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From Wyatt Tee Walker and Dorothy Cotton

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Author: Walker, Wyatt Tee (Petersburg Improvement Association); Cotton, Dorothy (Petersburg Improvement Association)

Date: May 28, 1960

Location: Petersburg, Va.

Genre: Letter

Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Arrests

Details

Following the announcement of his acquittal, King receives a congratulatory telegram from SCLC’S newly appointed executive director and the secretary of the Petersburg Improvement Association.1

rev martin luther king jr
408 auburn ave northeast atla

our best wishes on your vendication for the state courts of alabama god is not dead truth crushed to the earth will rise again god bless you and your spiritual leadership to the south and to america

the three thousand members of the petersburg improvement association
rev wyatt t walker pres mrs dorothy f cotton secty.

1. Among the congratulatory messages King received was a 31 May telegram from O. Clay Maxwell, the president of the National Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress: “Thanks be to God the victory through his servant.” Dorothy Foreman Cotton (1931- ), born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, received a B.A. (1957) from Virginia State College and an M.A. (1960) from Boston University. As a member of the Petersburg Improvement Association during the 1950s, Cotton helped organize protests against segregation at the city’s public library and dining facilities. She moved to Atlanta to join the staff of SCLC in September 1960 and soon became a member of the executive staff. In 1963, Cotton was appointed director of SCLC’s Citizenship Education Program, a position she held until her departure from the organization in 1972.

Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.

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