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To Albert S. Bigelow

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Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Montgomery Improvement Association)

Date: November 24, 1956

Location: Montgomery, Ala.?

Genre: Letter

Topic: Voter registration

Details

On 6 November Bigelow, a Quaker pacifist and former Massachusetts housing official, wrote of his plan to vote for King in the presidential election. “Your struggle & suffering are long and growing harder,” Bigelow added, “but please know that you have our love and admiration for your gallant, steadfast devotion to your high principles.” 1On 19 November King's secretary, Maude Ballou, thanked him for the letter. 

Mr. Albert S. Bigelow
Valley Road
Cos Cob, Connecticut

Dear Mr. Bigelow:

This is just a note to follow up the statement of my secretary in thanking you for your kind letter and your great contribution of three hundred dollars ($300.00). I can assure you that your moral support and encouraging remarks give us renewed vigor and courage to carry on. I was indeed flattered to know that you were writing my name in as President of the United States. I can assure you that your thinking of me in this sense gives me a deep feeling of humility and a new dedication to the cause of freedom.

Sincerely yours,
M. L. King, Jr.,
President

MLK:b

1. Albert Smith Bigelow (1906?-1993) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and received degrees from Harvard and the MIT School of Architecture. He served as Massachusetts housing commissioner from 1947 to 1949. After becoming a Quaker in 1954 he participated in numerous protests concerning peace and social justice issues. In 1958 he tried to sail a thirty-foot ketch to a nuclear testing site in the Pacific; unsuccessful, he subsequently served a jail sentence for violating a court injunction. He accompanied John Lewis and other CORE members during the Freedom Rides in May 1961. 

Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.

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