Martin Luther King rediscovered

By Dee Ann Rexroat
Martin Luther King Jr at Cornell College in 1962, along with a ticket to his lecture found in Cornell's King Chapel 60 years later.
Martin Luther King Jr at Cornell College in 1962, along with a ticket to his lecture found in Cornell’s King Chapel 60 years later.

Maybe a ticket taker dropped a few tickets as he was leaving King Chapel on Oct. 15, 1962. Maybe a custodian later swept them under a floorboard without realizing it. 

Whatever happened, 60 years later contractors exploring damage to King Chapel freed a handful of tickets from under the flooring and behind the east wall.

Those tickets were to see The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on that night in 1962. 

After a social media post, word of the recovered tickets spread to Mount Vernon resident Marj Whitley, age 86, who held a surprising connection to the event.

Verla and Carl Whittemore at the campus cottage where they lived, later the home of the Black Activities Center. Verla sat with Martin Luther King Jr. at breakfast in Brackett House during his campus visit.
Verla and Carl Whittemore at the campus cottage where they lived, later the home of the Black Activities Center. Verla sat with Martin Luther King Jr. at breakfast in Brackett House during his campus visit.

Whitley’s parents lived in the small cottage just behind the library and the heating plant. Her father, Carl Whittemore, was a night watchman. Her mother, Verla Whittemore, was then a 54-year-old housekeeper at Pfeiffer and filled in where needed. On Oct. 15, 1962, she was filling in at Brackett House, the campus guest house where King was staying.

“My mother got his breakfast for a couple of mornings, and he asked her to sit and have breakfast with him because he was so lonesome for his family when he was traveling,” Whitley said. “I have a feeling they talked about his family. Mom didn’t even talk about it for a while. She wasn’t the kind who would’ve thought that was important at the time.

“I wonder what she fed him, but I’ll bet it was either sausage, eggs, and toast; or bacon, eggs, and toast. He would have had a busy day ahead of him. She said he was a very nice gentleman.”

The headshot submitted by Martin Luther King Jr. before his 1962 campus appearance.
The headshot submitted by Martin Luther King Jr. before his 1962 campus appearance.

Five-and-a-half years later, on April 4, 1968, the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The following fall, 30 Cornell students and three others took over Old Sem, the campus administrative building. Among their demands was the establishment of a Black activities center.

The Whittemores moved not long after that, and the cottage where they had lived became the Black Activities Center.

Read the full transcript of King’s speech at Cornell in 1962.