In Mobile, Alabama, the local White Citizens’ Council set up a telephone line for people who wanted to dial in to hear a prerecorded attack on King: “If Martin Luther ‘Riot’ King and Dick Gregory want to do something for their people,” said the message, “they ought to go to the Congo and try to civilize them … Riot King has brought more violence to the South than anyone else in the past 110 years.” When King announced plans to lead a January voter registration drive in Selma, the local newspaper reminded readers that J. Edgar Hoover had branded King “the most notorious liar in the country” and
...more
