LBJ Meets with Wallace

Mar. 13, 1965 - President Johnson told Governor George Wallace of Alabama today that police brutality in Selma, Ala., “just must not be repeated” and that Federal force would be used if necessary to protect Negroes there.

If, as expected, a Federal court orders that Dr. Martin Luther King be permitted to lead a civil rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery, the stage will thus be set for a possibly serious confrontation between Johnson and Wallace.

“When the court has made its orders, it must be obeyed,” Johnson said firmly as he spoke to newsmen gathered in the White House rose garden.

Johnson met for more than three hours with the Alabama Governor today and then told a news conference that he had “respectfully” suggested that Wallace should do the following:

— “Publicly declare his support for universal suffrage in the state of Alabama and the United States of America.”

— “Assure that the right of peaceful assembly will be permitted in Alabama so long as law and order is maintained.”

— “Call a biracial meeting to seek greater cooperation and to ask for greater unity” among Alabama citizens of both races.

Wallace said he would give “careful consideration” to the President’s suggestions, but he reserved further public comment until he appears on “Face the Nation,” a television program of CBS, at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.

In his news conference, Johnson confirmed that Federal troops had been on alert since last Tuesday “to carry out any instructions that the President gave them.”

Wallace flew to Washington from Montgomery this morning and met with Johnson in the Cabinet Room. It was learned that Wallace had attempted to persuade the President to do something to end the civil rights demonstrations that have convulsed Selma for weeks.

Johnson refused. 

He said he told Wallace it was necessary to “face up to the cause of the demonstrations and remove the cause of the demonstration.”

Wallace told scores of newsmen who surged around the two men little of substance except that “I hope we can have a solution of the problems that confront us.” He called the President “a great gentleman, as always.”

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