Parting the Waters, page 145
By dawn: NYT, May 13, 1963, p. 1; BN, May 26, 1963, p. 4.
Walker made the mistake: Walker speech, May 25, 1963, Tape 0388, PRA.
Galaxie convertible: Notebook of Edwin Guthman, headed “Mother’s Day,” 1963, Edwin Guthman Papers.
“sticking bayonets in people”: White House meeting, May 12, 1963, Audiotape 86.2, JFK.
King had told reporters: NYT, May 13, 1963, p. 24.
“the nigger King”: Ibid.
Smyer hazarded: Notebook of Edwin Guthman, headed “Mother’s Day,” 1963, Edwin Guthman Papers.
“heel of the military”: BN, May 13, 1963, p. 3.
Operation Oak Tree: Code name cited in General B. E. Powell memo, May 22, 1963, Box 17, Marshall Papers, JFK.
“leaned too much”: Notebook of Edwin Guthman, headed “Mother’s Day,” 1963, Edwin Guthman Papers.
“the wonderful words”: Tapes 4 and 5, SHSW/SP.
“You can quote me”: Ibid.
“got my training camp” to “teach any of you”: Selections from mass meeting of May 13, 1963, ibid.
“love offering” and “de-bulled”: Police notes on mass meeting, May 15, 1963, BIR/BC13f5.
Twenty-one
FIRESTORM
he gave six speeches: Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 14, p. 10, and May 15, 1963, p. 1; Cleveland Call and Post, May 18, 1963, pp. 1, 2, 16; Jet, May 30, 1963, pp. 17, 24-25; King-Levison conversation, May 19, 1963, FLNY-9-172.
two-page scoop: New York Post, May 19, 1963, p. 1.
“cut down and ready”: L. Bergman to King, May 17, 1963, A/KP18f17. Also Levison conversations with King, May 18, 1963, FLNY-9-171a, and with Harvey Shapiro of the Times Magazine, May 19, 1963, FLNY-9-170.
Liberation: June 1963 issue.
Christian Century: Issue of June 12, 1963.
Witness, etc.: Listed in A/KS4, A/SC27f21.
Levison sold reprint: King call to Levison, May 31, 1963, FLNY-7-438a.
maneuvered Kunstler aside: Levison conversations with Kunstler, King, Jones, and O’Dell, May 18—24, 1963, FLNY-9-171a, 172, 172a, and 174; also FLNY-7-427a and 431a.
expel two thousand child: Shuttlesworth et al. to Smyer et al., May 17, 1963, Box 17, Marshall Papers, JFK; police notes on mass meeting, May 20, 1963, BIR/BC13f5; King call to Levison, 1:35 A.M., May 21, 1963, FLNY-9-174.
old Wrigley Field: Los Angeles Sentinel, May 30, 1963, pp. 1, 6.
Paul Newman read: Wrigley Field rally, May 26, 1963, Tape 4745a, PRA.
“Wings Over Jordan”: Jet, June 13, 1963, pp. 54-60.
shore of Lake Michigan: Ibid., pp. 62-63; Goreau, Just Mahalia, pp. 349-52.
battered wife: Guralnick, Sweet Soul Music, pp. 332-52.
$100 bills: Jet, June 13, 1963, p. 43.
ahead to Kentucky: Levison-King conversation, May 28, 1963, FLNY-7-435a; Louisville Defender, June 6, 1963, p. 1.
on to St. Louis: CD, June 1-7, 1963, p. 4.
Atlantic City: PC, June 8, 1963, p. 2.
Walker darted: Walker in Albany on May 20, 1963, per FA-1069, in San Francisco on May 25, 1963, Tape 0388, PRA.
Lee came behind: San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 1963, pp. 1, 4, 5; NYT, May 27, 1963, p. 19; BN, May 27, 1963, p. 2.
“He whooped”: Ponder to King, May 26, 1963, A/KP34f14.
Birmingham, England: CD, May 11, 1963, p. 4. Also on breadth of change, Westin and Mahoney, Trial, p. 150, and Lewis, King, pp. 200-3.
34 arrested in Raleigh: NYT, May 15, 1963, p. 26.
100 in Albany: SAC Atlanta to Director, May 31, 1963, FBI File #157-4-2, serial 168.
400 in Greensboro: NYT, May 21, 1963, p. 19.
1,000 in Durham: Ibid.
1,420 anti-U.S.: Thomas L. Hughes memo, June 14, 1963, Box 295, NSF, JFK.
Milton Obote: Quoted in Ambassador Korry of Ethiopia to Rusk, May 23, 1963, 3 P.M., Box 295, NSF, JFK.
“How the hell”: Lee White, third interview (1964), JFKOH.
“‘Why should we hire’”: Cabinet meeting of May 21, 1963, Audiotape 88.6, JFK.
405 U.S. Treasury employees: Ibid.
“a lot of trouble” to “like Marx coming”: Presidential meeting of May 20, 1963, Audiotape 88.4, JFK.
Gregory had suggested: Marshall and RFK joint interview, pp. 708ff, JFKOH.
haphazard assortment: NYT, May 25, p. 1, and May 26, 1963, p. 1; list of those present at Baldwin meeting, Box 8, Marshall Papers, JFK.
mystified Belafonte: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.
“take up a gun”: Ibid.
in North Carolina: Carey to Jerome Smith, Jan. 4, 1963, Reel 36, File 268, CORE.
“kiss it goodbye”: Jet, June 13, 1963, pp. 6, 7, 12; Stein, Journey, pp. 119-22.
two sides jerked apart: Baldwin sources above, plus Schlesinger, Thousand Days, pp. 878-79; Guthman, Band, pp. 219-21; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 356-60; Newsweek, June 3, 1963, p. 19.
“mad illusion”: Levison-Jones conversation, May 26, 1963, FLNY-9-179a.
“you have swell friends”: RFK note on Jones letter to NYT editor of June 7, 1963, Box 8, Marshall Papers, JFK; copy in A/KP13f13.
three Negroes married to whites: RFK, April 30, 1964, pp. 427-29, JFKOH.
married Ann Norton: Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 26, Nov. 21, 22, and 25, 1983.
told Guthman that perhaps: Int. Edwin Guthman, June 25, 1984.
tongue-lashings: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 360—61.
Johnson’s exclusion: White House meeting of May 20, 1963, Audiotape 88.4, JFK; Miller, Lyndon, p. 374.
“not competent to counsel”: White House meeting of June 1, 1963, Audiotape 90.3, JFK.
two days after King: Evers, For Us, p. 265.
“History has reached”: Ibid., pp. 267-68.
“next scene of attack”: Current to Hurley et al., May 13, 1963, III-H-138, NAACP.
Thompson squelched: Evers, For Us, p. 271.
sit-in at the Woolworth’s: Moody, Coming of Age, pp. 236-40.
graphically depicted: Newsweek, June 10, 1963, pp. 28—29.
kicking appeared: NYT, May 29, 1963, p. 1.
nearby beauty shop: Moody, Coming of Age, p. 239.
critical motivation: Ibid., pp. 224-27.
Evers straddled: Evers, For Us, pp. 257-58, 262.
“Don’t shop for anything”: Segment 5 of PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize.”
David Dennis: NYT, May 31, 1963, p. 1.
“To our parents we say”: NYT, June 1, 1963, pp. 1, 8.
made it five on June 1: NYT, June 2, 1963, p. 70; BW, June 5, 1963, p. 1; Wilkins, Standing Fast, pp. 288-89.
King sent telegrams: King to JFK and RFK, May 30, 1963, A/KP14f4.
dispatch his couriers: Hoover to RFK, May 31, 1963, FK-127; Hoover to O’Donnell, May 31, 1963, FK-129.
Lee White declined: White to King, June 1, 1963, A/KP14f4; Garrow, Bearing, p. 265.
“baptized brother Wilkins”: Levison’s recollection of June 1 conversation, June 2, 1963, FLNY-9-186a.
“We are on a breakthrough”: Conference call, 11:31 P.M., June 1, 1963, FLNY-9-185a.
“you tingled”: Levison conversation with Ann and Clarence Jones, June 2, 1963, FLNY-9-186a; also conversations with Jones and “Alice” [Loewi?], June 3, 1963, FLNY-7-441.
“second phase”: NYT, June 4, 1963.
Lena Horne: NYT, June 8, 1963, p. 14; Buckley, The Hornes, pp. 246-47.
stalked through his house: Evers, For Us, p. 273.
speculated intensely: E.g., Anthony Lewis in NYT, June 9, 1963, sec. 4, p. 1.
Tallahassee: NYT, May 31, p. 1, and June 1, 1963, p. 8.
led by Jesse Jackson: NYT, June 7, 1963, p. 14; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, p. 218.
grand basileus: BW, Jan. 19, 1963.
first political stories: Reynolds, Jesse Jackson, p. 37; PC, June 1, 1963, p. 1.
Newfoundland: Yarmolinsky to White, June 5, 1963, Lee White Papers, Box 19, JFK.
wife and newborn: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983.
successfully escorted: NYT, June 7, 1963, p. 14; BW, June 12, 1963, p. 1.
hearing of the House: House Judiciary Subcommittee hearings, No. 5, May 28, 1963, pp. 1246-1322.
“Negroes would still be marching”: Southern Patriot, June 18, 1963, p. 4.
“launch this kind of thing”: Ibid.
Winona bus station: Affidavits of June Johnson, Annell Ponder, and Fannie Lou Hamer in COFO, Mississippi, pp. 17—24; Ponder-Hamer interview of June 13, 1963, in Watters and Cleghorn, Climbing, pp. 361-75.
“get him off the hook”: Conference call, 12:01 A.M., June 10, 1963, with King, Abernathy, Levison, Jones, Walker, and Young, FLNY-9-194; preliminary consultations with Randolph discussed in earlier conversations of June 4 and 6, FLNY-7-442a and FLNY-9-190.
“Tribute to Our”: Appreciation Week program of June 9-16, 1963, A/SC58f21.
Winona mystery deepened: Raines, My Soul, pp. 295-98.
Wallace and the Kennedy: BN, June 11, 1963, p. 1; NYT, June 12, 1963, p. 1; Guthman, Band, pp. 214-17; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 366-68.
step away from the Cold War: Newsweek, June 24, 1963, p. 27.
forty-eight of sixty-five Negroes: King, Freedom, p. 88.
“We will hose down”: WP, June 1, 1963, p. 1.
“beastly conduct of law”: King to RFK, 12:35 P.M., June 11, 1963, A/KP31f18.
“we seldom if ever hear”: NYT, June 10, 1963, pp. 1, 20.
no one liked the idea: RFK, April 30, 1964, p. 432, JFKOH; Burke Marshall, JFKOH; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 368-69; Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 494-95; Newsweek, June 24, 1963, p. 29.
scraps he liked from Louis: Int. Lee White, Dec. 13, 1983. (“That was Louie Martin’s speech.”)
tinkering to add: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 369.
no finished text: Int. Lee White, Dec. 13, 1983.
“Come on now, Burke”: Burke Marshall, pp. 109-110, JFKOH.
“as old as the Scriptures”: NYT, June 10, 1963, p. 20.
“I have just listened”: MLK to JFK, undated, A/SC4f20.
Levison called King: Levison call to King, June 12, 1963, FLNY-9-196.
Jackson movement as shrunken: WP, June 12, 1963, p. 14; CD, June 8—14, 1963; Jet, June 20, 1963, pp. 8—10.
Evers had asked: Evers, For Us, p. 252.
Evers stepped out: NYT, June 13, 1963, p. 1; BN, June 12, 1963, p. 1; Newsweek, June 24, 1963, pp. 32-33; Evers, For Us, pp. 301—3.
758 racial demonstrations: Harold C. Fleming, “The Federal Executive and Civil Rights: 1961-1965,” Daedalus, Fall 1965, p. 942; SRC study cited in Viorst, Fire, p. 222, and Morris, Origins, p. 274.
chained themselves: NYT, June 14, 1963, p. 16.
stoned the home: NYT, June 15, 1963, p. 9.
“Annell Ponder’s eyes”: Robinson to Horton, June 15, 1963, Reel 7, SHSW/HP.
Horton had abundant troubles: Knoxville Journal, June 21, 1963, p. 1; NYT, June 25, 1963, p. 15.
three federal suits: NYT, June 18, 1963, p. 23; BW, June 29, 1963, p. 7; Hamer interview by Jack O’Dell, Freedomways, Spring 1965, p. 238.
Doar snatched: Int. John Doar, May 12, 1986.
“my guess is that a demonstration”: Tape 4817, PRA.
“bottles and bricks crashing”: NYT, June 16, 1963, p. 1.
name from a hat: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983. The name came out Burke Doar, after Burke Marshall.
“Civil rights did it”: JFK-Carl Albert conversation, June 12, 1963, Dictabelt 22A, JFK.
when three thousand: Newsweek, June 24, 1963, p. 34.
Marshall had just reported: Marshall to RFK, June 13, 1963, Box 3, Marshall Papers, JFK.
“Individuals will be hired”: Jack Newfield, Robert Kennedy, as cited in Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 371.
“Memorial Bail Fund”: NYT, June 13, 1963, p. 13.
Other Evers funds: Evers, For Us, pp. 342-43; CD, June 15-21, 1963, p. 1.
secured her written agreement: Wilkins to Kheel and Wilkins to Johnson, June 13, 1963, A/SC5f33; Wilkins to King, June 13, 1963, A/KP17f7.
gained the widow’s permission: Evers, For Us, p. 322.
Gandhi Society surrendered: Kheel to Wilkins, June 14, 1963, and Jones to Wilkins, June 14, 1963, A/SC5f33.
“antagonism towards Martin”: Levison-Montero conversation, June 14, 1963, FLNY-7-452a.
“Lest we forget”: Evers memorial service of June 15, 1963, Tape 4817, PRA.
“a titanic struggle here”: NYT, June 15, 1963, p. 9.
“Can you imagine it?”: Wilkins, A Man’s Life, p. 123.
“furnish the noise”: WP, June 15, p. D6, and June 17, 1963, p. 1; NYT, June 17, 1963, p. 12.
“I think the world of you”: JFK-Thompson conversations of June 18, 1963 [possibly June 17, 1963], Dictabelts 22A.4, 22B.1, and 22B.3, JFK.
present the final result: NYT, June 19, 1963, p. 22.
“hair’s getting whiter”: Mass meeting of June 18, 1963, Tape 4817, PRA.
250-pound weight: Jackson Clarion-Ledger, June 21, 1963, p. 1.
“everyone can see”: Tape 4817, PRA.
“not just become empty prayers”: Ibid.
buried Medgar Evers: NYT, June 15, p. 1, June 16, p. 1, and June 21, 1963, p. 14; CD, June 15-21, 1963, p. 1; Evers, For Us, pp. 322-28; Jet, July 4, 1963, pp. 6-10.
rescinded his acceptance: JFK to MLK, June 12, 1963; Abernathy to JFK, June 13, 1963; Walker to JFK, June 13, 1963; MLK to JFK, June 13, 1963, all in A/KP14f4.
Everett Dirksen: NYT, June 18, 1963, p. 1.
to jail in Savannah: NYT, June 19, p. 22, and June 20, 1963, p. 19.
In Gadsden, Alabama: Westin and Mahoney, Trial, p. 153.
broke down church doors: NYT, June 23, 1963, p. 62; Mary King, Freedom, pp. 82-84.
Laurie Pritchett’s men: SAC Atlanta to Director, July 15, 1963, p. 3, FBI File #157-4-2, serial 174.
ordered all U.S. ambassadors: Secretary of State Dean Rusk to “All American Diplomatic and Consular Posts,” June 19, 1963, NSF, Box 295, JFK.
“wholly devoid of conviction”: Galbraith to Rusk, June 20, 1963, NSF, Box 295, JFK.
money quarrel in Birmingham: Garrow, Bearing, p. 271.
closing of Atlanta’s Funtown: AC, June 17, 1963, p. 5.
“arrogance and opportunism”: Reese Cleghorn, “Martin Luther King, Jr.: Apostle of Crisis,” Saturday Evening Post, June 15, 1963, pp. 15-19.
brink of filing: Wachtel to Matthew J. Culligan (president of Curtis Publishing Company), June 20, 1963, and Chauncy Eskridge to Clay Blair, Jr. (editor of the Saturday Evening Post), June 24, 1963, A/KP25f25.
1,500 national leaders: NYT, June 23, 1963, p. 63.
O’Donnell notify King: O’Donnell telegram to King, June 20, 1963, A/KP14f4.
“paid agent of the Soviet”: Int. Burke Marshall, June 27, 1984.
“whole political life”: Ibid.
these confrontations: Marshall to Hoover, Sept. 20, 1963, FK-3656; Evans to Belmont, Sept. 20, 1963, FL-NR.
Kennedy was pushing Hoover: Hoover to Tolson et al., June 17, 1963, FK-150; Garrow, FBI, pp. 60-61.
destroy its domestic political base: Marshall and RFK joint interview, pp. 797-98, JFKOH.
“always sort of dismissing”: Ibid., pp. 674-76; also int. Burke Marshall, Sept. 26, 1984.
“My God!”: Marshall and RFK joint interview, p. 677, JFKOH. The interviewer for this oral history was NYT correspondent Anthony Lewis.
in the White House Rose Garden: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 384-85; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 272-73. White House records show that King met President Kennedy at 10:10 A.M., before the group civil rights meeting at 10:30. Appointments log, JFK.
hand on his shoulder: Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 1983.
“time to do all that”: Int. Jack O’Dell, July 1, 1986.
“Profumo in the papers”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 384. The Profumo scandal was very much in the news at the time of the JFK-MLK meeting: e.g., NYT, June 14, p. 3, and June 18, 1963, p. 1; Newsweek, June 17, 1963, p. 38.
Readers of the Negro press: E.g., Jet, May 9, 1963, pp. 46-47.
obsessed President Kennedy: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 230.
Joe Rauh realized: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.
“Hello, hello, hello”: Allen interviews of Rachelle Horowitz, Nov. 8, 1968, and John Lewis, Aug. 8, 1969, AAP.
daughters in his lap: Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 291.
President made welcoming remarks: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, pp. 884-85; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 375-76.
“lose the next election”: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.
“Call on Roy”: Ibid.
“will be a march”: Allen interview of John Lewis, Aug. 8, 1969, AAP.
“all have our problems”: Ibid.
“Negroes Inform Kennedy”: NYT, June 23, 1963, p. 1.
“That little baby”: Gentile, March, p. 39.
South Lawn by helicopter: Lee White, third interview, May 28, 1964, JFKOH.
McGeorge Bundy defended: NYT, June 17, 1963, p. 1.
Kennedy told his staff: Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 503, 579.
hailed his motorcade: NYT, June 26, p. 1, and June 27, 1963, p. 1.
thrilled Kennedy: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, pp. 808-9.
“never have another day”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 601.
postponed once: MC, May 25, p. 1, and June 22, 1963, p. 1.
“bunch of Uncle Toms”: Detroit News, June 25, 1963, pp. 1, 4.
“graceful withdrawal”: Diggs to King, June 27, 1963, A/KP24f26.
“you’ll see no dogs”: Detroit News, June 24, 1963, pp. 1, 2, 19-20.
VJ-Day-style stories: Ibid. Also MC, June 29, 1963, p. 1.
“largest and greatest demonstration” to “I have a dream”: “The Great March to Freedom,” Gordy Records #906, distributed by Motown.
King felt the blade: Meeting of June 24, 1963, from int. Jack O’Dell, July 1, 1986, Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 1983, and Aug. 18, 1986, and Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.
Twenty-two
THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON
“Look, Bayard” to “Okay, Roy”: Int. Bayard Rustin, Nov. 28, 1983.
at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel: July 2 meeting from ibid. Also int. Cleveland Robinson, Oct. 28, 1983; Allen interview of John Lewis, Sept. 23, 1969, AAP; Norman Hill, CRDPOH; NYT, July 3, 1963, p. 10; Jet, July 18, 1963, pp. 16-20; Lewis, King, p. 215; Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 292; Forman, The Making, p. 332; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 276-77.
