At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

  Richard Harwood disclosed: “J. Edgar Hoover: A Librarian with a Lifetime Lease,” WP, Feb. 25, 1968, p. D-1.

  a few journalists would regret: Haynes Johnson, “A Generation-Old Crusade to Destroy King’s Name at Any Cost,” WP, Oct. 16, 1983; AJC, Nov. 21, 2004, p. D-1.

  “I didn’t do my job”: Paul Clancy, “The Bureau and the Bureaus,” Quill, Feb. 1976, p. 15.

  “Not a complete file”: T. E. Bishop to DeLoach, Feb. 29, 1968, FK-NR.

  “no possibility of embarrassment”: Hoover to SAC, Albany, and forty SACs, March 3, 1968, FBNH-17, p. 6.

  “a grave threat to peace”: “Outlook for Racial Violence in Washington, D.C.,” FBI study attached to R. W. Smith to W. C. Sullivan, March 6, 1968, FBI File 157-6-53, Serial 1284, p. 17.

  “King would be a very real contender”: Hoover to SAC, Albany, and forty SACs, March 3, 1968, FBNH-17, p. 3.

  forty black rookies among six thousand agents: McKnight, Crusade, p. 96.

  the approved COINTELPRO actions: Carson, Struggle, pp. 260–62; Garrow, FBI and King, p. 188; Powers, Secrecy, pp. 425–26; O’Reilly, “Racial,” pp. 80–86; McKnight, Crusade, pp. 26–27.

  “each movement as they squirmed”: Hoover to SAC, Albany, and all offices, Aug. 5, 1968, FBNH-233.

  wars against the Communist Party: Cf. “FBI to Pay Widow After Targeting Communist Mate,” Baltimore Sun, Oct. 27, 1989.

  “Mrs. Carmichael appeared shocked”: SAC, New York, to Director, Sept. 9, 1968, FBNH-[serial illegible].

  “Show this to [Labor Secretary] Bill Wirtz”: LBJ handwritten note on March 14, 1968 summary [by Marvin Watson], with Hoover note to Mildred Stegall and attached “Martin Luther King, Jr.—A Current Analysis,” March 12, 1968, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

  shock passed visibly through the ballroom: Clifford, Counsel, pp. 500–501.

  “Westmoreland Requests”: NYT, March 10, 1968, p. 1.

  Paar told viewers: McCarthy for President, transcript of Jack Paar interview, March 11, 1968, Lowenstein Papers, Box 54, Folder 138, UNC.

  McCarthy confounded political observers: Powers, War, pp. 290–91; transcript of nine LBJ ads run in New Hampshire, McCarthy for President, n.d., March 1968, Lowenstein Papers, Box 54, Folder 106, UNC.

  “on an overwhelming scale”: Braestrup, Big Story, pp. 492–93; NYT, March 14, 1968, p. 87.

  139,801 American casualties: NYT, March 15, 1968, p. 1; Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, p. 159.

  Robert Kennedy’s tormented new offer: Clifford, Counsel, pp. 504–5; Shesol, Contempt, pp. 420–21; NYT, March 18, 1968, p. 1.

  Kennedy formally challenged: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 910–21; transcript, “Kennedy Announcement,” March 16, 1968, RFK Senate Papers, Box 4, JFK.

  “blood oath” commitments: Mike Manatos note, March 16, 1968, Marvin Watson Papers, “Robert Kennedy” Folder, Box 25, LBJ; Marvin Watson to LBJ, March 15, 1968, Watson Papers, Box 25, LBJ.

  “I can’t afford to lose Russell”: LBJ phone call with Clark Clifford, 8:44 A.M., March 20, 1968, Audiotape F6805.02, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 428ff.

  offer from McGeorge Bundy: Ibid.; notes of LBJ meeting, March 19, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, pp. 412–18; Clifford, Counsel, pp. 507–8.

  civil rights bill from 1966: NYT, March 12, 1968, p. 1; Graham, Civil Rights Era, pp. 270–71; Kotz, Judgment, p. 391.

  invoke cloture for the eighth time: NYT, March 5, 1968, pp. 1, 28.

  “pulling it out of the fire”: NYT, Feb. 28, 1968, pp. 1, 30.

  wholesale segregation of state prisons: Morgan, One Man, pp. 48–56.

  rules requiring flight attendants: Graham, Civil Rights Era, pp. 231–32.

  “We would like to recruit”: Beifuss, River, pp. 127–28.

  “be-in” at New York’s Grand Central Station: NYT, March 24, 1968, p. 1.

  South African Government introduced: NYT, March 27, 1968, p. 16.

  pelted four State Department visitors: SC, March 9–10, 1968, p. 1; Forman, Sammy Younge, pp. 264–67.

  “It was the first time a state jury”: Jack Nelson, “Klansman Given Life Sentence in Negro’s Fire-Bomb Murder,” LAT, March 16, 1968, p. 1; NYT, March 16, 1968, p. 17.

  whittled on the bench: SC, March 23–24, 1968, p. 1.

  “because I done what I done”: LAT, March 15, 1968, p. 4.

  reporter Jerry Mitchell noticed: Cf. Jerry Mitchell front-page stories, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jan. 17, 18, 26, 28, and Feb. 10, 1998.

  atonement prosecutions revived: Cf. NYT, April 2, 1995, p. 18; NYT, May 29, 1998, p. 1; WP, July 22, 1998, p. C-1; Baltimore Sun, Dec. 20, 1998, p. C-1; AC, Feb. 21, 1999, p. M-1; NYT, May 18, 2000, p. 23; WP, Sept. 26, 2000, p. 3; NYT, Jan. 24, 2001, p. 17; NYT, May 11, 2004, p. 1; NYT, Jan. 8, 2005, p. 1; NYT, June 12, 2005, p. 16; NYT, June 24, 2005, p. 11; Branch, Parting, p. 611.

  His elite Tiger Force platoon: Michael D. Sallah and Mitch Weiss, “Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths,” Toledo Blade, Oct. 19–22, 2003; WP, Oct. 20, 2003, p. 2; NYT, Dec. 28, 2003, p. 18; NYT, Feb. 16, 2004, p. 9.

  “They shot and wounded her”: Hersh, My Lai, pp. 37–38.

  My Lai: Hersh, My Lai, passim; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 495–502, 579–80; Appy, Patriots, pp. 343–53.

  “American troops caught”: NYT, March 17, 1968, p. 1.

  Ron Ridenhour: Hersh, My Lai, pp. 103–10; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 495–96, 502; Appy, Patriots, pp. 349–53; Ridenhour letter of March 29, 1969, at www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/ridenhour_ltr.html; “The Heroes of Mylai,” transcripts from the Tulane University My Lai conference in December 1994; NYT, May 11, 1998, p. 15; int. Mary Howell, July 17, 2005. The Ron Ridenhour associated with My Lai is not the Freedom Summer volunteer of the same name mentioned in Branch, Pillar, p. 371.

  Soldier’s Medal for Gallantry: NYT, March 15, 1998, p. 10.

  Colburn was dumbfounded: Appy, Patriots, p. 349.

  summit meeting with seventy-eight: NYT, March 15, 1968, p. 36; Garrow, Bearing, p. 601; Greenberg, Crusaders, pp. 431–32; George A. Wiley to Andrew Young, March 25, 1968, A/SC40f3; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990, March 22, 2005, June 15, 2005; int. William Rutherford, Dec. 7, 2004; int. Tom Houck, June 23, 2005, July 12, 2005.

  “Are they poor?”: Int. Bernard Lafayette, March 22, 2005.

  “that smart aleck nigger come out of jail”: Peggy Terry oral history by Studs Terkel, 1990, “Conversations with America,” http://www.studsterkel.org/race.php.

  ribbed young Tom Houck: Gilliard, Living, p. 279ff.

  “First he was Coretta’s boy”: Int. Tom Houck, July 12, 2005.

  made note of hushed deliberation: Int. Vincent Harding, Dec. 30, 2004.

  Tijerina proposed: Tijerina, They Called Me, pp. 101–4.

  “I believe we caught a glimpse”: Fairclough, Redeem, p. 369.

  Grosse Point: Garrow, Bearing, p. 601; Detroit LHM dated March 15, 1968, FK-3239; WP, March 16, 1968, p. 6.

  Robert Kennedy left a message: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 930; wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and Harry Wachtel, 11:58 A.M., March 19, 1968, FLNY-9-11614a.

  Burke Marshall persisted: Burke Marshall oral history by T. H. Baker, Aug. 14, 1983; int. Burke Marshall, Sept. 26, 1984.

  noncommittal to reporters: SAC, Los Angeles, to Director, March 16, 1968, FK-3235.

  “The government is emotionally committed”: MLK speech to California Democratic Council, March 16, 1968, A/KS.

  “We love nothing more”: NYT, March 19, 1968, p. 1.

  He sent a telegram to César Chávez: www.ufw.org/mlk00.html.

  Robert Kennedy had just visited Chávez: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 359.

  change Michael Harrington’s draft call: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and William Rutherford, 4:15 P.M., March 23, 1968, FLNY-9-1618a.

  visits to Indian reservations: Ibid.; ADW, March 15, 1968, p. 2.

  James Lawson tracked him down: Int. James Lawson, Nov. 9, 1983; Blackside, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II—America at
the Racial Crossroads, 1965 to 1985, Vol. IV, “The Promised Land (1967–68)”; James Lawson oral history, July 1, 1968, MVC; Beifuss, River, p. 190; itinerary for MLK and Andrew Young, March 14–18, 1968, A/SC48f12.

  “No one else can get”: Fairclough, Redeem, p. 371; Frank, American Death, pp. 16–17.

  into the cavernous Mason Temple: Beifuss, River, pp. 193–96; Frank, American Death, pp. 16–18; Young, Burden, p. 450; Goulden, Wurf, p. 173; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 605–6; James Lawson oral history, July 1, 1968, MVC; SAC, Memphis, to Director, March 19, 1968, FK-NR.

  “NOT BY MIGHT”: Zechariah 4:6.

  “You are demanding that this city”: MLK address at Mason Temple, March 18, 1968, A/KS.

  “You could touch him”: Walter Bailey oral history, July 10, 1968, MVC.

  Into the night: Garrow, FBI and King, p. 189; Beifuss, River, p. 196; NYT, March 18, 1968, p. 28.

  Tuesday morning in Batesville: Itinerary for MLK tour, March 19–23, 1968, A/KP12f67; SAC Jackson to Director, March 19, 1968, FK-[illegible]; King, My Life, p. 606.

  old funeral parlor calendars: NYT, March 20, 1968, p. 18.

  “Statistics reveal”: MLK rally speech, Marks, Mississippi, March 19, 1968, A/KS.

  pulled out a hundred-dollar bill: Ibid.; int. Curtis Wilkie, April 11, 1995.

  “morning noon and night”: Blackside, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II—America at the Racial Crossroads, 1965 to 1985, Vol. IV, “The Promised Land (1967–68).”

  Abernathy and Andrew Young: Young, Burden, pp. 450–51; Abernathy, Walls, pp. 412–13. Abernathy puts this scene in Marks during the Meredith march of 1966, but the circumstances match the 1968 visit.

  “He’s here! He’s here!”: Int. David Jordan, June 25, 1992.

  “I wept with them as I heard”: MLK rally speech in Greenwood, Mississippi, March 19, 1968, A/KS.

  landed after midnight in Hattiesburg: SAC Jackson to Director, March 20, 1968, FK-3260.

  resentment of Indian and Hispanic groups: Ibid.; Garrow, Bearing, p. 607.

  “You can pass all the riot laws”: SC, March 30–31, 1968, p. 1.

  cancel several Alabama stops: Birmingham LHM dated March 22, 1968, FK-NR.

  Hoover reported secretly: Hoover to Stegall, with attached White House summary and FBI HQ LHM dated March 22, 1968, OFMS, LBJ.

  The President was consumed: Dallek, Flawed, pp. 509–12; Clifford, Counsel, pp. 508–11; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 487–88.

  relieve General Westmoreland: Dallek, Flawed, pp. 509–12; Clifford, Counsel, pp. 508–11; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp 487–88; FRUS, Vol. VI, pp. 451–53.

  complained to Senator Russell: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 4:49 P.M., March 22, 1968, Audiotape F6803.02, in FRUS, p. 447ff.

  “our own sensitivity to criticism”: Fortas remarks in White House meeting of March 20, 1968, in ibid., p. 432ff.

  Lawson called King: Beifuss, River, pp. 203–04; Garrow, FBI and King, p. 191.

  “The Lord sent the snow”: McKnight, Crusade, p. 52.

  39: REQUIEM

  PAGE

  “I’d feel like a bird in a cage”: Garrow, Bearing, pp. 606–7.

  “Now Marty and Dexter”: MLK rally speech, Albany, Georgia, March 23, 1968, A/KS; report of Rev. Samuel B. Wells, A/KP34f3.

  vision of dry bones: Ezekiel 37:1–14.

  service for Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker: Garrow, Bearing, p. 608; int. Wyatt Tee Walker, Aug. 20, 1984; Dora McDonald to Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 6, 1967, A/KP36f4.

  Adam Clayton Powell marched outside: New York Daily News, March 25, 1968, p. 3.

  Powell’s fugitive return: NYT, March 25, 1968, p. 1; Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell, pp. 465–66; New York LHM dated March 25, 1968, FACP-361; wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and William Rutherford, March 23, 1968, FLNY-9-1618a.

  “Nonviolence Tactic Defended by King”: NYT, March 25, 1968, p. 46.

  King’s advisers gathered Monday: Garrow, Bearing, p. 608; Frances Allison to “Action Committee Members,” March 20, 1968, A/SC48f7.

  King’s commitment to detour again into Memphis: “Dr. King Reschedules March for Strikers in Memphis,” NYT, March 25, 1968, p. 46.

  support in Washington from religious groups: WP, March 16, 1968, p. B-2; New York LHM dated March 26, 1968, “Washington Spring Project/Racial Matters,” FK-NR.

  Harry Wachtel broke away: Oates, Trumpet, p. 475.

  “Where in America today”: Transcript, “Conversation with Martin Luther King,” March 25, 1968, in Conservative Judaism, Vol. 22, No. 3, Spring 1968, p. 1.

  King returned Heschel’s salute: Ibid.; Cf. Branch, Pillar, pp. 21–32.

  jail witness long ago in Albany: Cf. Gentry, Hoover, pp. 630–31.

  “if they couldn’t protect Kennedy”: Int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983.

  quarrel lay with Logan’s wife: Garrow, Bearing, p. 609; Frank, American Death, pp. 39–42; int. Marian Logan, April 24, 1984; int. Clifford Alexander, Dec. 17, 2004.

  memo arguing that King should abort: Marian Logan to MLK, March 8, 1968, A/SC40f3.

  “I am still so excited”: NYT, March 27, 1968, p. 24.

  “We do not fear”: “Notes of Meeting,” 1:15–3:05 P.M., March 26, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 466ff.

  President Johnson invited the generals: Ibid.; PDD, March 26, 1968, pp. 4–8, LBJ.

  McGeorge Bundy chilled the Cabinet Room: “Summary of Notes,” Cabinet Room meeting, 3:15–4:32 P.M., March 26, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 471ff; McGeorge Bundy handwritten notes, March 26, 1968, Meeting Notes File, Box 2, LBJ.

  repeat performances would demonstrate: LBJ briefings by General William DePuy and CIA official George Carver, March 27, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 481ff.

  “Who the hell is there left”: Isaacson, Wise Men, pp. 698–706; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 488–90.

  war loyalists stifled alarm: Clifford, Counsel, pp. 512–13.

  “impregnated them with their doubts”: Taylor, Swords, p. 391.

  “deny military victory”: Rusk, As I Saw It, p. 478.

  “Then what in the name of God”: Clifford, Counsel, p. 517; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 491–92.

  “What we want to do”: FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 474.

  “I know there is a lot of dying men”: Ibid., p. 476.

  “We have set our face”: Clifford, Counsel, p. 510.

  polls had shifted nearly 20 percent: DeBenedetti, Ordeal, pp. 211–13; Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 558–60.

  “deepening disenchantment”: O’Brien to LBJ, March 27, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 479.

  lose to Eugene McCarthy: Powers, War, p. 302; Viorst, Fire, p. 419.

  “I don’t give a damn”: Notes of LBJ meeting with Earle Wheeler and Creighton Abrams, 10:30 A.M.–12:15 P.M., March 26, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 46.

  Tuesday’s stops in Harlem: NYT, March 27, 1968, p. 24.

  Hoover rushed: Hoover to Mildred Stegall, April 1, 1968, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ; NYT, March 24, 1968, p. 40.

  “We’ll make him Secretary of State”: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 12:37 A.M., March 27, 1968, FLNY-9-1621a.

  side trip to Boston: Wiretap transcript of telephone calls between Stanley Levison and William Rutherford (9:45 P.M.), Levison and unnamed women (11:00 P.M.), March 26, 1968, and Levison and Dora McDonald (12:20 A.M.), March 27, 1968, in FLNY-9-1621a.

  “Memphis Protest Avoids Violence”: NYT, March 24, 1968, p. 66.

  Wednesday night fund-raiser: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between Stanley Levison and Adele Kanter, 12:10 P.M., March 15, 1968, FLNY-9-1610a; Frank, American Death, p. 25.

  breakneck antipoverty rallies: NYT, March 28, 1968, p. 40.

  nothing unconstitutional about starving: Fager, Uncertain, p. 18.

  loggerheads with Young: Gardner, Young, pp. 139–40; Young, Burden, p. 451.

  frustrated King until he slammed: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6–7, 1985.

  King back to Memphis: Beifuss, River, pp. 211–42; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 609–11; Garrow,
FBI and King, pp. 191–93; Frank, American Death, pp. 22–27; McKnight, Crusade, pp. 53–55; Fairclough, Redeem, pp. 372–75; MCA, March 29, 1968, p. 1; AC, March 29, 1968, p. 1; NYT, March 29, 1968, p. 1; Memphis Tri-State Defender, April 6, 1968, pp. 1, 12.

  I AM A MAN: Beifuss, River, pp. 217–18; Honey, Black Workers, pp. 307–8; Goulden, Wurf, p. 174; Bailey, Mine Eyes, pp. 80–81.

  Lawson ran about fifty feet: David Caywood oral history, May 20, 1968, MVC.

  Pandemonium greeted King: “Day’s Log of Police Calls,” MCA, March 29, 1968, p. 25.

  “It’s my fault”: Abernathy, Walls, pp. 417–18; Hearings, House Select Committee on Assassinations, Aug. 14, 1978, Vol. 1, pp. 15–16.

  park named for W. C. Handy: MCA, March 29, 1968, p. 25; NYT, March 29, 1968, p. 29; Bailey, Mine Eyes, p. 66.

  storefront windows being smashed: Blackside, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II—America at the Racial Crossroads, 1965 to 1985, Vol. IV, “The Promised Land (1967–68)”; Citizen King, a Roja Production for The American Experience, PBS, 2004.

  Shainberg’s: Oral history by Councilman Fred Davis, May 22, 1968, MVC.

  “It had come seven blocks”: Beifuss, River, p. 225.

  within twenty feet of King: Lux testimony in City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King, Jr. et al., U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Case. No. C-68-80, April 4, 1968, p. 106, transcript courtesy of Charles F. Newman.

  lent his bullhorn in the emergency: James Lawson oral history, July 8, 1970, MVC.

  Bernard Lee pulled King and Abernathy: Stokes, Report, pp. 361–62; Bailey, Mine Eyes, pp. 60–61; McKnight, Crusade, p. 61; SAC, Memphis, to Director, 12:56 A.M., March 29, 1968, FBI File 157-1094, Serial 1405.

  Trouble radiated from wild looting: Bailey, Mine Eyes, pp. 64–67, 78–79.

  Nine officers would be injured: Ibid., pp. 68–69; Beifuss, River, pp. 243–45; McKnight, Crusade, p. 55.

  One patrolman cornered: Memphis Tri-State Defender, April 6, 1968, pp. 1, 12; Beifuss, River, pp. 241–42, 263; McKnight, Crusade, p. 56.

  Fleet young rioters: Beifuss, River, pp. 233–37.

  Tennessee legislature swiftly proposed and enacted: MCA, March 29, 1968, p. 1; AC, March 29, 1968, p. 1.

  1866 Reconstruction riot: James Gilbert Ryan, “The Memphis Riots of 1866; Terror in a Black Community During Reconstruction,” Journal of Negro History, July 1977, p. 243ff.