Morris Dees

I had had great hopes that Kennedy could get civil rights laws passed. He had reached out to Martin Luther King when King was in jail. Until then, all blacks in our area had voted Republican because of Lincoln. A billboard on the highway near our home showed Martin Luther King Jr., Kennedy and a third person -- maybe Robert Kennedy -- saying they were communists.

So when I heard the news I thought all hope had died. I had no idea Lyndon Johnson was going to be the savior of the whole civil rights movement. In retrospect, who knows what Kennedy would have done. But my instant reaction was shock and sadness, that the civil rights movement would suffer. I felt sad for my black friends.

Morris Dees is the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama.