Spirited Resistance
By Stefene Russell
Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Review; photo by Edward H. Goldberger
March 1965. Three days after Bloody Sunday, civil-rights protesters return to the streets with bandaged heads, broken bones, missing teeth. Six nuns from St. Louis—including Sister Roberta Schmidt (left) and Sister Rosemary Flanigan (right)—march in front. They make it only a few feet before hitting a wall three policemen deep, some on horseback, all helmeted and holding billy clubs. The nuns are greeted by newspaper reporters and TV cameras on their return; those few yards have made international news. Schmidt and Flanigan agree to take questions on KMOX-AM, and the one-hour show stretches into four, with calls coming from as far away as Canada. “They told us the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree,” says Schmidt. “Anything that could light up lit up."
