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To E. D. Nixon

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Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Date: March 6, 1958

Location: Montgomery, Ala.?

Genre: Letter

Details

After extended discussion with King and Abernathy following his initial resignation as MIA treasurer the previous June, Nixon submitted his final resignation letter on 4 November 1957. Citing job changes that lessened his time in Montgomery, Nixon also expressed his continuing frustration with the leadership of the MIA: “You both agreed on some of the points raised by me, and promised to correct them. To date nothing has been done about it.” In the letter below, King thanks Nixon fix his contributions to the organization.1

Mr. E. D. Nixon
Montgomery, Ala.

Dear Mr. Nixon

As president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, I would like to express my appreciation to you for the very fine service that you have rendered to the Association since its inception. As treasurer of the organization, you handled a very significant and vital post. During the days when hundreds and thousands of dollars poured in from all over the country, you worked assiduously to see that this money was handled properly and in a businesslike manner. For this and your untiring service to the whole Montgomery community we are deeply grateful to you.

We were sorry to learn that you work made it necessary for you to resign this position. However, I must thank you again for your willingness to remain in the position until we could secure the services of someone else.

As you probably know, the Rev. A. W. Wilson has been elected by the Executive Board to fill the position of treasurer of the Montgomery Improvement Association.2 He has already begun functioning in this capacity. If you are in possession of any materials or records that the treasurer of the Association should have, we would appreciate your turning these over to the Rev. Mr. Wilson at your earliest convenience. He is quite anxious to start out with all of the records in the office.

Again, let me express my personal appreciation to you for your service to the Montgomery Improvement Association and to the Montgomery community. I am also grateful to you for the support you have given me all along.

Let us continue together in the great struggle ahead.

Sincerely yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK:p

1. For further correspondence see King to Nixon, 16 September 1958, pp. 494-495 in this volume.

2. Arthur Woodrow Wilson (1902-1989) received a B.Th. (1941) from the American Bible College in Chicago. From 1939 until his death, Wilson served as pastor of Holt Street Baptist Church, the site of the first mass meeting of the Montgomery bus boycott.

Source: MLKP-MBU. Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass. 

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