Up Through the Cracks

Amazingly, there was a sense of calm, even though the sounds of sirens and the sight of burning buildings loomed all around. The smell of tear gas filled the air, yet this crowd remained eerily calm as they waited for someone to speak. Jackson assumed that the panthers were armed and scattered throughout the area but there was no voice of leadership to be heard. They had yet to determine exactly who the enemy might be. There was no Stokely Carmichael, no Bobby Seale, no Malcolm X, no Huey Newton, no H. Rap Brown, Angela Davis, Jesse Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver and now...no Martin Luther King for peace. There was, however.an army of police cars that had began to arrive in the manner of the well-trained riot police of Alabama.