Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

by Robert A. Caro

  Analysis of Part IV: Ambrose, Eisenhower, pp. 407–10; Dulles, Civil Rights Commission; Goldsmith, Colleagues, pp. 62–66; Lawson, Black Ballots, Chapter 7; Mann, Walls of Jericho, pp. 200–24; U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, “Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary,” Civil Rights, 1957: 85/1, Vol. 71, particularly pp. 55–67; Paul Douglas, “Politics and the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957,” CR, 85/1, p. 100; Congressional Digest, April 1957; Eisenhower, Papers as President, LMS, 1957, Box 2; Press Conference Series, Box 6; Cabinet Series, Boxes 4, 9; Ann Whitman Diary Series, Box 9, DDEL; Carl Auerbach, “Jury Trials and Civil Rights,” The New Leader, April 29. “The only reason”: Ervin, CR, 85/1, p. 10995. “Southern senators”: Reedy interview. In his memoir, Lyndon B. Johnson, Reedy wrote (p. 118) that the southerners “could go home and say to their constituents: ‘They can’t brand you a criminal now without a trial before a jury of your fellow citizens.’” “Sacred”: See, for example, Ernest K. Lindley, “Another to Ponder,” Newsweek, July 29.

  O’Mahoney in 1937: Alsop and Catledge, 168 Days, pp. 87, 192, 229–233. “Crowd-challenging”; “gravelly”; “spirit”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 48. His amendment: CR, 85/1, pp. 11005–06.

  “Every white man”: “Trial by Jury,” New Republic, June 10. “It is”: Wilkins, in NYT, June 1. “Can only be”: Southern Conference Educational Fund, Inc., “An Open Letter to the U.S. Senate,” W P, July 30. “I fought”: Potter, in NYP, June 19. “To resist”: NYT, July 25. And Martin Luther King said that addition of a jury trial amendment would make the bill “almost meaningless” (NYP, July 28). “Mixed, really”: Humphrey OH I, pp. 27, 29.

  “Practically”: NYT, June 4. “Anarchy”: NYT, June 6. “Full of admiration”: Reedy to Johnson, July 26, Box 418, JSP. “It is Nixon”: Allen, “Inside Washington,” NYP, July 25. “Been willing”: Lincoln, “The Political Mill,” WS, July 25. “An overwhelming”: Knowland, NYT, July 27. “Every so often”: Reston, “Trial by Jury vs. The Right to Vote,” NYT, July 14.

  “At this point”; “he pleaded”: Reedy, LBJ, pp. 116, 117. “You know”: Corcoran, quoted by Reedy, in interview with author. Acheson put: Reedy, p. 118. “We drafted”: Horwitz OH. “Every effort”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 117. Knowland constantly announcing: For example, on July 8, he said, “I hope that within this week the Senate of the United States will be allowed to vote” (CR, 85/1, p. 10988). On July 13, he said, “I move that the Senate now proceed to consideration of the Civil Rights Bill” (NYT, July 14). On July 28, the WP said that “Knowland, predicting victory, said he was prepared.” And in a Legislative Leaders Meeting at the White House on July 30, he said, “As of now we can beat jury trial [amendment].” Minnich, LMS, Box 4, handwritten notes, DDEL.

  “Get me Ben Cohen”: Jenkins interview.

  Cohen’s career: Caro, Path, pp. 450–51. “You had”; “Everyone”: Katharine Graham interview with Siegel, Jan. 16, 1991. “Cohen’s the brains”: Caro, p. 450. “Working”: Cohen interview with author. Attention caught by Auerbach article: Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil-Rights Bill,” The Reporter, Sept. 5; Cohen, Jenkins, Siegel interviews. Not surprisingly, several other people try to claim credit for bringing the article to Johnson’s attention, including George Reedy, but Siegel and Jenkins interviews are conclusive. Richard Rovere was to write that the “vital and operative sections” of the proposed legislation “come largely from the hands of Benjamin V. Cohen and Dean Acheson…. Cohen and Acheson supplied the effective language of compromise” (Rovere, The New Yorker, Aug. 31). Auerbach’s article: Auerbach, The New Leader, April 29. Cohen’s reasoning: Interview with author. “Ben was simply”: Siegel told Katharine Graham, “I have never, never found a public servant who I thought was as important to this country as Ben Cohen—going way back to the Roosevelt times.” The new paragraph: CR, 85/1, p. 12819.

  Adding new names: The shifting of votes during the negotiations over Part IV is based on articles in “general background” note for Chapter 36; on Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 133–39; Mann, pp. 206–17; Miller, Lyndon, pp. 209–10; on Cooper, Horwitz, Reedy, Rauh, Shuman, Siegel OHs; and on the author’s interviews with Carver, Fensterwald, Ward Hower, Jenkins, McCulloch, Rauh, Reedy, Schnibbe, Shuman, and Steele. Tally sheets: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 138.

  “If I take”: Reedy interview.

  Remedy an injustice: A good summary is Kefauver, CR, 85/1, p. 12820. Drafting: Horwitz, Siegel OHs. Johnson says: Reedy interview. “Is there”: Douglas, CR, 85/1, p. 12818.

  “In any”: “PART V. AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL CRIMINAL CODE…. Sec. 391,” CR, 85/1, p. 12819.

  As Emily Post: For example, Johnson said, “This issue will … require the careful analysis of thoughtful, reasoning men. Never before have I seen in the Senate a debate which has contributed so much to the understanding … the finest the Senate has ever had” (CR, 85/1, 12651). And see CR, 85/1, pp. 11623, 13165; and Drummond, NYHT, July 15; NYHT, July 14, 17, 18; NYT, July 13, 14, 23; W P, WS, July 14;Philadelphia Inquirer, July 16. And see Mann, p. 204.

  “If we’re going to”; “Be ready”: McPherson, p. 145. “We have to”: “I’m on”: Parker, Capitol Hill, p. 81. “You always”; “my ass”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 92. “You can”: Reedy OH XI; Reedy interview. “We’ve got”: Baker, p. 145. “A religious leader”: Parker, p. 79. “If we don’t allow”: Siegel, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 209; Reedy interview. “These Negroes”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 148. Playing on Wisconsin fears: Edelstein to Lehman, Aug. 28, Lehman Special File 727, Lehman Papers, HHLP, CU. “They’ll get us”: Bethine Church interview. “Look”: Siegel OH I V. “Jim East-land knows”: Pearson, W P, undated. “Yes, yes, Hubert”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 371.

  “Let me”; “I remember”: Pearson, WP, July 19. “Goddamnit”: Schnibbe interview. “A grave mistake”: Schnibbe interview. “Look”: Siegel OH. “Out of both”; “he would tell”: McPherson OH. “He made them”: Yarborough interview. “You can’t”: Rauh OH; Rauh interview.

  Tally sheet: Evans and Novak, p. 138. “Twice daily”: Fleeson, WS, Aug. 5. Johnson knew: Reston, NYT, Aug. 3.

  Niagara bill: Miller, Lyndon, p. 206. “Without adequate,” etc.: CR, 85/1, pp. 10985, 10986. Also see pp. 12979–980.

  Using his health: “Johnson has privately told at least two other senators that he will not run for re-election in 1960 because of his health. He becomes so tense and excited after a week of maneuvering that he is unable to sleep more than three or four hours a night. This, after his serious heart attack a year ago, has forced his decision.” Tris Coffin, “How Lyndon Johnson Engineered Compromise on Civil Rights Bill,” New Leader, Aug. 5. “Ah don’t”: Johnson’s wording on this page is recreated from recollections by people who heard him speak at the time, particularly Reedy, Schnibbe and Steele, and from the wording he used in conversations on the same subjects over the telephone during his presidency, as transcribed by Michael Beschloss in Taking Charge. “He made you”: Fensterwald interview. “I’ll have to”: John Sherman Cooper OH. “Well, you”: Ward Hower interview. “I can see him”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 145. “He would”: McPherson, p. 146. Holding Kefauver: Dixon, Aug. 1, Box 2042, JSP.

  July 26 Southern Caucus; White House meeting: LMS, Box 2, DDEL; Time, July 29; Baltimore Sun, NYHT, NYP, WP, July 27. “To the end”; “he meant”: NYT, July 27. “A jury trial”: Knowland, NYT, July 27.

  “Would prevent”: Carey to Johnson, Kefauver, O’Mahoney, July 27, CR, 85/1, pp. 12874–875. Reedy told; “Here is the situation”: Reedy to Johnson, July 29, Box 418, JSP. “Iron determination”: “Statement by the AFL-CIO Executive Committee on Civil Rights Legislation,” July 30, CR, 85/1, pp. 12998–999. Not “found a soul”: Humphrey, quoted in NYP, July 28.

  “Might be difficult”: Evans, NYHT, July 28; in the NYT, July 28, John D. Morris wrote “Stiffening opposition to any jury-trial provision in the Administration’s civil rig
hts bill threatened today to delay indefinitely [italics added] a decision on the provision. Earlier prospects of a vote Tuesday on that phase of the civil rights controversy appeared to have all but vanished.…” The Washington Star reported (July 29) that “The possibility of a filibuster was increased today.” “Haven’t got”: Humphrey, qouted in NYT, July 29. Knowland said: NYT, July 28. “Extraordinary”: Fleeson, WS, July 30. “I can’t say”: Russell, quoted in W P, July 28.

  “I hope”: Clark, CR, 85/1, p. 13294. Javits: CR, 85/1, pp. 12892–899. Murray: CR, 85/1, p. 13298. “He taunted”: Mann, p. 211.

  “Open Letter”: W P, July 30.

  Tuskegee hearing: Described in NYP, WP, July 31. Effect of hearing on senators: WP, July 31; McCulloch interviews. Polk Manders: Russell, CR, 85/1, p. 12980. Javits, Douglas, Russell exchanges: CR, 85/1, pp. 12983–986. “Tore the mask”: Shannon, NYP, July 31. “The Senator … points”: Russell, CR, 85/1, p. 12986. Angry scene on Senate floor: CR, 85/1, pp. 12993–994. Described in three vivid columns: Fleeson, McGrory, WS; Shannon, NYP, all July 31.

  Small Business Administration request: W P, NYT, July 31. “Suddenly”: Fleeson, “Senate Debate Back to Normal,” WS, July 31. “The prisoner”: Kempton, “Changing of the Guard,” NYP, July 30.

  “Any labor guy”: Reedy to Johnson, July 29, Box 418, JSP; Mann, pp. 211–12; Evans and Novak, p. 137; Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil-Rights Bill,” The Reporter, Sept. 5; Reedy interview. Brotherhoods’ prejudice: Foner, Black Worker, p. 166; Ferguson to Fleete, Sept. 29, “Switchmen’s Union of North America Records, 1894–1971,” Collection No. 5034, Box 254, Kheel Center, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Cleveland News, Sept. 27; Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept. 28. This does not apply, needless to say, to A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Railroad lobbyists: Newsweek, Aug. 12. Johnson understood: Reedy interview; Mann, p. 212, notes that “The railroad lobbyists were particularly effective with midwestern Republicans.” Brotherhoods’ political power: Curtis, Hradko, Kennedy, Mahoney interviews; Catton and Link, American Epoch, p. 58; Seidman, Brotherhood, pp. 2–4. Telephoned Anderson: Pearson, W P, Aug. 8.

  UMW bitterness: Mann, p. 212; WS, Aug. 1; Hopkins interview. Telephoned Hopkins: LBJ Desk Diary; Pearson, W P, Aug. 8; Hopkins interview. UMW telegram: CR, 85/1, p. 13015. “Had never”: CR, 85/1, p. 13015. Evans and Novak accepted Johnson’s contention, calling Lewis’ telegram “unsolicited” (p. 137). “Saw to it”: Reston, NYT, Aug. 3. And see Pearson, WP, Aug. 8. Neely’s change: Roy Wilkins to Elmer A. Carter (chairman, N.Y. State Commission Against Discrimination), Sept. 5, 1957, NAACPP III A 71, CR, LC. “Labor”: Fortune, June 1957.

  Church and Johnson: Interviews with Bethine Church, and Church aides John A. Carver, Ward and Phyllis Hower.

  “I understand”; “Senator Sunday School”: Ashby and Gramer, Fighting the Odds, p. 73. “Journalists in the press gallery made up a little ditty: ‘His name is Church, but if age was the rule, we’d call him Senator Sunday School.’” “Bursting”: Ashby and Gramer, p. 32. “Longest-running”: Wether-all, quoted by Ashby and Gramer, p. 101.

  Bethine in Washington; “deep freeze”: Bethine Church interview. “It was”; “Long memory”: Carver interview. “Pariah”: Bethine Church, quoted in Ashby and Gramer, p.78. “For the next six months,” Church himself said, “he [Johnson] never spoke to me. He said nothing to me that was insulting. He just simply ignored me. When I was present with other senators, he talked to the other senators. It was clear to me that I was persona non grata with Lyndon Johnson” (Miller, p. 210).

  “Only”: Ward Hower interview. “One night”: Bethine Church interview. Vote … but: Ashby and Gramer, p. 87. Church’s attitude on filibusters: Bethine Church, Phyllis Hower, Ward Hower interviews. “Looking”; “I don’t think”: Ward Hower interview, and quoted in Ashby and Gramer, p. 96. Whispering to O’Mahoney: CR, 85/1, p. 12819. “You’re a senator”: Bethine Church interview. Church’s idea: Mann, p. 213; Bethine Church interview.

  Drafting, discarding, refining amendment: Bethine Church, Ward Hower, Siegel interviews; Horwitz, Siegel OHs. Appealed to northern liberals: Newsweek, Time, Aug. 12; Roy Wilkins to William Walker, Aug. 19; Wilkins to C. B. Powell of Amsterdam News, Aug. 20, NAACP III, Box A 73, NAACPP, LC; WP, Aug. 1, 2. “They didn’t”; “symbolic”: Carver, Ward Hower interviews.

  Told him to wait: Church OH. “No chance”: Reedy interview; Newsweek, Time, Aug. 12. Knowland’s refusal: CR, 85/1, July 31, pp. 13111, 13112. Three agreements; Russell objecting: CR, 85/1, pp. 13128–132.

  Anderson in Johnson’s office: Reedy interview. Embodied: “One of the most unusual aspects …,” Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 1, Box 420, JSP.

  Retirement benefits; suddenly: Newsweek, Aug. 12; Shannon, NYP, Aug. 2. “The lines”: July 31, ACWD, Telephone Calls, Box 25, DDEL. “Dramatic switches”: WP, Aug. 2. Schoeppel’s judgeship: Cater, The Reporter, Sept. 5; Pearson, W P, Aug. 17. “Wobbly”: Evans and Novak, p. 137. Pastore swayed: Reston, NYT, Aug. 3.

  The drama: Descriptions of it are in Mann, pp. 213–14;Time and Newsweek, Aug. 12; Stewart Alsop, “Who Really Won,” NYHT, Aug. 5; Shannon, NYP, Aug. 2. And in Frank Church, Horwitz OHs; and in interviews with Bethine Church, Rauh, Reedy, Rogers. It is in CR, 85/1, pp. 13137–53, 13234–96, 13306–56. A full house: Ashby and Gramer, p. 89. “Frank looked”: Bethine Church interview. “East Lynne?”: Neuberger, quoted in Newsweek, Aug. 12. “Like a wave”: Bethine Church interview. “What John Pastore”: Horwitz OH. “Feign”; “the impact”: Mann, p. 214. “All of this”: Horwitz OH. “Actually changed”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 119. Lewis’ telegram: CR, 85/1, p. 13015. “I’ve got them”: Hopkins OH.

  “At least thirty-nine”: Knowland, quoted in Time, Aug. 12; Cater, The Reporter, Sept. 5. Nixon, who was still getting his information from Knowland, gave the same figures to Marquis Childs, and Childs reported that “Nixon is confident that 39 or 40 of the 47 Republicans will vote against the amendment” (SLP-D, Aug. 1). And see NYP, Aug. 2.

  Knowland’s blindness: Cater was to write that Knowland told him later that he had been prepared later that week “to force a vote by moving to table the O’Mahoney amendment even though he knew he would lose a few votes by staging such a showdown. But the votes had already left him.” “I’m ready”: Pearson, W P, Aug. 7.

  “I have conferred”; “I am encouraged”: Johnson, Knowland, CR, 85/1, pp. 13272–273. Nixon’s counting: Rogers interview. “Subtle persuasion”: Cater, The Reporter; Time, Aug. 12. “Yesterday”: Johnson, CR, 85/1, p. 13296. Liberal senators gathering: NYP, Aug. 2. “Is there objection”; “Right now”: CR, 85/1, p. 13296.

  Persuading Payne: NYHT, WP, Aug. 2. Ike, Butler and Schoeppel: Telephone calls, July 31, 1957, DDE Diary Series, July 1957, Box 25, DDEL; ACW Diary Series, Aug. 1, Box 9, DDEL. “They stopped”: Rauh OH, interview with author; Katharine Graham interview with Rauh; Cater, “How the Senate,” The Reporter, Sept. 5. “Bullwhip”: Evans and Novak, pp. 138, 139. “Just wait”: Mann, p. 216; Fleeson, WS, Aug. 6. “There are times”: Stewart Alsop, NYHT, Aug. 5.

  “Somehow”: Humphrey, CR, 85/1, p. 13330. “All that”: Douglas, CR, 85/1, pp. 13333–34. “I hope”: Clark, CR, 85/1, p. 13294. “Travesty”: Case, CR, 85/1, pp. 13321–22. “A vote”: Murray, CR, 85/1, p.13298. Church’s speech: CR, 85/1, pp. 13353–54. Bethine’s reaction: Bethine Church interview. Kennedy’s speech: CR, 85/1, pp. 13305–307.

  Johnson on the floor: Descriptions of the final debate and vote in Alsop, NYHT, Aug. 5; NYP, Aug. 1, 2.

  “There were”: Alsop, NYHT, Aug. 5. “This will be”: Knowland, CR, 85/1, p. 13354. “Support our President”: Knowland, quoted in NYT, Aug. 2. “I ask for the yeas and nays”: Lyndon B. Johnson, CR, 85/1, p. 13356. O’Mahoney hurrying: Bethine Church interview.

  “One of the saddest”: Nixon, quoted in Cater, The Reporter, Sept. 5. Knowland crying: Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 394. “‘Your man’”: Church, Father and Son, p. 50; Bethine Church interview. “After my
role”: Miller, p. 210. “Pick you up”; “A kind”: Ashby and Gramer, pp. 95, 96. McClellan Committee: Baker, Friend and Foe, p. 157. The senator is not identified in the book, but Prof. Baker identified him to me as Church. “After”: Ward Hower interview. “Maybe someday”: Marcy OH. Johnson’s note: A photocopy of the handwritten note was given to the author by Bethine Church.

  41. Omens

  All dates are 1957 unless otherwise noted.

  “Boys”: Rauh interview. Slightly different wording in Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 245; Rauh OH I, p. 25; Katharine Graham interview with Rauh, p. 29, and Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil Rights Bill,” The Reporter, Sept. 5. When he awoke: Ambrose, Eisenhower: The President, p. 411, describes the President as “furious.” “One of”: “Minutes of Cabinet Meeting,” Aug. 2, Cabinet Series, Box 9, DDEL. “Rarely”: “Statement by the President,” Aug. 2, Cabinet Series, Box 9, DDEL. “Blackest”: ACWD, Aug. 2. Box 9, DDEL.

  Jackie Robinson and Randolph: Eisenhower, White House Years: Waging Peace, p. 160. “We all sat watching”: Payne, Chicago Defender, May 31, 1958, quoted in Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 397. “Can one”: Douglas, CR, 85/1, p. 13841. “Emotional”: Phyllis Hower interview. “I know”: Lehman to Douglas, Aug. 6, “General Personal Correspondence, Box 224B, Lehman Papers, HHLP, CU. “So mad”: Rauh OH, quoted in Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 220. “The sham”: Stokes, WS, Aug. 5. Had made Nixon look good: NYP, Aug. 7.

  “Quite furious”: Evans, NYHT, Aug. 22. Conflict between two bills: Mann, p. 220; Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 139–40; HP, NYHT, NYP, NYT, WP, WS, Aug. 6–14;Bolling, Brownell, Rauh, Rogers interviews; Rauh OH. “Infinitely”: NYT, Aug. 14.

  “Less than nothing”: Rauh interview. “This bad bill”: Reprint of Morse speech in NAACP III B-55, NAACPP, LC, quoted in Watson, p. 395. Mitchell’s call; “psychological”: Watson, p. 395; Rauh interview. “All of a sudden”: Bolling interview. That expression caught on: Roy Wilkins quotes Joe Rauh as saying, “Once Congress has lost its virginity on civil rights, it would go on to make up for what had been lost” (Standing Fast, p. 245).