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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.03.08 09:00l 53 Lines 2708 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 20
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To : TODAY@ALLUS
March 20, 1965
LBJ pledges federal troops to Alabama civil-rights march
On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson sends a telegram
to Governor George Wallace of Alabama in which he agrees to send
federal troops to supervise a planned African-American
civil-rights march in Wallace’s home state.
Later that day, from his ranch in Texas, LBJ read the telegram to
reporters at a news conference. He told the press that he
supported the constitutional rights of the marchers "to walk
peaceably and safely without injury or loss of life from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama" and expressed dismay at the governor’s
refusal to provide them the protection of the Alabama police.
Earlier that month, civil-rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
had led two attempts to march to Montgomery but both ended when
the marchers encountered tear gas and billy-club attacks by
Alabama police. On March 18, Wallace, who epitomized southern
opposition to integration, phoned Johnson for advice after
learning King had planned a third march for March 21. Johnson, a
civil rights advocate who in 1964 passed the Civil Rights Bill,
did not want to alienate any more southern voters and told
Wallace he would support his decision to call out the Alabama
National Guard to maintain order. However, Wallace appeared on
television that evening and demanded that Johnson send in federal
troops instead. Wallace’s demand was a calculated ploy--he
"excused" Alabama state police from their duty and left the
responsibility to keep the peace in Johnson’s lap. If Johnson’s
federal troops got involved in a violent altercation between
marchers and white segregationists, Johnson, not Wallace, would
appear as the "bad guy." Johnson reacted to Wallace’s
double-cross by calling him a "no-good son of a b----!" during a
taped phone conversation at the White House.
Johnson’s March 20 telegram to Wallace contained a plea to all
parties for civil order as well as a public warning to Wallace
that "over the next several days the eyes of the nation will be
upon Alabama." Johnson told the governor that the march should be
allowed to "proceed in a manner honoring our heritage and
honoring all for which America stands." In his closing comments
to reporters, he urged Wallace to heed Abraham Lincoln’s advice
to cater to "the better angels of our nature" on the day of the
march. Hundreds of people joined what turned out to be a peaceful
54-mile march under the guard of Alabama state troopers and
federal soldiers, as the conflict between Johnson and Wallace
turned an even brighter spotlight on the need to address American
race relations, particularly in the southern states.
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