At Canaan's Edge (123 page)

enabled Sullivan to sense something extraordinary: Ibid.

“one of our men
in
the car”: LBJ phone call with J. Edgar Hoover, 8:10
A.M.
, March 26, 1965, Cit. 7162, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

“Do you know Hoover had a guy”: Int. Jack Valenti, Feb. 25, 1991.

“Looks like we'll be pretty much”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 8:20
A.M.
, March 26, 1965, Cit. 7163, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

remain sealed from its background: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

He tasked White House lawyer Lee White: LBJ phone call with Lee White, 8:40
A.M.
, March 26, 1965, Cit. 7164, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

“much in control of himself”: LBJ phone call with Lee White, 9:27
A.M.
, March 26, 1965, Cit. 7165–66, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

“the appearance of a necking party”: Hoover to Tolson et al., 9:32
A.M.
, March 26, 1965, FVL-16.

slanderous Klan fantasy dressed as evidence: Selma to Director, March 26, 1965, FVL-19; Detroit FBI report dated April 1, 1965, FVL-117, p. 89; Rosen to Belmont, April 5, 1965, FVL-162; Stanton,
From Selma,
pp. 52–53; O'Reilly
“Racial,”
pp. 216–17; Sikora,
Judge,
p. 256.

“Yes, he's a Teamster man”: LBJ phone call with J. Edgar Hoover, 9:36
A.M.
, March 26, 1965, Cit. 7167, Audiotape WH6503.13, LBJ.

“hold off until after the case is broken”: Addendum marked “9:45
A.M.
,” Hoover to Tolson et al., 9:32
A.M.
, March 26, 1965, FVL-16.

“paternalistic at best”: Powers,
Secrecy,
pp. 410–11.

potentially ruinous secrets: The career of Gary Thomas Rowe as an FBI informant is presented officially in the Headquarters Informant File for informant BH 248-PCI (RAC). His most notorious Klan activity was a central role in the May 14, 1961, beating of Freedom Riders at the Birmingham Trailways terminal, with prior sanction from both the Birmingham police and the FBI, as first detailed in 1975 by the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (known as the Church Committee), headed by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. See U.S. Department of Justice Task Force Report entitled
The FBI, the Department of Justice, and Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr.,
Washington, D.C.; Branch,
Parting,
pp. 420–22; Stanton,
From Selma,
pp. 208–10. For sketches of Rowe's involvement in many acts of Klan violence while an informant, see McWhorter,
Carry,
pp. 177–78, 192–93, 204–9, 212–13, 256, 434–37, 500–501.

prior FBI approval to ride: Sikora,
Judge,
p. 243.

“Hoover panicked”: Stanton,
From Selma,
p. 52.

in unmailed letters recovered from her car: Rosen to Belmont, April 5, 1965, FVL-162.

a record White House news day: Brink,
Black and White,
p. 212; PDD, March 26, 1965, LBJ.

“So when the House acts”: Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 500.

not to bump
Search for Tomorrow:
Friendly,
Circumstances,
pp. 172–74.

Johnson called the Liuzzo house at 12:30: NYT, March 27, 1965, p. 10.

“the terrorists of the Ku Klux Klan”: “Televised Remarks Announcing the Arrest of Members of the Ku Klux Klan,” March 26, 1965, PPP, pp. 332–33; statement, Office of the White House Press Secretary, preserved in King's files at A/KP13f7.

triumph gave way to renewed crisis: Belmont to Tolson, March 26, 1965, FVL-154.

had returned secretly to the crime scene: FBI Birmingham to Director and Mobile (Selma), March 26, 1965, FVL-9.

arraignment in full Klan character: Rowe,
Undercover,
pp. 180–85.

“an unexplained four-hour delay”: NYT, March 26, 1965, p. 10.

“all agents must keep their mouths shut”: Belmont to Hoover, March 26, 1965, FVL-33.

“I want no comments nor amplifications”: Hoover addendum on Belmont to Tolson, March 26, 1965, FVL-154. Headquarters relayed these instructions by telephone in advance of regular channels, as reported in McGowan to Rosen, March 29, 1965, FVL-173.

his decision to call King the nation's most notorious liar: Jones to DeLoach, “Representative Wendell Wyatt (R.-Oregon), Meeting with Director, March 25, 1965, FK-NR.

“blinded by prejudice”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, March 23, 1965, “Subject: Communism and the Negro Movement—A Current Analysis,” FK-NR.

refused to cut his hair: Johnson,
Diary,
p. 254.

UPI national ticker at 2:26
P.M.
: Tavel to Mohr, March 30, 1965, FVL-NR.

“The FBI had that car”: NYT, March 28, 1965, p. 58.

“a malicious lie”: Ibid.

“I had to blast the story”: Hoover to Tolson et al., 1:38
P.M
., March 29, 1965, FCT-NR.

DeLoach wisely advised colleagues: DeLoach to Mohr, March 28, 1965, FVL-NR.

explain why it took seven hours: Tavel to Mohr, March 30, 1965, FVL-NR.

one unfortunate assistant admitted leaving: Ibid.

“another vindication of the propriety”: Jones to DeLoach, March 29, 1965, FVL-NR.

“an authentic American folk hero”: “Durable F.B.I. Chief: John Edgar Hoover,” NYT, March 27, 1965, p. 11.

“an impressive monument to efficiency and integrity”: Ibid.

Martin Luther King sent Hoover a telegram of thanks: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 413.

“would only help build up this character”: DeLoach to Mohr, March 28, 1965, FVL NR.

Producers had agreed to film him: Spivak to MLK, March 27, 1965, A/KP17f17; Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 414.

“I would say that the march was not silly at all”: Transcript,
Meet the Press,
March 28, 1965, A/SC4f42.

Bishop Carpenter of Alabama had brokered: Carpenter to “The Congregation of St. Paul's Church, Selma, Alabama,” March 25, 1965, BIR/C8f24; John B. Morris, “To All Bishops,” March 27, 1965, BIR/C11f5; STJ, March 28, 1965, p. 1; Bishop George Murray to Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, March 25, 1965, BIR/C11f5.

Wilson Baker arrested an armed member of Sheriff Clark's posse: Mobile LHM dated April 2, 1965, FDCA-771, pp. 4–5.

two anguished pastoral letters that week: Rev. T. Frank Mathews to “My dear Fellow Churchmen,” March 23, 1965, BIR/C10f50; Rev. T. Frank Mathews to “My dear Fellow Churchmen,” March 25, 1965, BIR/C8f24. Excerpts from the second letter: “It may be of some help to all of us to visualize the consequences had not this resolution-of-compliance-with-the-Canons been adopted. As a priest of the Episcopal Church, it is clear that I would have to resign as your rector. You would not be able to replace me with another Episcopal priest, since this congregation would have to dissolve its communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. As individuals and as a group you would no longer be Episcopalians and the Book of Common Prayer would no longer be yours…. I know all of you are ‘Big' people who love your church with abig love. As an Episcopal Church, we must abide by the Canons…. Unless the group is disorderly and creating a disturbance (in which case it is the canonical responsibility of the ushers to refuse them admittance), it is not for us to judge any man's motives for attending church. Perhaps
our
motives are not always as pure as they should be; I know
mine
are not. But I do know that our Vestry has seen its duty and it has done it—and I am proud of them.”

“That was as bad as my senior sermon”: NYT, March 29, 1965, p. 29.

“the first breakthrough in Selma”: ESCRU newsletter, Selma Supplement, April 4, 1965, p. 1.

“Glory to God in the highest!”: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 47–51.

“Selma Protestant Church Integrated for First Time”: NYT, March 29, 1965, p. 1.

Morris complained: Rev. John B. Morris to Andrew Young, April 2, 1965, A/SC44f12.

“now,
while people are still in motion”: Minutes, “12:30
A.M.
, Friday,” March 26, 1965, Reel 37, SNCC.

Sunday afternoon stringing power cords: W. C. Heinz and Bard Lindeman, “Great Day at Trickem Fork,”
Saturday Evening Post,
May 22, 1965, p. 94.

Storekeeper William Cosby presided: Mobile LHM dated April 2, 1965, FDCA-771, p. 5.

the featured speaker at Mt. Gillard: Ibid.

Lafayette had ventured into Selma: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 63–66, 81–85.

“too much leadership concentrated”: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

“An immediate result of Mrs. Liuzzo's death”: NYT, March 28, 1965, p. 58.

“suggested to you that you tap a line”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 6:42
P.M.
, March 29, 1965, Cit. 7179–80, Audiotape WH6503.14, LBJ.

another visit to the White House: Alsop had visited the White House for the same purpose on March 4, 1965. See Moyers to LBJ, “(One Copy Only),” March 4, 1965, Office of the President, Moyers, Box 8, LBJ.

Alsop, ironically, was both the conduit and the victim: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 293–95.

Alsop biographer Edwin Yoder would unearth documents: Yoder,
Joe Alsop's,
pp. 152–56.

“but I like him, and I'm his friend”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 6:42
P.M
., March 29, 1965, Cit. 7179–80, Audiotape WH6503.14, LBJ.

Philip Graham…committed suicide: Graham,
Personal,
p. 331.

Katzenbach formally ordered: Powers,
Secrecy,
p. 402; Gentry,
Hoover,
p. 583.

Only the President's surprise initiative: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

memorial service that Liuzzo's: NYT, March 30, 1965, p. 30.

privately reproached both Myers and Sayers: Stanton,
From Selma,
pp. 176–77; Emrich to Carpenter, April 1, 1965, BIR/C15f29.

“what a bitter pill it was”: George M. Murray to Mathews, March 25, 1965, BIR/C10f50.

a bargain for their departure: Judy Upham oral history dated June 9, 1966, pp. 1–2, JDC.

Church lawyers picked at Carpenter's interpretation: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 51.

“Losing this family would be a terrific financial blow”: Mathews handwritten response on Murray to Mathews, June 18, 1965, BIR/C10f53. The exchange comments on the resignation of St. Paul's vestryman David McCullough, as recorded in McCullough to Mathews and Carpenter, April 10, 1965, and Mrs. D. N. (Annette) McCullough to Carpenter, April 17, 1965, both BIR/C8f24. Mrs. McCullough's handwritten letter to Bishop Carpenter is typical of the dissent: “I cannot understand the change in our Episcopal Churches, ministers & Bishops. Some of the ministers are actually being made hypocrites, because they do not believe in all these canon changes & integration in our churches. These are
man made laws not God's laws.
Can't any of you see all this forcing of the negro race in everything we do is the Communistic plan? The fact is that all this is leading up to one thing, negroes and whites marrying & to me that's the most sinful thing that our churches & mainly Episcopal ones are doing…. I have workedwith the altar guild & taken care of the altar linen for years, but I cannot do it now or go to church. This has just about broken our hearts.”

“If she is cured”: Mathews to “Germy,” July 27, 1965, commenting on the “idiotic letter” of Mrs. Hugh Underwood, BIR/C10f54.

Bishop Carpenter curdled against the movement: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 737–45.

“having the limb cut out from under me”: Carpenter to Bishop Reuben H. Mueller, March 30, 1965, BIR/C11f5. The reply for the National Council of Churches is Edwin Espy to Carpenter, April 14, 1965, BIR/C15f29.

“After the nail has been driven”: Carpenter to C. Kilmer Myers, March 19, 1965, BIR/C15f28. Another rebuke over Selma is Carpenter to Myers, March 24, 1965, BIR/C15f28.

“rude and inexcusable”: Carpenter to Rt. Rev. Richard S. Emrich (“Dear Joe”), April 6, 1965, BIR/C15f29.

“I have not answered him at all”: Ibid.

“When we answer somebody”: Emrich to Carpenter, April 1, 1965, BIR/C15f29.

a red leather saddle and a model village: PDD, March 29, 1965, pp. 6–7, LBJ.