Sept. 18, 1964 | MLK Meets Pope Paul VI

Sept. 18, 1964 - Dr. Martin Luther King talked for 25 minutes today with Pope Paul VI and said the Pontiff promised to make a personal and public denunciation of racial segregation.
The American civil rights leader called his meeting with the Pope and the Pontiff’s words “profound encouragement for all Christians in the world and particularly in the United States who are involved in the civil rights struggle with us.”Dr. King, 35, a Baptist minister, and the Catholic Pontiff conferred in the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace.
The Vatican did not issue a statement afterward. But the fact that the Pope granted the private audience and spent 25 minutes with Dr. King was significant in itself. Private papal audiences are rare and often last barely 10 minutes.
“The Pope told me to say to the Negro people,” Dr. King said, “that he is remembering them in his daily prayer and that he is continually asking for God’s blessing as we continue the struggle for freedom and justice.”

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