The Archive

Dr. King's telegram to United States Attorney General Ramsey Carlk was reprinted in this press release from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In it, Dr. King urges the Justice department to take proper legal action against the perpetrators of violence against Negroes following the wounding and killing of 37 to 50 students in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

This article discusses public opinion surrounding former U.S. House Representative Adam Clayton Powell's ethics investigation, and subsequent ousting from office.

God Pronounces Judgment of America is allegedly a prophecy from God, through his servant Reverend R. G. Hardy, given on Christmas Day 1966. It reveals that a horrible earthquake and war are in the future.

In this first of a two-part article for the New York Amsterdam News, Dr. King writes about the circumstances surrounding SCLC’s decision to develop Project C, a campaign confronting racial injustice in Birmingham. Three factors led to the decision. First, the city was the home of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, SCLC’s strongest affiliate. Second, Birmingham represented the hard-core segregationist South. And third, the South’s largest industrial center was suffering economically from the loss of vital industry and its poor image on race relations.

In this article, Horace Sheffield responds to speculation that Dr. King will hold a "Summer Crusade" in Detroit.

This article highlights Dr. Kings affiliation with the "New Left" Conference held in Chicago, Illinois.

At the bottom of this clipping, from the Redwood City, California Tribune, is a brief update on the release of Dr. King's final book. The book entitled: "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?", according to the tribune, anticipated that it would be a very must-read publication.

This newsletter, Volume I Number 4, is published by Henry and Sue Bass of Atlanta. They write about the Atlanta Peace Parade, an anti-Vietnam protest to take place on August 6, 1967. The Atlanta Peace Parade would become the south's first major peace parade, about which the Basses write President Johnson was worried, calling for counter-demonstrations.

This article reports on the six thousand mile march from San Francisco to Moscow, an idea that emerged during a Polaris Action demonstration in New England. The marchers spent six months crossing the United States at a rate of 17 to 25 miles per day for an estimated total of 4,000 miles.

In this speech, given before Bowdoin College in 1964, Bayard Rustin outlines the basis of civil rights issues currently being fought for. He argues that man must come together as one and face the problem with our society, and that African Americans see the problems with society more than other races because they are struggling to bring civil rights and social change to all.

This document is a composition of several articles addressing the global state of food consumption and production.

Dr. King recalls an address he gave at the Berlin Arts Festival, where he witnessed an enthusiastic crowd. The crowd's interest confirmed his belief "that the Negro is now in a position to lead the world." He also mentions the Christians of East Berlin, who, though Communists, maintain their faith in God.

This issue of the SCLC Newsletter covers the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The publication features a number of photographs, editorials and the full text of Dr. King's Washington address.

Dr. King describes the events surrounding the Selma-Montgomery Civil Rights March of 1965.

This April 1968 article by William Schulz warns that the Poor People's March on Washington and the planned disruption of the nation's capital pose an enormous challenge to security forces and may humiliate the country internationally.

Dr. King discusses the rationale and strategy for the 1968 Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. He explains that the SCLC hopes to avoid a national holocaust by promoting massive nonviolent demonstrations.

In this draft article Dr. King discusses employment discrimination and the need for the Fair Employment Practices Commission to become legislation.

David R. Underhill discusses the strike of farm laborers in various Mississippi Delta cities. Underhill highlights strike procedures, methods, and locations.

This article discusses a claim brought against "five influential Protestant denominations" by members of the Rockefeller Fund for Theological Education. Specifically referenced is Rev. Dr. C. Shelby Rooks, Executive secretary of the fund, who is reported as saying that the American Baptist Convention, the Episcopal, the Methodist, the United Presbyterian Churches, and the United Church of Christ discriminated against African Americans "from the centers of denominational power and decision making." Dr.

This article by Dr. King, published in his "People in Action" series in the New York Amsterdam News, describes the national and local reaction to the Birmingham jailing of Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and J. S. Phifer.

This SCLC press release highlights Dr. King's request for the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate labor violations and discrimination at shrimp factories in Georgia. Dr.King asserts that African-American workers have been harrassed and underpaid.

Pediatrician and anti-war activist Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dr. King lead thousands of individuals throughout the streets of Chicago in objection to the Vietnam War. Both Dr. King and Dr. Spock express their dissatisfaction with President Johnson's focus on Vietnam rather than the war on poverty.

This article discusses the teacher exchange program between New York City Public Schools and Darien, Connecticut. The program calls for African American teachers to teach students in the predominately white town. The superintendent states the purpose of the project is to show the students that African Americans, if given the same opportunity, are just as intelligent as their white counterparts.

This draft of "The Luminous Promise," published in the December 1962 issue of The Progressive, marks the 100th celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation. In the article Dr. King writes, "there is but one way to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation. That is to make its declaration of freedom real."

Dr. King addresses his concerns about the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany.

The author writes about how operation breadbasket completed successful negotiations for new jobs for Negroes within the Chicago dairy industry.

In this document, Terry Fox, President of Iroquois Brewery, issued a report informing the public that their company implemented a "Learn-And-Earn Program. The program offered young people in Buffalo, New York temporary summer jobs, in an effort to train future adult workers. Unfortunately, there is no listed year, for the beginning of the program, highlighted in the document.

New York lawyer Arthur Kinoy was ejected from the hearing room of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in Washington following a heated legal argument. Seven other lawyers withdrew from the proceedings following Mr. Kinoy's ejection.

Dr. King writes this article for the Chicago Defender describing the social and economic climate of Chicago's ghettos. He explains that Ghettos are the site of economic exploitation and where no exchange of culture and resources are allowed to exist. SCLC staff and Reverend James Bevel "have come to see this as a system of internal colonialism." It is understood that slum culture is designed to perpetuate the inferior educational, health, housing, and employment states of the Negro.

Alice Widener argues that the Black Power movement will result in domestic guerilla warfare. The writer's stance originates from a Black Power workshop she attended. Widener argues that the U.S. government must "round up and imprison" the "Red-Black power criminals."