Nine Days
Page 30
“You’re making a big mistake”: Belafonte, My Song, 215.
“The time you’ve spent”: Raymond, Stars for Freedom, 88.
“had never really had the personal”: King, interview by Bernhard, JFKL.
“I don’t think that it was a matter”: Guthman and Shulman, Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 66. Kennedy’s quotation to a Black dentist on the campaign trail was “Doctor, I don’t know five Negroes of your caliber well enough to call them by their first names. But I promise to do better.” Bryant, Bystander, 24–25.
“Something dramatic must be done”: King, interview by Bernhard, JFKL.
Wofford got to work: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 12–13.
A bleak, open-plan office: Ibid., 61; Lebovich, “Pelli’s Renewed Investment Building.”
a substantive, civil-rights-focused: Bryant, Bystander, 153; Sargent Shriver, interview by Anthony K. Shriver, Kennedy’s Call to King: Six Perspectives, fall 1988, Independent Study, Georgetown University, JFKL Oral History Program.
“cold as fish”: Shriver, interview by Anthony K. Shriver, JFKL.
lacked the national stature needed: Harris Wofford, interview by Anthony K. Shriver, Kennedy’s Call to King.
bring on someone new: Wofford, interview.
inviting Martin to a Black advisory: Louis Martin notebook and memoir draft, LMP.
“We should work for”: Louis E. Martin, interview by Ronald Grele, March 14, 1966, JFKL.
“get into the act”: Ibid.
One meeting would end up: Louis Martin, interview by David McComb, May 14, 1969, University of Texas Oral History Project, LBJ Library Oral History Collection.
“mighty late in the day”: Poinsett, Walking with Presidents, 73.
“You don’t know anything!”: Lemann, Promised Land, 113.
“You’re talking about what we”: Poinsett, Walking with Presidents, 73.
“Don’t have any relations”: Harris Wofford, interview by Larry Hackman, May 22, 1968, #2, JFKL.
“offend our good Southern friends”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 61.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”: Ibid. In his unpublished autobiography draft, Martin discusses his respect for Dawson and particularly how he built his Chicago political organization.
“You know, this man”: Martin, interview by Grele, #1, JFKL.
“Wait a minute, I wish”: Poinsett, Walking with Presidents, 73.
Martin’s ability to speak Bobby’s: Wofford, interview. Wofford concluded that Martin “was able to deal with an Irish Mafia, talking their language, sort of rough.” Bobby himself later said, “Louis Martin was the best, had the best judgment. I talked to him a lot. Harris Wofford was consulted, but he didn’t have nearly the judgment that Louie Martin did.” Guthman and Shulman, Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 72.
“If you want it”: Martin, interview by Grele, #1, JFKL.
The campaign manager’s immediate trust: John Seigenthaler, interview by Larry Tye, shared with the authors; Guthman and Shulman, Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 72.
Martin would walk out: Louis Martin handwritten memoir draft, LMP.
Martin and Wofford’s desks: Louis Martin notebook and handwritten memoir draft, LMP; Wofford, interview.
Many nights, the two of them: Shriver, interview by Anthony K. Shriver, JFKL; Wofford, interview by Hackman, #2, JFKL.
going to Mass with Shriver: Martin notebook and handwritten memoir draft, LMP. Martin rented a room in a Southwest waterfront building where several other Kennedy staffers stayed.
He admired Martin’s ability: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 60.
now he was on the phone each day: Martin notebook and handwritten memoir draft, LMP.
respected Wofford’s knowledge of young: This and Martin’s other observations on Wofford are also from his notebook and memoir draft.
Toni says they were hardly rich: Dr. Toni Martin, interview by the authors, May 16, 2017.
he showed up at the University: Poinsett, Walking with Presidents, 5.
“quicksand of racial relations”: Martin notebook, LMP.
forum on human rights at Howard University: Martin, interview by Grele, #1, JFKL. The CRS’s Frank Reeves, a professor at Howard, used his connections to have the CRS announce a “workshop on human rights” to be held on the campus in the middle of the campaign. As a nonpartisan institution, the college felt it would need to invite Nixon as well, but the vice president declined (as the CRS had anticipated). Located past the university’s old gates, up the hill off D.C.’s Sixth Street, Rankin Chapel’s sanctuary still possesses a kind of intimacy, and one senses its history as a place where students spoke for equality, where great theologians and future leaders prayed and sang.
This was the first time that Martin: Martin notebook, LMP.
“I regret that the Republican”: Papers of John F. Kennedy, Pre-presidential Papers, Senate Files, Speeches and the Press, Speech Files, 1953–1960, Howard University, Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 1960, JFKSEN-0912–058, JFKL.
Leaving the campus, they were: Martin notebook, LMP.
Voter turnout would be: U.S. Elections Protect, “National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789–Present,” www.electproject.org/national-1789-present; Flanigan et al., Political Behavior of the American Electorate, 73.
It had taken him years: Morrow, Black Man in the White House, 295.
arrange White House parking spots: Ibid., 123–24.
“One hundred years ago today”: Ibid., 295.
“in a rear car”: Ibid., 296.
it was Nixon who went: Ibid., 239–41; Morrow, Forty Years a Guinea Pig, 185–87.
a 1959 Jet survey: Rigueur, Loneliness of the Black Republican, 36.
Nixon’s midnight deliberations: Morrow, Black Man in the White House, 293.
pews, to observe Jackie Robinson: Martin notebook and memoir draft, LMP; Louis E. Martin, interview by Ronald Grele, #2, April 7, 1966, JFKL.
“I intend to cover”: “Jailed,” Baltimore Afro-American, Oct. 15, 1960.
With Robinson crisscrossing the country: Robert Healy, “Nixon Woos New Jersey Negroes,” Boston Globe, Oct. 9, 1960.
Georgians cheering for him: White, Making of the President, 1960, 268–72.
“The South is the wave”: Thurber, Republicans and Race, 120–21.
King and Nixon had first met: Morrow, Forty Years a Guinea Pig, 117–18.
“You’re Dr. King. I recognized”: King, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, 76–77.
“rich fellowship … and fruitful”: Nixon to King, Aug. 30, 1957, King, Martin Luther, Correspondence, 1957–1962, Pre-presidential Papers Collection 320, box 22, RNL.
“To my friend”: Kotlowski, Nixon’s Civil Rights, 160.
“My only regret”: Frank, Ike and Dick, 154.
“terribly distressed to learn”: Nixon to King, Sept. 22, 1958, King, Martin Luther, Correspondence, 1957–1962, Pre-presidential Papers Collection 320, box 22, RNL.
“It is altogether possible”: Carson, Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., 149.
“YOU CAN’T LEAD FROM THE BACK”
“It might even mean”: Carson et al., Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., 3:462.
“I need your help”: Belafonte, My Song, 149–50.
“People will expect me”: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 138.
“the zenith of my career”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 660.
“the general strain of being known”: Lewis, King, 109.
“a pretty unprepared symbol”: Loudon Wainwright, “Martyr of the Sit-Ins,” Life, Nov. 7, 1960.
“I can’t afford to make”: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 158.
American version of Gandhi’s Salt March: Branch, Parting the Waters, 259.
The New York Times wrote: Claude Sitton, “Negro ‘Stand-Ins’ Staged in South,” NYT, Oct. 4, 1960.
When describing King in 1960: “Dr. King Attacks Apathy on Rights,” NYT, Sept. 7, 1960; “14 Negroes Jailed in Atlanta Sit-In
s,” NYT, Oct. 20, 1960.
“anyone, including King, who comes”: Carson et al., Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., 5:21.
“He’s not coming to cause”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 128.
In December 1959, King junior: Sullivan, Freedom Writer, 196.
King voted Republican: Farrington, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP, 91.
At an event held at Mount Zion: “Many Ministers Endorse the Republican Candidates,” ADW, Oct. 11, 1960.
“hypocritical” on the subject: “Dr. King Attacks Apathy on Rights.”
Wofford’s turn to assert himself: Martin notebook, LMP.
“the icing on the cake”: Louis Martin used this phrase on multiple occasions, such as Martin, interview by Grele, #2, April 7, 1966, JFKL; Louis Martin to Anthony K. Shriver, Kennedy’s Call to King.
“tremendously scared of losing white”: Wofford to Anthony K. Shriver, Kennedy’s Call to King.
instead of explicitly evoking “civil rights”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 63.
“Kennedy can’t win”: Farrington, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP, 93.
“It took courage to call this conference”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 64.
“This is the next President!”: Martin notebook, LMP.
“Are we going to vote”: U.S. Senate, Speeches, Remarks, Press Conferences, and Statements of Senator John F. Kennedy, Presidential Campaign of 1960, August 1 Through November 7, 1960, 580.
“Careful, Jack!”: Branch, Parting the Waters, 344.
“hit like a bomb”: Martin, interview by Grele, #2, JFKL; Martin notebook, LMP.
“I will attempt to appoint”: Edward C. Burks, “Negro in Cabinet Pledged by Lodge,” NYT, Oct. 13, 1960.
“Whoever recommended that Harlem speech”: Edward C. Burks, “Pledge on Negro Diluted by Lodge,” NYT, Oct. 14, 1960.
“move decisively toward the integration”: Draft in Speeches and Writings File, LMP.
“Can I get you to go”: Lonnie C. King Jr., “On Student Movements and the Civil Rights Movement,” Feb. 18, 2012, University of Georgia School of Social Work.
Lonnie believed that if the students: Lonnie King, interview.
with the family of Howard Zinn: Zinn, Southern Mystique, 132–34. Along with the Atlanta University math professor Dr. Lonnie Cross, an unaffiliated group of students also sat in at Rich’s Barbeque Grill on March 5 and after that joined the efforts of the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights.
“If you bring your Black ass”: Lonnie King, interview.
That was fine with Lonnie: Ibid.
“Remember that both history and destiny”: Carson et al., Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., 5:370.
“Let us not fear going”: Ibid., 369.
“You’re not merely demanding a cup”: Ibid., 415.
“There’s something almost holy”: Lefever, Undaunted by the Fight, 42.
In mid-May, Lonnie led: Gene Britton and Bruce Galphin, “Negro Marchers Diverted to Church,” AC, May 17, 1960.
The students had invited Dr. King: Branch, Parting the Water, 301–2.
“They were concerned we were”: Lonnie King, interview.
“If you had been from Mars”: Lonnie King, interview by Bob Short, Reflections on Georgia Politics Oral History Collection, ROGP 086, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens; Kuhn, “There’s a Footnote to History!,” 587. The historian Clifford Kuhn’s article on the 1960 King incident remains an excellent overview, and his interview with Ernest Vandiver was particularly groundbreaking, but we note one disagreement. Kuhn was skeptical of Lonnie King’s claims of planning to influence the election, given the impossibility of anticipating how DeKalb County would claim King and send him to Reidsville, prompting a reaction from Kennedy. But Lonnie King was clear that all these outcomes surprised him (Lonnie thought Nixon would be the one to respond). We believe that testimonies from student movement colleagues such as Otis Moss, about sending telegrams to the candidates concerning how King had been arrested in Atlanta with them (as planned), affirm that Lonnie foresaw that their sit-in could bring the issue of civil rights to the attention of the presidential campaigns.
“this issue of civil and human”: Lonnie King, interview by Jeanne Law Bohannon, July 19, 2017, Atlanta Student Movement Project, KSU.
“The human rights for which”: Carson et al., Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., 5:538. The students’ work on the Atlanta Student Movement was distinct from that of the SNCC, but many of the same Atlanta students were also involved in this growing national initiative.
a message from Nixon: “Kennedy Aided Truce in Atlanta Freeing 22 Sit-In Demonstrators,” NYT, Oct. 24, 1960.
“great suffering” soon to come: “King Warns of Great Suffering,” Chicago Daily Defender, Oct. 17, 1960.
“If he stayed on the sidelines”: Lewis, Walking with the Wind, 120.
Six students followed King: Branch, Parting the Waters, 346.
“M.L., you don’t need to go!”: Ibid., 348.
“I’ve learned that Nixon”: Wofford, interview.
“Do you really feel you”: Harris Wofford to Taylor Branch, interview notes, Wofford Folder 957, Taylor Branch Papers #5047, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“To hell with that, Nixon”: Wofford, interview by Bernhard, #1, JFKL.
“No. You can’t possibly”: Wofford, interview.
“I’m in a real jam”: Ibid.
“I have to participate now”: Harris Wofford: Slightly Mad, dir. Jacob Finkel, Corporation for Civic Documentaries, 2017, documentary.
“call M.L. and just remind him”: Lonnie King, interview.
“Just tell him that I asked”: Lonnie King, interview by Bob Short, University of Georgia Libraries.
came not from King’s own fears: Lonnie King, interview.
Her strengths complemented Lonnie’s: Ibid.
“M.L., let me say something”: King, “On Student Movements and the Civil Rights Movement.”
DeKalb police spotted this Black man: DHP; Gladney, How Am I to Be Heard?, 301. Police pulled King over on Clifton Road between North Decatur Road and Haygood Drive.
“You and I are going down”: Lonnie King, interview.
“This is your hometown”: Lonnie C. King, interview by Emilye Crosby, Civil Rights History Project, Library of Congress.
“M.L., you can’t lead from”: Lonnie King, interview.
“L.C., what time do you want”: Lonnie King, interview by Bob Short, University of Georgia Libraries.
“Ten o’clock on the bridge”: Lonnie King, interview.
readers of the Atlanta Daily World: Taschereau Arnold, “Nixon and Lodge Endorsed by Bapt. Ministers Union,” ADW, Oct. 19, 1960.
telegram both Kennedy and Nixon: Lonnie King, interview.
DAY 1: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19
Gallup’s most recent poll: Gallup, Gallup Poll, 1687.
After working a night shift: Lonnie King, interview.
“the most rewarding experience”: Lonnie King, “Cell Block No. 1–East-2,” AI, Oct. 24, 1960.
“We’re not going to a funeral”: “Sit-Ins Begin Here October 19,” AI, Oct. 24, 1960.
Martin Luther King was right where: Descriptions of the October 19 sit-in are drawn from the King trial transcript in the DHP; AJ, Oct. 19, 1960; AC, Oct. 20, 1960; ADW, Oct. 20, 1960; AI, Oct. 24, 1960, and interviews with Lonnie King. Specific quotations and additional sources listed. The King trial transcript in DHP allows for the first time a reconstruction of dialogue between King and the Rich’s staff leading up to his arrest.
They looked impressive: With sisterly affection, Herschelle Sullivan later chuckled at how “the two muckety mucks, the two Kings, were at Rich’s.” She did not begrudge the two leaders the marquee sit-in target, because King was their inspiration and Lonnie was, as she said, “without doubt the singular leader of the At
lanta student movement.” Herschelle Challenor, interview by Vicki Crawford, June 14, 2017, King Collection Oral History, Morehouse College.
The Crystal Bridge had been built: Clemmons, Rich’s, 92–93.
“a sit-in exercise as coordinated”: “Negroes Sit-In at 8 Stores,” AJ, Oct. 19, 1960.
Picking up a ham and cheese: Ibid.
“We don’t serve colored”: Otis Blackshear, interview by Mike Mandel, Aug. 16, 1999, as quoted at the Sam Nunn Federal Center exhibit on the former site of Rich’s department store.
“a tree falling in the forest”: Challenor, interview by Crawford.
“Because the students asked me”: “Negroes Sit-In at 8 Stores.”
“I am not the leader”: Bruce Galphin and Keeler McCartney, “King, 51 Others Arrested Here in New Sit-In Push,” AC, Oct. 20, 1960.
“The decision as to when”: “Negroes Sit-In at 8 Stores.”
“Until we get arrested or served”: Ibid.
Long’s father was: Jones, “Activist Gene.”
As everything shut down: Lonnie King, interview.
Four national chain stores: “Negroes Sit-In at 8 Stores.”
A middle-aged man kicked: “Sit-Ins Begin Here October 19.”
“The fountain is closed”: “Negroes Sit-In at 8 Stores.”
the NAACP chose Hollowell: Daniels, Saving the Soul of Georgia, 95.
he or she sent word: Charles Person, interview by the authors, May 12, 2017.
Stone Mountain Ku Klux Klan: “Formations’ Observed: Tension, Action, Humor, Seen,” AJ, Oct. 20, 1960.
“a beautiful black mess”: “Sit-Ins Begin Here October 19.”
waved his KKK card: Galphin and McCartney, “King, 51 Others Arrested Here in New Sit-In Push.”
“astonishment, uneasiness, or dislike”: “Formations’ Observed: Tension, Action, Humor, Seen.”
“More power to you”: “Sit-Ins Begin Here October 19.”
to take a nurse’s exam: Galphin and McCartney, “King, 51 Others Arrested Here in New Sit-In Push.”
Back at Rich’s, Benjamin Brown: “Sit-Ins Begin Here October 19.”
Lonnie had observed the Magnolia: Lonnie King, Oral History interview, King Collection, Morehouse College.