At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

fifty-seven people collapsed: NYT, March 25, 1965, p. 27.

  Coretta King read: Wofford, Kennedys and Kings, p. 196; King, My Life, p. 269.

  “I was born and reared just eighty miles from here”: “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” AEC.

  Viola Liuzzo of Detroit slept in her car: Stanton, From Selma, p. 164.

  another contentious late staff meeting: Int. Richmond Smiley, Dec. 28, 1983; int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  a delegation of 293 landing at 4:45 A.M. from Burbank: Rabbi Jacob Pressman, “March on Montgomery,” March 27, 1965, A/KP21f12.

  four hundred people from New York City: NYT, March 25, 1965, p. 27.

  a long line of rumbling buses: Epstein, “Notes on a Visit to Selma,” RSP1, p. 4.

  the university tower struck eight o’clock: Menashe and Radosh, Teach-Ins, p. 7.

  the conscious model of SNCC’s Freedom Schools: Ibid., p. 9; Cagin and Dray, Not Afraid, pp. 173–74. William Gamson, chair of the University of Michigan Sociology Department, suggested the Vietnam civic action at an informal meeting of faculty on March 11.

  The “teach-in” phenomenon: Viorst, Fire, p. 398; Wells, War Within, p. 24; Powers,

  War, pp. 55–56.

  “Good morning, sir, how did you sleep?”: LBJ conversation with Henry Cabot Lodge, 8:52 A.M., March 25, 1965, Cit. 7147-49, Audiotape WH6503.12, LBJ.

  “I am smoking too many of them”: LBJ conversation with Nicholas Katzenbach, 9:35 A.M., March 25, 1965, Cit. 7150, Audiotape WH6503.12, LBJ.

  “an acre of English ground”: Associated Press, World in 1965, pp. 94–95.

  planted three PT-109 tie clasps: Ibid., pp. 58–59; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, pp. 306–7.

  “Where is my immigration bill”: LBJ conversation with Edward Kennedy, 12:44 P.M., March 25, 1965, Cit. 7156, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

  “The tents have been taken down”: Califano to McNamara et al., “Report No. 12 as of 1000,” March 25, 1965, Ex HU2/ST1, Box 24, LBJ.

  he scrawled a hasty addendum: Califano, “Memorandum for the President, SUBJECT: Montgomery Situation Report as of 1100 EST,” March 25, 1965, Ex HU2/ST1, Box 24, LBJ.

  “I’m Dr. Bunche”: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991. Pratt, a lawyer on the staff of the Commission on Religion and Race, from the National Council of Churches, was serving as chauffeur for the King party.

  “Make way for the originals”: Adler, “Letter from Selma,” New Yorker, April 10, 1965, p. 153.

  Newcomers surged around them: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 159.

  “our president told us Dr. King”: “50-Mile Marchers Irked,” Washington Evening Star, March 26, 1965, p. 5.

  “All you dignitaries”: Ibid.

  “You fellows deserve to go first”: Wofford, Kennedys and Kings, p. 197.

  to serve summons on several legal actions: FBI Selma to Director, March 25, 1965, FSMM-314; Rosen to Belmont, March 25, 1965, FSMM-339.

  a host of clergy including Orloff Miller: Adler, “Letter from Selma,” New Yorker, April 10, 1965, p. 153; Johnson and Adelman, Photobiography, pp. 198–99.

  Rosa Parks found herself shoved: Brinkley, Rosa Parks, pp. 198–99.

  “I was in it, but they put me out”: Orson, Freedom’s Daughters, pp. 343–44.

  Viola Liuzzo asked a priest: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 160.

  carrying her purse and shoes: Stanton, From Selma, pp. 164–65.

  “It required one hour”: Mobile LHM dated March 26, 1965, FSMM-374, p. 31.

  road-blocked intersections: WS, March 25, 1965, p. 1.

  touched depths of an odyssey come home: Abernathy, Walls, p. 357; King, My Life, p. 270.

  St. Jude hospital where Coretta had given birth: King, My Life, p. 268.

  down Oak Street past Holt Street Baptist Church: Miller, Martin, p. 230.

  “Many cried”: WS, March 25, 1965, p. 1.

  “This is it”: BAA, April 3, 1965, p. 2.

  business district that was eerily deserted: Harrington, Fragments, p. 127.

  Governor Wallace had proclaimed: Fager, Selma, 1965, p. 161; Carter, Politics, p. 256;

  Lesher, George Wallace, p. 337.

  showered with leaflets: FBI Selma to Director, March 25, 1965, FSMM-314, pp. 6–7.

  twenty-fifth anniversary of Highlander: Garrow, Bearing, p. 98. Speech text from tape recording, MVC.

  Tennessee had persecuted: Branch, Parting, pp. 121–22, 289–90, 825–26.

  centerpiece of an attack campaign: Ibid., pp. 853–54; Branch, Pillar, pp. 189–90.

  John Doar had watched mobs beat: Branch, Parting, p. 447.

  Judge Johnson bristled against all street politics: Sikora, Judge, pp. 147–48.

  “something special about democracy”: Ibid., p. 231; Bass, Unlikely, p. 262.

  Soldiers stood behind wooden barricades: NYT, March 26, 1965, p. 22. The Times reported the soldiers stationed “about every 25 feet.” CBS News said ten feet apart.

  “I believe in you”: Lewis, Walking, pp. 343–45.

  he shook a crutch defiantly: Wofford, Kennedys and Kings, p. 197.

  “You’re only likely to see”: Adler, “Letter from Selma,” New Yorker, April 10, 1965, p. 154.

  Harwell Mason slave pen: Branch, Parting, p. 2.

  “Segregation After Death”: Ibid., p. 12.

  along with Coretta’s parents: King, My Life, p. 270.

  Negroes and integrationists, plywood temporarily covered: Washington Evening Star, March 25, 1965, p. 1.

  “This is a revolution”: Wofford, Kennedys and Kings, p. 198.

  a black mourning banner would fly: Jones, Wallace Story, p. 429.

  “to show that socialism has taken over”: DeLoach to Mohr, March 22, 1965, FSMM-237.

  “Let’s teach ’em the words!”: Epstein, “Notes on a Visit to Selma,” p. 4, RSP1.

  singers grouped around the cluster of microphones: Johnson and Adelman, Photobiography, p. 201.

  “Great day!”: CBS News Special Report: Civil Rights March on Montgomery, March 25, 1965, Tape T79:0049051, MOB.

  “makes a Southerner’s blood run hot”: Jones, Wallace Story, p. 429. 164 threatened CBS News president Fred Friendly: Friendly, Circumstances, p. 171.

  “I look worse than anybody else”: Adler, “Letter from Selma,” New Yorker, April 10, 1965, p. 156.

  Some prostrate orange vests could not be roused: Int. Frank Soracco, Sept. 13, 1990; int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000.

  extra speakers into the all-male procession: Program list provided by Andrew Young;

  FBI Selma to Director, March 25, 1965, FSMM-314, pp. 4–6.

  Amelia Boynton of Selma read a petition: Text of petition “read by Mrs. Amelia Boynton,” in SAC, Mobile, to Director, March 27, 1965, FSMM-362.

  “My family was deprived”: Civil Rights March on Montgomery, March 25, 1965, Tape T79:0049051, MOB.

  Faltering, she said others could put it all better into words: Wofford, Kennedys and Kings, p. 199.

  “They told us we wouldn’t get here”: Transcript of address labeled “Steps of the Capitol, Montgomery, Alabama, ‘How Long? Not Long,’” March 25, 1965, A/KS, reconciled with John B. Morris recording in “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” AEC.

  Already he strayed from lyrical prepared remarks: “Address by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” March 25, 1965, A/KS.

  King looked over heads: Johnson and Adelman, Photobiography, pp. 200–201.

  cameras from every network: Garrow, Protest, p. 117; Friendly, Circumstances, p. 171.

  King had refined with fellow preachers since graduate school: Branch, Parting, p. 93.

  Southern states had permitted biracial voting: Woodward, Jim Crow, p. 54.

  white supremacists themselves had ridiculed the crippling inconvenience: Ibid., pp. 67–69.

  banish any fraternal organization: Ibid., p. 100.

  “The river was dyed red”: Wood, Radicalism, p. 175.

  “as though their marriages were legal”: Ibid., pp. 176–77.

 
; Governor Wallace watched three television sets: Jones, Wallace Story, p. 432.

  What lasted in print: NYT, March 26, 1965, p. 22; Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 227–30.

  “I come to say to you this afternoon”: Transcript of address labeled, “Steps of the Capitol, Montgomery, Alabama, ‘How Long? Not Long,’” March 25, 1965, A/KS, reconciled with John B. Morris recording in “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” AEC; NYT, March 26, 1965, p. 22.

  “Because truth crushed to earth”: Quotation from William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878), “The Battle-Field”; cf. Carson and Holloran, eds., Knock, p. 14.

  “Because no lie can live forever”: Quotation from Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881).

  “Because you shall reap what you sow”: Paraphrase of Galatians 6:7.

  “‘Truth forever on the scaffold’”: Quotation from James Russell Lowell (1819–91), The Present Crisis.

  “Because the arc of the moral universe”: Quotation from Rev. Theodore Parker (1810–60).

  15: AFTERSHOCKS

  “Who is our leader?”: “The Saga of Selma: A Tape Recording by ESCRU,” AEC.

  “I know of no other woman”: CBS News Special Report: Civil Rights March on Montgomery, March 25, 1965, Tape T79:0049051, MOB.

  Abernathy dismissed the crowd with reminders: SAC, Mobile, to Director, March 25, 1965, FSMM-313; Rabbi Jacob Pressman, “March on Montgomery,” March 27, 1965, A/KP21f12.

  “Stragglers must not remain”: Leaflet instructions headed, “Welcome to the March on Montgomery,” A/KP21f12.

  “Within ten minutes”: Adler, “Letter from Selma,” New Yorker, April 10, 1965, p. 157.

  “two or three places”: “President Turns Cabinet Meeting into Impromptu News Conference,” WP, March 26, 1965, p. 1.

  “God have mercy on your souls”: NYT, March 26, 1965, p. 23.

  “heavy budget of news”: Horace Busby to LBJ, March 26, 1965, Box 52, Horace Busby Papers, LBJ.

  This was a mild version: LBJ to Collins, March 25, 1965, and Collins to LBJ, March 24, 1965, Ex FG/ST1, Box 229, LBJ.

  Jonathan Daniels knelt quietly on the pavement: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 42.

  loaded Upham’s Volkswagen: Judy Upham oral history dated June 6, 1966, pp. 21–22, JDC.

  recognized Viola Liuzzo: FBI interview with Samuel Edmondson, Saginaw, Michigan, April 1, 1965, in Mobile report dated April 2, 1965, FVL-128; FBI interview with Louis Miller in SAC, Memphis, to Director, April 2, 1965, FVL-125.

  nineteen-year-old volunteer Leroy Moton: Stanton, From Selma, p. 169; FBI interview with Leroy Moton, March 26, 1965, FVL-11.

  Liuzzo tried to calm her passengers: FBI interviews with passengers Clarissa Brown, Carla Austin, Lizbeth Stewart, and Clarence Smith, Jr., March 26, 1965, in Mobile report dated April 12, 1965, FVL-295.

  of four Birmingham Klansmen: Stanton, From Selma, pp. 46–50; Sikora, Judge, pp. 244–49; Rowe, Undercover, pp. 165–71; deposition of Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr., April 27, 1965, in Beulah Mae Donald et al. v. United Klans of America, Civil Action 84-0725-C-S, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.

  Eugene Thomas had been obliged to display: Ibid. When arrested the next morning, Thomas possessed a “Special Police Badge” from Fairfield, Alabama, with his name engraved, plus special deputy commissions from the city of Bessemer, Alabama, and from Jefferson County (Birmingham). Mobile FBI report dated March 30, 1965, pp. 23–24, FVL-NR.

  The Klansmen followed Liuzzo: Stanton, From Selma, pp. 50–51; Sikora, Judge, pp. 250–53.

  Leroy Moton was absorbed with the radio dial: Sikora, Judge, pp. 257–58.

  Moton managed to turn off the engine: Ibid. Also NYT, March 27, 1965, pp. 1, 10; BAA, April 3, 1965, p. 1, April 10, 1965, p. 17; Chaves, Ordaining, pp. 193–94.

  driven by a Disciples of Christ minister: Mendelsohn, Martyrs, pp. 185–86; FBI Selma to Director, 4:37 A.M., March 26, 1965, FVL-99.

  let two nieces of Napoleon Mays: Int. Timothy Mays, March 9, 2000.

  “The woman is from Michigan?”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 11:25 P.M., March 25, 1965, Cit. 7160, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

  Just before one o’clock: LBJ called to “FBI Duty Officer, Agent Herbert,” 12:55 A.M., March 26, 1965, PDD, LBJ; Rosen to Belmont, March 26, 1965, FVL-156.

  FBI inspector Joe Sullivan: On his way to the scene, Sullivan called the FBI with the first word of the Liuzzo shooting at 10:30 P.M. Washington time, about ninety minutes after the crime. Rosen to Belmont, March 25, 1965, FSMM-315; Rosen to Belmont, March 25, 1965, FVL-3.

  At 1:49 A.M., Diane Nash: Rosen to Belmont, March 26, 1965, FVL-NR.

  “The president just called me”: Int. Joseph Sullivan, March 3, 1991.

  enabled Sullivan to sense something extraordinary: Ibid.

  “one of our men in the car”: LBJ phone call with J. Edgar Hoover, 8:10 A.M., March 26, 1965, Cit. 7162, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

  “Do you know Hoover had a guy”: Int. Jack Valenti, Feb. 25, 1991.

  “Looks like we’ll be pretty much”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 8:20 A.M., March 26, 1965, Cit. 7163, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

  remain sealed from its background: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

  He tasked White House lawyer Lee White: LBJ phone call with Lee White, 8:40 A.M., March 26, 1965, Cit. 7164, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

  “much in control of himself”: LBJ phone call with Lee White, 9:27 A.M., March 26, 1965, Cit. 7165–66, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

  “the appearance of a necking party”: Hoover to Tolson et al., 9:32 A.M., March 26, 1965, FVL-16.

  slanderous Klan fantasy dressed as evidence: Selma to Director, March 26, 1965, FVL-19; Detroit FBI report dated April 1, 1965, FVL-117, p. 89; Rosen to Belmont, April 5, 1965, FVL-162; Stanton, From Selma, pp. 52–53; O’Reilly “Racial,” pp. 216–17; Sikora, Judge, p. 256.

  “Yes, he’s a Teamster man”: LBJ phone call with J. Edgar Hoover, 9:36 A.M., March 26, 1965, Cit. 7167, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

  “hold off until after the case is broken”: Addendum marked “9:45 A.M.,” Hoover to Tolson et al., 9:32 A.M., March 26, 1965, FVL-16.

  “paternalistic at best”: Powers, Secrecy, pp. 410–11.

  potentially ruinous secrets: The career of Gary Thomas Rowe as an FBI informant is presented officially in the Headquarters Informant File for informant BH 248-PCI (RAC). His most notorious Klan activity was a central role in the May 14, 1961, beating of Freedom Riders at the Birmingham Trailways terminal, with prior sanction from both the Birmingham police and the FBI, as first detailed in 1975 by the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (known as the Church Committee), headed by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. See U.S. Department of Justice Task Force Report entitled The FBI, the Department of Justice, and Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr., Washington, D.C.; Branch, Parting, pp. 420–22; Stanton, From Selma, pp. 208–10. For sketches of Rowe’s involvement in many acts of Klan violence while an informant, see McWhorter, Carry, pp. 177–78, 192–93, 204–9, 212–13, 256, 434–37, 500–501.

  prior FBI approval to ride: Sikora, Judge, p. 243.

  “Hoover panicked”: Stanton, From Selma, p. 52.

  in unmailed letters recovered from her car: Rosen to Belmont, April 5, 1965, FVL-162.

  a record White House news day: Brink, Black and White, p. 212; PDD, March 26, 1965, LBJ.

  “So when the House acts”: Miller, Lyndon, p. 500.

  not to bump Search for Tomorrow: Friendly, Circumstances, pp. 172–74.

  Johnson called the Liuzzo house at 12:30: NYT, March 27, 1965, p. 10.

  “the terrorists of the Ku Klux Klan”: “Televised Remarks Announcing the Arrest of Members of the Ku Klux Klan,” March 26, 1965, PPP, pp. 332–33; statement, Office of the White House Press Secretary, preserved in King’s files at A/KP13f7.

  triumph gave way to renewed crisis: Belmont to Tolson, March 26, 1965, FVL-154.

  had returned secretly to t
he crime scene: FBI Birmingham to Director and Mobile (Selma), March 26, 1965, FVL-9.

  arraignment in full Klan character: Rowe, Undercover, pp. 180–85.

  “an unexplained four-hour delay”: NYT, March 26, 1965, p. 10.

  “all agents must keep their mouths shut”: Belmont to Hoover, March 26, 1965, FVL-33.

  “I want no comments nor amplifications”: Hoover addendum on Belmont to Tolson, March 26, 1965, FVL-154. Headquarters relayed these instructions by telephone in advance of regular channels, as reported in McGowan to Rosen, March 29, 1965, FVL-173.

  his decision to call King the nation’s most notorious liar: Jones to DeLoach, “Representative Wendell Wyatt (R.-Oregon), Meeting with Director, March 25, 1965, FK-NR.

  “blinded by prejudice”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, March 23, 1965, “Subject: Communism and the Negro Movement—A Current Analysis,” FK-NR.

  refused to cut his hair: Johnson, Diary, p. 254.

  UPI national ticker at 2:26 P.M.: Tavel to Mohr, March 30, 1965, FVL-NR.

  “The FBI had that car”: NYT, March 28, 1965, p. 58.

  “a malicious lie”: Ibid.

  “I had to blast the story”: Hoover to Tolson et al., 1:38 P.M., March 29, 1965, FCT-NR.

  DeLoach wisely advised colleagues: DeLoach to Mohr, March 28, 1965, FVL-NR.

  explain why it took seven hours: Tavel to Mohr, March 30, 1965, FVL-NR.

  one unfortunate assistant admitted leaving: Ibid.

  “another vindication of the propriety”: Jones to DeLoach, March 29, 1965, FVL-NR.

  “an authentic American folk hero”: “Durable F.B.I. Chief: John Edgar Hoover,” NYT, March 27, 1965, p. 11.

  “an impressive monument to efficiency and integrity”: Ibid.

  Martin Luther King sent Hoover a telegram of thanks: Garrow, Bearing, p. 413.

  “would only help build up this character”: DeLoach to Mohr, March 28, 1965, FVL NR.

  Producers had agreed to film him: Spivak to MLK, March 27, 1965, A/KP17f17; Garrow, Bearing, p. 414.

  “I would say that the march was not silly at all”: Transcript, Meet the Press, March 28, 1965, A/SC4f42.

  Bishop Carpenter of Alabama had brokered: Carpenter to “The Congregation of St. Paul’s Church, Selma, Alabama,” March 25, 1965, BIR/C8f24; John B. Morris, “To All Bishops,” March 27, 1965, BIR/C11f5; STJ, March 28, 1965, p. 1; Bishop George Murray to Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, March 25, 1965, BIR/C11f5.