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

stepped aside, what else would be new?
There would be no movement, no
publicity.” Please, Brer Connor, please.
Whatever you do, don’t throw me in the
briar patch. And of course that’s just
what Connor did.
A month into the protest, Walker and
King stepped up the pressure. One of the
Birmingham team, James Bevel, had
been working with local schoolchildren,
instructing them in the principles of
nonviolent resistance. Bevel was a Pied
Piper: a tall, bald, hypnotic speaker who
wore a yarmulke and bib overalls and
claimed to hear voices. (McWhorter
calls him a “militant out of Dr. Seuss.”)
On the last Monday in April, he dropped
off leaflets at all of the black high