Four Quartets of T. S. Eliot: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002.
After seventy-five people were injured: LAT, Aug. 13, 1965, p. 1; NYT, Aug. 13, 1965, p. 1.
a second lull had convinced authorities: Governor’s Commission, Violence in the City, pp. 15–16; Horne, Fire, p. 69.
“10:00 A.M. Major looting became general”: Transcript, CBS Reports, Watts: Riot or Revolt?, broadcast of Dec. 7, 1965, p. 13, T77:0395, MOB.
Langston Hughes reported: Bayard Rustin, “The Watts ‘Manifesto’ and the McCone Report,” Commentary, March 1966, p. 30.
assaults on white journalists: Horne, Fire, pp. 59–60, 323; LAT, Aug. 14, 1965, pp. 1, 12.
first Negro reporter ever hired by the Los Angeles Times: Ibid., pp. 66–67, 103; transcript, CBS Reports, Watts: Riot or Revolt?, broadcast of Dec. 7, 1965, T77:0395, MOB, p. 24.
California authorities summoned Governor Pat Brown: “Eight Men Slain; Guard Moves In,” LAT, Aug. 14, 1965, p. 1, reprinted in Library of America Anthology, Reporting Civil Rights, pp. 414–20.
mobilized 14,000 National Guard troops: Governor’s Commission, Violence in the City, pp. 16–18.
moved ahead of them into the riot zone: Ibid., p. 19; Horne, Fire, pp. 70–75.
“The Negroes have broken into some gun stores”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Dora McDonald, 11:30 P.M., Aug. 13, 1965, FLNY-9-665a, p. 6. In previous conversations that day under the same intercept number, Levison and Andrew Young had discussed the wording of closing statements for the Birmingham SCLC convention.
Levison dictated suggested replies: Wiretap transcript of telephone call from Stanley Levison to “Dora,” 1:05 A.M., Aug. 14, 1965, FLNY-9-666.
Miami stopover en route: Garrow, Bearing, p. 439.
rushed a transcript by encoded Teletype: SAC, New York, to Director, 3:41 A.M., Aug. 14, 1965, FK-1727.
“long-time Communist”: Blind LHM dated Aug. 16, 1965, marked “Original to the White House and xerox copies to Secretary of State Rusk, the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and Assistant Attorneys General Yeagley and Doar,” FK-1768.
“I know you have grievances”: Ibid.; wiretap transcript of telephone call from Stanley Levison to “Dora,” 1:05 A.M., Aug. 14, 1965, FLNY-9-666, pp. 2–3.
shaded area of a church lawn: Mendelsohn, Martyrs, pp. 205–7; Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 169–71; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000, March 12, 2003; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003; int. Joyce Bailey, April 11, 2003; int. Geraldine Logan (Gamble), April 11, 2003.
a story tip from the SNCC office: Patricia Brooks to John Lewis, July 25, 1965, Reel 1, SNCC; WATS report on phone calls to John Doar and a Lewis telegram to George Wallace, Aug. 12, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC.
“I don’t want to scare”: Patricia Brooks, “Lowndes County: Prelude to Murder,” National Guardian, Aug. 28, 1965, p. 8.
“one good whack at the Man”: Ibid.
They reopened leadership issues: Int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000; int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003.
“If that’s what you want to do”: Int. John McMeans, April 12, 2003.
demonstrations scarcely lasted a minute: Ibid.; WATS report by Shirley Walker and Jean Wiley, Aug. 14, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC; Richard Morrisroe int. by John B. Morris, played at the Pick Congress Hotel dinner, Chicago, Feb. 20, 1966, JDC.
The car with the shattered windshield: “48 Picketers Arrested in First Fort Deposit March,” SC, Aug. 20, 1965, p. 6.
shards of glass in his mouth: Int. Sanford J. Ungar, May 27, 2003.
“I looked directly at Stokely”: Oral history int. by David Gordon, Oct. 5, 1965, JDC.
“Because of the dogs”: Scott B. Smith, “Report of Incident,” dated Aug. 16, 1965, A/SN94; int. Scott B. Smith, April 12, 2003.
21: WATTS AND HAYNEVILLE
“When he got off the airplane”: Transcript of White House phone call among Jack Valenti, Lee White, and Joseph Califano, 6:25 P.M., Aug. 14, 1965, Cit. 8536-37, Audiotape WH6508.04, LBJ.
secluded on Martha’s Vineyard: Ibid. Lee White recalled later that Califano took charge in the Watts crisis on the strength of his contacts at the Pentagon, more than making up for his lack of seniority. (White had served as White House counselor since 1961, and before then had worked for LBJ in the Senate. By contrast, Califano started work at the White House about two weeks before the riot.) “And before I knew it, Joe was kind of on the telephone with the President much more than I was,” White stated, “which didn’t really disturb me very much.” Califano reached LBJ that Saturday night with a proposal on the vacation problem: “I think, sir, that what we need is a memorandum that says that the head of an agency and the deputy head of an agency cannot be out of town at the same time without permission from the White House, which is the same kind of memorandum that Bob has out in the Defense Department.” LBJ phone call with Joseph Califano, 8:09 P.M., Aug. 14, 1965, Cit. 8538-39, Audiotape WH6508.04, LBJ.
“We ought to blow up”: Califano, Triumph, p. 60.
retrieved LeRoy Collins: Lee White oral history by Joe B. Frantz, March 2, 1971, pp. 17–18; NYT, Aug. 15, 1965, p. 77; Califano, Triumph, p. 63; Horne, Fire, p. 284.
curfew forced Otis Chandler: LAT, Aug. 14, 1965, p. 1.
“‘Burn, Baby, Burn’”: LAT, Aug. 15, 1965, p. 1; Horne, Fire, pp. 326–27. The phrase originated with disc jockey Nathaniel “Magnificent” Montague, who before August had opened his KGFJ radio broadcast shouting “Burn with Montague!” Watts historian Gerald Horne found the term “a reference to music and musicians and to a style of life, not necessarily a call to arson,” but the arson connotation took hold during the riots. Outraged authorities obtained Montague’s agreement to desist.
attendance record for a pop concert: Rolling Stone Rock Almanac, p. 105.
stalled the same Sunday in Miami: Garrow, Bearing, p. 439.
Bayard Rustin urged him to avoid: Branigan to Sullivan, Aug. 14, 1965, FK-1720; SAC, New York to Director, 1:09 A.M., Aug. 15, 1965, FK-NR.
“I think I ought to be out there”: Int. Thomas Kilgore, Nov. 8, 1983.
King’s rescheduled tour in July: King had completed a tour of Los Angeles as a possible site for a “Northern” movement, a few days after a postponement on July 6 to confer with LBJ about Vietnam. Cf. Transcript of King appearance on Channel 2, KNXT-TV, program Newsmakers, July 10, 1965, FK-1614.
“dress rehearsal”: NYT, Aug. 16, 1965, p. 18.
“sinister and evil forces”: LAT, Aug. 15, 1965, p. C; Jet, Sept. 2, 1965, p. 27.
“if Billy Graham can ride”: Int. Thomas Kilgore, Nov. 8, 1983.
King persuaded Bayard Rustin: NY LHM dated Aug. 18, 1965, FK-NR; SAC, Los Angeles, to Director and Atlanta, Aug. 17, 1965, FK-1726. The wiretap intercepted Rustin’s draft of a press statement, which King delivered in modified form on arrival in Los Angeles.
the site of his arrest in 1953: Longenecker, Peacemaker, pp. 153–65.
Rev. Kilgore had served as intercessor: Branch, Parting, pp. 314–16, 328–29, 860–62.
King made a brief statement: “Statement by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Arrival in Los Angeles, August 17, 1965,” A/KS.
“and was hustled off”: LAT, Aug. 18, 1965, pp. 3, 15; WP, Aug. 17, 1965, pp. 1, 4.
“amazing political implications”: NYT, Aug. 16, 1965, pp. 1, 17.
“I don’t know what the governor is doing”: LAT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 1.
Negro leaders gave him the idea: NYT, Aug. 15, 1965, p. 76.
“We’re on top”: Jet, Sept. 9, 1965, p. 8; Bayard Rustin, “The Watts ‘Manifesto’ and the McCone Report,” Commentary, March 1966, p. 29; NYT, Aug. 18, 1965, p. 20; Horne, Fire, p. 138.
he accused “the Black Muslims”: “Parker Hints Muslims Took Part in Rioting, Believes Members of Group Moved in on What Otherwise Was Unorganized Action,” LAT, Aug. 17, 1965.
postponed Rams-Cowboys game: LAT, Aug. 19, 1965, p
. 3; Horne, Fire, p. 332.
“19 men sprawled”: LAT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 1; LAT, Aug. 20, 1965, p. 17; Horne, Fire, pp. 126–28.
“tables were broken”: LAT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 24.
tear gas grenades down storm drains: NYT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 16.
“Do you see any bullet marks”: Jet, Sept. 2, 1965, pp. 28–29.
“stormed the fortified temple”: Chicago Tribune, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 1, newsclip, RS, File 589, CHS.
“shattering assault”: LAT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 1.
“The fanatical Black Muslims”: “Police Break Muslim Taboo, Enter Temple,” Ibid., p. 24.
altercation at the same mosque in 1962: Branch, Pillar, pp. 3–10.
Malcolm X had captivated mass meetings: Ibid., pp. 10–20.
expunged formal rules that barred: Ibid.; Horne, Fire, pp. 145, 156.
Three Muslims freed after the 1962 raid were seized again: CD, Aug. 23, 1965, newsclip, RS, File 589, CHS.
“Get out of here, Dr. King!”: NYT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 16. King’s interactions at the Westminster center drawn also from “Dr. King Hears Watts Protest over Heckling,” LAT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 3; “King Did Overcome Hostility to Reason with L.A. Youths,” Jet, Sept. 2, 1965, pp. 24–26; transcript, CBS broadcast of December 7, 1965, p. 15, T77:0395, MOB; Horne, Fire, pp. 182–83, 219.
King moved on to see Governor Brown: Garrow, Bearing, p. 439; LAT, Aug. 20, 1965, p. 1.
“I am very sorry that you see me”: MLK to Edmund G. Brown, Aug. 19, 1965, A/KP5f1.
“in-depth, frank discussion”: LAT, Aug. 20, 1965, pp. 1, 3, 26.
“King Assailed by Yorty”: Ibid.; NYY, Sept. 20, 1965, p. 16.
“completely nonplussed”: Bayard Rustin, “The Watts ‘Manifesto’ and the McCone Report,” Commentary, March 1966, p. 32.
“We as Negro leaders”: LAT, Aug. 19, 1965, p. 26.
“any statesmanship and creative leadership”: LAT, Aug. 21, 1965, p. 4; MLK interview in Los Angeles, Aug. 20, 1965, ABC-20030, A/KS.
offer his findings directly to President Johnson: Ibid.; Los Angeles LHM dated Aug. 23, 1965, FK-NR.
Joyce Bailey, jailed Saturday: Transcript, joint interview of Jimmy Rogers, Ruby Sales, Gloria Larry, Willie Vaughn, Shirley Walker, and Joyce Bailey at the Episcopal Theological School, following a memorial service for Jonathan Daniels, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC; Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 172–74, 227–28.
Gloria Larry knew: Ibid.; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000.
Sales cajoled the trusty: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 231; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003.
Sales had opposed letting Daniels: Ibid.; int. Ruby Sales by Daniel Zwerdling, Weekend All Things Considered, National Public Radio, Aug. 23, 1997, JDC.
“John, it’s prayer time now”: Int. John McMeans, April 12, 2003.
The SNCC treasury was nearly empty: John Lewis to MLK, July 22, 1965, Reel 1, SNCC. Lewis asked King for a “gift or loan of $10,000 so we can meet our payroll and cover pressing bills.”
gift of $5,000 from SCLC: Ralph Abernathy to John Lewis, Aug. 19, 1965, enclosing SCLC’s check of $5,000 as a gift, A/SC44f10. Abernathy sent a separate gift of $7,000 the same day to Victoria Gray in the Washington office of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which was challenging Mississippi’s members in the House of Representatives on the ground that their elections unconstitutionally limited black voters.
obstruction about bail procedures: Int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000; int. Martha Prescod Norman, June 29, 2000; int. Bob Mants, Sept. 8, 2000.
motion for the removal of the Fort Deposit cases: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 177.
“written complaint alleging a minor child”: John Doar to Mr. [sic] Hulda Coleman, Aug. 16, 1965, ADAH, Alabama Governors’ Legal Advisors’ Files, School Files D-W, 1963–67, SG 20061, Folder 22, cited in Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 154.
“criminal assassination”: James G. Clark, sheriff of Dallas County, open letter dated June 28, 1965, BIR/C10f56. “This is about a murder,” wrote Clark in a four-page letter he asked recipients to pass along to friends. “You might say it is a lynching. It is about the assassination of a peaceful town, Selma, Alabama, racially undisturbed in September, 1963…. The President directed this train of venom at the deep South states in arevengeful plan—the victims were the states that refused to vote for him, especially Alabama…. How the dirtiest, filthiest, slimiest, most unwashed, along with some genuinely concerned people, carried this out in detail is history…. Is this too shocking for you to believe? Even citizens in Selma who have lived through this horror are still experiencing it and wonder how it came about…. God help you if these bunch of race baiters and criminals, with the blessings of the Federal government, descend upon you, your family, your block, or your city. It will be an experience that you can never erase from your mind.”
“This department is now in receipt”: Colonel Albert J. Lingo to “All Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, All Counties and Municipalities, State of Alabama,” Aug. 16, 1965, BIR/FW2f8.
Coleman’s brother Tom made a trip into Montgomery: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 220.
“Dearest Mum”: Jonathan Daniels to Constance Daniels, Aug. 17, 1965, cited in Schneider, Martyr, p. 83.
enduring a police stop: Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 174–75.
jailers to clear away untouched: Int. Francis Walter, Sept. 7, 2000; int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000.
Rev. Francis Walter: Francis X. Walter oral history by Stanley Smith, Aug. 1968, RJB, pp. 7–8; Callahan, Quilting Bee, p. 6.
He took shifts sleeping upright on the floor: Richard Morrisroe int. by Rev. John B. Morris, presented at Chicago ESCRU dinner, Feb. 20, 1966, pp. 9–11; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000; int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2003; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 12, 2003; int. Sammy Bailey, April 11, 2003; int. John McMeans, April 12, 2003.
“Reverend, have you ever stood”: Sermon, “Selma Insights,” attached to a letter from John Ruskin Clark to Francis X. Walter, Dec. 16, 1965, BIR/FW2f5, p. 6.
I had a dream just last night: Quotation from “a small, 3 x 5 notebook,” in “A Letter to the Catholic Community of Saint Columbanus and to Our Park Manor Neighbors,” Feb. 18, 1980, courtesy of Richard Morrisroe.
“Kerry Irish bent”: Ibid.
Deputies banged open the cell doors: NYT, Aug. 21, 1965, p. 1; transcript, interviews of cellmates by John B. Tillson following the Jonathan Daniels memorial service in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC; Richard Morrisroe int. by John B. Morris, played at the Pick Congress Hotel dinner, Chicago, Feb. 20, 1966, JDC; Mendelsohn, Martyrs, pp. 209–10; Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 177–79.
“The store is closed”: Ibid.; Ruby Sales handwritten statement headed “On Friday, August 20,” Reel 18, SNCC; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003; Hampton and Fayer, Voices, pp. 274–75.
Savage twelve-gauge barrel: Mobile report dated Jan. 20, 1967, FJMD-65, p. 2. The FBI identified the weapon used by Coleman as a “Savage, Model 775-A, twelve gauge, semi-automatic, with variable choke, bearing serial number 287076.”
Shell wadding tore a ragged hole: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 221.
Joyce Bailey was twenty feet away in full flight: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002; int. Joyce Bailey, April 11, 2003; Mobile FBI report dated Oct. 7, 1965, FJMD-49, p. 2.
“I just shot two preachers”: Mendelsohn, Martyrs, p. 210.
“You traitors!”: Int. Joyce Bailey, April 11, 2003; int. John McMeans, April 12, 2003; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000; int. Sammy Bailey, April 11, 2003; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003.
jailhouse reading books abandoned: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 229.
he could find no wounded: Int. Shirley Walker by John B. Tillson, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC, pp. 6–7.
Morrisroe barely conscious of Daniels: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002.
first White House Confer
ence on Equal Employment Opportunity: Report of the White House Conference on Equal Employment Opportunity, August 19, 20, 1965, GPO 66-60299; NYT, Aug. 21, 1965, p. 1.
left desperate messages: Int. Shirley Walker by John B. Tillson, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC, pp. 6–7.
insisted Peter Hall’s clients were still in their cells: Willie Emma Scott, WATS report of 7:30 P.M., Aug. 20, 1965, Reel 18, SNCC.
Doar broke the wall of silence: Int. Shirley Walker by John B. Tillson, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC, p. 7.
He notified the FBI: McGowan to Rosen, Aug. 20, 1965, FJMD-15.
to administer last rites: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002.
Dr. Charles Cox assembled trauma teams: Ibid.; Mendelsohn, Martyrs, p. 211; Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 180–82.
“if Morrisroe should die”: Mobile office report dated Sept. 10, 1965, FJMD-38, p. 3.
“The White House makes a great mistake”: Hoover note on DeLoach to Mohr, Aug. 20, 1965, FK-1783.
cut his second-year poverty budget: NYT, Aug. 20, 1965, p. 1.
“just cut me in half”: LBJ phone call with MLK, 5:10 P.M., Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8578, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.
had taken a long yachting holiday: NYT, Aug. 13, 1965, p. 14; NYT, Aug. 18, 1965, p. 10.
“rats eating on people’s uh, uh, children”: LBJ phone call with MLK, 5:10 P.M., Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8578, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.
He used language nearly identical: LBJ phone call with John McCone, 12:10 P.M., Aug. 18, 1965, Cit. 8550, Audiotape WH6508.05. After teasing McCone about making “filthy gold” in retirement from government, Johnson advised him to take the commission assignment in order to help the country understand the nation’s “powder kegs” in places like Watts: “They’ve got really absolutely nothing to live for, 40 percent of them are unemployed, these youngsters, and they live with rats and they’ve got no place to sleep and they start, they’re all, uh broken homes and illegitimate families, and all. Narcotics are circulating around them, and we’ve isolated them, and they’re all in one area, and when they move in, why, we move out.”
“Johnson Rebukes Rioters”: NYT, Aug. 21, 1965, p. 1.
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