To Robert F. Kennedy
Author: Walker, Wyatt Tee; King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: August 5, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Details
After weeks of escalating racial tensions between segregationists and black demonstrators in Monroe, North Carolina, SCLC sent Paul Brooks to investigate the situation and consult with local black activists led by Robert F. Williams, who had in 1959 challenged King’s belief in the usefulness of nonviolence in the movement.1 In this telegram, Wyatt Tee Walker and King petition the attorney general to begin an immediate investigation into the reports of violence against activists in Monroe.2 Although SCLC did not hear directly from Kennedy, Justice Department official John Doar contacted Brooks to inquire about the severity of the situation but did not indicate whether or not the government would open an investigation.3
attorney general robert kennedy
dept of justice
dear sirs
sclc respectfully request the immediate attention of investigation by the civil rights division or the justice department and to the highly explosive situation at monroe north carolina the rev paul brooks field representative of sclc on special assignment reports law and order have broken down our chief concern is the safety of human rights and property and the avoidance of possible violence
very truly yours
wyatt t walker
executive director
martin luther king jr
president
1. On 22 June, Williams threatened a “wade-in” to protest the city’s segregated swimming pool. In response to Williams’s proposed demonstration, city officials closed the pool. With tacit cooperation from law enforcement, Monroe whites launched a campaign of intimidation, including four attempts on Williams’s life and nightly gunfire in black neighborhoods. Monroe’s black population responded with armed self-defense (Don Gray, “Closed Pool Is Picketed by Negroes,” Charlotte Observer, 24 June 1961; The Crusader 3, no. 5 [7 August 1961]; “Monroe, N.C., Editor Defies Bigots Who Threaten Life,” Pittsburgh Courier, 5 August 1961). On 4 August 1961, King and Walker wrote Brooks a letter of introduction stating that Brooks would be “used as Mr. Williams deems best.” For more on King’s relationship with Williams, see Introduction in Papers 5:17–18.
2. King and Walker also sent telegrams to Justice Department officials Burke Marshall and John Seigenthaler (King and Walker to Marshall and Seigenthaler, 5 August 1961).
3. In a conversation with Brooks, Doar said he had received several telegrams and phones calls about the situation in Monroe and gave Brooks his direct contact information (Walker, Memo to King, Burke Marshall, and James M. Lawson, 9 August 1961). For more on the situation in Monroe, see Monroe Non-Violent Action Committee to King, 21 August 1961, pp. 262–263 in this volume.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.