Parting the Waters

by Taylor Branch

  “magazine of the black bourgeoisie”: Nashville Banner, April 18, 1960, p. 8.

  unjustly and unwisely exposed: Int. James Lawson, Nov. 8, 1983.

  “our greatest resource”: Carson, In Struggle, p. 23.

  “moving away from tactics”: Statement, April 15, 1960, BUK1.

  vigorous contest: Charles McDew, CRDPOH.

  wrangled briefly: Int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 25, 1984.

  Baker “smashed”: Forman, The Making, p. 215.

  drafted testimony: Ella Baker, CRDPOH, pp. 48-49.

  “There is no fight”: Nashville Banner, April 18, 1960, p. 8.

  hierarchies were invidious: Int. James Lawson, Nov. 9, 1983.

  “That’s the best news”: Ibid. Also int. Rev. Douglas Moore, Oct. 24, 1984.

  Ming had helped: Hughes, NAACP, p. 107.

  fretting among themselves: Delaney to Ming, April 15, 1960, BUK1f24. Also int. Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 20, 1985.

  “some little unintentional”: ADW, March 1, 1960, p. 1.

  Eskridge perked up: Int. Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 20, 1985.

  “How about eating”: Viorst, Fire, p. 116.

  “Little lady”: Ibid.

  “Dr. King didn’t take”: Int. Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 20, 1985.

  “No lie can live”: Nashville Banner, April 21, 1960, p. 8.

  “puzzled and greatly distressed”: Wilkins to King, April 27, 1960, A/KP17f5.

  “no one in the world today”: Muste to King, March 23, 1960, BUK4f19.

  welcomed Kenneth Kaunda: ADW, May 6, 1960, p. 1.

  “no dealings with SCLC, ever”: Int. James Lawson, Nov. 9, 1983.

  “I think Martin”: Ibid.

  heard the news: Int. Rev. Douglas Moore, Oct. 24, 1984.

  “I’m just mean enough”: Int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Aug. 20, 1984.

  two-day meeting early: Ibid. Also int. Bayard Rustin, Feb. 21, 1984. The three-page agenda Walker prepared for the meeting, May 10-11, 1960, is in BUK1f31.

  “able to pay his salary”: E.g., King to Shortridge, July 21, 1960, Shortridge Papers.

  “Don’t you think we need”: Int. Robert P. Moses, Aug. 10, 1983.

  deputies on horseback: NYT, May 17, 1960, p. 19.

  gathered the next morning: Int. Marian Wright Edelman, March 5, 1985.

  “that many niggers”: ADW, May 18, 1960, p. 4.

  birth control pill: Enovid story appeared in NYT, May 9, 1960, p. 75, as noted in Manchester, Glory, p. 1039.

  opened fire on a crowd: Hoagland, South Africa, p. 132.

  Africans burning: NYT, March 29, 1960, p. 1.

  jailed 13,000: Hoagland, South Africa, p. 133.

  secret agents snatched: NYT, May 24, 1960, p. 1.

  dropped 90 percent: NYT, May 4, 1960, p. 1.

  On May 5: Ambrose, Eisenhower, pp. 563ff. The U-2 account is drawn entirely from Ambrose’s authoritative biography of Eisenhower.

  sign the Civil Rights Act: Miller, Lyndon, p. 280.

  “like to resign”: Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 575.

  wore white collars: Goldman, Crucial Decade, p. 298.

  “Gone for the first time”: Time, Jan. 10, 1955, quoted in L. Jones, Great Expectations, p. 37.

  “must be smoking opium”: NYT, March 29, 1960, p. 1.

  Only two senators: Muskie of Maine and Jackson of Washington, Evans and Novak, Johnson, p. 269.

  Eleanor Roosevelt: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, pp. 22-23; Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 118-19.

  only Democratic senator: Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 48-49.

  Adam Clayton Powell: NYT, July 2, 1960, p. 6.

  “Senator, are you certain”: Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 151-52.

  contact lenses: Evans and Novak, Johnson, p. 274.

  Jackie Robinson refuse: Belford Lawson, JFKOH.

  “We’re in trouble”: Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 47.

  “What can he do?”: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.

  “in strictest confidence”: Wofford to King, May 3, 1960, BUK7f55.

  999 exhibits: MA, May 26, 1960, p. 1.

  took the ultimate risk: Int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 21, 1983, Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 22, 1985, and Fred Gray, Nov. 21, 1984.

  geographic-median-airfare: MA, May 28, 1960, p. 7-A.

  muttered to himself: Int. Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 22, 1985.

  “represents great hope”: Ibid., p. 1. Also ADW, May 29, 1960, p. 1.

  “in my 34 years”: NYAN, June 4, 1960.

  “We Shall Overcome”: The modern adaptation of the C. A. Tindley song is ascribed to Highlander Folk School, and most often to Zilphia Horton. A thorough description of the song’s passage through Highlander appeared in “The Adventures of a Radical Hillbilly,” a WNET/New York public television interview of Myles Horton by Bill Moyers, first aired on June 11, 1981. Also NYT, July 23, 1963, p. 21.

  prime influence on: Walker, Calling, pp. 130-31.

  heard the song for the first time: Int. Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 22, 1985. King’s friend Robert Williams of the Alabama State music department recalled first hearing “We Shall Overcome” earlier during the 1960 student protests in Montgomery.

  “Autobiography of Suffering”: ADW, May 31, 1960, p. 1.

  “Something happened to the jury”: Ibid.

  Eight

  SHADES OF POLITICS

  $1,000,000 libel suit: NYT, May 31, 1960, p. 20.

  a full retraction: NYT, May 16, 1960, p. 22.

  launched a retribution: ADW, June 16, 1960, p. 1. Also King statement of June 16, 1960, BUK4f40, and int. Robert Williams, April 3, 1984, and Jo Ann Robinson, Nov. 14, 1983.

  agony of his decision: Battered and discouraged, Trenholm took leave from Alabama State after thirty-eight years as its president. He soon fell ill and died. “He could have survived if he had something to live for,” a friend said. Jet, March 7, 1963, p. 47.

  endorsed Kennedy in 1959: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 156.

  The three of them: Ibid., p. 150; Wofford, Of Kennedys, pp. 150ff; Lewis, King, p. 123.

  “house Communist”: Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 44.

  breakfast on June 23: NYT, June 25, 1960, p. 13.

  hosting a banquet: John Pollock to author, Sept. 10, 1986.

  King received a nasty: Int. Bayard Rustin, Nov. 28, 1983, and Feb. 21, 1984. Also Rustin, LBJOH; int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983; Harrington, Fragments, p. 115; James Baldwin, “The Dangerous Road Before Martin Luther King,” Harper’s, February 1961.

  An emissary: Int. Bayard Rustin, Nov. 28, 1983. Rustin identified the emissary as Ann Arnold Hastings of New York.

  saved by a hung jury: NYT, April 23, 1960, p. 1.

  “to grow and learn”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 155.

  “not for cortisone”: Evans and Novak, Johnson, p. 289.

  “Hitler was right”: Ibid.

  At the Shrine Auditorium: Lewis, King, pp. 124-25.

  drafted mostly by Ella Baker: Int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 17, 1984. Also Archie E. Allen interview of Baker, Nov. 7, 1968, A/AP.

  odd pair: Harrington, Fragments, pp. 109-15. Also int. Michael Harrington, Aug. 31, 1983, and Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983.

  “all the way with the Bowles”: Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 52. Also int. Harris Wofford, June 26, 1984.

  apoplectic indecision: Sketch of LBJ selection from Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 222-27. Also Wofford, Of Kennedys, pp. 53-58, and Miller, Lyndon, pp. 311-20.

  “troubled, trembling world”: NYT, July 16, 1960, p. 7.

  chastised King: James E. Walker to King, July 27, 1960, BUK9f14. Also Committee for Presenting the Truth About the Name “Negro” to King, May 29, 1960, BUK9f14.

  Malcolm X: Malcolm X to King, July 21, 1960, and Maude Ballou to Malcolm X, Aug. 10, 1960, BUK2f1.

  alma mater in Boston: Malcolm X addressed the BU School of Theology on May 24, 1960, during King’s perjury trial in Montgomery. Mays, Born, p. 307.

  then to Buffalo: Log, A/SC29; log, BUK6f151.

  good news that Alabama: ADW, July 19, 1960, p. 1.<
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  Rustin had sent: Identified by Bayard Rustin as Norman Hill, a New York socialist and pacifist later prominent in CORE, and Jack O’Dell, a radical organizer who soon brought invaluable skills and paralyzing controversy into King’s service, as detailed below. Int. Rustin, Feb. 21, 1984, and O’Dell, July 1, 1986.

  twice as many people: Minutes of SCLC Board Meeting, Oct. 11, 1960, A/KP29f1.

  “Munich of the Republican”: NYT, July 24, 1960, p. 38.

  “made a backbone plank”: NYT, July 25, 1960, p. 16.

  “Nixon Says Rights”: NYT, July 26, 1960, pp. 1, 16.

  “Nixon Wins”: NYT, July 27, 1960, p. 1.

  “ceiling on America’s security”: NYT, July 24, 1960, p. 38.

  protested to Nixon by telephone: Ambrose, Eisenhower, pp. 597-98.

  weak-minded spendthrift: Ibid., pp. 545-46, 559. Also Eisenhower-Rockefeller telephone call, June 11, 1960, Diary Series, Box 50, DDE.

  “Job had his boils”: NYT, July 27, 1960, p. 17.

  “Richard E. Nixon”: NYT, July 29, 1960, p. 9.

  Eisenhower criticized: Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 222.

  “One hundred years ago”: Morrow, Black Man, p. 212.

  not much difference: King, JFKOH.

  “Nixon and Lodge Are Best”: ADW, Aug. 5, 1960, p. 4.

  officials in Durham: ADW, Aug. 2, 1960, p. 1.

  Wilkins to their shoulders: The Crisis, August—September 1960, p. 412.

  U.S. Attorney General: ADW, Aug. 11, 1960, p. 1.

  Trailways officials: ADW, Aug. 16, 1960, p. 1.

  Only nine student delegates: Roster from A/SN1f20. Also A/SC35f10.

  invited Senator Kennedy: ADW, Aug. 9, 1960, p. 1.

  might be a Communist: Neary, Rebel, p. 142. Also int. Robert P. Moses, Aug. 10-11, 1983, July 30-31, 1984, and March 13, 1988.

  Moses was only six years: Moses interviews, ibid.

  Rustin to Ella Baker: Re Moses recommendation in Ernestine Brown to Abernathy, July 11, 1960, A/SC53f10. Also Ella Baker, A/AR; int. Bayard Rustin, Feb. 21, 1984; and Moses interviews, ibid.

  “I advise against”: Moses interviews, ibid.

  on friendly terms: Ella Baker to Dombrowski, July 26, 1960, A/SC32f25.

  Deeply wounded, Rustin: Int. Bayard Rustin, Feb. 21, 1984.

  hounding King: Fred Gray to Kilgore, with copies to King, Abernathy, and Shuttles-worth, among others, Aug. 17, 1960, BUK1f16.

  evicting the one-woman: Archie E. Allen interview of Ella Baker, Nov. 7, 1968, AAP.

  got King to send: Draft letters in Walker’s handwriting, plus Walker memo to Miss Brown, A/SC35f9.

  “internationally known”: Programs for the Second Statewide Institute on Nonviolence, Aug. 4-5, 1960, A/SC35f10.

  provided bus tickets: Memo to Walker on Moses’ travel funds, Aug. 8, 1960, A/SC.

  last flurry: ADW, Aug. 9, 1960, p. 1; Stembridge to David Forbes, Aug. 14, 1960, A/SN17.

  “SNCC now has a Field”: Stembridge to Rev. John Collins, Aug. 11, 1960, A/SN17.

  “plooped on front lawns”: Moses to Stembridge, undated, A/SN17.

  “mucho great job”: Stembridge to Moses, Aug. 18, 1960, A/SN17.

  “capacity in which Bayard”: Stembridge to Moses, Aug. 25, 1960, A/SN17.

  beauty shop was partitioned: Int. Robert P. Moses, July 31, 1984.

  “Amzie is the best”: Moses to Stembridge, “Friday morning” (probably Aug. 19, 1960), A/SN17.

  “Nobody starry eyed”: Ibid.

  “happened to my kidneys”: Stembridge to Moses, Aug. 25, 1960, A/SN17.

  Nixon was greeted: ADW, Aug. 27, 1960, p. 1. The group, whose photograph appeared on p. 1, included Milton White, C. R. Yates, John Wesley Dobbs, Bishop Wilkes, Q. V. Williamson, C. A. Scott, and T. M. Alexander.

  paternity suit: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983.

  express purpose: Int. William P. Rogers, June 11, 1984.

  “I’ll do it”: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983.

  Hoover first tried to scuttle: Doar and Landsberg, “Performance,” pp. 29-32.

  nearly two hundred pages: Ibid., p. 15a.

  Nearly every hand: Ibid., p. 31.

  fifty affidavits: Ibid.

  opened a new eye: Int. John Doar, Oct. 25, 1983, and May 16, 1985.

  more than 35,000: NYAN, Sept. 10, 1960, p. 1.

  fellow conspirators in January: Int. Rev. Thomas Kilgore, Nov. 8, 1983, Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, May 30, 1984, and Rev. Gardner Taylor, Oct. 25, 1983.

  “official auxiliary”: Int. Rev. Gardner Taylor, Oct. 25, 1983, Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, Nov. 19, 1984, and Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984.

  preached to 10,000: NYAN, March 31, 1956, p. 1.

  preachers off to jail: PC, Sept. 24, 1960, p. 3.

  cook baby alligators: Mahalia Jackson with Wylie, Movin’, p. 26.

  fallen in with Thomas A. Dorsey: Goreau, Mahalia, pp. 55-56.

  muffled and hidden: Ibid., pp. 95-100.

  diapered young Aretha: Ibid., p. 107.

  who was reeling from: Int. Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 20 and 22, 1985.

  not trust Secretary Jemison: ADW, Sept. 9, 1960, pp. 1, 6.

  delivered Lyndon Johnson’s: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, p. 58.

  “Negro Baptists Pick”: NYT, Sept. 9, 1960, p. 60.

  The noise began: Account of convention from Kilgore, Abernathy, Taylor, Walker, and Eskridge interviews. Also ADW, Sept. 9, 10, 14, 16, and 18, 1960. NYAN, Sept. 10 and 17 and Oct. 1, 1960; and PC, Sept. 17 and 24, 1960.

  “The people voted”: NYAN, Sept. 24, 1960, p. 35.

  “drop him down on Friday”: Int. Rev. Vernon Dobson, Dec. 2, 1983, and Rev. James L. Moore, Dec. 2, 1983. I have not been able to fix the exact date of the preachers’ meeting. No records have been located, and the Maryland Baptist Center no longer exists. The late summer of 1960 represents the best guess of many Vernon Johns sources, and falls within the time Johns is known to have stayed in Baltimore. Both Moore and Dobson attended the disastrous lunch meeting. Moore was to have introduced Johns.

  Kennedy’s Houston speech: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 188; Miller, Lyndon, p. 324.

  White argued: Wofford, Of Kennedys, pp. 61-63.

  unseemly infighting: Int. Sargent Shriver, Nov. 30, 1983, Wofford, June 26, 1984, and April 5, 1985, and Louis Martin, Oct. 14, 1983.

  Martha’s Vineyard: Belford Lawson, JFKOH.

  Teamsters union: Int. Simeon Booker, Feb. 11, 1985.

  represented J. H. Jackson: PC, Sept. 24, 1960, p. 3.

  was seen bringing a white woman: Int. Simeon Booker, Feb. 11, 1985.

  appeal to Louis Martin: Int. Harris Wofford, April 5, 1985, and Sargent Shriver, Nov. 30, 1983.

  “pay us some money”: Int. Louis Martin, Oct. 14, 1983.

  Martin was a godsend: Int. Sargent Shriver, Nov. 30, 1983, and Harris Wofford.

  “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”: Shriver and Wofford interviews, ibid. Also Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 61.

  persuade Jackie Robinson: Int. Louis Martin, Oct. 14, 1983. Also NYT, Sept. 3, 1960.

  hard cash was involved: Int. Louis Martin, Oct. 14, 1983. Also Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 60; Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 172 (Sorensen wrote only that there were “high-level negotiations” with Powell); int. Harris Wofford and Sargent Shriver; Robert Kennedy, JFKOH, p. 517. (RFK said Powell “always exacts a price…for his support…. He wants money.”)

  solved by arranging: Int. Louis Martin, Oct. 14, 1983.

  opened in Harlem: Wofford, Of Kennedys, pp. 63-64.

  “Careful, Jack”: Ibid. Also Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 183.

  announcement of Powell’s divorce: NYAN, Oct. 22, 1960, p. 1.

  delaying the release: Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 27.

  five bags of chicken feed: Evers, For Us, pp. 220ff.

  address on the philosophy: Carson, In Struggle, p. 27. Also King log, A/SC29.

  The Rustin controversy: Carson, In Struggle, p. 29; Forman, The Making, p. 219; int. Robert P. Moses and Bayard Rustin.

  “If history offers”: Carson,
In Struggle, p. 28.

  cache of two-way radios: Raines, My Soul, p. 89.

  own brother A.D.: Int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 25, 1984.

  along with Lonnie: Raines, My Soul, p. 91.

  So did Bernard: Int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 25, 1984.

  he warned them: Ibid.

  on the verge of tears: Int. Glenn Smiley, Nov. 14, 1983. Also int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 25, 1984. (Lee says he was one of the students at the airport.)

  “racism at its worst”: ADW, Oct. 18, 1960, p. 1. Also WP, Oct. 19, 1960, and NYT, Oct. 21, 1960, p. 14, among many such stories.

  zone of negotiation: Int. Harris Wofford, June 26, 1984, and April 5, 1985, and Louis Martin, Oct. 25, 1983.

  Opinion polls showed: WP, Oct. 28, 1960, p. 2.

  “High Hopes”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 151.

  Levison joined Belafonte: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985.

  “stressed with Sammy”: Levison to King, Oct. 13, 1960, BUK1f10.

  Daddy King burst: Int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 25, 1984.

  calls from Harris Wofford: Wofford, Of Kennedys, pp. 12-13. Also int. Wofford, June 26, 1984, and April 5, 1985.

  “obliged to issue”: Int. Harris Wofford, June 26, 1984, and April 5, 1985.

  “The hell with that”: Ibid.

  Daddy King joined: ADW, Jan. 19, 1960, p. 1. Also C. A. Scott, A/OH.

  “retreating under fire”: WP, Oct. 19, 1960, p. 1.

  “meet you on the bridge”: Raines, My Soul, p. 93.

  Nine

  A PAWN OF HISTORY

  “I cannot accept”: ADW, Oct. 20, 1960, p. 1.

  gave way to euphoria: Int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 25, 1984.

  many as two thousand: PC, Oct. 29, 1960, p. 2. WP, Oct. 21, 1960, p. 14, put the number at only two hundred.

  “practice what I preached”: PC, Oct. 29, 1960, p. 2.

  “most dangerously irresponsible”: WP, Oct. 22, 1960, p. 8.

  Wofford heard radio: Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 13.

  attorney named Morris Abram: Ibid. Also Abram, Day, pp. 125ff; Stein, Journey, pp. 90ff; William B. Hartsfield, JFKOH. In the story of political interventions in King’s October arrest cases, there are slight conflicts between the versions of Wofford, Hartsfield, and Abram, which I have resolved insofar as possible through common sense, after interviews with Louis Martin, Bernard Lee, Wofford, and Sargent Shriver.

  influential Negro leaders: King Sr., Daddy, p. 173. Also ADW, Oct. 23, 1960, p. 4.

  Rich had broken down: Raines, My Soul, p. 93.