From Lonnie C. King and Mary Ann Smith
Author: King, Lonnie C.; Smith, Mary Ann
Date: February 25, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.
Genre: Letter
Details
On 15 February an estimated 1,600 people filled Atlanta’s Warren Memorial Methodist Church for a rally in support of seventy-seven students and eight ministers arrested for violating the state’s antitrespassing laws.1 In his address that evening, King maintained that the protesters were “expressing the highest respect for the law” by willingly violating an unjust law.2 In the following letter, Lonnie C. King and Mary Ann Smith, officials of the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, thank King for his address, affirming that “you have been an inspiration to all of us.”3
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
407 Auburn Avenue
Atlanta 12, Georgia
Dear Rev. King:
We want to express our appreciation for the eloquent address that you rendered at the Warren Memorial Methodist Church on February 15, 1961. We have received many, many favorable comments both from students and adults concerning the content of your message. You have been an inspiration to all of us.
Yours in the struggle,
[signed] Lonnie C King, Jr.
Lonnie C. King, Jr., Chairman
[signed]
Mary Ann Smith, Executive Secretary
LCK:eml
1. Among the ministers arrested was Walter McCall, pastor of Providence Baptist Church and a former classmate of King’s at Morehouse College and Crozer Theological Seminary (Keeler McCartney, “8 Ministers Seized in Sit-In, Vow to Remain in Fulton Jail,” Atlanta Constitution, 16 February 1961; Charles Moore, “Negroes Here Plan Huge Rally at Jail,” Atlanta Constitution, 16 February 1961). The previous October, Atlanta student protesters had convinced King to participate in a sit-in at Rich’s department store, resulting in his arrest along with fifty-one other protesters (see Introduction in Papers 5:36–40).
2. In addition to King, William Holmes Borders (1905–1993), pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church, also addressed the crowd (Moore, “Negroes Here Plan Huge Rally at Jail”).
3. For more on the Atlanta sit-in agreement, see Introduction, pp. 4–5 in this volume. Mary Ann Smith Wilson (1940– ), born in Atlanta, earned a B.A. from Morris Brown College (1961), an M.A. from University of California, Berkeley (1965), and an M.D. from the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (1975). The older sister of SNCC activist Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, Wilson was a leader in the Atlanta sit-in movement. In 1961 she was arrested at the Atlanta train terminal after requesting service at the whites-only restaurant.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.