At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  “You promised me your full cooperation”: Rutherford to Jesse Jackson, Dec. 11, 1967, A/SC39f15.

  Locks now secured: Int. William Rutherford, Dec. 7, 2004.

  suspected that Harrison: Ibid.

  informant account coded AT-1387-R: King scholar David Garrow revealed Harrison’s role as an FBI informant in his 1981 book, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr., pp. 175–79, 299; McKnight, Crusade, p. 23.

  forum of one hundred intellectuals: “Violence As a Weapon of Dissent Is Debated at Forum in ‘Village,’” NYT, Dec. 17, 1967, p. 16.

  “Generally speaking”: Klein, ed., Dissent, p. 99.

  “All politics is a struggle”: Arendt, On Violence, p. 35.

  “violence is the best way of insuring”: Klein, ed., Dissent, p. 104.

  “whether we in this room”: Ibid., p. 121; Young-Bruehl, Hannah Arendt, pp. 412–15.

  “A White Liberal Shift”: NYT, Dec. 17, 1967, p. 1.

  “war may be the last of the tonics”: NYT, Sept. 18, 1967, p. 2.

  “You may put me in the position”: NYT, Dec. 17, 1967, p. 16.

  Hayden had gone to jail: “Improbable Radical,” NYT, Nov. 13, 1967, p. 2; Branch, Parting, pp. 533–37.

  “It seems to me”: Klein, ed., Dissent, p. 127.

  “Power and violence are opposites”: Arendt, On Violence, p. 56.

  President Johnson composed a unique: “Memorandum for the File by President Johnson,” 1:40 P.M., Dec. 18, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, p. 1118.

  left the next day for an odyssey: Ibid., pp. 1120–23; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 500–501.

  war talks in Melbourne: NYT, Dec. 21, 1967, p. 1.

  “A mere handful of you men”: McPherson, Political, p. 323.

  “We’re not going to yield”: NYT, Dec. 23, 1967, p. 1.

  reporters infuriated over the blind itinerary: Valenti, Human, pp. 223–26.

  “My right hand keeps the pressure steady”: Notes, “Meeting of the Pope and the President,” Dec. 23, 1967, Meeting Notes File, Box 2, p. 2, LBJ.

  “By terror they are recruiting”: Ibid., p. 13; Valenti, Human, pp. 228–32.

  “a Phineas Fogg adventure”: McPherson, Political, p. 322.

  news reports from Vatican sources: “Johnson Confers with Pope Paul on Vietnam War,” NYT, Dec. 24, 1967, p. 1; Valenti, Human, pp. 232–38.

  two hundred million citizens: Jones, Expectations, p. 190.

  without a legal execution: Hauser, Ali, p. 174; U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Number of persons executed in the United States, 1930–1997,” www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/exe.txt (March 1998).

  first-class postage stamp: Baltimore Sun, Feb. 7, 1990, p. 1.

  military effort in Vietnam became six years old: LBJ and the New York Times dated the Vietnam War from the death of Specialist 4 James T. Davis on December 22, 1961, but others put the earliest American fatality as Air Force Sergeant Richard Fitzgibbon on June 8, 1956, and the earliest combat deaths as Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand on July 8, 1959. Cf. NYT, June 23, 1968, p. 2; http://www.virtualwall.org/dd/DavisJT01a.htm.

  cumulative toll at 15,900: NYT, Jan. 2, 1968, p. 4; Terry, Bloods, p. 296; McNamara, In Retrospect, p. 321.

  1968 alone would approach those totals: U.S. soldiers killed in 1968 numbered 14,589, the highest yearly total for the war. Cf. Sheehan, Bright, p. 670.

  Westmoreland sent six thousand Marines: Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 552–53; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 478–79; Braestrup, Big Story, pp. 258–65; Wheeler to McNamara, Jan. 13, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 30.

  January message on civil rights: Graham, Civil Rights Era, pp. 270–72.

  “full non-discrimination may take”: Califano to LBJ, Jan. 21, 1968, Joseph Califano Papers, Box 8, LBJ.

  Robert G. Clark: SC, Jan. 6–7, 1968, p. 1; SC, Jan. 20–21, 1968, p. 1; Dittmer, Local People, p. 416; Parker, Black Votes, pp. 74–75; Mills, Light, p. 190.

  opened 1968 with hearings: NYT, Jan. 17, 1968, p. 42; NYT, Jan. 18, 1968, p. 28.

  “Immediately following World War II”: Hearings in New York, NY, U.S. EEOC, Jan. 15–18, 1968, pp. 125, 353, 438, 477.

  CBS hired its first black: Clifford Alexander oral history by Joe B. Frantz, Feb. 17, 1972, p. 6.

  “white Gentile secretary”: NYT, Jan. 19, 1968, p. 19.

  accredited its first black member: Bell, In the Black, pp. 45–46, 65–69.

  secure Alexander’s early resignation: Int. Clifford Alexander, Dec. 17, 2004.

  “can look back on 1967”: “Hoover Says Reds Use Black Power,” NYT, Jan. 6, 1968, p. 1.

  requested new wiretaps on King: Garrow, FBI and King, p. 184.

  sent President Johnson a classified blueprint: Hoover to Mildred Stegall, with attached FBI HQ LHM dated Jan. 3, 1968, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

  operation coded POCAM: McKnight, Crusade, pp. 22–24; Kotz, Judgment, p. 387.

  “SPOCK INDICTED”: New York Post, Jan. 6, 1968, p. 1; Spock, Spock on Spock, p. 199.

  “I wish I did not have”: MLK sermon, Jan. 7, 1968, A/KS.

  King resisted overtures: MLK log, A/SC47f21; wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and Tudja Crowder, Jan. 8, 1968, FLNY-9-1543; wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 11:03 A.M., Jan. 10, 1968, FLNY-9-1545.

  Coffin at least initially agreed: Coffin, Once, pp. 260–65; Goldstein, Coffin, pp. 207–11; int. William Sloane Coffin, July 16, 1991.

  “I can’t tell another man”: Int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983 and May 17, 1990.

  reporters lost interest: Ibid.

  “Dr. King Calls for Antiwar Rally”: NYT, Jan. 13, 1968, p. 4; Hoover to SACs, Atlanta, New York, and Washington, Jan 17, 1968, FCLCV-4.

  James St. Clair: Goldstein, Coffin, pp. 218–19.

  “somebody brought up as goody-goody”: Spock, Spock on Spock, p. 202.

  Marcus Raskin collapsed: Ibid., p. 204; Coffin, Once, pp. 271–85.

  chained to eight adult supporters: Barry Johnson, “Seminarian in ‘The Resistance,’” Christian Century, Jan. 3, 1968, pp. 15–17; Hall, Because, p. 53; int. Barry Johnson, Jan. 4, 2005.

  drove to the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center: San Francisco LHM dated Jan. 18, 1968, FK-NR; Baez, Voice, pp. 111–12; Sandperl, Kinder, pp. 113–15; int. Joan Baez, Jan. 7, 1984.

  “Doctor, you all be sure”: MLK remarks to Atlanta staff retreat, Jan. 17, 1968, p. 7, A/KS.

  “I might say that I see”: News recording, Jan. 14, 1968, Tape 37, A/KS.

  midnight flight through Dallas: MLK log, Jan. 14–15, 1968, A/SC47f21.

  morning presentation at Ebenezer: Agenda, staff workshops, Jan. 14–16, 1968, A/KP34f15; FBI HQ LHM dated Jan. 18, 1968, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ; Moore to Sullivan, Jan. 24, 1968, FK-3191; Garrow, Bearing, p. 592.

  Bill Rutherford’s summons: Rutherford and Bernard Lafayette to “All SCLC Staff Members,” Jan. 4, 1968, A/SC48f4.

  “I say all of these things”: MLK remarks to Atlanta staff retreat, “Why We Must Go to Washington,” Jan. 15, 1968, A/KS.

  “Talk about Peter”: Citizen King, a Roja Production for The American Experience, PBS, 2004.

  “patterned after the bonus marches”: MLK press conference, Jan. 16, 1968, A/KS.

  James Bevel and Jesse Jackson maintained: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 592–94; Frady, Jesse, pp. 215–16; minutes, executive staff committee meeting, Dec. 27, 1967, A/SC49f11.

  “at this time consists of one person”: Hosea Williams to executive staff committee, Jan. 22, 1968, A/KP35f18.

  “I couldn’t hardly get gas money”: Int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

  Organizers also confessed: Fairclough, Redeem, p. 362; int. Bernard Lafayette, March 25, 2005.

  “What’s gonna happen”: Citizen King, a Roja Production for The American Experience, PBS, 2004.

  “I don’t want to psychoanalyze”: MLK remarks to Atlanta staff retreat, Jan. 17, 1968, p. 7, A/KS.

  “we never would have had”: Fairclough, Redeem, p. 363.

  the J
eannette Rankin Brigade marched: Swerdlow, Women, pp. 135–41; Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, pp. 149–50; Wells, War Within, p. 228.

  President Johnson entered the House chamber: Johnson, Diary, pp. 616–20; Califano, Triumph, pp. 253–57; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 513–18.

  “Why then this restlessness?”: NYT, Jan. 18, 1968, pp. 1, 16, 17.

  “mutinous cries below decks”: NYT, Jan. 19, 1968, p. 46.

  “a spiritless message”: Garrow, Bearing, p. 594.

  he pared federal expenditures: Johnson, Vantage, pp. 445–61, 550–52; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 515, 554; “‘Red Ink’ to Flood Government’s Books?,” U.S. News & World Report, May 29, 1967, p. 31; NYT, Jan. 30, 1968, pp. 1, 16; Califano to LBJ, Dec. 4, 1967, Box 31, WE9, LBJ; Califano to LBJ on budget message from Sargent Shriver, Jan. 9, 1968, Box 98, WE9, LBJ.

  last surplus for the next twenty-nine years: U.S. Government Printing Office, The Budget for Fiscal Year 2004, pp. 21–22.

  “radically vicious”: New Yorker, Nov. 30, 1968, pp. 51–52.

  pioneer 1964 sweepstakes in New Hampshire: Branch, Pillar, p. 241.

  teller windows of duly licensed banks: “What’s Wrong with the Lottery?,” New England Monthly, January 1990, pp. 41–49; “Legislature Sits 21 Hours in Finale/ Votes 12 Lotteries a Year,” NYT, April 3, 1967, p. 1.

  “It seems incomprehensible”: Hearings, U.S. Senate Banking Committee, “Prohibit Financial Institutions As Lottery Agencies,” Aug. 19, 1967, p. 19.

  chief sponsor of the bonus bill: Dickson and Allen, Bonus Army, pp. 30–35, 132.

  bid to impeach Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon: Ibid., pp. 46–51.

  passed over FDR’s veto in 1936: Ibid., pp. 230–53.

  consulting firm would recommend: “State Lotteries,” Consumer Reports, Feb. 1974, pp. 177–79.

  new voice of state governments: “Lotto Baloney,” Harper’s, July 1983, p. 15ff; “Lotto-mania,” Forbes, March 6, 1989, p. 92ff.

  “The De Ville Made Me Do It”: New England Monthly, January 1990, p. 42.

  “The way to sell lottery tickets”: Ibid., p. 43.

  full-scale siege struck Khe Sanh: Braestrup, Big Story, pp. 256–67; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 502–3; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 478–79; Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, p. 151; “5,000 Men Massed at Khesanh by U.S.,” NYT, Jan. 24, 1968, p. 1.

  lacked no support provision for military success: “Notes of the President’s Tuesday National Security Lunch,” Jan. 23, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 58ff.

  “unusually good press”: “Notes of Meeting of the National Security Council,” Jan. 24, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 65ff.

  “seem to have run temporarily”: Braestrup, Big Story, p. 66.

  “dramatic decline”: “2-Year Drive in Saigon Cuts Terrorism Sharply,” NYT, Jan. 19, 1968, p. 12.

  pacification chief Robert Komer: “Pacification Gains Reported by Komer,” NYT, Jan. 25, 1968, p. 7.

  he fined three workers: Rutherford to James Harrison, Jan. 26, 1968, A/SC57f4. 677 “effective immediately”: Rutherford to Meredith Gilbert, Jan. 25, 1968, A/SC56f10.

  King had told each he was with the other: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 586–88.

  King bristled against tampering: Int. Bernard Lee, June 19, 1985; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983; int. William Rutherford, Dec. 7, 2004.

  quietly diverted staff members: Int. William Rutherford, Dec. 7, 2004.

  “confess all our stuff to our wives”: Int. James Bevel, May 17, 1985, Nov. 23, 1997, Dec. 10–11, 1998.

  psycho-biologist Wilhelm Reich: Ibid.; Young, Burden, p. 444.

  Abernathy was gone: Garrow, Bearing, p. 594; Abernathy to MLK, Jan. 18, 1968, A/KP1f1.

  Coretta underwent surgery: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and Joan Daves, 2:08 P.M., Jan. 24, 1968, FLNY-9-1559a; wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and Andrew Young, 2:26 P.M., Dec. 31, 1967, FLNY-9-1535a; Garrow, Bearing, p. 594.

  The result was painful disaster: Confidential interviews.

  he canvassed the regular mistresses: Int. Ralph Abernathy, Nov. 19, 1984.

  he exhorted his New York advisers: Harry Wachtel invitation to members of the Research Committee, Jan. 17, 1968, A/SC39f19; Garrow, Bearing, p. 594; Lewis, King, p. 373; Fairclough, Redeem, p. 364.

  “can only lead to further backlash”: Rustin to MLK, “Strategy and Tactics,” Jan. 1, 1968, in Rustin, Down, pp. 202–5; Williams, King God Didn’t Save, pp. 109–13.

  “mystical bullshit”: Int. Bayard Rustin, Nov. 28, 1983.

  “showed his true colors”: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and William Rutherford, 10:55 P.M., Jan. 31, 1968, FLNY-9-1566a.

  Rustin would be sensitive: Longenecker, Peacemaker, pp. 305–7; D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, pp. 457–71.

  “that in 1968 I rejected the philosophy”: Bayard Rustin, “Ally to the End in Dr. King’s Philosophy of Nonviolence,” letters to the editor, NYT, Sept. 18, 1995.

  “He felt let down”: Wachtel to Rustin, Sept. 25, 1995, courtesy of Harry Wachtel.

  “We didn’t know we were poor”: Harrington, Fragments, pp. 128–29; int. Michael Harrington, Oct. 27, 1983.

  “cutting down”: Beifuss, River, pp. 27–29; Honey, Black Workers, pp. 302–5.

  Robert Kennedy told reporters: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 902–4; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, pp. 356–57.

  Allard Lowenstein reportedly accosted Kennedy: Ibid.; Chafe, Never, pp. 282–84.

  “Besides the columnists”: Fred Dutton to RFK, Jan. 31, 1968, Personal Correspondence, RFK Senate Papers, Box 3, JFK.

  swamped the declared rival Eugene McCarthy: DeBenedetti, Ordeal, p. 209.

  suspended for the three-day Buddhist celebrations: “Marines at Khesanh Sure a Big Attack Is Near,” NYT, Jan. 29, 1968, p. 6; “Saigon Marks Tet, but Without G.I.’s,” NYT, Jan. 30, 1968, p. 2.

  “active candidates for employment”: Langguth, Our Vietnam, p. 479.

  spy ship Pueblo with all her crew: Rusk, As I Saw It, p. 391; Manchester, Glory, p. 1377.

  “we are being heavily mortared”: Notes of LBJ meeting with Rusk, McNamara, Clifford, Wheeler, Helms, Rostow, Christian, and note-taker Tom Johnson, 1:08–2:50 P.M., Jan. 30, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 79ff.

  “This could be very bad”: Ibid.

  chauffeur nicknamed Satchmo: Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 536–39.

  too late for some network broadcasts: Braestrup, Big Story, pp. 116–18.

  “In one of the strangest scenes”: Charles Mohr, “U.S. Aide in Embassy Villa Kills Guerilla with Pistol,” NYT, Jan. 31, 1968, p. 1.

  showed a Vietcong corpse: Appy, Patriots, p. 291.

  Seventy thousand guerrillas launched: Ibid., pp. 285–88; Oberdorfer, Tet!, pp. 2–33, 116–34: Braestrup, Big Story, pp. ix–xi; Dallek, Flawed, p. 503.

  hidden in more than four hundred homes: Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 468–71.

  calamitous intelligence failure: CIA intelligence memorandum, “The Communist Tet Offensive,” Jan. 31, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 92; CIA memorandum, “Vietnam—Operation Shock,” Feb. 2, 1968, in ibid., p. 98; William J. Jorden to Walt Rostow, “Situation in Vietnam,” Feb. 3, 1968, in ibid., p. 111.

  “Saigon’s 4 million people”: Langguth, Our Vietnam, p. 474.

  The plans left massive carnage: Karnow, Vietnam, p. 547; Dallek, Flawed, p. 504.

  General Loan marched him: Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 462, 542; Braestrup, Big Story, pp. 347–49; Langguth, Our Vietnam, p. 475.

  most decisive single drop: Oberdorfer, Tet!, pp. 161–71; McPherson, Political, pp. 424–25; Dallek, Flawed, pp. 505–6.

  38: MEMPHIS

  PAGE

  Elvis Presley’s escape: Goldman, Elvis, pp. 479–81.

  Assistant Police Chief Henry Lux announced: MCA, Feb. 2, 1968, p. 1.

  “Tell him I moved for him”: MCA, Feb. 3, 1968, p. 7.

  P. J. Ciampa flew in for a stopover: Beifuss, River, pp. 29–30; P. J. Ciampa oral history, Feb. 3, 1972, pp. 3–8, MVC.r />
  Blackburn politely withheld: Ibid.; Charles Blackburn oral history, May 29, 1968, pp. 5–14, MVC.

  Loeb answered all fifty-four citizens: MCA, Feb. 2, 1968, p. 9.

  two Public Works vans startled Jones: T. O. Jones oral history, Jan. 30, 1970, pp. 11–12, MVC.

  Willie Crain’s five-man crew: Beifuss, River, p. 30; Lewis, King, p. 378; “Garbage Truck Kills 2 Crewmen,” MCA, Feb. 2, 1968, p. 1.

  city rules barred shelter stops: Honey, Black Workers, pp. 294–96, 302–5; Young, Burden, p. 449.

  Television newscasts ignored them: News scripts, Memphis WMC-TV Channel Five, Feb. 1–3, 1968, MVC.

  “fortress of discrimination”: “Women Mistreated at P.O., Says NAPE,” Memphis Tri-State Defender, Feb. 17, 1968, p. 1.

  emphasized technical efforts: “Garbage Vehicles Suspended by City,” MCA, Feb. 3, 1968, p. 25.

  “Tom’s boy mus’ be”: MCA, Feb. 2, 1968, p. 21.

  “unclassified workers”: Beifuss, River, p. 30; McKnight, Crusade, p. 34; T. O. Jones oral history, Jan. 30, 1970, pp. 16–18, MVC.

  pregnant widow Earline Walker: “Worker’s Final Check Pays on His Funeral,” Memphis Tri-State Defender, Feb. 10, 1968, p. 1.

  cheap burial across the Mississippi line: Int. Constance Cury, Feb. 16, 1993; Curry to the author with enclosed photographs, March 13, 1993.

  “The Drum Major Instinct”: MLK sermon at Ebenezer, Feb. 4, 1968, A/KS11; Washington, ed., Testament, p. 259ff; Carson and Holloran, eds. Knock, p. 165ff.

  He freely adapted a sermon published: Miller, Voice, pp. 1–8; Lischer, Preacher King, pp. 99–100. No sources have yet come to light about King’s attitude toward footnotes and attributions in formal scholarship, which might help explain the clear instances of plagiarism disclosed by 1990 in his 1954 doctoral dissertation at Boston University. As for the pulpit, however, some records do indicate that King viewed preaching to audiences as a collaborative art like improvisational jazz, and openly treated the words and rhetorical techniques of other orators as fair game in developing his repertoire. Cf. Miller, Voice, pp. 60–61; Warren, King Came, p. 134.

  Yet Jesus in the Bible account: Mark 10:35–45.