NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - As the nation reflects on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., an audiotape of an interview with the civil rights leader discovered in a Tennessee attic sheds new light on a famous phone call John F. Kennedy made to King’s wife more than 50 years ago.
Historians generally agree that Kennedy’s phone call to Coretta Scott King expressing concern over her husband’s arrest in October 1960 - and Robert Kennedy’s work behind the scenes to get King released - helped JFK win the White House that fall.
King himself, while appreciative, wasn’t as quick to credit the Kennedys alone with getting him out of jail, according to a previously unreleased portion of the interview with the civil rights leader days after Kennedy’s election.
“The Kennedy family did have some part … in the release,” King says in the recording, which was discovered in 2012. “But I must make it clear that many other forces worked to bring it about also.”
A copy of the original recording will be played for visitors at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis for a “King Day” event on Jan. 20.
King was arrested a few weeks before the presidential election at an Atlanta sit-in. Charges were dropped, but King was held for allegedly violating probation for an earlier traffic offense and transferred to the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Ga.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The agency that oversees Tennessee wildlife is rethinking its approach to managing hunters and wild animals.
According to WPLN-FM (https://bit.ly/1icL9NH), the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency now plans to take a hands-off approach to game populations and instead spend time protecting their habitats.
Previously, game wardens might physically move elk or turkeys to a certain part of the state to beef-up numbers. Daryl Ratajczak, TWRA’s chief of wildlife, said that kind of intervention will no longer be a focus.
He said most big game have bounced back to the point that their “persistence is no longer in question.”
“They don’t need humans to take care of them,” Ratajczak said. “What they need is a place to live.”
The agency’s six-year plan calls for protecting all types of habitat, from forests to wild grasslands to cave openings.
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GATES, Tenn. (AP) - Authorities are investigating a West Tennessee house fire that claimed the lives of a 26-year-old woman and her three daughters.
According to WMC-TV (https://bit.ly/1kN01El), the incident occurred late Friday night in the town of Gates in Lauderdale County. Investigators identified the woman as Amanda Springer. Her daughters have not been named.
Friends of the family said Springer had three-year-old twins and a five-year-old.
Neighbor Peggy Torres said she awoke to the sounds of screams then looked out her window and saw black smoke coming from the house.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
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FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) - Police say a north Alabama a woman has been linked to stealing from gravesites in three states and trying to sell the items online.
Florence police Det. Brad Holmes told AL.com (https://bit.ly/KtzP0Jhttps://bit.ly/KtzP0J ) that 39-year-old Brandie Grimes Emerson took photos of stolen items in her house and yard and posted them online. Authorities say Emerson’s home contained floral arrangements, lanterns, wind chimes, collectibles and more.
Police say Emerson was linked to stealing items from the grave of a 21-year-old crash victim and was arrested Thursday. Holmes says investigators are sifting through 250 items Emerson listed online.
Holmes says stolen items were identified by 12 people in Lauderdale County, six in Colbert County, two from the Corinth, Miss. area and one from Lincoln County, Tenn.
It’s unclear if Emerson has an attorney.
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