The Seminarian

by Patrick Parr

  Samuel Crozer’s position meant that he would also have shaken Martin Luther King Jr.’s hand when he graduated from the seminary in May 1951—no longer a timid, young man, but a confident leader of a class of seminarians, on a path toward righteousness.

  Dr. James Beshai, or “Jimmy from Egypt,” standing next to the Old Main sign inside the Crozer-Keystone Medical Center, sixty-five years after graduating from Crozer Theological Seminary. Photo by the author

  Acknowledgments

  THE JOURNEY OF THIS BOOK started on the third floor of the Bellevue Public Library in Bellevue, Washington, in December 2012. I’d been working on a project about the lives of historical figures in their early twenties. I’d selected forty people, and when I started researching Martin Luther King Jr., I was surprised to find that even though there had been hundreds of books about Dr. King’s life, not one focused primarily on his young adult life prior to the Montgomery bus boycott. Realizing I didn’t have enough information to complete an in-depth portrait, I started digging into the endnotes of books such as Bearing the Cross and Parting the Waters. I checked archive centers and started to search for people still with us who knew King as a young man. After a year or so, I became hooked, and started to feel a sense of responsibility to provide a reliable picture of King before the bus boycott made him famous.

  A massive thank-you to Yuval Taylor and Devon Freeny at Lawrence Hill Books / Chicago Review Press, who believed in this book and weren’t afraid to take it on. Their feedback, patience, and considerate nature has made this a far better book than at first submission.

  Dr. James “Jimmy” Beshai was not startled in the least when I called him in May 2015. His memory, at ninety, inspires me to no end, and his insights and recollections helped me to understand the culture of Crozer during ML’s time there. The trip Dr. Beshai and I took to Old Main in Chester was revelatory as well. What’s more, Jimmy is an incredibly intelligent and gracious human being.

  Another big thank-you to Betty Moitz, who through our various forms of correspondence and interview gave me a clear understanding of her relationship with King. We wouldn’t have been able to meet had it not been for the miraculous help of Erin Fletcher and Rev. Brewster Hastings.

  I’d also like to thank Rev. Samuel McKinney, who allowed me to come to his home in December 2014 and talk about King’s life at Morehouse and how he changed at Crozer.

  Deacon Myrtha Allen of Providence Baptist Church was an immense help when it came to restoring the Crozer graduation photo—possibly the only one still in existence. In addition, it was a pleasure talking with Rev. Marcus Garvey Wood over the phone.

  Other people I had the good fortune of talking with—Joe Thomasberger, Esther Smith, Jack Bullard, June Dobbs Butts, Dorothy Tasker (wife of Crozer seminarian Bill Tasker), Charles V. Willie, and Horace Whitaker Jr.—all helped to bring the world of Crozer back to life.

  If you look through the endnotes, you’ll see immediately the amount I owe to past historians. Taylor Branch’s interview notes held at UNC–Chapel Hill were helpful in fleshing out many of King’s former classmates. David Garrow’s audio interviews were vital to my writing process, because the moment I began hearing the former classmates of King was when I decided to commit fully to the “Crozer project.” For Garrow’s kind and generous spirit, I cannot thank him enough.

  I’m also grateful for the financial support of Artist Trust, a Washington State–based nonprofit arts organization that very generously awarded me a fellowship in May 2014, which I promptly used for travel expenses around the Chester/Philadelphia area. Their support was crucial in allowing me to pursue the Crozer research that is now in this book. Bottom line: Artist Trust saved the project.

  Researcher and civil rights activist Patrick Duff was an incredible help with the “Summer of 1950” interlude. He has done great work regarding the home at 753 Walnut Street. Also, I want to thank Zilan Taymour, for her help in providing access to hard copies of the Crozer catalogs.

  Thanks to my wonderful, stupendously intelligent, and hilarious uncle, Rev. Michael Frank, pastor of Brodway Christian Church in Cleveland, Ohio, for forty-one years. Rev. Frank read an early draft of this book and offered page-by-page commentary, making sure I described the classes of a seminarian correctly. His feedback, especially on the class discussions, was extremely helpful.

  Thank you to my mother, for allowing me to borrow the car and drive across Pennsylvania in pursuit of people to interview. And my brother, Sean, for allowing me to crash in Manchester while rummaging through archives at Boston U. And my father, for helping me to dream up projects this large.

  A big thank-you to Kate Stier, for allowing a strange, nomadic writer to tour Old Main in late August 2014, and again in January 2016. Also thanks to Rev. Bayard Taylor of Calvary Baptist Church, for providing me with insight (and lunch!) during my visit to Chester.

  Special thanks to Tenisha Armstrong, David Lai, and Clayborne Carson at the King Papers Project at Stanford University, for helping to track down an interview, information about photographs, and other archival material. In addition, thanks to Sean Noel and Ryan Hendrickson at Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center and Tim Hogdon at the Louis Round Wilson Library at UNC–Chapel Hill for helping me to navigate their archives.

  Colin Ainsworth at the Delaware County Daily Times helped provide clear pictures of King and his professors. Margaret Johnson of the Delaware County Historical Society helped track down photos as well. Thanks to both of you.

  A bowing thank you to the King Center in Atlanta, for providing me with the Walter McCall transcript. In addition, the King Center Digital Archives were extremely helpful when I couldn’t manage, due to either time, finances, or both, to visit the King Center in person. Tim Horning at the University of Pennsylvania Archives was the archivist every writer dreams of working with, and helped with King’s grad-level classes at UPenn.

  Wayne Watson’s wonderful pencil sketches of King provided me with even more inspiration to finish the manuscript. His talents deserve their own book.

  To Allan Harley and Mark Marino, two of the greatest friends anyone could ask for. Thank you for helping me fight back against the yawning darkness.

  During the research and writing of this book, I was a member of the faculty at the University of Washington–Seattle, and also the USC International Academy. Their campus libraries and ILL departments helped with tracking down hard-to-find documents and recordings.

  The following people deserve far more than this paragraph for their friendship and support over these past few years: Jennifer Bardi, Aaron Bidelspach, Nate Brown, Rob Dougherty, Michael Garnett, Hirofumi Goto, Noriyoshi Goto, Bernardo Gonzalez, Kyle Hogan, W. H. Horner, Mary Jo Jennings, John Katunich, Michael Laib, Avi Lidgi, Phil Lynch, Marina Rakhlin, Ben Stubbings, Jessica Warman, Carl Withers, and others dancing in the ether. Thank you.

  Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Yuka, for her never-ending love and support, and our endless conversations. You are my light. Alla belliſſima & leggiadra Madonna.

  Notes

  Foreword by David J. Garrow

  1. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 638n26.

  2. Ibid., 40–41.

  Note to the Reader

  1. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 20.

  Prologue: On a Bus in Georgia

  1. King, interview by Haley.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Title of ML’s speech confirmed by both King, Papers, 1:109; and Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 35. Hiram Kendall’s involvement from “Savannah Girl Is Winner of Elks Oratorical Meet,” Atlanta Daily World, April 22, 1944; Sarah Grace Bradley’s from Reddick, Crusader Without Violence. See also “Contest Winner,” Atlanta Daily World, April 16, 1944, which is the source of the photo reprinted in the text.

  4. “Savannah Girl,” Atlanta Daily World.

  5. The first three chapters of Reddick, Crusader Without Violence, helped with roles of ML’s parents, as did other biographies such as Lewis, King; a
nd Garrow, Bearing the Cross; and early reports from New York Post journalist Ted Poston.

  6. The official timekeeper, whose name was H. H. Dudley, was mentioned in “Savannah Girl,” Atlanta Daily World.

  7. King’s speech was later published in Booker T. Washington High School’s annual publication The Cornellian, May 1944.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Results officially reported in “Savannah Girl,” Atlanta Daily World.

  11. Quotes from King, interview by Haley.

  12. Cannon, “Martin Luther King, Jr.,” 211.

  13. Ibid.

  14. ML’s quote is reprinted in Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 637. It’s originally from Peters, “Our Weapon Is Love,” 72.

  15. Daddy King’s self-description is from King Sr., Daddy King, 9.

  16. ML’s Simsbury letters, five in total, are collected in King, Papers, 1:111–117.

  17. ML’s quote is in ibid. The choir director’s memories were reported in Swift, “King’s Summers in State.”

  18. Pickens quote is from Wood, “Blacks Recall Connecticut Tobacco Farms.” This 1989 Journal Inquirer article was the first in a major newspaper to discuss ML’s experience in Simsbury, while Mike Swift’s 1991 Hartford Courant article, cited previously, was the second. ML’s quote is from King, Papers, 1:117.

  19. King, Papers, 1:112. A handwritten copy of the letter appears in the volume as well.

  20. Swift, “King’s Summers in State.”

  21. This schedule is based on Wood, “Blacks Recall Connecticut Tobacco Farms,” and Swift, “King’s Summers in State,” as well as an excellent documentary, Summers of Freedom: The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Connecticut (January 2011), produced by students at Simsbury High School.

  22. Swift, “King’s Summers in State.”

  23. Ibid.

  24. Farris, Through It All, 38.

  25. King Sr., Daddy King, 128.

  26. “Bitter feeling” is from Ted Poston, “Fighting Pastor: Martin Luther King,” New York Post, April 10, 1957, quoted in King, Papers, 1:117. “Curtain had dropped” is as remembered in Coretta Scott King, My Life, 85.

  27. Ted Poston, “Martin Luther King Jr. Didn’t Want to be a Preacher!,” New York Post, reprinted in Baltimore Afro-American, June 22, 1957.

  28. For information on the murder of Maceo Snipes, see “Maceo Snipes,” Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, August 15, 2014, https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/emorycoldcases/maceo-snipes/. For more on the Moore’s Ford Bridge lynching, see Peter C. Baker, “A Lynching in Georgia,” Guardian, November 2, 2016.

  29. ML’s full “Kick Up Dust” letter can be found in King, Papers, 1:121.

  30. The Simsbury Historical Society verified ML’s return trip to the tobacco farms in 1947, but there are no known letters written by ML during that summer.

  31. “Laziest workers” from Emmett Proctor, notes from taped interview, April 15, 1970, Taylor Branch Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. ML’s prank, called “the hot foot,” in Wood, “Blacks Recall Connecticut Tobacco Farms.”

  32. Wood, “Blacks Recall Connecticut Tobacco Farms.”

  33. Ibid.

  34. ML wrote these words for an article titled “The Purpose of Education” in the Maroon Tiger, Morehouse’s campus newspaper, in January–February 1947. The full text appears in King, Papers, 1:123–124.

  35. Ibid., 125.

  36. Barbour’s 1936 graduation from Crozer was first mentioned in Among Our Colored Citizens, Chester Times, May 21, 1936. According to a short article in the Times on November 13, 1945, Barbour also visited the Morehouse campus to talk with undergraduates during the fall of ML’s second year.

  37. ML’s entire Crozer application can be found in King, Papers, 1:142–145.

  38. King, Stride Toward Freedom, 91.

  Year I: Genesis

  1. Young and Alone: Term 1, September 14–November 24, 1948

  1. King, “Loving Your Enemies” (sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 17, 1957), collected in Papers, 4:318.

  2. ML’s room number was confirmed by the National Register of Historic Places Inventory. Description of the dorm room was taken from Crozer, Annual Catalogue 41, no. 1 (January 1949).

  3. Proctor, The Substance of Things Hoped For, 46–47.

  4. Peters, ‘‘Our Weapon Is Love,’’ 41–42, 72–73.

  5. Student places of origin found in Crozer, Annual Catalogue 41, no. 1 (January 1949).

  6. Enrollment count in ibid. The count includes “unclassified” students (those who had not yet finished their four-year degree) and international students participating in the school’s “Oriental certificate” program.

  7. Wood, notes from interview by Branch.

  8. An excellent description of this “white transformation” can be found in Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home, 43.

  9. Hall’s hometown was confirmed in Crozer, Annual Catalogue 41, no. 1 (January 1949).

  10. Hall’s service as an infantry lieutenant is from Stewart, notes from interview by Branch. “Just couldn’t take a joke” is from Stewart, interview by Garrow.

  11. Stewart, interview by Garrow.

  12. Whitaker, interview by Garrow. The nickname “Whit” appears in letters written between Whitaker and King, a few of which appear in full in King, Papers, 2:86, 100. (Volume 2 of the Papers contains the post-Crozer correspondence between King and Whitaker, Rev. Barbour, and Walter McCall, among others.)

  13. Pyle, interview by Garrow.

  14. “Three flights of stairs” was determined after I visited the Old Main building in late August 2014. Earliest recorded mention of the “catacombs” nickname is in Kenneth Smith, remarks at Martin Luther King Day celebration (Bexley Hall, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, NY, 1979), cassette. Smith also declared the basement “the dungeon.”

  15. The detail of Hall’s furniture being placed outside the building came from Moitz, correspondence with the author, September 2014–February 2016.

  16. ML’s allowance is confirmed in a letter from ML to his mother, Alberta: “So far I have gotten the money (5 dollars) every week.” King, Papers, 1:161.

  17. Many of the details regarding the Hall incident were found in Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home; and Wood, interview by Garrow.

  18. Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home. Hall’s one-year enrollment indicated by his inclusion in Crozer, Annual Catalogue 41, no. 1 (January 1949), and not the subsequent volumes.

  19. All three letters of recommendation can all be found in their entirety in King, Papers, 1:151–155.

  20. ML’s daily class schedule was reconstructed by collating his transcript (available at the King Center Digital Archive, www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/mlks-transcript-crozer-theological-seminary) with the course titles and schedules listed in Crozer, Annual Catalogue 40, no. 1 (January 1948). His GPA was computed using current academic calculation methods (e.g., B = 3.0), weighted by credit hours. For those interested in additional scheduling details, on September 18, 1948, the Chester Times published the following list of the term’s vespers speakers. September 23: Robert L. Schock, Army and Air Force Chaplain in the Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, PA. September 30: Dr. Rittenhouse Neisser, Professor Emeritus, Crozer. October 7: Dr. Maynard L. Cassady, Applied Christianity Professor, Crozer. October 14: Dr. Albert C. Outler, Theology Professor, Yale Seminary. October 21: Dr. Patrick M. Malin, Economics Professor, Swarthmore College. October 28: Dr. James B. Pritchard, Old Testament Professor, Crozer. November 4: Observance of the Isaac Watts Bicentennial (Watts, an English poet and hymn writer, wrote “Joy to the World” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”). November 11: Dr. Herbert Haslam, Religious Administrator, Fellowship House, Philadelphia. November 18: Dr. Morton S. Enslin. New Testament Professor, Crozer.

  21. Backgro
und information from Pritchard’s obituary, New York Times, January 19, 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/us/james-pritchard-87-a-biblical-archeologist.html.

  22. Thomasberger, interview by the author.

  23. Pritchard, notes from interview by Branch, June 25, 1984. Not all of Pritchard’s black students entered Crozer with fundamentalist views; Rev. Samuel D. Proctor, who graduated from Crozer several years before ML, clearly understood what the Crozer faculty was trying to accomplish: “In the hands of the fundamentalists, Christianity had become an embarrassment to Jesus.” Proctor, The Substance of Things Hoped For, 48.

  24. Pritchard, notes from interview by Branch, June 25, 1984.

  25. “O.T.” abbreviation mentioned in, among others, J. Pius Barbour, letter to King, December 21, 1954, in King, Papers, 2:322: “No man in ‘O.T.’ yet.” Daddy King’s Make it plain dictum was mentioned in Coretta Scott King, My Life, 8.