Before supper, Neils called a short meeting. He and Carster were concerned that we were spending our time walking along rural isolated highways. He gave the example of not walking through some large cities, like Mobile. He thought we should be spending more time outside the offices of state departments of employment and of food stamps. He thought we should be making the connection between military spending and cuts in social spending.

It was at this meeting that Morishita told us that he had told Pamela that the peace march was not interested in talking with groups. This was because Morishita had thought that the New Orleans route would not have walkers who could speak English. We all agreed that the tactics of walking to New York and of talking to people in the evening were not contradictory. Both were, in fact, highly desirable. Therefore we should start daytime visits and evening programs wherever, and as soon as, possible.

Reverend Cook overheard our discussion. He confessed that he was not aware that we wanted to talk with people. He would have liked for us to speak at some of his classes at the college; now it was too late. Many people who brought food to the potluck supper really did not know who we were. Some thought we were from India while others thought we were college students.

Pamela called to talk with Julia about last night's events. Julia, Neils, and Carster again left after supper to go for a walk. Morishita wondered what the phone call from Pamela was about. Mercury tried to explain what had happened. Carole, Mercury, and I continued to write letters of appreciation.

   January 28, Georgiana to Greenville (and Selma)
We had a close call with the police at lunch. Julia went off by herself to get high. Carster walked across the road to a pond to fish. Julia, with the pot, joined Carster at the pond. The patrol car, which had been with us most of the day, was parked nearby. He called out to tell Carster and Julia to get off private property. (He later told Ellen that he had called the game warden to have them arrested.) Only a few of us seemed to be aware of the danger that pot was presenting to us.

That day we reached Selma. After potluck supper at the Catholic Church (with local TV coverage), we went to Brown Chapel Church for an interfaith service. This was where Martin Luther King, Jr., had preached. This is also the church where the civil rights marchers assembled before attempting to cross the now-famous Pettus bridge. Many speakers noted that King had taken a stand against nuclear weapons shortly before he was killed. King's acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize was read. After the service, we all joined hands and sang "We Shall Overcome". This is definitely the high point of the march so far.

After the service, Ellen and I talked about the problem of pot on the walk. We knew that the police and others would automatically associate "communism, free sex, and pot" with a peace march. We discussed the potential harm of a drug arrest to the march and agreed that I should try to do something to resolve the problem.

I called a meeting among Julia, Neils, Carster, and myself. Julia told us that she had talked to an attorney that day and that he would defend her if she were arrested. I pointed out that she came close to being arrested today and that we could expect our support to decrease if someone was arrested for drugs. There was also the fact that most of the walkers were here with tourist visas. If arrested, there was a chance that they would be deported. Julia began to cry. She said she was psychologically dependent on pot. She really did not believe that she could cope with the stresses of the walk without being able to use pot. Neils and Carster agreed that something should be done about the drugs on the walk. Finally Julia said she would mail the pot to herself at the next rest day and would continue to follow this procedure, ensuring that pot would not be used on the walk itself.

After this meeting, Sister Ellen told us that, though our coordinator had been assured that our permit to "parade" in Montgomery would be approved, it had been rejected by the city council. Morishita said the council had done their homework. In l976, the Southern route of the Continental Walk for Peace and Justice had passed through Montgomery. The walk was coordinated by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Violence was directed at the walkers -- some cars were bombed -- several marchers were jailed for ten days. We decided we would march even without a permit. We could not allow a precedent to be established that a major city could deny our permission to walk together. We would be in Montgomery in a few days.

   January 29, Greenville to intersection of 97 with 3l
We had to be driven one and a half hours to get to the point where we left off on the 28th. It was good of the people in Selma to drive us so far, enabling us to attend the Browns Chapel service.

We were watched all day by a county police car. I had the impression that the deputy was just waiting for us to break a law so he could arrest us. He especially warned us to stay off private property. Even so, Julia went off into the woods to get high.

The road was still very isolated. Less than 100 cars passed, all day, and there were very few houses. At lunch a man stopped his car and came over to talk with us. He greeted the monks in Japanese. He was a farmer who looked a little like Jimmy Carter -- he even had a Carter accent. He told the monks that he had been a medic in World War II. One of the first Americans to enter Hiroshima, he had been horrified by what he saw. Now he signed our petition, went off, and returned in a few hours with another man, who also signed.

After the afternoon's walk, we were driven half an hour to a Black church, several miles down a dirt road. As we drove down that road, many children came out to wave. Our hosts provided day care in the community, Haynesville. Pretty soon, cars began pulling up at the church. They came bringing food for a potluck supper; a few folks also had mattresses tied on top -- for us, for sleeping on the church floor.

About fifty people attended the interfaith service. It seemed that the whole community was there. (And some say that peace is not an issue in the black community!) Our host, Sister Ellen, told me that the community had been planning for our arrival for the past two weeks. She also told us that the march into Montgomery the next day would be smooth, even without a parade permit: a city councilwoman had informed the police that she would be walking with us into the city. Since they didn't want to arrest her, the police had decided to provide us an unofficial escort, though we would still have to walk along the shoulder of the road and not block traffic. Sister Ellen asked me whether the pot was gone. I told her I thought so.go to page 14