Chapter Twenty-Four
1 Louw’s photographs ran in a six-page spread in Life magazine, April 12, 1968, 74–9.
2 HistoryMakers interview. Session 1, tape 3, story 9, Ernest Withers recalls the aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.
3 He told the agents: FBI Teletype, 44-1987-Sub E-318 (NW) (April 14, 1968). called the agent: FBI memo, serialized as 157-1092-259A and 44-1987-sub-16 (April 4, 1968) (both NW). first told: Memo, 157-646-275 (June 2, 1966). too unstable: 44-1987-sub-16.
4 nervous tic: Gerold Frank, An American Death (New York, 1972), 258. “being informed”: 44-1987-Sub E-318. accounts linger: Among recent accounts, Stuart Wexler and Larry Hancock wrote in a 2012 book, The Awful Grace of God, that the White Knights had offered a $100,000 bounty on King’s head. Klansman complained: Lawrence personnel file, November 7, 1960, memo from Memphis to headquarters. The name of the letter writer is redacted.
5 reporter paced: Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 332. what little he knew: 100-4528-182&83. Withers, identified in the report as Source One, told Lawrence he was “not certain” who met with King, but understood it was Cabbage and two others. Withers provided critical background on the militants, saying they’d tried earlier that day to meet with sanitation strike leader H. Ralph Jackson, but he was “fed up” and refused.
6 157-1092-273&74. Withers is identified in the report as “source one.”
7 blackmail King: Ibid. Testifying that morning: Testimony of Frank C. Holloman, City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al (April 4, 1968), 52, 59. wrote in retirement: Lawrence’s notebook, “Martin L King, Background, Subversion & Black Power.”
8 expected collapse: FBI memo, New York to Memphis, 100-4105-99 (April 23, 1968). Adviser Stanley Levison is cited in the report as saying he expected a 75 percent drop in contributors because of the leadership change and Abernathy’s “ill-suited” personality. He believed SCLC would have to convert to a membership organization. “resume SCLC support”: FBI Teletype, HQ file 157-9146-14-1 (April 10, 1968). Withers is identified at the bottom as ME 338—R though wording leaves the source in doubt.
9 FBI memo, 157-1092-329&30 (April 17, 1968).
10 FBI memo, 157-1067-54 (May 13, 1968).
11 FBI memos. strategy meeting…skip school: “Poor People’s Campaign” file, 157-8428-762 (April 29, 1968). rally at Mason Temple: 157-8428-840 (May 3, 1968).
12 Coretta King: “SCLC” file, 157-166-1A24. Andrew Young: “SCLC” file, 157-166-1A22. only 369: 157-8428-1127 (May 10, 1968). “admitted”…wasn’t gaining traction: 157-8428-1332 (May 15, 1968) and 157-8428-2313 (June 12, 1968).
13 remove an Invader: 157-8428-1332. Andrew Young complained: Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference & Martin Luther King, Jr., 386. spotted the young militant: 100-4575-34. group picture: FBI memo, 100-4528-305 (August 6, 1968).
14 cleared the camp: Gerald D. McKnight, The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the FBI, and the Poor People’s Campaign, 137–38. FBI played a role: McKnight, The Last Crusade, 141–44.
15 FBI memo 100-4528-317A (August 20, 1968).
16 informant watched: MPD internal memo of August 19, 1968, attached to FBI report, 100-4575-37 (August 30, 1968). “Threatened to shoot”: Author interview with John B. Smith, January 28, 2013. In a separate interview, Young said he didn’t recall Smith threatening to shoot him. “I can imagine arguing with him,” he said. “I was not opposed to physical encounters.” The MPD memo doesn’t mention a gun but says the Invaders “were very mad.”
17 The characterization of the meeting comes from 100-4575-37 and 100-4528-317A. Withers gave Lawrence a copy of the leaflet (see evidence slip 157-1067-1A26 (August 21, 1968)).
18 took a picture: Evidence slip 157-166-1A6 (September 11, 1968). trace the payment: 100-4528-317A. “neutralize” the Invaders: 157-1067-354 (NW).
19 FBI memo 157-166-325 (July 25, 1968).
20 “grass roots”…“semi-extortion”: FBI memo 157-166-333 (July 29, 1968). “putting the heat”…the Invaders: FBI memo 157-166-376 (August 12, 1968).
21 connected the dots: 157-166-376 and 100-3572-159. picked him up: Report of Det. Ed Redditt, April 3, 1968. Mathews later changed her name to Adjua Naantaanbuu and founded Memphis’s annual Africa In April festival.
22 Details here come from two reports: 100-662-1413 (December 1, 1969) and 157-1516-444 (December 22, 1969).
23 Ibid. Despite the anticipated criticism, Bradley wrote a balanced story that anchored a seven-page spread (see Jet, “Memphis: Blacks Finish Job Dr. King Began; NAACP and Hospital Workers Put Pressure on Whites,” December 11, 1969, 14–20).
24 FBI memos. “bought off”: 100-662-1372 (November 7, 1969). Withers handed him: 100-662-1306 (October 17, 1969).
25 FBI memos. “Black Mafia”: 100-662-1372. “losing strength”: 157-43-571 (November 20, 1969).
26 “physical fight”: FBI memo, 100-662-1451&52 (December 18, 1969).
27 FBI memo, 100-662-1380 (November 13, 1969).
28 FBI memo. told the Clayborn gathering: 100-4000-1447 (November 14, 1969). travel information: 100-662-1452 (December 18, 1969).
29 This characterization comes from these reports: 157-1516-490 (January 19, 1970); 100-4000-1447; 100-662-1405 (November 24, 1969).
30 Charles Edmundson, “Disorders Result in 19 Indictments Of Black Leaders,” CA, Dec. 10, 1969, 1.
Chapter Twenty-Five
1 Lawrence personnel file. turned in: Memo (February 4, 1970). agent wrote: resignation letter (November 18, 1969).
2 FBI memos. more “militant activity”: 100-662-1501 (March 11, 1970). renting a flatbed truck: 157-2269-179 (April 8, 1970). just $212: 100-662-1544 (May 12, 1970).
3 FBI memos. Clarence Cecil Adams: 100-662-1547 (June 9, 1970). support for Rev. Ezra Greer: 100-4481-195 (September 28, 1970). Minerva Johnican: 100-4481-216 (March 1, 1971).
4 broke the news: Kay Pittman Black, “Black Panther Group Formed Here; Free Breakfast Project Under Way,” MPS, December 11, 1970, 13.
5 FBI memos. visiting Memphis: 157-2269-158 (February 16, 1970). Withers said the two unnamed men had in their possession organizational literature, posters, and buttons. He said he would attempt to secure photographs of them. build a Panther organization: 100-662-1544. personal phone numbers: 100-662-1547. Withers gave the FBI phone numbers of John Charles Smith, Maurice Lewis, and a third man. interstate contacts: “Black Panther Party” file, 157-1205-372 (June 9, 1970). Withers said “a number of Negro males identifying themselves as members of the Black Panther Party from Mississippi” have contacted him wanting to get in contact with the Invaders, the report said. Panther Party newspapers: 100-662-1561 (January 19, 1971).
6 standoff: Calvin Taylor, Jr., “Armed Blacks Keep Police At Bay At Move-In At MHA Apartments,” CA, January 18, 1971, 1. Also, Kinchen, Black Power in the Bluff City, 179–81. surrendered: Michael Lollar, “Case Continued For Chanting Panthers,” CA, January 19, 1971, 1. brochure: A copy of the brochure, produced in summer 1971, is in the author’s possession. Withers also shot photos of Katherine Wyath, whose son, Larry, was connected to the Panthers. The photos depict Ms. Wyath pointing to cuts in her new furniture she said police had slashed when they came to her home looking for Larry. (“Memphian Claims Cops Cut Furniture,” TSD, January 30, 1971, 1.)
7 FBI informant report, FD-306, 157-1205-1622 (July 10, 1973). Contacted by the author, retired police officer Tyrant Moore declined to be interviewed.
8 delivered three pictures: Evidence slip, 157-1205-1A13 (January 17, 1973). what he saw: Informant report, 157-1205-1661 (November 12, 1973). Withers also had described weapons in the home in February and August of that year.
9 Hampton’s December 4, 1969, killing stirred wide condemnation. Within weeks, a special commission co-chaired by conservative NAACP leader Roy Wilkins was empaneled to investigate. Ralph Abernathy announced the SCLC would build new alliances with groups like the Panthers (see Peniel E. Joseph, ed., The Black
Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era, 167–83).
10 Joseph, The Black Power Movement, 175, 179. These passages appear in an essay by Yohuru Williams, “ ‘Red, Black and Green Liberation Jumpsuit’: Roy Wilkins, the Black Panthers, and the Conundrum of Black Power.”
11 Informant reports. wounding a man: 157-1067-1249 (June 6, 1969). drove a school bus: 157-1205-1743 (Oct. 22, 1975). successful 1973 campaign: 157-1205-1622 (July 10, 1973). Sickle Cell…Democratic Club: 157-205-1622 (July 10, 1973). John Charles Smith’s criminal record is found in his MPD Bureau of Identification file. See also, State of Tennessee v. John Charles Smith, B22819 and 20. He was sentenced to a year in 1970 for assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter.
12 Informant report, 157-1205-1700 (September 6, 1974).
13 elected constable: “Father Like Son,” Tennessee Star Daily, August 10, 1974, 5. Wendell Withers…“crisis”: Perry O’Neal Withers, “In Coma 2 Years…Wendell Withers Buried,” Tennessee Star Daily, August 24, 1974, 1.
14 Informant report, 157-1205-1749 (December 3, 1975).
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archival Collections, Records Obtained Through FOIA, and Government Reports
Church Committee reports, also known as the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities.
Communism in the Mid-South: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, October 28 and 29, 1957.
Comptroller General’s February 24, 1976, report to the House Judiciary Committee, “FBI Domestic Intelligence Operations—Their Purpose and Scope: Issues That Need to be Resolved.”
William E. Davis, FBI file, titled “William E. Davis, Security Matter—C,” HQ file 100-347485 (courtesy of Michael Honey).
William E. Davis, FBI file, titled “William Edward Davis…Loyalty of Government Employees,” HQ file 121-12712 (courtesy of Michael Honey).
Allan Fuson personal materials. Photographs reviewed courtesy of Allan Fuson.
U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), Investigation of the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
B. Venson Hughes private collection of King assassination-related files. Reports of the Memphis Police Department reviewed courtesy of B. Venson Hughes.
Kathy Roop Hunninen, portions of FBI file, obtained by the author on January 30 (release #250070) and October 1, 2014 (289369), through Freedom of Information Act, FOIPA request No. 1210240.
Kathy Roop Hunninen, “Health and Human Services” file, obtained by the author through the Freedom of Information Act, FOIPA request No. OIG -14-0290-KS.
Kathy Roop Hunninen personal materials. Photographs and media articles reviewed courtesy of Kathy Roop Hunninen.
Joseph Hugh Kearney, FBI personnel file, obtained by the author through the Freedom of Information Act, FOIPA request No. 1271375-000.
Joseph Hugh Kearney personal materials. Photographs reviewed courtesy of Barbara Sullivan.
William H. Lawrence, FBI personnel file, obtained by the author through the Freedom of Information Act, FOIPA request No. 1271512-000.
William H. Lawrence personal papers. Handwritten notes, media articles, and family photographs reviewed courtesy of Betty Lawrence.
Memphis Police Department reports related to the sanitation strike and the surveillance of Martin Luther King.
Memphis Police Department personnel files.
Memphis Public Library and Information Center: Special Collections, E. H. Crump Collection.
Memphis Public Library and Information Center: Special Collections, Maxine Smith Collection.
National Archives and Records Administration, Atlanta: Art Baldwin closed session testimony. USA v. Thomas E. Sisk et al., 79-30054 Middle District of Tennessee, Jencks Materials.
Shaheen Report, also known as the Report of the Department of Justice Task Force to Review the FBI Martin Luther King, Jr., Security and Assassination Investigations.
Shelby County Archives: “Criminal Court and Memphis Police Department Bureau of Identification” files.
Subversive Control of Distributive, Processing and Office Workers of America: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, October 25–26, 1951.
Emmett Till murder trial transcript at Sumner, Mississippi, included in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2006 reexamination of the Till murder.
Byron “Gene” Townsend personal materials. Photographs reviewed courtesy of Danny Townsend.
University of Memphis Special Collections: Sanitation Strike Collection.
University of Memphis Special Collections: Tent City Collection.
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, Davis Library microfilm: COINTELPRO, the counterintelligence program of the FBI.
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, Wilson Special Collections Library: Junius Irving Scales Papers, 1940–1978.
Wisconsin Historical Society: Freedom Summer Collection.
Ernest Withers, FBI file related to the Tennessee Pardons and Paroles investigation, obtained by author through the Freedom of Information Act, FOIPA request No. 1119994-000.
Ernest Withers, collection of seventy FBI case files released to author pursuant to the mediated settlement of Memphis Publishing Co. and Marc Perrusquia v. the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 10cv01878, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Interviews by Author
Mark Allen
Eli Arkin
D’Army Bailey
Danny Beagle
Ezekiel Bell
Carol McCabe Booker
Charles Cabbage
Bob Campbell
Jack Cantrell
Mike Cody
Dorothy Cotton
Joe Crittenden
Audrey Dandridge
Bobby Doctor
John Elkington
W. Hickman Ewing
Gerald Fanion, Jr.
John T. Fisher
John F. Fox, Jr.
Dr. Jerry Francisco
Allan Fuson
Vicki Gabriner
David Garrow
Gloria Greenspun
Dick Gregory
Tim Hall
Corbett Hart
John Herbers
Hank Hillin
Michael Honey
Kathy Roop Hunninen
Laura Ingram
Jesse Jackson
Jerry Jenkins
William Jennings
Merrill T. Kelly
Bruce Kramer
Betty Lawrence
James Lawson
H. T. Lockard
Jimmie Locke
Reed Malkin
Charles Martin
Edward McBride
Gerald McKnight
Harold Middlebrook
Rosetta Miller-Perry
Joella Morrison
Nancy Mosley
Brian Murphree
Moses Newson
Betty Norworth
Kenneth O’Reilly
Clifton Potts
Georgia Davis Powers
Sadie Puckett
Christopher Pyle
Heath Rush
Coby Smith
John B. Smith
Maxine Smith
Mark Stansbury
Ralph Stein
Barbara Sullivan
Athan Theoharis
Danny Townsend
Cash Williams
Jerry Williams
Robert Winfrey
Suhkara Yahweh
Andrew Young
Muhammad Ziyad
Legal Cases
Chan Kendrick et al. v. Wyeth Chandler et al., C-76-449, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
James A. Dombrowski et al. v. James H. Pfi
ster, Individually, Etc., et al. 227 F. Supp. 556 (1964) Civ. A. No. 14019, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division, February 20, 1964.
City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al., C-68-80, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
Memphis Publishing Co. and Marc Perrusquia v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1:10-cv-01878-ABJ, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
United States of America v. Herbert Atkeison et al., Civ. A. No. 4131, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee filed, December 14, 1960.
USA v. Charles Laverne Cabbage, 430 F.2d 1037, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1970.
USA v. John Ford, 05-20201-B, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
USA v. Thomas E. Sisk et al., 79-30054, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
USA v. Ernest Columbus Withers and John Paul “J. P.” Murrell, CR-79-20009-1, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
Periodicals
Amsterdam News
The Atlanta Constitution
The Charlotte Observer
Cleveland Press
The Commercial Appeal (CA)
Communications Lawyer
Cornell Law Review
Ebony
The Fayette Falcon
The High Point Enterprise
The Huffington Post
The Ithaca Journal
Jet
Look
Memphis Press-Scimitar (MPS)
The Memphis World
The New York Times (NYT)
Physics Today
Prologue
The Public Historian
Southern Patriot
The Tennessean
Time
Tri-State Defender (TSD)
The Washington Post
Documentaries, Video Interviews, and Digital Presentations
Boone, Marshand. “Oral History Interview of Ernest Withers” for The Civil Rights and The Press Symposium at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, 2004.
Interview of Ernest Withers by Larry Crowe, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive (June 28, 2003).
“Marshall County, Mississippi: Largest Slaveholders From 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches For African Americans on 1870 Census.” Transcribed by Tom Blake, February 2002. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ajac/msmarshall.htm.
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