At Canaan's Edge (150 page)

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Authors: Taylor Branch

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counseling of young workers: Int. James Lawson, Nov. 14, 1983; minutes of July 26, 1966, board meeting of the American Foundation on Nonviolence, Lowenstein Papers, File 1268, Box 50, UNC.

King called Stanley Levison: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 6:51
P.M.
, Sept. 9, 1966, FLNY-9-1057a; NYT, Sept. 12, 1966, p. 49.

Julian Bond's departure from SNCC: Carson,
Struggle,
p. 231.

Schools opened in Grenada: Dittmer,
Local People,
pp. 403–7.

general assault on those behind: Ibid.; NYT, Sept. 13, 1966, p. 1; telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 6:51
P.M.
, Sept. 9, 1966, FLNY-9-1057a; NYT, Sept. 12, 1966, p. 49; int. Willie Bolden, May 14, 1992. (“They had me stretched out over here,” said Bolden, “and they were hitting a young boy…. I saw this guy put his foot between his crotch and twist his leg and broke his leg in two places. We finally got them, after they stopped, and went to Grenada Hospital. They wouldn't wait on us.”)

“You get the Highway Patrol”: Dittmer,
Local People,
p. 405.

Andrew Young flew in: NYT, Sept. 14, 1966, p. 1.

mustered eighty-seven black children: NYT, Sept. 15, 1966, p. 1.

“virtually abdicated their responsibility”: NYT, Sept. 17, 1966, p. 26; SC, Sept. 24–25, 1966, p. 4.

FBI agents arrested thirteen men: NYT, Sept. 18, 1966, p. 1.

a short-lived drive to impeach: Johnston,
Defiant Years,
pp. 324–25.

“I can tell you my heart”: Homer Bigart, “A Church Voices Sorrow in Grenada Over Mob Violence,” Sept. 19, 1966, p. 1.

Folksinger Joan Baez arrived: Baez,
Voice,
pp. 107–10; Sandperl,
Kinder,
pp. 121–22, 131–39.

Baez and Sandperl joined escorts: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 34.

fourteen volunteer tutors: NYT, Dec. 28, 1966, p. 23.

“His speech was fiery”: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 34.

Andrew Young summoned Baez: Baez,
Voice,
pp. 101–03; int. Joan Baez, Jan. 7, 1984.

he escorted two young girls: NYT, Sept. 21, 1966, pp. 1, 32.

Civil Rights Act of 1966 failed: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 1.

“We have received no word”: “Pessimism Grows in White House over Rights Bill,” NYT, Sept. 10, 1966, p. 1; “Dr. King Fearful for Rights Bill,” NYT, Sept. 12, 1966, p. 49.

All eight Grenada defendants: SC, June 10–11, 1967, p. 1; Dittmer,
Local People,
p. 406.

Diana Freelon: Int. Bruce Hartford, Sept. 18, 2005; www.crmvet.org/vet/foster=f.htm.

“The Senate has an obligation”: NYT, Sept. 14, 1966, p. 46.

“now that others' oxen”: Graham,
Civil Rights Era,
p. 262.

“a package of mischief”: Ralph,
Northern,
p. 192.

agreement in Chicago was stronger: Cf. “Giant Step,” NYT editorial, Aug. 27, 1966, p. 28: “What Congress has thus far failed to confer adequately by law, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his associates have now achieved in Chicago by their repeated demonstrations.”

reimprison him for the Birmingham jail campaign: Fred P. Graham, “High Court to Weigh Dr. King Conviction in '63 Rights Rally,” NYT, Oct. 11, 1966, p. 1; Lewis,
King,
p. 367; Westin,
Trial,
p. 205.

“Don't you find”:
Citizen King,
a Roja Production for
The American Experience,
PBS, 2004.

influential front-page series: The conservative news weekly
U.S. News & World Report,
which seldom praised the
Times
on its civil rights coverage, recapped the entire series in the October 3 issue, p. 46.

“How deep does white disengagement go”: NYT, Sept. 19, 1966, pp. 1, 36.

“Housing Equality Hits”: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 1.

“We are witnessing”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Rachelle [Horowitz], 3:35
P.M.
, Sept. 20, 1966, FLNY-9-1068a.

“It's fear”: NYT, Sept. 21, 1966, pp. 1, 33.

“These are a new breed of cats”: Ibid.

Katzenbach blocked a proposed White House summit: Katzenbach to Harry McPherson, Sept. 17, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 22, LBJ. Katzenbach was responding to McPherson's short memo of September 14: “When the civil rights bill goes down the drain, I think something like this [attached proposal] should be done. When you have a chance, please give me your views on it. The pencil notations are the boss's.” LBJ's penciled notations approved the proposed agenda and roster, which excluded the SNCC and CORE leadership, adding, “Subject to Nick's approval & I suggest he call meeting & bring them by later.”

“The President does not strengthen”: Ibid.

most Americans still identified: McPherson probably knew of a Gallup poll, cited in Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 327.

“Surely, the next generation”: McPherson to Katzenbach, Sept. 20, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 22, LBJ.

“You are stuck with it”: McPherson to LBJ, Sept. 12, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 7, LBJ.

Carmichael himself made bail: NYT, Sept. 16, 1966, p. 34.

“It shows how the press cultivated”: Elizabeth Sutherland, New York SNCC office, “Press Survey—May 17–August 17, 1966,” Sept. 15, 1966, Reel 16, SNCC.

“Everything seemed to go”: Carmichael,
Ready,
p. 520.

“His style dazzles”: Bernard Weinraub, “The Brilliancy of Black,”
Esquire,
Jan. 1967, pp. 130–35.

“A shiver of nervous exhilaration”: Lerone Bennett, Jr., “Stokely Carmichael: Architect of Black Power,”
Ebony,
July 1966.

“Who could have thought it”: Carmichael,
Ready,
pp. 523–24.

“‘When I use a word'”: Cited in Eldridge Cleaver, “My Father and Stokely Carmichael,”
Ramparts,
April 1967, p. 14.

“He says that LBJ killed”: Ibid.

“a fraudulent bunch of words”: Carmichael press statement of July 1, 1966, A/KP3f25. “The Civil Rights Act of 1966 as reported by the House Judiciary Committee is totally useless and totally unnecessary,” it began. “If passed, it will function both as a fraudulent bunch of words to convince black people of this country that Congress has taken action to deal with their problems, and as a smokescreen to obscure President Johnson's failure to enforce earlier civil rights legislation.”

“hypocrisy which attempts to delude”: Carmichael to MLK, July 4, 1966, attaching the July 1 press statement, A/KP3f25.

“You have displayed more backbone”: SNCC telegram to MLK, Aug. 3, 1966, answering a telegram of the same date to Carmichael from Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Whitney Young, and [approved by telephone] MLK, A/KP23f18; “Negroes Assail S.N.C.C. Protest,” NYT, Aug. 5, 1966, p. 11.

“All those people who are calling us friends”: Carmichael speech in Chicago, July 28, 1966, Reel 20, SNCC. In a speech two days later at Detroit's Cobo Hall, Carmichael said, “The white college friends say they are fighting with us, but they are only fighting to smoke ‘pot' while the Negro is fighting for his life.” Detroit FBI report dated Jan. 5, 1968, FSN-13.

“No, not one”: NYT, Aug. 5, 1966, cited in Powers,
War,
p. 150.

“We cannot be expected”: Stokely Carmichael, “What We Want,”
New York Review of Books,
Sept. 22, 1966.

publicized summer meetings: NYT, July 29, 1966, p. 13; NYT, July 30, 1966; NYT, Aug. 29, 1966, p. 13; MS, Aug. 12, 1966, p. 4.

“You're different”: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20, 22, 2002.

Morrisroe managed his first sworn testimony:
Chicago Daily News,
Sept. 13, 1966, in file #940, RS, CHS.

“Father, may I ask a question?”: Int. Richmond Flowers, Aug. 9, 1990; int. Richard Morrisroe, April 9, 2003, and May 22, 2003; Hayman,
Bitter,
pp. 223–26.

descended into disgrace: Hayman,
Bitter,
pp. 258–99.

curse Flowers again when Junior scored: Int. Richmond Flowers, Aug. 9, 1990; Mike Sielski, “Flowers: ‘Fastest White Boy Alive,'” ESPN Classic Biography, ESPN.com.

Tennessee fielded its first black player: Peter Schrag, “Tennessee's Lonesome End,”
Harper's,
March, 1970, pp. 59–67.

Gloria Larry reported: SNCC field reports, September 28–October 8, 1966, Reel 16, SNCC.

too enmeshed in politics: Morrisroe speech, “Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Seminarian and Martyr,” 1999, courtesy of Richard Morrisroe.

legal career after his 1973 marriage: Jim Procter, “Richard Morrisroe's Journey Home,” Hammond, Indiana,
Compass,
reprinted in
Congressional Record,
Dec. 3, 1975, p. S20967.

bride's four-year-old nephew: Int. Richard and Sylvia Morrisroe, April 9, 2003.

Thagard dismissed all charges: SC, Oct. 1–2, 1966, p. 1; Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 252.

Black Power, White Backlash:
Transcript, CBS Reports, Sept. 27, 1966, MOB.

“a stunning upset”: NYT, Sept. 29, 1966, p. 1.

won by Lester Maddox: Reese Cleghorn, “Meet Lester Maddox of Georgia, ‘Mr. White Backlash,'” NYT Magazine, Nov. 6, 1966, p. IV-27ff.

“The seal of the great state of Georgia”: Maddox,
Speaking,
pp. 81–82. Maddox included Allen's attack in his memoir as a trophy.

“Georgia is a sick state”: Ibid.; NYT, Sept. 26, 1966, p. 35.

“wouldn't be shocking enough”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 11:40
P.M
., Sept. 29, 1966, FLNY-9-1077a; Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 532.

“I do think we stand”: MLK press statement in Chicago, Sept. 30, 1966, A/KS.

32: BACKLASH

PAGE

58 percent of party supporters: “G.O.P. Will Press Racial Disorders as Election Issue,” NYT, Oct. 4, 1966, p. 1; “In the Tight Races, the Backlash Vote May Mean Victory,” NYT, Oct. 17, 1966, p. 1.

begged the tavern keepers of Baltimore: NYT, Oct. 5, 1966, p. 51.

tea at the governor's mansion: NYT, Oct. 15, 1966, p. 15.

“we could win the war in Vietnam”: NYT, Oct. 14, 1966, pp. 1, 18, 20.

“FDR passed five major bills”: Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 335–39.

Nicholas Katzenbach had just left: Katzenbach oral history by Paige Mulhollan, Nov. 23, 1968, pp. 1–2, LBJ. Katzenbach's photograph in Saigon at the end of the scouting trip appears on the front page of the Oct. 12, 1966, NYT.

complaints to Jewish War Veterans: “Jewish War Plea Vexes President/ Opposition to Vietnam Aims Proves Worry to Johnson,” NYT, Sept. 11, 1966, p. 4; “Jewish Leaders Deny Johnson Linked Israel and War Support,” NYT, Sept. 13, 1966, p. 4.

“Goldberg Mollifies Jews”: NYT, Sept. 15, 1966, p. 1; “Goldberg Backs Right of Dissent/ He Says Criticism ‘Can Only Benefit' Foreign Policy,” NYT, Nov. 7, 1966, p. 4.

“If Abraham had no hesitation”:
Nation,
Sept. 26, 1966, pp. 268–69.

invitations to visit Israel and Jordan: Dora McDonald to Bayard Rustin, Aug. 31, 1966, with attached press item about a planned MLK pilgrimage of “5,000 Negroes” to holy sites in Israel and Jordan, A/KP20f37.

“I implore all of you to remember”: Bayard Rustin reading a draft letter, from the wiretap transcript of a conference call with MLK, Stanley Levison, Harry Wachtel, Ralph Hellstein, Clarence Jones, Cleveland Robinson, Lawrence Reddick, and Walter [Fauntroy?], 11:45
P.M
., Sept. 6, 1966, FLNY9-1054a.

Rustin drafted instead: Freeman,
Mule Train,
p. 456; White House memo, Clifford Alexander to Harry McPherson (“Bayard Rustin called today…”), Oct. 3, 1966, MLK Name File, Box 144, LBJ.

“racial justice by democratic process”: NYT, Oct. 14, 1966, p. 27.

Still, King resisted entreaties: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 532–33; D'Emilio,
Lost Prophet,
p. 456.

“Dr. King Weighing Plan”: NYT, Oct. 10, 1966, p. 1.

“Crisis and Commitment”: NYT, Oct. 14, 1966, p. 35.

“7 Negro Leaders Issue”: Ibid., p. 27. The seven signers were Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, Dorothy Height, Bayard Rustin, Amos T. Hall of the Prince Hall Masons, and Hobson Reynolds, Grand Exalted Ruler of the Elks.

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