At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  helped save his life for trial: Ibid., pp. 106–26.

  barricaded sniper Charles Whitman: Lavergne, Sniper, pp. ix–xvii.

  “I don’t really understand myself”: Ibid., pp. 112–14.

  “to have fun like the guys”: Ibid., pp. 320–21.

  Crime statisticians soon added: Ibid., pp. 327–28.

  The news from Texas eclipsed: Ibid., pp. 294–95; Johnson, Diary, pp. 406–11.

  “crime of the century”: Breo and Martin, Crime, pp. 17, 73, 79.

  King answered questions: WLBT news film, Aug. 8, 1966, Tape 3243/F2291, MDAH.

  Neshoba County Fair: WLBT news film, August 3–4, 1966, Tapes 3225–36/F2274, MDAH.

  “I flew over the scene”: Ibid.; Jackson Daily News, Aug. 4, 1966, p. 10, attached in FBI files to Hoover memo of Aug. 11, 1966, FSC-1547.

  keynote speaker, Edward Kennedy: Garrow, Bearing, p. 501; int. Edward Kennedy, April 12, 2004; int. William vanden Heuvel, Aug. 2, 2004.

  FBI agents estimated three hundred pounds: SAC, Jackson, to Director, Aug. 9, 1966, FSC-1544.

  “a young man on the way up”: MLK introduction, Aug. 8, 1966, with handwritten changes, A/KS.

  They stood to cheer when Kennedy asked: SC, Aug. 13–14, 1966, p. 1; LAT, Aug. 9, 1966; SP, Sept. 1966, p. 4.

  A high fever sent King: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 500–501.

  “his virus, the one he always got”: Abernathy, Walls, p. 382; NYT, Aug. 11, 1966, p. 23.

  “We’re at a real turn”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 7:56 P.M., Aug. 13, 1966, FLNY-9-1030a.

  “Chicago has proven”: MLK, President’s Annual Report, Aug. 10, 1966, A/KS11.

  ratified Al Lowenstein and Charles Morgan: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 500–501.

  “non-existent structural and organizational foundations”: MLK to Randolph T. Blackwell, Aug. 16, 1966, A/KP28f23. “These growing pains are still with us,” King added in his farewell letter to Blackwell, “and they will probably last until we have the courage and aggressiveness to meet them head-on. So if we did not provide every aspect of the harmony that you expected, I do hope that you gained consolation from the fact that you started a process that will continue to lead us in the right direction.”

  integrate Grenada’s public library: Investigative report on the SCLC convention dated Aug. 10, 1966, MSSC; Dittmer, Local People, p. 404.

  lost, wrecked, or abandoned: David I. Schaffer, Corporate Counsel, Avis World Headquarters, to Andrew J. Young, Aug. 9, 1966, A/KP22f16. Schaffer reminded Young that Avis representatives had met with Blackwell in October of 1965 “to resolve various differences” over the conduct of Hosea Williams, which persisted nevertheless. His letter complained that the Memphis branch manager of Avis “was unable to convince Rev. Williams that her actions were anything but racially motivated. Miss Mitchell also informed us that, in the course of these rentals and meetings to and with members of your organization, she and her staff were subjected to much abusive, argumentative and impolite language and demeanor.”

  teased Andrew Young: Young, Burden, pp. 386–87.

  staff prodigy had committed him: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 229; Abernathy, Walls, p. 383.

  Jesse Jackson idolized: Frady, Jesse, p. 209.

  Andrew Young among others: Young, Burden, pp. 386–87; Reynolds, Jesse Jackson, p. 54.

  strategy papers for the Chicago movement: Cf. Jesse L. Jackson, “A Strategy to End Slums,” May 31, 1966, A/SC149f35. “The giants of Chicago’s Canaan are a mighty force. They have vast sums of money to keep us out…. Our battle plans call for us to march around the southwest side of Chicago until the walls of oppression come tumbling down.”

  “I have counted up the cost”: Blackstone Productions, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II, America at the Racial Crossroads—1965 to 1985, Vol. 2, “Two Societies (1965–68).”

  “would make Gage Park”: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 229–30.

  teenager Jerome Huey: Ibid., p. 277; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 397–98.

  “They can buy tanks”: Ralph, Northern, p. 139.

  “with a heavy heart”: NYT, Aug. 11, 1966, p. 23; Kathleen Connolly, “The Chicago Open-Housing Conference,” in Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 69–70.

  Daley himself initiated: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 235; Ralph, Northern, pp. 149–52; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 398–99.

  Chicago Conference on Religion and Race: Branch, Pillar, pp. 24–32.

  Rev. Robert Spike: Spike, Photographs, pp. 141–42, 192–93; Friedland, Lift Up, p. 190; NYT, Dec. 3, 1965, p. 35.

  The American Nazi Party: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 232; NYT, Aug. 17, 1966, p. 23.

  Bogan neighborhood on August 12: NYT, Aug. 13, 1966, p. 8.

  John Lennon was apologizing: Rolling Stone Rock Almanac, p. 119.

  three different neighborhoods: “Rights Leaders Schedule 3 Marches at Once in Chicago Today,” NYT, Aug. 14, 1966, p. 48; Ralph, Northern, p. 148.

  “We are here”: Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, p. 23; investigator’s report dated Aug. 17, 1966, File 940, RS, CHS.

  Men occupied all fifty-six seats: Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 93–94.

  Soaring hope collided: Chicago deliberations chiefly from minutes preserved by John McKnight, “The Summit Negotiations, Chicago, August 17–August 26, 1966,” in Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 111–45. Also Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 237–69; Ralph, Northern, pp. 152–71; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 503–25; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 402–22; Fairclough, Redeem, p. 300ff.

  When they reconvened: Ibid.

  King implored exhausted negotiators: Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 133–34.

  News outlets considered: Ibid., pp. 78–79; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 254; “Dr. King Reports No Chicago Truce,” NYT, Aug. 18, 1966, p. 31.

  he exhorted a mass meeting: NYT, Aug. 19, 1966, p. 19.

  “until every white person out there”: Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 412.

  obtained within two hours a sweeping injunction: Ibid., pp. 413–14; “Chicago Injunction Limits Rights Drive; Dr. King May Defy It,” NYT, Aug. 20, 1966, p. 1; Notice and Complaint, City of Chicago v. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King et al., Aug. 19, 1966, A/SC2fl.

  “The issue is still justice”: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 257.

  Meet the Press: Transcript, Meet the Press, Aug. 21, 1966, reprinted in the Congressional Record, Aug. 29, 1966, pp. 21095–21102; “6 Rights Leaders Clash on Tactics in Equality Drive/ Meredith Asserts Negroes Should Take Law into Their Own Hands if Attacked/ Dr. King Hits Violence,” NYT, Aug. 22, 1966, pp. 1, 36–37.

  “Get your grandmother up from the South!”: Ralph, Northern, pp. 162–63.

  eighty-six-car caravan: Investigator’s report dated Aug. 22, 1966, File 940, RS, CHS.

  Alan Paton had recorded: Joravsky and Camacho, Race, p. 27.

  “About 2,000 residents”: “Dr. King and 500 Jeered in 5-Mile Chicago March,” NYT, Aug. 22, 1966, p. 1.

  “You are all good looking”: Ralph, Northern, pp. 163–64.

  George Lincoln Rockwell: Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, p. 82; NYT, Aug. 22, 1966, p. 37.

  anti-Jewish polemicist Connie Lynch: Lynch, founder of the National States Rights Party, delivered Klan-like speeches laced with sectarian beliefs of the Christian Identity movement, which held that Jesus had been of pure Aryan lineage, falsely claimed by Jews. With fellow supremacist J. B. Stoner, Lynch had mounted counterdemonstrations against King two years earlier in St. Augustine, Florida. Cf. Branch, Pillar, pp. 141–42, 377–78, 382.

  satellite marches in two areas: Ralph, Northern, p. 163.

  King himself announced: Ibid., p. 166; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 517–18.

  “We’ve got commies”: Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 82–83.

  “awfully close to a suicidal act”: Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, p. 259.

  While daily marches ventured: Ralph, Northern, p. 166.

/>   “the present downhill course”: NYT, Aug. 25, 1966, p. 36.

  all seven black aldermen: Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 415; Ralph, Northern, p. 165.

  reconvened at the Palmer House: John McKnight, “The Summit Negotiations, Chicago, August 17–August 26, 1966,” in Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 136–45; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 262–65; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, pp. 418–19.

  modest goal of at least one percent: Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, p. 137; “Rights Aides Set Goal in Chicago/ Seek 1% Negro Occupancy in 75 Areas by April 30,” NYT, Aug. 28, 1966, p. 50.

  the ten-point Open Housing Summit Agreement passed unanimously: “Housing Pact Set, Dr. King Calls off Chicago Marches/ He Hails 10-Point Program and ‘Defers’ Rights Rally by 3,000 in Cicero/ Realty Men Back Plan/ But Several Negro Groups Dissent and Map Protest by 300 Tomorrow,” NYT, Aug. 27, 1966, p. 1; Thomas G. Ayers, “The ‘Summit Agreement,’” in Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966, pp. 147–54.

  31: VALLEY MOMENTS

  PAGE

  “shown Chicago what it has known”: Nicholas von Hoffman, “King Hails Accord but Problem Still Terrifies Chicago,” WP, Aug. 29, 1966, p. 4.

  “We are all, let us face it”: Cited in Herbers, Priority, p. 123.

  “King has hardly begun”: Cited in Garrow, Bearing, p. 530.

  “fanatical, indefensible violence”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “King’s Chicago Pillow,” WP, Aug 29, 1966, p. 13.

  Angry white residents picketed: NYT, Aug. 30, 1966, p. 28; Cohen and Taylor, Pharaoh, p. 420.

  Catcalls of “black power!”: Alfred J. Slaughter, “Martin Luther King—‘Mercy Killer,’” CDD, Sept. 10–16, 1966, p. 2; “Talk by Dr. King Disrupted,” NYT, Sept. 1, 1966, p. 1; Jet, Sept. 15, 1966, p. 42; Chicago LHM dated Sept. 1, 1966, FSC-NR; Anderson and Pickering, Confronting, pp. 275–76; Ralph, Northern, p. 197. James Forman and Clayborne Carson spell the name “Sharpe” with a final “e” (Forman, Making, p. 470; Carson, Struggle, p. 234), both noting that the Chicago SNCC leader sought exile in Tanzania in 1967.

  jettisoning the commitment: “Cicero Marchers Planning a Defense if Attacked,” NYT, Aug. 29, 1966, p. 14.

  “Prefers Action to Talk”: NYT, Sept. 5, 1966, p. 8.

  “I was pleased but also shocked”: Travis, Black Chicago, pp. 252–54; Garrow, Bearing, p. 529.

  “We are not marching into Cicero”: Blackstone Productions, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II, America at the Racial Crossroads—1965 to 1985, Vol. 2, “Two Societies (1965–68).”

  “Guards Bayonet Hecklers”: NYT, Sept. 5, 1966, p. 1.

  fulfilling their vow to fight: Ibid.; SC, Oct. 1–2, 1966, p. 3; comments of Glory Bryant in Eyes on the Prize II.

  Stokely Carmichael offended the courtly mayor: Pomerantz, Peachtree, pp. 345–46.

  anti-Vietnam picketing vigil: SNCC Atlanta Project, “Atlanta’s Black Paper,” Aug. 25, 1966, Reel 37, SNCC.

  Depression-era black defendant Angelo Herndon: Branch, Parting, p. 210.

  Atlanta’s worst riot in sixty years: “Atlanta Negroes Riot After Police Wound a Suspect,” NYT, Sept. 7, 1966, p. 1; Jet, Sept. 22, 1966, pp. 8–11; Pomerantz, Peachtree, pp. 344–50; Allen, Mayor, p. 181ff.

  “the guts of a lion”: Pomerantz, Peachtree, p. 348.

  “SNCC members are not responsible”: Bayor, Race, pp. 139–40.

  Coca-Cola magnate Robert Woodruff: Pomerantz, Peachtree, pp. 343–44.

  pointing his gun at Barbara Aaron: Jet, Aug. 25, 1966, pp. 54–55; Sept. 8, 1966, p. 24.

  Carmichael had summoned: Anne Braden, “Slums Cause Outbreak,” SP, Oct. 1966, p. 1; Sellers, River, pp. 174–77.

  “S.N.C.C. Assailed”: NYT, Sept. 8, 1966, p. 1.

  “Negroes didn’t have any clear idea”: Cited in Sellers, River, p. 177.

  rioters spat on its correspondent: NYT, Sept. 7, 1966, p. 38.

  Atlanta police arrested Carmichael: “Carmichael Held in Riot Aftermath,” NYT, Sept. 9, 1966, p. 1; “Carmichael Denies in Court That He Began Atlanta Riot,” NYT, Oct. 2, 1966, p. 82.

  “I think it’s only fair”: Roy Reed comments, April 1987, at the National Symposium on the Media and the Civil Rights Movement, at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi.

  shooting death of a black teenager: “White in Atlanta Held in Slaying,” NYT, Sept. 14, 1966, p. 33; “Georgian Guilty in Negro’s Death,” NYT, Feb. 9, 1967, p. 27.

  “a hired hand”: Garrow, Bearing, p. 530.

  King was in Memphis: SAC, New York, to Director, Sept. 10, 1966, FK-NR.

  retreat about staff morale: Int. James Lawson, Nov. 9, 1983.

  “Big Lester” Hankerson: Branch, Pillar, p. 125.

  “We screamed for help”: Notes of Memphis retreat, Sept. 1966, A/SC49f14.

  The Grenada staff had revolted: Garrow, Bearing, p. 531.

  counseling of young workers: Int. James Lawson, Nov. 14, 1983; minutes of July 26, 1966, board meeting of the American Foundation on Nonviolence, Lowenstein Papers, File 1268, Box 50, UNC.

  King called Stanley Levison: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 6:51 P.M., Sept. 9, 1966, FLNY-9-1057a; NYT, Sept. 12, 1966, p. 49.

  Julian Bond’s departure from SNCC: Carson, Struggle, p. 231.

  Schools opened in Grenada: Dittmer, Local People, pp. 403–7.

  general assault on those behind: Ibid.; NYT, Sept. 13, 1966, p. 1; telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 6:51 P.M., Sept. 9, 1966, FLNY-9-1057a; NYT, Sept. 12, 1966, p. 49; int. Willie Bolden, May 14, 1992. (“They had me stretched out over here,” said Bolden, “and they were hitting a young boy…. I saw this guy put his foot between his crotch and twist his leg and broke his leg in two places. We finally got them, after they stopped, and went to Grenada Hospital. They wouldn’t wait on us.”)

  “You get the Highway Patrol”: Dittmer, Local People, p. 405.

  Andrew Young flew in: NYT, Sept. 14, 1966, p. 1.

  mustered eighty-seven black children: NYT, Sept. 15, 1966, p. 1.

  “virtually abdicated their responsibility”: NYT, Sept. 17, 1966, p. 26; SC, Sept. 24–25, 1966, p. 4.

  FBI agents arrested thirteen men: NYT, Sept. 18, 1966, p. 1.

  a short-lived drive to impeach: Johnston, Defiant Years, pp. 324–25.

  “I can tell you my heart”: Homer Bigart, “A Church Voices Sorrow in Grenada Over Mob Violence,” Sept. 19, 1966, p. 1.

  Folksinger Joan Baez arrived: Baez, Voice, pp. 107–10; Sandperl, Kinder, pp. 121–22, 131–39.

  Baez and Sandperl joined escorts: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 34.

  fourteen volunteer tutors: NYT, Dec. 28, 1966, p. 23.

  “His speech was fiery”: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 34.

  Andrew Young summoned Baez: Baez, Voice, pp. 101–03; int. Joan Baez, Jan. 7, 1984.

  he escorted two young girls: NYT, Sept. 21, 1966, pp. 1, 32.

  Civil Rights Act of 1966 failed: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 1.

  “We have received no word”: “Pessimism Grows in White House over Rights Bill,” NYT, Sept. 10, 1966, p. 1; “Dr. King Fearful for Rights Bill,” NYT, Sept. 12, 1966, p. 49.

  All eight Grenada defendants: SC, June 10–11, 1967, p. 1; Dittmer, Local People, p. 406.

  Diana Freelon: Int. Bruce Hartford, Sept. 18, 2005; www.crmvet.org/vet/foster=f.htm.

  “The Senate has an obligation”: NYT, Sept. 14, 1966, p. 46.

  “now that others’ oxen”: Graham, Civil Rights Era, p. 262.

  “a package of mischief”: Ralph, Northern, p. 192.

  agreement in Chicago was stronger: Cf. “Giant Step,” NYT editorial, Aug. 27, 1966, p. 28: “What Congress has thus far failed to confer adequately by law, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his associates have now achieved in Chicago by their repeated demonstrations.”

  reimprison him for the Birmingham jail campaign: Fred P. Graham, “High Court to Weigh Dr. King Conviction in ’63 Rights Rally,” NYT, Oct. 11, 1966, p. 1; Lewis, King, p. 367
; Westin, Trial, p. 205.

  “Don’t you find”: Citizen King, a Roja Production for The American Experience, PBS, 2004.

  influential front-page series: The conservative news weekly U.S. News & World Report, which seldom praised the Times on its civil rights coverage, recapped the entire series in the October 3 issue, p. 46.

  “How deep does white disengagement go”: NYT, Sept. 19, 1966, pp. 1, 36.

  “Housing Equality Hits”: NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 1.

  “We are witnessing”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Rachelle [Horowitz], 3:35 P.M., Sept. 20, 1966, FLNY-9-1068a.

  “It’s fear”: NYT, Sept. 21, 1966, pp. 1, 33.

  “These are a new breed of cats”: Ibid.

  Katzenbach blocked a proposed White House summit: Katzenbach to Harry McPherson, Sept. 17, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 22, LBJ. Katzenbach was responding to McPherson’s short memo of September 14: “When the civil rights bill goes down the drain, I think something like this [attached proposal] should be done. When you have a chance, please give me your views on it. The pencil notations are the boss’s.” LBJ’s penciled notations approved the proposed agenda and roster, which excluded the SNCC and CORE leadership, adding, “Subject to Nick’s approval & I suggest he call meeting & bring them by later.”

  “The President does not strengthen”: Ibid.

  most Americans still identified: McPherson probably knew of a Gallup poll, cited in Dallek, Flawed, p. 327.

  “Surely, the next generation”: McPherson to Katzenbach, Sept. 20, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 22, LBJ.

  “You are stuck with it”: McPherson to LBJ, Sept. 12, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 7, LBJ.

  Carmichael himself made bail: NYT, Sept. 16, 1966, p. 34.

  “It shows how the press cultivated”: Elizabeth Sutherland, New York SNCC office, “Press Survey—May 17–August 17, 1966,” Sept. 15, 1966, Reel 16, SNCC.

  “Everything seemed to go”: Carmichael, Ready, p. 520.

  “His style dazzles”: Bernard Weinraub, “The Brilliancy of Black,” Esquire, Jan. 1967, pp. 130–35.

  “A shiver of nervous exhilaration”: Lerone Bennett, Jr., “Stokely Carmichael: Architect of Black Power,” Ebony, July 1966.

  “Who could have thought it”: Carmichael, Ready, pp. 523–24.