American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Harris Wofford, 2 of 3

would be the head of the fbi that it was the fbi that ought to be reporting that we found out that this is happening and we do what we do about it or i'm fine take some action to prevent it in and find whoever was working in tremendous collaboration on wiretapping and everything else with southern police and sullen authorities against civil rights so the most appropriate person our government was in fact on the other side and so we just go back and imagine a former top cop does justice for first place and if either robert kennedy or the president had known it was about to take place they would have pulled almost certain that the chips that had with civil rights leaders to stop this they would've called they would have set

but burke marshall and me and sargent shriver lee martin and others and work to stop it lee morton if any of us in the idea of you know martin but extraordinary african american through two administrations put a link could handle anything like that was maybe because this is a former hp attorney general's point of view and the president's there are affirmative agenda was to focus on voting rights and the turning to integration on transportation was not on their agenda so someone was trying to change the agenda but the credible reason of moving was that obviously it would be a scandal an american scandal with the whole world would be taking note of that was real violence of that kind of at that point in history

so you had two reasons for morning to get people off the buses one was he was going to make khrushchev at and the world was looking in america i remembered me the victim but what did happen was viewed as an american scandal of major proportions that obviously they wouldn't have one and at that very tense time for the first meeting with khrushchev and all of europe looking at it on the headlines around the world were of the violence in america secondly you know the huge attorney general king and others were agreeing that voting rights was going to be the all out focus and you're a nurse suddenly this came out of left field and i'm robert kennedy liked his own agenda you know

so the parliament they now know that the freedom riders go you can say the justice department a key official of the justice department the head of the federal bureau of investigation not only knew that the details of the attack to a paid informant is it we were taken by surprise by the freedom riders not that i'm speaking for the white house when the white house were completely taken by surprise that's true of the attorney general and the assistant attorney general for civil rights it's if if they give any advance notice we would have been at work trying to find out what it was about and it was an obviously a matter of great danger and that would have been a lot of this would've been involved in trying to

find out what to do court said they sent letters and the follower says he priscilla d and e's they knew that the point know what's going to happen and he sent levy put letters in the post box in the mail to the president and the attorney general though i think he had a few of the people we sent letters to and if he didn't nobody then i know ever saw those letters what happened to them i have no idea but i do know that if we had any advance notice we would have been at work trying to figure out how to respond say grace is always another free enterprise that weren't worth what where we're really don't know like the city and students who started it and the inaction i'm

sitting i'm going to jail in nineteen sixty nineteen sixty one they were on their own and they had a ham allies in the end only cpm many places where they stopped and they were put out for the night in the first seven hundred miles of before the violence but they were on their own and as far as protection of the government of the united states the stories worse than that you know carmine carmine so they were the freedom riders were on their own in the same way that the sad instances suddenly initiated surveillance and tennessee

because of it you know for so long britain where it doesn't know that viruses though that he wrote a cell phone the freedom riders were on their own they took the country by surprise me to the president and they took those of us in the white house by surprise they wear where freedom riders were on their own they took the country by surprise that took us by surprise in the white house and ended and the president and the attorney general so when

did you realize that um do you know when you live in the white house about the trouble in alabama anniston army and you remember that humor i don't remember the moment when either i was told our rent a trigger that said to be in anniston them they had been bombed and be command knew of the first words legit you think some people are probably been killed and face faces were bloody you couldn't see the identify the faces and it was so it was a harsh story and then has a tremendous shock when when the word came through did you think that that they would be better protected by well once that the violence occurred everyone including me

was worried that as to the safety of the writers at every stop is they got deeper and deeper into alabama and mississippi back again did the fbi know about that we now know that j edgar hoover had a paid informant who was with the ku klux klan who knew the plans and reported to j edgar hoover who's the head of the federal bureau of investigation agency that should have protected them was informed and was aiding and abetting and you can say it's one of the great scandals of american political history oh yes cause we want to get the city to know

what the fbi the fbi was the agency that should have been informed and should've been active to protect the freedom riders it did well it hadn't paid informant with the ku klux klan who knew what the plot was who was a part of it and who was informing the head of the federal bureau investigation j edgar hoover what drew hoover did nothing hoover i think that says that he let the police the chiefs of the cities that are going to know about it those are the very police forces that were aligned with the clan and aiding and abetting the violence that took place it is well you get the idea to stop violence actually i did nothing to stop violence in

birmingham what it did was talk today or send messages to the bull connor the chief of police and the dude said they're not going to be an intern made negroes and white segregating together in birmingham while i'm here and the fbi was in cahoots with him from the beginning isaac was with many police agencies around the south who were enforcing segregation and o'connor is understood they have an arrangement with the chlamydia give them i think it was fifteen minutes to do that being before he would go in to protect them and the head of the federal bureau of investigation the united states at that time was aiding and abetting the violence that was occurring so investigators than in in terms of time you know the the

anniston was burning has happened and at the same time is going into crimea and his mom is waiting for you and so talk about that so they're going after the burning and arming and beating and as stern the victims were finally taken to a hospital by then they don't relive the president knew about what was going on and by then i was talking with the governor of alabama to ask for protection and that that pressure from the president was very intense and there were times when they thought that governor paterson of alabama was going to respond and protect and they were disappointed and disillusioned all was happening in a very fast moving target effort we all knew what was happening and the question is how soon when federal marshals have to be sent in

and they they were necessary and they were finally sent him how about this one day the us says that hasn't happened you know talk about what the what is on the bus and they'll have a cell phone now and all the negative effects buses coming along yet and they're going to birmingham want to wait when the second bus following after that catastrophe with the first bus heads into birmingham they had learned what'd happened at anniston they were hoping they wouldn't face that in birmingham but they did they moved into has our story of the police letting the ku klux klan loose for fifteen minutes or so before any protection came

well thank you but that second bus group of freedom riders displayed going ahead and to birmingham after what had happened in anniston not knowing what would happen but fearing the worst and the worst came to pass the police chief bull connor had given the clam fifteen or so minutes to do the beatings and they didn't get a fifth of it is more of a one and action is the more of those early in the year and so that the present attorney general went into action to get this governor of alabama to take responsibility for the safety and end the violence and from time to time they thought he would and they thought it was very important that if all

possible it wasn't a case of federal troops being sent in as they did in little rock that she got the local leaders to take responsibility and they were all out pressing a paterson the governor of alabama to do so sometimes he seemed to be saying yes i will and the other times he sang a rabble rouser isn't nobody can protect them people are so aroused and i'm it must have been a very happy hard time for the president united states to know what whether to believe him for a little longer before sending in federal marshals why does a person secure so i thought you know it was that was a day at the white house and justice department must end i was no i haven't learned that the fbi knew

how they're now going to go we're in the eu have to understand the plot of this little piece of american history this vital piece of american history you have to know the feud leave the almost fight between the head of the fbi in the polls one of the year if not the most respected man in america popular in his own domain standing up against the attorney general and the president united states and that's another story but this is just one episode and that becoming clearer unclear that j edgar hoover of the fbi was opposing the president attorney general of the united states in every way he could and no matter what i think is that the public

trust love that existed between governor paterson who is anyone that no one minute with an n and the kennedys was a lot of trust there at this point and the relationship between the president and attorney general and the governor of alabama is this something that's hard to measure because the governor of alabama along with most southern democratic governors had supported kennedy and no they thought he was a good fellow in the end as a moderate segregation a split peas and i am how to decide to somebody who had been supporting you and seemed basin is that it's betraying you or is unable or is determined not to have to to take on his to his constituents a paterson undoubtedly recognize that the majority of the white people in

alabama appeared to be behind where action was taken to stop this freedom ride and so he has political pressures this is a time of high tensions in every party of of this story when you see it john second floor was sent down by robert kennedy recognizing the gravity of this situation and sent them probably person he trusted most and was closest to in the department of justice jon seaton dollar and john went right into the lion's den and he went right into the horror and was it was not easy trying to

help was not well here it is and john cassidy themselves to some ways katia said he was extraordinarily close to robert kennedy what was that simple as close as the kennedy and why he said that was he sent them here to do johnson thought was as close to carry as anybody else that i know and kennedy robert kennedy trusted him and knew that this was a crisis for the united states and he sent them any trusted most to go into the thick of it and to be the eyes the ears and the adviser for the attorney general of united states and civil and roll and ceo of gets there and moscow and new and ryan will of one of

those every writer at the airport there really was coming from why so many hits the plant near and so so they're so cynical of this about washington you haven't really going to move has this drama love and trying to get out of an embassy some reluctance with it what would this exhibit is a bit of history and then secondly new action to enforce the end of segregation in interstate commerce for one lion known as the onus is as close a letter with it ok

well we were right you obviously can hear me and probably by then pushing the justice department to act on them you know what are they gonna do about ending the ending on their own plot right ending segregation in the terminals and on the buses so the first wave of free riders i feel that unwarranted and simple as they are and they're in birmingham talk about the evolving hero kennedy is no sign they get a second when you

flew in on a bus and after the the governor and finally promise that there will be no more violence but they'd suddenly discovered it while they were triumphantly it's a thinking were going to sail onto jackson was no more alabama violence the bus driver runs away he's scared and they couldn't get a bus driver and one of the funny moments of this great drama was robert kennedy and i think in the middle of the night but many case saying it to thee the local greyhound on executives you tell mr greyhound that he's got to provide a driver to get the strip completed and they did and afterwards robert kennedy's statement once it came out on the

transcripts was public was used in the south to show that this was all a plot of the administration to support civil rights and that one quotation which is just funny to us convinced for a long time white southern segregationists that the administration was behind this whole freedom ride from the beginning that's what you're going to do and it is they were at their worst unless you get

that get a situation were the framers can give us a problem the next stage of the story is how you get the bus to go from birmingham to montgomery and out of alabama and it suddenly the word came the bus driver has run away and they can't find any driver who dares to drive this puts forward the governor of alabama has this time clearly said there will be no more violence in yemen on this trip in alabama and robert kennedy feels that only he can move the greyhound company to provide the bus and he gets the company top man in alabama on the phone and says you tell mr greyhound <unk> greyhound that that he's got to get this bus on the road and they did

this with their cells alone file is an agreement and to vote in paris owner newbury and protected him get your driver finally in the buses on the road was there an understanding from new law in washington that that floyd mann in paterson are saying we can protect these people on the highway but then montgomery's responsible for protecting them in montgomery that they understand it because you know there again is this dr montgomery well you know as we're now with this agreement me as delusions agreement that happen is agreement has a riot breakout montgomery the truth is i don't know it was a huge mob that finally assembled

that to the really critical hours were in that baptist church or four oh my word this change will you will you will you hear that there was a problem in montgomery alabama riot this is receding though it gets good ideas you all and then you have their lawn that you've done now you know you guys guarantee of protection you raising your questionnaire filing for greyhound mr graham has arranged a bus but has been willing to instill is this next ride to go in the ad i will

four when the island was i made him would've been very shortly after he was hurt or walmart in his reaction no i'm not working for bobby kennedy are urgently trying to speak they're not life and speak honestly even if you know how close robert kennedy was to jon seaton dollar or how much he respected the authority of the united states government to have his top advisor closest friend be beaten try to protect people in the midst of this must have you know long writer not always minded his heart and must have assured the constant attention every moment as to what was happening not just a job but to the freedom riders and i think from that moment on no in kentucky chad

you know the full concentration of the attorney general of the united states or korea was there