Building the Great Society
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cultivate their favor: Memorandum, Busby to LBJ, April 4, 1964, “Memos to the President, 4/64,” box 53, Office Files of Busby.
“the newsmen, almost universally”: Memorandum, Busby to LBJ, May 30, 1965, “Memos to the President, 6/65,” box 51, Office Files of Busby.
ill at ease with the medium: Memorandum, Douglass Cater to LBJ, Nov. 27, 1964, “Memos to the President: 11/64–3/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
“He was an old UPI fellow”: McPherson OH, Sept. 19, 1985, 11.
Moyers would replace Reedy: Reedy OH, Dec. 20, 1968, 8–9.
Publicly, the White House maintained: “Presidency: Press Criticism Overflows.”
Harry McPherson: Roberts, LBJ’s Inner Circle, 109.
“bomb-throwing ally”: McPherson OH, Dec. 5., 1968, 3.
McPherson was in Japan: McPherson OH, Dec. 5, 1985, 18–20.
“In 1965 one could still feel”: McPherson, Political Education, 246.
Douglass Cater: “Douglass Cater Is Dead at 72; Educator and Presidential Aide,” New York Times, Dec. 16, 1995.
He arrived at the White House: “Cater Goes by the Book, His Own, as Johnson Aide,” Baltimore Sun, May 28, 1966.
“a well-stocked mind”: Goldman, Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 266–67.
The warm sentiment was not mutual: Cater OH, May 8, 1969, 13.
“It was a failure of men”: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, May 4, 1964, “Memos to the President: 5/64–8/64,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
“You have the power to speak”: McPherson OH, Dec. 19, 1968, 22–26.
never did cut off Cater’s water: Cater OH, April 24, 1981, 17.
At the time of his appointment: Roberts, LBJ’s Inner Circle, 91–93.
“He was a natty dresser”: Goldman, Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 268.
Two qualities: “Watson Wields Increasing Influence,” Washington Post, Dec. 6, 1965.
“the totalitarian days”: Busby OH, Dec. 21, 1988, 10.
“buy a postal stamp”: “Watson Wields Increasing Influence.”
“they were excellent”: Keppel OH, April 21, 1969, 27.
“by no means a Bircher”: McPherson OH, Dec. 19, 1968, 22–26.
“was not abrasive”: Valenti OH, July 12, 1972, 16–18.
“Cater, Califano, Goodwin and McPherson”: Goldman, Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 275.
“in a place where you’re sitting”: Valenti OH, July 12, 1972, 14.
“Nothing in Joe Califano’s original writ”: McPherson OH, Dec. 19, 1968, 24–25.
“as long as I was kept informed”: Cater OH, May 8, 1969, 13.
“interplay of egos”: Valenti OH, July 12, 1972, 17.
“he works you like a dog”: “He Demands a Lot: Johnson Hard to Work For,” Boston Globe, Nov. 11, 1964.
“The President isn’t a flow-chart man”: Roberts, LBJ’s Inner Circle, 38.
movie script: “The President’s Closest Shadow,” Boston Globe, May 17, 1964.
“an overpowering man”: Rowe OH, Sept. 16, 1969, 51.
“humor or his anecdotes”: Cater OH, May 8, 1969, 18–19.
Not everyone agreed: Califano, Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 188.
“relaxed in ways that would tire me”: Schultze OH, April 10, 1969, 54.
“It isn’t that Johnson abuses people”: White, Making of the President, 1964, 59.
“there is no real privacy”: “Working for Johnson Is Hard but Rewarding,” New York Times, May 1, 1966.
Chapter 7: Completing the Fair Deal
Truman told Congress: Harry S. Truman, Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, Jan. 5, 1949; Hamby, Beyond the New Deal, 293.
“We have helped the states”: Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 155.
most GOP leaders agreed: Ibid., 178, 187; Zelizer, Fierce Urgency of Now, 181.
many white ethnic communities: Zeitz, White Ethnic New York, 11–38; Woods, Prisoners of Hope, 137.
“lawful that public funds”: Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 189.
dire need of additional education funding: Zelizer, Fierce Urgency of Now, 175; Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 159–60.
student achievement reflected: Elizabeth Cascio and Sarah Reber, “The K–12 Education Battle,” in Bailey and Danziger, Legacies of the War on Poverty, 68.
“Federal policy should be to improve”: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, Dec. 26, 1964, “Memos to the President: 11/64–2/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
Yet behind closed doors: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, Dec. 19, 1964, “Memos to the President: 11/64–2/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
John Hay Whitney: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, Dec. 3, 1964, “Memos to the President: 11/64–2/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
“religious and philosophical antagonisms”: Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 205.
Now the door seemed to budge: Graham, Uncertain Triumph, 72–73.
The idea was not new: Ibid., 72–73, 77; Berkowitz, Mr. Social Security, 202–5.
“we’ve got to do this in a hurry”: Keppel OH, April 21, 1969, 17–19, 26–27.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Woods, Prisoners of Hope, 138.
Critics would later dismiss: Matusow, Unraveling of America, 223–26.
“income correlates highly”: Ibid., 221.
“In 1965, the issue was not good education policy”: Patrick McGuinn and Frederick Hess, “Freedom from Ignorance? The Great Society and the Evolution of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965,” in Milkis and Mileur, Great Society and the High Tide of American Liberalism, 297.
federal assistance proved critical: Andrew, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, 119–20.
federal spending on primary and secondary education: Cascio and Reber, “K–12 Education Battle,” 73.
number of independent school districts: McGuinn and Hess, “Freedom from Ignorance?,” 302–3.
“where President Kennedy used to use”: Roberts, LBJ’s Inner Circle, 49.
“His choir-like directions”: “The Transition Over, The White House Staff Is Strictly Johnson in Outlook,” New York Times, June 13, 1965.
In 1964, the office of the secretary of HEW: “Department of Health, Education, and Welfare—Statistical Summary,” “Background on HEW Programs,” box 32, Office Files of Califano.
“a holding company”: Graham, Uncertain Triumph, 107.
“utterly ridiculous to be trying”: Ibid., 101.
“not well equipped”: Ibid., 94.
“dedicated to servicing local”: Orfield, Reconstruction of Southern Education, 49.
“What’s all this about this fellow”: Graham, Uncertain Triumph, 42–43.
a major overhaul of the office: Memorandum, Keppel to Califano, Nov. 29, 1965, “HEW Report on Education,” box 36, Office Files of Califano.
“The anguish can only be imagined”: Graham, Uncertain Triumph, 99.
personnel grew by an astonishing 50 percent: Bernstein, Guns or Butter, 201.
It went nowhere: Berkowitz, Mr. Social Security, 167.
powerful opposition: Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 290, 298.
Treaty of Detroit: Lichtenstein, State of the Union, 123.
100 million Americans: Unger, Best of Intentions, 35.
At a hearing in 1959: Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 288–89.
“problem of aging amounts”: Woods, Prisoners of Hope, 146.
angry opposition: Ibid., 148; Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 309–10; Unger, Best of Intentions, 41.
“We do not, by profession, compromise”: Sundquist, Politics and Policy, 318.
labyrinthine negotiations: Woods, Prisoners of Hope, 153–54.
Busby was particularly concerned: Memorandum, Busby to LBJ, July 22, 1965, “Memos to
Douglass Cater,” box 18, Office Files of Busby; Zelizer, Fierce Urgency of Now, 201; Bernstein, Guns or Butter, 179.
“George, have you ever fed chickens?”: Woods, Prisoners of Hope, 152–53.
“If you’re wrong”: Ibid. 154.
“collapse under its own weight”: Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant, 209.
daunting challenges: M. G. Gluck and V. Reno, Reflections on Implementing Medicare, 39.
Postal Service hung: Ibid., 33–34.
“if ever in history”: Ibid., 49.
“no strong advocacy groups”: Ibid., 16.
medical inflation began outstripping: Andrew, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, 106.
“unquestionable capability to administer”: Edward Berkowitz, “Medicare: The Great Society’s Enduring National Health Insurance Program,” in Milkis and Mileur, Great Society and the High Tide of American Liberalism, 339.
“accepted the going system”: Ibid., 323.
“wasn’t possible in 1965”: Andrew, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, 105.
“Medicare . . . began with an apparent paradox”: Stevens and Stevens, Welfare Medicine in America, 50.
learned to love it: Andrew, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, 102.
Chapter 8: Get ’Em! Get the Last Ones!
surge of optimism: Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education, 70.
In 1960, less than 1 percent: Orfield and Yun, Resegregation in American Schools, 29.
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana: Halpern, On the Limits of the Law, 43.
Dorothy Counts: Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education, 105–7.
Ruby Bridges: Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education, 107.
“she showed a lot of courage”: “Ruby Bridges, Made Famous in Iconic Painting, Goes to White House,” Colorlines, July 15, 2011.
“It is as if no taxpayer sent in a return”: Marshall, Federalism and Civil Rights, 7.
“abnormal, superstitious respect”: Reedy OH, Feb. 14, 1972, 30.
“Those little brown bodies”: Caro, Master of the Senate, 721–22.
Federal funding now amounted: Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education, 139.
“golden opportunity”: Halpern, On the Limits of the Law, 44.
bumped up against local resistance: Memorandum, Douglass Cater to LBJ, March 12, 1965, “Memos to the President: 3/65–4/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
gave his aides free rein: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, March 24, 1965, “Memos to the President: 3/65–4/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
“The problem was simply this”: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, April 23, 1965, “Memos to the President: 3/65–4/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
“‘Get ’em’”: Keppel OH, April 21, 1969, 17–19, 26.
“anxious to put all the states”: Transcript, n.d., “School Desegregation,” box 8, Office Files of Califano.
“never had any doubts”: Keppel OH, Aug. 17, 1972, 4.
“resignation”: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, May 14, 1965, “Memos to the President: 5/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
“was not stringent enough”: Halpern, On the Limits of the Law, 48–49.
State Councils on Human Relations: Memorandum, “School Desegregation in the Southern States,” May 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
“We think time is running out”: Marion S. Barry and Betty Garman to John Gardner, Feb. 16, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
HEW prepared revised guidelines: Memorandum, F. Peter Libassi to Douglass Cater and Lee White, Feb. 2, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater; Memorandum, Alanson W. Willcox to Harold Howe II, March 7, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
“nothing in Title VI”: Halpern, On the Limits of the Law, 55.
“speaks in terms of exclusion”: “Statement to the United States Commissioner of Education Harold Howe II by Charles F. Carroll, Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of North Carolina,” April 14, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
“guidelines are not designed”: LBJ to Richard B. Russell, May 16, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
“It will be impossible to avoid”: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, Aug. 4, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
Writing for the appellate panel: Derek Jerome Singleton, Minor, by Mrs. Edna Marie Singleton, His Mother and Next Friend, et al., Appellants, v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District et al., Appellees, No. 22527, U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit, June 22, 1965.
administrative and judicial firepower worked: J. Michael Ross, “Trends in Black Student Racial Isolation, 1968–1992,” Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 1995.
That scrutiny became more standard: Graham, Civil Rights Era, 372–75; Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education, 144–46.
“While we are investigating complaints”: Memorandum, Libassi to Cater, “Civil Rights Bill: Proposed Guidelines and Summary, Title VI,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
Chicago’s de facto segregation: Coordinating Council of Community Organizations to Francis Keppel, July 4, 1965; and Albert A. Raby to Francis Keppel, Oct. 19, 1965, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
“The Elementary and Secondary Education Act”: Albert A. Raby to Cater, Oct. 19, 1965, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
Keppel’s office instructed Willis: Alvin G. Cohen to Willis, Sept. 23, 1965, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
defer the delivery of federal funds: Keppel to Willis, Sept. 30, 1965; Keppel to Ray Page, Sept. 30, 1965; Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, Oct. 1, 1965, “Memos to the President: 10/65,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
“northern school districts were practicing”: Keppel OH, April 21, 1969, 19–20.
Daley was in town: Ibid., 24–25.
the city’s schools were out of compliance: Memorandum, Howe to John Gardner, Dec. 16, 1966, “School Desegregation,” box 8, Office Files of Califano.
“the reversal of the withholding action”: Seeley to Joe Frantz, March 20, 1972, amended to Keppel OH, April 21, 1969, 27.
HEW dispatched more than a thousand inspectors: Memorandum, F. Peter Libassi to Cater, Califano, and Nicholas Katzenbach, May 13, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
The guidelines were sweeping: “Guidelines for Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” n.d., “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
“transition has not been as difficult”: “Dear Hospital Administrator,” n.d. [ca. May 1966], “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
The administration dispatched Stewart: Memorandum, F. Peter Libassi to Douglass Cater, Joseph Califano, and Nicholas Katzenbach, June 1, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
15 percent of all hospital beds: Berkowitz, “Medicare: The Great Society’s Enduring National Health Insurance Program,” 326.
memorable visit to a southern hospital: Ibid., 327.
The pressure worked: Andrew, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, 105.
“most of the hospital discrimination”: Memorandum, Libassi to Cater, Califano, and Nicholas Katzenbach, July 15, 1966, “Material on Title VI, Civil Rights Bill,” box 52, Office Files of Cater.
“the day before Medicare”: Andrew, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, 105.
“And they won’t [comply] Lyndon”: W
oods, LBJ, 573.
Chapter 9: The Fabulous Eighty-Ninth
task forces: Woods, Prisoners of Hope, 127–28.
abridged twelve-hundred-page version: Memorandum, Cater to LBJ, Nov. 3, 1964, “Memos to the President: 9/64–11/64,” box 13B, Office Files of Cater.
LBJ had instructed Bill Moyers: LBJ and Moyers, Nov. 5, 1964, WH6411-05-6198.
In the Senate: Woods, Prisoners of Hope, 130; Zelizer, Fierce Urgency of Now, 169–72.
Under O’Brien’s leadership: O’Brien OH, Sept. 18, 1985, 21–30; April 8, 1986, 39.
“the kind of seniority”: O’Brien OH, Sept. 18, 1985, 39.
“I would be very, very careful”: O’Brien OH, Oct. 29, 1985, 9.
“Why didn’t you call me?”: Ibid., 10.
“would devote an inordinate amount of time”: Ibid., 13.
“Selma has succeeded in limiting”: Stanton, From Selma to Sorrow, 34.
“find[ing] the worst condition”: Beschloss, Reaching for Glory, 159.
“take that one illustration”: Beschloss, Reaching for Glory, 162.
King’s own notes: Garrow, Protest at Selma, 225.
“disgraceful exercise”: Kotz, Judgment Days, 290.
Inside the White House: Zelizer, Fierce Urgency of Now, 213.
“America didn’t like what it saw”: Goodwin, Remembering America, 319.
“This time, on this issue”: “When LBJ Said, ‘We Shall Overcome,’” New York Times, Aug. 28, 2008.
“was an instant of silence”: Goodwin, Remembering America, 334.
“immediately mounted an all-fronts attack”: Califano, Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 58.
federal examiners descended: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 264; Califano, The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 47.
“never shook hands”: Sokol, There Goes My Everything, 109.
roughly thirty-seven million European immigrants: For background, see John Bodnar, The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987).
“free white persons”: For background on race and immigration, see Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999); Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White (London: Routledge, 1995); David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (New York: Verso, 1991); Eric L. Goldstein, The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006).