“it can keep him from”: Carson et al., Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., 7:502.
“you people” needed “patience”: Morrow, Forty Years a Guinea Pig, 163–64.
“I could feel life draining”: Ibid.
Jackie Robinson, also in attendance: Farrington, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP, 76.
“wondered if further constructive”: Booker, Shocking the Conscience, 148.
“crusader,” but it certainly made: Carson, Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., 110.
“Some kind of gesture”: Morrow, Black Man in the White House, 93.
“In most of the states where”: Memorandum to Republican Party Leadership from E. Frederic Morrow, Nov. 6, 1958, Morrow Papers, Chicago Public Library.
In a 1958 survey: Perlstein, Nixonland, 125.
“I say emphatically and categorically”: Memo to Republican Party Leadership from Morrow, Nov. 6, 1958.
“Dr. Martin Luther King, leader”: This and all quotations from Morrow’s letter can be found in Morrow to Finch, Oct. 24, 1960.
“It was Democrats who arrested”: Farrington, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP, 109.
The Nixon campaign was receiving: King, Martin Luther, Telegrams, 1960, Pre-presidential Papers (PPS) Collection 320, box 22, RNL. In the Nixon Library, there is a long file of all the telegrams Nixon received pleading with him to do something to help King, from private citizens and NAACP chapters across the country.
“Tell them that I would like”: Kotlowski, Nixon’s Civil Rights, 161.
“Let me be consistent”: This and the scene that follows come from Lonnie King, interview.
Within two weeks, Lonnie: “Lonnie King Could Lose Postal Job,” AJ, Nov. 4, 1960.
“Congratulations are pouring in”: Louis Martin box, JFKL. John Seigenthaler also described Louis Martin as “elated” about the phone call to Coretta in his JFKL interview (#2).
There is a separate draft in this JFKL folder, written to be a statement released by Senator Kennedy, which sounds more like Wofford’s writing, given its mentions of Gandhi: “Good news and bad news come together. The agreement reached this weekend in Atlanta under the leadership of Mayor Hartsfield was heartening to all Americans. It was an example of the kind of local and moral leadership this problem requires—the kind of leadership which brings people to reason together in good faith and with good will—the kind of leadership which has not been given by the Republican Administration in these last years of racial crises. The news that Dr. Martin Luther King has been sentenced to four months of hard labor for a minor traffic violation—driving with an out-of-state license—must shock the sense of fairness of all Americans. Mahatma Gandhi’s technique of non-violent action which Dr. King has been using in his fight against racial discrimination always involves some rise of tensions and temper. But the technique stirs consciences—and it won freedom for India. I am sure that the American conscience will be stirred by this latest development and I hope that this will soon result in Dr. King’s freedom.”
Unlike the more conventionally professional press releases Martin would draft, this statement draws out the idea of “tension” rising out of the sit-in crisis—a concept King and Gandhi often invoked. Written in a loftier, more legal, and less political tone, it says, “Whenever there is unrest and tension, whether in racial or labor relations or in other problem areas, whether in any part of this country or the world, the President of the United States should be personally concerned.” This draft makes the case that Kennedy showed moral leadership in the Atlanta situation, a quality Eisenhower was not displaying, from Brown to the present sit-in.
“It doesn’t matter if they”: “Rich’s Declines to Prosecute Pastor King on Sit-In Count.”
DAY 7: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25
he was placed in handcuffs: Margaret Shannon and Fred Powledge, “King Fights Term of Driving Charge,” AJ, Oct. 25, 1960.
“Protect him from what”: Otis Moss, interview.
front page of The New York Times: NYT, Oct. 26, 1960.
“walked arrogantly out with his prisoner”: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 177.
“a well-known stronghold of the Klan”: Ibid., 177–78.
Students had wanted to protest: “Rev. Martin Luther King Sent to a Georgia Chain Gang!,” New York Amsterdam News, Oct. 29, 1960.
courtroom, overflowing with 250 people: Shannon and Powledge, “King Fights Term of Driving Charge.”
lanky form of Roy Wilkins: Wilkins, Atlanta press conference, Oct. 26, 1960, NAACP Papers.
flashbulbs popped all around him: Jack Strong, “King Gets 4 Months in DeKalb Court,” AC, Oct. 26, 1960.
Hollowell and his team: Vernon Jordan, interview.
Judge Oscar Mitchell emerged: Otis Moss, interview by Jeanne Law Bohannon, Aug. 25, 2017, Atlanta Student Movement Project, KSU; Charles Black, interview, May 18, 2017.
Mitchell was from nearby Panthersville: DeKalb New Era, Feb. 1, 1962; AJC, July 8, 2002.
“a shrewd, bitter-end segregationist”: Abram, Day Is Short, 130.
As a World War II pilot: Michelle E. Shaw, “Judge Jack B. Smith, 88: Known as a Kind and Professional Judge,” AJC, Nov. 28, 2012, www.ajc.com/news/local-obituaries/judge-jack-smith-known-kind-and-professional-judge/CwVO2wjT3124aHWQdory5O/; “A Brief Biography of Judge Jack B. Smith,” Judge Jack B. Smith, in Remembrance of, jackbsmith.blogspot.com/.
“The State is ready”: This and all quotations from the King hearing unless otherwise noted can be found in the King trial transcripts in DHP. In Donald Hollowell’s files, only recently fully cataloged, there exist copies of typed transcripts (and quite tattered and worn) of the hearing itself. One includes all the courtroom exchanges and has handwritten Hollowell notes on what should be omitted for an abbreviated version. Discovering this has made it possible, along with newspaper and eyewitness accounts, to at last provide a fuller portrait of what occurred that morning as well as during the Rich’s sit-in. Historians have been seeking the official transcript for decades, and we were lucky to have finally located it at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. The “missing” transcript was in Hollowell’s legal papers that were recently opened to the public. We thank the staff at Auburn Avenue for their help and professional dedication.
With his imposing posture: Daniels, Saving the Soul of Georgia, 39.
Andrew Young compared him: Ibid., 79.
Charles Clayton told the press: “Rich’s Declines to Prosecute Pastor King on Sit-In Count.”
I’m going to indulge in a few: Strong, “King Gets 4 Months in DeKalb Court.”
King sat composed as he absorbed: Wainwright, “Martyr of the Sit-Ins.”
He thought Hollowell had argued: King, interview by Bernhard, JFKL.
Coretta was overwhelmed: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 178. Coretta remembered, “I felt so alone and helpless.”
the Reverend Samuel W. Williams: Strong, “King Gets 4 Months in DeKalb Court”; John Britton, “Motion to Revoke Conviction of King Rejected Following Early Morning Transfer to Reidsville,” ADW, Oct. 27, 1960.
“Judge, you’re killing me”: “Judge Upset by Father’s Plea,” Cleveland Call and Post, Nov. 5, 1960.
“Corrie, dear, you have to be”: This and the conversation that follows come from King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 178.
“As bad as this may seem”: “Rev. Martin Luther King Sent to a Georgia Chain Gang!”
“I made a boo-boo there”: Wilkins, Atlanta press conference, Oct. 26, 1960.
“a great many white people”: Ibid.
Hollowell was already working: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 178.
Top Republican department officials: White, Making of the President, 1960, 315.
a friend of the court: Anthony Lewis, “Protest over Dr. King’s Arrest Was Drafted for President’s Use,” NYT, Dec. 15, 1960.
; Rogers, was on the campaign trail: White, Making of the President, 1960, 315.
“USE EVERY METHOD TO SEEK”: Dr. Sedrick J. Rawlins to Vice President Nixon, Oct. 25, 1960, King, Martin Luther, Telegrams, 1960, Pre-presidential Papers Collection 320, box 22, RNL.
“thus paving the way”: Nixon, Six Crises, 362.
“It seems to me fundamentally”: Lewis, “Protest over Dr. King’s Arrest Was Drafted for President’s Use.”
The date on the existing memo: If administration figures above Walsh had wanted the statement to be read by the president to reporters, such a text could have been written quickly; two sentences do not get delayed for nearly a week because the statement was not completed. Theodore White in The Making of the President, 1960 wrote that the memo was sent for approval to the White House and to Nixon’s campaign in Ohio. Taylor Branch in Parting the Waters casts doubt on this, noting the date on the memo.
He and Louis Martin agreed: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 16; Wofford, interview.
Martin had another worry: Martin memoir draft, LMP; Martin interview by Grele, #2, JFKL.
Wofford believed that the Georgia co-chair: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 16.
“Don’t issue it”: Stein and Plimpton, American Journey, 91. Vandiver was adamant in his GSU oral history with Clifford Kuhn that he made no such deal with the Kennedy campaign this early in the crisis, particularly one demanding silence for secretly helping the jailed minister.
“After all, we’re interested in”: Stein and Plimpton, American Journey, 91.
On a hot August morning: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 58–59.
his own Irish family had endured: Wofford, interview.
“not a particular issue”: Guthman and Shulman, Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 66.
“They are going to kill him”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 11.
“Every hour that Martin spent”: Belafonte, My Song, 217.
“doing everything possible”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 17.
“Can civil rights in some form”: Louis E. Martin, “Dope and Data,” Chicago Defender, April 28, 1956.
“What do we do now?”: Wofford, interview.
“Who cares about public statements?”: Stossel, Sarge, 163.
“If these beautiful and passionate”: Stein and Plimpton, American Journey, 92.
“That’s it, that’s it!”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 17.
“That would really make ’em”: Wofford, interview.
“That’s the most beautiful thought”: Stein and Plimpton, American Journey, 92.
Wofford was still worried about: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 17.
“Mrs. King really needs”: This and the other contents of the phone call come from Stein and Plimpton, American Journey, 92.
DAY 8: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26
It was around 3:30 a.m.: Anderson, “Martin Luther King Reveals.” In King’s contemporaneous account, he estimated the time at 3:30. King later said in his JFK Library interview 3:00 a.m. and Coretta King wrote 4:30 in My Life with Martin Luther King Jr.
“King! King! Wake up!”: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 179.
He thought he was still dreaming: Anderson, “Martin Luther King Reveals.”
“King, get up, put on your clothes”: Coretta Scott King, interview in American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver, PBS documentary.
“Did ya’ hear me, King?”: Anderson, “Martin Luther King Reveals.”
the widow of James Brazier: Hollowell and Lehfeldt, Sacred Call, 119.
German shepherd in the back seat: Andrew Young, interview by the authors. Young recounted to us that King told him about the police dog on this ride.
never see anyone he loved again: Ibid.
“That kind of mental anguish”: Young, Easy Burden, 175.
“hell on earth”: Daniels, Saving the Soul of Georgia, 116. King told Young that the torture of this ride made it the worst night of his life.
King’s first clue as to where: Anderson, “Martin Luther King Reveals.”
some four hours into the journey: Margaret Shannon and Gordon Roberts, “King at Reidsville as Hearing Held,” AJ, Oct. 26, 1960.
“exhausted and humiliated”: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 179.
he was put through fingerprinting: “Rev. Martin Luther King Sent to a Georgia Chain Gang!”; Jack Strong, “DeKalb Refuses to Release King,” AC, Oct. 27, 1960.
R. P. Balkcom, the forty-five-year-old: Strong, “DeKalb Refuses to Release King”; Shannon and Roberts, “King at Reidsville as Hearing Held”; Francis X. Clines, “The 1992 Campaign: Off the Trail—Visits with Americans; Showing the Good Ol’ Boys How to Play Their Own Game,” NYT, Sept. 25, 1992; Georgia Senate, SR 108-R. P. Balkcom Jr. Memorial Highway-designate, www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/Archives/19992000/leg/fulltext/sr108.htm.
whispers went between cells: Bass, Taming the Storm, 168.
Governor Ernest Vandiver had achieved: Vandiver’s ambition discussed in Henderson, Ernest Vandiver, 34–35, 59.
in March, at age forty-one: Ibid., 110.
Nineteen sixty had been the most difficult: Vandiver, interview by Kuhn, GSU.
keep stalling, as his predecessors had: Henderson, Ernest Vandiver, 81–82, 87, 104–6, 114.
Vandiver wanted to tinker: Ibid., 102.
“Wherever M. L. King, Jr., has been”: Kuhn, “There’s a Footnote to History!,” 590.
“Until now, we have had”: Henderson, Ernest Vandiver, 124.
The state patrol would ordinarily not: Vandiver, interview by Charles Pyle, March 20 and July 28, 1986, Georgia Government Documentation Project, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library (GSU), Atlanta.
John F. Kennedy was on the line: In a Journal article on December 23, 1960, the first hints of such a behind-the-scenes exchange are alluded to, describing contacts as happening a day before King’s release. Therefore, we believe it to have been on the twenty-sixth. Based on his conversations with Vandiver, Jack Bass in Taming the Storm agrees with that chronology.
“Martin Luther King is in jail”: Vandiver, interview by Pyle, GSU.
It was at the Democratic National Convention: Henderson, Ernest Vandiver, 121; S. Ernest Vandiver, interview by John F. Stewart, May 22, 1967, JFKL.
“It’s important to me”: Vandiver, interview by Kuhn, GSU.
“Well, he was driving a car”: Vandiver, interview by Pyle, GSU.
“Senator, I don’t know”: Vandiver, interview by Kuhn, GSU.
“Yeah I know that”: Vandiver, interview by Pyle, GSU.
“I’ll do what I can undercover”: Vandiver, interview by Kuhn, GSU.
it was Bob Russell’s judgment: Henderson, Ernest Vandiver, 37; Vandiver, interview by Pyle, GSU; Vandiver, interview by Stewart, JFKL.
“No, not one”: Vandiver, interview by Pyle, GSU.
“Our friendship goes way beyond that”: Vandiver, interview by Kuhn, GSU.
“I don’t know”: Ibid.
A. D. King was up early that morning: King Sr., Daddy King, 157.
worried about how he would withstand: King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 179.
“Dad, what’s going to happen”: King Sr., Daddy King, 157.
Daddy King knew Reidsville was home: Ibid.
Daddy King had received calls: Ibid., 153, 157.
eight Black men on an Anguilla: Newton, Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, 161. An all-white jury cleared the guards. The NAACP found they were ordered, without shoes, into a ditch filled with snakes.
predawn stabbing at Reidsville: “2 Convicts Indicted in Cell Deaths,” AC, Oct. 21, 1960.
“Inmates of Georgia State Prison”: John Pennington, “Pleas for Penal System Probe Smuggled out of Reidsville,” AJ, Oct. 27, 1960.
“The conditions at Reidsville”: Looney, “Segregation Order at Reidsville Prison.”
“It was on the outskirts”: James Baldwin, “Nobody Knows My Name” (1959), in
Collected Essays.
“get King out this morning”: This and the conversation that follows come from Daniels, Saving the Soul of Georgia, 116. In the news clip recorded that day, Hollowell says that he called the sheriff when this conversation occurred.
Hollowell, however, was able to get: Hollowell and Lehfeldt, Sacred Call, 134; Daniels, Saving the Soul of Georgia, 117.
“astonishing swiftness”: Britton, “Motion to Revoke Conviction of King Rejected Following Early Morning Transfer to Reidsville.”
Nathaniel Johnson: Vernon Jordan, interview by the authors.
“They all think this thing”: “Flooded by Protests on King, Mayor Says,” AC, Oct. 26, 1960.
“We wish the world to know”: “Trial Not City’s, Mayor Emphasizes,” AJ, Oct. 26, 1960.
Organizations from all over: “King’s Imprisonment Stirs U.S.-Wide Wave of Criticism,” AC, Oct. 27, 1960.
“I think the maximum sentence”: “Trial Not City’s, Mayor Emphasizes.”
The Constitution suggested leniency: “Leniency for King Is Wise Course,” AC, Oct. 26, 1960.
“because he is presently serving”: Strong, “DeKalb Refuses to Release King.”
“I tried my best”: Wofford, interview.
Unexpectedly calm, Abram told him: Ibid.
“Sarge, I have been thinking”: Strober and Strober, “Let Us Begin Anew,” 35.
“Look, nobody wants to hear”: Wofford, interview by Blackside Inc. for “Eyes on the Prize,” Washington University Libraries.
“The trouble with your beautiful”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 18.
“If Jack would just call”: Stossel, Sarge, 164.
“All he’s got to do”: Branch, Parting the Waters, 361.
“It’s not too late”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 18.
“Shriverize” was a verb: Wofford, interview.
“No, no. Where is she?”: Branch, Parting the Waters, 362.
apartment overlooking Chicago’s Lincoln Park and Lake Shore Drive: Shriver lived at 2430 N. Lakeview Ave. in Chicago. Liston, Sargent Shriver, 63.
During the Battle of Guadalcanal: Stossel, Sarge, 68–73.
“Sargent Shriver, I think I’d like to marry you”: Ibid., 113.
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