Authors: Troy Jackson
48.
American Socialist,
April 1956, 11.
49.
Gray, Leventhal, Sikora, and Thornton,
The Children Coming On,
13. Palmer, interview by Ferron.
50.
MIA Nominating Committee to MIA President and Executive Board, May 24, 1956, Montgomery Improvement Association Collection. In the meeting, held on May 16, Fields was officially replaced by Reverend W. J. Powell as recording secretary. Nominating committee members included Reverend A. W. Wilson (chairman), Dr. Moses Jones, Mrs. Jo Ann Robinson, Reverend A. W. Murphy, Reverend B. J. Simms, Reverend R. J. Glasco, and Mrs. Erna A Dungee (secretary).
51.
MIA newsletter, vol. 1, no. 2 (June 23, 1956), Montgomery Improvement Association Collection.
52.
Nixon, interview by Millner, 550; Graetz,
A White Preacher’s Memoir,
107–8.
53.
Carr, interview by Millner, 530; Simms, interview by Millner, 579; Fields, interview by Millner, 536; Nixon, interview by Millner, 548.
54.
Allen, interview by Millner, 524–25.
55.
King Jr.,
Stride toward Freedom,
157–58, 186. Following the bombing, Graetz sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department seeking an investigation of all racially motivated violence in the city. In the letter to U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Graetz reported rumors that Commissioner Sellers may have had foreknowledge of the bombings of King’s and Nixon’s homes the previous winter. Regarding the bombing of his own home, Graetz
claimed he was most concerned about Mayor Gayle’s assertion that blacks had done it for publicity: “And apparently the police have been ordered to find the colored people who did it, or at least someone that it can conveniently be blamed on. At least four colored men have been arrested with the bombing” (Graetz to Brownell, September 4, 1956, Graetz Papers).
56.
William J. Powell, Montgomery Improvement Association, Special Committee Meeting minutes, September 25, 1956, Folder 16, Box 30, King Papers, Boston University.
57.
King Jr., “Living under the Tension of Modern Life,” September 1956, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
6: 262–70.
58.
King Jr., “The Fellow Who Stayed at Home,” October 1956, ibid., 6: 272–75.
59.
King penned these words in the margin of J. Wallace Hamilton’s “The Fellow Who Stayed at Home,” a sermon published in his book
Horns and Halos in Human Nature,
172–73.
60.
King Jr., Stride toward Freedom, 158–60; Garrow, Bearing the Cross,
80.
61.
“Annual of the Alabama Baptist State Convention,” One Hundred Thirty-Fourth Annual Session, November 13–16, 1956, 134–35, Alabama State Archives.
62.
King Jr., Stride toward Freedom, 170–72.
63.
Ibid., 69.
64.
King Jr., “Conquering Self-Centeredness,” August 11, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 255. Lerone Bennett later recalled his impressions of King during the boycott, remembering he had “a tremendous rapport with people from a platform. He had this—and even later—no matter how much it might have cost him personally—this ability to swing with people in the streets. People that he’d never seen. They’d say, ‘Hey, Reverend,’ and you know, he could deal with them” (Gray, Leventhal, Sikora, and Thornton,
The Children Coming On,
238).
Dexter Echo
1, no. 8, October 17, 1956, Folder 3, Box 2, Reddick Papers.
65.
The historian Stewart Burns aptly notes how much King learned from the people of Montgomery: “King’s responsiveness to ordinary people, his determination to learn from them and to absorb their varying perspectives, represented a distinguishing mark of his leadership from Montgomery until the end of his life.” He continues: “Subleaders and foot soldiers not only strengthened his commitment but also emboldened him to take further risks and to rise above his comfort zone and socialization” (Burns, ed.,
Daybreak of Freedom,
15).
66.
King Jr., “We Are Still Walking,”
Liberation,
December 1956. The
articles listed six initiatives that would shape the MIA’s future direction: to establish the black-owned bank in Montgomery; to organize a credit union that would mobilize resources for cooperative economic programs; to expand the number of registered African American voters in the city; to establish institutions to train people in nonviolent direct action; to shoulder some of the load of black leadership in Alabama after the outlawing of the NAACP; and “to give aid to those who have sacrificed in our cause.” In Robert Graetz’s memoir of the boycott, he recalls division within the MIA leadership regarding the optimal direction the organization should take. While a group comprised largely of clergy wanted to focus on “largely ceremonial goals” such as integrating the airport facilities, the larger group, composed of nonclergy and Graetz, wanted a program that would connect with the needs of the masses. “Though the clergy, the natural leaders in this church movement, attracted most of the spotlight, the lay participants included some of the most courageous and hard-working people in the Negro community” (Graetz,
A White Preacher’s Memoir,
109). Burns, ed.,
Daybreak of Freedom,
331–32.
1.
King Jr.,
Stride toward Freedom,
175–76. For a detailed account of the agenda for the gathering in Atlanta, see “Montgomery Improvement Association Press Release, Bus Protestors Call Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration,” January 7, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 94–95.
2.
King Jr.,
Stride toward Freedom,
176–77, 179–80.
3.
King Jr., “The Ways of God in the Midst of Glaring Evil,” January 13, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 107–9. King Jr., “Outline, Address to MIA Mass Meeting,” January 14, 1957, ibid., 4: 109–10.
4.
King Jr.,
Stride toward Freedom,
178; “King Says Vision Told Him to Lead Integration Forces,”
Montgomery Advertiser,
January 28, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 114–15.
5.
King Jr., interview by Richard Heffner,
The Open Mind,
February 10, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 126–31; Kwame Nkrumah to King, January 22, 1957, ibid., 4: 112–13; Vaughn and Wills, eds.,
Reflections on Our Pastor,
32. Fosdick published a book titled
A Great Time to Be Alive.
6.
MIA Future Planning Committee, meeting minutes, March 14, 1957, Folder 10, Box 2, King Papers, Boston University.
7.
MIA Future Planning Committee, report, April 18, 1957, Folder 30, Box 16, King Papers, Boston University.
8.
King Jr., “The Birth of a New Nation,” April 7, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 155–67.
9.
King Jr., “Questions Easter Answers,” April 21, 1957, ibid., 6: 283–93.
10.
King to Samuel McCrea Cavert, November 27, 1959, Folder 32, Box 33A, King Papers, Boston University; A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Roy Wilkins, “Call to a Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom,” April 5, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 151–53; William Holmes Borders to King, April 6, 1957, ibid., 4: 153–54.
11.
Bayard Rustin to King, May 10, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 199–201; King Jr., “Give Us the Ballot,” May 17, 1957, ibid., 4: 208–15. King’s reticence to draw strong connections between labor and the civil rights movement may be connected in part to the significant opposition he had faced from white unions in Montgomery during the bus boycott.
12.
E. D. Nixon to King, June 3, 1957, ibid., 4: 217–18; King Jr., “Statement on Meeting with Richard M. Nixon,” June 13, 1957, ibid., 4: 222–23; King Jr., “Remarks in Acceptance of the Forty-second Spingarn Medal at the Forty-eighth Annual NAACP Convention,” June 28, 1957, ibid., 4: 228–32.
13.
Clifford and Virginia Durr, interview by Lumpkin, 15–16.
14.
King Jr., Stride toward Freedom, 85.
15.
King Jr., “Conquering Self-Centeredness,” August 11, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 248–59.
16.
Durr to Horton, February 18, 1956, November 5, 1956, in Burns, ed.,
Daybreak of Freedom,
155, 298; Durr to Clark and Mairi Foreman, December 17, 1956, Durr Papers. The historian Steven M. Millner notes regarding the MIA’s leadership at the end of 1956: “By the boycott’s final days, the ‘tie and collar’ crowd and local ministers had become the dominant forces in the MIA. Grass roots leaders such as E. D. Nixon and Reverend Cherry became increasingly bitter about being pushed aside and left the MIA’s leadership circle. Though King and his successors tried, no major effort paralleling the bus protest emerged in Montgomery. Lacking local issues to organize around and faced with a growing usurpation of organizational positions by status seekers, the MIA became further removed from the local black masses. This process escalated after King’s permanent departure for Atlanta in early 1960” (Millner, “The Montgomery Bus Boycott,” in Garrow, ed.,
The Walking City,
516).
17.
King to Ralph Abernathy, February 26, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 143–44.
18.
Parks, interview by Millner, 564; Rosa Parks to King, August 23,
1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 261. King Jr., “A Look to the Future,” September 2, 1957, ibid., 4: 269–76; Nixon, interview by Lumpkin. See also Highlander Folk School, Program, “The South Thinking Ahead,” September 2, 1957, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church Collection.
19.
King Jr., “Annual Report, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,” October 23, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 287–90.
20.
King Jr., “Loving Your Enemies,” November 17, 1957, ibid., 4: 315–24.
21.
MIA newsletter, vol. 1, no. 7 (November 18, 1957), Montgomery Improvement Association Collection.
22.
King Jr., “Some Things We Must Do,” December 5, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 328–43.
23.
Trezzvant W. Anderson, “How Has Dramatic Bus Boycott Affected Montgomery Negroes?”
Pittsburgh Courier,
November 9, 1957.
24.
Ibid. See also John Henrik Clarke to King, December 20, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 344–45.
25.
Pittsburgh Courier,
November 16, 1957.
26.
Ibid., November 23, 30, 1957.
27.
“Anderson Criticized for ‘Boycott’ Article,”
Pittsburgh Courier,
December 7, 1957.
28.
Anderson, “How Has Dramatic Bus Boycott Affected Montgomery Negroes?”
Pittsburgh Courier,
December 14, 28, 1957.
29.
King Jr., press release, “Announcement of the Crusade for Citizenship,” November 5, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 307–8; King to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, February 4, 1958, ibid., 4: 358–60; King Jr., “Address Delivered at a Meeting Launching the SCLC Crusade for Citizenship at Greater Bethel AME Church,” February 12, 1958, ibid., 4: 367–71.
30.
E. D. Nixon to King, November 4, 1957, Folder 15, Box 106, King Papers, Boston University; King to E. D. Nixon, March 6, 1958, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 376–77; Vaughn and Wills, eds.,
Reflections on Our Pastor,
8.
31.
Burns,
To the Mountaintop,
1; King Jr., “Statement Delivered at the Prayer Pilgrimage Protesting the Electrocution of Jeremiah Reeves,” April 6, 1958, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 396–98. See also King Jr.,
Stride toward Freedom,
31–32; “Ministerial Group Scores Easter Negro Mass Meet” and “King’s Group Accepts Invitation to Talks,”
Montgomery Advertiser,
April 13, 1958.
32.
For examples of the types of questions King fielded, and his responses,
see King Jr., “Advice for Living,” from September 1957 to December 1958, in vol. 4 of
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.
A. Philip Randolph, Lester B. Granger, Martin Luther King, and Roy Wilkins, “A Statement to the President of the United States,” June 23, 1958, ibid., 4: 426–29.
33.
Davis accused Abernathy of having an extramarital affair with his wife, who was a member of Abernathy’s First Baptist Church. Davis threatened Abernathy with a gun and a hatchet. A few months later, the jury dismissed assault charges against Davis (“Negro Jailed after Attack on Leader of Bus Boycott,”
Montgomery Advertiser
August 30 1958; “Jury Rejects Abernathy Charges,”
Montgomery Advertiser,
November 22, 1958); “King Charges Police Brutal after Arrest,”
Montgomery Advertiser,
September 4, 1958; King Jr., “Statement to Eugene Loe,” in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 487–90.
34.
E. D. Nixon to King, September 9, 1958, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 492. Nixon refers to Rustin’s 1947 conviction for breaking North Carolina’s segregation laws, following which Rustin spent twenty-two days on a chain gang to complete his sentence. For Rustin’s journal entries during his incarceration, see Carbado and Weise, eds.,
Time on Two Crosses,
31–57. King to E. D. Nixon, September 16, 1958, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 494–95.