The recent declassification of additional Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination documents led me to write this blog post. The information contained in this blog is pulled from one of Dad’s handwritten memoirs dated February 17, 2005. In it, he details his 10-year professional relationship with MLK, Sr. (Daddy King) and one encounter with The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK, Jr.). This is how I usually refer to MLK, Jr. I believe society tends to overlook his primary identity as “first and foremost a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Dad describes how he was appointed to a committee of white and Black pastors shortly after becoming the pastor of the West End Baptist Church (WEB) in April 1953. “I came to know him as a confident, warm-hearted, mature man of good will.” At a meeting of that committee, a Black pastor, William Holmes Borders, and Dad preached sermons. In his sermon, Dad recounted the story of how a Black Pentecostal preacher arrived at WEB one Sunday morning in July 1954, saying that the Holy Spirit had led him to visit WEB that day. “. . . he shared his conviction that it was God’s will for Christians of both races to work for the strengthening of our fellowship in Christ and to unite seeking the advance of social justice.” The visit caused quite a stir among the deacons of the church.
Dad expressed his appreciation and explained that he was to teach a men’s Sunday School in a matter of minutes. He invited this pastor, who was unemployed at the time, to attend the class with him and gave him the opportunity to give his personal testimony. “At first, the class seemed to resent his presence, but they became more comfortable as he shared this experience of faith.” Dad invited him to attend the worship service but explained that he could not invite him to share his testimony because of radio time constraints due to serving the Lord’s Supper that day. “. . . I also explained that he should be prepared to deal with negative feelings some of my people might express. He replied that the Apostle Paul urged that all things be done in the church decently and in good order. He said that it would not be decent of him to be the cause of pressure on me. Thanking me for receiving him as a brother, he left the church.”
A year later, MLK, Sr. spoke at a conference of white Baptist pastors. He expressed some disappointments in the ability of Blacks to attend “white” churches. “In the course of his remarks, Dr. King referred to the story I had told about my visitor. He said that, until he heard my story, he had assumed that white churches were not open to Black people because their pastors were not leading them in that direction. He had thought that white church members followed the leadership of their pastor the way Black church members did.”
Dad said his only personal conversation with MLK, Jr. came at a meeting of Black ministers at which both were scheduled to speak. Dad took with him a deacon who had expressed to our Associate Pastor, Joe A. Roberts, an interest in knowing what Dad would say (per my interview with Rev. Roberts in Feb 2023). During a recess, Dad offered to introduce the deacon to Dr. King, Jr. Before introducing the deacon, Dad told Dr. King that a friend had visited Ebenezer Baptist Church and had heard Dr. King preach on “Love your enemies.” “She had been deeply moved by his sermon. . . After being introduced to Dr. King, my deacon friend . . . took Dr. King’s lapel, looked him straight in the eye, and said, ‘Now don’t you forget to preach that sermon. That is a message all of us need to hear more often.’ I watched with interest as the two men chatted freely and warmly.”
I trust this gives you an idea of the effort Dad made to facilitate communication and understanding in the community. This is a little longer than most of my posts. It has been difficult to cull this out of 7.5 pages of handwritten notes.
