Negative Reactions to the Honorary Degree

In contrast to the many expressions of support, there were also numerous negative reactions to Yale’s conferral of an honorary degree on King.

In both of the letters above, one from “a very disturbed parent” (left) and the other from Eleanor G. Brennan of Detroit (right), reference is made to King’s 1957 participation in a leadership training program at the Highlander Folk School, located in Grundy County, Tennessee. The school, whose programs focused on social justice and civil rights, was branded a subversive organization and closed by the State of Tennessee in 1961.

The promotional flyer below, which includes an image of King at the Highlander Folk School, was produced by the Alert Americans Association and enclosed with a letter sent to Yale. The flyer was published in The Augusta Courier (Augusta, Georgia) on July 8, 1963, the year before the awarding of King’s honorary degree by Yale University.

In his July 31, 1964, two-page letter to Brewster (below), John P. Bent, Class of 1930, disagrees with the decision to confer an honorary degree on King, suggesting that doing so “gives the impression of standing firmly behind the idealistic enforcement of integration.” While Bent concludes that there must eventually be integration, he believes that unless the process is gradual it will “lead to further violence throughout the country.” Bent notes that the decision to award the honorary degree “caused a rather violent reaction on the part of a number of Yale alumni in [the Chicago] area."

In his August 17, 1964, response (below), Brewster expresses his distress at Bent’s stance, while conveying his appreciation for the letter from a Yale alumnus. He explains that Yale has not taken a position on civil rights activities in the South because “we do not feel that it is our province to promote or prohibit conscientious private conduct unrelated to the work of the University." While acknowledging his own ambivalence on the matter, especially relating to the “civil disobedience problem,” Brewster asks for Bent’s support of the process of academic freedom underlying the university’s actions.

The envelope below, postmarked from Clemson, South Carolina, makes numerous jabs at Yale in the address. The precise meaning of the printed text in the return address space is unclear, but there are some possible references. It Can’t Happen Here was a 1935 dystopian novel by Sinclair Lewis, written during the rise of fascism in Europe, that relates the rise of a power-hungry fictitious politician in the United States. It Has Happened Here was an account published in 1959 by Virgil T. Blossom, superintendent of the public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, detailing attempts to integrate that city’s racially segregated schools.

The clippings below are examples of a variety of negative newspaper editorials, included in letters to Brewster, relating to Yale’s conferral of an honorary degree on King.