Dec. 17, 1964 - Dr. Martin Luther King, returning from Europe after having received the Nobel Peace Prize, received the full honors of the city today.
“This city has officially welcomed many world‐renowned figures,” Mayor Wagner said at a City Hall ceremony. “I can think of none who has won a more lasting place in the moral epic of America. New York is proud of you, Dr. King.”
Vice President‐elect Hubert Humphrey and Governor Rockefeller joined in welcoming the civil rights leader back to the country.
Addressing a crowd that packed every corner of the City Council Chamber and overflowed into the corridors of City Hall, Dr. King, in a deep voice and measured tones, said:
“I am returning with a deeper conviction that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time — the need for men to end the oppression and violence of racial persecution, destructive poverty, and war without resorting to violence and oppression.
“Yes, our souls have been tried in the cold and bitter Valley Forges of the Deep South, and black and white together, we have met the test. We shall overcome.”
The audience, which included Dr. King’s parents, rose and cheered Dr. King with the kind of roar not often heard in the gilded chamber.
Mayor Wagner gave to Dr. King the Medallion of Honor of the City of New York, the city’s highest award for a visitor, except for the Medal of Honor, which only heads of state can receive.
Dr. King slipped the medal into the right flap pocket of his dark‐blue suit. In the left inside pocket of his jacket was the check of the Nobel Prize Committee, made out for 273,000 Swedish kroner ($54,600).
At an afternoon press conference, Dr. King said he had been “greatly humbled” by his trip to Oslo, Norway.
“The response to our cause in London, Stockholm, and Paris, as well as in Oslo, was far beyond imagination,” he said. “These great world capitals look upon racism in this nation with horror and revulsion, but also with a certain amount of hope that Americans can solve this problem and point the way to the rest of the world.”
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