by Gilbert King
14 “This makes me proud”: Notes on telephone conversations between Ollie Harrington and Walter White from Nashville, TN, NAACP, October 5, 1946.
14 “shut up”: Ikerd, No More Social Lynchings, p. 109.
15 “something serious”: Daily Worker, November 20, 1946.
15 “wind up in Duck River”: White, A Man Called White, p. 314.
15 “I just sold the last”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 132.
15 NIGGER READ AND RUN: NAACP, undated.
15 “Take care of yourself”: White to Marshall, NAACP, June 12, 1946.
16 “Thurgood, Looby said”: The dialogue and details in this scene are culled from several sources: COHP, Marshall; Marshall’s letter to Assistant Attorney General Theron I. Caudle, December 4, 1946; the “Five Star Final” Radio Broadcast, November 20, 1946, from the NAACP Papers, the script of which Marshall approved; Carl Rowan’s Dream Makers, Dream Breakers, p. 109; Daily Worker, November 20, 1946; and Stephen Smith and Kate Ellis, American RadioWorks: Thurgood Marshall Before the Court, http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/marshall/.
17 “Master Race preachments”: Miscellaneous Columbia, TN, reports, NAACP.
17 It was under a cedar tree: The Cordie Cheek incident is largely derived from Minor, Lynching and Frame-Up in Tennessee, pp. 31–34.
18 “the famous Duck River”: Marshall to Caudle, NAACP, December 4, 1946.
19 “You go over there”: The dialogue and details in this scene are derived from the following sources: COHP, Marshall; Williams, Thurgood Marshall, pp. 140–41; Daily Worker, November 20, 1946.
20 “the pattern of all”: Daily Worker, November 20, 1946.
20 “Well, Thurgood”: Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers, p. 109.
20 “they beat the driver”: Ibid.
20 “I am certain”: Daily Worker, November 20, 1946.
20 “would never have been”: White, A Man Called White, p. 321.
20 “Drunken driving?”: The dialogue in this scene was derived from COHP, Marshall.
Chapter 2: Sugar Hill
21 “Nigger boy, what”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 107.
22 “So I wrapped”: Kluger, Simple Justice, p. 224.
22 “One entered the city”: Jackson and Dunbar, Empire City, p. 687. Architectural historian Vincent Scully was critical of the 1963 destruction of Pennsylvania Station, noting,“One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.”
22 “Ride the Surface Way”: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, New York Public Library.
23 “Put that gun away!”: Janaya Williams, “Jason Moran Takes Fat Waller Back to the Club,” NPR Music, May 13, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/05/13/136274480/jason-moran-takes-fats-waller-back-to-the-club.
23 “We got yellow girls”: Dance, From My People, p. 170.
24 “was so busy arguing”: Ted Poston, “On Appeal to the Supreme Court,” The Survey, January 1949.
24 “How much is that”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 99.
25 “You know how much”: Ibid., p. 100.
25 “To Be Demolished”: Schomburg Photographs and Prints Division.
25 “perhaps the most modern”: Wald, Josh White, p. 48.
25 “live on that attractive”: “Down Under in Harlem,” New Republic, March 27, 1944.
26 “father of black American”: “In Sugar Hill, a Street Nurtured Black Talent When the World Wouldn’t,” New York Times, January 22, 2010.
26 “that legend, only”: Kurt Thometz, “The Harlem Revue,” Jumel Terrace Books, http://harlemrevue.wordpress.com/on-harlems-heights/.
26 “talented tenth”: W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Talented Tenth,” in The Negro Problem.
26 “the White House of Harlem”: Aberjhani and West, Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, p. 320.
26 At one of White’s parties: Greenberg, Crusaders in the Courts, p. 32.
26 “NAACP’s unofficial”: Clark and Davis, Thurgood Marshall, p. 101.
27 They called their little group: Ibid.
27 “Buster had a weak”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 163.
28 “social capital of Negro America”: Ebony, undated article from 1946.
28 “Good Luck, Joe.”: Schomburg Photographs and Prints Division.
28 “they treated him like”: Wilson, Meet Me at the Theresa, p. 104.
28 “distinguished service”: NAACP Bulletin, May 1946.
28 “cannot be legally”: Crisis, May 1944.
29 “brought about the most”: NAACP bulletin, May 1946.
29 “Lest you think”: White to Marshall, NAACP, May 8, 1946.
29 “Oh, yeah”: Ibid.
29 “very reasonable rates”: Marshall to staff, NAACP, June 13, 1946.
29 “an award coming”: Crisis, August 1946.
30 “carrying around a fever”: Marshall to Ransom, NAACP, undated.
30 “callous and inadequate”: White, A Man Called White, pp. 63–64.
30 “Citing red tape”: White to Louis T. Wright and Dr. Ernst P. Boss, NAACP, undated, 1946.
30 “cancer of the lung”: Marshall to George Slaff, NAACP, undated.
30 “due solely to the fact”: White to Board, NAACP, September 9, 1946.
31 “I warned you not”: Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers, p. 132.
31 “The President only”: Ibid.
31 “You know,” the deliveryman: COHP, Marshall.
31 “twenty-pound”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 137.
31 “Virus X”: COHP, Marshall.
31 “not more than three”: White to Board, NAACP, September 9, 1946.
31 “far from out of”: White to staff. NAACP, July 12, 1946.
31 “Give them the bad news”: Ibid.
32 “taking it more than easy”: Marshall to White, NAACP, October 1, 1946.
32 “I will have a difficult job”: Ibid.
32 “It is doubtful”: White, A Man Called White, p. 314.
Chapter 3: Get to Pushin’
34 “top Cabinet, military”: St. Petersburg Times, July 15, 1949.
34 “ambitious to become”: Ibid.
34 “certain secret work”: Ibid.
34 scattered wooden shacks: St. Petersburg Times, April 9, 1950.
35 Rumors around town: FOHP, Williams.
35 Her reputation around: Unredacted FBI File 44-2722, (Groveland) Boxes 156–157; Unredacted FBI File 44-4055, (Civil Rights, Irvin, Shepherd, Greenlee) Boxes 222–229, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD. This was based on several sources, among them the reports of FBI field agents who interviewed Lake County residents, as well as Groveland Police Chief George Mays, in July and August 1949. Reporter Ormond Powers of the Orlando Sentinel investigated the alleged crime and reported his findings on Padgett’s reputation to Milton C. Thomas, who provided a summary of Powers’s statements to Rowland Watts. Workers Defense League Records, Wayne State University, Walter P. Reuther Library, Detroit, MI., The Groveland Case 1950–1952, Box 192, (hereafter cited as WDL). Terence McCarthy of the New Leader also spoke with Mays, who referred to Padgett as a “bad egg.” Also, Corsair, The Groveland Four, p. 233.
35 “get it pushed off”: State of Florida, Plaintiff, v. Samuel Shepherd, Walter L. Irvin, Charles Greenlee, Ernest E. Thomas, Defendants, Transcript of Testimony, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, August–September, 1949. Much of the detail about the Padgetts’ movements on the evening of July 15, 1949, was derived from both Willie’s and Norma’s testimony (Fl. v. Shepherd).
36 “dine-and-dance”: St. Petersburg Times, April 9, 1949.
36 “Haven”: Ibid.
36 Samuel Shepherd was having: Likewise, most of Shepherd’s and Irvin’s movements on the evening of July 15, 1949, are based on both Shepherd’s and Irvin’s testimony in Fl. v. Shepherd.
37 “a pure Negro town”: Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road, p. 1.
37 “a city of five lakes”: Hurston, Mules and
Men, Introduction.
38 It was long past midnight: The dialogue in this scene is mostly based on the trial testimony of Norma and Willie Padgett in Fl. v. Shepherd. Neither Shepherd nor Irvin testified about encountering the Padgetts in the early morning hours of July 16, 1949. But Franklin Williams (FHOP, Williams) stated that Shepherd and Irvin did stop their car to help the Padgetts. And despite the fact that the Padgetts did not admit to sharing any whiskey with the two black men, Norma’s relatives indicated to L. B. De Forest that whiskey was indeed offered to Shepherd and Irvin. WDL.
38 “Do you think I’m”: Corsair, The Groveland Four, p. 190.
Chapter 4: Nigger in a Pit
40 Her nickname was “Big East”: Congressional Record, Charles B. Rangel, June 25, 1998.
40 “When Evelyn Cunningham entered”: Ibid.
41 “I wanted to do hard news”: National Visionary Leadership Project, Oral History Interviews: Evelyn Cunningham, http://www.visionaryproject.org/cunninghamevelyn/.
41 “I think I did my”: Ibid.
41 “I said, ‘You know’ ”: Ibid.
41 “not particularly savory”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 191–92.
41 “You can’t arrest”: Ibid.
41 “I would like to defend”: Ibid.
41 “Time to go home”: Ibid.
41 “become distant and”: Ibid., p. 191.
42 “lanky, brash”: White, A Man Called White, p. 154.
42 “Amazed at [Marshall’s]”: Ibid.
42 “You’ve won”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 59.
42 They’d been living: Ibid., p. 65.
42 Having packed Houston’s: James, Root and Branch, p. 56.
43 “Motion pictures”: McNeil, Groundwork, p. 140.
43 “Conditions,” Marshall wrote: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 60.
43 “evil results of discrimination”: McNeil, Groundwork, p. 140.
43 “A lawyer’s either”: Ibid., p. 84.
44 “the only executive”: Marshall to White, NAACP, January 21, 1947.
44 “answering the telephone”: Ibid.
44 some patterns of behavior: White to Marshall, NAACP, July 17, 1945.
44 “unbuttoned office manners”: Sullivan, Lift Every Voice, p. 298.
44 “You shouldn’t beat me”: Clark and Davis, Thurgood Marshall, p. 135.
44 “He could tell”: Interview, Mildred Roxborough, Thurgood Marshall: Justice for All, A&E Biography, 2005.
45 “Nigger in a Pit”: Kluger, Simple Justice, p. 643.
45 Mr. Turgood: NAACP, May 1949.
46 “Mr. Marshall was”: Author interview, Gloria Samuels, November 11, 2010.
46 “total lack of formality”: Motley, Equal Justice Under Law, p. 58.
46 “nobody was hiring”: Constance Baker Motley, “My Personal Debt to Thurgood Marshall,” Yale Law Journal, Vol. 101, 1991–1992.
46 “His mother was a”: National Visionary Project, Oral Histories Interviews, Constance Baker Motley, http://www.visionaryproject.com/motleyconstancebaker/.
47 “first feminists”: Yanick Rice Lamb, “Evelyn Cunningham, A Witness to History,” Heart & Soul, http://www.heartandsoul.com/2010/04/evelyn-cunningham-a-witness-to-history/.
47 “a piece of paper”: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session on the Nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, to Be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, July 20, 21, 22, and 23, 1993. Also, Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers, p. 21.
47 “no sense in coming”: Marshall to Loren Miller, NAACP, undated.
47 “I do not want to burden you”: Ibid.
47 “It has been suggested”: Daniel Byrd to Marshall, NAACP, April 23, 1948.
48 Otherwise they’d work: Author interviews, Alexander Tureaud, Jr., 2009 and 2010.
48 “to the types of”: Marshall to staff, NAACP, February 16, 1949.
48 limit[ing] ourselves: Ibid., Perry note on memo.
48 “any experienced lawyer”: Marshall to staff, NAACP, undated.
49 “harboring an escaped”: Greenberg, Crusaders in the Courts, p. 81.
49 “not to sign”: Ibid.
49 Her son had just: Ibid., p. 31.
49 “no blacks lived”: Ibid., p. 46.
49 “one of those enormous”: Ibid., p. 31.
49“pursed lips and”: Ibid.
50 “panic-stricken Westchester”: Daniel J. Sharfstein, “Saving the Race,” Legal Affairs, March/April 2005.
50 “the sex stopped”: Ibid.
50 “He was supposed to”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall, p. 120.
50 “thousands of Negro domestics”: Chicago Defender, December 12, 1940.
50 “to the limit of our”: Sharfstein, “Saving the Race.”
50 “I’m sure he raped”: Ibid.
51 “not only innocent”: Ibid.
51 “lust-mad Negro”: Ibid.
51 “shame and disgrace”: Daily Kennebec Journal, February 1, 1941.
51 “resent bitterly this acquittal”: Kingston Daily Freeman, February 3, 1941.
51 “What a relief!”: Sharfstein, “Saving the Race.”.
51 “the actual danger”: Cash, The Mind of the South, p. 115.
51 “had nothing immediately”: Ibid., p.117.
53 “There’s the bones”: Oklahoma Black Dispatch, February 8, 1941.
53 “they beat me”: Lyons v. Oklahoma, 322 U. S. 596 (1944), Brief on Behalf of Petitioner.
53 “extorted by violence”: Chambers v. Florida, 309 U. S. 227 (1940), Petitioner’s Brief.
53 “could never read aloud”: Black and Black, Mr. Justice and Mrs. Black, p. 73.
53 “Today, as in ages past”: Chambers v. Florida, 309 U. S. 227 (1940).
54 “We are going to teach”: Tushnet, Making Civil Rights Law, p. 52.
54 “a Nigger lawyer from”: Marshall to White, NAACP, February 2, 1941.
54 “I ain’t scared”: Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers, p. 107.
54 “I think I remembered”: COHP, Marshall.
54 “scared to try the case”: Marshall to White, NAACP, January 29, 1941.
54-55 “a certain Negro lawyer”: Marshall to White, NAACP, January 28, 1941.
55 “a gala day”: Marshall to White, NAACP, January 29, 1941.
55 “two nationalities”: Marshall to White, NAACP, February 2, 1941.
55 “the building did not fall”: Ibid.
55 “about doubled”: Ibid.
55 “Oh, yes, you were there”: Oklahoma Black Dispatch, February 8, 1941.
55 “Why,” he stammered: Ibid.
55 “six or seven hours”: Marshall to White, NAACP, April 5, 1941.
56 “go up to my room”: Lyons v. Oklahoma.
56 “six—either six or”: Ibid.
56 “shaking as though”: Oklahoma Black Dispatch, February 8, 1941.
56 “Boy, did I like that”: Marshall to White, NAACP, April 2, 1941.
56 “stopped us in the halls”: Ibid.
56 “90% of the white people”: Ibid.
56 “We are in a perfect”: Ibid.
57 “I think we should aim”: Ibid.
Chapter 5: Trouble Fixin’ to Start
58 The motor shut off: C. C. Twiss affidavit, WDL, April 29, 1951. Clifton Twiss was visited by Rowland Watts of the Workers Defense League, as well as another man, Seymour Miller, and Twiss provided a signed statement as to what he and his wife, Ethel, witnessed on the morning of July 16, 1949. This account is based on Twiss’s statement.
59 At about 6:45 a.m.: Statement of Lawrence Burtoft, WDL, April 29, 1951. Burtoft was visited by Rowland Watts and provided a signed statement regarding his meeting with Norma Padgett on the morning of July 16, 1949. I used this statement, as well as Burtoft’s statements to reporter Norman Bunin, which appear in Bunin’s series in the St. Petersburg Times (April 9, 1949). In this scene, I also quote from Burtoft’s testimony in Fl. v. Shepherd.
&
nbsp; 61 Sheriff Willis McCall was on his: MM 44-156, FBI. This scene is derived from this FBI file documenting the civil rights and domestic violence investigation into the beatings of Shepherd and Irvin (part of FBI file 44-4055). The FBI interviewed McCall, Hatcher, Yates, Shepherd, and Irvin, and their recollections and quotes are taken from the statements in this report.
61 “We’re probably too far away”: Ibid.
61 “What’s the trouble?”: Ibid.
61 “Boy, I’ve never”: Ibid.
61 “A white housewife”: Ibid.
61 “pretty high feeling”: Ibid.
62 “Call Yates and”: Ibid.
63 “armed to the gills”: St. Petersburg Times, July 18, 1949.
63 “Willis, we want”: “Murmur in the Streets,” Time, August 1, 1949.
63 “husky, brash”: Ibid.
63 “I can’t let you people”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong, p. 15. Also author interview with Isaac M. Flores, February 9, 2011.
63 “I may be in sympathy”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong, p. 15. Also Corsair, The Groveland Four, p. 31.
63 “Look, McCall”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong, p. 15.
63 “The prisoners you want”: Ibid.
63 From the back: “Murmur in the Streets.”
64 He had just arrived in town: MM 44-156, FBI. Also Corsair, The Groveland Four, p. 1. The descriptions and quotes by Charles Greenlee are largely derived from his interviews with Franklin Williams in the presence of stenographer Dorothy N. Marshall at Raiford State Prison, which are included in the FBI file MM 44-127 (part of FBI file 44-4055). Greenlee was also interviewed by agents Tobias E. Matthews, Jr., and John L. Quigley on August 8, 1949, as part of FBI file MM 44-156.
64 In May, Charles’s: Corsair, The Groveland Four, pp. 1–2. Also MM 44-156, FBI.
65 “Is there anywhere”: MM 44-156, FBI.
65 “Hold still a minute”: Corsair, The Groveland Four, p. 3. Also MM 44-156, FBI.
65 Charles said the gun: MM 44-156, FBI.
65 “What road camp”: MM 44-127, FBI.
65 “work out something”: MM 44-156, FBI.
66 “Stand up, nigger”: Ibid.
66 “I wasn’t in any car”: Ibid.
66 “You’re lying”: Ibid.
66 “what they would do”: Ibid.
66 “He’s not one”: Ibid.
66 “The boys what took”: MM 44-127, FBI.
66 “No, sir”: Ibid.
