“As long as you’re in church, Reverend King, and our men are down there, you might as well say a prayer for us,” he suggested. King did not laugh.* He excused himself to receive the latest alarms from lookouts, who had spotted no rescuers. With defenders brandishing weapons at points of entry to the church, King addressed Kennedy in a voice of taut urgency. “If they don’t get here immediately, we’re going to have a bloody confrontation,” he said. “Because they’re at the door now.”
