At Canaan's Edge (114 page)

languished in controversy for as long as forty years: NYT editorial, “The Education Bill Advances,” March 3, 1965, p. 40.

“If we don't pass anything but education”: LBJ phone call with Vice President Hubert Humphrey, 11:25
A.M.
, March 6, 1965, Cit. 7024, Audiotape WH6503.02, LBJ.

a million votes per month: Oral History with Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel, July 18, 1968, LBJ; int. Jack Valenti, Feb. 25, 1991.

“before the vicious forces concentrate”: LBJ phone call with Martin Luther King, 12:06
P.M.
, Jan. 15, 1965, Cit. 6736-37, Audiotape WH6501.04, LBJ.

“We're smarter than they are”: LBJ phone call with Vice President Hubert Humphrey, 11:25
A.M.
, March 6, 1965, Cit. 7024, Audiotape WH6503.02, LBJ.

surprise intervention by white people: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
pp. 87–89; Friedland,
Lift Up,
pp. 120–21; Mobile LHM, March 12, 1965, FDC-565, pp. 3–5.

mission congregation established for Negroes: Chestnut and Cass,
Black,
p. 40.

“We did not interfere in your problems”: STJ, March 7, 1965, p. 1.

The clear message to Ellwanger: Int. Joseph Ellwanger, June 12, 2001.

Marjorie Linn walked beside him: Ibid.

“take some warm white bodies down there”: Oral history of Eileen Walbert, Helen Baer, and Mary Young Gonzalez, interviewed by Maurice Baer, Oct. 27, 1975, UAB.

several dozen Unitarians: Presentation by Gordon D. Gibson to the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, June 23, 2000, www.uua.org/uuhs/Gibson.html.

Ellwanger himself never had joined a racial demonstration: Int. Joseph Ellwanger, June 12, 2001.

“most of them sturdily built and roughly dressed”: NYT, March 7, 1965, p. 1.

One minute later, as recorded by FBI agents: SAC, Mobile, Teletype to Director, March 6, 1965, FDCA-477.

“in no way does Rev. Ellwanger represent the church”: STJ, March 7, 1965, pp. 1, 2.

previous edicts from Homrighausen: Int. Joseph Ellwanger, June 12, 2001;
Jet,
March 25, 1965, p. 41. Ellwanger's parishioner was Chris McNair, father of bomb victim Denise McNair.

“there are white people in Alabama who will speak out”: Joseph Ellwanger, “Statement of Purpose,” for “Demonstration by 72 Alabama Whites in Selma,” March 7, 1965, BIR/C10f49.

“the whites hooted and yelled”: SAC, Mobile, Teletype to Director, March 6, 1965, FDCA-477.

“Tears trickled down the cheeks”: NYT, March 8, 1965, p. 20. 37 return by way of Church Street: Int. Joseph Ellwanger, June 12, 2001; Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 88.

since slugging Martin Luther King: Branch,
Pillar,
p. 561.

rocking the car to turn it over: SAC, Mobile, Teletype to Director, March 6, 1965, FDCA-477.

lose her job as well as a car: Oral history of Eileen Walbert, Helen Baer, and Mary Young Gonzalez, interviewed by Maurice Baer, Oct. 27, 1975, UAB.

James Bevel's sermon of praise: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 89.

Joyce Ellwanger, pregnant with her first child: Int. Joseph Ellwanger, June 12, 2001; NYT, March 7, 1965, p. 46.

Baker fulminated, threatening to resign: Garrow,
Protest,
pp. 72–73; Fager,
Selma, 1965,
pp. 89–90.

Captain Baker”: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
pp. 5–6; int. W. D. “Cotton” Nichols, May 28, 1990.

A parallel debate raged privately at the governor's mansion: Garrow,
Protest,
pp. 72–73; Jones,
Wallace Story,
pp. 357–59.

“lie down in the road”: SAC, Mobile, Teletype to Director, March 6, 1965, FDCA-477, p. 5.

four o'clock news conference: Ibid.

“Negroes should not be permitted”: STJ, March 7, 1965, p. 2.

“The answer is yes”: LBJ phone call with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, 2:32
P.M.
, March 6, 1965, Cit. 7028, Audiotape WH6503.03, LBJ.

pre-mobilized shipments of Marines: State Department cables mentioned the ongoing mobilization of the Marine deployments as early as February 26, 1965. See Gravel, ed.,
Pentagon Papers,
p. 420.

held back the Pentagon news release until nightfall: NYT, March 7, 1965, p. 1.

SNCC debate about Selma lasted: Carson,
Struggle,
p. 58; Sellers,
River,
p. 119; int. Betty Garman Robinson, Jan. 29, 1991; int. Charles Cobb, Aug. 20, 1991; int. Fay Bellamy, Oct. 29, 1991; int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000; int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000; int. James Forman, Feb. 13, 2001; int. Jack Minnis, April 8, 2001.

Julian Bond proposed: Ibid. Also Minutes, SNCC executive committee meeting, March 6, 1965, A/SN6, p. 5.

proposed for disenfranchised Negroes to submit: Silas Norman and John Love report, “Selma, Alabama,” March 1965, Reel 37, SNCC. The report lists three other disagreements with King and his SCLC organization: (1) that SCLC was not pushing hard yet for elimination of the literacy requirement for voters; (2) that SCLC opposed SNCC's plan to create a Freedom Democratic Party in Alabama, similar to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party begun in 1964; and (3) that “SCLC pushes the idea that local people need leaders like Martin Luther King and Rev. Abernathy, and others, while SNCC says that local people build their own leaders, out of their own communities.”

Bob Moses himself had opposed the Mississippi congressional challenge: Int. Bob Moses, July 31, 1984; Feb. 15, 1991; int. Lawrence Guyot, Feb. 1, 1991; int. Worth Long, Sept. 12, 1983.

migrating to other states: “SNCC Workers Expand into Ala. Black Belt,”
Student Voice,
March 5, 1965, p. 1; int. Lawrence Guyot, Feb. 1, 1991; int. Mary Lane by Robert Wright, July 12, 1969, RJBOH. Lane was recruited into SNCC from her home in Greenwood by Bob Moses in December of 1961. She recalls “a lot of staff meetings that were held after the summer of '64, but there was really never any home work done afterwards.” Lane states that many workers were called away to work in other states, and that her project director in Greenwood, Stokely Carmichael, left for Alabama.

disappearing into Alabama: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 588–90, 611; int. Silas Norman, Aug. 25, 2000. Moses arrived in Birmingham from Mississippi on March 7, 1965, the day of the big march in Selma: int. Bob Moses by Joe Sinsheimer, Feb. 13, 1985.

“roughly handled the white workers”: WATS report, March 1, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.

“If these people want to march”: Lewis,
Walking,
pp. 318–20.

melt back among the people as organizers: Int. Jack Minnis, April 8, 2001.

“a house on a hill and two Cadillacs”: Judy Richardson to Jack Minnis, March 9, 1965, JMP.

“why we bother with the vote at all”: Ibid.

“sets the stage”: Jack Minnis to Courtland Cox, March 4, 1965, responding to Courtland Cox to SNCC Staff and Others, Re: “Student Involvement in the Challenge,” March 4, 1965, JMP.

“I think it illusory”: Ibid.

voted toward midnight to disapprove: John P. Lewis and Silas Norman, Jr., to MLK, March 7, 1965, A/KP23f17. King's office received the letter on Monday, March 8. Someone signed for Lewis, who had already departed for Selma when it was completed on Sunday.

Mants seized the chance: Int. Bob Mants, Sept. 8, 2000.

5: OVER THE BRIDGE

A chorus of automobile horns: Webb and Nelson,
Selma, Lord, Selma,
p. 87.

“Quiet Please, We Are Trying”: Warren Hinckle and David Walsh, “Five Battles of Selma,”
Ramparts,
June 1965, p. 24.

“There's three more cars”: Ibid.

Young quickly sought out Hosea Williams: Young,
Burden,
p. 354; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991; int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

“Hosea, you're not with me”: Int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

“how well I got this thing organized”: Ibid.

Bevel just as openly denigrated Williams: Young,
Burden,
pp. 382–84; int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991; int. James Bevel, Dec. 10, 1998; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

Young wound up arrested: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 123–27.

“the prettiest girl in the church”: Ibid., pp. 322–25, 332–35; Young,
Burden,
pp. 290–93.

Albert Turner, a bricklayer: Raines,
Soul,
pp. 204–7, 212–14; Webb and Nelson,
Selma, Lord, Selma,
p. 92.

Rev. John B. Morris by coincidence: “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” transcript, p. 1, JDC; ESCRU newsletter, March 14, 1965, p. 5; Morris to Andrew Young, April 2, 1965, A/SC44f12.

founder of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity: Shattuck,
Episcopalians,
pp. 97–107. Morris knew Andrew Young and other civil rights activists from his work with ESCRU in numerous protests, including an effort to desegregate Atlanta's Lovett School, an institution of Episcopalian ties that rejected King's son Martin III in 1963: Ibid, pp. 135–37; Branch,
Pillar,
p. 110.

alongside stories about the upcoming Marine deployment: “White Alabamians Stage Selma March to Support Negroes,” and “3,500 Marines Going to Vietnam to Bolster Base,” NYT, March 7, 1965, p. 1. The military story reflects the Johnson administration's effort to minimize the significance of the deployment, as well as press skepticism: “The Pentagon said that the marines would have a limited mission…. It appeared evident that the marines would do more than act as military policemen.”

a photograph of Sheriff Jim Clark: NYT Magazine, March 7, 1965, p. 37.

“I am sure he loves his wife”: Ibid., p. 33.

“to satisfy his revenge against me”: Sheriff Jim Clark on ABC's
Issues and Answers,
March 7, 1965, Tape 243, A/JF; Rosen to Belmont, “Appearance of Sheriff James G. Clark, Dallas County, Alabama, on ABC Television Program, ‘Issues and Answers,' 3/7/65,” March 8, 1965, FK-NR.

his voice urged citizens: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 324.

Clark in person: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
pp. 91–93; Warren Hinckle and David Walsh, “Five Battles of Selma,”
Ramparts,
June 1965, p. 25.

try to elude the troopers: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 397.

“It is not a dangerous gas, usually”: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 322; NYT, March 8, 1965, p. 20.

Frank Soracco: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 559, 576–77; int. Frank Soracco, Sept. 12–14, 1990.

added a roving speech for nonviolent discipline: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 322.

John Lewis arrived at Brown Chapel: Lewis,
Walking,
pp. 323–24.

“could have kissed him”: Int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

they debated whether to confirm the change: Ibid. Also int. Ralph Abernathy, May 31, 1984; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991; int. James Bevel, Dec. 10, 1998; Abernathy,
Walls,
pp. 327–28; Young,
Burden,
p. 355.

If stopped, they would sit in prayer: WATS report, Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.

a backpack stocked haphazardly: Lewis,
Walking,
p. 320; Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 324.

“God Will Take Care of You”: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 93.

run into a glowering Wilson Baker: SAC, Mobile, Teletype to Director, March 7, 1965, FDCA-476; Raines,
Soul,
pp. 220–21.

stepped off again two abreast at 2:18
P.M.
: SAC, Mobile, Teletype to Director, March 11, 1965, FDCA-502; Warren Hinckle and David Walsh, “Five Battles of Selma,”
Ramparts,
June 1965, p. 26.

followed by a vehicular train: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 322.

Police officers held up the ambulances and hearses: NYT, March 8, 1965, p. 20; BAA, March 20, 1965, p. 2; int. Diane Nash, Oct. 26, 1997.

opened a vista of forbidding reception: NYT, March 8, 1965, pp. 1, 20; Garrow,
Protest,
pp. 73–74; SAC, Mobile, to Director, March 7, 1965, FDCA-476.

“Chicken Treat, Home of the Mickey Burger”: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 324.