To Oke G. Pamp
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: January 4, 1962
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Details
In response to Pamp’s request, King agrees that Vinoba Bhave, a disciple of Gandhi, whom King met in 1959, is worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.1 King calls Bhave a humanitarian who “embodies the true spirit of Mahatma Gandhi probably more than anyone alive today.”
Mr. Oke G. Pamp
603 S. Batavia Avenue
Batavia, Illinois
Dear Mr. Pamp:
I am very happy to join you and many others in recommending Vinoba Bhave for the Nobel Peace Prize. I can think of very few, if any, persons alive today who have given as much of their energy and labors to achieve peace than Vinoba Bhave. He is a humanitariam of the first magnitude. His genuine humanitarian concern, his complete unselfishness, and his unswerving devotion to the principles of justice and freedom conjoin to make him superbly qualified to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He embodies the true spirit of Mahatma Gandhi probably more than anyone alive today. For all of these reasons, I would like to give him an unqualified recommendation for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sincerely yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
1. Pamp told King he sent similar requests to other notable leaders such as Martin Niemöller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Karl Menninger, and Norman Cousins (Pamp to King, 17 December 1961). Scientist Linus Pauling received the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to ban worldwide nuclear testing. During his March 1959 trip to India, King met with Vinoba twice, calling the Indian leader “one of the most moving personalities that I have met” (King to Robert M. Bartlett, 3 April 1959; see also Introduction in Papers 5:9–10 and “Dr. Martin Luther King with Vinoba,” Bhoodan 3 [18 March 1959]: 369–370). Pamp lived in Batavia, Illinois, and frequently wrote letters to the editors of several Chicago newspapers.
Source: MLKJP-GAMK, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers (Series I–IV), Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.