Master of the Senate (238 page)

“Banker, preacher”:
Larry L. King, quoted in Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 443.
“Ferocious”; “if”; “Woodrow Bean”:
Steinberg, pp. 443–45.

Depression:
Mooney,
LBJ
, p. 122.
“In all fairness”:
Lehman to Douglas, Aug. 10, Special File 224b, HHLP.
“I want”:
Johnson quoted in Evans and Novak,
LBJ: Exercise of Power
, p. 119.
Johnson’s post-convention thinking:
Clark, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Reedy, Rowe interviews and OHs.

“To cultivate”:
Galbraith, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon
, p. 202.
“Frank, why”:
McCulloch interview.
Rowe and Reedy:
Reedy to Johnson, March 30 (with attached memo, “The Liberal Line”); Rowe to Johnson, March 22 (attached to Reedy to Johnson, March 29), Box 420, JSP.
“Never known”:
Evans and Novak, p. 104.
Schlesinger conversation:
Schlesinger,
Aide-Mémoire
, “Washington, March 30–31, 1957: Conversations with Lyndon Johnson, Joe Clark, David Bruce,” pp. 1–2; Schlesinger interviews; Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, pp. 10–11. See also Evans and Novak, pp. 104–05.
“He is a man”:
Reedy to Johnson, March 30, Box 420, JSP.
“I had carefully”:
Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, p. 11.
“A good meeting”:
Galbraith, quoted in Miller, p. 202.

Graham visit:
Katharine Graham interview; Graham,
Personal History
, pp. 236–38.
Profile of Johnson:
Robert Albright, “‘Johnson Formula’ Heals His Party,”
W P
, Jan. 13.
“I know”:
Johnson to Philip Graham, Jan. 14, KGP.
“Sort of”; Shooting the deer:
Graham interview; Graham, p. 237.
“Phil always”:
Rauh interview.
“Pushing Lyndon”:
Graham, p. 241.
“Completely”; “Looking”:
Graham, p. 237.
“How Civil Rights Came to Johnson City”:
Katharine Graham OH, pp. 36–37; Graham, p. 237; Graham interview.
Water purifier:
Johnson to Philip Graham, May 21, Box 101, LBJA SN.

“You certainly did”:
Rowe to Johnson, Dec. 21, 1956, Box 32, LBJA SN.
“I found”:
Schlesinger,
Aide-Mémoire
.
“Will believe anything”:
Rowe to Johnson, April 8, Box 423, JSP.

“What did?”:
Radin interview.
“Anguish”:
Stokes,
San Angelo Standard-Times
, Dec. 8.
“Digging”:
NYT
, Nov. 10, 23,
1956;
W P
, Nov. 23, 1956; Eisele,
Almost to the Presidency
, p. 104; Solberg,
Hubert Humphrey
, p. 178.
“Johnson is a southerner”:
Fleeson,
AA-S
, Nov. 12, 1956.
Diggs:
AA-S
, Nov. 30, 1956.
ADA resolution:
Rauh, in Irwin Ross,
NYP
, Dec. 19.
National Committee:
WS
, Feb. 27.
“A fight”:
Lehman, in Ross,
NYP
, Dec. 22, 1956.
“All this talk”:
Arvey, in
NYT
, Dec. 27, 1956.
“Some of”:
Galbraith, quoted in Miller, pp. 201–2.
“A challenge”:
NYT
, Nov. 28, 1956.

“I don’t think”:
Kirwan, in
W P
, Dec. 19, 1956.
“First blood”:
Lincoln in
WS
, Dec. 12, 1956.
“Our fight”:
Butler in
WP
, Dec. 14, 1956.
“Though similar”:
NYT
, Dec. 27, 1956.
“That he”:
Krock, in
NYT
, Nov. 13, 1956.
Not the point:
The Nation
, Dec. 8, 1956.
Herblock cartoon:
W P
, Nov. 28, 1956.

African-American voting trend:
Branch,
Parting the Waters
, p. 192; Henry Lee Moon, “The Negro Vote in the Presidential Election of 1956,”
Journal of Negro Education
, Summer 1957.
“Of all”:
Watson,
Lion in the Lobby
, p. 355.
“Not in the South”:
Moon,
ibid
., p. 227; Carol A. Cassel, “Change in Electoral Participation in the South,”
The Journal of Politics
, Aug. 1979, p. 910.

“From every”:
Scammon in
New Republic
, Sept. 16.
The larger; Harlem and Chicago South Side trends:
Reston, “Politics and Civil Rights,”
NYT
, July 24.
Boston trend; “even a 50–50”:
Scammon in
New Republic
, Sept. 16.
“The Negro voter”; “Washington”:
Atlantic Monthly
, March 1957.
“Would automatically”:
Mitchell, Sept. 9, 1956, Mitchell Papers, cited in Watson, p. 352.
Nixon in Harlem:
Mitchell, pp. 354, 355; Wicker,
One of Us
, p. 184.
“Seldom”:
Mitchell, Nov. 11, 1956, Mitchell Papers, cited in Watson, p. 355.
Eastland as liability:
Neuberger, “Democrats’ Dilemma: Civil Rights,”
NYT Magazine
, July 7.

“It could”:
USN & WR
, Aug. 16.
“the … dilemma”
: Neuberger, “Democrats’ Dilemma: Civil Rights,”
NYT Magazine
, July 7.
Give us:
Reston, “Politics and Civil Rights,”
NYT
, July 24.

“One thing”:
Childs,
NYP
, Aug. 1.
Brownell’s enthusiasm:
Brownell, Rogers interviews.

Southern situation:
Martin,
Deep South Says Never
, pp. 163–67.
“In recent”; “no prospect”:
Martin, p. 167.
“We face”; “assembled”:
Heinemann,
Harry Byrd of Virginia
, p. 345.
“Massive”:
Heinemann, pp. 334–37. An overall account of Byrd’s policy is in Heinemann, pp. 325–49, and Wilkinson,
Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945–1966
, pp. 113–46.

Voting in the South:
Price,
Negro Voter in the South
; Mendelson,
Discrimination;
Southern Regional Council,
The Negro and the Ballot in the South
; Fairclough,
Race and Democracy;
Lawson,
Black Ballots
.
Klan on the rise:
Martin, p. 157.
“Legislative hoppers”:
Stan Opotowsky, “Dixie Dynamite: The Inside Story of the White Citizens Councils,”
NYP
, Jan. 7–18.
Porgy
,
Red Cross:
Opotowsky,
NYP
, Jan. 7.

“A flag”:
Martin, p. 41.
“Are subjected”:
Optowsky, “Dixie Dynamite,”
NYP
, Jan. 7.
“Consistent and insistent”:
Abram, quoted in
NYT
, Dec. 1, 1956.
“Solid once more”:
Martin, p. 41.
“An upsurge”:
NYT
, Dec. 2–27, 1956.
Klan:
Martin, pp. 157–59; Optowsky, “Dixie Dynamite,”
NYP
, Jan. 7, 1956.
Camden incident:
NYT
, Dec. 29, 1956.
Violence rising; Brownell’s attitude:
Branch, pp. 197–203.
“Resistance”:
Martin, p. 169. “Most southerners agree,” he concluded. “One, a liberal editor, said regretfully, ‘It’s gone now. The segregationists moved too fast.’ Never? Never is a long time. But for so long that I can’t see when.”
Talmadge interview:
Martin, pp. 176–81.
“The supplanting”:
Watson, p. 382.

Philip Graham memo:
Undated, but attached to note, “This memo is very rough …,” Graham to Johnson, Dec. 20, 1956, Box 101, LBJA SF. Johnson’s reply, on Dec. 22, is
pro forma
: “I have read and reread your memorandum a number of times and I am greatly impressed…. I don’t know that I agree with every part of it, but it has a direction and an impact with which I am greatly intrigued and I am going to ponder it thoroughly.” Johnson to Graham, Dec. 22, 1956, Box 101, LBJA SF.
Arguing; “perhaps”:
Graham,
Personal History
, p. 238.

“Pope or God”:
Reedy OH IX, p. 71.
Rowe memos; temporizing:
Rowe to Johnson, Dec. 13, 21, 1956; Johnson to Rowe, Dec. 17, 1956, Box 32, LBJA SN. At the bottom of the typed letter, Johnson wrote in hand what he considered an important question about Carroll: “How does he feel about Johnson?”
“If he didn’t”:
Corcoran interview.
“Already knew”:
Rowe interview.
“The issue”; “as a man”; “One thing”: “I knew”:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, pp. 147–48.

Almost impossibly:
Description of Johnson’s thinking relies on Reedy memos and on interviews and OHs with Clark, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Reedy, Rowe.
“Some conservative”:
Reedy OH.
“Unlimited”:
Reedy to Gillette, June 2, 1982, p. 5, attached to Reedy OH XI.
Some liberals:
For example, Stokes,
WS
, June 20, Box 2045, JSP.
Among more realistic:
Including Corcoran, Harlow, Rowe interviews;
W P
, June 22.
“You got up”:
Harlow interview.
“They unquestionably”:
Reedy to Gillette, June 2, 1982, p. 4, attached
to Reedy OH I.
Five since:
The House passed bills to outlaw the poll tax in 1945, 1947, and 1949; a bill to make the FEPC permanent and expand its powers in 1950, and, of course, the Brownell civil rights bill in 1956 (SHO).
“They couldn’t send”:
Talmadge, quoted in Martin, p. 180.
“I will never”:
Thurmond, quoted in Cohodas,
Strom Thurmond
, p. 90.

“Out of nowhere”:
Reedy interview. Reedy remembered Russell’s words slightly differently on other occasions. In an oral history interview for the Lyndon Johnson Library, he said that in Paris Russell had said, “George, maybe we can get this man elected President yet” (Reedy OH V, p. 12). He told John Goldsmith that Russell had said, “George, we’ll make this man President yet!” (
Colleagues
, p. 52). In a letter, Reedy wrote that “During one memorable (to me) evening … in Paris, he confided to me that ‘we can never make him President unless the Senate first disposes of civil rights.’” In this letter Reedy added that “Russell never went so far as to say to me that if he had to choose between accepting a civil rights bill or leaving the gap unbridged that he would accept the bill. But I had the clear impression that such a thought was somewhere in his mind” (Reedy to Gillette, June 2, 1982, p. 6, attached to Reedy OH XI).
“When they”:
Oltorf interview.

Russell’s reaction, Johnson’s acquiescence:
Solberg, p. 178.
“You broke”:
Pearson,
W P
, Jan. 13; Solberg, p. 178.
“Now, Lyndon”:
Eisele, p. 104.
“Senator Humphrey”:
AP 11, 12, 15—“Humphrey,” undated.
“In a few”:
Solberg, p. 178.
“A flat ‘No’”:
W P
, Nov. 27, 1956.
Smathers scene:
Smathers OH.

Liberal meeting:
Shannon,
NYP
, Jan. 2;
NYT
, Jan. 3.
Nixon’s decision:
Childs,
SLP-D
, Aug. 1.
Nixon’s maneuver:
Anderson with Viorst,
Outsider in the Senate
, pp. 144–45;
NYT, NYHT, WP, WS
, Jan. 5. “MEMORANDUM: It has been suggested,” attached to Rauh to Wilkins and Aronson, Jan. 7, Box 44, Rauh Papers, LC; Rauh, Rogers, Schnibbe interviews. And see Mann, p. 183.

“A classic performance”; “calm”:
Shannon,
NYP
, Jan. 3.
“Vice Presidents”:
NYHT
, Jan. 5.
“We would then”:
NYT
, Jan. 3.
“Senator Russell suggested”:
Howard Shuman, “Senate Rules and the Civil Rights Bill: A Case Study,”
APSR
, Dec. 1957, p. 958;
NYT
, Jan. 3.
Johnson demanding recognition; Nixon’s opinion:
CR, 85/1, pp. 9–11, 178–79; Howard Shuman, “Lyndon B. Johnson: The Senate’s Powerful Persuader,” in Baker and Davidson, eds.,
First Among Equals
, p. 225; Krock,
NYT
, Jan. 4;
NYT, NYHT, WP
, Jan. 5; Howard Shuman, “Senate Rules,”
APSR
, Dec. 1957, p. 960; Watson, p. 359; Rauh, Zweben interviews.
“
Their
vice president”; “our big chance”:
Shuman interview.
“Fait accompli”:
Fleeson,
NYP
, Dec. 6, 1956. And see Robertson to Johnson, Dec. 1, 7, 1956, Box 53, LBJA SN.
“Disappointed”:
Amarillo News
, Jan. 9.
“He resented”:
Schnibbe interview.
“I encountered”:
Church, quoted in Miller, pp. 209–10.

Church wanted to follow Borah:
Ashby and Gramer,
Fighting the Odds
, pp. 11–12; Carver interview.
“He arrived”; “was aiming”; Johnson had:
Ward Hower interview.
“The Leader’s”:
Carver interview.
Vote on Johnson’s motion:
NYT
, Jan. 5.

“Once again”:
NYP
, Jan. 6.
Rovere:
In
The New Yorker
, Jan. 26.

Persuading the southerners:
This description of Johnson’s conversations with the southern senators is based on the author’s interviews with BeLieu, Cresswell, Dent, Easley, Fulbright, Goldsmith, Guard, Harlow, Reedy, Steele, Talmadge, Van der Linden, Yarborough, and Zweben; on the oral history interviews of, among many others, Ellender, Ervin, Harlow, Hill, Rowe, Siegel, Smathers, Sparkman, Stennis, Talmadge, and Thurmond. With Reedy, Steele, and Yarborough, in particular, the author had them try to re-create, at length, the arguments they heard Johnson using to the southerners. William Jordan’s perceptive analysis of the southerners’ thinking was also helpful.
“Hang out”; “would erode”:
Dent interview.
“Don’t filibuster!”:
Reedy interview. Doris Kearns Goodwin (
Lyndon Johnson
, p. 148) deals with this point this way: Johnson, she says, influenced “the action of others by persuading them to share in his apprehension of dangerous possibilities. Johnson determined that his first task must be to persuade the ‘reasonable’ southerners to abandon their support for a filibuster, by demonstrating that even if it was successful the only result would be a Pyrrhic victory for the South. Northern passions were rising …and would no longer accept defeat by filibuster; instead the attack would focus on the filibuster rule itself.” Siegel told Miller (
Lyndon
, p. 209): “His approach to the southern senators was, ‘Well, if you don’t allow progress on this issue, you’re going to lose everything. There’s going to be cloture; and your opportunity to delay or to slow down and to bring some kind of order or change will be gone.’ They recognized this was a possibility, and it had an effect.”