Rev. Martin Luter King Jr.’s final speech before his assassination was built around a letter he had received nearly ten years earlier, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Toward the end of his April 3, 1968 “Mountaintop” speech, Dr. King references the letter that is only now being made public. He had been recovering in Harlem Hospital after being stabbed in — an attack that would have killed him had he sneezed, according to his doctor — when he got the letter from a young well-wisher. During his speech, Dr. King explains the letter began: “‘I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School.’ She said, ‘While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl.’” The letter concluded, Dr. King said, “I am so happy you didn’t sneeze.”
For 50 years, historians and researchers have been searching unsuccessfully for the letter King referenced one day before his assassination. But now, in one of the world’s largest archives of Dr. King’s correspondence, The Wall Street Journal unearthed the letter that contains the “sneeze” passage. In the video below, WSJ’s Cameron McWhirter discusses how he found the letter.
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