John Lewis Says Pres. Obama should federalize the Nat. Guard for MO., just like in Montgomery

[bigtree]

. . . when Kennedy acted to protect Freedom Riders virtually trapped in that church . . .

Sunday, May 21, more than 1500 people packed Reverend Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church to honor the Freedom Riders. Among the speakers were Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was newly based in Montgomery, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Farmer. Outside, a mob of more than 3,000 whites attacked blacks, with a handful of the United States Marshals Service protecting the church from assault and fire bombs. With city and state police making no effort to restore order, the civil rights leaders appealed to the President for protection. President Kennedy threatened the governor to intervene with federal troops if he would not protect the people. Governor Patterson forestalled that by finally ordering the Alabama National Guard to disperse the mob, and the Guard reached the church in the early morning.

http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961frides

also . . .

President Kennedy, following the advice of his brother Bobby, now serving as Attorney General, ordered a group of U.S. Marshals to protect the Freedom Riders. But Kennedy was unwilling to take any other federal action, immediately handing over power to Alabama Governor John Patterson. Following the incident, Martin Luther King, Jr. asked the president if he would agree to meet the Freedom Riders in Washington as a symbol of solidarity. Jack refused the request.

President Kennedy demonstrated a similar reluctance to undertake major civil rights action during a 1962 conflict at Ole Miss (the University of Mississippi). On 25 September, James Meredith, an African American man, attempted to register as a student at Ole Miss, the only remaining all-white public university in the nation. Mississippi's notoriously racist governor, Ross Barnett, blocked Meredith's efforts, and tensions in the college town of Oxford, Mississippi grew explosive. Seeking to avoid the kind of bad publicity that had resulted from President Eisenhower's decision to send federal troops to integrate a Little Rock high school in 1957, Kennedy wanted to exercise as little presidential power as possible. Jack and Bobby tried to engineer a behind-the-scenes negotiation with Governor Barnett, but were unable to reach any solid agreement. In a televised address on the evening of 30 September, Jack assured the nation that James Meredith was safely living on the Ole Miss campus; almost simultaneously, violence was erupting in Oxford. Jack was forced to call in the National Guard, something he had longed to avoid. At four in the morning, as the rioting in Mississippi intensified, Jack ordered 16,000 military policemen to restore peace on the Ole Miss campus. The military policemen were ultimately successful in their efforts, but not before the rioters had wreaked considerable havoc: two people were killed, over 200 federal marshals and soldiers were injured, and 200 people were arrested.

http://www.shmoop.com/john-f-kennedy/civil-rights.html


I agree with John Lewis, and I'll be watching the President today with appreciation and respect for his public comments, and with an ear for some kind of direct concrete action from him to protect demonstrators from the police violence and intimidation in Ferguson.

[Skidmore]

1. I wonder if that is what the statement he will make shortly will be about.

Perhaps that is what will happen.

[Autumn]

2. Something must be done on the Federal level and soon.

I think you and I are of an age when we well remember the tension and anguish of that time. K/R

[upaloopa]

3. When ever I hear that I put myself the place

of a guardsman. I have no crowd control training, no police training and hold a lethal weapon facing unarmed civilians which up to a few hours ago I was also. Does Kent State ring a bell?