Biography of of allan k chalmers

June 30, 1897 to January 23, 1972

Allan Knight Chalmers served as a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., during King’s years at Boston University, and continued to influence King throughout the civil rights movement.

Biography of of allan k chalmers

In Stride Toward Freedom, King’s memoir of the Montgomery bus boycott, he wrote of Chalmers’ commitment to social justice, which was rooted in his optimism and faith in humanity.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1897, Chalmers received his BA (1917) from Johns Hopkins University and his BD (1922) from Yale University.

He joined the faculty at Boston University in 1948 after serving as minister of New York’s Broadway Tabernacle Congregational Church for 18 years. During his career, he was chair of the Scottsboro Defense Committee during the 1930s, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund, treasurer of the NAACP, and was active in the&nb