Civil Rights: The Continuing Confrontation

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With the pressure on, King agreed, during a Baltimore meeting of his Southern Christian Leadership Council, to soften his approach—but only slightly. Instead of a total and immediate boycott, he urged a three-stage "withdrawal of economic support and purchasing power," beginning with a cutoff of all federal funds and an appeal to such U.S. companies as Dan River Mills, Hammermill Paper, and some two dozen others to cancel plans to build plants in Alabama. The final stage, King said, would be a nationwide boycott of Alabama-made consumer products, though there is a notable scarcity of such items, since the state is mostly a supplier of raw materials. What would he do if President Johnson personally asked him to call off the boycott? "I'm afraid," said King, "I would have to say no to him."

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