Becoming King (40 page)

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Authors: Troy Jackson

35.
King, “Some Things We Must Do,” December 5, 1957, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 328–43;
Pittsburgh Courier,
December 7, 1957.

36.
Friedland,
Lift up Your Voice Like a Trumpet,
30. See also Durr,
Outside the Magic Circle,
309. Andrews, interview by Durr.

37.
Andrews, interview by Durr.

38.
King Jr., “A Knock at Midnight,” September 14, 1958, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
6: 347–50. King borrowed portions of this sermon from Niles, “Summons at Midnight.”

39.
King Jr., “Statement upon Return to Montgomery,” October 24, 1958, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 513–14.

40.
Vaughn and Wills, Reflections on Our Pastor, 31.

41.
King, annual report, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 18, 1958, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4: 537–39.

42.
Kenneth L. Buford, William C. Patton, and King to Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 25, 1959, ibid., 5: 111–12; King to G. Mennen Williams, January 28, 1959, ibid., 5: 112–13.

43.
“Account by Lawrence Dunbar Reddick of Press Conference in New Delhi on 10 February 1959,” ibid., 5: 125–29; James E. Bristol to Corinne B. Johnson, March 10, 1959, ibid., 5: 137–42.

44.
King, “A Walk through the Holy Land,” March 29, 1959, ibid., 5: 164–75.

45.
MIA newsletter, vol. 1, no. 12 (April 30, 1959), Montgomery Improvement Association Collection;
Montgomery Advertiser,
March 21, 1959.

46.
Session of Trinity Presbyterian Church to Mrs. Arnold Smith, April 13, 1959, Folder 1, Andrews Collection; Fred L. Shuttlesworth to King, April 24, 1959, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
5: 189–90. In the mid-1940s, Horace G. Bell had been one of Nixon’s greatest critics, denouncing him in several letters to the NAACP national office in New York. See, for instance, Horace G. Bell to Ella Baker, November 25, 1945, Group II, Box C-4, Montgomery NAACP Papers; King to John Malcolm Patterson, May 28, 1959, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
5: 216–17.

47.
King, “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart,” August 30, 1959, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
6: 372–78. King borrowed portions of this sermon from Gerald Kennedy, “The Mind and Heart,” in Kennedy’s
The Lion and the Lamb.

48.
Ibid. A number of Alabama State College professors lost their jobs in the spring of 1960 for supporting thirty-five ASC students who were arrested for staging a sit-in at the Montgomery County Court House snack bar. Among those losing their jobs were Lawrence Reddick, Jo Ann Robinson, and Mary Fair Burks (MIA newsletter, vol. 2, no. 3 [September 21, 1960], Gregory Papers, 1955–1965).

49.
King to Simeon Booker, October 20, 1959, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
5: 313–15.

50.
King, “Draft, Resignation from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,” November 29, 1959, ibid., 5: 328–29. Based on his own experience and having explored the symbolic role Gandhi played in the Indian independence movement, King believed a successful freedom movement was enhanced by the presence of a symbolic leader. During the summer of 1959, King replied to a letter from an Angolan student who sought some assistance and advice for her nation’s independence movement. Significantly, King suggested a good starting place would be to find an individual who would “stand as a symbol for your independence movement. As soon as your symbol is set up it is not difficult to get people to follow, and the more the oppressor seeks to stop and defeat the symbol, the more it solidifies the movement” (King to Deolinda Rodrigues, July 21, 1959, ibid., 5: 250–51). T. H. Randall to King, December 1, 1959, ibid., 5: 332.

51.
King, “Address at the Fourth Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change,” December 3, 1959, ibid., 5: 333–43.

52.
King to the Montgomery County Board of Education, August 28, 1959, ibid., 5: 270–72.

53.
King, “Address at the Fourth Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change,” December 3, 1959, ibid., 5: 333–43.

54.
Gray, Leventhal, Sikora, and Thornton,
The Children Coming On,
131.

55.
Underwood, interview by Lumpkin; Vaughn and Wills, eds.,
Reflections on Our Pastor,
12, 51. Richard Lischer believes a large part of the reason for King’s departure was the difficulty sustaining growth at the church, given King’s frequent absences: “Despite the fame of its pastor, the church was not thriving. In response to King’s absenteeism and his delegation of his duties to others, the power of the deacons reasserted itself, and the pastor found himself ‘under fire.’ King was encouraged either to cut back on his outside commitments or to leave Dexter. When his responsibilities in the Movement led him back to Atlanta and his father’s church, he left a congregation both saddened and relieved by his departure” (Lischer,
The Preacher King,
79).

56.
Vaughn and Wills, eds.,
Reflections on Our Pastor,
62, 80–81, 100.

57.
“Dexter Honors Dr. & Mrs. King!!”
Dexter Echo,
February 3, 1960, MS 22 #722, Coretta Scott King Collection.

58.
King, “Address Delivered during ‘A Salute to Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King’ at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,” January 31, 1960, ET-56, Martin Luther King Estate Collection.

59.
King, “Address Delivered at the Montgomery Improvement Association’s ‘Testimonial of Love and Loyalty,’” February 1, 1960, ET-53, ET-54, Martin Luther King Estate Collection.

60.
SCLC press release, “Dr King Leaves Montgomery for Atlanta,” December 1, 1959, Folder 40, Box 35, King Papers, Boston University.

61.
Lewis and Ligon, interview by Lumpkin.

Epilogue

1.
Lawrence Dunbar Reddick, “The Montgomery Situation,” April 1960, Folder 5, Box 2, Reddick Papers; H. Councill Trenholm to James McFadden, March 4, 1960, Folder 15, Box 2, ibid.

2.
Virginia Durr to Clark Foreman, March 1960, in Sullivan, ed.,
Freedom Writer,
198–99.

3.
Garrow, ed.,
The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It,
168; Mary Fair Burks to King, March 31, 1960, Box 20, King Papers, Boston University; King to Mary Fair Burks, April 5, 1960, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
5: 406–8; Mary Fair Burks, “Trailblazers: Women in the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” in Crawford, Rouse, and Woods, eds.,
Women in the Civil Rights Movement,
76.

4.
Friedland, Lift up Your Voice Like a Trumpet, 30. See also Durr, Outside the Magic Circle, 309.

5.
King, “Statement at Mass Meeting Supporting Freedom Riders,” May 21, 1961, Montgomery to Memphis Film Research Files; Montgomery Improvement Association Bulletin, November 25, 1961, box 4, White House Staff Files, Harris Wofford Files.

6.
Thornton,
Dividing Lines,
599n76.

7.
Millner, “The Montgomery Bus Boycott,” in Garrow, ed.,
The Walking City,
517.

8.
King, “Address at the Steps of the State Capitol at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March,” March 25, 1965, Coretta Scott King Collection.

9.
Nixon, interview by Millner, 551; King Jr.,
Strength to Love,
151–52; James Baldwin, “The Dangerous Road before Martin Luther King,”
Harper’s Magazine,
February 1961.

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