At Canaan's Edge (119 page)

his largest television audience—some seventy million viewers: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 408.

“I speak tonight for the dignity of man”: “Remarks of the President to a Joint Session of Congress, March 15, 1965 (As Actually Delivered) (9:02
P.M
. EST),” Moyers Papers, Box 6, LBJ.

chamber that seemed stunned and on edge: Goldman,
Tragedy,
pp. 378–79.

a first lone clap: Richard B. Stolley, “The Nation Surges to Join the Negro on His March,”
Life,
March 26, 1965, p. 35; Goodwin,
Remembering,
p. 332.

quotation from St. Mark: Mark 8:36.

a standing ovation spread in waves: WP, March 16, 1965, p. 1.

“remarkable views of the reaction of Congress”: NYT, March 16, 1965, p. 31.

one of two threats of searing disgrace: Richard B. Stolley, “The Nation Surges to Join the Negro on His March,”
Life,
March 26, 1965, p. 35;
Newsweek,
March 29, 1965; Mann,
Walls,
p. 461. There is conflict in these accounts about whether it was the first or last half of the printed speech that wound up on the TelePrompTer. The latter is more consistent with details in common. Mann quotes Valenti's comment to the TelePrompTer operator: “I almost died a thousand deaths getting it here in time.”

quietly muttered, “Goddam”: Mann,
Walls,
p. 463; int. Harry McPherson, Sept. 24, 1991, and Nov. 15, 2001.

“a turncoat”: Kotz,
Judgment Days,
p. 319.

“a dagger in your heart”: Remarks of Joseph Smitherman in
Eyes on the Prize,
Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.

“Can you believe he said that?”: Int. Jean Jackson, May 27, 1990.

A tear rolled down King's cheek: Remarks of C. T. Vivian in
Eyes on the Prize,
Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986; Lewis,
Walking,
pp. 339–40.

A second standing ovation: WP, March 16, 1965, p. 1.

“Manny, I want you to start hearings tonight”:
Newsweek,
March 29, 1965.

“Jack, how did I do?”: Goodwin,
Remembering,
p. 336.

11: HALF-INCH HAILSTONES

“There cannot be anyone alive”: Editors' News Service Dispatch 311, “President's Address Draws Strong Support from Morning Newspapers and Columnists,” March 17, 1965, Legislative Background, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Box 1, LBJ.

Chicago mayor Richard Daley called to praise: LBJ phone call with Richard Daley, 10:03
A.M.
, March 16, 1965, Cit. 7069, Audiotape WH6503.07, LBJ.

“That was a terrific speech”: LBJ phone call with Thomas Watson, 4:19
P.M.
, March 16, 1965, Cit. 7071, Audiotape WH6503.07, LBJ.

all eighteen assistant majority whips: PDD, March 16, 1965, LBJ.

pass these four above all others: Ibid., note, p. 5.

Seminarians Judith Upham and Jonathan Daniels suffered an acute letdown: Judy Upham oral history dated June 6, 1966, pp. 14–15, JDC.

James Bevel told morning crowds: Mobile to Director, March 16, 1965, FDCA-624; Mobile LHM dated March 19, 1965, FDCA-693, pp. 14–16.

they could not bring themselves to wrap up: Morris Samuel int. by John B. Morris, Feb. 1966, pp. 19–20, JDC.

“The imperative was too clear”: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 38.

drop seminary for the term and pack Upham's Volkswagen: Ibid., p. 40.

James Forman led a crisis march of some six hundred students: Forman,
Sammy Younge,
pp. 99–100. Forman puts the number at more than a thousand. Other sources cited below vary the estimates between six hundred and a thousand.

“wearing a cowboy hat”: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 139.

spun from a yard with a lit cigar:
Eyes on the Prize,
Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.

“the sound of the nightstick carried”: NYT, March 17, 1965, pp. 1, 26.

“That cracker was just talkin' shit”: Int. James Bevel, Dec. 10, 1998; int. James Forman, Feb. 13, 2001.

They muted their ongoing dispute: WATS report, March 16, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.

signs from nineteen scattered schools: Ibid.

“We are deeply astonished”: Dr. Erno Ottlyk to MLK, March 22, 1965, A/KP21f12.

another 250 Wayne State University students: Stanton,
From Selma,
p. 138.

“Prior to today I felt”: Ibid., p. 139.

the daughter of a Tennessee coal miner: Ibid., pp. 83–91, 154.

Alice Herz realized: Int. Helga Herz, Dec. 3, 2001.

She had joined the first giant march: Shibata, ed.,
Phoenix,
pp. 158–59.

poured two cans of Energine dry cleaning fluid: Ibid., p. 153.

“GOD IS NOT MOCKED”: Ibid., p. 3.

Alice Herz struggled ten days: Robinson,
Abraham,
p. 202.

She had confided nothing: Int. Helga Herz, Dec. 3, 2001.

“When you understand why”: Shibata, ed.,
Phoenix,
p. 157; Zaroulis and Sullivan,
Who Spoke Up?,
p. 3.

“A holy courage must animate”: Alice Herz to Shingo Shibata, May 1, 1952, in Shibata, ed.,
Phoenix,
pp. 35–37.

first Vietnam peace casualty: DeBenedetti,
Ordeal,
p. 107.

the late mass meeting in Montgomery: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 140.

“There's only one man in this country”:
Eyes on the Prize,
Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.

“the last time I wanted to participate”: Forman,
Sammy Younge,
p. 99.

King came behind him with a fiery speech: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 140.

“The cup of endurance”: Arlie Schardt, “Tension, Not Split, in the Negro Ranks,”

Christian Century,
May 12, 1965, pp. 614–16.

“It won't be forthcoming”: Sikora,
Judge,
pp. 222–23.

nearly two thousand people on a mile-long walk: NYT, March 18, 1965, p. 1; Fager,
Selma, 1965,
pp. 140–41.

a spasm of national publicity: Garrow,
Protest,
pp. 108–10.

Other photographs on an inside page: NYT, March 17, 1965, p. 26.

National Press Club banned females: WP, March 17, 1965, p. 1.

“We are sorry there was a mix-up”: NYT, March 17, 1965, p. 1.

“Police protection was thoroughly organized”: Benjamin R. Epstein, “Notes on a Visit to Selma,” RSP1.

Half-inch hailstones fell: SAC, Mobile, to Director, 2:03
A.M
. CST, March 18, 1965, FDCA-656; Mobile LHM dated March 19, 1965, FDCA-693, pp. 17–18.

emerging at 5:15
P.M.
: NYT, March 18, 1965, pp. 1, 21.

“There are points that we agree on”:
Eyes on the Prize,
Part 1, Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Blackside, Inc., 1986.

12: NEUTRALIZE THEIR ANXIETIES

they could catch a plane to New Orleans: Sikora,
Judge,
p. 226.

“I am opposed to every word”:
Congressional Record,
March 18, 1965, p. 5388.

“As American citizens, they have faith in America”: Ibid., p. 5402.

opposed sending the bill to committee: Garrow,
Protest,
p. 113.

“I didn't experience fear”: Associated Press,
World in 1965,
p. 60.

With Deputy Defense Secretary Cyrus Vance: Before taking the arranged call from Governor Wallace, President Johnson met for half an hour with Katzenbach, Ellington, Vance, Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, and Lee White. PDD, March 18, 1965, LBJ.

“pourin' in from all over the country”: LBJ phone call with Governor George Wallace, 4:33
P.M.
, March 18, 1965, Cit. 7094-96, Audiotape WH6503.09, LBJ.

on cue for live statewide television: Jones,
Wallace Story,
p. 403.

“And it is upon these people”: STJ, March 21, 1965, p. 5; FBI transcript dated March 20, 1965, FSMM-NR.

Thunderous cheers answered his concluding appeal: Carter,
Politics,
p. 256.

“I've been leavin' since 3:30”: LBJ phone call with Buford Ellington, 9:13
P.M.
, March 18, 1965, Cit. 7124, Audiotape WH6503.10, LBJ.

“in comes this goddam wire”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 10:00
P.M
., March 18, 1965, Cit. 7129-30, Audiotape WH6503.10, LBJ.

“in a highly agitated condition”: Hoover to Tolson et al., 1:41
P.M
., March 19, 1965, FCT-NR.

reached the LBJ Ranch before two o'clock: PDD, March 18, 1965, pp. 8–9, LBJ.

Anderson Watts was merely his sharecropper: BAA, March 27, 1965, p. 2.

When police arrested eighty-four of the students: WATS report, March 18, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.

At midnight, the most persistent thirty-six: WATS report, March 19, 1965, Reel 15, SNCC.

“Willie Ricks told you to say that”: Int. Willie (Ricks) Mukasa, May 14, 1992.

“Come here, son”: Ibid. Also Sellers,
River,
p. 124; int. Cleveland Sellers, Dec. 14, 1983.

Sellers places this incident a few days earlier in Selma, but Mukasa remembers Montgomery and details consistent with the later date.

“I've known people who sold out”: Int. Robert Castle, March 3, 1993.

He offered more than once to bounce them: Int. Richmond Smiley, Dec. 28, 1983; int.

Richmond Smiley by Judy Barton, Jan. 27, 1972, A/OH.

“I'll be just like Rockefeller's wife”: Int. Metz Rollins, Dec. 13, 1991.

Bayard Rustin urge King to renounce: FBI LHM dated March 20, 1965, FSMM-162, p. 2.

“the Reverend's show”: SAC, Jackson, to Director and Mobile, March 19, 1965, FSMM-91, p. 2.

“Everybody's entitled to one”: Int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000.

littered church basements: BAA, March 27, 1965, p. 2.

outdoor soundstage out of stacked coffin crates: Int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000; NYT, March 25, 1965, p. 27; Lewis,
Walking,
p. 345.

Donaldson and SNCC's Frank Soracco undertook the delicate assignment: Int. Frank Soracco, Sept. 13, 1990; int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000; Fager,
Selma, 1965,
pp. 145–46.

They selected Rev. F. Goldthwaite Sherrill: Shattuck,
Episcopalians,
p. 155.

“Arguments take place in any family”:
Christian Century,
May 12, 1965, pp. 614–16.

“two hotheaded extremists”: “Inside Report: Danger from the Left,” WP, March 18, 1965, p. 25.

“political timing”: Branch,
Pillar,
p. 587.

“get a martyr”: SAC, Mobile, to Director, March 19, 1965, FSMM-249.

“sufficiently to neutralize their anxieties”: FBI LHM dated March 20, 1965, FSMM-162, p. 2.

Forman…agreed to suspend demonstrations: Rosen to Belmont, March 20, 1965, FSMM-23.

“two-day nervous breakdown”:
Esquire,
Jan. 1967, p. 135.

His experimental motto was “use King”: Int. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Jan. 30, 1984.

he drove into the wilds with a stack of leaflets: Greenberg, ed.,
Circle,
pp. 98–99; int. Bob Mants, Sept. 8, 2000. SNCC workers Judy Richardson and Willie Vaughn also were present.

John Jackson: John Jackson int. by Robert Wright, Aug. 3, 1968, RJBOH; int. John Jackson, March 25, 2005.

for the county's first political meeting of Negroes: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 122–26; Matthew Jackson int. by Robert Wright, Aug. 4, 1968, RJBOH; Emma Jackson int. by Robert Wright, Aug. 4, 1968, RJBOH; int. John Hulett, Sept. 8, 2000; int. Rocena Haralson, Feb. 16, 2001; int. Charles Smith, Feb. 16, 2001.

“almost began to feel up to my ears”: Recorded memoir by Atkins Preston, Medical Committee for Human Rights, courtesy of Meredith Kopald, Albuquerque, New Mexico.