Description:

After violent riots in Newark and Detroit, just a week before his acclaimed "Where Do We Go from Here?" address to the SCLC Convention, Dr. King writes a Board member that "In view of the riots and the overall crisis that our nation faces, SCLC is going to have to assert itself even more ƒ they need to return to their deprived communities and carry on the fight for human dignity"

Typed Letter Signed "Martin," 1 page, 8.5" x 11". Atlanta, August 7, 1967. To Mrs. Marian Bruce Logan. On Southern Christian Leadership Conference stationery listing Martin Luther King, Jr. as President. Mrs. Logan wrote several pencil and ink notations in blank areas around the text. Fine condition.

In full, "Our Board Meeting is approaching and we contemplate a very challenging and urgent session. Your in depth thinking is certainly needed on the total agenda especially the crisis that we face in our cities.

"In view of the riots and the overall crisis that our nation faces, SCLC is going to have to assert itself even more and accelerate present programs to new dimensions. In order to implement this, your moral and financial support is greatly needed."

Instead of the customary Board Member contribution of $50.00, I hope that you will find it possible to make your contribution $100.00 and above. This would greatly relieve the excessive budget of our Convention this year. Of the 1500 delegates that we expect, at least 500 will be coming to the Convention from Black Belt areas of the deep South and we are having to assume the expense of the majority of them. We feel, however, that it is necessary to encourage them to participate in the Convention in order to provide them with the information and inspiration they need to return to their deprived communities and carry on the fight for human dignity."

The SCLC's Annual Convention was held in Atlanta August 14-17, 1967. In his August 16th address, Dr. King said, in part,

"Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amid a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values. We must no longer be ashamed of being black. The job of arousing manhood within a people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy ƒ The futility of violence in the struggle for racial justice has been tragically etched in all the recent Negro riots. Now, yesterday, I tried to analyze the riots and deal with the causes for them. Today I want to give the other side. There is something painfully sad about a riot. One sees screaming youngsters and angry adults fighting hopelessly and aimlessly against impossible odds. And deep down within them, you perceive a desire for self-destruction, a kind of suicidal longing.

"Occasionally, Negroes contend that the 1965 Watts riot and the other riots in various cities represented effective civil rights action. But those who express this view always end up with stumbling words when asked what concrete gains have been won as a result. At best, the riots have produced a little additional anti-poverty money allotted by frightened government officials and a few water sprinklers to cool the children of the ghettos. It is something like improving the food in the prison while the people remain securely incarcerated behind bars. Nowhere have the riots won any concrete improvement such as have the organized protest demonstrations ƒ"

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