On 13 April 1944, in his junior year at Atlanta’s Booker T. Washington High School, King, Jr., won an oratorical contest sponsored by the black Elks. With the runner-up at Washington High, Hiram Kendall, he won the right to represent the school at the statewide contest held at First Baptist Church in Dublin, Georgia. Kendall was a runner-up at the state contest.
While preparing a biography of Nixon, Mazo wrote King on 5 August 1958 asking for his thoughts on the vice president.1 King concludes his generally positive reply with a cautionary remark: “If Richard Nixon is not sincere, he is the most dangerous man in America.” Mazo thanked King on 6 September, and in his book described King as a person who once “strongly opposed” Nixon, but came to see him as “a superb diplomat.”2
This shortened version of chapter six of Stride Toward Freedom appeared in the September issue of Fellowship.
Interviewed at his home on a Saturday afternoon, King recounts the bus boycott's history following the arrests of Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks, explains the MIA's negotiations with city and bus officials, and reflects on the potential for nonviolent racial reform in Mississippi.
Question: I am a high school boy, 18 years old. My father drinks and does a lot of things that make me ashamed. About a month ago, he got into some real trouble and since then I haven’t been able to gain friendship with any nice boys and girls. What can I do to gain their friendship back? Should I run away to another town?
After failing to secure a King appearance on his television show “Night Beat,” Mike Wallace conducted this interview for a column he published in the New York Post on 11 July.1 The heavily edited column touched on only a few of the topics covered in this typescript of the interview.
In the early morning of 12 October, a dynamite blast tore through the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, an Atlanta synagogue led by civil rights supporter Rabbi Jacob Rothschild.1 Arriving at the scene, Mayor Hartsfield decried the bombing and offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the persons responsible.2 On 17 October five white men were arrested in connection with the bombing, but they were later
