To A. Lincoln James
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: July 11, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Freedom Rides
Details
King thanks the chairman of Chicago’s Freedom Action Committee for offering to raise funds for the Freedom Rides and asserts that SCLC has provided significant financial support for the protests.1
Rev. A. Lincoln James
Greater Bethesda Baptist Church
Michigan Avenue At 53rd Street
Chicago 15, Illinois
Dear Dr. James:
Thank you for your letter of July 2, 1961. We are happy to know that the Freedom Action Committee of Chicago is concerned and eager to help with the Freedom Ride project.
The official position of SCLC as it relates to the Freedom Ride is one of absolute endorsement. From the moment the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference decided to continue the Freedom Ride originated by CORE, we have been intimately involved. The supporting groups in both Birmingham and Montgomery are two of our strongest affiliates as is NCLC.2 The international focus drawn to Montgomery in the very critical days was due largely to the events surrounding the Freedom Riders and our being trapped in Dr. Abernathy’s church.3
We have supplied staff, transportation costs to and from Jackson, legal counsel ($10,000.00 in Alabama alone) and cash bail bond fees for released riders.4 We have recently added Mr. Marion Barry to our staff to work in Jackson, Mississippi with the Freedom Ride operation there.5
We are in full cooperation with the Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee that has offices not only in Atlanta and Nashville, but also in Montgomery, Jackson, and New Orleans. There offices are manned and subsidized by the participating organizations. Our Representative on the committee is Mr. Wyatt Tee Walker, our executive director who is custodian of the funds and Public Information Office.6
The seed money for the Committee has been advanced by CORE ($1,000.00) and SCLC ($2,000.00). SNCC and NCLC have supplied much of the volunteer personnel.
It would be difficult for us to say to whom Funds should be directed. The Freedom Ride Fund is almost defunct again and needs replenishing, yet it will have to be replenished from the organizations involved. We are sure we would be persuaded by your judgement as to whom the monies should be sent.
Very truly yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr. President
Wyatt Tee Walker, Director
WTW/es
cc: NCLC
SNCC
CORE
FRCC
1. In an earlier letter written to J. Raymond Henderson, King had requested that the funds raised for the Freedom Rides be forwarded to SCLC (King to Henderson, 6 June 1961, pp. 247–248 in this volume). Abraham Lincoln James (1920–2010), born in Houston, Texas, received a B.A. (1945) from Virginia Union University and an M.Div. (1947) from Virginia Union Theological Seminary. After serving as pastor of First Baptist Church in Suffolk, Virginia, he become pastor of Chicago’s Greater Bethesda Baptist Church in 1954, a position he held for more than forty-five years. James became chairman of the Freedom Action Committee of Chicago, a group founded to provide financial support for the Freedom Rides. He also served on the Illinois Civil Rights Commission and was vice-president of the local NAACP branch. Active in the National Baptist Convention, James became a member of the organization’s board of directors in 1982 and served as president of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education.
2. King refers to the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and the Montgomery Improvement Association, respectively.
3. “Marshals Averted Major Bloodshed,” Times (London), 23 May 1961; “Martial Law Proclaimed after New Racial Riot,” Times (London), 23 May 1961; and “How the World Press Viewed the Days of Tension,” Newsweek, 5 June 1961, p. 22. For more on the siege at Abernathy’s First Baptist Church, see King, Address at Freedom Riders Rally at First Baptist Church, 21 May 1961, and King, Statement Delivered at Freedom Riders Rally at First Baptist Church, 21 May 1961, pp. 227–231 and 231–232 in this volume, respectively.
4. During the fiscal year, SCLC reported that the organization had spent over $29,000 on the Freedom Rides (Abernathy, “SCLC, treasurer’s report,” 1 September 1960–31 August 1961).
5. On a three-week trial basis, the Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee sent Barry to Jackson, Mississippi, to recruit freedom riders. Barry drew a salary of $35 a week from SCLC, and his room and board was paid by CORE (SNCC, Minutes of July meeting, 14 July–16 July 1961).
6. The Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee (FRCC) was formed on 26 May to “organize, coordinate, schedule and otherwise implement the travel of Freedom Riders” (James R. Wood, Report on meeting of FRCC, 26 May 1961). Walker, Gordon R. Carey from CORE, Diane Nash from the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, and Ed King from SNCC made up the four permanent members of FRCC.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.