At Canaan's Edge (129 page)

Pastor Martin Niemoeller: Aside from Niemoeller, Jacob Weinstein, James Lawson, and Alfred Hassler, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the delegation consisted of Dr. Harold A. Bosley, Rt. Rev. William Crittenden, Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg, Dr. Dana McLean Greeley, Elmira Kendrick, Rt. Rev. Edward Murray, Dr. Howard Schomer, Elsie Schomer, Rev. Annalee Stewart, and Andre Trocme of Geneva. “A Report from Vietnam,” July 11, 1965, Jacob Weinstein Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, CHS. The text of this report would appear as a paid appeal in the
New York Times
on the Sunday following President Johnson's July 28 announcement of troop escalation in Vietnam, NYT, Aug. 1, 1965, p. IV-5.

the only black person among the fourteen delegates: James Lawson oral history by David Yellin and Bill Thomas, Sept. 23, 1969, MVC.

“gave us great prestige”: Jacob Weinstein, Office of the President, Central Conference of American Rabbis, “Dear Colleagues,” July 30, 1965, Jacob Weinstein Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, CHS.

“To say something while experiencing”: Letter to MLK, June 1, 1965, in Thich Nhat Hanh,
Lotus,
pp. 106–8; “A Letter to Martin Luther King from a Buddhist Monk,”
Liberation,
December 1965, pp. 18–19.

Thich Nhat Hanh challenged Americans: “He recognized that Communism was an evil, but war was even a greater evil and he could not understand how justice could be established on the dead body of peace.” Jacob Weinstein, Office of the President, Central Conference of American Rabbis, “Dear Colleagues,” July 30, 1965, Jacob Weinstein Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, CHS.

ended late Saturday at Friendship Baptist: Pacyga,
Chicago,
pp. 210, 296.

complained of exhaustion after preaching: Chicago police surveillance report dated July 26, 1965, File 940, RS, p. 126448, CHS.

six afternoon stops: Ibid.; “Schedule of Martin Luther King's Visit to Chicago, July 23–26, 1965,” A/SC150f4.

urged large middle-class crowds: NYT, July 26, 1965, p. 12.

“Dives didn't go to hell”: “17,000 Hear Dr. King at Six Chicago Rallies,”
Minneapolis Tribune,
July 26, 1965.

“Take a day off on Monday”: NYT, July 25, 1965, p. 39.

“You don't think I know”: Int. C. T. Vivian, May 26, 1990.

“Johns died?”: Ibid.

his demise weeks earlier: Evans, ed.,
Dexter Avenue,
p. 68;
Jet,
July 22, 1965, p. 47.

“The Romance of Death”: “A Sermon Delivered May 16, 1965,” published by the Howard University School of Religion, March 1966, courtesy of Jeanne Johns Adkins; Branch,
Parting,
p. 902.

“Segregation After Death”: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 12, 705.

“I need to rest”: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 434.

reviewing the half-century of exodus: Chicago police surveillance report dated July 28, 1965, File 940, RS, pp. 138187–88, CHS.

“Chicago did not turn out to be a New Jerusalem”:
Jet,
Aug. 12, 1965, pp. 6–7; Ralph,
Northern,
p. 35.

King led a walking mass: NYT, July 27, 1965, p. 18; Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 161.

“a greater vision of our task”: “A Prayer for Chicago,” SCLC newsletter, Jan.–Feb. 1966, p. 2.

“There can be no disagreement”: Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
p. 340.

permission to release simply the names: Valenti, notes of meeting, 12:30–3:15
P.M
., July 26, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, pp. 240–47. Those present with LBJ were Vice President Humphrey, McNamara, Rusk, Arthur Goldberg, Bundy, Lodge, General Wheeler, George Ball, Clark Clifford, Richard Helms, William Raborn, and LBJ aides Moyers, Valenti, and Horace Busby.

shot down fifty-five U.S. planes: Wheeler to McNamara, July 14, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 144.

“Are you sure they're Russians?”: Valenti, notes of meeting, 12:30–3:15
P.M
., July 26, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 241.

“We think that the Russians”: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 5:46
P.M
., July 26, 1965, Cit. 8399-8400, Audiotape WH6507.08, LBJ.

The President reconvened the group in the Cabinet Room: Valenti, notes of meeting, 6:10–6:55
P.M
., July 26, 1965, in FRUS, Vol. 3, pp. 253–56.

hours after being sworn in: Goldberg was sworn in earlier on July 26, at 11:40
A.M
., in the White House Rose Garden. Department of State
Bulletin,
August 16, 1965, pp. 265–67; PPP, July 26, 1965, pp. 786–87.

Clark Clifford, who had argued the George Ball position: Clifford,
Counsel,
pp. 418–21. In his memoir, Clifford says that Ball gave him a note of gratitude for supporting his lonely position: “I'm glad to have such an eloquent and persuasive comrade bleeding on the same barricade.”

“catastrophe for my country”: Valenti, “Notes of a Meeting, Camp David, Maryland, July 25, 1965, 5
P.M
.,” in FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 238. Clifford advised LBJ to get out of Vietnam, though not until after holding on through the monsoon season. Valenti's notes on what Clifford told LBJ make him largely prophetic on the war ahead: “Don't believe we can win in SVN [South Vietnam]. If we send in 100,000, the NVN [North Vietnamese] will meet us. If the North Vietnamese run out of men, the Chinese will send in volunteers. Russia and China don't intend for us to win the war. If we don't win, it is a catastrophe. If we lose 50,000+ it will ruin us. Five years, billions of dollars, 50,000 men, it is not for us.”

“We are not going to be pushed out”: FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 256.

He called the Pentagon Situation Room through the night: PDD, July 27, 1965, p. 1, LBJ.

“may have been a DRV trap”: FRUS, Vol. 3, p. 257.

three secret deliberations: PDD, July 27, 1965, LBJ.

approved a reply to Martin Luther King's thanks: LBJ to MLK, July 27, 1965, Name File, Box 144, LBJ.

“I am convinced that God”: MLK to LBJ, July 16, 1965, A/KP13f8.

Cigarette Labeling Act: Associated Press,
World in 1965,
pp. 134, 261.

a record 520 billion cigarettes: “Smoking Scare? What's Happened to It,”
U.S. News & World Report,
Jan. 11, 1965, p. 38ff; NYT, Jan. 2, 1966, p. IV-7;
Business Week,
Dec. 3, 1966, pp. 143–47.

corroborated none of the government's alleged ill effects: NYT, June 19, 1968, p. 18.

“Let it be clear”: “Tobacco Called Help in Learning,” NYT, April 18, 1965, p. 31.

the President ordered his staff to rustle up cushioning news: Califano,
Triumph,
p. 47.

“How is your blood pressure?”: LBJ phone call with Abe Fortas, 11:48
A.M
., July 28, 1965, Cit. 8406, Audiotape WH6507.09, LBJ.

“could not conceal his decision”: Karnow,
Vietnam,
p. 441.

“announced the expansion of the war”: Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 276–77.

“mask the central fact that this is really war”: NYT, July 29, 1965, p. 12.

Lady Bird Johnson covered her face: Ibid.

as he reprised from his Selma speech: LBJ's first call that morning, at 6:55
A.M
., and his last outgoing call before the press conference, after the one to Fortas, were to speechwriter Richard Goodwin, who crafted both the March 15 “We Shall Overcome” speech and the July 28 Vietnam announcement around lyrical passages uniting Johnson's boyhood formation with American purpose. PDD, July 28, 1965, pp. 1, 4.

“I just couldn't be happier”: Hubert Humphrey phone call with Juanita Roberts (over LBJ taping system), 1:05
P.M
., July 28, 1965, Cit. 8408, Audiotape WH6507.09, LBJ.

“We repealed 14-B today”: LBJ phone call with Arthur Goldberg, 7:20
P.M
., July 28, 1965, Cit. 8412, Audiotape WH6507.09, LBJ.

“JOHNSON ORDERS 50,000 MORE MEN”: NYT, July 29, 1965, p. 1.

“held down to the absolute minimum”: Ibid., p. 26.

“Don't pay any attention”: Clifford,
Counsel,
p. 417.

“just put water on Mansfield's and on Morse's paddle”: LBJ phone call with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11:45
A.M
., July 23, 1965, Cit. 8371, Audiotape WH6507.05, LBJ.

DeLoach noted with satisfaction: DeLoach to Mohr, July 29, 1965, FK-1662.

the House had added July 9:
Congressional Record,
July 9, 1965, pp. H16207–86.

“I am confident that the poll tax provision”: MLK quoted in Katzenbach letter of July 29, 1965, cited by Rep. William Cramer of Florida,
Congressional Record,
August 4, 1965.

Southerners professed shock: Ibid.

Katzenbach steered the compromise through Thursday's conference: NYT, July 30, 1965, p. 1.

His bronchitis had worsened since Chicago: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 434–35.

calls from Adam Clayton Powell: Powell phone calls to MLK July 4 and July 20, overheard on the MLK wiretap, cited in FACP-293.

Chauncey Eskridge to seek collection: Fred Wallace to Jack Greenberg, July 1965, and Chauncey Eskridge to Maurice Ryles, Reliable Bond Company, July 29, 1965, both A/KP10fl. The Eskridge letter begins: “When Dr. King was here in Chicago the other day, we discussed the enclosed memorandum prepared at my request by Attorney Fred L. Wallace of the NAACP Legal Fund.” The dispute would be settled at a meeting of bankers, lawyers, Shuttlesworth, the bondsman Ryles, and others in December of 1965. See Eskridge to Orzell Billingsley, Jr., Sept. 14, 1965, A/SC3:38; Eskridge to Erskine Smith, Nov. 16, 1965, A/SC10f2; Eskridge to A. G. Gaston and Eskridge to Fred Shuttlesworth, Dec. 21, 1965, A/SC10f2.

King mediated a complex pulpit dispute: Int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991;
Jet,
Aug. 12, 1965, p. 48.

“you and your group must not repent”: Abernathy to Carlton Reese, July 15, 1965, A/KP31f9.

Adam Clayton Powell could not resist: NYT, July 29, 1965, p. 58.

“I told him to go to cities”: Ralph,
Northern,
p. 35.

“Moore Assails Two-Day Visit”:
Philadelphia Inquirer,
July 30, 1965, p. 10.

a sympathetic FBI report: Philadelphia LHM dated July 30, 1965, FSC-NR.

protests against Moore: Ralph,
Northern,
p. 36.

with two planeloads of legislators: PDD, July 30, 1965, LBJ.

“I'm glad to have lived this long”: NYT, July 31, 1965, pp. 1, 8.

excluded the Old Order Amish: Associated Press,
World in 1965,
pp. 128–29.

“gives greater satisfaction than this”: NYT, July 31, 1965, p. 9.

front-page photograph of church elders: NYT, Aug. 2, 1965, p. 1.

Larry and Daniels took seats: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 58–59.

went forward to the altar alone: Int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000.

“This is the
first
time a Negro”: Mathews to “Bishops Carpenter and Murray,” Aug. 1, 1965, BIR/C8f25.

“this white man in his near Clerical clothes”: Mortimer Garnett Cassell to Suffragan Bishop George M. Murray, Aug. 3, 1965, BIR/C10f55.

“very distasteful”: Murray to Cassell, Aug. 5, 1965, BIR/C10f55.

“If he is hanging around causing trouble”: Carpenter to Mathews, Aug. 12, 1965, BIR/C8f25.

seeking to learn why the school board rejected: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 139; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 146–48.

Bernice Johnson went inside alone: Int. Bernice Johnson, Feb. 16, 2001.

Coleman closed the Negro schools a week early: Lowndes County WATS report, June 5, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC; “Great Day at Trickem Fork,”
Saturday Evening Post,
May 22, 1965, pp. 89–93. The WATS report noted that Superintendent Coleman was the sister of Tom Coleman, “a known Klansman.”

less than a month before the new fall term: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 109.

“I'm with my friends”: Int. Bernice Johnson, Feb. 16, 2001.

20: FORT DEPOSIT

pickets outside segregated Girard College: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 436; Philadelphia LHM dated August 3, 1965, FSC-NR; Hoover to SAC, Philadelphia, Aug. 11, 1965, FK-1706.

House of Representatives passed:
Congressional Record,
Aug. 3, 1965, p. 19191; Garrow,
Protest,
p. 132.