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A Letter From The Publisher: Jan. 3, 1964

3 minute read
TIME

TIME’s Man of the Year has usually been as singular as the first one—1927’s Charles A. Lindbergh. But there have been groups as well (the 15 top U.S. scientists in 1960), and anonymous symbols (the Hungarian Freedom Fighter and Korea’s G.I. Joe). There have been Presidents (every President since F.D.R., who himself set a record as Man of the Year three times), allies (Churchill, Adenauer, De Gaulle), enemies (Hitler), villains (Stalin). There have been women too (Wallis Simpson, Queen Elizabeth). But there has never, until this year, been a Negro.

Martin Luther King Jr. has made it as a man—but also as the representative of his people, for whom 1963 was perhaps the most important year in their history. Their emergence has manifested itself in many ways: in passive resistance, in angry demands, in patient example, in significant achievement. No longer does performance in sport or music circumscribe Negro accomplishments, and in an accompanying eight-page portfolio, TIME looks at some unsung Negro successes in American life.

The criterion for choosing TIME’S Man of the Year is the “man or woman who dominated the news of that year and left an indelible mark—for good or ill—on history.” Our readers each year join in with their own nominations or attempt to anticipate our choice. We weigh their suggestions, and have given a sampling in recent letters columns; but the choice finally is our own.

Most of the reporting for the Martin Luther King cover was done by Marsh Clark of our Chicago bureau, who first met King, appropriately, on an airplane. For eight days they traveled together—New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas, Montgomery. Clark got the impression of a man always on the go, with only a few hours’ sleep, and with the facility of always speaking grammatically, cohesively, and even eloquently, whether sitting in an airport lobby, eating a salad at his desk or riding in a car.

He also seemed to Clark both contained and candid. “Not a single question did he refuse to answer or dodge. Looking back, I suppose I will think of him most often sitting in a plane, hunched in a window seat close to the wing, if possible. I really think he spends more time aloft than on the ground, and it is there that he does much of his best thinking and writing.”

Along with Marsh Clark’s coverage of King, the week’s cover story reflects extensive reporting from all our U.S. bureaus on the changing mood and status of the Negro in America. The story was written by Jesse Birnbaum, who wrote our earlier cover story on James Baldwin and many of our reports on the Negro situation in recent months. It was edited by Marsh Clark’s older brother, Champ Clark, who wrote our first Martin Luther King cover story back during the Montgomery troubles in 1957.

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