210 Notes to Pages 88–91 6. Garrow, ed., The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, 55; Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jo Ann Robinson, leaf- let, Don’t Ride the Bus, December 2, 1955, in Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 3: 67. Abernathy, “The Natural History of a Social Movement,” in Gar- row, ed., The Walking City, 118. In his thesis, Abernathy often referred to his own observations in the third person, as in his telling of this encounter between him and King, which he credits to “a distinguished Baptist preacher and perhaps the most effective leader of the movement in respect to strategies and operational tactics.” Participants in the meeting at Dexter have remem- bered the gathering differently. King asserted that Bennett was so excited about the boycott, and so eager to direct the efforts, that he charged, “This is no time to talk; it is time to act.” Only after nearly an hour of protests from the forty plus at the meeting did Bennett yield the floor, at which point plans for the boycott developed (King Jr., Stride toward Freedom, 46–48). Robinson remembered more than a hundred turning out for the meeting, highlighting the positive outcomes of the meeting rather than emphasizing any of its tension (Garrow, ed., The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, 55–56). Rosa Parks recalled a more divided meeting: “Some of the ministers wanted to talk about how to support the protest, but oth- ers wanted to talk about whether or not to have a protest. Many of them left the meeting before any decisions were made” (Parks, Haskins, Rosa Parks: My Story, 129). Uriah Fields asserts that Bennett opposed the boy- cott, which may have added to the aggravation of those gathered (Fields, Inside the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 36). Ralph Abernathy elevated his role in the meeting, saying Nixon had left it to him to make sure things went well in Nixon’s absence. Believing he had arranged for Reverend Hubbard to lead the meeting, Abernathy was shocked when Hubbard announced Ben- nett would be presiding. After Bennett rambled on for some time, and with only around twenty people remaining, Abernathy claims he interrupted and took the chair for the rest of the meeting (Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 138–39). 7. Crawford, Rouse, and Woods, eds., Women in the Civil Rights Move- ment, 82–83; Edgar N. French, “The Beginning of a New Age,” 1962, in Garrow, ed., The Walking City, 177. 8. Crawford, Rouse, and Woods, eds., Women in the Civil Rights Move- ment, 83. 9. Ibid., 72–74. 10. King, “Why Does God Hide Himself?” December 4, 1955, in Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 6: 241–42. King borrowed the title and theme of his sermon from Robert McCracken, “Why Does God Hide Himself ?”