Historical Highlight: Letter from Dr. King to W&L
Sponsored by Students for Historical Preservation (SHP)
(Signature from the January 1967 letter from Dr. King to W&L, from W&L Special Collections)
The following highlight features two letters. In the first, Professor Louis Hodges invites Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak at Washington and Lee University in 1967. Hodges acknowledges the controversial 1961 decision by the Board of Trustees to refuse an invitation for Dr. King to speak on campus, and tries to assure him that the campus atmosphere has since changed. More information on this subject can be found here.
[Dated November 3, 1966]
Dr. Martin Luther King
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
41 Exchange Place, S.E.
Atlanta 3, Georgia
Dear Dr. King:
I want to invite you to speak at Washington and Lee during the current academic year. We are aware of your very crowded schedule and thus will leave it largely to you to establish a date if you can visit us.I am enclosing a copy of the basic university calendar indicating times of our vacations and university-wide events. We prefer a time in early spring, say the week beginning April 2.
We would like you to speak on a topic relating Christian faith to racial prejudice, discrimination, black power, or some phase of the racial situation which you may choose.
I have reason to think that you know a bit about Washington and Lee, especially that the Board of Trustees prohibited us from inviting you in 1961. You appeared in Lynchburg shortly after our considerable controversy over the proposed invitation to you and some of my students heard and talked to you there. We have had only a little difficulty getting permission to invite you this time. The initiative has come from interested students, especially in the University Christian Association.
Our student body is drawn most heavily, perhaps, from Virginia and North Carolina, though we have students from all the Southern states and a goodly number from others of a total of 48 states. this year for the first time our student body is desegregated in a token way with the enrollment of two Negro students. We can assure you of a cordial and, for many of us, and enthusiastic reception. We are very anxious to have you here.
We can offer you a stipend of $250 plus expenses. If you would be on campus long enough to visit a class or two we would be most pleased, but our main desire is for a public lecture. We await your reply hopefully.
Sincerely yours,
Louis W. Hodges, Faculty Advisor
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The second letter is Dr. King’s response to Professor Hodge’s offer.
[Dated January 27, 1967]
Mr. Louis W. Hodges
University Christian Association
Student Union Building
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia 24450
Dear Mr. Hodges
First, let me say how deeply grateful I am to you for inviting me to speak at Washington and Lee University. Unfortunately, however, I have [sic] to make some very hard decisions in the last few weeks. One of the firm decisions I have had to make is that of spending much more time working in communities at the grass roots level to grapple with the problem of racial injustice that Negroes still face in this country. I have also found it necessary to conduct more workshops on non-violence throughout the nation. In addition to this, the movement we are conducting in Chicago, and our continual work in voter registration is demanding almost all of my time now. The other few days that I have left open will have to be given to fund-raising meetings in order to meet the budget of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
But for the aforementioned problems, I would be more than happy to serve you. Please know that I deeply regret my inability to accept your gracious invitation. I do hope that my schedule will soon ease up so that I can accept more of the invitations that come across my desk.
Sincerely,
Martin Luther King Jr.