A Look Back • Rev. Martin Luther King appeals for end to racism, starting in church pews : Stltoday

A Look Back • Rev. Martin Luther King appeals for end to racism, starting in church pews : Stltoday

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ST. LOUIS • The National Council of Churches gathered in Kiel Auditorium on Dec. 1, 1957, two months after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first man-made satellite. Speakers urged jittery Americans to calm down.

“Outward programs of security and defense must be matched with inward signs of justice and charity,” counseled the Rev. Frederick Nolde, a leader of the World Council of Churches.

That sentiment led the assembly of 2,000 Protestant ministers and lay leaders to the thornier social issue of race relations. Among the speakers during its six-day national convention was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 28 years old and suddenly prominent as leader of the lengthy boycott that integrated public buses in Montgomery, Ala., in 1956.