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March 10, 1965
Dr. King Leads March at Selma;
State Police End It Peaceably
Under a U.S.-Arranged Accord

1,500 Turned Back

Protest Begun Despite
Court -- 3 Ministers
Attacked Later

By ROY REED
Special to The New York Times

ELMA, Ala., March 9 -- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led 1,500 Negroes and whites on a second attempted protest march today. State troopers turned them back on the outskirts of Selma, after they had gone one mile.

But this time there was no violence - unlike a similar confrontation at the same spot on Sunday. Then, troopers and Dallas County sheriff's officers broke up an attempted march to Montgomery, the state capital, 50 miles away, with clubs and tear gas.

``We had the greatest demonstration for freedom today that we've ever had in the South,'' Dr. King said as he disbanded the brief march today.

Tonight, three Unitarian ministers who had participated in the march were beaten by whites on a downtown street corner. The ministers are white.

One of them, the Rev. James J. Reeb, 38 years old, of Boston, was taken to University Hospital in Birmingham with a serious head injury and later underwent surgery. The police said he had been knocked unconscious with a club.

Ate in Negro Restaurant

The Rev. Clark B. Olsen, 32, of Berkeley, Calif., and the Rev. Orloff W. Miller, 33, of Boston, were less seriously injured.

They told the police they had been attacked by five men in sports clothes after they had eaten dinner in a Negro restaurant.

The meeting of troopers and demonstrators had been awaited here with dread following the Sunday clash, in which 34 marchers were hurt.

Its peaceful resolution resulted from an arrangement between leaders of the march and the troopers worked out beforehand, with the Federal Government as mediator. The arrangement had face-saving features for both sides.

The demonstrators began their march in the face of a Federal Court injunction prohibiting the march and in spite of a plea against it by President Johnson.

It was clear that the one-mile march was more a gesture than a firm intention to walk all the way to Montgomery. Few of the walkers carried bedrolls or provisions - as many had on Sunday.

After the confrontation, the Negro leaders temporarily suspended plans for any further attempts to make the march, which had been planned to dramatize a struggle to register Negro voters.

Federal District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. of Montgomery, who had ordered the Negroes earlier today not to march, will hold a hearing Thursday on a petition by the Negroes to declare unconstitutional an edict by Gov. George C. Wallace banning the Selma-Montgomery march.

Regardless of the outcome of the hearing, the Negroes still plan to hold a demonstration at the Capitol in Montgomery next week to try to present a petition to Governor Wallace pressing the Negroes' voter-registration aims.

At a mass meeting tonight at the Browns Chapel Methodist Church, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy announced that a march on the Dallas County Court House in Selma would be held tomorrow. Mr. Abernathy is an aide to Dr. King.

Dr. King told the meeting of the beating of the three white ministers. ``Selma had to show its true colors,'' he said. ``It was cowardly work done by night.''

Late tonight, University Hospital in Birmingham said Mr. Reeb was in critical condition.

Mr. Olsen, another of the clergymen attacked, is minister of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarians. Mr. Miller, the third man beaten, directs college activities for the Unitarian-Universalist Association.

About 450 white persons, most of them clergymen and lay church leaders, had streamed into Selma by airplane, automobile and railroad to join today's march. They came from the North, East and West in response to what they called the brutality of the suppression of Sunday's march.

Fifty white Alabamians who demonstrated here on Saturday on behalf of the Negro campaign returned for today's march.

The White backing encouraged the Negroes in their plans to hold the march and pushed the state government into a greater show of resistance.

More than 100 state troopers, twice as many as were in the force used on Sunday, met the marchers today. There also had been indications that the Alabama National Guard might be called in.

When the confrontation came, the troopers, instead of meeting the marchers with clubs, permitted them to pray in the middle of U.S. Highway 80.

Negroes Get Order

It appeared this morning that the march - which Dr. King had scheduled after the Sunday attempt was blocked - would be called off.

Judge Johnson's order, which had been prepared yesterday and kept secret overnight, was served on the Negro leaders - not including Dr. King - this morning. It ordered the Negroes not to hold their march until he could conduct a hearing Thursday on their petition to overturn the Governor's ban on the march.

Several hundred persons had gathered for the march at the Browns Chapel Methodist Church when the order was announced. They went ahead with their preparations.

John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who suffered a skull fracture in the Sunday melee and left the hospital today to go to the church, addressed the crowd.

``On Sunday we saw George Wallace at his best, a vicious system at work,'' he said. ``We have been saying for a long time `one man, one vote' over requirements to register.

``I understand there's an order from Judge Johnson. I believe we have a constitutional right to march when we get ready, injunction or no injunction.''

Ready to March

Other speakers took the same theme. By noon the crowd was bent on marching.

At one point, 3,000 persons were in the area. They filled Browns Chapel, the First Baptist Church a block away and most of the street in between.

There was more a holiday spirit than bitterness in the air, in contrast to the attitude that prevailed on Sunday afternoon as bruised and angry Negroes stumbled back under the lashes and clubs of the officers.

While the crowd gathered at Browns Chapel, Dr. King and his advisers were absent. They spent the morning at the home of a Negro physician, part of the time in conference with LeRoy Collins, director of the Federal Community Relations Service, who had bee sent by the President to try to persuade the Negroes not to march.

Cars and buses arrived at Browns Chapel every few minutes bringing more clergymen and out-of-town friends. Some carried sleeping bags and suitcases, but many did not.

Several noted civil rights leaders arrived with the clergymen. They included James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality; James Foreman, executive secretary of the S.N.C.C., and Charles Evers, Mississippi field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

More than 20 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were reported in the city to watch for any violations of Federal law. Half a dozen lawyers from the Justice Department also were in town.

In the church the Rev. James Bevel, Alabama project director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Dr. King heads, told the throng that ``we are here to announce that we are going to do business today.''

Suddenly there was a flurry of movement. Dr. King had arrived. He stepped into the church sanctuary, and as the crowd spotted the Nobel Peace Prize winner it rose to its feet to greet him.

He quickly dispelled a rumor that he had changed his mind and would not lead the march. After expressing appreciation for the out-of-state support, he told the throng:

``We have the right to walk the highways - we have the right to walk to Montgomery if our feet will get us there.

``I have no alternative but to lead a march from this spot to carry our grievances to the seat of Government. I ask you to join me today as we move on.''

Down Sylvan Street

In 10 minutes they were moving five abreast down Sylvan Street between the red brick apartment buildings of the George Washington Carver Homes.

Dr. King walked arm in arm with Bishop John Wesley Lord of the Methodist Church, from Washington. Near them were A.D. King, Dr. King's brother, and the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Spike, executive director of the Commission on Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches.

Only a few white spectators could be seen, and they were gathered in store doors, staring and saying nothing.

The weather was mild. The street was almost silent as the marchers approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge across the Alabama River.

H. Stanley Fountain, a Federal marshal, stepped in front of the parade as it reached the bridge. He read Judge Johnson's order to the leaders.

Dr. King said they wanted to proceed anyway. Mr. Fountain said:

``I intend in no way to interfere with your movement.'' He stepped out of the way, and the marchers walked onto the bridge.

Sheriff James G. Clark Jr. drove by slowly and told persons following the parade they would have to have press passes to go any farther. They sheriff was dressed in a brown suit and olive felt hat instead of his officer's uniform, a sign that trouble was not expected.

But the scene was ominous as the marchers reached the crest of the arched bridge. Four hundred yards down the highway could be seen a thick line of blue.

More than 100 troopers stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the four-lane highway. Fifty or so troopers and possemen were scattered along the sides of the road.

The marchers grew quieter. When they got to within 100 feet of the troopers, Maj. John Cloud, a state police officer, picked up a microphone and spoke into an amplifying system.

``I am asking you to stop where you are,'' he said. ``We are here to see that this march will not continue.''

The marchers stopped 50 feet from the trooper ranks.

Dr. King began to speak, saying the marchers wanted to go to Montgomery to present a petition to the Governor. His words were blurred by a stiff south wind.

``This march will not continue,'' Major Cloud said, his voice strong and clear on the loudspeaker. ``It is not conducive to the safety of this group or to the motoring public.''

The troopers stood grimly, each holding a nightstick.

Dr. King said the marchers would like to kneel and pray.

The officer said:

``You can have your prayer and then return to your church if you so desire.''

The marchers began singing ``We Shall Overcome.''

Four of the leaders took turns praying. Major Cloud ordered his men to move out of the highway to the roadsides. Then the road lay flat and open before the marchers. But they made no move to go on.

When the last prayer had ended, the column turned in the highway and headed back toward Browns Chapel.

The marchers sang freedom songs all the way back, beginning with ``Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me `Round.''





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