Martin Luther King Jr Signed Letter to Sammy Davis Jr on Personal Stationery

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Martin Luther King Jr Signed Letter to Sammy Davis Jr on Personal Stationery:
$18000.00

Gazin sales

Martin Luther King, Jr. Thanks Sammy Davis, Jr., for Organizing a Carnegie Hall Benefit Concert with the Rat Pack

\"Art can move and alter people in subtle ways because, like love, it speaks through and to the heart.\"

King references his own \"sojourn in jail\" and trip to Nigeria for failing to write sooner, but he is grateful to Davis for his support. King heard the new play \"Kicks and Co.\" read at the home of one of its producers and declared that it \"so perceptively mirrors the conflict of soul, the moral choices that confront our people, both Negro and white, in these fateful times.\" Regrettably, the play failed to garner enough support and never opened on Broadway.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr. Typed Letter Signed, to Sammy Davis, Jr. Atlanta, Ga., December 20, 1960. 2 pp., 7 x 10 1/4 in. On King\'s personal stationery from the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Framed to 21 x 27 in with a photograph of King and Davis.

Transcript

\"Dear Sammy: I have been meaning to write you for quite some time. A sojourn in jail and a trip to Nigeria among other tasks have kept be [sic] behind.

When I solicited your help for our struggle almost two months ago, I did not expect so creative and fulsome a response. All of us are inspired by your wonderful support and the Committee is busily engaged in the preparations for January 27th. I hope I can convey our appreciation to you with the warmth which we feel it.

In the midst of one of my usual crowded sojourns in New York, I had the opportunity to hear the play, \'Kicks and Co. \' by Oscar Brown at the invitation of the Nemiroffs, at whose home I have previously been a guest. I learned of your interest in it and I am deeply pleased. To my knowledge, rarely has there come upon the American scene a work which so perceptively mirrors the conflict of soul, the moral choices that confront our people, both Negro and white, in these fateful times. And yet a work which is at the same time, so light of touch, entertaining--and thereby all the more persuasive.

Art can move and alter people in subtle ways because, like love, it speaks through and to the heart. This young man\'s work will, in its own special way, affect the conscience of vast numbers with the moral force and vigor of our young people. And coming as it does from a source so eminently influential as yourself it will be both an inspiration and a sustenance to us all. In that context, let me share with you again my appreciation for the motives and the wisdom that have led you to it.\"

Background

In this letter to Sammy Davis, Jr., Martin Luther King, Jr. details some of the things that had been occupying his time before thanking Davis for organizing a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. Just three weeks after King wrote to Davis, the details of the benefit must have been settled, as the New York Times reported that \"a benefit show honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

Southern Negro leader, will be held on Jan. 27 at Carnegie Hall, it was announced yesterday. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop will be among the performers. The proceeds will aid the Southern Leadership Conference in its fight for desegregation\" (January 6, 1961).

Just a week after the Carnegie Hall concert, the Times reported on February 3 of the forthcoming production of \"a new musical on Broadway next October fashioned entirely by a comparative unknown.\" Playwright Oscar Brown\'s \"Kicks and Co.\" would be a musical with a 45-person interracial cast. Described by its producers as an \"alternately sardonic and comic commentary on the American scene\" revolving around racial discrimination. The show was set on a Southern African American college campus in the early days of desegregation. Character Mr. Kicks was an agent of Satan sent to derail the efforts of protagonist Ernest Black, who was working toward racial integration. Not only attracted to its subject matter, King could also philosophize on the value of art as an inspiration to the human spirit.

The show began its pre-Broadway tour in Chicago on October 11, 1961, but closed abruptly on October 15. Four days later, the show was performed at Broadway\'s Imperial Theatre before an audience of potential backers. Unfortunately, the show failed to garner financial support and never opened on Broadway despite the star power of its director, \"A Raisin in the Sun\" author Lorraine Hansberry. King also mentions her husband, Robert Barron Nemiroff, who was co-producer.

Regarding his time in jail, on October 25, 1960, King was ordered to serve four months in prison as a result of his participation in an Atlanta sit-in demonstration. A DeKalb County judge ruled that King had violated the terms of an earlier suspended sentence in a traffic case for driving without a Georgia driver\'s license. King was immediately imprisoned in DeKalb County Jail and the next day, he began serving his sentence at a state prison in Reidsville, Georgia.

After two days in jail, King was released on bond after pressure from, among others, Robert F. Kennedy. RFK had called King in jail, and likewise, then- Senator John F. Kennedy, just two weeks before the presidential election, phoned Mrs. King on October 26. The New York Times attributed the presidential candidate\'s protest of King\'s sentence in Georgia as having \"helped Mr. Kennedy significantly among Negroes, especially since Mr. Nixon kept silent. Republican Chairman Morton said he thought the primary reason for Mr. Nixon\'s defeat was that the Vice President failed to hold the Negro votes that went to President Eisenhower\" (November 13, 1960). After appealing the DeKalb County ruling, King was ordered to pay a $25 fine and his sentence was again suspended.

A trip to Nigeria also delayed his response to Davis when, at the invitation of the Nigerian government, Dr. King had attended the inauguration of the newly independent nation\'s first Governor-General, Nnamdi Azikiwe, on November 14, 1960.

Condition

Very fine. The photograph is from Davis\' dressing room at the Majestic Theatre after a performance of \"Golden Boy,\" a role for which Davis was nominated for the 1965 Tony Award for Best Actor in a musical. The photograph is numbered 21/100 in the lower left corner.

This item is from Moments in Time, one of the nation’s leading autograph dealers. Moments in Time is passionate about the collection of pieces of history in the form of rare autographs, signed historical letters, vintage photographs and more. The authenticity of all the material they offer is guaranteed.

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