"A Great Time to be Alive"

On October 22, 1959, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor, civil rights leader, and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, made his only visit to Fort Worth, Texas, after being invited by Dr. Vada Phillips Felder, a local educator, activist, and friend he had met at a church conference in Nashville. African American community leaders greeted him on his arrival, though he also encountered anger, hate, and bomb threats. He stayed upstairs in Vada Felder’s home on Stewart Street, attended a reception at the Bellaire Drive West home of the Revs. Alberta and Harold Lunger, and that evening spoke before four hundred people at the historic Majestic Theater at 1101 Commerce Street. On that occasion, the theater was integrated as African Americans were allowed for the first time to enter through the front door and sit in the lower seats. Felder, who in 1954 became the first African American to graduate from Brite College of the Bible with a Masters of Religious Education, was a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church for over 50 years, authored Christian Education materials, founded and operated United Christian Leadership School, and taught at Fort Worth’s James Guinn Elementary School and at Bishop College. She said King’s visit gave the community courage and taught that people could stand up and do what was right and do it in peace.

Fort Worth, Texas · United States