To Roy Wilkins
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Montgomery Improvement Association)
Date: May 1, 1956
Location: Montgomery, Ala.
Genre: Letter
Topic: Montgomery Bus Boycott
Details
King expresses appreciation for the NAACP’s agreement, confirmed in Wilkins’s 12 April letter to King to provide legal and financial support for three court cases: King’s trial and appeal, Rosa Parks’s appeal, and the Browder v. Gayle federal lawsuit.
Mr. Roy Wilkins
Executive Secretary
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
20 West 40th Street
New York 18, New York
Dear Mr. Wilkins:
This is just a note to follow up our recent telephone conversation. As I said to you the other day, the whole Executive Board of The Montgomery Improvement Association is deeply gratified to know of the support that the National Office consented to give for our struggle. All of the offers that were made concerning the three legal matters are satisfactory to us. I assure you that this will go a long, long way in lifting the legal burden that we confront. Moreover, this deep spirit of cooperation from the NAACP will give us renewed courage and vigor to carry on.
We are quite conscious of our dependence on the NAACP. I have said to our people all along that the great victories of the Negro have been gained through the assiduous labor of the NAACP. As time goes on, and the problems which we confront move toward some point of solution, you may rest assured that we will turn all of the support that we possibly can to the NAACP. My church has just taken out a life membership in the NAACP, and I am urging other churches in our community to do likewise. Again, let me thank you for this very fine response.
With every good wish, I am
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
M. L. King, Jr.,
President
MLK:b
(Dictated by Rev. King but translated and signed in his absence.)
Source: NAACPP-DLC, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Papers, 1909-1955, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C: Group III-A177.