An AP Story from the height of the Selma to Montgomery March:
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Civil rights leaders won the right Wednesday to conduct a highway pilgrimage from Selma to Alabama’s capital and the news turned a street demonstration into a victory rally.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announced to more than 700 white and Negro demonstrators at the county courthouse that a federal court had ruled in their favor.
“The federal court has upheld our legal right to march,” King told the crowd, remnants of the thousands who had marched there 2½ hours earlier.
Cheers and yells greeted his words. Then the demonstration ended as the jubilant demonstrators marched back to a Negro church.
U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. issued an order barring state or county authorities from interfering with the 50-mile march from Selma. He ordered them to provide protection.
The judge said the five-day march could begin Friday.
However, King told newsmen before a meeting with city and county officials that it would be reasonable to presume the march would not begin Friday.
He said preparations have to be made and the start might be delayed until Sunday.
King said a decision would be announced Thursday.
Johnson’s order was directed at Gov. George C. Wallace; Col. Albert J. Lingo, commander of state troopers, and Sheriff James G. Clark of Dallas County.
The judge ruled on a petition filed by civil rights leaders after their Selma-Montgomery march was routed by state troopers using clubs and tear gas March 7.
The news of the decision came minutes after King ended a conference of more than two hours with Sheriff Mac Sim Butler while the marchers waited outside, The throng was estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 at the start.
When King and his rain-soaked followers got back to Jackson Street Baptist Church after hearing of the judge’s ruling, the Negro leader said:
“We say to Mr. Wallace, ‘Here we come.’ ”
The demonstrators had stood in driving rain at the courthouse. They sang and clapped as their number dwindled. And they sang with new fervor despite the rain as they returned to the church.
One of those who spoke to the demonstrators here was the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, King’s top adviser.
About 1O0 clergymen who have joined the drive left Selma for nine other counties to encourage Negro voter registration.
The march here was joined by hundreds of high school and college students, some of them from Northern cities, and by white clergymen.
The march was called by King after mounted sheriff’s deputies clubbed and flailed white and Negro demonstrators Tuesday.
Abernathy told the throng they had come together to protest “because our people were beaten yesterday and the horses used on them.”
King stood beside Abernathy on the courthouse steps.
(To read the complete story, visit lmtribune.com.)
The two of them and about six others, including John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, went inside the building to confer with Sheriff Mac Sim Butler.
Earlier, in a prepared statement, the sheriff said he and his men, on horseback, rode into about 600 demonstrators and dispersed them Tuesday after someone threw bricks and other objects at the officers. Eight demonstrators were hurt.
In Washington there was no indication from the White House of whether any presidential action would result from the forceful dispersal of the demonstrators.
The crowd at the courthouse was estimated at 3,000 by Assistant Police Chief D.H. Lackey. But a sheriff’s chief deputy, Richard Goodwyn, said there were 4,000 to 5,000.
The chants of “Freedom!” could be heard by newsmen at the state Capitol five blocks away.
A city parade permit was granted for the march. Policemen blocked traffic along the route. The march was without incident.
King walked arm-in-arm with James Forman, executive secretary of SNCC. Forman was among the group routed Tuesday.
Some of the marchers carried a bright, new American flag. A United Nations flag also was in the line.
In the front ranks was Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya, 21, Monrovia, Calif., architectural student at the University of Pennsylvania. He was clubbed on the head in the demonstration Tuesday.
A University of Michigan coed, Fran Lipton of New York City, who suffered a leg injury in the melee, also marched.
About 32 clergymen, most of them white, were in the line.
An old Negro man, his moustache white, marched with a walking stick.
Rain fell intermittently. Thunder rolled across the gray skies. About 150 umbrellas of many colors and shapes blossomed from the crowd. The temperature was 75.
“We are going to change this situation,” the Rev. Andrew Young of Atlanta, a member of King’s staff, told the crowd.
Easy To Register
“It is easy to register to vote now in Montgomery County,” he said. A thunder clap punctuated his statement.
“There is no excuse for anyone not voting.”
The showers came down heavily. Most of the demonstrators stood their ground. They were soaked, but they began singing.
Young said Johnson’s address to Congress Monday night had a little religion in it.
“It sounded like he had a Baptist minister writing it for him,” Young said.
Warning Issued
The route of march from Jackson Street Baptist Church took King by the white frame house where he lived for six years in the first days of his civil rights crusade, begun 10 years ago.
When the procession passed the big white-domed Capitol, King glanced at the entrance. State troopers and sheriff’s possemen — on foot — stood guard around the Capitol.
Before the march began, ministers and priests warned the demonstrators against violence. James Douglas, a Negro SNCC worker, said: “This is a political demonstration. This issue involved here is to deal with voting rights.”
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Civil rights leaders won the right Wednesday to conduct a highway pilgrimage from Selma to Alabama’s capital and the news turned a street demonstration into a victory rally.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announced to more than 700 white and Negro demonstrators at the county courthouse that a federal court had ruled in their favor.
“The federal court has upheld our legal right to march,” King told the crowd, remnants of the thousands who had marched there 2½ hours earlier.
Cheers and yells greeted his words. Then the demonstration ended as the jubilant demonstrators marched back to a Negro church.
U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. issued an order barring state or county authorities from interfering with the 50-mile march from Selma. He ordered them to provide protection.
The judge said the five-day march could begin Friday.
However, King told newsmen before a meeting with city and county officials that it would be reasonable to presume the march would not begin Friday.
He said preparations have to be made and the start might be delayed until Sunday.
King said a decision would be announced Thursday.
Johnson’s order was directed at Gov. George C. Wallace; Col. Albert J. Lingo, commander of state troopers, and Sheriff James G. Clark of Dallas County.
The judge ruled on a petition filed by civil rights leaders after their Selma-Montgomery march was routed by state troopers using clubs and tear gas March 7.
The news of the decision came minutes after King ended a conference of more than two hours with Sheriff Mac Sim Butler while the marchers waited outside, The throng was estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 at the start.
When King and his rain-soaked followers got back to Jackson Street Baptist Church after hearing of the judge’s ruling, the Negro leader said:
“We say to Mr. Wallace, ‘Here we come.’ ”
The demonstrators had stood in driving rain at the courthouse. They sang and clapped as their number dwindled. And they sang with new fervor despite the rain as they returned to the church.
One of those who spoke to the demonstrators here was the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, King’s top adviser.
About 1O0 clergymen who have joined the drive left Selma for nine other counties to encourage Negro voter registration.
The march here was joined by hundreds of high school and college students, some of them from Northern cities, and by white clergymen.
The march was called by King after mounted sheriff’s deputies clubbed and flailed white and Negro demonstrators Tuesday.
Abernathy told the throng they had come together to protest “because our people were beaten yesterday and the horses used on them.”
King stood beside Abernathy on the courthouse steps.
(To read the complete story, visit lmtribune.com.)
The two of them and about six others, including John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, went inside the building to confer with Sheriff Mac Sim Butler.
Earlier, in a prepared statement, the sheriff said he and his men, on horseback, rode into about 600 demonstrators and dispersed them Tuesday after someone threw bricks and other objects at the officers. Eight demonstrators were hurt.
In Washington there was no indication from the White House of whether any presidential action would result from the forceful dispersal of the demonstrators.
The crowd at the courthouse was estimated at 3,000 by Assistant Police Chief D.H. Lackey. But a sheriff’s chief deputy, Richard Goodwyn, said there were 4,000 to 5,000.
The chants of “Freedom!” could be heard by newsmen at the state Capitol five blocks away.
A city parade permit was granted for the march. Policemen blocked traffic along the route. The march was without incident.
King walked arm-in-arm with James Forman, executive secretary of SNCC. Forman was among the group routed Tuesday.
Some of the marchers carried a bright, new American flag. A United Nations flag also was in the line.
In the front ranks was Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya, 21, Monrovia, Calif., architectural student at the University of Pennsylvania. He was clubbed on the head in the demonstration Tuesday.
A University of Michigan coed, Fran Lipton of New York City, who suffered a leg injury in the melee, also marched.
About 32 clergymen, most of them white, were in the line.
An old Negro man, his moustache white, marched with a walking stick.
Rain fell intermittently. Thunder rolled across the gray skies. About 150 umbrellas of many colors and shapes blossomed from the crowd. The temperature was 75.
“We are going to change this situation,” the Rev. Andrew Young of Atlanta, a member of King’s staff, told the crowd.
Easy To Register
“It is easy to register to vote now in Montgomery County,” he said. A thunder clap punctuated his statement.
“There is no excuse for anyone not voting.”
The showers came down heavily. Most of the demonstrators stood their ground. They were soaked, but they began singing.
Young said Johnson’s address to Congress Monday night had a little religion in it.
“It sounded like he had a Baptist minister writing it for him,” Young said.
Warning Issued
The route of march from Jackson Street Baptist Church took King by the white frame house where he lived for six years in the first days of his civil rights crusade, begun 10 years ago.
When the procession passed the big white-domed Capitol, King glanced at the entrance. State troopers and sheriff’s possemen — on foot — stood guard around the Capitol.
Before the march began, ministers and priests warned the demonstrators against violence. James Douglas, a Negro SNCC worker, said: “This is a political demonstration. This issue involved here is to deal with voting rights.”
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