Chapter 29 returns to the story of Marshall Bloom, who became obsessed with St. Augustine after his trip there over spring break. He follows developments in the city as closely as he can from Amherst College by reading the New York Times and by checking in with Amherst’s civil rights-minded pastor, Lew Mudge. Learning about the SCLC’s plans for heightened activism and the expected arrival of Martin Luther King in St. Augustine, Bloom decides to bolt from campus before final exams and return to the city.

The night marches and violence in the city are escalating amid a gathering Klan presence at the end of May. The city moves to squelch the marches. On June 1, Andrew Young and Robert Hayling appear in federal court in Jacksonville, urging Judge Bryan Simpson to allow the marches on First Amendment grounds. The 3-day hearing takes a dramatic turn when Simpson interrogates Sheriff L.O. Davis about Klan infiltration among his deputies. Simpson convinces Young and Hayling to pause marches for ensuing days while he prepares his ruling.