The Ripple Effects of Ministry

Southern Christian Leadership Conference
In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, and other civil
rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The
group was created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black
churches to conduct nonviolent protests in the service of civil rights reform. The group
was inspired by the crusades of evangelist Billy Graham, who befriended King after he
attended a 1957 Graham crusade in New York City. King led the SCLC until his
death. The SCLC's 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedomwas the first time King
addressed a national audience. Other civil rights leaders involved in the SCLC with King
included: James Bevel, Allen Johnson, Curtis W. Harris, Walter E. Fauntroy, C. T.
Vivian, Andrew Young, The Freedom Singers, Charles Evers, Cleveland
Robinson, Randolph Blackwell, Annie Bell Robinson Devine, Charles Kenzie
Steele, Alfred Daniel Williams King, Benjamin Hooks, Aaron Henry and Bayard Rustin.
On September 20, 1958, King was signing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in
Blumstein's department store in Harlem when he narrowly escaped death. Izola Curry—
a mentally ill black woman who thought that King was conspiring against her with
communists—stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. King underwent emergency
surgery with three doctors: Aubre de Lambert Maynard, Emil Naclerio and John W. V.
Cordice; he remained hospitalized for several weeks. Curry was later found mentally
incompetent to stand trial. In 1959, he published a short book called The Measure of A
Man, which contained his sermons "What is Man?" and "The Dimensions of a Complete
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