Dr. King at Mount Level Baptist Church

S-99

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Mount Level Baptist Church on 28 March 1962 during a “People to People” tour of communities in southern Virginia. King and other officials of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference made stops between Hopewell and Lynchburg, addressing crowds and going door-to-door to encourage voter registration and to recruit civil rights workers. The Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, King’s chief of staff and a former pastor of Mount Level, planned the visit to this church, where King spoke to a full house about the importance of voting as a pathway to equality and justice for all. King also made a stop in the Rocky Branch community of Dinwiddie County.

Department of Historic Resources, 2025

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

SCLC Newsletter, vol. 1, no. 6 (April 1962). Norfolk Journal and Guide, 24, 31 March, 7 April 1962. Richmond Afro-American, 7 April 1962. Chicago Defender, 7 April 1962. Louisville Defender, 22 March 1962. Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988). Petersburg Progress-Index, 17 Aug. 1955, 9 Nov. 1958, 28, 29 March 1962. Charlie Lawing, “Wyatt Tee Walker (1929–2018)” Encyclopedia Virginia (2020) https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/walker-wyatt-tee-1929-2018/ Wyatt Tee Walker, “53 Hours with Martin Luther King, Jr.,” typescript, Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970: Part 2, Records of the Executive Director and Treasurer. Wyatt Tee Walker to Ruth Jenkins, 9 March 1962, in Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970: Part 2, Records of the Executive Director and Treasurer.