From Wade H. McKinney
Author: McKinney, Wade H. (Antioch Baptist Church)
Date: February 24, 1956
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Genre: Letter
Topic: Montgomery Bus Boycott
Details
McKinney, a family friend and pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, offers financial support to the bus boycotters and invites King to preach the Youth Day service at his church.1 On 29 February King thanked McKinney for the financial contribution but declined the invitation because of scheduling conflicts.
Rev. M. L. King Jr.
309 S. Jackson Street
Montgomery, Ala.
Dear Rev. King:
I am sending you this letter for two main reasons. First, to extend to you and the other ministers of Montgomery my sincere congratulations for the Christ-like manner {with} which you are conducting the protest against the social injustices of your city. Further, I have seen you at least three times on television and was deeply moved by your courage, composure, and profound analyses about the significance of the fight in which you are engaged.
Among the many things of which I am sure are these:
1. Prayer changes things.
2. Money talks.
You have my prayers, but how can we get some money to you without violating the laws of your state? Should it come directly to you or should we send it to the Yew York office of the NAACP? Kindly let me know by return mail.2
The second reason for this letter is this, I would like to have you for our Annual Youth Day speaker on June 17, 1956. My twin daughters, Ruth and May, have been urging me for several weeks to extend to you this invitation.3 For years we have had some of the most outstanding men of the nation, such as Dr. Samuel D. Proctor, President of Virginia Union University and others. I sincerely hope you will see your way clear to accept our invitation.
I wish to assure you that the honorarium will be worthwhile, all expenses ambly taken care of, plus a generous donation to be used as you see fit.
Your father and I have been friends over the years, and your mother and my wife were at Spelman together. I believe also, that you and my son Samuel, who is now pastoring in Providence, Rhode Island, were in Morehouse College at the same time.4 Kindly let me hear from you by return mail.
Yours in Christ,
[signed]
W. H. McKinney, Pastor
WHM/lr
1. Wade Hampton McKinney (1892-1963), born in White County, Georgia, graduated from Morehouse College (1920) and Colgate-Rochester Theological Seminary (1923). In 1923 he became pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan, though he left after five years to become pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, where he served until his death. He also served as president of the Cleveland Baptist Association and the Cuyahoga Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.
2. On 26 February 1956 McKinney wired King with the news that his church had raised “more than $631 for your [cause]” and asked once again for instructions.
3. Virginia Ruth McKinney (Henderson), a graduate of Spelman College, studied for her M.A. at Boston University during the same time King was completing his doctoral work. She and Mary McKinney (Edmonds), also a Spelman graduate, had been impressed by the sermons they heard when King served as an occasional guest preacher at Morehouse Chapel between 1949 and 1953.
4. Samuel Berry McKinney (1926-), born in Flint, Michigan, earned his B.A. (1949) at Morehouse College and his B.D. from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School. As pastor of Olney Street Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, McKinney invited King to address a mass rally on 27 May 1956. King declined owing to a previous commitment. In 1958 McKinney became pastor of Seattle's Mount Zion Baptist Church, where he still serves. See McKinney to King, 9 April 1956 and 25 April 1956; and King to McKinney, 28 April 1956.
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.