if there hadn t been a world or raid against them, a very powerful world including at times all of the powers that be in our country. it is inspiring now to see echos of civil rights heroism in our country today. it is unsettling to see echos in our country today of what they fought against. joining us now is charles ogletree, thank you very much for being with us tonight. happy to be with you, rachel. why was dr. king perceived as a threat, such a dangerous threat to national security, particularly after that speech. a lot of this was in j. edgar hoover s mind. he did it not just with king, malcolm x, harry bellafonte who was supported. what made it even worse, if you think about it, bobby kennedy played a role as the attorney general, looking into these cases, talking about indicting people.
the singer harry bellafonte was very close to a lot of national civil rights leaders at the time, including martin luther king, and his family, in harry bellafonte s auto biography, he writes about these protests and how there was this national shock and horror at seeing these images, at how these protesters were brutalized in birmingham. there was the practical nuts and bolts dollars and sense matter of raising the bail money to get the protesters out of jail. he raised $50,000 himself, the unions stepped in and kicked up a lot of money. a black store workers union in new york. they sent tens of thousands of dollars to the jail to serve as bail money. with all those hundreds of children in jail, when they totalled up the bill for bail, it was staggering. something like $160,000 they needed to raise to bail out the children. that is in 1963, that is not adjusted for inflation. do you realize how much money that was at that time.
harry bellafonte and said, harry, you didn t tell me i d have to sign a demand promissory note. he said, well, better you than me. i said, but you have more money than i do. but in any event it was done, and we were appreciative of it, i took the money to birmingham, and the following, that was on a saturday, the following tuesday, there was a messenger that came to my office with an envelope marked personal and confidential, and the envelope and there was the promissory note i signed and it said paid in full. obviously i didn t pay it, it had been paid. that was a profound experience. first of all, a very great gesture on the part of the rockefeller family. to make it clear, i hear references about my contribution to dr. king s speech. dr. king wrote most of his speeches, i was honored together with the very dear, beloved
those heroes of the movement would not have had to be heroic, if there hadn t been a world or raid against them, a very powerful world including at times all of the powers that be in our country. it is inspiring now to see echos of civil rights heroism in our country today. it is unsettling to see echos in our country today of what they fought against. joining us now is charles ogletree, thank you very much for being with us tonight. happy to be with you, rachel. why was dr. king perceived as a threat, such a dangerous threat to national security, particularly after that speech. a lot of this was in j. edgar hoover s mind. he did it not just with king, malcolm x, harry bellafonte who was supported. what made it even worse, if you think about it, bobby kennedy played a role as the attorney general, looking into these cases, talking about indicting people. they did nothing wrong, nonviolence, very peaceful, and
happy to be with you, rachel. why was dr. king perceived as a threat, such a dangerous threat to national security, particularly after that speech. a lot of this was in j. edgar hoover s mind. he did it not just with king, malcolm x, harry bellafonte who was supported. what made it even worse, if you think about it, bobby kennedy played a role as the attorney general, looking into these cases, talking about indicting people. they did nothing wrong, nonviolence, very peaceful, and yet they were threats to america according to j. edgar hoover. when you look at the kinds of fights that are happening now on civil rights issues, narrowly defined. for example, this fight is over voting rights in north carolina and texas. there is attorney general eric holder weighing in. that s happening at the official level.