Pillar of Fire

by Taylor Branch

  nearly seventy people had been jailed: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 65; Boston Globe, March 29, 1964, p. 8.

  “I do not believe”: Int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

  mass meeting at Zion: “Witness at St. Augustine, Florida,” by Esther J. Burgess, courtesy of Esther J. Burgess; Boston Globe, March 30, 1964, p. 3.

  far north as Gorham: PC, April 4, 1964, p. 2.

  Burgess made sure that the fruit cup: “Witness at St. Augustine, Florida,” by Esther J. Burgess, courtesy of Esther J. Burgess.

  “How nice it is”: Boston Globe, March 31, 1964, pp. 1-2.

  five stayed on to face arrest: NYT, March 31, 1964, pp. 1-2.

  “I have a higher loyalty to God”: “Witness at St. Augustine, Florida,” by Esther J. Burgess, courtesy of Esther J. Burgess.

  leadership crisis was flashing: Int. Paul Chapman, Nov. 4, 1994; int. William Sloane Coffin, July 16, 1991.

  beaten their colleague Paul Chapman: Boston Globe, March 30, 1964, p. 5; int. Paul Chapman, Nov. 4, 1994; Burke Marshall to MLK, April 13, 1964, responding to King’s telegram of March 31 “with reference to the assault upon Reverend Paul Chapman,” A/KP24f22.

  talking Mary Peabody into jail: Int. William Sloane Coffin, July 16, 1991.

  communion service at Trinity Episcopal: Boston Globe, April 1, 1964, pp. 1-2; The Witness, April 9, 1964; Hartley, “A Long, Hot Summer,” pp. 35-36, and “Racial and Civil Disorders,” pp. 7-8, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  Hosea Williams drilled: NYT, April 1, 1964, pp. 1, 27; int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991; int. Willie Bolden, May 14, 1992.

  surrounded them with cattle prod: Ibid. Also Jacksonville teletype to Director, March 31, 1964, FSA-1264; Jacksonville LHM, “Racial Situation, St. Johns County, Florida,” April 1, 1964, FSA-NR.

  Coffin told Peabody: Int. William Sloane Coffin, July 16, 1991.

  “Thank you, Endicott”: Boston Globe, April 1, 1964, p. 2.

  Hayling scoured Elk’s Rest: Int. William Sloane Coffin, July 16, 1991.

  Georgia Reed: Ibid. Also int. Georgia Reed, April 2, 1991.

  Governor Bryant still thought: C. Farris Bryant, oral history of March 5, 1971, by Joe B. Frantz, pp. 28-30, LBJ.

  trouble getting Walter Jenkins: Transcript of Feb. 14, 1964, telephone conversation between Walter Jenkins and Governor Bryant, Series 2, Box 2, Jenkins Papers, LBJ.

  two hundred demonstrators filled: PC, April 11, 1964, pp. 1-2; Florida Times-Union, April 1, 1964, p. 28.

  fifty-seven Negro women in a smaller cell: Judge’s handwritten notes on testimony of April 2, 1964, in Bryan Simpson Papers, UF.

  “every inch the Boston blueblood”: Boston Globe, April 2, 1964, p. 2.

  “a muted pink suit”: NYT, April 1, 1964, p. 27.

  “You look just like”: Int. Katherine and Henry Twine, April 2, 1991.

  Fifty reporters clamored: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 67.

  stimulated demands: Director to SAC, Jacksonville, March 31, 1964, FSA-1256.

  opening with the Golden Rule: Matthew 7:12. NYT, March 31, 1964, p. 1.

  flanked by Sheriff Davis: NYT, April 1, 1964, p. 1.

  Mudd would report nightly: Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, pp. 149-51.

  Emissaries from Walter Cronkite: Florida Times-Union, April 1, 1964, p. 28.

  Prat flew south: Int. Jack Pratt March 25, 1991.

  eighty-eight new demonstrators: Jacksonville teletype to Director, April 1, 1964, FSA-1267; NYT, April 2, 1964, p. 18; Jacksonville LHM, April 2, 1964, FSA-NR.

  Yale professor Jacques Bossiere: Boston Globe, April 3, 1964, p. 3.

  breakfast of hominy grits: Boston Globe, April 2, 1964, p. 4.

  “I understand you’re representing”: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  “These burns will all be back”: Kunstler, Deep in My Heart, p. 275.

  Davis again blocked: Ibid., pp. 271-84.

  shoving Kunstler and Pratt: Ibid. Also int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  whittling on the bench: Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 119-21.

  “Somebody goes and sticks their head”: Transcript of Findings by Judge Bryan Simpson, April 2, 1964, Bryan Simpson papers, p. 35, UF.

  not about to second-guess: Ibid., p. 382.

  new Supreme Court ruling: NYT, March 31, 1964, p. 1; Kunstler, Deep in My Heart, pp. 279-80.

  Simpson extracted a promise: Order of April 3, 1964, in David Robinson et al. v. State of Florida, Bryan Simpson Papers, p. 46, UF.

  mass meeting that night: Kunstler, Deep in My Heart, p. 283; int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  “I feel as if a wall were crumbling”: NYT, April 3, 1964, p. 23.

  “I have been so deeply inspired”: Boston Globe, April 3, 1963, pp. 1, 8.

  “Grandmother Peabody”: Robert K. Massie, “Don’t Tread on Grandmother Peabody,” Saturday Evening Post, May 16, 1964, pp. 74-76; Colburn, Racial Change, p. 70.

  “Protesters Fail”: NYT, April 4, 1964, p. 1.

  frustrated Hosea Williams: “Racial and Civil Disorders,” pp. 35-36, in Garrow, cd., St. Augustine; int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

  “I consider myself”: NYT, April 2, 1964, p. 18.

  rebuttal appearance: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 70-71.

  “Mrs. Peabody’s Act”: Florida Times-Union, May 21, 1964, p. 18.

  wore a gun openly: Oral History of L. O. Davis and Virgil Stuart, Tape B75#1, SAHS.

  forty-odd bodies: Ibid.

  Davis campaigned aggressively: Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 70-73.

  avoided the new white militiamen: Int. Josephine Bozard, April 6, 1991.

  dealer fired the man summarily: Ibid. Also Oral History of L. O. Davis and Virgil Stuart, Tape B75#1, SAHS.

  Sunday School teacher, Dr. Hardgrove Norris: Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 131-33; int. Josephine Bozard, April 6, 1991; int. Ramelle Petroglou, April 4, 1991; int. David Nolan and Page Edwards, April 4, 1991; tape-recorded interviews with Hardgrove Norris, courtesy of David Colburn. With Norris as the likely source, an investigating committee of the Florida legislature addpted the “catspaw” theory in 1965. “Racial and Civil Disorders,” pp. 8, 81, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  shut off church contributions: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 168.

  detected socialist tendencies: Int. Page Edwards, April 4, 1991.

  “any or all of us ministers”: WCKT-TV, Miami, Fountain of Dissent, Part 2, aired May 16, 1964, PEA.

  Bernard Lee reported: “We’ve got to do some organizing here,” Lee said on April 3. Hartley, “A Long, Hot Summer,” p. 38, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  Another King representative: John L. Gibson. Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 74-75.

  never missed a Hayling mass meeting: Int. Fannie Fulwood, April 6, 1991.

  Internal NAACP reports: Cf. Robert Saunders to Ruby Hurley, May 8, 1964, III-C-305, p. 2, NAACP.

  “King is now having to back down”: Robert Saunders to Gloster Current, June 16, 1964, III-C-305, NAACP.

  two-day annual meeting: “Minutes of the Semi-Annual Board Meeting,” April 16-17, 1964, A/KP29f3; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 320-21.

  James Bevel lobbied: Ibid. Also Bevel to MLK, “Nonviolent vs. Brinksmenship,” nd (stamped April 13, 1964), A/KP28f5.

  Wyatt Walker closed his lengthy review: “Minutes of the Semi-Annual Board Meeting,” April 16-17, 1964, A/KP29f3.

  King was losing touch: Int. Wyatt Tee Walker by Donald H. Smith, Dec. 1963, SHSW; int. Wyatt Tee Walker, Aug. 20, 1984.

  “Walker agreed to reconnoiter”: Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 75-76. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 325.

  “our operation appears to be raggedy”: “wtw” to MLK, “Suggested approach and chronology for St Augustine,” nd (May 1964), A/KP20f44.

  21. WRESTLING WITH LEGENDS

  news from Pierre Salinger: Int. Victoria Murphy, Aug. 17, 1993; Johnson, White House Diary, p. 96.

  George Reedy was confined: Goldman, Tragedy, pp. 139-40.

  first time in Reedy’s long acquainta
nce: Int. George Reedy, May 8, 1991; Reed, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 23.

  “Now that we are”: Ward, The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations, pp. 35, 153.

  ongoing conversations with Ward: Int. George Reedy, May 8, 1991; int. Jack Valenti, Feb. 25, 1991; Time, Sept. 3, 1965, p. 19. Johnson may well have been introduced to Barbara Ward by his friends Arthur Goldschmidt and Elizabeth Wickenden, whose careers as economic development experts acquainted them with Ward and her husband, Sir Robert G. A. Jackson, who worked with Goldschmidt at the United Nations. Goldschmidt commended Ward’s speeches to Johnson shortly after the assassination (Goldschmidt to LBJ, Dec. 30, 1963, Name File, Barbara Jackson, LBJ). Eric F. Goldman, the Princeton historian whom Johnson brought to the White House in place of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., wrote an enthusiastic review of The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations for the New York Times Book Review (Feb. 25, 1962, p. 1).

  Air Force jets transport her from Europe: Cyrus Vance to Jack Valenti, June 4, 1964, and Barbara Ward to Valenti, June 12, 1964, Valenti Papers, AC54-87, LBJ; Ward to “My dear Mr. President,” July 5, 1964, Name File Barbara Jackson, LBJ.

  cowboy who drove terrified correspondents: Evans, Lyndon B. Johnson, pp. 429-31.

  Johnson protested: Ibid. Also Miller, Lyndon, pp. 456-57.

  Journalists were remarking: Press conference of March 15, 1964, PPP, pp. 364-65; Wicker, On Press, pp. 123-28.

  “going around with a prayer”: LBJ phone call with Sargent Shriver, Jan. 1, 1964, Cit. 1116, Audiotape WH6401.01, LBJ.

  “the whole damned Secret Service”: LBJ phone call with Rufus Youngblood, Jan. 6, 1964, Cit. 1208, Audiotape WH6401.06, LBJ.

  “Your damn Secret Service”: LBJ phone call with James Rowley, May 13, 1964, Cit. 3442, Audiotape Wh6405.06, LBJ.

  “I might make you stay at home”: LBJ phone call with Robert Byrd, April 10, 1964, Cit. 2995, Audiotape Wh6404.08, LBJ.

  “It is a kind of embarrassing”: LBJ phone call with William Fulbright, April 29, 1964, Cit. 3186, Audiotape WH6404.15, LBJ.

  “something new in Presidential TV”: Eric F. Goldman to LBJ, March 4, 1964, WHCF-PR, Box 367, LBJ.

  needed to develop his own slogan: Press conference of March 15, 1964, PPP, pp. 364-65; Wicker, On Press, pp. 367-68.

  five thousand police: Time, May 1, 1964, p. 18.

  “I felt sorry for them”: NYT, April 23, 1964, p. 26. LBJ made similar remarks the next day at a White House news conference. NYT, April 24, 1964, p. 14.

  “wide-eyed, hare-brained”: Time, May 1, 1964, pp. 18, 22, 33.

  “bearded and untidy”: NYT, April 23, 1964, pp. 1, 26.

  gaping faults within the fair: Caro, The Power Broker, pp. 1082-1114. For a sampling of reports, see The Christian Century, July 29, 1964, pp. 968-69, and Oct. 7, 1964, pp. 1128-1129; Life, May 1, 1964, p. 26ff, and Aug. 7, 1964, p. 81ff; Newsweek, Feb. 1, 1965, p. 61; The New Yorker, May 2, 1964, pp. 35-39; Saturday Evening Post, May 23, 1964, pp. 12-29; Time, June 5, 1964, pp. 40-52

  “I prophesy peace”: NYT, April 23, 1964, p. 26.

  settled a debilitating strike: Ibid., p. 1.

  up before dawn to gallop: Johnson, White House Diary, pp. 117-23.

  fingers started bleeding: Time, May 1, 1964, p. 20.

  Johnson strayed: Int. Victoria Murphy, Aug. 17-18, 1993; Victoria McHugh (Murphy) oral history of June 9, 1975, pp. 1-4, LBJ.

  Mentioning his favorite author: Remarks in Pittsburgh to the League of Women Voters, April 24, 1964, PPP, p. 534.

  Johnson tried out the phrase: Ibid., pp. 533-37. The previous day in Chicago, Johnson had used the phrase “great society” four times in a speech to the Democratic Club of Cook County: Ibid., pp. 527-32.

  “evoke a nation of humane grandeur: Ward urgently summarized “the greatest vision of our society” in her concluding paragraphs: “Am I free if my brother is bound by hopeless poverty and ignorance?…” Ward, The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations pp. 158-59.

  “no ceiling on his energy”: Time, May 1, 1964, pp. 17-21.

  “King explained himself”: MLK to Height, Branton, Farmer, Lewis, Randolph, Wilkins, and Young, April 21, 1964, A/KP27f38.

  Wallace won a third: “Midwest Jolted by Wallace Vote,” NYT, April 9, 1964, p. 19.

  fn “Civil Rights—A Grim Day”: Boston Globe, April 8, 1964, p. 1. Also “North’s First Rights Martyr Made in Bloody Cleveland,” Jet, April 23, 1964, pp. 14-23. By coincidence, Malcolm X was in Cleveland on the day Klunder died. On a radio show, Malcolm said the Klunder death proved Elijah Muhammad’s theory that whites would resist integration violently, making it impossible. FBI transcript of Malcolm X remarks on Contact, Radio KYW, Cleveland, April 7, 1964, FMXNY-4455.

  published a special page: NYT, April 19, 1964, p. IV-13.

  still wanted to hire Bayard Rustin: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 320.

  New York advisers worried: Int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983; int. Harry Wachtel, May 17, 1990. The Rustin topic was overheard on the Levison and Jones wiretaps frequently through the winter and spring of 1964, with suspicions about Rustin and the socialists beginning in March. Cf. wiretap transcripts of March 11, 1964, FLNY-9-469a, and March 16, 1964, FLNY-7-728a.

  theorist Max Shachtman: Max Shachtman oral history by Stephen Chodes, 1962, CU/OH; Isserman, If I Had a Hammer, pp. 34-69; “Trotsky’s Orphans,” New Republic, June 22, 1987, pp. 18-22.

  Trotsky literary estate: “Hearing Before the State Department in the Matter of Application for a Passport for Mr. Max Shachtman, National Chairman, Independent Socialist League,” Nov. 3, 1953, pp. 33-34, Box 73, Joseph Rauh Papers, LOC.

  workshops at times included: Int. Michael Harrington, Aug. 31, 1983, and Oct. 27, 1983; int. Irving Howe, Nov. 28, 1983.

  New York lawyers reported: Int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983.

  quibbled with Levison: Ibid. Also int. Harry Wachtel, May 17, 1990.

  “You’re doing the same thing”: Int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 28, 1989.

  “are beginning to infiltrate”: WP, April 15, 1964, p. 23.

  resisted the urgent counsel: NY LHM, April 22, 1964, FJ-NR; Baumgardner to Sullivan, April 23, 1964, FL-NR; Hoover to Walter Jenkins, April 27, 1964, FK-NR.

  Marshall had listened: Baumgardner to Sullivan, April 26, 1964, FK-NR.

  “Hoover Says Reds Exploit”: NYT, April 22, 1964, p. 30.

  Hoover, blocked by Robert Kennedy: Int. Edwin Guthman, June 25, 1984.

  “the Alsop case”: Yoder, Joe Alsop’s Cold War, pp. 153-58; WP, April 13, 1995, p. C1.

  King pushed his advisers: NY LHM, April 27, 1964, FK-NR.

  fn “revolting”; NYT, April 22, 1964, p. 30.

  “Rev. King’s Icy Fury”: San Francisco Examiner, April 24, 1964.

  dictated the King statement: SAC, San Francisco, to Director, April 23, 1964, FK-NR.

  “King mentioned the Director”: Sullivan to Belmont, April 23, 1964, FK-352.

  “It would be encouraging to us”: King statement “in response to a recent article written by Mr. Joseph Alsop and Mr. J. Edgar Hoover’s charge,” April 23, 1964, p. 3, A/KS. King’s lawyers wrote letters of rebuttal to newspapers: Eskridge to Eugene Patterson, April 24, 1964, and Eskridge to John Hay Whitney, April 24, 1964, A/SC9f35.

  “we have utilized”: Hoover “Confidential” letter to LBJ, April 10, 1964, answering LBJ to Hoover, April 8, 1964, HU2/ST1, FG 135-6, LBJ.

  Sullivan placed an emergency call: Sullivan to Belmont, April 23, 1964, FK-3116.

  arranged microphone bugs: Garrow, FBI and Martin, p. 115.

  “I want to hit him hard”: Ibid., p. 113.

  “the rhythms of man”: Harris, Dream Die Hard, p. 57.

  “If we have any anchor”: Moses speech of April 24, 1964, SUARC.

  rose for a standing ovation: Harris, Dreams Die Hard, p. 57.

  “All the colored folks”: Holt, The Summer That Didn’t End, p. 159.

  candidacy for the U.S. Senate: “Negro Woman Qualifies for Mississippi Senate Seat,” SNCC press release of April 10, 1964, A/SN1
01f8.

  Kentucky college secured: Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, p. 85.

  “It is unbelievably absurd”: Jane Stembridge to Mary King, April 21, 1964, cited in Mary King, Freedom Song, pp. 369-70.

  22. FILIBUSTERS

  superimposed clock: Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, p. 166.

  vigil at the Lincoln Memorial: NYT, May 2, 1964; Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, pp. 55-56.

  “unparalleled in the annals”: NYT, April 10, 1964, p. 1; NYT, April 26, 1964, p. 45; NYT, April, 29, 1964, p. 1; WP, April 29, 1964, p. 1.

  reverse “enslavement” of white people: Cf. Kilpatrick, “What a Southern Conservative Thinks,” Saturday Review, April 25, 1964, pp. 15-18; “Maybe It’s Time to Look at the Antislavery Amendment,” U.S. News & World Report, May 11, 1964, pp. 82-84.

  “How can any Christian”: Congressional Record-Senate, April 29, 1964, pp. 9535-44.

  “I turn around”: LBJ phone call with Bill Moyers, April 28, 1964, Cit. 3171, Audiotape WH6404.14, LBJ.

  Oscar Lee preached the first: Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, p. 55.

  President Johnson received: NYT, April 30, 1964, p. 1.

  “From the time”: PPP, April 29, 1964, Item 301, pp. 588-89.

  “my herdmen and your herdmen”: Genesis 13:8.

  fn “If you ever follow dogs”: NYT, April 29, 1964, p. 43.

  Northern Presbyterians elected: NYT, May 22, 1964, p. 1.

  dissenting elders renewed: Address of Dr. James Findlay at University of Chicago School of Divinity, April 24, 1995.

  Southern Baptists voted down: NYT, May 22, 1964, p. 20.

  invite Rev. Henry Russell: NYT, April 26, 1964, p. 61.

  compromise that reunited Methodists: Methodist history summarized for General Assembly, as recorded in Daily Christian Advocate, April 29, 1960, pp. 79-80, 104-6, May 1, 1964, pp. 141-46, May 2, 1964, pp. 238-39, May 7, 1964, pp. 486-88.

  “I would like to remind”: Daily Christian Advocate, May 2, 1964, p. 179.

  tumultuous Pittsburgh assembly: Ibid., pp. 218-42; NYT, April 29, 1964, p. 29, May 2, 1964, p. 1.

  driving white Methodists: Daily Christian Advocate, May 1, 1964, p. 167.

  Lawson wept openly: Int. James Lawson, March 26, 1991.