Looking back now, I was finishing up my first semester as a graduate student at Northern Illinois University. . It was early April, 1968 and the radio program I was listening was interrupted with the announcement that civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, had been shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. That was a painful moment. I had admired that man very much for what he had accomplished for African Americans in the South as well as what he had achieved for America. I became familiar with his peaceful leadership style and his vibrant charisma during early civil rights marches and meetings in Chicago.

After watching the funeral proceedings several days later, I decided to write a very personal letter Coretta Scott King expressing my sympathy and sorrow during her state of bereavement. I mentioned what impact Dr. King had on my life and on my attitudes. I discussed the civil rights movement in Chicago and my hope that the movement maintains the momentum initiated by Dr. King

Four months later, on a sultry day in August, I received a letter from Mrs. King thanking me for my letter. It was not a token or obligatory note but a very personal letter in which she addressed Chicago and the racial problems in that city. She said that she would do everything in her power to keep the civil rights movement on course and continue to utilize Civil Disobedience when called to do so. So on that day in August, months after students used violence to take over buildings at Columbia and several months before the violence of the Democratic convention in Chicago, I received a letter of peace which I shall forever treasure.

Mike Lavin