The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice (64 page)

The
New York Times
published
: Pearl S. Buck, “Odell Waller’s a Test Case: Prejudice, Politics, Poverty and Poll Tax Involved in Negro’s Cause,”
NYT
, May 30, 1942.

On June 16, Harlem residents
: “Negroes to Fight Employment Bias: National Campaign to Start Tuesday to Press Demand for Equality in Jobs,”
NYT
, June 13, 1942.

“beginning of a nationwide”
: “25,000 Storm Jim Crow Protest Confab,”
ADW
, June 21, 1942.

“vast crowd”
: Ibid.

Twenty-four hours
: “Waller Gets a Stay from Death Penalty: Darden Gives Negro 13 Days, Sets Commutation Hearing,”
NYT
, June 19, 1942.

She learned that the governor
: Colgate W. Darden Jr. was married to Constance Du Pont, daughter of the chemical company magnate Irénée Du Pont.

“a national figure”
: PM to Jessie Overholt, June 19, 1942, WDLC.

“political repercussions”
: Ibid.

“a convenient way”
: Ibid.

On June 28
: Petition for a Presidential Commission of Inquiry in the Case of Odell Waller, June 15, 1942, WDLC.

To the veterans
: “First Lady Says Allies Must Protect World,”
RTD
, June 29, 1942.

“a number of questions”
: ER, “My Day,” June 30, 1942.

“preaching racial unrest”
: W. Carl Spencer, letter to the editor,
Virginian-Pilot
, August 1942, clipping, WDLC.

Tens of thousands
: “Waller Gets a Stay from Death Penalty,”
NYT
, and “Appeals of 17,000 Fail as Waller Dies,” June 12, 1942, clipping, WDLC. Forty-five years after Waller’s execution, archivists at the Virginia State Library found fifteen boxes of correspondence that had not been processed, according to Sherman,
The Case of Odell Waller
, 241.

The pressure came closer
: “Refuse Death Stay for Share Cropper: Four Supreme Court Justices Reject Plea for Odell Waller, Virginia Negro,”
NYT
, June 28, 1942.

“pussyfooting”
: Editorial, “Justice Prevails,”
Danville Register
, July 1, 1942.

“pertinent facts”
: Virginius Dabney, “The Waller Hearing Today,”
RTD
, June 29, 1942.

The hearing began
: “Odell Waller May Know Fate Today: Race Called Main Issue,”
RTD
, June 30, 1942; “Governor Darden May Decide Fate of Odell Waller Today: Race Question Seen as the ‘Main Issue’ of Murder Case,”
RTD
, June 30, 1942; J. A. Bowler, “Conflicts Found in Testimony: Persons from All Walks of Life Enter Pleas,”
JG
, July 4, 1942, national edition; “Waller Hearing Lasts Eleven Hours,”
JG
, July 4, 1942, home edition; and “Waller Hearing Lasts 11 Hours: Conflicts Found in Testimony,”
Journal Guide and Newport News Star
, July 4, 1942. On the strategy of Waller’s counsel, see Sherman,
The Case of Odell Waller
, 142–54.

Late the next day
: Associated Press, “Darden Rules Waller Must Die: Holds Virginia Slayer’s Trial Fair,”
NYT
, July 1, 1942, and “Plea Rejected, Waller Faces Death: Two-Year-Old Case Brought to Close,”
RTD
, July 1, 1942.

“a fair and impartial”
: “Odell Waller Received ‘Fair and Impartial Trial,’ Governor Declares in Statement Refusing Convicted Man’s Appeal,”
RTD
, July 1, 1942.

Murray would always believe
: PM,
Song
, 171, and PM to J. Overholt, June 19, 1942.

Unable to see the president
: “Urge Roosevelt Fix Waller’s Fate,”
NYT;
and “Waller to Walk ‘Last Mile,’ ”
Northern Virginia Daily
.

“displayed contempt”
: PM,
Song
, 172.

Once the rumor spread
: Ibid.

She, too, had been trying
: For the tension between FDR and ER over the Waller case, see Parks with Leighton,
The Roosevelts
, 174–75, and Harry Hopkins’s diary quoted in John Gunther,
Roosevelt in Retrospect
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950), 19.

“interfere again”
: Harry Hopkins’s diary quoted in John Gunther,
Roosevelt in Retrospect
, 19.

“thought the Governor”
: Ibid.

“the five telephone”
: PM,
Song
, 173.

“Mr. Randolph, I have done”
: Ibid.

“went to the washroom”
: Ibid.

13. “THE PRESIDENT HAS LET THE NEGRO DOWN”

“alternating between periods”
: “Waller Breaks on Eve of Execution: Supreme Court Justices Refuse to Act as Fatal Day Nears,”
Chicago Defender
, July 4, 1942, national edition.

“screen wire”
: “Odell Waller Goes Berserk as Death Date Nears,”
JG
, July 4, 1942.

By the time
: J. Andrew Bowler, “Long Stay on Death Row Ends: Condemns System Which Made His Crime Possible,”
JG
, July 4, 1942, home edition.

“he didn’t mind going”
: “Odell Waller Electrocuted: Body Sent to Pittsylvania,”
RTD
, July 3, 1942.

“Mama, don’t cry”
: Ibid.

“said goodbye”
: Ibid.

“This is Odell Waller speaking”
: For the original text with transcription, see “Appendix: Odell Waller’s Dying Statement,” in Sherman,
The Case of Odell Waller
, 191–94. Waller’s dying statement was excerpted in several black newspapers, such as the
Philadelphia AA
, July 11, 1942.

At 8:35 a.m.
: “Odell Waller Electrocuted,”
RTD
.

He was the 156th
: “Execution of Waller Set at 8 A.M.: Stay Is Asked of President,”
RTD
, July 2, 1942, and J. Andrew Bowler, “Long Stay on Death Row Ends,”
JG
.

Murray was haunted
: PM,
Song
, 174.

“He Has Not Died”
: Murray’s essay appeared in two installments: PM, “He Shall Not Have Died in Vain,”
Call
, July 7, 1942, and PM, “Danger Signal,”
Call
, July 31, 1942.

“Put it all down”
: This stanza appeared in an early version of the poem published as PM, “Dark Testament,”
South Today
8, no. 2 (Winter 1945): 28–36.

“With all the heartache”
: PM to ER, [July 4, 1942?], ERP.

“by foot, car, mule”
: Morris Milgram, “The Last Mile,”
Workers Defense Bulletin
2, no. 4 (Summer 1942): 2.

“Simple flowers”
: Layle Lane, “Land of the Noble Free,”
NYA
, July 18, 1942.

“Thank God”
: Milgram, “The Last Mile,”
Workers Defense Bulletin
.

“we’re all in the death row”
: Ibid.

The only white person
: Sherman,
The Case of Odell Waller
, 167; Morris Milgram,
“When It Was My Turn to Speak”: A Journal to Mark the 35th Anniversary
(New York: Workers Defense League, 1971), 5.

He wept silently
: Ibid.

“stressed the importance”
: Lane, “Land of the Noble Free,”
NYA
.

“red earth”
: Ibid.

Overwhelmed with grief
: PM,
Song
, 174.

“You take big people”
: “Appendix: Odell Waller’s Dying Statement,” in Sherman,
The Case of Odell Waller
, 194.

Two weeks after Waller’s execution
: PM,
Song
, 174, and “The Texas Lynching,”
ADW
, July 19, 1942.

In Rome, Georgia
: Cliff Mackay, “Rome Police Beat Roland Hayes,”
ADW
, July 15, 1942.

“Waller’s death”
: A. Philip Randolph, Channing H. Tobias, Layle Lane, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Reverend William Lloyd Imes, Frank R. Crosswaith, Pauli Murray, Albert Hamilton, Leon A. Ransom, “open letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” July 16, 1942, PMP.

“You know as well”
: Ibid.

“throb of muffled drums”
: “Denouncing Poll Tax, Lynching, Jimcro, Hundreds Join Protest March,
People’s Voice
, August 1, 1942, clipping, ERP, quoted in PM,
Song
, 175. For other descriptions of the Waller Protest Parade, see “Silent Parade Protests Wave of Killings,”
Evansville Argus
, August 1, 1942, clipping, WDLC; this account was also informed by Springer-Kemp, interview by author.

“banner that went”
: Springer-Kemp, interview by author.

“We solemnly pledge”
: “Denouncing Poll Tax, Lynching, Jimcro,”
People’s Voice
.

“The significance of this”
: PM to ER, [August 1942?], note attached to “Denouncing Poll Tax, Lynching, Jimcro,”
People’s Voice
.

“There should be no such thing”
: “President’s Wife Sounds Sympathy for Odell Waller,”
Virginian-Pilot
, August 5, 1942, clipping, WDLC.

“Times without number”
: ER to A. M. Kroger, August 20, 1942, ERP.

Behind closed doors
: Parks with Leighton,
The Roosevelts
, 175.

“If this were a white man”
: Ibid.

The WDL had raised
: “Workers Defense League Schedule of Income and Expenditures Odell Waller Case, November 1, 1940–July 28, 1942,”
Workers Defense Bulletin
2, no. 4 (Summer 1942): 2.

14. “THE RACE PROBLEM IS A WAR ISSUE”

“rationalization”
: PM,
Song
, 189.

“As President of a nation”
: PM to FDR, July 23, 1942, ERP.

“race prejudice to imperialism”
: “Willkie Likens Race Prejudice to Imperialism,”
WP
, July 20, 1942.