More Groovy Gumshoes by Michael Bracken

Author:Michael Bracken
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

March 1968

Theebus slipped the sandwich board over his head and stepped out of Harlem House with Theona Bellows and an identically dressed J.R. They walked silently down Beale Street, passing onlookers and a growing number of police cars all making their way to a crowd of sanitation workers organizing along Main Street. Each wore a sandwich board or held handwritten signs with thick black letters proclaiming “I Am a Man” and various Union demands.

J.R. elbowed the detective lightly. “You don’t have to do this. This isn’t your fight.”

Theebus looked around. In the growing crowd, he recognized many of the men finalizing details of the march and could see the determination on their faces. The line stretched for several blocks. Men. Women. Black. White.

Along the sidewalks, the baton-wielding Memphis police were dispersing to stand three to four feet from each other, forming a barrier, as if to dare the Black men to cross it. To rock the boat…or a police car, like the one that started the first riot weeks ago. Right before the tanks rolled down Main Street, tear gas fumes filled the air, and Dr. Martin Luther King locked arms with the strikers.

In a growing crowd behind that barrier stood Chuck and Moochie, hurling vulgarities and each gripping a hard object in their right hand. Theebus looked at Theona and took her hand in his.

“You’re wrong, J.R.” Theebus took a step forward and began to walk with the crowd. “Nobody should be treated like a piece of trash.”

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