At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  “exactly suits the Kremlin”: Neary, Julian Bond, p. 108.

  “This boy has got to come”: Williams, Bonds, p. 224.

  “I’ve been hearing”: Frady, Southerners, pp. 174–75; “Report from James Forman,” Jan. 10, 1966, Reel 20, SNCC.

  gubernatorial candidate Ronald Reagan: Edwards, Reagan, pp. 101–2; Boyarsky, Rise, pp. 139–40; WP, Jan. 5, 1966, p. 1; transcript, guest Ronald Reagan, Meet the Press, Jan. 9, 1966, Vol. 10, No. 2.

  beseech the counsel of Ralph Abernathy: Neary, Julian Bond, p. 107.

  “I will ask Representative Bond”: Ibid., p. 109; Morgan, One Man, pp. 150–61.

  chronic hives had been a sign: Williams, Bonds, pp. 206, 214.

  “Mother’d ask me to go down”: Frady, Southerners, p. 171.

  first black president of Lincoln University: Williams, Bonds, pp. 83–87, 144ff.

  “My God, I didn’t raise”: Frady, Southerners, p. 171.

  legislators played a telephone interview: Neary, Julian Bond, pp. 93–97, 118–19.

  “demonstrate to yourselves”: Ibid., p. 121.

  The House voted exclusion: NYT, Jan. 11, 1966, p. 1.

  Bond fought back tears: Neary, Julian Bond, p. 124.

  “Everyone, including Julian”: “Jan. 10, 1965 [sic—1966]—2 A.M.—Forman/Atlanta to [Elizabeth] Sutherland/N.Y., Details on Julian Bond situation,” Reel 16, SNCC.

  King cut short: Garrow, Bearing, p. 458.

  condolence to the family of Vernon Dahmer: President Johnson took reports from his aide Clifford Alexander at 7:34 and 8:23 on Monday, within hours of the death in Hattiesburg, and approved a telegram to Mrs. Dahmer in a call the next morning with Katzenbach, PDD, LBJ.

  “the highest kind of citizenship”: Branch, Pillar, pp. 606–7.

  Four Dahmer sons converged: Ibid. A photograph of the four Dahmer sons in mourning appears in Pillar of Fire.

  Dahmer was revered: Ibid., pp. 50–63, 224, 392.

  “I have simply stopped telling people”: NYT, Jan. 10, 1966, p. 11.

  “I have a personal concern”: MLK statement dated Jan. 12, 1965 [sic—1966], A/KS10.

  “Little Chance Seen for Bond”: Sidney E. Zion, “Little Chance Seen for Bond in Court,” NYT, Jan. 12, 1966; AC, Jan. 12, 1966, p. 1.

  King led a protest march: AC, Jan. 15, 1966, p. 1; int. Julian Bond, Jan. 10, 2004.

  King speak from the back of a flatbed truck: Ibid.; “Address by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the State Capitol,” Jan. 14, 1966, A/KS10.

  “War will exist until that distant day”: Ibid.; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, p. 89.

  Willie Ricks of SNCC exhorted: NYT, Jan. 15, 1966, p. 1; Williams, Bonds, p. 230.

  struck a trooper with her handbag: AC, Jan. 15, 1966, p. 1; Margaret Long, “The Movement,” New South, Winter 1966, p. 95.

  King issued a pained statement: Garrow, Bearing, p. 458.

  The chorus jeered broadly without him: “Rights Group Widely Criticized for Attacking Vietnam Policy,” NYT, Jan. 16, 1966, p. 60; Neary, Julian Bond, pp. 125–27; Good, Trouble, pp. 253–54.

  Prominent Atlanta Negroes called: AC, Jan. 8, 1966, p. 1; Septima Clark oral history by Judy Barton, Nov. 9, 1971, A/OH.

  Lillian Smith scolded: AC, Jan. 14, 1966; “Miss Smith on SNCC,” New South, Winter 1966, pp. 64–66; Carson, Struggle, p. 189. The Constitution introduced Smith’s letter with a heartfelt editorial: “On this page today one of the most distinguished women of American letters presents the most eloquent, and we believe the most accurate, analysis of the Julian Bond incident that will be written…. She has devoted much of herlife to social protest against injustice to Negroes, and the ostracism and agony she has endured as a result are a more reliable credential than the scars of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, because she has stood by her convictions a good deal longer. Her literary works, from Strange Fruit to Killers of the Dream, speak for her integrity.”

  Roy Wilkins rebuked: NYT, Jan. 9, 1966, p. 4; Wilkins, “SNCC Does Not Speak for Whole Movement,” LAT, Jan. 17, 1966.

  “would have refused to seat”: Greenberg, Crusaders, p. 409.

  “our Blood-gorged Capitalists”: Woodward, Tom Watson, pp. 451–58; Williams, Bonds, p. 225. “His first reaction was one of amazement at the universality of the war madness,” Woodward wrote of Watson, adding, “It was Watson’s idea that ‘big armaments, instead of ensuring PEACE, insure WAR.’” Watson denounced World War I to fellow Georgians as a cynical venture driven by the investments of bankers such as J. P. Morgan: “Where Morgan’s money went, your boy’s blood must go, ELSE MORGAN WILL LOSE HIS MONEY! That’s all there is to it.”

  “Whether people like it or not”: MLK sermon, “Transformed Nonconformist,” Jan. 16, 1966, the prepared text filed in A/SC28f20 as compared with transcript of delivered sermon in A/KS10.

  26: REFUGEES

  “I feel a good deal of the ice”: LBJ phone call with Maxwell Taylor, 8:56 P.M., Dec. 27, 1965, Cit. 9339, Audiotape WH6512.05, LBJ.

  Christmas bombing pause: FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 1–192; Clifford, Counsel, pp. 433–37; McNamara, In Retrospect, pp. 225–29.

  frenzied overtures for settlement talks: Cf. LBJ phone call with Averell Harriman, 10:36 A.M., Dec. 28, 1965, Cit. 9344, Audiotape WH6512.05, LBJ.

  infantry assault launched in strict secrecy: “8,000 G.I.’s Open Biggest Attack of Vietnam War/ Start of Operation Withheld from South Vietnamese to Bar a Leak to Foe,” NYT, Jan. 9, 1966, p. 1.

  “I want a minimum in that defense budget”: LBJ; LBJ phone call with McGeorge Bundy, 9:31 A.M., Dec. 3, 1965, Cit. 9306, Audiotape WH6512.01, LBJ.

  “You’re absolutely right”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 10:10 A.M., Dec. 22, 1965, Cit. 9327, Audiotape WH6512.04, LBJ. Johnson had often discussed plans to defer anticipated Vietnam budget requests for political reasons. Cf. LBJ phone call with McNamara, 12:15 P.M., Dec. 2, 1965, Cit. 9305, Audiotape WH6512.01.

  “guns and butter”: “LBJ’s Decision: Guns and Butter,” U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 24, 1966, pp. 27–28, 62.

  cast a wide net for ideas: Valenti to LBJ, Dec. 9, 1965, Name File, Barbara Jackson, LBJ.

  Abe Fortas boldly proposed: Fortas to LBJ, Jan. 7, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 32; Kalman, Abe, p. 297.

  “People can get used to anything”: John Steinbeck to Valenti, with suggestions for LBJ and “thanks for the President’s warm and loving message,” Jan. 7, 1966, Valenti Papers, AC84-57, LBJ.

  security risk in FBI files: Cf. Jones to DeLoach, “John Ernst Steinbeck,” July 20, 1965, Steinbeck FBI File 100-106224-13.

  amateur designs for unconventional weapons: Cf. Valenti to LBJ, April 28, 1965, quoting a letter from Steinbeck (“The Vietnam War is troublesome…. What is needed is a counter Cong.”); Steinbeck to Valenti, July 22, 1965; Steinbeck to Robert McNamara, Oct. 8, 1965, all in Valenti Papers, AC84-57, LBJ.

  “I never knew anyone to hit anything”: Steinbeck to Valenti, Jan. 7, 1966, Valenti Papers, AC84-57, LBJ.

  Johnson rejected the final draft at four o’clock: Califano, Triumph, pp. 117–18; Goodwin, Remembering, pp. 423–24; FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 56–57.

  Goodwin fell to the margins: Ibid. The President’s diary records that Goodwin entered the Oval Office for nine minutes during the afternoon revisions, and that Clifford and Fortas stayed for three hours after he left. PDD, Jan. 12, 1966, pp. 1–4, LBJ.

  The State of the Union: NYT, Jan. 13, 1966, pp. 1, 14; Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. 32, pp. 226–30; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 299–302.

  proposals that made separate front-page headlines: “Ban on Color Line in Housing Asked/ President Also Seeks Law for Federal Penalties in Civil Rights Murders,” NYT, Jan. 13, 1966, p. 1.

  “exhilarated the capital”: Califano, Triumph, p. 302.

  “Well, are you happy”: LBJ phone call with Bill Moyers, 1:27 A.M., Jan. 13, 1966, Cit. 9488-89, Audiotape WH6601.07, LBJ.

  “It’s coming from within”: LBJ phone call with Bill Moyers, 1:27 A.M., Jan. 13, 1966, Cit. 9488-89
, Audiotape WH6601.07, LBJ.

  “In all of these endeavors”: MLK telegram to “The President,” 10:35 P.M., Jan. 13, 1966, Name File, Box 144, LBJ.

  Deke DeLoach for a promotion: O’Reilly, “Racial,” p. 211.

  advice of Negro elders that flattery: Branch, Pillar, pp. 533–34.

  “It makes me doubly proud”: MLK telegram to DeLoach, Dec. 6, 1965, A/KP10f12.

  Hoover had publicly called: Branch, Pillar, pp. 526–37.

  “an ever-increasing role”: NYT, Jan. 7, 1966, p. 3.

  “I refer to the arrogant non-conformists”: NYT, Dec. 15, 1965, p. 14.

  FBI agents gave Gary Thomas Rowe $10,000: SAC, San Diego, to Director, Jan. 6, 1971, FVL-NR; J. G. Deegan to W. R. Wannall, Aug. 18, 1975, Document 74, FGTR.

  Rowe “became very emotional”: Curtis Lynum, SAC, San Francisco, letter to Hoover, Jan. 17, 1966, FVL-704.

  “my last official association”: Rowe to J. Edgar Hoover, Jan. 14, 1966, FVL-705.

  Doar advised Katzenbach: Doar, “Memorandum to the Attorney General,” Feb. 9, 1966, attachment to Document 52, FGTR.

  “We have no views”: Hoover’s handwritten notation on DeLoach to Tolson, “Gary Thomas Rowe/Former Bureau Informant,” Feb. 10, 1966, Document 52, FGTR.

  slugged and threatened to shoot a black doorman: SAC, San Diego, to Director, Oct. 13, 1967, Document 61, FGTR.

  “Rowe apparently has a super detective complex”: SAC, San Diego, to Director, Nov. 3, 1966, Document 60, FGTR.

  Rowe’s name surfaced: O’Reilly, “Racial,” p. 251.

  This news shocked even Katzenbach: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

  Griffin Bell appointed a task force: Ralph Hornblower, III to Michael E. Shaheen, Jr., Office of Professional Responsibility, “Synopsis of Task Force Report on Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr.,” Dec. 4, 1979, p. 1.

  “one of a handful”: Ibid., p. 3.

  Justice Department attorneys stoutly defended the FBI: Stanton, From Selma, pp. 202–10.

  “cannot place liability on the government”: Ibid., p. 207.

  Rowe back in Witness Protection: McWhorter, Carry, pp. 572–73.

  “gave the FBI an excellent opportunity”: DeLoach to Tolson, Dec. 28, 1965, FVL-677, filed also as an attachment to Document 42, FGTR.

  “It seems a little ludicrous”: DeLoach to Tolson, Jan. 17, 1966, FRK-1802.

  desire to avoid public recriminations: Katzenbach to Hoover, Jan. 13, 1966, Section 114, FHOC. Katzenbach suggested to Hoover then that delving into prior “misunderstandings” about the legality of microphone surveillance policy “would seem to be academic.”

  Katzenbach informed DeLoach early Friday: DeLoach to Tolson, Jan. 21, 1966, FRK-1810.

  “irrespective of what Long does”: Hoover’s handwritten instruction on Hoover to Katzenbach, “FBI Use of Microphone Coverage,” Jan. 17, 1966, Section 129, FHOC.

  “Remove this surveillance at once”: Hoover’s handwritten instruction on Sullivan to DeLoach, Jan. 21, 1966, FK-2224.

  no fewer than sixteen bugs: Hoover LHM for Katzenbach, Jan 21, 1966, Section 129, FHOC.

  would intrude upon the final two years: Garrow, FBI and King, p. 150.

  King preached at New York’s historic Riverside Church: Garrow, Bearing, p. 459.

  “The days that follow”: NYT, Jan. 23, 1966, pp. E6–7.

  added the Vietnamese perspective: Friedland, Lift Up, pp. 154–56, 170; Thich Nhat Hanh, Lotus, pp. 97–98.

  “the more surely they destroy”: Thich Nhat Hahn, Lotus, p. 68.

  lived in refugee camps: Ibid., p. 75.

  arrested for drunk driving: MA, Jan. 24, 1966, p. 1; NYT, Jan. 24, 1966, p. 16.

  “You can’t Jew us down”: SCLC memo, Jan. 23, 1966, A/KP34f7; Irving M. Engel to Hosea Williams, Jan. 26, 1966, A/KP34f7; Irving M. Engel to MLK, Feb. 14, 1966, A/KP34f7.

  SCLC aides labored to curb: Abernathy to MLK, “January 21, 1966, Executive Staff Meeting,” A/SC62f21.

  “I think that the root”: Andrew Young to Hosea Williams, Dec. 31, 1965, A/KP28f6.

  Williams berated his rival James Bevel: Int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

  “ignorant, black nationalistic notion”: R. T. Blackwell to Andrew Young, Jan. 28, 1966, A/SC47f11.

  “There ain’t no Negro in Alabama”: SC, Jan. 22–23, 1966, p. 1; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 100–101.

  “I don’t blame anyone”: Entries for Oct. 29, 1965, and Jan. 7, 1966, diary of Francis Walter, courtesy of Francis Walter.

  Reporters arrived from distant cities: “Farmer Kills Negro After Cars Collide,” AC, Jan. 24, 1966, p. 1; “White Man Charged in Killing,” MA, Jan. 24, 1966, p. 1; Edward

  M. Rudd, “All Quiet in Camden After Negro Killed, White Man Arrested,” SC, Jan. 29–30, 1965, p. 1.

  “With the pool of blood still fresh”: Entry for Jan. 23, 1966, pp. 90–92, diary of Francis Walter, courtesy of Francis Walter.

  King accepted staff advice: R. T. Blackwell to Andrew Young, Jan. 28, 1966, A/SC47f11.

  counties plagued with evictions: Jet, March 10, 1966, pp. 14–19.

  dismissal of the drunk driving charge: NYT, Jan. 25, 1966, p. 35.

  battered month’s marches: NYT, Jan. 12, 1966, p. 19; NYT, Jan. 21, 1966, p. 27; Lawson, Pursuit, p. 33.

  “The more people that register”: NYT, Jan. 23, 1966, p. 72.

  “democratize the total political structure”: BN, Jan. 24, 1966, p. 4; NYT, Jan. 25, 1966, p. 35.

  Katzenbach quietly approved: King, Separate, pp. 168–69. In 1968, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court would overturn the Alabama law requiring jail and prison segregation by race: Lee v. Washington 390 U.S. 333 (1968).

  Constance Baker Motley: WP, Jan. 26, 1966, p. 2.

  swear in Robert Weaver: NYT, Jan. 19, 1966, p. 1; PDD, Jan. 18, 1966, LBJ; Johnson, Diary, pp. 352–53.

  “The moment they take an oath”: LBJ phone call with Roy Wilkins, 10:50 A.M., Nov. 4, 1965, Cit. 9105-07, Audiotape WH6511.01, LBJ.

  “why treat all of the civil rights leaders alike”: Humphrey to Califano, Jan. 22, 1966, EX HU2, FG 440, Box 4, LBJ.

  James Bond spy fantasy Thunderball: PDD, Jan. 22, 1966, LBJ.

  a thousand killed per month: McNamara to LBJ, Jan. 24, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 116. 424 no amount of deliverable ordnance: Statement of CIA deputy director Richard Helms at White House meeting of Jan. 22, 1966, 12:00–2:12 P.M., in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 105ff; McNamara, In Retrospect, p. 228.

  North Vietnam’s stunning indifference: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 9:15 A.M., Jan. 17, 1966, Cit. 9502-03, Audiotape WH6601.08, LBJ.

  “I’d go sooner”: Jack Valenti notes, “Meeting in Cabinet Room,” Jan. 24, 1966, Office of the President, Valenti Papers, Box 13, LBJ.

  Johnson gathered twenty congressional leaders: PDD, Jan. 25, 1966, pp. 6–7, LBJ.

  “This is the most frustrating experience”: Jack Valenti notes, “Meeting in Cabinet Room, 5:30 P.M.–7:40 P.M.,” Jan. 25, 1966, Office of the President, Valenti Papers, Box 13, LBJ.

  “Can’t we fight?”: Ibid. Bolton was then eighty years old, having served in Congress since 1939. A pioneer advocate of training and education for modern nurses, she helped establish the Army School of Nursing during World War I, and she founded a college-level nursing school that was renamed for her in 1935 at Western Reserve University in her native Cleveland.

  Johnson read out loud: “Johnson Stimulated by Lincoln in Agony of Decision Making,” WP, Jan. 27, 1966, p. 14.

  received from Senator Robert Kennedy: Karnow, Vietnam, p. 499.

  “it might give you some comfort”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 792.

  “The problem is not communicating”: LBJ phone call with Abe Fortas, 9:54 A.M., Jan. 26, 1966, Cit. 9535-36, Audiotape WH6601.11, LBJ.

  “Nineteen sixty-six can be”: LBJ remarks from the Cabinet Room, 11:53 A.M., with a message to the Congress on American cities, Jan. 26, 1966, EX SP 2-3/1966/LG, LBJ.

  Washington Post computed: WP, Jan. 27, 1966, pp. 1, 20.


  scramble with hopeful bromides: Cf. Califano to LBJ, 4:35 P.M., Jan. 27, 1966, EX SP 2-3/1966/LG; Harry McPherson to LBJ, 5:10 P.M., Jan. 27, 1966, LG, Model Cities ’66, Box 2, LBJ. Califano advised LBJ of eight specific steps already taken “after the Washington Post editorial today (which is extremely unfair).”

  King began weekly slum residence: NYT, Jan. 21, 1966, p. 27; CD, Jan. 22–28, 1966, p. 1; Chicago Tribune, Jan. 27, 1966; “Showdown Looms: Moral Power Against Poverty Profiteers,” Jet, Feb. 10, 1966, pp. 14–20.

  reported the Chicago Tribune: Chicago Tribune, Jan. 23, 1966, p. 3.

  “I can learn more about the situation”: Ralph, Northern, p. 55.

  A crowd of several hundred waited: NYT, Jan. 27, 1966, p. 37; Ralph, Northern, p. 55; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 360–61.

  “The smell of urine was overpowering”: King, My Life, pp. 278–79.

  Speech at Chicago Theological Seminary: MLK log, January 1966, A/SC131f9.

  Vice Lords gang stayed: CD, Jan. 29–Feb. 3, 1966, p. 1.

  “Great God a’mighty”: Ibid.

  on Daddy King’s side: Ibid.; Reddick, Crusader, p. 42.

  “Family life not only educates”: Address, University of Chicago, Jan. 27, 1966, A/SC28f22.

  he scrawled an instruction to himself: Ibid.

  His advisers expressed mild optimism: Garrow, Bearing, p. 460.

  “All of us, like Dr. King”: Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 362–63.

  lacking from his duplicate apartment: Abernathy, Walls, p. 371; CD, Feb. 12–18, 1966, p. 1.

  a call in Chicago on the priest Richard Morrisroe: Junius Griffin to MLK, Jan. 28, 1966, A/KP34f18.

  hospitalized and said to be neglected: Jet, Jan. 27, 1966, pp. 50–52.

  Stokely Carmichael had been among his few movement visitors: Int. Richard Morrisroe, May 22, 2003, Feb. 7, 2004. Carmichael had visited Morrisroe in Montgomery the previous September, before his condition was stable enough for transfer to Oak Park Hospital just outside Chicago.

  “A Lonely Johnson Weighs Bombing”: NYT, Jan. 28, 1966, p. 1.

  fifteen senators had released a joint letter: “15 in Senate Urge President Extend Pause in Bombing,” ibid.; PDD, Jan. 27, 1966, p. 3, LBJ.