WASHINGTON (UPI) -- President Kennedy kept in close touch with developments today in the explosive Birmingham racial crisis, one of the gravest in the nation's recent history.
Among the first messages to reach his desk in early morning hours were demands from integrationist leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for federal intervention in Alabama.
King wired the Chief Executive that he would "sincerely plead with my people to remain non-violent in the face of this terrible provocation. However, I'm convinced that unless some immediate steps are taken by the federal government to restore a sense of confidence in the protection of life, limb and property, my pleas will fall on deaf ears and we shall see in Birmingham and Alabama the worst racial holocaust this nation has ever seen."
