President
Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard and used it to
guarantee the maintenance of law and order. When the procession
reached the state capitol building, the demonstraters were
addressed by two Afro-American Nobel Peace Prize winners. Ralph
Bunche, who had received the award for mediating the Middle
Eastern crisis, lamented the fact that he had to address an
audience while standing under a Confederate flag. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., who had just received the award himself for his
work in nonviolent resistance, told the marchers to take heart
because they were on the road to victory:
"We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not
deter us. We are on the move now. The bombing of our homes will
not dissuade us. We are on the move now. The beating and killing
of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. We are on
the move now. The arrest and release of known murderers will not
discourage us, We are on the move now.
"Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of
mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom.
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