The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice (71 page)

She was astonished
: PM,
Song
, 255.

“in an inferior social
: Quoted in PM,
Song
, 254. For the complete essay, see PM, “Should the Civil Rights Cases and
Plessy v. Ferguson
Be Overruled?,” 1944, PMP.

“no legal precedents”
: PM,
Song
, 254.

“violence to the personality”
: Ibid.

Their experiments
: On the Clarks, their research, and the
Brown
case, see Richard Kluger, “The Doll Man and Other Experts,” in
Simple Justice
(New York: Knopf, 1976), 315–45, and Mamie K. Phipps Clark, “The Development of Consciousness of Self in Negro Pre-School Children” (master’s thesis, Howard University, 1939).

“To separate them”
:
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka et. al.
, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

“rubbish”
: PM to ER, June 1, 1954, ERP.

“If legalities must be observed”
: Ibid.

“delighted”
: ER, “My Day,” May 20, 1954.

“one of the arguments”
: Ibid.

“One can no longer”
: Ibid.

“I have been thinking”
: ER, “My Day,” June 5, 1954.

37. “I CANNOT LIVE WITH FEAR”

Eventually, 214 witnesses
:
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations
, 83rd Cong. 972 (1953) (introduction by Donald A. Ritchie, Senate Historical Office), Volume 1. Made public in 2003.

Hughes, who testified
:
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations
, 83rd Cong. 972 (1953) (statement of Langston Hughes, American writer), vol. 2. Made public in 2003.

“undeviating follower”
: Ibid., 983.

“Goodbye Christ”
: After his Senate appearance, Hughes would avoid mention of “Goodbye Christ,” which was published in the November-December 1932 issue of the
Negro Worker
, and “Put Another ‘S’ in the USA” (sometimes titled as “One More ‘S’ in the U.S.A.”), which appeared in the
Daily Worker
, April 2, 1934. Both the
Negro Worker
and the
Daily Worker
were Communist-sponsored publications.

“older”
:
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee
, 83rd Cong. 991 (statement of Hughes).

“A portion of a poem”
: Ibid., 989.

“not very representative”
: Ibid., 992.

Cohn, a homosexual
: For an example of Cohn’s treatment of a gay male witness who was one of the most influential accounting professionals in the country, see
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee
, 83rd Cong. 411 (1953), (statement of Eric L. Kohler, consulting accountant), vol. 1. Made public in 2003.

The Harlem Suitcase
: PM to ER, October 26, 1939, ERP.

“protest poetry”
: PM to Walter Lowenfels, September 14, 1967, PMP.

She had even considered
: PM,
Song
, 88–89.

The New Jersey Anti-Communist League
: “Jersey School Bars Dr. Bethune: Charge Links Her to Subversives; Meeting of Englewood Legion’s Auxiliary Off to Let Negro Leader Clear Herself,”
NYT
, April 25, 1952.

Dorothy Boulding Ferebee
: See
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations
, 83rd Cong. 1298 (1953) (statement of Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, medical director, Howard University, and president, National Council of Negro Women), vol. 2. Made public in 2003.

That Caroline Ware
: Anne Firor Scott, ed.,
Pauli Murray and Caroline Ware: Forty Years of Letters in Black and White
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 75.

“Most of these investigations”
: ER, “My Day,” June 12, 1954.

“If we continue”
: ER, “My Day,” June 4, 1954.

“Mary McLeod Bethune”
: ER, “My Day,” May 3, 1952.

“no question”
: ER, “My Day,” May 28, 1954.

The fear fostered by
: ER, “My Day,” August 9, 1952.

“I have always thought”
: ER, “My Day,” October 29, 1947.

“like garbage”
: PM to Pauline Redmond Coggs, June 5, 1954, ERP.

“derogatory material”
: Ibid.

“As a serum”
: PM to Ralph Bunche, June 10, 1954, PMP.

One of her first
: Ibid.

“operatives”
: PM to Pauline Redmond Coggs, June 5, 1954.

“behind one’s back”
: Ibid.

“personal history”
: Ibid.

“an experimental lobotomy”
: Ibid.

“I cannot live”
: Ibid.

Murray and Coggs had made
: Pauline Redmond Coggs, interview by author, Milwaukee, WI, February 28, 1996.

“I call it a frightened”
: PM to Pauline Redmond Coggs, June 5, 1954.

“Since the Supreme Court”
: PM to ER, June 6, 1954, ERP.

38. “SOME FEAR-MONGERS MAY FEEL THAT EVEN PRESIDENT EISENHOWER MIGHT BE A SECURITY RISK”

“There appears to be”
: PM to ER, June 30, 1954, ERP.

“flesh was literally shaking”
: PM to Lillian Smith, June 11, 1954, PMP.

“an over-active thyroid”
: PM to Thelma Stevens, June 12, 1954, PMP.

“ ‘a panty-waist’ ”
: PM to ER, June 13, 1954, PMP.

“a blessing”
: PM to Thelma Stevens, June 12, 1945.

“But how hard it is”
: Lillian Eugenia Smith,
The Journey
(Cleveland: World, 1954), 85; quoted in PM to Pauline Redmond Coggs, June 5, 1954, PMP.

“well and strong”
: ER to PM, June 15, 1954, PMP.

“lost a great deal”
: PM to ER, June 17, 1954, PMP.

“drop in”
: ER to PM, June 19, 1954, PMP.

Like Murray, ER
: ER to Lillian Smith, July 24, 1954, Lillian Smith Papers, Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia.

“such a request”
: Helen Gandy to PM, June 10, 1954, U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, Subject File: Anna Pauline Murray (140–0-3505).

According to an internal office
: Memorandum, L. N. Conroy to Mr. A. Rosen, June 10, 1954, U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, Subject File: Anna Pauline Murray (140-0-3505).

“front men”
: PM to ER, June 30, 1954, ERP.

“received less housing”
: Ibid.

“ridiculous”
: Ibid.

Murray believed
: Coggs, interview by author.

“behavior, activities”
: Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Executive Order 10450—Security Requirements for Government Employment,” Exec. Order No. 10450, 18 Federal Register, 2489 (April 27, 1953).

“Sexual perversion”
: Ibid.

Thus, homosexuals
: For an in-depth discussion, see David K. Johnson,
The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), and Lillian Faderman,
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America
(New York: Penguin, 1992), 139–58.

“illness, including any mental condition”
: Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Executive Order 10450—Security Requirements for Government Employment.”

“women’s achievements”
: ER, “My Day,” June 19, 1954.

“wished so much”
: Ibid.

39. “WHAT I HAVE TO SAY NOW IS
ENTIRELY PERSONAL
”

Word of ER’s presence
: PM to ER, July 4, 1954, ERP.

“like a little happy elf”
: Ibid.

“PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL”
: Ibid.

Halfway through
: Powell, interview by author.

“What I have to say”
: PM to ER, July 4, 1954.

What is known
: ER,
This Is My Story
, 256–59.

“Griselda moods”
: Ibid., 149. For the perspectives of ER’s biographers on her experience of depression, see Cook,
ER
, 1:235; Cook,
ER
, 2:269; Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time
, 89–95; Joseph P. Lash,
A World of Love: Eleanor Roosevelt and Her Friends, 1943–1962
(New York: Doubleday, 1984), 55–56; and Lash,
Eleanor and Franklin
, 237–38.

“prayerfully”
: PM to ER, July 4, 1954.

“You have one idea”
: ER to PM, July 7, 1954, PMP.

“can now well afford”
: PM to Channing Tobias, July 28, 1954, PMP.

40. “WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEKEND IT WAS”

“indomitable courage”
: PM,
Song
, 293.

“example”
: Ibid.

“laugh-and-cry”
: PM to Skipper [Caroline Ware], July 21, 1954, PMP.

“If it would not”
: PM to ER, July 10, 1954, ERP.

ER welcomed
: ER to PM, July 13, 1954, PMP.

On Friday, October 15, 1954
: PM,
Song
, 291–93.

The first reports
: This description of Hurricane Hazel is drawn from the Associated Press, “Hurricane Smashes Haiti Cities: Toll Is Heavy; Storm Moves North,”
NYT
, October 14, 1954; “Carolina Beaches Ravaged by Hazel: 6 Dead, Houses Washed Away,”
NYT
, October 16, 1954; “Virginia Hard Hit,”
NYT
, October 16, 1954; “Old Mount Vernon Tree Is Added to Hazel’s Toll,”
NYT
, October 21, 1954; Wayne Phillips, “100-Mile Wind Here Leaves Three Dead: Cottages and Church Steeple Are Victims of Hurricane’s Battering Winds,”
NYT
, October 16, 1954; Russell Porter, “Death Toll Is 39: Scores Hurt, Thousands Homeless,”
NYT
, October 16, 1954; and William R. Conklin, “Hurricane’s Toll Increases to 118,”
NYT
, October 17, 1954.