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MLK’s Philly

This image is included in an article that highlights Martin Luther King Jr.'s connection to Philadelphia

Header photo shows MLK at Girard College. | Photo courtesy Temple University Archives

Anyone who knows anything about Martin Luther King Jr.— whose birthday we celebrate on January 17 — knows that at the heart of his social activism was the idea of nonviolence, which he described as a “powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”

But how many know that Dr. King first encountered the ahimsa ideals of Mahatma Gandhi here in the City of Brotherly Love?

As he wrote in his autobiography, Stride Toward Freedom, King in 1949 was a young student at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester — that’s right, he went to seminary school here, too! — and had all but given up on the idea of love as a means to solve social problems.

Then he attended a sermon by Dr. Mordecai Johnson, then Howard University’s president, at First Unitarian Church, sponsored by the Fellowship House. Johnson had visited India, and met Gandhi, and as he spoke about the man’s principles, King was moved. He bought Gandhi’s books — and a nonviolent Civil Rights Movement was born in America.

That was only the start of King’s connection to Philadelphia. “Philadelphia has always been one of the most significant cities for African Americans, starting with having the highest number of free Blacks,” says Diane D. Turner, director of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University Libraries. “Pennsylvania also has the two oldest historically Black colleges — Cheyney and Lincoln universities. Martin Luther King would have had connections to those as well.”

While in seminary school, King met and eventually became close to Rev. William H. Gray, III, who would go on to become the highest-ranking African American in Congress during the 12 years he represented Philadelphia in the House of Representatives. The two men preached side by side at Gray’s Bright Hope Baptist Church several times over the years.

Dr. King with Philadelphia civil rights leader Cecil B. Moore

And in 1965, as Tigre Hill chronicled in Broad + Liberty in 2020, King brought his movement to Philadelphia, to support another legendary Philadelphia Civil Rights leader, Cecil B. Moore, protesting the segregation of Girard College. At first, as Hill writes, Moore was not pleased by King’s involvement: “Moore heard about King’s impending visit from a local reporter and he was visibly upset. He saw it as an attempt for King to grab headlines and take credit for all of the work Moore had done.”

Other local ministers and activists convinced Moore to meet with King, and the two formed a connection shortly before King took the stage to praise his Philly counterpart.

“It is a sad experience at this stage of the 20th century to have to stand in the city that has been known as the cradle of liberty, that has in its midst and in its presence a kind of Berlin Wall to keep the colored children of God out,” King said. “This school is symbolic of a tragic evil in our nation. We should all thank this man, Cecil B. Moore, who as a soldier of justice and a warrior of equality is leading the effort to remove this cancer from our country.”

Several years ago, Turner worked with Philly school teachers on a project to retool conversations about Civil Rights. In particular, she dove into our city’s relationship to Martin Luther King, which spanned the last 20 years of his life. As she notes on a timeline at ushistory.org, “The Philadelphia region was an important place in MLK’s formative years from the age of 19 and also where he built important alliances and conducted civil rights activities.”

Here, some of the highlights of Dr. King’s connection to Philly

(Turner’s timeline has been edited and updated)

 

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