Pillar of Fire

by Taylor Branch

  “Discussions should be begun”: Dolan to Marshall, June 5, 1964, Box 7, Marshall Papers, JFK.

  “I want to commend you”: Pat Watters, “St. Augustine,” New South, Sept. 1964, p. 11.

  Simpson had asked for a courtesy moratorium: Kunstler, Deep in My Heart, pp. 289-95; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

  Georgia Reed testified: Hartley, “A Long, Hot Summer,” p. 47, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  “they were just a bunch of kids”: Kunstler, Deep in My Heart, p. 290.

  “Why that man’s a convicted felon”: Hartley, “A Long, Hot Summer,” p. 47, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  1959 moonshine trial: Miami Herald, June 14, 1964, p. 14; Port Arthur (Tex.) News, June 15, 1977, p. 17.

  Simpson asked: Pat Watters, “St. Augustine,” New South, Sept. 1964, p. 10. FBI officials, who briefed Simpson on ties between law enforcement and the Klan, ignored the Catholic-Klan technicalities and routinely referred to Manucy as the “Exalted Cyclops of the St. Augustine Klavern.” (Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 328-29; Jacksonville FBI LHM, June 1, 1964, FSA-1353, pp. 4-5; Rosen to Belmont, June 2, 1964, FSA-1364.)

  baccalaureate address two days later: NYT, June 8, 1964, p. 22.

  taking Coretta with him: Int. John Maguire, Sept. 15, 1990.

  causing a fright: Ibid.

  “long and difficult wilderness”: King speech of June 7, 1964, A/KS6.

  fn $67 in his government account: Moyers to Walter Jenkins, June 8, 1964, Box 39, Moyers Papers, LBJ.

  first gentile to receive: NYT, June 8, 1964, p. 22.

  24. BRUSHFIRES

  arsonists set fire: McGowan to Rosen, May 30, 1964, FSA-1343; Jacksonville teletype to Director, June 8, 1964, FSA-1343; Jacksonville LHM of June 8, 1964, FSA-1380, p. 2.

  King and his new Research Committee: Wachtel to Reddick, June 2, 1964, A/KP25f26.

  calling Muslim women: FBI wiretap transcript of June 7, 1964, FMXNY-1-5a, pp. 1-3.

  “You think the Messenger is that ruthless?”: Ibid., p. 1.

  “The Nation would even murder”: New York FBI LHM, June 8, 1964, FMXNY-4536.

  loyalist members stayed late: Ibid., p. 2.

  “Just tell him he’s as good as dead”: FBI wiretap transcript of June 8, 1964, FMXNY-1-6, p. 1.

  Wallace rushed him into a studio: Ibid., pp. 3-7; SAC, New York, to SACs, Phoenix, Chicago, and Director, June 8, 1964, FMXNY-4539; Perry, Malcolm, p. 288.

  He alerted friends: SAC, New York, to Director, June 9, 1964, FMXNY-4540; FBI wiretap transcript of June 7, 1964, FMXNY-1-5a, p. 2.

  citizens’ hearing on Mississippi: Summary of June 8 hearing prepared by Judge Justine Polier, A/SN100f14; Dittmer, Local People, p. 239.

  “It cannot be stated”: COFO notice to members of the United States Congress, June 3, 1964, cited in Holt, The Summer That Didn’t End, pp. 204-7.

  “That is why”: Elizabeth Allen testimony of June 8, 1964, reprinted in Congressional Record, June 16, 1964, photocopied in A/SN111f17, p. 5.

  Hartman Turnbow testified: Ibid., pp. 6-7.

  “Not only have I been”: Ibid., pp. 3-4.

  piled into a car and headed from Greenwood: Affidavit of Charles McLaurin, July 27, 1964, A/MFDP10f3.

  admitted that he was a nigger: Ibid. Also affidavits of James Jones, James Black, and Samuel Block regarding incident of June 8, 1964, A/MFDP10f1.

  ambushed three white magazine writers: United States Commission on Civil Rights, Law Enforcement: A Report on Equal Protection in the South, 1965, pp. 30-31.

  novelist Joseph Heller and other sponsors: Harold Taylor, Robert Coles, Noel Day, Paul Goodman, Joseph Heller, Murray Kempton, Justine Polier, and Gresham Sykes to LBJ, June 11, 1964, A/SN100f14.

  Roy Wilkins was candidly criticizing: Staff Meeting Minutes, June 9-11, 1964, A/SN7, p. 11.

  “Oh, but you are all so American”: Ed King, “SNCC and Dr. Lohia,” New South, Summer 1971, pp. 57-62.

  marathon at Frazier’s Lounge: Staff Meeting Minutes, June 9-11, 1964, A/SN7; Mary King, Freedom Song, pp. 307-25.

  “There used to be a bond”: Staff Meeting Minutes, June 9-11, 1964, A/SN7, p. 1.

  “No one can be rational”: Ibid., p. 15; Mary King, Freedom Song, p. 314.

  “Don’t you see?”: Mary King, Freedom Song, p. 324.

  “To the extent that we think”: Staff Meeting Minutes, June 9-11, 1964, A/SN7, p. 4.

  “the controllable things”: Mary King, Freedom Song, p. 318.

  Moses later sent Stokely: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, p. 374.

  “I am probably a dead man already”: Perry, Malcolm, p. 288.

  “certain information”: SAC, New York, to Director and SACs, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, June 9, 1964, FMXNY-4540.

  vetoed airing the sex charges: SAC, New York, to SAC, Boston, June 11, 1964, FMXNY-4549; SAC, New York, to Director and SACs, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, June 11, 1964, FMXNY-4552; SAC, New York, to Director, July 1, 1964, FMXNY-4674.

  brawl outside the Philadelphia mosque: FBI wiretap transcript of June 11, 1964, FMXNY-1-9a, p. 2.

  refuge in the Chicago FBI office: Chicago LHM of June 15, 1964, FMXNY-4568.

  reverberations among the women: SAC, Chicago, to Director, June 16, 1964, FMXNY-4576.

  “If we don’t stop clowning”: Intercept of conversation between Lottie Muhammad and her mother, Clara, June 12, 1964, in ibid., p. 3.

  “the direction which my life should take”: Young to Douglass and Hotchkiss, June 9, 1964, A/KP27f41.

  council had just voted formally: NYT, June 6, 1964, p. 26.

  Simpson terminated the ban: Judge Bryan Simpson, “Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law,” in Young v. Davis, No. 64-133-Civ-J, June 9, 1964, in Simpson Papers, UF; Jacksonville Journal, June 10, 1964, p. 10; Hartley, “A Long, Hot Summer,” p. 49, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  crisis from Alabama: NYT, June 10, 1964, p. 1.

  dispatched James Bevel: UPI news story of June 9, 1964, FK-384.

  “heard of this incident”: LBJ phone call with Robert Kennedy, June 9, 1964, Cit. 3646, Audiotape WH6406.03, LBJ.

  shot down over northern Laos: An April coup in Laos collapsed resistance to the Laotian Communists (Pathet Lao). Historian Robert Warner described a haphazard, “unreal quality” to the short-lived coup that precipitated the introduction of U.S. warplanes in Laos, almost as a distraction from the Johnson administration’s secret, protracted debate about war options in neighboring Vietnam. “Under house arrest, the prime minister [Souvanna Phouma] appeared on the balcony of his official residence,” wrote Warner. “The U.S. Ambassador, Leonard Under, shouted encouragement to him from the garden. Within hours the right-wing generals were quarreling with one another.” Warner, Back Fire, pp. 136-38; Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, vol. 3, pp. 172-74, 180; Shapley, Promise and Power, p. 300.

  notifying congressional leaders: LBJ phone call with Carl Albert, June 9, 1964, Cit. 3649, Audiotape WH6406.04, LBJ.

  “too big a deal of it”: LBJ phone call with Hubert Humphrey, June 9, 1964, Cit. 3653, Audiotape WH6406.04, LBJ.

  “If they’ll just quit advancing”: LBJ phone call with Mike Mansfield, June 9, 1964, Cit. 3651, Audiotape WH6406.04, LBJ.

  “If we’re gonna stay”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, June 9, 1964, Cit. 3663, Audiotape WH6406.04, LBJ.

  Marshall called Lee White: Lee White file memo, June 10, 1964, HU2/St9, LG/St. Augustine, LBJ.

  SCLC sent a telegram: UPI news story of June 9, 1964, FK-384.

  Clarence Jones orchestrated: Hoover to Walter Jenkins, June 10, 1964, FK-377.

  threats against King were not a federal matter: Ibid., p. 2.

  “Dr. King—this is the letter”: Young, handwritten note on Young to Douglass and Hotchkiss, June 9, 1964, A/KP36f15.

  took the Senate floor at 7:38 P.M.: Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, p. 195.

  “749 years ago next Monday”: Congressional Record, June 9, 1964, p. S13188.

  “when it comes to employme
nt”: Ibid., p. S13150.

  “a woman of one race”: Ibid., p. S13201.

  Andrew Young walked again: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 90; Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 92-93.

  watched Young rise slowly: Int. Willie Bolden, May 14, 1992; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991; Young, A Way Out of No Way, pp. 90-94.

  “The thud of the kicks”: Jacksonville Journal, June 10, 1964, p. 10.

  as Martin Luther King left Atlanta: King arrived in Jacksonville by plane and drove toward St. Augustine at 10:40 A.M., twenty minutes before the cloture vote began in Washington. SAC, Jacksonville, teletype to Director, FBI, June 10, 1964, FSA-1388.

  “I have attempted to reach”: Congressional Record, June 9, 1964, p. S13206.

  “curse of Noah”: Ibid., p. S13207 (from Genesis 9:25).

  “thy cattle gender”: Ibid. (from Leviticus 19:19).

  “to do what I will”: Ibid. (from Matthew 20:15).

  “even in heaven”: Ibid. (from 1 Peter 3:22).

  “the verbiage of the Declaration”: Ibid., p. S13208.

  “If all men”: Ibid. (from Matthew 25:1-13).

  “from the garden of Mrs. Humphrey”: Ibid., p. S13207.

  “But the Scriptural”: Ibid., p. S13208.

  after fourteen hours: Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, p. 197.

  fn filibuster filled: Ibid., p. 200; Graham, The Civil Rights Era, p. 151.

  Californian Clair Engle: NYT, June 11, 1964, p. 21.

  “we voted cloture”: PPP, June 10, 1964, pp. 762-65.

  “Hello, hero”: PDD, 6:30 P.M., June 10, 1964, LBJ.

  Lynda Bird’s hamburger party: Johnson, White House Diary, pp. 162-64.

  “Open up some communication”: LBJ phone call with Lee White, June 10, 1964, Cit. 3671, Audiotape WH6406.05, LBJ.

  “planting political stories”: Cf. LBJ phone call with George Reedy, June 9, 1964, Cit. 3647, Audiotape WH6406.04, LBJ.

  “the nicest thing”: LBJ phone call with Robert Kennedy, June 11, 1964, Cit. 3699, Audiotape WH6406.06, LBJ.

  “do a little heavy thinking”: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, June 11, 1964, Cit. 3680-81, Audiotape WH6406.05, LBJ.

  “magnificent drama taking place”: MLK address of June 10, 1964 (misdated June 11, 1964), A/KS7.

  repeat the 40 percent loss: Lee White memo of June 10, 1964, David Colburn Papers, UF.

  White House brokered messages: Ibid. Also White to MLK and Robert Hayling, June 11, 1964, Gen. HU2/ST9, LBJ; Douglass Cater to LBJ, June 11, 1964, David Colburn Papers, UF; Carl Holman to William L. Taylor, June 11, 1964, David Colburn Papers, UF; Judge Bryan Simpson to Assistant Deputy Attorney General Joseph P. Dolan, June 11, 1964, Box 7, Burke Marshall Papers, JFK.

  “The Governor said that he would talk”: Lee White memo of June 10, 1964, David Colburn Papers, UF.

  fn “we are not going”: Mrs. Edwin Price to Simpson, June 10, 1964, Bryan Simpson Papers, UF.

  fn “how does it feel”: W. Forrest Taylor to Simpson, Aug. 20, 1964, Ibid.

  fn “You S.O.B.”: “A mad citizen” to Simpson, Sept. 8, 1964, Ibid.

  King presented himself for lunch: CD, June 13-19, 1964, p. 1; PC, June 20, 1964, p. 1; Jet, June 25, 1964, pp. 14-19; Miami Herald, June 12, 1964, p. 1; Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 91-92.

  arrests for breach of peace: SAC, Jacksonville, to Director, June 11, 1964, FSA-1404.

  Klansmen dressed as women: Jet, June 25, 1964, p. 16.

  “Had it not been”: WMBR (Jacksonville) radio special, St. Augustine, Florida, Tape No. 64005-NWR, PEA.

  brick borders from public flower beds: NYT, June 12, 1964.

  told the FBI they wanted to move King: SAC, Jacksonville, to Director, June 12, 1964, FSA-1403.

  “Medgar Evers was just”: Hartley, “A Long, Hot Summer,” p. 53, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  inches from a German shepherd guard dog: Miami Herald, June 14, 1964, p. 14.

  “can be mobilized”: Reddick to MLK, June 19, 1964, A/KP20f5.

  fn “He gave every hearer”: Harold H. Martin, “George Wallace Shakes Up the Political Scene,” Saturday Evening Post, May 9, 1964, p. 87.

  “great personal strife”: Brando to MLK, June 10, 1964, A/KP4f46.

  “Dear Sy”: MLK to Rabbi Israel S. Dresner, June 12, 1964, A/KP8f32.

  25. JAIL MARCHES

  On Friday, June 12: Jacksonville LHM dated June 15, 1964, FSA-1438; NYT, June 13, 1964, p. 21. (The Times referred to Williams, a relative newcomer to its news pages, as a Hispanic “Jose” instead of the correct “Hosea,” perhaps because his name was commonly pronounced with only two syllables.)

  “We’re not gonna be put in chains”: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, p. 96.

  whiff of legend about Stoner: Massengill, Portrait of a Racist, p. 10; Carter, Politics of Rage, pp. 164-65.

  “You need to learn more”: Stoner to Police Commissioner Stephen Kennedy, Aug. 6, 1959, FEM-NR.

  specialized in anti-Jewish polemics: “Down with the Jews,” a circular by Stoner dated April 30, 1946, is one of several documents attached to a 1964 investigative report solicited by Judge Bryan Simpson. Another is a Miami Herald editorial dated June 6, 1947, which attacks Stoner for mailing a pamphlet stating, “The Jews are too evil to be allowed to live.” Bryan Simpson Papers, UF.

  friend and fellow stump speaker: “Portrait of an Extremist,” Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 22, 1964, pp. 80-83.

  doctrines of Dr. Wesley Swift: Ibid. Also Massengill, Portrait of a Racist, pp. 214-17, 274-85.

  inspire white supremacy: Massengill, Portrait of a Racist, pp. 9-10, 239.

  “When they said that”: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, p. 96.

  “The coons have been parading”: NYT, June 12, 1964, p. 21.

  Stoner led a double column: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 95.

  “She’ll Be Comin’ ’Round the Mountain”: Ibid. Also Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 97-98.

  Slave Market on Saturday: Jacksonville teletype to Director, June 13, 1964, FSA-1402.

  “I respect you”: Smathers telegram to MLK, June 13, 1964, A/KP20f41.

  White told King’s staff: White memorandum for the files, June 13, 1964, Box 5, Lee White Papers, LBJ.

  King delivered his Rip Van Winkle: NYT, June 15, 1964, p. 32.

  arrest a Yale student: Miami Herald, June 15, 1964; Jacksonville LHM dated June 15, 1964, FSA-1438, p. 5.

  “The gratitude of people”: Newsweek, June 29, 1964, p. 26.

  Yale’s 263rd commencement: NYT, June 16, 1964, p. 34.

  Sidney Poitier’s home: New York LHM dated June 16, 1964, FMX-NR; Clarence Jones correlation summary dated Nov. 30, 1965, FJ-105, p. 4.

  conceal his excitement: Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 26, 1983; New York LHM dated June 16, 1964, FMX-NR.

  He arrived at Poitier’s: Boston LHM dated June 15, 1964, FMXNY-4565; Goldman, Death and Life, p. 195; Perry, Malcolm, p. 288.

  Malcolm amplified his charges: Boston LHM dated June 15, 1964, FMXNY-4565, p. 8. When Lucille Karriem had fallen in love with a member of the Boston Temple, Malcolm explained, Captain Clarence X and Minister Louis had prevailed upon her during the Nation’s premarital interrogation to confess the father of her children.

  “brain trust”: FBI wiretap of June 17, 1964, FMXNY-1-15a, pp. 2-3.

  challenged Minister Louis: FBI wiretap of 12:02 A.M., June 14, 1964, FMXNY-1-12.

  “Tell Minister Louis to stop”: Karim, Remembering Malcolm, pp. 103-4.

  “a few words”: Wiretap summary of June 9, 1964, FMXNY-4636.

  “going right after the whole thing”: Wiretap summary of June 12, 1964, FMXNY-4636, p. 2.

  crestfallen when Benjamin 2X arrived: Int. Benjamin Karim, March 19, 1991; Karim, Remembering Malcolm, pp. 183-84; Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 27, 1965, p. 29.

  Benjamin could offer: Boston LHM dated June 18, 1964, FMXNY-4585, p. 1.

  disaffected Muslims in the room: Boston LHM dated Aug. 7, 1964, FMXNY-4826; Boston LHM dated Sept. 16, 1964, FMXNY-4966, containing record of
Aug. 26, 1964, int. of John Thimas, and Aug. 31, 1964, int. of Aubrey Barnette.

  The chase began: Int. Benjamin Karim, March 19, 1991; Goldman, Death and Life, p. 194; Perry, Malcolm, p. 288.

  “It was here”: Boston LHM dated June 18, 1964, FMXNY-4585, p. 4.

  Benjamin 2X returned: Wiretap log of June 14, 1964, FMXNY-1-12a.

  delivered his bastardy speech: New York LHM dated June 15, 1964, FMXNY-4557.

  “and talk some stuff”: Wiretap log of June 15, 1964, 1:26 a.m., FMXNY-1-13.

  thirty-two officers escorted: Goldman, Death and Life, pp. 195-98; Perry, Malcolm, pp. 290-93.

  “just like the Boy Scouts”: Int. Yusuf Shah (Captain Joseph), Oct. 17, 1991.

  “cut him to pieces”: Conversation of June 15 in wiretap summary dated June 24, 1964, FMXNY-4636.

  “I found out that”: New York World Telegram, June 18, 1964, p. 1.

  “There is no people”: New York Herald Tribune, June 16, 1964.

  “Muslim Factions at War”: NYAN, June 20, 1964, p. 1.

  “Says Muhammad Brought Stork”: Philadelphia Tribune, June 20, 1964, pp. 1, 24.

  begged her favorite son: Clara Muhammad-Wallace Muhammad conversation of June 16 in wiretap summary dated June 18, 1964, FMXNY-4594.

  Muslims carrying rifles: Goldman, Death and Life, p. 199; SAC, New York, to Director, June 16, 1964, FMX-116.

  telephone dead at the house: Wiretap log of Malcolm X conversation, June 15, 1964, FMXNY-1-15a; NYAN, June 20, 1964, p. 1.

  grace period of several months: Perry, Malcolm, p. 292.

  Jackie Robinson had received: Miami Herald, June 17, 1964, p. 1; Jacksonville to Director, June 16, 1964, FSA-1445.

  fifty-one demonstrators: Jacksonville LHM dated June 17, 1964, FSA-NR.

  camera crew from Miami: WKCT-TV, Miami, St. Augustine: Fountain of Dissent, 1964, Part 3, PEA.

  petitioned Burke Marshall: Jacksonville teletype to Director, June 15, 1964, FSA-1408.

  staying at the Lincolnville home: Int. Henry and Katherine Twine, April 2, 1991.

  eating figs off a tree: Int. Janic Jones Price, April 6, 1991.

  “This is the old”: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 99-100.

  lost twenty pounds: Jacksonville Journal, June 17, 1964, p. 4.

  prepared the audience for a settlement: Jacksonville teletype to Director, June 16, 1964, FSA-1422.