WEBVTT - A Connected Man [7] 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.040 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.880 Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.039 this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.800 individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:19.000 of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. This 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:28.960 episode contains strong language. Listener discretion is advised. Now, Johnny 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.360 Barger was my partner. We were policemen together. He's the 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.560 one who introduced me to Frank Liberto. We used to 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.360 go there Cloud often. It was real good friends. Of course, 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:42.600 I got to be pretty good friends with Frank myself 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.120 because he could do you a lot of good in Memphis, 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.800 especially on the police department. As we heard once before, 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.360 this is a recreation of Lloyd Jowers telling Dexter King 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:55.760 how it was he came to be friends with a 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.400 guy named Frank Liberto. As Jowers says, if you were 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.840 a cop, Loberto could do you a lot of good. 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.119 And Jowers knew that firsthand because Loberto saved him from 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.600 being fired when he had been found drunk on the job. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.720 Jowers would say on ABC Prime Time that the reason 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:14.959 Liberto was able to bring him into the plot against 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.800 King was because Jowers owed him Alberto don of a 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:28.560 large favor. Sowed in the favor I called the Union 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.040 Hall A says a matter of life and death. I said, 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:34.640 I think these people of planning to kill Dr King. 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.280 The authorities were parade. Oh, we found a gun that 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.360 James l Ray bought in Birmingham that killed Dr King. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.080 Except it wasn't the gun that killed Dr King. James 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:53.120 l Ray was upon for the official story from My 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.880 Heart Radio in Tender for TV. The plan was to 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.320 get King to the city because they wanted it handled 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.080 in Memphis for dead in him could handle it. And 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.280 I have lived with it alone, monsieur, and they they 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.959 skiff for me. The Lord told me to not the word. 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.960 I've been wanting to tell it all my life. I'm 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:25.120 Bill Clayburg and this is the MLK tapes. As we 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.800 just heard. Lloyd Jowers on National TV said that Frank 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.959 Liberto was able to bring him into the plot to 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:35.000 kill King because he owed him a favor. But murder 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.200 seems a little beyond what you Owers should have owed. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.000 If all Leberto had done was put in a good word, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.160 so what was it? Bill Pepper thinks Liberto might have 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.359 removed and disposed of a man who Jowers killed because 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.239 he caught him in bed with Betty Spaces. Bill says 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.640 Betty told him about this, though I couldn't find it 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.480 on any tape. Of course, the debt may have been 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.840 something more common, because along with this problem with alcohol, 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:03.839 Jowers liked gamble. Apparently he old Liberto or we're still 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.239 Liberto's boss, a pile of money, more money than he 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.040 could repay. So for the moment, let's accept that as 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.000 the leverage. But what did Jowers have that Liberto wanted. 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.799 Here's what jowers attorney Lewis Garrison had to say. I 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.919 came down, we had someone to do assassination. He thought 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:27.799 Jowers would be the person who do it. So that's what. So, 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.800 according to Garrison, Frank Liberto picked Owers because he thought 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.720 he was the man who could do the job. I 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.160 have a good opinion of Lewis Garrison, but I think 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.840 he has this piece of the puzzle wrong. I think 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.840 Liberto picked ours because the back door to his grill 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.360 opened onto a brush covered yard directly across from the 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:51.480 Lorraine Motel. And Liberto, who knew about these things, apparently 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.800 assured Jowers that the police would not be a problem. 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:59.560 Here's what Jowers said about that again on ABC. He 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:01.920 said I wouldn't be there, so they won't be there 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.320 that night. Did he say there would be a decoy there? Yeah, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.600 it'll be set up, but look like someone else done 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:15.400 the killing. So at this point, if we're following the signpost, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.680 the plot goes back to a wholesale produce guy who 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.640 is more than a wholesale produce guy. So who can 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.320 tell us about Frank Leberto? This is just what Dexter 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:29.400 King and Andy Young wanted to know when they met 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.040 with Jowers and Garrison in some motel room out on 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.800 the highway, the same meeting we listened to in the 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.960 last episode, and Jowers told them about some woman named 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:43.159 Nevada Whitlock Addison, who Frank Leberto liked a lot and 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.440 who we saw frequently at the end of the day. Again, 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:51.680 for clarity, we are recreating Jowers words. Miss Whitlock owned 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.839 a restaurant out on Highland hots On Making Road. I believe, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.479 I believe that's where it was. Frank used to stop 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.159 in there all the time. The fact is he tried 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.560 to go to bed with her all the time. Miss Whitlock. 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.400 He may have. I don't know. Anyway, he'd get old up, 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:09.880 get drunk up, and he'd do a lot of talk. 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.719 So what kind of talking did Frank Liberto do when 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.160 he was drunk up with Levada Addison? If we're talking 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.760 about the King murder, it wasn't much. But there was 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.960 one time. Here's a reading of a deposition Livada Addison 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.240 gave to Bill Pepper. I had a TV up in 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.040 the front part of the pizza parlor, and we were 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.520 sitting at a table and something came on the TV 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.360 about Martin Luther King. And I don't recall what it was, 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.320 but he said, in a low voice to me, he said, 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.400 I had Martin Luther King killed. I said, don't be 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.520 telling me anything like that. I don't want to hear it, 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.240 and I don't believe it anyway, and I got up 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.960 and walked away. Livada Addison ended the conversation when she 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.360 walked away, but it disturbed her enough that she told 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.680 her eighteen year old son, Nathan about it. Nathan had 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.560 his own relationship with a Toad or Mr Frank, as 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.880 he called him, a relationship he described from the witness 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:09.919 stand at the civil trial it's frashing myself with friends. 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:12.840 He would come to my mother's restaurant on the day 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.840 the basis, early the morning, late in the evening he'd 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.480 come back, and I spent most of my time, really, 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:23.880 even the evening time. At the time, I've been performing 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.760 in the lost days and I'm just Frank. He would 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.800 come in and drink beer a lot, and I knew 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.840 how to play a song, an Italian song on the 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.120 guitar of Manda Guenian, and I used to playing the 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.200 song and he used to like this what I'd playing, 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.000 and he would tit his money in and then he 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.880 got to where was Frank's I had a little small 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:53.160 breaks combo when he knew give me jobs. So that performing. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.760 So Mr Frank and Nathan became friendly. But what did 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:02.960 they talk about? That's what Bill Pepper asked at the trial. Well, 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.119 I asked you some stuff that led up to him 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:11.880 telling me that he came. But uh, I've heard that 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.480 ans of mom, And I asked, you can see the money, 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:17.960 and he he didn't say yes to know, he answered me, 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.480 But I asked him myself, what is the month? Is 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.840 it a bunch of bad guys that sit around at 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.840 the table and scheme up something mean to do this. No, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.200 it's a bunch of business men to take care of business. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.760 Nathan wasn't sure what to make of that, but he 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.200 was upset when he learned that Liberto had bribed to 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.880 his mother about the killing of King. I would regularly 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.480 bright when he showed up to the Pitts poker and 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.800 this ad just Frank to kill Barnloke. The King glared 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:48.600 at me. He said, you can talk to your mother. 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.680 I said yeah. He said you wired. I didn't even 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.480 want to get to that. No, I'm not wired. I 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:58.360 thought he was talking about it not taking in feather, 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:03.520 mean bills were wired up. No, I'm not crazy. Uh 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.760 you know he said there he says is I don't 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:12.160 want to offend anybody about saying he told me. He said, 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:13.880 I didn't kill the nigger, but I had it done. 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:16.680 And I said, what about the other son of a 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:22.000 bitch out they're taking credit for He says, ah, he 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.840 wouldn't done what I trovelger from Assuri. He was a 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.880 front man, and I didn't know what that mean, because 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.960 front man me means something different than what he was 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.120 thinking about it. I said what he said, I set 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.280 up at me. I said, why did you kill the preacher? Forward? 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.439 He says, boy, you don't even need to be here 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.960 about this. He said, oh, to say nothing. He stood up. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.080 He actbody's gonna slap me upside the head. So I 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:47.920 stood up there and me and they were looking at 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.520 each other, and he's got this glare and look on 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.400 his eye, and I can tell he was thinking about hit. 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.640 And by that time the phone ring, So I spoke 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.040 to the national phone and I'm busy with a pizza 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.920 stuff and I looked up. He's gone. He left his 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.719 spurs as everyone'll tell you what's ahead for. But there 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.920 was no damage done. Liberto was back the next day 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.680 and there was no further talk about King. Nathan. Whitlock 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.200 then told the court about something that happened at the 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.000 restaurant that for a brief moment, had Liberto and Nathan 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:24.240 talking about something that Liberto wanted him to do. Some 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.600 guy came in. He looked kind of like John went 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.280 to the big guy read Nick. Guy walked to my 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.920 mother's restaurant, bring the beer. Mom runs over to the 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.600 door and she says, you can't bring up beer in here, 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.719 but I said, and he just he says, I might 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.240 just buy this motherfucking place, and back came mam. When 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.360 he did, I walked around the counter, was a nastick 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.040 and I'm not fired from the tail and knock him 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.280 through the front door. Kid across here buzz the out 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:58.800 and real bad buzzetel Nathan Whitlock damn near killed the 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.319 guy and would have if someone hadn't intervened. And fortunately 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.680 for Nate, Liberto's friendship was enough to ensure there would 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.400 be no reprisal. But more than that, what Nathan had 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.400 done had made an impression on Mr Frank and the 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.280 next time they met, Loberto started poking around, asking Nate 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.640 if for money he might consider killing a few people 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.280 that needed killing. He said, to do it again. I said, 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.320 I guess also might come and bit a base party. 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:30.120 Boh my eyes and yeah turn up and he says, 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.840 just didn't gentile said to him? He said, multiples over around, 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.680 We're going to the bat there on the flat over 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.040 emotional over for and to do it with some length, 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:48.319 And I said, I was money. He said fire. Nathan 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.800 got out of the conversation without agreeing to anything, but 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.280 every now and then he felt the stomach turn as 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:58.120 he found himself thinking about it. Then a few weeks later, 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.360 the phone rang at the restaurant. It was Frank Liberto 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.800 and he asked to speak to Nathan. Loberto didn't never 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.520 call Nathan on the phone, and Nathan didn't know what 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:09.839 this could be about, but he knew what he hoped 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.520 it was not about. He said hello and heard Liberto's 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.880 deep voice. He said, I got a job for you tonight. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:26.880 Nate felt his pulse quicken and he's thinking. Nate kept listening, 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.600 trying to understand what was being asked of him. Loberto 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.120 said something about meeting down at the Civic Center and 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:37.600 to bring his drummer friend. Suddenly it came to him, 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:47.400 he's about yea for Sheriff Bill Morris's Christo. So Nathan 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:51.320 Woodlock played at Sheriff Morris's Christmas party and Frank Loberto 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.520 never asked him then or later to kill anybody. The 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.000 next summer, Nathan went to Canada, and when he came back, 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.280 his mother told him that Frank Liberto had died. MH. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.240 Solvada Addison and Nathan Whitlock were people who knew the 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.480 real Frank Liberto and Mr Frank really did kind of 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.280 tell him that he played a part in the killing 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.880 of King, but that was years after the fact, and 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.800 maybe he was just making it up. So is there 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.400 someone closer to the crime who we might consult about Liberto? 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.360 Turns out there is how close to the crime was 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.680 he about half an hour away. This man, by chance 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.800 happened to be standing near Liberto at a crucial time 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.120 and he heard a few things he was not supposed 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:56.320 to hear, and at that time he would badly relive 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.040 never been reached to be out of the book. It 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:04.800 was in the spraying of nineteen nine and doing it 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:10.000 spraying a nineteen nine on up until the summer, we 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.560 made a great effort to get Naples the Reggist to vote, 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.959 and doing it summer we've got a small number risik in. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.920 On August twitter, nineteen fift nine, we had a primary 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:29.760 election and they refused to let us vote. The Democratic 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.920 committed refused to let us vote. That's the voice of 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.480 John McFerrin, who was raised in Fayette County, Tennessee, just 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.280 east of Memphis. As a young man, he served in 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.720 the Army during the Second World War, and, like many 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.240 other black men, his time in the service had brought 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.880 him to other places and shown him other things which 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.320 made him less able to accept what he had always 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.320 known in Fayette County, like being denied the right to vote. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.320 As McFerrin just described, even after they'd gotten a small 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.199 number of blacks to register, they were still not out 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.160 to vote, and the reaction in the white community was swift. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.520 The White Citizens Council came up with the idea that 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.800 any black person who tried to register or vote should 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.360 be thrown off their land. Most black farmers were sharecroppers, 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.000 so they didn't own the land they worked. And it 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.560 wasn't just a threat. The evictions began. They were making 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:25.600 them all moved. And they got together and see it, 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.680 and they was coming to us, what we're gonna do 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.680 with all these folks that make the move over the land, 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.800 and they got no where to go. Then the group 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.160 and myself come up with the idea of my intent 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:45.160 and we bought label lay aborted ten from level jumpyard 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:50.200 on Serious Street. There's armored teens and we put up 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:55.920 the armored tents and later we named ten City. That's 0:14:55.920 --> 0:15:00.640 how Ten Cities started. In a year's time, city grew 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.960 to hold over three people, including children who had a 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.120 canvas roof over their heads, but no income and little 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.040 to eat. But that wasn't the end of it. The 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.400 leaders of the group were not allowed to buy food, 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.720 or gasoline or much of anything else, not only in 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.520 Fayette County, but in Memphis as well. John McFerrin had 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.640 a small store that sold to local blacks. It was 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.400 a service to the community, pretending to be a business. 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:30.480 And suddenly John McFerrin had access to nothing. Would it 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.560 sell us, no games, would sellers, no food? They didn't 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:39.840 say a none need roots. That was called leaves. They 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.880 had a list. There's this clop club, clan and citizen 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:49.080 council pay us to rank, and a list contain named 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:55.200 and called the trollmakers with ex is behind McFerrin was 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.560 one of those with an ex behind his name. But 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.560 he did find a few sources who would sell to 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.080 him on the sly, a guy with a bread truck 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.080 that would meet him out on the road, and a 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.320 few other people who would sell to him after hours. 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.560 But then a court order came down saying that blacks 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.920 had the right to vote, and a truce of sorts 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:14.920 was called. Because the harsh conditions of Tense City were 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.640 beginning to make Memphis look bad, and a lot of 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.720 land was lying fallow. So the farmers were allowed to 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.920 return and things died back to the not very nice 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.120 way they had been before. McFerrin went back to his 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:30.000 store and was able to purchase meat at Morrel Meat 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.480 Company and his vegetables from L n L Produce, a 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.960 wholesale market run by Frank Liberto, and that's where he 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.520 happened to be at on the day Martin Luther King 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.560 was shot. The following is from John McFerrin's testimony at 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:48.920 the civil trial, in answering questions put to him by 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.560 Bill Pepper, would you describe what the layout of the 0:16:53.680 --> 0:17:00.160 place was? And once you did? When arrive on the 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:05.280 right side, there's a little small oafice. And when I 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:12.359 got intended feet of this office, by Latch was standing up. 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.760 James Latch was Luberto's partner and the other L and 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.479 L and L Produce, And McFerrin always tried to avoid him. 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.560 Mr lest he star around his neck like this, and 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.200 he'd always be in the dream. But Mr Pako was 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:34.600 always friend. I would let stay wee bumping good, and 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:38.639 then we're happy about the phone man. And when the 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:44.440 phone rang last Victor, that's it, that's him again. He 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:50.040 gave it from Mr Paco and mcquaio said, shooting in 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:54.639 the You can just say what he said, shoot design 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:59.639 is on the back well. At that time they need 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:02.480 to head noticed me and I was just standing up 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.800 a little close to them and looking. Then he looked 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:10.000 around and see me. Then he said, gone, get you 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.720 munch of that. I won't only ain't gotten munch of that. 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:19.080 Then when I was coming back out, the phone rang again. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:24.440 Let's fixture go and give it to Mr Baker, and 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.640 Mr Baker told it go get brother and you all 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.120 and get his five dollar not At the time, McFerrin 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.560 couldn't make sense out of what he had heard, but 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:42.480 that changed quickly. And when I got home, my wife 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.840 called and said, do you know dr Game you gotta kill? 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.560 I said, I know it. It all come back to 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.119 me in my mind where I heard, he says, when 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:58.440 they're told, I knew. Mcferren couldn't forget what he heard, 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.719 but it frightened him, so he didn't say anything to anyone. 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.080 But the man who had been murdered was Martin Luther King, 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.240 and McFerrin knew that King deserved something more from him 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:12.240 than silence. So two days later, McFerrin called a white 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.160 Methodist minister he knew, the Reverend Baxton Bryant, and told 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.160 him that he had heard something about the King killing. 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:20.719 He said he was afraid to go to the police 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.760 and didn't know what to do. Reverend Bryant suggested that 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:30.040 they meet the next afternoon. Before we take you to 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.439 that meeting, it is important to understand who Reverend Bryant 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:38.840 was and why McFerrin trusted him. At the time of 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.480 the sanitation strike in Memphis, Reverend Bryant was the director 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.480 of the Tennessee Citizens Union, a group dedicated to improving 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.680 communication between the black and white communities. At that time, 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.359 they weren't having much luck. This is how Reverend Bryant 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.840 summed it up in an interview he gave at Rhodes 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.719 College just two months after King was killed. Nest had 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:05.800 taken a lot of pride. It was paternalist. They had 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:11.320 laid some games, but it was raised the racist to 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.680 the core is what Brian called it. And although he 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.600 was white, he knew what that looked like. He had 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.760 grown up dur poor and rural Arkansas, one of thirteen children, 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.720 and like most of the blacks there, they didn't own 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.000 their own land. He felt that the words of Jesus 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.520 and their promise applied to everyone, black or white, and 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:31.359 that made him a little different from a lot of 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.600 the other white preachers in the Deep South. After he 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:36.920 had moved to Memphis and became the director of the 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.520 Citizens Union, Bryant played the role of go between in 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.520 the tents stuttering negotiations between the city and the striking 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.439 sanitation workers. He won the respect of both sides by 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.520 not tiptoeing around. What follows is his account of rather 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.240 heated private conversation that he had with Mayor Loeb a 0:20:56.320 --> 0:21:00.760 couple of weeks before King was killed. I found out 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.159 I could say anything in this world that I wanted 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.960 to Familior and continuous Prince. I guess I appealed to 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:11.639 him because the Minister and I pressing with him. You know, 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:15.200 he didn't wouldn't have to be the ordinary, you know, 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:22.400 or Patsy preaching. You know you what he would tell me, Baxton, 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.480 all I've got to give my kids is my name. 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.240 My old dad taught me to be honest, and I've 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.440 said I wouldn't do it, and that I give you 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:37.880 my word, it's my word. I'm not going but I've 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:41.119 said I wouldn't recognize it, evenion, I'm not going to 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:46.720 recognize the Reverend Bryant saw lope as hiding behind his 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.800 father and his kids, and he wasn't having it. Why 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.639 can't you see, Henry, that thing's man. They want to 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:55.840 be mean. They don't want you to do something far, 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:59.480 They want to do something for them, saying, do you 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.560 know what what happened? If you recognize the union in 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:08.920 every one of those thirteen, you know there'd be a 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.040 man said at the end of the table tonight. Now 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:14.720 this is the stuff, Henry, that you've got to have 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.520 to be at home. But Daniel, so don't you sit 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:24.200 there and tell me you ba this one, you big bone, 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:29.360 you rawhide bast don't look me in the ay until 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.920 the you're old day ever told you to destroy the 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:38.600 manhood and the guts and the integrity and the courage 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:44.000 and willed man down the pons. A couple of weeks later, 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:47.280 Bryant attended a memorable meeting of the white ministers and 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.800 Black ministers at the Episcopal Church in Memphis. Bryant walked 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:54.960 over to the meeting with the Reverend Ralph Jackson, an 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.240 outspoken leader in the sanitation strike. Bryant and Jackson sat 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:03.280 down together, and Rabbi Wax, speaking for the white ministers, 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:08.719 started things off, said I'm at bat. Wax got up 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:12.040 and opened the meeting and said, I think we ought 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:16.359 to limit this discussion to try to find out what 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:22.600 the issues are. Ralph Jackson came on. Ralph jumped up 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:29.920 and said, you trick. I fought a long laught my 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:37.640 white breath had decided to have. Therefore, black, you don't 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:43.400 want to take me in you and me that thing. 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:46.400 What we're going to discuss is what the insue gore 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:53.560 ll all of you b bastards and sat oh nor 0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:59.760 act and not done a god damn thing. We've had 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:07.920 thirteen under dog, and that the issue. Reverend Jackson walked out, 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:10.359 but he had shaken the room, and by the end 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.080 of the meeting, the ministers had decided that they would 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:15.679 meet with Mayor Loeb as a group to see if 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:18.760 some compromise could be reached, but it was too late. 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:22.000 The very next day, Martin Luther King was shot and 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:29.920 killed at the Lorraine Motel. We've taken a few moments 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:32.280 to follow Reverend Bryant as he moved about in the 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:36.280 racial cauldron that was Memphis, Tennessee. We did this because 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:39.600 Bryant was the minister who John McFerrin approached when he 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:42.160 was afraid to go to the police. And I think 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:46.720 this choice demonstrates McFerrin's sincerity, which has constantly been challenged 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:50.159 over the years. He didn't just go to someone, He 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:56.960 went to a man with unquestioned moral credentials. Three days 0:24:57.000 --> 0:24:59.840 after King was shot, John McFerrin went over to Reverend 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:04.320 Bryant's house. This is Bryant's recollection of what McFerrin reported 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:09.719 to him. He uh was doing some shopping, buying some things, 0:25:09.880 --> 0:25:13.119 and as I understand it, walked into a place of 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:17.480 business and in another room, in a little office, he 0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:23.280 heard quite an angry conversation between the man on the 0:25:23.359 --> 0:25:28.719 phone and whoever he was talking to. Evidently the person 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:31.639 on the other on the phone was running some money, 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:34.399 and he said, you can't get your money till the 0:25:34.520 --> 0:25:39.399 job is completed, and then the statements you can shoot 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:43.760 the s O beyond the balcony later in the conversation 0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:48.040