A rare survival documenting the relationship between the Civil Rights movement in the United States and the independence leaders in Africa.
Tom Mboya (1930-1969) was a key figure in the foundation of the Kenya African National Union, and one of the founding fathers of modern-day Kenya. The SCLC hosted the Kenyan nationalist leader at the end of his five-week tour of the Unites States.
Martin Luther King opened the evening, and clarified the overlapping agendas: “Our struggle is not an isolated struggle; it is not a detached struggle, but it is a part of 1959 the worldwide revolution for freedom and justice. We are not sitting here detached, as I said, but we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. So we are concerned about what is happening in Africa and what is happening in Asia because we are a part of this whole movement.”
King described Mboya as “a symbol of the longings and aspirations of oppressed people for freedom and human dignity” and concluded “I hope as a result of this meeting we will go out with grim and bold determination to make the ideal of first-class citizenship a reality. And that we will go away with a new concern for Africa and Asia and all of the oppressed peoples over the world as they struggle to realize the dream of brotherhood and man’s love for all men.”
Apparently the party continued afterwards at Lawrence Dunbar Reddick’s home. Reddick was present at the first meeting of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and wrote the first biography of Martin Luther King Jr.
Mboya served as Minister for Justice and Minister for Economic Planning and Development under president Jomo Kenyatta.
King Jr., M.L., “Remarks Delivered at Africa Freedom Dinner at Atlanta University 13 May, 1959.” Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University
