The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
Abstract
This September 1961 SCLC newsletter opens with a description of the Annual Convention scheduled to take place later that month in Nashville, Tennessee. The next section includes brief biographies of Harry Belefonte and South African singer Miriam Makeba, both slated to star in the convention's opening benefit concert. This section also outlines the advances SCLC made in its Leadership Training Program and future plans for the Citizenship Program, dedicated to increasing literacy in southern states. The publication goes on to discuss the legal effects of the "Freedom Rides," which included the arrest of civil rights leaders Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy and Fred L. Shuttlesworth. The newsletter also features a "Vignette of the Month" section, highlighting Reverend Shuttleworth for his civil rights work in Birmingham, Alabama.