{{Short description|American civil rights activist (1925–2019)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Maude Ballou | image = Maude Ballou.png | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|09|13}} | birth_place = Fairhope, Alabama, United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|08|26|1925|09|13}} | death_place = Ridgeland, Mississippi, United States | other_names = | occupation = secretary to Martin Luther King Jr., teacher, university administrator | years_active = | known_for = civil rights activism | notable_works = }}

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

== Early life == Maude Ballou was born in Fairhope, Alabama 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 and attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, graduating with a degree in business in 1947.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Maude Ballou Obituary (1925 - 2019) - Clarion Ledger|url=https://www.legacy.com/amp/obituaries/clarionledger/193788189|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=www.legacy.com|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Stanford University|date=September 3, 2019|title=Maude Lerita Williams Ballou, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s first personal secretary, dies at 93|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/news/maude-lerita-williams-ballou-martin-luther-king-jrs-first-personal-secretary-dies-93|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute|language=en}}</ref><ref>[https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/ballou-maude-l-williams The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Institute Institute]</ref>

Maude married Leonard Ballou, a music instructor who was a friend and fraternity brother of Martin Luther King Jr. They moved to Montgomery, Alabama in 1952.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ap|date=September 18, 2013|title=Martin Luther King memorabilia to be auctioned|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/martin-luther-king-memorabilia-to-be-auctioned/article5141775.ece|access-date=January 18, 2021|issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> There, Maude worked as program director at the first black radio station in Montgomery and Leonard taught music at Alabama State University.<ref name = "WaPo Obit">{{Cite news|last=Heller|first=Karen|date=January 22, 2015|title=More than an assistant: The story of Martin Luther King Jr.'s first secretary|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-story-of-martin-luther-king-jrs-first-secretary-maude-ballou/2015/01/22/93981e06-a1c3-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html|access-date=January 18, 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> She and her husband frequently visited and hosted the Kings.<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/>

== Civil rights activism == After arriving in Montgomery, Ballou joined the Women's Political Council and worked with Jo Ann Robinson on civil rights issues.<ref name=":0" />

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" speech, which King delivered at churches around the South.<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/>

In ''Stride Toward Freedom'', King's 1958 account of the Montgomery bus boycott, he acknowledges that Ballou “continually encouraged me to persevere in this work.”<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/>

In 1957, Ballou was twenty-first on a list of "persons and churches most vulnerable to violent attacks” compiled by the Montgomery Improvement Association.<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/> She was threatened multiple times. In an interview with ''The Washington Post'', 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.”<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/>

She continued working with King after he re-located to Atlanta in 1960, and lived with the Kings for some time.<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/> Meanwhile, her husband and family moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where Leonard worked at Virginia State College. She re-joined them there in the summer of 1960.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=University|first1= Stanford|last2=Stanford|last3=California 94305|date=April 24, 2017|title=Ballou, Maude L. Williams|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/ballou-maude-l-williams|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute|language=en}}</ref>

David Garrow, 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.”<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/>

== Personal life == Ballou and her husband had four children.<ref name="WaPo Obit" />

== Later life == Ballou later moved to North Carolina, where she worked for several decades as a middle and high school teacher and college administrator.<ref name = "WaPo Obit"/>

== References == {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballou, Maude}} Category:1925 births Category:2019 deaths Category:20th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American people Category:African-American civil rights activists Category:People from Fairhope, Alabama Category:Southern University alumni Category:Activists for African-American civil rights Category:Civil rights activists from Alabama Category:African-American women activists Category:American women civil rights activists