Montgomery Sheriff Apologizes to Civil Rights Leaders

Mar. 17, 1965 - Civil rights leaders won a public apology from the sheriff of Montgomery County today for the routing of 600 demonstrators with horses and clubs in Montgomery yesterday.

The sheriff in turn won an agreement from civil rights leaders that in the future they would apply for official parade permits for all public marches in Montgomery.

The agreement was reached after Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders (pictured) led a mass march on the Montgomery County Courthouse and then spent seven hours in private conference with Sheriff Mac Sim Butler.

The 600 demonstrators who were chased off the streets yesterday by mounted state troopers and sheriff’s officers added 1,100 persons to their ranks today and marched to the courthouse to protest yesterday’s violence.

When the procession reached the courthouse, Dr. King stood in front of a row of sheriff’s deputies guarding the front door and spoke to the throng through a megaphone.

“We are here today because we do not like what happened in Montgomery, Ala., yesterday,” he said. “We are here to say to the white men that we no longer will let them use clubs on us in the dark corners. We’re going to make them do it in the glaring light of television.”

No one raised a hand against the marchers. The only disagreeable note was the rain. A shower started as the marchers reached the courthouse, and in a few minutes the heavens opened, and the rain poured down for the rest of the afternoon.

After the conference with the sheriff, Dr. King and James Forman, executive secretary of SNCC, told reporters that the conference and the resulting agreement were an “historic occasion.” They said it was the first time that any Southern city had made such an agreement.

A statement setting out the agreement was signed by Sheriff Butler, Dr. King, Mr. Forman, and several other persons.

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