At Canaan's Edge (144 page)

publication of
In Cold Blood:
Eliot Fremont-Smith, “The Killed, the Killers,” NYT, Jan. 10, 1966, p. 23; “British Acclaim ‘In Cold Blood,'” NYT, March 15, 1966, p. 36.

“Party of the Century”: NYT, Nov. 29, 1966, p. 53;
Jet,
Dec. 15, 1966, pp. 40–43.

“Nonviolence has no meaning”: Bob Considine, “Meredith of Ole Miss: ‘Fear Grips Every Negro,'” syndicated column of April 3, 1966, in FK-NR.

28: PANTHER LADIES

far out in the rurals: Undated description, “Lowndes County, Alabama. The tone of the meeting was set…,” Reel 18, SNCC.

schoolteacher Sarah Logan presiding: Program, “No More Chains and Sorrow,” Mount Moriah Number 1 Church in Beechwood, Lowndes County, 2:30
P.M.
, March 27, 1966, Reel 18, SNCC.

“We had to stand for hours”: “Lowndes Marks a Year Full of Historic Change,” SC, April 2–3, 1966, p. 3. 456

Lowndes County Freedom Organization: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 255; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 105–10.

“Once you get power”: “Lowndes Party Elects Officers,” SC, April 9–10, 1966, p. 1.

South Africa's imposing consulate: unidentified newspaper story dated March 22, 1966, in John Lewis chronology file 5, AAP; int. James Forman, Feb. 13, 2001.

twenty years before mass demonstrations: Julian Bond speech to the fortieth anniversary of SNCC, April 15, 2000, at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Bond had been present for the New York sit-in at the South African consulate.

Yves Montand and Simone Signoret hosted:
Jet,
April 7, 1966, p. 58;
Jet,
April 14, 1966, pp. 62–63.

to King Gustav VI: “Dr. King in Stockholm,” one-inch squib, NYT, April 1, 1966, p. 14.

proceeds of at least $100,000: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 490. Harry Belafonte remembers the figure as $300,000: int. Harry Belafonte, April 7, 2004. According to FBI wiretaps on Clarence Jones, Belafonte's secretary was overheard to say on April 6, 1966, that there was “a possibility of another $200,000” from Sweden: New York LHM dated April 8, 1966, FSC-1316. Stanley Levison later advised King by letter that the foreign receipts had fallen $100,000 short of a projected $200,000: Levison to MLK, May 20, 1966, A/KP14f41.

church sponsors in Paris had canceled: Int. Harry Belafonte, April 7, 2004.

Secretary of State Rusk ordered: NYT, March 29, 1966, p. 15.

Ambassador Graham Parsons canceled: William Gordon confidential report dated April 4, 1966, United States Information Service/Stockholm, Department of State, A/SC2f6.

“King wears a muzzle”: Ibid.

He pressed his SCLC executive board: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 469–70; Miami LHM dated April 19, 1966, FK-NR.

“It is imperative”: NYT, April 14, 1966, p. 6.

“If we are true to our own ideals”: Ibid., p. 1.

“sticking his neck out”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Clarence Jones, April 23, 1966, FLNY-9-918a.

arresting thirteen Mississippi Klansmen: NYT, March 29, 1966, p. 1.

“J. Edgar Hoover may dislike”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Bill Stein, March 29, 1966, FLNY-9-893a; SAC, New York, to Director, March 30, 1966, FK-2425.

introduction to Mayor Daley: Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
p. 371.

he left Chicago again on April 28: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 470.

final meeting at the White House: Ibid.; “To the Cabinet Room for Signing of Civil Rights Message, 2:35–4:15
P.M.
, April 28, 1966, PDD, LBJ; Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 325; Ralph,
Northern,
pp. 173, 301.

four speeches late into the same night: “People to People, Dr. King's Itinerary,” April 28–30, A/KP-NA.

miles to give nine speeches: NYT, April 30, 1966, p. 1.

An afternoon rainstorm caught King: SC, May 7–8, 1966, p. 2.

nine white men ran for governor: “It All Comes Down to This—Tomorrow Climaxes Long, Bitter Campaign,” MA, May 2, 1966, p. 1.

“the first major white candidate”: Baldwin,
Balm,
p. 82, citing NYT, April 14, 1966, p. 27.

pledged to haul down the Confederate Battle Flag: MA, Feb. 26, 1966, p. 1; Flowers campaign ad, MA, May 1, 1966, p. 7-B.

SCLC ran workshops: SC, March 26–27, 1966, p. 1; wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Clarence Jones, April 5, 1966, FLNY-9-900. Levison told Jones he “flipped” over the workshops as “the best fundraising thing I ever saw…. SCLC
must
set up an Academy of Political Science and Government, and train all candidates for office. We want trained men.” 459 first fifty-four Negroes to qualify: NYT, May 4, 1966, p. 1. Other sources put the number of Negro candidates for state or local office in the Alabama primary as high as eighty.

photograph of one kissing a baby: SC, April 30–May 1, 1966, p. 1.

Newspapers erratically scolded Negroes: NYT, April 21, 1966, p. 30; SC, March 26–27, 1966, p. 5; NYT, April 30, 1966, p. 1.

“We must let the Negro vote hang”: SC, March 5–6, 1966, p. 6. 459

The Southern Courier:
R. Jefferson Norrell, “Reporters and Reformers: The Story of the
Southern Courier,” South Atlantic Quarterly,
Vol. 79, Winter 1980, pp. 93–104.

“Have a Seat, Hosea”: SC, April 16–17, 1966, p. 2.

“the anvil”: SC, April 23–24, p. 2.

New York Times
out-bossed: “Sabotage in Alabama,” April 21, 1966, p. 38; “S.N.C.C. Defends Vote Stand in Alabama,” James Forman letter to the editor, NYT, May 3, 1966, p. 46.

Alabama's first female candidate: NYT, May 5, 1966, p. 1.

“tote the wood and draw the water”: Lesher,
George Wallace,
pp. 358–64; Carter,
Politics,
pp. 272–73. Nellie Ross succeeded her late husband as governor of Wyoming, also in 1924.

“a dime-store girl for governor”: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 367; Carter,
Politics,
p. 283.

“some kind of banana republic”: Carter,
Politics,
p. 287.

civil servants being trained: MA, May 2, 1966, p. 3.

“I am attempting to do the least”: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 471.

Charles Nesson into last-minute negotiations: Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 112–14; Mobile LHM dated May 18, 1966, FBPA-7; int. Charles Nesson, Nov. 9, 2005.

Frank Ryals had forbidden access: Selma office to Bill Mahoney et al., re “Freedom Organizations,” n.d., April 1966, Reel 18, SNCC.

“in or around a public polling place”: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 256.

Jack Minnis finished local workshops: “Political workshops are being held nightly in Lowndes…”: “Daily Reports” from Selma Office, n.d., April 1966, Reel 18, SNCC; int. Jack Minnis, April 8, 2001.

He used illustrated booklets: Pamphlet of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, file attachment in SAC, Mobile, to Director, Feb. 21, 1966, FBPA-2.

“Vote for me and I'll stand up”: SC, April 30–May 1, 1955, p. 1; Stokely Carmichael to “Mr. Hewlett” [sic], “List of Lowndes County People Who Are Scheduled to Speak on ‘Freedom Day,'” n.d., April 1966, Reel 18, SNCC.

“We been walkin'”: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 255.

Nesson returned on Sunday: John Hulett, Los Angeles speech of May 22, 1966, in
The Black Panther Party,
a Merit Publishers pamphlet, June 1966, pp. 11–13.

chase down Attorney General Richmond Flowers: “News of the Field #3,” May 6, 1966, Reel 17, SNCC; “Lowndes County Report,” May 2, 1966, Reel 18, SNCC.

John Doar supervised five hundred: John Doar, “The Work of the Civil Rights Division in Enforcing Voting Rights,” speech at the U.S. Department of Justice, ca. 1989, courtesy of John Doar.

“Stand Up for Alabama”: Carter,
Politics,
p. 287.

Harvey's Fish Camp: SC, May 7–8, 1966, p. 1.

“Grow with Flowers”: Ibid.

First Baptist Church in Hayneville: Mobile LHM dated May 6, 1966, FBPA-6; “News of the Field #11,” Reel 17, SNCC; NYT, May 4, 1966, p. 28; MS, July 22, 1966, p. 8; Lawson,
Pursuit,
p. 108; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 118.

“We wanted to make it all legal”: MA, May 4, 1966, p. 2.

Voices on a bullhorn: SC, May 7–8, 1966, p. 6.

“It's a Lurleen Landslide”: MA, May 4, 1966, p. 1.

“white Alabamians are desperately grasping”: NYT, May 5, 1966, p. 35;
Jet,
May 19, 1966, pp. 14–17.

“literally,
most all white”: Carter,
Politics,
p. 287.

the Attorney General had calculated: Int. Richmond Flowers, Aug. 9, 1990.

“it may be many years”: NYT, May 5, 1966, p. 35.

“The fact of overwhelming importance”: NYT, May 5, 1966, p. 46.

“We're going to take power”: Carmichael interview for
The Militant
by John Benson, May 3, 1966, reprinted in
The Black Panther Party,
a Merit Publishers pamphlet, June 1966, pp. 24–29.

“has a hell of a lot of nerve”: Courtland Cox interview, Black Panther Party, in
The Free Student,
May–June 1966, copy in FBPA-NR.

ballot boxes from six minority precincts: MA, May 6, 1966, p. 1;
Jet,
May 26, 1966, p. 8.

the final, supervised count: John Doar, “The Work of the Civil Rights Division in Enforcing Voting Rights,” speech at the U.S. Department of Justice, ca. 1989, courtesy of John Doar. In his remarks, Doar described the end of the contested vote count as follows: “The result in the six boxes: Baker, 1,412, Clark, 92, enough votes to determine the result of the election. However the Dallas County Democratic Executive Committee immediately rejected all the votes in the six boxes. This was done by a majority of the forty men on the self-perpetuating, lily-white Democratic Executive Committee. The [Civil Rights] Division was determined that the black citizens of Dallas County not be disillusioned with their first experience in actual participation in a local election…. From that time until the federal court decided the contest twenty days later, federal observers guarded the boxes.”

Wallace asserted his full hegemony: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 366; Orfield,
Reconstruction,
pp. 266–68.

SNCC's annual meeting: Accounts of the May 8–14, 1966 SNCC staff meeting at Kingston Springs, Tennessee, include Forman,
Making,
pp. 447–56; Carson,
Struggle,
pp. 200–204; Sellers,
River,
pp. 155–59; Lewis,
Walking,
pp. 364–69; Fleming,
Soon,
pp. 160–62; Carmichael,
Ready,
pp. 479–83. More specific sources cited below.

Carmichael agreed to run: Viorst,
Fire,
pp. 368–70; int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 31, 1984; int. Jack Minnis, April 8, 2001.

“We assumed that we could forget history”: “Assumptions Made by SNCC,” SNCC staff conference, May 11, 1966, Box 7, A/SN.

“pockets of power”: Ibid; Carson,
Struggle,
p. 201; Julian Bond speech to the fortieth anniversary of SNCC, April 15, 2000, at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Conflict tore at Bob Mants: Int. Bob Mants, Sept. 8, 2000.

Lewis won reelection: Ed Hamlett int. by Archie E. Allen, Nov. 5, 1968, AAP; John Lewis int. by Archie E. Allen, Jan. 28, 1979, AAP.

Carmichael himself voted: Ibid.

Worth Long of Arkansas: Int. Worth Long, Sept. 12, 1983; int. Julius Lester by Archie Allen, Nov. 7, 1968, AAP.

In pandemonium: Int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 30, 1984; int. Fay Bellamy, Oct. 29, 1991; int. Jack Minnis, April 8, 2001; Sellers,
River,
pp. 158–59.

“just a normal organizational change”:
Nashville Tennessean
news clip, n.d., AAP;
Jet,
June 2, 1966, pp. 6–9.

attracted modest press notice: Jack Nelson, “2 Veteran Rights Leaders Ousted by SNCC,” LAT, May 17, 1966, in Library of America Anthology,
Reporting Civil Rights,
pp. 491–94; “New SNCC Leader Aims for Rural Negro Power,” SC, May 21–22, 1966, p. 1.