Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met his first and only White girlfriend, Amelia Elizabeth (Betty) Moitz, while studying at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, writes Jonathan Eig, best-selling author of King: A Life, as reported in The Philadelphia Citizen.

She was his “true love,” according to friend Harry Belafonte.

Amelia, known as Betty, was the school’s cook and dietician.

King met Betty in the Crozer kitchen, and she took a liking to King, who sported an elegant wardrobe and a soothing smile. She liked his warm laugh and his confidence, and they started dating.

“King was extremely fond of her,” said his friend Marcus Wood. “But he was also rather proud of the fact that he was able to socialize openly with a White girl.”

“We were madly, madly in love,” Betty recalled, “the way young people can fall in love.”

Their relationship was public on campus, but the couple knew he wouldn’t be able to return to the South, lead a church, and fight for justice for his people with a White spouse.

King ended the relationship, deeply saddened by the breakup, never fully recovering.  

Betty Moitz left Chester before King’s final year at Crozer.

Find out more about King’s relationship with Betty Moitz and his time in Chester in The Philadelphia Citizen.