Brother Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Inner Circle

In August 1957, after the successful conclusion of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the favorable Supreme Court decision on November 13, 1956, a group of Black leaders, primarily ministers, met in New Orleans to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to coordinate efforts against racial segregation. The group selected Brother King as president, Brother Rev. Joseph Lowery as chairman of the board of directors, and Brother Rev. T. J. Jemison as secretary. Brother Jemison had led a successful boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1953. During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Brother King consulted with Brother Jemison on the use of private vehicles to transport boycotters. SCLC established its headquarters in Atlanta with a small office and staff. The initial executive director was Ella Baker, an effective field organizer for the NAACP, but she had difficulty managing the ministers not accustomed to taking directions from a woman. She lasted only three years until Brother King persuaded Brother Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, a Civil Rights activist from Petersburg, Virginia, to become SCLC executive director. Brother Walker had led successful demonstrations in Petersburg, especially desegregation of the public library and lunch counters, aided by his assistant, Dorothy Cotton. Brother Walker insisted on bringing Dorothy Cotton with him to Atlanta, where he improved the SCLC administrative and fundraising capacities .

Brother Dr. Bernard Lafayette, a young freedom rider from Nashville, where he attended the Baptist Theological Seminary, interested Brother Andrew Young in moving to Atlanta to work for SCLC. Brother Dr. Lafayette later became SCLC’s program coordinator. Brother. Young together with Dorothy Cotton ran SCLC’s Citizenship Education Program. Numerous organizations, including Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., conducted citizen education programs for basic literacy, rights as U.S. citizens, and preparation for voter registration. It was through its Education for Citizenship Program, established in 1933, that the Fraternity developed its signature program, A Voteless People is a Hopeless People. Alpha chapters worked with ministers, NAACP branches, and the Urban League to register African Americans to Vote.

On Johns Island off the coast of South Carolina, Esau Jenkins, a produce farmer, who with his wife purchased several buses to transport students for education in Charleston and workers for jobs. During travel to Charleston, he instructed the adults about requirements to become registered voters. Septima Clark, a teacher in Charleston, urged Jenkins to attend workshops on adult education and voter rights at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. The Highlander Folk School, established in 1932, was one of the few integrated adult education centers in the South. It focused initially on labor organization and later civil rights. Rosa Parks and Brother King both attended workshops at the Highlander Folk School. Septima Clark became workshop director in 1956 after she was fired from her job as a schoolteacher in Charleston because of her work with the NAACP. She and her cousin, Bernice Robinson, a beautician, started the Citizenship Education Program at Highlander in 1957.

The state of Tennessee in 1961 revoked Highlander’s charter on charges that it did not meet requirements as a non-profit organization and closed the school. The Citizenship Education Program was transferred to SCLC, and Brother King asked Bro. Young, Septima Clark, and Dorothy Cotton to run it. Brother Young became the program administrator, Dorothy Cotton, education director, and Septima Clark, the supervisor of teaching training. The Citizenship Education Program conducted many of its early workshops at the Dorchester Center in Liberty County, Georgia. After Septima Clark retired, Brother Young and Dorothy Cotton ran the program, often in areas prior to demonstrations. They prepared protestors for marches and lunch counter sit-ins, instructing them on how to protect themselves and to respond nonviolently to physical and verbal abuse. After Bro. Young became Executive Director of SCLC in 1964, Dorothy Cotton was in charge of the program.

Brother Young was one of Brother King’s closest members of his inner circle. He assisted Brother King and Southern Christian Leadership Conference administrator, strategist, and negotiator. He frequently traveled with Brother King at home and abroad. The photo below is one example of their travel abroad in 1964 to the European Baptist Federation Congress meeting in the Netherlands.

Clark with questions about their rights as citizens and boldly told Clark that he could turn his back on him, but he could not turn his back on the idea of justice. Sheriff Clark in trying to get the protestors to leave the Courthouse steps lost his cool and punched Brother Vivian in the face sprawling him down the courthouse steps before television cameras. Brother Vivian maintained his composure, brushed himself off, and insisted that they had a right to register to vote. Given that this confrontation and opposition to African Americans registering to vote was caught on television and broadcast throughout the country, many historians called it one of the defining moments in the movement for voting rights.

Another former Freedom Rider, Brother Rev. C.T. Vivian joined the SCLC staff at the invitation of Brother King. He helped to orchestrate demonstrations in Birmingham, St. Augustine, and Selma. Brother Vivian is perhaps best known for his confrontation with Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark on the steps of the County Courthouse to which he had led Black citizens to register to vote. Brother Vivian peppered Sheriff

Sources

While members of the Divine Nine were strong supporters of Brother King, SCLC, and the Civil Rights Movement, Brother King surrounded himself with men who were or became members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Moreover, in a recent interview, Brother Young reminisced that whenever they went into different cities and towns, Alpha Brothers were always there to support them.

Dorothy Cotton. If Your Back Is Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Atria, 2012.

C.T. Vivian. It’s in the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior. Montgomery: New South Books, 2021. See especially, pp. 85-88.

Andrew Young. An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America. Waco, Tx.: Baylor University Press, 4th edition, 2021. See especially, pp. 196-220.

BY BROTHER WILLIE M. HEARD, III, PHD [PI THETA LAMBDA ’02]