Ballpoint signature, "Best wishes, Martin Luther King,” on an off-white 4.25 x 4.25 sheet of American Airlines stationery marked above: "Detroit Quick Reference Schedule." Matted and framed with a photo to an overall size of 12 x 12 x 18. In fine condition, with two horizontal folds. A desirable association piece between Reverend King and the city of Detroit.
On June 23, 1963, The Walk to Freedom occurred in Detroit, Michigan, and drew crowds of an estimated 125,000 or more, becoming 'the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation's history' up to that date. Among the various ministers and leaders present was Martin Luther King Jr., who, after the march, gave an impassioned speech that served as a precursor to his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech given weeks later in Washington, D.C. The march itself was, to King and his supporters, partly a practice run of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Due to the greater size of the March on Washington, the Detroit Walk to Freedom has been somewhat lost to obscurity outside of local Detroit history. At the time, however, Dr. King called it 'one of the most wonderful things that has happened in America.'
Provenance: from the estate of Senator Carl Levin. A lifelong Democrat, ardent advocate for civil rights, and staple of the United States Senate from 1979 to 2015, Senator Levin was also a longtime client of RR Auction. As a collector, he favored his political heroes—Harry S. Truman, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr.—as well as those figures emblematic of the American spirit, like Robert Frost, Joe Louis, and Helen Keller.
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