On April 9, 1968, a telegram from the National Urban League was sent to affiliate Urban Leagues across the country calling for a meeting in Washington, D.C., to discuss their plans, going forward, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4.
This telegram is a rare artifact in Kent State University Library's Special Collections and Archives. It was sent to the Urban League of Warren, Ohio, and uncovered by Elizabeth Smith-Pryor, Ph.D., an associate professor and undergraduate coordinator in the Department of History, as part of her research.
Smith-Pryor explained that the National Urban League needed to get the information out fast. "But how do you get the information to people that fast? Online? No,” Smith Pryor said. “You know, today fax machines are considered old-fashioned, but there wasn’t even a fax machine in 1968. So, you sent telegrams.”
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