To Thomas Kilgore
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: November 1, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Details
King congratulates Kilgore, director of SCLC’s New York office and family friend, on his twenty-fifth anniversary in the ministry and praises his “unswerving devotion to the principles of Freedom and Justice.”1 On 22 November 1961 Kilgore thanked King for making his anniversary one “that will never be forgotten.”
The Reverend Thomas Kilgore, Jr.
Friendship Baptist Church
144 West 131st Street
New York 27, New York
Dear Tom:
May I take this way to congratulate you on the occasion of your Twenty-fifth Anniversary as a pastor. In these years you have revealed that you are a dedicated servant of God, a stalwart Christian statesman, and a prophetic preacher. You have represented in every way what a Christian minister ought to be. You have proved to be a great administrator, a loving pastor, and a powerful preacher. I am sure that in your twenty-five years as a pastor, you have led hundreds of people to a new understanding of the Christian faith and to a new commitment to Jesus Christ.
You have not limited your gospel to the realm of personal salvation, but you have extended it to the heights of social salvation, realizing that the gospel always deals with the whole man. Your never-ceasing support of the civil rights movement and your unswerving devotion to the principles of Freedom and Justice will always remain one of the glowing epics of your ministry.2 I can only say that you have my prayers and best wishes as you continue your noble work.
I cannot close without expressing just a word of thanks to you for the support that you have given to me personally in the movement which I am seeking to lead. I can never express in words what this has meant to me. Certainly your constant moral and financial support have been of inestimable value for the continuance of my humble efforts.
I hope for you many more years of Christian service.3 I will continue to pray that the years ahead will be packed with meaningful fulfillment.
Sincerely yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
1. Kilgore served at several churches for eleven years before being called to New York’s Friendship Baptist Church in 1947. Kilgore later gave the King children a dog named Topsy (Dora E. McDonald to Kilgore, 21 November 1961).
2. From 1943–1944 Kilgore helped organize citizenship schools and participated in the unionization of tobacco workers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1957 Kilgore directed the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C., and from 1959 to 1963 he supervised SCLC’s New York office.
3. In 1985 Kilgore retired as senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.