At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  “the corruption of blood”: Ibid., at p. 7.

  Most Americans within a generation”: “Race, Sex and Forbidden Unions,” NYT, Dec. 14, 2003, p. IV-4; “Bans on Interracial Unions Offer Perspective on Gay Ones,” NYT, March 17, 2004, p. 16.

  Walker v. City of Birmingham: 388 U.S. 307 (1967); “Dr. King Loses Plea; Faces 5 Days in Jail,” NYT, June 13, 1967, p. 1.

  grew from the pivotal Good Friday decision: Ibid.; Westin, Trial, passim, esp. p. 243ff; Branch, Parting, pp. 727–31.

  Andrew Young noted: Wiretap transcript of telephone conference call among MLK, Andrew Young, Stanley Levison, and Harry Wachtel, 2:31 P.M., June 12, 1967, FLNY-9-1333a.

  “entirely superior in the meantime”: Westin, Trial, p. 249.

  “is profoundly embarrassing”: Ibid., p. 255; NYT, June 14, 1967, p. 46.

  Prattville, Alabama jail: “Violence in Alabama,” NYT, June 12, 1967, p. 88; “For the People of Prattville,” SC, June 17–18, 1967, p. 1; Carson, Struggle, p. 254; int. (Southern Courier photographer) James Peppler, Jan. 24, 2005.

  Rap Brown issued a press statement: Sellers, River, p. 199; SNCC press release, June 13, 1967, A/SC45f14. 623 Alabama National Guardsmen: NYT, June 13, 1967, p. 39; int. James Peppler, Jan. 24, 2005.

  “Fault is on both sides”: SC, Jan. 20–21, 1968, p. 1.

  integrate the Supreme Court: NYT, June 14, 1967, pp. 1, 18, 32; Williams, Thurgood Marshall, pp. 330–31; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 438–42; Clifford Alexander oral history by Joe B. Frantz, Nov. 1, 1971, pp. 38–40, LBJ; Jet, June 29, 1967, pp. 14–16.

  “The whole world and all people”: Transcript, Issues and Answers, June 18, 1967, A/KS11.

  “uncertain president”: NYT, April 16, 1967, p. 3.

  “knowing his abhorrence”: Russell private notes, “White House Meeting, June 19, 1967,” Folder “Presidential (LBJ),” Series XVIIIB, RR, UGA.

  three days at Glassboro, New Jersey: FRUS, Vol. 5, pp. 521–23, 547–52. 625 U.S. battle deaths: Karnow, Vietnam, p. 525; Southern Methodist University, The War in Vietnam 1965–68, http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Viet2b.html.

  “running all over the country”: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 12:50 P.M., June 24, 1967, FLNY-9-1345a.

  published an excerpt: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Martin Luther King Defines ‘Black Power,’” NYT Magazine, June 11, 1967, p. 26ff.

  “I am opposed to violence”: Transcript, The Merv Griffin Show, June 19, 1967, Tape 69, A/KS.

  King argued from the book: Ibid.; King, Where, pp. 48–49, 64, 176–82.

  Reviews of the book: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 567–68; David J. Garrow, “Where Martin Luther King Jr., Was Going: Where Do We Go from Here and the Traumas of the Post-Selma Movement,” Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 4, Winter 1991, p. 719ff.

  “return to nonviolence”: NYT, July 12, 1967, p. 41.

  “like a pre-historic relic”: WP Book Week, July 9, 1967, p. 1.

  “standing up strongly now”: AC, June 27, 1967, p. 4.

  “The Negro male, too”: NYT Book Review, Sept. 3, 1967, p. 3.

  “It is as if he is misdefining”: Commonweal, Nov. 17, 1967, pp. 215–16.

  “He had simply, and disastrously”: “Soul Power,” New York Review of Books, Aug. 24, 1967, p. 3ff.

  peaked at seventy million: Jones, Expectations, pp. 75, 213.

  featured the Beatles from London: Martin, With a Little Help, pp. 159–60.

  music festival from Monterey: Rolling Stone Rock Almanac, p. 131.

  A jury convicted Richard Speck: Breo and Martin, Crime, p. 439.

  A court-martial sentenced Captain Howard Levy: NYT, June 4, 1967, p. 1.

  “Brutality is a way of life”: NYT, May 31, 1967, p. 2.

  Attorney Charles Morgan represented Levy: Morgan, One Man, pp. 114–48.

  on June 20 received the maximum sentence: NYT, June 21, 1967, p. 1; Sports Illustrated, July 3, 1967, p. 19; Hauser, Ali, p. 179.

  official revelation of government surveillance: Morgan, One Man, pp. 166–82; Branch, Pillar, pp. 478–79.

  A Life magazine story: William Lambert, “The Help-Hoffa Campaign of the U.S. Senator from Missouri,” Life, May 26, 1967, p. 24ff.

  “There is—or should be”: “The F.B.I.’s ‘Seal of Approval’”, NYT, June 2, 1967, p. 40.

  charged with beating Grenada children: SC, June 10–11, 1967, p. 1.

  Southern Baptists reserved judgment: NYT, June 2, 1967, p. 4; NYT, June 3, 1967, p. 31.

  Southern Presbyterians voted: “Church Liberals Quell 2 Revolts,” NYT, June 11, 1967, p. 46.

  Northern Presbyterians completed: John Wilkinson, “Edward A. Dowey, Jr. and the Making of the Confession of 1967,” Journal of Presbyterian History, Spring 2004, p. 5ff; Rogers, Presbyterian Creeds, pp. 212–19.

  “The church, in its own life”: United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), “The Confession of 1967,” Paragraph 9:45.

  grip of chronic alcoholic depression: Powers, I Shared, pp. 176–77; Young, Burden, p. 467; Abernathy, Walls, p. 479; Lewis, King, p. 15.

  “I want to thank God for sleep”: “Ingratitude,” MLK sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, June 18, 1967, A/KS.

  36: KING’S CHOICE

  PAGE

  “replenish their empty larders”: DeLoach to Tolson, July 10, 1967, FK-NR.

  “I assume we have to do it”: Hoover’s handwritten note on ibid.

  “There is not a military stalemate”: Meeting notes, Cabinet Room, 1:05–2:38 P.M., July 12, 1967, “Literally Eyes Only,” Tom Johnson meeting notes, Box 1, LBJ; “Joint Chiefs Back Troop Rise Asked by Westmoreland,” NYT, July 3, 1967, p. 1.

  taxi driver John Smith: Kerner, Report, pp. 60–62.

  “Racial Violence Erupts”: NYT, July 13, 1967, p. 1; Kerner, Report, pp. 56–59.

  “a meeting of the minds”: “Generals Agree with President on Build-up Issue,” NYT, July 14, 1967, p. 1.

  state forces could handle Newark: Califano, Triumph, pp. 209–10; “Newark’s Mayor Calls in Guard as Riots Spread,” NYT, July 14, 1967, p. 1.

  fires and generalized looting: NYT, July 15, 1967, p. 1; NYT, July 19, 1967, p. 1; Kerner, Report, pp. 66–69.

  dozen spent bullets in a coffee can: “Victims’ Kin Face a Lonely Future,” NYT, July 19, 1967, p. 23.

  “America’s obsession with integration”: NYT, July 20, 1967, p. 14.

  Detroit police raided five “blind pigs”: Kerner, Report, pp. 84–94.

  “the ultimate riot”: Comments of Time reporter Wallace Terry, Ole Miss Media Conference, April 3–5, 1987, MDAH.

  “I got that in Germany”: NYT, July 24, 1967, p. 15.

  Ramsey Clark woke President Johnson: “The Detroit Riots Chronology,” Office of the President, Box 3, LBJ.

  “There were dark days before”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conference call among MLK, Andrew Young, Stanley Levison, and Harry Wachtel, 1:20 P.M., July 24, 1967, FLNY-9-1375a; also, conference call among the same parties, 11:50 P.M., July 25, 1967, FLNY-9-1376a.

  support federal intervention: “Dr. King Supports Troops in Detroit,” NYT, July 26, 1967, p. 19.

  “Well, I guess it’s just”: “Notes of the President’s Activities During the Detroit Crisis, Crisis Period, 10 P.M. to 12:30 A.M., July 24, 1967,” Tom Johnson meeting notes, Box 1, LBJ; Hoover to Tolson, DeLoach, and Sullivan, July 25, 1967, FCT-NR.

  Democrats jockeyed with Republicans: “Army’s Entry into Detroit; How Decision Was Made,” NYT, July 30, 1967, p. 1; “Romney Accuses Johnson on Riots,” NYT, Aug. 1, 1967, p. 1; Califano to LBJ, 7:30 P.M., Aug. 2, 1967, Office of the President, Box 3, LBJ; Califano to LBJ, 7:55 P.M., Sept. 11, 1967, with attached report of Vance to McNamara, Box 56, WHCF, LBJ; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 414–15; Califano, Triumph, pp. 213–20.

  The President went on national television: NYT, July 25, 1967, p. 1.

  Two thousand Army paratroopers: Kerner, Report, pp. 100–108.

  “Two National Guard tanks ripped”: Ibid., p
. 104.

  “We deplore the few who rely”: NYT, July 28, 1967, pp. 1, 11.

  toll from Newark and Detroit fell far beneath: NYT, July 29, 1967, p. 24; “U.S. Combat Loss in Vietnam Drops to Six-Month Low,” NYT, Aug. 4, 1967, p. 1.

  interrogation in a motel: Hersey, Algiers Motel, pp. 40–41; “Detroit Negroes Charge Atrocity,” NYT, Aug. 1, 1967, p. 17.

  “mad dogs against the people”: NYT, July 26, 1967, p. 19; Dugger, On Reagan, p. 200.

  stormed the Muslim mosque: NYT, July 30, 1967, p. 50; see above p. 295.

  Eisenhower accused him of failing: Hoover to Tolson et al., 12:06 P.M., July 26, 1967, FCT-NR; NYT, July 27, 1967, p. 17.

  Hoover called Johnson with electrifying reports: Hoover to Tolson et al., 10:35 A.M., July 25, 1967, FCT-NR; enciphered Teletype from Hoover to LBJ, DIA, WH Situation Room, 3:05 P.M., July 25, 1967, FK-NR; Hoover to LBJ, 5:30 P.M., July 31, 1967, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ; Garrow, Bearing, p. 570.

  “I don’t want to foreclose”: Minutes of Cabinet meeting, Aug. 2, 1967, Cabinet Papers, Box 9, LBJ.

  “a necessary phase of the black revolution”: NYT, July 27, 1967, p. 18.

  Rap Brown became famous: Carson, Struggle, pp. 253–56; “An Affable but Angry Rights Leader: Hubert Geroid Brown,” NYT, July 28, 1967, p. 14.

  “guerrilla war on the honkie”: NYT, July 19, 1967, p. 42.

  President Johnson called Hoover: Hoover to Tolson et al., 12:06 P.M., July 26, 1967, FCT-NR.

  “If you give me a gun”: “Burning Capital Urged, if Needed,” NYT, July 28, 1967, p. 14.

  “American as cherry pie”: Ibid.; Kabaservice, Guardians, p. 344.

  Some fourteen charges of incitement: Forman, Making, p. 504.

  manhunt located the SNCC chairman: “Chief of S.N.C.C. Hunted by FBI,” NYT, July 26, 1967, p. 1; “Leader of S.N.C.C. Seized in Virginia,” NYT, July 27, 1967, p. 1.

  “I took occasion to have a Negro Agent”: Hoover to Tolson et al., 10:16 A.M., July 26, 1967, FCT-NR.

  “We are preparing groups”: FBI HQ LHM dated July 28, 1967, Box 73b, OFMS, LBJ.

  on a televised news panel: Transcript of Face to Face news interview from Washington, D.C., July 28, 1967, in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 394–414; NYT, July 29, 1967, p. 9.

  harsh summer news on August 3: NYT, Aug. 4, 1967, p. 1; DeBenedetti, Ordeal, p. 191.

  It provoked Johnson enough: Dallek, Flawed, pp. 474–75.

  “Vietnam: The Signs of Stalemate”: NYT, Aug. 7, 1967, p. 1; Maraniss, They Marched, p. 142. The Apple dispatch appeared beneath a front-page riot story: “Rap Brown Calls Riots ‘Rehearsal for Revolution.’”

  “The tragedy is that we are today engaged”: Transcript, NBC News, Meet the Press, Vol. 11, No. 33, Aug. 13, 1967.

  clarify a new strategic role: “Dr. King’s Group to Restudy Role,” NYT, July 11, 1967, p. 17.

  He flew to San Francisco: Travis, Black Chicago, p. 166; transcript of MLK address to the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Aug. 10, 1967, in San Francisco LHM dated Aug. 31, 1967, FK-3081.

  “No one knows the importance”: MLK address to the National Association of Radio Announcers, Atlanta, Aug. 11, 1967, tape recording courtesy of Lex Gillespie and Maurice Hundley.

  SCLC banquet on August 14: Program, SCLC Tenth Anniversary Convention, Aug. 14–17, 1967, b33f412, AL, UNC.

  Mayor Ivan Allen welcomed: NYT, Aug. 19, 1967, p. 12. 635 Aretha Franklin performed: Rolling Stone Rock Almanac, pp. 131–33. 635 “a new man in an old world”: SC, Aug. 19–20, 1967, p. 1.

  “Black Is Beautiful”: NYT, Aug. 19, 1967, p. 12.

  “A decade ago, not a single Negro”: MLK address, “Annual Report of the President,” Aug. 16, 1967, A/KS11.

  he could not understand a word: SC, Aug. 19–20, 1967, p. 1.

  John Lewis stayed up all night: Int. Charles S. Johnson III by Archie E. Allen, Aug. 16, 1968, AAP.

  Personal disputes and alcohol: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley and Bea Levison, 11:40 A.M., Aug. 16, 1967, FLNY-9-1398.

  modest rat-control bill: Dallek, Flawed, p. 415; Califano, Triumph, p. 212; “Rat Damage Is Put at Billion a Year,” NYT, July 29, 1967, p. 9.

  “Dr. King Planning Protests”: NYT, Aug. 16, 1967, p. 1.

  “Formula for Discord”: NYT, Aug. 17, 1967, p. 36.

  King’s own staff confessed shock: Tom Offenburger oral history by Kay Shannon, July 2, 1968, RJB; int. Tom Offenburger, May 30, 1984.

  mild public reaction to the riots: “Some at Capitol Get Heavy Mail; But Most Were Braced for an Avalanche of Protests That Did Not Come,” NYT, July 29, 1967, p. 9.

  King scheduled a retreat: MLK to Lowenstein, Aug. 28, 1967, b10f374, AL, UNC.

  Levison urged King not to attend: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 12:09 P.M., Aug. 22, 1967, FLNY-9-1404; Brennan to Sullivan, Aug. 28, 1967, FK-3075.

  National Conference for New Politics: DeBenedetti, Ordeal, pp. 191–93.

  One board member resigned: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 11:36 P.M., Aug. 24, 1967, FLNY-9-1406a, regarding notice from board member Dick Russell.

  “the ancient corruptions of populism”: Arthur Waskow to Members of the NCNP Board, Aug. 17, 1967, “Vietnam Summer,” Series 2, Box 5, SCPC.

  Harvard instructor Martin Peretz: Kaufman, Broken, pp. 207–11.

  “What rubs off on you”: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 4:40 P.M., July 9, 1967, FLNY-9-1360a; also, wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and Andrew Young, 12:10 A.M., July 10, 1967, FLNY-9-1361.

  supported his notion of civil disobedience: Brennan to Sullivan, Aug. 21, 1967, FK-3064.

  “Kill whitey, kill whitey”: Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, p. 129.

  Ralph Abernathy confided: “New Politics Convention,” Chicago police surveillance report dated Sept. 1, 1967, File 1047, RS, CHS.

  having resolved that calls for negotiations: Wiretap transcript of telephone conference call among MLK, Stanley Levison, Harry Wachtel, Andrew Young, and Walter Fauntroy, 9:15 P.M., Aug. 12, 1967, FLNY-9-1394a.

  “‘hate Johnson’ thing”: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 4:40 P.M., July 9, 1967, FLNY-9-1360a.

  Pickets carried banners: Clark, Ready, p. 75.

  “Make way for Rap Brown!”: Renata Adler, “Letter from the Palmer House,” New Yorker, Sept. 23, 1967, p. 71.

  “The black nationalists gave me trouble”: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, Sept. 1, 1967, FLNY-9-1414.

  “afraid, worried and tired”: “Convention Rally,” Chicago police surveillance report dated Sept. 1, 1967, File 1047, RS, CHS.

  Hyde Park Methodist Church: “Black Liberation Rally, Hyde Park Methodist Church,” Chicago police surveillance report dated Sept. 5, 1967, File 1047, RS, CHS; NYT, Sept. 2, 1967, p. 10; NYT, Sept. 3, 1967, p. 1; “Black Power in Action?,” SC, Sept. 23–24, 1967, p. 4; “The 13 Propositions of the Black Caucus,” Militant, Sept. 12, 1967.

  “a thousand liberals thought”: Sanford Gottlieb, “Report on the National Conference for New Politics Convention,” b33f404, AL, UNC, p. 6.

  “We are just a little tail”: Ibid.; Powers, War, pp. 263–64; NYT, Sept. 4, 1967, p. 1.

  “The only difference between Lyndon Johnson”: Transcript, Rap Brown speech of Sept. 3, 1967, in Chicago Office FBI report dated Dec. 6, 1967, FSN-3410, p. 23ff.

  James Forman rammed through resolutions: Powers, War, p. 266; “Panel on Black Liberation,” Chicago police surveillance report dated Sept. 7, 1967, File 1047, RS, CHS, pp. 4–8; Forman speech of Sept. 2, 1967, to the Black Caucus of the National Conference for New Politics Convention, Reel 51, SNCC.

  When two women moved: Evans, Personal, pp. 196–99.

  “I am here to remind you”: “Plenary Meeting of September 1,” Chicago police surveillance report dated Sept. 5, 1967, File 1047, RS, CHS, p. 9.

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bsp; “masochistic fascists”: Adler, “Letter from the Palmer House,” New Yorker, Sept. 23, 1967, p. 86.

  promised to kill him if he opposed: Wiretap transcript of telephone call among Andrew Levison, Stanley Levison, and Bea Levison, 9:30 P.M., Sept. 19, 1967, FLNY-9-1432a.

  “The organizers are ‘the movement’”: Andrew Kopkind, “They’d Rather Be Left,” New York Review of Books, Sept. 28, 1967, p. 3ff.

  “Throughout the convention”: Adler, “Letter from the Palmer House,” New Yorker, Sept. 23, 1967, p. 56.

  “I am afraid that many”: Peretz to Young, Sept. 18, 1967, A/SC39f11.

  “the most significant gathering”: Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, p. 129.

  thirty letters from rabbis: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and Adele Kanter, Sept. 19, 1967, FLNY-9-1432a.

  King busily disclaimed: MLK press release beginning, “Serious distortions by the press,” Sept. 2, 1967, A/KS; MLK to Morris B. Abram, Sept. 28, 1967, A/KP1f2.

  “Coalitions are virtually impossible”: Young to Dr. and Mrs. Martin Peretz, Sept. 6, 1967, A/SC39f10.

  gathered at the Airlie House: Garrow, Bearing, p. 578; Hoover to Mildred Stegall, Aug. 29, 31, and Sept. 21, 1967, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ; NYT, Sept. 10, 1967, p. 40.

  James Bevel enjoyed a prodigal’s welcome: Tom Offenburger oral history by Kay Shannon, July 2, 1968, RJB.

  celebrations turned into a strategic dispute: Ibid.; Young, Burden, p. 437ff; Frady, Jesse, p. 215ff; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983; int. Joan Baez, Jan. 7, 1984; int. Marian Wright Edelman, March 5, 1985, and April 1, 2005; int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991; int. Willie Bolden, May 14, 1992; int. James Bevel, Dec. 10, 1998.

  how to dramatize poverty from remote: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 12:09 P.M., Aug. 22, 1967, FLNY-9-1404.

  gist of her idea from Robert Kennedy: Int. Marian Wright Edelman and Peter Edelman, March 5, 1985; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 937–38.