Master of the Senate (243 page)

Knowland’s blindness:
Cater was to write that Knowland told him later that he had been prepared later that week “to force a vote by moving to table the O’Mahoney amendment even though he knew he would lose a few votes by staging such a showdown. But the
votes had already left him.”
“I’m ready”:
Pearson,
W P
, Aug. 7.

“I have conferred”; “I am encouraged”:
Johnson, Knowland,
CR
, 85/1, pp. 13272–273.
Nixon’s counting:
Rogers interview.
“Subtle persuasion”:
Cater,
The Reporter; Time
, Aug. 12.
“Yesterday”:
Johnson,
CR
, 85/1, p. 13296.
Liberal senators gathering:
NYP
, Aug. 2.
“Is there objection”; “Right now”:
CR
, 85/1, p. 13296.

Persuading Payne:
NYHT, WP
, Aug. 2.
Ike, Butler and Schoeppel:
Telephone calls, July 31, 1957, DDE Diary Series, July 1957, Box 25, DDEL; ACW Diary Series, Aug. 1, Box 9, DDEL.
“They stopped”:
Rauh OH, interview with author; Katharine Graham interview with Rauh; Cater, “How the Senate,”
The Reporter
, Sept. 5.
“Bullwhip”:
Evans and Novak, pp. 138, 139.
“Just wait”:
Mann, p. 216; Fleeson,
WS
, Aug. 6.
“There are times”:
Stewart Alsop,
NYHT
, Aug. 5.

“Somehow”:
Humphrey,
CR
, 85/1, p. 13330.
“All that”:
Douglas,
CR
, 85/1, pp. 13333–34.
“I hope”:
Clark,
CR
, 85/1, p. 13294.
“Travesty”:
Case,
CR
, 85/1, pp. 13321–22.
“A vote”:
Murray,
CR
, 85/1, p.13298.
Church’s speech:
CR
, 85/1, pp. 13353–54.
Bethine’s reaction:
Bethine Church interview.
Kennedy’s speech:
CR
, 85/1, pp. 13305–307.

Johnson on the floor:
Descriptions of the final debate and vote in Alsop,
NYHT
, Aug. 5;
NYP
, Aug. 1, 2.

“There were”:
Alsop,
NYHT
, Aug. 5.
“This will be”:
Knowland,
CR
, 85/1, p. 13354.
“Support our President”:
Knowland, quoted in
NYT
, Aug. 2.
“I ask for the yeas and nays”:
Lyndon B. Johnson,
CR
, 85/1, p. 13356.
O’Mahoney hurrying:
Bethine Church interview.

“One of the saddest”:
Nixon, quoted in Cater,
The Reporter
, Sept. 5.
Knowland crying:
Watson,
Lion in the Lobby
, p. 394.
“‘Your man’”:
Church,
Father and Son
, p. 50; Bethine Church interview.
“After my role”:
Miller, p. 210.
“Pick you up”; “A kind”:
Ashby and Gramer, pp. 95, 96.
McClellan Committee:
Baker,
Friend and Foe
, p. 157. The senator is not identified in the book, but Prof. Baker identified him to me as Church.
“After”:
Ward Hower interview.
“Maybe someday”:
Marcy OH.
Johnson’s note:
A photocopy of the handwritten note was given to the author by Bethine Church.

All dates are 1957 unless otherwise noted.

“Boys”:
Rauh interview. Slightly different wording in Wilkins,
Standing Fast
, p. 245; Rauh OH I, p. 25; Katharine Graham interview with Rauh, p. 29, and Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil Rights Bill,”
The Reporter
, Sept. 5.
When he awoke:
Ambrose,
Eisenhower: The President
, p. 411, describes the President as “furious.”
“One of”:
“Minutes of Cabinet Meeting,” Aug. 2, Cabinet Series, Box 9, DDEL.
“Rarely”:
“Statement by the President,” Aug. 2, Cabinet Series, Box 9, DDEL.
“Blackest”:
ACWD, Aug. 2. Box 9, DDEL.

Jackie Robinson and Randolph:
Eisenhower,
White House Years: Waging Peace
, p. 160.
“We all sat watching”:
Payne,
Chicago Defender
, May 31, 1958, quoted in Watson,
Lion in the Lobby
, p. 397.
“Can one”:
Douglas,
CR
, 85/1, p. 13841.
“Emotional”:
Phyllis Hower interview.
“I know”:
Lehman to Douglas, Aug. 6, “General Personal Correspondence, Box 224B, Lehman Papers, HHLP, CU.
“So mad”:
Rauh OH, quoted in Mann,
Walls of Jericho
, p. 220.
“The sham”:
Stokes,
WS
, Aug. 5.
Had made Nixon look good:
NYP
, Aug. 7.

“Quite furious”:
Evans,
NYHT
, Aug. 22.
Conflict between two bills:
Mann, p. 220; Evans and Novak,
LBJ: Exercise
, pp. 139–40;
HP
,
NYHT, NYP, NYT, WP, WS
, Aug. 6–14;Bolling, Brownell, Rauh, Rogers interviews; Rauh OH.
“Infinitely”:
NYT
, Aug. 14.

“Less than nothing”:
Rauh interview.
“This bad bill”:
Reprint of Morse speech in NAACP III B-55, NAACPP, LC, quoted in Watson, p. 395.
Mitchell’s call; “psychological”:
Watson, p. 395; Rauh interview.
“All of a sudden”:
Bolling interview. That expression caught on: Roy Wilkins quotes Joe Rauh as saying, “Once Congress has lost its virginity on civil rights, it would go on to make up for what had been lost” (
Standing Fast
, p. 245).

“By the summer”:
Graham,
Personal History
, p. 240.
“I knew”:
Graham interview.
“So Phil”:
Graham, p. 241.
Sleeping on couch:
Graham, Reedy interviews.
“From the point”:
Graham, p. 241.
“You could see”:
Reedy interview. Confirmed by Rauh interview.

“In those days”:
Wilkins, pp. 243–44.
“If”:
Humphrey, quoted in Wilkins, p. 246.
Leadership conference meeting:
Wilkins, pp. 245–46.
“Reedy’s note”:
Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 7, Box 420, JSP.
“All day long”:
Rauh OH.
“If I had”:
Wilkins, p. 246.
“Disappointing as:
CR
, 85/1, pp. 13852–853. See also “To: Executive Staff, From: Secretary,” Aug. 7, NAACP Papers, Box III, A 71, LC.
“The 16”; “Give it a try”:
WP
, Aug. 8. Lyndon Johnson wrote Philip Graham on that date: “You stepped into the breach at the critical hour. That is something that I will never forget, and I wish there was some way of telling the country that your contribution to an effective, enforceable bill was decisive.”

“The strangest call”:
Philip Graham, quoted by Rauh, OH and interview.
“Joe understood”:
“Katharine Graham—Joe Rauh memorial—September 27, 1992.” A few other sentences from that eulogy: “Joe never changed from the time Phil and I first knew him and Olie over fifty years ago, to the moment of his death…. Joe always lived his beliefs more than anyone in our whole generation, or anyone I know…. He never lost his faith in the ultimate victory of liberal values. He never gave up the fight.”
Unless:
NYHT, NYT
, Aug. 11.
“Infinitely better”:
NYT
, Aug. 14.
“Asked how”:
NYT
, Aug. 13.
“A monstrosity”:
Minnich, “Supplementary Notes,” Aug. 6, LMS, Box 4, DDEL.
“Spoke at length”; “The Vice President”:
Minnich, “Supplementary Notes,” Aug. 13, LMS, Box 4, DDEL.
Rayburn’s wishes; House compromise:
Baltimore Sun
, Aug. 10;
NYT
, Aug. 23; Bolling, Rogers interviews; Ambrose, pp. 412, 413.

More than a few:
Byrd said, “I can’t conceive that the Senate would agree to that [compromise]. I stand on the principle that where there is a criminal action involved, the federal judge should not have the right to deny a jury trial” (
WP
, Aug. 23). Talmadge said, without a jury trial, “a judge would have to prejudge a case without evidence” (
W P
, Sept. 23). Olin Johnston said, “The cornerstone of human liberty is being shattered” by “the House measure” (
HP
, Aug. 29). Sam Ervin said, “The compromise leaves the question of whether a defendant shall have a jury trial dependent on ‘the discretion and caprice’ of man rather than on law” (
HP
, Aug. 29).
Russell countering Thurmond:
Cohodas,
Strom Thurmond
, p. 294.
“I can assure”:
Robertson to Davis, Aug. 28, Drawer 45, AWRP, College of William and Mary.

Thurmond’s filibuster:
CR
, 85/1, pp. 16263–456; Cohodas, pp. 294–97.
“They felt”:
White,
NYT
, Aug. 30.
“Oh, God”:
Reedy OH III, p. 20.
“Rumblings”:
Bates, “Political Notebook,”
AC
, Aug. 30, X. Civil Rights Material, Winder, RBRL.
“Nothing to gain:
AC
, Aug. 31, quoted in Cohodas, p. 298.
“Adamant”:
Cohodas, p. 299.

“I’d like to come”; “this message”:
Taylor to Johnson, with Mary Rather’s note to Taylor written on it, Aug. 27, Box 420, JSP.

Lyndon Johnson and Angel Macias:
The photograph appeared in the
Philadelphia Inquirer
, Aug. 28.

The little party:
WP
, Aug. 29.

The big party:
Rowan, “Eyes of Texas Turn on Lyndon,”
WP
, Aug. 28; Walsh, “Majority Leader Has a Birthday,”
WS
, Aug. 28;
HP
, Aug. 29; Dale Miller interview.
“The biggest birthday present”:
HP
, Aug. 29;
Time
, March 2; Jenkins interview. Neely’s weight on this day was less than ninety pounds.

“Well, the people”; Welcoming Proxmire:
HP, NYT, WP
, Aug. 29.
“For the fine things”:
Proxmire,
CR
, 85/1, p. 16684.
Junket:
WP
, Aug. 31.
“Good medicine”:
McGrory,
WS
, Sept. 3.

“It seems”:
Reedy interview. Reedy was given to frequently repeating some version of this phrase. In his
The U.S. Senate
(p. 13), for example, he wrote, “Obviously, we were proceeding on the ‘half a loaf’ theory at which many people scoff. But it seems to me that the scoffers must be men and women who have never been hungry.”
A “crumb”:
Humphrey, quoted in Wilkins, p. 246.
“Presented”; “by allowing”:
Ambrose, pp. 414, 419.
As Brownell had contended:
Brownell,
Advising Ike
, pp. 365–84.
“When Johnson took”:
Rauh, quoted in Miller, pp 208, 209; Rauh interview.
“Lack of will”:
Watson, p. 401; Burns,
Crosswinds
, p. 322; United States Commission on Civil Rights,
With Liberty and Justice for All: An Abridgement of the Report of the United States Commission;
Lawson,
Black Ballots
, pp. 231–32, 249.
A flat zero:
Dallek,
Lone Star
, p. 526.

“Just a beginning”:
Johnson, quoted in McPherson,
Political Education
, p. 148.
“Failed to recognize”:
Reedy,
LBJ
, p. 120.
“Crucial”:
Reedy,
U.S. Senate
, p. 179.
“If he got one”:
Reedy interview.
“We’ve started”:
Johnson, quoted in Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, p. 152.
“Impact”:
Reedy,
U.S. Senate
, p. 179.
“Perhaps it is”:
Kempton, “The Happiest Man in Town,”
NYP
, Aug. 8.
“It was Congress”:
Woodward, “The Great Civil Rights Debate,”
Commentary
, Oct. 1957.

Praise:
NYT, WP, WS
, Aug. 11; “Purists and Progress,”
New Republic
, Aug. 12.
“Background” memo:
“In analyzing the so-called ‘victories,’” Aug. 8, Box 420, JSP.
Used them as edited; Cater asked; “Eye think”:

For example, Reedy wrote, supposedly for Cater’s “background” information: “From the beginning, it was realized that there could be no ‘compromise’ in the sense of an empty and evasive deal.” Cater wrote: “Johnson
remarked to me recently, ‘It was realized that there could be no “compromise” in the sense of an empty and evasive deal.’” “George—Sen. Johnson said OK,” Mary Rather reported. Undated, but attached to Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 24, Box 420, JSP; Cater, “How the Senate Bill Was Passed,”
The Reporter
, Sept. 5.
“Most remarkable”:
AFL-CIO News
, Aug. 12.
“Sen. Bible was”:
Taylor to Johnson, Aug. 12.

“A modern Henry Clay”:
Tucker,
Tucson
(Ariz.)
Daily Citizen
, Aug. 9.
“To certify”:
Duke to Johnson, Sept. 4, “Legislative Files,” Box 291, JSP.

“Hoax and sham”:
Morse, quoted in Drukman,
Wayne Morse
, p. 307.
“Emerged”:
Douglas,
Fullness of Time
, pp. 290, 291.
“The Moderate Texas”:
Detroit News
, Aug. 5.
Fritchey’s anger; “some of”:
Carver, Bethine Church, quoted in Ashby and Gramer,
Fighting the Odds
, p. 91.
“A soup”:
Shuman OH.