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drug dealer, who happened to be White, by the way, who was in prison in Cleveland, but he was
going to be tried in Toledo and he wanted me to dramatize his case to get people together to
walk. And I'd never do anything like that. I've been offered ten thousand dollars to not oppose
the licenses of a business that was selling beer and wine to minors in the vicinity of my church.
So that's important to me.
Well, my wife was hurt when she read all of this stuff in the paper questioning my
honesty and integrity and the possibility that some money might be misappropriated because at
my church and anything I'm involved in, every penny is counted and every penny is accounted
for at my insistence. Obviously nothing had happened to the money, but just to plant that kind of
seed, especially since I was relatively new in town and had been, had accepted this responsibility
and we were getting the cooperation of churches and ministers all over the city, Black churches
and ministers all over the city, with the exception of Churches of Christ. And then, so when I
came home she was in tears, "Well," I said, "Honey, I'll tell you, if nobody shows up
tomorrow," (This was on Friday.) then I'll just call it a day and I'll just let them have it because I
didn't come here for this." And we were shocked to see as many people show up for that march
as showed up for the first and the very next night, Sunday night, we had as many people, if not
more, for that rally, then we had at the other. And Mrs. Williams came and she said on the front
seat with her husband and when, during my presentation, I stopped and I thanked her for. I
thanked her and I said, "If it were not for her, I would not be here so I owe her for that." I
thanked her. Then I walked away from the podium and opened my arms to her and she came up
and I hugged her and I said, "I love you." And she returned to her seat and, of course, the crowd
stood and applauded. I was hoping that she would have said something or apologized in some
way, but she chose not to do that, but it has not made a single dent in the movement. She is out
there and maybe one or two others, I don't know who, but we're moving on with the movement.
V. Boyd: You mention she was a failed politician.
Floyd Rose: Yes, she had run for office twice and had failed. And in fact, let me step back a
minute - following my election as leader of the movement, a few days later, she called a meeting
of the group that had originally formed. And I went to the meeting and she was making some
recommendations about what we ought to do next or whatever. I said, "Well, you know,
nobody's been elected, but me, to do anything so I don't know what this is about. What gives
this group any kind of legitimacy? You can't speak for those masses over there because they
didn't ask you to speak for them." "Well," she said, "I didn't know that's what you were going
to do." "Well," I said, "you know, I have to represent the people that elected me. You all didn't
do that, they did. So I'm going to form an organization involving them." So someone said,
"Well, you know, he's right. Nobody's asked us to do anything." "So I move," the man said,
"That we dissolve this committee." That motion was seconded and that committee was officially
dissolved. I went into her office and said, "I want you to just tell me what you feel. What's the
real problem?" And she said several things at first, "Well you know, it looks like it's you and
nobody, but you." I said, "No, tell me what's really bothering you." And she told me that, "I
just tell you, Brother Rose," she called me, "I just don't take rejection well and I felt rejected. It
seemed that once you were elected, you just sort of pushed us and me in particular aside." I said,
"No, I need time to pray and to think about how we're going to do this, but we want to give
everybody an opportunity to get involved, not just you and not just the members of this
committee. And you will be asked to sign a card indicating your interest and commitment just
