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SCLC Newsletter, January 1964

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SCLC Newsletter, January 1964 SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE i ij INSIDE THIS ISSUE ~ Editorial ·······--···-······-·Page ]! Sarah Patton Boyle ________ Page ~_~_::,ij_~_,:-:,_- ~~~&~~: - ~:__ ·-~~-=::=:::: -~ Quote & Unquote ________ Page m Letters To SCLC __________ Page Volume II January, 1964 Number 4 ~ The Poet's Pen _________ __ ___ Page Time Magazine Names Dr. King 'Man Of Year' SCLC PRESIDENT FIRST NEGRO TO BE SO NAMED IN 37 YEARS By Ed Clayton The long distance call was from New York. It was James Keogh, one of two assistant managing editors of Time Magazine. "HeUo?" "Yes?" "I'm Jimmy Keogh, one of the as­ sistant managing editors of Time maga­ zine. We're getting ready to do a kind of end-of-the-year story on civil rights and we want to use Dr. King on the cover. PROTEST IN ATLANTA-Touching off a protest mood in At­ The problem is that we'd like to get him lanta, Go., because of the city's false image and refusal to to pose for one of our artists, rather than meet desegregation demands, a crowd of some 2,500 gathered try to paint a picture from a photograph. in freezing weather in Hurt Pork on Dec. 16 to hear SCLC Think it can be arranged?" President Martin Luther King, Jr. (in photo at left) tell them I laughed. "That's really a big order. Dr. that "Negroes are disappointed with Atlanta." King has such a crowded schedule and is always on the go, it's almost impossible to get him to pose for a portrait photograph Three SCLC Staff Members Go To Jail to say nothing of posing for an artist's por­ trait. How long do you think he would have to sit?" In Desegregation Attempt In Atlanta "Maybe two or three sittings-say two or As direct action against racial injustice began to mount in Atlanta--often (Continued on Page 2) referred to as "the model city" in race relations in the South-three staff mem­ bers ?f the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were hauled off to jail the mght of Jan. 11 after requesting and being refused service in the restaurant of the Heart of Atlanta Motel. The three were Wyatt Tee Walker, executive assistant to SCLC President M_artin Lut~er King, Jr.; ~arry Boyte, special assistant to Dr. King; and John G1bson, Assistant tG SCLC s Program Director Andrew Young. They were part of a group which brought a confrontation to the rigid segregationist owner of the motel, Morton Rolleston. Charged With Trespassing an employee of the establishment. She was Others in the group, all arrested under taken by ambulance to segregated Georgia Georgia's questionable anti-trespass statute Baptist Hospital and was at first refused passed in 1960, were: John Lewis, Chair­ treatment. However, when Dr. Lee R. Shel­ man of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating ton, who accompanied her in the ambulance, Committee; Leon Cox, NAACP State Secre­ insisted on her admittance the emergency tary; Dr. Clinton Warner, prominent Atlanta room clerk hurriedly telephoned the hospital physician; Rev. John Morris, Executive Di­ administrator who rushed to the scene and rector of the Episcopal Society for Cultural decided to admit the young lady. and Racial Unity; Rev. Joseph Boone, Under $1,000 Bond Minister of Rush Memorial Congregational Church; Miss Prathia Hall, Mrs. Brady All arrested were released Sunday morn­ Cooper, Miss Joyce Barrett and Albert Dunn. ing, Jan. 12, under the uncommonly high As the group sought accommodations bond of $1,000 each. in the motel's restaurant, one of the young Meanwhile, the sit-in assault continued on ladies among them was injured and required eateries in the Dixie city with the so-called hospital treatment when she was stn1ck by (Continued on Page 2) Time Cover of 'Man of The Year' ors had a Negro been chosen. Since 1927- JAIL SCLC STAFF 20,083 Jailed In 1963 two years before Dr. King was born- when Charles A. Lindbergh was named as the (Continued irom Page 1) In 930 Demonstrations first to be so honored by Time, only one "liberal image" where two out of every five persons is a Negro. Summing up the civiJ rights picture gentleman of color had achieved this dis· tinctio.n. He was Ethiopia's Emperor Haile The prelude to the restless mood of At­ in 1963, the Southern Regional Coun­ Selassie, who was Time's selection in 1935. lanta's Negroes was delivered on Dec. 16 cil, Joe., released the following infor­ by Dr. King in Hurt Park where some 2.500 mation from its Atlanta offices: On Cover In 1957 gathered in the chill of near zero weather "During 1963 an estimated 930 individual For Dr. King the honor is a well-deserved following a nonviolent protest march. public protest demonstrati.ons took place in one. He has graced a Time cover before­ Within two weeks, grievances were ex­ at least I I 5 cities in the II sou thern states. in 1957 when he successfully led the Mont· pressed in a surprise SNCC sit-in at a Dobbs­ "More than 20,083 of the persons, Negro gomery bus boycott-but this time, as Time Toddle House chain restaurant on Atlanta's and white, who have so demonstrated, were explained it: " . .. he made it as a man­ famed Peachtree Street by nearly 25 Ne­ arrested. but also as the representative of his people, groes, among them the pregnant wife of "Thirty-five known bombings have oc· for whom 1963 was perhaps the most im· Comedian Dick Gregory. In court, it turned curred. portant year in their history." out that several of them owned stock in the "On the positive side some progress to· In a reflection on that year and Dr. King, chain which operates four such diners in ward integration has taken place in an Time added: Atlanta and 250 across the nation, and estimated 186 localities in the II southern "And there was Birmingham with its whose stock on the New York Stock ex· states. In an estimated I 02 of these cities, bombs and snarling dogs; its shots in the change fluctuates between $18.25 and $19.00 towns and counties, bi-racial committees. night and death in the streets and in the per share. with varying degrees of official sanction, are churches; its lashing fire hoses that washed Decide To Integrate currently working tOward the achievement of human beings along slippery avenues with· The Dobbs chain later announced. after further integration." out washing away their dignity; its men and a stock-holders' meeting in Memphis on women pinned to the ground by officers of Jan. 13, that their restaurants would be MAN OF YEAR the law. operated on a desegregated basis, both in Georgia and in Tennessee. (Continued ;rom Page 1) "All this was the Negro revolution. Birm· Others quick to follow suit are the Holi· three hours each. lt can be here, Atlanta, ingham was its main battleground. and Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of the day Inn- Downtown and the Holiday Inn­ wherever he's going to be. We can send the Negroes in Birmingham, became to millions, Northwest, whose management, in a pre· artist wherever he wants to do it." pared statement, said they were joining with ''OK. I'll tell him. But like I said, that's black and white, in South and North, the other Atlanta hotels and motels who have real! y a huge order." symbol of that revolution-and The Man of the Year." recently announced integration of facilities. So Dr. King posed. Twice. Both times in This brought to a total of 16 such estab­ Atlanta for periods of three hours each. Tribute To Negroes lishments which have announced an inte­ No one at SCLC suspected that this would With his usual modesty and humility, Dr. grated policy, and which have since become be a history-making Time cover, naming targets for _ picketing_ by ro!?.~ _KI,! .Klux Martin Luther King, Jr, as-the publieat1on's Ki_!!g graciously acceP._t~d the tribute, then adding his own footnote to the honor, made Klansmen. Their protest action, however, choice for the coveted honor of "Man Of this reflective comment: has been without incident. The Year." Perhaps Time's editorial hier· "( consider it to be a tribute to the archy knew, even when the phone call was Negro's great and gallant struggle. I would ably did more in that year than any other placed, but they weren't letting any of their like to think that my selection as Time's year. editorial secrets out of the bag. 'Man of the Year' was not a personal trib· "In that year the Negro subpoenaed the 'Didn't Believe It' ute, but a tribute to the whole freedom conscience of the nation to appear before Quite properly, Dr. King was told, but he movement and to the people who partici· the judgment seat of morality on the issue too maintained a confidential silence be· pated and continue to participate. of civil rights. The fact that this happened cause, as he later put it, ''( simply didn't ''You may be against civil rights, but you was a great tribute." believe it." can't ignore it. Negroes conducted this strug· Tribute indeed! To a man of great leader· His reasons for doubt were justifiable. gle in a courageous and disciplined manner. ship and to an emerging determined people Never before in the 37 years that the maga· T his is the real tribute. Although the Negro whose quest for human dignity and a real zine has been bestowing such year-end hon- had been struggling prior to 1963, he prob· freedom will not be denied.
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