Finding #289 closes the same edited Williams–E. D. Nixon interview cluster. On typed pages 4–6 (scans 0051–0053), Nixon describes the MIA’s ambition beyond bus seating, a shift from loud street talk to a “normal voice,” and a person who once feared retaliation alone but now expected others to stand behind him. Williams supplies “people-wide” and individual-as-operator formulations; Nixon assents. The “50,000” image is rhetoric about solidarity, not an audited tally.
Distinct from #287 (bus-ruling settlement expectations) and #288 (voluntary riding / “Goon Squad” denial). Same ~1956 LOC cluster, different leaves/subject. Craft held: edited typescript; impressions ≠ measured outcomes; assent ≠ spontaneous authorship of Williams’s formulations.
Repo: nixon-mia-collective-backing-interview-1956 · Primary: LOC mss859430181 scans 0051–0053.