From E. D. Nixon
Author: Nixon, Edgar Daniel (Shaaban Temple No. 103)
Date: February 20, 1960
Location: Montgomery, Ala.
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Arrests
Details
The former treasurer of the MIA affirms his support for King and challenges any suggestion that King improperly handled funds intended for the civil rights struggle.1
Dr. M. L. King,
563 Johnson Avenue, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Sir;
How are you and Mrs King and the whole family fine I hope aside from a little cold we are fair, well I visited last evening with Rev. Abernathy, in his office and I talk to Atty. [Fred] Gray, and Mrs [Erna] Dungee, to see if there is anything that I can do, because I feel that you is charge with Money that was not yours, for an instance the $5000.00 that we draw out of the Alabama National Bank, you got the Money but it was not yours, the Money we sent you or was paid to you to go to places was not your money, and some time you paid bills with your money and was rembursed for the money you spent that would mean that you would be charge twice,
Now you must check everything there is to check, keep your mind open do not feel bad about these white people my Lord and your is able to over all unjust, keep the faith, Two things I can Say is that you did not handle any money of the Organization, you did not pay any bill’s and the only money that was paid to you was for Organization expense.
You have my pray, and more than me have complete faith in you with reference to any money Matters.
Youre In Christ
[signed]
E. D. Nixon
1. Nixon had resigned his position as MIA treasurer in 1957. Many years later, Nixon recalled leaving the organization because he “disagreed with how the records were kept” (Steven M. Millner, “The Montgomery Bus Boycott, A Case Study in the Emergence and Career of a Social Movement,” in The Walking City, ed. David J. Garrow [Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Publishing, 1989], p. 550; see also note 1 to Nixon to King, 3 June 1957, in Papers 4:217).
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.