Let’s remember when Martin Luther King, Jr made his only visit to Seattle, on this day in 1961 (November 8)
Martin Luther King, Jr., in his lifetime, only made one trip to Seattle. He didn’t need to show up often because Seattle is the least racist place in America. </sarcasm>
According to HistoryLink’s Mary T. Henry:
On November 8, 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), the great civil rights leader, arrives for his only visit to Seattle. He speaks at the University of Washington and at Temple de Hirsch on Thursday, November 9, and at Garfield High School and the Eagles Auditorium on Friday, November 10, 1961. A reception follows at Plymouth Congregational Church.
Reverend Samuel B. McKinney invited him to be part of a lecture series sponsored by the Brotherhood of Mount Zion Baptist Church. McKinney was pastor of the church and a friend and classmate of King at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Arrangements were made for Dr. King to speak at First Presbyterian Church because Mount Zion would not be large enough to handle the numbers expected. First Presbyterian Church canceled the oral agreement to rent the sanctuary to Mount Zion just weeks before King’s scheduled arrival and shortly after advertisements of his lecture were circulated. The reasons ranged from construction work to other commitments but McKinney attributed it to racism. He appealed to First Presbyterian church leaders, but this only produced other excuses such as the use of the sanctuary only for religious meetings and the reluctance to have proceeds go not to Mount Zion’s building fund but to King’s enterprises.
Local organizations and churches denounced the cancellation. The Christian Friends for Racial Equality, Grace Methodist Church, the Baptist Ministers Conference of Seattle and Vicinity, and the Capitol Hill Ministerial Association voiced shock and disapproval. Even the Presbytery of Seattle commended King to its member churches.
Other venues were offered immediately. King arrived the evening of November 8 and checked into the Olympic Hotel. He gave his first lecture at the University of Washington on Thursday, November 9, in the old Meany Hall before 2,000 students. They gave him a standing ovation. That evening he spoke at Temple de Hirsch. On Friday, November 10, he spoke at Garfield High School and that evening at the Eagles Auditorium, now (in the twenty-first century) ACT Theater. A reception followed at Plymouth Congregational Church.
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