there was an insistent command beating against beauregard's brain: "go back ... go back ... go back...."
it was a sunny summer morning in memphis. beauregard courtney, nashville attorney and adjutant general of tennessee, stepped out of the elevator of the peabody hotel and walked across the wide, columned lobby to the newsstand. he did not go by the desk; beauregard preferred to keep his room key in his pocket when he stayed in a hotel.
he bought a copy of the commercial appeal and dropped onto one of the sofas nearby to read the headlines. as he had suspected, the story in which he was involved took top play.
southern governors
gather here today to
discuss 'revolt.'
it was a three-column head at the right of the page. the commercial wasn't as conservative as it had been when he was a boy, but it still didn't go in for the bold black streamers, he thought approvingly.
he glanced at the other front page headlines: meridian quiet under federal regime ... nehru blasts race unrest in mississippi ... president urges south: 'abide by law'....
beauregard sighed. he was caught up in the vortex of great events.
he arose, folding his paper, and walked toward the stairs leading down to the grill. the governors' meeting was not until eleven o'clock. after breakfast, he would talk with some of the memphis political leaders and telephone governor gentry. he was in a delicate position here, representing a state that did not think exactly as he did.
as he reached the steps, a dark-haired woman, dressed in misty blue for the morning, approached from the elevators. he stepped aside to let her precede him. then they recognized each other.
"piquette!" he exclaimed. "i didn't know you were in memphis."
the quadroon flashed a smile and a sparkle of black eyes at him.
"i knew you were here," she said, gesturing at his newspaper.
he hesitated, uncertain whether she was just countering his own remark or telling him that he was her reason for being here.
"will you have breakfast with me?" he invited.
"yes," she answered, and gave him a sidelong glance, "if it's in my room."
he laughed, rich and full-throated. she took his arm and they went back to the elevators together. his heart was lighter now that piquette was in memphis with him....
there were eleven southern governors at the meeting. governor leblanc of louisiana, like governor gentry of tennessee, had sent a representative in his stead. as representative of the host state, beauregard opened the meeting, welcomed the visitors and turned over the chairmanship to governor dortch of georgia.
"gentlemen, there is no point in delaying our principal discussion," said dortch. "within the past week, federal troops have moved into a mississippi city to enforce the supreme court's infamous integration decree. for the first time since reconstruction days, hostile soldiers are on the soil of a sovereign southern state. the question before us is, shall we bow to this invasion of states' rights and continue our hopeless fight in the courts, or shall we join hands in resisting force with force?"
chubby governor marsh of alabama rose to his feet.
"there wouldn't have been any federal troops if it hadn't been for this extremist segregation organization, the konfederate klan," he said heavily. "i belong to a segregationist organization myself: i suppose most of you do, because you got elected. but lynching and rioting and burning homes and schools is no way to resist integration. mississippi's national guard should have been in meridian."
"if i'd mobilized the guard, i'd have had a revolt on my hands," said governor ahlgren of mississippi mildly. "two-thirds of the guardsmen belong to the klan."
"i'll go along with the majority, of course," said marsh, "but i think this proposed pact of resistance can lead only to full-fledged military occupation of the south."
almost without willing it, beauregard arose. governor gentry had counselled caution, listening instead of talking, but a fire burned deep in beauregard. somehow the laughing face of piquette as he had last seen her misted his eyes. a powerful urging was on him to beat his breast and cry: "the white man must rule...!"
