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And he switched the machine back on

King: I entered this fight when I enty-six, and destroying Jim Crow has been a hard battle I’ve known since the first day that my life of nonviolence would end violently Everyone thinks about dying

Foster: You more than others

King: I agree I’ve often spoke of it Probably too much But they killed Kennedy They killed Malcolar Evers They’ve killed little black children and white reformists I think about Selma and Jimmie Lee Jackson all the time

Foster: I do too

King: I want to say this to the people listening to this tape In 1965 ent to Selhts Jimmie Lee Jackson enty-six years old A farm laborer and church deacon He marched with us that day to the Perry County Courthouse when the state troopers attacked with clubs Ji assaulted and rushed to help them An Alabaed him away so he could be arrested for assault and battery It took hours before he ered in terrible pain for nine days before dying Nine days after that we oed at the clubs, whips, chains, tear gas, and bullets they’d seen on television being used against defenselessthere that day, a white minister and father of four, Jary mob of whites A few days later a forty-year-old white mother named Viola Liuzzo was shot dead by several Klanset that this et Not now Not ever How many times have we seenfor a chance to take a shot at us? How ained by howyour life, or how ained by service to the poor and lost, the heartbroken and despairing, the hungry and naked Jimmie Lee Jackson, Jaave their lives What they lacked was notoriety I have that So my life will now be offered so that none of theotten

[PAUSE]

Foster: What do you want us to say at the funeral?

King: I want it short with only a brief eulogy I don’t want any mentions of iven Just have theht on the war I tried to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the imprisoned The more hate my enemies spat, the harder I pushed myself The more they tried to stop ht, to love and serve humanity

Foster switched off the machine for the last time

He and I both were visibly wrestling with emotion

“In the last year of his life Martin experienced a difficult erosion of faith That halo of abundant confidence, which early success generates in the young and rash, had disappeared He was approaching forty years old and viewed life with a frantic urgency I heard Coretta talking to Ralph Abernathy, about a e, she said it was like fate was closing in on him”

Hard to hide much from your wife

Which I should know

“He told ht His death gave an extrato all the others who’d died before hiotten”

What I should do next was no longer clear I’d co would have to be revealed Coleen was gone No reason existed to keep this secret, except perhaps to keep Foster froed This wasn’t a ed to look like a murder

“King seeh,” I said

“That was his gift He had a vision He’d been the producer, director, and costar in hts performances Marches, demonstrations, rallies, freedoanized the happened by chance His last production, his greatest production, was his own death”

Foster reached beneath his jacket and brought out a 38 revolver, which he laid on the table

I pointed at the weapon “Is that for you or me?”

“Maybe me I don’t know yet”

He hadn’t asked me any of the details about what occurred with Jansen, Oliver, and Valdez I doubted he knew much of what had happened with ustine and she surrendered herself

“Coleen willingly ith Valdez to protect you,” I said “She wanted you to be safe Now you plan to shoot yourself?”

He shrugged “I’ with other people’s deaths onsilent I’m just plain tired all the way around”

No question This guy had turned the practice of playing both sides against the middle into an art form And I suddenly realized that the roles had reversed I was hi One would die, the other would keep the secret

Or would I?

He rewound the tape until one spool was empty, then removed the reel

“Take this”

He handed the tape over to me