Messages Following the Stabbing

On 20 September 1958 Izola Cuny, a mentally dtrturbed b h k woman, stabbed King m t h a let& opener as he a p e d copies of Stnde Toward Freedom, at a Harh-dtpa7tment store ’-Followtng the assauk, he recented a-&luge ofmail and -

tekgrams, including thtr correspondence recently acquiwd by the King Papers prolect f i United Nations under-secretary gmeral Ralph J B u n c h and avil nghts advot-ate Ruth H Bunch, vice pesidmt Rzchard M Nixon, author John Stanbeck, and tntcriainer H a n y Bela f i te Stembeck states, “You are very valuable to our whok perplexed and anxious spenes Cdt well quickly We need you. for you too are an acadent-one of those fbrtunatc amdents that have p a i t t e d us to survive our stupidities and our b lundang ”

From Ruth H. and Ralph J Bunche

20 September 1958 Kew Gardens, N Y

DR MARTIN LUTHER KING = HARLEM HOSPITAL PATIENT =

WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT YOUR GREAT SPIKITUAL AS WELL AS PHYSICAL

STRENGTH, AND YOUR COURAGE, WILL LEAD YOIJ TO A SPEEDY RECOVERY STOP

PLEASE ACCE.PT OUR DEEP SYMPATHY AND WARMEST GOOD WISHES STOP =

RUTH A N D RALPH BUNCH^?

PWSr CSKC

i For more on Kmg’s stabbing and recovery, see Introduction, in Papers4 34-35 2 Upon his 24 October return to Montgomery, Kmg acknowledged “the vast outpounng of sympa-

thy and affection that came to me literally from everywhere-from Negro and white, from Catholic, Protestant and Jew, from the simple, the uneducated, the [celr~bnlzes] and the great” (Kmg, Statement Upon Return t o Montgomery, 24 October i gj8, in Papers4 5 I 3-5 I 4)

3 Ralph J Bunche, the first Afncan Amencan Nobel Peace PnLe wnner, and hiswfe, Ruth, had been Kmg’s supporters since the Montgomery bus boycott Ralph Bunche contnbuted to a fund used to defray Kmg’s expenses followng his stabbing (see note I , Kmg to A Philip Randolph, 8 November i 958, in Papm 4 527) Ruth Bunche served as a co-chair for the Youth March for Integrated Schools on 25 October i 958, held dunng Kmg’s convalescence (see note 1 to Kmg, Address at Youth March for Inte- grated Schools in M’ashington, D C , Delivered by Coretta Scott Kmg, in Papmq 514)

2 0 Sept

1958

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project