"I responded so rapidly that I did not even keep a copy of her column and forgot about it," Hugo writes.
But his letter appeared almost immediately, on February 24:
"Dear Abby: In your tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., you said, 'In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. King's principles of nonviolence were based on the teachings of Christianity.'
"Martin Luther King had to go to India to learn the principles of nonviolence because they were neither understood nor practiced in the United States.
"The civil rights movement in the 1960s reminds us of how violent white Christians really are. They are as violent as Muslims and Jews, if not more violent. Remember, we have had nearly 5,000 lynchings in our history. Christians proclaim brotherly love, love for neighbor, peace on earth and other notions but often do not practice them. --Hugo Borresen
On March 20, Dear Abby printed a letter by a Memphis man, Arthur H. Prince, who cited Dr. King's book Stride Toward Freedom mentioning that he had heard of Gandhi and had read his books by 1958.
Dear Abby responded: ". . . I too, want to keep the record straight. According to A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. (edited by James M. Washington), Dr. King and his wife did travel to India in 1960 or 1961, and he made reference to the trip in a speech within months of his return."
Notes Borresen: "Arthur Prince supported me by pointing out that King's nonviolence was learned in India (from Hindus), giving more publicity to my contention that it was not based on the teachings of Christianity. I am delighted about the publicity."