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Martin Luther King and his time in New Orleans [1]

['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News']

Date: 2024-01-15  

Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. Credit: Library of Congress

Today marks the day Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929. His birthday has not fallen on the MLK federal holiday, observed on the third Monday in January, since 2018. This rare occurrence provides an opportunity to recall the civil rights leader’s connection to New Orleans.

While notable events during King’s lifetime (the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., the 1963 March on Washington and his April 3, 1968 “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address in Memphis, Tenn.) happened elsewhere, King’s election as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) took place in New Orleans.

King often could be found at Dooky Chase Restaurant, where he broke bread and talked strategy with local leaders: the Rev. Abraham Lincoln Davis Jr., the Rev. Avery Alexander and A.P. Tureaud. Black New Orleanians were encouraged by King’s visits, according to the 1987 desegregation documentary, “A House Divided,” co-produced by the Xavier University of Louisiana Drexel Center for Extended Learning and WVUE-TV (The Xavier Library’s Digital Archives and Collections).

On Feb. 1, 1957, King spoke during a rally at the New Orleans Coliseum Arena. More than 2,000 people came out in bad weather to hear him. King also spoke at Dillard University’s Lawless Memorial Chapel, Union Bethel AME Church and the International Longshoremen’s Association, according to the SCLC New Orleans website.

Valentine’s Day 1957 marked the formalization of SCLC. The original group of 60 leaders, called the Southern Negroes Leaders Conference, met in Atlanta in January 1957 to discuss forming a regional organization to fight segregated transportation and changed its name to the Southern Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration. At the Feb. 14 New Orleans meeting in New Zion Baptist Church, King became president. That organization was called the Southern Leadership Conference before adopting its current name.

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