At Canaan's Edge (117 page)

“What do you want
my people
to do?”: Frady,
Jesse,
p. 191.

Wilson Baker strung a clothesline: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 116.

silhouetted them behind the long clothesline: Warren Hinckle and David Welsh, “Five Battles of Selma,”
Ramparts,
June 1965, p. 36.

radioed ahead for a Birmingham taxi: Howlett,
Greater,
p. 215.

“I told the children this morning”: Ibid., p. 219.

a day trip to Camp David: PDD, March 10, 1965, LBJ.

“This minister's gonna die, isn't he?”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach and Bill Moyers, 9:32
P.M.
[?], March 10, 1965, Cit. 7054, Audiotape WH6503.05, LBJ.

having apologized profusely for recommending: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 9:00
A.M.
, March 10, 1965, Cit. 7048, Audiotape WH6503.04, LBJ.

“It just doesn't sing yet”
to
“keep the rowdies down”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach and Bill Moyers, 9:32
P.M
. [?], March 10, 1965, Cit. 7054, Audiotape WH6503.05, LBJ.

Democratic Majority Leader threatened revolt: Ibid. The next morning, LBJ told Katzenbach that Mansfield had sent a “mean note” insisting that he would submit his own voting rights bill out of anger that Katzenbach was working through Dirksen. (LBJ: “Mansfield is huffy and mad and grumpy.”) LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 10:35
A.M.
, March 11, 1965, Cit. 7059–60, Audiotape WH6503.06, LBJ.

supervised field trip shifted within hours: Forman,
Sammy Younge,
pp. 79–109; Sellers,
River,
pp. 125–26; int. Gwen Patton, April 15, 2000; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000; int. James Forman, Feb. 13, 2001.

a convoy of cars and chartered buses: STJ, March 10, 1965, p. 2.

“no different from other black people”: Forman,
Sammy Younge,
p. 103.

clashes with the constricting rings of police: WATS report, March 10, 1965, Montgomery, Alabama, Reel 15, SNCC.

breaking into the nearby First Baptist Church: Ibid., p. 92; int. Willie (Ricks) Mukasa, May 14, 1992.

“open contempt”: “Dr. King Says He Did Not Intend March to Montgomery Tuesday,” NYT, March 12, 1965, p. 1.

King testified as the first witness: Ibid.

“even after a marshal read you the order”: Sikora,
Judge,
pp. 194–202.

“between this court and the alleged contemptors”: Ibid., p. 193.

Rufus Youngblood rushed: PDD, March 11, 1965, pp. 1–8, LBJ.

two diagrams on the front page: NYT, March 12, 1965, p. 1.

allowed the peek she desired: Johnson,
Diary,
p. 250.

maids could serve coffee: WP, March 12, 1965, pp. 1, 10.

“Bevel and Forman almost came to blows”: WATS report, March 11, 1965, Montgomery, Alabama, Reel 15, SNCC.

join students newly recruited: Int. Willie (Ricks) Mukasa, May 14, 1992.

“What did you set out to do?”: Int. James Bevel, Dec. 10, 1998.

“I decided to stop trying to talk”: Forman,
Sammy Younge,
p. 93; int. James Forman, Feb. 13, 2001.

“Anybody who wants to come with me: WATS report, March 11, 1965, Montgomery, Alabama, Reel 15, SNCC.

Forman and Bevel wound up: Ibid.; Forman,
Sammy Younge,
pp. 93–94.

only two of twelve demonstrators: WP, March 12, 1965, p. 1.

detailed instructions for removing the intruders: PDD, March 11, 1965, p. 8, LBJ.

different precinct stations in unmarked cars: WP, March 12, 1965, p. 1.

“The ghost of Lincoln”: NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 12.

initiated and scripted by Johnson: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 10:35
A.M.
, March 11, 1965, Cit. 7059–60, Audiotape WH6503.06, LBJ.

“totally unreasonable force”: Ibid.; NYT, March 12, 1965, p. 1.

pronounced dead at 6:55
P.M.
: Mobile LHM dated March 12, 1965, FDCA-565, p. 15.

presidential C-140 airplane take the widow: Howlett,
Greater,
p. 223; NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 10.

“But what is there to say?”: Johnson,
Diary,
p. 251.

“Racism Killed Our Brother”: WP, March 13, 1965, p. 8.

struck a demonstrator from Wisconsin: Mobile LHM dated March 12, 1965, FDCA-565, p. 17.

“I'm a segregationist”: NYT, March 10, 1965, p. 21.

He pledged solemnly to the crowd: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 117.

as he had promised the Justice Department already: Nicholas Katzenbach (“I've arranged with them down there that…when the minister dies, they'll file first-degree murder charges within an hour”) in phone call with LBJ and Bill Moyers, 9:32
P.M
. [?], March 10, 1965, Cit. 7054, Audiotape WH6503.05, LBJ. See also Belmont to Rosen, March 10, 1965, FDCA-526, which reflects that FBI officials encouraged Baker to file murder charges to
supersede
federal ones.

Lola Bell Tate:
Jet,
April 1, 1965, p. 53; WATS report, Selma, March 12, 1965, Montgomery, Alabama, Reel 15, SNCC.

Collins made his way back outside: LeRoy Collins interview by Jack Bass and Walter De Vries, May 19, 1975, Series A-49, Collection 4007, SOHP, UNC, pp. 25–26.

to seek a negotiated truce: Mobile LHM dated March 12, 1965, FDCA-565, p. 18.

“They attempted to drive it”: NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 10.

DeLoach fended off the courtesy duty: DeLoach to Mohr, March 10, 1965, FDCA-570. DeLoach identified the Justice Department aide who suggested the idea as James Flug. “What do we know of Flug?” Hoover wrote on the memo.

“numbers game”: Rosen to Belmont, March 11, 1965, FDCA-581.

“any information whatsoever”: Rosen to Belmont, March 11, 1965, FDCA-669.

removed him by morning: Belmont to Tolson, March 12, 1965, FDCA-603. At 10:10
A.M.
, headquarters called Inspector Joe Sullivan in Meridian, Mississippi, where he headed the ongoing investigation of the June 1964 murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, and ordered Sullivan “to proceed immediately to Selma, Alabama for the purpose of taking charge of the investigations of civil rights matters there.”

rain fell so hard that only eighty: WATS report, Selma, March 12, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.

Jesse Jackson with a mild case of pneumonia: Frady,
Jesse,
pp. 193–94.

Seventy Catholics arrived: NYT, March 14, 1965, p. 63.

adjourned en masse to Selma: Presentation by Gordon D. Gibson to the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, June 23, 2000, www.uua.org/uuhs/Gibson.html.

symphony honored Reeb: Howlett,
Greater,
p. 225.

Wilson Baker could not keep his agreement: WATS report, March 12, 1965, Selma, Reel 15, SNCC. Mayor Smitherman and Sheriff Clark issued a joint public statement the next day that was published on the front page of the local newspaper: “We say to all of these outside agitators, both white and Negro, you are not needed or wanted in our city. Your presence is incendiary and can only cause racial strife…. The false issue of voting rights has been repeatedly raised…. We are therefore convinced first that our entire community must stand firmly where we are today and that we must not yield to or compromise with unlawful pressure or unruly demonstrations. Local government must not prostitute itself before the mob.” STJ, March 14, 1965, p. 1.

Baker did cut down: NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 1; Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 123.

a large truck pulled up outside: Sellers,
River,
p. 127.

Silas Norman berated Forman: Int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000; int. Martha Prescod Norman, June 29, 2000.

many thousands of scarce SNCC dollars: The figure cited is $5,000 in Carson,
Struggle,
p. 160. Cleveland Sellers remembers the figure at $25,000: int. Cleveland Sellers, April 15, 2000. Cleveland Sellers was stunned: “Forman went crazy in Montgomery—bought all those tents, spent money. We were frustrated over the fact that SCLC had kind of taken over.” Int. Cleveland Sellers, Dec. 14, 1983.

abandoned the occupation of Dexter Avenue Baptist: Forman,
Sammy Younge,
pp. 95–96. “plainly astonished”: NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 10.

corrective discipline straight from Hoover's office: Cf. McGowan to Rosen, March 12, 1965, FDCA-556; Morrell to DeLoach, March 18, 1965, FDCA-709.

three-minute news film: Garrow,
Protest,
p. 99.

Judge Johnson, visibly affected: Lewis,
Walking,
p. 337.

confirmed instincts within Governor Wallace's inner circle: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 330.

“The niggers are like cats”: NYT, March 10, 1965, p. 22.

yearning to regain public initiative: Carter,
Politics,
p. 252.

“some of the greatest internal problems”: Jones,
Wallace Story,
pp. 375–76.

Undercover agents scattered: “Sit-ins Averted at the White House,” NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 1.

President Johnson sat in the Cabinet Room: PDD, March 12, 1965, LBJ; Howlett,
Greater,
p. 224; int. Joseph Ellwanger, June 12, 2001; int. Jefferson Rogers, July 17,2001. Humphrey briefed LBJ for the meeting in a memo dated March 12, 1965, Legislative Background, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Box 2, LBJ.

a mammoth ecumenical assembly: NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 1; program, “Inter-religious Witness for Voter Registration,” sponsored by NCC Commission on Religion and Race, National Catholic Welfare Conference, and Union of American Hebrew Congregations, March 12, 1965, BIR/C11f5.

“Why has it taken so long”: Richard B. Stolley, “The Nation Surges to Join the Negro on His March,”
Life,
March 26, 1965, p. 34; Warren Hinckle and David Welsh, “Five Battles of Selma,”
Ramparts,
June 1965, p. 51.

three thousand clergy itself made front-page news: “Clergy Irate at Response of Johnson to Rights Plea,” NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 1.

called for his dog Blanco: PDD, March 12, 1965, LBJ.

lie facedown on the White House driveway: Ibid. Also WATS report, March 13, 1965, Washington, D.C., Reel 15, SNCC.

his staff arranged and announced a summit conference: NYT, March 13, 1965, p. 10; Carter,
Politics,
p. 252.

9: WALLACE AND THE ARCHBISHOP

“They all say, ‘we want troops'”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 9:22
A.M.
, March 13, 1965, Cit. 7064-65, Audiotape WH6503.04, LBJ.

Attorney General Katzenbach alone into his private bathroom: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

submission drill for squeamish aides: Cf. Goodwin,
Remembering,
pp. 256–57.

“Write down six things for me”: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

one thing in common with Martin Luther King: Jones,
Wallace Story,
p. 178.

King had done on leaving the Selma jail: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 580–81.

“Lem, I want to introduce you”: PDD, March 13, 1965, p. 2, LBJ.

“Well, governor”: Mann,
Walls,
p. 456.

“You cannot deal with street revolutionaries”: Carter,
Politics,
p. 252.

“Finally, Mr. President”: Goodwin,
Remembering,
p. 321.

Johnson never took his eye off Wallace: Johnson,
Vantage,
p. 163.

“Those goddam nigras”: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 332.

“I know you're like me”: Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 216.

“Why are you off on this black thing?”: Comments of Horace Busby in “The Great Society Remembered,” Guggenheim Productions, Inc., 1985, quoted in Carter,
Politics,
p. 253.

stop harkening back to 1865: Jones,
Wallace Story,
p. 381.

“looked at me like I was some kind of dog mess”: Carter,
Politics,
p. 253.

“Don't you shit me”: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991; Ashmore,
Hearts,
p. 379; Carter,
Politics,
p. 253.