homes destroyed by blast. left a crater 93 feet deep 93 feet wide and feign feet deep. and now the president moments away from paying his respects in waco. there s an overflow crowd here at this auditorium at baylor. university. 12,000 people, including the family of the firefighters whose caskets are inside the auditorium. each men virtually stepped into the belly of the beast last week. a raging inferno in at all places a chemical fertilizer plant. they had to know the extent of the potential danger that confronted them, yet they did not shirk their duties. that s why thousands upon thousands of firefighters descended on waco today to pay homage, as did many dignity tears, including senator cornyn,
west, texas. these are pictures just coming into us from waco, texas. memorial service at baylor university. president obama is arriving right now. he is scheduled to speak an hour from now. last week s explosion killed 14 people. another man died hours later after crews evacuated him from a nursing home. nearly 200 other people hurt. doug is live with more at the memorial in waco. i saw the president just arrived. yeah, he just stepped into the building. a helicopter landed in the parking lot nearby just a few moments ago. people have been waiting patiently inside the auditorium here for hours now. the place i absolutely packed to the gills. they sent the overflow crowd to the baseball stadium. over 10,000 people. almost three times the population of tiny west, texas. the population of that town, virtually everybody affected deeply by the explosion of last week.
in memphis. they felt it was a distraction. well, i was one of those that felt that we needed to stick with the poor people s campaign. king overruled his staff and flew to memphis to speak to an overflow crowd on the night of march 18th. if one black person is down, we are all down. he was talking, man, he would set you on fire. then we got greedy. what about coming back and leading a march? a snowstorm postponed the march planned for the end of the week. king headed for middle alabama instead. that friday night, march 22nd, driving east from los angeles, james earl ray stopped here at this motel in selma, alabama. he registered as eric galt. the motel was just past the edmund pettus bridge, where three years earlier state
felt that we needed to stick with the poor people s campaign. king overruled his staff and flew to memphis to speak to an overflow crowd on the night of march 18th. if one black person is down, we are all down. he was talking, man, he would set you on fire. then we got greedy. what about coming back and leading a march? a snowstorm postponed the march planned for the end of the week. king headed for middle alabama instead. that friday night, march 22nd, driving east from los angeles, james earl ray stopped here at this motel in selma, alabama. he registered as eric galt. the motel was just past the edmund pettus bridge, where three years earlier state troopers had attacked civil rights protesters on what would become known as bloody sunday.
police clash with strikers marching down main street. that s when they would use tear gas and night sticks. strike leader joe warren. you d wipe your eyes, man, you couldn t see nothing then. reverend kyles was in miami with king that weekend. when you really get a movement going, it s time to call for warren. congressman john lewis. he got sidetracked. he didn t have any intention of going to memphis. that was not part of his plan. it was not on the map. dr. king was planning a poor people s march in washington, d.c., that spring to lay siege to congress to demand an end to the poverty rooted in racism. a lot of people didn t want king in memphis. they felt it was a distraction. well, i was one of those that felt that we needed to stick with the poor people s campaign. king overruled his staff and flew to memphis to speak to an overflow crowd on the night of