At Canaan's Edge (155 page)

reindictment that same February 27: NYT, Feb. 28, 1967, p. 40; McIlhany,
Klandestine,
p. 71; Mars,
Witness,
p. 225.

“has done more toward destruction”: Transcript, WLBT,
Ten O'Clock News,
March 29, 1967, exhibit in Case 16663, Vol. 9, FCC.

political drama climaxed on March 1: “House Excludes Powell, 307–116; Rejects Inquiry's Censure Move, Overriding Two Parties' Leaders,” NYT, March 2, 1967, p. 1; Jacobs,
Powell,
pp. 209–31; Hamilton,
Adam Clayton Powell,
pp. 461–63; Coleman,
Adam Clayton Powell,
p. 125; Haygood,
King,
pp. 357–59.

A few defenders objected: Remarks of Rep. John Conyers,
Congressional Record,
March 1, 1967, pp. 5004–5008; remarks of Rep. Elmer J. Holland, ibid., pp. 5028–29; Hamilton,
Adam Clayton Powell,
p. 462.

Gerald Ford coyly observed:
Congressional Record,
March 1, 1967, pp. 5018–19; Jacobs,
Powell,
pp. 210, 228–29.

threatened to impeach: Jacobs,
Powell,
p. 66.

“Mr. Speaker, I have a reasonably strong stomach”:
Congressional Record,
March 1, 1967, p. 5012; Hamilton,
Adam Clayton Powell,
p. 462.

Only Drew Pearson: Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, “Powell Accuser Had Long Police Record,” WP, Feb. 14, 1967, p. B11. Washington physician Montague Cobb, uncle of SNCC's Charlie Cobb, scolded Pearson in a letter of February 17: “It seems to me that this comes a little late. Since you must have known these things all along it was hardly fair to keep bludgeoning Adam while you withheld the other side.”

Powell refused to pay the libel judgment: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 314–16; Haygood,
King,
pp. 252–55.

Esther James had a record: Ibid.; Haygood,
King,
pp. 252–55, 319–22.

nor the select committee: Int. Ronald Goldfarb (counsel, select committee on Powell), May 16, 1991.

ten extraordinary House speeches: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 314–16; Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 41–46. Powell reviewed and extended his description of underworld corruption in a speech during King's Selma campaign,
Congressional Record,
Feb. 18, 1965, pp. 3006–38.

beneficiary rather than the victim: Hamilton,
Adam Clayton Powell,
p. 457.

“a 66-year-old domestic”: Branch,
Pillar,
p. 44.

Powell shrugged:
Jet,
March 9, 1967, pp. 6–12.

Robert Kennedy proposed to suspend the bombing: “Kennedy Asks Suspension of U.S. Air Raids on North; Administration Unmoved,” NYT, March 3, 1967, p. 1; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 828–33; Shesol,
Contempt,
pp. 370–75; Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 333–37.

the President tried vainly to overshadow: Ibid.; Roy Reed, “Johnson Affirms His Commitment to Helping Negro,” NYT, March 3, 1967, p. 1.

Richard Russell promised: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 3:15
P.M.
, March 2, 1967, PNO 5, Audiotape WHF67.08, LBJ, in FRUS, Vol. 5, pp. 221–25.

ordered a compilation of FBI secrets: Shesol,
Contempt,
p. 132; Russo,
Sword,
pp. 400–402.

“backfired against his late brother”: Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 334–35; Russo,
Sword,
p. 403.

“prolonging the war”: Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 833.

consultation at Harry Wachtel's law office: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 546–47; wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and an unidentified party, March 6, 1967, FLNY-9-1235a; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983, May 17, 1990; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

Andrew Young joked: Int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

allowed him to tell King alone: Cf. Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Martin Luther King, Feb. 27, 1967, FLNY-9-1228a.

“squabbling pacifist, socialist”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Rachel [?], March 1, 1967, FLNY-9-1230a.

an hour late to an evening fund-raiser: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 547; Drew Pearson, “RFK Aide Linked to King Fund Raising,” WP, April 26, 1967, p. B-15; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983; int. William vanden Heuvel, Aug. 2, 2004, and Dec. 15, 2004; MLK to “Mr. and Mrs. Carter Burton [sic],” MLK to William and Jean vanden Heuvel, Andrew Young to William and Jean vanden Heuvel, all dated March 10, 1967, A/SC38f19; wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 11:59
P.M.
, March 7, 1967, FLNY-9-1236a. The fund-raiser took place at the apartment of Carter and Amanda Burden. King told Levison that he had been introduced by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and that the event had raised $50,000 for SCLC's tax-exempt American Foundation on Nonviolence. Levison advised King to be careful of one $15,000 pledge until its donor could be vouched for by Africa specialist George Hauser, warning that industrialist Charles Englehard had extensive holdings in South Africa and “could be using us to take some of the curse off him.”

counteroffensive by Hosea Williams: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 547–48.

“Our staff problems”: Hosea Williams to MLK, March 8, 1967, A/KP35f18.

abruptly canceled an appointment: Marvin Watson to LBJ, March 13, 1967, MLK Name File, Box 144, LBJ. King had requested the appointment just before his Vietnam speech in Los Angeles. Marvin Watson to LBJ, Feb. 24, 1967, MLK Name File, Box 144, LBJ.

1,617 American war casualties: NYT, March 10, 1967, p. 1.

“Discussion with Johnson Bitter”: NYT, March 14, 1967, p. 3; NYT, March 20, 1967, p. 24.

“raided their arsenals”: Shesol,
Contempt,
p. 375.

mission was to broaden: Minutes of the working committee of the Spring Mobilization, 9:00
A.M.
, March 10, 1967, Series 1, Box 1, MOBE, SCPC, p. 1.

“over-simplifier”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Rachel [?], March 1, 1967, FLNY-9-1230a.

Bernard Lafayette and Paul Brooks: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990; James Bevel to Spring Mobilization Committee, March 7, 1967, Series 4, Box 6, MOBE, SCPC; minutes of the working committee of the Spring Mobilization, 8:00
P.M.
, March 24, 1967, Series 1, Box 1, MOBE, SCPC.

“way of shaking cobwebs”: Halstead,
Out Now!,
p. 271.

“must take the position of the folks”: NYT, Feb. 26, 1967, p. 3; NYT, Jan. 28, 1967, p. 3.

“emphasis on ‘mass murder'”: Steering committee of New York Women Strike for Peace to James Bevel, Feb. 24, 1967, Series 3, 4, Box 5, MOBE, SCPC.

novel shock theater: Hall,
Because,
p. 32; int. Richard Fernandez, Jan. 10, 1991.

“Jim Bevel has scared”: Richard Fernandez, executive secretary of CALCAV, to Tom Nichols, Series 2, Box 3, CALCAV, SCPC. Also Fernandez to Bevel, Feb. 27, 1967, ibid. (“Rabbi Heschel informed me that he had had a long conversation with you and from his side, it did not seem too fruitful.”)

his contrary resolve on March 14: Andrew Young to James Bevel and Dave Dellinger, March 14, 1967 (with copies to Al Lowenstein, Norman Thomas, Benjamin Spock, Donald Keys, William Coffin, John Bennett, and Bayard Rustin), March 14, 1967, b33f408, AL, UNC; Minutes of the Working Committee of the Spring Mobilization, March 16, 1967, Series 1, Box 1, MOBE, SCPC, p. 3.

pitched them into disbelief: “Dr. King Will Join a Vietnam Protest on April 15 at U.N.,” NYT, March 16, 1967, p. 4; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983, May 17, 1990; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

scrambled with colleagues to limit the damage: Ibid.; int. John Bennett, Sept. 15, 1990; Young,
Burden,
pp. 427–28.

Fernandez was an awkward career misfit: Int. Richard Fernandez, Jan. 10, 1991.

When interviewed in 1966: Ibid.; Hall,
Because,
pp. 26–31; Goldstein,
Coffin,
p. 70; int. Balfour Brickner, Feb. 4, 1991; int. William Sloane Coffin, July 16, 1991.

“This would give us a maximum”
: Richard R. Fernandez to Andrew Young, March 21, 1967, Series 2, Box 3, CALCAV, SCPC.

“I lost”: Wiretap transcript of Stanley Levison telephone conversation, March 24, 1967, FLNY-9-1253.

King departed for Chicago: “Dr. King to Press Antiwar Stand,” NYT, March 24, 1967, p. 1; Ralph,
Northern,
pp. 212–14; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 315–17; Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 549–50; Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
p. 436.

leaving Young only a four-part outline: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, April 8, 1967, FLNY-9-1268a.

Young to farm out the drafting assignment: Int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1990; int. Richard Fernandez, Jan. 10, 1991; int. Vincent Harding, Dec. 30, 2004; Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 711, note 30; Zaroulis and Sullivan,
Who Spoke Up?,
p. 42; Goldstein,
Coffin,
p. 181.

“I have made it clear over and over”: MLK press conference, Liberty Baptist Church, Chicago, March 24, 1967, A/KS.

SCLC's local Operation Breadbasket: MLK speech, Operation Breadbasket meeting at Chicago Theological Seminary, March 25, 1967, A/KS.

A few hecklers: Investigators' reports dated March 26 and 27, 1967, File 1021, RS, CHS.

“This war is a blasphemy”: MLK address, Chicago Peace Parade and Rally, March 25, 1967, A/KS.

“I don't understand it”: “Ask Louis Martin why he hasn't brought him in. He's canceled two engagements with me, and I don't understand it.” LBJ note dictated to Marie Fehmer, 9:30
P.M.
, March 24, 1967, attached to memo from DNC chairman John Criswell to Marvin Watson, March 23, 1967, and to a memo from Louis Martin to Criswell, March 23, 1967, Box 2, EX LG/PR8-1K*/DNC/PR4, LBJ.

Pentagon figures of March 23: Cited in “North Vietnam Under Siege,”
Life,
April 6, 1967. The photograph essay on bomb damage, published a month after the death of the magazine's pro-war founder Henry Luce (NYT, March 1, 1967, p. 1), included pictures of several of the 143 American POWs then held by North Vietnam.

Arnold Toynbee declared victory: NYT, March 19, 1967, p. 5.

North Vietnam released worldwide: NYT, March 22, 1967, p. 1.

exchange of secret letters: LBJ to Ho Chi Minh, Feb. 8, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, pp. 91–93.

“Vietnam is thousands of miles”: Ho Chi Minh to LBJ, Feb. 15, 1967, in ibid., pp. 173–74.

another 200,000 soldiers: Westmoreland telegram to Admiral Ulysses Sharp, Commander in Chief, Pacific, March 18, 1967, in ibid., pp. 253–55; McNamara,
In Retrospect,
pp. 264–65.

“I anticipated some of this”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 1:43
A.M.
, March 25, 1967, FLNY-9-1254; New York LHM dated March 28, 1967, FSC-1829.

“You can't be identified with that”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 4:50
P.M.
, March 27, 1967, FLNY-9-1256a; New York LHM dated March 29, 1967, FK-2963.

Muhammad Ali: Ali,
Greatest,
pp. 163–65; Hauser,
Ali,
pp. 161–66; Remnick,
King,
pp. 288–89; Robert Lipsyte, “I'm Free to Be Who I Want,” NYT Magazine, May 28, 1967, p. 28ff.

King escaped the tempestuous SCLC board: Agenda, SCLC board meeting, March 29–30, 1967, b53f412, AL, UNC; Abernathy to Board of Directors, March 29, 1967, A/SC58f7; MLK to Al Lowenstein, March 22, 1967, b33f408, AL, UNC.

meet privately with Ali: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 550; “World Wide Protest Rips Champ's Unjust Draft Call,” MS, April 7, 1967, p. 9.

“My position on the draft”: Tape snippet, MLK and Muhammad Ali being interviewed, March 29, 1967, A/KS.

“Black people should seek dignity”:
Jet,
April 13, 1967, p. 46.

publicity from Hosea Williams: Ralph,
Northern,
pp. 214–15.