Sept. 18, 1964 - Pope Paul VI received the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this evening. The papal audience for Dr. King was arranged by the Most Rev. Paul J. Hallanan, Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta.
The American civil rights leader said afterwards: “The Pope made it palpably clear that he is a friend of the Negro people and asked me to tell the American Negroes that he is committed to the cause of civil rights in the United States.”
Quoting the Pontiff as advocating nonviolent methods in the struggle for Negro rights, Dr. King said he was deeply encouraged by his meeting with Pope Paul.
Dr. King, a Baptist minister, said he believed that the U.S. civil rights movement had received “the endorsement of the most influential religious leader in the world and the head of the largest church in Christendom.”
He said he had reported to the Pope that the Negroes in the U.S. were making “significant strides” in their struggle against segregation and discrimination. Dr. King reported that he had told the Pontiff that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was being “implemented all over the South, and that we are surprised at the degree of compliance in Southern communities.”
However, Dr. King said, he had also told the Pope that Negroes in large urban areas in the North were confronted with difficult discrimination problems in housing and other fields, “and in these counties, the Catholic Church is very strong, and a reaffirmation of its position [on civil rights] would mean much.”
With a smile, Dr. King observed: “I think new days have come when a Pope meets a fellow who happens to have the name Martin Luther.”
After the papal audience, the civil rights leader flew to Madrid for a two-day holiday. He is scheduled to visit London before his return to the U.S. Dr. King is accompanied by the Rev. Ralph Abernathy of Atlanta, a close associate.
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