At Canaan's Edge (137 page)

married and pregnant Emily Morrison: Anne Morrison Welsh letter to “Dear Friends,” May 1999, courtesy of Margot Watson.

“many, many Vietnamese men cried”: Appy,
Patriots,
pp. 150–55, 228–31.

Robert McNamara, in his eighties: Ibid., p. 153.

“within forty feet of my Pentagon window”: McNamara,
In Retrospect,
pp. 216–17. Although witnesses put the site at least 150 feet from his third-floor office at the Pentagon, McNamara brings it much closer in his 1995 memoir.

this time in Union Square: DeBenedetti,
Ordeal,
p. 129.

“Do not weep for Norman Morrison”: Zaroulis and Sullivan,
Who Spoke Up?,
pp. 61–62.

“I'm a Catholic Worker”: NYT, Nov. 10, 1965, pp. 1, 5.

“terribly unfortunate”: Ibid.

Friends of LaPorte said: NYT, Nov. 11, 1965, p. 4; DeBenedetti,
Ordeal,
p. 130.

feared that suicide protest would alienate: Robinson,
Abraham,
p. 202.

“something radically wrong somewhere”: Friedland,
Lift Up,
pp. 160–61.

expired after power was restored: NYT, Nov. 11, 1965, p. 4; Associated Press,
World in 1965,
pp. 208–13; NYT, Aug. 15, 2003, p. 22.

“The people of New York City”: Heschel, “No Religion Is an Island,” Union Seminary
Quarterly Review,
Vol. 21, No. 2, Part 1, Jan. 1966, p. 118.

24: ENEMY POLITICS

“I trust that you will not”: MLK to J. William Fulbright, Nov. 8, 1965, A/KP24f49.

“my influence is not sufficiently strong”: Fulbright to MLK, Dec. 13, 1965, A/KP24f50.

surrender the purchase documents for a 1965 Chevrolet: Rosen to Belmont, Nov. 8, 1965, FK-NR. The Hosea Williams case, which never became public, began in mid-October and is covered by a host of documents in the FBI's file on SCLC, beginning Rosen to Belmont, Oct. 18, 1965, headed “Unknown Subjects Morris Findlay, Hosea Williams, Harold Belton Andrews, Interstate Transportation of Stolen Motor Vehicle,” FSC-NR.

he was determined first to wring a refund: SAC, New York, to Hoover, Nov. 10, 1965, FSC-893. A copy of this wiretap report on Stanley Levison's conversations about the car investigation made its way into the King section of Hoover's Official and Confidential Files.

“Hosea has a problem”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Andrew Young and Stanley Levison, 11:30
A.M
., Nov. 6, 1965, FLNY-9-750.

“Martin acted as if the bottom”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Clarence Jones, 12:04
P.M
., Nov. 6, 1965, FLNY-9-750a.

advisers analyzed the treasury crisis: New York LHM dated Nov. 8, 1965, FSC-886; Baumgardner to Sullivan, Nov. 10, 1965, FSC-880.

to buy Abernathy a new automobile: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, Oct. 1, 1965, FLNY-9-750a; New York LHM dated Oct. 4, 1965, FSC-717. King reported to Levison that only one of fifty solicited donors had responded, but that Abernathy had obtained a $3,000 car. To avert potential embarrassment, King wanted to reimburse SCLC, and Levison, though sharply critical of Abernathy, agreed to contribute half the money himself.

King wrote a detailed letter to American Express: MLK to Carl W. Volckmann, American Express Company, Nov. 15, 1965, A/KP2f26; Carl W. Volckmann to Abernathy, Sept. 13, 1965, A/KP2f26.

introduced by American Express in 1959: Laurel Kamen to the author, Sept. 5, 2003.

Young and the New York advisers: Int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983.

resigning his vested career as a chemist: Hosea L. Williams telegram to William M. Seabron in the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oct. 12, 1965, A/KP35f17.

“Hosea Williams is the Director”: Rosen to Belmont, Oct. 22, 1965, “Harold Belton Andrews/Interstate Transportation of a Stolen Motor Vehicle,” FSC-NR.

skeptical federal prosecutors: R. I. Shroder to Rosen, Oct. 28, 1965, FSC-NR; Rosen to Belmont, Nov. 1, 1965, FSC-NR.

infuriated Deke DeLoach: DeLoach to Mohr, Oct. 29, 1965, FSC-NR.

Alan Belmont: Belmont to Tolson, Oct. 29, 1965, FK-NR.

“The Dept Attys may have gotten”: Hoover note on DeLoach to Mohr, Oct. 29, 1965, FSC-NR.

The FBI scrambled in November: Cf. Rosen to Belmont, Nov. 10, 1965, FSC-894.

Katzenbach stressed that skilled defense lawyers: Katzenbach oral history by Paige E. Mulhollan, Nov. 12, 1968, p. 33ff., LBJ; int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

months of cajolery: Ibid.; see above, pp. 187–89.

“As a consequence”: Hoover to “THE ATTORNEY GENERAL,” Sept. 14, 1965, untitled, Section 114, FHOC.

“Because of the importance”: Hoover, “MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL RE: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.,” Oct. 19, 1965, FK-1990; Sullivan to Belmont, Oct. 14, 1995, FK-1981.

Hoover sent Katzenbach two nearly identical notices: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Oct. 29, 1965, FK-2021; Hoover, “MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL RE: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.,” Dec. 1, 1965, FK-2183.

Agents recruited bookkeeper James Harrison: Garrow,
FBI and King,
p. 178.

“thought and imagination”: Director to SAC, Atlanta, Nov. 10, 1965, FK-2025. For other examples of FBI communications aimed to infiltrate SCLC, and learn more of internal dissension or bickering “which might be exploited under the counterintelligence program,” see Director to SAC, Atlanta, Sept. 27, 1965, FSC-657; SAC, Atlanta, to Director, Nov. 2, 1965, FSC-838; SAC, New York, to Director, Nov. 8, 1965, FSC-856.

“was quite calm”: DeLoach to Mohr, Aug. 14, 1965, FK-1782.

DeLoach also briefed Fred Buzhardt and Harry Dent: DeLoach to Mohr, Sept. 15, 1965, FK-1881.

“It is disgraceful”: Hoover comment on Rosen to Belmont, Nov. 8, 1965, FSC-887. Hoover probably meant “under wraps” instead of “under raps.”

“as that outfit is above the law”: Hoover comment on Rosen to Belmont, Oct. 30, 1965, “Harold Belton Andrews, et al.,” FSC-NR.

solicited his participation: Morris B. Abram, co-chairman, White House Conference to Fulfill These Rights, telegram to MLK, Oct. 27, 1965, A/KP26f10; MLK reply to Abram “c/o Mrs. Thornell the White House,” Oct. 29, 1965, A/KP26f10. King, just back from Europe, declined the urgent summons to a preliminary meeting on October 30, citing his daughter Yoki's piano recital, and sent Ralph Abernathy and Walter Fauntroy in his place.

most of the colleagues King nominated: MLK telegram to Lee White, Nov. 2, 1965, A/KP26f10, nominating as SCLC delegates himself, James Bevel, Ralph Abernathy, Septima Clark, Robert Green, Lawrence Reddick, C. T. Vivian, Dorothy Cotton, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, Harry Wachtel, Randolph Blackwell, and Walter Fauntroy.

remonstrated with security officials: Lee White to Marvin Watson, Nov. 12, 1965, HU2, MC, HU6, WHCF Box 56, LBJ.

Lee White reminded the President: Lee White to LBJ, Nov. 2, 1965, Name File, “Bayard Rustin,” LBJ.

dispatched to lead a march: Martha Prescod, Selma WATS report, Nov. 15, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC.

“the other names which were submitted”: Andrew Young telegram to Lee White, Nov. 13, 1965, A/KP26f10.

“We may be overly optimistic”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Nov. 18, 1965, FSC-NR.

religious leaders in New York convened: Rainwater and Yancey,
Moynihan Report,
pp. 211–14.

King arrived two days later: Levison phone call to Clarence Jones, 2:45
P.M
., Nov. 11, 1965, FLNY-9-755a; SAC, New York, to Director, Nov. 19, 1965, FK-2069.

“the damage that is flowing”: Tape transcript, “Planning Meeting for Metropolitan New York Pre–White House Conference on Civil Rights,” Nov. 9, 1965, NCC, RG 6, Box 48, File 7, POH.

“Because of the newspaper coverage”: Rainwater and Yancey,
Moynihan Report,
p. 192.

distributed copies avidly: Robert D. Novak, “Washington's Truth Teller,” WP, March 31, 2003, p. 13; int. Harry McPherson, Sept. 24, 1991.

“political atomic bomb”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Inside Report: The Moynihan Report,” WP, Aug. 18, 1965, cited in Rainwater and Yancey,
Moynihan Report,
pp. 375–76.

sold openly in government stores: Ibid., p. 151.

“replace matriarchy”: John Herbers, “Report Focuses on Negro Family: Aid to Replace Matriarchy Asked by Johnson Panel,” NYT, Aug. 27, 1965, p. 13.

“aimed at developing a national policy”: “Letter from Washington, September 2,”
New Yorker,
Sept. 2, 1965, p. 116ff.

“Negro life is another world”: Richard Wilson, “Gloomy Study Faces Parley on Negro,” WS, Sept. 24, 1965, cited in Rainwater and Yancey,
Moynihan Report,
p. 152.

Gender terms sprang into headlines: “Drive for Negro Family Stability Spurred by White House Panel,” NYT, July 19, 1965, p. 1; “Behind the Riots: Family Life Breakdown in Negro Slums Sows Seeds of Race Violence/ Husbandless Homes Spawn Young Hoodlums, Impede Reforms, Sociologists Say,” WSJ, Aug. 16, 1965, p. 1.

“The very essence of the male animal”: Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor,
The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,
March 1965, U.S. Government Printing Office No. 1965 O-794-628, p. 16.

“bitterly ironic”: Pauli Murray letter cited in Rainwater and Yancey,
Moynihan Report,
p. 185.

“It is amazing to me”: Ibid., p. 200.

“No one in all history”: MLK speech at Abbott House, Westchester County, New York, Oct. 29, 1965, cited in ibid., pp. 402–9.

Articles about Moynihan poured: Christopher Jencks, “The Moynihan Report,”
New York Review of Books,
Oct. 14, 1965, pp. 39–40; Herbert J. Gans, “The Negro Family: Reflections on the Moynihan Report,”
Commonweal,
Oct. 15, 1965, pp. 47–51; William F. Ryan, “Savage Discovery: The Moynihan Report,”
Nation,
Nov. 22, 1965; Benjamin F. Payton, “New Trends in Civil Rights,”
Christianity and Crisis,
Dec. 13, 1965. The Rainwater and Yancey book dissects these commentaries, pp. 216–45.

“explosive cycle of poverty”:
Newsweek,
Aug. 9, 1965, pp. 32–36.

“Moynihan's facts were undisputed”: Manchester,
Glory,
pp. 1296–97. Others offered sharply different assessments of the uproar. “Today the Moynihan Report stands as probably the most refuted document in American history (though of course its dire predictions about the poor black family all came true),” wrote Nicholas Lemann in 1991. “Attacks on it are still being published.” Lemann,
Promised,
p. 177.

Malone assured Hoover: SAC, New York, to Director, Nov. 19, 1965, FK-2069.

King's just published commitment: MLK, “Next Stop: The North,”
Saturday Review,
Nov. 13, 1965, p. 33ff.

orders for the SCLC accountant: MLK telegram to Jesse Blayton, Nov. 17, 1965, A/KP22f16.

Harry Belafonte might stave off: New York LHM dated Nov. 15, 1965, FSC-888; New York LHM dated Nov. 22, 1965, FK-NR.

“The government thinks”: Wiretap transcript of Levison conversation with Gloria Cantor, Nov. 14, 1965, FLNY-9-758a.

“Malcolm X wrote this book”: Wiretap transcript of Levison conversation with King's literary agent, Joan Daves, Dec. 3, 1965, FLNY-9-777a.

Publisher Nelson Doubleday had pulled: Tim Warren, “The Rocky Road to Publication of Book on Malcolm X,”
Baltimore Sun,
Nov. 16, 1992, p. D-1.

major organs of American culture buried Malcolm: Cone,
Martin,
p. 39.

“We shall be lucky”: Ibid.

“twisted man”: Branch,
Pillar,
p. 598.

“American Negroes lost their most able”: Eliot Fremont-Smith, “An Eloquent Testament,” NYT, Nov. 5, 1965, p. 35.

“The important word here”: I. F. Stone, “The Pilgrimage of Malcolm X,”
New York Review of Books,
Nov. 11, 1965, p. 3ff.

“I knew right there in prison”: Malcolm X,
Autobiography,
p. 179.

ten best nonfiction books: “Malcolm X Project,” The Institute for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia University, www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/ index.html.

omitted recommendations: Rainwater and Yancey,
Moynihan Report,
pp. 8, 28; U.S. Department of Labor,
The Negro Family: The Case for National Action
(1965), p. 93.