200 Promise In Covenant To Aid King

One hundred students and Faculty members from the Divinity School signed a covenant yesterday pledging "our time, our treasures, and if needs be ourselves," to assist the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his struggle for "full human rights throughout the land."

Copies of the covenant, which is sponsored by the Faculty and the Committee for Social Action at the Divinity School, have been sent by telegram to President Johnson, Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Alabama Governor George Wallace, and King.

George H. Williams, Hollis Professor of Divinity, and author of the document, led the congregation in Andover Chapel at the Divinity School in subscribing to the covenant--"we are about to engage ourselves in a religious action unique in the annals of this institution."

Student signers of the covenant have contributed about $350 toward the expenses of the five students who flew to Selma Monday to take part in the Montgomery march. The plane fares totaled $600. The expenses of the three Divinity professors who also flew to Selma, are being partially defrayed by fellow Faculty-members.

The covenant is similar to the covenant under King Josiah in ancient Israel, Williams later explained. Its form has evolved through the ages and was used for the Mayflower compact and in the churches of the New England Way in the 17th century.

Its renewal today in the form of this covenant, he said, "Is in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and it has been signed by individuals of all faiths."

Asked if the covenant placed any specific obligations on its signers, Williams replied that it "binds all those who have signed it to continue to support this cause until it is over."

The Selma marchers returned to Cambridge last night and will discuss the protest demonstrations at noon today in the Braun Common Room of Andover Hail.