The CORE press office had interested only three reporters, all Negroes, in covering the Freedom Ride. Simeon Booker of Jet magazine tried to ease his qualms by notifying the FBI of CORE’s hazardous project. Then Booker slipped into the Justice Department for one of those thirty-second, bob-in conversations, telling the Attorney General and his aide John Seigenthaler that there would probably be trouble. “Okay, call me if there is,” Kennedy replied briskly, adding, “I wish I could go with you.” It reassured Booker to know that the Attorney General of the United States knew in advance of his
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