by Patrick Parr
26. Sermon dates are from King, Papers, 6:46. Information on “Propagandizing Christianity” is from a later version delivered in ML’s early days at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (September 12, 1954) and published in King, Papers, 184–185.
Year III: Revelation
7. Forbidden Love: Term 1, September 12–November 22, 1950
1. Proctor, The Substance of Things Hoped For, 71
2. Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home, 46. According to Wood, the men had to wait to take them again “the following spring.”
3. The date of the exams appears in Crozer, Annual Catalogue 43, no. 1 (January 1951): 3. The comprehensive examination guidelines are available at the King Center Digital Archive, www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/crozer-theological-seminary-comprehensive-examinations.
4. “Women’s division” is per Whitaker, notes from interview by Branch.
5. Joel King, notes from interview by Branch. Uncle Joel also said of his older brother’s role as a disciplinarian, “Brother was old school. You got in the house.”
6. Whitaker, notes from interview by Branch.
7. Ibid.; Joel King, notes from interview by Branch.
8. NBC report quoted in Religious News Service, The Week in Religion, Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), September 23, 1950. The number of attendees and the governor’s plea come from “Gov. Duff Urges Equal Opportunity for All,” Lebanon Daily News, September 7, 1950.
9. Comprehensive examination guidelines, King Center Digital Archive, www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/crozer-theological-seminary-comprehensive-examinations.
10. King, Papers, 1:390–391.
11. Bullard, interview by the author.
12. First-year seminarian Charles Harlow, from McMinnville, Oregon, remembered coming off the bus with three suitcases and a large box. Facing an arduous trek up the hill to Crozer’s Old Main, he saw a young man coming through the maple trees who said, “You look like you need a hand. I’m Martin Luther King.” Charles E. Harlow, “My Time with Martin Luther King Jr.,” interview by Clovice Lewis Jr., January 20, 2013, via Carol Cole-Lewis, YouTube, February 1, 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqKyPbCqaj4.
13. Thomasberger, interview by the author.
14. Bullard, interview by the author.
15. Ibid.
16. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 14, 2015.
17. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 7, 2015.
18. Ibid.
19. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 9, 2015.
20. Esther Smith, interview by the author.
21. Moitz, letter correspondence with the author, fall 2014.
22. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 14, 2015.
23. “We dropped our g’s” is from Lawlor and Washington, “Beginnings.” Smith’s first impressions of ML and Mac are in Pennsylvania Remembers Dr. King (video, Commonwealth Media Services, 1991), available online via Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, YouTube, January 19, 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLQiJNBI_6Q.
24. Betty’s quote from Moitz, letter correspondence with the author, fall 2014. Bologna anecdote from Stark, interview by Garrow.
25. Moitz, letter correspondence with the author, fall 2014.
26. Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home, 50.
27. Whitaker, interview by Garrow.
28. From “Paul’s Letter to American Christians” (sermon, June 3, 1958), collected in King, Papers, 6:342–343.
29. Lawlor and Washington, “Beginnings.”
30. Moitz, interview by the author, January 3, 2016.
31. Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home, 50.
32. Whitaker, interview by Garrow.
33. J. Pius Barbour, interview by David L. Lewis, quoted in Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 41.
34. Moitz, letter correspondence with the author, fall 2014.
35. “St. Paul’s Aux Hears Rev. Batten,” Chester Times, April 27, 1954.
36. Numerous articles in the Chester Times between 1948 and 1954 track Dean Batten’s involvement with the local community.
37. 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 42, no. 1 (January 1950). His GPA was computed using current academic calculation methods (e.g., B = 3.0), weighted by credit hours. The Problems of Esthetics course description was created based on ML’s notes in the class (available at the King Center Digital Archive www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/problems-esthetics). For those interested in additional scheduling details, on September 27, 1950, the Chester Times published the following list of the term’s vespers speakers. October 5: Edward C. Starr, Librarian, Crozer. October 12: Rev. Francis Lee Albert, Chaplain, Fourth Naval District. October 19: Rev. Dr. J. Pius Barbour, Editor, National Baptist Voice. October 26: Robert C. Middleton, Pastor, Haddonfield, NJ Baptist Church. The fact that Rev. Barbour was invited to speak suggests that President Blanton may have been taking cues from his senior class, the majority of whom were African American.
38. Beshai, correspondence with the author, January 17, 2016.
39. Bullard, interview by the author.
40. Ibid.
41. The full text of ML’s essay, as well as the original handwritten paper, can be found in King, Papers, 1:359–379.
42. Ibid. On the other hand, one of ML’s teachers at Morehouse, English professor Gladstone Lewis Chandler, believed it was seminary that awakened ML: “I give Crozer a lot of credit for the fruition that he experienced.” Gladstone Lewis Chandler, interview by Donald H. Smith, December 4, 1963, transcribed in Taylor Branch Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
43. King, review of Personality: Its Study and Hygiene by Winifred V. Richmond, collected in Papers, 1:357.
44. King, review of A Functional Approach to Religious Education by Ernest J. Chave, collected in ibid., 356. ML’s work for this class largely absolves Batten of any blame for failing to address ML’s plagiarism habit. Not only is it almost entirely absent of cribbing, but at the end of the Chave review (which didn’t receive a letter grade), Batten at least addresses ML’s insufficient sourcing in a general comment: “For your future use, you should give complete bibliographical details in listing date, author, etc.”
45. “Live wire” is from Thomasberger, interview by the author. Joe Thomasberger entered Crozer one year after ML left. “Very open-minded” is from Beshai, correspondence with the author, January 17, 2016.
46. Raymond J. Bean, “The Influence of William Miller in the History of American Christianity” (PhD dissertation, Boston University, 1949), lii.
47. King, Papers, 1:335.
48. Ibid., 340.
49. Ibid., 340–341.
50. Perhaps the one professor who did the most to advise ML regarding his citations was Walter R. Chivers, ML’s Morehouse College sociology professor. In his comments on a paper of ML’s titled “Ritual,” Chivers emphasizes the need to “document.” This essay can be found in King, Papers, 1:127–141. I’ve used the term “voice merging” out of agreement with Keith Miller’s literary assessment of King in his excellent book Voice of Deliverance: The Language of Martin Luther King Jr. and Its Sources.
51. Details of the Crozer radio project come from Fred Echelmeyer, “FM Radio Station at Crozer Seminary to Be Memorial to Wife of Dr. Nathan Plafker,” Chester Times, February 26, 1949.
52. ML’s class notes were previously available through the King Center Digital Archive, www.thekingcenter.org/archive/. According to King, Papers, 6:626, they are permanently collected in folder 162, King Papers Project Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
53. Echelmeyer, “FM Radio Station at Crozer.”
54. John Stokes Adams Jr., “Esthetic of Music and The Rational Ideal,” in Philosophical Essays in Honor of Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr., edited by F. P. Clarke and M. C. Nahm (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1942), 223.
55. John Stokes Adams Jr., “Contemporary Philosophy and Philosophy of Science,” Philosophy of Science 18, no. 3 (July 1951): 218–222.
56. “Finest amateur pianist” comes from a letter of recommendation written by UPenn Psychology Professor Francis W. Irwin, August 27, 1959. Adams’s “sensitivity” was mentioned not just by Irwin but also University of Texas Professor R. M. Martin in a recommendation letter dated September 27, 1959. Both letters are courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Archives.
57. Fourteen pages of ML’s class notes are available at the King Center Digital Archive, www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/problems-esthetics.
58. Ibid.
59. King, Papers, 1:333, 390, 391.
60. Bullard, interview by the author.
61. “Stress Personal Evangelism at Crozer Conclave,” Chester Times, November 4, 1950.
62. Whitaker, interview by Garrow. Keith Miller’s excellent book Voice of Deliverance was very helpful in understanding just how much influence Daddy King still had on ML, no matter how far north he went.
63. Committee chairmen are listed in Crozer, Annual Catalogue 43, no. 1 (January 1951).
64. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 12, 2015.
65. Smith, “Martin Luther King Jr.: Reflections of a Former Teacher.”
66. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 14, 2015.
67. “Like cats and dogs” is from Whitaker, notes from interview by Branch. Professor Smith himself recalled the “bull sessions” several times, including in Smith, notes from interview by Branch, October 12 and November 3, 1983.
68. Front page stories, Chester Times, November 27, 1950. The damage to the silver maples reported in “Crozer Loses Some Stately Landmarks,” Chester Times, April 17, 1951.
69. McCall, transcript of interview by Holmes.
70. Ibid.
71. The encounter between Kirkland and King was mentioned by Kirkland’s wife in Lydia Kirkland, notes from interview by Branch.
8. The Recommended Plagiarist: Term 2, November 28, 1950–February 13, 1951
1. King, Papers, 1:380–381.
2. Ibid.
3. Whitaker, notes from interview by Branch.
4. Beshai, correspondence with the author, September 10, 2016.
5. King, Papers, 1:390.
6. Andrew Burgess, correspondence with the author via Michael Frank.
7. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 12, 2015.
8. King, Papers, 1:390.
9. Proctor, The Substance of Things Hoped For, 59–60.
10. King, Papers, 1:407.
11. Beshai, correspondence with the author, May 12, 2015.
12. ML’s daily class schedule was reconstructed by collating his class list (King, Papers, 1:48) with the course titles and schedules listed in Crozer, Annual Catalogue 42, no. 1 (January 1950). His GPA was computed using current academic calculation methods (e.g., B = 3.0), weighted by credit hours.
13. King, Papers, 1:392–406. For more information, consult the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Archive, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, which has seventy-six additional pages of class notes related to King’s Philosophy of Religion class, as well as examination answers.
14. “Crozer Installs Dr. Blanton as 5th President,” Chester Times, May 8, 1950.
15. Ibid.
16. “Reaction of War Motivated Crozer Head to Join Ministry,” Chester Times, February 20, 1951.
17. Bullard, interview by the author.
18. Crozer, Annual Catalogue 43, no. 1 (January 1951).
19. Blanton’s emphatic recommendation is in King, 2:164. “As often as you can” is in Sankey Blanton, letter to Martin Luther King Jr., October 3, 1951, available at the King Center Digital Archive, www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/letter-sankey-blanton-mlk.
20. Adelaide Kerr, “Cultured French to Return Home,” Bee (Danville, VA), July 6, 1945.
21. Ibid.; “Dr. Paul Schrecker Feels State Capitol Out of Keeping with Agricultural State,” Lincoln (NE) Evening Journal, August 1, 1944. Schrecker made the Lincoln, Nebraska, news because of his odd critique of the city: “Why must they have a state capitol that would fit into a bazaar civilization rather than into an agricultural one?”
22. Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysical Elements of Justice, part 1 of The Metaphysics of Morals, translated by John Ladd, (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965), 86.
23. Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, edited by Lara Denis, translated by Thomas K. Abbott (Toronto: Broadview, 2005), 87.
24. A typewritten draft of the letter is available at the website of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/letter-birmingham-jail.
25. Ibid.
26. An interesting read on this topic is William P. Deveaux, “Immanuel Kant, Social Justice and Martin Luther King Jr.,” Journal of Religious Thought 37, no. 2 (Fall–Winter 1981).
27. Smith, notes from interview by Branch, October 12, 1983.
28. Ted Poston, “He Never Liked to Fight!,” New York Post, reprinted in Baltimore Afro-American, June 15, 1957.
29. “Eastern Baptist Laces Crozer Seminary Five,” Chester Times, January 12, 1951; see also “Court Victor by 104-41,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 12, 1951.
30. The full names of the Crozer players, in the order of the box score: Jesse H. Brown, Raymond Joseph Dietrich, Benjamin Albert Friend, Reese Arthur Mahoney, Lawrence James Seyler, Billy Clifton Reardon (“Redden” is most likely a misspelling), Martin Luther King Jr., Curtis Leroy Hoffman, Calixto Oliveira Marques (it should be noted that Marques did not have three field goals but three free throws; sorry, Calixto—great name, though), and George Edward Fagons. The full names come from Crozer, Annual Catalogue 43, no. 1 (January 1951).
31. Zion Baptist service mentioned in Sunday Services in South Jersey Churches, Courier-Post, January 13, 1951. (A special thanks to Patrick Duff of Camden, NJ, for discovering the article.) Temple Baptist service mentioned in Helen Hunt Reports, Chester Times, January 27, 1951.
32. “Rev. McCall Says the Younger Generation Needs Discipline,” Chester Times, January 22, 1951.
33. Whitaker, notes from interview by Branch.
34. “Waynesboro Man Hurt on Baltimore Pike,” Staunton News-Leader, February 15, 1951. Nolton Turner ended up graduating from Crozer in May 1952. William Coleman struggled to recover from his severe injuries, and took his own life the morning of January 15, 1952. He was thirty-five years old, with a wife and two sons. “Mr. Coleman to Be Buried Today,” Staunton News-Leader, January 16, 1952.
35. Beshai, correspondence with the author, October 7, 2017.
9. A Divine Cause: Term 3, February 20–May 4, 1951
1. Galja Barish Votaw, “‘Consecrated Intelligence’ Keynote of Crozer Study,” Chester Times, February 22, 1951.
2. Ibid.
3. “Crozer Ministry Conference Draws Pupils from 11 States,” Chester Times, February 24, 1951.
4. Proctor, The Substance of Things Hoped For, 71.
5. Helen Hunt Reports, Chester Times, February 24, 1951, and April 14, 1951.
6. King, Papers 6:113–119.
7. Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home, 89. Many other seminarians must have heard ML’s Amos recitations. Julian O. Grayson, who graduated from Crozer in 1950, wired a seven-word message to King on February 4, 1956, after his home was bombed: “FIGHT ON AMOS GOD IS WITH YOU.” King, Papers, 3:126.
8. Wood, And Grace Will Lead Me Home, 48.
9. Linn Washington, “City of Brotherly Love Profoundly Impacted King,” Philadelphia Tribune, Janu
ary 17, 1997.
10. Lawlor and Washington, “Beginnings.”