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contribution on the part of members of the union. We felt that that was very, very important to involve them in the strike.

We had all kinds of problems, and one of the problems, I know now, is that 65 was beginning to look around to see what they could do in the South. Al Evanoff, who later joined our staff, was their advance person, and Al showed up in Charleston. He's nosing around and I get a funny feeling, Elliot and I get a funny feeling that they would like to move in on this. So we have a rather cool attitude.

Then I get wind of something that really alarmed me. See, Cleve Robinson had ties with Coretta [King] and with Daddy King. I learned from Stanley that Cleve had been approaching Daddy King and Coretta, to tell them that our union was not the most moral, it was corrupt, implying that we were corrupt, that it was a losing fight, the governor's not going to ever budge, and that maybe it's not wise for them to get too involved in the strike. Stanley told Andy about this, and I learned of it from Stanley and we were very, very upset about it, and that was the basis, one of the reasons why, after the Charleston strike, my relations with 65, in general, and with Cleve, in particular, were very, very bad. I never, ever said this to him.

Much later--fairly recently--at a meeting I had with David Livingston, we were talking and we were sort of reminiscing, and he said, “Why have you been so cool?” I said, “Look, David, I'm going to tell it to you the way it is. I'm going to tell you the story but I think you know what the story is.” I told him that. He professed complete ignorance. I can't believe that anything is ever done in that union that he doesn't know about. “Moe, you should have come and told me and I would have put an end to it.” You know, that kind of thing. At that time Cleve was being very, very helpful to us. We're good friends again.

In terms of the media, I was trying to search out and find people who knew people, that kind of thing. It was big news locally, and occasionally Jimmy Wechsler would write a column, and I was calling New York and calling Abe Raskin, who was then on the editorial board of the Times--to try to interest them. Then I think that somebody at the Southern Regional Council in Atlanta, whom I spoke to, suggested that I speak to Jack Bass. Jack Bass was at that time covering the state capitol in Columbia for the North Carolina paper, the Charlotte Observer. He was widely regarded as a very, very knowledgeable reporter on the South. He'd been in the South a long, long time. He was also, it turned out to be, the stringer for the New York Times. So I developed a relationship with Jack Bass and we would have long