At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  “‘When I use a word’”: Cited in Eldridge Cleaver, “My Father and Stokely Carmichael,” Ramparts, April 1967, p. 14.

  “He says that LBJ killed”: Ibid.

  “a fraudulent bunch of words”: Carmichael press statement of July 1, 1966, A/KP3f25. “The Civil Rights Act of 1966 as reported by the House Judiciary Committee is totally useless and totally unnecessary,” it began. “If passed, it will function both as a fraudulent bunch of words to convince black people of this country that Congress has taken action to deal with their problems, and as a smokescreen to obscure President Johnson’s failure to enforce earlier civil rights legislation.”

  “hypocrisy which attempts to delude”: Carmichael to MLK, July 4, 1966, attaching the July 1 press statement, A/KP3f25.

  “You have displayed more backbone”: SNCC telegram to MLK, Aug. 3, 1966, answering a telegram of the same date to Carmichael from Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Whitney Young, and [approved by telephone] MLK, A/KP23f18; “Negroes Assail S.N.C.C. Protest,” NYT, Aug. 5, 1966, p. 11.

  “All those people who are calling us friends”: Carmichael speech in Chicago, July 28, 1966, Reel 20, SNCC. In a speech two days later at Detroit’s Cobo Hall, Carmichael said, “The white college friends say they are fighting with us, but they are only fighting to smoke ‘pot’ while the Negro is fighting for his life.” Detroit FBI report dated Jan. 5, 1968, FSN-13.

  “No, not one”: NYT, Aug. 5, 1966, cited in Powers, War, p. 150.

  “We cannot be expected”: Stokely Carmichael, “What We Want,” New York Review of Books, Sept. 22, 1966.

  publicized summer meetings: NYT, July 29, 1966, p. 13; NYT, July 30, 1966; NYT, Aug. 29, 1966, p. 13; MS, Aug. 12, 1966, p. 4.

  “You’re different”: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20, 22, 2002.

  Morrisroe managed his first sworn testimony: Chicago Daily News, Sept. 13, 1966, in file #940, RS, CHS.

  “Father, may I ask a question?”: Int. Richmond Flowers, Aug. 9, 1990; int. Richard Morrisroe, April 9, 2003, and May 22, 2003; Hayman, Bitter, pp. 223–26.

  descended into disgrace: Hayman, Bitter, pp. 258–99.

  curse Flowers again when Junior scored: Int. Richmond Flowers, Aug. 9, 1990; Mike Sielski, “Flowers: ‘Fastest White Boy Alive,’” ESPN Classic Biography, ESPN.com.

  Tennessee fielded its first black player: Peter Schrag, “Tennessee’s Lonesome End,” Harper’s, March, 1970, pp. 59–67.

  Gloria Larry reported: SNCC field reports, September 28–October 8, 1966, Reel 16, SNCC.

  too enmeshed in politics: Morrisroe speech, “Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Seminarian and Martyr,” 1999, courtesy of Richard Morrisroe.

  legal career after his 1973 marriage: Jim Procter, “Richard Morrisroe’s Journey Home,” Hammond, Indiana, Compass, reprinted in Congressional Record, Dec. 3, 1975, p. S20967.

  bride’s four-year-old nephew: Int. Richard and Sylvia Morrisroe, April 9, 2003.

  Thagard dismissed all charges: SC, Oct. 1–2, 1966, p. 1; Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 252.

  Black Power, White Backlash: Transcript, CBS Reports, Sept. 27, 1966, MOB.

  “a stunning upset”: NYT, Sept. 29, 1966, p. 1.

  won by Lester Maddox: Reese Cleghorn, “Meet Lester Maddox of Georgia, ‘Mr. White Backlash,’” NYT Magazine, Nov. 6, 1966, p. IV-27ff.

  “The seal of the great state of Georgia”: Maddox, Speaking, pp. 81–82. Maddox included Allen’s attack in his memoir as a trophy.

  “Georgia is a sick state”: Ibid.; NYT, Sept. 26, 1966, p. 35.

  “wouldn’t be shocking enough”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 11:40 P.M., Sept. 29, 1966, FLNY-9-1077a; Garrow, Bearing, p. 532.

  “I do think we stand”: MLK press statement in Chicago, Sept. 30, 1966, A/KS.

  32: BACKLASH

  PAGE

  58 percent of party supporters: “G.O.P. Will Press Racial Disorders as Election Issue,” NYT, Oct. 4, 1966, p. 1; “In the Tight Races, the Backlash Vote May Mean Victory,” NYT, Oct. 17, 1966, p. 1.

  begged the tavern keepers of Baltimore: NYT, Oct. 5, 1966, p. 51.

  tea at the governor’s mansion: NYT, Oct. 15, 1966, p. 15.

  “we could win the war in Vietnam”: NYT, Oct. 14, 1966, pp. 1, 18, 20.

  “FDR passed five major bills”: Dallek, Flawed, pp. 335–39.

  Nicholas Katzenbach had just left: Katzenbach oral history by Paige Mulhollan, Nov. 23, 1968, pp. 1–2, LBJ. Katzenbach’s photograph in Saigon at the end of the scouting trip appears on the front page of the Oct. 12, 1966, NYT.

  complaints to Jewish War Veterans: “Jewish War Plea Vexes President/ Opposition to Vietnam Aims Proves Worry to Johnson,” NYT, Sept. 11, 1966, p. 4; “Jewish Leaders Deny Johnson Linked Israel and War Support,” NYT, Sept. 13, 1966, p. 4.

  “Goldberg Mollifies Jews”: NYT, Sept. 15, 1966, p. 1; “Goldberg Backs Right of Dissent/ He Says Criticism ‘Can Only Benefit’ Foreign Policy,” NYT, Nov. 7, 1966, p. 4.

  “If Abraham had no hesitation”: Nation, Sept. 26, 1966, pp. 268–69.

  invitations to visit Israel and Jordan: Dora McDonald to Bayard Rustin, Aug. 31, 1966, with attached press item about a planned MLK pilgrimage of “5,000 Negroes” to holy sites in Israel and Jordan, A/KP20f37.

  “I implore all of you to remember”: Bayard Rustin reading a draft letter, from the wiretap transcript of a conference call with MLK, Stanley Levison, Harry Wachtel, Ralph Hellstein, Clarence Jones, Cleveland Robinson, Lawrence Reddick, and Walter [Fauntroy?], 11:45 P.M., Sept. 6, 1966, FLNY9-1054a.

  Rustin drafted instead: Freeman, Mule Train, p. 456; White House memo, Clifford Alexander to Harry McPherson (“Bayard Rustin called today…”), Oct. 3, 1966, MLK Name File, Box 144, LBJ.

  “racial justice by democratic process”: NYT, Oct. 14, 1966, p. 27.

  Still, King resisted entreaties: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 532–33; D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, p. 456.

  “Dr. King Weighing Plan”: NYT, Oct. 10, 1966, p. 1.

  “Crisis and Commitment”: NYT, Oct. 14, 1966, p. 35.

  “7 Negro Leaders Issue”: Ibid., p. 27. The seven signers were Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, Dorothy Height, Bayard Rustin, Amos T. Hall of the Prince Hall Masons, and Hobson Reynolds, Grand Exalted Ruler of the Elks.

  He carefully reprised his written critiques: Garrow, Bearing, p. 533.

  “Violence as a strategy for social change”: MLK, “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom,” Ebony, Oct. 1966, cited in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 54–61.

  “King Endorses Racial Statement”: NYT, Oct. 15, 1966, p. 14.

  “a serious misstep”: Garrow, Bearing, p. 534.

  Wiretapped phone lines buzzed: HQ LHM dated Oct. 17, 1966, FK-NR; NY LHM dated Oct. 17, 1966, FK-NR.

  Rustin called Stanley Levison: Wiretap transcript, 2:40 P.M., Oct. 15, 1966, FLNY9-1093a.

  “Bayard did this to us”: Wiretap transcript of a telephone conversation between Andrew Young and Stanley Levison, 3:10 P.M., Ibid.

  “What bothers me”: Wiretap transcript of a telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 4:14 P.M., Ibid.

  McNamara and Katzenbach: Sheehan, Bright, pp. 628–31. Sheehan notes that Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 would disclose the historic Pentagon Papers on Vietnam, was assigned to Katzenbach for this trip as a Defense Department staff adviser.

  After only thirty-six hours home: McPherson, Political, pp. 303–16; NYT, Oct. 18, 1966, pp. 1, 16.

  “I know that I can wave no wand”: LBJ departure statement, Dulles International Airport, Oct. 17, 1966, Department of State Bulletin, Nov. 6, 1966, p. 698.

  “a little less pessimistic”: McNamara to LBJ, Oct. 14, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 727–35; Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 4, pp. 348–54.

  infiltration up threefold: Ibid.; also CIA intelligence memorandum to LBJ, Nov. 5, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 801–4.

  “has if anything gone backward”: McNamara, In Retrospect, pp. 262–63. Quoting t
his memo in his 1995 memoir, McNamara revised its description of “the important war,” pacification, from a quest “for the complicity of the people” in the 1966 original to one “for the [hearts and minds] of the people.” This tiny shift covered up a strange and perhaps telling choice of the term “complicity” rather than consent as the desired political stance for the Vietnamese.

  “the unceasing, backbreaking toil”: Katzenbach to LBJ, Oct. 15, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 746–52. The acronyms in Katzenbach’s quotation stand for the following: MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam), USAID (United States Agency for International Development), JUSPAO (Joint United States Public Affairs Office), GVN (Government of [South] Vietnam), ARVN (Army of the Republic of [South] Vietnam), PF (Popular Forces), RF (Regional Forces), PFF (Police Field Forces), CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group), PAT (Political Action Team), RD (Revolutionary Development).

  “non-group”: Katzenbach oral history by Paige Mulhollan, Nov. 23, 1968, pp. 19–21, LBJ.

  neglected outlook of ordinary Vietnamese: More than three decades later, in his collection of Vietnamese and American war memories, author Christian Appy amplified Katzenbach’s point about the gaping hole in public attention during the conflict: “No subject was more strikingly inaccessible than the experience of ordinary Vietnamese on all sides.” Appy, Patriots, p. 239.

  “Charlie zapped a slick”: Radio interview by Dick Hubert, Nov. 21, 1966, in Fall, Reflections, pp. 27–28.

  found Rev. Robert Spike bludgeoned: “Theologian, a Rights Advocate, Slain at Ohio State,” NYT, Oct. 18, 1966, p. 28.

  the family received telegrams: Spike, Photographs, pp. 187–88, 215–220.

  News stories reviewed: “Robert Spike: The Movement Loses a Voice,” SC, Oct. 29–30, 1966, p. 5.

  “one of the best thinkers”: “Prof Was Famed Rights Leader/ Murder Shocks Colleagues Thruout U.S.,” Chicago’s American, Oct. 18, 1966, File 940, RS, CHS.

  “the last thing”: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  “This staggers my mother”: Spike, Photographs, pp. 223–25.

  Mother and son fought an undertow: Ibid., pp. 135–37, 171–82.

  church officials shut down inquiry: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991; int. James Hamilton, July 30, 1991.

  Willful avoidance sealed Spike: Findlay, Church People, p. 176.

  Andrew Young always feared: Young, Burden, pp. 472–73. Stokely Carmichael’s posthumous memoir of 2003 lists Spike with King, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, and several other victims marked by lingering allegations of political conspiracy, in Carmichael, Ready, pp. 436–37.

  with Spike’s internecine rivals: In a haunted memoir about his father, Paul Spike records that Art Thomas of the Delta Ministry shared far-fetched suspicions even of Office of Economic Opportunity director Sargent Shriver, who in 1966, under pressure from Mississippi politicians, undercut a Mississippi movement poverty program that Robert Spike vigorously defended. Spike’s trenchant criticisms of the Labor Department report on the Negro family also generated a feud with Daniel Moynihan, who tried to enlist the White House on his side. “Spike has been a leader of the effort to discredit me, which has been an organized effort,” Moynihan wrote Harry McPherson. “The people involved in this are precisely those persons who have been the most vicious about the President and Viet Nam.” Moynihan to McPherson, April 15, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 21, LBJ; Spike, Photographs, pp. 199–204; [on the Mississippi poverty dispute] Greenberg, Devil, passim, especially pp. 601–25.

  prosecutors considered him insane: NYT, Dec. 13, 1966, p. 15; Findlay, Church People, p. 176.

  A harbinger series: Dick Hebert, “Atlanta’s Lonely ‘Gay’ World,” AC, Jan. 2–8, 1966.

  “would cut off their left arms”: Ibid., Jan. 7, 1966, p. 1.

  Richard Nixon captured: NYT, Oct. 24, 1966, p. 1.

  “playing the backlash issue”: Transcript, Meet the Press, Vol. 10, No. 43, Oct. 23, 1966, courtesy of NBC News.

  “as a fugitive”: Powers, War, pp. 208–9.

  “that’s what they do”: Tom Wolfe, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” in Library of America Anthology, Reporting Vietnam, pp. 198–207; Gitlin, Sixties, p. 209.

  “turn on, tune in”: “Dr. Leary Starts New ‘Religion’ with ‘Sacramental’ Use of LSD,” NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 33.

  a Yellow Submarine prop: DeBenedetti, Ordeal, p. 161.

  teach-in activist Jerry Rubin: Menashe and Radosh, eds., Teach-Ins, pp. 28–32; Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, pp. 84–85.

  “in the Marxist tradition”: Rolling Stone Rock Almanac, p. 126.

  “a major cultural-political watershed”: Dallek, Right Moment, p. 223.

  call to old-fashioned morality: Ibid., pp. 190–91.

  repeal the state’s fair housing law: NYT, Aug. 14, 1966, p. 43.

  “Every day the jungle”: Dugger, On Reagan, p. 199.

  “orgies so vile”: Cannon, President Reagan, p. 148.

  recruit ex-CIA Director John McCone: “‘White Backlash’ Becomes a Major Coast Issue/ It Helps Reagan Even When He Doesn’t Mention It, His Supporters Say,” NYT, Sept. 28, 1966, p. 28.

  “appeasement of campus malcontents”: Reagan speech of Sept. 9, 1966, cited in Seth Rosenfeld, “The Governor’s Race,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2002.

  “dresses like Tarzan”: Gitlin, Sixties, p. 217.

  telegram to Stokely Carmichael: Edwards, Reagan, pp. 168–69.

  “hell, no”: “Carmichael Asks Draft’s Defiance/ Ridicules Johnson and Rusk at Rally in Berkeley,” NYT, Oct. 30, 1966, p. 63.

  Lyndon Johnson landed: “Johnson Is Home, ‘More Confident’ on Goals in Asia,” NYT, Nov. 3, 1966, p. 1.

  longest presidential trip in history: Dallek, Flawed, p. 384.

  two white kangaroos: NYT, Nov. 3, 1966, p. 14.

  bath from a silver spigot: McPherson, Political, p. 310.

  since FDR at Casablanca: U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 7, 1966, pp. 19–20.

  favorable rating on Vietnam to 63 percent: Dallek, Flawed, p. 385.

  “could last five years”: “Nixon Criticizes Manila Results,” NYT, Nov. 4, 1966, p. 1; Powers, War, p. 131.

  “chronic campaigner”: “Johnson Derides Nixon’s Criticism of Manila Stand,” NYT, Nov. 5, 1966, pp. 1, 10.

  Johnson canceled plans: Transcript of news conference, Question 10, ibid.; Edwards, Reagan, p. 169; Shesol, Contempt, pp. 346–47.

  “I was the song leader”: LBJ remarks, Nov. 7, 1966, PPP, 1966, pp. 1347–50; “Johnson Given Tests; Surgery Due Friday,” WP, Nov. 8, 1966, pp. 1, 4.

  meticulous observance of state law: Cf. John Hulett letters of notice to Judge Harrell Hammonds and the Alabama secretary of state, August 30, 1966, and Judge Harrell Hammonds letter of acknowledgment dated September 2, 1966, Box 1, A/RM; legal presentation by lawyer Morton Stavis at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1965 Selma march, in Selma, March 3, 1990.

  5,806 names: Carmichael, Black Power, p. 112.

  “We have enough registered people”: Michael S. Lottman, “High Hopes in Lowndes,” SC, Nov. 5–6, 1966, p. 1.

  “We have never tried”: Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 127.

  Carmichael no longer lived: J. M. McFadden, “Real Test Nears for Original ‘Black Panther,’” WP, Sept. 18, 1966, p. 3.

  deferred to local citizens: Cf. Robert Analavage, “What They’re Saying in Lowndes County,” SP, Oct. 1966, p. 3; Viola Bradford, “Freedom Candidates Campaign in Lowndes,” SC, Oct. 22–23, 1966, p. 1.

  “The help they have given us”: SC, Nov. 5–6, 1966, p. 1.

  observing a SNCC policy: Minutes of the central committee meeting, Knoxville, Oct. 22 and 23, 1966, p. 5, A/SN6.

  arrested with Stuart House: “Selma Court Fines SNCC Worker $77,” SC, Nov. 26–27, 1966, p. 1.

  “I saw some Negroes aroused”: “City of Selma vs. Carmichael: A Wild Day in Recorder’s Court,” SC, Dec. 3–4, 1966, p. 1; “Carmichael Gets 60-Day Sentence,” NYT, Nov. 30, 1966, p. 23.
r />   final mass meeting Monday night: Viola Bradford, “Lowndes,” SC, Nov. 12–13, 1966, p. 1; Carmichael, Black Power, pp. 114–15.

  “PULL THE LEVER”: SC, Nov. 19–20, 1966, p. 1; int. Jennifer Lawson, Nov. 13, 2004.

  “We have worked so hard”: John Benson, “Freedom Party Wins Legal Ballot Status in Lowndes County Vote,” Militant, Nov. 21, 1966.

  His speech ranged: Terence Cannon, “Lowndes County,” Movement, Dec. 1966, pp. 1, 8, 9; Sellers, River, pp. 152–54; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 129–33.

  On election day in Lowndes: Ibid.; Carmichael, Black Power, pp. 116–17; Militant, Nov. 21, 1966.

  Driver Andrew Jones: Robert Analavage, “Lowndes Party Girds for Future,” SP, Dec. 1966, p. 1; “Alabama Election Reports,” Nov. 16, 1966, Reel 16, SNCC; Viola Bradford, “Lowndes,” SC, Nov. 12–13, 1966, pp. 1, 4.

  “cracked the hide on my head”: Int. Andrew Jones, April 11, 2003.

  “the first shot”: Carmichael, Ready, pp. 474–75; Movement, Dec. 1966, p. 9.

  Jennifer Lawson wielded: Int. Jennifer Lawson, Nov. 13, 2004.

  Scott B. Smith wore military fatigues: Int. Scott B. Smith, April 11, 2003.

  All seven nominees: SC, Nov. 12–13, 1966, p. 1; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 135–38.

  “was reflecting on him”: SP, Dec. 1966, p. 1.

  forfeited both paying jobs: Int. Andrew Jones, April 11, 2003.

  Mark Comfort would lead: Movement, Dec. 1966, pp. 2, 9; Beth Wilcox, “Californians Bring Supplies to ‘Brothers, Sister’ in Lowndes,” SC, Sept. 9–10, 1967, p. 7.

  “Even though we lost”: SC, Nov. 19–20, 1966, p. 1.

  always expected to lose: Ibid.

  “I think the cat did well”: Militant, Nov. 21, 1966.

  “We have a party now”: SC, Nov. 19–20, 1966, p. 1.

  no more than a token presence: Carmichael report in minutes of the central committee meeting, Oct. 23, 1966, p. 6, A/SN6; int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000; Branch, Pillar, pp. 611–13.

  A phenomenon took root: Carmichael, Stokely Speaks, p. 187; Hilliard and Cole, This Side, pp. 115–16; Huey P. Newton jail interview of March 8, 1968, in Bracey, et al., Black Nationalism, pp. 534–51; Carmichael, Ready, pp. 474–76; int. Bob Mants, Sept. 8,2000.