At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  still divided the want-ads by gender: Graham, Civil Rights Era, p. 214. Cf. NYT, July 2, 1965, p. 56; WP, July 2, 1965, p. C-9.

  “bunny problem”: Graham, Civil Rights Era, p. 211.

  “a shapeless, knobby-kneed male ‘bunny’”: Harrison, Sex, p. 189.

  “Amelia Jenks Bloomer”: NYT, Jan. 15, 1965, p. 17.

  “just abolish sex itself”: Graham, Civil Rights Era, p. 211.

  “There are some people”: Ibid., p. 217.

  19: GULPS OF FREEDOM

  the last of the Mississippi demonstrators: John Doar to John Lewis, Aug. 17, 1965, Reel 1, SNCC.

  “A ‘whitewash’ if there ever was one”: Hoover handwritten comment on UPI release by Al Kuettner dated June 16, 1965, FSC-NR.

  “dingy green walls and a bare floor”: “King Spurns Lure of Wealth, Lives Modestly in Atlanta,” AP release by Don McKee dated June 20, 1965, FK-1513. Hoover wrote on the FBI file copy: “Even this obvious ‘whitewash’ doesn’t clean him up.”

  might have concealed in Swiss bank accounts: Church, Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports, pp. 145–47; Baumgardner to Sullivan, Dec. 10, 1965, FK-2143.

  Ralph Abernathy’s Atlanta press conference: Abernathy press statement, July 1, 1965, A/SC59f10.

  “We will check with FBI men”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, July 1, 1965, FSC-408.

  “if I find anyone furnishing information”: Hoover handwritten note, ibid.

  “so as to give the lie”: DeLoach to Mohr, July 1, 1965, FSC-391.

  top FBI officials received notice: Handwritten notes on Baumgardner to Sullivan, July 1, 1965, FSC-408.

  “Fast Refutation by FBI”: Atlanta Times, July 13, 1965, p. 8; “FBI and King’s Group Clash over File Check,” Washington Daily News, July 2, 1965, news clip, FSC-A.

  One Illinois paper conflated: “King Calls Red Infiltration Charge a Red Herring,” Royal Oak Daily Tribune, July 3, 1965, news clip, FSC-564.

  fresh outburst from Mayor Daley: NYT, July 1, 1965, p. 27.

  “The actual work to redeem the soul”: King address to United Church of Christ, General Synod, Palmer House, Chicago, July 6, 1965, File 951, RS, CHS.

  “take over”: Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1965, p. 3.

  King parried both questions, then withdrew: “Investigator’s Report/Intelligence Division/Chicago Police Department,” July 7, 1965, File 951, RS, CHS.

  “deprived of any and all Federal assistance”: CCCO complaint dated July 4, 1965, cited in Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 334; Orfield, Reconstruction, p. 165.

  why the national CORE delegates: Meier, CORE, p. 404; NYT, July 6, 1965, p. 1.

  picked up comments on Vietnam: Allan Jones, “Dr. King Calls for End to War in Viet Nam,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 3, 1965, p. 1; UPI dispatch, “Dr. King Declares U.S. Must Negotiate in Asia,” NYT, July 3, 1965, p. 6. The FBI caught up late with the Vietnam controversy. The Richmond office forwarded the July 3 Times-Dispatch story to headquarters after Katzenbach’s July 6 call alerted Hoover, in LHM dated July 7, 1965, FSC-NR.

  but an incoming emergency call: “Investigator’s Report/Intelligence Division/Chicago Police Department,” July 7, 1965, File 951, RS, CHS.

  Wilson Baker had arrested Rev. F. D. Reese: Ibid. Also NYT, July 7, 1965, p. 1; Fager, Selma, 1965, pp. 196–99.

  J. Edgar Hoover was alerted to sensitivities: Hoover memorandum for Tolson et al., 5:53 P.M., July 6, 1965, FK-1551. This document was declassified beginning in 1975, but not fully released until 1999.

  “King’s injection into the Vietnam situation”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, July 7, 1965, FK-1555; Hoover to Marvin Watson, and Watson to LBJ, with attached FBI LHM “The Position of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Communist Party, USA, on Vietnam,” July 7, 1965, OFMS, LBJ.

  King announced that morning: “Statement of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to the Press, July 7, 1965,” File 951, RS, CHS; “Chicago press conference on Chicago movement, July 7, 1965,” A/KS; NYT, July 8, 1965, p. 36; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 160.

  “During entire press conference”: SAC, Chicago, to Director, July 7, 1965, FK-1547.

  Leaving Andrew Young with Bevel: “Investigator’s Report/Intelligence Division/Chicago Police Department,” July 7, 1965, p. 3, File 951, RS, CHS.

  first phone conversation initiated by King: “Contacts with Civil Rights Leaders, 1963–68,” Legislative Background, VRA ’65, Box 1, LBJ.

  “This is Martin King”: LBJ phone call with MLK, 8:05 P.M., July 7, 1965, Cit. 8311-14, Audiotape WH6507.02, LBJ.

  Jonathan Daniels reached Selma for a third stay: Judy Upham oral history, dated July 26, 1966, p. 80, JDC; Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 80–81.

  “I wanted to shout to them”: Daniels class paper submitted at the Episcopal Theological School, June 22, 1965, JDC.

  Daniels carried a secret intention: Marc Oliver int. by Rev. John B. Morris, Feb. 1966, JDC; Maurice Ouellet int. by P. Selby, June 1966, JDC.

  “It meant absorbing their guilt as well”: Daniels class paper submitted at the Episcopal Theological School, June 22, 1965, JDC.

  Lonzy and Alice West drove Daniels: Webb and Nelson, Selma, Lord, Selma, pp. 12, 51, 131–32.

  Daniels retained an open bond: Ibid. Also Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 76–78.

  edict that made national news: NYT, June 26, 1965, p. 13; “Selma Aftermath,” Jubilee, August, 1965, pp. 16–23.

  Wests of their family priest: Maurice Ouellet int. by P. Selby, June 1966, JDC; Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 75–76.

  first meeting with Negroes on freedom-of-choice integration: Ernest Bradford, “Report by the Committee for the Improvement of Educational Opportunities,” July 2, 1965, RSP2.

  Mayor Joseph Smitherman stalled the downtown boycott: Fager, Selma, 1965, pp. 188–95.

  A close observer of the emergency perceived him: Dave Smith to Ralph Smeltzer, June 28, July 7, and August 1, 1965, all in RSP2.

  Ralph Abernathy flew in with an earthy appeal: Jet, July 22, 1965, p. 7; Fager, Selma, 1965, pp. 196–200.

  “The SNCC people here”: Charles Fager to Randolph Blackwell, July 31, 1965, A/SC146f10.

  Selma Free College: Letitia (Tish) Fager to Randolph Blackwell, June 26, 1965, RSP2; Letitia (Tish) Fager to Randolph Blackwell, Sept. 8, 1965, A/SC146f12; “On the Freedom Trail in Alabama,” Sept. 10, 1965, private papers of Rabbi Harold Saperstein; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000.

  canvassed the poorest sections: Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 81–85.

  shocked the volunteers: Int. Marc Oliver by Rev. John B. Morris, Feb. 1966, JDC.

  Ouellet had feared: Maurice Ouellet int. by P. Selby, June 1966, JDC.

  white side of the laundromat: Int. Marc Oliver by Rev. John B. Morris, Feb. 1966, JDC.

  mentor also to a middle-aged couple: Harold and Marcia Saperstein, of Temple Emanu-El, Lynbrook, N.Y. “On the Freedom Trail in Alabama,” Sept. 10, 1965, private papers of Rabbi Harold Saperstein.

  “I think it’s all right for you”: Int. Harold and Marcia Saperstein, Dec. 12, 1991.

  cabin since July 6: WATS reports for Selma (July 6, 1965), Lowndes County (July 7 and 9, 1965), Reel 16, SNCC; Selma SNCC daily report, July 6, 1965, Reel 18, SNCC; Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 132.

  Lillian McGill quit her federal job: Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 72.

  SNCC workers mobilized outside reinforcements: Int. Harold and Marcia Saperstein, Dec. 12, 1991; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003.

  “We’ve fought for the removal”: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 132.

  visionary text of Ezekiel: Ezekiel 37:1–14; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000.

  Lowndes County was taking applications: Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 144–45.

  families of nearly fifty children: Bob Mants/Lowndes County, WATS report, July 25, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC; Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 139; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 146.

  Daniels accompanied s
everal to the courthouse: Int. Bernice Johnson, Feb. 16, 2001.

  punctuated by nearby Klan rallies: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 144; Stanton, From Selma, p. 123; Dave Smith, “Selma—July 17, 1965,” eyewitness report, with attached STJ advertisement for July 16 Klan rally on “Hiway 22 South,” RSP1.

  “Buster Haigler sent for me”: Affidavit of Cato Lee, Lowndesboro, Alabama, witnessed by Robert Mants, July 1965, Reel 18, SNCC.

  county’s largest private financier: Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 147.

  “the Ku Klux Klan would be through here”: Affidavit of Eli Logan, White Hall, Alabama, July 1965, Reel 18, SNCC.

  “the same man who measured my land”: Affidavit of Martha Johnson, Hayneville, Alabama, July 1965, Reel 18, SNCC.

  “Then he said, ‘We didn’t bother y’all’”: Affidavit of Jordan Gully, Hayneville, Alabama, July 1965, Reel 18, SNCC.

  Henry Cabot Lodge to return: Associated Press, World in 1965, p. 261; Karnow, Vietnam, p. 440; NYT, July 10, 1965, p. 3; LBJ phone calls with Juanita Roberts, 8:56 A.M. and 10:00 A.M., July 9, 1965, Cit. 8320–21, Audiotape WH6507.02, LBJ.

  Bill Moyers to White House Press Secretary: NYT, July 9, 1965, p. 1; Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 533; LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 1:19 P.M., July 8, 1965, Cit. 8311–13, Audiotape WH6507.02, LBJ.

  Moyers dazzled reporters: Deakin, Straight Stuff, p. 247.

  Joseph Califano from the Pentagon: NYT, July 25, 1965, p. 51.

  He ordered a verbatim transcript: Califano, Triumph, p. 70.

  “Get ’em! Get ’em!”: Francis Keppel oral history by David G. McComb, April 21, 1969, LBJ, p. 19.

  less than a quarter of three thousand Southern districts: Orfield, Reconstruction, pp. 108–9; Marion S. Barry and Betty Garman, “SNCC: A Special Report on Southern School Desegregation,” Sept. 1965, p. 9, courtesy of Betty Garman Robinson.

  Lowndes County among a majority: Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 144–55. On June 2, 1965, school superintendent Hulda Coleman notified the U.S. Office of Education that Lowndes County would desegregate first the four grades of high school by freedom-of-choice application for the fall term. Commissioner Keppel formally notified Coleman that the plan was insufficient on September 20, 1965.

  break the psychological barrier: Orfield, Reconstruction, pp. 148–49.

  orders to install a telephone: Califano, Triumph, pp. 25–26.

  Thurgood Marshall with an offer: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 314.

  “They won’t have any”: LBJ phone call with J. William Fulbright, 1:00 P.M., July 9, 1965, Cit. 8324–25, Audiotape WH6507.02, LBJ. Johnson reminded Fulbright that Carl Rowan, the most prominent Negro official in the State Department, had just resigned as director of the U.S. Information Agency.

  drinks on the Truman balcony: Johnson, Diary, p. 299.

  Johnson completed one phase: Marie Fehmer, “Summary of Conversation with Arthur Goldberg,” June 24, 1968, and Juanita Roberts to LBJ, July 13, 1968, Office of the President, Box 5, LBJ; LBJ phone call with Dean Rusk, 8:45 P.M., July 19, 1965, Cit. 8357–58, Audiotape WH6507.05, LBJ; LBJ phone call with Arthur Goldberg, 9:00 P.M., July 19, 1965, Cit. 8359–60, Audiotape WH6507.05, LBJ; LBJ phone call with Abe Fortas, 4:31 P.M., July 21, 1965, Cit. 8370, Audiotape WH6507.06, LBJ; LBJ phone call with Arthur Goldberg, 8:28 P.M., July 19, 1965, Cit. 8355, Audiotape WH6507.05, LBJ.

  day after Stevenson’s burial: NYT, July 20, 1965, p. 20.

  he told Galbraith flatly: LBJ phone call with John Kenneth Galbraith, 12:06 P.M., July 20, 1965, Cit. 8362, Audiotape WH6507.05, LBJ.

  “If you want a movement to move”: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 161.

  clergy: Chicago police surveillance report dated July 26, 1965, File 940, RS, p. 126447, CHS.

  in 1961 had branded King an apostate: Branch, Parting, pp. 500–507.

  “sacrifice body and soul”: NYT, July 25, 1965, p. 39.

  three-car motorcade: “Schedule of Martin Luther King’s Visit to Chicago, July 23–26, 1965,” A/SC150f4.

  On through eight speech stops in the lead car: Ibid.

  covering 186 miles of city streets: NYT, July 25, 1965, p. 39.

  driven off King’s advisory staff: Branch, Parting, pp. 328–29.

  “Let me commend you”: “…and the noble citizens of our nation accompanying you for your all-important mission to Vietnam. The war in Vietnam must be stopped. America must be willing to negotiate with all involved parties. While we are all concerned about Communist invasion, we must instill in the mind of our nation that the way to fight communism is not through bombs, guns and gases. It is through economic and political programs that will convince the people of the world that only in democratic society can man prosper and develop to his full potential.” MLK, “Cablegram Message sent to Alfred Hassler in Saigon,” July 5, 1965, Jacob Weinstein Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, CHS.

  Pastor Martin Niemoeller: Aside from Niemoeller, Jacob Weinstein, James Lawson, and Alfred Hassler, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the delegation consisted of Dr. Harold A. Bosley, Rt. Rev. William Crittenden, Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg, Dr. Dana McLean Greeley, Elmira Kendrick, Rt. Rev. Edward Murray, Dr. Howard Schomer, Elsie Schomer, Rev. Annalee Stewart, and Andre Trocme of Geneva. “A Report from Vietnam,” July 11, 1965, Jacob Weinstein Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, CHS. The text of this report would appear as a paid appeal in the New York Times on the Sunday following President Johnson’s July 28 announcement of troop escalation in Vietnam, NYT, Aug. 1, 1965, p. IV-5.

  the only black person among the fourteen delegates: James Lawson oral history by David Yellin and Bill Thomas, Sept. 23, 1969, MVC.

  “gave us great prestige”: Jacob Weinstein, Office of the President, Central Conference of American Rabbis, “Dear Colleagues,” July 30, 1965, Jacob Weinstein Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, CHS.

  “To say something while experiencing”: Letter to MLK, June 1, 1965, in Thich Nhat Hanh, Lotus, pp. 106–8; “A Letter to Martin Luther King from a Buddhist Monk,” Liberation, December 1965, pp. 18–19.

  Thich Nhat Hanh challenged Americans: “He recognized that Communism was an evil, but war was even a greater evil and he could not understand how justice could be established on the dead body of peace.” Jacob Weinstein, Office of the President, Central Conference of American Rabbis, “Dear Colleagues,” July 30, 1965, Jacob Weinstein Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, CHS.

  ended late Saturday at Friendship Baptist: Pacyga, Chicago, pp. 210, 296.

  complained of exhaustion after preaching: Chicago police surveillance report dated July 26, 1965, File 940, RS, p. 126448, CHS.

  six afternoon stops: Ibid.; “Schedule of Martin Luther King’s Visit to Chicago, July 23–26, 1965,” A/SC150f4.

  urged large middle-class crowds: NYT, July 26, 1965, p. 12.

  “Dives didn’t go to hell”: “17,000 Hear Dr. King at Six Chicago Rallies,” Minneapolis Tribune, July 26, 1965.

  “Take a day off on Monday”: NYT, July 25, 1965, p. 39.

  “You don’t think I know”: Int. C. T. Vivian, May 26, 1990.

  “Johns died?”: Ibid.

  his demise weeks earlier: Evans, ed., Dexter Avenue, p. 68; Jet, July 22, 1965, p. 47.

  “The Romance of Death”: “A Sermon Delivered May 16, 1965,” published by the Howard University School of Religion, March 1966, courtesy of Jeanne Johns Adkins; Branch, Parting, p. 902.

  “Segregation After Death”: Branch, Parting, pp. 12, 705.

  “I need to rest”: Garrow, Bearing, p. 434.

  reviewing the half-century of exodus: Chicago police surveillance report dated July 28, 1965, File 940, RS, pp. 138187–88, CHS.

  “Chicago did not turn out to be a New Jerusalem”: Jet, Aug. 12, 1965, pp. 6–7; Ralph, Northern, p. 35.

  King led a walking mass: NYT, July 27, 1965, p. 18; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 161.

  “a greater vision of our task”: “A Prayer for Chicago,” SCLC newsletter, Jan.–Feb. 1966, p. 2.

&nbs
p; “There can be no disagreement”: Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 340.

  permission to release simply the names: Valenti, notes of meeting, 12:30–3:15 P.M., July 26, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, pp. 240–47. Those present with LBJ were Vice President Humphrey, McNamara, Rusk, Arthur Goldberg, Bundy, Lodge, General Wheeler, George Ball, Clark Clifford, Richard Helms, William Raborn, and LBJ aides Moyers, Valenti, and Horace Busby.

  shot down fifty-five U.S. planes: Wheeler to McNamara, July 14, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 144.

  “Are you sure they’re Russians?”: Valenti, notes of meeting, 12:30–3:15 P.M., July 26, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 241.

  “We think that the Russians”: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 5:46 P.M., July 26, 1965, Cit. 8399-8400, Audiotape WH6507.08, LBJ.

  The President reconvened the group in the Cabinet Room: Valenti, notes of meeting, 6:10–6:55 P.M., July 26, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, pp. 253–56.

  hours after being sworn in: Goldberg was sworn in earlier on July 26, at 11:40 A.M., in the White House Rose Garden. Department of State Bulletin, August 16, 1965, pp. 265–67; PPP, July 26, 1965, pp. 786–87.

  Clark Clifford, who had argued the George Ball position: Clifford, Counsel, pp. 418–21. In his memoir, Clifford says that Ball gave him a note of gratitude for supporting his lonely position: “I’m glad to have such an eloquent and persuasive comrade bleeding on the same barricade.”

  “catastrophe for my country”: Valenti, “Notes of a Meeting, Camp David, Maryland, July 25, 1965, 5 P.M.,” in FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 238. Clifford advised LBJ to get out of Vietnam, though not until after holding on through the monsoon season. Valenti’s notes on what Clifford told LBJ make him largely prophetic on the war ahead: “Don’t believe we can win in SVN [South Vietnam]. If we send in 100,000, the NVN [North Vietnamese] will meet us. If the North Vietnamese run out of men, the Chinese will send in volunteers. Russia and China don’t intend for us to win the war. If we don’t win, it is a catastrophe. If we lose 50,000+ it will ruin us. Five years, billions of dollars, 50,000 men, it is not for us.”