Pillar of Fire (101 page)

Doar sought out Moses: Branch,
Parting
, pp. 508-10.

clandestine tour of Mississippi: Ibid., pp. 401-11; John Doar speech, “The Work of the Civil Rights Division in Enforcing Voting Rights Under the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960,” courtesy of John Doar.

crammed Moses and seventeen others: Charles McDew oral history, p. 82ff, CRDP/OH.

“We had, to put it mildly”: Branch,
Parting
, p. 560.

“continuing problem”: “Special Report Mississippi Field Secretary,” dated Oct. 12, 1961, and cover memo from Gloster B. Current, NAACP Director of Branches, dated Oct. 31, 1961, III-A-253, NAACP.

Medgar Evers broke down: Salter,
Jackson, Mississippi
, p. 21; Evers,
For Us, the Living
, pp. 215-23; Silver,
Closed Society
, pp. 93-95; Lord,
Past That Would Not Die
, p. 66.

insisted that his own wife: Evers,
For Us, the Living
, p. 139.

“That's all right, son”: Ibid., p. 225.

Vernon Dahmer (pronounced “
Daymer
”): Sources include interviews with his widow, Ellie Dahmer, and numerous family, June 21, 1992; Vernon Dahmer, Jr., June 23, 1992; Alvin Dahmer, Jan. 12, 1993; Raylawni Young Branch, June 22, 1992; Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992; Victoria Gray Adams, May 14, 1991; Lawrence Guyot, Feb. 1, 1991; Joyce Ladner, Feb. 22, 1991; J. C. Fairley, June 20, 1992; Rev. John Cameron, June 23, 1992; Rev. Robert Beech, Dec. 8, 1991; J. L. Martin, June 21, 1992. Also int. Hollis Watkins by Joe Sinsheimer, Feb. 13, 1985; Whitehead,
Attack on Terror
, p. 236ff; and the Vernon Dahmer research file, courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

collecting the eggs: Int. Alvin Dahmer, Jan, 12, 1993.

had not allowed a single Negro:
United States v. Lynd
, 301 F.2d 818 (1962), p. 821.

Dahmer lost his bank credit: Int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

met secretly in the Dahmer living room: Ibid. Also int. Raylawni Young Branch, June 22, 1992.

that Dahmer be expelled from Shady Grove: Ibid. Also int. J. C. Fairley, June 20, 1992; int. Alvin Dahmer, Jan. 12, 1993. The Dahmers recall that those expelled with Vernon Dahmer were George Kelly (a cousin), Major Bourne (owner of the downtown Negro grocery), and Silas Newell.

Moses pleaded: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992; int. Hollis Watkins by Joe Sinsheimer, Feb. 13, 1985; int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

meeting of NAACP chapter presidents: Together with interview material from Moses, Hollis Watkins, and the Dahmer family, the rough dates fit best with an NAACP convention described in Salter,
Jackson, Mississippi
, pp. 34-35.

“I'll take them both”: Background on the placement of Watkins and Hayes at the Dahmer farm from interviews with Robert P. Moses, Feb. 15, 1991; int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992; int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992, and Jan. 11, 1993.

workshops on nonviolence: Branch,
Parting
, pp. 143, 204-5, 260-64, 274-93.

Nash who sent: Ibid., pp. 424-25, 430-44.

Nashville trio stayed on: Zinn,
New Abolitionists
, p. 79; int. James Bevel, May 17, 1985.

shrewdly prosecuted Nash and Bevel:
Jet
, Dec. 21, 1961, pp. 6-7.

“Do you want to go”: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990.

Bevel looked the part: Ibid. Also Branch,
Parting
, pp. 263-64, 559.

Nash, who had been raised: Int. Diane Nash, April 26, 1990.

clerics informed her: Ibid.;
Jet
, Jan. 11, 1962, p. 23.

awkward silences between them: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990; int. Robert P. Moses, Feb. 15, 1991.

haunted aspect to his constant self-examination: Moses discussed the problem of moral complicity and leadership in many interviews. Once, for instance, he halted painfully while recalling Louis Allen, the witness who would be murdered himself after coming forward with testimony that Herbert Lee had been murdered. “Yes,” said Moses, “except that you're not sure that he [Allen] understood what was happening. And that's the problem. I guess my only feeling about this is that you're willing to go the distance, too, so everything that you're asking people to do, you're doing yourself. And it's got to be done.” Int. Robert P. Moses, July 30, 1984.

“After the hunting”: Zinn,
New Abolitionists
, p. 79.

Bevel persuaded Moses: Int. James Bevel, May 17, 1985; int. Robert P. Moses, Feb. 15, 1991.

oppression requires the participation of the oppressed: Recalled by Nash at Session No. 2 of the Trinity College SNCC Reunion, April 14-16, 1988, transcript courtesy of Jack Chatfield.

withdrew the appeal: Nash “message” from jail, April 30, 1962, A/SC123f43.

“This will be a black baby”:
Washington Afro-American
, May 8, 1962, p. 1.

“You know, son”: Int. James Bevel, May 17, 1985.

arranged to bring Nash: Lafayette remarks at Session No. 3, Part 1, of the Trinity College SNCC Reunion, April 14-16, 1988, transcript courtesy of Jack Chatfield; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 29, 1990.

tried to persuade Nash: Int. Diane Nash, Feb. 20, 1985; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991. For the Albany movement generally: Branch,
Parting
, pp. 524-61, 601-32.

back to Amzie Moore's: Int. Diane Nash, April 26, 1990.

placebo organization called COFO: Forman,
Black Revolutionaries
, p. 288; Carson,
In Struggle
, p. 78; Watters,
Jacob's Ladder
, pp. 63-65; int. Wiley Branton, Sept. 28, 1983.

one of COFO's earliest church gatherings: Mills,
Fannie Lou Hamer
, p. 24.

Hamer had come to see: Zinn,
New Abolitionists
, p. 93.

arrested Moses again: Raines,
My Soul Is Rested
, pp. 271-73; SNCC booklet,
Mississippi: A Chronicle of Violence
, p. 9, A/SC16f15; Branch,
Parting
, pp. 634-36.

owner of the Marlow plantation: Ibid. Also Mills,
Fannie Lou Hamer
, pp. 36-39.

Nash fired off a letter:
Jet
, Sept. 27, 1962.

“Let's go, bulls!”: Int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

Dahmer regularly pressed: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

long-awaited check was useless: Int. Hollis Watkins by Joe Sinsheimer, Feb. 13, 1985.

Dahmer's mother, Ellen Kelly: Int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

forty acres, a cow: Int. Vernon Dahmer, Jr., June 23, 1992.

brothers married “out of the race”: Ibid. Also int. Robert Beech, Dec. 8, 1991.

white boss among servants: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

“You don't want to be”: Int. Vernon Dahmer, Jr., June 23, 1992.

graveyard behind Shady Grove Baptist Church: Ibid. From visual inspection of the Shady Grove gravestones, as interpreted by Vernon Dahmer, Jr., and his relatives, the main line of the family lineage buried there runs as follows: Susan Kelly (July 3, 1842-May 23, 1924) was the slave mistress of the white planter Kelly and the mother of Ellen L. (Kelly) Dahmer (March 27, 1876-December 22, 1954), who married George W. Dahmer (December 10, 1871-December 25, 1949). The latter two became the parents of Vernon Dahmer (March 10, 1908-January 10, 1966), whose first two wives are buried near him: Warnie Dahmer Williams (January 9, 1910-December 29, 1975) and Ora Lee Dahmer (July 9, 1919-March 22, 1950).

first open meeting took place: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992, and Jan. 11, 1993; int. Alvin Dahmer, Jan. 12, 1993.

“I turned the question around”: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

“Who will meet me tomorrow”: Int. Victoria Gray (Adams), May 14, 1991.

Beauty Queen's first: Ibid.

Doar arrived in Hattiesburg:
United States v. Lynd
, 321 F.2d 26 (1963).

pell-mell witness selection: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986; John Doar speech, “The Work of the Civil Rights Division in Enforcing Voting Rights Under the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960,” pp. 11-12, courtesy of John Doar.

dismissed the discovery portion: Factual synopsis from
United States v. Lynd
, 301 F.2d 818 (1962).

“injunction pending appeal”: Bass,
Unlikely Heroes
, pp. 218-20.

“belief in simple choices”: Int. Victoria Gray (Adams), May 14, 1991.

every day in court next to Vernon: Int. J. C. Fairley, June 20, 1992; int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

Riddell suffered a heart attack: Lord,
Past That Would Not Die
, p. 134.

sensational marathon case: Ibid, pp. 131-53.

cherry bombs from Mayes Hall: Silver,
Closed Society
, p. 178.

camera taped to his ankle: Int. J. C. Fairley, June 20, 1992.

“the negro is not nearly so bad off”:
Jackson Clarion-Ledger
, Jan. 28, 1963, quoted in Silver,
Closed Society
, p. 95.

runaway yearling calf: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992; int. Dahmer family, June 21, 1992.

minuscule total of twelve: CBS Reports, “Mississippi and the 15th Amendment,” Sept. 26, 1962.

revive a project in Selma: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990; Chestnut,
Black in Selma
, pp. 148-50; Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1276.

first original voting suit: Department of Justice news release, April 13, 1961, FDC-NR.

two hundred of fifteen thousand: Ibid.

honor roll of the brave: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986.

veteran local stalwarts: On December 9, 1958, both Samuel and Amelia Boynton testified under oath about the history of their work to register Negro voters. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
Hearings
(1959), pp. 211-27.

leading Negroes were fearful: Int. Bruce Boynton, Aug. 8, 1990; int. Amelia Boynton Robinson, Aug. 7, 1990; int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990; Chestnut,
Black in Selma
, pp. 153-59.

provide boarding: The teacher, Margaret Moore, drowned in the mid-1960s while attending one of SCLC's citizenship retreats near Savannah. Int. Amelia Boynton Robinson, Aug. 7, 1990; int. Marie Foster, Aug. 8, 1990.

Foster and her brother: Ibid. Also int. Jean and Sullivan Jackson (Foster's sister-in-law and brother), May 27, 1990.

white Catholic priest: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

pocketful of pennies: Chestnut,
Black in Selma
, pp. 38-40.

Enmity festered: Ibid., pp. 161-63.

“That little nigger”: Int. Rev. L. L. Anderson, May 27, 1990.

“That will be your mistake”: Ibid.

Lincoln collided: Ibid. Also trial records of
Alabama v. Anderson
, Dallas County Circuit Court No. 8799, in Fred Gray Papers, King Archives.

still held him vulnerable: Int. Bernard Lafayette, May 28, 1990.

eight unarmed Petteways: Ibid.

“powerless to register”: Watters,
Jacob's Ladder
, p. 65.

Fear shut Greenwood: Branch,
Parting
, pp. 633-36; int. James Moore, June 25, 1992; Forman,
Black Revolutionaries
, pp. 283-87.

no better next door in Sunflower: Int. Charles Cobb, Aug. 20, 1991.

“So that you had”:
Story of Greenwood, Mississippi
, Folkways Record FD5593.

nearly a third of the whites: Hearings, House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5, May 28, 1963, p. 1278.

terminated all food relief: Zinn,
New Abolitionists
, p. 86; Branch,
Parting
, p. 713.

Ivanhoe Donaldson entered the movement: Carson,
In Struggle
, pp. 79-80.

SNCC's first national fund-raising: Forman,
Black Revolutionaries
, p. 293.

Camel Pressing Shop: Int. June Johnson, April 9, 1992.

Bevel finally gained: “I have talked to most of the ministers about the use of the churches but none seem to be willing to involve themselves,” Bevel wrote in January 1963. In the same report, Bevel predicted that the best chance for getting a Greenwood movement started lay in providing emergency food for the hungry. Bevel, “Mississippi Report SCLC Field Secretary,” A/SC41f5.