Pillar of Fire

by Taylor Branch

“his Adam’s Apple”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 714.

  “drop to zero overnight”: Johnson, White House Diary, pp. 186-87.

  32. CRIME, WAR, AND FREEDOM SCHOOL

  task force of eighty-three FBI agents: Callahan to Mohr, Aug. 18, 1964, FLP-217.

  three double-barreled shotguns: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 14, 1964, FLP-113, p. 2.

  they whipped Potts: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 13, 1964, FLP-113, pp. 9-10; SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 15, 1964, FLP-52, p. 3.

  Sims bludgeoned: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 13, 1964, FLP-113, pp. 5-6.

  evidence seemed “sketchy”: Atlanta FBI report dated July 22, 1964, FLP-115, p. 154.

  Pollock frankly allowed: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 15, 1964, FLP-52, pp. 3-4.

  11:30 P.M. and again at 12:20 A.M.: Atlanta FBI report dated July 22, 1964, FLP-115, pp. 151-55; SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 13, 1964, FLP-113, pp. 6-9. The shooting victims were Alice Fair and John Clink.

  4th of July rally: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 21, 1964, FLP-81; SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 15, 1964, FLP-52, pp. 7-8; Lesher, George Wallace, p. 307.

  refuge in Bob Walker’s Drive-In: Atlanta FBI report dated July 22, 1964, FLP-115, pp. 148-50; Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 180-81.

  run over by a passing freight train: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 15, 1964, FLP-52, p. 6; SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 21, 1964, FLP-81, p. 1; AC, July 25, 1964, p. 1.

  anonymous pedestrian as Melvin Reed: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 16, 1964, FLP-87, p. 5.

  fifty small dents: Hoover to Walter Jenkins “BY COURIER SERVICE,” July 12, 1964, FLP-19; Atlanta FBI report dated July 22, 1964, FLP-115, pp. 448-52.

  Guest had finished only the first grade: Statement of Herbert Guest, Aug. 6, 1964, FLP-152.

  mistrust within the Klan families: Report on July 15, 1964, of KKK Women’s Auxiliary, in SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 16, 1964, FLP-87, pp. 1-2; SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 30, 1964, FLP-122; McGowan to Rosen, July 31, 1964, FLP-132.

  Guest’s thirty-seventh birthday: AC, Aug. 19, 1964, p. 1; SAC, Atlanta, to Director, Aug. 19, 1964, FLP-213; DeLoach to Mohr, Aug. 19, 1964, FLP-210.

  whirlwind of gossip: Report of investigator A. L. Hopkins, Aug. 6, 1964, MSSC.

  blitz was designed: Int. Joseph Sullivan, Feb. 3, 1991, July 26, 1996; Whitehead, Attack on Terror, pp. 127-28; Cagin and Dray, We Are Not Afraid, pp. 394-96.

  “they think they know”: LBJ phone call with Carl Sanders, Aug. 1, 1964, Cit. 4617-18, Audiotape WH6408.02, LBJ.

  “in a case such as this”: Rosen to Belmont, July 31, 1964, FMB-1191.

  Half the globe away: On the August 2 Gulf of Tonkin incident, see Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 380-84; Johnson, The Vantage Point, pp. 112-13.

  “hired personnel”: Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 3, p. 183.

  “a pervasive infusion of Americans”: Karnow, Vietnam, p. 361.

  “the Vietnamese had some difficulty”: Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 3, p. 327.

  “This is no drill”: Newsweek, Aug. 17, 1964, p. 19.

  Maxwell Taylor objected: Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, pp. 318-19; McNamara, In Retrospect, p. 131.

  “make it look like”: LBJ phone call with Robert Anderson, 9:46 A.M., Aug. 3, 1964, Cit. 4631-32, Audiotape WH6408.03, LBJ.

  rumors that Jacqueline Kennedy: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 10:20 A.M., Aug. 3, 1964, Cit. 4633, Audiotape WH6408.03, LBJ.

  “not only with the objective”: NYT, Aug. 4, 1964, p. 1.

  tranquil White House schedule: PDD, Aug. 3, 1964.

  at the Tallahassee airport: NYT, Aug. 3, 1964, p. 11; NYT, Aug. 4, 1964, p. 13.

  Supreme Court sent: Dresner et al. v. City of Tallahassee, 375 U.S. 136.

  Rudd sent them off: NYT, Aug. 5, 1964, p. 36; Florida Times-Union, Aug. 4, 1964, p. 3.

  Robert McAfee Brown: “Pathfinding Protestants,” Newsweek, May 25, 1962, pp. 84-86; “Catholics’ Protestant,” Time, Jan. 14, 1963, pp. 71-72.

  white inmates more often reviled: Int. Robert McAfee Brown, July 17, 1991; int. Israel Dresner, July 31, 1991; int. Robert Stone, June 3, 1993.

  “this ship could be attacked tonight”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 9:43 A.M., Aug. 4, 1964, Cit. 4658, Audiotape WH6408.03, LBJ.

  “two unidentified vessels”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 10:53 A.M., Aug. 4, 1964, Cit. 4662, Audiotape WH6408.04, LBJ.

  “as belligerents from first detection”: Karnow, Vietnam, p. 384.

  warnings of a trap: Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 3, pp. 184-85.

  prepare retaliatory airstrikes: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 114.

  “many reported contacts”: McNamara, In Retrospect, p. 133.

  Sharp reassured: Ibid.

  “Certain that original”: Ibid.

  sudden swarms of blowflies: MIBURN prosecutive summary, Dec. 19, 1964, FMB-1613, pp. 281-86; Whitehead, Attack on Terror, pp. 132-34; Cagin and Dray, We Are Not Afraid, pp. 397-99; DeLoach, Hoover’s FBI, p. 189.

  Admiral Sharp, had conceded: McNamara, In Retrospect, p. 134.

  routed through the Pentagon: Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 3, p. 185.

  50-caliber shell fragment: McNamara, In Retrospect, p. 131.

  “those dumb stupid sailors”: Karnow, Vietnam, p. 390.

  fn judgment of historian Stanley Karnow: Ibid., p. 389.

  fn Tuesday attack never happened: McNamara, on a visit to Vietnam thirty-one years later, said he was “99 and 99-100ths percent sure it didn’t occur.” NYT, Nov. 10, 1995, p. 3.

  fn “The U.S. ships blazed out”: Newsweek, Aug. 17, 1964, p. 20.

  fn “There was now plenty”: Life, Aug. 14, 1964, p. 21.

  “Some of our boys”: Notes taken at leadership meeting on Aug. 4, 1964, Box 1, Meeting Notes File, LBJ.

  authorization for airstrikes: McNamara, In Retrospect, p. 135.

  at 8:01 Walter Jenkins: PDD, Aug. 4, 1964; LBJ phone call with Cartha DeLoach, Aug. 4, 1964, Cit. 4693, Audiotape WH6408.05, LBJ; Whitehead, Attack on Terror, pp. 135-36; DeLoach, Hoover’s FBI, pp. 189-90; Cagin and Dray, We Are Not Afraid, p. 401.

  fetched two men ashore: PDD, Aug. 4, 1964.

  “a day of tension”: Dan Rather, CBS, on Presidential Address: The Tonkin Gulf Report, Aug. 4, 1964, Tape T81:0368, MOB.

  Everett Alvarez: Karnow, Vietnam, p. 388.

  Seeger used movement songs: Sutherland, Letters from Mississippi, p. 189.

  “From now on”: Belfrage, Freedom Summer, pp. 192-93.

  Price escorted a hearse caravan: MIBURN prosecutive summary, Dec. 19, 1964, FMB-1613, pp. 286, 378-85; Newsweek, Aug. 17, 1964, p. 28.

  “We had to call Washington”: Belfrage, Freedom Summer, p. 193.

  Moses held aloft: Howard Zinn, Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, cited in Zaroulis and Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?, p. 24.

  “Lyndon Gives Navy”: Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Aug. 4, 1964, p. 1.

  Moses circled with questions: Int. Robert P. Moses, Feb. 15, 1991.

  James Lackey: Lackey’s prior statements summarized in SAC, Atlanta, to Director, July 30, 1964, FLP-122.

  “I raised the roof”: Statement of Loretta Lackey, Aug. 18, 1964, FLP-246.

  “Sims and Myers kept insisting”: Statement of James Lackey, Aug. 6, 1964, FLP-151.

  Guest claimed a more passive role: Statement of Herbert Guest, Aug. 6, 1964, FLP-152.

  on the arrest of Myers: Rosen to Belmont, Aug. 6, 1964, FLP-139.

  Sanders issued a telling statement: NYT, Aug. 7, 1964, pp. 1, 13.

  DeLoach and his supervisors: M. A. Jones to DeLoach, Aug. 7, 1964, FLP-142; DeLoach to Mohr, Aug. 7, 1964, FLP-149.

  50,611 investigative miles: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, Aug. 12, 1964, FLP-178.

  crippling Screws precedent: Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91; Branch, Parting, pp. 408-9; Rosen to Belmont, Aug. 6, 1964, FLP-151.

  “I am going to kill me a nigger”: Statement of James Lackey, Aug. 6, 1964, FLP-151.


  “I think a soldier in uniform”: LBJ phone call with Cartha DeLoach, Aug. 6, 1964, Cit. 4781, Audiotape WH6408.09, LBJ.

  Moses had posted: “Please Post Re: Securing Justice Department Action,” July 13, 1964, A/KP16:16.

  statewide convention: Dittmer, Local People, pp. 281-82.

  “Until the killing of a black”: NYT, Aug. 7, 1964, p. 13.

  church-issue hand fan: WLBT News footage of MFDP Convention, Aug. 6, 1964, Tape 0898/D19, MDAH.

  Joseph Rauh explained: Rothschild, Black and White, pp. 66-68.

  “When you have two”: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, p. 170.

  “Bob Moses didn’t seem so confident”: Sutherland, Letters from Mississippi, p. 214.

  “As things stand right now”: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, p. 171.

  “open to all the people”: Blackside, Inc. PBS series, Eyes on the Prize, I vol. 5, Mississippi: Is This America?

  “Now this is not the kind”: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, p. 172.

  “This was probably”: Sutherland, Letters from Mississippi, p. 214.

  “all of us here”: Ibid., p. 215.

  Evers refused to observe: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, p. 171.

  excluded most NAACP candidates: Dittmer, Local People, pp. 282-83.

  fund-raising memorials: Betty Garman to Dave Dennis, Aug. 14, 1964, A/SN111f18.

  follow-up autopsy: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991; Cagin and Dray, We Are Not Afraid, pp. 406-7.

  “I have never witnessed”: Dittmer, Local People, p. 183.

  “No Evidence of Beating”: NYT, Aug. 7, 1964, p. 13.

  “Chaney Was Given a Brutal Beating”: NYT, Aug. 8, 1964, p. 7.

  “The police held up traffic”: Sutherland, Letters from Mississippi, p. 191.

  CORE’s David Dennis: Blackside, Inc. PBS series, Eyes on the Prize, I vol. 5, Mississippi: Is This America? Also Cagin and Dray, We Are Not Afraid, pp. 409-10; Dittmer, Local People, pp. 283-84.

  “blessed chaos”: Holt, The Summer, pp. 116, 233.

  fourth-grade sisters: Margaret, Alice, and Lillie Dwight were among the speakers honoring their former teachers, Stanley Zibulsky and Richard Kelley, at a thirty-year reunion of the St. John’s United Methodist Freedom School, Hattiesburg, June 25, 1994.

  fn “In this course of human events”: Holt, The Summer, pp. 323-24.

  education caucus proposed thirteen planks: Ibid., pp. 116-22.

  fn detonated a 5-kiloton: NYT, Oct. 23, 1964, p. 2. Also NYT, Oct. 12, 1964, p. 23, Oct. 13, 1964, p. 86, Oct. 27, 1964, p. 77, Oct. 29, 1964, p. 70, Nov. 18, 1964, p. 30. “Officials refused to go ahead with the test until wind conditions were right,” the Times reported on Oct. 23, “in view of the possibility that the explosion might crack the earth and permit radioactivity to escape…. On the surface of the blast site were a collection of instruments, a Confederate battle flag, and a small sign that read, ‘The South Shall Rise Again.’”

  delegates eventually voted down: Sutherland, Letters from Mississippi, p. 109.

  “It was the single time”: Dittmer, Local People, p. 260.

  33. WHITE HOUSE ETIQUETTE

  “I want to talk to him”: PDD, Aug. 5, 1964.

  Tonkin Gulf Resolution: Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 391-92; NYT, Aug. 7, 1964, p. 1, Aug. 8, 1964, p. 1.

  Johnson congratulated Rusk: “MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD,” Aug. 13, 1964, re 12:35 P.M. Aug. 10, 1964, meeting in Cabinet Room, McGeorge Bundy Office Files, b. 18-19, LBJ.

  “did not wish to escalate”: Ibid.

  jeep under camouflage of ferns: Life, Aug. 21, 1964, cover, p. 26.

  imposing a state of siege: Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 2, p. 329.

  “Khanh has a 50/50 chance”: Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 3, pp. 530-33.

  ouster of Adam Yarmolinsky: Int. Sargent Shriver, Feb. 21, 1991; Lemann, The Promised Land, p. 157.

  Yarmolinsky had spearheaded: Int. Robert McNamara, June 18, 1991.

  bellwether symbol of controversy: “We seriously objected to Adam Yarmolinsky…we knew something about his own background…[wanted] to be sure that we had a person who was not controversial, who would not become controversial…. They did get rid of Mr. Yarmolinsky.” Rep. L. H. Fountain (D.-N.C.) Oral History, July 15, 1969, pp. 16-17, LBJ.

  “nothing to stop them”: NYT, Aug. 6, 1964, p. 1.

  “This is my blood”: LBJ phone call with Carl Sanders, Aug. 1, 1964, Cit. 4617-18, Audiotape WH6408.02, LBJ.

  “We’ve bled ’em to death”: LBJ phone call with Walter Reuther, Aug. 1, 1964, Cit. 4624-25, Audiotape WH6408.03, LBJ.

  “magic 200”: LBJ phone call with Lawrence O’Brien, Aug. 5, 1964, Cit. 4766-67, Audiotape WH6408.08, LBJ.

  scripted phone message to Louisiana: LBJ phone call with RFK, 12:00 P.M., Aug. 7, 1964, Cit. 4793, Audiotape WH6408.10, LBJ; LBJ phone call with Lee White, 4:15 P.M., Aug. 7, 1964, Cit. 4811, Audiotape WH6408.11, LBJ.

  “it is my duty to enforce”: LBJ phone call with John McKeithen, 4:50 P.M., Aug. 7, 1964, Cit. 4814, Audiotape WH6408.11, LBJ.

  “Joe Rauh was on television”: LBJ phone call with Bill Moyers, Aug. 7, 1964, Cit. 4815-18, Audiotape WH6408.12, LBJ.

  Johnson knew: Cf. LBJ phone call with Rep. George Mahon of Texas, Aug. 6, 1964, Cit. 4770, Audiotape WH6408.08, LBJ. Mahon told Johnson: “Now this Adam Yarmanlisky [sic], whatever his name is, he is not an asset.”

  Shriver squirmed: Int. Sargent Shriver, Feb. 21, 1991.

  From a phone in the hallway: Ibid. Also PPD, phone log, 3:00 P.M., Aug. 6, 1964.

  established the War on Poverty: NYT, Aug. 7, 1964, p. 1.

  “Well, we’ve just thrown you”: Adam Yarmolinsky Oral History, July 13, 1970, pp. 17-19, LBJ. (“It was like a funeral in the offices when we heard Shriver had caved in,” recalled one of Shriver’s deputies at the poverty task force. Int. Hyman Bookbinder, March 21, 1991.)

  “really had the gall”: LBJ phone call with Bill Moyers, Aug. 7, 1964, Cit. 4815-18, Audiotape WH6408.12, LBJ.

  McCone had disclosed: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 12:46 P.M., Aug. 6, 1964, Cit. 4773, Audiotape WH6408.08, LBJ.

  “This is a very delicate subject”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 8:24 A.M., Aug. 8, 1964, Cit. 4819, Audiotape WH6408.12, LBJ.

  Walter Jenkins reported: LBJ phone call with Walter Jenkins, 10:52 A.M., Aug. 8, 1964, Cit. 4821-24, Audiotape WH6408.13, LBJ.

  reported sacrifice of Yarmolinsky: NYT, Aug. 7, 1964, p. 4, Aug. 8, 1964, p. 6.

  “No, your thoughts are wrong”: PPP, press conference of Aug. 8, 1964, at LBJ Ranch, p. 941.

  “None of us is important”: Califano, Triumph and Tragedy, p. 77.

  “Service—3 Years Later”: NYT, Aug. 8, 1964, p. 12, Aug. 7, 1964, p. 15.

  prisoners were immensely relieved: Int. Robert McAfee Brown, July 17, 1991; int. Israel Dresner, July 31, 1991; int. Robert Stone, June 3, 1993.

  two admitted pipe-beaters: Holt, The Summer, p. 233; NYT, Aug. 9, 1964, p. 21.

  praised Judge Bryan Simpson: NYT, Aug. 6, 1964, p. 16; “Defense Fund Attorneys Win St. Augustine, Fla. Victory,” NAACP LDEF press release, Aug. 8, 1964, A/KP17f14.

  grand jury undercut Simpson: “Further Presentment of Grand Jury,” Aug. 5, 1964, A/KP20f42; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 344.

  “out of line”: “Racial and Civil Disorders in St. Augustine,” p. 48, in Garrow, ed., St. Augustine.

  have the judge impeached: Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 131-35.

  bouts of depression and letdown: Int. Katherine and Henry Twine, April 2, 1991. “Hayling was bitter,” SCLC staff leader John Gibson told historian David Garrow. “He felt we’d dumped him.” Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 685.

  “On the surface”: Hayling and Twine, “Dear Fellow Citizens,” Sept. 22, 1964, A/SC139f10.

  “terrific squabble”: Wiretap conversation of Aug. 5, 1964, described in New York LHM dated Aug. 6, 1964, FK-NR.

  “thinking now prevalent”: Ibid.

  for a lost passport: DeWolf to MLK, Aug. 9, 1964, A/KP4f37.
>
  meeting with President Johnson: MLK to LBJ, Aug. 7, 1964, King Name File, LBJ, cited in Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 685.

  pulpit appearance for Ralph Abernathy: MLK telegram to Dr. O. Clay Maxwell, Sr., Aug. 6, 1964, A/KP15f26.

  services on Sunday, August 9: NYT, Aug. 10, 1964, p. 1.

  “no leader outside of Harlem”: NYT, Aug. 10, 1964, p. 15.

  “The church must be reminded”: “A Knock at Midnight,” MLK sermon delivered Aug. 9, 1964, A/KS6.

  Monday at Amherst: NYT, Aug. 11, 1964, p. 25.

  long strategy meetings: King’s calendar cleared seven hours, 11:00 A.M.-6:00 P.M., on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 1964: log, A/SC29.

  Research Committee: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 332, 414-15; int. Harry Wachtel, Oct. 27, 1963.

  proposed Playboy interview with King: Andrew Young to Alex Haley, Aug. 10, 1964, A/KP19f40.

  fn Haley promised to donate: Alex Haley telegram to Dora McDonald, July 6, 1964, A/KP19f40.

  reprimanding one of their own number: Jones to MLK, Aug. 24, 1964, A/KP13f23. “It upset Martin that I said that,” recalled Jones of his complimentary references to Malcolm X. Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 26, 1983.

  Rustin undertook: Int. Clarence Jones, Jan. 26, 1984. Jones recalled that Rustin “just assumed the role of calling the White House.” The available records indicate that Rustin acted in King’s name, with an imprecise mix of maverick initiative and prior approval.

  “Mr. Rustin told me very confidentially”: Mary White to Valenti, 6:30 P.M., Aug. 11, 1964, PL1/ST24, Box 81, LBJ.

  “If it looks like”: Lee White to LBJ, Aug. 12, 1964, PL1/ST24, Box 81, LBJ.

  awkward minuet continued: New York LHM dated Aug. 14, 1964, FR-NR; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 345.

  “King has made it so crystal clear”: Lee White to LBJ, re “Conversation with Bayard Rustin,” Aug. 13, 1964, PL1/ST24, Box 81, LBJ.

  instructions from Johnson: PDD, phone log, Aug. 13, 1964; LBJ’s handwritten note on Lee White to LBJ, Aug. 13, 1964, PL1/ST24, Box 81, LBJ.

  “We’d have more damn wars”: LBJ phone call with Walter Reuther, Aug. 17, 1964, Cit. 5003, Audiotape WH6408.27, LBJ.

  “if we mess with the group”: LBJ phone call with Hubert Humphrey, 11:05 A.M., Aug. 14, 1964, Cit. 4917-18, Audiotape WH6408.19, LBJ.

  James Rowe to identify: LBJ phone call with James Rowe, Aug. 14, 1964, Cit. 4935, Audiotape WH6408.20, LBJ.