“was quite calm”: DeLoach to Mohr, Aug. 14, 1965, FK-1782.
DeLoach also briefed Fred Buzhardt and Harry Dent: DeLoach to Mohr, Sept. 15, 1965, FK-1881.
“It is disgraceful”: Hoover comment on Rosen to Belmont, Nov. 8, 1965, FSC-887. Hoover probably meant “under wraps” instead of “under raps.”
“as that outfit is above the law”: Hoover comment on Rosen to Belmont, Oct. 30, 1965, “Harold Belton Andrews, et al.,” FSC-NR.
solicited his participation: Morris B. Abram, co-chairman, White House Conference to Fulfill These Rights, telegram to MLK, Oct. 27, 1965, A/KP26f10; MLK reply to Abram “c/o Mrs. Thornell the White House,” Oct. 29, 1965, A/KP26f10. King, just back from Europe, declined the urgent summons to a preliminary meeting on October 30, citing his daughter Yoki’s piano recital, and sent Ralph Abernathy and Walter Fauntroy in his place.
most of the colleagues King nominated: MLK telegram to Lee White, Nov. 2, 1965, A/KP26f10, nominating as SCLC delegates himself, James Bevel, Ralph Abernathy, Septima Clark, Robert Green, Lawrence Reddick, C. T. Vivian, Dorothy Cotton, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, Harry Wachtel, Randolph Blackwell, and Walter Fauntroy.
remonstrated with security officials: Lee White to Marvin Watson, Nov. 12, 1965, HU2, MC, HU6, WHCF Box 56, LBJ.
Lee White reminded the President: Lee White to LBJ, Nov. 2, 1965, Name File, “Bayard Rustin,” LBJ.
dispatched to lead a march: Martha Prescod, Selma WATS report, Nov. 15, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC.
“the other names which were submitted”: Andrew Young telegram to Lee White, Nov. 13, 1965, A/KP26f10.
“We may be overly optimistic”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Nov. 18, 1965, FSC-NR.
religious leaders in New York convened: Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, pp. 211–14.
King arrived two days later: Levison phone call to Clarence Jones, 2:45 P.M., Nov. 11, 1965, FLNY-9-755a; SAC, New York, to Director, Nov. 19, 1965, FK-2069.
“the damage that is flowing”: Tape transcript, “Planning Meeting for Metropolitan New York Pre–White House Conference on Civil Rights,” Nov. 9, 1965, NCC, RG 6, Box 48, File 7, POH.
“Because of the newspaper coverage”: Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, p. 192.
distributed copies avidly: Robert D. Novak, “Washington’s Truth Teller,” WP, March 31, 2003, p. 13; int. Harry McPherson, Sept. 24, 1991.
“political atomic bomb”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Inside Report: The Moynihan Report,” WP, Aug. 18, 1965, cited in Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, pp. 375–76.
sold openly in government stores: Ibid., p. 151.
“replace matriarchy”: John Herbers, “Report Focuses on Negro Family: Aid to Replace Matriarchy Asked by Johnson Panel,” NYT, Aug. 27, 1965, p. 13.
“aimed at developing a national policy”: “Letter from Washington, September 2,” New Yorker, Sept. 2, 1965, p. 116ff.
“Negro life is another world”: Richard Wilson, “Gloomy Study Faces Parley on Negro,” WS, Sept. 24, 1965, cited in Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, p. 152.
Gender terms sprang into headlines: “Drive for Negro Family Stability Spurred by White House Panel,” NYT, July 19, 1965, p. 1; “Behind the Riots: Family Life Breakdown in Negro Slums Sows Seeds of Race Violence/ Husbandless Homes Spawn Young Hoodlums, Impede Reforms, Sociologists Say,” WSJ, Aug. 16, 1965, p. 1.
“The very essence of the male animal”: Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, March 1965, U.S. Government Printing Office No. 1965 O-794-628, p. 16.
“bitterly ironic”: Pauli Murray letter cited in Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, p. 185.
“It is amazing to me”: Ibid., p. 200.
“No one in all history”: MLK speech at Abbott House, Westchester County, New York, Oct. 29, 1965, cited in ibid., pp. 402–9.
Articles about Moynihan poured: Christopher Jencks, “The Moynihan Report,” New York Review of Books, Oct. 14, 1965, pp. 39–40; Herbert J. Gans, “The Negro Family: Reflections on the Moynihan Report,” Commonweal, Oct. 15, 1965, pp. 47–51; William F. Ryan, “Savage Discovery: The Moynihan Report,” Nation, Nov. 22, 1965; Benjamin F. Payton, “New Trends in Civil Rights,” Christianity and Crisis, Dec. 13, 1965. The Rainwater and Yancey book dissects these commentaries, pp. 216–45.
“explosive cycle of poverty”: Newsweek, Aug. 9, 1965, pp. 32–36.
“Moynihan’s facts were undisputed”: Manchester, Glory, pp. 1296–97. Others offered sharply different assessments of the uproar. “Today the Moynihan Report stands as probably the most refuted document in American history (though of course its dire predictions about the poor black family all came true),” wrote Nicholas Lemann in 1991. “Attacks on it are still being published.” Lemann, Promised, p. 177.
Malone assured Hoover: SAC, New York, to Director, Nov. 19, 1965, FK-2069.
King’s just published commitment: MLK, “Next Stop: The North,” Saturday Review, Nov. 13, 1965, p. 33ff.
orders for the SCLC accountant: MLK telegram to Jesse Blayton, Nov. 17, 1965, A/KP22f16.
Harry Belafonte might stave off: New York LHM dated Nov. 15, 1965, FSC-888; New York LHM dated Nov. 22, 1965, FK-NR.
“The government thinks”: Wiretap transcript of Levison conversation with Gloria Cantor, Nov. 14, 1965, FLNY-9-758a.
“Malcolm X wrote this book”: Wiretap transcript of Levison conversation with King’s literary agent, Joan Daves, Dec. 3, 1965, FLNY-9-777a.
Publisher Nelson Doubleday had pulled: Tim Warren, “The Rocky Road to Publication of Book on Malcolm X,” Baltimore Sun, Nov. 16, 1992, p. D-1.
major organs of American culture buried Malcolm: Cone, Martin, p. 39.
“We shall be lucky”: Ibid.
“twisted man”: Branch, Pillar, p. 598.
“American Negroes lost their most able”: Eliot Fremont-Smith, “An Eloquent Testament,” NYT, Nov. 5, 1965, p. 35.
“The important word here”: I. F. Stone, “The Pilgrimage of Malcolm X,” New York Review of Books, Nov. 11, 1965, p. 3ff.
“I knew right there in prison”: Malcolm X, Autobiography, p. 179.
ten best nonfiction books: “Malcolm X Project,” The Institute for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia University, www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/ index.html.
omitted recommendations: Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, pp. 8, 28; U.S. Department of Labor, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (1965), p. 93.
“I am not interested in becoming American”: Cone, Martin, p. 38.
knew it would leave Americans cold: Int. Alex Haley, Dec. 4, 1990; Tim Warren, “The Rocky Road to Publication of Book on Malcolm X,” Baltimore Sun, Nov. 16, 1992, p. D-3.
“Here one may read”: New York Review of Books, Nov. 11, 1965, p. 4.
“As much as I am persuaded”: Cone, Martin, p. 153.
“strong black male”: “Malcolm X Project,” www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/index.html.
“I became a bus boy”: Malcolm X, Autobiography, p. 69.
“The white man is in no moral”: Ibid., p. 241.
“Yes, I will pull off”: Ibid., p. 271.
“I have never felt”: Ibid., p. 378.
“I don’t care how nice”: Ibid., p. 27.
sports remained white: Fitzpatrick, Walls, p. 64.
students were signing scholarships: Jet, Jan. 6, 1966, p. 57.
died of a broken back: Fitzpatrick, Walls, p. 142.
presold its 1966 tickets: NYT, June 8, 1965, p. 52; NYT, Dec. 23, 1965, p. 34.
Comedian Danny Thomas: NYT, Aug. 17, 1965, p. 26.
under J. Edgar Hoover’s detailed supervision: Powers, Secrecy, pp. 435–36; Branch, Pillar, p. 544; Brooks and Marsh, Directory, p. 236.
Bill Cosby as the first actor: “‘I Spy’ with Negro Is Widely Booked,” NYT, Sept. 10, 1965, p. 71; NYT, Sept. 16, 1965, p. 93; Dates and Barlow, eds., Split Image, pp. 280–84; Brooks and Marsh, Directory, p. 354. NBC outlets
initially refused the show in Birmingham, Savannah, Daytona Beach, Albany (Georgia), and Alexandria, Louisiana.
“No other nation hates”: New Republic, TRB, “Cities in Straitjackets,” New Republic, Nov. 13, 1965, p. 6.
“The Proud Shapes”: Life Special Double Issue, “The U.S. City: Its Greatness Is at Stake,” Vol. 59, No. 26, Dec. 24, 1965.
an abrupt end for media celebrations: Gans, Deciding, p. 48.
Califano sent the TRB column: Califano to McPherson, Nov. 15, 1965, WHCF, Ex LG, Box 1, LBJ; int. Harry McPherson, Oct. 10, 1991.
157th anniversary of Abyssinian Baptist Church: NYT, Nov. 9, 1965, p. 75.
Stanley Levison warned: Levison phone call with Dora McDonald, Nov. 24, 1965, FLNY-9-768a.
provoked James Phelan: Ibid.; MLK to James Phelan, Dec. 6, 1965, A/KP18f45. “While Congressman Powell has criticised me on numerous occasions, I have always followed my consistent philosophy of not retaliating with criticisms, but trying to do the job of brotherly reconciliation,” King wrote Phelan at Chase Manhattan Bank. His five-page apologia insisted that Powell was “not the incarnation of evil so much of the press has painted,” and placed him instead in a long tradition of flamboyant ethnic pioneers such as New York mayor James J. Walker: “When the Irish, Italian, Jewish and other minorities were struggling for equal access to American society, each produced leaders with conflicting and confusing tendencies.”
“would use it against me”: New York FBI report dated Feb. 9, 1966, FJ-89, p. 2A.
pleas from Wyatt Walker: Ibid.; Walker to MLK, Sept. 9, 1965, and Walker to MLK, Oct. 6, 1965, A/KP36f2. At Walker’s request, to rehabilitate his job prospects, King wrote promotional letters recommending him for honorary degrees.
did hope to dispel malicious rumors: Ibid.; David Boyers to DeLoach, Sept. 29, 1965, FK-NR; SA [deleted] to SAC, New York, Oct. 6, 1965, FJNY-902.
“gesture of reconciliation”: NY LHM “Re: Martin Luther King, Jr./Security Matter,” dated Nov. 15, 1965, FK-[illegible].
“the greatest living American”: NYT, Nov. 15, 1965, p. 1.
“that we could present a united front”: Powell to MLK, Nov. 23, 1965, responding to MLK’s letter of Nov. 16, 1965, A/KP18f45.
“Adam is going to hell”: Int. Wyatt Walker, Aug. 20, 1984.
“Power’s Long Arm”: WP, Sept. 17, 1965, p. 21.
Fall memorialized in his book Street Without Joy: Moore, Soldiers, p. 43.
light at the end of the tunnel: Alsop, “The Brand-New War,” WP, Sept. 13, 1965, p. 21.
Colonel Moore landed: Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 395–96.
“search for and destroy the enemy”: Moore, Soldiers, pp. 15, 24–25, 57.
“Every man in the lead squad was shot”: Ibid., p. 78.
charged after Vietnamese up a hill: Ibid., pp. 65–70.
“I had major fire support”: Ibid., p. 104.
“Even the men who could stand up: Appy, Patriots, pp. 128–35.
“If we’re up against this”: Ibid., p. 135; Moore, Soldiers, pp. 175–77.
on the third morning, November 16: Langguth, Our Vietnam, p. 401; Library of America Anthology, Reporting Vietnam, p. 208; Moore, Soldiers, pp. 158–65.
his first twenty-five death tags: Int. Hank Thomas, March 14, 1991.
he led the first Freedom Riders: Branch, Parting, pp. 412–18, 482–84; Branch, Pillar, pp. 36–37.
still nonviolent mentor for Stokely Carmichael: Int. Hank Thomas, Dec. 17, 2003; Carmichael, Ready, pp. 150, 156–57, 165, 181–84, 195–98.
dropped two hundred tons of ordnance: Moore, Soldiers, p. 215.
three battalions of North Vietnamese struck: Ibid., pp. 223–28, 234–35; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 402–5.
“I don’t know why”: Library of America Anthology, Reporting Vietnam, p. 215.
calling in napalm on their own positions: Moore, Soldiers, pp. 258–59.
93 percent casualties: Library of America Anthology, Reporting Vietnam, p. 222.
Captain George Forrest: Moore, Soldiers, pp. 207, 226–27, 297; Baltimore Sun, Nov. 11, 2003, p. 1.
brigade commander neglected: Moore, Soldiers, p. 306.
a costly victory by the numbers: “U.S. Units Pull Out After Killing 637,” NYT, Nov. 17, 1965, p. 1.
three AP photographs: Neil Sheehan, “Battalion of G.I.’s Battered in Trap; Casualties High,” NYT, Nov. 19, 1965, p. 1.
praised military performance: Cf. McNamara to LBJ, Nov. 30, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 591ff; Moore, Soldiers, pp. 46–51.
“heaven-storming” final push: Duiker, Ho, pp. 548–52; Moore, Soldiers, p. 12.
“They’re the best I’ve ever seen”: CBS News, “The Battle of Ia Drang Valley,” Nov. 30, 1965, T79:0238, MOB; Moore, Soldiers, p. 32.
General Westmoreland focused on attrition ratios: Langguth, Our Vietnam, p. 407; Moore, Soldiers, p. 339.
“headlines about victory”: NYT, Nov. 25, 1965, pp. 1, 2.
“I welcome all of you”: LBJ remarks, Nov. 16, 1965, PPP, pp. 1113–15.
“the captains of peaceful armies”: Ibid., p. 1114; NYT, Nov. 17, 1965, p. 1.
“We’re eating barbecue”: Harrington, Fragments, p. 128.
working constraints clamped down: WP, Nov. 19, 1965, p. 1; Jet, Dec. 2, 1965, pp. 14–17; Jet, Jan. 6, 1966, pp. 3–4.
class sizes in poor Northern schools: Al Raby statement at Chicago Board of Education budget hearing, Dec. 13, 1965, A/SC149f13, p. 3.
“People in the South”: NYT, Nov. 19, 1965, p. 1.
A. Philip Randolph ruled his friend’s motion out of order: Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, pp. 254–56.
“critical or unjustifiable statements”: DeLoach to Mohr, “White House Meeting Entitled ‘To Fulfill These Rights,’” Nov. 10, 1965, FK-NR.
White House aides vigorously promoted: McPherson, Political, pp. 340–42; Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, pp. 246–51.
“We are not being deprived”: WS, Nov. 19, 1965, p. 2.
“I have been reliably informed”: Rainwater and Yancey, Moynihan Report, p. 248.
“a point of personal privilege”: Ibid., p. 253.
“is the fundamental source of weakness”: Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, March 1965, U.S. GPO No. 1965 O-794-628, p. 5.
“Moynihan Conspicuously Ignored”: WS, Nov. 19, 1965, p. 2.
publicity about Moynihan: LBJ’s irritation with Moynihan was evident in phone conversations and notes, such as his comment scrawled on a January 1967 Chicago Daily News story about an automobile insurance commission: “Ask [White House aide Douglass] Cater who the hell appointed Moynihan. I want to get him out now.” WHCF, Name File, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, LBJ.
“They come right in”: LBJ phone call with McGeorge Bundy, 9:31 A.M., Dec. 3, 1965, Cit. 9306, Audiotape WH6512.01, LBJ.
The White House staff spread rumors: Harrington, Fragments, p. 128.
240 Americans killed: NYT, Nov. 25, 1965, pp. 1–2.
retracted its obituary for Toby Braveboy: Ibid., p. 3; Moore, Soldiers, pp. 274–76.
“brilliant success”: “Asian Communists Sure Public Opinion in U.S. Will Force War’s End,” NYT, Nov. 28, 1965, p. 1.
commended the draft of Coretta’s address: Transcript of MLK interview by Arnold Michaelis, Dec. 9, 1965, p. 13, MS 2952, b7f5, AMC; King, My Life, p. 295.
“This is true in spite of the bombings”: Transcript, Arnold Michaelis filmed interview with MLK, Dec. 9, 1965, “Section on Vietnam,” p. 6, Arnold Michaelis Collection, MS2952, b7f5, AMC.
sought to project a moderate image: Dellinger, From Yale, pp. 204–8.
“more babies than beatniks”: “Thousands Walk in Capital to Protest War in Vietnam: Demonstrators Decorous,” NYT, Nov. 28, 1965, p. 1.
“I’d rather see America save her soul”: Ibid., p. 86.
Rally organizers vetoed speakers: Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, pp. 63–65.
infighting among t
he nascent antiwar groups: Halstead, Out Now!, pp. 93–112.
“What do you do when the whole country”: “A Talk with Bob Parris,” Southern Patriot, Oct. 1965, p. 3.
“violent, loud, offensive”: NYT, Oct. 12, 1965, p. 34; Branch, Parting, pp. 492–523.
“What do you make of it?”: Carl Oglesby address, “Let Us Shape the Future,” Nov. 27, 1965, Liberation, Jan. 1966, pp. 11–14.
SDS president Carl Oglesby: Sale, SDS, p. 195.
lifted his arm like a prizefighter’s: Powers, War, pp. 92–94; Halstead, Out Now!, p. 113.
birth moment for the “New Left” identity: Ibid.; Harrington, Fragments, p. 159; DeBenedetti, Ordeal, pp. 132–34; Sale, SDS, pp. 242–45.
“Sir, that completes my presentation”: Moore, Soldiers, pp. 319, 339.
classified request for another 200,000 troops: McNamara to LBJ, Nov. 30, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, pp. 591–94.
“shattering blow”: McNamara, In Retrospect, pp. 221–22.
“particularly the First Air Cavalry Division”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 9:09 P.M., Nov. 30, 1965, Cit. 9200, Audiotape WH6511.09, LBJ.
“acute and rising anxiety”: Alsop, “Protesting or Being Practical,” WP, Nov. 29, 1965, p. 17.
“shrill cries of Negro militants”: Evans and Novak, “Inside Report: Civil Rights Disaster,” WP, Nov. 24, 1965, p. 17.
five aspiring black voters were evicted: Selma WATS report, Nov. 11, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC.
“Folks there are understandably jumpy”: Undated memo from “Janet, Tina,” regarding the ASCS workshops, Reel 37, SNCC.
interest in the practical workings of ASCS crop loans: Eagles, Outside Agitator, pp. 134–36.
nearly two-thirds of the eligible farmers were black: Ibid., p. 198.
“We did it fair and square”: “New Political Group in Lowndes to Name Own Negro Candidates,” SC, Jan. 1–2, 1966, p. 1.
“star of stage, screen, and television”: Selma WATS report, Nov. 16, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC.
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