By: Neal Slotkin & Anthony Amey

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is widely known for his activism in the South, but he also has ties to a small town in southern New Jersey. 

Two historians, Linn Washington and Patrick Duff, believe they have evidence that King’s life work was fueled by discrimination he faced in Maple Shade, New Jersey.  

Temple University professor and former newspaper writer Linn Washington has spent nearly four decades researching King’s connections to the area. 

“I stumbled upon the story of Martin Luther King in Maple Shade around 1984 and it was as a result of a street corner conversation,” Washington said. 

After graduating from Morehouse College in 1948, King traveled to Chester, Pennsylvania, to attend the Crozer Theological Seminary.

The then-19-year-old spent three years there, graduated with honors and was student body president and valedictorian. 

In June 1950, King, his friend Walter McCall and their dates Pearl Smith and Dorris Wilson visited a tavern called Mary’s Place in Maple Shade. The white bar owner attempted to deny the group service. 

Self-proclaimed political activist Patrick Duff grew up near Maple Shade and stumbled upon the story. Since 2014, he has been preserving the history of King’s connections to the area. 

Duff said that at the bar, the owner went back to his apartment to get his gun, pointed it at King and his friends and asked them to leave. 

Refusing to leave, King and the group performed the first sit-in of King’s life. 

After the owner shot the gun in the air, the group left the bar and went to the police. Charges were filed against the owner and he was arrested. 

This experience left a lasting impression on King. So much so that he mentioned it in a newspaper article ten years later. 

“When somebody asked him what his inspirations were in this newspaper article, his inspirations were Jesus, Gandhi and the incident in Maple Shade,” Duff said. 

Mary’s Place is no longer standing, but the site now has historical recognition thanks to Duff who presented the original police report to local officials. 

Washington and Duff believe the group specifically planned to go to Mary’s Place as it was not listed in the Green Book. Five years earlier, New Jersey became one of the first states to pass Civil Rights legislation and the historians believe King knew this. 

“When they went down there, they went down there with the knowledge that they were not going to be served. So this was an intentional protest,” Duff said. 

Walter McCall’s home, the Camden, New Jersey residence where historians believe the protest was planned, was not given status as a historical site. 

The state department and researchers from Stockton University ruled that it was “of minimal historic importance.” 

Washington and Duff met in 2017 and are working on a book to publish their findings. 

“We have a festering residual racism in this country. So anything that can be done to help chip away at that, I would like to be apart of,” Washington said. “And that’s what we’re hoping to do with this book. To provide some corrective history about a pivotal event in Dr. King’s life.” 

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