At Canaan's Edge (126 page)
Authors: Taylor Branch
negotiations in the Dominican Republic: Szulc,
Diary,
pp. 4â11; Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 262â63; Associated Press,
World in 1965,
pp. 88â93; Draper,
Abuse,
pp. 9â14.
patched radio feed to 100,000 listeners: DeBenedetti,
Ordeal,
p. 115; Powers,
War,
p. 61.
“We are here to serve notice”: Menashe and Radosh, eds.,
Teach-Ins,
pp. 156â58.
“the very sure and very terrible consequences”: Ibid., pp. 165â71.
Famously, he observed: NYT, May 16, 1965, pp. 1, 62; Bird,
Color,
p. 319; Powers,
War,
p. 62.
parallel campus debates: Cf. Menashe and Radosh, eds.,
Teach-Ins,
pp. 23â29, for an account of the teach-in at Washington University of St. Louis, which stretched over thirteen hours into the early morning of May 16.
limiting speakers to professors and government officials: Joan Wallach Scott, “The Teach-In: A National Movement or the End of an Affair?,” in Menashe and Radosh, eds.,
Teach-Ins,
pp. 190â93.
“battle of the eggheads”: Bird,
Color,
p. 318. Journalist Meg Greenfield found the panel of war critics to be imbalanced with physical scientists and psychologists over political scientists, which she thought contributed to an overall “diffusiveness, pointlessness, and the final lack of any coherent and identifiable argument.”
Reporter,
June 3, 1965, pp. 16â19.
Daniel Ellsberg: NYT, May 16, 1965, p. 62.
“from the standpoint of maximizing”: NYT, May 17, 1965, pp. 30â31.
a more raucous panoply of speakers: Robert Randolph, “2,000 at Berkeley Teach-In on Vietnam,”
National Guardian,
May 29, 1965, in Menashe and Radosh, eds.,
Teach-Ins,
pp. 32â36.
“should be repudiated by all true scholars”: Menashe and Radosh, eds.,
Teach-Ins,
p. 29.
Staughton Lynd of Yale: Ibid., pp. 54â59.
expounded on the threat of nuclear annihilation: Petras, ed.,
We Accuse,
pp. 73â82.
“Jefferson for me is an ultimate”: Ibid., pp. 83â98.
“out of the pusillanimities”: Ibid., pp. 6â22.
Julian Bond's unheralded victory: “Bond Wins Ga. House Primary,” SNCC newsletter
The Student Voice,
April 30, 1965, p. 2, in Carson, Ed.,
Student,
p. 216; Neary,
Julian Bond,
p. 82.
long poem he had written for a girlfriend: Int. Charles Cobb, Aug. 29, 1991.
So cry not just for Jackson: Petras, ed.,
We Accuse,
pp. 135â41. The poem appears elsewhere in slightly different form: “Charlie's poem,”
The Student Voice,
June 6, 1965, reprinted in Carson, ed.,
Student,
pp. 221â22; Untitled in ten-folio manuscript, “i want to say/about all,” JMP.
“their familiar role of opposing all wars”: Friedland,
Lift Up,
p. 144.
“California ain't nothing but Mississippi”: Petras, ed.,
We Accuse,
pp. 118â35.
“among the greatest human beings”: Ibid., p. 149.
“I saw a picture in an AP release”: Ibid., pp. 149â53.
Sunday's
San Francisco Examiner
ignored: Menashe and Radosh, eds.,
Teach-Ins,
p. 36.
“a bleary-eyed, bearded young man”: NYT, May 23, 1965, p. 26.
“Fuck Defense Fund”: Heirich,
Beginning,
pp. 256â58.
“moral spastics”: Ibid., p. 264.
Jesse Unruh initiated: Ibid., p. 275.
A bomb threat: [Name deleted] to W. C. Sullivan, May 20, 1965, FHHH-NR.
He met privately with Vice President Hubert Humphrey: Ibid. Also Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 426.
Among King's worries: Two separate New York LHMs dated May 25, 1965, FK-NR.
believing Levison would regain unfair access: Int. Harry Wachtel, May 17, 1990.
he had prevailed upon Archibald Carey: Church, Supplementary Detailed, p. 171; Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 425.
“I interrupted Dr. Carey”: DeLoach to Mohr, May 19, 1965, FAC-30.
Carey had cured: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 533â34.
authorized the leak of confidential bug and wiretap information: Church, Supplementary Detailed, p. 175; Garrow,
FBI and King,
pp. 170, 275.
“It is an axiom of nonviolent action”: King address to the American Jewish Congress, May 20, 1965, A/KS.
enigmatic notice on back pages: NYT, May 21, 1965, p. 36.
filed a cloture petition:
Congressional Record,
May 21, 1965, p. S-11188; NYT, May 22, 1965, p. 1.
“Disappointment is a hallmark”: King sermon, “How to Deal with Grief,” May 23, 1965, A/KS4.
repeating his text from Jeremiah: Jeremiah 10:19.
another trademark sermon: Cf. “Why Could We Not Cast Him Out?,” Branch,
Parting,
pp. 700â702.
“I've been to the mountaintop”: King sermon, “How to Deal with Grief,” May 23, 1965, A/KS4.
cloture tally of 70â30: NYT, May 26, 1965, p. 1.
“Fake! Fake! Fake!”: Ibid.
a clash of iconic images: Remnick,
King,
pp. 252, 258; Associated Press,
World in 1965,
pp. 96â97. Author Remnick found Neil Leifer's photograph perhaps “the most lasting image of Ali in the ring, period.”
“strategy adviser”:
Jet,
June 10, 1965, pp. 52â55.
“Uncle Tom was not an inferior Negro”: Remnick,
King,
p. 246.
Hollywood films since 1927: Watkins,
Real Side,
pp. 200â202, 226â8, 247â62. Born on May 30, 1902, in Key West, Florida, Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (named by his father for four U.S. Presidents) had been half a World War I vaudeville act first called Skeeter and Rastus, then Step 'n Fetchit. Perry kept the stage name when his partner quit, and made his debut as Stepin Fetchit in silent films of the 1920s.
McGeorge Bundy returned: Szulc,
Diary,
p. 285.
“use of citizen-owned television airways”: NYT, May 27, 1965, p. 1.
one of only two Republican votes: Ibid., p. 24.
“final resting place of the Constitution”:
Congressional Record,
May 26, 1965, p. S-11732.
Defeated Southern Democrats foresaw: Ibid., passim, pp. S-11715â11752.
“garden variety”: Branch,
Pillar,
p. 334.
Russell was one of the few: Ibid., p. 258.
disdained both the Lewiston fight and Ali himself: NYT, May 27, 1965, p. 1; Remnick,
King,
p. 247;
Sports Illustrated,
June 7, 1965, pp. 12, 22â25.
“on behalf of a heartened nation”: NYT, May 27, 1965, p. 1.
“another pygmy at his feet”: Tom Wicker, “Lyndon Johnson Is 10 Feet Tall,” NYT Magazine, May 23, 1965, p. 23ff.
18: LEAPS OF FAITH
to stampede the sleepiest bureaucracy in Washington: Francis Keppel oral history by John Singerhoff, July 18, 1968, LBJ, p. 15.
“We believe we are entitled”: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 88.
“screaming and hollering revolution”: LBJ phone call with Carl Sanders, 8:35
P.M.
, May 13, 1965, Cit. 7656-58, Audiotape WH6505.11, LBJ.
delivery to Sanders of a mounted deer head: Ibid.
“I've got my back to the wall”: LBJ phone call with Carl Sanders, 11:46
A.M.
, May 18, 1965, Cit. 7752, Audiotape WH6505.22, LBJ.
“Virtually all place the burden”: Roy Wilkins to Francis Keppel, May 13, 1965, private papers of Robert H. Janover, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Janover was a member of the consulting task force on school desegregation for the U.S. Office of Education, 1965â66.
complained of nitpicking: William Mills, counsel for a North Carolina school board, wrote that “every time the Board whatever it is told is lacking or needs to be done in order to comply, some other âbureaucrat' gets hold of the plan and makes an additional demand.” William L. Mills, Jr., to Senator B. Everett Jordan (D.-N.C.), June 5, 1965, private papers of Robert H. Janover.
“It is most disturbing to me”: Sam J. Ervin, Jr., to [HEW Secretary] Anthony J. Celebrezze, June 10, 1965, private papers of Robert H. Janover.
Pandemonium reigned: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
pp. 78â80; Marion S. Barry and Betty Garman, “SNCC: A Special Report on Southern School Desegregation,” Sept. 1965, pp. 1â8 (courtesy of Betty Garman Robinson).
mostly second-career school administrators: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 52.
Temporary S: Ibid., p. 102; Janover to U.S. Circuit Judge Damon J. Keith et al., January 30, 1997, private papers of Robert H. Janover.
Johnson swore Nabrit to silence: James M. Nabrit oral history by Stephen Goodell, March 28, 1969, LBJ.
lawyers addressed intergovernmental disputes: Cf. Alan G. Marer to Stephen Pollack, June 11, 1965, Administrative History/Department of Justice, Vol. 7, Part 10, a[1], LBJ. Also Pollack to Katzenbach, June 11, 1965, St. John Barrett to Pollack, June 15, 1965, and John Doar to S. A. Andretta, July 9, 1965, all in Legislative Background, VRA '65, Box 1, LBJ.
The guiding strategy, announced in advance: NYT, June 20, 1965, p. 1.
“
The courts acting alone have failed
”:
United States v. Jefferson County Board of Education,
372 F.2d 836 (1966), at 847, italics in original.
thirty front-line civil rights lawyers: John Doar, “The Work of the Civil Rights Division in Enforcing Voting Rights Under the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960,” 1989, courtesy of John Doar.
seventy Negroes tried to walk: WATS report, June 3, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC; NYT, June 4, 1965, p. 17;
Jet,
June 24, 1965, pp. 14â17.
violence struck Bogalusa, Louisiana: NYT, June 4, 1965, p. 17; Meier,
CORE,
pp. 345â50.
“face up to the sixty-four-dollar question”: FRUS, Vol. 2, p. 709; PDD, June 3, 1965, p. 1.
“off the streets”: PPP 1965, Vol. 2, pp. 627â30.
intended agenda on race: Goodwin,
Remembering,
pp. 342â45; James M. Nabrit oral history by Stephen Goodell, March 28, 1969, LBJ.
“But freedom is not enough”: NYT, June 5, 1965, p. 14; “Remarks of the President at Howard University, Washington, D.C., âTo Fulfill These Rights,' June 4, 1965,” LBJ.
Johnson confessed a national legacy: Wood,
Radicalism,
pp. 144â45.
Like Lincoln, who quoted Psalm 19: Ibid., pp. 155â59.
“remarkable in the history”: NYT, June 5, 1965, pp. 1, 14.
“for your magnificent speech”: MLK telegram to LBJ, June 7, 1965, A/KP13f8.
“seem incredibly puny”: NYT, June 6, 1965, p. IV-10.
“the failure of Negro family life”: Mary McGrory, “President Talks Frankly to Negroes,” WS, June 6, 1965.
inklings of political mayhem: Melman,
America,
pp. 133â35.
“half-witted white kids”: NYT, June 6, 1965, p. 53.
investigation to be reopened:
Baltimore Sun,
Dec. 20, 1998, p. C-1.
“Flight Out of Egypt”: Ottley,
Lonely,
pp. 159â72.
not yet established its first public high school for Negroes: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 13.
two thousand reaching the Illinois Central Terminal: Lemann,
Promised,
pp. 15â17, 43.
“HALF A MILLION DARKIES”: Ottley,
Lonely,
p. 171; Joravsky,
Race,
p. 8.
“shall be filled solidly”: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 46.
Eugene Williams floated across an imaginary line: Tuttle,
Riot,
pp. 3â10; Waskow,
Race Riot,
pp. 38â59; Ottley,
Lonely,
p. 184; Joravsky,
Race,
p. 7.
Al Capone's headquarters: Pacyga,
Chicago,
p. 301.
Café de Champion: Travis,
Black Chicago,
p. 40.
“I saw Duke Ellington”: Ibid., p. 78.
Singer Cab Calloway enjoyed: Ibid., p. 40.
the largest Protestant congregation: Tuttle,
Riot,
p. 98; Pacyga,
Chicago,
p. 328; Branch,
Parting,
pp. 55â56; Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 28â29.
Greater Bethel AME bought the Jewish Lakeside Club:
Esquire,
May 1989, p. 94.
Chicago's oldest synagogue: Pacyga,
Chicago,
pp. 312â13, 326.
“Each machine did the work”: Lemann,
Promised,
pp. 3â5.
average of five hundred Negroes: Ibid., p. 70.
this time into West Chicago:
Esquire,
May 1989, pp. 94, 96.
lumped together as the “German Jews”: Ibid; also, Hertzberg,
Jews in America,
pp. 177â88; Johnson,
History of the Jews,
pp. 369â75.
Marshall Field retail stores at last modified company rules: Ralph,
Northern,
p. 11; Cohen,
Pharaoh,
p. 58.
Elizabeth Wood: Joravsky,
Race,
pp. 21â24; Cohen,
Pharaoh,
pp. 70â73.
besieged new apartments near Midway Airport: Lemann,
Promised,
p. 71.
Trumbull Park Homes: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
pp. 101â4.
“My people will be in the streets”: Joravsky,
Race,
p. 25.
victory margin of 125,000 votes: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
pp. 137â41; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 53.
Robert Taylor Homes: Pacyga,
Chicago,
pp. 352â55.
two of the three poorest census tracts: Hodgson,
Islam,
p. 295.
Negro ward bosses simply bought enough memberships: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
pp. 205â7; Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 155.
claiming 50,000 members: Travis,
Black Chicago,
p. 143. Author Travis was elected president of the Chicago NAACP chapter in 1959.
“De Facto Segregation in the Chicago Public Schools”:
Crisis,
February 1958, pp. 87â127; Ralph,
Northern,
p. 15.
School Superintendent Benjamin Willis: Ralph,
Northern,
p. 20; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 77.
When a small group of parents sued in 1961:
Webb v. The Board of Education of the City of Chicago,
Civ. No. 61C1569 D.C., N.D., Ill.; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 85â86.
,000 “extra” students: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
p. 283.
“Big Ben the Builder”
and
“an administrative cyclone”: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 161.
corroborate allegations of managed disparity: Ibid., pp. 156â58; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 95â96; Cohen,
Pharaoh,
p. 284.
To settle the 1961
Webb
case: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 116â18: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
p. 308; Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 162.
“Then came Birmingham”: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 107.
Mayor Daley instructed Democratic precinct captains: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
pp. 308â9.
“WillisâWallace”: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 118â20.
Nearly a quarter of a million students boycotted classrooms: Ibid.;
Jet,
Nov. 7, 1963, pp. 48â55; Ralph,
Northern,
p. 21.
“Negroes are still a minority”:
Chicago Tribune,
Oct. 24, 1963, cited in Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 119â20.
were divided in the giddy aftermath: Int. Lawrence Landry, April 30, 1991; int. Donald Rose, Feb. 21, 1985.
the Daley organization actively opposed: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
p. 313.
the turnout of roughly 150,000: Ibid.; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 133; Ralph,
Northern,
p. 22.
“Many Negroes have improved”:
Business Week,
Feb. 1, 1964, p. 38, cited in Lemann,
Promised,
p. 112.
“alternately frightened or bored much”:
Chicago Daily News,
Feb. 20, 1965, cited in Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 151.
switched votes to grant Willis: Cohen,
Pharoah,
p. 328. The three swing votes on the eleven-member board had been reported to be against Willis, and their private correspondence reflected such sentiment. “I can't vouch for the other two but my guess is that all three of us would be âcon' on another four year term,” wrote Cyrus Adams to board president Frank Whiston. “Marge [Wilde] gets madder at Ben than I do.” Adams to Whiston, Jan. 18, 1965, Box 9, Cyrus Adams Papers, CHS.
Dissenters instantly faulted them: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 153â54.
“the usually legalistic Chicago NAACP”:
Jet,
June 24, 1965, p. 20.
King's aide James Bevel: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 432.
“Civil rights forces of Chicago”: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 155.
his first trip to jail: Albert Anderson Raby file, RS, CHS; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 156.
When students organized their own walkout:
Jet,
June 24, 1965, p. 20; Cohen,
Pharaoh,
p. 328; Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 164.
determined remnant of 252 people: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 157; Associated Press,
World in 1965,
p. 260.
“one of the largest mass arrests”: Ralph,
Northern,
p. 25.
“Who is this man Al Raby?”: Cohen,
Pharaoh,
p. 328.
press inquiries and an FBI investigation:
Chicago Daily News,
June 14, 1965, p. 8; Chicago LHM dated July 30, 1965, FAR-1.
five years of night classes: Robert McClory, “The Activist,”
Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine,
April 17, 1983, p. 27ff.
Teachers for Integrated Schools: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 87.
“You don't think these children”:
Jet,
July 15, 1965, p. 48.
he joined 196 people handcuffed the next day: Ralph,
Northern,
p. 26; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 157â58.