To Luther White
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: February 12, 1962
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Labor Movement
Details
Citing his leadership role in the civil rights movement, King declines White’s request to make a public show of support for embattled Teamster Union president Jimmy Hoffa.1 Acknowledging that the Teamsters are “doing some significant work to increase the benefits of the Negro worker,” King explains that because his “every word is dissected” and his “motives can be so easily misinterpreted,” he cannot publicly defend the controversial union leader.2
Mr. Luther White
1222 Prospect Avenue
Cleveland 15, Ohio
Dear Luther:
First, let me apologize for being rather tardy in getting this letter off to you after our telephone conversation a few days ago.3
I have given our many discussions serious and prayerful attention. I have read a great deal of the literature that has been forwarded to me. There is no doubt in my mind that the Teamsters have, in many areas, done a great deal to break down racial barriers, raise wages, and upgrade Negroes.4 I have also weighed and find much merit in the claims that Mr. Hoffa is “target for tonight” for some of his opponents.5 I cannot disagree with the contention that on the whole, the Teamsters are doing some significant work to increase the benefits of the Negro worker.
However, I have come to the conclusion that I should not take a public stand on this issue. This is in no way a re-treat, nor is it an expression of faith. It simply grows out of my position that I now hold in the civil rights movement. The weight of the civil rights struggle on my shoulders is such that I lack the time and the energy to take on a task which will abruptly place me in a defensive position. Being in this struggle is equivalent to being in a glass house. My every word is dissected. My every move examined. My motives can be so easily misinterpreted. There are always those cynics and opponents who would argue that I was “paid off” to take a stand for Hoffa and the Teamsters Union.6 I have not come to this decision without serious thinking and talking with some of my close associates. All of them concur that I should not make this move. I also talked with some outstanding Negroes in the ranks of labor, and while they are genuinely sympathetic with Mr. Hoffa, they feel that it would be a mistake for me to intervene in this situation.7
I am sure you can understand how much I regret coming to this conclusion. It is even more regrettable in the light of our personal friendship and my warm regard for you. I trust that you will be sympathetic to my position and commitment to the larger cause to which you also are committed. Believe me, because you are my friend and you ask this of me, it pains me not to be able to comply with the request.
May God bless you in all of the noble work you are doing, and I hope you success at every point. I am off to Puerto Rico now where I will be speaking on tour for about a week.8 I hope I will be able to get some much needed rest in the process.
Very truly yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
Dictated by Dr. King, but signed in his absence.
1. Luther Randolph White (1902–1978) was born in Marianna, Florida. After attending college at Florida A&M College and Boston University, White settled in Cleveland and founded Triangle Realty in 1924. He founded the Cleveland Eagle, a black community newspaper, in 1936 before establishing White and White, a public relations firm, and becoming director of the Cleveland chapter of the American Negro Emancipation Centennial Authority. James Riddle Hoffa (1913–1975?) was born in Brazil, Indiana. After the death of his father, Hoffa dropped out of high school to help support his family. In Detroit, Michigan, Hoffa went to work for a grocery store where he organized his first labor strike. In the 1930s, he joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and eventually became the president of the union’s Detroit chapter. In 1952 he was elected vice president of the Teamsters. Five years later, Hoffa was elected president of the union and was investigated for both attempting to bribe a public official and for racketeering by the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor Management Field headed by Senator John L. McClellan and with Robert F. Kennedy as chief counsel. Although he was acquitted in both trials, the Senate committee continued to investigate him and union corruption until his imprisonment in 1967. Hoffa was also suspected of elevating known Mafia members to positions of leadership within the union. After serving four years in prison, Hoffa was pardoned by President Richard Nixon in 1971 with the stipulation that he would not hold any leadership positions in the Teamsters until 1980. In 1975 Hoffa disappeared. His body has never been found.
2. In December 1957, the AFL-CIO charged that the Teamsters Union was dominated by corrupt elements and voted to expel it from the federation. Realizing the value of black support during the ongoing investigations, Hoffa and the Teamsters Union became outspoken proponents of integration in organized labor. As early as 1958 the Teamsters implemented a policy of no race discrimination in their chapters (“Hoffa Calls for ‘No Discrimination,’” The International Teamster, May 1958). Following the 1961 censure of A. Philip Randolph by the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters issued an executive resolution in support of Randolph and accused the AFL-CIO of maintaining Jim Crowism (“Randolph Defended by Teamster Board,” The International Teamster, January 1962).
3. Phone message slips indicate that White called King’s office on 5, 8, and 9 February.
4. According to Pittsburgh Courier reporter Trezzvant Anderson, around five hundred thousand African Americans were part of the Teamsters Union, the second largest membership behind only the National Baptist Convention (“Reporter Can’t See Hoffa Win as Rigged,” 2 December 1961). In 1959, White coordinated with Associated Negro Press founder Claude Barnett the publishing of several articles on Hoffa.
5. Anderson quoted King as saying that Hoffa was “the ‘whipping-boy’ of those who were anti-labor” (“King Meets Negro Labor Before Confab,” Pittsburgh Courier, 9 December 1961). Following Hoffa’s successful reelection as president in July 1961, several locals in San Diego, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia voted to leave the Teamsters Union, charging that Hoffa had centralized too much power.
6. In mid-1957, questions about the motives of boxer Joe Louis’s public support of Hoffa were mounting. Walter Sheridan, a federal investigator, asked Louis to sign an affidavit confirming that Hoffa did not pay Louis for his support. Louis crossed out most of the affidavit, but signed the last paragraph insisting that he did not receive any money from Hoffa (“McClellan Says Teamsters Paid Joe Louis’ Hotel Bill during Hoffa Trial: Dio Linked to Garment Workers,” Wall Street Journal, 2 August 1957; Walter Sheridan, The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa [New York: Saturday Review Press, 1972], pp. 35–36).
7. A. Philip Randolph in December 1961 publicly supported the Teamsters’ unsuccessful bid to be reinstated into the AFL-CIO because “I don’t think the labor unions are qualified to sit in moral judgment” of the Teamsters, who were “less guilty of racial discrimination than most of the other unions” (Lee Blackwell, “A. Philip Randolph Speaks His Mind,” Chicago Daily Defender, 16 December 1961).
8. King spoke at Inter-American University, the Evangelical Seminary, and the University of Puerto Rico on a speaking tour from 13–16 February, and then took an eight-day vacation before returning on 24 February. For more on King’s trip to Puerto Rico, see Interview by Inter-American University Students and Faculty, 14 February 1962, pp. 399–410 in this volume.
Source: MLKJP-GAMK, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers (Series I–IV), Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.