Sublime

He was caught in a “storm of jealousy about the ‘Kennedy class,’ ” a storm so violent that at times it “threatened to drown him,” Joseph Califano says. And his feelings centered, with a growing concentration that seemed to leave none for other targets, on the slight figure of Bobby Kennedy.

was after President Kennedy’s funeral that Congress passed legislation to provide full Secret Service protection to former presidents.

King despaired. After nearly three years, his relationship with President Kennedy had run out of room. Although the movement needed federal intervention more than ever, realism told King he could not pressure President Kennedy an inch further. Brooding, he took the young Justice Department lawyer Thelton Henderson privately aside. “I’m concerned

Praying for guidance at a mass meeting the next day, King said, “Lord, I hope no one will have to die as a result of our struggle for freedom in Montgomery. Certainly I don’t want to die. But if anyone has to die, let it be me.” Two weeks later, while Coretta and Yoki were in Atlanta, something—he wasn’t sure what—disturbed King during the night;