Walter McCall – Oral History Project – Martin Luther
King, Jr. Memorial Center
Interviewed by Herbert Holmes
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P15021315050.pdf
[BK Notes: In this interview McCall refers to MLK as "Mike" and indeed he was born Michael, not Martin]
[BK Notes: In this interview McCall refers to MLK as "Mike" and indeed he was born Michael, not Martin]
McCall: My
name is Walter R. McCall. I was born in Conway, South Carolina on August 23,
1923. I was taken to Marion, South Carolina as an infant; there I grew up
around Marion….
In seminary we played pool sometimes until three o’clock
in the morning.
Holmes: Have you participated in civil rights
activities?
McCall: The first civil rights struggle that King
had ever been in was with me. It was in Maple Shade, New Jersey, in 1950 I
think. We went into a restaurant one night and to my amazement it was a
discriminating type of place and the man refused to serve us.
The man shoved a 45 in my face while King and our guests
were seated at the table. As a result of what took place, I brought a suit
against the man. King and I served as our own defense. It was the first time
that we had ever been in any kind of civil rights struggle.
The Attorney General for that section of New Jersey,
Johnson, was a dear friend of mine. He provided counsel for us and we won our
case in the preliminaries. Then it was taken to the Grand Jury. We couldn’t be
our plaintiff and defendant at the same time. It just happened that the young
white boys who were there and were to testify had brought pressure against them
and they couldn’t appear. As a result, we just dropped the thing. I am sure
that Ernie, who ran the place, was very happy as well.....
1 comment:
Hello my name is Van White. I am a civil rights attorney in Rochester New York. My law office also houses the Center for the study of civil and human rights laws. A former professor at Crozier who was given the pool table that Martin Luther king used to play on, recently donated the pool table to the Center. I am creating an exhibit around that pool table that will largely focus on King’s life while at Crozer and I was hoping to secure the audio version of this interview. Would you know or does anybody know how I might come in possession of the audio version of this interview. I can be reached at 585-305-2858 or van.white@thelegalbrief.com. Thank you.
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