ Even as SCLC built its national donor network, however, King’s concern with fundraising limited his ability to build his group’s local programs.

The challenge King faced from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and college students affiliated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) would become increasingly evident during 1961 and 1962. Protesters eager to practice civil disobedience not only prodded the Kennedy administration to speed the pace of civil rights reform but also put pressure on King to overcome his reluctance to engage in militant direct action. On 31 January, the eve of the first anniversary of the lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina, a small group of protesters affiliated with CORE launched a “jail-in” campaign in Rock Hill, South Carolina.¹¹ When CORE requested assistance from other civil rights groups, SNCC sent four students to Rock Hill to be arrested and join those in jail. In a letter to the students, King praised them for their willingness to remain jailed rather than accept bail, but he did not become involved.¹²

While the Rock Hill protesters were in jail, the Atlanta students resumed the demonstrations they had started a year earlier. King had been jailed for participat­ing in the previous fall’s student-led sit-ins in Atlanta, but this time he played only a supportive role.¹³

He also appeared in a Fulton County courtroom on 15 February for the arraign­ment of a group of protesting ministers, including his former Morehouse and Crozer classmate Walter McCall, who had been arrested for joining the sit-in demonstra­tions.¹⁴ At a rally that evening, King praised the efforts of the students and ministers to defy unjust laws and called upon African Americans to reject token integration. Soon afterward he left Atlanta for a two-week vacation in the Bahamas.¹⁵

Upon his return to Atlanta, King mediated conflicts between increasingly impa­tient student activists and older black leaders. When black attorney A. T. Walden, acting on behalf of the Student-Adult Liaison Committee, negotiated an agreement with downtown Atlanta merchants to end the protests in return for desegregation of downtown stores and a promise to desegregate public schools the following fall, some students objected. White leaders praised the agreement, and several promi­nent African American leaders, including King’s father, signed it.¹⁶

During a 10 March mass meeting at Warren Memorial Methodist Church, some students charged that the adult leaders had sold them out.¹⁷ King watched as stu­dents shouted down his father’s attempt to defend the agreement and then pleaded for calm and unity between both groups. “No greater tragedy could befall the Negro in Atlanta now than to be infected with the cancerous disease of disunity,” King argued.¹⁸ Addressing those who believed that the adult leadership had sold out by accepting the agreement, King said:

If I had been on that committee that met Monday afternoon, I wouldn’t mind anybody saying, Martin Luther King, Jr., you made a mistake. I wouldn’t mind anybody saying, Martin Luther King, Jr., you should have thought it over a little longer. I wouldn’t have minded anybody saying to me, Martin Luther King, Jr., maybe we made a tactical blunder. But I would have been terribly hurt if anybody said to me, Martin Luther King, Jr., you sold us out! … I would have been hurt by that.¹⁹

King’s pleas did not repair the rupture between impatient youthful activists and older leaders favoring a more gradualist approach to desegregation.

As he dealt with this growing youth-led militancy, King also struggled to respond to the request of white SCLC supporter Anne Braden that he initiate a clemency petition on behalf of her husband.²⁰ Carl Braden had recently lost his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of his one-year prison sentence for refusing to answer the House Un-American Activities Committee’s (HUAC) questions about his alleged communist ties.²¹ Although the Bradens had been longtime associates of King, he knew that involvement in this controversial issue would make him vulnerable to red-baiting, especially from segregationists who demonized any civil rights advocacy as communistic.²² Anne Braden sought to convince King to act by citing Supreme Court justice Hugo Black’s warning in his dissenting opinion that “the power to interrogate everyone who is called a Communist” would allow all legislative com­mittees “to subpoena all persons anywhere who take a public stand for or against segregation.”²³ After King failed to respond to her request, Braden reluctantly decided to move ahead without him. King finally phoned her to indicate that he would support the petition, but only if other black leaders also agreed to sign it. “Anne,” he said, “I’ve been praying about this thing all night. I want you to put my name on that petition.”²⁴

Anne Braden made revisions to the petition in consultation with King and then secured sponsorship from sixteen others, including Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, and C. K. Steele.²⁵ A day after Braden surrendered to U.S. marshals in Atlanta, King told a reporter with the Atlanta Journal that the case against Carl revealed the resurgence of McCarthyism, insisting that Carl was being punished for his “integration activities.” King also made clear that the clemency petition circulating for Carl was not a defense of communism, but a response to the anti­communist crusade intended to silence those calling for civil rights: “We see the rise of McCarthyism in the South again because all other weapons of the segregation­ists have failed.”²⁶ This same sentiment was echoed in an SCLC press release that announced the “unanimous agreement” of the organization’s executive board to support Carl Braden.²⁷

As King came to the defense of Carl Braden, he realized that SCLC’s effectiveness was also being threatened by legal attacks against four executive board members who had been sued for libel after signing a 1960 New York Times advertisement published by the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South.²⁸ A court had ordered Ralph Abernathy, S. S. Seay, Joseph Lowery, and Fred Shuttlesworth to pay two Alabama officials $500,000 each in damages, and by early 1961 the plaintiffs were seeking to force payment of the judgments.²⁹ On 8 May King met in New York with the newly formed Lawyers Advisory Committee, a group of eighteen lawyers seeking to raise funds in response to the legal judgments against the four SCLC leaders. King warned that “if these judgments are not reversed, vic­tims of injustice dare not express opposition to their oppressors.” He also contended that this kind of “misuse” of the legal system is a “new and potent weapon in the arsenal of the segregationists” that “not only deprives the victim of his economic security, but it undermines his confidence in law.”³⁰

***

Following a two-day SCLC board meeting in Montgomery, King and Wyatt Tee Walker returned to Atlanta to meet with participants of the Freedom Rides cam­paign, organized by CORE to test compliance with the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in waiting rooms, restaurants, and restrooms in trans­portation terminals.³¹ The interracial group of thirteen volunteers left Washington, D.C., on 4 May intending to arrive in New Orleans on 17 May, the seventh anniver­sary of the Brown decision.³² Their first week on the road was mostly uneventful, except for a skirmish in Rock Hill, South Carolina.³³ By the time the group arrived in Atlanta on 13 May to meet with King, the campaign had drawn little national publicity. At Paschal’s, a popular black-owned restaurant, King listened as the rid­ers recounted their experiences integrating bus terminals in the Deep South, and later he expressed pride in being a member of CORE’s national advisory commit­tee. According to CORE national director James Farmer, the freedom riders were “heartened” by their interaction with King, “the man who had become, without question, the symbol of the civil rights movement in America.”³⁴ Although King supported the freedom riders’ objectives, he nonetheless harbored doubts about whether they would accomplish their mission, telling Jet reporter Simeon Booker, who was one of two journalists riding the buses, that he had “gotten word you won’t reach Birmingham. They’re going to waylay you.”³⁵

On 14 May, both groups of freedom riders left Atlanta for Birmingham, while King preached a Mother’s Day sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church.³⁶ Later that after­noon, the freedom riders in the first bus encountered trouble when a mob awaited them upon their arrival at the Greyhound bus terminal in Anniston, Alabama. With no police in sight, segregationists slashed the tires and smashed windows on the bus. When police finally arrived, no arrests were immediately made, and the group was allowed to continue on to Birmingham with local Klansmen following closely behind. Six miles outside of Anniston when the bus was forced to pull over because of a flat tire, a member of the pursuing mob hurled a firebomb through one of the bus windows, filling the bus with dense smoke and forcing riders off the bus. Despite the threat of mob violence, the freedom riders got off the bus shortly before it burst into flames. Some of the riders were taken to the hospital, while others were driven to Birmingham in cars dispatched by the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, president of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.³⁷

The second contingent of riders met a similar fate upon their arrival at the Trailways bus terminal in Birmingham. With Birmingham police conspicuously absent upon the riders’ arrival, segregationists assaulted several freedom riders including James Peck, who was left lying unconscious on the ground outside the terminal. Others were beaten as they tried to enter the segregated waiting room.³⁸

The next day, Greyhound bus drivers refused to continue the trip.³⁹ In order to remain on schedule, the group decided to fly from Birmingham to New Orleans, where local CORE members feted the group’s heroic efforts.⁴⁰ Although the decision to fly to New Orleans effectively marked the end of the initial Freedom Ride, mem­bers of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council and SNCC vowed to continue the campaign.⁴¹

Incensed by the violence in Anniston and Birmingham, King, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Wyatt Tee Walker sent a telegram to Alabama governor John Patterson protest­ing the brutal treatment of the freedom riders: “Once again Alabama has shamed our nation. The disgraceful and unprovoked violence at Anniston and Birmingham inflicted upon interstate passengers and the failure of law enforcement officials to give adequate protection reeks of Hitlerism.”⁴² SCLC sent an equally blunt telegram to the attorney general: “It is inconceivable that American citizens peacefully travelling under interstate law cannot be protected from segregationist terrorism and mob violence.” The telegram complained that the violence in Alabama mocked the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection under law” and urged “immediate steps be taken to end the tyranny in Alabama and other states to fully safeguard American citizens from racist brutality.”⁴³

Spurred by Nashville student activist Diane Nash a new group of ten volunteers left Nashville for Birmingham on 17 May, hoping to resume the Freedom Rides. Upon their arrival in Birmingham, Public Safety commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor arrested them, holding the group in “protective custody” overnight before driving several of them to the Alabama-Tennessee border and ordering them out of the car.⁴⁴ The Nashville contingent was able to catch a ride back to Birmingham’s Greyhound bus station, but, once again, bus drivers refused to take them on to Montgomery.⁴⁵

Behind the scenes Justice Department and White House officials sought an agree­ment that would allow for continued protests without further violence. Robert Kennedy sent his assistant, John Seigenthaler, to Alabama to secure a pledge from Governor John M. Patterson to protect the riders.⁴⁶ When a recalcitrant Patterson repeatedly refused, Floyd Mann, Alabama’s director of public safety, assured Seigenthaler that the riders would arrive in Montgomery unharmed. Patterson finally capitulated, asserting that he had “the will, the force, the men, and the equipment to give full pro­tection to everyone in Alabama.”⁴⁷ On 20 May, the riders boarded a Greyhound bus and were escorted to the city limits by Birmingham police, who turned the bus over to the Alabama Highway Patrol for the remainder of the ride to the state capital.⁴⁸ The riders expected that Montgomery police would assume responsibility for their safety once they arrived at the Montgomery bus station, but no one was there to shield them from a mob wielding clubs, sticks, and metal pipes. SNCC activists John Lewis, Jim Zwerg, and William Barbee were badly beaten, as was Seigenthaler, who was knocked unconscious trying to come to the aid of a white female rider.⁴⁹

Several attempts by Robert Kennedy to reach Patterson for an explanation went unanswered. Irritated by Patterson’s flagrant snub, the attorney general, on orders from the president, deployed federal marshals to Alabama and obtained a federal injunction preventing the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists from harass­ing the riders and interfering with interstate travel.⁵⁰ Responding to the violence in Montgomery, the president issued a statement pleading with state and local officials to “exercise their lawful authority to prevent any further outbreaks of violence,” while also requesting that the protesters refrain from actions that would provoke further violence.⁵¹

Canceling a scheduled appearance at Dartmouth College, King flew to Montgomery on 21 May to lead a mass meeting in support of the freedom riders at Abernathy’s First Baptist Church.⁵² Black residents began filling the pews several hours before the rally began at First Baptist Church, and more than a thousand residents eventually gathered inside. As the meeting got underway, a crowd of angry whites brandishing weapons and yelling racial epithets was growing outside. With only the federal marshals to restrain them, some members of the mob began vandal­izing and burning automobiles.⁵³

When King stepped to the pulpit, he expressed concern about the “ugly mob outside,” but cautioned black residents against becoming “panicky.”⁵⁴ In King’s draft of the remarks he planned to deliver, he charged that “responsibility for the hideous action in Alabama last week must be placed at the doorsteps of the Governor of this State.” Governor Patterson’s “consistent preaching of defiance of the law, his vitriolic public pronouncements, and his irresponsible actions,” King said, “created the atmo­sphere in which violence could thrive.”⁵⁵ King also maintained that the federal gov­ernment’s refusal to act amounted to condoning such behavior: “Unless the Federal Government acts forthrightly in the South to assure every citizen his constitutional rights, we will be plunged into a dark abyss of chaos. The federal government must not stand idly by while blood thirsty mobs beat non-violent students with impunity.”⁵⁶

Throughout the evening King remained in communication with Robert Kennedy, calling the attorney general several times by phone to inquire about the federal government’s plans to resolve the situation.⁵⁷ As the mob surrounding the church overwhelmed the outnumbered federal marshals, the attorney general tried to assure King that national guardsmen reinforcements were on the way, but the civil rights leader pressed Kennedy for a more forceful response.⁵⁸ After a harrowing eight hours for those trapped inside the church, federal marshals used tear gas to disperse the mob and Alabama national guardsmen evacuated the church and escorted those inside to their homes.⁵⁹

Over the course of the next two days, King, Farmer, and other SCLC officials met with student protesters, who urged King to join their planned Freedom Rides into Mississippi. Fearing that any new arrests would be a violation of the probation he received after his arrest in Atlanta the previous year, King declined.⁶⁰ King’s decision disappointed and angered some students, who mocked King’s comparison of himself to Christ and noted that they were also on probation. But King did not budge, insist­ing, “I think I should pick the time and place of my Golgotha.” The students walked out of the meeting in protest.⁶¹

On 23 May King joined James Farmer, Ralph Abernathy, and John Lewis at a press conference in Abernathy’s home that sought to clarify the overall mission of the Freedom Rides while also affirming that the rides would continue from Montgomery to Jackson, Mississippi. “The students have made it crystal clear that the ride will take place with or without federal protection,” King asserted.⁶² Asked about the possibility that someone could be severely injured or killed during the campaign, he responded: “We would not like to see anyone die.… but the philosophy of the non-violence involves the spirit of willingness to die for a cause. We are willing to face anything—even if it is death.”⁶³ King’s appearance at the press conference prompted some leaders and activists to praise him. Labor leader A. Philip Randolph pledged his “unstinting aid,” while educator Septima Clark commended King for not merely making a statement, but going “into the thickest fight as a real symbol of courage to the grass roots people.” Clark told King that she “could not sit on this mountain top and not let you know how much taller you have grown in my estimation.”⁶⁴

As the students readied themselves for the next leg of the Freedom Ride on 24 May, King stood outside the Montgomery bus terminal, shaking hands with some of the riders and wishing them a safe journey to Mississippi. Under protection by police and the National Guard, the first group of freedom riders was en route to Mississippi when the attorney general issued a press release reiterating that federal marshals would not be on hand to protect them and that Alabama and Mississippi officials intended to maintain law and order.⁶⁵ The attorney general explained that the administration’s obligation was “to protect interstate travelers and maintain law and order only when local authorities are unable or unwilling to do so.” Kennedy also voiced his concern that the domestic turmoil associated with the rides would undermine the nation during the president’s June 1961 meeting in Vienna with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev: “Whatever we do in the United States at this time, which brings or causes discredit on our Country, can be harmful to his mission.”⁶⁶

Unlike their previous bus rides, the trip to Mississippi was peaceful and unevent­ful, but once the riders arrived in Jackson, local police promptly arrested them.⁶⁷ Robert Kennedy had received assurance from Mississippi governor Ross Barnett that the mayhem and rioting in Alabama would not happen in his state.⁶⁸ Kennedy also called for a halt to the Freedom Rides, suggesting in a phone call to King that freedom riders jailed in Mississippi could be released in exchange for a “cooling-off period” that would allow for the “present state of confusion and danger” to pass and an “atmosphere of reason and normalcy” to be restored.⁶⁹ When King insisted that the freedom riders would remain in jail as a “matter of conscience and morality,” Kennedy responded: “That is not going to have the slightest effect on what the gov­ernment is going to do in this field or any other. The fact that they stay in jail is not going to have the slightest effect on me.” King warned: “Perhaps it would help if stu­dents came down here by the hundreds—by the hundreds of thousands.” Kennedy did not appreciate what he perceived to be a threat by King: “The country belongs to you as much as to me. You can determine what’s best just as well as I can, but don’t make statements that sound like a threat. That’s not the way to deal with us.” While King stood firm in his conviction that the riders must stay jailed, he tried to salvage the conversation by telling the attorney general: “It’s difficult to understand the position of oppressed people. Ours is a way out—creative, moral and nonviolent. It is not tied to black supremacy or Communism, but to the plight of the oppressed. It can save the soul of America. You must understand that we’ve made no gains without pressure and I hope that pressure will always be moral, legal and peaceful.” After Kennedy repeated his offer to have the protesters released, King firmly replied: “They’ll stay.”⁷⁰

From his Atlanta office the following day, King told New York Times reporter Claude Sitton that the arrests in Mississippi were a minor setback and that the rides would resume “in full force” in a few days. As he had said in his conversation with Robert Kennedy the previous evening, King defended the freedom riders and their tactics: “These are the pioneers who are making the way possible for people of all areas to ride buses unmolested by segregation as well as to use the facilities of the bus terminals without being segregated.”⁷¹

With no clear end in sight for the Freedom Rides, CORE, SCLC, SNCC, and Nashville Christian Leadership Council formed the Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee, an independent organization.⁷² During a 26 May meeting, the new organization agreed that the rides would last until “interstate travel can be enjoyed throughout the nation by all citizens.” The immediate objective was fourfold: coordi­nate the bus rides, intensify demonstrations to bring segregation in interstate travel to the forefront of the nation’s conscience, convince the attorney general to order the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to uphold the Supreme Court deci­sions in Morgan and Boynton, and fill the Montgomery and Jackson jails to “keep a sharp image of the issues before the public.” To get the Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee up and running, SCLC and CORE each pledged $1,000, and Wyatt Tee Walker was appointed to administer the funds.⁷³

Three days after the Committee’s founding, Robert Kennedy petitioned the ICC to issue regulations banning segregation in interstate travel and the ICC complied a few months later.⁷⁴ Although King would rather have had a second Emancipation Proclamation ending all forms of segregation, he was pleased with the success of the Freedom Rides and the pressure that the attorney general placed on the ICC. King told an audience at Lincoln University in June:

We think of the Freedom Rides. Think of the fact that more than sixty-five people are now in jail in Jackson, Mississippi. What has this done, we say? These people have been beaten. They’ve suffered. Let us realize that it has brought to the attention of this nation the indignities and the injustices which Negro people still confront in interstate travel. So it has had an educational value. But not only that—signs have come down from bus stations in Montgomery, Alabama. They’ve never been down before. Not only that—the attorney general of this nation has called on ICC to come out with new regulations making it palpably clear that segregation in interstate travel is illegal and unconstitutional.⁷⁵

Although King never joined a freedom ride, many people thought of him as the leader of the campaign. King’s reluctance to ride the buses irked some of his critics, especially Robert F. Williams, head of the Monroe, North Carolina, branch of the NAACP, who sent the SCLC president a telegram: “No sincere leader asks his fol­lowers to make sacrifices that he himself will not endure. You are a phony.” Williams insisted that if King lacked the courage to ride the buses, he should remove himself “from the vanguard,” for “now is the time for true leaders to take to the field of battle.”⁷⁶ Despite Williams’s criticism, King insisted that although CORE had origi­nated the Freedom Rides, the “central involvement since May 17th organizational wise has been SCLC oriented.”⁷⁷ King’s declining popularity among militant activists was gradually becoming evident to outside observers. A Time magazine article pub­lished in early 1962 suggested that students who had once idolized King were turning against him, charging that he was “status seeking” and “more interested in making speeches across the U.S. than in head-on action.”⁷⁸

Behind the scenes, the Kennedy administration sought to steer the civil rights movement away from protest by encouraging private donors, such as the Field and Taconic Foundations, to provide financial support for nonpartisan voter registration efforts.⁷⁹ King, however, did not view such efforts as inconsistent with protest activi­ties. In 1957 SCLC had launched its own Crusade for Citizenship campaign, although few black voters were registered as a result.⁸⁰

Plans for the new voter registration program got underway at a meeting called by the Taconic Foundation in July 1961.⁸¹ Representatives from six leading civil rights organizations—SCLC, NAACP, CORE, SNCC, National Student Association (NSA), and the National Urban League—gathered in New York to discuss each agency’s existing voter registration programs and how they could be augmented by the Taconic Foundation and other philanthropic groups.⁸² The meeting was harmoni­ous and all agreed that the Southern Regional Council (SRC) would administer and coordinate the new Voter Education Project (VEP). In the following months, the leaders of the major civil rights organizations continued to meet to discuss a variety of issues, including how to address the apathy of potential black voters, the feat of organizing several national organizations, and program finances.⁸³ Despite the obstacles, the SRC urged the organizations to press on, and by November 1961 the SRC submitted a two-year grant proposal for $500,000 in seed money to the Taconic Foundation to be distributed among the six civil rights organizations based on an evaluation of each group’s program.⁸⁴

Seeking to take advantage of the financial resources and social networks of its constituent black churches, SCLC proposed increased voter registration efforts in various geographic locations throughout the South. While maintaining respect for the work of the NAACP, SCLC suggested working in Alabama where the NAACP had been banned in 1956.⁸⁵ SCLC would hire five field secretaries to coordinate efforts to increase the number of African American registered voters in the South over the next two years.⁸⁶

***

King would eventually follow through on the idea of building a grassroots voter registration program, but during the fall of 1961 he found it difficult to avoid con­troversies. For example, King continued to be involved in Carl Braden’s legal battles. On 17 August 1961 a delegation led by SCLC treasurer Ralph Abernathy met with presidential assistants Harris Wofford and Lee C. White at the White House to pres­ent the petition in support of Carl Braden’s clemency signed by King and nearly 2,000 other “high stature” individuals.⁸⁷ No immediate action resulted from the delegation’s appeal to the White House, and in September Anne Braden turned to both King and Walker for advice on whether or not her husband should accept parole. Walker rejected the idea, voicing concern that this would damage not only Braden’s reputation but also his prospects for overturning his sentence entirely. King, however, questioned whether accepting parole would prohibit Carl Braden from continuing his work in the freedom struggle. “This, I think, would be too great a compromise,” King said. “It would be exchanging one kind of prison for another kind. There might be no bars, but it would be telling him he could not do the thing his life is committed to.”⁸⁸

After the parole board declined Braden’s parole, King continued to support Anne Braden’s efforts to win her husband’s release from prison, including accepting her invitation to participate in a documentary about HUAC.⁸⁹ A few weeks after agreeing to appear in the film, however, King was dismayed to learn from Braden that the film’s advisor, Bertram Edises, was a former member of the Communist Party. Although Anne Braden tried to assuage King’s concern about red-baiting—“I think you are far above any such attack and absolutely invulnerable”—King withdrew from the project.⁹⁰ Writing on King’s behalf, Wyatt Tee Walker explained to the documen­tary’s producer Robert Cohen that Edises’s prior political affiliation would tarnish King’s reputation and “create more problems than we have time to deal with as it relates to the major work of Dr. King.”⁹¹

After distancing himself from the film, King’s attention was again diverted after becoming mired in controversy within the National Baptist Convention (NBC), the nation’s largest black Baptist organization. Events within the National Baptist Convention proved to be even more tumultuous than relationships among civil rights leaders. Smoldering disagreements led to a rupture within the Convention over differences regarding the lines of authority within the group as well as its approach to civil rights. The Convention’s president J. H. Jackson had long resisted the efforts of King and other ministers to involve the group more directly in direct action protests and had successfully dodged previous challenges to his leadership.⁹² When Gardner Taylor, a minister from New York who was allied with King, mounted a challenge to Jackson’s presidency at the 1960 convention, the gathering ended with both Taylor and Jackson declaring victory.⁹³ Despite subsequent efforts to find a com­promise, King was pessimistic that Jackson would work in the spirit of cooperation: “I have not had a chance to talk with Dr. Jackson, and while I am somewhat doubtful about his willingness to work out the problem in a mutually agreeable manner, I do think that we must continue to urge him to do this.”⁹⁴

During the annual meeting of the National Sunday School and Baptist Training Union (BTU) Congress in June 1961, King, who had been vice president of the congress since September 1958, praised the Freedom Rides and the religious under­pinning of the campaign, urging African Americans to continue to test segregated transportation facilities. Jackson then publicly denounced civil disobedience, insist­ing that the jailing of black people did little to arouse the conscience of segregation­ists and that integration should come through lawful appeals to the courts and the federal government.⁹⁵

An ominous tone pervaded the 1961 NBC convention in Kansas City, Missouri, after opposing factions set up separate registration booths.⁹⁶ During the opening session on 6 September, Taylor and his supporters rushed the platform to take control of the convention, but were blocked by Jackson devotees. The attempt ignited a physical confrontation in which sixty-four-year-old Arthur Wright, a minister from Detroit who supported Jackson, fell four feet from the podium and suffered a fatal head injury.⁹⁷

Wright’s death was followed by mounting negative publicity for the convention and a floor vote monitored by the Jackson County Circuit Court. Taylor eventually conceded the presidency to Jackson on 8 September.⁹⁸ As one of his first official acts after his reelection, Jackson relieved King of his duties as vice president of the BTU.⁹⁹ Upon hearing the news, King acknowledged that as president Jackson had the right to surround himself with people sympathetic to his views.¹⁰⁰

King’s ouster came as no surprise to many as Jackson had long felt threatened by King’s rising prominence. Jackson’s motives for removing King were so transparent that Reverend Charles Butler warned King that Jackson’s actions were “a strategic move to counteract your possible rivalry to his office and to mar your hard and gloriously won international prestige.”¹⁰¹ Disappointed over his removal, King later confided in O. Clay Maxwell, president of the BTU, that he did not want to risk his own reputation by taking further action against Jackson. He did not, however, rule out a protest led by other delegates, reasoning that “Dr. Jackson will continue his un-Christian, unethical and dictatorial tactics as long as no-one openly opposes him.”¹⁰²

Angered by the rancorous challenge to his presidency, Jackson escalated simmering hostility with King by laying responsibility for Wright’s death at King’s feet, accusing King of having “masterminded” the invasion of the convention.¹⁰³ On 10 September, an enraged King sent a telegram to Jackson demanding an immediate retraction for the “libelous and injurious” charges, which not only stood to tarnish his public image but also potentially to damage the freedom struggle.¹⁰⁴ In his response to King, Jackson denied making the defamatory statement, instead pointing to several instances in which the press misquoted him.¹⁰⁵ In a press release sent to King, Jackson maintained that his statement was intended to credit King for work in the nonviolent movement and for being the “master-mind behind the protest techniques” of the sit-ins and Freedom Rides.¹⁰⁶ King did not accept Jackson’s apology and retraction but, nevertheless, he declined to sue the NBC president for libel.¹⁰⁷

In the days following Jackson’s statement, the dispute continued. More than thirty Baptist leaders sent a telegram to Jackson condemning his accusations against King. “Whatever may be our differences within the denomination,” the ministers wrote, “this uncalled for and provoked attack (credited to you) upon one of the greatest men of our time, will only serve the purposes of the segregationist forces in America who are determined to suppress the Negro community all over the nation.”¹⁰⁸

King seemed eager to put the situation behind him, but Jackson further polarized the NBC by renewing his attacks against King and Taylor while delivering the eulogy at Wright’s funeral. Jackson’s eulogy was punctuated by thinly veiled references implicating King and Taylor for Wright’s death: “Our denomination is full of men who have diplomas hanging on the wall, who have the cloth on but not the God in. A man who is going to preach Christ will have to know him, you can’t be one thing at your church, and another thing at the convention. You’ve got to be a Christian in town and out of town.”¹⁰⁹

Despite the debacle in Kansas City, Taylor and King called for unification within the NBC. “What ever is wrong with the convention,” King said, “cannot be corrected by a split.”¹¹⁰ Efforts to keep the Convention intact became more difficult when a group of ministers led by L. Venchael Booth called for a meeting in November to discuss the schism.¹¹¹ From the outset some pastors lobbied Booth to get King more involved with the new organization, later called the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC). King, however, did not attend the founding meeting in November 1961 and later expressed concern that Booth’s unilateral decision to form the PNBC “greatly weakened the potential effectiveness of the new Convention.”¹¹² Although King’s involvement and leadership of the PNBC had been assumed by other black ministers, he did not immediately join the group because he did not want to exacerbate the division between black Baptists.¹¹³

***

To add to his already busy schedule, King began coteaching a course in philosophy with Samuel W. Williams at Morehouse College in late September 1961.¹¹⁴ In his first and only teaching position, King relished the opportunity to be in the classroom given his desire to pursue an academic post after finishing his qualifying examinations at Boston University in 1952. He had received previous job offers, including one from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.¹¹⁵

King was well versed in philosophy having taken courses on the subject while a student at Morehouse, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Paul Tillich’s and Henry Nelson Weiman’s philosophies of God.¹¹⁶ Nine students from both Morehouse and its female counterpart, Spelman, enrolled in the course, which met on Tuesdays and was designed as a broad introduction to social philosophy using the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Locke among others.¹¹⁷ King’s lecture notes showed similarities to a synthesis of many introductory-level philosophy texts, including those by Will Durant, William Kelley Wright, and A. C. McGiffert.¹¹⁸

In an effort to honor his commitment to Morehouse, King frequently canceled or rescheduled events and fundraising opportunities.¹¹⁹ Although his enthusiasm for teaching led him to entertain the idea of extending his tenure at Morehouse, his increasing responsibilities in the civil rights movement caused him to decline Mays’s invitation to return for the following academic year. In a note to Mays, King thanked him for the privilege to teach at Morehouse, and although he did not attend as many classes as he had hoped, King found the experience rewarding: “It gave me an opportunity to spend a few quiet hours with some of the great thinkers of the ages.” King further expressed his hope that he might be able to “return to such a challenging responsibility sometime in the future,” and admitted his deep-seated passion for scholarship: “I certainly have my moments of intellectual nostalgia—moments when I long to leave the arena of endless activity, and spend creative moments in the world of ideas.”¹²⁰

Also, in September, efforts to move forward with plans to transfer the Citizenship Education Program from Highlander Folk School to SCLC received a huge boost when Andrew Young, formerly the associate director of the Department of Youth Work at the National Council of the Churches of Christ, joined the SCLC staff and was tapped to direct the program.¹²¹ Modeled after the citizenship schools founded on Johns Island, South Carolina, in 1956, SCLC’s pilot program, which began in February 1961, taught local people the fundamentals of reading, writing, and civil engagement, including how to register to vote.¹²² The Field Foundation awarded SCLC and Highlander a $26,000 grant to initiate the program’s expansion; however, with Highlander’s tax-exempt charter in limbo, the Field Foundation insisted that another organization be in charge of administering the funds.¹²³ The American Missionary Association agreed to dispense the funding and made the Dorchester Center in Midway, Georgia, available to house the workshops.¹²⁴ Several months into the program, King wrote Maxwell Hahn, executive vice president of the Field Foundation, touting the program’s success. As of early February, SCLC had trained one hundred people to start citizenship schools in their home towns, and King felt privileged to “observe the students as their horizons were broadened by the kind of practical information which is so desperately needed by these people who have been so long deprived the opportunities to learn and grow as responsible citizens.”¹²⁵

SCLC’s venture into voter education was complicated by its association with the red-tainted Highlander Folk School. In an article published in the New York Times, James R. Wood, public relations director of SCLC, was quoted as saying: “We find no reason not to cooperate with any organization that is interested in the development of full citizenship for Americans which cannot be proved to have conducted itself in a manner which is not American or patriotic.”¹²⁶ Consumed with its own legal prob­lems, Highlander’s role in the program was eventually reduced, and under Young’s directorship, the Citizenship Education Program was restructured and expanded Southwide.¹²⁷

***

On 1 November 1961 student activists throughout the South began to test compli­ance with the ICC ruling to desegregate interstate transportation facilities.¹²⁸ In his hometown of Atlanta, King played a supportive role after four SNCC activists were arrested for trespassing at the Trailways bus station. King sent a telegram request­ing that Atlanta mayor William Hartsfield “use the great influence of your office to resolve the four arrests made in violation of the new ICC ruling.”¹²⁹

When students in Albany, Georgia, staged a similar protest at the Trailways bus terminal they set in motion a series of demonstrations that eventually involved King.¹³⁰ To coordinate the demonstrations, local black leaders formed the Albany Movement, a coalition of SNCC, NAACP, and other organizations. William G. Anderson, a local doctor and a former classmate of Ralph Abernathy’s at Alabama State, was elected president of the new organization, with Slater King, realtor, as vice president. The principal goals of the movement were varied, including the desegre­gation of downtown businesses, transportation terminals, libraries, parks, hospitals, and city buses, as well as ending police brutality and expanding employment oppor­tunities for blacks.¹³¹

Tensions in Albany escalated quickly and by 12 December nearly 500 protesters had been arrested and city officials refused to negotiate.¹³² Overwhelmed by the mass arrests and with no foreseeable way to get protesters out of jail, Anderson phoned SCLC headquarters to plead for the organization’s help.¹³³ Anderson hoped that King’s fame would rally local participation, and, most importantly, spur fundraising efforts. According to Anderson, King was sensitive about encroaching on the move­ment and gave numerous excuses why he should not come to Albany, including his prior commitments and fear that local leaders would feel displaced by his presence. Unbeknownst to King, when Anderson broached the idea of bringing in King and SCLC, some civil rights activists were less than enthusiastic. King begrudgingly agreed to go to the small southwest Georgia town to make an address and immedi­ately return to Atlanta.¹³⁴

On the evening of his arrival on 15 December nearly a thousand people flocked to hear King at rallies held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Shiloh Baptist Church. King was greeted with thunderous and prolonged ovations.¹³⁵ “You are saying as you assemble here tonight and as you continue to move on in your movement that you are willing to struggle, to suffer, to sacrifice, and even die if necessary,” King told the crowd.¹³⁶ As the rally came to a close, Anderson rose to give the benediction and called for a mass march to take place the following day: “Be here at 7 o’clock in the morning. Eat a good breakfast. Wear warm clothes and wear your walking shoes.”¹³⁷

Albany mayor Asa Kelley reacted to King’s arrival by notifying Albany Movement leaders that he had nullified all previous agreements because King was “encouraging the violations of valid ordinances and statutes and that you have requested continued demonstrations and unlawful parades.” He charged that by inviting King they were “not acting in good faith and until you can do so we can give no response to your demand.”¹³⁸ Having been accused of causing the breakdown of negotiations between Albany city officials and Albany Movement leaders, King decided he would have to remain in Albany: “I had just intended to give an address,” King told reporters, “but seeing that negotiations were broken between Negro and white, I felt I had to join the pilgrimage.”¹³⁹

On 16 December King joined Abernathy, Anderson, and over 260 others to march from Shiloh Baptist Church to Albany City Hall for a prayer vigil. When the dem­onstrators reached city hall, Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett arrested them.¹⁴⁰ As King waited to be booked into jail, he began preaching to the demonstrators: “They have no respect for humans. They have no respect for justice. They have no respect for man.”¹⁴¹ King and several others were secretly transferred and booked into the Sumter County Jail in Americus, Georgia.¹⁴² There he told a reporter that if convicted he would not accept bond and fully expected to be behind bars through Christmas, adding: “I hope thousands will join me.”¹⁴³ Wyatt Tee Walker called for a “blackout” of Christmas celebrations while King remained jailed. “Tell the chil­dren that we are postponing Christmas,” he announced. “We don’t want a single Christmas tree lit. We want no Christmas toys bought downtown. We want to turn downtown Albany into a ghost town.”¹⁴⁴

While King and Anderson prepared themselves for a long jail stay, Abernathy posted $200 bond on 16 December and returned to Atlanta. In a press conference from his church the following day, Abernathy tried to mobilize support for King and the others by calling for a nonviolent pilgrimage to Albany. “This is the greatest mass movement which has taken place since the Montgomery bus protest,” Abernathy asserted. He also beckoned supporters to contact the president, Albany mayor Asa Kelley, and Georgia governor S. Ernest Vandiver to demand the release of hundreds jailed during demonstrations.¹⁴⁵ That evening, Abernathy sent a telegram to King, expressing concern for his welfare and professing that “I should not be here but I should be with you and with the hundreds of sons and daughters of slaves who have the courage to say to the sons and daughters of former slave holders that this is a new day and we want our freedom now.”¹⁴⁶ Writing on behalf of the imprisoned King and Anderson, Abernathy sent a telegram to Kennedy reiterating King’s call for the president to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation.¹⁴⁷

Within days, the White House and Justice Department were flooded with tele­grams, one of which called the federal government’s reluctance to intervene “shock­ing and deplorable.”¹⁴⁸ King advisor Stanley Levison sent a telegram to Attorney General Kennedy requesting that federal marshals be sent to Albany: “Local author­ity is flouting law and consequently action from your department is an imperative.”¹⁴⁹ As Anderson had hoped, King’s arrest attracted the national media attention that the Albany Movement had been lacking. Responding to the extensive press coverage, Albany government officials agreed that if mass protests against white merchants were halted for the next thirty days, the city would comply with the ICC ruling, local demonstrators would be released on bail, and the Albany Movement would be given the opportunity to present their demands to the city commission. The agreement paved the way for King’s release from jail.¹⁵⁰ Although King was reportedly “less than satisfied” with the concessions, he was determined not “to stand in the way of mean­ingful negotiations.” He allowed Anderson to post his bond.¹⁵¹

King left for Atlanta the evening of 18 December, but not before telling a crowd gathered at Shiloh Baptist that he could leave Albany knowing his goal had been achieved: “The bus terminal and train station in Albany, Ga., are thoroughly inte­grated.”¹⁵² Despite King’s positive assessment, he left amid reports of a rift between the Albany Movement and SCLC. Marion Page, the Albany Movement treasurer who was acting as chair while Anderson was jailed, denounced Walker for suggesting that SCLC was in charge of the movement. “This is an Albany movement,” Page said. “We will accept help if we need it. As of now, we don’t need help.”¹⁵³ A New York Times arti­cle published the day King was released speculated that competition between SNCC and SCLC for “financial support and power” was fueling the internal conflicts, which would have “important implications for the future of the civil rights movement throughout the South.”¹⁵⁴ Hoping to quell further rumors, King explained that “if there was an indication of division, it grew out of a breakdown of communications. The unity is far greater than our inevitable points of disagreement.”¹⁵⁵

Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett bragged to reporters that the Albany Movement was the “first time in the history of the Negro non-violent movement that non-violence has been met with non-violence.”¹⁵⁶ Pritchett’s police avoided the kind of brutal force that would attract press attention and sympathy for the demonstra­tors.¹⁵⁷ Pritchett’s tactics stymied King’s effectiveness and succeeded in getting him to leave Albany. Soon after King left, the City Commission reneged on its agreement to meet face-to-face with Albany Movement officials.¹⁵⁸ A journalist with the New York Herald Tribune praised Pritchett for displaying a “standard of professional achieve­ment that would be difficult to emulate in a situation so made-to-order for violence” and claimed that King had suffered “one of the most stunning defeats of his career,” leaving the Albany Movement “considerably weaker than before.”¹⁵⁹ Despite leaving without any tangible gains, King told Herbert Eaton, his successor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, that although “we did not achieve all that we had anticipated in the Albany situation, I think it was a real victory for the Negro community.”¹⁶⁰

***

Hoping to refocus and reorganize in 1962, King met with SCLC board and staff members in February to hammer out the details of an ambitious grassroots orga­nizing campaign.¹⁶¹ At their annual meeting the previous fall, SCLC leaders had decided to launch new voter registration efforts.¹⁶² With the expectation that the Justice Department and liberal philanthropic foundations would support voter reg­istration efforts, King developed a grassroots organizing campaign called the People to People tour. Designed to expand SCLC’s presence in Deep South states with strong segregationist resistance to black voting, the goal of the tour, according to Wyatt Tee Walker, was “to take the message of Freedom to our people in the cotton fields, and at the crossroads and country stores, in the churches and the schools.”¹⁶³ While seeking to avoid competing with the voting rights efforts of the NAACP and CORE, King expressed determination “to do even more in the area of direct action that we have done in the past.”¹⁶⁴ He urged his colleagues to recruit volunteers for a “Freedom Corps” comprised of voter registration workers and activists trained for a “Nonviolent Army” to be “ready on a stand-by basis for any specific attack on segrega­tion.” The People to People tours would begin in the Mississippi Delta—“the symbol of hard-core resistance to desegregation”—and then venture into Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana.¹⁶⁵ In each state, SCLC planned “door knocking” cam­paigns to “stimulate the Negroes’ interest in their right to vote” with the goal of dou­bling the number of black registered voters in the South over a two-year period.¹⁶⁶

SCLC’s three-day visit to the Mississippi Delta began on 7 February and included stops in six towns. SCLC staffer James M. Lawson conducted nonviolence workshops in Cleveland, Laurel, Tougaloo, and Jackson before King arrived for a crowded schedule of speeches and face-to-face “fireside chats” intended “to determine the most pressing problems affecting the Negro people of the Deep South.”¹⁶⁷ He appeared at a rally for Clarksdale minister Theodore Trammell, who was seeking to become the first black congressman from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era.¹⁶⁸ Despite his general policy of nonpartisanship, King assured an overflow audience at Clarksdale’s First Baptist Church that if black residents registered and voted “in spite of the resistance and the conniving methods of Southern registrars and county sheriffs, we can change the entire political structure of the state of Mississippi.”¹⁶⁹ By the end of the tour, King had participated in more than a dozen events. Writing about his experiences in “People in Action,” the biweekly column he recently had begun publishing in the New York Amsterdam News, King noted the effects of intimida­tion, economic exploitation, and police brutality on the lives of African Americans in the Mississippi Delta. “As we rode along the dusty roads of the Delta country,” he recounted, “our riding companions cited unbelievable cases of police brutality and incidents of Negroes being brutally murdered by white mobs, which never became known to the outside world. In spite of this, there is a ray of hope.”¹⁷⁰

Even as King sought to expand SCLC’s reach into the rural Deep South, he could not ignore other matters that demanded his time and attention. Soon after returning to Atlanta, King delivered a sermon at West Hunter Baptist Church at the installa­tion service for his friend Ralph Abernathy.¹⁷¹ Then he traveled to Puerto Rico to fulfill a commitment he had made in 1958 to the trip’s sponsors, Inter-American University and the Puerto Rico chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR).¹⁷² In four days, King made a television appearance and delivered seven speeches before spending an additional eight days resting on the island.¹⁷³ According to FOR chair­man Lillian Pope, King left a lasting impression on Puerto Ricans, challenging many listeners to “give serious consideration for the first time to the merits of non-violent direct action as a technique and as a philosophy.”¹⁷⁴

King returned from Puerto Rico to stand trial with Abernathy in Albany for their December 1961 arrests.¹⁷⁵ Lawyers Donald Hollowell and C. B. King represented the two civil rights leaders, who had not traveled to Albany since being released from jail on 18 December. Spectators packed the small courtroom for King’s trial, the first of the cases resulting from the mass arrests of the previous year. The prosecution called only one witness—Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett, who testified that King and the others were arrested for parading without a permit and obstructing traffic. King’s lawyers requested a dismissal of the charges, arguing that the Albany city code provided no criteria for what constituted a parade and that the permit section of the code violated their client’s Fourteenth Amendment rights. Recorder’s Court judge A. N. Durden denied the motion, and the defense opened its case by calling King to the stand. King testified that the march from Shiloh Baptist Church to downtown Albany was “strictly nonviolent and purely peaceful.” He denied reports that the group obstructed traffic or violated any traffic laws. “Our main interest was to negotiate with city officials,” King testified. Judge Durden recessed the proceedings and announced that he would not issue a verdict for at least sixty days.¹⁷⁶ Standing in front of the Albany courthouse at the end of the proceedings, King said, “I think at many points the City of Albany, or certainly those who are seeking to prosecute us, are making a tragic mistake because they are standing against the tide of history which is rolling toward a democratic social order.”¹⁷⁷

While awaiting the Albany verdict, King continued to pressure President Kennedy to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation.¹⁷⁸ It had been four months since King met with President Kennedy at the White House on 16 October to discuss comprehensive civil rights reforms, and although King told reporters that his visit was “fruitful” and that the president “listened very sympathetically” to his concerns, he remained frustrated at Kennedy’s failure to make any firm guarantees.¹⁷⁹ King’s disappointment in Kennedy’s unwillingness to make good on some of his campaign promises was evident in his second article published in The Nation since February 1961.¹⁸⁰ The title of King’s article, “Fumbling on the New Frontier,” was a slight to Kennedy’s domestic and foreign programs agenda, which he had defined upon accepting the Democratic nomination for president at the Party’s 1960 convention. Kennedy saw the “The New Frontier” as a set of challenges—“science and space”; “peace and war”; “ignorance and prejudice”; and “poverty and surplus”—that he would address in his first term as president.¹⁸¹ While King praised some elements of Kennedy’s civil rights record, he criticized Kennedy’s refusal to sign an executive order ending discrimination in housing.¹⁸²

Looking back on Kennedy’s first year in office, King characterized the Kennedy administration’s approach to civil rights as “cautious” and criticized the lack of moral urgency by the president to commit to full integration. According to King, Kennedy lacked the leadership needed to grapple with the enormity of the civil rights problem. “The year passed and the President fumbled,” King wrote.¹⁸³ While King’s initial hopes hinged on Kennedy’s campaign promises to use executive orders to end segregation and discrimination, by 1962 King’s expectations were shattered when the administration shifted its plan from executive orders to “consensus” leader­ship for fear of alienating key Southern congressmen.¹⁸⁴ Citing the moral courage it took Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation in the face of slave owners, King described a similar dilemma for Kennedy. The president, King wrote, “may well be compelled to make an equally fateful decision—one which, if correct, could be found a century later to have made the nation greater and the man more memorable.” Using the examples of the sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and voter registra­tion efforts as evidence that the nation’s people are ready for “bold leadership in civil rights” despite the “absence of sustained, strong, national leadership,” King argued that Kennedy still has an opportunity to stop civil rights from being used as a “political football,” but only if he “abandons the traditional piecemeal approach” to desegregation in favor of a constructive long-term plan.¹⁸⁵

On 9 April, a month after the publication of The Nation article, King met in Washington, D.C., with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Burke Marshall, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.¹⁸⁶ At a press conference before the meeting, King voiced criticisms of President Kennedy’s civil rights record, but acknowledged that the Kennedy administration was far more progressive than its pre­decessors. King declared that civil rights reform still required “forthright, vigorous leadership.”¹⁸⁷ During his meeting with Kennedy and Marshall, King presented evi­dence of voting rights violations and called upon the Justice Department to provide greater protection for black voters. Kennedy assured him that the Justice Department would take measures to protect voter registration workers and investigate racial dis­crimination in the voting process.¹⁸⁸ After King’s meeting with the attorney general he met with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been appointed head of the newly established President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Johnson assured King that the executive order barring discrimination against quali­fied employees seeking work with the federal government or with companies under government contracts would be “vigorously enforced.”¹⁸⁹

As King sought to press the Justice Department to move more forthrightly on civil rights issues, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, was paying closer attention to King and several of his associates.¹⁹⁰ Hoover had warned the Kennedys of King’s relationship with Stanley Levison, who the bureau believed was a secret member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).¹⁹¹ A month after reminding attorney general Robert F. Kennedy of Levison’s alleged Party membership, a wiretap was placed on Levison’s office phone.¹⁹² Ensuing FBI memorandums showed that Levison discussed several issues with King such as King’s decision to publicly call for the nomination of William Hastie to the Supreme Court and the hiring of Jack O’Dell, also a former member of the CPUSA, as King’s admin­istrative assistant.¹⁹³

***

On 27 March 1962 King traveled to Virginia for the second leg of SCLC’s People to People tour. Escorted by SCLC representatives and clergymen from all over the Fourth Congressional District, he started by going door to door in Petersburg encouraging voter registration and recruiting participants in the Freedom Corps. As part of opera­tion “Door Knock,” King and a team of thirty-five others canvassed the Blandford district of Petersburg.¹⁹⁴ Later that evening, King spoke before an estimated crowd of over 2,400 packed into the auditorium at Lynchburg’s E. C. Glass High School.¹⁹⁵ At the mass meeting sponsored by the local SCLC affiliate, King urged Lynchburg residents to find strength in nonviolent direct action and to use the ballot against Southern Dixiecrats and Republicans who joined together to “defeat almost every liberal move in the area of civil rights.” Moments before taking his seat, King warned that “before the struggle is won, before the victory is won, some will have to suffer.” But despite the suffering, King expressed confidence that “we shall overcome.”¹⁹⁶

Following King’s address, Abernathy made an appeal for Freedom Corps volun­teers, and for a brief moment, no one moved until eleven-year-old Chuck Moran, a white boy from Charlottesville, Virginia, came forward and extended his hand to King, saying: “I want to help you in this struggle.”¹⁹⁷ The next day, King and his entourage detoured to Prince Edward County, where public schools had been closed since 1959 to avoid court-ordered desegregation.¹⁹⁸ King encouraged an audience assembled at First Baptist Church to “stand fast for what you believe in and some day people everywhere will thank you for your part in bringing about peace and freedom.” Promising SCLC’s full support, King pledged to return to Prince Edward County, telling the more than one hundred black school children in the audience: “When I come back I will see you sitting in integrated schools.”¹⁹⁹

Although voter registration dominated the tour agenda, Milton Reid, president of the SCLC affiliate in Virginia, and King led a march in Hopewell, protest­ing the contempt trial of Reverend Curtis W. Harris, president of the Hopewell Improvement Association. Harris had earlier been indicted for refusing to dis­close the names of civil rights activists to the Committee on Offenses Against the Administration of Justice.²⁰⁰ By the end of the tour, Wyatt Tee Walker observed that King appeared worn down by the pace, but King reassured him: “Oh, I’m doing all right. I think I can make it.”²⁰¹

In mid-April King traveled to South Carolina for the third leg of the tour where he visited Charleston, Clarendon County, and Claflin College in Orangeburg. According to SCLC, the South Carolina tour secured 332 additional volunteers for the voter registration campaign and nonviolent army. At a meeting at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church in Charleston, King reiterated: “We can help the South, cure its problems by registering and voting, and electing to office men of goodwill who will act in the Legislature in the spirit of the Constitution and insure equitable treatment for all Americans.”²⁰² Looking back at the last two tours through Virginia and South Carolina, King estimated that SCLC had recruited more than a thousand Freedom Corps volunteers. “I did not realize that this tour would turn out to be so inspiring to me and serve in a way to have such an impact,” King told SCLC board members at their annual meeting. “We will continue these tours until we have covered every southern state.”²⁰³

Heading into the summer of 1962, King once again had to respond to persistent rumors about tensions between SCLC and other civil rights groups, namely the NAACP. In early May, John H. McCray, a columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier, pub­lished an article asserting that SCLC was attempting to take over NAACP territory in the Deep South. He quoted an anonymous NAACP member as saying that “SCLC and CORE either ramrodded or joined in on a great many sit-ins, sent hundreds of youths into activities costing money in bail and fines, and then ducked out and left NAACP to foot the bills.”²⁰⁴ King expressed concern about the negative press to Chicago lawyer Chauncey Eskridge, who used his connections at the Courier to rein in McCray and arranged to have another journalist write a series of positive articles about King and SCLC.²⁰⁵ “Disunity in the civil rights movement is becoming a favor­ite topic for a certain number of newspapers and magazines,” King acknowledged when he spoke at the NAACP’s fifty-third annual convention in early July. Defining disunity as “alienation” and the “severing of parts,” King maintained that the move­ment was not suffering from disunity as much as a difference of opinion and inter­ests. “Let us stay together,” he admonished, “remembering that we are all moving down the same road. It may be a three-lane road, with some emphasizing the way of litigation and mobilizing forces for meaningful legislation and others emphasiz­ing the way of nonviolent direct action and others moving through research and education.”²⁰⁶

***

After a busy start to the New Year, the SCLC executive board regrouped over the course of two days in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in mid-May 1962.²⁰⁷ With fewer than half of the thirty-one board members in attendance, King set the tone of the meet­ing by acknowledging that the organization had faced challenges over the past year: “There is a good deal that we could have done but did not do.”²⁰⁸ On 16 May, the second day of the board meeting, the group had a lengthy discussion regarding how affiliate organizations would relate to SCLC and then added three new mem­bers to the executive board, including Virgil Wood, president of the Lynchburg Improvement Association; John Lewis of SNCC; and Hosea Williams, president of the Chatham County Crusade for Voters. SCLC historian L. D. Reddick observed that adding Lewis might help to lessen the resentment felt by some SNCC members toward SCLC.²⁰⁹

The following day, King was the keynote speaker at the founding of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights, a tax-exempt organization providing legal and financial support to the civil right movement.²¹⁰ The new organization was cofounded by Theodore Kheel, who had a year earlier established the Lawyers Advisory Committee (LAC), to assist SCLC with legal support. Kheel teamed up with Harry Wachtel, who had volunteered to help SCLC out of the financial rut caused by the lawsuits against the four ministers being sued for libel.²¹¹ Speaking at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., King began by noting that the occasion coincided with several triumphs in the civil rights struggle, most notably the eighth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and that SCLC had decided to use the historic occasion to deliver a 130-page document urging President John F. Kennedy to sign an Emancipation Proclamation banning racial discrimination.²¹² In a press conference following the luncheon, King clarified that the new organization would “not be an action organization, nor will it be a membership organization”; instead it would provide legal assistance to civil rights activists and “supplement what is being done by the NAACP and CORE and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the realm of direct action.”²¹³ The Society’s board of directors worked through the summer to draft the organization’s mission, using Gandhi’s fundamental principle of “Satyagraha, or ‘truth force’” as a guide.²¹⁴

King’s enthusiasm for the Gandhi Society was tempered when critics derided it as a “departure” from orthodox Christianity. One critic called it “a new crucifixion when Gandhi displaces Christ as the source of power and motivation for those who call themselves Christian.”²¹⁵ An editorial appearing in the Christian Century, a prominent religious magazine, charged that the name of the new group suggested that it was seeking spiritual guidance from Gandhi rather than from Christ.²¹⁶ Responding in a five-page letter, King, editor-at-large of the Christian Century, questioned the assumption that the Gandhi Society was a “turn away from the church,” explaining that “one’s commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, however, should not mean that one cannot be inspired by another great personality that enters the stage of history.” He scolded Christian Century editor Harold Fey for attacking the organization without fully understanding its nature and purpose. “It is fallacious to think of the Gandhi Society as an attempt to deify Gandhi or establish a cult around his name. It seems only natural for this new foundation to take the name of Gandhi since he, more than anyone in the modern world, lifted the method of non-violence to a powerful level of socio-political action.”²¹⁷ In a postscript to his letter, King said that he was not writing the letter for publication, but, after Fey apologized to King, he received permission to publish excerpts of King’s letter.²¹⁸

***

The second week in July, King and Abernathy returned to Recorder’s Court in Albany to hear the verdict from their trial in February.²¹⁹ Standing before the judge on 10 July, they were found guilty and ordered to either pay a $178 fine or serve forty-five days in jail. Choosing the jail sentence, King and Abernathy called the verdict a “mortal wound in the body of justice” and announced that they would serve the sentence to demonstrate that “it is better to go to jail with dignity and self respect than to pay an unjust fine and cooperate with evil and immorality.” In preparation for their jail stay, King and Abernathy staged a twenty-four-hour fast.²²⁰

In jail, King kept a diary and wrote an article for his biweekly column in the New York Amsterdam News.²²¹ In the column, he reiterated his determination to serve his sentence, and explained the difference between practicing civil disobedience and using the law to enforce racial injustice. King noted that a person’s decision to break an unjust law and willingly pay the penalty evidences the highest respect for the law and “transforms the jail into a haven of liberty and freedom.” In contrast, King argued, the segregationist practices “uncivil disobedience” because “he breaks, circumvents, flouts, and evades the law” and “is unwilling to pay the penalty.”²²²

In a show of solidarity with King and Abernathy, demonstrations continued. An afternoon march on 11 July resulted in the arrest of about fifty protesters. In his diary, King wrote that as they approached the jail he could hear them singing freedom songs, which was “naturally” a “big lift to us.”²²³ In addition to visits from family and close friends, King also received letters of support, including one from Birmingham leader Fred Shuttlesworth, who encouraged King to “win this battle for our country” for “there can be no retreat.” Ever ready to join the battle, Shuttlesworth offered his assistance, affirming “you have only to call.”²²⁴ Albany officials sought to counter the publicity surrounding King’s arrest by surreptitiously arranging for someone to pay his fine. On 12 July after serving only two days of their forty-five-day sentence, King and Abernathy were released. Police chief Laurie Pritchett announced that an anonymous, “tall, well-dressed Negro” paid their bond.²²⁵

A crowd of 1,500 gathered at Shiloh Baptist Church to welcome King after his release. King registered his disappointment at the “subtle and conniving methods” Albany officials used to get him and Abernathy out of jail. His frustration gave way to optimism when he announced that negotiations with Police Chief Laurie Pritchett had resulted in concessions on three of the five Albany Movement demands: enforcement of the ICC ruling desegregating interstate travel and facilities, desegregating city buses if and when routes resumed, and returning bond money for the more than 700 people arrested. The next day, Pritchett told reporters that he had not agreed to any of the Albany Movement’s demands.²²⁶

The breakdown in communication hardened King’s resolve to remain in Albany until demands were met.²²⁷ On 15 July, Albany Movement leaders submitted a manifesto to city officials outlining their grievances, which included compliance with the ICC ruling, desegregation of public facilities, and fair and speedy trials or a dismissal of charges for those arrested the previous December. They reaffirmed their commitment to nonviolence and their willingness to accept help from SCLC and other civil rights organizations.²²⁸ In addition, they sent a telegram to city officials expressing their disappointment at the “long record of broken promises and bad faith agreements” and requested a “special meeting” with the commission no later than 17 July to discuss their grievances. Responding to the Albany Movement, Albany mayor Asa Kelley flatly refused to negotiate: “It is the decision of the Commission not to deal with law violators.”²²⁹ Upon hearing the news, King met with Albany Movement leaders to plan their “counter move against the city commission” and according to a newspaper account, King said, “When we finish this thing, the City Commission will want to talk to me.”²³⁰ In a mass meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church that evening, King called for renewed demonstrations.²³¹

King then left Albany to fulfill a previous commitment to speak at the National Press Club on 19 July in Washington. The first African American to address the club, King called for immediate and complete desegregation, citing Albany as proof of the unyielding determination of black Americans to achieve full citizenship. He warned that the “issue is not whether segregation and discrimination will be eliminated, but how they will pass from the American scene.”²³² Afterward King canceled an appearance at a Jackie Robinson testimonial dinner, choosing instead to return immediately to Albany, where he announced plans to march to city hall.²³³

A few hours before the demonstration was to begin, a federal court issued an injunction forbidding future marches. Albany Movement president W. G. Anderson and other leaders agreed to honor the order until the issue could be resolved in a higher court. However, in a joint statement, King and Anderson scoffed at Albany city officials’ “illusions that the legitimate aspirations of the Negro community for free­dom and human dignity can be snuffed out by a series of evasions and legal maneu­vers.”²³⁴ With the understanding that the order applied only to leaders and not the entire African American community, 160 Albany residents marched toward city hall, following Williams Springs Baptist Church pastor Samuel B. Wells, on 21 July.²³⁵

As the protest continued, King, Abernathy, Anderson, and Wyatt Tee Walker met with Chief Pritchett on 23 July. King reportedly offered to leave Albany if the city commission would agree to meet with the Albany Movement leadership. Pritchett declined King’s offer, claiming he could not speak for the city commission.²³⁶ That afternoon, the pregnant wife of Slater King, Marion, was attacked by a white police officer when she went to the Mitchell County Jail in Camilla, Georgia, to visit protest­ers arrested during earlier demonstrations. As she approached the jail carrying her three-year-old daughter, the officer told her to leave, but she did not move quickly enough before he began shoving her and struck her across the face with enough force to knock her out.²³⁷

With racial tensions in Albany reaching a flashpoint, Albany Movement lawyers filed two class action lawsuits against the City of Albany and its officials asking the court to end segregation in public facilities and to prevent interference with citizens’ right to protest.²³⁸ They also appeared in an Atlanta courtroom to argue for a with­drawal of the temporary restraining order prohibiting demonstrations by movement leaders. On 24 July, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Elbert P. Tuttle vacated the order, ruling that the “trial court had no jurisdiction to enter this order at all.”²³⁹

Immediately upon hearing the verdict, King along with Anderson and Slater King, implored the city commission to sit down “as brothers” to discuss “ways and means to grant citizenship rights that can no longer be postponed.”²⁴⁰ Praising the “sober and sound decision on the part of Judge Tuttle to preserve basic constitutional rights,” King acknowledged in a mass meeting later that day that the racial hostility in Albany was “not tension merely between black people and white people,” but between “justice and injustice.” He concluded by urging his audience to keep the “weapon of nonviolence” at the forefront of the movement.²⁴¹

King’s rousing address was followed by an impromptu march by 300 protesters to Albany city hall. The march attracted a crowd of approximately 2,000 onlookers, some of whom hurled rocks and bottles at police, prompting a mêlée that resulted in injuries to two law enforcement officers and the arrest of forty others.²⁴² Although no movement leaders had participated in the march, King and Anderson called for a day of penance to demonstrate the movement’s commitment to nonviolence.²⁴³ King, Abernathy, and SNCC representatives Charles Jones and Charles Sherrod walked the streets of Harlem, Albany’s African American district, on 25–26 July, encouraging nonviolence. In addition to several street corner meetings, the group visited a shoe shine parlor, a drugstore, a dry cleaners, and Dick’s Pool Room, where King showed off his pool skills and warned customers that any violent outbursts would “defeat all of our efforts.” Abernathy also addressed the pool hall patrons, explaining that the meaning of nonviolence was not “an appeal to you to slacken up in the struggle, or to stop resisting this evil system of segregation,” for “nonviolence is the way for the strong, and not for the weak. It takes a strong man to be a nonviolent man.”²⁴⁴

Resuming demonstrations on 27 July, King, Anderson, Abernathy, Slater King, Albany Movement chaplain Benjamin Gay, and five women led a prayer vigil in front of city hall. After Pritchett announced that everyone was under arrest, King asked Abernathy to lead the group in prayer.²⁴⁵ A statement released by the Albany Movement explained that the demonstration was “a final effort to soften the hearts of the City Commission of Albany.” Asserting that appeals to reason and nonviolent protests had proved futile, the statement affirmed that the black community of Albany under the auspices of the Albany Movement and guidance of the SCLC did “not seek victory, only reconciliation.” The statement concluded, “If the beloved community is to be established in Albany, we must begin by talking together.”²⁴⁶

After Walker called for nationwide support, sympathizers sent telegrams to local and federal officials, mobilized prayer vigils, and wore black arm bands symbolizing “murdered justice” in Albany.²⁴⁷ Prayer vigils were held in cities all over the country. From Fresno, California, to New York City, New York, leaders vowed to continue the vigils until the federal government took action to resolve the situation in Albany. In the nation’s capital, over one hundred clergy traveled to the White House and presented officials with petitions signed by 5,000, requesting immediate govern­ment intervention.²⁴⁸ Supporters also inundated the president with telegrams call­ing for federal intervention.²⁴⁹ One of the support letters King received came from Montgomery Improvement Association board member Irene West, who thanked King and Abernathy for their “kindness, patient understanding and dedicated ser­vice … to the nation” and predicted that “Good will soon triumph over wrong.”²⁵⁰

Prior to being jailed, King had agreed to appear on “Meet the Press” on 29 July. Although he described his incarceration in Albany as his worst jail experience, King refused to post bond and asked Anderson to secure bail and substitute for him on the television show.²⁵¹ Despite the grim conditions, King was encouraged by the outpouring of support and was also heartened when President Kennedy told report­ers: “The United States Government is involved in sitting down at Geneva with the Soviet Union. I can’t understand why the government of Albany, City Council of Albany, cannot do the same for American citizens.”²⁵² In a telegram sent from jail, King thanked Kennedy for his statement. “Rev. Abernathy and I earnestly hope you will continue to use the great moral influence of your office to help this crucial situ­ation,” he asserted. “There is no need for another Little Rock here.”²⁵³ In addition, he released a statement to the press rebutting Mayor Asa Kelley’s contention that the city commission would not negotiate with “outsiders.” King, who had never insisted on being part of the negotiating team, called this an “excuse and another evasive scheme to maintain the system of segregation.”²⁵⁴

As with his confinement in early July, King chronicled his jail experiences in a diary that was later published by Jet magazine.²⁵⁵ He described the daily arrival of new arrestees and the flow of his visitors, including colleagues and family. Complaining of the heat and overall exhaustion, King described feeling so ill that Anderson had to provide medical treatment.²⁵⁶ Despite the conditions, King completed three sermons for his forthcoming book, Strength to Love, including “A Tender Heart and a Tough Mind,” “Love in Action,” and “Loving Your Enemies.” He attempted to maintain a positive attitude, but King’s entries also expressed despair and frustration.²⁵⁷

While still being held on local charges, King testified in the civil case brought by Albany mayor Asa D. Kelley and other officials to prevent the Albany Movement from engaging in further protest. Taking the stand on 8 August, King recounted his involvement in the Albany Movement since December 1961 and explained his philos­ophy of nonviolence and civil disobedience.²⁵⁸ The Albany Movement’s defense was bolstered when the U.S. Department of Justice filed an amicus curiae brief, arguing that the Supreme Court and lower federal courts have “repeatedly held that racial segregation in facilities operated by or under control of the State or its officials is illegal under the United States Constitution and under Federal law.” As a solution to the pending litigation, the Justice Department suggested that if Albany officials fol­lowed the law “there would be no demonstrations and no need for litigation and bit­terness.”²⁵⁹ Despite federal intervention in the case, Judge J. Robert Elliott adjourned proceedings without pronouncing judgment.²⁶⁰ Two days later, King was in court again—this time in Albany Recorder’s Court to answer charges stemming from his 27 July arrest. Testifying before a desegregated courtroom, King and his associates were found guilty, fined $200 each, and given a sixty-day suspended sentence. Before freeing the leaders, Judge Addie Durden admonished them to refrain from further demonstrations or be subject to re-arrest. Although expecting a harsher sentence, King was not surprised by the verdict, calling it “unjust,” but agreed to temporarily leave Albany to give the commission a chance to enter into “good-faith” negotiations with the Albany Movement.²⁶¹

King returned to Atlanta the following day in time to preach at Ebenezer on Sunday.²⁶² On the same day he left Albany, officials closed public parks and librar­ies after an interracial group tried to integrate them.²⁶³ A disappointed King told a reporter that the “present action of the city commission can lead to the most explo­sive racial situation in the United States today” and he vowed to “regroup our forces and renew mass nonviolent demonstrations in order to keep this issue before the conscience of Albany and the nation.”²⁶⁴ Arriving back in Albany on 13 August, King addressed a cheering crowd at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. He warned the city commission that the turmoil in Albany will not abate until the commission is “willing to sit down and face reality.” They must recognize, King said, that “segregation is on its deathbed in Albany, and the only thing uncertain about it is how costly the City Commission will make the funeral.”²⁶⁵

A few days after King returned to Albany, the Shady Grove Baptist Church in nearby Leesburg that had been used as a voter registration center was bombed. King, who had endured the bombing of his own home in January 1956, reacted with outrage: “All property is significant, but this is a church of God. And when men will do this, when men will seek to destroy the church of God, they have degenerated to a tragic level of inhumanity and sin and evil.”²⁶⁶ While visiting the ruins, King pledged $500 to begin the rebuilding process, declaring that the bombing of the church “illustrates the ends to which the white racist community in the South will go to discourage Negroes from voting. This strikes at the very heart of our more prized freedoms—freedoms of speech and the right to vote. We cannot be leaders of the free world with Negro churches being bombed in the Deep South.”²⁶⁷

In the evening, a delegation of Albany Movement leaders, headed by William G. Anderson, met in closed session for the first time with Mayor Asa D. Kelley and the entire city commission. Marion Page, executive secretary of the Albany Movement, read a three-page petition reiterating the movement’s demands. Once again, Kelley steadfastly refused to discuss or implement any of the requests: “It strikes me that every area covered tonight now rests with the Federal courts where it should be and where it should have been months ago.” King, who was not a member of the negotiat­ing team, said the city commission’s refusal to talk demonstrated that they hold “the Negro citizen of this community in utter contempt.”²⁶⁸

With the movement at a nine-month stalemate, King inconspicuously boarded a plane for Atlanta on 16 August. When a reporter asked Andrew J. Young why King left Albany, he refused to say, but disclosed that the civil rights leader would “definitely be back.” As to whether or not demonstrations in Albany would continue, Young replied: “Not at this moment.”²⁶⁹ From Atlanta, King called for an interracial, interfaith pilgrimage of Northern religious leaders to come to southwest Georgia and “stand with the people of Albany as they strive for freedom.” Seventy-five men and women representing many denominations and geographic locations answered King’s call and were arrested on 27 August.²⁷⁰ Arriving back in Albany to greet the religious leaders, King commended those arrested for recognizing “that justice and morality know no limits of geography and that Albany is but a symptom of the can­cerous sore of segregation within our American democracy.”²⁷¹ Police Chief Laurie Pritchett accused the clergy of coming to “aid and abet the law violators of this city” and urged them to instead “clear your own city of sin and of lawlessness before you come here to try and convert us.”²⁷² Unable to overcome the obstinacy of Albany’s white leaders, King, his SCLC colleagues, and Albany Movement leaders were forced to recognize that months of struggle had produced few tangible gains and racial tensions remained high.

Although the Albany protests had attracted national attention, appeals to the Kennedy administration did not result in sustained and concrete action. When city officials remained intransigent, King once again pleaded for Kennedy’s help. In a 31 August 1962 telegram, King urged the president to invite members of the Albany City Commission to Washington for mediated discussion on the Albany situation.²⁷³ Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s reply reiterated the federal government’s policy to uphold the “constitutional rights of all Americans … against state or other official discriminations or segregation on the basis of race color or creed.” He also reminded King of the president’s earlier statement urging officials to negotiate with Albany Movement leaders and that the federal courts are now in the process of hearings to determine the constitutionality of segregated public facilities in Albany and the right to citizens to protest segregation. “The Department of Justice,” Kennedy said, “will continue to take all appropriate steps within its power to uphold and enforce the law of the land.”²⁷⁴

A year and a half after he had expressed guarded optimism about the prospects for civil rights reform during Kennedy’s presidency, King had seen only a slight shift in the administration’s civil rights policies. President Kennedy had ignored King’s repeated appeals for a second Emancipation Proclamation that would eliminate statutory segregation through an executive order. His meetings with Kennedy had secured promises of support for voting rights efforts, but SCLC’s People to People campaign and Citizenship Schools produced only gradual gains; major obstacles to black voting rights persisted. The newly created Gandhi Society for Human Rights had not yet demonstrated that it could provide effective legal assistance and ongoing financial support for SCLC. Much had been accomplished during 1961 and 1962, but SCLC had played mainly a supportive role in the Freedom Rides and the Albany protests, the most visible indications that black discontent with the pace of civil rights reform could become a powerful force for change.

As Wyatt Tee Walker reflected on SCLC efforts during 1961 and 1962, he admitted that in the “crucial testing ground” of Albany a “decisive victory has not come,” but he nonetheless concluded that the organization had achieved significant gains. “The system of segregation was also on trial, and we were able to demonstrate to the world through the flesh and blood of the Albany, Georgia, situation, the complete moral indefensibility of the segregation system.” The Albany campaign had achieved “the psychological freeing of the Negro mind and spirit.” In assessing SCLC’s future, he recalled King’s description of SCLC “as a ‘sleeping giant’ in the social transition of the South” and concluded that the organization had “totaled more successes than failures.” Walker repeated the metaphor he had used at SCLC’s annual gathering in September 1961: “There is (still) more of the road before us than there is behind us, and that road we have traveled has at times been most tortuous.”²⁷⁵ King, however, saw the importance of the Albany Movement in a broader context: “If you had not had a movement like this, thousands of Negroes would be walking around with their heads buried. The victory of the Albany Movement has already been won. Thousands of Negroes have won a new sense of dignity and self-respect.”²⁷⁶

At the end of August, King offered his own more hopeful assessment of SCLC’s prospects when he wrote to his brother, Birmingham minister A. D. King. King wrote that the coming year “calls for a real mobilization of our civil rights forces in the State of Alabama. We want to help you to help Alabama. Through our reciprocal efforts, we can bring a new day in the Deep South and your state.”²⁷⁷

^1. The jury amendment would have allowed the attorney general to bypass a jury and issue con­tempt citations for violations of constitutional rights. When King met in June 1960 with then-senator Kennedy to discuss his civil rights stance, King recalled that the candidate regretted voting against the amendment even after sit-in protests revealed the “injustices and the indignities that Negroes were fac­ing all over the South.” King was convinced that Kennedy had an “intellectual” rather than “emotional commitment” to civil rights. King argued that while Kennedy knew that segregation was morally wrong, “he had never really had the personal experience of knowing the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the Negroes for freedom because he just didn't know Negroes generally” (King, Interview by Berl Bernhard, 9 March 1964).

^2. King, “Equality Now: The President Has the Power,” 4 February 1961, pp. 139, 140, 144, 145 in this volume. During a presidential debate with Richard Nixon, Kennedy said that discrimination in federally funded housing could be eliminated by a “stroke of the President’s hand” (“Transcript of the Second Nixon-Kennedy Debate on Nation-Wide Television,” New York Times, 8 October 1960). Kennedy also promised that he would end discrimination in government contracts and ensure compliance of the Supreme Court’s mandate to desegregate schools. He asserted that the country had “lost valuable years” because President Dwight D. Eisenhower failed to implement a civil rights plan and thereby show presidential and moral leadership (Kennedy, Remarks at National Conference on Constitutional Rights and American Freedom, 12 October 1960). After the election, King began urging Kennedy to enact the civil rights planks adopted at the 1960 Democratic convention. He told an audience in Chattanooga: “Now we must remind Mr. Kennedy that we helped him to get in the White House. We must remind Mr. Kennedy that we are expecting him to use the whole weight of his office to remove the ugly weight of segregation from the shoulders of our nation.” King argued that in the past the federal government had exclusively relied on the judicial branch to deal with the civil rights issue, while the legislative and execu­tive branches have been “hypocritical, apathetic, and silent.” King added, “we must remind Mr. Kennedy that when he gets the pen in his hand, we expect him to write a little bit and give some orders” (King, “The Negro and the American Dream,” Address delivered at Memorial Auditorium, 30 December 1960).

^3. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962), pp. 156–157.

^4. King, Question and answer period at Temple Emanuel, 12 March 1961; see also King, The Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations, Address delivered at Temple Emanuel, 12 March 1961. King later recalled the president seemed “committed” to civil rights but was “not quite sure that he had a mandate from the people” because of his “very small margin of victory in the election” (King, Inter­view by Bernhard, 9 March 1964).

^5. King to Kennedy, 16 March 1961, p. 175 in this volume. Although King was invited to Kennedy’s inauguration, he did not attend. For a facsimile of the invitation, see p. 129 in this volume. Kennedy was slow to respond to King’s request for a meeting, which did not take place until October 1961 (see King, Press Conference after Meeting with John F. Kennedy, 16 October 1961, pp. 308–311 in this volume).

^6. In June 1961 the Justice Department’s petition was denied (Eva Allen et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Va., etc., et al., 28 F.R.D. 358 [1961]). The Prince Edward County school deseg­regation case was one of five cases consolidated into the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision, which outlawed segregation in public schools (Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al., 347 U.S. 483). Five years after the Brown decision, Prince Edward County school board officials closed the county’s public schools rather than obey a federal court order to desegregate.

^7. King and Wyatt Tee Walker to Kennedy, 28 April 1961.

^8. “Text of Attorney General Kennedy’s Civil Rights Speech at University of Georgia,” New York Times, 7 May 1961. SCLC’s executive board expressed its “sincere appreciation for the Attorney General Robert Kennedy and his forthright leadership he is giving the enforcement arm of the Federal Government” (SCLC, Press release, “King and SCLC meet in Montgomery,” 12 May 1961).

^9. For more on King’s tax evasion case, see Introduction, in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 5: Threshold of a New Decade, ed. Clayborne Carson, Tenisha Armstrong, Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Kieran Taylor (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), pp. 24–26, 30–31.

^10. King to Sammy Davis, Jr., 28 March 1961, pp. 188–189 in this volume; Ralph Abernathy, “Report of the treasurer,” 1 November 1960–30 April 1961.

^11. Thomas Walter Gaither, “Jailed-In,” April 1961.

^12. King to Diane Nash and Charles Sherrod, 17 February 1961, pp. 167–168 in this volume.

^13. After his October arrest at Rich’s department store, King was convicted of violating the conditions of his probation stemming from a May 1960 traffic violation and sentenced to four months in Georgia’s state prison at Reidsville (see Introduction, in Papers 5:36–40). Student sit-in leaders later suspended demonstrations for thirty days while Atlanta officials promised to try and secure the release of jailed protesters. After negotiations collapsed, however, the students resumed the boycott of downtown stores (“Atlanta Negroes Suspend Sit-Ins,” New York Times, 23 October 1960; John Britton, “Demonstrations Are Resumed Here after Truce of 30 Days,” Atlanta Daily World, 26 November 1960).

^14. Keeler McCartney, “8 Ministers Seized in Sit-In, Vow to Remain in Fulton Jail,” Atlanta Constitution, 16 February 1961.

^15. Charles Moore, “Negroes Here Plan Huge Rally at Jail,” Atlanta Constitution, 16 February 1961. Lonnie C. King and Mary Ann Smith, two members of the Atlanta Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, wrote King on 25 February thanking him for his “eloquent” address: “You have been an inspira­tion to all of us” (p. 169 in this volume).

^16. The merchants also agreed to rehire black employees who had been laid off (Bruce Galphin, “Negroes Agree to End Sit-Ins,” Atlanta Constitution, 8 March 1961; SCLC, Newsletter 1, no. 1, May 1961).

^17. Lionel Newsom and William Gorden, “A Stormy Rally in Atlanta,” Today’s Speech 11, no. 2 (April 1963): 18–21; Trezzvant W. Anderson, “Repudiate Boycott ‘Settlement’: ‘You Sold Us Out,’ Cry Angry Atlanta ‘Sit-Ins,’” Pittsburgh Courier, 18 March 1961. In a later interview, Lonnie C. King, chairman of the Atlanta Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, said that although he had wanted immediate deseg­regation of downtown businesses he was “browbeat” by the adult leadership into signing the agreement (Lonnie C. King, Interview by John H. Britton, 29 August 1967).

^18. “King Pleads to Students: Atlanta Accord Followed by Dispute,” New York Amsterdam News, 25 March 1961. Before King, Jr. addressed the meeting, Daddy King explained his position: “By your saying I’ve sold out bothers me very little. I keep my record up and my business is to keep any of that from being true.… If you want the little place I have you can have it. I’m tired, as tired as I can be … Now God bless you, and let’s keep working together for the good of all of us” (Newsom and Gorden, “A Stormy Rally in Atlanta”).

^19. Newsom and Gorden, “A Stormy Rally in Atlanta.” According to Lonnie C. King, King, Jr. “made the greatest speech” he had ever made with “tears were in his eyes” after seeing “his daddy being casti­gated by those people” (King, Interview by Britton, 29 August 1967).

^20. Braden went to Atlanta to ask King personally to initiate a petition on behalf of her husband (Anne Braden, The Wall Between [Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999], pp. 325–326; see also Braden to King, 5 March 1961).

^21. Braden v. United States, 365 U.S. 431 (1961); “Witness Balked in Inquiry on Reds,” New York Times, 31 July 1958; “A Year for Contempt,” New York Times, 3 February 1959. Created in 1938, the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated the threat of subversive activities by organizations, pri­vate citizens, and public employees suspected of having communist sympathies.

^22. Anne Braden had met King at Highlander’s 1957 anniversary celebration on 2 September 1957 (see Braden to King, 14 October 1958, in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 4: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957–December 1958, ed. Clayborne Carson, Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Virginia Shadron, Kieran Taylor [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000], pp. 510–511). Following his address at Highlander, King was denounced in billboards in the South for being at a “Communist Training School.” The billboards featured a photograph of King sitting near a reporter for a Communist Party newspaper (see King, “A Look to the Future,” Address Delivered at Highlander Folk School’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Meeting, 2 September 1957, in Papers 4:269–276).

^23. Braden to King, 5 March 1961. Black, an Alabama native, also wrote in his dissent that the deci­sion against Braden “may well strip the Negro of the aid of many of the white people who have been willing to speak on his behalf” (Braden v. United States, 365 U.S. 431).

^24. Braden, The Wall Between, pp. 325–326; see also Braden to James A. Dombrowski, 20 April 1961. In her autobiography, Braden wrote: “There was absolutely no personal advantage for him in his unwaver­ing support of us; it could only bring him trouble and criticism—which it did” (Braden, The Wall Between, p. 326). After receiving word that King would sign the petition, Braden sent him a letter: “I know that we have agreed that it is not so much a personal thing for Carl as a weapon to keep the witch hunters from damaging the integration movement, but since I’m personally involved I can’t help having a certain sense of appreciation. But more important than that, I admire your courage” (Braden to King, 14 March 1961).

^25. Braden to Wood, 27 March 1961. The petition was circulated on 22 April 1961. Additional signees included both black and white Southerners: William B. Abbot, Sarah-Patton Boyle, Carl P. Brannin, James McBride Dabbs, W. W. Finlator, Clarence Jordan, James M. Lawson, Edgar A. Love, Dorcas Ruthenburg, Charles Eubank Tucker, Wyatt Tee Walker, Aubrey W. Williams, and Marion A. Wright (Petition for clemency for Carl Braden, 22 April 1961).

^26. Douglas Kiker, “King Sees ‘McCarthyism’ in 2 U.S. Contempt Sentences,” Atlanta Journal, 2 May 1961. A day before Braden’s surrender on 1 May, King and his wife, Coretta, attended a reception in Atlanta to honor Carl Braden and Frank Wilkinson, who also refused to answer questions before HUAC and was sentenced to a year in jail. For a photograph taken at the reception, see p. 97 in this volume.

^27. SCLC, Press release, “King and SCLC meet in Montgomery.”

^28. According to an SCLC treasurer’s report, the Emergency Defense fund balance by the end of April 1961 was $775.42 (Abernathy, “Report of the treasurer”). For more on the libel suits and a facsimile of the advertisement, see Introduction in Papers 5:25–26, 382.

^29. In two of the five libel cases, the plaintiffs were awarded a combined total of $1 million in dam­ages. Although the ministers appealed the verdicts, the plaintiffs immediately began taking possession of the defendants’ personal and real property. Some of the defendants’ wages were garnished and their land and cars auctioned (“Background, The Alabama Libel Suits,” 8 May 1961; “Car Is Impounded as Libel Payment,” New York Times, 4 February 1961). In a 9 April 1961 letter to Stanley Levison, King’s advi­sor, Seay pleaded for a loan of $500: “As a result of these suits my credit has been completely nullified here in the community. I am the pastor of a small church, but my main income is from a farm that I operate.” In June 1961 federal district court judge Frank M. Johnson ruled that the ministers had been wrongly named as codefendants with the New York Times since they had no knowledge that their names were being used in the ad. Johnson’s ruling absolved the ministers in two of the three remaining cases (“U.S. Court Keeps Times Libel Suits,” New York Times, 27 June 1961).

^30. King, Statement at Lawyers Advisory Committee Meeting, 8 May 1961, pp. 219–220 in this volume. The Committee was founded by Theodore W. Kheel, former president of the National Urban League and an arbitrator in labor disputes.

^31. SCLC, Press release, “King and SCLC Meet in Montgomery”; Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 (1960).

^32. Elsie Carper, “Pilgrimage Off on Racial Test,” Washington Post, 5 May 1961. The group planned to make stops in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

^33. SNCC, The Student Voice 2, nos. 4 & 5, April–May 1961.

^34. James Farmer, Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Plume, 1985), p. 200. CORE field director Gordon R. Carey asked King to attend a rally in support of the free­dom riders at Atlanta’s Warren Memorial Methodist Church on 13 May and to arrange for a private din­ner with them that evening. The rally was later canceled (Carey to King, 8 May 1961, pp. 217–218 in this volume). Farmer recalled that he expected King to pick up the dinner check at the “not inexpensive” restaurant. “I finally reached slowly for it, certain King would beat me to the punch,” but King “made no move, so to my surprise I found myself picking up the tab” (Farmer, Lay Bare the Heart, p. 200).

^35. Simeon Booker and Carol McCabe Booker, Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013), p. 189.

^36. King’s sermon at Ebenezer was “Crisis in the Modern Family” (Ebenezer Baptist Church, Press release, “‘Crisis in the Modern Family,’ Dr. King Jr.’s topic at Ebenezer,” 13 May 1961).

^37. “One Vehicle Is Set Afire at Anniston,” Birmingham Post-Herald, 15 May 1961; James Peck, Freedom Ride (New York: Grove Press, 1962), pp. 96–97.

^38. Jerry McCloy, “Attackers Here Use Lead Pipes against Victims,” Birmingham Post-Herald, 15 May 1961; Peck, Freedom Ride, pp. 97–98; “Ambushers Burn Bus, Riot Hits Birmingham,” Montgomery Advertiser, 15 May 1961. Peck was an original participant in CORE’s 1947 Journey of Reconciliation. Prior to their arrival in Birmingham, riders on the Trailways bus also made a brief stop at the Greyhound bus station in Anniston, where, unbeknownst to them, their fellow riders had been attacked an hour earlier. Local thugs boarded the bus and beat several of the riders, forcing them to sit at the rear of the bus. Throughout the two-hour ride to Birmingham, segregationists occupied the front part of the bus (Peck, Freedom Ride, pp. 97–98).

^39. “‘Freedom Riders’ Fly to N.O. after Bomb Reports Delay Trip before Takeoff,” Birmingham Post-Herald, 16 May 1961. On 15 May 1961, Robert Kennedy placed a call to George E. Cruit, superintendent of Birmingham’s Greyhound bus station, asking if anything could be done to “get this bus down to Montgomery.” Cruit insisted that no regular drivers were willing to take the assignment for fear of their safety. Kennedy suggested getting a “driver of one of the colored buses” or even “some Negro school bus driver” to take them to Montgomery. Cruit steadfastly insisted that “amateurs can’t handle” $45,000 buses. Frustrated by Cruit’s insistence that no driver could be found, Kennedy warned that he was “going to be very much upset if this group does not get to continue their trip” since “they are entitled to trans­portation provided by Greyhound and we are looking for you to get them on their way.” Despite his pleas, no driver was found to take the riders to Montgomery (Transcript, Phone conversation between Robert F. Kennedy and George E. Cruit, 15 May 1961; “Bi-Racial Group Cancels Bus Trip,” New York Times, 16 May 1961).

^40. Peck, Freedom Ride, p. 101. Just before the freedom riders were scheduled to fly from Birmingham, a telephoned bomb threat prompted all passengers to get off the plane, and the freedom riders waited several hours at the airport before departing for New Orleans (“Bi-Racial Group Cancels Bus Trip,” 16 May 1961).

^41. Howard Zinn, SNCC: The New Abolitionists (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964), pp. 44–45.

^42. The telegram, which was reproduced in an SCLC press release, also called upon the governor to uphold the Constitution and “to begin giving responsible moral leadership to your state before America completely loses her prestige in the world community” (SCLC, Press release, “Freedom riders attacked in Alabama,” 15 May 1961).

^43. SCLC, Press release, “Freedom riders attacked in Alabama.” In a statement released by CORE, James Farmer said that if mobs can “terrorize American citizens who are peacefully and legally traveling interstate, then existing Federal Laws are not adequate and additional civil rights legislation must be given top priority” (CORE, “Statement by CORE National Director, James Farmer,” 16 May 1961).

^44. “Police Jail 10 ‘Mixed’ Riders for ‘Protection’ in Bus Delay,” Birmingham Post-Herald, 18 May 1961. A newspaper quoted Connor as saying he drove the students back to Tennessee for their own protection. When Connor dropped the students off, he reportedly said: “There is the Tennessee line. Cross it and save this state and yourself a lot of trouble.” One student replied: “We’ll see you back in Birmingham about noon” (“Crowd at Bus Station,” New York Times, 20 May 1961).

^45. Peck, Freedom Ride, p. 106.

^46. Robert F. Kennedy and Burke Marshall, Interview by Anthony Lewis, 4 December 1964.

^47. Burke Marshall, Interview by Louis F. Oberdorfer, 29 May 1964; “‘Protection Assured’: Patterson, JFK Aide Talk Here,” Montgomery Advertiser, 20 May 1961.

^48. Marshall, Interview by Oberdorfer.

^49. Marshall, Interview by Oberdorfer; “Freedom Riders Attacked by Whites in Montgomery,” New York Times, 21 May 1961; Don Martin, “U.S. Official Is Knocked Unconscious,” Washington Post, 21 May 1961.

^50. “Text of Telegram from Robert Kennedy,” Montgomery Advertiser, 21 May 1961. In a telegram to Patterson that was released to the public, Robert Kennedy blamed the violence against Seigenthaler and the demonstrators on the governor’s failure to enforce the law. Kennedy also argued that while he “strongly” believed that law enforcement should be left to local authorities, his futile attempts to discuss with Patterson how he planned to protect the demonstrations going forward left him no alterna­tive but to call in federal marshals (“Text of Telegram from Robert Kennedy,” 21 May 1961). Kennedy acknowledged that his decision to send marshals to Alabama was done “with great reluctance” (Robert F. Kennedy, Summary of telephone conversation with John Malcolm Patterson, 20 May 1961). Following his conversation with Kennedy, Patterson announced that the federal government had no “legal or constitutional right” to send federal marshals into Alabama and that the Kennedy administration had encouraged “busloads of incident-hunting ‘students’ to violate our state laws.” He also postulated that the federal government’s failure to stop “outside agitators” from “invading Alabama” made his efforts to enforce the law more difficult (“Riot Incidents May Cloud Patterson, JFK Relations,” Montgomery Advertiser, 22 May 1961).

^51. Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1961, p. 391.

^52. “Dr. King Cancels Visits at College, Returns to South for Race Crisis; Tension Increases in Montgomery,” The Dartmouth, 22 May 1961; “Graham Asks Negro Group Stay Overnight in Church,” Montgomery Advertiser, 22 May 1961.

^53. “Angry Mob Quits Church before Cloud of Tear Gas,” Montgomery Advertiser, 22 May 1961.

^54. “Graham Asks Negro Group Stay Overnight in Church,” 22 May 1961; King, Statement Delivered at Freedom Riders Rally at First Baptist Church, 21 May 1961, p. 232 in this volume.

^55. King, Address at Freedom Riders Rally at First Baptist Church, 21 May 1961, p. 229 in this volume. Several days after the rioting, Patterson contended that the federal government was responsible for the mayhem: “They caused that rioting by bringing King to Montgomery. There were about sixty marshals on hand. They escorted him to the church. It looked like the President of the United States” (Claude Sitton, “Bi-Racial Riders Decide to Go On,” New York Times, 24 May 1961).

^56. King, Address at Freedom Riders Rally, 21 May 1961, p. 229 in this volume.

^57. “Negroes Leave Church after Long Stay,” Montgomery Advertiser, 23 May 1961.

^58. “Angry Mob Quits Church before Cloud of Tear Gas,” 22 May 1961. Attempting to regain his power from federal authorities, Patterson declared Montgomery under martial law, sending in guards­men to do whatever necessary to restore peace (“Montgomery under Martial Law; Troops Called after New Riot; Marshals and Police Fight Mob,” New York Times, 22 May 1961).

^59. “Angry Mob Quits Church before Cloud of Tear Gas,” 22 May 1961; “Negroes Leave Church after Long Stay,” 23 May 1961.

^60. Samuel Hoskins, “Fear New Ala. Riot Outbreak,” Chicago Daily Defender, 24 May 1961; John Lewis and Michael D’Orso, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998), p. 163. In May 1960 King received a traffic violation for driving with an invalid license. Later that year, he pled guilty and was fined $25 in addition to receiving a year of probation (see note 187, Introduction in Papers 5:37).

^61. James Farmer, Interview by Taylor Branch, 18 November 1983; see also “A Disappointing King” in The Crusader 2, no. 31 (5 June 1961). According to John Lewis’s autobiography, after that meeting the students jeeringly began referring to King as “De Lawd” (Lewis and D’Orso, Walking with the Wind, p. 164).

^62. King, Press Conference Announcing the Continuation of the Freedom Rides, 23 May 1961, p. 235 in this volume.

^63. “‘Freedom Riders’ Sight Miss. As Next Target,” Los Angeles Times, 24 May 1961.

^64. A. Philip Randolph to King, 23 May 1961; Clark to King, 23 May 1961, p. 233 in this volume. King also received telegrams of support from couples Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis and Sidney and Juanita Poitier (Dee and Davis to King, 25 May 1961, pp. 237–238 in this volume; Sidney and Juanita Poitier to King and Freedom Riders, 25 May 1961).

^65. “‘Freedom Riders’ Exit Under Eyes of Guard, Police,” Montgomery Advertiser, 25 May 1961.

^66. U.S. Department of Justice, Statement, Robert F. Kennedy on protection of freedom riders, 24 May 1961. In a 19 July 1961 press conference, the president was asked to give his views on the Freedom Rides: “I think the Attorney General has made it clear that we believe that everyone who travels, for whatever reason they travel, should enjoy the full constitutional protection given to them by the law and by the Constitution. They should be able to move freely in interstate commerce.… In my judgment, there’s no question of the legal rights of the freedom travelers—Freedom Riders, to move in interstate commerce. And those rights, whether we agree with those who travel, whether we agree with the purpose for which they travel, those rights stand, providing they are exercised in a peaceful way” (Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1961, p. 517).

^67. “27 Arrested in Mississippi As Rides Continued,” Birmingham World, 27 May 1961.

^68. Transcript, Phone conversation between Robert F. Kennedy and Ross R. Barnett, 23 May 1961. In a later interview Kennedy said his “primary interest” was that the riders “weren’t beaten up,” and he con­ceded that he knew the riders were going to be arrested, but “I didn’t have any control over it” (Kennedy and Marshall, Interview by Lewis, 4 December 1964).

^69. “Attorney General’s Pleas,” New York Times, 25 May 1961. In a 1964 interview, Kennedy recalled being criticized for calling for a “cooling-off” period: “I thought that people were going to get killed, and they had made their point. What was the purpose of continuing with it?” (Kennedy and Marshall, Interview by Lewis, 4 December 1964). In a 10 September 1961 article in the New York Times Magazine, King criticized those who advocated for “cooling-off” periods (see King, “The Time for Freedom Has Come,” pp. 275, 276–277 in this volume).

^70. Edwin Guthman, We Band of Brothers (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), pp. 154–155.

^71. Also in the interview with Sitton, King argued that the continuation of the Freedom Rides was necessary: “I can conceive of no great social change or progress without some individuals who are willing to take the blows and who are temporarily misunderstood” (Sitton, “Dr. King Refuses to End Bus Test,” New York Times, 26 May 1961).

^72. In a 24 May press release, SCLC announced that King had authorized the launch of the Committee to organize the continuation of the Freedom Rides. King pledged SCLC’s full cooperation and “entire resources” until interstate travel facilities were fully integrated: “It must be made clear to the nation, and the south in particular, that American citizens will not be restrained in the practice of their legal, moral and Constitutional privileges.” And despite government officials who refuse to “recognize that racial segregation has no place in the fabric of our democracy,” King insisted, they are “fighting a lost cause” (James R. Wood, Press release, Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee formed, 24 May 1961). The committee consisted of Gordon Carey of CORE, Ed King of SNCC, Diane Nash of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, and Wyatt Tee Walker of SCLC. Although the founding documents indicated that the committee would not have a chairman, and each member would function equally in the organization, Walker was later quoted as saying that the students would handle most of the work: “They are the ones serving as the shock troops and we’ve got to go along” (James R. Wood, Report on meeting of the Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee, 26 May 1961; Claude Sitton, “Group Maps Plans on Freedom Rides,” New York Times, 1 June 1961).

^73. Wood, Report on meeting of the Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee; Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (1946). Since October 1959 King had been lobbying the ICC to end discriminatory practices against black interstate travelers (King to Kenneth H. Tuggle, 19 October 1959, in Papers 5:309–310; see also King, Recommendations to the SCLC Executive Committee, 30 September 1959, in Papers 5:295–297).

^74. Kennedy, “Petition for rule making,” 29 May 1961; ICC, Resolution MC–C–3358, “Discrimination in operations of interstate motor carriers of passengers,” 22 September 1961. Harris Wofford, special assistant to the president, forwarded a copy of Kennedy’s petition to King (Wofford to King, 6 June 1961). In a fundraising letter to an SCLC supporter, King called the ICC ruling a “remarkable victory which in no small way is attributable to the way in which the Freedom Rides dramatized the travel [conditions?] in our nation for persons of color.” He also wrote of likely attempts to circumvent the ICC ruling, saying that money would be needed to sponsor activities to test the ICC ruling when it comes into effect on 1 November (King to Russell Buckner, 25 October 1961; see also King, Christ Lives in the World, Address delivered at the American Lutheran Church Luther League Convention, 16 August 1961; King to Evelyn Spraitzar, 29 December 1961, pp. 357–358 in this volume).

^75. King, “The American Dream,” Address delivered at Lincoln University Commencement, 6 June 1961.

^76. Williams to King, 31 May 1961, pp. 241, 242 in this volume. Williams had clashed with King in 1959 over the role of nonviolence in the movement. For more on King’s relationship with Williams, see Introduction in Papers 5:17–18.

^77. King to J. Raymond Henderson, 6 June 1961, p. 248 in this volume.

^78. “Confused Crusade,” Time, 12 January 1962. While in London in October 1961, King appeared on John Freeman’s “Face to Face,” where he was asked to respond to criticism that he lacked “fire” and that he was “not really keen on challenging” segregation “except on the margins.” King responded: “I don’t know if I lack fire. I do feel that at times I am rather soft, and maybe a little gentle, but on the other hand, I have strongly advocated direct action. I have made it clear that I believe this is one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and human dignity. So that I don’t consider this a marginal approach. I consider this as an approach going to the very depths. I have participated in sit-ins myself. I have been arrested as a result of my participating in sit-ins with the students at lunch counters. I served as one of the coordinators of the Freedom Rides so that I don’t think it is true to say that I am not in accord with these particular methods. I believe in them, and I have advocated them and participated in them” (King, Interview by John Freeman on “Face to Face,” 29 October 1961).

^79. King to Leslie Dunbar, 19 January 1962, pp. 368–369 in this volume; Harris Wofford, Of Kennedys & Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980), pp. 158–159.

^80. Introduction in Papers 4:23–25.

^81. Agenda and outline for meeting discussing voter registration, 28 July 1961.

^82. Representatives of the six groups included King and Wyatt Tee Walker of SCLC; Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall, and Robert Carter of the NAACP; James Farmer of CORE; Charles McDew and Marion Barry of SNCC; Timothy Jenkins of NSA; and Lester Granger and Whitney Young of the National Urban League. Also at the meeting were Burke Marshall, assistant attorney general; Harris Wofford, assistant to President Kennedy; Stephen Currier, cofounder of the Taconic Foundation; Lloyd K. Garrison, trustee of the Taconic Foundation; Jane Lee Eddy, executive secretary of the Taconic Foundation; Harold Fleming, executive vice president of the Potomac Institute; Justine Wise Polier, executive board member of the Field Foundation; Vernon Eagle, executive director of the New World Foundation; Leslie Dunbar, executive director of the Southern Regional Council (SRC); and John H. Wheeler, chairman of the execu­tive committee of the SRC (Leslie Dunbar, Memo to the members of the Executive Committee, 31 July 1961).

^83. Dunbar, Memo to members of the Executive Committee; SRC, Memo for discussion regarding Voter Education Project, 23 August 1961; and Dunbar to Farmer, Wilkins, Young, Walker, McDew, and Jenkins, 13 September 1961.

^84. Dunbar to Stephen R. Currier, 10 November 1961. Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the NAACP, was not pleased with SRC’s plans to distribute funds. He insisted that the money be given to established and proven voter registration programs, commenting that “it would, we think, be a disservice to the objectives and confusing to the public if the NAACP’s cooperative joint listing with other groups, some of which thus far have little more than good intentions to offer, should be taken to imply equality as regards their relative importance and potential in the work to be done” (Wilkins to Dunbar, 17 October 1961).

^85. SCLC, “Southwide Voter Registration Prospectus,” 1961. In June 1956 Alabama attorney general John Patterson obtained a court order banning most NAACP activities in Alabama after the organiza­tion refused to hand over their membership lists. SCLC’s prospectus to the SRC expressed great respect and admiration for the work of the NAACP. It vowed to work jointly and cooperatively with the NAACP and would only accept responsibilities for locals upon their mutual agreement (SCLC, “Southwide Voter Registration Prospectus”).

^86. SCLC, “Southwide Voter Registration Prospectus”; see also Southern Regional Council, Press release, Voter Education Project to study voter registration in the South, 29 March 1962.

^87. Carl Braden Clemency Appeal Committee, Press release, “Statement by Dr. Ralph D. Abernathy, spokesman for the committee,” 17 August 1961; Carl Braden Clemency Appeal Committee, Press release, Committee presents clemency appeal petition to John F. Kennedy, 17 August 1961.

^88. Anne Braden to Carl Braden, 14 September 1961.

^89. Anne Braden, Memo to advisors in Carl Braden clemency case, 9 October 1961. On behalf of the documentary’s producer Robert Cohen and advisor Bertram Edises, Braden asked King to participate in the film (Braden to King, 31 October 1961).

^90. King to Braden, 7 November 1961; Braden to King, 24 November 1961, p. 329 in this volume; and Walker to Robert Carl Cohen, 30 January 1962.

^91. Walker to Cohen, 30 January 1962.

^92. See Introductions in Papers 4:17–18 and 5:34.

^93. See Introduction in Papers 5:34.

^94. King to H. Grady Neal, 11 January 1961. Grady had sent King copies of the letters he had sent to Jackson and Taylor (Neal to Jackson, 7 December 1960; Neal to Taylor, 15 December 1960).

^95. “Two Negro Baptist Leaders Disagree on Freedom Riders,” St. Louis Dispatch, 22 June 1961; Introduction in Papers 4:18.

^96. Kenneth C. Field, “Say Baptist ‘Fireworks’ Shape Up in Kansas City,” Chicago Daily Defender, 6 September 1961.

^97. Lucille Bluford, “I Saw It When It Happened …,” New York Amsterdam News, 16 September 1961; “Minister Hurt in Church Brawl Dies of Injuries after Surgery,” Washington Post, 8 September 1961.

^98. “Mayor Begs Battling Preachers to ‘Go Home!,’” New York Amsterdam News, 16 September 1961.

^99. “Dr. King Ousted from S.S. Congress Position,” Kansas City Call, 22 September 1961. In addition to King, C. C. Adams, a minister from Philadelphia and a Taylor supporter, was also dismissed from his post as secretary of the Foreign Mission board. King was replaced by Jackson stalwart E. C. Estell and Adams was succeeded by William H. Harvey (“Dr. King Ousted from S.S. Congress Position,” 22 September 1961). In his memoirs, Jackson claimed that it was not he that initiated King’s removal, but that it was Reverend Julian Taylor who moved to oust King. Taylor asserted that King “has used his influence and his technique to disrupt, confuse and disorganize our Convention and has done little or nothing to strengthen the fellowship between the Congress and the Convention, or to aid the Congress in its educational objectives. The truth is, we have his name but have not had his constructive support. The National Baptist Convention does not need Dr. King’s name without Dr. King’s loyalty” (Jackson, A Story of Christian Activism: The History of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. [Nashville: Townsend Press, 1980], p. 484).

^100. “Dr. King Ousted from S.S. Congress Position,” 22 September 1961.

^101. Butler to King, 15 September 1961. In 1957, King, Sr. had tried to quell Jackson’s fears that King, Jr. was seeking to unseat him as president (see Introduction in Papers 4:18). J. Pius Barbour, King’s men­tor while at Crozer, urged King to contest his removal as vice president of the BTU (Barbour to King, 14 September 1961, pp. 282–283 in this volume). In addition, a group of ministers and lay leaders sent O. Clay Maxwell, president of the National Sunday School and BTU Congress, a letter protesting Jackson’s “undemocratic removal” of King from office (Baptist Pastors and Lay Leaders of the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America to Maxwell, 9 October 1961).

^102. King to Maxwell, 20 December 1961, p. 353 in this volume.

^103. “Church Conclave Violence Blamed on Martin King,” Birmingham News, 10 September 1961. At a 9 September press conference Jackson said: “This disregard for Convention officers and the pushing of folks off platforms was a result of an election campaign so vicious it produced violence” (Wallace H. Terry, “Baptist Leader Charges Dr. King Sparked ‘Invasion’ of Rival Forces,” Washington Post, 10 September 1961). Jackson’s accusation against King ran in several newspapers (“Calls Dr. King ‘Master Mind’ of Fatal Riot,” Chicago Tribune, 10 September 1961; “Dr. King Is Accused in Baptist Dispute,” New York Times, 10 September 1961).

^104. In his defense, King maintained that he was not in the auditorium when the mêlée occurred and that he had never taken part in any strategy sessions aimed at supplanting Jackson as president (King to Jackson, 10 September 1961, pp. 278–279 in this volume).

^105. Jackson to King, 12 September 1961, pp. 281–282 in this volume.

^106. Jackson elaborated: “I did not blame any individual, but placed the responsibility directly on two groups. I do not believe the press was malicious in this, I believe that they misunderstood. I have not in the past, and I do not now intend to inflict any injury on any person in the public press. I know what it means to be so victimized, for I have suffered so much of this in the past ten years” (Jackson, “Statement by Dr. J. H. Jackson, President National Baptist Convention of the United States of America,” 10 September 1961).

^107. Eddie L. Madison, Press release, “Dr. Martin Luther King says he will not sue Dr. Jackson for alleged statement that he masterminded convention violence ‘at this time,’” 20 September 1961.

^108. The telegram was signed by several religious leaders, including Benjamin E. Mays, Ralph Abernathy, Samuel W. Williams, Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Kelly Miller Smith, Gardner C. Taylor, and Sandy Ray (SCLC, Press release, “Religious leaders protest alleged attack on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” 12 September 1961). For more on the reaction to Jackson’s accusations against King, see King to Erma Jewell Hughes, 19 September 1961, pp. 285–286 in this volume. Jackson had his supporters as well. Not everyone felt that King was an innocent bystander, including Robert E. L. Hardmond, an NBC member and minister from New York. Hardmond confided to Jackson that he had heard King say “slanderous and malicious” things about Jackson, including that Jackson was to blame for Wright’s death (Hardmond to Jackson, 26 September 1961).

^109. Chester Higgins, “Wright Funeral an Uproar,” Pittsburgh Courier, 23 September 1961. Following Jackson’s eulogy of Wright, the Trade Union Leadership Council released a statement condemning Jackson’s renewed attack against King and called for a unified black community: “So that there will be no doubt we want to make it emphatically clear that we feel that the ‘freedom movement,’ with all of its acknowledged imperfections, and Dr. Martin Luther King are two of the best things that have happened to America in many a year” (Ernest Dillard, Press release, Telegram to J. H. Jackson, 23 September 1961).

^110. “New Split Threatens Baptists; Jackson Denies Rapping Dr. King,” Jet, 28 September 1961.

^111. See note 5, King to T. Y. Rogers, 8 March 1962, p. 424 in this volume.

^112. King to Rogers, 8 March 1962, p. 424 in this volume; J. C. Austin to L. Venchael Booth, 26 September 1961, and “Organizational Meeting of the Progressive National Baptist Convention,” 14–15 November 1961, in William D. Booth, A Call to Greatness (Lawrenceville: Brunswick Publishing, 2001), pp. 90–91, 181; and J. Raymond Henderson to Booth, 13 October 1961.

^113. In addition to its membership in the NBC, Ebenezer Baptist Church voted to affiliate with the predominately white American Baptist Convention (King to William H. Rhoades, 26 January 1962, pp. 374–376 in this volume). King had expressed interest in joining the American Baptist Convention before his 1959 trip to India (King to Reuben E. Nelson, 23 March 1959, in Papers 5:157–158). King spoke at the ABC’s 1962 annual meeting (King, “The Mission to the Social Frontiers,” Address at the American Baptist Convention, 24 May 1962). Ebenezer joined the PNBC in 1963.

^114. Mays to King, 3 August 1961. In a 20 July 1961 letter Morehouse College president Benjamin E. Mays offered King $1,500 to teach the course during the 1961–1962 academic year. King agreed to Mays’s offer on 1 August (see p. 258 in this volume).

^115. Crozer president Sankey L. Blanton recommended King for a position as dean of the school of religion at Shaw University (Introduction in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 2: Rediscovering Precious Values, July 1951–November 1955, ed. Clayborne Carson, Ralph E. Luker, Penny A. Russell, Peter Holloran (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994), p. 28.

^116. See Introduction in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 1: Called to Serve, January 1929–June 1951, ed. Clayborne Carson, Ralph E. Luker, Penny A. Russell, Louis R. Harlan (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 40, 48, and Papers 2:18; King, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” 15 April 1955, in Papers 2:339–544).

^117. Mays to King, 1 August 1961; King, “Outline of Lecture in Social Philosophy,” 3 October 1961, pp. 288–291 in this volume. The students enrolled in the course were Barbara J. Adams, Benjamin D. Berry, Charles A. Black, Julian Bond, Amos C. Brown, Graham F. Prindle, Mary N. Worthy, and Willie J. Wright (Morehouse College, Class roll, Seminar in Social Philosophy, 27 January 1962).

^118. King, “Outline of Lecture in Social Philosophy,” 3 October 1961, and King, Notes, Seminar in Social Philosophy, 3 October 1961–23 January 1962, pp. 288–291 and 291–304 in this volume, respectively.

^119. For example, see King to Robert Brank Fulton, 7 November 1961; King to Allan Knight Chalmers, 22 January 1962.

^120. King to Mays, 6 September 1962.

^121. Young to King, 11 September 1961, pp. 279–281 in this volume. Young’s staff consisted of Septima Clark, educational director, and Dorothy Cotton, educational consultant.

^122. Memo, “Leadership Training Program and Citizenship Schools,” December 1960–January 1961, pp. 136–138 in this volume. The program also taught the philosophy of nonviolence, civil disobedience, direct action, and leadership skills (James R. Wood, Press release, “SCLC starts leadership training program,” 14 February 1961). SCLC tested the program with several affiliate organizations with the goal of training 240 teachers to establish satellite citizenship schools throughout the South (Wood to Edward Stovall, 3 February 1961).

^123. Minutes, Citizenship Education Committee meeting, 8 June 1961. Highlander was closed in late 1961 after the state of Tennessee revoked its charter on falsified charges that the school was being run for profit and did not fulfill its nonprofit requirements.

^124. Aimee Horton, “Citizenship School Committee meeting,” 12 July 1961.

^125. King to Hahn, 6 February 1962.

^126. Claude Sitton, “2 Groups in South Training Negroes,” New York Times, 23 February 1961.

^127. Horton to Young, 12 October 1961; Young, Memo to SCLC, Citizenship School Committee, American Missionary Association, Field Foundation, December 1961.

^128. Claude Sitton, “I.C.C. Travel Rule Is Defied in South,” New York Times, 2 November 1961.

^129. King to Hartsfield, 1 November 1961, p. 320 in this volume. The SNCC students were arrested after trespassing at Jake’s Fine Foods, a privately owned restaurant located at the bus station (“Four Arrested in ICC Ruling Test,” Atlanta Daily World, 2 November 1961). King also sent a telegram to Everett Hutchinson, chairman of the ICC, demanding swift action to rectify the violation of the ICC’s ruling (King and Walker to Hutchinson, 1 November 1961).

^130. Vic Smith, “Bus Mix Hearing Proceeds,” Albany Herald, 27 November 1961. In October 1961 SNCC field secretaries Charles Sherrod and Cordell Reagan went to Albany to help spur a protest move­ment (Zinn, SNCC: The New Abolitionists, pp. 123–124).

^131. Zinn, SNCC: The New Abolitionists, pp. 127–128; Albany Movement, “Minutes,” Meeting of the Albany Movement, 17 November 1961.

^132. SNCC, Press release, “Latest from Albany,” 13 December 1961; Norma L. Anderson and William G. Anderson, Autobiographies of a Black Couple of the Greatest Generation (n.p.: privately printed, 2004), pp. 195–196. On 13 December the Albany City Commission announced: “At this point, it is the feeling of the city commission that there is no area of possible agreement” (Claude Sitton, “202 More Negroes Seized in Georgia,” New York Times, 14 December 1961).

^133. The jail facilities in Albany were inadequate to accommodate the mass arrests, but Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett used surrounding jails within a seventy-mile radius to house protesters (Pritchett, Interview by James Reston, 23 April 1976; SNCC, “Latest from Albany”).

^134. Anderson and Anderson, Autobiographies of a Black Couple of the Greatest Generation, pp. 195–197. In his autobiography Ralph Abernathy similarly recalled tension between the organizations: “When we got to Albany we discovered the black community—and more particularly, the black demonstrators—hope­lessly divided. All of the organizations participating in the campaign had agreed to merge their identity into one group, to be called the ‘Albany Movement,’ and to be governed by a steering committee. But by the time we arrived, any unity they may have achieved had already collapsed. Everyone had a different strategy. Everyone wanted to be in charge. Everyone was mad at everyone else. And as soon as we arrived in town, everyone was mad at us” (Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down [New York: Harper & Row, 1989], p. 206).

^135. Also addressing the rallies were Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, SCLC executive director, and Ruby Hurley, field secretary of the NAACP (Bruce Galphin, “Albany Balks at Truce Price; Rev. King Rallies Negroes,” Atlanta Constitution, 16 December 1961).

^136. See King, Address Delivered at Albany Movement Mass Meeting at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 15 December 1961, p. 343 in this volume.

^137. Galphin, “Albany Balks at Truce Price,” 16 December 1961.

^138. Kelley added: “Under no circumstances will the City Commission of Albany act under threat or duress” (Kelley to William G. Anderson and Marion S. Page, 16 December 1961).

^139. Bill Shipp, “U.S. Pilgrimage Is Urged As Albany Negroes Call Halt,” Atlanta Constitution, 18 December 1961.

^140. The protesters were charged with parading without a permit, congregating on a sidewalk, and obstructing traffic. By 16 December the total number of arrests in Albany exceeded 700 (Claude Sitton, “Dr. King among 265 Negroes Seized in March on Albany, Ga., City Hall,” New York Times, 17 December 1961). Laurie Pritchett (1926–2000), born in Griffin, Georgia, attended Auburn University and South Georgia College on athletic scholarships before graduating from the National Academy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville. In 1959 Pritchett became Albany’s police chief. As head of the department, Pritchett hired the town’s first black police­men. After leaving Albany, he became police chief in High Point, North Carolina, and was credited with keeping the peace following King’s assassination in 1968. In 1975, Pritchett left the High Point Police Department amid controversy.

^141. James Gillespy, “King, Marchers to Courthouse Steps, Jailed,” Atlanta Daily World, 17 December 1961.

^142. Facsimile of Sumter County Jail ledger, 16 December 1961, p. 347 in this volume. After hearing that King had been transferred to the jail in Americus, FBI officials contacted local authorities and were told that King was moved for his protection and to prevent any further demonstrations (C. L. McGowan to Alex Rosen, 17 December 1961, Bureau File 157–6–2–229).

^143. David Miller, “Non-Violence: Police Chief and Minister,” New York Herald Tribune, 18 December 1961.

^144. “Integration: ‘Albany Movement,’” Newsweek, 25 December 1961.

^145. SCLC, Press release, “Abernathy issues call for nation-wide protest at Albany, Ga.,” 17 December 1961.

^146. Abernathy to King, 17 December 1961, p. 346 in this volume.

^147. King, Anderson, and Abernathy to John F. Kennedy, 17 December 1961, pp. 349–350 in this volume. For King’s earlier calls for a second Emancipation Proclamation see King, “Equality Now,” 4 February 1961; King, Press Release, Statement Calling for Executive Order Declaring Segregation Illegal, 5 June 1961; King, Press Conference after Meeting with John F. Kennedy, 16 October 1961; and King, Abernathy, and Anderson to John F. Kennedy, 17 December 1961, pp. 139–150, 243–245, 308–311, and 349–350 in this volume, respectively.

^148. L. Joseph Overton to Robert F. Kennedy, 18 December 1961, Department File 144–101–19M–9. According to an FBI memorandum, Nelson A. Rockefeller called Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to express concern for King’s safety. Kennedy reportedly told Burke Marshall that the Justice Department should do everything possible to ensure King’s safety (C. L. McGowan to Alex Rosen, 17 December 1961, Bureau File 157–6–2–229).

^149. Levison to Kennedy, 18 December 1961, Department File 144–101–19M–9.

^150. In addition, the city commission also agreed to reduce the bonds for freedom riders from outside the Albany community and those local riders facing state charges (“Dr. King Is Freed,” New York Times, 19 December 1961). Reports coming from the jails describing the intolerable conditions may have ignited a sense of urgency to the negotiations on the part of the Albany Movement leaders. Slater King, vice president of the Albany Movement, had suffered injuries as a result of being shoved by a jailer into the bars of his jail cell (Galphin, “Albany Balks at Truce Price,” 16 December 1961; see also Shipp, “U.S. Pilgrimage Is Urged As Albany Negroes Call Halt,” 18 December 1961). King commented that for the most part he was treated well but resented being called “boy” by guards. “I have never been called Reverend or Doctor or Mister in this jail,” King said, adding that “I am the pastor of a church with 4,000 members” (Shipp, “U.S. Pilgrimage Is Urged As Albany Negroes Call Halt,” 18 December 1961; David Miller, “Non-Violence: Police Chief and Minister,” 18 December 1961). King later recalled that Sumter County sheriff Fred Chappell was the “meanest man in the world” (“Rev. King Meets ‘Meanest Man in World’ in Jail,” Jet, 4 January 1962).

^151. “Dr. King Is Freed,” 19 December 1961. An article in Time magazine argued that King lost sup­port from some students after “meekly” posting bond despite promising to remain in jail indefinitely (“Confused Crusade,” 12 January 1962). In response to the Time article, Stanley Levison sent a letter in defense of King to the magazine’s editor (Levison to the Editor of Time Magazine, 11 January 1962, pp. 363–365 in this volume). King later admitted that his decision to leave jail was a mistake: “Looking back over it, I’m sorry I was bailed out. I didn’t understand at the time what was happening. We thought that the victory had been won. When we got out, we discovered it was all a hoax. We had lost a real opportunity to redo Albany, and we lost an initiative that we never regained” (“Man of the Year,” Time, 3 January 1964).

^152. Bill Shipp, “Albany, Negroes Seal Peace; Prisoners to Go Free on Bail,” Atlanta Constitution, 19 December 1961.

^153. “Delay Trials of 730 Integrationists in Albany, Ga.; Parley Under Way,” Chicago Daily Defender, 19 December 1961; Claude Sitton, “Negro Groups Split on Georgia Protests,” New York Times, 18 December 1961.

^154. Sitton, “Negro Groups Split on Georgia Protests,” 18 December 1961. A day after King’s release from jail, a fundraising letter under his signature was sent to supporters directing contributions to SCLC rather than the Albany Movement: “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which I have the pleasure of leading, is giving full moral and financial support to the Albany Movement and the noble efforts of this community to realize justice, equal rights and an end to second-class citizenship” (King to Friend, 19 December 1961). In a special article published in the Times, Sitton argued that the differ­ences in the protest movement were centered on methods rather than goals and the rivalry between the organizations stemmed from fundraising. He cautioned of the perils of competition in the field: “The danger is that in the heat of competition some second-ranking leaders may subordinate a community’s welfare to their organization’s interest. Conflicting advice from two or more groups causes confusion and impotence at best. Carried to the extreme, it could have tragic consequences” (Sitton, “Rivalries Beset Integration Campaigns,” New York Times, 24 December 1961).

^155. “Dr. King Is Freed,” 19 December 1961.

^156. David Miller, “A Loss for Dr. King—New Negro Roundup: They Yield,” New York Herald Tribune, 19 December 1961. Pritchett claimed that he had been preparing for demonstrations, and had studied the situations in Montgomery, Little Rock, and Birmingham. While professing to be a staunch segre­gationist, Pritchett admitted that he believed total integration would be achieved one day: “It might not be in my lifetime or in my children’s, but it will come. As the laws change to meet the times, I will support the law” (David Miller, “Non-Violence: Police Chief and Minister,” 18 December 1961).

^157. Although Pritchett was adamant that his officers refrained from violence against demonstra­tions, he could not guarantee the safety of those jailed outside his jurisdiction (Howard Zinn, “Albany: Special report of Southern Regional Council,” 8 January 1962).

^158. Miller, “A Loss for Dr. King,” 19 December 1961.

^159. Miller, “Non-Violence: Police Chief and Minister,” 18 December 1961; Miller, “A Loss for Dr. King,” 19 December 1961.

^160. King to Eaton, 21 December 1961, p. 355 in this volume.

^161. SCLC, Agenda, “Southwide meeting of SCLC state and local leaders,” 2 February 1962; SCLC, Memo to Affiliate heads, 3 February 1962.

^162. “Southern Negroes Map a Voter Drive,” New York Times, 30 September 1961; Walker, “Report of the director,” 28 September 1961; and Introduction in Papers 4:22–25.

^163. Walker, “Report of the director,” October 1961–September 1962; see also King, Notes on Recruitment of Volunteers, 7 February–9 February 1962, pp. 381–384 in this volume.

^164. Walker, “Report of the director,” 28 September 1961; SCLC, “Minutes of annual board meeting, Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” 27 September 1961.

^165. SCLC, Press release, Martin Luther King, Jr. to begin People to People program, 1 February 1962; SCLC, Press release, “Dr. King and staff head for delta country of Mississippi,” 6 February 1962.

^166. “Southern Negroes Map a Voter Drive,” 30 September 1961.

^167. SCLC, Press release, “Dr. King and staff head for delta country of Mississippi.” An editorial in the Clarksdale Press Register questioned King’s motives for coming to Mississippi, declaring that he and “local agitators” were trying to foment disunity between blacks and whites: “The leaders, both local and imported, of these perpetually-meeting organizations seem to thrive on agitation. They contribute very little if anything to their community” (“Time for Questions,” Clarksdale Press Register, 6 February 1962).

^168. SCLC, Press release, “Dr. King and staff head for delta country of Mississippi”; SCLC, Newsletter 1, no. 5, March 1962; see also King, “People in Action: Pathos and Hope,” 3 March 1962, pp. 419–421 in this volume. At one event in Sherard, the only person to show up was a man who walked thirteen miles to meet King. He explained that others wanted to come but feared retaliation and eviction from their land (SCLC, Newsletter, March 1962).

^169. “Rev. King Tells Mississippians They Could Have 5 Congressmen,” New York Amsterdam News, 24 February 1962. King’s appearance at Trammell’s rally precipitated pressure from Baltimore minister I. Logan Kearse, who had asked King to support his bid for a congressional district seat in Maryland (Kearse to King, 25 September 1961; King to Kearse, 2 November 1961, pp. 321–322 in this volume). Despite Kearse’s persistence, King reiterated his nonpartisan policy, maintaining that he did not know the Trammell rally was political (Kearse to King, 6 April 1962; King to Kearse, 11 April 1962).

^170. King, “Pathos and Hope,” 3 March 1962, p. 420 in this volume. An SCLC representative esti­mated that King made “personal contact” with over five thousand people in the Coahoma County region alone (SCLC, Press release, “King says Mississippi can elect five Negro congressmen,” 8 February 1962). For King’s inaugural column in the New York Amsterdam News, see King, “People in Action: Turning Point of Civil Rights,” 3 February 1962, pp. 377–379 in this volume.

^171. King, A Knock at Midnight, Sermon Delivered at the Installation Service of Ralph Abernathy at West Hunter Baptist Church, 11 February 1962, pp. 385–394 in this volume. After the death of the church’s previous pastor, A. Franklin Fisher, King had declined to become a candidate to fill the vacancy but suggested Abernathy instead (King to Samuel L. Spear, 16 December 1960, in Papers 5:581–582). In February 1961, King wrote a letter recommending Abernathy for the pastorship at West Hunter Baptist Church: “As a community leader, he has few equals. His character is above repute and his dedication to the Christian ministry unquestioned” (King to J. R. Butts, 8 February 1961, p. 154 in this volume).

^172. Press release, “Martin Luther King to visit Puerto Rico,” 22 January 1962; Robert Brank Fulton to King, 18 October 1958. King had initially agreed to come to Puerto Rico in February 1961, but he can­celed because of prior SCLC commitments and the impending arrival of his second son, Dexter Scott, who was born on 30 January (King to Fulton, 5 October 1960).

^173. See King, Interview by Inter-American University Students and Faculty, 14 February 1962, pp. 399–410 in this volume. While in Puerto Rico, King would learn from his assistant Dora McDonald of intra-staff tensions at SCLC headquarters. Wyatt Tee Walker had become infuriated when Gould Maynard, SCLC’s new public relations director, had given every woman in the office a rose for Valentine’s Day, a gesture that Walker felt made him “look bad.” McDonald observed: “Wyatt will never reach his full potential because he is so very childish and narrow” (McDonald to King, 15 February 1962).

^174. Pope to King, 4 March 1962.

^175. The trial was originally set for 20 February, but King was still in Puerto Rico, and the trial was postponed another week (“City Slates Trial of Negroes,” Albany Herald, 15 February 1962; Vic Smith, “Decision on King Due in Sixty Days,” Albany Herald, 27 February 1962).

^176. Smith, “Decision on King Due in Sixty Days,” 27 February 1962.

^177. King, Statement at Albany, Ga. courthouse, 27 February 1962.

^178. King, “Fumbling on the New Frontier,” 3 March 1962, pp. 412–419 in this volume; King, “An Appeal to the Honorable John F. Kennedy, President of the United States for National Rededication to the Principles of the Emancipation Proclamation and for an Executive Order,” 17 May 1962.

^179. King, Press Conference after Meeting with John F. Kennedy, 16 October 1961, and photograph of King at the press conference, p. 308 and p. 99 in this volume, respectively.

^180. King, “Fumbling on the New Frontier,” 3 March 1962, pp. 412–419 in this volume. For King’s previous article published in The Nation, see King, “Equality Now,” 4 February 1961, pp. 139–150 in this volume.

^181. Kennedy, “The New Frontier,” Address at the Democratic National Convention, 15 July 1960.

^182. In his article, King highlighted some of the administration’s achievements, including the increase in civil rights cases and investigations of disenfranchised voters; more African Americans in key government positions than any other previous administration; and the signing of an executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (King, “Fumbling on the New Frontier,” 3 March 1962, pp. 412–419 in this volume). Although a draft of the executive order ban­ning housing discrimination was ready for Kennedy’s signature in late November 1961, he reportedly did not sign it for fear of losing Southern votes for his other proposed initiatives (Peter Braestrup, “Order to Ban Bias in Housing Ready,” New York Times, 27 November 1961; “Discrimination Order on Housing Is Delayed,” New York Times, 28 December 1961).

^183. King, “Fumbling on the New Frontier,” 3 March 1962, p. 416 in this volume.

^184. King, “Fumbling on the New Frontier,” 3 March 1962, p. 416 in this volume. In one of his articles published in his biweekly column in the New York Amsterdam News, King indicted President Kennedy for failing to strengthen the proposed Manpower Development and Training bill, which allowed for a three-year program to retrain unemployed workers replaced by automation. Although Kennedy signed the bill on 15 March 1962, King felt that it did little to put the 4.5 million unemployed back to work (King, “People in Action: Nothing Changing Unless,” 28 April 1962, pp. 449–451 in this volume).

^185. King, “Fumbling on the New Frontier,” 3 March 1962, pp. 417, 418 in this volume.

^186. Wallace Terry, “JFK’s Action on Civil Rights Lagging, Says Negro Leader,” Washington Post, 10 April 1962. King was accompanied by Walker, Shuttlesworth, and C. O. Simpkins, a minister from Shreveport, Louisiana, whose home was bombed because of his voter registration activities (SCLC, Press release, “Attorney General promises immediate aid in voting complaints,” 25 April 1962).

^187. Terry, “JFK’s Action on Civil Rights Lagging,” 10 April 1962.

^188. “Dr. King, Aides Offer Proof of Voting Bias,” Pittsburgh Courier, 21 April 1962; SCLC, Press release, “Attorney General promises immediate aid in voting complaints.”

^189. Terry, “JFK’s Action on Civil Rights Lagging,” 10 April 1962. In a 13 April letter to King, Johnson said he had investigated discrimination in federal employment in Atlanta, a topic they likely discussed at their meeting in Washington, and found that the situation needed to be improved. He vowed to keep King apprised of the progress (Johnson to King, 13 April 1962, pp. 435–437 in this volume). In the press conference prior to his meetings with Kennedy, Marshall, and Johnson, King applauded the president for signing executive order 10925 banning discrimination in federal hiring on 6 March 1961 (Terry, “JFK’s Action on Civil Rights Lagging,” 10 April 1962).

^190. In his February 1962 article published in The Nation, King criticized discriminatory practices in federal agencies, including the FBI: “If, for instance, the law-enforcement personnel in the FBI were integrated, many persons who now defy federal law might come under restraints from which they are presently free” (King, “Equality Now,” 4 February 1961, pp. 145–146 in this volume). A few days later, FBI deputy director Cartha D. DeLoach received a memorandum from agent M. A. Jones summarizing King’s criticisms of the bureau with the recommendation to not respond because King “would only welcome any controversy or resulting publicity that might ensue.” At the bottom of the memo, Hoover wrote: “I concur” (Jones to DeLoach, 7 February 1961, Bureau File 100–106670).

^191. J. Edgar Hoover to Robert F. Kennedy, 14 February 1962, Bureau File 100–106670; see also Wofford, Of Kennedys & Kings, pp. 215–216. King met Levison soon after the end of the Montgomery bus boycott. For more on King’s early relationship with Levison, see Introduction, and Rustin to King, 23 December 1956, in Papers 3:32 and 491–494, respectively.

^192. Special Agent in Charge, New York, N.Y., to J. Edgar Hoover, 20 March 1962, Bureau File 100–392452–147.

^193. An FBI memorandum described a phone call between Wyatt Tee Walker and Levison about King’s strategy to pressure the president to nominate Hastie as a Supreme Court justice following the resignation of Charles Whittaker in 1962 (Special Agent in Charge, New York, N.Y., to J. Edgar Hoover, 30 March 1962, Bureau File 100–106670–33). King sent a telegram to Kennedy on 30 March 1962, requesting that the president fill the vacancy on the court with either Hastie or Thurgood Marshall (pp. 428–429 in this volume). A 21 June 1962 memorandum indicated that Levison and King talked about hiring O’Dell. King allegedly said it did not “matter what a man was, if he could stand up now and say he is not connected, then as far as I am concerned, he is eligible to work for me” (FBI, Report on Martin Luther King, Jr., 21 June 1962, Bureau File 100–106670–80).

^194. SCLC, Press release, “Martin Luther King, Jr., moves into Virginia,” 30 March 1962. King was accompanied by Walker, Abernathy, Cotton, and SCLC field secretaries Bernard Lee and Herbert Coulton (SCLC, “SCLC People to People tour,” Newsletter 1, no. 6, April 1962).

^195. SCLC, Newsletter, April 1962; King, “The American Dream,” Address delivered at E. C. Glass High School, 27 March 1962.

^196. King, “The American Dream,” 27 March 1962.

^197. Walker, “Fifty-three Hours with Martin Luther King Jr.,” 27 March–29 March 1962. Like an “electric current,” 118 people followed Moran’s lead and volunteered to participate in SCLC’s Nonviolent Army (see Walker, “Fifty-three Hours with Martin Luther King Jr.”). For a photograph of King and Chuck Moran, see p. 100 in this volume.

^198. SCLC, Newsletter, April 1962.

^199. “King in Prince Edward Sees Schools Restored,” Washington Post, 29 March 1962. In an essay writ­ten by Wyatt Tee Walker about the Virginia tour, he marveled at how many people local leader Reverend L. Francis Griffin was able to get at the church to see King: “This was a farm community. How could he have a church full on Wednesday. These people have to be in the fields. It was mid-morning. But they [were?] there! They wanted to see and hear this internationally known leader who was hop-scotching around the South, off the beaten paths, bringing hope and lifting the morale of the plain and simple people of the land. You could see it in their eyes and written all over their faces. ‘Martin Luther King Jr. is really here in Prince Edward County, Virginia’” (Walker, “Fifty-three Hours with Martin Luther King Jr.”).

^200. SCLC, Press release, “Martin Luther King, Jr., moves into Virginia.” Endorsing the protest march, King said: “The strongest resource that is possessed by those of us desiring to see an America free of racism, is our strength of numbers. Whenever a fighter for freedom, such as Reverend Harris, is under attack, every available person ought to witness with his person two fundamental concepts: His opposition to the persecution of those who believe segregation is an intolerable evil, and his unqualified support of those whose lives are a living embodiment of the necessity of striving toward freedom” (SCLC, Newsletter, April 1962). King also attended Harris’s trial. Harris was found guilty of contempt but was not fined or sentenced. Harris’s attorney, Len Holt, wrote that King’s presence “was a substantial factor” in the victory (Holt to King, 3 April 1962).

^201. Walker, “Fifty-three Hours with Martin Luther King Jr.” As Walker lay awake in his hotel room at the conclusion of the tour, he called over to Bernard Lee and said: “You know, fifty seven hours with Martin Luther King Jr. could kill a man.” Lee responded: “Yeah, you ain’t kidding” (Walker, “Fifty-three Hours with Martin Luther King Jr.”). For more on King’s People to People tour in Virginia, see King, “People in Action: Virginia’s Black Belt,” 14 April 1962, pp. 437–440 in this volume).

^202. SCLC, Press release, “Martin Luther King signs up 332 volunteers in South Carolina,” 19 April 1962.

^203. SCLC, Minutes, SCLC board meeting, 15 May 1962. For more on the tour through South Carolina, see King, “People in Action: Unknown Heroes,” 12 May 1962, pp. 454–457 in this volume. During early summer, SCLC undertook a one-day People to People tour of Louisiana. On 8 June SCLC staffers Wyatt Tee Walker and Harry Blake were arrested in Shreveport on charges of criminal anarchy. After being given a lunacy test they were released the following day (King, “People in Action: New Harassment,” 23 June 1962, pp. 486–488 in this volume).

^204. McCray, “Need for Changing,” Pittsburgh Courier, 5 May 1962.

^205. Eskridge to King, 22 May 1962, pp. 464–465 in this volume.

^206. King, Address Delivered at the “Freedom Fund Dinner” at the Fifty-third Annual Convention of the NAACP, 5 July 1962, pp. 504, 505 in this volume.

^207. SCLC, Minutes, SCLC board meeting, 15 May 1962; Minutes, SCLC board meeting, 16 May 1962.

^208. SCLC, Minutes, SCLC board meeting, 15 May 1962.

^209. SCLC, Minutes, SCLC board meeting, 16 May 1962.

^210. King, Address at the Formation of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights, 17 May 1962, pp. 457–462 in this volume.

^211. Although Kheel had founded the LAC in May 1961 to help with the libel suits, the organization was defunct by December 1961, and Kheel collaborated with Wachtel to establish a more permanent organization (King to Kheel, 11 December 1961; King to Wachtel, 12 February 1962, pp. 397–398 in this volume). In a meeting with King advisor Clarence B. Jones, Wachtel expressed interest in helping SCLC raise funds to pay for future legal actions against the movement and its participants. King was pleased to hear of Wachtel’s offer, and in a 7 November 1961 letter to Wachtel, he outlined two areas of pressing concern for SCLC: the need for stellar legal representation for the libel cases and a memorandum of law to be sent to President Kennedy in support of an executive order ending segregation (see pp. 325–327 in this volume). The Society’s executive board had twenty-five members, including Kheel, Wachtel, Mordecai Johnson, Joseph Curran, and Benjamin E. Mays. King would act as honorary chairman of the Society, while Clarence B. Jones would serve as acting executive director (“Gandhi Society for Rights Formed; King Presents Document to JFK,” Atlanta Daily World, 20 May 1962).

^212. King, Address at the Formation of the Gandhi Society, 17 May 1962, pp. 458–460 in the volume; King, “An Appeal to the Honorable John F. Kennedy, President of the United States for National Rededication to the Principles of the Emancipation Proclamation and for an Executive Order”; and “Gandhi Society for Rights Formed; King Presents Document to JFK,” 20 May 1962.

^213. King, Excerpts, Press conference on the formation of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights and the appeal for a second Emancipation Proclamation, 17 May 1962.

^214. Clarence B. Jones, Memo, “The formation of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights, Inc.,” 20 June 1962.

^215. Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity, Press release, John Burnett Morris statement on disappointment in religious divergence, 29 May 1962. Victor Riesel of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “It is my guess that the image of Gandhi soon will overshadow the more direct Freedom Riders” (“Spirit of Gandhi May Replace the Freedom Riders in New Race Drive,” Los Angeles Times, 27 April 1962).

^216. “A Gandhi Society?,” Christian Century 79 (13 June 1962): 735–736.

^217. King to Fey, 27 June 1962, p. 491 in this volume.

^218. King to Fey, 27 June 1962, p. 493 in this volume; Fey to King, 6 July 1962; Dora E. McDonald to Fey, 16 July 1962; and “Gandhi Society Explained,” Christian Century 79 (1 August 1962): 929–930.

^219. C. B. King to King, 5 July 1962. The trial stemmed from King and Abernathy’s 16 December 1961 arrest after leading more than 260 demonstrators on a march to City Hall (see Ralph Abernathy to King, 17 December 1961, pp. 346–348 in this volume).

^220. Press Release, King and Abernathy Choose Jail Time over Fine, 10 July 1962, p. 510 in this volume.

^221. King, Albany Jail Diary from 10 July–11 July 1962, pp. 511–516 in this volume; King, “People in Action: A Message from Jail,” 14 July 1962.

^222. King, “A Message from Jail.”

^223. King, Albany Jail Diary from 10 July–11 July 1962, p. 516 in this volume.

^224. Shuttlesworth to King, 20 July 1962. In a letter to Georgia governor S. Ernest Vandiver, Jewish writer Harry Golden urged him to personally rethink the arrest of King and Abernathy, arguing that “this might be an opportunity for the great state of Georgia to strike a final blow against this evil.” He went on to say: “The human story remains supreme over all technological and scientific wonders, because the greatest of all wonders is human kindness” (Golden to Vandiver, 11 July 1962).

^225. Bill Shipp, “Freed by Mystery Fine Donor, Rev. King Meets Police Chief,” Atlanta Constitution, 13 July 1962. William G. Anderson later fingered B. C. Gardner, a law partner of Asa Kelley, as the person who paid the fines (Anderson and Anderson, Autobiographies of a Black Couple of the Greatest Generation, p. 220).

^226. King, Address Delivered at Mass Meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church, 12 July 1962, pp. 518, 520 in this volume; Shipp, “Freed by Mystery Fine Donor, Rev. King Meets Police Chief,” 13 July 1962; and Claude Sitton, “Dr. King Is Freed against His Will,” New York Times, 13 July 1962.

^227. King, Address Delivered at Albany Movement Mass Meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church, 16 July 1962, pp. 522–525 in this volume.

^228. Albany Movement, “Albany Manifesto,” 15 July 1962, pp. 521–522 in this volume.

^229. Vic Smith, “‘No Deal,’ City Informs Negro Violators of Law,” Albany Herald, 16 July 1962. In a 17 July telegram, Albany Movement officials urged the mayor and city commission to reconsider their decision not to negotiate (Anderson, King, Abernathy, and Slater King to Albany City Commission and Asa D. Kelley, 17 July 1962, pp. 525–526 in this volume).

^230. Bill Shipp, “Turn Albany Upside Down by Non-Violence, King Asks,” Atlanta Constitution, 17 July 1962.

^231. King, Address Delivered at Albany Movement Mass Meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church, 16 July 1962, pp. 522–525 in this volume.

^232. King, Address Delivered at the National Press Club and Question and Answer Period, 19 July 1962, p. 528 in this volume.

^233. King to Jackie Robinson Testimonial Dinner, 20 July 1962, and King, Address Delivered at Albany Movement Mass Meeting at Third Kiokee Baptist Church, 20 July 1962, pp. 544–545 and 541–544 in this volume, respectively. In place of King, Wyatt Tee Walker delivered King’s prepared remarks (King, Address at Jackie Robinson Hall of Fame Dinner, 20 July 1962; “It Was Jackie Robinson’s Week,” New York Amsterdam News, 28 July 1962).

^234. Joint statement of Martin Luther King, Jr. and William G. Anderson, 22 July 1962; see also King, Press Conference Regarding Albany Injunction, 22 July 1962, pp. 545–546 in this volume.

^235. Claude Sitton, “Negroes Defy Ban, March in Georgia,” New York Times, 22 July 1962.

^236. Special Agent in Charge, Atlanta, Ga., to J. Edgar Hoover, 23 July 1962, Bureau File 157–6–2–453.

^237. Marion King, Statement on beating at Mitchell County Jail, 23 July 1962. Four months after the attack, Marion King delivered a stillborn child, whose death was attributed to her attack (Slater King to John F. Kennedy, 26 December 1962). King had complained to Robert Kennedy about the “inhumane treatment and unhealthy conditions” at the Mitchell County Jail (King and Anderson to Kennedy, 23 July 1962, p. 547 in this volume).

^238. W. G. Anderson et al., v. Asa D. Kelly et al., 32 F.R.D. 355 (M.D. Ga. 1963); W. G. Anderson et al., v. City of Albany et al., 321 F.2d 649 (5th Cir. 1963). For more on the lawsuits, see note 1, King, Anderson, and Slater King to Albany City Commission and Asa D. Kelley, 24 July 1962, p. 548 in this volume.

^239. Claude Sitton, “Albany, Ga., Police Break Up Protest by 2,000 Negroes,” New York Times, 25 July 1962. Before appealing to Tuttle, Albany Movement lawyers asked U.S. District Court judge W. A. Bootle of Macon, Georgia, to intervene in the case, but he refused (Vic Smith, “Negroes Rebutted by Judge Bootle,” Albany Herald, 23 July 1962).

^240. King, Anderson, and Slater King to Albany City Commission and Asa D. Kelley, 24 July 1962, p. 548 in this volume.

^241. King, Anderson, and Slater King to Albany City Commission and Asa D. Kelley, 24 July 1962, and King, Address Delivered at Albany Movement Mass Meeting, 24 July 1962, p. 548 and p. 552 in this volume, respectively.

^242. King, Address Delivered at Albany Movement Mass Meeting, 24 July 1962, pp. 549–533 in this volume; see also Claude Sitton, “Dr. King Sets a Day of Penance After Violence in Albany, Ga.,” New York Times, 26 July 1962; Vic Smith, “Uneasy Calm Prevails Here as M. L. King Cries ‘Penance,’” Albany Herald, 25 July 1962; and “Albany Demonstrations Halted for a 24 Hour Penance Period,” Atlanta Daily World, 26 July 1962.

^243. King, Press Conference Denouncing Violence in Albany, 25 July 1962, pp. 553–555 in this volume.

^244. Laurie Pritchett, Bill Manley, and J. Ed. Friend, Statement of police officers concerning activities of Martin Luther King, Jr., 25 July 1962; Statement on Nonviolence at Pool Hall, 26 July 1962, pp. 556, 558 in this volume.

^245. Abernathy and King, Prayer vigil and arrests at Albany City Hall, 27 July 1962; see also King, Albany Jail Diary from 27 July–31 July 1962, pp. 558–566 in this volume.

^246. King and Abernathy, Press release, “Why our prayer vigil,” 27 July 1962.

^247. Walker to Friend of Freedom, 27 July 1962.

^248. SCLC, Press release, “Nation-wide prayer vigils support Albany,” 1 August 1962.

^249. On 30 July 1962, the president and the attorney general received telegrams from SCLC special project director Roy C. Bell, Connecticut governor John Dempsey, CORE executive director James Farmer, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters president A. Philip Randolph, Montgomery Improvement Association president S. S. Seay, and NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins, who wrote: “The time-honored rights of assembly and of petition of regress of grievances have been denied and a community of 22,000 citizens is being repressed in ruthless fashion. This curtailment of free speech and assembly violates the constitutional rights of Doctor King and the others who languish in crowded jails in nearby counties. Practically on the eve of the one hundredth anniversary of the drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation, the United States of America is witnessing in Albany, Georgia, the flouting not only of that document, but of the bill of rights to our constitution. This is a peril to all Americans and well war­rants the attention of the president of all the people” (Wilkins to John F. Kennedy, 30 July 1962; see also Bell to John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, 30 July 1962; Dempsey to John F. Kennedy, 30 July 1962; Farmer to John F. Kennedy, 30 July 1962; Randolph to John F. Kennedy, 30 July 1962; and Seay to Robert F. Kennedy, 30 July 1962).

^250. West to King and Abernathy, 1 August 1962. King also received letters from Kelly Miller Smith, cofounder of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council; Harold Fey, editor of the Christian Century; and S. S. Seay, president of the MIA (Smith to King, 2 August 1962; Fey to King, 7 August 1962; and Seay to King, 1 August 1962, pp. 566–567 in this volume).

^251. Betty Cole to King, 23 July 1962; see also King, Albany Jail Diary from 27 July–31 July 1962, pp. 559–560, 561 in this volume; and Anderson, Interview on “Meet the Press,” 29 July 1962.

^252. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963), pp. 592–593.

^253. King to John F. Kennedy, 2 August 1962, p. 567 in this volume; see also William G. Anderson to John F. Kennedy, 2 August 1962.

^254. King, Statement on stand of John F. Kennedy on negotiations in Albany, Ga., 1 August 1962.

^255. See King, Albany Jail Diary from 27 July–31 July 1962, Albany Jail Diary from 1 August–7 August 1962, and Albany Jail Diary from 8 August–10 August 1962, pp. 558–566, 568–569, 589–590 this volume, respectively.

^256. King, Albany Jail Diary from 27 July–31 July 1962, and King, Albany Jail Diary from 1 August–7 August 1962, pp. 558–566 and 568–569 in this volume, respectively.

^257. King, Albany Jail Diary from 27 July–31 July 1962, and King, Albany Jail Diary from 8 August–10 August 1962, pp. 558–566 and 589–590 in this volume, respectively. King later wrote in the preface to Strength to Love that he penned “Shattered Dreams,” “Love in Action,” and “Loving Your Enemies” while jailed in Albany (King, Strength to Love [New York: Harper & Row, 1963], p. ix).

^258. For King’s testimony, see Testimony in Asa D. Kelly et al., v. M. S. Page et al., 8 August 1962, pp. 570–587 in this volume.

^259. Jimmy Robinson, “Racial Situation Simmers as U.S. Intervenes in City,” Albany Herald, 9 August 1962. King said U.S. intervention in the case “further vindicates the position of the Albany Movement in its insistence on the right of citizens to peacefully demonstrate” (Robinson, “Racial Situation Simmers,” 9 August 1962).

^260. In 1963 Elliott denied both parties’ requests for permanent injunctions, but the case was later appealed (see note 6, Testimony in Asa D. Kelly et al., v. M. S. Page et al., 8 August 1962, pp. 570–571 in this volume).

^261. Hedrick Smith, “Dr. King Set Free after Conviction,” New York Times, 11 August 1962; Milton L. Carr, “Dr. King, 3 Others Get Suspended Terms,” Atlanta Daily World, 11 August 1962.

^262. King’s sermon was “God in Albany” (“Dr. King, Jr., to Fill Pulpit at Ebenezer Sunday,” Atlanta Daily World, 11 August 1962).

^263. Hedrick Smith, “Albany, Ga., Closes Parks and Libraries to Balk Integration,” New York Times, 12 August 1962.

^264. “Albany Police Lock City Parks, Library,” Nashville Tennessean, 12 August 1962.

^265. Hedrick Smith, “Dr. King Speaks to 1,000 in Albany,” New York Times, 14 August 1962.

^266. King, Statement Delivered at the Ruins of Shady Grove Baptist Church, 15 August 1962, p. 591 in this volume. For more on the bombing of King’s home, see Joe Azbell, “Blast Rocks Residence of Bus Boycott Leader,” 31 January 1956, in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 3: Birth of a New Age, December 1955–December 1956, ed. Clayborne Carson, Stewart Burns, Susan Carson, Peter Holloran, Dana L. H. Powell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), pp. 114–115.

^267. SCLC, Press release, “SCLC pledges special fund to rebuild dynamited church,” 15 August 1962.

^268. “Albany, Ga., Hears Negro Pleas But Refuses to Take Any Action,” New York Times, 16 August 1962.

^269. “Martin Luther Leaves Albany,” Albany Herald, 16 August 1962. Although King pledged to remain involved in the Albany struggle, he would split his time between Albany and Atlanta (Hedrick Smith, “Georgians Balk Albany Movement for Civil Rights,” New York Times, 18 August 1962).

^270. King to Friend of Freedom, 22 August 1962; King to Ralph Lord Roy, 22 August 1962, pp. 603–604 in this volume.

^271. King, Press statement concerning the arrest of ministers in Albany, Ga., 28 August 1962.

^272. Pritchett, Statement on arrest of clergy in Albany, Ga., 28 August 1962. King’s nemesis J. H. Jackson called the ministers hypocrites for leaving Chicago to “fight segregation” in Albany. “You wouldn’t need to leave Chicago to fight segregation,” Jackson was quoted as saying (“Negro Baptist Chief Assails Racial Battles,” Los Angeles Times, 5 September 1962). In response, Anderson called Jackson a “disgrace, not only to the Negro people, but to the human race. He’s a Mississippi boy who’s been away so long that he has no idea what the Negro in the Deep South is up against” (Albany Movement, Press release, “Albany Movement leader blasts National Baptist prexy on movement,” 13 September 1962).

^273. King to John F. Kennedy, 31 August 1962, pp. 605–607 in this volume.

^274. Robert F. Kennedy to King, 2 September 1962. Earlier King told a reporter that President Kennedy would need to take real steps toward ending segregation if he wanted to maintain black support: “Mr. Kennedy will have to do a great deal to implement his campaign promises in order to hold the sup­port he received from Negro voters in the last election.” When asked if blacks would switch their support to Nelson Rockefeller if he became the Republican Party candidate for president, King said: “Rockefeller certainly has taken a stand and if he continues and if he implements this (desegregation) in our state, then we will be greatly impressed” (William Hannah, “Albany Jails 50 Ministers from North,” Atlanta Constitution, 29 August 1962). In August 1962, Rockefeller made a $5,000 donation to SCLC to help the “cause” (Vic Smith, “Race Mix Pastors Converge on City,” Albany Herald, 27 August 1962). For details on King’s relationship with Rockefeller, see King to Rockefeller, 9 August 1961, pp. 260–261 in this volume.

^275. Walker, “Report of the director,” October 1961–September 1962; see also Walker, “Report of the director,” 28 September 1961.

^276. Smith, “Georgians Balk Albany Movement for Civil Rights,” 18 August 1962.

^277. King to Alfred Daniel King, 30 August 1962, p. 605 in this volume.