From Alfred Daniel King
Author: King, Alfred Daniel
Date: April 2, 1962
Location: Birmingham, Ala.
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Career in Ministry
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Family
Details
Following his installation service at First Baptist Church of Ensley on 18 March, A. D. King thanks his older brother for speaking.1
Rev. M. L. King Jr.
407 Auburn Avenue
Atlanta 12, Georgia
Dear M. L.,
It was certainly a great deal of pleasure and inspiration to have you share in our Installation Services. Thank you so much for the message in the afternoon. Our people have shown a new spirit for work, and I believe that this new spirit is a result of your thorough explanation of the importance of a preacher.
Please express my deepest thanks to the very fine people of Ebenezer for their more than generous contribution.2
Give our love to the family.
A. D.
1. A. D. King’s installation lasted two days. His father spoke at the morning service, and King, Jr. delivered the afternoon sermon (Program, “Installation services of Rev. A. D. Williams King,” 18 March–19 March 1962). Ralph Abernathy also participated in A. D. King’s installation service and wrote a letter of recommendation for A. D. King to the chairman of the board of deacons at First Baptist. The letter was similar to the recommendation King, Jr., wrote to West Hunter Baptist Church on Abernathy’s behalf (Abernathy to Meredith McCarroll, 22 November 1961; King to J. R. Butts, 8 February 1961, pp. 153–154 in this volume). A. D. King began serving at First Baptist Church on 7 January 1962. The King family also participated in his 1959 installation as pastor of Mount Vernon First Baptist Church in Newnan, Georgia (Program, Installation of Alfred Daniel King, 12 April 1959).
2. The Ebenezer Baptist Church choir performed at the service.
Source: MLKJP-GAMK, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers (Series I–IV), Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.