It was Monday, June 24, fifty-four days after Bevel’s first children’s march in Birmingham, twelve days after the assassination of Medgar Evers. Stanley Levison missed the tribunal, having left the previous week for his annual vacation month in Ecuador. Some ventured jokes about what kind of Soviet agent would duck out just when his minions had the capitalists on the run, but the jokes fell flat. King somberly framed the dilemma. “I have just come out of Detroit, and it’s clear that the masses of people are with this movement,” he said. “But I’m dialectical enough to know that it’s your moment
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