To Aaron Henry
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: March 17, 1962
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Details
King, Abernathy, and Walker send the following telegram in a show of support for Mississippi activist and NAACP member Henry, who was convicted on 14 March of making sexual advances toward a white male hitchhiker.1
dr aaron henry
220 fourth st
clarksdale miss
dear aaron
we have just read account of trail in montgomery advertiser want you to know that we recognize this as growing technique of white racist opposition to defame militant negro leader ship they have discovered the southern negro can no longer be contained in his bid for full equality and the charges against you are but a plot to discredit your leadership we are with you 100 percent
sincerely yours
martin luther king jr
ralph d abernathy
and wyatt tee walker
southern christian leadership conference
1. Henry was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $500. The eighteen-year-old hitchhiker Sterling Eilert testified that the sexual overture took place on 3 March near Alligator, Mississippi, while he was a passenger in Henry’s car. Henry maintained his innocence, claiming that his conviction was a “diabolical plot” by attorney Thomas H. Pearson and Clarksdale police chief Ben C. Collins to discredit the movement (“Mississippi NAACP Leader Convicted on Youth’s Charge,” Montgomery Advertiser, 15 March 1962). Pearson and Collins sued Henry for libel and won; however, the Supreme Court cleared Henry in 1965 of the libel charges in Henry v. Collins (380 U.S. 356). On appeal, the Supreme Court also vacated Henry’s March 1962 conviction on 18 January 1965 (Henry v. Mississippi [379 U.S. 443]).
Source: MCMLK-RWWL, Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives and Special Collections, Atlanta, Ga.