At Canaan's Edge
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he declined the President’s invitation: MLK telegram to LBJ, March 15, 1965 (“I just talked with Mr. Valenti stating that complications in my schedule will make it impossible…. I had looked forward to being there with you.”), A/KP13f7.
secured an excused absence from Judge Johnson: (“King will attempt to be excused from appearance in federal court, Montgomery.”), SAC, Mobile, to Director, March 15, 1965, FDCA-611.
“got tired and even a little hostile”: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 133.
futile attempts since dawn to circumvent: FBI agents reported a march briefing by Hosea Williams at 6:58 A.M., nonviolent instruction by Rev. Charles King of Evanston, Indiana, at 8:00 A.M., and a large march led by SCLC’s Rev. C. T. Vivian at 9:24 A.M., blocked by Sheriff Clark. Mobile LHM dated March 19, 1965, FDCA-693, p. 12.
brink of open fisticuffs: Garrow, Protest, p. 105.
swelling bank of dignitaries: NYT, March 16, 1965, pp. 1, 31.
first direct Vatican contact in nine hundred years: Poulos, Breath, p. 105.
alone in a Charleston hotel room: Int. Archbishop Iakovos, Jan. 24, 2002.
seven of eighteen bare bulbs: WP, March 16, 1965, p. 12.
“I found myself greatly agitated”: Richard D. Leonard, “Selma65: A View from the Balcony,” UU World, May–June 2001.
“James Reeb was martyred” to “We thank God for his goodness”: MLK eulogy for James Reeb, Selma, Alabama, March 15, 1965, UU World, May–June 2001.
“At times, life is hard”: Branch, Parting, p. 892.
“the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage”: Branch, Pillar, pp. 47–48.
“the shirtless and barefoot people” and “not yet discouraged about the future”: Ibid., pp. 542–43.
Clark received mortifying news: Mobile LHM dated March 19, 1965, FDCA-693, p. 12.
Four minutes later: Ibid., p. 13.
“Grown men wept”: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 134.
met briefly in Geneva after the bus boycott: Int. Archbishop Iakovos, Jan. 24, 2002; Branch, Parting, p. 214.
A march of some 3,500 people: WP, March 16, 1965, p. 1.
this hard-won release more impressive: Judy Upham oral history dated June 6, 1966, p. 13, JDC.
his five children watched: NYT, March 16, 1965, p. 1.
A photographer captured the extraordinary assembly: Friedland, Lift Up, pp. 129–30; Life, March 26, 1965.
to remove a mourning wreath: NYT, March 16, 1965, p. 31.
10: AND WE SHALL OVERCOME
Stokely Carmichael reported: WATS report, March 15, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.
Carmichael saw police units: Int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 31, 1984.
SNCC colleagues came upon Carmichael: Ibid. Also Sellers, River, p. 127; int. Cleveland Sellers, Dec. 14, 1983. (Dates adjusted to fit the record.)
a standoff that lasted into Monday evening: Forman, Sammy Younge, p. 98; Carson, Struggle, p. 160; Fager, Selma, 1965, pp. 138–39.
“Melzetta Poole, 19, Alabama State”: WATS report, “Montgomery, Ala., March 15, 1965, People injured in march,” Reel 15, SNCC.
“300 Negro demonstrators blocking an ambulance”: WP, March 16, 1965, p. 1. A small story in the same day’s New York Times presented a toned-down police version as “one unconfirmed report,” and noted a conflicting statement from SNCC headquarters in Atlanta that “there was no ambulance involved and that the mounted deputies charged into the crowd without provocation.” NYT, March 16, 1965, p. 31.
the contrast of bustling normalcy at an airport concourse: Int. Willie (Ricks) Mukasa, May 14, 1992.
Carmichael collapsed on the floor: Int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 31, 1984.
Lady Bird Johnson stoically watched: Johnson, Diary, p. 252.
“fourteen goddam wooden fingers”: Rowan, Breaking, p. 250.
heard no sound from the arriving sphinx: Goodwin, Remembering, p. 330.
script changes that lengthened Goodwin’s draft: “President’s Remarks to Accompany Voting Message, Draft 1 Goodwin, 3/15/65,” as compared with “Remarks of the President to a Joint Session of Congress, March 15, 1965 (As Actually Delivered) (9:02 P.M.
EST),” Moyers Papers, Box 6, LBJ.
Where Goodwin exhorted: Ibid.
a boycott by the entire Mississippi and Virginia delegations: Mann, Walls, p. 461.
his largest television audience—some seventy million viewers: Garrow, Bearing, p. 408.
“I speak tonight for the dignity of man”: “Remarks of the President to a Joint Session of Congress, March 15, 1965 (As Actually Delivered) (9:02 P.M. EST),” Moyers Papers, Box 6, LBJ.
chamber that seemed stunned and on edge: Goldman, Tragedy, pp. 378–79.
a first lone clap: Richard B. Stolley, “The Nation Surges to Join the Negro on His March,” Life, March 26, 1965, p. 35; Goodwin, Remembering, p. 332.
quotation from St. Mark: Mark 8:36.
a standing ovation spread in waves: WP, March 16, 1965, p. 1.
“remarkable views of the reaction of Congress”: NYT, March 16, 1965, p. 31.
one of two threats of searing disgrace: Richard B. Stolley, “The Nation Surges to Join the Negro on His March,” Life, March 26, 1965, p. 35; Newsweek, March 29, 1965; Mann, Walls, p. 461. There is conflict in these accounts about whether it was the first or last half of the printed speech that wound up on the TelePrompTer. The latter is more consistent with details in common. Mann quotes Valenti’s comment to the TelePrompTer operator: “I almost died a thousand deaths getting it here in time.”
quietly muttered, “Goddam”: Mann, Walls, p. 463; int. Harry McPherson, Sept. 24, 1991, and Nov. 15, 2001.
“a turncoat”: Kotz, Judgment Days, p. 319.
“a dagger in your heart”: Remarks of Joseph Smitherman in Eyes on the Prize, Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.
“Can you believe he said that?”: Int. Jean Jackson, May 27, 1990.
A tear rolled down King’s cheek: Remarks of C. T. Vivian in Eyes on the Prize, Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986; Lewis, Walking, pp. 339–40.
A second standing ovation: WP, March 16, 1965, p. 1.
“Manny, I want you to start hearings tonight”: Newsweek, March 29, 1965.
“Jack, how did I do?”: Goodwin, Remembering, p. 336.
11: HALF-INCH HAILSTONES
“There cannot be anyone alive”: Editors’ News Service Dispatch 311, “President’s Address Draws Strong Support from Morning Newspapers and Columnists,” March 17, 1965, Legislative Background, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Box 1, LBJ.
Chicago mayor Richard Daley called to praise: LBJ phone call with Richard Daley, 10:03 A.M., March 16, 1965, Cit. 7069, Audiotape WH6503.07, LBJ.
“That was a terrific speech”: LBJ phone call with Thomas Watson, 4:19 P.M., March 16, 1965, Cit. 7071, Audiotape WH6503.07, LBJ.
all eighteen assistant majority whips: PDD, March 16, 1965, LBJ.
pass these four above all others: Ibid., note, p. 5.
Seminarians Judith Upham and Jonathan Daniels suffered an acute letdown: Judy Upham oral history dated June 6, 1966, pp. 14–15, JDC.
James Bevel told morning crowds: Mobile to Director, March 16, 1965, FDCA-624; Mobile LHM dated March 19, 1965, FDCA-693, pp. 14–16.
they could not bring themselves to wrap up: Morris Samuel int. by John B. Morris, Feb. 1966, pp. 19–20, JDC.
“The imperative was too clear”: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 38.
drop seminary for the term and pack Upham’s Volkswagen: Ibid., p. 40.
James Forman led a crisis march of some six hundred students: Forman, Sammy Younge, pp. 99–100. Forman puts the number at more than a thousand. Other sources cited below vary the estimates between six hundred and a thousand.
“wearing a cowboy hat”: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 139.
spun from a yard with a lit cigar: Eyes on the Prize, Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.
“the sound of the nightstick carried”: NYT, March 17, 1965, pp. 1, 26.
“That cracker was just talkin’ shit”: Int. James Bevel, Dec. 10, 1998; int. James Forman, Feb. 13, 2001.
They muted their ongoing dispute: WATS report, March 16, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.
signs from nineteen scattered schools: Ibid.
“We are deeply astonished”: Dr. Erno Ottlyk to MLK, March 22, 1965, A/KP21f12.
another 250 Wayne State University students: Stanton, From Selma, p. 138.
“Prior to today I felt”: Ibid., p. 139.
the daughter of a Tennessee coal miner: Ibid., pp. 83–91, 154.
Alice Herz realized: Int. Helga Herz, Dec. 3, 2001.
She had joined the first giant march: Shibata, ed., Phoenix, pp. 158–59.
poured two cans of Energine dry cleaning fluid: Ibid., p. 153.
“GOD IS NOT MOCKED”: Ibid., p. 3.
Alice Herz struggled ten days: Robinson, Abraham, p. 202.
She had confided nothing: Int. Helga Herz, Dec. 3, 2001.
“When you understand why”: Shibata, ed., Phoenix, p. 157; Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, p. 3.
“A holy courage must animate”: Alice Herz to Shingo Shibata, May 1, 1952, in Shibata, ed., Phoenix, pp. 35–37.
first Vietnam peace casualty: DeBenedetti, Ordeal, p. 107.
the late mass meeting in Montgomery: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 140.
“There’s only one man in this country”: Eyes on the Prize, Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.
“the last time I wanted to participate”: Forman, Sammy Younge, p. 99.
King came behind him with a fiery speech: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 140.
“The cup of endurance”: Arlie Schardt, “Tension, Not Split, in the Negro Ranks,”
Christian Century, May 12, 1965, pp. 614–16.
“It won’t be forthcoming”: Sikora, Judge, pp. 222–23.
nearly two thousand people on a mile-long walk: NYT, March 18, 1965, p. 1; Fager, Selma, 1965, pp. 140–41.
a spasm of national publicity: Garrow, Protest, pp. 108–10.
Other photographs on an inside page: NYT, March 17, 1965, p. 26.
National Press Club banned females: WP, March 17, 1965, p. 1.
“We are sorry there was a mix-up”: NYT, March 17, 1965, p. 1.
“Police protection was thoroughly organized”: Benjamin R. Epstein, “Notes on a Visit to Selma,” RSP1.
Half-inch hailstones fell: SAC, Mobile, to Director, 2:03 A.M. CST, March 18, 1965, FDCA-656; Mobile LHM dated March 19, 1965, FDCA-693, pp. 17–18.
emerging at 5:15 P.M.: NYT, March 18, 1965, pp. 1, 21.
“There are points that we agree on”: Eyes on the Prize, Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.
12: NEUTRALIZE THEIR ANXIETIES
they could catch a plane to New Orleans: Sikora, Judge, p. 226.
“I am opposed to every word”: Congressional Record, March 18, 1965, p. 5388.
“As American citizens, they have faith in America”: Ibid., p. 5402.
opposed sending the bill to committee: Garrow, Protest, p. 113.
“I didn’t experience fear”: Associated Press, World in 1965, p. 60.
With Deputy Defense Secretary Cyrus Vance: Before taking the arranged call from Governor Wallace, President Johnson met for half an hour with Katzenbach, Ellington, Vance, Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, and Lee White. PDD, March 18, 1965, LBJ.
“pourin’ in from all over the country”: LBJ phone call with Governor George Wallace, 4:33 P.M., March 18, 1965, Cit. 7094-96, Audiotape WH6503.09, LBJ.
on cue for live statewide television: Jones, Wallace Story, p. 403.
“And it is upon these people”: STJ, March 21, 1965, p. 5; FBI transcript dated March 20, 1965, FSMM-NR.
Thunderous cheers answered his concluding appeal: Carter, Politics, p. 256.
“I’ve been leavin’ since 3:30”: LBJ phone call with Buford Ellington, 9:13 P.M., March 18, 1965, Cit. 7124, Audiotape WH6503.10, LBJ.
“in comes this goddam wire”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 10:00 P.M., March 18, 1965, Cit. 7129-30, Audiotape WH6503.10, LBJ.
“in a highly agitated condition”: Hoover to Tolson et al., 1:41 P.M., March 19, 1965, FCT-NR.
reached the LBJ Ranch before two o’clock: PDD, March 18, 1965, pp. 8–9, LBJ.
Anderson Watts was merely his sharecropper: BAA, March 27, 1965, p. 2.
When police arrested eighty-four of the students: WATS report, March 18, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.
At midnight, the most persistent thirty-six: WATS report, March 19, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.
“Willie Ricks told you to say that”: Int. Willie (Ricks) Mukasa, May 14, 1992.
“Come here, son”: Ibid. Also Sellers, River, p. 124; int. Cleveland Sellers, Dec. 14, 1983.
Sellers places this incident a few days earlier in Selma, but Mukasa remembers Montgomery and details consistent with the later date.
“I’ve known people who sold out”: Int. Robert Castle, March 3, 1993.
He offered more than once to bounce them: Int. Richmond Smiley, Dec. 28, 1983; int.
Richmond Smiley by Judy Barton, Jan. 27, 1972, A/OH.
“I’ll be just like Rockefeller’s wife”: Int. Metz Rollins, Dec. 13, 1991.
Bayard Rustin urge King to renounce: FBI LHM dated March 20, 1965, FSMM-162, p. 2.
“the Reverend’s show”: SAC, Jackson, to Director and Mobile, March 19, 1965, FSMM-91, p. 2.
“Everybody’s entitled to one”: Int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000.
littered church basements: BAA, March 27, 1965, p. 2.
outdoor soundstage out of stacked coffin crates: Int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000; NYT, March 25, 1965, p. 27; Lewis, Walking, p. 345.
Donaldson and SNCC’s Frank Soracco undertook the delicate assignment: Int. Frank Soracco, Sept. 13, 1990; int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000; Fager, Selma, 1965, pp. 145–46.
They selected Rev. F. Goldthwaite Sherrill: Shattuck, Episcopalians, p. 155.
“Arguments take place in any family”: Christian Century, May 12, 1965, pp. 614–16.
“two hotheaded extremists”: “Inside Report: Danger from the Left,” WP, March 18, 1965, p. 25.
“political timing”: Branch, Pillar, p. 587.
“get a martyr”: SAC, Mobile, to Director, March 19, 1965, FSMM-249.
“sufficiently to neutralize their anxieties”: FBI LHM dated March 20, 1965, FSMM-162, p. 2.
Forman…agreed to suspend demonstrations: Rosen to Belmont, March 20, 1965, FSMM-23.
“two-day nervous breakdown”: Esquire, Jan. 1967, p. 135.
His experimental motto was “use King”: Int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 30, 1984.
he drove into the wilds with a stack of leaflets: Greenberg, ed., Circle, pp. 98–99; int. Bob Mants, Sept. 8, 2000. SNCC workers Judy Richardson and Willie Vaughn also were present.
John Jackson: John Jackson int. by Robert Wright, Aug. 3, 1968, RJBOH; int. John Jackson, March 25, 2005.
for the county’s first political meeting of Negroes: Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 122–26; Matthew Jackson int. by Robert Wright, Aug. 4, 1968, RJBOH; Emma Jackson int. by Robert Wright, Aug. 4, 1968, RJBOH; int. John Hulett, Sept. 8, 2000; int. Rocena Haralson, Feb. 16, 2001; int. Charles Smith, Feb. 16, 2001.
“almost began to feel up to my ears”: Recorded memoir by Atkins Preston, Medical Committee for Human Rights, courtesy of Meredith Kopald, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“This is stupid”: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 144.
“at least we had good music”: NYT, March 20, 1965, p. 13.
“No white churchman is going to be free”: Transcript, “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” JDC, p. 3.
“with good hearts, good feet”: Ibid., p. 7.
James Bevel followed with a featured address: “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” AEC.
soul tune by Garnet Mimms & the Enchanters: “Quiet Place,” as identified courtesy of blues scholar Guido van Rijn of the Netherlands.
“Call your missionaries from Africa”: Ibid.
“but I have a problem with shabbat”: Int. Isreal Dresner, July 31, 1991.
had found seeds of a surprising bond: Branch, Pillar, pp. 21–32.
Heschel consulted fellow authorities: Int. Sylvia Heschel, Feb. 4, 1991.
visit friends at five different ranches: PDD, March 19, 1965, LBJ.
“likely to leak some time”: Moyers to LBJ, with 7:00 P.M. cover note, March 19, 1965, Legislative Background, VRA ’65, Box 1, LBJ.
“Cy Vance strongly”: Ibid.
suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion: NYT, March 21, 1965, p. 71.
Sixty-eight of them landed: Ibid. Also SAC, San Antonio, to Director, 9:09 P.M., March 19, 1965, FSMM-12; BAA, March 27, 1965, p. 1.
retired at three o’clock: PDD, March 19, 1965, LBJ.
Lady Bird sitting nearby under a shawl: NYT, March 21, 1965, p. 1.
“Over the next several days”: “The President’s News Conference at the LBJ Ranch,” 11:00 A.M., March 20, 1965, PPP, pp. 299–307.
“somewhat of a family quarrel”: Transcript, “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” JDC, pp. 5–9.
the bishops conducted Communion services: Shattuck, Episcopalians, p. 155.
homemade sausages and fifty more sandwiches were ready: Charles V. Willie, “Reflections on a Saturday in Selma,” RSP2, BIR/C15f30.
Viola Liuzzo processed newcomers at one of the welcome tables: Stanton, From Selma, p. 155.
Hank Thomas wandered carefully: Int. Hank Thomas, March 14, 1991.
“By late Saturday”: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 149.
“not particularly tense”: NYT, March 21, 1965, p. 76.
FBI agents reported the Leo Haley incident: Mobile LHM dated March 22, 1965, FDCA-721; NYT, March 21, 1965, p. 76.
“get that damn nigger Martin Luther King”: McGowan to Rosen, March 20, 1965, FSMM-118.
immensely relieved that military units: Hoover first resisted the idea that FBI agents
would have any contact at all with the politically dangerous Alabama authorities, scrawling on a memo, “I thought the military (Federal) was in control.” However, Inspector Joseph Sullivan bravely argued that the Bureau must have contact with both warring sides in Alabama in order to fulfill its duties as observers, in case there were violations of the federal court order. Hoover, under pressure from LBJ, permitted carefully limited contact behind a great show of FBI presence. See Belmont to Tolson, March 19, 1965, FSMM-177; Rosen to Belmont, March 20, 1965, FDCA-759.