Dec. 3, 1963 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spent 50 minutes at the White House today with President Johnson and said upon leaving: “As a Southerner, I am very happy to know that a fellow Southerner is in the White House who is concerned about civil rights.” Dr. King said he was convinced that Mr. Johnson would “stand up in a very forthright manner” to secure equal rights for Negroes in every field. The two men discussed pending civil rights legislation in Congress, the grave unemployment affecting Negroes, and Dr. King’s plans for Negro registration and voter drives and for resumed demonstrations against discrimination. “I made it very clear,” Dr. King said, “that demonstrations are part of our basic thrust and will continue as long as conditions exist that brought them into being. The President said nothing on the issue. He did not encourage or discourage me.” Asserting that the moratorium on demonstrations called by Negro leaders after President Kennedy’s assassination was only temporary, Dr. King said he had told the new Chief Executive such protests would be resumed by the middle of this month in various areas. If a filibuster of the proposed civil rights bill occurs, he said, Negro leaders will not sit idly by but will take direct action — perhaps in the form of another march on Washington or other forms of demonstration, to arouse the conscience of the country. Dr. King also said he will begin a nationwide tour early next year to try to coax more Negroes — and whites as well — to register and vote as “the only way to break this coalition of Dixiecrats and right-wing Northern Republicans in Congress that serves as a legislative incinerator” for civil rights and other social measures. He said he had told Mr. Johnson that his tour would be on a nonpartisan basis.
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