Parting the Waters

Home > Other > Parting the Waters > Page 145
Parting the Waters Page 145

by Taylor Branch


  By dawn: NYT, May 13, 1963, p. 1; BN, May 26, 1963, p. 4.

  Walker made the mistake: Walker speech, May 25, 1963, Tape 0388, PRA.

  Galaxie convertible: Notebook of Edwin Guthman, headed “Mother’s Day,” 1963, Edwin Guthman Papers.

  “sticking bayonets in people”: White House meeting, May 12, 1963, Audiotape 86.2, JFK.

  King had told reporters: NYT, May 13, 1963, p. 24.

  “the nigger King”: Ibid.

  Smyer hazarded: Notebook of Edwin Guthman, headed “Mother’s Day,” 1963, Edwin Guthman Papers.

  “heel of the military”: BN, May 13, 1963, p. 3.

  Operation Oak Tree: Code name cited in General B. E. Powell memo, May 22, 1963, Box 17, Marshall Papers, JFK.

  “leaned too much”: Notebook of Edwin Guthman, headed “Mother’s Day,” 1963, Edwin Guthman Papers.

  “the wonderful words”: Tapes 4 and 5, SHSW/SP.

  “You can quote me”: Ibid.

  “got my training camp” to “teach any of you”: Selections from mass meeting of May 13, 1963, ibid.

  “love offering” and “de-bulled”: Police notes on mass meeting, May 15, 1963, BIR/BC13f5.

  Twenty-one

  FIRESTORM

  he gave six speeches: Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 14, p. 10, and May 15, 1963, p. 1; Cleveland Call and Post, May 18, 1963, pp. 1, 2, 16; Jet, May 30, 1963, pp. 17, 24-25; King-Levison conversation, May 19, 1963, FLNY-9-172.

  two-page scoop: New York Post, May 19, 1963, p. 1.

  “cut down and ready”: L. Bergman to King, May 17, 1963, A/KP18f17. Also Levison conversations with King, May 18, 1963, FLNY-9-171a, and with Harvey Shapiro of the Times Magazine, May 19, 1963, FLNY-9-170.

  Liberation: June 1963 issue.

  Christian Century: Issue of June 12, 1963.

  Witness, etc.: Listed in A/KS4, A/SC27f21.

  Levison sold reprint: King call to Levison, May 31, 1963, FLNY-7-438a.

  maneuvered Kunstler aside: Levison conversations with Kunstler, King, Jones, and O’Dell, May 18—24, 1963, FLNY-9-171a, 172, 172a, and 174; also FLNY-7-427a and 431a.

  expel two thousand child: Shuttlesworth et al. to Smyer et al., May 17, 1963, Box 17, Marshall Papers, JFK; police notes on mass meeting, May 20, 1963, BIR/BC13f5; King call to Levison, 1:35 A.M., May 21, 1963, FLNY-9-174.

  old Wrigley Field: Los Angeles Sentinel, May 30, 1963, pp. 1, 6.

  Paul Newman read: Wrigley Field rally, May 26, 1963, Tape 4745a, PRA.

  “Wings Over Jordan”: Jet, June 13, 1963, pp. 54-60.

  shore of Lake Michigan: Ibid., pp. 62-63; Goreau, Just Mahalia, pp. 349-52.

  battered wife: Guralnick, Sweet Soul Music, pp. 332-52.

  $100 bills: Jet, June 13, 1963, p. 43.

  ahead to Kentucky: Levison-King conversation, May 28, 1963, FLNY-7-435a; Louisville Defender, June 6, 1963, p. 1.

  on to St. Louis: CD, June 1-7, 1963, p. 4.

  Atlantic City: PC, June 8, 1963, p. 2.

  Walker darted: Walker in Albany on May 20, 1963, per FA-1069, in San Francisco on May 25, 1963, Tape 0388, PRA.

  Lee came behind: San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 1963, pp. 1, 4, 5; NYT, May 27, 1963, p. 19; BN, May 27, 1963, p. 2.

  “He whooped”: Ponder to King, May 26, 1963, A/KP34f14.

  Birmingham, England: CD, May 11, 1963, p. 4. Also on breadth of change, Westin and Mahoney, Trial, p. 150, and Lewis, King, pp. 200-3.

  34 arrested in Raleigh: NYT, May 15, 1963, p. 26.

  100 in Albany: SAC Atlanta to Director, May 31, 1963, FBI File #157-4-2, serial 168.

  400 in Greensboro: NYT, May 21, 1963, p. 19.

  1,000 in Durham: Ibid.

  1,420 anti-U.S.: Thomas L. Hughes memo, June 14, 1963, Box 295, NSF, JFK.

  Milton Obote: Quoted in Ambassador Korry of Ethiopia to Rusk, May 23, 1963, 3 P.M., Box 295, NSF, JFK.

  “How the hell”: Lee White, third interview (1964), JFKOH.

  “‘Why should we hire’”: Cabinet meeting of May 21, 1963, Audiotape 88.6, JFK.

  405 U.S. Treasury employees: Ibid.

  “a lot of trouble” to “like Marx coming”: Presidential meeting of May 20, 1963, Audiotape 88.4, JFK.

  Gregory had suggested: Marshall and RFK joint interview, pp. 708ff, JFKOH.

  haphazard assortment: NYT, May 25, p. 1, and May 26, 1963, p. 1; list of those present at Baldwin meeting, Box 8, Marshall Papers, JFK.

  mystified Belafonte: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.

  “take up a gun”: Ibid.

  in North Carolina: Carey to Jerome Smith, Jan. 4, 1963, Reel 36, File 268, CORE.

  “kiss it goodbye”: Jet, June 13, 1963, pp. 6, 7, 12; Stein, Journey, pp. 119-22.

  two sides jerked apart: Baldwin sources above, plus Schlesinger, Thousand Days, pp. 878-79; Guthman, Band, pp. 219-21; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 356-60; Newsweek, June 3, 1963, p. 19.

  “mad illusion”: Levison-Jones conversation, May 26, 1963, FLNY-9-179a.

  “you have swell friends”: RFK note on Jones letter to NYT editor of June 7, 1963, Box 8, Marshall Papers, JFK; copy in A/KP13f13.

  three Negroes married to whites: RFK, April 30, 1964, pp. 427-29, JFKOH.

  married Ann Norton: Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 26, Nov. 21, 22, and 25, 1983.

  told Guthman that perhaps: Int. Edwin Guthman, June 25, 1984.

  tongue-lashings: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 360—61.

  Johnson’s exclusion: White House meeting of May 20, 1963, Audiotape 88.4, JFK; Miller, Lyndon, p. 374.

  “not competent to counsel”: White House meeting of June 1, 1963, Audiotape 90.3, JFK.

  two days after King: Evers, For Us, p. 265.

  “History has reached”: Ibid., pp. 267-68.

  “next scene of attack”: Current to Hurley et al., May 13, 1963, III-H-138, NAACP.

  Thompson squelched: Evers, For Us, p. 271.

  sit-in at the Woolworth’s: Moody, Coming of Age, pp. 236-40.

  graphically depicted: Newsweek, June 10, 1963, pp. 28—29.

  kicking appeared: NYT, May 29, 1963, p. 1.

  nearby beauty shop: Moody, Coming of Age, p. 239.

  critical motivation: Ibid., pp. 224-27.

  Evers straddled: Evers, For Us, pp. 257-58, 262.

  “Don’t shop for anything”: Segment 5 of PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize.”

  David Dennis: NYT, May 31, 1963, p. 1.

  “To our parents we say”: NYT, June 1, 1963, pp. 1, 8.

  made it five on June 1: NYT, June 2, 1963, p. 70; BW, June 5, 1963, p. 1; Wilkins, Standing Fast, pp. 288-89.

  King sent telegrams: King to JFK and RFK, May 30, 1963, A/KP14f4.

  dispatch his couriers: Hoover to RFK, May 31, 1963, FK-127; Hoover to O’Donnell, May 31, 1963, FK-129.

  Lee White declined: White to King, June 1, 1963, A/KP14f4; Garrow, Bearing, p. 265.

  “baptized brother Wilkins”: Levison’s recollection of June 1 conversation, June 2, 1963, FLNY-9-186a.

  “We are on a breakthrough”: Conference call, 11:31 P.M., June 1, 1963, FLNY-9-185a.

  “you tingled”: Levison conversation with Ann and Clarence Jones, June 2, 1963, FLNY-9-186a; also conversations with Jones and “Alice” [Loewi?], June 3, 1963, FLNY-7-441.

  “second phase”: NYT, June 4, 1963.

  Lena Horne: NYT, June 8, 1963, p. 14; Buckley, The Hornes, pp. 246-47.

  stalked through his house: Evers, For Us, p. 273.

  speculated intensely: E.g., Anthony Lewis in NYT, June 9, 1963, sec. 4, p. 1.

  Tallahassee: NYT, May 31, p. 1, and June 1, 1963, p. 8.

  led by Jesse Jackson: NYT, June 7, 1963, p. 14; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, p. 218.

  grand basileus: BW, Jan. 19, 1963.

  first political stories: Reynolds, Jesse Jackson, p. 37; PC, June 1, 1963, p. 1.

  Newfoundland: Yarmolinsky to White, June 5, 1963, Lee White Papers, Box 19, JFK.

  wife and newborn: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983.

  succe
ssfully escorted: NYT, June 7, 1963, p. 14; BW, June 12, 1963, p. 1.

  hearing of the House: House Judiciary Subcommittee hearings, No. 5, May 28, 1963, pp. 1246-1322.

  “Negroes would still be marching”: Southern Patriot, June 18, 1963, p. 4.

  “launch this kind of thing”: Ibid.

  Winona bus station: Affidavits of June Johnson, Annell Ponder, and Fannie Lou Hamer in COFO, Mississippi, pp. 17—24; Ponder-Hamer interview of June 13, 1963, in Watters and Cleghorn, Climbing, pp. 361-75.

  “get him off the hook”: Conference call, 12:01 A.M., June 10, 1963, with King, Abernathy, Levison, Jones, Walker, and Young, FLNY-9-194; preliminary consultations with Randolph discussed in earlier conversations of June 4 and 6, FLNY-7-442a and FLNY-9-190.

  “Tribute to Our”: Appreciation Week program of June 9-16, 1963, A/SC58f21.

  Winona mystery deepened: Raines, My Soul, pp. 295-98.

  Wallace and the Kennedy: BN, June 11, 1963, p. 1; NYT, June 12, 1963, p. 1; Guthman, Band, pp. 214-17; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 366-68.

  step away from the Cold War: Newsweek, June 24, 1963, p. 27.

  forty-eight of sixty-five Negroes: King, Freedom, p. 88.

  “We will hose down”: WP, June 1, 1963, p. 1.

  “beastly conduct of law”: King to RFK, 12:35 P.M., June 11, 1963, A/KP31f18.

  “we seldom if ever hear”: NYT, June 10, 1963, pp. 1, 20.

  no one liked the idea: RFK, April 30, 1964, p. 432, JFKOH; Burke Marshall, JFKOH; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 368-69; Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 494-95; Newsweek, June 24, 1963, p. 29.

  scraps he liked from Louis: Int. Lee White, Dec. 13, 1983. (“That was Louie Martin’s speech.”)

  tinkering to add: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 369.

  no finished text: Int. Lee White, Dec. 13, 1983.

  “Come on now, Burke”: Burke Marshall, pp. 109-110, JFKOH.

  “as old as the Scriptures”: NYT, June 10, 1963, p. 20.

  “I have just listened”: MLK to JFK, undated, A/SC4f20.

  Levison called King: Levison call to King, June 12, 1963, FLNY-9-196.

  Jackson movement as shrunken: WP, June 12, 1963, p. 14; CD, June 8—14, 1963; Jet, June 20, 1963, pp. 8—10.

  Evers had asked: Evers, For Us, p. 252.

  Evers stepped out: NYT, June 13, 1963, p. 1; BN, June 12, 1963, p. 1; Newsweek, June 24, 1963, pp. 32-33; Evers, For Us, pp. 301—3.

  758 racial demonstrations: Harold C. Fleming, “The Federal Executive and Civil Rights: 1961-1965,” Daedalus, Fall 1965, p. 942; SRC study cited in Viorst, Fire, p. 222, and Morris, Origins, p. 274.

  chained themselves: NYT, June 14, 1963, p. 16.

  stoned the home: NYT, June 15, 1963, p. 9.

  “Annell Ponder’s eyes”: Robinson to Horton, June 15, 1963, Reel 7, SHSW/HP.

  Horton had abundant troubles: Knoxville Journal, June 21, 1963, p. 1; NYT, June 25, 1963, p. 15.

  three federal suits: NYT, June 18, 1963, p. 23; BW, June 29, 1963, p. 7; Hamer interview by Jack O’Dell, Freedomways, Spring 1965, p. 238.

  Doar snatched: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986.

  “my guess is that a demonstration”: Tape 4817, PRA.

  “bottles and bricks crashing”: NYT, June 16, 1963, p. 1.

  name from a hat: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983. The name came out Burke Doar, after Burke Marshall.

  “Civil rights did it”: JFK-Carl Albert conversation, June 12, 1963, Dictabelt 22A, JFK.

  when three thousand: Newsweek, June 24, 1963, p. 34.

  Marshall had just reported: Marshall to RFK, June 13, 1963, Box 3, Marshall Papers, JFK.

  “Individuals will be hired”: Jack Newfield, Robert Kennedy, as cited in Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 371.

  “Memorial Bail Fund”: NYT, June 13, 1963, p. 13.

  Other Evers funds: Evers, For Us, pp. 342-43; CD, June 15-21, 1963, p. 1.

  secured her written agreement: Wilkins to Kheel and Wilkins to Johnson, June 13, 1963, A/SC5f33; Wilkins to King, June 13, 1963, A/KP17f7.

  gained the widow’s permission: Evers, For Us, p. 322.

  Gandhi Society surrendered: Kheel to Wilkins, June 14, 1963, and Jones to Wilkins, June 14, 1963, A/SC5f33.

  “antagonism towards Martin”: Levison-Montero conversation, June 14, 1963, FLNY-7-452a.

  “Lest we forget”: Evers memorial service of June 15, 1963, Tape 4817, PRA.

  “a titanic struggle here”: NYT, June 15, 1963, p. 9.

  “Can you imagine it?”: Wilkins, A Man’s Life, p. 123.

  “furnish the noise”: WP, June 15, p. D6, and June 17, 1963, p. 1; NYT, June 17, 1963, p. 12.

  “I think the world of you”: JFK-Thompson conversations of June 18, 1963 [possibly June 17, 1963], Dictabelts 22A.4, 22B.1, and 22B.3, JFK.

  present the final result: NYT, June 19, 1963, p. 22.

  “hair’s getting whiter”: Mass meeting of June 18, 1963, Tape 4817, PRA.

  250-pound weight: Jackson Clarion-Ledger, June 21, 1963, p. 1.

  “everyone can see”: Tape 4817, PRA.

  “not just become empty prayers”: Ibid.

  buried Medgar Evers: NYT, June 15, p. 1, June 16, p. 1, and June 21, 1963, p. 14; CD, June 15-21, 1963, p. 1; Evers, For Us, pp. 322-28; Jet, July 4, 1963, pp. 6-10.

  rescinded his acceptance: JFK to MLK, June 12, 1963; Abernathy to JFK, June 13, 1963; Walker to JFK, June 13, 1963; MLK to JFK, June 13, 1963, all in A/KP14f4.

  Everett Dirksen: NYT, June 18, 1963, p. 1.

  to jail in Savannah: NYT, June 19, p. 22, and June 20, 1963, p. 19.

  In Gadsden, Alabama: Westin and Mahoney, Trial, p. 153.

  broke down church doors: NYT, June 23, 1963, p. 62; Mary King, Freedom, pp. 82-84.

  Laurie Pritchett’s men: SAC Atlanta to Director, July 15, 1963, p. 3, FBI File #157-4-2, serial 174.

  ordered all U.S. ambassadors: Secretary of State Dean Rusk to “All American Diplomatic and Consular Posts,” June 19, 1963, NSF, Box 295, JFK.

  “wholly devoid of conviction”: Galbraith to Rusk, June 20, 1963, NSF, Box 295, JFK.

  money quarrel in Birmingham: Garrow, Bearing, p. 271.

  closing of Atlanta’s Funtown: AC, June 17, 1963, p. 5.

  “arrogance and opportunism”: Reese Cleghorn, “Martin Luther King, Jr.: Apostle of Crisis,” Saturday Evening Post, June 15, 1963, pp. 15-19.

  brink of filing: Wachtel to Matthew J. Culligan (president of Curtis Publishing Company), June 20, 1963, and Chauncy Eskridge to Clay Blair, Jr. (editor of the Saturday Evening Post), June 24, 1963, A/KP25f25.

  1,500 national leaders: NYT, June 23, 1963, p. 63.

  O’Donnell notify King: O’Donnell telegram to King, June 20, 1963, A/KP14f4.

  “paid agent of the Soviet”: Int. Burke Marshall, June 27, 1984.

  “whole political life”: Ibid.

  these confrontations: Marshall to Hoover, Sept. 20, 1963, FK-3656; Evans to Belmont, Sept. 20, 1963, FL-NR.

  Kennedy was pushing Hoover: Hoover to Tolson et al., June 17, 1963, FK-150; Garrow, FBI, pp. 60-61.

  destroy its domestic political base: Marshall and RFK joint interview, pp. 797-98, JFKOH.

  “always sort of dismissing”: Ibid., pp. 674-76; also int. Burke Marshall, Sept. 26, 1984.

  “My God!”: Marshall and RFK joint interview, p. 677, JFKOH. The interviewer for this oral history was NYT correspondent Anthony Lewis.

  in the White House Rose Garden: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 384-85; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 272-73. White House records show that King met President Kennedy at 10:10 A.M., before the group civil rights meeting at 10:30. Appointments log, JFK.

  hand on his shoulder: Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 1983.

  “time to do all that”: Int. Jack O’Dell, July 1, 1986.

  “Profumo in the papers”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 384. The Profumo scandal was very much in the news at the time of the JFK-MLK meeting: e.g., NYT, June 14, p. 3, and June 18, 1963, p. 1; Newsweek, June 17, 1963, p. 3
8.

  Readers of the Negro press: E.g., Jet, May 9, 1963, pp. 46-47.

  obsessed President Kennedy: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 230.

  Joe Rauh realized: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

  “Hello, hello, hello”: Allen interviews of Rachelle Horowitz, Nov. 8, 1968, and John Lewis, Aug. 8, 1969, AAP.

  daughters in his lap: Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 291.

  President made welcoming remarks: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, pp. 884-85; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 375-76.

  “lose the next election”: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

  “Call on Roy”: Ibid.

  “will be a march”: Allen interview of John Lewis, Aug. 8, 1969, AAP.

  “all have our problems”: Ibid.

  “Negroes Inform Kennedy”: NYT, June 23, 1963, p. 1.

  “That little baby”: Gentile, March, p. 39.

  South Lawn by helicopter: Lee White, third interview, May 28, 1964, JFKOH.

  McGeorge Bundy defended: NYT, June 17, 1963, p. 1.

  Kennedy told his staff: Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 503, 579.

  hailed his motorcade: NYT, June 26, p. 1, and June 27, 1963, p. 1.

  thrilled Kennedy: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, pp. 808-9.

  “never have another day”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 601.

  postponed once: MC, May 25, p. 1, and June 22, 1963, p. 1.

  “bunch of Uncle Toms”: Detroit News, June 25, 1963, pp. 1, 4.

  “graceful withdrawal”: Diggs to King, June 27, 1963, A/KP24f26.

  “you’ll see no dogs”: Detroit News, June 24, 1963, pp. 1, 2, 19-20.

  VJ-Day-style stories: Ibid. Also MC, June 29, 1963, p. 1.

  “largest and greatest demonstration” to “I have a dream”: “The Great March to Freedom,” Gordy Records #906, distributed by Motown.

  King felt the blade: Meeting of June 24, 1963, from int. Jack O’Dell, July 1, 1986, Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 1983, and Aug. 18, 1986, and Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.

  Twenty-two

  THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON

  “Look, Bayard” to “Okay, Roy”: Int. Bayard Rustin, Nov. 28, 1983.

  at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel: July 2 meeting from ibid. Also int. Cleveland Robinson, Oct. 28, 1983; Allen interview of John Lewis, Sept. 23, 1969, AAP; Norman Hill, CRDPOH; NYT, July 3, 1963, p. 10; Jet, July 18, 1963, pp. 16-20; Lewis, King, p. 215; Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 292; Forman, The Making, p. 332; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 276-77.

 

‹ Prev