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Alabama Executes King Amidst New Violence Across US

The New York Times
Evening Edition
Sunday, October 19, 1958

By James Reston

Montgomery, Alabama - The State of Alabama electrocuted the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., yesterday evening, triggering a new round of carnage in American cities torn by more than two years of near civil war.

Rev. King’s execution was witnessed by his wife, Coretta Scott King, other family members, and several close confidants. Rev. King was pronounced dead by the Alabama state coroner, Randall Griffin, shortly after a final surge of lethal electricity passed through his body. The state listed the time of death as 11:59 Eastern Standard Time.

The announcement of King’s execution, shortly after midnight, was met by widespread Negro rioting in urban centers across the United States, along with armed attacks against police, soldiers, and property by militant groups. Looting continued through the night in many downtown areas.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, at a morning press conference, stated that violence was in progress in more than 200 cities. The FBI was assisting local law enforcement and the U.S. military in responding to the disorder, according to Mr. Hoover. “Rest assured,” he said, “that lawlessness will be met with an iron hand. Order will be restored. Peace shall prevail, by the will of Almighty God.”

U.S. military forces stationed in major cities moved swiftly against the latest round of rioting. A Department of Defense statement this morning estimated that more than 1,500 rioters had been killed by gunfire from ground troops or helicopters since midnight. The Department has listed 58 servicemen as killed in action in street battles with Negro militants. An estimated 200 more have been wounded.

Nation of Islam spokesman Malcolm X, a key figure in the armed Negro insurrection, denounced the Nixon administration’s continuing domestic military action. In a shortwave radio statement broadcast from an unknown location, the insurgent leader ridiculed what he called a “desperate, dying regime.” Violent Negro revolt, he claimed, was a case of “chickens coming home to roost.”

President Nixon will address the nation from the Oval Office on television tomorrow evening, according to White House Press Secretary Herbert G. Klein. Mr. Klein stated that the President spent the day conferring with national security aides. The Nixon administration hopes, said Klein, that a decisive military response will quell this latest in a series of violent national convulsions over the issue of civil rights for Negroes in the United States.

Mr. Klein also revealed that the President had spoken by telephone with Alabama Governor James Folsom. Mr. Nixon thanked the governor for his assistance during the crisis, particularly regarding mobilization of the Alabama National Guard over the past week. The mobilization followed an executive order from Mr. Nixon federalizing the Guard on June 1.

Democratic Party leaders, including Senator Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson and Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, the party’s 1956 presidential nominee, said they will back whatever action the president deems necessary and expedient to restore public order. “We must have peace,” Mr. Johnson said, speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill. “And then,” he added, “we’ve got to sort out one hell of a mess.”

Today’s violence marked the latest escalation in an armed conflict dating to the Montgomery Bus Riots of 1955-1956. Critics say those disturbances directly resulted from misjudgments by Rev. King as leader of local protesters at the time.

Following the murder of civil rights activist Rosa Parks on a city bus in December 1955, King and his advisers launched a campaign of civil disobedience, focused on nonviolent disruption of the city’s racially segregated bus system. Led by King, protesters used a variety of widespread disruption tactics, including surrounding busses, blocking bus station exits, and squatting on busses while refusing payment.

City police responded with a violent crackdown on not only protesters but also Negro neighborhoods throughout the city. Subsequent rioting led to pitched battles between armed Negro residents and city police, drowning Reverend King’s pleas for peace.

Former President Eisenhower’s deployment of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to Montgomery, on April 30, 1956, calmed the situation for a time. The reprieve proved short lived, following Eisenhower’s June 9 death from complications of stomach surgery. When an assassin’s bullet struck down the commander of the 82nd Airborne in Montgomery, Major General Thomas Trapnell, on June 14, newly sworn President Richard M. Nixon proclaimed a state of martial law throughout Alabama. Ensuing civil disorder across multiple states resulted in hundreds of deaths, unleashing a cycle of retribution that continues at this hour.

Rev. King was convicted by the State of Alabama for his alleged crimes in fomenting numerous civil disorders during the national uprising. Among the charges were conspiracy to commit murder and incitement to insurrection. Reverend King denied the charges to the end. His final words were: “I go now to meet my Lord in peace. May our children find a peace of their own on this Earth, one day.”

Critics of Rev. King have condemned his handling of the Montgomery bus crisis that spawned going on three years of urban warfare. King’s detractors point out that he and his advisers considered, but ultimately rejected, a peaceful boycott of busses rather than direct confrontation. In his defense, Mr. King points out that his movement intended obstruction of city busses to be non-violent. He also cited the brutal murder of Rosa Parks, who was shot to death on a city bus after refusing to give up her seat to a white customer.

“Her killing made our choice for us,” Rev. King told the New York Times last year. In the wake of the killing, direct confrontation with the white establishment became the only course King’s movement would accept.

“Martin saw that peace was the way,” said Bayard Rustin, a Negro civil rights activist and confidant of Rev. King who witnessed King’s execution. “But men with power on both sides have made that impossible, for now, I think. It’s always easier to scapegoat, to stir up hate. They think it strengthens their power. It just chooses a new victim, until next time. There’s got to be a way out. The hour is getting late.”

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