Accountable for Doing Good: Willie Pearl Mackey King to Receive a Women Making History Award

By Sonia Myrick The History

Racial tensions were at an all-time high across the country in the 1960s as Black Americans made known their intolerance for the second-class citizenship and resulting discrimination of segregation. The intensity of that tension was evident in Birmingham, Alabama, known at the time as the most segregated city in America. Several bombings and numerous cross burnings had taken place there over more than a dozen years, also earning the city the unflattering nickname “Bombingham.” It was here that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Counsel (SCLC) chose to launch their Project C (for confrontation) campaign in April of 1963. Through peaceful demonstrations, such as sit-ins at lunch counters, marches and boycotts, Dr King and the SCLC, wanted to, as he stated, “create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.”

After a month and seeing no tangible results from these actions, Dr King and his supporters decided to defy a recently passed city ordinance that prohibited public gatherings without an official permit Dr King knew that doing so would get him arrested, but he saw it as a way to draw attention to what was happening to Black Americans. He had even requested beforehand that he not immediately be bailed out by supporters. Following his arrest, he was thrown into solitary confinement and initially denied access to his wife and lawyers. Someone (likely King’s lawyer Clarence Jones) was able to smuggle him a copy of the April 12 Birmingham newspaper that contained a very critical letter from several local Christian and Jewish clergy decrying the confrontational tactics of Dr. King and his supporters.

Their letter would be the catalyst for what became known as King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” — a seminal document of the Civil Rights Movement — written on pieces of paper, provided to King and smuggled out of his jail cell by his lawyer Clarence Jones. Those notes were given to Wyatt Tee Walker, Executive Director of the SCLC, who worked with his personal secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey, over the course of about three days (during which they got very little sleep) to piece together and type up Dr. King’s words.

The Honoree

Fast forward some 60 years, and Willie Pearl Mackey, now Willie Pearl Mackey King, is being honored for her part in helping to puzzle out and record this important document. On March 31, the National Women’s History Museum, during its “Women Making History Awards” gala, will present this award to Mrs. King for her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. On June 5, 2021, Mrs. King’s life story was recorded as part of the Women’s History Museum’s “In Their Words: Oral Histories” project. In that interview, along with recounting about her experience in the spring of 1963 in Birmingham, she shared a guiding principle for her life which she credits to her maternal grandmother, “the epitome of a good person,” and her father’s uncle, Enos Mackey, whose message was that we all should be accountable for doing good.

Mrs. King has been an integral part of the DCBC since around 1980 during the tenure of Rev. Dr. James A. Langley, who served as Executive Director from 1970 through 1991. She served on the organization’s Personnel Committee, three times on the Executive Director Minister Search Team, and on a team that worked to sell DCBC’S parking lot. She also worked with Margaret Smith and Cheryl Jones on campus ministry projects and directly with Dr. Langley speaking to interfaith groups.

DCBC recently connected with Mrs. King, and she briefly shared some of her thoughts about that pivotal time:

DCBC: What were your thoughts when you were asked to type up what became Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”?

Mrs. King: When I was asked to type from scraps of paper, toilet paper and newspaper edges, my thoughts were this is impossible. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker and I would never be able to put this together.

DCBC: When/How were you given the transcript of the notes?

Mrs. King: The scraps of paper, toilet paper and newspaper edges were given to me by Rev. Walker and the lawyers, mainly Clarence Jones, who slipped the scraps out of the jail under their suit jackets.

DCBC: What was running through your mind as you typed up the letter? Did you intuitively feel that it would become an important part of the Civil Rights Movement?

Mrs. King: I was wondering when Rev. Walker would say it is impossible for us to make sense of these scraps. He just said this letter is very important to Dr. King, and we have to get it finished. Rev. Walker worked very closely with me figuring out the order of what Dr. King wrote. By the time I received the papers, there was no order to them. It was a jigsaw puzzle. It was a great response to the Ministers, but there was nothing to indicate that the document that I was typing would become an important part of the Civil Rights Movement.

DCBC: Were you privy to the discussion about what to do with the letter once you finished typing it up?

Mrs. King: It was my responsibility to find addresses for the Ministers [who had been critical of King’s tactics] and mail the letters. I had to make copies of the letter on a mimeograph machine and type a press release. Dr. Walker mentioned to me that the letter was not getting very much response. After “Bull” Conner used the fire hoses and dogs on the demonstrators we received lots of request for the “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”

DCBC: There is a timelessness to Dr. King’s letter. How would you say it speaks to our country today?

Mrs. King: Dr. King’s letter speaks about ‘love. equality and justice.’ Today these words have lost their meaning. I think he would be saddened by how little progress we have made. We have moved backwards in many areas. There is still too much brutality and violence in the African American community. Illegal drugs and guns are still being dumped into the Black community. People are still encouraged to accept welfare as a way of life rather than being trained for a job. Unarmed black men are still being murdered by law enforcement at an alarming rate and voting rights are being suppressed. I still believe that there will not be any peace and no justice until there is peace and justice for all. The time is now. We can’t wait.