From Homer Alexander Jack
Author: Jack, Homer Alexander (Unitarian Church of Evanston)
Date: December 27, 1956
Location: Evanston, Ill.
Genre: Letter
Details
Reporting that five Quakers met with Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 21 December, Jack endorses their hope that the Kings would visit India and recommends as well a visit to the Gold Coast, which would become the independent nation of Ghana in March 1957. The Kings traveled to Ghana for the event and two years later toured India accompanied by James Bristol, one of the Quakers who had met with Nehru.
Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr.
309 S. Jackson
Montgomery, Alabama
Dear Friends,
Just a word to tell you how thrilled I am at the relative ease in which the changeover was made in Montgomery. Your restraint has certainly paid off. It is good, too, to see other southern cities take up the fight.
You might be interested to know that the very morning last week when you were first riding the buses again, a Quaker group was in New York City having an interview with Prime Minister Nehru of India and telling him about your bus protest. I was not a member of the group, but I was in New York and understand that Nehru said he knew something about your movement.1 The Quakers indicated that they hoped it would be possible for you to visit India soon. I think it would be a fine idea, but do not forget the possibility of the Gold Coast either!
Kindest regards.
Cordially,
[signed]
Homer A. Jack
HAJ:ej
1. Dorothy M. Steere, one of the Quakers who talked with Nehru, had met with King during a visit to Montgomery in April. She later reported to King that Nehru “knew, of course, about the bus protest and had heard about your part in it, [but] unfortunately had not met you.” When asked about a future visit by King to India, Nehru “responded with enthusiasm that he hoped this might be arranged” (Steere to King, 5 January 1957, MLKP-MBU: Box 65).
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.