The March and Violence
A friendly observer remarked that the march had better begin soon, because a lot of bystanders at W. C. Handy Park and other points along the route were drinking heavily. (The police log reported that at 10:03 a.m., 25 men raided a liquor store on Vance Street, not far from Clayborn Temple, but in a direction opposite that of the march.)
A labor leader shook his head and whispered his misgivings: "I have a real sick feeling about this today -- for some reason."
The prevalent picket signs affirmed dignity, the denial of which was the root grievance of the strikers and the Negro community. Printed, they proclaimed in huge letters, "I AM A MAN." (A lot of others were neatly hand-lettered, such as one carrying the legend, "LOEB FOR GOD!") But youths who refused to join the march and crowded at Hernando and Linden, where the march would start, had inscribed their own sentiments on the reverse sides of some of those placards. "DAMN LOEB -- BLACK POWER IS HERE," one read. One began, "LOVE MY..." and ended with a crude drawing of a posterior. Others described Mayor Henry Loeb with obscenities.
A reliable observer reported later that two SCLC staffers on the scene became increasingly concerned about controlling the crowd, and expressed privately the hope that Dr. King would not come.
Dr. King did not arrive at Hernando and Linden until 10:56. The march lurched forward at 11:05.
There were plenty of spectators along Hernando and in Handy Park a block away where the march turned left on Beale. The sidewalks were crowded in front of the pawn shops and dry goods stores on the two blocks from the park up to Main Street.
Suddenly there was the crack and tinkle of breaking glass. One could hear resilient plate glass windows rattle as in a windstorm, then crash under second or third blows. Television cameras panned from Dr. King and the marchers to the sidelines to record the breaking of store windows.
One older youth -- he must have been 17 or 18 -- smashed a window on one side of the street, and proceeded behind spectators up the other side, breaking windows with a club almost without pausing.
The march made its turn onto Main Street, but was stopped after one short block as the shattering of windows continued. The ministers leading the march made the decision to stop it when they realized that the window breaking was not isolated rowdiness. At about the same time, a cordon of gas-masked police officers blocked Main Street. As the street was filled with marchers and the sidewalks with spectators, it would have been next to impossible to apprehend the culprits without stopping the march.
At the insistence of his lieutenants, Dr. King left the march and returned to his motel. The Rev. James Lawson, chairman of the ministerial group which had been leading strike-support demonstrations and meetings for six weeks, identified himself on a loud-speaker and requested marchers to return to Clayborn Temple. The overwhelming majority began to do so.
