At Canaan's Edge (147 page)

Read At Canaan's Edge Online

Authors: Taylor Branch

BOOK: At Canaan's Edge
10.36Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

leapt from the speakers' truck: Young,
Burden,
pp. 402–3.

“In light of this, Dr. King”: CBS News Special Report,
The March in Mississippi,
June 26, 1966, MOB.

“And the very same men”: MLK speech in Canton, Mississippi, June 1966, Hosea Williams Tape 133, King Library and Archives.

seeing faces in desperation so closely: Abernathy,
Walls,
pp. 412–13.

marchers regrouped in Canton: “Accord by Dr. King Angers Marchers,” NYT, June 25, 1966, p. 1.

converged on Philadelphia: “Marchers Defy Crowd of Whites, Hold Rally in Philadelphia, Miss.,” NYT, June 25, 1966, p. 15; Mars,
Witness,
pp. 211–12.

“We were brutalized here”: WLBT news film,
The Meredith March,
Tape 0180/D46, MDAH.

federal lawsuit against Neshoba County: NYT, June 28, 1966, p. 22.

more fraternal than supposed: Carson,
Struggle,
p. 208; Sellers,
River,
pp. 168–69; Carmichael,
Ready,
pp. 509–14.

“terrible mistake”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conference call among MLK, Stanley Levison, Clarence Jones, and Harry Wachtel, 9:10
P.M.
, June 22, 1966, FLNY-9-978a.

“Listen, Andy”: Young,
Burden,
p. 398.

take freely from his closet in Atlanta: Int. Bernard Lee, June 19, 1985; int. Willie (Ricks) Mukasa, May 14, 1992. (“Willie Ricks loved Dr. King,” recalled Lee. “Willie and I were good friends, and are good friends…. He was always saying, ‘Well, I knew I was ready when I got me some of them Dr. King shoes.'…They never saw what they were doing as hurting Dr. King. They thought they were enhancing the movement, they were enhancing the cause of black people. Stokely never had any problem with Martin King. It was that he thought it was time for black power. He thought that the nonviolent posture had just about run its course.”)

“I have been used before”: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 485.

“I'm sorry, y'all”: Int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 31, 1984.

Tougaloo College football field: Dittmer,
Local People,
p. 401.

Marlon Brando playfully slapped: WLBT news film, June 25, 1966, Tape 0181/D47, MDAH.

“You can't imagine”: Ibid.

Ann Barth: NYT, June 19, 1966, p. 60.

Jim Leatherer and Henry Smith: NYT, June 18, 1966, p. 28.

an early staff purge against white people: Meier,
CORE,
pp. 392–408.

“I wanted to assure you”: Peck to MLK, June 27, 1966, A/KP19f22.

final eight miles from Tougaloo: “Meredith Hailed at Rally at Mississippi's Capitol,” NYT, June 27, 1966, p. 1; Dittmer,
Local People,
p. 402; WLBT news film, June 26, 1966, Tape 0184/D49, MDAH.

Newcomers included Walter Reuther: Ibid.; MLK to Walter Reuther, June 30, 1966, A/KP20f18; int. Al Raby, Feb. 20, 1985; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983; wiretap transcript of Beatrice Levison telephone conversation, 12:49
P.M.
, June 26, 1966, FLNY-9-982a.

Al Raby with ten busloads: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990.

“I don't like the niggers”: CBS News Special Report,
The March in Mississippi,
June 26, 1966, MOB.

A waitress on North Mill Street: Investigative report headed “Restricted, June 26, 1966, Jackson, Mississippi,” MSSC.

blocked the southern front: NYT, June 27, 1966, p. 1; int. Edwin King, June 26, 1992.

Disjointed speeches wilted: Paul Good, “The Meredith March,”
New South,
Summer 1966, p. 15; Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 487.

“The whole damn thing smells to me”: NYT, June 25, 1966, p. 15.

“We thank thee, Oh God”: CBS News Special Report,
The March in Mississippi,
June 26, 1966, MOB.

King's theology professor: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 92–94; Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 304–5, 375–78.

heard Andrew Young call his name: Int. Harold DeWolf, May 9, 1983.

“made it clear that a new philosophy”: Gene Roberts, “Rights March Disunity,” NYT, June 28, 1966, p. 23.

“We are faced now with a situation”: NYT, July 31, 1966, p. IV-5; Wilmore,
Black Religion,
pp. 195–98. The forty-nine signatories included Episcopal Suffragan Bishop John M. Burgess of Boston, Rev. Charles E. Cobb of Springfield (father of SNCC's Charlie Cobb), Revs. Bryant George and Gayraud Wilmore of the United Presbyterian Church, Anna Hedgman and Benjamin Payton of the National Council of Churches' Commission on Religion and Race, Rev. James Hargett of Los Angeles AME Zion, Bishop Herbert Shaw of North Carolina, and Methodist Bishop James S. Thomas of Iowa.

“They're just going to die of attrition”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and MLK [from Chicago], 12:20
A.M.
, July 1, 1966, FLNY-9-987.

“I've heard nothing from President Johnson”: Dittmer,
Local People,
pp. 400–401.

“no specific reaction”: NYT, June 25, 1966, p. 14.

“In the past, he had been able”: Paul Good, “The Meredith March,”
New South,
Summer 1966, p. 14.

public support numbers declining: Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 371–75.

Johnson withheld approval: Ibid.; “President Hints Intensified War Effort; Ky Feels Junta Is ‘Over Hump' in Crisis,” NYT, June 19, 1966, p. 1.

“The choice is one of military lives”: “Summary Notes of the 559th Meeting of the National Security Council,” June 17, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 437ff.

“I don't see how you can go on”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 7:59
A.M.
, June 28, 1966, Cit. 10266, Audiotape WH6606.06, LBJ.

security pact with McNamara: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 5:33
P.M.
, June 28, 1966, Cit. 10273, Audiotape WH6606.06, LBJ.

lone dinner guest: PDD, June 28, 1966, LBJ.

“a lot of trouble to us”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 10:05
A.M.
, April 27, 1966, Cit. 10049, Audiotape WH6604.04, LBJ.

grumbled against the war: Fite,
Richard Russell,
pp. 445–48.

Russell once proposed covert schemes: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 308–10.

denying the strategic value: “Russell Favors a Poll in Vietnam on U.S. Presence/ Says ‘We Can't Possibly Win' Against Vietcong if People Oppose American Help/ Rejects Domino Theory,” NYT, April 26, 1966, p. 1. It was this story that LBJ said was “a lot of trouble to us,” in a phone call to McNamara the next day.

“the vast chasm between our views”: Russell to Honorable P. M. Watson, Jr., April 19, 1966, Series I, b15f26, RR, UGA.

predicted death by assassination: Russell, diary memo of June 28, 1966, Series XVIIIB, folder “Presidential (LBJ)”, RR, UGA.

“He was obviously”: Ibid.

resolved to endorse: Fite,
Richard Russell,
p. 449; “Bombing Evokes Criticism and Praise in Both Parties,” NYT, June 30, 1966, p. 1. “I approve of it,” said Russell. “It seems to me we have exhausted every effort to arrive at negotiations.”

“The monks live in the church”: Johnson,
Diary,
pp. 390–91; “President's Evening of Prayer for Pilots in 1966 Disclosed,” NYT, May 13, 1967, p. 11.

“So it looks like we burned”: LBJ phone call with Walt Rostow, 1:52
A.M.
, June 29, 1966, Cit. 10278, Audiotape WH6606.07, LBJ.

“Let's go to bed”: LBJ phone call with Cyrus Vance, 2:47
A.M.
, June 29, 1966, Cit. 10283, Audiotape WH6606.07, LBJ.

Four of five Americans: Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 376.

flow of war matériel would recover: CIA “Appraisal of the Bombing of North Vietnam (Through 14 July 1966),” in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 517ff; “An Appraisal of the Bombing of North Vietnam Through 11 August 1966,” in ibid., p. 614ff; McNamara,
In Retrospect,
pp. 245–46.

The population of Hanoi dropped: Fall,
Reflections,
p. 160.

“They also know that nobody”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 7:59
A.M.
, June 28, 1966, Cit. 10266, Audiotape WH6606.06, LBJ.

“And if we hurt them enough”: Ibid.

Ho Chi Minh responded: Duiker,
Ho Chi Minh,
p. 555; Fall,
Reflections,
p. 160.

Ho advised Washington: Ambassador Charles Bohlen, Paris, to Secretary of State Rusk, July 21, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, p. 508ff.

1.5 million North Vietnamese women: Turner,
Even the Women,
pp. 20–21.

two hundred missile sites: Appy,
Patriots,
p. 202.

Ngo Thi Tuyen: Turner,
Even the Women,
pp. 51–69.

Nhan Dan:
Ibid., p. 125.

marched south with knapsacks: Ibid., p. 94.

Vu Thi Vinh said she defied: Appy,
Patriots,
pp. 103–4.

even though she loathed socialism: Turner,
Even the Women,
p. 84.

“Many of us temporarily lost our hair”: Appy,
Patriots,
pp. 105–6.

700,000 wounded soldiers: Turner,
Even the Women,
p. 151.

8,558 U.S. aircraft lost: Appy,
Patriots,
p. 202.

“It was terrible”: Turner,
Even the Women,
p. 99.

“When the helicopters dropped soldiers”: Borton,
Sorrow,
p. 39.

A small caucus convened: Jo Freeman, “The Origins of the Women's Liberation Movement,”
American Journal of Sociology,
No. 4, 1973, p. 30ff; Graham,
Civil Rights Era,
pp. 223–26.

“a woman as a dog warden”: Rep. Martha Griffiths' floor speech, “Women Are Being Deprived of Legal Rights by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,”
Congressional Record,
June 20, 1966, pp. 13689–94.

“Is it because the Commission”: Ibid.

Pauli Murray among others proposed: Murray,
Song,
pp. 366–68.

“Get out! Get out!”: Cohen,
Sisterhood,
pp. 133–37.

Friedan made up for shortcomings: Ibid.; Harrison,
Sex,
pp. 192–96.

drew no major press notice: Mills,
Place,
p. 9.

“Speaking in a gravelly alto”: Lisa Hammel, “They Meet in Victorian Parlor to Demand ‘True Equality'—NOW,” NYT, Nov. 22, 1966, p. 44.

“If you are trying to run a whorehouse”: Cohen,
Sisterhood,
p. 139.

30: CHICAGO

PAGE

Hosea Williams stayed behind: “Dr. King Declares Rights Movement Is ‘Close' to a Split,” NYT, July 9, 1966, p. 1; “Mississippians Accused,” ibid., p. 8. A July 14 undercover report to the segregationist Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission claimed that Stokely Carmichael and Hosea Williams met that day in Grenada and “almost had a fist fight over who was going to run the project there. (Carmichael is trying to take over.) Williams told him to get out of town, because that was his town and SCLC was running the show.”

clubbed three hundred people: “Negroes Clubbed in Grenada, Miss.,” NYT, July 11, 1966, p. 1.

“CORE Hears Cries”: NYT, July 2, 1966, p. 24.

“Black Nationalists Gain”: NYT, July 3, 1966, p. 1.

“NAACP Head Warns”:
U.S. News & World Report,
July 18, 1966, p. 34.

“Dr. King and CORE Chief Act”: NYT, July 11, 1966, p. 1.

trumpeted with warm-up music: Investigator's Report, “Rally and March, Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Coordinating Council of Community Organizations,” July 11, 1966, File 940, RS, CHS.

three-year-old Bunny collapsed: King,
My Life,
p. 285.

King ceremoniously taped: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 491–92; Oates,
Trumpet,
p. 409.

repair 102,847 apartments: Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
p. 383.

Other books

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski
Forever Innocent by Deanna Roy
The Culture Code by Rapaille, Clotaire
Faster! Faster! by E M Delafield
The Reckoning by Karl Jones
Corrected by the Colonel by Celeste Jones
Eleven Little Piggies by Elizabeth Gunn
Bad Friends by Claire Seeber
Lost Roar by Zenina Masters