Desperate to stave off a full-blown riot, the Justice Department attempted to mobilize a makeshift band of federal “marshals”—mainly tax collectors and border agents—to contain the violence in Montgomery. But when Bobby asked the FBI for extra cars to help shuttle the marshals, Hoover said no, insisting that the FBI needed all its men and equipment. As the crisis accelerated, he avoided Bobby’s calls and provided only half of the hundred agents requested to fill out the marshals’ ranks.
