Pillar of Fire (106 page)

“The Republicans have a great”: Kennedy-Blake meeting of Sept. 30, 1963, Audiotape 113.2, JFK.

Kennedy and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, pp. 286-89; Powers,
Secrecy and Power
, pp. 335, 353-61; Branch,
Parting
, pp. 402-3, 562-66, 678-79, 902-6.

plots to assassinate Fidel Castro: Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, pp. 517-22; Reeves,
President Kennedy
, pp. 288-93; Branch,
Parting
, pp. 566-69.

Ellen Rometsch: Branch,
Parting
, pp. 911-14. Also Hoover to Tolson, 9:45
A.M.
, Oct. 28, 1963, FER42. Hoover placed a copy of this memo in his confidential files: President Johnson folder, Section 22, FHOC.

blackmail between branches: Nicholas Katzenbach, who in the fall of 1963 was deputy attorney general under Robert Kennedy, was not privy at the time to the Attorney General's dealings with the FBI over either the Rometsch investigation or the King wiretap. As he came to understand it from Kennedy, Katzenbach saw the Attorney General as feeling blackmailed by Hoover over an issue separate from the protection of President Kennedy's private life: that Hoover threatened to undermine the administration politically with leaks about King and Communism unless Kennedy approved the King wiretap to prove he had nothing to hide. Katzenbach Oral History, Oct. 8, 1969, JFK, pp. 61-62; int. Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

toward installing wiretaps: Garrow,
The FBI and Martin
, pp. 62-66; Branch,
Parting
, pp. 852-56, 859-62.

“the most dangerous Negro of the future”: Sullivan to Belmont, Aug. 30, 1963, FK-NR.

“We are launched on a course”: Lodge to Rusk, Aug. 29, 1963, in Gravel,
Pentagon Papers
, Vol. 2, pp. 738-39.

Hoover ordered his technicians: Bland to Sullivan, Sept. 6, 1963, FK-207.

“This is obviously the only: Lodge to State, Sept. 13, 1963, quoted in Reeves,
President Kennedy
, p. 599.

expanded program of wiretaps: Powers,
Secrecy and Power
, pp. 377-79.

“engaged in a form of social revolution”: Sullivan to Belmont, Sept. 25, 1963, quoted in Garrow,
The FBI and Martin
, p. 71.

“If this treaty fails”: WP, Oct. 8, 1963, p. 2.

“we cannot remove the Nhus”: Lodge to State, Oct. 7, 1963, quoted in Reeves,
President Kennedy
, pp. 618-19.

reports mentioned assassination: Lodge to State, Oct. 5, 1963, CAS 1445, and Lodge to Rusk, Oct. 5, 1963, CAS 34026, in Gravel,
Pentagon Papers
, Vol. 2, pp. 767-68; CIA station Saigon to CIA, Oct. 5, 1963, and CIA to Saigon station, Oct. 5, 1963, cited in Reeves,
President Kennedy
, p. 617.

“totally secure and fully deniable”: Bundy to Lodge, Oct. 5, 1963, CAP 63560, in Gravel,
Pentagon Papers
, Vol. 2, pp. 766-67.

authorization to wiretap King: Hoover to RFK, Oct. 7, 1963, FK-250.

“If the conditions”: WP, Oct. 8, 1963, p. 9.

October 7 was Freedom Day: Zinn,
New Abolitionists
, pp. 150-66; Forman,
Black Revolutionaries
, pp. 345-54; Chestnut,
Black in Selma
, pp. 168-70; Lyon,
Memories
, pp. 98-103; King,
Freedom Song
, pp. 216-22.

“You can't talk to us”: Statement of Carver Neblett, A/SN94. Neblett and Avery Williams were the two SNCC volunteers arrested for trying to give sandwiches to the voter applicants.

Baldwin publicly called: NYT, Oct. 8, 1963, p. 37.

“I've become jaded”: Zinn,
New Abolitionists
, p. 160; int. Thelton Henderson, Feb. 25, 1994.

“Nothing like this”: Zinn,
New Abolitionists
, p. 165.

Amelia Boynton reached: Boynton to King, Oct. 8, 1963, A/KP21f10.

“I never thought it would happen”: NYT, Oct. 13, 1963, p. 77.

Rivonia Treason Trial: NYT, Oct. 11, 1963, p. 1.

“For Diem and Nhu”: Lodge to Rusk and Harriman, Oct. 10, 1963, and CIA assassination cables dated Oct. 9 and Oct. 14, all cited in Reeves,
President Kennedy
, pp. 620, 750.

arrival that afternoon: NYT, Oct. 11, 1963, p. 1.

next scheduled visitors: The Blaik and Royall visit was scheduled for 6:15 to 6:35
P.M.
, October 10, 1963, following the appointment of Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko, Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin, Secretary of State Rusk, and U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Thompson: Appointments schedule, JFK. Newspaper reports said the visit actually lasted more than an hour: NYT, Oct. 11, 1963, p. 25; BN, Oct. 16, 1963, p. 1.

two young children bounded: Earl Blaik Oral History, JFK.

“bland, p.r. approach”: Blaik to Marshall, Nov. 1, 1963, Box 18, Marshall Papers, JFK.

“Kennedy for King”: Earl Blaik Oral History, JFK.

fell to talking football: Ibid. Also Blaik to RFK, Nov. 18, 1963, Box 18, Marshall Papers, JFK.

Kennedy signed the wiretap: Garrow,
The FBI and Martin
, pp. 72-73; Branch,
Parting
, pp. 906-9; RFK to Evans, Oct. 10, 1963, FK171; Evans to Belmont, Oct. 10, 1963, FK254.

“an unprincipled man”: Charles D. Brennan, “Communism and the Negro Movement—A Current Analysis,” Oct. 16, 1963, FBI File 100-3-116, Serial 416.

Kennedy personally demanded: Garrow,
The FBI and Martin
, pp. 74-76; Branch,
Parting
, p. 911.

all four telephone lines: Hoover to RFK, Oct. 18, 1963, cited in Garrow,
The FBI and Martin
, p. 74.

“still vacillating”: Evans to Belmont, Oct. 21, 1963, FK259.

glumly recommended: Young wrote King that “…the Kennedys are trying to asssure the nation that they are still ‘white,'” in Young to MLK, Oct. 21, 1963, A/KP3515.

wiretaps on Bayard Rustin: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Oct. 25, 1963, FR-NR; Garrow,
The FBI and Martin
, p. 77.

12. F
RONTIERS ON
E
DGE
: T
HE
L
AST
M
ONTH

trouble over an automobile ride: Branch,
Parting
, p. 909. Also int. Burke Marshall, Sept. 26, 1984; Marshall to Rep. George Huddleston, Oct. 28 and Nov. 6, 1963, Box 18, Marshall Papers, JFK; NYT, Nov. 7, 1963, p. 30; WS, Nov. 7, 1963, p. 1;
NY Herald Tribune
, Nov. 8, 1963, p. 8.

King explained: Int. Thelton Henderson, Feb. 25, 1994.

fn Alabama officials effectively sabotaged: Marshall to RFK, Oct. 4, 1963, Box 3, Marshall Papers, JFK; Hoover to Tolson et al., Nov. 7, 1963, FK-NR; Hoover to Tolson et al., Nov. 7, 1963, FER-99;
Saturday Evening Post
, June 6, 1964, p. 18.

Two state grand juries: NYT, Nov. 14, 1963, p. 14.

“men high in the circles”: WP, Nov. 14, 1963, p. 8.

“so much fuss”: King statement of Nov. 6, 1963, A/KS5.

Moses convinced a reluctant: Joseph Sinsheimer, “The Freedom Vote of 1963: New Strategies of Racial Protest in Mississippi,”
The Journal of Southern History
, Vol. 55, No. 2, May 1989, pp. 217-44.

“getting 200,000 Negroes”: “Dear Friends” letter from SNCC office in Greenwood, Sept. 15, 1963, A/SC41f3.

Moses wrote out: Moses to Lowenstein, Oct. 18, 1963, Box 16, Lowenstein Papers, UNC. Lowenstein, who prized the commission in part because SNCC workers had been hesitant to accept white student volunteers, attached a typed copy to a handwritten note to friends: “Have you seen this document?” See also Carson,
In Struggle
, pp. 96-98; Harris,
Dreams Die Hard
, pp. 38-40; Sinsheimer, “The Freedom Vote,” pp. 228-30.

obtained large contributions: Jay Goodlatte-Bass to Lowenstein, Oct. 29, 1963, enclosing a $5,000 contribution from the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, which was led by philanthropist Stephen Currier, A/KP7f29.

Walter Reuther: Reuther to Lowenstein, Oct. 26, 1963, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

“Dear Al”: Graham to Lowenstein, Oct. 30, 1963, b9f299, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

Lowenstein was arrested twice: “Summary of Events, October 22 Through October 28,” b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC; also Lowenstein speech, “Race Relations in Focus,” circa Aug. 1964, b32f246, Lowenstein Papers.

“We all go through”: Lowenstein to “Dear Ones,” Oct. 29, 1963, Box 16, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

“Any white Northerner”: Remarks of Dennis Sweeney at Stanford, Oct. 2, 1963, Tape No. 631002-S1-2, SUARC.

first volunteer to reach Yazoo City: Statement by Yale junior Nelson A. Soltman, Oct. 24, 1963, b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

dragged from bed to jail: “Summary of Events, October 22 Through October 28,” b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

“My experiences here”: Kenneth Klotz to Senator Birch Bayh, Oct. 28 [misdated], 1963, b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

beaten by an irate white taxi driver: Events of Oct. 30, 1963, as recorded in SNCC pamphlet,
Mississippi
, A/KP16f15, p. 17.

“a whirlwind”: Remarks of editor Eileen Strelitz at a Stanford press conference, Nov. 7, 1963, Tape No. 631002-S1, SUARC.

Hattiesburg police chief: “Summary of Events, October 22 Through October 28,” b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

hefty collection left: Remarks of editor Eileen Strelitz at a Stanford press conference, Nov. 7, 1963, Tape No. 631002-S1, SUARC.

“Norman Thomas, bless his heart”: Lowenstein to “Dear Ones,” Oct. 29, 1963, Box 16, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

“decided to confine my activities”: Remarks of Hugh Smith at a Stanford press conference, Nov. 7, 1963, Tape No. 631002-S1, SUARC.

“cut the palaver”: Thomas Powers, “A Chance Encounter,”
Commonweal
, April 11, 1980, cited in Stone and Lowenstein,
Acts of Courage
, pp. 342-47.

two hundred recorded cases: Joseph Sinsheimer, “The Freedom Vote of 1963: New Strategies of Racial Protest in Mississippi,”
The Journal of Southern History
, Vol. 55, No. 2, May 1989, p. 232; Bruce Payne items of Nov. 1 and 2, in SNCC pamphlet,
Mississippi
, A/KP16f15, p. 17; “Statement of Events in Natchez, Miss.—November 1 and 2, 1963,” b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC; “Violence and Intimidation Intensity,” a Collegiate Press Service release dated Nov. 4, 1963, b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

detained Bob Moses: “Statement on Events in Jackson, Miss.—November 1 and 2, 1963,” b32f354, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

“We're SNCC”: Int. Charles Cobb, Aug. 20, 1991.

two weeks earlier in Selma: Ivanhoe Donaldson field report, Oct. 13-31, 1963, b14f747, Edwin King Papers, TOU.

“Morse was on the phone”: Stan Newman (aide to Rep. William F. Ryan) to Lowenstein, Oct. 28, 1963, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

Thomas did keep: Norman Thomas to Lowenstein, Oct. 29, 1963, b9f299, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

novelty of Thomas: NYT, Nov. 1, 1963.

“A drive to get votes”: WP, Nov. 3, 1963, p. 4.

Moses quietly praised: Joseph Sinsheimer, “The Freedom Vote of 1963: New Strategies of Racial Protest in Mississippi,”
The Journal of Southern History
, Vol. 55, No. 2, May 1989, p. 241.

“This is the first time”: Ibid.

more valuable as antennae: Lowenstein interview by Anne Romaine, March 1967, A/AR, pp. 119-20.

network reporters jostled:
Stanford Daily
clipping, Nov. 8, 1963, b32f365, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

“Well, besides being shot”: Transcript of press conference, Nov. 7, 1963, Tape No. 631002-S1, SUARC.

“a bond stronger than the Whiffenpoofs”:
Yale Daily News
clipping circa Nov. 10, 1963, b32f365, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

Vietnamese generals were launching: Gravel,
Pentagon Papers
, Vol. 2, pp. 264-70; Reeves,
President Kennedy
, pp. 635-52.

“will not call on you”: Reeves,
President Kennedy
, p. 647.

“No Nhus is good news.”: Ibid., p. 615.

“the ground in which”: Ibid., p. 652.

hailed the coup: David Halberstam dispatch, “Saigon Coup Gives Americans Hope,” NYT, Nov. 4, 1963, p. 1, cited in ibid., p. 651.