Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King Jr's Final Hours. Ann Bausum

      Chapter 3

       IMPASSE

      “Let’s keep marching,” urged James Lawson. “They’re trying to provoke us. Keep going,” he said.

      The Methodist minister watched as a string of police cars edged closer to retreating workers. Bumper touching bumper, the cars crowded against the rows of marchers, herding them into a tighter formation. Lawson recognized the potential for conflict from his years of experience with the civil rights movement. Workers and accompanying family members needed to walk off some of their anger and disappointment over the latest city council meetings. Strikers had left city hall on February 22 anticipating a settlement of their grievances.