Pillar of Fire

by Taylor Branch

  fn turned away from Galloway Church: Silver, Closed Society, p. 59; int. Edwin King, June 26, 1992; Cunningham, Agony at Galloway, pp. 13-35.

  lug nuts on his tires: Dennis Sweeney speech of Oct. 2, 1963, at Stanford, Tape No. 631002-S1-2, SUARC.

  acknowledged some weeping confessions: Jackson Clarion-Ledger, June 1, 1963, p. 1.

  gift books by Gandhi: Int. Edwin King, June 26, 1992.

  northward into the Delta: Ibid. Also Aaron Henry to Lowenstein, July 13, 1963, b8f294, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

  “I am at present in the heart”: King telegram to Hosea Williams, July 9, 1963, A/KP3f15.

  “I’m Al Lowenstein”: Cagin and Dray, We Are Not Afraid, p. 210.

  Bob Dylan and Josh White: NYT, July 6, 1963, p. 7.

  “holding out”: Chafe, Never Stop Running, p. 181.

  Moses remembered him: Int. Robert P. Moses, Aug. 10, 1983.

  Moses confessed the paralysis: Int. Robert P. Moses by Anne Romaine, Sept. 1966, pp. 64-69, A/AR.

  Africans withdrew into formal mourning: Chafe, Never Stop Running, p. 181.

  From this seed grew: Ibid. Also int. Edwin King, June 26, 1992.

  no small resistance: Cf. Moody, Coming of Age, p. 297.

  “Across the chasm between white and nonwhite”: Lowenstein, Brutal Mandate, p. 185.

  “Dear Al, Bad news!”: Bill [Edwards] to Lowenstein, July 21, 1963, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

  “Mississippi: A Foreign”: Lowenstein speech of Oct. 2, 1963, reprinted in Stone and Lowenstein, Acts of Courage, pp. 22-36.

  “we’ve come up with two ideas”: Ibid. For a recorded version of the complete speech, see Tape No. 631002-S1-2, SUARC.

  Robert Spike: Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, pp. 34-35; int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991; int. Bruce Hanson, Feb. 22, 1991.

  “practically no interest in racial”: Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, p. 191, n. 18.

  Gwynn Oak Amusement Park: NYT, July 5, 1963, p. 1.

  full-time chemist: Williams profile, AJ, Nov. 8, 1965; Hosea L. Williams, “History and Philosophy of the Southeastern Georgia Crusade for Voters,” A/SC139f2; int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

  not board material: Int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991.

  became like a son: Ibid. Also int. Septima Clark, Dec. 17, 1983.

  Savannah’s historic Negro pulpits: Woodson, History of the Negro Church, p. 41ff.

  trademark .38-caliber pistols: Lester Hankerson Oral History, Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah; int. Lester Hankerson, nd.

  climbed upon Tomochichi’s Rock: Int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991; int. Willie Bolden, May 14, 1992; NYT, June 14, 1963, p. 16.

  obscure Civil War ordinance: NYT, July 11, 1963, p. 1; SCLC press release dated Aug. 15, 1963, A/SC139f23.

  hemorrhage of runaway slaves: For contemporary evidence of distress about runaway slaves from the Savannah slaveowners’ point of view, see Myers, Children of Pride, esp. Vol. 4, pp. 151-74.

  eleven white citizens: SCLC press release dated Aug. 15, 1963, A/SC139f23; WP, Sept 4, 1963, p. 6.

  Spike landed in Savannah: Robert Spike report, “A Night of Watching,” July 26, 1963, p. 4, NCC RG6, b48f13, POH.

  “Two Negroes Shot”: NYT, July 12, 1963, p. 8.

  “Spike for introducing them”: Int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

  undercurrents within Negro Savannah: Ibid. Also int. W. W. Law, Dec. 17, 1983; int. Hosea Williams, Oct. 29, 1991; NYT, June 27, 1963, p. 20.

  meetings at the Flamingo Club: Oral histories by Carolyn Barlow, Sidney Barnes, Henry “Trash” Brownlee, Rick Tuttle, and Andrew Young, Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah.

  “It was largely the work”: Speech of July 12, 1963, Tape No. BB0358, PRA.

  “You think these white folks”: Ibid.

  “This is the first time”: Robert Spike report, “A Night of Watching,” July 26, 1963, p. 2, NCC RG6, b48f13, POH.

  Young’s first trip to jail: Int. Andrew Young, Oct. 26, 1991.

  “I had the strongest feeling”: Robert Spike report, “A Night of Watching,” July 26, 1963, p. 2, NCC RG6, b48f13, POH.

  first group of white emissaries: Ibid., p. 8. Also Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, p. 79.

  “There was constant police surveillance”: Spike, “Report of the Executive Director,” Sept. 5, 1963, NCC RG6, b47f31, POH, pp. 1-2.

  $10,000 bail grant: Ibid., p. 3.

  came to Jack Pratt: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  Pratt rushed back to Mississippi: Jack Pratt, “Report on the Release of 57 Prisoners in Mississippi,” Aug. 23, 1963, NCC RG6, b47f31. Also Pratt memo on bail project, Oct. 21, 1963, A/SN115f3; Pratt speech at Union Theological Seminary, Jan. 7, 1964, NCC RG6, b47f31, POH.

  threatening to shoot the prisoners: Undated affidavit of Douglas MacArthur Cotton, A/MFDP10f1.

  “Put that gun down!”: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  welcoming celebration: Ibid. Also int. William McGee, June 25, 1992; int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

  Arterbery greeted him with deputies: Jack Pratt, “Report on the Release of 57 Prisoners in Mississippi,” Aug. 23, 1963, NCC RG6, b47f31.

  “Praise God!”: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  10. MIRRORS IN BLACK AND WHITE

  Watkins did not attend: Int. Hollis Watkins, June 22, 1992.

  “Even the Federal Government”: Gentile, The March on Washington, p. 160.

  “The black man is the original man”: Malcolm X remarks on the Jay Lawrence radio show, WNOR, Norfolk, Va., Aug. 22, 1963, FMXNY-3804.

  he held court: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, p. 333; Gentile, The March on Washington, p. 162.

  consumed by an offstage controversy: Forman, Black Revolutionaries, pp. 333-34; Gentile, The March on Washington, pp. 170-83; Branch, Parting, pp. 872-80.

  Malcolm congratulated him: Int. John Lewis by Archie Allen, AAP.

  “I am not condemning”: Gentile, The March on Washington, p. 162.

  preempting regularly scheduled: Branch, Parting, p. 881.

  “it would be impossible to bring”: Meet the Press transcript for the program of Aug. 25, 1963.

  “its worst case of invasion jitters”: Life, Aug. 23, 1963, p. 63.

  President Kennedy’s campaign: Branch, Parting, pp. 840-41, 872; Gentile, The March on Washington, pp. 127-29, 142-50; Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 578-82.

  fn National Football League: Baltimore Sun, Nov. 21, 1993, p. 9C.

  1,700 extra correspondents: Gentile, The March on Washington, p. 201; also “March Gets Big Play in World Newspapers,” WP, Aug. 30, 1963, p. 5.

  fn “I would walk around”: Gentile, The March on Washington, pp. 198-99.

  including politicians who supported: Int. Harry McPherson, Sept. 24, 1991.

  “White legs and Negro legs”: Life, Sept. 6, 1963, p. 22.

  “I’m so proud of my people.”: Ibid., p. 21.

  four march-related arrests: WP, Aug. 29, 1963, p. 27.

  fn a dozen years before the dawn: Reid, The Chip, p. 144.

  “Negro Gothic”: Life, Sept. 6, 1963, p. 21.

  “Beer drinkers especially”: WP, Sept. 4, 1963, p. 17.

  network management believed: Newsweek, Sept. 23, 1963, pp. 63-66.

  Kennedy granted Cronkite: Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 586-87.

  fn “We are trying to do”: Text of interview, WP, Sept. 3, 1963, p. 11.

  “leisurely”: NYT, Sept. 3, 1963, p. 67.

  Japanese singers: Ibid.

  fill a thirty-minute report: Newsweek, Sept. 23, 1963, pp. 63-66.

  network itself showed signs: NYT, Sept. 3, 1963, p. 67.

  “There comes a time”: American Revolution ’63, NBC News special aired Sept. 2, 1963, transcript excerpts courtesy of Lawrence W. Lichty, the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C.

  news and entertainment programs: Dates, Split Image, pp. 256-57, 307, 366-67, 378, 389.

  “The Negro in America”: Newsweek, July 29, 1963, pp. 15-
34.

  “What the White Man Thinks”: Newsweek, Oct. 21, 1963, pp. 44-57.

  Americus, Georgia, death case: Branch, Parting, pp. 864-66; also Pratt memo of Oct. 21, 1963, A/SN115f3; Abram, Day Is Short, pp. 139-40.

  fed up with demonstrations: NYT, Nov. 1, 1963, p. 19.

  “a shocked and silent audience”: Stanford Daily News, Nov. 8, 1963, found in Lowenstein Papers, f32f365, UNC.

  legal forays by lawyers: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

  Hayling had deployed: Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 40-42; Hayling telegram to Roy Wilkins, July 23, 1963, III-C-305, NAACP; SAC, Jacksonville, to Director, July 25, 1963, FSA-686; “Report on the Open Meeting in St. Augustine, Florida, August 16,” Florida Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,” Brian Simpson Papers, UF.

  “seemed emotionally upset”: SAC, Jacksonville, to Director, July 23, 1963, FSA-645.

  “Florida is going to get”: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, July 26, 1963.

  “drowses today”: NYT, July 29, 1963, p. 9.

  locked up until December: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 42.

  first large-scale demonstration: Ibid, p. 48; SAC, Jacksonville, to Director, Sept. 2, 1963, FSA-831.

  dynamite obliterated: Branch, Parting, pp. 888-91.

  “massacre of the innocents”: NYT, Sept. 17, 1963, p. 26.

  twenty previous bombings: NYT, Sept. 16, 1963, p. 26.

  Mercer University: NYT, Sept. 17, 1963, p. 26.

  fn repulsed Oni with force: Holmes, Ashes for Breakfast, pp. 13-17.

  “we join you in mourning”: Baptists Today, Aug. 26, 1993.

  “I know I speak”: WP, Sept. 17, 1963, p. 1.

  verge of open racial warfare to “We are all victims”: Branch, Parting, pp. 891-92.

  heard the news: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 292.

  most unusual of the satellite movements: Int. Diane Nash, Feb. 20, 1985, and April 26, 1990; int. Richard Fernandez, Jan. 10, 1991; int. William Sloane Coffin, July 16, 1991; int. Harvey Cox, May 3, 1991, Nov. 15, 1993.

  Clarence Jones had recruited: Int. Charles T. McKinney, Jan. 21, 1992.

  Bevel and Nash raged: Branch, Parting, p. 893; int. Diane Nash, April 26, 1990.

  She reached Birmingham: Diane Bevel, “Report, September 17-20, 1963,” A/SC41f8.

  place a funeral wreath: WP, Sept. 17, 1963, p. 1.

  “Marching and drills”: Diane Bevel, “Proposal for Action in Montgomery” [undated, Sept. 1963], A/SC41f8.

  “There is an amazing democracy”: King eulogy, A/KS5.

  Nash was left behind: Diane Bevel, “Report, September 17-20, 1963,” A/SC41f8. Also “John” to “Mary, Buntz, and Al,” [undated, Sept. 1963], b9f303, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

  including Bob Moses: Diane Bevel, “Report, September 17-20, 1963,” A/SC41f8.

  Rev. Ed King of Tougaloo: Ibid. Also King to Lowenstein, Oct. 2, 1963, b9f297, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.

  Nash pushed her way: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 294-95.

  first duty of movement leaders: Int. Diane Nash, Feb. 20, 1985, and April 26, 1990.

  Nash began to advocate: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 294-96, 678. In an interview, John Lewis later recalled that a Negro reporter from the Washington Post had overheard him discussing the Montgomery plan with Nash, and that the ensuing leak of the plan caused a “ruckus.” Int. John Lewis by Archie Allen, Sept. 23, 1969, AAP.

  Robert Hayling decided: Colburn, Racial Change, pp. 51-53.

  He called local television stations: SAC, Jacksonville, to Director, Sept. 19, 1963, FSA-888.

  Twine later insisted: Int. Henry Twine, April 2, 1991.

  Hayling stopped indecisively: Int. Robert Hayling by David Colburn, Sept. 28, 1978, Colburn Papers, UF.

  telltale NAACP sticker: Jet, Nov. 21, 1963, pp. 18-19.

  marched their captives: Miami Herald, Sept. 21, 1963, p. 1.

  ceremonial burning: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 51.

  Rev. Connie Lynch: Ibid., pp. 5-8.

  “Some of you say”: Eyewitness account of Rev. Irvin Cheney, Jr., attached to NAACP report from Ruby Hurley to Gloster Current, Sept. 26, 1963, III-H-213, NAACP.

  “burr-headed bastard”: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 52.

  electrifying cry: Cheney account, III-H-213, NAACP.

  “the nigger who wants to be king”: Colburn, Racial Change, p. 53.

  women of the Klan: Hurley to Gloster Current, Sept. 26, 1963, III-H-213, NAACP.

  “then sauntered casually”: Cheney account, III-H-213, NAACP.

  A shotgun blast: Miami Herald, Sept. 21, 1963, p. 1.

  earliest FBI teletypes: SAC, Jacksonville, to Director, 11:49 P.M., Sept. 18, 1963, FSA-879.

  jury convicted Hayling: Jet, Nov. 21, 1963, p. 18; Harper’s, Jan. 1965; Colburn, Racial Change, p. 53.

  September 19 summit: Branch, Parting, pp. 893-94; Audiotape 112.1, JFK.

  delegation of white leaders: Sept. 23 meeting from Branch, Parting, pp. 896-98; Audiotapes 112.6, 113.1, JFK.

  “we came here, sir”: Ibid.

  “will help a great deal”: King statement “outside White House,” Sept. 19, 1963, A/KS5; NYT, Sept. 20, 1963, p. 1.

  explicitly ruled out: NYT, Sept. 24, 1963, p. 1.

  negotiators disappeared: Newsweek, Oct. 7, 1963, p. 40.

  critics ridiculed King: Branch, Parting, pp. 898-901.

  “I’m concerned about having you”: Int. Thelton Henderson, Feb. 25, 1994.

  fn Arrested three times: Ibid.

  Lewis led carloads: Int. John Lewis by Archie Allen, Sept. 23, 1969, AAP.

  daily demonstrations at Selma: Jet, Oct. 17, 1963, pp. 14-17, 20-22; NYT, Sept. 18, 1963, p. 24; NYT, Sept. 25, 1963, p. 32; NYT, Sept. 26, 1963, p. 29; Chestnut, Black in Selma, pp. 168-69.

  King was in Richmond: BN, Sept. 25, 1963, p. 5.

  endorsed variations of the Bevel-Nash: Ibid. Also NYT, Sept. 25, 1963, p. 33; Jet, Oct. 10, 1963, pp. 6-10, Oct. 24, 1963, pp. 14-19.

  Walker huffily resigned: Branch, Parting, p. 900.

  Powell flatly told: Ibid., p. 899; NYT, Sept. 28, 1963, p. 22.

  “I was naive enough”: King address of Sept. 27, 1963, A/KS5.

  “Do I not destroy my enemies”: King, Strength to Love, p. 53.

  11. AGAINST ALL ENEMIES

  nuclear missiles by 1958: Ambrose, Eisenhower: The President, p. 456.

  Eisenhower remarked: Ibid., p. 590.

  thermonuclear bombs: Ibid., p. 494.

  McNamara had disclosed: Shapley, Promise and Power, pp. 97-98; Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 59-62.

  remove Eisenhower’s internal brakes: Shapley, Promise and Power, pp. 104-8.

  “Those families which are not hit”: Ibid., p. 118.

  fn frontier electronics: Reid, The Chip, pp. 116-22.

  fn mountains of plutonium waste: Cf. WP, Feb. 2, 1993, p. 4, Feb. 17, 1993, p. 4, March 3, 1993, p. 10, Nov. 17, 1993, p. 4.

  forever virgins: Int. Victoria M. Murphy, Aug. 17-18, 1993.

  “invites Soviet transgression”: Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 375-76, 428; Shapley, Promise and Power, pp. 169, 395; Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 729.

  psychological legacy: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, pp. 759-60.

  each of three strategic arms: Shapley, Promise and Power, pp. 194-95.

  Technicians were installing: WP, Aug. 27, 1963, p. 1.

  “to use whatever time remains”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 551.

  early mail ran: Ibid., p. 553.

  expressed mild reservations: WP, Sept. 3, 1963, p. 11.

  underground bomb tests: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 594.

  Ike at his Gettysburg farm: A religious appeal to Eisenhower had been recommended to Kennedy by Martin Luther King on August 28, during the White House meeting just after the March on Washington. According to the recording of the meeting, Kennedy first reacted negatively to the idea—apparently thinking that King himself wanted to make the approach, which Kennedy knew would make Eisenhower reject it. When Kin
g assured him otherwise, joking that Eisenhower “happens to be in the other denomination,” Kennedy warmed to the notion, especially when Blake stepped forward to volunteer. This cooperative banter between Kennedy and King stands out in the historical record of a relationship that was generally formal and uneasy. Branch, Parting, pp. 883-86.

  “The Republicans have a great”: Kennedy-Blake meeting of Sept. 30, 1963, Audiotape 113.2, JFK.

  Kennedy and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 286-89; Powers, Secrecy and Power, pp. 335, 353-61; Branch, Parting, pp. 402-3, 562-66, 678-79, 902-6.

  plots to assassinate Fidel Castro: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 517-22; Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 288-93; Branch, Parting, pp. 566-69.

  Ellen Rometsch: Branch, Parting, pp. 911-14. Also Hoover to Tolson, 9:45 A.M., Oct. 28, 1963, FER42. Hoover placed a copy of this memo in his confidential files: President Johnson folder, Section 22, FHOC.

  blackmail between branches: Nicholas Katzenbach, who in the fall of 1963 was deputy attorney general under Robert Kennedy, was not privy at the time to the Attorney General’s dealings with the FBI over either the Rometsch investigation or the King wiretap. As he came to understand it from Kennedy, Katzenbach saw the Attorney General as feeling blackmailed by Hoover over an issue separate from the protection of President Kennedy’s private life: that Hoover threatened to undermine the administration politically with leaks about King and Communism unless Kennedy approved the King wiretap to prove he had nothing to hide. Katzenbach Oral History, Oct. 8, 1969, JFK, pp. 61-62; int. Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

  toward installing wiretaps: Garrow, The FBI and Martin, pp. 62-66; Branch, Parting, pp. 852-56, 859-62.

  “the most dangerous Negro of the future”: Sullivan to Belmont, Aug. 30, 1963, FK-NR.

  “We are launched on a course”: Lodge to Rusk, Aug. 29, 1963, in Gravel, Pentagon Papers, Vol. 2, pp. 738-39.

  Hoover ordered his technicians: Bland to Sullivan, Sept. 6, 1963, FK-207.

  “This is obviously the only: Lodge to State, Sept. 13, 1963, quoted in Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 599.

  expanded program of wiretaps: Powers, Secrecy and Power, pp. 377-79.