During the attack and burning by a white mob of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama at which Martin Luther King Jr. and some 1,500 sympathizers were in attendance, the attorney general telephoned King to ask for his assurance that they would not leave the building until the force of U.S. Marshals and National Guard he sent had secured the area. King proceeded to berate Kennedy for “allowing the situation to continue.” King later publicly thanked him for dispatching the forces to break up the attack that might otherwise have endangered his life. Kennedy then negotiated the safe passage of the Freedom Riders from the First Baptist Church to Jackson, Mississippi, where they were arrested.  He offered to bail the Freedom Riders out...

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