LBJ I still need you, Dick.
SENATOR RUSSELL I’m still here, Mr. President, but the rest of Dixie . . . ? I hope you haven’t just killed your election chances.
Russell exits; LBJ watches him go. All actors exit. Humphrey crosses to LBJ.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Congratulations, Mr. President, on your glorious victory!
LBJ The Democratic Party just lost the South for the rest of my lifetime and maybe yours. (looking at Humphrey) What the fuck are you so happy about?
LBJ walks off. LIGHTS DOWN.
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
SPOT on LBJ.
LBJ (to the audience) “Politics is war by other means.” Bullshit. Politics is war. Period. Before Santa Anna stormed the Alamo his trumpeter played, “El Deguello”—it means, “I cut your throat.” It means, no mercy. It means, no prisoners. That’s a political campaign. Sometimes the battle is tens of thousands of people across dozens of states. And other times it’s just you and him and it’s a knife fight in a dark room with a slippery floor. There are no gracious losers and no sore losers; just the walking dead.
You know how you win a campaign? By not losing it! By spending every day as if it were your last day and you were ten points behind. By taking nothing for granted. By giving it everything you have and everything everybody around you has.
I only lost one election in my whole life. The son of a bitch stole it from me in the last seconds with a handful of fake votes and I will carry the pain of that with me to my dying day but I tell you what, nobody will ever do me that way again. It’ll be some other way. The politician’s curse, see, is the desperate desire, the absolute need to plan for every contingency, anticipate every problem, to control everything, even as you know that’s impossible. You’re not running for office; you’re runnin’ for your life. You’re trying to cheat death.
SPOT out on LBJ.
TB reads: June 21, 1964. NESHOBA COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI. MIDNIGHT.
In the dark we hear a police siren start to wail, then the voices of three young men, GOODMAN, SCHWERNER, and CHANEY.
SCHWERNER Jesus! What does he want now?
GOODMAN Are we over the speed limit?
SCHWERNER Hell, no.
CHANEY We weren’t the first time he arrested us, either. This isn’t right. What’re you doin’? Don’t stop, Mickey!
SCHWERNER It’ll just give him an excuse to hold us!
CHANEY He don’t need any fucking excuse! Get across the County line; it’s the only place we’ll be safe!
Sound of car as Schwerner stops. Sound of police cruiser pulling over. Sound of a car door. Sound of footsteps on gravel. Sound of DEPUTY PRICE.
DEPUTY PRICE Out of the car, boys.
SCHWERNER What’s the problem, Deputy Price? I thought we were good.
DEPUTY PRICE Outta the car, Jewboy.
A moment. Sound of three car doors closing.
LIGHTS UP on Oval Office. Walter, notes in hand, faces LBJ. As he names the victims, we see their images on the TB.
WALTER JENKINS Michael Schwerner, age 25; Andrew Goodman, age 21; and James Chaney, 21.
LBJ Twenty-one? Jesus, that’s Lynda Bird’s age.
WALTER JENKINS They were all working on the Freedom Summer Project in Meridian, Mississippi. Chaney is a local Negro but Schwerner and Goodman were both out-of-state volunteers. Both White.
LBJ picks up the phone.
LBJ White college kids; the shit’ll hit the fan now. (to Operator) Get me the Governor of Mississippi.
TB reads: 4 MONTHS TO THE ELECTION.
WALTER JENKINS They’d been investigating the burning of a Negro church in Neshoba County. They’ve been missing for fifteen hours now.
LBJ Missing in Mississippi? They’re dead. State authorities won’t do shit in a case like this so King will be looking for me to pick up the slack but if I Federalize it, every Southern politician will be up in arms just as the Convention starts. Son of a bitch.
Phone Light blinks. LBJ picks up. SPOT on MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR JOHNSON eating pie and drinking a coke.
Governor, I’m callin’ ’bout those three boys . . .
GOVERNOR JOHNSON . . . You mean those three professional agitators . . .
LBJ . . . Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman . . . .
GOVERNOR JOHNSON . . . that come into our state creatin’ all kinds of problems.
LBJ I know. I know. We got the NAACP outside picketin’ the White House as we speak. Listen, ’bout these boys who went missin’ yesterday in Neshoba county. (glancing at Walter’s notes) Apparently, a Deputy Price arrested them yesterday afternoon . . .
GOVERNOR JOHNSON . . . drivin’ thirty-five miles over the speed limit . . .
LBJ . . . Really?
GOVERNOR JOHNSON Yes, sir. So they held them for a couple of hours . . .
LBJ . . . Well, that’s confusing, see, ’cause when their friends called the jail down there, the Deputy said he’d never heard of ’em.
GOVERNOR JOHNSON I don’t know anything about that. Price says he released them about 10:00 that night . . .
LBJ . . . and nobody’s heard from them since.
GOVERNOR JOHNSON Well, I think it’s a publicity stunt! These boys are hiding somewhere, probably havin’ themselves a good laugh, and then they’re gonna come out and claim they been abused or somethin’. Could be in Cuba right now, for all we know.
LBJ Well, as you can imagine their parents are real worried.
Governor says nothing. Furious, LBJ picks up the phone.
Now, I would hate to have to send a buncha Federal Marshals into your state . . .
GOVERNOR JOHNSON (suddenly concerned) . . . No. No, you don’t want to do that . . .
LBJ . . . ’Course I don’t! You don’t want the publicity and I sure don’t want to stir up a mess with just eight weeks before the Democratic Convention but there’s a lotta pressure to do something. If you’d rather, I guess I could get a few FBI agents to look into the thing.
GOVERNOR JOHNSON FBI?
LBJ Well, that’s a damn sight better than Federal Marshals and the US Army, isn’t it?
GOVERNOR JOHNSON Well, yeah; I guess so.
LBJ I think you got the right idea, Governor; let this be Hoover’s problem, not ours. Hopefully, you’re right about the whole thing and these boys’ll turn up quick and we can all relax. Christ sakes, we got an election to win!
LBJ hangs up. SPOT out on Gov. Johnson.
WALTER JENKINS Hoover will just drag his feet.
LBJ Not if I light a fire under his ass.
LBJ punches another number. SPOT on Hoover.
J. EDGAR HOOVER Mr. President?
LBJ Jay, the Governor of Mississippi wants the FBI to look into these missin’ kids.
J. EDGAR HOOVER Well, I’d be happy to, Mr. President, but there’s a jurisdictional problem . . .
LBJ . . . No, no, I talked to Bobby about that and he says we got the Lindbergh Statute on our side . . .
J. EDGAR HOOVER . . . Mr. President, we don’t have the resources down there and . . .
LBJ . . . Yeah, I never understood how come you don’t have an actual Office in Mississippi.
J. EDGAR HOOVER Well, frankly, there’s not a lot of need down there.
LBJ I’m not gonna tell you how to run your shop but the problem here is, the governor asked specifically for the FBI to investigate. I tried to put him off but I suppose I could get some other third party. I know Senator Jim Eastland wants Alan Dulles investigatin’.
J. EDGAR HOOVER Dulles?
LBJ His experience in the CIA and all would probably be a very . . .
J. EDGAR HOOVER …Oh, no, Mr. President, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea! This is very clearly an FBI matter.
J. EDGAR HOOVER Yes, sir, Mr. President.
SPOT out on Hoover. LBJ hangs up and smiles conspiratorially at Walter.
WALTER JENKINS When did you talk to Eastland about Dulles going down there?
LBJ I made that part up. Hoover hates Dulles, ever since he got the top job at the CIA and Hoover didn’t. We might still send Dulles down there, just to keep Hoover working hard. The problem here is, there’s three sovereignties involved: there’s the United States, there’s the state of Mississippi, and then there’s J. Edgar Hoover.
LIGHTS out on Oval Office. LIGHTS up on hotel room. MLK confers with Stokely, Abernathy, Moses, and Wilkins.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL They’re goddamn liars! ALL OF THEM! Bob and I talked to that Sheriff Rainey and Deputy Price and they just nodded and smirked and the whole time you could tell they were just laughing at us.
MLK We have to assume those young men are dead.
ROY WILKINS There were no bodies in the car they found.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL Oh, well, they’re probably on vacation then. I always set my car on fire before I take a weekend off. They were murdered, and I wanta know, where’s the goddamn government?
ROY WILKINS The President has sent the FBI in to investigate.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL Before. Where was the government before?
BOB MOSES We asked the Justice Department for protection before we even started Freedom Summer.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL Begged for it but they said no. Now two White kids get disappeared and suddenly the FBI is magically there!
MLK I will ask the President to provide protection for your remaining staff and forcefully press the case against Sheriff Rainey and his bunch.
RALPH ABERNATHY It’s the least they can do now.
ROY WILKINS I warned you, you were sending people to their death. Freedom Summer is over. SNCC has got to get everybody out of there before somebody else gets killed. Now.
BOB MOSES That’s the message you want to send? Kill one of us and we’ll all run away?
STOKELY CARMICHAEL We’re not goin’ anywhere!
ROY WILKINS Let me ask you something, you been there two months and how many voters have you actually registered?
Bob and Stokely glance at one another.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL Twelve hundred; give or take.
ROY WILKINS That’s all?!
BOB MOSES This is Mississippi, Roy.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL And people who don’t have the balls to put themselves on the line of fire got no right to criticize.
ROY WILKINS Three people killed so far, maybe more. Five hundred beaten or arrested. Thirty-five churches burned. Thirty Negro homes and businesses dynamited. For twelve hundred votes?
BOB MOSES It’s not just the votes. For the first time, Black people are building a new political party . . .
ROY WILKINS . . . “The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.” I heard. More Bob Moses pie in the sky. Martin . . .
STOKELY CARMICHAEL . . . Hey, we tried to play by the rules and integrate the regular Democratic Party and they kept us out. Fine. We build our own Democratic Party but with a difference.
BOB MOSES Open to everybody, white or black.
RALPH ABERNATHY Roy, don’t you think America ought to have at least one political party that isn’t racist?
STOKELY CARMICHAEL Wouldn’t that be something?
ROY WILKINS It’s a waste of time! You, what, send ’em to the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City and march around the parking lot with cardboard signs singing, “We Shall Overcome”?
BOB MOSES Hell no. Not after what happened to Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner. Yeah, we send our delegates to the Convention—where they challenge the legality of the segregated Mississippi delegation on National TV and dare LBJ not to seat us.
Stunned silence.
ROY WILKINS You are children playing with dynamite. Lyndon Johnson may wipe his snotty nose on his sleeve redneck style but he is the best President the Negro has had since Abraham Lincoln. If you challenge LBJ at the convention, at the very least, you will embarrass him, and this man has a long memory for those who’ve crossed him. In the worst case, you cost him votes and he loses the election to Barry Fucking Goldwater! (turns on King) Are you so desperate to have their approval, Martin, that you would sanction this mass suicide?
MLK Roy, those three young men went to Mississippi and died doing the work the government has not been willing to do for a hundred years. We have to take a stand.
ROY WILKINS I grieve for those young men. Don’t use their funeral pyre to burn what’s left of the Movement.
Wilkins leaves the room.
MLK How can I help, Bob?
BOB MOSES Come to Mississippi.
RALPH ABERNATHY Don’t be ridiculous!
BOB MOSES Show the people you’re behind the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
RALPH ABERNATHY You might just as well paint a target on his back and declare Open Season!
STOKELY CARMICHAEL (ignoring Abernathy) You haven’t been to Mississippi in over a year . . .
RALPH ABERNATHY . . . He’s been busy! Death threats. Jail. Shot at! You don’t have any monopoly on suffering here, Stokely. Let somebody else carry this load, Martin. Please.
A moment.
MLK Of course I’ll come.
LIGHTS down on MLK/Others. LIGHTS up on FBI Agents digging for the remains of the missing civil rights workers. The smell is awful and the Agents smoke cigars to keep the stench down. Simultaneously, LIGHTS up on LBJ and Humphrey in Oval Office. Both men are tense; nervous. Jenkins is delivering the latest FBI report. TB reads: 3 MONTHS TO THE ELECTION.
WALTER JENKINS The FBI was acting on a tip about a farm in rural Mississippi and they’ve just found two bodies buried there in an earthen dam.
LBJ Jesus. They’re sure it’s them?
WALTER JENKINS They found Schwerner’s draft card in his back pocket.
LBJ My God.
WALTER JENKINS Goodman’s body was right below his. It appears they’d both been shot once in the chest. They’re still digging for Chaney.
LBJ (shaking his head) The minute McNamara arrives—send him in.
LBJ waves and Jenkins leaves.
It’s clear that Deputy Price is involved, probably the Sheriff, too.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Will the State authorities bring charges?
LBJ In Mississippi? Don’t be stupid. The whole mess is in my lap now. If I don’t charge those bastards then King yells I’m lettin’ them get away with murder but if I do charge ’em then all the Southerners scream about how I’m taking orders from the nigras and all two weeks before the start of the goddamn Convention!
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY I’m sorry to have to tell you, Mr. President, but word is that Governor Wallace offered himself to Goldwater as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate.
LBJ That little weasel would sell his own mother to get a leg up.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Goldwater passed.
LBJ Maybe Goldwater’s not as stupid as he looks.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY But Strom Thurmond is formally switching parties.
LBJ Mother-fucking traitor. The question is, is anybody else gonna follow him out the door?
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY I don’t know.
LBJ (switching gears) Well find out! And when are you gonna get my damn Poverty Bill outta Committee?
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY They’re taking a very tough stand.
LBJ That Bill will help poor peopl
e in their own states but the bastards don’t care, they just wanta cut my balls off before the election. (beat) You see her on TV?
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Who?
LBJ The dead kid’s wife. Schwerner.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Rita.
LBJ Widow, I mean. Christ. You see this? King sent me another telegram this morning, wants me to send more Federal Marshals to Mississippi to protect the remaining civil rights workers.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Will you?
LBJ What choice do I have? Another murder and there’ll be a race riot.
McNamara enters, very tense, carrying a red briefing folder.
ROBERT MCNAMARA Mr. President, we have word . . .
McNamara hesitates when he sees Humphrey.
LBJ Go ahead.
ROBERT MCNAMARA Captain Herrick of the USS Maddox reports a potential sighting last night of two possibly hostile unidentified vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin.
LBJ Uh huh.
ROBERT MCNAMARA And some somewhat contradictory sonar evidence of actual torpedo attack.
LBJ A “potential” sighting? What the hell is a potential sighting?
ROBERT MCNAMARA A visual sighting not confirmed by mechanical means.
LBJ And this torpedo attack actually happened?
ROBERT MCNAMARA Still awaiting confirmation.
LBJ Were any of our ships hit?
ROBERT MCNAMARA No, sir.
LBJ Any explosions?
ROBERT MCNAMARA No, sir.
LBJ (exasperated) Then how the hell do we know we were attacked?
ROBERT MCNAMARA We don’t, for sure. We have contradictory sonar readings.
LBJ For Christ’s sake, Robert, give me something to work with here!
ROBERT MCNAMARA The weather is very bad right now, Mr. President; squalls; fifteen foot swells; no moon. It’s not like the attack two days ago.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY We were attacked two days ago?
LBJ We’ve been trying to keep a lid on this for obvious reasons not the least of which is we were in North Vietnam’s waters, playin’ around up there.
SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY Some kind of clandestine raids?
LBJ Another one of Kennedy’s plans. Not mine. I didn’t start any of this but it’s damn sure my problem now.
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