To J. Raymond Henderson
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Montgomery Improvement Association)
Date: June 1, 1956
Location: Montgomery, Ala.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Career in Ministry
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Family
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Travels
Details
Juanita and Ralph Abernathy accompanied the Kings on a June vacation and speaking trip to Los Angeles. Among other engagements, King was scheduled to speak at the annual preaching mission at Henderson’s Second Baptist Church from 10 to 15 June and the Fifty-first National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress. In this letter King responds to Henderson’s 22 May letter (which King received 24 May) confirming the arrangements.
The Rev. J. Raymond Henderson, Minister
Second Baptist Church
Griffith Avenue at Twenty-Fourth Street
Los Angeles II, California
Dear Rev. Henderson:
Thanks for your kind letter of May 24. Absence from the city delayed my reply. After talking with Rev. and Mrs. Abernathy I find that they had been invited to stop with Rev. T. M. Chambers. Since this invitation had been extended they felt that it would be expedient to accept it. Therefore, Mrs. King and I will stop with you and the Abernathys will be with Rev. Chambers.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to accept the invitation to a dinner in my honor on June 21. I will have to leave Los Angeles that morning coming back to Montgomery for a few days. (Mrs. King will remain in Los Angeles through Sunday, June 24.) Then I would return to California on the twenty-sixth to join Mrs. King in San Francisco. If the dinner could be arranged earlier than June 21, I would be very happy to participate.
Thanks for the invitation to speak in the Baptist Minister’s Union on Tuesday, June 19. I will be indeed honored to accept this invitation. 1
We plan to leave Montgomery Wednesday morning for Los Angeles by automobile. We should arrive in Los Angeles some time Saturday afternoon. We will immediately contact you on our arrival.
Sincerely yours,
M. L. King, Jr.,
President
MLK:b
P.S. Don’t worry about our meals. Mrs. King and I will arrange to have all our meals out.
1. King was unable to fulfill his engagements after 17 June because he had to return to Montgomery to deal with U. J. Fields’s charges against the MIA. On 27 June King spoke at the forty-seventh annual NAACP convention in San Francisco.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.