WANTED ACTION NOW! BUT, NOW! REMAINED A LONG WAY OFF.PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS NEVER ABLE TO MOBILIZE SUFFICIENT SUPPORT TO PASS A CIVIL RIGHTS BILL WITH TEETH OVER THE OPPOSITION OF SEGREGATIONIST SOUTHERN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. BUT AFTER HIS ASSASSINATION, PRESIDENT JOHNSON, DRAWING ON THE KENNEDY LEGACY AND ON THE PRESS COVERAGE OF CIVIL RIGHTS MARCHES AND PROTESTS, SUCCEEDED WHERE KENNEDY HAD FAILED. HOWEVER, BY THE SUMMER OF 1964, THE BLACK REVOLUTION HAD CREATED ITS OWN CRISIS OF DISAPPOINTED EXPECTATIONS. RIOTING BY URBAN BLACKS WAS TO BE A FEATURE OF EVERY "LONG, HOT, SUMMER" OF THE MID-1960s. IN 1965, KING AND OTHER BLACK LEADERS WANTED TO PUSH BEYOND SOCIAL INTEGRATION, NOW GUARANTEED UNDER THE PREVIOUS YEAR'S CIVIL RIGHTS LAW, TO POLITICAL RIGHTS, MAINLY SOUTHERN BLACKS' RIGHTS TO REGISTER AND VOTE. KING PICKED A TOUGH ALABAMA TOWN TO TACKLE: SELMA, WHERE ONLY 1% OF ELIGIBLE BLACK VOTERS WERE REGISTERED TO VOTE. THE VIOLENCE, THE MARCH, THE EXCITEMENT ALL CONTRIBUTED TO THE PASSAGE OF THE SECOND LANDMARK CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF THE DECADE. EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS HORRENDOUS VIOLENCE, REV. KING ANNOUNCED THAT AS A "MATTER OF CONSCIENCE AND IN AN ATTEMPT TO AROUSE THE DEEPEST CONCERN OF THE NATION," (GARRATY P. 357) HE WAS "COMPELLED" TO LEAD ANOTHER MARCH FROM SELMA TO MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA. THE FOUR-DAY, 54-MILE MARCH STARTED ON THE AFTERNOON OF SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 1965, WITH SOME 3500 MARCHERS LED BY TWO NOBEL PRIZEWINNERS, THE REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND RALPH BUNCHE, THEN U.N. UNDER SECRETARY FOR SPECIAL POLITICAL AFFAIRS. IN THE MARCH, WHITES, NEGROES, CLERGYMEN AND BEATNIKS, OLD AND YOUNG, WALKED SIDE BY SIDE. PRESIDENT JOHNSON MADE SURE THEY HAD PLENTY OF PROTECTION THIS TIME WITH 1000 MILITARY POLICE, 1900 FEDERALIZED ALABAMA NATIONAL GUARDSMEN, AND PLATOONS OF U.S. MARSHALS AND FBI MEN. WHEN THE MARCHERS REACHED THE CAPITAL OF ALABAMA, THEY WERE TO HAVE PRESENTED A PETITION TO THEN GOVERNOR GEORGE WALLACE PROTESTING VOTING DISCR...
