Pillar of Fire

by Taylor Branch

  “Do you want to go”: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990.

  Bevel looked the part: Ibid. Also Branch, Parting, pp. 263-64, 559.

  Nash, who had been raised: Int. Diane Nash, April 26, 1990.

  clerics informed her: Ibid.; Jet, Jan. 11, 1962, p. 23.

  awkward silences between them: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990; int. Robert P. Moses, Feb. 15, 1991.

  haunted aspect to his constant self-examination: Moses discussed the problem of moral complicity and leadership in many interviews. Once, for instance, he halted painfully while recalling Louis Allen, the witness who would be murdered himself after coming forward with testimony that Herbert Lee had been murdered. “Yes,” said Moses, “except that you’re not sure that he [Allen] understood what was happening. And that’s the problem. I guess my only feeling about this is that you’re willing to go the distance, too, so everything that you’re asking people to do, you’re doing yourself. And it’s got to be done.” Int. Robert P. Moses, July 30, 1984.

  “After the hunting”: Zinn, New Abolitionists, p. 79.

  Bevel persuaded Moses: Int. James Bevel, May 17, 1985; int. Robert P. Moses, Feb. 15, 1991.

  oppression requires the participation of the oppressed: Recalled by Nash at Session No. 2 of the Trinity College SNCC Reunion, April 14-16, 1988, transcript courtesy of Jack Chatfield.

  withdrew the appeal: Nash “message” from jail, April 30, 1962, A/SC123f43.

  “This will be a black baby”: Washington Afro-American, May 8, 1962, p. 1.

  “You know, son”: Int. James Bevel, May 17, 1985.

  arranged to bring Nash: Lafayette remarks at Session No. 3, Part 1, of the Trinity College SNCC Reunion, April 14-16, 1988, transcript courtesy of Jack Chatfield; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990.

  tried to persuade Nash: Int. Diane Nash, Feb. 20, 1985; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991. For the Albany movement generally: Branch, Parting, pp. 524-61, 601-32.

  back to Amzie Moore’s: Int. Diane Nash, April 26, 1990.

  placebo organization called COFO: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, p. 288; Carson, In Struggle, p. 78; Watters, Jacob’s Ladder, pp. 63-65; int. Wiley Branton, Sept. 28, 1983.

  one of COFO’s earliest church gatherings: Mills, Fannie Lou Hamer, p. 24.

  Hamer had come to see: Zinn, New Abolitionists, p. 93.

  arrested Moses again: Raines, My Soul Is Rested, pp. 271-73; SNCC booklet, Mississippi: A Chronicle of Violence, p. 9, A/SC16f15; Branch, Parting, pp. 634-36.

  owner of the Marlow plantation: Ibid. Also Mills, Fannie Lou Hamer, pp. 36-39.

  Nash fired off a letter: Jet, Sept. 27, 1962.

  “Let’s go, bulls!”: Int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

  Dahmer regularly pressed: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

  long-awaited check was useless: Int. Hollis Watkins by Joe Sinsheimer, Feb. 13, 1985.

  Dahmer’s mother, Ellen Kelly: Int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

  forty acres, a cow: Int. Vernon Dahmer, Jr., June 23, 1992.

  brothers married “out of the race”: Ibid. Also int. Robert Beech, Dec. 8, 1991.

  white boss among servants: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

  “You don’t want to be”: Int. Vernon Dahmer, Jr., June 23, 1992.

  graveyard behind Shady Grove Baptist Church: Ibid. From visual inspection of the Shady Grove gravestones, as interpreted by Vernon Dahmer, Jr., and his relatives, the main line of the family lineage buried there runs as follows: Susan Kelly (July 3, 1842-May 23, 1924) was the slave mistress of the white planter Kelly and the mother of Ellen L. (Kelly) Dahmer (March 27, 1876-December 22, 1954), who married George W. Dahmer (December 10, 1871-December 25, 1949). The latter two became the parents of Vernon Dahmer (March 10, 1908-January 10, 1966), whose first two wives are buried near him: Warnie Dahmer Williams (January 9, 1910-December 29, 1975) and Ora Lee Dahmer (July 9, 1919-March 22, 1950).

  first open meeting took place: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992, and Jan. 11, 1993; int. Alvin Dahmer, Jan. 12, 1993.

  “I turned the question around”: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

  “Who will meet me tomorrow”: Int. Victoria Gray (Adams), May 14, 1991.

  Beauty Queen’s first: Ibid.

  Doar arrived in Hattiesburg: United States v. Lynd, 321 F.2d 26 (1963).

  pell-mell witness selection: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986; John Doar speech, “The Work of the Civil Rights Division in Enforcing Voting Rights Under the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960,” pp. 11-12, courtesy of John Doar.

  dismissed the discovery portion: Factual synopsis from United States v. Lynd, 301 F.2d 818 (1962).

  “injunction pending appeal”: Bass, Unlikely Heroes, pp. 218-20.

  “belief in simple choices”: Int. Victoria Gray (Adams), May 14, 1991.

  every day in court next to Vernon: Int. J. C. Fairley, June 20, 1992; int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

  Riddell suffered a heart attack: Lord, Past That Would Not Die, p. 134.

  sensational marathon case: Ibid, pp. 131-53.

  cherry bombs from Mayes Hall: Silver, Closed Society, p. 178.

  camera taped to his ankle: Int. J. C. Fairley, June 20, 1992.

  “the negro is not nearly so bad off”: Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jan. 28, 1963, quoted in Silver, Closed Society, p. 95.

  runaway yearling calf: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992; int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

  minuscule total of twelve: CBS Reports, “Mississippi and the 15th Amendment,” Sept. 26, 1962.

  revive a project in Selma: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990; Chestnut, Black in Selma, pp. 148-50; Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1276.

  first original voting suit: Department of Justice news release, April 13, 1961, FDC-NR.

  two hundred of fifteen thousand: Ibid.

  honor roll of the brave: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986.

  veteran local stalwarts: On December 9, 1958, both Samuel and Amelia Boynton testified under oath about the history of their work to register Negro voters. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hearings (1959), pp. 211-27.

  leading Negroes were fearful: Int. Bruce Boynton, Aug. 8, 1990; int. Amelia Boynton Robinson, Aug. 7, 1990; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990; Chestnut, Black in Selma, pp. 153-59.

  provide boarding: The teacher, Margaret Moore, drowned in the mid-1960s while attending one of SCLC’s citizenship retreats near Savannah. Int. Amelia Boynton Robinson, Aug. 7, 1990; int. Marie Foster, Aug. 8, 1990.

  Foster and her brother: Ibid. Also int. Jean and Sullivan Jackson (Foster’s sister-in-law and brother), May 27, 1990.

  white Catholic priest: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

  pocketful of pennies: Chestnut, Black in Selma, pp. 38-40.

  Enmity festered: Ibid., pp. 161-63.

  “That little nigger”: Int. Rev. L. L. Anderson, May 27, 1990.

  “That will be your mistake”: Ibid.

  Lincoln collided: Ibid. Also trial records of Alabama v. Anderson, Dallas County Circuit Court No. 8799, in Fred Gray Papers, King Archives.

  still held him vulnerable: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

  eight unarmed Petteways: Ibid.

  “powerless to register”: Watters, Jacob’s Ladder, p. 65.

  Fear shut Greenwood: Branch, Parting, pp. 633-36; int. James Moore, June 25, 1992; Forman, Black Revolutionaries, pp. 283-87.

  no better next door in Sunflower: Int. Charles Cobb, Aug. 20, 1991.

  “So that you had”: Story of Greenwood, Mississippi, Folkways Record FD5593.

  nearly a third of the whites: Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1278.

  terminated all food relief: Zinn, New Abolitionists, p. 86; Branch, Parting, p. 713.

  Ivanhoe Donaldson entered the movement: Carson, In Struggle, pp. 79-80.

  SNCC’s first national fund-raising: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, p. 293.

  Camel Pressing Shop: Int. June Johnson
, April 9, 1992.

  Bevel finally gained: “I have talked to most of the ministers about the use of the churches but none seem to be willing to involve themselves,” Bevel wrote in January 1963. In the same report, Bevel predicted that the best chance for getting a Greenwood movement started lay in providing emergency food for the hungry. Bevel, “Mississippi Report SCLC Field Secretary,” A/SC41f5.

  Bevel obtained: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 21, 1992; “Report on meeting at Wesley Methodist Church,” March 18, 1963, A/SC41f7.

  80 percent by the estimate: Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1260.

  “This is why you have”: Ibid., p. 1259.

  “We killed two-month-old Indian babies”: NYT, April 6, 1963, p. 20.

  “The chances are that”: Andrew Young to “Reverend and Mrs. James Bevel,” Feb. 21, 1963, A/SC41f5.

  “Are you from Greenwood?”: Int. June Johnson, April 9, 1992.

  more than six hundred sharecroppers: Zinn, New Abolitionists, p. 88.

  “We just mean to register”: Story of Greenwood, Mississippi, Folkways Record FD5593.

  destroying four stores: Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1285.

  galvanized many sharecroppers: Branch, Parting, pp. 712-25.

  on February 25 and 26: Story of Greenwood, Mississippi, Folkways Record FD5593.

  federal staff investigator: Chester Relyea of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission was arrested at the Greenwood bus station when he arrived on March 15 to investigate the cutoff of surplus foods and the lunch programs in the local public schools. New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 21, 1963.

  Kennedy himself pushed: Cf. RFK “Speak to me” note on Burke Marshall’s memo to RFK dated March 7, 1963, Box 16, Burke Marshall Papers, JFK.

  Medgar Evers reported: Evers monthly report dated March 6, 1963, III-H-155, NAACP.

  cosmetic salve: Harris, Dreams Die Hard, pp. 37-38; Meier, Black Protest Thought, p. 334; Evers to Gloster Current, Dec. 24, 1962, and Current reply to Evers, Feb. 26, 1963, III-H-155, NAACP.

  Evers pushed New York: Evers, For Us, the Living, p. 252; int. Myrlie Evers, March 13, 1989; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

  Ponder heard Bevel: Annell Ponder, “Greenwood Citizenship Report, March 1963,” A/SC41f7.

  Septima Clark: Clark, Echo in My Soul; Clark, Ready from Within; Branch, Parting, pp. 263-64, 381-82, 575-78, 654, 899; Septima Clark Oral History, 1983, HOH.

  first church-based literacy classes: Annell Ponder, “Greenwood Citizenship Report, March 1963,” A/SC41f7.

  more than 150 sharecroppers: Ibid.

  “Who is going to believe”: Greenwood Commonwealth, March 20, 1963.

  set fire to the COFO office: Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1295.

  all eight women: Annell Ponder, “Greenwood Citizenship Report, March 1963,” A/SC41f7.

  Moses made occasional remarks: Story of Greenwood, Mississippi, Folkways Record FD5593.

  officers with guns: Zinn, New Abolitionists, pp. 91-92.

  Sudden spasms: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, pp. 296-98; Branch, Parting, pp. 717-21.

  Negroes scattered: Branch, Parting, pp. 719-20.

  Cleveland Jordan half dragged: Ida Mae Holland eyewitness report dated March 31, 1963, A/SC41f7.

  Medgar Evers earned thunderous: Medgar Evers special report dated April 1, 1963, III-H-155, NAACP.

  “the court must decide”: NYT, April 4, 1963, p. 10.

  “(b) suit”: Under the 1957 statute that applied to voting, the Justice Department filed civil suits under Section 1971(a), which prohibited discrimination, and under Section 1971(b), which prohibited intimidation of prospective voters. “We called them (a) suits and (b) suits,” recalled John Doar. The (b) suits were more difficult, more controversial, and rarer. Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986.

  any trace of euphoria: Branch, Parting, pp. 723-25.

  vacuum of public order: Int. John Doar, Oct. 29, 1984.

  point of rebellion: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983.

  Johnson boldly told Moses: Int. June Johnson, April 9, 1992.

  Greenwood supplied sixty: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, p. 305.

  symptoms of nonviolent combat fatigue: Branch, Parting, pp. 732-34.

  “It’s still not clear”: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, pp. 305-7.

  Hamer signed up: Mills, Fannie Lou Hamer, p. 51; Annell Ponder, “Greenwood Citizenship Report, March 1963,” A/SC41f7.

  skeletal visage of Kennard: Kennard was released on January 28, 1963, as recorded in the Hattiesburg American of the next day. Research courtesy of Jan Hillegas.

  what transfixed Victoria Gray: Int. Victoria Gray Adams, May 14, 1991.

  hitched a ride alone: Int. Victoria Gray Adams, May 14, 1991.

  6. TREMORS: L.A. TO SELMA

  Bevel was in Birmingham: Branch, Parting, p. 734ff.

  Walker’s tactical innovations: Ibid., p. 730.

  Bevel showed a film: Int. James Bevel, May 16-17, 1985. The film was an NBC White Paper entitled Nashville Sit-ins, produced by Bob Young, who later produced the 1964 feature film on the movement era, Nothing but a Man.

  not just the older teenagers: Argument over the use of children in demonstrations from Branch, Parting, pp. 747-55.

  line of fifty teenagers: Ibid., pp. 756-802.

  trampled the chain-link fence: Int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

  “Now this ‘male Negro’ business”: Testimony of Lee Logan, May 6, 1963, BTT, p. 718ff.

  all-white jury was probably best: Int. Earl Broady, Nov. 4, 1990, and March 25, 1991.

  begin to admit: Ibid.

  For a month now: Jury selection in the Muslim trial began on April 8, 1963. The last verdicts were announced on June 14, 1963.

  up to 250 armed deputies: ANP news release dated June 17, 1963, b384f8, Claude Barnet Papers, CHS.

  “Your Honor”: BTT, p. 723.

  “might pull a Muslim”: LAT, May 6, 1963.

  “As a Muslim”: BTT, p. 1303.

  “Just for the record”: BTT, p. 365.

  Kuykendall was to remain: Int. Paul Kuykendall, Feb. 7, 1992; int. Jesse Brewer, June 13, 1991; int. Samuel Hunter, Feb. 6, 1992; int. Frank Tomlinson, Oct. 15, 1991.

  fn “The average so-called Negro”: Malcolm X interview on the radio program At Random, March 3, 1963, FMXNY-3434.

  Muslim witnesses denied: BTT, passim; int. Wazir Muhammad (Randolph Sidle), March 27, 1991; int. Karim Muhammad (Troy Augustine) by Jonah Edelman, June 14, 1991.

  “We are not sitting idly by”: Branch, Parting, p. 778ff.

  Zeno testified: BTT, pp. 1397-98.

  no human being could endure: Ibid., pp. 2590-91.

  admitted feeling resentment: (Defendant Nathaniel X. Rivers), ibid., p. 1867.

  “Are you a registered”: Int. Amelia Boynton Robinson, Aug. 7, 1990; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

  Lafayette canvassed: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

  and other pastors refused: Ibid. Also Chestnut, Black in Selma, pp. 160-63.

  “They don’t feel disposed”: Int. Rev. L. L. Anderson, May 27, 1990.

  “I understand you call yourself”: Ibid.

  “No, no, brother pastor”: Ibid.

  Tuesday evening, May 14: Tabernacle mass meeting from Chestnut, Black in Selma, pp. 163-65; STJ, May 15, 1963; Forman, Black Revolutionaries, p. 318. Also int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990; int. Rev. L. L. Anderson, May 27, 1990; remarks of Bernard Lafayette at Session No. 3, Part 1, of the Trinity College SNCC Reunion, April 14-16, 1988, transcript courtesy of Jack Chatfield.

  758 racial demonstrations: Branch, Parting, p. 825.

  7. MARX IN THE WHITE HOUSE

  “I cannot condone”: Branch, Parting, p. 761.

  “extreme and extremely dangerous”: AJ, May 10, 1963, p. 26.

  “School children participating”: Branch, Parting, p. 762.

  “making a fool of himself”: LAT, May 5, 1963.

  �
�any man who puts”: Lomax, When the Word Is Given, p. 85.

  “You can’t call it results”: Malcolm X interview on WUST radio, May 12, 1963, FMX-64.

  “Grievances of the Two”: MS, June 21, 1963, p. 1.

  more stories about race: Rough news comparisons drawn from New York Times index entries for “Negroes,” “NATO,” “TV and Radio,” and “Malcolm X (Little)” as follows: 1962 NYT Index, pp. 582, 643-50, 709-15, 900-907; 1963 NYT Index, pp. 489, 535-59, 596-604, 774-80; 1964 NYT Index, pp. 592, 656-91, 750-58, 1000-1005.

  nine per week: Muse, American Negro Revolution, p. 39.

  “have moved out in front”: U.S. News & World Report, July 29, 1963, quoted in ibid.

  “doomed to founder”: National Review, July 2, 1963, pp. 519-20.

  “The Peace Corps has won”: Bill Moyers to Shriver, May 15, 1963, Box 41, Moyers Papers, LBJ.

  “You have me reeling”: Ibid.; int. Sargent Shriver, June 29, 1993.

  President Kennedy met privately: Branch, Parting, pp. 796-809.

  “might tear up that paper agreement”: White House meeting, May 12, 1963, Audiotape 86.2, JFK.

  “We ought to have him”: White House meeting, May 20, 1963, Audiotape 88.4, JFK.

  chorus of Baldwin’s choosing: Branch, Parting, pp. 809-13.

  Kennedy marked Jones: Ibid., p. 812.

  Kennedy hurled his conflicted energies: Burke Marshall Oral History, LBJ.

  On May 29, Johnson: Transcript of the May 29, 1963, meeting of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, office files of George Reedy, Container 7, LBJ.

  “‘Why should we hire Negroes?’”: Branch, Parting, p. 807.

  “Can I obtain from you immediately”: Page 26, transcript of the May 29, 1963, meeting of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, office files of George Reedy, Container 7, LBJ.

  “period and paragraph”: Ibid., p. 68.

  Antonio Taylor of New Mexico: Ibid., p. 86.

  magnified his humiliation: Edison Dictaphone Recording of LBJ-Sorensen conversation, June 3, 1963, p. 14, LBJ.

  distinguished public appointees: The public appointees to the employment committee included United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther, industrialist Edgar Kaiser, Dean Francis B. Sayre of the Washington Cathedral, and Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein of Temple KAM in Chicago. Rabbi Weinstein recorded his impressions of the tense meeting in a letter to his friend Arthur Goldberg, then the newest Supreme Court Justice, about the meeting. “For 4½ hours we really sweated it out as Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy engaged in a sharp dialogue,” wrote Weinstein, “the one defending the Committee against the other’s sharp probing into its methods.” Jacob J. Weinstein Papers, 14f3, CHS.