Manchester President A.
Blair Helman (right) escorts
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to
lunch at the Union during
the civil rights leader’s visit
on Feb. 1, 1968. Photo on
pages 8 and 9 courtesy of
Ed Breen.
P
atty Helman ’74 Magaro still has the church
bulletin.
Her dad’s notes are scrawled in every space
and margin. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
wasn’t even the scheduled speaker that day in 1960
at Harvard Memorial Church. But when Manchester
President Blair Helman and his wife, Pat, heard the brilliant
young preacher who was rising to national prominence,
they were moved by his message.
“You have no idea,” they told Patty when they got home,
“how this man is going to impact the world.”
They would learn soon.
10 |
The Helmans met Dr. King that day and invited him to
speak at Manchester, where there was a natural tie.
Jean Childs ’54 Young, married to King aide Andrew
Young, was a graduate, and she and her sisters and King’s
wife, Coretta Scott King, all were from Marion, Ala.
King was interested in Manchester, and several years later
they set a date for his visit – May 11, 1967.
But not everyone was pleased. President Helman received
letters from area residents and a few angry alumni who
weren’t onboard with integration, equal rights and King’s
denouncement of the Vietnam War. They didn’t want
King anywhere near Manchester.