Maude Lerita Williams Ballou (September 13, 1925 – August 26, 2019) was an American civil rights activist. She and her husband were personal friends of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

and she worked as King's secretary between 1955 and 1960.

Early life

Maude Ballou was born in

Fairhope, Alabama Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2020 Census lists the population of the city as 22,477. Fairhope is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolita ...

on September 13, 1925. Her mother was Mary Parker Williams and her father, a Baptist minister, was Reverend Hillary Parker Williams. She grew up in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

and attended

Southern University Southern University and A&M College (Southern University, Southern, SUBR or SU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a ...

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

, graduating with a degree in business in 1947. Maude married Leonard Ballou, a music instructor who was a friend and

fraternity brother A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, "brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in ...

of Martin Luther King Jr. They moved to

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

in 1952. There, Maude worked as program director at the first black radio station in Montgomery and Leonard taught music at

Alabama State University Alabama State University (ASU) is a public historically black university in Montgomery, Alabama. Founded in 1867, ASU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. History Alabama State University was founded in 1867 as the Lin ...

. She and her husband frequently visited and hosted the Kings.

Civil rights activism

After arriving in Montgomery, Ballou joined the

Women's Political Council The Women's Political Council (WPC), founded in Montgomery, Alabama, was an organization that formed in 1946 that was an early force active in the civil rights movement that was formed to address the racial issues in the city. Members included Mary ...

and worked with

Jo Ann Robinson Jo Ann Gibson Robinson (April 17, 1912 – August 29, 1992) was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and educator in Montgomery, Alabama. Early life Born Jo Ann Gibson, near Culloden, Georgia, on April 17, 1912, she was the youngest of ...

on civil rights issues. Beginning in 1955, Ballou worked as Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal secretary. “I booked flights, research, writing. I did it all,” Ballou said of her work for King. Her work included editing early versions of King's iconic 1963 "

I Have a Dream "I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...

" speech, which King delivered at churches around the South. In ''

Stride Toward Freedom ''Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story'' (published 1958) is Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic account of the 1955–1956 Montgomery bus boycott. The book describes the conditions of African Americans living in Alabama during the era, and ...

'', King's 1958 account of the Montgomery bus boycott, he acknowledges that Ballou “continually encouraged me to persevere in this work.” In 1957, Ballou was twenty-first on a list of "persons and churches most vulnerable to violent attacks” compiled by the

Montgomery Improvement Association The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed on December 5, 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama. Under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Edgar Nixon, the MIA was instrumental in ...

. She was threatened multiple times. In an interview with ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', she recounted an encounter in which a man “said the White Citizens’ Council had sent him down there to tell me to stop working for civil rights or they would get my children. And that's what got me, when you think about your babies. That really shook me. But it didn't stop me.” She continued working with King after he re-located to Atlanta in 1960, and lived with the Kings for some time. Meanwhile, her husband and family moved to

Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg (along with the city of Colonial Heights) with Din ...

, where Leonard worked at

Virginia State College Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of high ...

. She re-joined them there in the summer of 1960.

David Garrow David Jeffries Garrow (born May 11, 1953) is an American author and historian. He wrote the book ''Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference'' (1986), which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biogra ...

, a historian of the Civil Rights era, noted Ballou's pivotal role in King's work: "You look through the papers of the Montgomery period, and up to 85 percent of the signatures are in Maude’s hand. There’s no question that she’s running his life, that she’s the number one person he’s relying on to get the work done.”

Personal life

Ballou and her husband had four children.

Later life

Ballou later moved to North Carolina, where she worked for several decades as a middle and high school teacher and college administrator.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballou, Maude 1925 births 2019 deaths 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people African-American activists People from Fairhope, Alabama Southern University alumni American civil rights activists (civil rights movement)