From Harry Belafonte
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: September 29, 1958
Location: Rome, Italy
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Threats/attacks against
Details
= rev martin luther king
harlem hospital nyk
we were shocked when we heard of the incident in new york have tried to call you but been unable to reach you we are deeply thankful that you have been spared plan to return first week of october will see you wub003 intl 2/58 = then if there is anything my wife or i can possibly do please do not hesitate to call upon us the members of my traveling musical safari send their best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery1 my wife [julie] and i join them and the greater majority of the world in the same2
wishes and hopes
harry belafonte
1. Belafonte was making his first European concert tour with a traveling troupe at the time (Howard Taubman, “Belafonte Sings at Brussels Fair,” New York Times, 6 September 1958). On the day that he sent this wire, Belafonte publicly condemned Arkansas governor Orval Faubus's strident resistance to school desegregation in Little Rock, saying, “America will survive Faubus in the same way as Europe survived Hitler” (“Belafonte, in Rome, Denounces Faubus,” New York Times, 30 September 1958).
2. A supporter of King's since the Montgomery bus boycott, Harry Belafonte participated in the 25 October Youth March for School Integration during King's recovery (King, Address at Youth March for Integrated Schools, in Papers 4:514).
Source: CSKC-INP, Coretta Scott King Collection, In Private Hands.