Martin Luther King, Jr. Signed Copy of “Stride Toward Freedom,” Inscribed to A. Philip Randolph — with Randolph’s Extensive Notes
Asa Philip Randolph was a pioneer crusader for African American rights. In 1925, he founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (the Pullman Porters). In 1941, he and other leaders proposed a march on the capitol to protest discrimination but canceled it when President Roosevelt issued an executive order forbidding discrimination in war industries. In 1963, he was one of the Big Six organizers of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Full-page inscription by King: “To my dear friend A. Philip Randolph. / In appreciation of the standards of loyalty, honesty, non-violence and the will to endure that you have held before all people in the struggle for freedom, justice, and democracy, / Martin”
Randolph has marked or annotated 69 of the book’s 224 pages. On some, he simply underlined passages that struck him as particularly relevant or powerful. Dozens of other pages are filled with his extensive notes, often copying, echoing, or amplifying King’s sentiments. Examples include:
“Negro worker has a right to expect the trade unions to help him secure economic and political rights”
“Prediction of violence is an invitation to action,” penned to the side of King discussing the effects that leaders’ statements have had on unfolding events. (p. 137)
“Non-violence is a way of humility and self-restraint”
“Inflammatory statements of white Southern leaders make for violence” (p. 192)
“Future of USA bound up with how this problem of race is handled and solved” (p. 197)
“A first class nation cannot afford second class citizenship” (p. 197)
“Morals cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated” (p. 198)
“Poor whites suffer poverty while clinging to the myth of racial superiority” (p. 204)
While MLK believed that the end goal must be “redemption and reconciliation,” Randolph declared that ultimately, the “Negro must fight and suffer for his rights.”
While signing copies of this book in Harlem on September 20, 1958, King was attacked by a mentally ill woman who stabbed him with a 7-inch steel letter opener. According to doctors who operated on the 29-year-old civil rights leader, “Had Dr. King sneezed or coughed, the weapon would have penetrated the aorta.... He was just a sneeze away from death.” Randolph chaired a fundraising drive to cover expenses relating to the attack and King’s recovery.
MLK excerpts
“The mere fact that we live in the United States means that we are caught in a network of inescapable mutuality....”
“Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social condi- tions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion.”
“Morals cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin.... it is an immoral act to compel a man to accept injustice until another man’s heart is set straight.”
Examples of passages underlined by Randolph
Rosa Parks “was not ‘planted’ there by the NAACP, or any other organization; she was planted there by her personal sense of dignity and self-respect. She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn....” (p. 44)
“But the forces of good will failed to come through. The Office of the President was appallingly silent, though just an occa- sional word from this powerful source, counseling the nation on the moral aspects of integration and the need for comply- ing with the law, might have saved the South from much of its present confusion and terror.” Randolph adds annotation, “lack of Presidential leadership in the racial crisis.” (p. 195)
“As a result of the failure of the moral forces of the nation to mobilize behind school integration, the forces of defeat were given the chance to organize and crystallize their opposition. While the good people stood silently and complacently by, the misguided people acted.” Randolph adds annotation, “Failure of moral forces of the nation to mobilize back of the court decision for desegregation.” (p. 196)
“Government action is not the whole answer to the present crisis, but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated.” Randolph repeats the second sentence in the margin. (p. 198)
★ Martin Luther King, Jr., Signed Book, “Stride Toward Freedom,” New York: Harper and Row, 1958. Inscribed to A. Philip Randolph, who added underlining and/or notes on more than 60pp. First edition. 224pp. #27430