At Canaan's Edge (134 page)

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Authors: Taylor Branch

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Huge crowds had gathered outside: Patti,
Why,
pp. 163–65.

1.5 million Vietnamese had died of starvation: Duiker,
Ho,
p. 330; Shaplen,
Lost,
p. 46; Karnow,
Vietnam,
p. 160; Borton,
Sorrow,
p. 63.

ten days of nearly bloodless revolution: Duiker,
Ho,
pp. 310–20; Karnow,
Vietnam,
pp. 160–63; Patti,
Why,
pp. 165–68.

Ho Chi Minh invited the American OSS commander: Patti,
Why,
pp. 220–24, 243–47.

“All men are created equal”: Ibid., pp. 250–53; Duiker,
Ho,
pp. 322–23.

Joseph Stalin: Duiker,
Ho,
pp. 420–25.

plundered the feeble new country: Patti,
Why,
pp. 284–93; Karnow,
Vietnam,
p. 167.

ordered every clock in Vietnam set back: Patti,
Why,
p. 293.

“If the French should invade”: Giap,
Unforgettable,
p. 31.

British forces entered southern Vietnam: Patti,
Why,
pp. 297–99; Duiker,
Ho,
pp. 332–37.

“Your mission is to reestablish”: De Gaulle to Leclerc, Sept. 25, 1945, cited in Duiker,
Ho,
p. 353.

“If I listened to such nonsense”: Ibid., p. 355.

shelled the port city of Haiphong: Ibid., pp. 388–97; Patti,
Why,
pp. 382–83.

King told Goldberg: Int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983; int. Bayard Rustin, Sept. 24, 1984; int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

France's subsequent eight-year war: Shaplen,
Lost,
p. xi; Fall,
Viet Nams,
p. 129; Appy,
Patriots,
pp. 44–47.

“Well, you know”: Int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

had pressured Ho to accept far less at Geneva: Karnow,
Vietnam,
pp. 215–21; Duiker,
Ho,
pp. 457–61; Langguth,
Our Vietnam,
pp. 78–80.

“a very dangerous enemy”: Richard Russell interviewed on CBS,
Face the Nation,
Aug. 1, 1965.

The session lasted seventy minutes: NYT, Sept. 11, 1965, p. 9;
Jet,
Sept. 30, 1965, p. 7.

“In short,” he told them: MLK and Goldberg press conferences at the U.N., Sept. 10, 1965, A/KS.

“We will not be forced out”: Ibid.

“intemperate alignment with the forces of appeasement”: Senator Thomas J. Dodd statement, “Dr. Martin Luther King's Activities in Connection with U.S. Foreign Policy,” reprinted in
Congressional Record,
Sept. 15, 1965, p. S-23908.

King convened an emergency conference call: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 445.

“I want a little advice”: Wiretap transcript of MLK conference phone call with Stanley Levison, Andrew Young, Clarence Jones, Harry Wachtel, Cleveland Robinson, Wyatt Tee Walker, and Walter Fauntroy, Sept. 12, 1965, FLNY-9-695a.

the FBI promptly reported back to the White House: FBI HQ LHM dated Sept. 15, 1965, FK-1866; Marvin Watson to LBJ, 8:20
P.M.
, Sept. 15, 1965, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

politically “insane” proposal: Wiretap transcript of phone call between Stanley Levison and Clarence Jones, Sept. 13, 1965, FLNY-9-696a.

“Dr. King Wants Red China in U.N.”: WP, Sept. 11, 1965, p. 7.

“Should I say in this speech”: Wiretap transcript of MLK conference phone call with Stanley Levison, Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young, Harry Wachtel, and John Barber, Sept. 28, 1965, FLNY-9-711a, cited in Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 697–98.

“certain factors bearing”: Untitled MLK statement, Oct. 5, 1965, A/KS.

“another example of the high-handed attitude”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Sept. 10, 1965, FK-1861.

SCLC staff retreat at the Quaker Penn Center: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 446.

mentioned his escape wish: Power,
I Will,
p. 9.

boarded the presidential yacht
Honey Fitz:
The Sept. 21 date comes from King's “Schedule for the Month of September 1965,” A/SC1f30, and from Whitney M. Young, Jr., et al. to John H. Johnson, Oct. 4, 1965, A/KP13f4.

“For the first time in history”:
Jet,
Oct. 7, 1965, pp. 8–10.

The cruise began with decorum: Ibid.; Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 447.

The running count of desegregation plans: WP, Sept. 12, 1965, p. 6.

escalated dispute about what was evasion or raw truth: Int. Wiley Branton, Sept. 28, 1983; Rainwater and Yancey,
Moynihan Report,
pp. 195–96.

“almost turned the boat over”: Herbers,
Priority,
pp. 126–28.

President Johnson stripped Humphrey: Califano,
Triumph,
pp. 64–69; Califano to Katzenbach, Sept. 1, 1965, WHCF, Box 56, LBJ; Humphrey,
Education,
pp. 408–9; Graham,
Civil Rights Era,
pp. 184–86; Mann,
Walls,
pp. 484–87.

Wiley Branton reluctantly accepted: Int. Wiley Branton, Sept. 28, 1983.

Reporters soon questioned the effect: John Herbers, “Rights Blocs Fear Easing of Enforcement by U.S.,” NYT, Oct. 17, 1965, p. 1.

“yacht-wide discussion of Vietnam”: Whitney M. Young, Jr., et al. to John H. Johnson, Oct. 4, 1965, A/KP13f4.

Far greater trouble erupted: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
pp. 181–202; Herbers,
Priority,
pp. 139–41; Fairclough,
Redeem,
p. 283;
Jet,
Oct. 21, 1965, pp. 22–24; Harold M. Baron to Edwin C. Berry, “Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Federal Aid Controversy in Chicago,” Nov. 5, 1965, A/SC150f26.

Commissioner Francis Keppel informed: Keppel to Benjamin C. Willis, Sept. 30, 1965, and Keppel to Ray Page, Sept. 30, 1965, Cyrus Adams Papers, Box 13, CHS.

“despotic, alarming, and threatening”: Willis press release, Oct. 2, 1965, in ibid.

political lightning in fact did flash: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
pp. 191–92; Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
pp. 350–51; WP, Oct. 3, 1965, p. 5.

Mayor Daley pulled Lyndon Johnson aside: Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 324; Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
p. 352.

Staff briefings feverishly assured him: Douglas Cater to LBJ, 10:45
P.M.
, Oct. 3, 1965, and Douglas Cater to LBJ, Oct. 5, 1965, EX HU 2-5/ST13, Box 54, LBJ.

Johnson's special emissary reached agreement: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 195.

with predictable results: Katzenbach to Lee White and Douglas Cater, Dec. 17, 1965, EX HU 2-5/ST13, Box 54, LBJ; Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 202.

Keppel sank into bureaucratic quarantine: Douglas Cater oral history by David G. McComb, April 29, 1969, pp. 21–22, LBJ.

“I was hopeless”: In a confidential oral history nearly three years later, Keppel recalled the Chicago incident as a “colossal defeat” that “will probably be put on my gravestone.” Francis Keppel oral history by John Singerhoff, July 18, 1968, LBJ, pp. 21–23. Also, Francis Keppel oral history by David G. McComb, April 21, 1969, LBJ, pp. 25–26; Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
p. 353.

“I feel wonderful”: Orfield,
Reconstruction,
p. 189.

“shameless display of naked political power”: CDD, Oct. 7, 1965, p. 1.

an extended conference of two hundred activists: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 182ff; Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
pp. 355–56.

“If Negroes cannot break up a ghetto”: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 448. Similarly, Bevel wrote: “Our task is not to patch up the ghetto, but to abolish it.” James Bevel, “SCLC—Chicago Report,” Oct. 26, 1965, A/KP5f26.

“Nonviolence is the only honorable way”: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
p. 185.

dominant organization of Negro Baptists: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 500–507.

“I don't consider Mayor Daley”: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 448.

he preached hope by analogy: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 487–89.

“There are giants”: Deuteronomy 1; Joshua 1–2.

outreach groups in fifteen categories: James Bevel, “SCLC—Chicago Report,” Nov. 8, 1965, A/SC150f22.

shaved head and a copy of Leo Tolstoy's
What Then Must We Do?
: Ralph,
Northern,
pp. 49–50. 335 reports by police surveillance agents: Investigator's report/Intelligence Division, Chicago police department, Oct. 20, 1965, File 951-B, RS, CHS: investigator's reports, Nov. 4 and Dec. 21, 1965, File 940, RS, CHS.

“In the south, we are taunted”: King, “Next Stop: The North,”
Saturday Review,
Nov. 13, 1965, p. 105.

tensions within the hybrid network: Ralph,
Northern,
pp. 51–55.

“When the grass turns green”: Anderson and Pickering,
Confronting,
pp. 186–87.

“something new”: Ibid., p. 188.

23: IDENTITY

Goldberg's new U.N. apartment: Cohen and Taylor,
Pharaoh,
p. 351. While finalizing plans to host the Johnsons for dinner on Sunday, October 3, Goldberg asked to meet LBJ at the airport and fly with him by helicopter to Liberty Island. “Because I'm an immigrant,” Goldberg told Johnson, “and I'd love to see you sign that bill.” (LBJ phone call with Arthur Goldberg, 7:02
P.M
., Oct. 1, 1965, Cit. 9006, Audiotape WH6510.01, LBJ.)

“twisted and distorted by the harsh injustice”: WP, Oct. 4, 1965, p. 7.

inexorably diversified American culture: Schuck,
Diversity,
pp. 87–99.

A school in Falls Church: Joel Swerdlow, “Changing America,”
National Geographic,
Sept. 2001, pp. 42–61.

“America was built by a nation of strangers”: WP, Oct. 4, 1965, p. 7.

joined the two great civil rights laws: King,
Making,
pp. 243–53.

Yet these high stakes went strangely unnoticed: Schuck,
Diversity,
p. 87.

“Johnson Offers Haven”: WP, Oct. 4, 1965, p. 1.

“liberalizes immigration policies”: NYT, Oct. 4, 1965, pp. 1, 4.

Few outlets went on to describe the law: “Congress Sends Immigration Bill to White House,” NYT, Oct. 1, 1965, p. 1; editorial, “Nation of Strangers,” WP, Oct. 5, 1965, p. 16; “Immigration Change, Papal Visit Mesh,”
Christian Science Monitor,
Oct. 5, 1965, p. 1.

“an Englishman is better than a Spaniard”: Celler remarks,
Congressional Record,
Aug. 25, 1965, p. 21755.

“Anthropologists, historians, and lexicographers”: Ervin remarks,
Congressional Record,
March 4, 1965, p. 4145.

“forlorn fight to preserve”: Ervin remarks,
Congressional Record,
Sept. 17, 1965, p. 24232.

“It's really amazing”: WSJ, Oct. 4, 1965, p. 16.

“a complete annihilation of justice”: Clarke,
Wrestlin',
p. 162.

Jones made a special trip: Ibid., p. 24.

“My soul was on fire then”: Mayer,
All on Fire,
pp. 51–56.

“Could I do more for the ultimate good”: Clarke,
Wrestlin',
p. 14.

“Apostle to the Negro Slaves”: Ibid., p. xxi.

“There has been neglect”: Jones,
Religious,
p. 276.

masters could address slaves as brothers or sisters: Clarke,
Wrestlin',
p. 107.

“The brain of the Negro”: Menand,
Metaphysical,
p. 109.

Agassiz declared as a matter of science: Ibid., pp. 97–116; Gossett,
Race,
pp. 59–61; Clarke,
Wrestlin',
pp. 108–12.

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