57 Phone Calls script - version nyt 20 - 030415 Clark Olsen (VO): This was 1965. I was in Berkeley. I saw on television the terrible Bloody Sunday. Just incredible to me, that in our society there should be such violence, public violence as that. I knew something was wrong, and I wanted to speak up in some way. To do something. The next morning, I heard on the radio Martin Luther King asking clergy to come to Selma the next day. I arrived in Montgomery and I remember the drive across the countryside, about 55 miles. I remember seeing large billboards saying “Martin Luther King is a communist.” Never having been in the South before, and I knew I was in a different country, as it were. TEXT: In March 1965, Rev. Clark Olsen traveled to Selma, Alabama to join voting rights demonstrators from around the country. TEXT: Among the gathered clergy were two Unitarian ministers from Boston, Orloff Miller and James Reeb. I looked around and saw Jim and Orloff and we decided the three of us that we’d try and have dinner together. They had arrived earlier in town, so they had an orientation about how to behave - nonviolent, if someone attacks you, don’t attack back. We went to the restaurant, an integrated restaurant, just for that day. When we decided to leave, Jim telephoned to his wife, Marie, to tell her that he would not be back home that night. The three of us then started walking back to Brown Chapel. We saw three or four men who came across the street at us. We saw that one of them was carrying a club of some kind. We whispered to each other, just keep walking. They were right behind us, and I turned and looked at them, and I saw one of them, the one next to Jim, right behind Jim Reeb, swing a club just “bam” hitting Jim on the side of his head. Orloff fell to the ground in that prayer for protection position. And I, I ran. One of the attackers ran after me, and slugged me, hit my face, knocked my glasses off and then went away. And so did the others. Jim was lying there babbling incoherent. And he squeezed my hand tighter and tighter And then, I felt his hand go limp and he went unconscious. He never recovered his consciousness. I began to realize that we were the center of attention. That this was a big event. The next morning, they brought us back to the hospital. And immediately I noticed that there were yellow roses there that had been sent by President and Mrs. Johnson. Thousands of people gathered in various cities - Washington, Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, uh, it was headlines all across the country about this attack on this white clergy. But the whole voting rights march, that is the march from Selma to Montgomery, was originally organized to honor Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young black man who had been killed by a state trooper. But there wasn’t much attention paid to Jimmie Lee Jackson by the broader American public, nor by the president. I learned years later that in reference to Jimmie Lee Jackson’s death, President Johnson had not one telephone call. He didn’t initiate one, he didn’t receive one. In reference to the attack on Jim Reeb and his death and so on, Johnson had 57 phone calls. TELEPHONE CALL: Johnson: This minister’s gonna die, isn’t he? Katzenbach: Yes. Johnson: What time do you think he’ll die? Katzenbach: They tell me that he could stay alive for another 24 or 36 hours Olsen: 57 phone calls. It has struck me that that’s an extraordinary number no matter what the...no matter what the situation might be. 57 phone calls. I believe that Johnson was moved by the attack on us and by Jim Reeb’s death. The president realized that this was the moment to urge passage of the voting rights bill. And in his speech, he said something to the effect that there are times in history that are special moments in man’s unending quest for justice and freedom. LBJ Speech: So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed. Olsen: So he made specific reference. To Jim Reeb. Whose hand I’d held when he went unconscious. LBJ Speech: Really it’s all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome. I’m passed 80 years old now. This happened to me when I was 33 years old. The gift to me in my later years and having been part of this. It’s an enormous gift to me. Part of, not all, but part of the meaning of my life. TEXT: In December 1965, three men were tried for the murder of Rev. James Reeb. TEXT: They were acquitted by an all white jury. Directed by Andrew Beck Grace Producer Chip Brantley Associate Producers Connor Towne O’Neill Kyle Leopard Original Music Jeff T. Byrd Camera Andrew Beck Grace Editor Andrew Beck Grace Thank You Liz Alley Bartley Powers Aaron Greer Colin Rafferty Justin Gaar