Word: selma
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...singing "We shall overcome." In reply, Sheriff Clark pinned a button on his shirt reading "Never!" The city's mood grew ever uglier. Business in town fell off by 50% . From Governor Wallace there came no pleas for peace; he merely ordered new platoons of state cops to Selma and environs...
...Selma's Negroes had a martyr, and King called for a march from Selma to the state capitol at Montgomery, 50 miles away. "I can't promise you that it won't get you beaten," cried King to his followers. "I can't promise you that it won't get your house bombed. I can't promise you won't get scarred up a bit. But we must stand up for what is right!" King planned to lead the march himself, but at the last minute was persuaded by aides to stay...
Hard Hats & Gas Masks. The march took place on the afternoon of Sunday, March 7. Ignoring an order from Governor Wallace forbidding the march, 650 Negroes and a few whites assembled at the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Selma's Sylvan Street. Leading them were John Lewis, militant head of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (S.N.C.C.), and Hosea Williams, an official of King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Two abreast, many of them laden with bedrolls and knapsacks, the Negroes filed through the back streets of Selma, turned onto Broad Street, and headed...
...being killed!" cried another. The Negroes staggered across the bridge and made for the church, chased by the sheriff's deputies and the horsemen. Many Negroes picked up cans and rocks and hurled them at the police. As the deputies crowded in, they were stopped by Selma's Public Safety Director Wilson Baker, a bitter enemy of Clark's who has done his thankless best to keep peace in the city. Said Baker to Clark: "Sheriff, keep your men back." Replied Clark: "Everything will be all right. I've already waited a month too damn long...
...Streets. But Clark did, however grudgingly, disperse his men. Thereafter they amused themselves by stalking along the downtown streets, beating on the hoods of Negroes' cars and ordering "Get the hell out of town. We want all niggers off the streets." Reported the Selma Times-Journal next day: "Thirty minutes after the marchers' encounter with the troopers, a Negro could not be seen walking the streets." All told, 78 Negroes required hospital treatment for injuries...