David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

about to preach to fifteen hundred people
at the First Baptist Church in
Montgomery, when the church was
surrounded by an angry white mob
threatening to burn the building down.
King, predictably enough, took the high
road. “The only way we are going to
save the people upstairs,” he told the
others, “is we who are the leadership
have to give ourselves up to the mob.”
Shuttlesworth, imperturbable as always,
agreed: “Yeah, well if that what we
have to do, let’s do it.” Walker? He
looked over at King and said to himself:
“This man must be out of his goddam
mind.”^5 (At the last moment, federal
troops came and dispersed the crowd.)