Under heavy pressure: The book revision is the major topic of conversation picked up on Stanley Levison’s telephone tap between October 1963 and March 1964. FLNY-7 and FLNY-9, passim.
“This book”: Wiretap log of Nov. 26, 1963, FLNY-7-617a.
“I’ve got to finish off”: Wiretap log of Oct. 8, 1963, FLNY-7-610a.
“to interpret the direction of change”: Jones to MLK and MLK to Joan Daves, Nov. 26, 1963, A/KP27f8.
“this is now much closer”: Wiretap log of Feb. 6, 1964, FLNY-7-689a.
“the first major civil rights demonstration”: NYT, Dec. 16, 1963, p. 17.
“glaring reality”: ADW, Dec. 16, 1963, p. 1.
Lewis went to jail: Mary King, Freedom Song, p. 181.
told the booking officer: Ibid., p. 175.
“Almost daily into winter”: Jet, Jan. 9, 1964, pp. 6-9; Lyon, Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, pp. 124-29; Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 25-29; NYT, Dec. 22, 1963, p. 25; NYT, Dec. 23, 1963, p. 44.
straddling the conflict: Lewis, King, pp. 233-35.
Daddy King hounded: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 29-31.
“a where do we go from here”: Wiretap summary of Jones-MLK conversation of Dec. 17, 1963, in New York LHM dated Dec. 18, 1963, FK-NR, pp. 2-3.
FEDERAL BUILDING in Oxford: Mills, This Little Light, pp. 69-77.
agent explained the physical evidence: BW, Dec. 18, 1963, p. 3.
“Your name has not been called”: Clark to Horton, Dec. 5, 1963, Series G-17, No. 4007, UNC.
Henry expressed a practical worry: Minutes, COFO staff meeting, 11:30 A.M., Dec. 15, 1963, A/SN111f16.
“You can be bigger”: Int. Lawrence Guyot, Feb. 21, 1991.
“see his ass put in jail”: Mendy Samstein, “On the Hattiesburg Situation,” nd (circa Jan. 1964), A/SN98f24.
“I think that will be”: Ibid.
“Are you strong enough”: Int. Lawrence Guyot, Feb. 1, 1991.
grandiose scheme to import 100,000: Minutes, COFO staff meeting, 5:00 P.M., Dec. 15, 1963, A/SN111f16.
“You’re going to get a lot of folks killed”: Ibid.
debate resumed after Christmas: Minutes of SNCC Executive Committee meetings, Dec. 28-31, 1963, compiled by Jim Monsonis and Cathy Cade A/SN6.
fn “We have to be practical”: Ibid., p. 15.
“Some of the whites”: Ibid., p. 22.
“pushed by Al Lowenstein”: Ibid., p. 28.
“intends to obtain”: Ibid., p. 29-30.
14. HIGH COUNCILS
swaths of black crepe: Johnson, White House Diary, p. 19.
seven top FBI officials: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Dec. 19, 1963, FK-NR; Sullivan to Belmont, December 24, 1963, FK-NR; Garrow, FBI and Martin, pp. 102-4.
phony engineering company: Branch, Parting, p. 915; testimony of Arthur Murtaugh, Nov. 17, 1978, in Hearings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Vol. 6, pp. 99-100; int. Robert Nichols, May 29, 1984.
“placing a good-looking female plant”: Garrow, FBI and Martin, p. 103.
repeated five times a first requirement: Sullivan to Belmont, Dec. 24, 1963, FK-NR.
“We are most interested”: Garrow FBI and Martin, p. 104.
money was the root of evil: Int. Robert Nichols, May 29, 1984.
“pretty much agreed with Hegel”: Ibid.
“so-called civil rights”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Jan. 8, 1964, FK-NR.
“We will, at the proper time”: Sullivan to Belmont, Dec. 24, 1963, FK-NR.
“Man of the Year”: Time, Jan. 3, 1964.
“the unchallenged voice of the Negro people”: Ibid., p. 27.
“They had to dig deep in the garbage”: O’Reilly, Racial Matters, p. 136.
“We here to get Martin Luther King”: Director to SAC, Tampa, Jan. 13, 1964, FBI File No. 9-41768-2, FRW-NR.
Hoover suspended official courtesies: Director to SAC, Detroit, Nov. 27, 1963, FRW-NR. This order is recalled by the Atlanta office in SAC, Atlanta, to Director, Jan. 16, 1964, FRW-NR.
Roy Wilkins asked: SAC, New York, to Director and SAC, Tampa, Jan. 29, 1964, FRW-NR.
“diplomatically decline”: Director to SAC, New York, Jan. 22, 1964, FRW-NR.
transformed the 1890 farmhouse: Johnson, White House Diary, p. 20.
high-powered showerheads: Valenti, A Very Human President, p. 89.
steaks into the shape of Texas: Dugger, The Politician, p. 426.
mating instincts of nearby cattle: E. Ernest Goldstein, “How LBJ Took the Bull by the Horns,” Amherst alumni magazine, Winter 1985, p. 15.
postponed Christmas dinner: Johnson, White House Diary, pp. 20-21.
mounted on a bale of hay: NYT, Dec. 28, 1963, p. 1.
souvenir ashtrays: Johnson, White House Diary, p. 21.
swirled in hospitality bowls: Int. Victoria Murphy, Aug. 17, 1993.
Whenever Mrs. Johnson saw: Ibid.
Jet magazine mistakenly said: Jet, Dec. 19, 1963, pp. 6-10; Jet, Dec. 26, 1963, p. 14.
retrieved prints to prove: LBJ phone calls with Andrew Hatcher, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young, Dec. 23, 1963, Audiotape K6312.17, LBJ.
“quit cuttin’ us up”: LBJ phone call with Whitney Young, Jan. 6, 1964, Cit. 1197, Audiotape WH6401.06, LBJ.
“I had my picture made”: LBJ phone call with Roy Wilkins, Dec. 23, 1963, Audiotape K6312.17, LBJ.
“I’ve done as much as I can”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Washington Post executive Katharine Graham, 11:10 A.M., Dec. 2, 1963, LBJ.
Johnson aggressively befriended him: Victoria McHugh (Murphy) Oral History, pp. 12-13, LBJ.
marathon poverty caucus: Johnson, The Vantage Point, pp. 73-75; Lemann, The Promised Land, pp. 143-45; int. Jack Valenti, Feb. 25, 1991; int. Horace Busby, Feb. 3, 1992.
“Why did you say that?”: Int. Horace Busby, Feb. 3, 1992.
wartime editor of The Daily Texan: Roberts, LBJ’s Inner Circle, pp. 88-91.
standoff over segregation: Time, Nov. 10, 1961, p. 50.
segregation at Forty Acres: E. Ernest Goldstein, “How LBJ Took the Bull by the Horns,” Amherst alumni magazine, Winter 1985, pp. 12-17.
“the President of the United States integrated us”: Ibid. Also Miller, Lyndon, pp. 445-46.
“What kind of fool would I be”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad-Louis X [Farrakhan] conversation, Dec. 31, 1963, FMXNY-4073, pp. 1-3.
“Any laborer or minister”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad-Isaiah X [Karriem] conversation, Dec. 31, 1963, FMXNY-4074, p. 2.
“I cannot understand”: Wiretap transcript of conference call featuring Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, Jan. 2, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan 23, 1964, FEM-NR.
bought maternity clothes: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad telephone call, Jan. 3, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan. 23, 1964, FEM-NR, p. 5.
“in the nest”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad telephone call, Jan. 7, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan. 27, 1964, FMXNY-4073, pp. 4-6.
$100 per month: Perry, Malcolm, pp. 230-32, 305-6.
“even if they move to”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad telephone call, Jan. 7, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan. 27, 1964, FMXNY-4073, p. 5.
told Captain Joseph: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad telephone call, Jan. 4, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan. 27, 1964, FMXNY-4073, p. 4. According to this intercept, Muhammad directed that Minister James X [Shabazz] of the Newark temple take over Malcolm’s pulpit duties, while Captain Joseph was to enforce Malcolm’s removal.
“Let my son know that”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad telephone call, Jan. 3, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan 23, 1964, FEM-NR, p. 6.
“I’m not through with Malcolm yet”: Ibid., p. 5.
Malcolm appeared in Phoenix: Goldman, Death and Life, pp. 125-26; SAC, Phoenix, to Director, Jan. 16, 1964, FMXNY-4023.
layover in Washington: Int. Abdulalim Sha
bazz (Lonnie X Cross), March 14, 1991.
Lonnie X never saw him again: Ibid.
“Sometimes he speaks nice and good”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad telephone call, Jan. 9, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan. 27, 1964, FMXNY-4073, pp. 7-8.
another tape and a letter: SAC, Phoenix, to Director, Jan. 16, 1964, FMXNY-4023.
“When a man is falling”: SAC, Phoenix, to Director, Jan. 22, 1964, FMXNY-4066.
escaped into an airport hotel room: SAC, New York, to Director, Feb. 12, 1964, reporting on an FBI interview with Malcolm X conducted Feb. 4, 1964, and notes (form 302) of that interview dated Feb. 5, 1964, both FMX-81.
enlisted young Alex: Int. Alex Haley, Dec. 4, 1990.
article vilifying Elijah Muhammad: Alex Haley, “Mr. Muhammad Speaks,” Reader’s Digest, March 1960, pp. 100-04.
interview Malcolm X: Playboy, May 1963, p. 53ff.
love of Shakespeare: Int. Alex Haley, Dec. 4, 1990.
Haley had no inkling: Ibid. Also Malcolm X, The Autobiography, p. 405.
“You have not converted”: Malcolm X, The Autobiography, p. 406.
Malcolm flew to Miami: Perry, Malcolm, pp. 245-46.
strange informant report: SAC, Miami, to Director, Jan. 21, 1964, FMX-78.
dinner at the Rockland Palace: SAC, New York, to Director, Jan. 29, 1964, FMX-80; Dick Schaap, “The Challenger and the Muslims,” New York Herald Tribune, Jan. 23, 1964, p. 1; “Cassius Clay Almost Says He’s a Muslim,” NYAN, Jan. 25, 1964, p. 1; Jet, Feb. 6, 1964, pp. 58-59.
first papal trip: NYT, Jan. 5 and 6, 1964, p. 1; New York Herald Tribune, Jan. 5, 6, and 7, 1964, p. 1.
Paul received Sargent Shriver: NYT, Jan. 6, 1964, p. 1.
Shriver asked for a papal blessing: Int. Sargent Shriver, Feb. 21, 1991.
Greek Archbishop Iakovos: Poulos, A Breath of God, pp. 30-31.
secret agent of reconciliation: Ibid., p. 105.
“He that would love life”: 1 Peter 3:10-11 and Psalm 34:12-16, cited in Vorgimler, Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, pp. 56-57.
closed conference in February: Ibid., p. 59.
oral argument in the Sullivan case: NYT, Jan. 7, 1964, p. 21, Jan. 8, 1964, p. 19.
Goldberg discreetly sent down: Int. Harry Wachtel, Oct. 27, 1983, and May 17, 1990.
Washington office of William Rogers: Int. William Rogers, June 11, 1984; int. Harry Wachtel, May 17, 1990.
A relative newcomer: Branch, Parting, pp. 581-83.
introduced the highly prized counsel: Int. Harry Wachtel, May 17, 1990; Gandhi Society press release dated June 5, 1963, announcing the agreement of William Rogers and Samuel Pierce to appear before the Supreme Court in the Sullivan case, Box 50, Folder 1263, Lowenstein Papers, UNC.
Wachtel opened with a harsh appraisal: Int. Harry Wachtel, May 17, 1990.
Rogers took issue with Wachtel: Ibid.
“I agree with you”: Ibid.
“fantastic”: Proceedings of the Supreme Court in Case No. 39, Jan. 6, 1964, p. 10.
Alabama law allowed: In addition to the case records themselves, the legal history of the Sullivan case may be found ably and amply explored in Anthony Lewis, Make No Law.
largest judgment of its kind: Ibid., p. 35.
too many racial references: Int. Harry Wachtel, May 17, 1990.
annoyed with Rogers: Int. William Rogers, June 11, 1984.
“a death penalty for any newspaper”: Proceedings of the Supreme Court in Case No. 39, Jan. 6, 1964, p. 21.
$300 million in damages: Perry, Malcolm, p. 35.
installed microphone bugs in his room: Garrow, FBI and Martin, pp. 104-6; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 310; Sullivan to Belmont, Jan. 6, 1964, FK-NR; “Summary of Highly Sensitive Coverage,” Nov. 27, 1964, FK-1024.
“I’m fucking for God!”: Author’s interviews with FBI officials.
“This will destroy the burrhead!”: Garrow, FBI and Martin, p. 106.
“King is a ‘tom cat’”: Hoover notation on Sullivan to Belmont, Jan. 27, 1964, FBI 100-3-116-792, cited in ibid., p. 107.
“It is believed that the submissions”: Director to SAC, Atlanta, Jan. 7, 1964, FK-NR.
“to take [King] off his pedestal”: Sullivan to Belmont, Jan. 8, 1964, FBI 77-56944-19, cited in Garrow, FBI and Martin, p. 105.
“recent income tax returns of King”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Jan. 8, 1964, FSC-NR.
“If this judgment is permitted to stand”: NYT, Jan. 8, 1964, p. 8.
farewell luncheon at the Washington Hotel: Int. William Rogers, June 11, 1984.
he never dreamed: Ibid. Also Rogers speech entitled “NY Times v. Sullivan—Twenty Years Later,” Waldorf-Astoria, March 8, 1984, text courtesy of William Rogers.
over the next nine weeks: Historical accounts of the Court deliberations over Sullivan appear in Lewis, Make No Law, passim, esp. pp. 164-82; Eisler, A Justice for All, pp. 228-36.
“Although the Sedition Law was never tested”: Opinion of the Court, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), p. 276.
“I considered, and now consider”: Ibid.
“‘actual malice’”: Ibid., p. 280.
“the case of the individual petitioners”: Ibid., p. 286.
fn literal disappearance: In his front-page story announcing the Court’s decision in March of 1964, reporter Anthony Lewis surfaced the tense, unspoken realities that he and other close contemporaries knew dominated the proceedings: “The Times argued that the purpose and effect of these suits was to discourage coverage of the racial situation.” In his book on Sullivan a generation later, however, Lewis more accurately summarized the actual written record: “The Times petition did not emphasize the racial issue that formed the context of the libel action.” The careful, cumulative avoidance of race in the legal argument came soon to dominate interpretation, especially by those lacking firsthand experience. By the 1980s, teachers and students read the Sullivan decision as pure First Amendment law, and commonly missed the formative persecutions against Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. NYT, March 9, 1964, p. 1; Lewis, Make No Law, p. 109.
“was apparently a man of some thin skin”: Eisler, A Justice for All, p. 228.
FBI executives debated: Garrow, FBI and Martin, p. 106.
returned to headquarters: Ibid.
visit him on Saturday, January 18: NYT, Jan. 19, 1964, p. 1; Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, pp. 94-5.
“without a word or a comma changed”: “Notes on Meeting: President Johnson, Clarence Mitchell and Joe Rauh, January 21, 1964,” Box 26, Rauh Papers, LOC.
“lengthy and fruitful discussion”: NYT, Jan. 19, 1964, p. 42.
Black Mountain retreat: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 310-11; “Assignments for Black Mountain retreat,” A/KP32f7; “Tentative Agenda for SCLC Retreat, Black Mountain, N.C., January 20-22, 1964,” A/KP32f7; FBI documents, including New York LHM, Jan. 21, 1964, FR-NR.
Prime Minister Nehru justified: King, Why We Can’t Wait, pp. 134-5.
accepted advice to straddle: Jones to MLK, Jan. 29, 1964, A/KP27f8; MLK to Hermine Popper, Feb. 3, 1964, A/KP18f14; Levison’s comments to Hermine Popper of Jan. 27, 1964, cited in FLNY7-679a and New York LHM, Feb. 5, 1964, FSC-NR, p. 2.
“Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged”: King, Why We Can’t Wait, p. 137ff.
Wachtel was watching: Int. Harry Wachtel, Oct. 27, 1983, and May 17, 1990.
agreed to have the recordings destroyed: Ibid. Also Jones to C. T. Vivian, Feb. 11, 1964, A/KP13f18.
Levison’s candid appraisal: Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 1983, Nov. 28, 1989.
marketing plans for King’s forthcoming book: Wiretap transcript of Levison-Daves conversation, Jan. 31, 1964, FLNY7-683a; Wiretap transcript of Levison-Daves conversation, Feb. 14, 1964, FLNY-9-443.
winter-long struggle to hire more efficient: This is a running theme of wiretap intercepts FLNY7 and FLNY9. Also Jones to King, Abernathy, and Walker, Jan. 31, 1964, A/KP33f21.
“What are SCLC’s basic aims
”: “Tentative Agenda for SCLC Retreat, Black Mountain, N.C., January 20-22, 1964.”
fn “Whatever his greatness”: Time, Jan. 3, 1964, p. 13.
fn “typical hatchet job”: Wiretap of Jones-Levison conversations, 9:59 A.M., and 12:55 P.M., Jan. 3, 1964, FLNY9-401, 401a.
fn letter of thanks: MLK to Henry Luce, Jan. 16, 1964, A/KP23f35.
Walker wanted to target Atlanta: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 310.
unfit to be dogcatcher: New York LHMs of Jan. 30 and March 10, 1964, FK-NR; int. Cleveland Robinson, Oct. 28, 1983.
closing down his March on Washington office: New York LHM, Jan. 28, 1964, FK-NR.
strategy of protest: Rustin, “From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement,” Commentary, Feb. 1964, p. 31ff.
“If the boys can run you once”: Int. Bayard Rustin, Sept. 24, 1984.
page at the North Carolina airport: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 311.
Piedmont Airlines flight 45: Charlotte FBI report dated Jan. 24, 1964, FK-NR; Jet, Feb. 6, 1964, p. 4.
bomb would destroy the Macedonia Baptist: McGowan to Rosen, Jan. 26, 1964, FK-293.
four different callers had warned: SAC, Milwaukee, to Director, Jan. 29, 1964, FK-NR.
“No activities of interest developed.”: Garrow, FBI and Martin, p. 107.
15. HATTIESBURG FREEDOM DAY
resistance where he least expected it: Int. Robert Stone, June 3, 1993.
Summoned to the White House: PDD, Dec. 9, 1963, LBJ.
Spike declined to have his commission: Robert Spike, “Report to the Commission on Religion and Race,” Feb. 21, 1964, pp. 1, 4, NCC RG 6, b47f30, POH.
“I would say to you”: Gov. Paul Johnson inaugural address, Jan. 21, 1964, WLBT-TV news tape 0139/D22, MDAH.
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