Uninvited Guest

"I don't want to bring on trouble," purred Alabama's segregationist Governor George Wallace. "I'm a guest in Maryland." But he wasn't a guest to Maryland's Democratic Senator Daniel Brewster.

Running against Wallace as Lyndon Johnson's proxy in this week's Maryland presidential primary, Brewster called Wallace a "trespasser," a "stumble-bum," and "a dangerous joke." And as for bringing on trouble Wallace's name might as well have been Joe Btfsplk.

Scheduled to speak at Cambridge (pop. 12,500), the Eastern Shore scene of bloody race riots last summer, Wallace was apprehensive. But when he was assured that besides his own small army of bodyguards, 50 state troopers and 400 Maryland National Guardsmen would be on hand to protect him, Wallace decided to keep the engagement.

At Cambridge's volunteer firemen's arena, he harangued a smaller-than-expected crowd of 1,200. "If you're tired of the trend in this nation today," he said, "you have an opportunity to do something about it on May 19. We shocked the liberals to their eyeteeth in Wisconsin and Indiana, and we've got a chance to make their eyeteeth drop out here." The crowd cheered.

The Other Side. Across town, 300 Cambridge Negroes were meeting at the Negro Elks Hall. For two hours they were exhorted by their local leader, gaunt, hot-eyed Mrs. Gloria Richardson, and a handful of outside speakers. But it remained for Lawrence Cundiff, 25, a worker for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to really set them off.

"This is war!" cried Cundiff. "Wallace is nothing but an Alabama redneck without an ounce of common sense." Denouncing Wallace's rally, which was going on just four blocks away, Cundiff urged: "Why don't we see if some of us can't get in there?" Out into the warm night poured the Negroes, with Gloria Richardson in the lead.

At Race Street, Cambridge's black-white dividing line, a row of Guardsmen, bayonets fixed on their empty rifles, blocked the marchers' way. "Stop this and take them back!" Brigadier General George Gelston, commander of the Guard unit, yelled through a bullhorn to Gloria Richardson. The Wallace meeting, he told them, "is a complete flop. Don't ruin your chances by going over there. It's only half full." A bottle arced out of the darkness and smashed on Gelston's Jeep. Rocks were thrown at the Guardsmen, striking some. At length, Gloria persuaded the grumbling Negroes to retreat.

"Get That Man." An hour later they were back. By now, Wallace was driving away toward Baltimore, but it made little difference to the Negroes. At Race Street they were again stopped by bayonets, and they sat down where they were. Shouted Colonel Maurice Tawes, a cousin of Maryland's Democratic Governor J. Millard Tawes:

"Go back to your area or we are going to lock you up." The marchers stayed seated. "Do you want us to use tear gas on them?" Tawes demanded of Gloria Richardson. "We'll sit here quietly," she replied.

Tawes ordered the arrest of Gloria and three of her lieutenants. With that, a young Negro demanded to know why Wallace supporters had not been arrested. Angered, Tawes ordered the Guardsmen: "Get that man." The Negroes piled themselves in a human pyramid to hide the offender, and the Guardsmen rushed to dig him out. Rocks flew. Shouted Tawes: "Give 'em the gas."

A Guardsman with gas tanks strapped to his back moved up and sprayed a choking cloud over the demonstrators, while other Guardsmen hurled gas grenades. The Negroes fell back, weeping. When the gas cloud lifted, 13 marchers were arrested.

For the next three nights, Cambridge's bitter, frustrated Negroes demonstrated with bricks and bottles. And even the town's segregationist whites could wonder if a visit by George Wallace had been worth it.

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