At Canaan's Edge (132 page)

obstruction about bail procedures: Int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000; int. Martha Prescod Norman, June 29, 2000; int. Bob Mants, Sept. 8, 2000.

motion for the removal of the Fort Deposit cases: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 177.

“written complaint alleging a minor child”: John Doar to Mr. [sic] Hulda Coleman, Aug. 16, 1965, ADAH, Alabama Governors' Legal Advisors' Files, School Files D-W, 1963–67, SG 20061, Folder 22, cited in Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 154.

“criminal assassination”: James G. Clark, sheriff of Dallas County, open letter dated June 28, 1965, BIR/C10f56. “This is about a murder,” wrote Clark in a four-page letter he asked recipients to pass along to friends. “You might say it is a lynching. It is about the assassination of a peaceful town, Selma, Alabama, racially undisturbed in September, 1963…. The President directed this train of venom at the deep South states in arevengeful plan—the victims were the states that refused to vote for him, especially Alabama…. How the dirtiest, filthiest, slimiest, most unwashed, along with some genuinely concerned people, carried this out in detail is history…. Is this too shocking for you to believe? Even citizens in Selma who have lived through this horror are still experiencing it and wonder how it came about…. God help you if these bunch of race baiters and criminals, with the blessings of the Federal government, descend upon you, your family, your block, or your city. It will be an experience that you can never erase from your mind.”

“This department is now in receipt”: Colonel Albert J. Lingo to “All Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, All Counties and Municipalities, State of Alabama,” Aug. 16, 1965, BIR/FW2f8.

Coleman's brother Tom made a trip into Montgomery: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 220.

“Dearest Mum”: Jonathan Daniels to Constance Daniels, Aug. 17, 1965, cited in Schneider,
Martyr,
p. 83.

enduring a police stop: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 174–75.

jailers to clear away untouched: Int. Francis Walter, Sept. 7, 2000; int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000.

Rev. Francis Walter: Francis X. Walter oral history by Stanley Smith, Aug. 1968, RJB, pp. 7–8; Callahan,
Quilting Bee,
p. 6.

He took shifts sleeping upright on the floor: Richard Morrisroe int. by Rev. John B. Morris, presented at Chicago ESCRU dinner, Feb. 20, 1966, pp. 9–11; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000; int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2003; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 12, 2003; int. Sammy Bailey, April 11, 2003; int. John McMeans, April 12, 2003.

“Reverend, have you ever stood”: Sermon, “Selma Insights,” attached to a letter from John Ruskin Clark to Francis X. Walter, Dec. 16, 1965, BIR/FW2f5, p. 6.

I had a dream just last night: Quotation from “a small, 3 x 5 notebook,” in “A Letter to the Catholic Community of Saint Columbanus and to Our Park Manor Neighbors,” Feb. 18, 1980, courtesy of Richard Morrisroe.

“Kerry Irish bent”: Ibid.

Deputies banged open the cell doors: NYT, Aug. 21, 1965, p. 1; transcript, interviews of cellmates by John B. Tillson following the Jonathan Daniels memorial service in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC; Richard Morrisroe int. by John B. Morris, played at the Pick Congress Hotel dinner, Chicago, Feb. 20, 1966, JDC; Mendelsohn,
Martyrs,
pp. 209–10; Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 177–79.

“The store is closed”: Ibid.; Ruby Sales handwritten statement headed “On Friday, August 20,” Reel 18, SNCC; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 7, 2000; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003; Hampton and Fayer,
Voices,
pp. 274–75.

Savage twelve-gauge barrel: Mobile report dated Jan. 20, 1967, FJMD-65, p. 2. The FBI identified the weapon used by Coleman as a “Savage, Model 775-A, twelve gauge, semi-automatic, with variable choke, bearing serial number 287076.”

Shell wadding tore a ragged hole: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 221.

Joyce Bailey was twenty feet away in full flight: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002; int. Joyce Bailey, April 11, 2003; Mobile FBI report dated Oct. 7, 1965, FJMD-49, p. 2.

“I just shot two preachers”: Mendelsohn,
Martyrs,
p. 210.

“You traitors!”: Int. Joyce Bailey, April 11, 2003; int. John McMeans, April 12, 2003; int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000; int. Sammy Bailey, April 11, 2003; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003.

jailhouse reading books abandoned: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 229.

he could find no wounded: Int. Shirley Walker by John B. Tillson, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC, pp. 6–7.

Morrisroe barely conscious of Daniels: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002.

first White House Conference on Equal Employment Opportunity:
Report of the White House Conference on Equal Employment Opportunity, August 19, 20, 1965,
GPO 66-60299; NYT, Aug. 21, 1965, p. 1.

left desperate messages: Int. Shirley Walker by John B. Tillson, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC, pp. 6–7.

insisted Peter Hall's clients were still in their cells: Willie Emma Scott, WATS report of 7:30
P.M.
, Aug. 20, 1965, Reel 18, SNCC.

Doar broke the wall of silence: Int. Shirley Walker by John B. Tillson, Aug. 25, 1965, JDC, p. 7.

He notified the FBI: McGowan to Rosen, Aug. 20, 1965, FJMD-15.

to administer last rites: Int. Richard Morrisroe, Feb. 20–21, 2002.

Dr. Charles Cox assembled trauma teams: Ibid.; Mendelsohn,
Martyrs,
p. 211; Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 180–82.

“if Morrisroe should die”: Mobile office report dated Sept. 10, 1965, FJMD-38, p. 3.

“The White House makes a great mistake”: Hoover note on DeLoach to Mohr, Aug. 20, 1965, FK-1783.

cut his second-year poverty budget: NYT, Aug. 20, 1965, p. 1.

“just cut me in half”: LBJ phone call with MLK, 5:10
P.M.
, Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8578, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.

had taken a long yachting holiday: NYT, Aug. 13, 1965, p. 14; NYT, Aug. 18, 1965, p. 10.

“rats eating on people's uh, uh, children”: LBJ phone call with MLK, 5:10
P.M.
, Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8578, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.

He used language nearly identical: LBJ phone call with John McCone, 12:10
P.M.
, Aug. 18, 1965, Cit. 8550, Audiotape WH6508.05. After teasing McCone about making “filthy gold” in retirement from government, Johnson advised him to take the commission assignment in order to help the country understand the nation's “powder kegs” in places like Watts: “They've got really absolutely nothing to live for, 40 percent of them are unemployed, these youngsters, and they live with rats and they've got no place to sleep and they start, they're all, uh broken homes and illegitimate families, and all. Narcotics are circulating around them, and we've isolated them, and they're all in one area, and when they move in, why, we move out.”

“Johnson Rebukes Rioters”: NYT, Aug. 21, 1965, p. 1.

“Refer to that Howard University speech”: LBJ phone call with MLK, 5:10
P.M.
, Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8578, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.

pitched battle, at Chu Lai: NYT, Aug. 22, 1965, p. IV-1.

“I've said that, Mr. President”: LBJ phone call with MLK, 5:10
P.M.
, Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8578, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.

switched briefly to derisive laughter: Office conversation after LBJ phone call with MLK, with voices, including LBJ, Harry McPherson, Lee White, and perhaps Jack Valenti, 5:24
P.M.
, Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8579–80, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.

Harry McPherson had drafted: McPherson remarks in PBS documentary,
The Great Society Remembered,
Guggenheim Productions, Inc., 1985.

The President admonished King on Vietnam: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 440.

“Let's get up a program”: Office conversation after LBJ phone call with MLK, with voices, including LBJ, Harry McPherson, Lee White, and perhaps Jack Valenti, 5:24
P.M.
, Aug. 20, 1965, Cit. 8579–80, Audiotape WH6508.07, LBJ.

“Who of you could have predicted”: NYT, Aug. 21, 1965, pp. 1, 8.

“What does he mean”: LBJ phone call with Lee White, 7:40
P.M.
, Aug. 21, 1965, Cit. 8608, Audiotape WH6508.09, LBJ.

had maneuvered J. Edgar Hoover: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 365–74.

Katzenbach gently corrected: In a phone call six days after the Daniels murder, LBJ exhorted Attorney General Katzenbach to push a home rule bill with the argument that it was harder to gain the vote for Washington, D.C., than for “Downs County” or Mississippi. LBJ: “Where is Downs County?” Katzenbach: “Lowndes.” LBJ: “Alabama? Lowndes.” Katzenbach: “Lowndes is in Alabama.” LBJ: “Now. A man's got a whole lot better chance of getting the vote in Lowndes, a nigra has, in Lowndes County, Alabama, than he has of getting the vote in the District of Columbia Committee in the House of Representatives.” LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 2:50
P.M.
, Aug. 26, 1965, Cit. 8639, Audiotape WH6508.11, LBJ.

He first told FBI agents: Teletype, Mobile Office, to Director, 1:36
A.M.
, Aug. 21, 1965, FJMD-2.

Alabama authorities reversed themselves: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 195, 201.

identification badge was merely a gun permit: Teletype, Office, Mobile to Director, 2:31
P.M.
, Aug. 24, 1965, FJMD-22; Director to FBI Mobile, Aug. 26, 1965, FJMD-26.

“alone and acted independently”: Rosen to Belmont, Nov. 2, 1965, FJMD-53.

“is being conducted at the specific request”: Ibid.

Rev. John Morris sought help from his friend: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 199–200.

“We all did it”: Branch,
Parting,
p. 891.

Gardenia White, granddaughter of Rosie Steele: Int. Gardenia White, March 10, 2000; int. Timothy Mays, March 9, 2000.

petition that records be opened: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 253; NYT, Oct. 26, 1965, p. 28.

pitch for the Mets: “For Instance, Can She Pitch for Mets?,” NYT, Aug. 20, 1965, p. 1.

laws of thirty states from Massachusetts to Wyoming: Table 8, “State Laws with Respect to Jury Service by Women, as of January 1965,” in Plaintiffs' Brief, Vol. 1, by Charles Morgan, Jr., Orzell Billingsley, Jr., Judge Dorothy Kenyon, Dr. Pauli Murray, and Melvin L. Wulf,
White v. Crook,
Civil Action No. 2263-N.

upheld a state law:
Hoyt v. Florida,
368 U.S. 57 (1961), cited in Pauli Murray and Mary O. Eastwood, “Jane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VII,”
George Washington Law Review,
December 1965, p. 237.

Pauli Murray: Murray,
Song,
pp. 115, 239, 359–64; Olson,
Daughters,
pp. 285–90.

“She can reverse the verdict”: Plaintiffs' Brief, Vol. 1, by Charles Morgan, Jr., Orzell Billingsley, Jr., Judge Dorothy Kenyon, Dr. Pauli Murray, and Melvin L. Wulf,
Whitev. Crook,
Civil Action No. 2263-N, p. 61.

parents smuggled or shooed them: Int. Sammy Bailey, April 11, 2003.

Stokely Carmichael was collecting firearms: McGowan to Rosen, Aug. 20, 1965, FJMD-15.

“Sheriff Clark has deputized”: SC, Aug. 28–29, 1965, p. 1; SNCC press release dated Aug. 20, 1965, Reel 16, SNCC.

“have gone into hiding”: Ibid.

Gloria Larry turned up safe: Int. Gloria Larry House, June 29, 2000. 313 “jailhouse giveaway plot”: Int. Martha Prescod Norman, June 29, 2000; int. Silas Norman, June 28 and Aug. 25, 2000; int. Jimmy Rogers, March 12, 2003; int. Ruby Sales, March 22, 2003.

murders of Herbert Lee and Louis Allen: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 509–22; Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 222–23.

hide the key Hayneville witnesses from FBI agents: FBI Mobile to Director, 1:36
A.M.
, Aug. 21, 1965, FJMD-2; FBI Mobile to Director, 6:57
P.M.
, Aug. 21, 1965, FJMD-3; Rosen to Belmont, Aug. 21, 1965, FJMD-16. The investigating FBI agents complained to headquarters that SNCC witnesses talked to reporters but not to them, and that SNCC leaders in Selma refused to make the witnesses available unless conditions were negotiated to guarantee their safety. Director J. Edgar Hoover approved instructions that no interviews were to be conducted in the SNCC office, and that “the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee should not dictate the terms under which our interviews would be conducted.”