From Amrit Kaur
Author: Kaur, Amrit
Date: May 1, 1961 to May 31, 1961?
Location: Simla, India
Genre: Letter
Topic: Freedom Rides
Nonviolence
Details
Amrit Kaur, an Indian official King had met during his 1959 visit to India, writes a letter of support to King after escalating violence against freedom riders.1 Endorsing King’s methods of nonviolence, she says “I wish I were in the States because I would then, old as I am, join your non-violent movement.” She also reassures him that as long as the “struggle remains non-violent the victory of integration over segregation is assured.” King replied on 12 June 1961.
Rev Martin Luther King
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
454 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery 4, Alabama, USA
{Dear Friend,}
You and all those who are suffering today in Alabama and the two adjoining States who have taken up the wrong stand of Alabama in favour of segregation have been in the thoughts and prayers of my brother and me ever since we read in the press of your recent troubles.2 Last night’s news over the radio was disturbing inasmuch as it seems that the Government is going to imprison even the non-violent resisters.3
I pray with all my heart that you with your belief in Non-violence will be able to keep all American negroes in control for I have no doubt whatsoever that if the struggle remains non-violent the victory of integration over segregation is assured.
Can we here help you in any way? Unfortunately there are very few of us who really believe in Non-violence. I wish I were in the States because I would then, old as I am, join your non-violent movement.
President Kennedy is on your side but I do not think that your people need military aid if they remain non-violent because God is on their side.4
With every kind thought and prayers on your behalf,
Believe me,
{Very sincerely yours}
[signed] Amrit Kaur
1. For a photograph of King with Kaur, see Papers 5:79. Amrit Kaur (1889–1964), born in Lucknow, India, was a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and an active participant in the Indian independence movement. A champion of women’s rights in India, she served as Minister of Health from 1947–1957. From 1957 until shortly before her death, Kaur was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Indian Parliament.
2. Kaur refers to her brother Kanwar Dalip Singh, a lawyer and judge.
3. Kaur may be referring to the 24 May arrest of twenty-seven freedom riders, who were convicted of breaching the peace, fined $200 each, and given a suspended sixty-day jail term in Jackson, Mississippi (Claude Sitton, “Mississippi Court Fines 27 for Test at Bus Terminal,” New York Times, 27 May 1961).
4. Kaur may refer to the events of 21 May when a large mob gathered outside of First Baptist Church in Montgomery where King addressed a mass meeting of supporters of the Freedom Rides. Though federal marshals were on the scene, Alabama governor John Patterson eventually sent out the Alabama National Guard to disperse the mob (see King, Address at Freedom Riders Rally at First Baptist Church, 21 May 1961, pp. 231–232 in this volume; “More Marshals Sent Into Montgomery; Church Attacked,” Atlanta Daily World, 23 May 1961). Following the siege at the church, King told reporters that he had sent telegrams to the President and the Attorney General urging them “not to withdraw federal marshals from Montgomery at this crucial moment” (“King Asks Feds Stay on Job Here,” Montgomery Advertiser, 26 May 1961).
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.