HUNGRY GERALD

MLK and HG were both born in 1929—MLK a few months older. They met in the 1950’s. The meeting was arranged by a lovely African-American journalist, HG’s girl friend/lover at the time. The point of the meeting was for HG to counsel MLK on how to approach affluent Jews in order to maximize contributions to MLK’s campaigns. HG suggested MLK make parallels between Black and Jewish experiences: slavery (Passover, the Jewish holiday, celebrates the release of Jews after centuries of Jewish enslavement by the Egyptians.). Lynchings—hundreds of Blacks were lynched in the United States and all attempts to pass anti-lynching laws were blocked. Leo Frank, a young Jewish executive, was lynched in Atlanta in 1915 on trumped up rape chages. His lynching lead to formation of  the ADL and more Jewish defense organizations.   MLK  said HG’s strategy was very useful.