Did you know that King visited Hawai'i in 1959? He came in September -- just a month after Hawai'i's admission into the Union -- at the invitation of Ellen Watumull and Shelton Bishop of the Honolulu Council of Churches. Bishop had only recently moved to Honolulu, having served for years as the pastor of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. (St. Philip's was both the oldest and largest black Episcopal church in America.)
According to The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. King spoke first at the Honolulu Ministerial Association and then at McKinley High School. But King's biggest speech was to the State House of Representatives on September 17th at 'Iolani Palace (the new capitol would not open for another ten years).
King spoke eloquently about integration and civil rights and the address ended in sustained applause. It also sparked a fight on the floor of the House, with Representatives battling over Republican Senator Hiram Fong's conservative stance on immigration. For his part, King was also moved by his experience and later reported to his congregation: "As I looked at all of these various faces and various colors mingled together like the waters of the sea, I could see only one face -- the face of the future!"
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