Parting the Waters

by Taylor Branch

  it “cheapened” the church: Int. Jo Ann Robinson, Nov. 14, 1983.

  kept playing the Bach: Int. Enid Johns, Jan. 24, 1984, and Barbara Johns Powell, Dec. 9, 1983.

  “weren’t bought in the store”: Int. Richmond Smiley, Dec. 28, 1983.

  “when Negroes start making them”: Int. Rev. James L. Moore, Dec. 2, 1983.

  arrange a truce: For the deacons’ meeting over the fish generally, int. R. D. Nesbitt, Dec. 29, 1983, and Rev. Vernon Dobson, Oct. 5, 1983.

  them with his fists: Int. Rev. G. Murray Branch, June 8, 1983, and R. D. Nesbitt, Dec. 29, 1983.

  “all out of here!”: B. Smith, They Closed, p. 38. This book treats the Prince Edward County school strike and its aftermath. The same subject is covered in Kluger, Simple Justice, pp. 451ff.

  comic book between her knees: Int. Barbara Johns Powell, Dec. 9, 1983.

  “limb is not a man”: Kluger, Simple Justice, p. 478.

  still had no telephones: Int. Barbara Johns Powell, Dec. 9, 1983.

  so plainly “tickled”: Int. Robert Johns, Jan. 11, 1984.

  quoting all that poetry: Ibid.

  her astonishing achievement: Int. Barbara Johns Powell, Dec. 9, 1983.

  to anyone in Montgomery: Ibid.

  “each other’s names!”: Int. Dr. Zelia Evans, June 8, 1983.

  $1.95 from a white woman: Jeremiah Reeves case. Discussed in King speech of April 6, 1958, BUK 1f11a.

  with a tire iron: Int. Enid Johns, Jan. 24, 1984.

  “Safe to Murder Negroes”: Int. Altona Johns, Jan. 31, 1984. See also Yeakey, “Montgomery,” pp. 104ff, Gandy, Human, p. xv, and B. Smith, They Closed, p. 78. This incident is one of the most popular of the Johns stories and was mentioned to the author by practically every source who knew him.

  “his hide is not worth it”: B. Smith, They Closed, p. 78, and int. Barbara Johns Powell, Dec. 8, 1983.

  Sherman’s memoirs and “When the Rapist Is White”: Int. Altona Johns Anderson, Feb. 7, 1984.

  women of the church were incensed: Int. Rev. G. Murray Branch, June 8, 1983, and R. D. Nesbitt, Dec. 29, 1983.

  this latest resignation, his fifth: Int. R. D. Nesbitt, Dec. 29, 1983.

  fault she shared with her uncle: Int. Barbara Johns Powell, Dec. 9, 1983.

  to meet Martin Luther King, Jr.: Int. R. D. Nesbitt, Dec. 29, 1983 and Feb. 16, 1984. Also Nesbitt, A/OH.

  Two

  ROCKEFELLER AND EBENEZER

  first gift: Read, Spelman, pp. 64-65.

  “Paddle My Own Canoe” and “Pleased Although I’m Sad”: Flynn, God’s Gold, pp. 53, 110.

  never bring reproach: Read, Spelman, p. 83.

  awarded its first three in 1897: Brawley, Morehouse, p. 83.

  October 29, 1899: E. Smith, “Ebenezer.”

  threatening foreclosure: Ibid., p. 1. Also King Sr., Daddy, p. 84.

  Ebenezer was prosperous: Ebenezer bought the Fifth Baptist Church on Bell Street, pursuant to resolution by Fifth Baptist, on Dec. 12, 1900. Fulton County Deed Book 152, p. 76.

  Ricca & Son: Last Will and Testament of Alberta Williams King, City of Atlanta Estate #97282, Will Book 109. p. 37.

  “supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon”: Andrew Sledd, “The Negro: Another View,” Atlantic Monthly, July 1902.

  “did not reflect”: NYT, Oct. 20, 1901, p. 1.

  “wise and just to civilize”: NYT, Oct, 27, 1901, p. 11.

  Atlanta race riot: AC, Sept. 21-25, 1906. See also Golden, Mr. Kennedy, p. 48.

  president of the Atlanta: E. Smith, “Ebenezer,” p. 3. Also King Sr., Daddy, in the introduction by Benjamin S. Mays.

  shyness and humility: King Sr., Daddy, p. 21. (In this autobiography, Daddy King describes his wife’s education and social position in some detail, but says little about her character or appearance.) Also int. Rev. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

  would not be noticed: Mrs. Leathers (local public librarian), April 1, 1970, A/OH.

  “kind of fearful”: Int. Rev. Joel King (Alberta Williams’ brother-in-law), Jan. 9, 1984.

  doctorate upon him in 1914: E. Smith, “Ebenezer,” p. 3.

  children in the flames: Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr, Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. A Staff Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, Vol. I, p. 254.

  in Ohio to bury her: Flynn, God’s Gold, p.464.

  another $50 million: Ibid., p. 443.

  completed by 1918: Read, Spelman, p. 194.

  “Well, I’se preaching”: King Sr., Daddy, p. 21.

  a used Model T Ford: Ibid., p. 60. King says his mother traded one cow for the Ford, but this is unlikely given the relative values of cows and cars about 1918. Unless Mrs. King owned a truly amazing beast, she would have had to swap at least three or four cows for a Model T that would run.

  whom he had never met: Ibid., pp. 13—15.

  “father wouldn’t allow it”: Ibid., p. 69.

  asked her to court: Ibid.

  attended Morehouse only: Ibid., p. 75.

  “just not college material”: Ibid., p. 76.

  bearer to classes: Ibid.

  Robert E. Lee: Read, Spelman, p. 204.

  Buddha, Lao-Tze: Harry Emerson Fosdick, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” as reprinted in Christian Century, June 28, 1922, p. 713.

  John Foster Dulles represented Fosdick: Hoopes, The Devil, p. 8.

  “Jesse James of the theological world”: Fosdick, The Living, p. 153.

  “Crowds Tie Up Traffic”: NYT, Oct. 27, 1924.

  “like your frankness”: Fosdick, The Living, pp. 177—78.

  razed the apartment buildings: See NYT, Jan. 29, 1926.

  On October 5, 1930: NYT, Oct. 6, 1930, p. 11. On Rockefeller and Fosdick, see also Ahlstrom, Religious History, p. 911.

  of a heart attack: King Sr., Daddy, p. 90.

  “I am the First Lady”: Ibid., p. 92.

  feelings of his wife: Ibid., pp. 92—93. King twice mentions the sentiment against him among the Ebenezer deacons.

  padlock on the church’s front door: Ibid., p. 93.

  about my father’s BUSINESS: As discussed in Ahlstrom, Religious History, p. 905.

  no credit in the ledger: E. Smith, “Ebenezer,” p. 5. Daddy King’s methods and innovations also discussed in int. Rev. G. Murray Branch, June 7, 1983, Rev. Gardner Taylor, Oct. 25, 1983, Rev. Thomas Kilgore, Nov, 8, 1983, and Rev. Marcus G. Wood, Oct. 4, 1983, among others.

  one nickel for Atlanta Life: Int. Rev. Thomas Kilgore, Nov. 8, 1983. Kilgore first went to Ebenezer and to the King home in 1931, just before King took over the church. He recalls that Ebenezer members still were talking with approval about how Mrs. Williams was holding herself in the background for the sake of her daughter. In later years, as a nationally prominent minister himself and colleague of King Jr., Kilgore often discussed Daddy King’s genius as a church financier at preachers’ gatherings.

  church outreach programs: Ibid. Also E. Smith, “Ebenezer,” p. 5.

  “tell you this morning, Ebenezer”: Int. Rev. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

  highest-paid Negro minister: King Sr., Daddy, p. 94.

  glorious trip for King: Ibid., p. 97.

  “Royally Welcomed on Return”: ADW, Aug. 28, 1934, p. 1.

  from Michael to Martin: Reddick, Crusader, pp. 50—51. Also King Sr., Daddy, p. 88.

  freedom to choose a name: See Litwack, Storm, pp. 247—55. See also Douglass, Narrative, pp. 114—15; and Fenderson, Thurgood, p. 23.

  what to call themselves as a race: Litwack, Storm, pp. 541ff.

  The New York Times: Kluger, Simple Justice, p. 546.

  Chicago Defender: Ottley, Lonely, pp. 109—10.

  Abbott hated the word: Ibid., pp. 110, 213, 221, 287, 288.

  J. H. Meredith: Meredith, Three Years, p. 53. See also Mays, Born, pp. 113—16.

  Air Force: Lord, The Past, p. 33.

  calling himself Martin: Reddick, Crusader, pp. 43, 48, 50—51.

  autobiography, Rev
erend King: King Sr., Daddy, pp. 26, 88.

  State Department records: Passport application of Martin Luther King, Jr., filed Feb. 12, 1957. The clerk made a note on the passport after inspecting King’s birth certificate.

  “Big Mike”: Reddick, Crusader, p. 43.

  “earned” his name: Time, Feb. 18, 1957, p. 17.

  roughly two-thirds: Lewis, King, p. 7.

  “anti-capitalistic feelings”: King Jr., “Autobiography.”

  “get ahead of me”: Ibid.

  five fingers: Reddick, Crusader, p. 54. Also Clayton, King, p. 18.

  head with a telephone: This story first appeared in Reddick, Crusader, p. 59. Also King Sr., Daddy, p. 127. Characterizations of the children drawn from the King biographies and from interviews, notably Alberta King’s friend Lavata Lightner, Feb. 3, 1972, A/OH, and King Jr.’s high school friend Emmett Proctor, April 15, 1970, A/OH.

  out the window: Reddick, Crusader, p. 60. Also Lewis, King, p. 13, and Oates, Trumpet, pp. 8—9.

  reserved the primal “Mama”: Reddick, Crusader, p. 51. Also Clayton, King, p. 27.

  “was Harvard’s”: A common folklore, repeated for National Public Radios’s 1980 profile of Du Bois. See also Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 93.

  by their first names: Arthur Spingarn, March 6, 1968, CRDPOH.

  White had no brains: Ibid.

  fashion show: Wilkins, Standing Fast, pp. 77-81.

  “finest address in Harlem”: Ibid., pp. 106, 117.

  “tucked among the most august”: Ibid.

  word “nigger”: ADW, Jan. 30, 1934.

  NBC Radio censored: Ross, Spingarn, p. 154. Also ADW, Feb. 15, 1934.

  “embrace Jim Crow”: Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 153.

  “biggest plate-glass window”: Ibid.

  hire him back at Atlanta: Davis, Leadership, p. 144.

  “lick boots”: The Crisis, June 1934, p. 182.

  Roy Wilkins first: Ross, Spingarn, p. 210.

  rumors about his sex life: Ibid., p. 212. Also Arthur Spingarn, March 6, 1968, CRDPOH.

  H. L. Mencken: H. L. Mencken, “Notes on Negro Strategy,” The Crisis, October 1934, p. 289.

  led several hundred people: King Sr., Daddy, pp. 99-102.

  King abandoned the project: Ibid., pp. 104-7.

  alleged embezzlement: English, Prophet, p. 42.

  “Seven Minutes at the Mike”: Int. William H. Borders, March 7, 1984, and Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1984.

  unknown speeches: For examples of some of the better speeches made by Negro leaders during Reconstruction, see Woodson, Negro Orators.

  U.S. Communist Party had to fire him: NYT, Dec. 22, 1939, p. 1, and Dec. 24, 1939, p. 14.

  The Ebenezer choir: ADW, Dec. 15, 1939, p. 1.

  ferocious attack: ADW, Dec. 20, 1939, p. 1. Also Raines, My Soul, p. 59; int. William H. Borders, March 7, 1984; NYT, Dec. 16, 1939, p. 1.

  35,000 cheering Baptists: ADW, July 27, 1939, p. 1. Also int. Rev. Joel King, Jan. 7, 1984.

  Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich: Stone, Paul Tillich’s, p. 108.

  offered Mays instead: Int. Benjamin Mays, March 6, 1984. Mays identified the Rockefeller associate as Trevor Arnett.

  The tenor soloist: Int. Robert Williams, April 3, 1984.

  and the violin case: Lewis, King, p. 16.

  snatches of the “Moonlight Sonata”: Int. Robert Williams, April 3, 1984.

  his grandmother was dead: King Sr., Daddy, p. 109. Also Reddick, Crusader, p. 60, Oates, Trumpet, p. 13, and King Jr., “Autobiography.”

  could not sleep: King Sr., Daddy, p. 109.

  young man overnight: Clayton, King, p. 31.

  “dreaming about”: King Sr., Daddy, p. 109. Settlement was on Nov. 1, 1941. Fulton County Deed Book 1872, p. 114.

  executor and sole heir: Records of the Fulton County Court of Probate, Estate #31740. Also Deed Book 1540, p. 317.

  “upper upper class”: King Jr., “Autobiography.”

  “mostly lower middle class”: Reddick, Crusader, p. 55.

  “middle middle class”: Emmett Proctor, April 15, 1970, A/OH.

  penchant for tweed suits: Ibid.

  “Sack,” and “Mole”: Reddick, Crusader, p. 55.

  close for the duration: Mays, Born, p. 184.

  Read finally triumphed: Davis, Leadership, p. 145.

  two kinds of students: Int. Robert Williams, April 3, 1984. Such boastful sayings were rather common. Students spoke wryly of “Harvard, Yale, and Morehouse.” Also Reddick, Crusader, p. 65.

  “larger than a hamburger”: Int. Samuel Du Bois Cook, April 4, 1984.

  friends King made: Ibid. Also int. Robert Williams, April 3, 1984.

  “revolutionary stage”: Walter McCall, A/OH.

  “nobody there was afraid”: Bennett, What Manner, p. 26.

  first frank discussions: Ibid.

  dancing and card-playing: Walter McCall, A/OH.

  “organically quiescent”: Oates, Trumpet, p. 18.

  laugh out loud in disbelief: Int. Robert Williams, April 3, 1984.

  calling him “nigger”: Lewis, King, p. 21.

  six Negro war veterans: Grant, Black Protest, p. 218.

  first multiple lynching since 1918: NYT, July 27, 1946, p. 1.

  180 bullet holes: ADW, July 17, 1946, p. 1.

  “best people in town”: AC, July 28, 1946, p. 1.

  “My God!”: Donovan, Conflict, p. 244. Also Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 193.

  first campus chapter of the NAACP: Int. Samuel Du Bois Cook, April 4, 1984.

  little interest: Ibid.

  three Sundays a month: Int. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983, and Rev. William Holmes Borders, March 7, 1984.

  proof of intrigue: Int. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

  cut off his friendship: Int. Juanita Sellers Stone, March 6, 1984.

  rejoined the Morehouse: Christine King Farris, “The Young Martin,” Ebony, Jan. 1986, pp. 56-58.

  antics culminated: Int. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

  soften the blow: Ibid.

  later they joked: Reddick, Crusader, p. 75.

  “It won’t hold ’em!”: Int. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

  oration had been borrowed: Ibid.

  King became “Shady”: Int. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

  “The Wreckers”: Int. Emmett Proctor, Nov. 20, 1984; Garrow, Bearing, p. 36.

  closing his sermon folder: Int. Emmett Proctor, Nov. 20, 1984.

  first American president to address: Donovan, Conflict, p. 333.

  “To Secure These Rights”: Released Oct. 27, 1947. Discussed in Kluger, Simple Justice, p. 253.

  call McGill a “weasel”: Ashmore, Hearts, p. 110.

  “The Purpose of Education”: Bennett, What Manner, p. 29.

  apologize publicly: C. King, My Life, p. 99. Also int. Larry Williams, Dec. 27, 1983.

  among his own: King Sr., Daddy, p. 141.

  “there are moral laws”: Int. Samuel Du Bois Cook, April 4, 1984.

  Three

  NIEBUHR AND THE POOL TABLES

  possible for Jonah: Int. Rev. George W. Lawrence, Feb. 24, 1984.

  naked children: Ibid.

  gold cross: Int. Rev. Edward Spath, Oct. 4, 1983.

  poolroom beneath: The poolroom was mentioned by all Crozer alumni interviewed for this chapter.

  full third of the class: Int. Rev. Marcus Wood, Oct. 4, 1983.

  pagan deities: Int. Rev. Francis Stewart, Dec. 23, 1983.

  taught Benjamin Mays: Reddick, Crusader, p. 78.

  least intelligent class: Int. Rev. Marcus Wood, Oct, 4, 1983, and Rev. Edward Spath, Oct, 4, 1983.

  “he that is not against”: Mark 9:40 and Matthew 12:30.

  Jesus and John: Int. Kenneth Lee Smith, Oct. 12, 1983. In spite of Mark 1:9, Matthew 2:13-14, etc.

  Moses was an uncorroborated: Int. James B. Pritchard, June 25, 1984.

  The standing joke: Int. Kenneth Lee Smith, Oct, 12, 1983.

  B—in Pritchard’s: Int. James B. Pritchard, June 25, 1984. />
  utterly transformed: Walter McCall, A/OH.

  “One ever feels his twoness”: Du Bois, Souls, p. 45.

  “loud and always laughing” and “grimly serious”: King interview in Redbook magazine, as cited in Reddick, Crusader, p. 86. In this passage, Reddick suggests that the interracial composition of Crozer was the principal cause of King’s radically improved scholarship.

  tear down the students’ religious: Int. Rev. Lester Loder, Feb. 27, 1984, and other Crozer classmates.

  read all night: Walter McCall, A/OH.

  King would ever cite specifically: Smith and Zepp, Search, p. 37. This book, coauthored by one of King’s teaches at Crozer, is the primary authority on his intellectual experience during the seminary years.

  Pittsburgh steel mills: Ibid., p. 22.

  Davis’ personal copy: Ibid., p. 48.

  King never accepted pacifism: Ibid., Ch. 3 generally. Also King Jr., Stride, p. 95.

  attacking A. J. Muste’s: “War and Pacifism,” a book review King wrote for Kenneth L. Smith’s course in Christian social philosophy in the spring of 1951, BUK.

  nearly one-third: Smith and Zepp, Search, p. 21.

  “fall in line”: King Jr., “Autobiography.”

  his behavior eccentric: Int. James B. Pritchard, June 25, 1984.

  something of a bigot: Int. Rev. Francis Stewart, Dec. 23, 1983.

  Enslin would express: Int. Kenneth Lee Smith, Nov. 3, 1983. Smith reviewed the letter among the contents of King’s file at Crozer, which authorities at Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary (into which Crozer was merged in 1970) have not released.

  Joseph Kirkland: The Kirkland portrait is drawn from an interview with Lydia Kirkland (his widow), Dec. 9, 1983, and from Crozer interviews generally.

  packed the chapel: Int. Rev. George W. Lawrence, Feb. 24, 1984.

  “have a zeal”: Int. Rev. Lester Loder, Feb. 27, 1984. Text taken from Romans 10:2.

  “Christianity and communism”: Int. Rev. Francis Stewart, Dec. 23, 1983.

  “religious lectures”: Crozer interviews generally. The phrase appears in a letter critiquing one of King’s sermons, Melvin Watson to King, Aug. 14, 1952, BUK 15f50.

  no fewer than nine: Int. Larry Greenfield, president of Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary, July 5, 1983. Greenfield counted the courses from the King personnel folder, which is in his custody.

  as he knew Shakespeare: Int. Rev. George W. Lawrence, Feb. 24, 1984.

  “clear spring of friendship”: Augustine, Confessions, Bk. III, Ch. 2.