On my about me page, I mentioned that I had worked briefly with Glenn Smiley, formerly a key figure in the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and one of Dr. King’s tutors in nonviolence. When I worked with him in the summer of 1992, he was the founder and head of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolence in Los Angeles.

Glenn was a great story-teller; here are a couple of the highlights from stories I remember him telling. He started participating in non-violence in the 1940’s with FOR by conducting sit-in’s at segregated department store dining rooms in L.A.; in the mid-1950’s he was sent to Montgomery by the FOR at Dr. King’s invitation; he helped organize and train participants for the Montgomery Bus Boycott; and he mourned from jail when Dr. King made his “I Have a Dream” speech.

He had a playful, jovial, mischevious sense of humor. He used to love to say that he had been a Playboy centerfold—he and Dr. King sat together on the first integrated bus, and their photo was featured in newspapers across the country and, evidently, in Playboy. I’ve scoured the net for this photo, but oddly I can’t find it. If anyone knows where this is, please let me know .

Getty Images has a few photos of the bus boycott in Montgomery, primarly shot by Don Cravens on Dec 26, 1956 for Time/Life. The boycott had actually ended six days earlier on Dec 20th, when Dr. King and Glenn rode side-by-side. In this photo I think Glenn is over the shoulder of Corretta Scott King with his back to the camera talking with Ralph Abernathy.

After the bus boycott, he worked closely with James Lawson training students (including John Lewis ) and organizing student groups in the south, helping to form the SNCC. After one training he escaped a violent group surrounding him by hugging the man separating he and Jim Lawson from their car.

He is mentioned a few times in key Civil Rights texts (like Taylor Branch’s Parting of the Waters ), and in Dr. King’s estate, there are several letters in which his role is mentioned or described. John M. Swomley, former head of FOR describes Glenn’s and others key contributions behind the scenes of the civil rights movement in this article