King Press Conference Announcement and Press Release Searchable Text

[Manuscript note at top of page: Send to R. P. Warren]

PRESS CONFERENCE FOR MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

     MARTIN LUTHER KING will hold a press conference at
11 a.m. on Monday, June 8, at the Overseas Press Club,
54 West 40th Street, 3rd floor.
    He will outline his plan to submit to the federal
government a proposal for a Bill of Rights for the
Disadvantaged.
    He will make a statement about the impact of the
counter-revolution as symbolized by Governor Wallace
of Alabama.
    He will amplify the views on non-violence expressed
in his new book, WHY WE CAN’T WAIT, to be published that
day and he will answer questions from the press.
    The press conference will be sponsored by his
publishers, Harper & Row and New American Library.
Photographers are welcome.
                    Stuart Harris, Publicity Director, Harper & Row,
                                                                    MU_3_1900
                    Miss Jay Tower, Publicity Director, New
                                           American Library, MU_8_3470

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May 28, 1964                                                          For Immediate Release

     A new book by Martin Luther King, titled "Why We Can't Wait,"
will be published by Harper & Row on June 8.
    The book will also be published in a Signet paperbound edition
on July 9.
     In it, Dr. King, who has been called the symbol of moderation
in the struggle for Negro equality, states why the Negro must have
his rights now.
     Drawing back the curtain on last summer's battle in Birmingham,
he describes in detail the strategy behind the demonstrations.
He regards this campaign as the toughest test of his entire
leadership career.
     The book includes, published for the first time in full, Dr.
King's letter from the Birmingham jail to the clergymen who had
called his actions "unwise and untimely."
     Dr. King sees non-violence as means of self-assertion contrary
to established American thinking.  "We are a nation that
worships the frontier tradition," he says, "and our heroes are 
those who champion justice through violent retaliation against
injustice."
     He analyzes the causes behind the events of the 1963 Negro
Revolution which drew world attention.
     In his book, Dr. King condemns the "step-at-a-time" theory,
holding it responsible for the creeping pace of integration since
the Emancipation Bill a hundred years ago.  The practice of tokenism,
he states, merely obscures the persisting reality of segregation
and discrimination.

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Page 2 of 2.                                                       For Immediate Release

     In a blunt evaluation of the various factions in the Civil
Rights fight, he criticizes the Church's attitude.  He also views
the role played by Black Muslims and the major personalities
in the Civil Rights struggle, from President Johnson to "Bull"
Connor.  The final chapter sets forth the political implication of
the Civil Rights battle on the forthcoming elections.

                                                         # # # # # # # #

Contact:     Stuart Harris, Publicity Director, Harper & Row,
                                                                              MU_3_1900
                     Miss Jay Tower, Publicity Director, New American
                                                                Library _ MU_8_3470