Parting the Waters

by Taylor Branch

rattling the church: BN, Dec. 15, 1962, p. 1.

  “worst big city”: King to JFK, Dec. 15, 1962, Box 1478, Name File, JFK.

  “Marshall Plan”: WP, Dec. 18, 1962, p. 18; also George M. Hauser to King et al., Dec. 14, 1962, A/KP3f5.

  “longest conference”: Jet, Jan. 3, 1963, pp. 6-7.

  “We have a million men”: Kennedy interview, Dec. 17, 1962, Tape #BB0443, PRA.

  “Reluctant Emancipator”: Howard Zinn, “Kennedy: The Reluctant Emancipator,” Nation, Dec. 1, 1962, pp. 373-76.

  lobbied privately: Ishmael Flory to JFK, Dec. 3, 1962, A/SC33f15.

  “practical considerations”: Budget Director to Lee White, White Papers, Box 20, JFK.

  dispatched warnings: FBI Letterhead Memorandum of Dec. 5, 1962, FL-NR.

  “so well informed”: Ibid.

  “Now, THEREFORE”: Draft enclosed in White to Salinger, Dec. 26, 1962, White Papers, Box 20, JFK.

  “minor disaster”: Ibid.

  “Louie’s got something”: Int. Louis Martin, June 10, 1985; Lee White, JFKOH.

  “in a free Havana”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 579.

  puffing on a cigar: WS, Jan. 2, 1963, p. 1.

  “vulgar pirate chief”: Ibid.

  Che Guevara: NYT, Jan. 2, 1963, p. 2.

  “Just 100 years ago”: Ibid., p. 7.

  secret planning meeting: Drawn from Garrow, FBI, pp. 57—59; Stein, Journey, pp. 112—13; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 352-53; Cross to Gardner and Walker, Oct. 29, 1962, A/SC33f15; int. James Lawson, Nov. 14, 1983; int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Aug. 20, 1984, and Walker, CRDPOH; int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983, and Aug. 18, 1986; int. Jack O’Dell, July 1, 1986.

  Whitefield had launched: Ahlstrom, Religious History, pp. 280ff.

  First African Baptist: Woodson, Negro Church, pp. 41ff; int. W. W. Law, Dec. 17, 1983.

  parleyed with General Sherman: Litwack, Storm, p. 400.

  delivered an early version: King speech, “The Negro and the American Dream,” Jan. 1, 1961, A/KS2. (There are many minor errors in the transcription of this speech from the Archives recording.)

  Congregationalist retreat at Dorchester: American Missionary Association pamphlets A1316, A1429, and A1313, Amistad Research Center, New Orleans.

  “Burke—this is not”: Handwritten note on Hoover to Kennedy, Jan. 10, 1962, FK-107.

  “vicious liar”: DeLoach to Mohr, Jan. 15, 1963, FK-NR.

  “paper record”: Int. Jack O’Dell, July 1, 1986.

  O’Dell complied: O’Dell to King, Jan. 29, 1963 (two drafts), A/KP18f38.

  blanked out O’Dell’s name: Jones to King, Feb. 20, 1963, A/KP11f21.

  background interview: Jet, Jan. 17, 1963, pp. 6-7.

  “pretty much at peace”: Lee White, JFKOH.

  pleaded with him to include: King, JFKOH; C. King, My Life, pp. 224-25.

  Martin was boasting: Int. Louis Martin, June 10, 1985.

  “Baby, you don’t send”: Jet, March 7, 1963, p. 12.

  AJC a leading supporter: Cf. Shad Polier’s eight-page report to the AJC, Jan. 15, 1963, A/SC1f12.

  U.S. Supreme Court: NYT, Jan. 8, 1963, p. 4.

  huddling with Levison: FBI wiretap, Feb. 5, 1963, 2:12 P.M., FLNY-7-323a.

  “specially presented”: Baldrige to King, Feb. 5, 1963, A/KP14f4.

  “expecting our fourth child”: King wire to Kennedys, Feb. 6, 1963, A/KP14f4.

  preaching for Adam: Log, A/SC29; also King to Powell, Feb. 15, 1963, BUK5f7.

  some of the formative influences: Speech, “An Analysis of the Ethical Demands of Integration,” Nashville, Dec. 27, 1962, A/KS3.

  handwritten additions: Speech, “A Challenge to the Churches and Synagogues,” Jan. 17, 1963, A/KS4.

  “pronouncements filter”: Ibid. Also NYT, Jan. 17, 1963; CD, Jan. 19, 1963, p. 1.

  “I’m sick and tired”: Sermon, March 3, 1963, A/KS4.

  taught him to play golf: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Aug. 20 and Dec. 21, 1984.

  Dooto Records: PC, Feb. 16, 1963, p. 2; Jet, Feb. 14, 1963, p. 60.

  “evaluation of Negro gains”: Currier to King, Feb. 4, 1963, A/KP23f23.

  “plan for a violent revolution”: Powers, Hoover, p. 337.

  “current prosecutive summary”: Yeagley to Hoover, Feb. 8, 1963, FL-187.

  best fourteen informants: NY report to Hoover, Feb. 21, 1963, FL-190.

  told Hoover it was useless: Ibid.

  interview Louis Budenz: SAC Boston to Hoover, airtel, Feb. 21, 1963, FL-189.

  “source who is not available”: Hoover to Yeagley, Feb. 12, 1963, FL-187.

  “absolutely feathered”: Lee White, JFKOH.

  Kennedy snatched his aides: Ibid.; also int. Louis Martin, June 10, 1985.

  Sammy Davis’ face: White and Martin interviews, ibid.; also Jet, March 7, 1963, p. 12.

  “Shifting to North”: NYT, Feb. 13, 1963, p. 1.

  Hints of recognition: Newsweek, Feb. 25, 1963, p. 26; Jet, Feb. 28, 1963, pp. 12-13.

  Randolph and Clarence Mitchell refused: Jet, March 7, 1963, p. 12.

  reviving his 1942 plans: Gentile, March, pp. 14-15. Early press rumors of a march on Washington spoke of plans to protest the job displacement of Miami blacks by Cuban refugees. Later stories said that lack of union support forced Randolph to postpone his march against unemployment from June to October 1963. Jet, March 21, pp. 14-18, May 23, p. 12, and June 6, 1963, p. 12.

  rumors of a feud: Int. Simeon Booker, Feb. 11, 1985.

  defect to the Republicans: Joseph Rauh, JFKOH.

  hustled up to Congress: Lee White, JFKOH.

  Rockefeller seized: NYT, March 6, 1963, p. 4.

  “a remarkable job”: NYT, March 7, 1963, pp. 1, 4.

  Katzenbach waffled: Dictabelt of March 7, 1963, Item 11A5, JFK.

  “The humanist hope”: Sermon, March 3, 1963, A/KS4.

  “the lust-infested Augustine”: Ibid.

  King hurried: BW, Feb. 27, 1963, p. 3.

  were to have commenced: Lewis, King, p. 176.

  target of March 14: Minutes of executive staff meeting, Jan. 23, 1963, A/SC36f13.

  “prime shopping season”: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984.

  Gaston strenuously opposed: A. G. Gaston interview for PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize.”

  near passage of a resolution: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984, and Edwin Gardner, Jan. 21, 1986.

  “dignified Connor”: Police notes on mass meeting, March 11, 1963, BIR/BC13f2.

  Lawson’s job: Int. Rev. James Lawson, Nov. 14, 1983.

  nonviolence pledge cards: King Jr., Can’t Wait, pp. 63-64.

  Even John Porter: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984; Garrow, Bearing, p. 238.

  “the unnamed city”: New York SAC to Hoover and SAC Birmingham, airtel, March 13, 1963, FLNY-9-194.

  “destroy the image”: Ibid.

  “no nigger any more”: Police notes on mass meeting, March 11, 1963, BIR/BC13f2.

  letter to King and Walker: Shuttlesworth to King and Walker, March 15, 1963, A/KP 22f11.

  factions of lawyers: Int. Mrs. W. E. Shortridge, July 29, 1986, and Rev. Edwin Gardner, Jan. 21, 1986.

  “sold out to Governor”: BW, April 6, 1963, p. 1; AC, April 2, 1963, p. 6.

  recruit secret cadres: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984; also Westin and Mahoney, Trial, p. 51; Levison-Jones conversation, April 10, 1963, FLNY-7-387a.

  Atlanta on March 27: Garrow, Bearing, p. 236.

  pose with the mother: Jet, April 11, 1963, p. 12.

  slipped back into Birmingham: C. King, My Life, p. 225.

  on the thirty-first: Garrow, Bearing, p. 669; Jones-Levison conversation, March 29, 1963, FLNY-7-375a.

  “razzmatazz”: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984.

  Belafonte’s jammed apartment: King Jr., Can’t Wait, p. 57; Kunstler, Deep, pp. 173-75; int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983; int. Hugh Morrow, Dec. 20, 1984; Levison-Jones conversation, April 1, 1963, FLNY-9-124a.

  �
�You are torture”: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.

  Opera tour: Jackson P. Dick, Jr., to King, March 29, 1963, A/KP7f5.

  left that same afternoon: Coretta King interview by Donald H. Smith, Dec. 7, 1963, SHSW/SP; C. King, My Life, p. 225.

  waiting with his clipboard: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984; Walker interview for PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize.”

  Nineteen

  GREENWOOD AND BIRMINGHAM JAIL

  350 by his count: Walker interview and speech, May 25, 1963, Tape #0388, PRA.

  King’s later memory: King Jr., Can’t Wait, p. 58.

  Walker briefed them: Walker interview by Donald H. Smith, SHSW/SP.

  “picket you over”: Westin and Mahoney, Trial, pp. 65-66.

  “make a moral witness”: BW, April 6, 1963, p. 2; Freedomways, First Quarter 1964, p. 20.

  turned out the lights: Rev. A. L. Woods oral history, UAB.

  hauled off twenty-one: BW, April 4, 1963, p. 7.

  “do the Twist”: Police notes on mass meeting, April 3, 1963, BIR/BC13f2.

  get only four of them into jail: BN, April 5, 1963, p. 2.

  “I want you to go”: Int. Rev. Edwin Gardner, Jan. 21, 1986.

  dogs swarmed over him: BW, April 8, 1963, p. 2.

  “wasteful and worthless”: BW, April 10, 1963, p. 6.

  speech by Roy Wilkins: BW, April 13, 1963, pp. 1, 8.

  buy an advertisement: BN, April 7, 1963, p. 2.

  “blackout of news”: BN, April 5, 1963, p. 2.

  “calmly to ignore”: BN, April 4, 1963, p. 7.

  phone call from Burke Marshall: Marshall, JFKOH.

  “Integration Drive Slows”: NYT, April 5, p. 16, and April 6, 1963, p. 20.

  complained that never had his work: King Jr., Can’t Wait, pp. 65-66.

  Life magazine celebrated: Life, March 15, 1963.

  “key to life itself”: Newsweek, May 13, 1963.

  pop-top beer: Newsweek, Aug. 5, 1963, p. 61.

  added some fifteen: Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1276.

  thirty dollars a month: Hollis Watkins interview by Joe Sinsheimer, Feb. 13, 1985.

  “powerless to register”: Watters and Cleghorn, Climbing, p. 65.

  Moses filed a federal suit: Complaint reprinted in hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, pp. 1278-81.

  “antipathy toward the defendants”: Plaintiffs’ statement of Jan. 1, 1963, A/SC35f17.

  on February 1: Forman, The Making, p. 293; hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1277.

  Gregory announced: ADW, Feb. 6, 1963, p. 2.

  thirty tons came: Newsweek, March 1, 1963, pp. 30-31.

  “Don’t let the white man”: Mass meeting of Feb. 11, 1963, Bevel report, A/SC141f5.

  Chairman John Hannah said: Berl Bernhard, JFKOH; Lee White, JFKOH; hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 8, 1963, pp. 1089-92.

  “I know, Wiley”: Int. Wiley Branton, Sept. 28, 1983.

  “taken care of”: Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1282.

  “I ain’t gonna do”: Jet, March 7, 1963, pp. 8-9.

  “don’t know this plateau”: Moses letter, Feb. 27, 1963, reprinted in Grant, Black Protest, pp. 299-301.

  Jimmy Travis: Travis affidavit, COFO, Mississippi, pp. 8-9; James Bevel, “Field Secretary Report Feb. 28-March 8, 1963,” A/SC141f6; int. Robert Moses, July 30, 1984; “Story of Greenwood, Mississippi,” Folkways Record FD5593; Carson, In Struggle, p. 81; Forman, The Making, pp. 284-85; Zinn, SNCC, pp. 86—90.

  Andrew Young rejected: Young to James and Diane Bevel, Feb. 21, 1963, A/SC41f5.

  Annell Ponder: Ponder report on Mississippi, September 1963, A/SC155f26.

  opened their doors: Ponder report on Mississippi, March 1963, A/SC41f7.

  “no longer be tolerated”: NYT, March 2, 1963, p. 4.

  Dylan appeared: NYT, July 6, 1963, p. 7.

  “Indian babies”: NYT, April 6, 1963, p. 20.

  “out of Mississippi tonight”: Robinson to Horton, March 25, 1963, SHSW/HP.

  “sang and we sang”: Moses in “Story of Greenwood, Mississippi,” Folkways Record FD5593.

  “not stopping now”: ADW, March 28, 1963, p. 1.

  Forman intervened: Forman, The Making, p. 297; int. Robert Moses, July 30, 1984.

  retreating in bedlam: NYT, March 28, 1963, p. 4; Newsweek, April 8, 1963, pp. 24-25; “Story of Greenwood, Mississippi,” Folkways Record FD5593; hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, pp. 1300ff; Zinn, SNCC, pp. 91—92.

  “Sic ’em!”: NYT, March 29, 1963, p. 1; Newsweek, April 8, 1963, pp. 24—25; CD, March 30, 1963, p. 1.

  done about the dogs: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986.

  Marshall bargained: Marshall to RFK, March 29, 1963, Marshall Papers, Box 3, JFK.

  described to Robert Kennedy: Marshall to RFK, March 11, 1963, Marshall Papers, Box 16, JFK.

  “face resignations”: Marshall to RFK, March 29, 1963, Marshall Papers, Box 3, JFK.

  “how heartbroken I was”: “Story of Greenwood, Mississippi,” Folkways Record FD5593.

  “There’s your story!”: NYT, April 3, 1963, pp. 1, 40.

  “your nigger pills”: Int. Claude Sitton, Dec. 14, 1983.

  “bring on your tigers”: “Story of Greenwood, Mississippi,” Folkways Record FD5593.

  Doar visited Moses: Grant, Black Protest, pp. 329-35; Forman, The Making, pp. 299-303.

  “you can’t put it out”: Jet, April 18, 1963, p. 23.

  Kennedy replied: NYT, April 4, 1963, p. 10.

  shake their heads in amusement: Int. Robert Moses, July 30, 1984.

  “balanced diet”: Grant, Black Protest, p. 335.

  “in rare form”: Forman, The Making, p. 303.

  “eyeball to eyeball”: Jet, April 18, 1963, p. 23.

  Doar first told: Ibid., p. 26; CD, April 5, 1963, p. 1.

  reporters confirmed rumors: NYT, April 5, 1963, p. 16.

  get relief assistance resumed: NYT, April 2, 1963, p. 23; Burke Marshall to JFK, April 8, 1963, Box 23, Lee White Papers, JFK.

  Doar searched for Moses: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986, and Robert Moses, March 13, 1988.

  barrier of formality: Doar and Moses interviews, ibid.

  “cut anybody’s throat”: Walker, CRDPOH; for Forman’s point of view, Forman, The Making, pp. 311-12.

  only fifty were accepted: Annell Ponder, 1963 report on LeFlore County, A/SC155f26.

  “picked up momentum”: NYT, April 6, 1963, p. 20.

  blamed the sudden demise: Branton, CRDPOH; int. Leslie Dunbar, May 12, 1986.

  “set the mad dogs”: Police notes on mass meeting, April 3, 1963, BIR/BC13f3.

  more than a hundred: King Jr., Can’t Wait, p. 67; Kunstler, Deep, pp. 182-84.

  Gaston’s statement: BN, April 10, 1963, p. 6.

  postponed plans: Police notes on mass meeting, April 9, 1963, BIR/BC13f3.

  plotting with Governor: BN, April 10, 1963, p. 6.

  “a sacrificial life”: Police notes on mass meeting, April 10, 1963, BIR/BC13f3.

  “parading, demonstrating”: Westin and Mahoney, Trial, pp. 69-73.

  “in all good conscience”: Ibid., p. 78.

  fewer than 150 people: Garrow, Bearing, p. 241.

  only seven volunteers: NYT, April 12, 1963, p. 1.

  Daddy King rushed over: Police notes on mass meeting, April 11, 1963, BIR/BC13f3.

  bankruptcy notice: King Jr., Can’t Wait, p. 71.

  “can’t be everywhere”: Walker, CRDPOH.

  Good Friday morning: Account of meeting and arrest from King Jr., Can’t Wait, pp. 72-74; Westin and Mahoney, Trial, pp. 81—84; Walker, CRDPOH; int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984, and Rev. Edwin Gardner, Jan. 21, 1986; Dorothy Cotton, HOH; police notes on mass meetings, April 11 and April 12, 1963, BIR/BC13f3; C. King, My Life, pp. 227-29; Raines, My Soul, p. 155; NYT, April 13, 1963, p. 1; CD, April 13, 1963, p. 1; BN, April 13, 19
63, p. 2.

  “perfidious Jews”: Newsweek, April 22, 1963, pp. 21-22.

  ecumenical reforms: F. E. Cartus, “Vatican II and the Jews,” Commentary, January 1965, pp. 19-23.

  less than ninety minutes: Ware and Albany Nine cases drawn generally from the case files of C. B. King in Albany. Also int. C. B. King, July 10, 1985, Marion Cheek, July 11, 1985, B. C. Gardner, July 11, 1985, and Ed Haggerty, July 11, 1985; Slater King, “Battleground of Albany,” Freedomways, First Quarter 1964, p. 99; FBI reports on picket lines in Albany, e.g., File 157-6-2, serials 1013 and 1040, and File 157-4-2, serial 165.

  Marshall wrote Kennedy: Marshall “Monday Report” to RFK, April 30, 1963, Marshall Papers, Box 16, JFK.

  “willing to pick cotton”: Carson, In Struggle, p. 81.

  Moses gently prepared: Ibid., pp. 81-82; Forman, The Making, pp. 305-7.

  Shame ate him alive: Int. Charles Sherrod, Jan. 23, 1986; Sherrod interview by Joe Phister, undated.

  Bevel began to preach: Police notes on mass meeting, April 12, 1963, BIR/BC13f3; int. Rev. James Bevel, May 16, 1985.

  pool of Bethesda: John 5:1-9.

  “Harry has been able”: King Jr., Can’t Wait, p. 75.

  “lifted a thousand”: Ibid.

  telegram campaign: Int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983, and Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, May 1, 1988; Walker to JFK, April 13 and April 14, 1963, both in Box 1478, Name File, JFK.

  “get into prison reform”: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985, and Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983.

  “Are you being guarded?”: Police transcript of conversation, April 15, 1963, BIR/ BC13f3.

  she was in a bind: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, May 1, 1988. Walker recalls being upset that the news came out of Atlanta rather than Birmingham, with troublesome confusion over the details, but he had no way of knowing what King had told Coretta.

  Walker seized hopefully: Police notes on mass meeting, April 15, 1963, BIR/BC13f3.

  General press reaction: WP, April 14, 1963, p. E6; WS, April 17, 1963, p. A20; NYT, April 14, pp. 1, 46, April 15, p. 1, and April 16, 1963, p. 1; AJ, April 16, 1963, p. 5; BN, April 15, p. 2, April 16, p. 2, April 17, p. 5, and April 18, 1963, p. 4; Time, April 19, 1963, pp. 30-31; Newsweek, April 22, 1963, pp. 28-29.

  “Seldom, if ever”: King to Carpenter et al., April 16, 1963, BIR/AB12f44. The original typed letter was addressed to only seven of the eight signers of the Carpenter statement; Methodist bishop Paul Hardin was omitted, most likely by error. Washington, Testament, pp. 289-302.