could become violent and derail his civil rights bill. we had a meeting at the white house with president kennedy. a. philip randolph, one of the black leaders, we called the dean of black leadership, spoke up in his baritone voice, he says something like mr. president, the black marchers are restless, and we re going to march on washington. and you can tell by the very body language of president kennedy he didn t like what he heard. when the march seemed inevitable, the president came around. but just in case things didn t go well, they have some of the military on standby outside of washington. they ordered all of the liquor stores to be closed. the administration had a secret plan. they put two fbi agents near the p.a. system, ready to pull the plug if they didn t like what they heard. john lewis had to tone down his speech, rewriting it that very afternoon.
of the military on standby outside of washington. they ordered all of the liquor stores to be closed. the administration had a secret plan. they put two fbi agents near the p.a. system, ready to pull the plug if they didn t like what they heard. john lewis had to tone down his speech, rewriting it that very afternoon. and as dr. king listened to the others speak, he revised his own speech. no one knows why, but activist dorothy cotton shared with me her theory, a story she once told dr. king. and i was telling him, i wish you could have been here last night, and that you could have heard this girl talking to this group of folk. so giving and so loving. saying all she wanted was her little girl to be able to play with this white girl. you know, very blond, blue-eyed girl standing there saying to these black folk. that was all, she just had a dream. i have always felt that somehow that stuck with him.