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From Ernest C. Dillard

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Author: Dillard, Ernest C. (Committee to Aid the Montgomery, Alabama, Bus Protest)

Date: May 9, 1956

Location: Detroit, Mich.

Genre: Letter

Topic: Montgomery Bus Boycott

Details

Dillard, head of the Detroit-based Committee to Aid the Montgomery, Alabama, Bus Protest, notifies King of the committee’s contribution to the MIA.1 He urges that the boycott continue until democracy “exists in living fact and not only in the dusty files of unimplemented and forgotten laws and court decisions,” a phrase that King may have adapted for use in his address to the NAACP convention on 27 June.

rev m l king, president montgomery improvement assn
530-c south union st montgomery ala

i trust you have received by now the committees contribution of $200.00 wired on may 7th 1956 our committee further congratulates you and the colored people of montgomery for your great and heartwarming decision to continue your protest until democracy on montgomerys bus lines exists in living fact and not only in the dusty files of unimplemented and forgotten laws and court decisions. the nation and the world cannot but hail your decision to continue this valient fight. our committee believes with you that continued protests will cause the sagging walls of bus segregation like those of ‘‘jericho” to surely come tumbling down that is why our committee is more than happy to be able to make its modest contribution to this historic and just cause of making democracy work. in acknowledgement of above contribution please inclose remarks on the general situation on the montgomery bus protest fight such information will aid our committee in the formulation of further plans and programs to aid the protest

ernest c dillard chairman the committee to aid the montgomery alabama bus protest 3830 mcclellan detroit 14 michigan telephone walnut 55269.

1. Ernest C. Dillard (1915-) graduated from Wayne State University and the University of Michigan Labor School. He became active in the United Auto Workers (Fleetwood Local #15) in the late 1930s and eventually joined the UAW staff in 1964 as assistant director of educational activities.

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

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