by Alex Heard
second alibi: Hettie Johnson affidavit, March 4, 1951, MDAH.
stay appeal: NYT, March 16, 1951; CL, March 6, 1957.
“Mississippi”: Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict, 160–94.
White Women’s Delegation: Ibid. 160–65.
her memoir of her fifteen years: Ibid. 62–64, 279.
Faulkner visit: Ibid., 181–183; Daily People’s World, April 13, 1951.
Rowan Oak: Blotner, Faulkner, 258–63; author visit.
Faulkner press release: LLC, March 28, 1951.
“an outrage”: delayed Daily People’s World clip, datelined March 20, 1951, Mitford papers, Ohio State University.
Faulkner retreats: JDN, March 26, 1951; Boston Guardian, March 31, 1951; Meriwether, Essays, Speeches & Public Letters by William Faulkner, 211–12; Blotner, Faulkner, 539.
“fictitious imaginations”: LLC, March 28, 1951.
“Those people, all women”: William Faulkner to Robert M. Bridgeforth, March 30, 1951, MDAH.
Faulkner had a knack: Williamson, William Faulkner and Southern History, 300–6.
“Gothic fascist”: Blotner, Faulkner, 411.
“I’d fight for Mississippi”: NYT, March 15, 1956; United Press, March 16, 1956; The Reporter, March 22, 1956.
Patton: “Trouble Now Over at Oxford,” unlabeled clip from MDAH subject file, “Lynching to 1925” JDN, September 8, 9, 1908; NYT, September 9, 1908.
Higginbotham: NYT, September 19, 1935; CL, September 19, 1935.
“Dry September”: Faulkner, Collected Stories of William Faulkner.
W. H. James, Faulkner: Memphis Commercial Appeal, February 2, 15, 1931.
Intruder: Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust, 1948; Blotner, Faulkner, 490–91, 500–3, 508–10.
Wilson review: “William Faulkner’s Reply to the Civil-Rights Program,” The New Yorker, October 23, 1948, 120–28.
MGM: NYT, July 18, 1948.
Oxford, Intruder: Carter, “No Phony Magnolias,” WaPo, May 1, 1949; undated Oxford Eagle profile of Juano Hernandez, Faulkner papers, University of Mississippi; NYT, April 10, 1949; Oxford Eagle, October 6, 1949; Memphis Press-Scimitar, October 12, 1949, Faulkner papers.
Mitford in Oakland: A Fine Old Conflict, 98–138, 160–63.
three other CRC delegates: Daily People’s World, April 13, 1951. (In A Fine Old Conflict, Mitford changed the names of several characters: Wachter and Hopson were called “Rita Baxter” and “the Youth Comrade.”)
Mitford background: Lovell, The Sisters; Mitford, Jessica, A Fine Old Conflict and Daughters and Rebels; Mitford, Nancy, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate; Pryce-Jones, Unity Mitford: An Enquiry Into Her Life and the Frivolity of Evil; FBI file, “Jessica Mitford”’ author correspondence with Constancia Romilly, Lester Brody, and Peter Y. Sussmon.
Hitler meets Unity: DeCourcy, Diana Mosley, 143–45.
“perfect Nordic beauty”: NYT, October 21, 1939.
Diana, Mosley wedding: DeCourcy, Diana Mosley, 173–75.
arrested and released: WaPo, November 18, 1943, June 30, 1948.
“mysteriously ill”: NYT, January 3–4, 1940.
put a pistol to her head: DeCourcy, Diana Mosley, 205.
Inch Kenneth: NYT, February 31, 1940, May 31, 1948; DeCourcy, Diana Mosley, 295–96.
Jessica, Esmond: Lovell, The Sisters; 177–79, 217–40.
Spanish Civil War: NYT, December 27, 1936.
“The story…made headlines”: Lovell, The Sisters, 230.
“Threats of imprisonment”: NYT, May 19, 1937.
They moved to America: Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict, 18–22.
Washington Post articles: the Post series began on January 28, 1940, and ran periodically over the next few months.
Romilly’s death: WaPo, December 4, 1941; NYT, December 5, 1941; Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict, 22.
employee evaluation: Mitford FBI file, April 8, 1943, memo.
“boring and oppressive”: A Fine Old Conflict, 30.
joins Communist Party: Ibid. 62–64.
Mitford in Needles: Daily People’s World, March 12, 1951.
…in St. Louis: Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict, 172; Tuskegee news clippings file, reel 234, frame 0650.
second group: DW, March 28, April 17, 1951.
“story of sick horror”: Daily People’s World, March 12, 1951.
Mitford in Jackson: A Fine Old Conflict, 172–81.
“bare-legged Chicago women”: JDN, March 17, 1951.
Mayor Thompson: JDN, March 16, 1951.
careful tally: delayed Daily People’s World clips, datelined March 18 and 19, 1951, Mitford papers, Ohio State University.
skeptical teacher: Daily People’s World, March 19, 1951.
MacGillivray: YWCA subject file, MDAH; author interview with Simmie Roberts.
Hudgins: Daily People’s World, March 19, 1951.
CRC chapter activity: much of the FBI file on Willie McGee consists of field reports about McGee-related meetings held by CRC chapters around the U.S.
Washington vigil, Rosalee travels: Daily People’s World, February 26, 1951; Rosalee’s activities in the spring of 1951 are described in the Willie McGee FBI file, press releases in the CRC papers, and in various newspaper stories in the Jessica Mitford papers.
stay arguments: “Petition for Stay of Execution,” McGee v. Mississippi, March 15, 1951, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
“very bad practice”: JDN, March 15, 1951; NYT, March 16, 1951.
letters to Black: Black papers, LOC.
campus controversy: Ibid.; Michigan Daily, March and April 1951.
Black orders stay: NYT, March 16, 1951.
“Justice Again Ravished”: JDN, March 18, 1951.
Supreme Court hears arguments: NYT, March 21, 1951.
Burnett: William O. Douglas papers, case 417, 1950, March 23, 1951.
Schwartz: Ibid.
McGee denied: NYT, March 27, 1951.
THIRTEEN: SORROW NIGHT
W. O. Chet Dillard: correspondence and author interview, November 2007; Dillard, Clearburning, 35–65.
civil rights suit: CL, May 6, 1951.
Coe drops out: Coe to Abzug, April 25, 1951, Coe papers, Emory University.
Abzug on arrests: Abzug interviews, Columbia.
clemency hearing: CL, May 5, 1951; LLC, May 5, 1951.
“Rightly or wrongly”: Abzug and Coe, pardon petition to Fielding Wright, May 5, 1951, Toler papers, Mississippi State University.
“bestial hands”: Carroll Gartin statement to Fielding Wright, May 5, 1951, Toler papers, Mississippi State University.
no clemency: CL, May 8, 1951.
mass arrests: NYT, JDN, May 6, 1951; DW, May 7, 1951; Ken Toler memo to Life, Toler papers, Mississippi State University; Abzug interviews, Columbia; Honey, Black Workers Remember, 203–6.
Lincoln Memorial, White House: CL, DW, May 7, 1951; Randall, “Democracy’s Passion Play: The Lincoln Memorial, Politics, and History as Myth,” 249–50; People’s Daily World, May 7, 1951.
aborted Laurel trip: CL, JDN, May 6, 1951.
May letters: Willie McGee letters, CRC papers.
McGee talks to reporters: CL, May 8, 1951.
McGee statement, lawsuit: JDN, May 8, 1951; “Note to Editors and Organizations,” CRC press release, May 14, 1951, NAACP papers; London interview with Spivak, 1952, CRC papers.
Mize says no: CL, May 8, 1951.
“McGee was visibly nervous”: Ibid.
Deavours, Tabor: author interviews, November 2007.
electric chair: subject files, MDAH.
Willie Mae Bragg: CL, October 13, 1940.
Bill Minor: author interview, May 2005.
crowd description: author interviews with Bill Minor, “Warren Tabor,” and Wayne Valentine Jr.
“he paid too much”: Rowan, South of Freedom, 191.
Max Lerner: New York Post, May 8, 1951.
“Let me sign this thing!”: Daily People’s World, March 13, 1951.
Oppenheim: Ib
id., March 16, 1951.
Harvey Bellet: NYT, April 1, 1951.
Abyssinian Baptist Church: Harlem CRC pamphlet, MDAH.
“Negro white unity”: Anne Shore letter to William Patterson, March 13, 1951, Michigan CRC papers, Wayne State University.
Chicago march: Chicago Defender, April 28, 1951; author interview with John Polk Allen, September 2004.
Barkley: Daily People’s World, May 1, 1951.
Walter White urged chapter members: Walter White memo to “NAACP Branches, Youth Councils and College Chapters,” March 7, 1951, NAACP papers.
somebody else’s news: See “McGee and the Martinsville 7,” Chicago Defender, May 19, 1951.
Freedom extra: Willie McGee clippings, 1948–51, Michigan CRC papers, Wayne State University.
Diego Rivera: undated clipping, Mitford papers, Ohio State University.
Shostakovich: JDN, April 21, 1951.
London theater demonstration: Undated Daily People’s World clip, Mitford papers, Ohio State University.
Lumpkin: JDN, April 30, 1951.
Truman letters: Truman papers, Truman Library; “Text of Open Letter to the President,” May 2, 1951, NAACP papers.
front-page news in France: “French Legislators Mourned McGee,” undated CRC press release, NAACP papers.
Paris protests: DW, May 8, 1951.
China, Soviet Union: LLC, April 9, 1951; “Execution of M’Gee Blasted by Moscow,” Toler papers, Mississippi State University.
Fifth Circuit appeal: New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 8, 1951.
appeal to Truman: McGee petition, May 7, 1951, Coe papers, Emory University.
Troy Hawkins arrival: CL, May 8, 1951.
Ernest Goodman: “Counsel for the Common People,” videotaped interview with Ernest Goodman, 1995, produced by William Bryce, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.
final appeals: NYT, New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 8, 1951.
crowd shot: Life, May 21, 1951, 44–45.
decoy: author interview with Wayne Valentine Jr., November 2007.
McGee execution: CL, JDN, LLC, New Orleans Times-Picayune, NYT, May 8, 1951.
broadcast: “Willie McGee Execution,” Jim Leeson audio recording, May 7–8, 1950, University of Southern Mississippi oral history collections.
“blood-curdling cries”: Abzug interviews, Columbia University; Goodman interview, Wayne State University.
Robeson, Sullens: unidentified newspaper story in Mitford papers, datelined May 1951; JDN, “The Low Down on the Higher Ups,” May 8, 1951.
Josephine Baker: Pittsburgh Courier, May 12, 1951; “Josephine Baker Homage to McGee,” undated CRC press release, NAACP papers.
looked thoroughly defeated: Life, May 21, 1951, 44–45.
McGee’s last letter: Hall papers, New York State Library.
EPILOGUE: WHISKEY IN A PAPER SACK
Gus DeLoach: author interview, November 2007.
Jon Swartzfager: author interview, November 2007.
Swartzfager: Luke Lampton interview with Paul Swartzfager.
federal courts: Zaim, Journal of Mississippi History, Fall 2003, 216.
Patterson imprisoned: NYT, June 29, November 20, 1954; January 28, 1955.
“never forget”: William Patterson letter to MaryLouise Patterson, July 17, 1954, William Patterson papers, Howard University.
CRC folds: NYT, January 8, 1956.
“Secret Speech”: NYT, June 5, 1956.
Fast and Mitford: A Fine Old Conflict, 255–80; NYT, February 1, 1957.
Patterson on A Fine Old Conflict: Mitford to Patterson, August 9, 1977, Mitford papers, Ohio State University; Patterson to Mitford, September 9, 1977, Patterson papers, Howard University.
McGee case summarized: We Charge Genocide, 77.
CRC cried “frame-up”: Michigan CRC files on Haywood Patterson, Wayne State University.
U.N. petition: Patterson, The Man Who Cried Genocide, 169–208; Patterson, ed., We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People, 3, 109, 116; NYT, November 21, 1951.
Paris speech: Patterson papers, Howard University.
Channing Tobias: Patterson, The Man Who Cried Genocide, 184–89; NYT, November 5, 1951, November 6, 1961.
CRC “swindle”: Pittsburgh Courier, May 19, 1951.
Baker, McGee: “Mrs. Rosalie McGee” affidavit, Parish of Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 17, 1951, CRC papers.
“I no it did good”: Rosalee Safford to CRC, July 14, 1951, CRC papers.
Rosalee claims harassment: Norfolk Journal and Guide, May 10, 1952.
Prisoners Relief Department: Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board, Volume 1, 1966, 647.
1955 hearing: DW, April 21, 1955.
Jesse James Harris: author interview, September 2008.
Hawkins libel suit: CL, August 2, 1951; Hawkins v. Freedom of the Press Company, Inc., National Archives, New York.
Grayson L. Tucker: Spivak interview, 1952, CRC papers.
CRC activists: the Detroit CRC branch was especially active in looking for new witnesses. See Anne Shore letter to Bella Abzug, March 20, 1951, Michigan CRC papers, Wayne State University.
procedural back-and-forth: Hawkins v. Freedom of the Press Company, Inc., National Archives, New York.
libel settlement: NYT, May 6, 1955.
She traveled to New York: author interviews with Ann, Sandra, and Dorothy Hawkins.
Abzug on Poole and London: Luke Lampton interview with Bella Abzug.
Abzug and Coe letters: June 13, 20, 1951, Coe papers, Emory University.
Poole libel case: Dixon Pyles interview transcript, Mitford papers, Ohio State University.
Poole’s practice collapsed: Chancery Court, Hinds County, Mississippi, “Petition for Disbarment of John Poole,” 1954.
Poole disbarred: Ibid.; CL, May 5, 1954.
