From Alma John
Author: John, Alma (WWRL Radio station)
Date: September 28, 1956
Location: New York, N. Y.
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Career in Ministry
Details
WWRL radio host John featured King's 12 August sermon at New York City's Mount Olivet Baptist Church on her show, a daily program for women called The Homemaker’s Club.1 On 5 November King promised to send a tape recording of the sermon, adding that he was “very happy” to hear of the enthusiastic response it had elicited: “I am always glad to know that I can be of some little service.”
The Reverand Martin Luther King
Pastor
The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
Montgomery Alabama
Dear Dr. King:
In my four years of broadcasting I have never had a more enthusiastic listener response than your sermon delivered at the Mt. Olivet Baptist church evoked!
It was a real pleasure to meet you and your sister personally and I do hope our paths will cross again before long.
Scores of people telephoned and many more wrote to ask whether you message was available on a record. Their requests have inspired me to visit churches in our several communities on Sunday mornings to record good sermons and I hope to make them available to interested listeners possibly mimeographed at first.
I plan to title them “Sermons to Live By.” Several men have told me about the magnificent sermon you preached at Denver and I wonder if it would be possible for you to send me a tape recording of it.
One of my Jewish friends was so impressed with your message that he gave me a contribution to send you to assist in a small way your very important bus protest activity.
Should you wish to send him an acknowledgement his name is:
Mr. Sol Dason
Proprietor - Tru Walk Shoe Store
60-15 Roosevelt Ave.,
Woodside, 77
N.Y.
Please accept my very best wishes for continued success!
Sincerely,
[signed] Alma John
Director
The Homemaker’s Club
Radio Station
WWRL
1. Alma Vessels John (1906-1986), born in Philadelphia, graduated from New York University and the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, becoming a registered nurse in 1929. She worked at Harlem Hospital until 1939, when she was fired for trying to organize for better working conditions and higher wages. She later became the first African-American woman to become director of a school for practicing nurses in New York state and in 1946 became executive director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. Beginning in 1952 she hosted The Homemaker's Club on WWRL radio and later produced and hosted a half-hour television program, Black Pride. John interviewed guests such as Rosa Parks and Ella Fitzgerald and commented on health, education, and community issues.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.