J. EDGAR HOOVER I have no idea, Mr. President, but there are many people who feel that King is not a man to be trusted.
LBJ Yes, we talked about the tapes.
J. EDGAR HOOVER His adultery is just the tip of the iceberg. I have voluminous proof of his numerous contacts over the years with active Communist agents.
LBJ This “Levison” fella, right? Says who?
J. EDGAR HOOVER I’m sorry?
LBJ Who says he’s an active Communist agent? You make these accusations but I never see the actual reports. Why is that?
J. EDGAR HOOVER (hesitating) Mr. President, these are very—very delicate issues. These sources—are a matter of National Security and could be easily compromised, undoing decades of work.
LBJ Are you sayin’ you can’t tell me, the President of the United States, the source of these allegations? (Hoover is silent.) How old are you, Jay?
J. EDGAR HOOVER (surprised) How old?
LBJ Seventy somethin’, isn’t it?
J. EDGAR HOOVER I’m sixty-nine.
LBJ Sixty-nine. Uh-huh. You know, people are sayin’ you’re gonna retire next year.
J. EDGAR HOOVER (panicked) That’s not true. Not true at all.
LBJ God knows you’ve carried a heavy burden all these years.
J. EDGAR HOOVER I’m in excellent health.
LBJ Of course you’ll be retiring on a full salary.
J. EDGAR HOOVER I’ve never forgotten your help in that matter.
LBJ Loyal service should be rewarded. We’ll miss you, of course.
J. EDGAR HOOVER But I feel I can still be of service to my country; service to you, Mr. President. Just as I dealt with that perjured witness in the Billie Sol Estes scandal when your name came up . . .
LBJ (alarms going off) . . . Now, that’s goin’ back a ways . . .
J. EDGAR HOOVER . . . there are any number of unscrupulous people out there who don’t wish you well, the Robert Kennedys of the world, and others, many others, who are ready to pass on the most outrageous, damaging kinds of gossip about your financial dealings; rumors of sexual relationships. I keep careful track of these things to protect you, Mr. President, and without me, who can say what might happen?
A moment
If that’s all, sir?
LBJ nods; Hoover leaves.
LBJ (quietly) Son of a bitch.
WALTER JENKINS The problem, as I see it, Mr. President, is this Levison character. If he goes away, what leverage does the Director have?
A moment.
LBJ You know, Walter, every once in a while you have your moments.
LIGHTS down on LBJ/Jenkins, UP on MLK/Abernathy.
MLK He is my friend!
RALPH ABERNATHY And a member of the Communist party.
MLK A former member who left in disgust many years ago.
RALPH ABERNATHY A distinction not always appreciated by the public.
MLK Don’t we preach forgiveness?
RALPH ABERNATHY This isn’t about Salvation, Martin, it’s about politics.
MLK I value his advice. And his service. He’s given everything he has . . .
RALPH ABERNATHY . . . I didn’t say it was fair.
MLK He is my friend.
RALPH ABERNATHY He is a liability. The President has made that very clear. He is a way to attack you and what you believe. Is it worth that?
MLK Not everything can be weighed by that scale.
RALPH ABERNATHY The Bill, Martin. The Bill. We are a “Sacrificial Movement”; your words. What is really important here?
A moment.
MLK You remember that Klan bombing in Montgomery that just barely missed killing Coretta and my baby? I never told you this. Never told anybody. But after the police had come and gone, I sat up alone in what was left of my kitchen, over a cold cup of coffee. It was midnight by then and the phone rang. Some other hate-filled voice telling me, “Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now. If you aren’t gone in three days, we’re gonna blow your brains out.” And I realized there was nobody I could turn to for help. Not really. Nobody. And I bowed my head down and I prayed out loud, saying, Lord, I’m down here trying to do what is right but I’m weak now. I am losing my courage. And then, I heard an inner voice saying to me, stand up for Truth and lo, I will be with you even until the end of the world. He promised never to leave me; never to leave me alone. Will He still be with us, if we abandon others?
Abernathy leaves. Levison enters. LIGHTS UP simultaneously on LBJ and Hoover in Rose Garden in front of Reporters.
STANLEY LEVISON This was always a possibility, Martin.
MLK It’s red-baiting! Whenever they feel like we’re getting too uppity, they drag out the ghost of some fucking Communist conspiracy.
LBJ I just want to take this opportunity to reflect on Director J. Edgar Hoover’s extraordinary and unblemished record of service to this country. Forty years.
STANLEY LEVISON It’s just politics.
LBJ And Mr. Hoover, I know I speak for all Americans when I say, I hope you’re with us for another forty!
Hoover smiles.
STANLEY LEVISON They don’t win, Martin, unless we quit.
LIGHTS OUT on Hoover/LBJ. Levison leaves. LIGHTS up on Humphrey. MLK joins him. TB reads: 7 MONTHS TO THE ELECTION.
MLK Is the President caving in? I would ask him myself but he’s no longer returning my phone calls.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Absolutely not.
MLK I have made every painful sacrifice that’s been asked of me: releasing Stanley Levison; convincing the other Movement leaders to support the President even after he cut Voting Rights; putting all our precious resources into lobbying on his behalf; and the Bill is still stuck in the Senate.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY I’m as frustrated as you are, Martin, but lining up the votes to break the filibuster is a complicated process . . .
MLK . . . And now these new amendments of Dirksen’s!
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY I know, I know.
MLK If you accept these changes, there won’t be demonstrations, there will be a Negro revolution.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY We’re all on the same side here.
MLK Are we? If this is what it takes to move this Bill, I will start a public fast to the death.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY (worried) Martin, please, God, that’s not necessary.
MLK No? I have put all my credibility on the line telling our young people that yes, this President can be trusted, but they don’t see any difference between Dirksen’s Amendments and Bull Connor’s billy clubs. They want results. They are in Mississippi right now putting their lives at risk registering Negroes for a vote they still don’t have!
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY We’ve already talked Dirksen down from his original seventy amendments to forty.
MLK The amendments he gave up were meaningless; we gave up Voting Rights!
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Dirksen has to make it look like he’s fighting the good fight.
MLK His remaining amendments will gut the bill. I would rather have no bill at all than what he proposes!
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Look, I want a good bill, too, but you can’t give people blood tests for Loyalty every fifteen minutes! The President will handle Everett Dirksen, I promise you.
LIGHTS DOWN on Humphrey/MLK. LIGHTS UP on Oval Office. A very confident, SENATOR DIRKSEN enters.
SENATOR DIRKSEN Mr. President.
LBJ Everett, what’s this bullshit about how I treat my dog?!
SENATOR DIRKSEN (confused) I’m sorry?
LBJ My dog! Little Beagle Johnson. Why are you being such a shit-heel with the press about me pulling his ears? The little sumbitch loves to have his ears pulled! Hell, I thought you were running the Senate Rep
ublicans, not the ASPCA!
SENATOR DIRKSEN Mr. President, I was just kidding with the Press about that.
LBJ Well, don’t! I’m a helluva lot better than you are with dogs, dogs and people. You know the best thing about the White House? Your damn dog can’t run off . . .
SENATOR DIRKSEN . . . Yes, sir. I was hoping we could talk . . .
LBJ . . . You called me about appointin’ William McComber as Ambassador.
SENATOR DIRKSEN Among other things. I was hoping we . . .
LBJ . . . We’ll get to that other stuff in a minute. McComber.
SENATOR DIRKSEN He’s a very good man.
LBJ I don’t care if he’s a good man. There are a million Johnson men who are good guys but if I’m appointin’ a Republican ambassador, it better be Senator Everett Dirksen’s Republican Ambassador. So, do you want this guy appointed?
SENATOR DIRKSEN Yes, I do.
LBJ Done. Everett, we got to get this civil rights bill passed. The longer this filibuster goes, the stronger Russell and his people get, and the angrier those Negroes on the street are. We know how many votes we got for cloture on our side—how many will we get from your people?
SENATOR DIRKSEN Well, that’s, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Mr. President. I have a hell of a problem with my side.
LBJ Uh-huh.
SENATOR DIRKSEN You’ve seen my amendments . . .
LBJ . . . Just what I read in the paper . . .
SENATOR DIRKSEN (surprised) I thought you were following this pretty closely?
LBJ Naw, I think Humphrey’s doin’ a stand-up job as Floor Manager. You got any problems, you talk to Humphrey.
SENATOR DIRKSEN Well, there are forty amendments I’m proposing . . .
LBJ Forty! One for each year the children of Israel wandered in the desert? ’Course if old Moses spoke with your customary eloquence, the children of Israel probably woulda got to the Promised Land a whole lot sooner! You know everybody goes on and on about Reverend King’s speechifyin’ but he can’t hold a candle to you!
SENATOR DIRKSEN (modestly) No.
LBJ I’m not just blowin’ smoke up your ass, that’s the God’s truth, though you’ll never read that in the New York Times.
SENATOR DIRKSEN (flattered) Very kind of you, Mr. President.
LBJ Humphrey is in awe of your speakin’ ability. Green with envy. Forty amendments? Really? That many?
SENATOR DIRKSEN My constituents have a number of concerns . . .
LBJ Don’t bullshit an old bullshitter, Everett. Let’s cut to the chase here, shall we?
Dirksen smiles, thinking that finally a deal is at hand.
SENATOR DIRKSEN Yes. Well, I think we have to strike Equal Employment all together. I can probably get my troops to accept Public Accommodations but with, say, a year of voluntary compliance before it becomes law.
LBJ No.
SENATOR DIRKSEN No?
LBJ No.
SENATOR DIRKSEN No?
LBJ There an echo in here?
SENATOR DIRKSEN The Southern filibuster cannot be defeated without substantial changes in the bill. I’m not promising anything, but if you are willing to compromise on your end, I think, I think I can deliver the necessary twenty-five Republican votes for cloture. Now it’s your play. What do you have to say?
LBJ No can do, Everett. Look, the bottom line is, either your people vote for the Bill, or you vote with the Segregationists and the country goes up in flames, and you get the hell beat out of you in November. We’re making history here, Everett, and you’ve got to decide how you want history to remember you. As a Great Man, a man who changed the course of this country? Or just somebody who liked to hear himself talk.
LIGHTS SHIFT. Dirksen leaves as Humphrey enters excitedly.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Mr. President, Dirksen swallowed the “Great Man” hook and we have a deal! By the end of the day, most of his amendments boiled down to changing a comma here or there so the “Wizard of Ooze” could go back and tell the Republicans how tough he was.
LBJ shuffles through his all-important list of votes.
LBJ You need 67 votes to invoke Cloture and stop the Filibuster. Do you have them?
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY We’re very close, Mr. President.
LBJ You’re two votes short! We gotta find a way to undercut Russell’s group, or get those last two goddamn votes!
SPOT out on Humphrey/SPOT ON Senator Russell on Senate floor. TB reads: Day 68 of the Filibuster. 9:36 AM.
SENATOR RUSSELL Senator Dirksen’s so-called amendments are like putting a band-aid on a cancer! I have an amendment to offer. I propose that we resettle Southern Negroes all over the country until racial proportions are equalized among the fifty states. I favor inflicting on New York and other cities the same conditions to be inflicted by this Bill on the innocent people of Georgia!
SPOT ON LBJ. TB reads: Day 69 of the Filibuster. 3:51 PM.
LBJ (on phone) Senator Fulbright. I’ve got the name of this ole boy you’ve put down for the Federal Bench. Pretty tough sell for Humphrey’s crowd but if you were to support the civil rights bill, they’d grin and bear it. Uh-huh, uh-huh, but maybe you don’t have to fight quite as hard as you might otherwise?
SPOT OUT on LBJ/SPOT on BYRD on Senate floor. TB reads: Day 71 of the Filibuster. 11:48 PM.
SENATOR BYRD Supporters of this Bill claim a scriptural basis in the commandment to “love thy neighbor” but I know my Bible and the Bible does not say that we may not choose our neighbor. The Bible does not say we can’t build a wall betwixt us and our neighbor!
SPOT ON LBJ checking his list. TB reads: Day 72 of the Filibuster. 1:05 PM.
LBJ WALTER!
Walter runs in.
Why the hell is Senator Engel of California suddenly off my list?
WALTER JENKINS He’s paralyzed with a malignant brain tumor, sir; recovering from surgery.
LBJ Is he conscious?
WALTER JENKINS I don’t know, sir.
LBJ Well, find out, goddamnit, if he’s conscious, he can vote!
SPOT OUT on LBJ/Jenkins. SPOT on Senator Thurmond on Senate Floor. TB reads: Day 73 of the Filibuster. 10:23 AM.
SENATOR STROM THURMOND This bill will guarantee the commercial destruction of white people everywhere! When it comes to employment, when it comes to promotion, when it comes to being laid off in times of economic distress, it ensures that the average garden variety American will have no choice whatsoever!
SPOT OUT on Thurmond. SPOT on LBJ. TB reads: Day 74 of the Filibuster. 5:47 PM.
LBJ (on phone) Senator Hayden! For sixteen years, the thirsty citizens of Phoenix and Tucson have been waiting with the patience of Job for your Central Arizona Water Project. California’s got the water and your people need it. You vote for cloture and I will personally see that water flowing and your deserts bloom. (smiling) Yessir. Uh-huh. You betcha.
SPOT OUT on LBJ/SPOT UP on Senator Eastland. TB reads: 6:12 PM
SENATOR JIM EASTLAND I am no anthropologist but I have studied History and there is no case in History of a mongrel race saving a civilization, much less creating one! This civil rights bill will take us back to Hitler, Stalin, and dictatorship!
SPOT OUT on Eastland/SPOT UP on LBJ. TB reads: 7:38 PM
LBJ (on phone) Senator Cannon! I got something here I think you’re gonna want. Water. California water. Carl Hayden and I are finally puttin’ together the Central Arizona Water Project and if Nevada wants any part of this, I need your vote. Now. Uh-huh. Thank you, Senator.
LBJ hangs up. Humphrey enters LBJ’s SPOT.
Sixty-seven votes.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Yes, Mr. President, sixty-seven votes—we’ve beaten the filibuster! Should we let Senator Dirksen make the public announcement?
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br /> LBJ Do you think there’s any way we could stop him?
SPOT on Senator Dirksen and Press.
SENATOR DIRKSEN Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that we have reached agreement on a civil rights bill in the Senate. I am reminded of the great Victor Hugo who said, “Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.” The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied.
TB reads: June 19, 1964. SPOT on SPEAKER MANSFIELD.
SENATOR MIKE MANSFIELD The Senate may now vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1964!
Applause. SPOT on LBJ at desk surrounded by admirers, including MLK and Wilkins.
LBJ This Bill I sign today, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is a further fulfilment of the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. I call on all Americans to help eliminate the last vestiges of discrimination in America. The Constitution, and the principles of freedom and morality, all forbid such unequal treatment—as will the law I sign today.
Applause as LBJ signs the bill and hands his pen to MLK.
Here you go, Dr. King.
MLK It’s a great honor, Mr. President.
They shake hands. Actors on-stage freeze. LBJ turns to Russell.
LBJ I’m sorry, Dick.
SENATOR RUSSELL No, you’re not.
LBJ It’s not personal, Dick. It’s just politics.
SENATOR RUSSELL I think I recall you tellin’ Leland Olds somethin’ like that, just after you cut his balls off with a rusty hacksaw.
A moment
It’s the passin’ of an era.
LBJ Yes it is.
SENATOR RUSSELL The passin’ of a time of etiquette. Courtesy. The passin’ of a time of principles, like Party unity.
LBJ (smiling) You know what the Old Soldier said when he was on parade? “Hey, look! Everybody’s out of step but me.”
SENATOR RUSSELL Maybe. I am old, and God knows I’m tired, but the fellas that are comin’ up behind me are utterly without principles of any kind and you see how you like dealin’ with them. You’ll miss me when I’m gone.
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