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To William Robert Miller

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Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Montgomery Improvement Association)

Date: May 8, 1956

Location: Montgomery, Ala.

Genre: Letter

Topic: Nonviolence

Details

After interviewing King on 28 February, Glenn Smiley forwarded a transcript to Miller, assistant editor of FOR’S Fellowship magazine, who accepted it for publication as “Walk for Freedom’’ in the May issue. Responding to Miller’s request that King expand the article to include his trial and conviction, influences on his belief in nonviolence, and the positive role of whites in the bus boycott, King asks that the transcript be published without any changes.1 He explains that his busy schedule and the pressing deadline prevented him from revising the piece, but that he hopes to do “a more painstaking and scholarly article” for Fellowship in the future. Miller responded on 18 May.2

Mr. William Robert Miller
Assistant Editor
Fellowship Publications
21 Audubon Avenue
New York 32, New York

Dear Mr. Miller:

This letter is long over due. I have been intending to write you for several days, but absence from the city plus the accumulation of a flood of mail have delayed my reply.

Your letter of April 10, came too late for me to make the addition in the article which you requested. Consequently I had to go on with the third alternative you suggested in your letter of April 16, namely, letting the article go as it was already set up. I hope it will serve some purpose. I am sorry that I did not get an opportunity to put my best literary foot forward. Actually that was just a spontaneous or rather extemporaneous statement that I made on tape for Glenn Smiley. I hope that it will be possible for me to do a more painstaking and scholarly article for your very fine journal in the near future.

With every good wish, I am

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
M. L. King, Jr.,
President

MLK:b

1. See “Walk for Freedom,” May 1956, pp. 277-280 in this volume.

2. See pp. 262-263 in this volume.

Source: WRMP-GAMK, William Robert Miller Papers, 1955-1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, Ga: Box 1.

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