At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  “I have been used before”: Garrow, Bearing, p. 485.

  “I’m sorry, y’all”: Int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 31, 1984.

  Tougaloo College football field: Dittmer, Local People, p. 401.

  Marlon Brando playfully slapped: WLBT news film, June 25, 1966, Tape 0181/D47, MDAH.

  “You can’t imagine”: Ibid.

  Ann Barth: NYT, June 19, 1966, p. 60.

  Jim Leatherer and Henry Smith: NYT, June 18, 1966, p. 28.

  an early staff purge against white people: Meier, CORE, pp. 392–408.

  “I wanted to assure you”: Peck to MLK, June 27, 1966, A/KP19f22.

  final eight miles from Tougaloo: “Meredith Hailed at Rally at Mississippi’s Capitol,” NYT, June 27, 1966, p. 1; Dittmer, Local People, p. 402; WLBT news film, June 26, 1966, Tape 0184/D49, MDAH.

  Newcomers included Walter Reuther: Ibid.; MLK to Walter Reuther, June 30, 1966, A/KP20f18; int. Al Raby, Feb. 20, 1985; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983; wiretap transcript of Beatrice Levison telephone conversation, 12:49 P.M., June 26, 1966, FLNY-9-982a.

  Al Raby with ten busloads: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990.

  “I don’t like the niggers”: CBS News Special Report, The March in Mississippi, June 26, 1966, MOB.

  A waitress on North Mill Street: Investigative report headed “Restricted, June 26, 1966, Jackson, Mississippi,” MSSC.

  blocked the southern front: NYT, June 27, 1966, p. 1; int. Edwin King, June 26, 1992.

  Disjointed speeches wilted: Paul Good, “The Meredith March,” New South, Summer 1966, p. 15; Garrow, Bearing, p. 487.

  “The whole damn thing smells to me”: NYT, June 25, 1966, p. 15.

  “We thank thee, Oh God”: CBS News Special Report, The March in Mississippi, June 26, 1966, MOB.

  King’s theology professor: Branch, Parting, pp. 92–94; Branch, Pillar, pp. 304–5, 375–78.

  heard Andrew Young call his name: Int. Harold DeWolf, May 9, 1983.

  “made it clear that a new philosophy”: Gene Roberts, “Rights March Disunity,” NYT, June 28, 1966, p. 23.

  “We are faced now with a situation”: NYT, July 31, 1966, p. IV-5; Wilmore, Black Religion, pp. 195–98. The forty-nine signatories included Episcopal Suffragan Bishop John M. Burgess of Boston, Rev. Charles E. Cobb of Springfield (father of SNCC’s Charlie Cobb), Revs. Bryant George and Gayraud Wilmore of the United Presbyterian Church, Anna Hedgman and Benjamin Payton of the National Council of Churches’ Commission on Religion and Race, Rev. James Hargett of Los Angeles AME Zion, Bishop Herbert Shaw of North Carolina, and Methodist Bishop James S. Thomas of Iowa.

  “They’re just going to die of attrition”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and MLK [from Chicago], 12:20 A.M., July 1, 1966, FLNY-9-987.

  “I’ve heard nothing from President Johnson”: Dittmer, Local People, pp. 400–401.

  “no specific reaction”: NYT, June 25, 1966, p. 14.

  “In the past, he had been able”: Paul Good, “The Meredith March,” New South, Summer 1966, p. 14.

  public support numbers declining: Dallek, Flawed, pp. 371–75.

  Johnson withheld approval: Ibid.; “President Hints Intensified War Effort; Ky Feels Junta Is ‘Over Hump’ in Crisis,” NYT, June 19, 1966, p. 1.

  “The choice is one of military lives”: “Summary Notes of the 559th Meeting of the National Security Council,” June 17, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 437ff.

  “I don’t see how you can go on”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 7:59 A.M., June 28, 1966, Cit. 10266, Audiotape WH6606.06, LBJ.

  security pact with McNamara: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 5:33 P.M., June 28, 1966, Cit. 10273, Audiotape WH6606.06, LBJ.

  lone dinner guest: PDD, June 28, 1966, LBJ.

  “a lot of trouble to us”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 10:05 A.M., April 27, 1966, Cit. 10049, Audiotape WH6604.04, LBJ.

  grumbled against the war: Fite, Richard Russell, pp. 445–48.

  Russell once proposed covert schemes: Branch, Pillar, pp. 308–10.

  denying the strategic value: “Russell Favors a Poll in Vietnam on U.S. Presence/ Says ‘We Can’t Possibly Win’ Against Vietcong if People Oppose American Help/ Rejects Domino Theory,” NYT, April 26, 1966, p. 1. It was this story that LBJ said was “a lot of trouble to us,” in a phone call to McNamara the next day.

  “the vast chasm between our views”: Russell to Honorable P. M. Watson, Jr., April 19, 1966, Series I, b15f26, RR, UGA.

  predicted death by assassination: Russell, diary memo of June 28, 1966, Series XVIIIB, folder “Presidential (LBJ)”, RR, UGA.

  “He was obviously”: Ibid.

  resolved to endorse: Fite, Richard Russell, p. 449; “Bombing Evokes Criticism and Praise in Both Parties,” NYT, June 30, 1966, p. 1. “I approve of it,” said Russell. “It seems to me we have exhausted every effort to arrive at negotiations.”

  “The monks live in the church”: Johnson, Diary, pp. 390–91; “President’s Evening of Prayer for Pilots in 1966 Disclosed,” NYT, May 13, 1967, p. 11.

  “So it looks like we burned”: LBJ phone call with Walt Rostow, 1:52 A.M., June 29, 1966, Cit. 10278, Audiotape WH6606.07, LBJ.

  “Let’s go to bed”: LBJ phone call with Cyrus Vance, 2:47 A.M., June 29, 1966, Cit. 10283, Audiotape WH6606.07, LBJ.

  Four of five Americans: Dallek, Flawed, p. 376.

  flow of war matériel would recover: CIA “Appraisal of the Bombing of North Vietnam (Through 14 July 1966),” in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 517ff; “An Appraisal of the Bombing of North Vietnam Through 11 August 1966,” in ibid., p. 614ff; McNamara, In Retrospect, pp. 245–46.

  The population of Hanoi dropped: Fall, Reflections, p. 160.

  “They also know that nobody”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 7:59 A.M., June 28, 1966, Cit. 10266, Audiotape WH6606.06, LBJ.

  “And if we hurt them enough”: Ibid.

  Ho Chi Minh responded: Duiker, Ho Chi Minh, p. 555; Fall, Reflections, p. 160.

  Ho advised Washington: Ambassador Charles Bohlen, Paris, to Secretary of State Rusk, July 21, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 508ff.

  1.5 million North Vietnamese women: Turner, Even the Women, pp. 20–21.

  two hundred missile sites: Appy, Patriots, p. 202.

  Ngo Thi Tuyen: Turner, Even the Women, pp. 51–69.

  Nhan Dan: Ibid., p. 125.

  marched south with knapsacks: Ibid., p. 94.

  Vu Thi Vinh said she defied: Appy, Patriots, pp. 103–4.

  even though she loathed socialism: Turner, Even the Women, p. 84.

  “Many of us temporarily lost our hair”: Appy, Patriots, pp. 105–6.

  700,000 wounded soldiers: Turner, Even the Women, p. 151.

  8,558 U.S. aircraft lost: Appy, Patriots, p. 202.

  “It was terrible”: Turner, Even the Women, p. 99.

  “When the helicopters dropped soldiers”: Borton, Sorrow, p. 39.

  A small caucus convened: Jo Freeman, “The Origins of the Women’s Liberation Movement,” American Journal of Sociology, No. 4, 1973, p. 30ff; Graham, Civil Rights Era, pp. 223–26.

  “a woman as a dog warden”: Rep. Martha Griffiths’ floor speech, “Women Are Being Deprived of Legal Rights by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,” Congressional Record, June 20, 1966, pp. 13689–94.

  “Is it because the Commission”: Ibid.

  Pauli Murray among others proposed: Murray, Song, pp. 366–68.

  “Get out! Get out!”: Cohen, Sisterhood, pp. 133–37.

  Friedan made up for shortcomings: Ibid.; Harrison, Sex, pp. 192–96.

  drew no major press notice: Mills, Place, p. 9.

  “Speaking in a gravelly alto”: Lisa Hammel, “They Meet in Victorian Parlor to Demand ‘True Equality’—NOW,” NYT, Nov. 22, 1966, p. 44.

  “If you are trying to run a whorehouse”: Cohen, Sisterhood, p. 139.

  30: CHICAGO

  PAGE

  Hosea Williams stayed behind: “Dr. Kin
g Declares Rights Movement Is ‘Close’ to a Split,” NYT, July 9, 1966, p. 1; “Mississippians Accused,” ibid., p. 8. A July 14 undercover report to the segregationist Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission claimed that Stokely Carmichael and Hosea Williams met that day in Grenada and “almost had a fist fight over who was going to run the project there. (Carmichael is trying to take over.) Williams told him to get out of town, because that was his town and SCLC was running the show.”

  clubbed three hundred people: “Negroes Clubbed in Grenada, Miss.,” NYT, July 11, 1966, p. 1.

  “CORE Hears Cries”: NYT, July 2, 1966, p. 24.

  “Black Nationalists Gain”: NYT, July 3, 1966, p. 1.

  “NAACP Head Warns”: U.S. News & World Report, July 18, 1966, p. 34.

  “Dr. King and CORE Chief Act”: NYT, July 11, 1966, p. 1.

  trumpeted with warm-up music: Investigator’s Report, “Rally and March, Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Coordinating Council of Community Organizations,” July 11, 1966, File 940, RS, CHS.

  three-year-old Bunny collapsed: King, My Life, p. 285.

  King ceremoniously taped: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 491–92; Oates, Trumpet, p. 409.

  repair 102,847 apartments: Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 383.

  hosted preliminary negotiations: Ibid., pp. 385–86; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 208–9; NYT, July 12, 1966, p. 26.

  drills for five hundred nonviolent volunteers: Ralph, Northern, p. 114.

  a pothole intervened: Ralph, Northern, p. 109ff; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 212ff; SC, July 23–24, p. 2; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 387; NYT, July 13, 1966, p. 1.

  detoured around jolting sights: King, My Life, p. 285ff.

  release of six battered teenagers: MLK transcript, “West Side Riots,” July 12, 1966, A/KS. “I think seven were originally arrested, and all of them were beaten. I went to the jail. This was in the jail. We went to the jail. They said to me as I talked with some of the groups that were very angry at that time, that if I could bring the fellows who had been arrested to them, that they would go home and end the disturbance. I said well if you wait right here, I’ll go on down to the police station…and there we talked with the commander and were able to get them out on their own recognizance and took them back to the scene, I mean to the church.”

  “It’s like improving the food”: MLK transcript, “I Need Victories,” July 12, 1966, A/KS.

  Hundreds of young people stalked out: Ralph, Northern, p. 110; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 211.

  At a roadblock of garbage cans: Bernard O. Brown, “WSO and the Riot on the Near West Side,” LCMOC folder, West Side Christian Parish Papers, CHS.

  refit the water hydrants: Ralph, Northern, p. 110.

  sniper shots jumped a mile to housing projects: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 212.

  more serious riots were spreading: “Armed Negroes Fight the Police in Chicago Riots,” NYT, July 15, 1966, p. 1; Chicago LHM dated July 19, 1966, press summary, FSC-NR, p. 4.

  “Get away from that window”: King, My Life, p. 289.

  claimed two fatalities: Jet, July 28, 1966, pp. 6–13; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 389–90.

  He blamed King’s staff: Ibid.; Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1966, p. 1; Reynolds, Jesse Jackson, p. 58.

  “Doctor King, I want to make”: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 214.

  “Now there was a program”: Ibid., p. 215.

  “We don’t need sprinklers”: “Troops Restoring Order in Chicago Negro Ghetto; 2 Dead, 57 Hurt in Rioting,” NYT, July 16, 1966, p. 1.

  dispatched two top assistants: Joe Califano to LBJ, 3:00 P.M., July 15, 1966, and Joe Califano to LBJ, 6:15 P.M., July 15, 1966, EX HU, Box 26, LBJ. “John Doar is in Chicago, as well as Roger Wilkins,” Califano advised in the second memo. “I have talked to the various Cabinet Officers involved and told them that Katzenbach would be coordinating the Government’s efforts.”

  a miniature Watts: Ralph, Northern, p. 112.

  John Doar and Roger Wilkins: Wilkins, Life, p. 208; Garrow, Bearing, p. 496.

  diverted from a canoe vacation: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986.

  “four hot hours”: Citizen King, a Roja Production for The American Experience, PBS, 2004.

  leader of the Roman Saints: “Chicago Calmer as Gangs Agree to End Violence/ Youths Heed Dr. King’s Plea to Shift Tactics in Efforts to Achieve Their Aims,” NYT, July 17, 1966, p. 1.

  Internal deliberations reeled: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 233.

  Stanley Levison thought most Americans: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Andrew Young, 12:13 A.M., July 15, 1966, FLNY-9-1001.

  King bemoaned the prior delays: Ralph, Northern, p. 113.

  extra 650 deaths: “Record Hot Spell Lingers at 101; Death Rate Rises,” NYT, July 14, 1966, p. 1.

  eight student nurses systematically bound: “Survivor Says Killer of 8 Lulled Fears of Victims,” NYT, July 16, 1966, p. 1.

  mounted rebuilding demonstrations: Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 20–21.

  “We must move on”: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 219.

  “He’s a goddam faker”: LBJ phone call with Richard J. Daley, 7:10 P.M., July 19, 1966, Cit. 10414-15, Audiotape WH6607.02, LBJ.

  he opposed the war: Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 445–50.

  King called for an all-night vigil: Ralph, Northern, p. 119.

  argued for a respite instead: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 221–23.

  “All housing should be available”: Mary Lou Finley, “The Open Housing Marches Chicago Summer 1966,” in Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, p. 12.

  debates essentially deferred to James Bevel: Ibid., pp. 6–12; Ralph, Northern, pp. 99–101.

  cellmate Bernard Lafayette: Branch, Parting, pp. 412, 483–87; Branch, Pillar, pp. 53–56, 63–66, 81–84.

  test nonviolent methods in Chicago: Int. Kale Williams, Feb. 21, 1985; int. James Lawson, Mar. 26, 1991; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

  yielded piecemeal results: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 217; Jet, Dec. 29, 1966, pp. 14–19.

  Lafayette called the inner boundaries: Blackstone Productions, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II, America at the Racial Crossroads—1965 to 1985, Vol. 2, “Two Societies (1965–68)”; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

  Studies by his American Friends Service Committee colleagues: Cf. Bill Moyer, An Analysis of the System of Housing Negroes in Chicago, Feb. 18, 1966, West Side Christian Parish, LCMOC folder, CHS.

  “All we are asking”: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 217.

  fifty volunteers set up Friday: Garrow, Bearing, p. 498; Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, p. 24; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 393; Marx to “dear friend,” Aug. 6, 1966, Courtesy of Jane Ramsey; int. Robert J. Marx, Sept. 19, 2005.

  A column of 250: Ralph, Northern, p. 120; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 392–93.

  crescendo of neighborhood fury: Ibid.; “54 Hurt as Whites in Chicago Hurl Bricks at Rights Marchers,” NYT, Aug. 1, 1966, p. 1; Karen Koko, “Chicago’s Race March—A Walk on the Wild Side,” National Catholic Reporter, Aug. 10, 1966, p. 1; “Dr. King Calls Chicago Police Lax in March Duty,” NYT, Aug. 2, 1966, p. 12; Jet, Aug. 18, 1966, pp. 52–55; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 223–24; Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 63–64.

  When a captain persuaded Raby: “Information Report, 8th District, 1 Aug. ’66, 0030 Hours,” File 940, RS, CHS.

  Andrew Young saw the taillights: Young, Burden, p. 413.

  “I don’t know”: Blackstone Productions, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II, America at the Racial Crossroads—1965 to 1985, Vol. 2, “Two Societies (1965–68).”

  Rabbi Robert J. Marx: Jet, Sept. 8, 1966, pp. 46–47; Ralph, Northern, pp. 122–23.

  “baited into a near-riot”: Chicago Tribune, Aug. 5, 1966, cited in Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 228.

  community violence would only backfire: Ralph, Northern, pp. 129–30; C
ohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 393–94.

  The mayor sent his black alderman: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 226–27.

  mass meeting of 1,700 people: Garrow, Bearing, p. 499.

  “If there is any doubt”: Speech excerpts, “MLK Rally with Mahalia Jackson,” Aug. 4, 1966, A/KS.

  On Friday afternoon, August 5: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 228; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 499–500; Ralph, Northern, pp. 123–25; Oates, Trumpet, p. 414.

  staggered King to the pavement: Citizen King, a Roja Production for The American Experience, PBS, 2004; Blackstone Productions, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II, America at the Racial Crossroads—1965 to 1985, Vol. 2, “Two Societies (1965–68).”

  “There are at least twenty five hundred”: Gene Roberts, “Rock Hits Dr. King as Whites Attack March in Chicago,” NYT, Aug. 6, 1966, p. 1.

  an undercover officer in one reported: Investigator’s report dated Aug. 8, 1966, for Aug. 5 incident, File 940, RS, CHS.

  Women poured sugar: Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 396.

  “The reinforcements came running”: NYT, Aug. 6, 1966, p. 52.

  King consoled a stunned: Investigators’ reports dated Aug. 5 and 9, 1966, for Aug. 5 incident, File 940, RS, CHS.

  “I have never in my life”: Jet, Aug. 25, 1966, pp. 14–23; NYT, Aug. 7, 1966, p. 47.

  gang marshals had batted down: NYT, Aug. 1, 1966, p. 1.

  “I saw their noses being broken”: Ralph, Northern, p. 137.

  threatened to shoot Bevel: Investigator’s report dated Aug. 2, 1966, File 940, RS, CHS.

  closed New Friendship Baptist: Ralph, Northern, pp. 137–38; Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, p. 16.

  arraignment of Richard Speck: Breo and Martin, Crime, pp. 175–76.