Parting the Waters (164 page)

Enslin would express: Int. Kenneth Lee Smith, Nov. 3, 1983. Smith reviewed the letter among the contents of King's file at Crozer, which authorities at Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary (into which Crozer was merged in 1970) have not released.

Joseph Kirkland: The Kirkland portrait is drawn from an interview with Lydia Kirkland (his widow), Dec. 9, 1983, and from Crozer interviews generally.

packed the chapel: Int. Rev. George W. Lawrence, Feb. 24, 1984.

“have a zeal”: Int. Rev. Lester Loder, Feb. 27, 1984. Text taken from Romans 10:2.

“Christianity and communism”: Int. Rev. Francis Stewart, Dec. 23, 1983.

“religious lectures”: Crozer interviews generally. The phrase appears in a letter critiquing one of King's sermons, Melvin Watson to King, Aug. 14, 1952, BUK 15f50.

no fewer than nine: Int. Larry Greenfield, president of Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary, July 5, 1983. Greenfield counted the courses from the King personnel folder, which is in his custody.

as he knew Shakespeare: Int. Rev. George W. Lawrence, Feb. 24, 1984.

“clear spring of friendship”: Augustine,
Confessions
, Bk. III, Ch. 2.

“the three P's”: King int. by Smith, Nov. 29, 1963, SHSW/SP.

Rabbit in the Bushes: Int. Rev. Marcus Wood, Oct. 4, 1983.

countrified parody: Ibid.

second-best preacher: Int. Rev. Marcus Wood, Oct. 4, 1983, Rev. Edward Spath, Oct. 4, 1983, and Rev. Francis Stewart, Dec. 23, 1983.

J. Pious Barbour: Reddick,
Crusader
, p. 83.

“deepest theologian”: Barbour to King, July 21, 1955, BUK8f21.

Catholic priest: Int. James B. Pritchard, June 25, 1984.

“Tillich is all wet”: Barbour to King, July 21, 1955, BUK8f21.

nowhere to climb: Int. Juanita Sellers Stone, March 6, 1984. The third member of this inner circle of Spelman friends in New York was June Dobbs—sister of opera star Mattawilda, daughter of lecturer and Atlanta Negro society figure John Wesley Dobbs, and aunt of future Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson.

King visited Sellers: Ibid.

exercise in ministerial diplomacy: Ibid.

permanent pattern of conversation: Int. Rev. Gardner Taylor, Oct. 25, 1983, among many others. Taylor, a friend of Daddy King's for many years, described the conversations he heard between the two Kings as almost invariably a running banter on the modern vs. tradition argument.

crushed the lighted cigar: Int. Rev. Joel King, Jan. 9, 1984.

Christmas holidays of 1949: King Jr.,
Stride
, p. 92, and King Sr.,
Daddy
, p. 147.

movement had stolen: NYT, April 25, 1949, p. 16.

fulminating against: King Sr.,
Daddy
, p. 147.

“Greek atomists”: Watson to King, Aug. 14, 1952, reviewing a King sermon on communism, BUK15f50.

made his presence known: Int. Rev. Francis Stewart, Dec. 23, 1983, and Rev. Marcus Wood, Oct. 4, 1983.

first choice was Yale: undated letter, King to Dr. Sankey Blanton, president of Crozer, BUK15f49.

Edinburgh University: King to Prof. Hugh Watt, Nov. 5, 1950, BUK15f49, and Professor Rankin to King, Dec. 15, 1950, accepting King at Edinburgh, BUK15f50.

two schools accepted him: King to Blanton, BUK15f49.

playfully appending: Int. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

beginning of the end: Int. Dr. Kenneth Lee Smith, Oct. 12, 1983, and Dr. John C. Bennett, May 10, 1984. Both for source material and original insight regarding King and Niebuhr, the author is heavily indebted to Smith and Zepp,
Search
, Ch. 4.

Henry Hodgkin: Int. Glenn Smiley, Nov. 14, 1983.

1935 poll: Manchester,
Glory
, p. 152.

Niebuhr ridiculed Dewey's: Niebuhr,
Moral Man
, pp. xii-xvii.

“in perfect flight”: Reinhold Niebuhr, Feb. 14, 1953, CUOH, p. 38.

“love of God in contempt”: Augustine,
City of God
, Bk. 4, Ch. 28, as cited in Niebuhr,
Moral Man
, pp. 69-70.

“mind which governed the self”: Reinhold Niebuhr, Feb. 14, 1953, CUOH, p. 69.

always be selfish: Niebuhr,
Moral Man
, p. xi.

“speak with a dogmatism”: Ibid., p. 253.

“apocalyptic vision”: Ibid., p. 155.

“style of great drama”: Ibid., p. 154.

“egotism and vindictiveness”: Ibid., p. 156.

“force and fear”: Ibid., p. 157.

“naive Christian Marxist”: Reinhold Niebuhr, CUOH, p. 91.

disturbed by the Marxist themes: Bingham,
Courage
, p. 212.

“worse than a thug”: Ibid.

counteract the influence: Int. John C. Bennett, May 10, 1984.

“Resist not evil”: Matthew 5:39. Tolstoy described the incident in his 1884 essay “My Religion,” as retold in Kaufman,
Religion
, pp. 53ff.

“ulterior motive”: Ibid.

Tolstoy Farm: Fischer,
Gandhi
, pp. 39-41.

“type of coercion”: Niebuhr,
Moral Man
, pp. 250-52.

“larger contribution”: Ibid., p.254.

“love's message”: “Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethical Dualism,” King paper written May 9, 1952 for a Boston University seminar on systematic theology, BUK15f20.

“disastrous to religion itself”: “Karl Barth's Conception of God,” King paper written Jan. 2, 1952 at Boston University, BUK15f20.

half-dozen books on Gandhi: King Jr.,
Stride
, p. 96.

his own major books: Smith and Zepp,
Search
, p. 71.

“Niebuhr's great contribution”: King Jr.,
Stride
, p. 96. Also pp. 96-99 generally, in which King presents Gandhi as his major interset and Niebuhr as a minor one. The language that he uses, however, makes the reverse seem true.

“Niebuhrian stratagem of power”: Wayne H. Cowan (editor of
Christianity and Crisis
) to Niebuhr, April 13, 1970, Box 38, RN. Cowan repeated King's comments as relayed by Andrew Young.

pacifism and race to sin: See King papers on Niebuhr in Boston University's Mugar Library, Drawer 15, including “Reinhold Niebuhr,” a biographical sketch in King's handwriting, “Reinhold Niebuhr,” and two versions of “Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethical Dualism.”

Church History 153: Exam paper, BUK15f27.

“author widely known”: NYT, Feb. 10, 1951, p. 1.

arraigned in handcuffs: Davis,
Leadership
, p. 145.

scraggly picket line: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.

dismissed the case: Ibid., and NYT, Nov. 21, 1951.

Wilkins straddled: Donovan,
Tumultuous
, p. 188, and “Negroes Reaffirm Opposition to Reds,” NYT, July 1, 1951.

friend named Snuffy: Int. Kenneth Lee Smith, Oct. 12 and Nov. 3, 1983.

daughter of a German: Int. Rev. Marcus Wood, Oct. 4, 1983, Lydia Kirkland, Dec. 9, 1983, and Horace Whitaker, July 31, 1984. David Lewis identified this woman as the daughter of Crozer's superintendent of buildings and grounds in Lewis,
King
, p. 33, but King's Crozer friends remembered only the romance with the daughter of the cook. Their memories of the social discomfort it caused are so vivid, particularly Whitaker's, that I believe Lewis described the same affair with a mistaken identification of the girlfriend. See also Garrow,
Bearing
, p. 30.

incipient competition: Int. Kenneth Lee Smith, Nov. 3, 1983. Smith declined to discuss the romance except to say that it was a serious matter. He described King to an early biographer (Lewis,
King
, p. 28) as “reserved and humorless,” but later wrote an excellent, favorable book about King's intellectual life at Crozer.

face the pain: Int. Horace Whitaker, July 31, 1984.

charged him with bastardy: Int. Kenneth Lee Smith, Nov. 3, 1983, and Horace Whitaker, July 31, 1984.

all but acknowledged paternity: McCall to King, Aug. 5, 1954, BUK15f49.

new green Chevrolet: Reddick,
Crusader
, p. 87.

“Power Glide”: Int. Horace Whitaker, July 31, 1984.

Edgar S. Brightman: See generally Smith and Zepp,
Search
, Ch. 5.

described God using only a long list: Augustine,
Confessions
, Bk. I, Ch. 4.

“that something of supreme value”: As quoted in Lewis,
King
, p. 43.

“the mystery of self”:
Time
, Feb. 19, 1951, p. 59.

first coast-to-coast television: Manchester,
Glory
, p. 717.

Willie Mays: Tygiel,
Baseball's
, p. 288.

direct long-distance dialing: Manchester,
Glory
, p. 1001.

ten of his fifteen: Smith and Zepp,
Search
, pp. 99-100.

“McTaggart Under Criticism”: BUK15f14.

light inside his closet: Int. David Briddell, Aug. 17, 1983.

ornate signatures: The practice signatures appear on the back of an exam paper covering the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, dated March 16, 1952(?), BUK15f35.

fiddled with a pipe: Int. Wilhard Williams, Dec. 8, 1983, and James Jones, Dec. 8, 1983.

philosophy department: Int. L. Harold DeWolf, May 9, 1983.

“I used the silent conclusion”: W. T. Handy, Jr., to King, Nov, 18, 1952, BUK15f50.

Spinoza's epistemological theory: Exam paper dated March 21, 1952, BUK15f25.

“What Is Man?”: Sermon draft, BUK16f17. King delivered this sermon in Chicago on Jan. 12, 1958, in a service broadcast over radio. A/KS.

“Answer to a Perplexing Question”: Text taken from Matthew 17:19, “Why Could Not We Cast Him Out?” Sermon, BUK16f16.

Dialectical Society: Called Philosophical Club in Reddick,
Crusader
, p. 88, Lewis,
King
, p. 38, and in other books. King himself once referred to it as the Theology Club, in a letter to DeWolf of May 15, 1954, BUK15f49. It is possible that the name of the informal group changed over time. Surviving members recall it as the Dialectical Society.

“we buried Jim”: Int. David Briddell, Aug. 17, 1983.

“spiritual cell movements”: Int. George Thomas, March 7, 1984, and Douglas Moore, Oct. 24-25, 1984.

never landed King himself: Ibid.

choose “race-related” topics: Int. E. Evans Crawford, Oct, 5, 1983.

“up in the clouds”: W. T. Handy, Jr., to King, Nov. 18, 1952, BUK15f50.

charges reversed: Int. Wilhard Williams, Dec. 8, 1983.

see his son married: Lewis,
King
, p. 42.

“amply endowed”: Int. Wilhard Williams, Dec. 8, 1983, and James Jones, Dec. 8, 1983.

laughed at her endlessly: Int. Douglas Moore, Oct. 24-25, 1984.

“I'm at my Waterloo”: C. King,
My Life
, p. 67. Lewis,
King
, p. 41, and Reddick,
Crusader
, p. 105.

“give my photograph”: C. King,
My Life
, p. 69.

wound up picking cotton: Ibid., p. 40.

“I look for in a wife”: Ibid., p. 68.

romance and pragmatism: Ibid., pp. 69-77.

first ever to be televised: Phillips,
Truman
, p. 420.

practically ignored her: C. King,
My Life
, p.78.

“final decision”: Ibid., p. 76.

grade of D+ : BUK15f31.

three consecutive A's: Ibid.

“still galivanting
[sic]
around Boston”: W. T. Handy, Jr., to King, Nov. 18, 1952. BUK15f50.

Both elder Kings: Description of the King visit to Boston from C. King,
My Life
, pp. 80-82, and King Sr.,
Daddy
, pp. 148-51.

lectured for six hours: Class notes for Dec. 2 and 9, 1952, BUK15f26.

“baffles the theist”: Exam paper, Jan. 9, 1953, BUK15f19.

“How a Christian Overcomes Evil”: Ibid.

shifted his registration: Int. Harold DeWolf, May 10, 1983.

German-language: Petition dated Feb. 4, 1953, BUK15f25.

“Year of Change”: National Archives, Universal Newsreels, Dec. 24, 1953.