More than six decades after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. composed his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the young Black woman who helped transform scattered notes on smuggled scraps of paper into one of history’s greatest writings is finally receiving greater recognition.
Willie Pearl Mackey King worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) from 1962 to 1966, serving on King’s executive staff and working directly for the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, his chief of staff. In April 1963, she spent two nights and three days piecing together and typing the fragments that became King’s celebrated defense of nonviolent resistance — arguably the most monumental documents of the Civil Rights Movement.
Now, Maryland educator and scholar Donna Sweeting is helping establish a foundation to preserve Willie King’s legacy, document her civil rights work and create scholarships for young people…