To Diane Nash and Charles Sherrod
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: February 17, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Nonviolence
Student movements
Details
On 31 January 1961—the eve of the first anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in—nine protesters in Rock Hill, South Carolina, were arrested after conducting a sit-in at a local segregated lunch counter.1 A week later the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sent four members, including Diane Nash and Charles Sherrod, to Rock Hill to aid the demonstrations. In the following letter, King expresses support for Nash and Sherrod following their decision to serve thirty days in jail for requesting service at a segregated drug store.2 King praises the students for their decision to remain jailed, believing that every day they remain in jail “sears the conscience of that immoral city. You are shaming them into decency.”
Miss Dianne Nash
Mr. Charles Sherrard
County Jail
Rock Hill, South Carolina
TO THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS:
I do want you to know that you have my prayers for your sustained Christian witness in this dark hour in Rock Hill. You have inspired all of us by such demonstrative courage and faith. It is good to know that there still remains a creative minority who would rather lose in a cause that will ultimately win than to win in a cause that will ultimately lose.
Your actions are moral, democratic, Christian and non-violent. You transcend the judgments of evil men who decry the powerful weapon you are using. Every day that you remain behind bard sears the conscience of that immoral city. You are shaming them into decency.
Great numbers of us will be with you on Sunday—giving thanks for your courageous spirit and asking God’s special presence in your lives.
Faithfully yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
km
Dictated by Dr. King, but signed in his absence.
1. CORE field secretary Thomas Gaither and eight students from Friendship Junior College were found guilty of trespassing and sentenced to thirty days in jail or payment of a $100 fine. All opted to remain in jail.
2. Charles Jones and Ruby Doris Smith, both of SNCC, were also arrested and chose to remain in jail. While serving time in jail, the male protesters were made to work on a chain gang. Diane Judith Nash (1938– ), born in Chicago, Illinois, attended Howard University for a year before transferring to Fisk University in Nashville. In 1960 she became active in the student sit-in movement in Nashville, and later became one of the founding members of SNCC. In the spring of 1961, Nash was instrumental in continuing the Freedom Rides after CORE decided to cease the campaign following several acts of violence against the riders. Her leadership of that campaign led to her appointment as head of SNCC’s direct action division. In 1961 she married fellow activist James Bevel and later joined him on the SCLC staff in 1962 as a field staff organizer. The pair worked on the Birmingham, March on Washington, and Selma campaigns, efforts that won them SCLC’s Rosa Parks Award in 1965. Charles Sherrod (1937– ) was born in Petersburg, Virginia. He received a B.A. (1958) and B.Div. (1961) from Virginia Union University, and an M.Div. (1967) from Union Theological Seminary in New York. While in college, Sherrod organized sit-ins, and became SNCC’s first field secretary in 1961. Later that year, Sherrod went to Albany, Georgia, where he served until 1964 as project director of SNCC’s southwest Georgia voter registration project. Sherrod later returned to Albany and in 1996 ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Georgia State Senate.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.