The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was planning the first-ever mass Holy Land pilgrimage of hundreds, possibly thousands of Black Americans. The trip was scheduled for November 1967. This is all revealed in private letters between Dr. King and Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol as well as then-former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. Those letters were exchanged between January and May of 1967. However, in June 1967, Israel fought its third battle for its existence since independence in 1948 (the Six-Day War), defeating multiple Arab armies and reclaiming the Holy City of Jerusalem for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. With the intense controversy after the Six-Day War, Dr. King, who continued to support Israel and work towards peace, chose to postpone the Holy Land pilgrimage until 1968. He was assassinated on April 4th of that year.

For Black American supporters of Israel, Dr. King’s Holy Land tour represents unfinished business.

In November 2026 – what would have been the 59th anniversary of Dr. King’s journey -- the Black Christian Council on Israel Relations will lead 500 Black American and African pastors and Christian leaders to the Holy Land. IBSI will lead the discussion and Q & A about this trip, Tuesday, June 30 @ 8PM Eastern.