(CIVIL RIGHTS) Lighting the Way to Freedom Report of Proceed

Sale 2663 - Lot 118

Price Realized: $ 3,500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Lighting the Way to Freedom: Report of Proceedings, Summit Meeting of Negro Leaders. 5 plates. [3]-137 mimeograph pages. Original illustrated paper covers, 13 x 10 inches, spiral-bound; minor dampstaining and wear, paper clip stains, possibly lacking a preliminary leaf (or counting cover as page 1?); numerous manuscript notes, original owner's signature on rear inside cover. Laid in is a folder containing approximately 25 clippings, 6 pages of manuscript notes, and two letters retained by the participant. Washington: National Newspaper Publishers Association, 1958

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A comprehensive report of a major gathering held in Washington. At the opening luncheon, Fred Shuttlesworth delivered the invocation and President Dwight Eisenhower was the keynote speaker. Among the dozens of speakers were A. Philip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, Dorothy Height, Roy Wilkins, and Jackie Robinson. The long list of attendees and their addresses are at rear, including prominent names such as Daisy Bates, Nannie Burroughs, Arthur Shores, and Andrew J. Young. President Eisenhower's speech is transcribed on pages 41-43. It drew a sharp rebuke from none other than Martin Luther King, Jr., whose 29 May response is preserved among Eisenhower's papers: "In the light of your recent plea for continued patience before the summit conference of Negro leaders in Washington DC, we are convinced that a face to face, heart to heart talk is needed to place before you the real and serious plight of democracy in our southland today." Similarly, the White House preserved a 13 May response from Jackie Robinson: "17 million Negroes cannot do as you suggest and wait for the hearts of men to change." The speeches of Randolph (29-34), Wilkins (61-65), and Shuttlesworth (115-117) are also transcribed in this report, among many others.

This is the personal copy of an attendee, Dr. Virginia Lee Simmons Nyabongo (1913-2005), a woman born in Baltimore who married a Ugandan prince, and was then serving as director of student guidance at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University. Laid in is her folder of mostly related clippings, notes, and correspondence, 1958-1959. She considered organizing a similar conference in her home city; her notes include the title "What the Negro wants in Nashville."