Parting the Waters

by Taylor Branch

  Sidney Mize: NYT, Dec. 23, 1961, p. 26.

  survived a shotgun: SNCC booklet, Mississippi: A Chronicle of Violence, p. 6, A/SN16f15.

  pointless to continue: Int. Robert Moses, July 30, 1984.

  “We can’t lose”: Jet, Jan. 25, 1962, pp. 18ff.

  “got our feet wet”: Moses tape of 1962, published in Liberation, January 1970, p. 14.

  Walker nominated: Walker to Arthur M. Carter, Dec. 26, 1961, A/SC33f4.

  “meanest man”: Jet, Jan. 4, 1962, p. 46.

  pelted with tomatoes: Int. A. C. Searles, July 11, 1985.

  to know whether King: Maxwell to King, Dec. 14, 1961, A/KP15f26.

  “level of littleness”: King to Maxwell, Dec. 20, 1961, A/KP15f26.

  Fifteen

  HOOVER’S TRIANGLE AND KING’S MACHINE

  “four beautiful sunsets”: Manchester, Glory, p. 1140.

  Royal College: Nation, March 31, 1962, pp. 277ff.

  Ford publicly dropped: NYT, April 11, 1962, p. 1.

  Spellman announced: NYT, March 29, 1962, p. 24.

  borrowed Leonardo’s: NYT, Dec. 5, 1962, p. 5.

  “to have everything”: NYT, Jan. 20, 1962, p. 14.

  “my mind is settled”: Du Bois to Hall, Oct. 1, 1961, A/KP8f36; also Jet, Dec. 7, 1961, p. 5.

  “some other ideology”: King to Edward D. Ball, Dec. 14, 1961, A/KP17f1.

  Kennedy wanted to shift: RFKOH, pp. 191ff, 634ff.

  fifteen hundred FBI informants: Jack Levine, “Hoover and the Red Scare,” Nation, Oct. 20, 1962, pp. 232ff.

  “couldn’t be more feeble”: Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, p. 281.

  “Trojan Horse”: NYT, July 3, 1962, p. 27; Navasky, Justice, p. 37.

  “threat from without”: Navasky, Justice, p. 37.

  January 8 classified memo: Paraphrased in Bland to Sullivan, Feb. 3, 1962, FL-135.

  “White’s feeling”: Evans to Belmont, Feb. 2, 1962, FL-134.

  came from two brothers: Garrow, FBI, pp. 34-44.

  “King is no good”: Notation on Bland to Sullivan, Feb. 3, 1962, FL-135.

  “White said from the character”: Evans to Belmont, Feb. 6, 1962, FL-136.

  On February 14: Hoover to Attorney General, Feb. 14, 1962, and Hoover to O’Donnell, Feb. 14, 1962, both FL-NR.

  Kennedy circled the globe: NYT, Feb. 2, 1962, p. 1; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 607ff.

  Indonesians in particular: NYT, Feb. 18, 1962, p. 31.

  “There wasn’t one area”: NYT, April 24, 1962, pp. 1, 20.

  Hoover’s memo: U.S. Senate (Church Committee), Report No. 94-465, Alleged Assassination Plots, pp. 129-30; Summers, Goddess, pp. 256-57; Collier and Horowitz, Kennedys, pp. 292-93.

  search their files thoroughly: Garrow, FBI, p. 46.

  moved swiftly on bugs: Hoover authorized the Levison bugs on March 2, 1962, four days before asking Kennedy to authorize the wiretap. Bland to Sullivan, March 6, 1962, FL-140. Also Hoover to SAC New York, March 6, 1962, FL-NR.

  no kind way to describe: U.S. Senate (Church Committee), Report No. 94-755, Book III, Vol. 3, pp. 112-15; U.S. House, Assassinations Report, p. 573; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 293-99.

  Brownell effectively advised: Brownell to FBI Director, May 20, 1954, reprinted in Macy and Kaplan, Documents, pp. 41-43.

  broke into Levison’s office: SAC New York to Director, airtel, March 16, 1962, FL-146.

  Technicians hooked up: SAC New York to Director, airtel, March 20, 1962, FL-147.

  Hoover’s private luncheon: U.S. Senate (Church Committee), Report No. 94-465, Alleged Assassination Plots, p. 130.

  Inga Arvad: Blair and Blair, Search, pp. 138-71.

  “it was the boy”: Int. Cartha D. DeLoach, June 1 and 11, 1984.

  Hoover warned America: Manchester, Glory, p. 293.

  “the biggest bore”: Summers, Goddess, pp. 257-58.

  last known phone conversation: U.S. Senate (Church Committee), Report No. 94-465, Alleged Assassination Plots, p. 130.

  not to stay with Frank: Collier and Horowitz, Kennedys, pp. 295, 338; Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy, pp. 532-34.

  declined to review: NYT, Jan. 9, 1962, p. 20; Kunstler, Deep, pp. 80-84.

  “My Calhouns”: Police surveillance notes, mass meeting of Jan. 8, 1962, BIR/BC12f17.

  Marshall responded: Marshall memo to RFK, Jan. 22, 1962, Box 16, Marshall Papers, JFK; Marshall to King, Jan. 22, 1962, A/KP24f18.

  Grooms pronounced sentence: NYT, Jan. 17, 1962, p. 62.

  dynamite bombs: NYT, Jan. 17, 1962, p. 15.

  “Negroes did it”: NYT, Feb. 1, 1962, p. 17.

  new police dogs: Nation, May 5, 1962, p. 399.

  “hundreds of segregationists”: King telegram, Jan. 25, 1962, quoted in Jet, Feb. 8, 1962, p. 46.

  joint telegram to Kennedy: Press release, Jan. 26, 1962, A/KP22f30.

  High fees: Int. Rev. Edward Gardner, Jan. 21, 1986.

  “None of us ever dreamed”: King to “Doctor,” Feb. 6, 1962, A/KP1f6.

  “we at Mount Olive”: Maxwell to King, Feb. 12, 1962, A/KP1f6.

  “Maintenance of law”: Marshall to King, Feb, 1, 1962, A/KP24f18.

  similar reply: King to Marshall, Feb. 19, 1962, A/KP24f18.

  Marshall said he was reviewing: Jet, March 1, 1962, pp. 3f.

  “While the President”: Nation, March 3, 1962, p. 190.

  “I wish I could tell you”: Police surveillance notes, King speech, Feb. 12, 1962, BIR/ BC12f17.

  “Whites can’t stop”: Jet, March 22, 1962, pp. 24f; SCLC release, March 1, 1962, ASC125f5.

  “the three K’s”: Police surveillance notes, Walker speech, March 5, 1962, BIR/ BC12f17.

  “Bull and Old Art’s”: Phifer speech, March 28, 1962, ibid.

  “sit here and take it”: “Boycott in Birmingham,” Nation, May 5, 1962, pp. 397-401.

  O’Dell soon became: O’Dell background from O’Dell interviews, March 6, 1986, and July 1, 1986; also O’Dell to King, Jan. 29, 1963, AKP18f38. Earliest King-O’Dell correspondence includes O’Dell to King, Aug. 27, 1959, King to O’Dell, Sept. 4, 1959, and O’Dell to King, Jan. 18, 1960, all BUK7.

  raised $80,000: Levison and O’Dell to King, Aug. 31, 1961, A/SC57f11.

  “Now I am forced”: Young to King, March 24, 1961, BUK7f56.

  King had asked Levison: King to Levison, King to Young, and King to Myles Horton, all April 25, 1961, cited in Garrow, FBI, pp. 28, 237.

  Taylor gave King: Int. Rev. Gardner Taylor, Oct. 25, 1983.

  Young cousins: Gardner, Young, p. 11.

  “one of my objectives”: Young to Robert Spike, April 25, 1961, Young correspondence folder, SHSW/HP.

  Months of adjustment: Several dozen documents record the transfer of the citizenship schools from Highlander to the SCLC under the tax sponsorship of the National Council of Churches. Aside from the Horton letters in the Young correspondence folder, SHSW/HP, there are numerous letters and proposals by Myles Horton on the subject, beginning in December 1960, SHSW/HP.

  “get more chicken”: Young to Walker, Aug. 8, 1961, BUK7f56. A similar letter (“The hour cometh…”) is Young to King and Walker, Sept. 11, 1962, BUK7f56.

  At Dorchester: Herman H. Long to Horton, May 25, 1961, SHSW/HP. Long was director of the Race Relations Department, American Missionary Association.

  used the practical: Dorothy Cotton, HOH; int. Cotton, July 6, 1983.

  before she had even met him: Horton to Young, Sept. 14, 1961, SHSW/HP.

  “saints in hell”: Int. Septima Clark, Dec. 17, 1983; also generally Clark interview, HOH; int. Bernard Lee, Oct. 25, 1984.

  On February 2: Program, A/KP24f18.

  three days whirling: Aaron Henry to Walker, Feb. 10, 1962, ASC35f5; King statement, “Nonviolence on Tour,” March 17, 1962, AKS2; King column, “Pathos and Hope,” for NYAN, March 3, 1962; Hosea Williams to O’Dell, Feb. 8, 1962, and O’Dell to Williams, Feb. 18, 1962, A/KP35f15; O’Dell to Harry Blake, Feb. 22, 1962, A/SC135f7; Jet, Feb. 22, 1962, p. 4, and March 8, 1962
, pp. 14-16.

  “open for business”: Branton notification letter, Feb. 22, 1962, A/KP22f33.

  hit the ground running: Minutes of SCLC board meetings, May 15, 1962, A/KP29f1; King and Walker to Branton, May 6, 1962, A/SC36f23.

  “Dr. King Uniting”: Jet, March 8, 1962, pp. 14-16.

  hosted by Harry: Int. Harry Belafonte, March 6-7, 1985; int. Robert Moses, July 30, 1984; int. Timothy Jenkins, March 11, 1986; int. Charles Sherrod, Jan. 23, 1986. The specific date of the 1962 fund-raiser is uncertain. I have placed it with Sherrod’s known trip North in March, as Sherrod remembers no other trip that year.

  “If it looks like it”: Int. Timothy Jenkins, March 11, 1986.

  “pull it, doctor!”: Wyatt Walker, “Fifty-three Hours with Martin Luther King,” A/SC37f10.

  discouraged publicity: Dunbar to King, March 27, 1962, A/KP22f33.

  Urban League refused: Young to Dunbar, Jan. 12, 1962, A/KP22f33.

  King urged that Roy: King to Dunbar, Jan. 19, 1962, A/KP22f32.

  fantastic, cried Levison: Handwritten notes from Levison misur (bug), March 26, 1962, FL-NY-5-1-NR.

  grown to 95: King statement, April 5, 1962, A/KS2.

  Supreme Court: NYT, Feb. 20, 1962, p. 13.

  “centered on lawyers”: Administrative committee minutes, March 9, 1962, A/SC36f11.

  Lowery disclosed: Ibid.

  driving the SCLC’s leadership: Int. Wyatt Walker, Aug. 20, 1984.

  King found himself alone: Int. Clarence Jones, Nov. 25, 1983; King to Wachtel, Nov. 7. 1961, BUK7f55.

  Meshulam Riklis: Int. Harry Wachtel, Oct. 27, 1983; Forbes, Nov. 15, 1976, pp. 29ff; Newsweek, Nov. 7, 1977, pp. 81ff.

  “not on the side of the angels”: Int. Harry Wachtel, Oct. 25, 1983; also King to Wachtel, Feb. 12, 1962, A/KP25f24.

  Levison actively encouraged: Jones-Levison conversation, April 6, 1962, FL-NY-5-1-NR.

  “Who is he?”: Handwritten note on New York SAC to Headquarters, April 11, 1962, FK-NR.

  scrambling to investigate: Bland to Sullivan, April 13, 1962, FL-NR.

  Levison’s conversations: Handwritten early misur notes in FL-NY Subfile 5, passim, especially for March 26, March 30, and April 11, 1962.

  too corporate in tone: FBI summary of Levison-Jones conversation, March 26, 1962, FL-NY-5-NR.

  On March 30: Misur notes, March 30, 1962, FL-5-NR; Baumgardner to Sullivan, March 30, 1962, FL-148.

  “he were purple”: Misur notes, March 30, 1962, FL-5-NR.

  choice of Byron: NYT, March 31, 1962, p. 1.

  reminded the Attorney: Hoover to RFK, April 2, 1962, FL-NR.

  “dear Mr. Vice”: Hoover to LBJ, April 13, 1962, FK-41 and FL-NR.

  “dear Mr. O’Donnell”: Hoover to O’Donnell, April 20, 1962, FL-NR.

  dismal response: RFK to King, May 10, 1962, A/KP11f13; other letters, A/KP11f11-12.

  subpoenaed Stanley Levison: SAC New York to Director, April 26, 1962, FL-152; Garrow, FBI, p. 47.

  “not now and never have been”: Ibid., p. 48.

  “worse than Jimmy Hoffa”: Misur log, May 1, 1962, FL-NY-5-NR.

  Wofford was on his way: Wofford, Of Kennedys, pp. 164-67; int. Harris Wofford, June 26, 1984.

  mentally retarded: Lee White, JFKOH.

  “a frontier of my own”: Wofford, Of Kennedys, p. 167.

  “continue to make history”: NYT, May 13, 1962, p. 46.

  duties to Lee White: Ibid. Also int. White, Dec. 13, 1983; Burke Marshall, RFKOH, p. 29.

  O’Dell predicted: Int. Jack O’Dell, July 1, 1986.

  “you ought to pay him better”: SCLC board minutes, May 15, 1962, A/KP29f1.

  “Non-violence is now woven”: King speech, May 17, 1962, A/KS3.

  Second Emancipation Proclamation: “An Appeal to the Honorable John F. Kennedy, President of the United States,” May 17, 1962, A/SC27f6.

  Bound in fine leather: Kunstler, Deep, pp. 90-91.

  reserve the Lincoln Memorial: King to Stewart Udall, Feb. 22, 1962, A/KP24f17.

  “deserted Christ and the church”: King to Fey, June 23, 1962, A/KP6f6.

  contributors would be labor unions: Discussion between Clarence Jones and Stanley Levison about labor contributions to the Gandhi Society, which took place on the day after the founding luncheon. Handwritten misur notes of May 18, 1962, FL-NY-5-NR.

  forty-fifth birthday: Summers, Goddess, pp. 270f.

  Archbishop Makarios: Invitation to White House luncheon on June 5, 1962, and King’s response by Dora McDonald, A/KP14f4 and A/KP26f6; NYT, June 6, 1962, p. 1.

  crash near Paris: AC, June 3, 1962, p. 1 (Special Extra Edition), and June 4, 1962, p. 1.

  “Demand and get”: ADW, June 5, 1962, pp. 1, 2; NYT, June 5, 1962, p. 29.

  Smith promptly died: ADW, June 6, 1962, p. 1.

  second family in Virginia: Time, Aug. 3, 1962, p. 14; AH, July 27, 1962, p. 1.

  keys to the city: ADW, June 8, 1962, p. 1.

  privately asked the new mayor: King to Allen, May 31, 1962, A/KP2f9.

  city hall drinking fountains: Allen, Mayor, p. 84.

  Ponce de Leon ball park: Ibid., p. 85.

  FBI office anticipated: Rosen to Belmont, June 6, 1962, FSC-115.

  “arranged that the police”: Marshall to RFK, June 1, 1962, Marshall Papers, Box 16, JFK.

  “more propitious moment”: ADW, June 7, 1962, p. 1.

  Walker did call Burke Marshall: Marshall to RFK, June 11, 1962, Marshall Papers, Box 16, JFK; Walker affidavit, June 11, 1962, A/SC36f7; Marshall to Walker, June 27, 1962, A/SC36f7.

  representatives of Billy Graham: int. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Dec. 21, 1984; also int. Chauncey Eskridge, Feb. 22, 1985.

  kill King within five years: Ibid. Also Eskridge to King, June 13, 1962, A/SC9f31.

  King fell into conversation: Misur record, June 11, 1962, FL Sub. 5-1; report marked “Secret,” June 12, 1962, FK-73.

  “embarrassment to the Bureau”: Director to SAC New York, June 12, 1962, FL-NR.

  “more advanced than Martin”: Misur record, March 26, 1962, FL-NY-5-NR.

  “no matter what a man was”: Garrow, FBI, pp. 49-50; SAC New York to Hoover, June 21, 1962, FK-80.

  “‘lay off this guy’”: Hoover to RFK, June 25, 1962, FK-79.

  “Hard-Working Convention”: Crisis, August-September 1962, passim; ADW, July 3-7, 1962.

  “True peace”: King address, July 5, 1962, A/KS3.

  “the Hitlerian tactic”: AH, June 28, 1962, p. 1.

  “I have not cried”: McDonald to King, July 10, 1962, A/KP15f9.

  Sixteen

  THE FIREMAN’S LAST REPRIEVE

  “rivaling in significance”: NYT, July 11, 1962, p. 1. Also AH, July 12, 1962, p. 1.

  “letter from prison”: McDonald to King, A/KP75f9.

  “now or never effort”: AJ, July 12, 1962, p. 1; AH, July 11, 1962, p. 1; NYT, July 12, 1962, p. 18.

  “We feel much akin”: Watters, Down to Now, p. 208.

  Salinger announced: NYT, July 12, 1962, p. 1.

  pond in the Pocono: Int. Burke Marshall, Sept. 26, 1984.

  “Jack, we’ve got Martin”: Int. James Gray, Jan. 24, 1986.

  Gardner brought a message: Int. B. C. Gardner, July 11, 1985.

  mass meeting at Shiloh: NYT, July 13, 1962, p. 10; AJ, July 12, 1962, pp. 1, 16.

  asked his most trusted officer: Int. Laurie Pritchett, Nov. 25, 1986.

  “Bo, I’m coming in”: Int. Ed Haggerty (Albany FBI agent), July 11, 1985.

  “Let’s give him a hand!”: Watters, Down to Now, pp. 204-8.

  “we’ve been brainwashed”: Ibid.

  summoned his desk sergeant: Int. Laurie Pritchett, Nov. 25, 1986.

  “Turn him out”: Int. B. C. Gardner, July 11, 1985, and James Gray, Jan. 24, 1986.

  “well-dressed Negro male”: NYT, July 13, 1962, p. 10.

  Kelley held tenaciously: Int. Asa Kelley, Jan. 22, 1986.

  Robert Kennedy told reporters: AJ, July 12, 1962, p. 1.

  “Not Back Down”: AH
, July 14, 1962, p. 1.

  “collaborating and conspiring”: AH, July 15, 1962, p. 1; NYT, July 15, 1962, p. 28.

  bureaucratic spats: Katzenbach to Kelley, July 14, 1962, CRA. Also SAC Atlanta to Director, July 15, 1962, FA-423; Hoover to RFK, July 16, 1962, FA-439; McGowan to Rosen, July 17, 1962, FA-459; Evans to Belmont, July 17, 1962, FA-[illegible]. Press secretary Guthman asked the FBI how many agents it had in Albany, and Hoover instructed his agents not to tell the Justice Department. (Apparently, Hoover did not want Robert Kennedy to be able to second-guess his allocation of manpower.) Also, when Katzenbach himself called an FBI SAC to inquire about the state of racial disturbance in Albany, FBI headquarters shuddered over its exclusion from the information loop. Courtney Evans wrote that he “tactfully” advised Katzenbach “that only at Bureau headquarters is information from all field divisions centralized and, accordingly, the only complete check that can be made is here in Washington.”

  “woefully inadequate”: NYT, July 16, 1962, p. 47.

  “Georgia Whodunit”: Newsweek, July 23, 1962, p. 18.

  “Mayor Stays Mum”: AH, July 12, 1962, p. 1.

  “Who Got King Out?”: AH, July 13, 1962, p. 1.

  “cost Negroes jobs”: AH, July 18, 1962, p. 1.

  “Albany Manifesto”: Dated July 15, 1962, handed to Chief Pritchett “about 1:30 pm, 7/16/62,” CRA.

  National Press Club: Jet, Aug. 2, 1962, pp. 6-7; NYT, July 20, 1962, pp. 8, 23; Congressional Record, July 20, 1962, p. S14247.

  “Now I assume”: Watters, Down to Now, pp. 196-202.

  escaped through a window: Int. C. B. King, July 10, 1985.

  King drove to the courthouse: Ibid. Also McGowan to Rosen, July 22, 1962, FA-450.

  debated all afternoon: King, JFKOH; Levison conversation of Aug. 3, 1962, FL-NY-5-NR; int. Burke Marshall, Sept. 26, 1984; int. Charles Sherrod, Jan. 23, 1986; int. Clarence Jones, May 18, 1986; int. C. B. King, July 10, 1985; int. Laurie Pritchett, Nov. 25, 1986. (Pritchett said he had the conversation wiretapped, and that he was amazed to hear King speak heatedly to the Attorney General as an equal.)

  walk in the night air: Kunstler, Deep, p. 102.

  Wells felt out of place: Int. S. B. Wells, July 9, 1985.

  “blood of Emmett Till”: Lewis, King, p. 161; NYT, July 22, 1962, p. 1; AH, July 22, 1962, p. 1.

  “get up, goddamn it”: Int. Claude Sitton, Dec. 14, 1983.

  including King: FBI affidavit taken from King on July 24, 1962, acknowledging that “any statement I make may be used in a court of law against me,” FA-504.