Dr. Ralph Abernathy's "My Last Letter to Martin"

Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. (March 11, 1926 -- April 17, 1990), was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following King's assassination, Dr. Abernathy took up the leadership of the S.C.L.C. Poor People's Campaign and led the March on Washington, D.C., that had been planned for May 1968.

On Sunday, April 7, 1968, Dr. Abernathy dedicated a tribute to Dr. King during his Resurrection Sunday sermon at West Hunter Street Baptist Church in a letter that he wrote entitled, "My Last Letter to Martin" part of which read:

"In Heaven I know you have so much to do, so many people to see....but look up at these black friends and talk to the ones you and I have talked about. Say thanks to those prophets we quoted. Find Mahatma K. Gandhi, the one who inspired us so much in our struggle to free black people. But above all, I want you to see Jesus".

The King/Abernathy partnership spearheaded successful nonviolent movements in Montgomery, Albany, Birmingham, Mississippi, Washington, Selma, St. Augustine, Chicago and Memphis. Their work helped to secure the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the abolition of Jim Crow Segregation Laws in the southern United States. \