Celebrating MLK Jr.

13th January 2020   ·   0 Comments

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (the official commemoration of MLK Jr.’s birthday) is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around King’s birthday, January 15. The earliest Monday for the MLK holiday is January 15 and the latest is January 21. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. He was just 39 years old when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

The City of New Orleans’ celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday kicks off on Saturday, January 11, 2020 with a roster of activities that culminate on January 21, 2020, the day after the official federal holiday on Monday, January 20, 2020.

Although it has been only 20 years since all 50 states in the U.S. have recognized and celebrated this martyred leader and his contributions to non-violence, justice and his movement against segregation, racial discrimination and economic injustice, this year, New Orleans is hosting the 34th Commemoration of Dr. King’s Birthday.

New Orleans’ historic relationship and connection to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is often not mentioned nor celebrated but the famed civil rights leader visited the city often and, indeed, launched his Southern Christian Leadership Conference here.

It is a fact that is confirmed in “This is the SCLC,” the organization’s brochure, (circa 1961). In the “Birth of the SCLC” section, the authors write, “On January 10, 1957, more than 100 Southern leaders gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, to share and discuss their mutual problems of the Southern struggle. By unanimous agreement, the body voted to form a permanent organization that would serve as a coordinating agency for local protest centers that were utilizing the technique and philosophy of non­violence in creative protest. Two months later, close on the heels of the successful Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, SCLC came into being, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected president.”

On February 14, 1957, the date the SCLC was formed at the Reverend Abraham Lincoln Davis’s New Zion Baptist Church at 2319 Third Street in New Orleans, Martin Luther King Jr. sent a Valentine’s Day telegram to his wife, Coretta.

Even before the Valentine Day meeting, Dr. King had been in touch with another Louisiana leader, the Reverend Theodore (T.J.) Judson Jemison, pastor of Mount Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, several months earlier.

Jemison’s organization, the United Defense League, held an eight-day Bus Boycott in Baton Rouge in 1953, believed to be the first in the nation, which inspired King and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy to carry out their Montgomery Improvement Association’s (MIA) Bus Boycott.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began on December 5, 1955 after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. On December 8, 1955, three days into the Montgomery boycott, King contacted Jemison for advice. He later expressed his appreciation for Jemison’s “painstaking description” of the carpools in Baton Rouge, calling his suggestions “invaluable.” The boycott lasted for 381 days and ended on December 21, 1956, with the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system.

Before the boycott ended, on October 21, 1956, the Rev. Jemison wrote to King inviting him to deliver his church’s annual Men’s Day address. On October 31, 1956, King wrote back agreeing to deliver the sermon on November 18, 1956.

A few months later, on February 14, 1957, Dr. King and 96 other Black religious leaders from 10 states met at New Zion Baptist Church, where members officially founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

There was good reason for founding the SCLC in New Orleans. Montgomery was too dangerous and life-threatening to launch the civil rights organization there. In the early morning of January 10, 1957, four Black churches and the parsonages of MIA leaders Robert Graetz and Ralph Abernathy were bombed in Montgomery. The following month, the SCLC was launched in New Orleans.

According the SCLC, “The SCLC New Orleans (LA) Chapter is the oldest organized chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the United States.”

Records show, however, that Dr. King was in New Orleans as early as February 1, 1957, to lay the groundwork for launching the SCLC. Several prominent African Americans from New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport were among the founders of the organization and served on the SCLC’s first Executive Committee.

According to the early SCLC brochure, the elected officers, executive committee members and staff from Louisiana included: Second Vice President, the Rev. Abraham Lincoln (A.L.) Davis Jr. (New Orleans); Fourth Vice President, Dr. Cuthbert Ormond Simpkins, Sr. (Shreveport); and Legal Counsel, Atty. Israel Meyer Augustine (New Orleans). Executive Board Members: the Rev. Theodore Judson Jemison (Baton Rouge) ; ILA President Clarence Henry (New Orleans); and Field Secretary, the Rev. Harry Blake (Shreveport).

From 1953-1957, Dr. King made numerous visits to Louisiana for meetings, rallies, and other activities.

Dr. King had very close relationships with New Orleanians including Joseph Verrett, Marcus Neustadter, Constant Charles Dejoie Sr., the Rev. Abraham Lincoln (A.L.) Davis Jr., and Dr. Leonard Burns. They hosted the February 1, 1957 rally at the Coliseum Arena located at 401 North Roman Street in New Orleans. Despite the inclement weather, more than 2,000 gathered to hear Dr. King speak. The Louisiana Weekly published an article with photos on the event entitled, “Thousands Brave Weather to hear Dr. King.” “We have seen the coming of Old Man Segregation to his death bed,” King told the crowd.

Other locations in New Orleans where Dr. King spoke included: The Chapel at Dillard University in 1955. President Albert Dent of Dillard University offered Dr. King the position of University Chaplain. He declined because of the boycott activities in Montgomery. Union Bethel A.M.E. Church at 2321 Thalia Street in Uptown New Orleans was visited on several occasions; and the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) at 2700 South Claiborne Avenue was a venue for Dr. King.

Augustine, who drew up the articles of incorporation for the SCLC, would later become the first Black judge of a District Court in New Orleans.

The late, self-proclaimed “Eyewitness to History,” and New Orleans-based civil rights photographer, Samson “Skip” Alexander, remembered MLK’s connection with the city’s Black leadership, especially one particular meeting King had with Clarence “Chink” Henry at the ILA (International Longshoremen’s Association) and he got a big check (from Henry) to help with the movement,” Alexander said. He (Alexander) took many photos of Dr. King. The photo at right was taken by Alexander on February 14, 1957 during the organizing meeting of the SCLC at New Zion Baptist Church.

In the photo are, left to right, then-SCLC Legal Counsel, Attorney Israel Augustine, Dr. King, Butch Curry of the New Orleans Office of the Pittsburg Courier, and John Carter of the Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church in the background.

Also, in 1957, Kathleen “Katie” E. Wickham, president of the National Beauty Culturalist League, Inc., located at 2100 Dryades Street in New Orleans, invited the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at the League’s 38th Annual Convention. The Convention was held at Booker T. Washington Senior High School at 1201 South Roman Street. Booker T. was the public school system’s preeminent vocational technical training outlet. The school graduated cosmetologists, carpenters, auto repair experts, and other vo-tech specialists.

Dr. King spoke on “The Role of Beauticians in the Struggle for Freedom.” King said: “I am not too optimistic to believe that integration is ‘just around the corner.’ We have come a long, long way and we still have a long way to go, but we must keep moving in spite of the delay tactics used by segregationists.” King received the organization’s Civil Rights Award at the event.

In a letter to Wickham, Dr. King wrote: “As you probably know, we have a new organization in the south known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of which I am serving as president. This organization has tremendous possibilities. We have already received enthusiastic support from leaders all across the south. Our basic aim is to implement the desegregation decision of the Supreme Court on the local level through nonviolent means. At present, we are in the midst of intensifying our drive to get folk out to vote. It is our hope that through our efforts and those of other organizations, we will be able to double the number of Negro registered voters by 1960.

Wickham joined the National SCLC Executive Committee in October 1958 and was elected Assistant Secretary in 1959 in Tallahassee, Florida.

Dr. King was a frequent visitor to Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, too. The late Chef Leah Chase, whose family restaurant was an underground railroad during the modern civil rights movement and host to civil rights leaders, told WGNO that Dr. King often came to Dooky Chase’s for meetings and to strategize, and always with a sense of urgency.

Mrs. Chase recalled, “He came through here at night with [Judge] Israel Augustine, Dr. Mitchell, those kinda people. He was a man that didn’t sit down like I’d feed the freedom riders, we’d sit down, and we’d talk. He wasn’t like that he was always on the move.”

New Orleans was a safe harbor for the modern Civil Rights Movement, but New Orleans and Louisiana’s civil rights movement started before the Civil War and Reconstruction.

As we celebrate the life, non-violence philosophy, and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we will remember and commemorate the brave New Orleanians who stood with him, including New Orleanian and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Jackson Young Jr., who became the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1964.

Next Week: New Orleans Celebrates MLK Jr. the Big Easy Way – Part II.

This article originally published in the January 13, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.