ORIGINAL 1960 PROGRAM CELEBRATING THE FIFTH ANNIVERSITY OF THE MONTGOMERY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION, SIGNED BY JACKIE ROBINSON FOR THE DAUGHTER OF TWO CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

(ROBINSON, Jackie) MONTGOMERY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION. Program signed ["Fifth Anniversary and the Annual Institute on Non-Violence. December 5-10, 1960"]. Montgomery, Alabama: Montgomery Improvement Association, 1960. Octavo, staples removed, original cream self-wrappers; pp. 15. $6500.

Original program from the fifth anniversary and annual meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association focusing on "Rededication in the Hour of Crisis," signed on the front wrapper by Jackie Robinson for Sharon Waters, the daughter of Montgomery civil rights activists Alfonso and Lucy Campbell, early organizers involved with the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

This program celebrates the fifth anniversary and Annual Institute on Non-Violence sponsored by the Montgomery Improvement Association in December, 1960. In addition to short introductions by Association President Ralph Abernathy and Executive Secretary Solomon Seay, the program also includes details of events at various involved churches from a Women's Night to a Spiritual Emphasis Night to a special workshops focused on the civil rights struggle. The rear wrapper includes the lyrics to Nancy Burroughs' "The Integration Song." According to the program, Jackie Robinson offered the main address at the Mammoth Mass Meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church. This copy was signed by Jackie Robinson for Sharon Waters, the daughter of civil rights activists Alfonso and Lucy Campbell, who were instrumental in the Montgomery Bus Boycott as well as friends of Martin Luther King, Jr. Jackie Robinson gave the closing speech for the Montgomery Improvement Association's (M.I.A.) fifth anniversary celebration on the afternoon of December 11, 1960. That Sunday was the last day of a week-long schedule of masses and meetings that were held in Montgomery's Baptist and Methodist churches. Robinson signed this program immediately after finishing his speech. Sharon recalled, "I attended a mass meeting at Rev. Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church and afterwards there were literally hundreds of people trying to get Robinson's autograph. I kept screaming loudly, 'I'm Sharon!, I'm Sharon!' knowing that his 10-year-old daughter was also named Sharon. Anyway, he kept hearing the screaming, looked at me, smiled, and reached over many people to sign my program."

Interior generally quiet nice, a few stray pencil marks to front wrapper, vertical crease to pamphlet, likely from being carried in a pocket. A very nearly fine signed copy with a wonderful association.