“You see, the Jericho road”: King, “I See the Promised Land,” in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 284–85.
“I choose to identify”: Jackson, “Recasting the Dream,” p. 418.
A PERSONAL PREFACE
“The solidarity of the ages”: Bloch, The Historian’s Craft, p. 43.
“all necessary means”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 121.
INTRODUCTION: TWO LIVES LOST
On this particular day, Cole and Walker: Beifuss, At the River, p. 30; T. O. Jones int., SSC, and P. J. Ciampa int., SSC.
“He was standing there”: CA, February 2, 1968.
Two men had already been killed: Earl Green, Jr., “Labor in the South,” p. 139.
White supervisors, on the other hand: James Robinson int. (M.H.). At the end of the 1968 strike, Public Works Commissioner Charles Blackburn said blacks were thirteen of twenty-one truck and tractor drivers, most of the crew chiefs, seven of twelve foremen, and four of sixteen division superintendents. This is at odds with all other interviews and news articles. Blacks operated trucks and some equipment and several worked as crew chiefs and foremen in the sanitation division only, but as far as I have found, none were superintendents. PS, April 16, 1968, p. 4.
constituted nearly 40 percent: PS, March 16, 1964; Honey, “Martin Luther King, Jr.,” in Zieger, ed., Southern Labor in Transition.
1. A PLANTATION IN THE CITY
“Run tell your mama”: McKee and Chisenhall, Beale, p. 218.
understood their common history: Blight, Race and Reunion.
Forrest made his fortune: Carney, “Contested Image,” pp. 601–30. As recently as August 2005, many whites still defended Forrest as a hero when County Commissioner Walter Bailey tried to change the name of Forrest Park. The Commercial Appeal did not even mention the massacre at Fort Pillow.
Emancipation unleashed a flood: For an overview, see Honey, Southern Labor, ch. 1. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction, shows how racism divided southern labor and defeated Reconstruction. Tyson and Cicelski, Democracy Betrayed, document how racial division defeated southern populism. See also Honey, “Class, Race and Power,” in Tyson and Cicelski.
In Tennessee, white Democrats: Wright, Race, Power.
Black women played a crucial role: Royster, Southern Horrors.
organized a union in Elaine: Taylor, “We Have Just Begun.”
“Vendors were on hand”: Goings and Smith, “‘Unhidden’ Transcripts,” p. 375.
blacks continued to resist Jim Crow: Brown-Melton, “Blacks in Memphis,” pp. 166–69.
remained pitifully weak: For examples, see Group I, Series G, Branches, 1913–1939, Box 199, NAACP Papers.
Crump as “the big dog”: My father, Keith Honey, assigned to the naval air station in nearby Millington during World War II, met Crump on an elevator at the Peabody Hotel one day and was surprised at how ordinary he appeared. See Miller, Mr. Crump.
“The colored people, they voted”: McKee and Chisenhall, Beale, p. 52.
Only a handful of blacks: Ed Redditt int. (M.H.).
Yet most white workers: see Roedigger, Wages of Whiteness, and Nelson, Divided We Stand.
white brotherhoods forced black workers out: Arnesen, Brotherhoods of Color, pp. 66–71.
deadly legacy for public employees: Green, “Labor in the South,” pp. 63–64, 70.
white firefighters, teachers, and police: Honey, Southern Labor, ch. 3.
“You had to fight for every inch”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 78.
“I left Memphis to spread the news”: Furry Lewis recordings, Kassie Jones Part II. “Masters of Memphis Blues, 1927–1929,” liner notes, JSP Records.
Union wages spurred bigger donations: Korstad and Lichtenstein, “Opportunities Found and Lost.” See also accounts by Coe, Holloway, Davis, and others in Honey, Black Workers.
“Those supervisors would curse”: Honey, Black Workers, pp. 96, 98.
increasing roles in service work: Green, “Plantation Mentality,” and “Race, Gender, and Labor.”
CIO generated great hopes: Griffith, Crisis; Honey, “Operation Dixie,” and Southern Labor, ch. 9.
King protested: Carson, MLK, Vol. I, p. 121.
hailed Wallace’s commitment: O’Dell int. (M.H.), and MLK, Vol. I, p. 45.
ran black and white candidates: Honey, Southern Labor, pp. 248–51.
The CIO joined in: On the CIO’s “Red scare” in Memphis and the South, see: Honey, Black Workers, pp. 114–22 and ch. 5; and Honey, Southern Labor, pp. 252–75.
frame-up of Willie McGee: see Horne, Communist Front, on anti-Communism’s effect on the civil rights movement, passim; Honey, Southern Labor, pp. 266–67; and “The Case of Willie McGee, A Fact Sheet Prepared by the Civil Rights Congress,” UPWA Program Dept., Subject and Correspondence Files, Box 345, Folder 3, UPWA Papers.
“If a white person took too much”: Honey, Black Workers, pp. 202–8. The newspapers even equated the civil rights stand of the Democratic Party to the “fundamental principles of the Communistic Party.” CA, February 6, 1964.
attacking, among others, Grace Lorch: Fariello, Red Scare, pp. 490, 495–96.
great reversal of the 1950s: Union membership nearly tripled in Tennessee between 1939 and 1953 but began dropping after Operation Dixie folded in 1953. Green, “Labor in the South,” pp. 90, 46.
Integrationists tried to use the contradiction: Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights.
caused the NAACP increasingly to narrow its framework: Anderson, Eyes Off the Prize.
Thurgood Marshall collaborated with the FBI: Biondi, To Stand and Fight, p. 170. Anderson and Biondi refute the idea that the cold war created a favorable civil rights framework.
“Memphis is a hard spot”: Van J. Malone to Lucille Black, June 11, 1954, NAACP branch files.
“I could really cry”: Green, “Plantation Mentality,” pp. 307–8.
“pronounced apathy and lethargy”: Ibid., pp. 307–8.
being a Communist front: Ibid., pp. 177–78, 295.
The light that CIO unions had once cast: Lichtenstein, State of the Union.
“a surprising number of the performers”: Daniel, Lost Revolutions, p. 147.
2. DR. KING, LABOR, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
“The two most dynamic”: King, “If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins,” in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 206–7.
“expert organizer” but “no radical”: Time, February 18, 1957, pp. 17–20.
King never confined his politics: Carson et al., MLK, Vol. I; Carson, ed., Autobiography.
“Daddy” King, Martin’s father: King, Sr., Daddy King; Ling, Martin, pp. 17–24.
“the inseparable twin”: Carson, ed., Autobiography, quote p. 10, and MLK, Vol. I.
King became familiar with Social Gospel indictments: Carson, “Martin Luther King, Jr.”
When he met Coretta Scott: Scott King, My Life, pp. 38–39, 24–34.
Their lives changed on December 1: King, Stride Toward Freedom.
“There comes a time when”: Carson et al., MLK, Vol. III, pp. 70–79.
Nixon embodied: White, “‘Nixon Was the One.’”
Bayard Rustin and Glenn Smiley: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, pp. 226–48.
In 1957, King: Ling, Martin, pp. 52, 57–59; Carson, ed., Autobiography, chs. 11, 13; reports of Russell Lasley, “Southern Negro Leader’s Conference,” 1957, in Box 379, UPWA Papers, WHS.
“I never intend to adjust myself”: King, “The Look to the Future,” at Highlander.
“The forces that are anti-Negro”: King, “Address by Reverend Martin Luther King,” October 2, 1957, UPWA Papers.
“complete political, economic and social”: Carson et al., MLK, Vol. V, p. 117. See also Taylor, “Early Ties.”
picture of King sitting next to: Carson et al., MLK, Vol. V, p. 291. The John Birch Society postcard is in the author’s possession.
Crusade used the allegation: Christian Crusade, “Unmasking Martin Luther King, Jr., The Deceiver.” Enclosed in Sylvia Crane to King, February 13, 1963, Box 7, Folder 34, MLK Papers.
King’s association with the school: Carson et al., MLK, Vol. V, pp. 290–93.
He petitioned to free integrationists Carl Braden: Braden, HUAC; and “A Petition for Clemency to the President of the United States,” in the author’s files.
Drawing on HUAC reports: FBI/MLK, April 13, 1962, April 25, 1962, and numerous other entries tie King to Communists through innuendo and guilt by association.
people such as Benjamin Davis: Carson et al., MLK, Vol. V, pp. 443–44.
King floundered in his efforts: Ling, Martin, ch. 2, and Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul, ch. 2.
formed dozens of civic clubs: Green, “Plantation Mentality,” pp. 291–99.
Black activists in Nashville: Noting the drive underway in Memphis, Tennessee’s black leaders met in Nashville to plan a unified campaign of black voter registration. TSD, February 7, 1959.
Three of the five candidates: The ministers running were Reverend Ben Hooks, Reverend Roy Love, and Reverend Henry C. Bunton. TSD, August 1, 1959.
“The rally turned out to be”: Black doctor B. B. Martin refused to let them use Martin Stadium, giving rise to the comments about Uncle Toms. TSD, August 6, 1959. See also Green, “Plantation Mentality,” p. 319.
at-large districts and runoff elections: TSD, April 25, 1959, and TSD, August 1, 1959.
collaborate with racially moderate: Sivananda, “Public Works,” p. 66.
“white unity” ticket: PS, January 22, 1958; PS, May 22, 1958; PS June 8, 1959.
“Though the white man is divided”: TSD, August 29, 1959.
Loeb was a personable man: Sivananda, “Memphis Mayor.”
“Nobody owns a piece of me”: PS, May 27, 1952.
“two-party system”: PS, July 14, 1953.
Loeb led “Americanism months”: PS, August 14, 1951; PS, May 27, 1952; PS, June 21, 1952; PS, July 1, 1953; PS, July 14, 1953.
Loeb built up a following: Sivananda, “Public Works,” pp. 67–75.
his relationship with blacks: Ibid., pp. 68–71.
Loeb went to speak to the men: Lapsley, “Portrait.”
“I am opposed to integration”: Sivananda, “Memphis Mayor,” p. 76.
“placed the Negro in places”: CA, August 24, 1961.
Loeb’s popularity evaporated: Sivananda, “Memphis Mayor,” p. 77.
shocking and random police brutality: For examples, see TSD, January 3, 1959; TSD, September 26, 1959; TSD, December 5, 1959; TSD, December 26, 1959; TSD, April 15, 1961; TSD, April 22, 1961; and TSD, February 16, 1963.
“no justice for Negroes”: TSD, January 3, 1959.
“I was the committeeman”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 167.
“Here in Memphis”: Ibid., p. 137.
Herbert Hill proved it: Foner, Organized Labor, pp. 325–31.
UAW preached equality but practiced white supremacy: Boyle, The UAW, p. 164.
“We didn’t have CORE”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 269.
were “prudent realists”: Tucker, Memphis Since Crump, p. 118.
one of the most active NAACP chapters: TSD, December 19, 1959.
“I want to see Mister Joseph”: Ibid.
Sugarmon went on to earn: Beifuss, At the River, p. 160.
a group of black women: Green, “Plantation Mentality,” passim.
the largest in the South: For details on NAACP, see Turner int., SSC.
George Isabell’s daughter was among the first to go to jail: Isabell int. (M.H.).
“sat in” at several white churches: Green, “Plantation Mentality,” pp. 348–50.
“This is a quest for equal opportunity”: PS, April 30, 1963.
the “package deal”: Rustin, “From Protest to Politics,” in Time on Two Crosses, pp. 116–29, quote on p. 117.
black family income averaged one-third: Tucker, Memphis Since Crump, p. 93.
pressuring 100 retail firms to change: TSD, May 25, 1963.
He and Jesse Turner led some 600: TSD, September 7, 1963.
barely escaping Somerville: A mob surrounded Hooks, Willis, Sugarmon, and Lawson on the town square and ten carloads of whites chased them out of town. TSD, July 27, 1963.
held workshops on Title VII: TSD, April 17, 1965; TSD, April 24, 1965.
“has begun to shine as a beacon”: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” p. 2.
He ultimately divested himself: Beifuss, At the River, p. 70.
“young, handsome man”: TSD, October 12, 1963.
The newspaper blamed Loeb: TSD, November 30, 1963.
George Grider, a supporter of unions: TSD, March 20, 1965.
elect William Ingram as mayor: TSD, November 30, 1963. For background, see Pohlman and Kirby, Racial Politics.
The John Birch Society: according to Bill Ross of the Memphis Labor Council, the society had 32 separate clubs in Memphis, including some local newspaper writers.
Robert Welch: Arsenault, Freedom Riders, p. 346.
According to the Memphis Union News: The NAM formed the Business–Industry Political Action Committee and donated $100,000 to abolish social welfare programs. Union News, October 1963, p. 2. Anti-union groups with business support included Young Americans for Freedom and Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas.
“Negroes are almost entirely”: King, “If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins,” in Washington, ed., Testament.
The AFL-CIO could expel unions: A. Philip Randolph bitterly criticized first the AFL and then the AFL-CIO for failure to discipline discriminatory unions, and the NAACP’s Herbert Hill documented rampant union discrimination. Foner, Organized Labor, chs. 21–23. Bruce Nelson devastatingly documents the degree of union racism in Divided We Stand.
“is a key to unlocking the social and political machinery”: MLK to UE convention, 1962, Long Beach, courtesy of Kerry Taylor, MLK Papers Project, Stanford University.
“we will find the civil rights movement”: King to Reuther, July 19, 1965, Box 253, Folder 2, Reuther Papers.
King said the “promissory note”: King, “I Have a Dream,” in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 217–20.
The UAW: The UAW provided strong financial backing and logistical support, March on Washington Files, Box 494, Folders 8–12, Reuther Papers.
King stood on picket duty: Hooper, “The Scripto Strike.”
“had the ability”: C. T. Vivian int. (M.H.). See Lichtenstein, State of the Union, on the rising moral trajectory of the civil rights movement and the falling moral trajectory of labor in the 1960s.
3. STRUGGLES OF THE WORKING POOR
“I was just some sort of slave”: For Walker and Stimbert quotes, see U.S. Civil Rights Commission (CRC) Hearings, pp. 126, 158, 162, 175.
pervasive racial discrimination: CRC Hearings, pp. 245, 304–6, 313, 325–42, 351–52.
“I wish I could answer”: Ibid., p. 235.
freezing blacks out of craft occupations: The only unions with significant black membership were the bricklayers (12 percent black), plasterers and cement masons (60 percent), and hod carriers (98 percent). Ibid., pp. 344–47.
“We have not had a single Negro”: Ibid., pp. 342–43.
Local, state, and federal agencies: An executive of the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training in the U.S. Department of Labor office admitted, “I have not made any effort to make the Negro community aware of the President’s policy concerning fair employment.” Tennessee’s Department of Employment Security executive admitted that his office had to separate locations, one for whites and one for blacks, and that blacks were not admitted to any white training programs. Yet he claimed, “There’s no distinction made whatsoever” by race, and even more lamely, “I don’t know specifically whether the unions have refused to accept any Negroes or not.” Ibid., pp. 195–96, 217–23.
mechanization of farming: Wright, Old South, pp. 243, 247, 255.
unemployment and poverty rates: Marshall, “Industrialization and Race Relations in the Southern States,” in Hunter, ed., Industrialization, p. 91.
suburban employment went to whites: Vivian Henderson, “Region, Race and Jobs,” in Hunter, ed., Industrialization, p. 80.
only 2.2 percent of black workers: Marshall and Van Adams, “The Memphis Public Employee Strike,” in Chalmers and Cormick, Racial Conflict, p. 77.
“Whenever you have a bloc”: Ross and Hill, Employment, pp. 6–7.
“giant housekeeping job”: City of Memphis, “Nucleus of the Mid-South, Municipal Report for 1955,” p. 42, SSC.
“collection and disposal of garbage”: Green, “Labor in the South,” pp. 110–11.
more than a third: Ibid., p. 40.
40 percent of their families: Honey, “Martin Luther King, Jr.,” in Zieger, ed., Southern Labor in Transition, p. 154.
“There is no worst job”: CA, February 28, 1993, p. 1.
“I was born in Earle”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 302.
Brutal struggles over labor rights: Hamburger, Our Portion of Hell.
day laborers could be fired: PS, April 16, 1968, p. 4.
“It was the same thing”: CA, February 28, 1993, p. 1.
bosses even carried sidearms: Lucy int., SSC.
94 cents to $1.14 an hour: TSD, February 6, 1960, p. 1.
By 1968, this went up: Sisson int., SSC; CA, April 5, 1997, and February 20, 1993.
“We were victims of the system”: CA, February 28, 1993, p. 1.
difficulty making his ideas understood: Jones sometimes obscured his own statements and contradicted himself in interviews, giving the impression that he was either being coy or simply could not express himself clearly. Jones int., SSC.
Evers said some sanitation workers: TSD, May 7, 1960, p. 1.
“There will be no union”: TSD, March 19, 1960, p. 1.
“over 70 workers’ wives stomping”: TSD, April 9, 1960, p. 1.
“I have 1,500 men waiting”: TSD, May 7, 1960, p. 1.
Teamsters leaders put off a strike: TSD, July 6, 1963.
“I think the Union has sold”: TSD, June 25, 1960.
to create their own structures: Green, The World, pp. 103–4; Rachleff, Hard-Pressed.
a meeting in the Retail Clerks’ hall: TSD, July 13, 1963.
Loeb and the city commissioners reacted: Memphis Union News, July 1963.
Farris fired them all: The fired workers included Jesse Stone, 27; Henry Donnerson, 32; Robert Beasley, 38; Jimmy Newson, 40; Tommy Mason, 33; John Lacy, 30; Huria Cotton, 38; John Henry, 34; Sargent Carpenter, 25; Tom Reed, 49; James Beach, 24; Clarence Milan; Jesse Jackson, 48; Isom Brownlee, 40; Houston Cooperwood; John Edwardes, 22; Frank Parker, 66; Rochester Milam, 42; John Lee Moore, 46; John Isom, 28; Alonzo McDowell, 62; Forest Stone, 38; John Wesley Jones; and Hardy Savage. TSD, July 6, 1963. The Tri-State Defender later carried a photo of some of the fired men. TSD, July 13, 1963.
He had a quick temper: Wurf’s explosive character is evident in his interviews. See also Goulden, Jerry Wurf.
And Wurf immediately supported Martin Luther King: Wurf int., Bunche Papers.
Before 1964, AFSCME: Billings and Greenya, Public Worker. On the change in public-employee unionism, see Halpern, Unions, Radicals, ch. 5; Wurf int., Bunche Papers.
no women and only one African American: Spero and Cappozzola, The Urban Community, p. 18.
about 70 percent white: Green, “Labor in the South,” p. 115.
“Catholic moral theologians”: Memphis Union News, November 1964, p. 1.
their first slate of officers: Ibid.
Jones supported their election: Green, “Labor in the South,” pp. 111–12, 116–25.
Ingram did nothing for the men: AFL–CIO Memphis Labor Council records, December 8, 1965, minutes, Folder 5, Ms. 346, SSC. For more on the early struggles of Local 1733, see Jones, Ross, Kyles, Lawson, and Starks ints., SSC.
voted four-to-one against: Memphis Union News, July 1965 and December 1965.
Sisson responded to the union campaign: Beifuss, At the River, p. 26.
those who did deeply regretted it: James Robinson, for example, dropped the city’s earlier insurance policy and was later left destitute as a result of medical bills he had to pay after a bad car accident. Honey, Black Workers, p. 309.
talk about taking direct action: Green, “Labor in the South,” pp. 118–25.
black middle class did not want: Maxine Smith and Sugarmon ints., SSC.
at least produced more improvements: Jones int., SSC, and Beifuss, At the River, p. 27.
4. STANDING AT THE CROSSROADS
“Something is wrong with capitalism”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 581.
Lawson first learned about: Halberstam, The Children, pp. 15–17, 37–43.
“And what good did that do”: Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1993, B3.
he met Dorothy Wood: Halberstam, The Children, pp. 123–24.
“This Movement is not only against”: Ling, Martin, p. 68.
Lawson’s teachings: Ibid., pp. 71, 76, 80.
threatened to resign in protest: J. Robert Nelson, “The Lawson-Vanderbilt Affair, Letters to Dean Nelson,” Nashville, 1969, SSC.
Lawson joined NAACP picketing: Tucker, Memphis Since Crump, p. 137.
chair of the NAACP’s education committee: TSD, February 20, 1965.
At least twenty-six: New York Times, October 18, 1965.
Four days later: documentation in the Kenneth Hahn Papers, the Huntington Library; Horne, The Fire This Time; and Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, chs. 21 and 22.
Watts required “a shift in the focus of struggle”: untitled address to District 65, UAW, September 17, 1965, MLK Papers.
Chicago impressed upon King: Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 213.
murdered William Moore: Stanton, Freedom Walk.
Aubrey James Norvell: CA, June 8, 1966, p. 24.
“Just a few miles south of here”: Ibid.
“There is nothing more powerful”: TSD, June 11, 1966, p. 4.
Later that night at the Lorraine: Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, pp. 484–515.
a carload of Deacons: Hill, Deacons for Defense, pp. 246–51.
mass media focused on debates: CA, June 9, 1966; PS, June 27, 1966.
Lawson, Reverend Ralph Jackson, the white: PS, June 22, 1966.
turning point for twenty-year-old Coby: Smith, “March On.”
“as if he were out of a straitjacket”: Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, pp. 511–12.
Klansmen in Natchez murdered: Payne, I’ve Got the Light, p. 397.
Meredith himself said he would shoot: CA, June 9, 1966, p. 1; PS, June 7, 1966, p. 8; PS, June 27, 1966, p. 13.
“Whites can only subvert”: New York Times, August 5, 1966. Reprinted in Van Deburg, ed., Black Nationalism, pp. 119–26. See also Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, pp. 566–71.
King soberly refuted the idea: King, “Black Power Defined,” New York Times, June 11, 1967. Reprinted in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 303–12.
King returned to Memphis: PS, September 9, 1966, p. 1.
“We must persist in the struggle”: PS, September 10, 1966, p. 4.
“pulling the blankets back”: TSD, September 3, 1966.
“his professed devotion”: CA, September 2, 1966, p. 6.
Letters to the editor denounced: CA, June 12, 1966, Sec. 6, p. 5; PS, June 9, 1966, p. 3.
He knew King had defended: King maintained a cordial relationship with Benjamin Davis and wrote to the U.S. Board of Parole, urging it to release Communist Party leader Henry Winston from cruel conditions of imprisonment. Carson et al., MLK, Vol. V, pp. 442–43.
“powerful demagogic speech”: Department of Justice, Security and Assassination Investigations, p. 165.
pinned his accusation that King: Garrow, “The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Atlantic Monthly.
COINTELPRO also targeted King: Churchill and Vander Wall, COINTELPRO Papers, pp. 95–99.
ordered FBI agents not to warn King: Kotz, Judgment Days, p. 76.
“willing to bear the burden”: King, “Revolution and Redemption,” August 16, 1964, District 65 UAW Papers, Box 24, SCLC Correspondence, Tamiment Library. Thanks to Lisa Philips for this document.
Perhaps this also blinded: King was heckled and jeered at the National Conference for New Politics in Chicago on August 31, 1967. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, pp. 637–40. Agents provocateurs may have also been involved, however.
“COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PROGRAM”: Churchill and Vander Wall, COINTELPRO Papers, pp. 92–93.
in a “second phase”: King, “Civil Rights at the Crossroads,” address to the shop stewards of Local 815, New York, May 2, 1967, MLK Papers.
speech at Riverside Church: King, “A Time to Break Silence,” April 4, 1967, in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 231–43.
“a true revolution of values”: New York Times, March 4, 1968.
“We seek to defeat Lyndon Johnson”: United Press International, April 24, 1967, in PS File 5700, SSC.
Johnson, for his part, raged: Kotz, Judgment Days, pp. 375–77.
“an exaggerated appraisal”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 576.
Lawson and King had worked in tandem: TSD, March 13, 1965, and July 24, 1965.
“One voice was missing”: King, “The Domestic Impact of the War in America,” November 11, 1967, National Labor Assembly for Peace. The group Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam reprinted another version of the speech. See King, “The Domestic Impact of the War in Vietnam,” November 11, 1967, Labor Leadership Assembly for Peace, Wisconsin Historical Society, MSS. 470, Madison, Wisconsin.
“inadequate protest phase”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 581.
“a method that will disrupt”: Ibid., p. 580.
“is forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws”: King, “A Testament of Hope,” in Washington, ed., Testament, p. 315.
“This is something like a last plea”: Associated Press, August 17, 1967, PS File 5700, MVC.
5. ON STRIKE FOR RESPECT
In the fall of 1967: Sugarmon int., SSC; Beifuss, At the River, p. 21.
only about forty dues-payers: Sabella int., SSC.
he called them “fist collections”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 27.
tightened the city’s labor policies: Green, “Labor in the South,” pp. 133–36; Beifuss, At the River, p. 21.
They reported the incident: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 29–30.
Ciampa: Goulden, Jerry Wurf, pp. 111–14; Ciampa int., SSC.
Two other men had died: Green, “Labor in the South,” p. 141; Jones int., SSC.
Loeb convened his “kitchen cabinet”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 31.
“We don’t have anything no how”: Ibid., p. 32.
Jones laid out the basic issues: Ibid.
“You keep your back bent”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 298.
930 of 1,100 sanitation workers: Beifuss, At the River, p. 20.
Jones “seems to be the leader”: SSC Video 1, February 12, 1968.
strikers might last two or three days: Ibid.
“just got to the point”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 296.
“I represent these men”: CA, February 13, 1968, p. 1.
“lack of communication”: SSC Video 1, February 12, 1968.
“Much planning and study”: Arkin Report, p. 2.
held their first meeting with Loeb: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 37–39.
“both morally and financially”: CA, February 15, 1968, p. 1.
“I can’t see anything that necessitates”: CA, February 14, 1968, p. 1.
the civil rights movement: Wright, Race, Power.
Loeb tried to command them: CA, February 14, 1968, p. 1.
“just as you used to ask me”: SSC Video, Reel 2, February 14, 1968.
“This is not New York”: New York Times, February 14, 1968, p. 31.
called out a list of demands: The demands discussed on February 11 included a wage increase from $1.80 to $2.35 an hour for laborers and up to $3 an hour for truck drivers. Ciampa’s list called for an increase to $2.10 an hour for laborers and $3 an hour for truck drivers, who apparently made a standard wage of $2.40 an hour. Green, “Labor in the South,” pp. 145, 155–56.
“As a free American citizen”: SSC Video 1, February 12, 1968.
“I suggested to these men”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 40.
“I don’t care what [Governor Nelson] Rockefeller”: Ibid., p. 41.
could find no common ground: PS, February 14, 1968, p. 1.
“suffered uncalled-for insults”: CA, February 15, 1968, p. 6.
“Looking back, few people remembered”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 38.
“He knew that his support”: Ibid., p. 45.
Loeb confidently played to a strain: Marshall and Van Adams, “The Memphis Public Employee Strike,” p. 83.
“As to the legal situation”: CA, February 15, 1968, p. 6.
Tennessee Supreme Court decision: In the Alcoa case, the Court reasoned that because the National Labor Relations Act “expressly excludes from its coverage employees of a state or any political subdivision of a state…neither unions nor employees have a legal right to enforce their demands against such a public body through an organized strike.” City of Alcoa v. Electrical Workers Local 760, Tennessee Supreme Court, December 6, 1957, Box 5, Folder 13, SSC.
“When the governor of the state allows”: CA, February 16, 1968, p. 1.
twenty states allowed limited union rights: Wurf int., SSC.
“says a man has to work”: SSC Video 1, February 13, 1968.
“Loeb will talk, but will he”: Ibid.
met without Loeb or Ciampa: According to the Commercial Appeal, these discussions reached a compromise agreement on recognition of the union and a grievance procedure. CA, February 15, 1968, p. 1.
“broke into angry profanity”: Ibid.
“If work is not resumed”: Ibid.
fire and police director, canceled days off: ATR Film Chronology Notes, SSC.
endorsed the strike and a boycott: Memphis AFL–CIO Labor Council, Council and Executive Board Minutes, February 14 and February 28, 1968, Box 1, SSC.
The council represented 50,000: CA, February 15, 1968, p. 1.
the most significant interracial group: Powell int. (M.H.).
“We told them there are no hard”: CA, February 16, 1968, p. 19.
perhaps 300 workers had considered: Ibid., p. 1.
Yet fewer than a hundred: The Commercial Appeal said thirty regular sanitation workers had refused to go on strike, supplemented by thirty supervisors and twenty new workers. CA, February 16, 1968, p. 1. FBI special agent Jensen thought perhaps 170 workers had gone back. FBI/MSS, February 16, 1968, Doc. 2, p. 1.
6. HAMBONE’S MEDITATIONS: THE FAILURE OF COMMUNITY
“We who engage in nonviolent”: King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in Washington, ed., Testament, p. 295.
Hambone’s Meditations: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” pp. 131–39.
Commercial Appeal had the largest circulation: Ibid., pp. 141–42.
“the principle of quietness”: Ibid., p. 136.
“moving toward two societies”: Commission on Civil Disorders, pp. 7–8.
“totally unknown to most”: Ibid., p. 2.
5 percent of newswriters: Ibid., pp. 384–85.
“The average black person couldn’t”: Ibid., p. 374.
Loeb spoke “for all of us”: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” p. 149.
“a shallow attempt at blackmail”: Ibid., p. 145.
the “heavy set” T. O. Jones: CA, February 13, 1968.
began an editorial barrage: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” pp. 157–59.
“to act as collector of dues”: CA, February 15, 1968, p. 6.
“Loeb Takes Right Course”: Ibid.
“Make no mistake about it”: Ibid.
“union command post”: CA, February 23, 1968, p. 1.
Newspaper headlines: Ibid.
television coverage showed whites applauding: SSC Video 1, Reel 3, February 14, 1968.
“would like for us to reach”: CA, February 19, 1968.
“I don’t believe he can be bought”: CA, February 21, 1968, p. 6.
commercial news media continually played upon: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” pp. 161–63, 169–70.
“beat the living hell”: Arkin Report, p. 4.
“If a man seeks your job”: Ibid., pp. 4–5.
Crunk grabbed his .22-caliber rifle: CA, February 16, 1968, p. 1. Washington Butler, the director of the War on Poverty Committee of Memphis/Shelby County, reassured Jones that none of the Youth Corps or other antipoverty workers were involved in strikebreaking. Washington Butler to T. O. Jones, February 22, 1968, AFSCME Washington Correspondence, Box 2, Folder 98, 1968 Strike, SSC.
pictured Crunk grim-faced: CA, February 23, 1968, p. 23.
“Leave your garbage where it is”: COME Appeal, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 4, in FBI/MSS, Sec. 1.
he had united white Memphis: Charles Owen to P. J. Ciampa, February 16, 1968, AFSCME Washington Correspondence, Box 42, Folder 98, File 98-8, SSC.
“It will be a great day”: Jack Boker to P. J. Ciampa, February 22, 1968, AFSCME Washington Correspondence, Box 42, Folder 98, File 98-19, SSC.
“Written contracts and due[s] check”: J. S. Clark, “Dear Sir,” February 20, 1968, Box 42, Folder 98, File 98-15, SSC.
letters opposed to his handling: Loeb received letters from both blacks and whites in Memphis and from across the nation urging him to change course. He told one unionist, “Whereas I appreciate your advice, I would like to send you some. At your first opportunity, since you live in California, why don’t you go up to Berkeley, instead of writing Tennessee, and get something done to improve the Berkeley foolishness?” Henry Loeb to Melvin Trickey, President, Local 685 AFSCME, Los Angeles, March 18, 1968, AFSCME Washington Correspondence, Box 42, Folder 98, SSC.
“Nothing can be gained”: Katherine Treanor to Henry Loeb, March 9, 1968, Box 84, Loeb Papers.
“the Communist Labor Crew”: James W. Hendrick to Henry Loeb, March 28, 1968, Box 84, Loeb Papers.
Black packinghouse workers: Halpern and Horowitz, Meatpackers.
“These are all trade union”: Memphis Union News, February 1968, p. 1.
Powell spoke before the City Council: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 145–55.
“I’m sorry the council has seen fit”: CA, February 17, 1968, p. 19.
“but who’s going to pay”: SSC Video 1, Reel 1, February 15, 1968.
“are not qualified to do”: Ibid.
“the basic dignity of the city”: CA, February 17, 1968, p. 19.
Elections based on districts: Tucker, Memphis Since Crump, p. 151.
“ultimate destruction of the country”: quoted in Goulden, Jerry Wurf, p. 149.
Between 900 and 1,000 workers: CA, February 16, 1968. p. 1; Arkin Report, pp. 6–7.
not a single African American led: Maxine Smith to Mayor and Board of Commissioners, August 8, 1967, and survey in NAACP, Part IV, Geographic File, Memphis, NAACP Papers, LC.
no NAACP statement could be read: Beifuss, At the River, p. 49.
“This Illegal Strike”: PS, February 17, 1968, p. 4.
agents began conducting surveillance: Department of Justice, Security and Assassination Investigations, p. 24.
“injected itself into the strike”: Arkin Report, p. 2.
the state legislature in Nashville: CA, February 17, 1968, p. 1; Stanfield, “More Than a Garbage Strike.”
Miles spoke with AFSCME leaders: Beifuss, At the River, p. 63.
“You take the scabs off the streets”: CA, February 19, 1968.
pay premiums for workers: J. Gordon Bingham, Jr., to John Massey, Blue Cross–Blue Shield, June 12, 1968; Bingham to Jerrold More, May 22, 1968; and Henry Loeb to John Massey, Memphis Hospital Service, April 18, 1968, in Series III, Box 84, Sanitation Strike: Food Stamps, Loeb Papers.
more than $7,000 for food stamps: The Memphis and Shelby County Welfare Commission Summary Report for February 1968 shows an expenditure of $7,043.50 for food stamps for striking workers. According to Loeb’s correspondence, these ended in March, but why or how he had authority to end those payments is not clear. See Series III, Box 84, Sanitation Strike: Food Stamps, Loeb Papers.
“wants to play rough”: CA, February 17, 1968, p. 1.
Commercial Appeal reporter Charles Thornton: For Thornton quotes, see CA, February 18, 1968, pp. 1, 10.
to speak to every church congregation: Ibid., p. 19.
Council members held a secret meeting: Beifuss, At the River, p. 64.
“The city is going to beat this”: Ibid.
7. TESTING THE SOCIAL GOSPEL
“I felt that white ministers”: Bass, Blessed Are the Peacemakers, p. 251.
King wrote his “Letter”: For King quotes, see Bass, Blessed, pp. 247, 252–53.
Memphis had more churches: Beifuss, At the River, p. 60.
“fine to give invocations”: Ibid., p. 61.
helped to run abolitionists out: Lewis, “Southern Religion,” p. 36. David Chappell, however, argues that white religious leaders were not in the forefront of the segregationist movement and many white religious conservatives left open the possibility that God did not sanction racial inequality. See Chappell, Stone of Hope.
Reverend Roy Love of Mt. Nebo: Honey, Southern Labor, p. 203.
“Christ, not Crump”: Ibid., p. 205.
committee of seven black ministers: Other members included J. W. Williams, W. E. Ragsdale, Brady Johnson, A. C. Jackson, and Horace Robinson. Jordan int., SSC.
mistakenly invited a black minister: Starks int., SSC.
nearly a hundred black ministers: Two or three whites also belonged to the Alliance, including Southwestern University professor Carl Walters, and they provided a small inroad into the white middle class. Starks int., SSC.
Association had begun study groups: Dimmick int., SSC.
statement condemning racial prejudice: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 59–60.
selected group of blacks and whites: According to Dimmick, among those present were Reverend Roy Williams, pastor at Lane; Dr. Aldridge of Idlewild Presbyterian; Rabbi James Wax; Frank McRae; Reverend Brooks Ramsey, the only Baptist there; Dr. Paul Tudor Jones; Catholic priests Joseph Leppert and Father Mark Gary; and Dan Cummings of Central Christian Church. Dimmick int., SSC. Reverend Jordan said that J. W. Williams, Brady Johnson, W. A. Ragsdale, A. C. Jackson, H. Horace Robinson, and W. N. Brown were also there. Jordan int., SSC.
“Almost all native-born Southerners”: Webb, Fight Against Fear, p. xvi.
quietly taken Jim Crow signs out: Beifuss, At the River, p. 53.
no Baptist and fundamentalist sects: Lewis, “Southern Religion,” p. 78.
“vast lower middle class”: Lincoln int., SSC.
blacks scorned the MCCR: Lewis, “Southern Religion,” p. 76.
led a committee to see Ciampa: For Wax and Ciampa quotes, see Beifuss, At the River, pp. 62–63.
nearly two dozen men met: SSC Film and Videotape Record, p. 16.
“Father, please!”: For Loeb and Ciampa quotes, see Beifuss, At the River, pp. 65–66.
“Tell those men in no uncertain”: SSC Video 1, Reel 6, February 18, 1968.
“The right of these men”: Ibid.
“What is that relationship”: Ibid.
“rumpled gray hair, horn-rimmed”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 67.
disagreements had boiled down: Wax int., SSC.
Wurf met nearly 1,300: Arkin Report, p. 8; Green, “Labor in the South,” p. 168.
“Keep your money in your pockets”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 70.
“There will be no peace”: Arkin Report, p. 8.
even less able to influence Loeb: CA, February 22, 1968, p. 1. After the all-night session at St. Mary’s, negotiators moved on to the First Methodist Church and Father Mark Gary’s St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, but the Commercial Appeal on Wednesday declared the talks “fruitless.” CA, February 21, 1968, p. 1.
“We must stick together”: Arkin Report.
“Some of the men was goin’ back”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 298.
“Twelve or 14 police intelligence men”: CA, February 20, 1968, p. 1.
E. D. Redditt had attended: Redditt int. (M.H.).
tried “to out-do the other”: Ibid.
“Negro leaders feel that”: Ibid.
agents cultivated black ministers: Gerald McKnight found that NAACP executive board members maintained regular contact with the FBI. The Last Crusade, p. 151. Reverend Kyles spoke regularly to MPD’s Henry Lux. Lucy int., SSC, Lawson int. (M.H.), and Redditt int. (M.H.).
FBI agents had done very little: Garrow, The FBI and MLK, passim.
“a darkie on the plantation”: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 73–74.
8. MINISTER TO THE VALLEY: THE POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN
“I wish today, that Christians”: King, “What Are Your New Year’s Resolutions?” Ebenezer Baptist Church, January 7, 1968, Series III, Speeches, MLK Papers.
“war on sleep”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 433.
“like a political campaign”: King, Voices of Freedom, p. 456.
which he defined as a society: For a brilliant summary of King’s perspective, see King, “The Future of Integration,” Kansas State University, January 19, 1968, Series III, Speeches, MLK Papers.
“Two-thirds of the peoples”: King, “What Are Your New Year’s Resolutions?” Ebenezer Baptist Church, January 7, 1968, Series III, Speeches, MLK Papers.
“the plight of the Negro poor”: King, “Why We Must Go to Washington,” p. 10, MLK Papers.
The 1966 SCLC convention: “SCLC 10th Convention Urges Labor-Civil Rights Alliance,” The Mine-Mill Union 25:9 (September 1966).
“We must guard against”: King, May 31, 1964, statement on Taft-Hartley, reprinted by MLK Papers Project (mlkpp-liberationcommunity.stanford.edu/ launchpads/news/newsletter.jsp).
proposed to abolish poverty directly: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 593, 600. His guaranteed-income idea was backed by a wide range of humanists and scholars concerned about how to respond to structural unemployment and poverty. Perrucci and Pilisuk, The Triple Revolution.
“as attention getting and dramatic”: King, “Why We Must Go to Washington,” p. 11, MLK Papers.
“We were prepared to stay”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 443.
use sit-ins and protests to shut down: Martin Luther King Press Conference Remarks, January 16, 1968, Ebenezer Baptist Church, MLK Papers. See also Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 582–83.
“Distributive justice” would: King, “Why We Must Go to Washington,” p. 16, MLK Papers.
Privately, King said American capitalism: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 591–92.
“Something is wrong with capitalism”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 581.
“In this instance, we will”: King, “Why We Must Go to Washington,” MLK Papers.
“In a sense we’re going”: Martin Luther King Press Conference Remarks, Ebenezer Baptist Church, January 16, 1968, MLK Papers.
King said SCLC had 270 affiliates: Martin Luther King Press Conference Remarks, Ebenezer Baptist Church, January 16, 1968, MLK Papers.
anyone could understand a simple demand: “Why We Must Go to Washington,” King speech, January 15, 1968, MLK Papers.
“a radical reordering of our”: King, “Why We Must Go to Washington,” MLK Papers.
felt as if they were adrift: Fairclough, Redeem the Soul, p. 362.
Speaking to fifty or sixty staff: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 591–93.
sense of “dignity and destiny”: For King quotes, see King, “See You in Washington,” January 17, 1968, MLK Papers.
King had specialized: Payne, “The View from the Trenches,” in Payne and Lawson, Debating, p. 115.
Ella Baker: Grant, Ella Baker, passim; Ransby, Ella Baker, passim.
“It is important to keep the Movement democratic”: Baker, “Bigger Than a Hamburger,” June 1960 in Payne and Lawson, Debating.
it required a hard sell: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 590.
Marion Logan, a respected member: Ibid., pp. 600–1.
“We’ve got to find something”: King, untitled speech, Chicago, February 6, 1968, MLK Papers.
campaign as a “capital siege”: Associated Press, “King Reveals Strategy for Capital Siege,” January 31, 1968. Reproduced in FBI/MLK.
SCLC had successfully worked: Martin Luther King Press Conference Remarks, Ebenezer Baptist Church, January 16, 1968, p. 9, MLK Papers.
“I hope we don’t come to”: Martin Luther King Press Conference Remarks, Ebenezer Baptist Church, January 16, 1968, MLK Papers.
he traveled the country speaking: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, ch. 12.
used the rhetoric of backlash: “Cities in ’68,” The New Republic, December 16, 1967, pp. 5–7.
“This power hungry, evil black devil”: FBI/MLK, SAC Cleveland to Director, January 8, 1968.
“guaranteed wages for Negroes”: Ibid., December 7, 1967.
Congress should stop King: FBI/MLK, Letter to Senator Frank Lausche, November 20, 1967.
“If I am mistaken”: FBI/MLK, Attn: J. Edgar Hoover, February 16, 1968.
FBI supplied derogatory information: FBI/MLK, January 7, 1968.
Ashbrook of HUAC: Ashbrook inserted a New York Times article of December 5, 1967, and criticized King in the Congressional Record, reproduced in FBI/MLK.
tapping the phones of his advisers: The FBI regarded King advisers Stanley Levison, Bayard Rustin, Clarence Jones, Harry Wachtel, Jack O’Dell, Harry Belafonte, Moe Foner, Leon Davis, and Cleveland Robinson as subversives. Garrow, The FBI and MLK, pp. 183–86. FBI memos on “Communist Infiltration of the SCLC” noted that King “does not make a speech, write a book, or make policy decisions without first consulting with Levison,” FBI/MLK, December 20, 1967.
Campaign might set off: On February 18, 1968, The Miami Herald reported that a number of black leaders wanted King to direct demonstrators away from Washington and into local congressional districts to avoid riots. FBI/MLK, February 21, 1968.
“a conscious, alert and informed”: King, Where Do We Go, p. 184.
met with NWRO chairperson: Kotz and Kotz, Passion for Equality, p. 76.
“You know, Dr. King”: ABC News. Partial transcript, MLK Film Project, Subject MLK Welfare, Conference Chicago, January 5, 1968, MLK Papers.
“You’re right, Mrs. Tillmon”: Kotz and Kotz, Passion for Equality, p. 76.
never been criticized so sharply: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 595.
“In SCLC we were working”: Kotz and Kotz, Passion for Equality, p. 79.
women actually became the backbone: Jackson, “Recasting the Dream,” pp. 507–8.
Smith of the NWRO organized: on March 30, 1968, King said, “We’ve had the privilege of working very closely over the last few weeks with the Welfare Rights Organization,” speeches in Mississippi, MLK Papers.
wiretaps by U.S. Army Intelligence: For quotes from the conversation among King, Carmichael, and Brown, see CA, March 21, 1993.
meet with Stokely Carmichael: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 595–96.
his friends as “black fascists”: Ibid.
“King, Stokely Join in Capital”: Chicago Defender, February 6, 1968.
“double cross” from Stokely: FBI/MLK, “Washington Spring Project,” February 6, 1968.
Lack of unity between: Fager, Uncertain Resurrection.
King met with 600 members: February 16, 1968, FBI/MLK.
gave a speech that encapsulated: King, “Mississippi Leaders on the Washington Campaign,” St. Thomas AME Church, Birmingham, February 15, 1968, MLK Papers.
“You know the Jericho Road”: King, “Who Is My Neighbor?” Ebenezer Baptist Church, February 18, 1968, MLK Papers.
would not let King or the delegates go: Kyles int., SSC.
he addressed the ministers: King, “To Minister to the Valley,” February 23, 1968, Miami, MLK Papers.
“Our staff has not gotten”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 597.
“There’s no masses in this”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 444.
“a profoundly weary and wounded”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 599.
“The bitterness is often greater”: Ibid.
9. BAPTISM BY FIRE
“What has she got to do with it?”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 77.
“Now we would really like to hear”: Ibid.
“We insist on hearing”: Ibid., p. 76.
“There has been an attempt”: Ibid., p. 77.
Davis tried to keep order: Ibid., pp. 77–78.
chambers seemed like a nightmare: Ibid., p. 78.
“A whole part of what the black”: Ibid., p. 82.
Seeing trouble ahead, Councilman: Ibid., p. 78.
“A combination union meeting”: Ibid., p. 79.
142 police officers and thirty: Arkin Report, p. 10.
“a hundred loaves of bread”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 79.
“Henry, I don’t think you were elected”: Ibid., p. 80.
“The situation became rather tense”: FBI/MSS, February 23, 1968, Doc. 15, p. 2.
the most “inflammatory” statement: CA, February 23, 1968, p. 1.
“I’m not going to get up there”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 81.
“Those people had been talking”: Ibid.
“rhetorical conjurer of dark doom”: Ibid., p. 284.
“The worst thing that happened”: Ibid., p. 74.
Behind closed doors, Davis and Netters: Arkin Report, p. 10.
“When you go home, don’t sleep”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 82.
members held a closed session: Ibid., pp. 83–84.
Meanwhile, some 600 workers met: Arkin Report, p. 11.
“tended to antagonize”: FBI/MSS, February 24, 1968, Doc. 18, p. 1.
“This is what they think of you”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 85; Arkin Report, p. 13.
“Heretofore, there had been”: FBI/MSS, February 24, 1968, Doc. 18, p. 2.
“We’re going to march”: Ibid.
“You’d better come down”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 87.
rushed to the office of Mayor Loeb: Ibid.
they could march four abreast: Arkin Report, p. 14.
“the march could scarcely”: FBI/MSS, February 14, 1968, Doc. 18, p. 3.
Jones refused to cooperate: Arkin Report, p. 14.
Once the march got underway: Beifuss, At the River, p. 88.
“He was a friendly looking fellow”: Ibid.
police cars suddenly appeared: SSC Video 1, Reel 8, February 23, 1968.
“Get that car back”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 89.
Police claimed that a striker: Arkin Report, pp. 15–16.
“a new debilitating type chemical”: FBI/MSS, February 24, 1968, Doc. 18, p. 3.
“T. O. Jones escaped”: FBI/MSS, February 23, 1968, Doc. 14, p. 2.
Police had sprayed him: Stanfield, “More Than a Garbage Strike.”
When Lawson turned: Beifuss, At the River, p. 89.
“he just wheeled and started”: Ibid., p. 90.
“you had a bunch of councilmen”: Marshall and Van Adams, “The Memphis Public Employee Strike,” pp. 178–79.
“I feel like we have been assaulted”: SSC Video, Reel 11.
“I’ve been pleading”: Ibid.
“Yesterday, this group was behaved”: Ibid.
FBI reports made it appear: FBI/MSS, February 24, 1968, Doc. 18, p. 2.
10. MINISTERS AND MANHOOD
“treats the workers as though”: SSC Video, February 24, 1968, p. 17; Estes, “I Am A Man!” p. 162.
“From earliest childhood the average Negro”: TSD, June 8, 1963.
“He’s treating you like children”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 46.
Lucy first used the phrase: Lucy told Laurie Green that he and a few other organizers came up with the slogan in March and, after that, its use quickly spread. Green, “Race, Gender, and Labor,” p. 483.
Waters sing about manhood: Estes, “I Am A Man!” pp. 158–59; Gordon, Can’t Be Satisfied, pp. 3–19, 142–43, 172.
exercising one’s “manhood” meant: Estes, “I Am A Man!” Tyson, Radio Free Dixie.
using the first-person pronoun: Benjamin Peters, “I Am A Man: Authoring History in Memphis,” spring 2004, unpublished paper in author’s possession.
“like you was their child”: Green, “Race, Gender, and Labor,” p. 474.
Yarbrough later used: Ibid., p. 483.
Jackson concluded that the black: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 116–17.
“to minister to the valley”: Ibid., pp. 99–100.
“If these black workers”: Ibid., p. 105.
barrios in East Los Angeles: See Haney Lopez, Racism on Trial.
placed the blame on marchers: FBI/MSS, February 24, 1968, Doc. 18, p. 4.
“heavy set Negro”: CA, February 24, 1968, p. 2.
he had “escaped”: FBI/MSS, February 23, 1968, Doc. 14, p. 2.
the eighth marcher arrested: Jones, O. B. Hicks, O. D. Wilson, James A. Jordan, George E. Jeffries, and John Washington each paid bail of $1,250, while Eugene Brown and John Kearney, Jr., paid bonds of $2,500. Statement of M & M Bail Bond Company, February 26, 1968, SSC.
charged him with assault: FBI/MSS, February 24, 1968, Doc. 18, p. 4.
Commercial Appeal that morning blamed: CA, February 24, 1968, p. 6.
internal report later concluded: Arkin Report, p. 17.
“No principle of law is more”: FBI/MSS, February 26, 1968, Doc. 22, p. 3.
Hoffman put his injunction: FBI/MSS, February 26, 1968, Doc. 22.
“officers, agents, and members”: Richard W. Barnes, Director of Personnel, City of Memphis, February 24, 1968, Series III, Box 84, Loeb Papers.
attorneys thought the threat: Beifuss, At the River, p. 98.
strain on the department’s: Ibid., pp. 121–23.
to use “all necessary means”: For years after the strike, civil libertarians fought to replace that overly broad law, and finally did, but only after many fleeing suspects, most of them young black men, died at the hands of police. Ibid., p. 121.
agent Louis McKay: FBI/MSS, February 26, 1968, p. 3; Arkin Report, p. 17.
“The ladies at the meeting”: CA, February 25, 1968.
“Come, let us reason together”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 106.
The meeting included both: Ibid., p. 99.
This gathering pulled together: Ibid., pp. 101–2.
“racial balance in all kinds of jobs”: Ibid., p. 103.
“No new clothes for Easter”: Ibid., p. 102.
Patterson respectfully requested the press: Press conference, SSC Video, February 26, 1968.
Matthews came up to officers: Arkin Report, p. 18.
Jesse Turner might have been: Maxine Smith int., SSC.
every African American congregation: Beifuss, At the River, p. 103.
Patterson and other ministers broadcast: Patterson, “March On.”
the Movement’s secret weapon: Jack O’Dell int. (M.H.).
“Firestone hall should have been”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 177.
“Negro Community, Labor, Ministers”: TSD, March 2, 1968.
“Negro Pastors Take Reins”: CA, March 12, 1968, p. 17.
“for one time we’re going to”: CA, February 26, 1968, p. 1.
“Lawbreakers are being led”: CA, February 25, 1968, Sec. 5, p. 3.
press conference urging employers: SSC Video, February 24–25, 1968.
11 AM on Monday: Beifuss, At the River, p. 117.
This adherence to strict police rules: FBI/MSS, SAC to Director, ‘February 26, 1968, p. 6; and Beifuss, At the River, pp. 117–18.
Another 122 people marched: CA, February 27, 1968, p. 1.
began a strenuous regime: FBI/MSS, February 26, 1968, Docs. 28–30; CA, February 27, 1968, p. 1.
let sanitation workers speak: CA, February 27, 1968, p. 1.
“Anybody who buys an insult”: Stanfield, “More Than a Garbage Strike.”
“A Negro’s Reaction”: CA, February 27, 1968, p. 6.
“When does a labor problem”: CA, February 27, 1968, p. 6. See also Lentz, “Sixty-five Days.”
“The one thing your scabbing”: CA, February 27, 1968, p. 6.
immediately put Basinger’s letter: Reverend C. O. Basinger, “Untitled,” File 9, Box 5, Folder 6, Holloman Papers.
FBI reviewed Lawson’s leading role: FBI/MSS, February 27, 1968, Doc. 20, p. 9.
blandly accepted such falsifications: See O’Reilly, “Racial Matters,” and Hoover and the Un-Americans.
LeMoyne had a conservative leadership: Halberstam, The Children.
“experience themselves as men”: Van Deburg, Modern Black Nationalism, p. 127.
Black poor people regularly fought: O’Neill, Coming Apart.
“This was our approach”: Smith, “March On.”
whites and blacks armed themselves: Frank, An American Death, pp. 1–6.
officers surrounded John Burl Smith: TSD, July 8, 1967.
“Just look at these people”: PS, August 10, 1967; TSD, September 2, 1967.
Johnson also expanded domestic spying: McKnight, Last Crusade, pp. 35–48.
escalated its COINTELPRO surveillance: McKnight, Last Crusade, pp. 46–47.
significant numbers of white votes: Lawson received 8,000 white and 18,000 black votes. Jesse H. Turner, “Analysis of City Election,” October 5, 1967, Part IV, Geographic File, NAACP Papers.
“Most of us were very religious”: Coby Smith, “March On.”
An FBI informant said Cabbage thought: FBI/MSS, March 21, 1968, Doc. 128.
“The name Invaders comes”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 133.
“When I grew up you couldn’t”: Coby Smith, “March On.”
“young, aggressive-minded”: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 131–32.
Teenagers had no patience: Coby Smith int., SSC.
“In 1968, when the sanitation workers”: Coby Smith, “March On.”
11. CONVERGENCE
“Public employees by the hundreds”: PS, February 16, 1968, p. 6.
In the black community, garbage: CA, February 27, 1968, p. 1.
Public employment had increased: PS, February 16, 1968, p. 6.
Not “love or affection”: CA, February 7, 1968, p. 4.
“from protest to politics”: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, ch. 17.
Rustin, like King, wanted: Rustin, “Civil Rights at the Crossroads,” AFL-CIO American Federationist 73:11 (November 1966): 16–20.
When COME held its first: Lawson int. (M.H.).
“can be emotionally stimulated”: FBI/MSS, February 29, 1968, Doc. 32, p. 5.
5,000 black schoolteachers: Ibid., pp. 2–4.
a thousand people filled Clayborn: CA, February 27, 1968, pp. 1, 6.
widened the movement’s agenda: Stanfield, “More Than a Garbage Strike.”
“had two or three individuals”: FBI/MSS, February 27, 1968, Doc. 30, pp. 4–5.
had the name “Invaders” emblazoned: Beifuss, At the River, p. 131.
“You preachers do the praying”: FBI/MSS, February 27, 1968, Doc. 30, pp. 2–3.
Starks immediately told the audience: Beifuss, At the River, p. 131.
“two bearded, natural hair-do”: FBI/MSS, February 26, 1968, Doc. 20, p. 5.
Police also reported rumors that Loeb’s home: CA, February 27, 1968, p. 1.
“the incipient SNCC-oriented”: FBI/MSS, February 26, 1968, Doc. 20, p. 5.
On Tuesday, February 27, some 300 people: Ibid., February 27, 1968, Doc. 30, p. 6.
“Whose City Hall is this?”: Arkin Report, p. 20.
About fifty white businessmen watched: CA, February 28, 1968, p. 1; Beifuss, At the River, p. 144.
could simply write a letter: CA, February 28, 1968, p. 1.
On Sunday night, Wurf and Lawson: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 169–70.
ended its meeting without taking: CA, March 2, 1968, p. 1.
ordered police not to arrest: FBI/MSS, February 27, 1968, Doc. 23, p. 2.
Hoffman said he and twenty-two others: Ibid., Doc. 30, p. 7.
“These men are not criminals”: CA, February 28, 1968, p. 1.
fruitless series of appeals: CA, March 1, 1968, p. 1; CA, March 2, 1968, p. 1.
“This was a labor issue”: Arkin Report, p. 21.
black women played a leading role: Kathy Roop (Hunninen), who got much of her grounding as a labor organizer in the Memphis strike, said black women ran many of the activities in the strike and again in the 1978 teachers’ strike. Roop Hunninen int. (M.H.).
revealed that secret negotiations: Participants in this discussion included John Spence of the city’s Civil Rights Commission; Councilmen Pryor, Donelson, and Chandler; white businessmen Carl Carson and Bert Ferguson; LeMoyne College President Hollis Price; NAACP President Jesse Turner; David Caywood, the civil liberties–oriented attorney and friend of Loeb; Jacques Wilmore of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission; and James Lawson. Beifuss, At the River, pp. 169–71.
“news of a compromise”: SSC Video 1, Reel 11, February 27, 1968, p. 23.
“We could have ended it that day”: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 170–72.
sent a letter to sanitation workers: FBI/MSS, February 29, 1968, Doc. 32, p. 1; CA, February 29, 1968, p. 16; Arkin Report, p. 21.
Lawson met with thirty high school: FBI/MSS, February 29, 1968, Doc. 32, pp. 1–2.
mass meeting that night at Mt. Pisgah: FBI/MSS, March 1, 1968, Doc. 34, p. 1; CA, March 2, 1968, p. 1.
“The basic issue is not pay”: Stanfield, “More Than a Garbage Strike.”
Blanchard tried to get the City Council: CA, March 1, 1968, p. 1.
“helping contain extremist elements”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 115.
“Obscenities! I’ll tell you what”: Ibid., p. 176.
“incipient interlopers”: FBI/MSS, February 29, 1968, Doc. 32, pp. 8–9.
They identified the leaders: Ibid., February 27, 1968, Doc. 30, p. 7.
Police reported trash fires and vandalism: Arkin Report, pp. 21–22.
police identified 75 percent: FBI/MSS, March 2, 1968, Doc. 37, p. 3.
That night, someone tossed bricks: Ibid.; Arkin Report, pp. 23–24.
On Sunday afternoon, twenty-one: CA, March 4, 1968, p. 1.
Blacks told Redditt: Arkin Report, pp. 24, 29.
“Marchers Draw Little Attention”: CA, March 3, 1968, p. 1.
“Shoppers either ignored the marchers”: CA, March 4, 1968, p. 1.
if “any of you are arrested”: Ibid.
reporters asked Lawson: FBI/MSS, March 3, 1968, Doc. 52, p. 1.
“Who’s running this thing?”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 118.
triangulated civil rights leadership: FBI/MSS, February 29, 1968, Doc. 32x, p. 5.
relinquish day-to-day leadership to Lawson: FBI/MSS, February 28, 1968, Doc. 29x.
Few others could keep up: The FBI said Reverend Henry Starks was “sick, virtually physically exhausted.” Ibid., March 20, 1968, Doc. 120, p. 1.
national and regional leaders: Ibid., February 26, 1968, Doc. 20, p. 2.
under tremendous pressure: Rogers int. (M.H.); Warren int. (M.H.).
police recording devices: Lucy int.
a meeting of black and white: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 173–74.
A handful of whites played: FBI/MSS, February 26, 1968, Doc. 27.
A number of clerics without: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 172–76.
FBI informants viewed Reverend Blackburn: FBI/MSS, February 29, 1968, Doc. 32x, p. 7.
FBI closely tracked white students: White students joined vigils against the Vietnam War under Lawson’s leadership during Vietnam Summer in 1967, and the FBI considered them Communists because they were allegedly members of the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC) and the W. E. B. Du Bois Clubs. FBI/MSS, February 29, 1968, Doc. 32x, p. 3.
estimated that at least 150: FBI/MSS, March 5, 1968, Doc. 68, p. 1.
the movement said 500: Marshall and Van Adams, “The Memphis Public Employee Strike,” p. 100.
Powell led them in picketing: Beifuss, At the River, p. 108.
“ultra-conservative community leaders”: Memphis Union News, March 1968, pp. 1–2.
“During the first month”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 107.
bill to create a mediation board: CA, March 16, 1968, p. 10.
Seafarers International Union presented: Beifuss, At the River, p. 109.
“a throw-back to the dark ages”: Memphis Union News, March 1968, p. 1.
“The right-wing people in our plant”: G. W. Clark, “A Report to Members Local 186,” April 2, 1968, Box 5, Folder 12, SSC.
Holloway had battled for years: Honey, Black Workers, pp. 59–72.
“I want to criticize some folks”: CA, February 24, 1968, p. 1.
12. ESCALATION: THE YOUTH MOVEMENT
“unfit for the honor of minister”: CA, March 5, 1968, p. 1.
to widen the Memphis battle: FBI/MSS, March 5, 1968, p. 1; FBI/MSS, March 6, 1968, p. 1.
“Memphis is going to be a better”: Bell and Starks quoted by a police agent at the Eastern Star meeting. Arkin Report, p. 25.
Bell and Moon led workers: FBI/MSS, March 5, 1968, Doc. 53A, pp. 2–3.
Another seventy-five protesters: CA, March 6, 1968, p. 1.
“the whole basement…teeming”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 156.
Lawson said the city could: TSD, March 9, 1968, p. 1.
“We will sit in this Council”: FBI/MSS, March 6, 1968, Doc. 70, p. 2.
“We will burn this city down”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 156.
A white man, his name lost: TSD, March 9, 1968, p. 1.
Councilman Patterson hoped to pass: SSC Video, Reel 13, March 5, 1968.
“We’re not going to leave”: FBI/MSS, March 7, 1968, Doc. 54, pp. 2–3, quoting the Press-Scimitar.
“I say you men don’t have”: CA, March 6, 1968, p. 1.
“Mr. Bell, we have listened”: SSC Video, Reel 12, March 5, 1968.
“I wanted to find out how the police”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 157.
“before they gas us down”: CA, March 6, 1968, p. 1.
“You don’t want me to have a hernia”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 158.
“It is not dishonorable to go”: Ibid.
protesters lined up two by two: Ibid., p. 159.
kept referring to her as “Maxine”: Ibid.
“degrading, insulting, and humiliating”: Maxine Smith to Frank C. Holloman, March 7, 1968, Box 5, Folder 4, Holloman Papers.
“militant young Negroes”: CA, March 6, 1968.
Charles Cabbage and forty of his followers: FBI/MSS, March 6, 1968, Doc. 70, p. 5.
“Afro-American Brotherhood Speaks”: Reproduced in FBI/MSS, March 6, 1968, Doc. 70, pp. 6–10.
Cabbage and other Invaders: two members of the Invaders formally served on the strategy committee. Stanfield, “In Memphis: Mirror to America?”
“Black Power, Black Power”: FBI/MSS, March 7, 1968, Doc. 54, p. 5.
The escalation in Memphis reverberated: Ibid. March 5, 1968, Doc. 68.
Robert Shelton, was complicit: McWhorter, Carry Me Home, pp. 514, 529–30.
MEMPHIS IS ON THE VERGE: FBI/MSS, March 5, 1968, Doc. 53A, p. 2.
“The Negro has been told”: CA, March 6, 1968, Sec. 6, p. 3.
Lawson’s outgoing long-distance phone calls: FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 180, pp. 4–6.
“Black and white students have established”: Memphis State University, The Tiger Rag, March 8, 1968, Box 26, Folder 55, SSC.
“veiled black militancy”: William Youngson quoted in FBI/MSS, March 13, 1968, Doc. 84A, p. 1.
The FBI now had George Leon: Ibid., March 13, 1968, Doc. 84A.
particularly Edwina Harrell: Ibid., March 7, 1968, Doc. 54, p. 8.
Downtown, 117 people: AFL-CIO News, March 9, 1968, pp. 1, 12; CA, March 7, 1968, p. 1.
T. O. Jones had threatened him: CA, March 7, 1968, p. 1.
Hoffman said AFSCME leaders: FBI/MSS, March 6, 1968, Doc. 30, pp. 6–7; Beifuss, At the River, p. 111.
leaders claimed they were “helpless”: PS, March 7, 1968, p. 17.
Sabella appealed: His challenge to the injunction’s constitutionality went to the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Jackson, and then to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which turned it down and sent it back to Hoffman. CA, March 8, 1968, p. 1.
“Justice Is Dead in Memphis”: FBI/MSS, March 7, 1968, Doc. 54, p. 4.
“In this casket is justice”: CA, March 7, 1968.
Marchers hoped to produce: FBI/MSS, March 6, 1968, Doc. 70, p. 5.
but the police did nothing: Ibid., March 7, 1968, Doc. 54, p. 5; CA, March 7, 1968, p. 7.
On the night of March 6: FBI/MSS, March 7, 1968, Doc. 54, pp. 4–5.
“vandalistic youths”: Ibid., p. 5.
“They [the young people] go to meetings”: Ibid., March 8, 1968, Doc. 56, p. 3. Quoting the Commercial Appeal.
suspended two students: CA, March 4, 1968, p. 1; CA, March 5, 1968, p. 1.
Turner warned adults: CA, March 1, 1968, p. 19.
“a loud, boisterous and disorderly”: Arkin Report, p. 29.
“Memphis is sitting on a powder keg”: Ibid., pp. 30–31.
began massive riot-control exercises: CA, March 9, 1968, p. 1.
“BITTER HATRED ON PART”: FBI/MSS, March 8, 1968, Doc. 58.
trash fires abounded: Ibid., Doc. 56, pp. 1–3.
about fifty black male teenagers: Ibid., March 9, 1968, Doc. 72, p. 1.
“some uniformed patrolmen”: Ibid., p. 5.
“no longer a simple labor dispute”: Arkin Report, p. 31.
“A few of the kids looked like”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 178.
“ill groomed” white students: FBI/MSS, March 10, 1968, Doc. 150.
passed out flyers at school: Ibid., March 12, 1968, Doc. 74, pp. 1–2; Arkin Report, pp. 12–13.
After rallying, thirty of them: CA, March 12, 1968, p. 1.
They lay down on the floor: A judge fined them for “resisting arrest” and bound them over to the state on charges of disorderly conduct. FBI/MSS, March 12, 1968, Doc. 75A, p. 1.
“injecting more youth”: FBI/MSS, March 12, 1968, Doc. 74.
Jackson led another 175 marchers: CA, March 12, 1968, p. 1.
only thirty workers had paid dues: CA, March 7, 1968.
Blackburn said 90 percent: SSC Video, Reel 15, March 11, 1968; CA, March 9, 1968, p. 1.
“are hopeful that the strike”: FBI/MSS, March 13, 1968, Doc. 76, p. 3.
Arkin felt confident that strikers: CA, March 9, 1968, p. 1.
“no end in sight”: FBI/MSS, March 12, 1968, Doc. 74, p. 1.
canceled the city’s contributions: Lowery to Henry Loeb, March 19, 1968; Henry Loeb to Richard Curran, April 17, 1968. Correspondence in Food Stamps, Box 8, Loeb Papers. See also CA, March 27, 1968.
Workers paid 50 cents for $12: CA, March 9, 1968, p. 23.
more than 750 of them: CA, March 16, 1968.
“No business can be efficiently”: CA, March 17, 1968, p. 3.
“Negro Pastors Take Reins”: Commercial Appeal quotes in Arkin Report, p. 33.
“I became the fourth ‘nigger’”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 163.
“All right, if you want to leave it”: CA, March 12, 1968, p. 1.
“only part of a broad spectrum”: Ibid.
After the council vote: FBI/MSS, March 12, 1968, Doc. 74, p. 3; CA, March 12, 1968; Arkin Report, p. 34.
“city for all the people”: FBI/MSS, March 13, 1968, Doc. 76, pp. 4–5.
At one mass meeting: Stanfield, “More Than a Garbage Strike.”
The level of threats against: FBI/MSS, March 13, 1968, Doc. 79, pp. 1–2; FBI/MSS, March 13, 1968, Doc. 76, pp. 4–7; FBI/MSS, March 13, 1968, Doc. 80, p. 1.
A smaller group split off: FBI/MSS, March 13, 1968, Doc. 75B, pp. 1–3.
“shouting, acting boisterous”: Ibid., March 14, 1968, Doc. 81A, pp. 1–2.
youths went on a rampage: CA, March 14, 1968, p. 1.
successful in replacing strikers: CA, March 12, 1968, p. 1; CA, March 14, 1968, p. 1.
a more militant response: FBI/MSS, March 14, 1968, Doc. 81, p. 2; FBI/MSS, March 15, 1968, Doc. 82, pp. 1–5.
“no matter what they’re doing”: CA, March 14, 1968, p. 1.
150 students confronted him: FBI/MSS, March 15, 1968, Doc. 82, pp. 7–8.
purposely stayed in the background: Ibid.
bring Stokely Carmichael to town: FBI/MSS, March 14, 1968, Doc. 81C.
without a functioning SCLC: Samuel Kyles chaired the SCLC in Memphis, and Hooks and Lawson served on King’s board. Middlebrook int., SSC.
Rustin’s position in the Movement: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, chs. 18, 19.
“How can you get rid of poverty”: Rustin’s Mason Temple speech is in SSC Video, Reels 15, 16.
“one of the great struggles”: CA, March 15, 1968, p. 23.
“This becomes the symbol”: Ibid.
police arrested five black males: FBI/MSS, March 15, 1968, Doc. 84.
“prowling” and “traveling for the”: CA, March 15, 1968, p. 1; Arkin Report, p. 36.
Weinman’s court held in abeyance: Arkin Report, p. 36.
reported increasing verbal threats: CA, March 16, 1968, p. 1; Arkin Report, p. 36.
black youths picketed downtown: CA, March 17, 1968, p. 1; Arkin Report, p. 37.
“Time for Council to Move”: CA, March 16, 1968, p. 6.
13. “ALL LABOR HAS DIGNITY”
“fundamental patterns of American life”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 447.
“We had become the enemy”: Ibid., p. 446.
“Capitalism cannot reform itself”: W. E. B. Du Bois, Letter Applying for Membership in the Communist Party of the U.S.A., October 1, 1961, MLK Papers.
“our irrational obsessive anti-Communism”: King, “Honoring Dr. Du Bois,” pp. 108–9.
“People become so deluded”: Hattiesburg American, April 2, 1968.
“King, Red Ex-aide Team Up”: Birmingham News, March 7, 1968.
“King Shows Kindly Disposition”: Birmingham News, March 10, 1968.
“Secret FBI records definitely tie”: Clarion Ledger, March 28, 1968.
“prevent the rise of a black messiah”: Garrow, The FBI and MLK, p. 187.
“publicize King as a traitor”: Ibid., p. 183.
“serve again to remind”: FBI/MLK, Security Memorandum, February 29, 1968.
FBI also held a “racial conference”: McKnight, Last Crusade, p. 26.
Julia Brown on tour: Ibid., p. 27.
Brown had visited Memphis: Bill Ross int., SSC. She visited Memphis again after King’s death, SSC clippings file.
“As is usually the case”: FBI/MLK, February 13, 1968.
“playing a last, desperate card”: America, February 24, 1968.
“making a bold play”: “Showdown with Insurrection,” National Review, n.d.
“a haphazard series of events”: “Principles and Heresies,” National Review, n.d.
“a Washington paralyzed”: Reader’s Digest, April 1968, pp. 65–70.
complained to newsman Daniel Schorr: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 457.
Bayard Rustin warned: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, p. 460.
“Almost no one on the staff”: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 457.
“I’m often disenchanted”: King, “The Other America,” March 10, 1968, MLK Papers.
On March 14 and 15: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, pp. 715–17.
Harris polls showing: New York Times, May 23, 1967.
“We had charted out fifteen”: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 459.
had to fly from a speaking engagement: FBI/MLK, March 21, 1968.
moved SCLC’s planning conference: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 459; CA, March 18, 1968, p. 1.
“We had been through this”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 449.
King flew to Memphis on Monday, March 18: TSD, March 16, 1968, p. 1. The Defender covered King’s speech on March 18, even though the weekly edition is dated March 16.
Powell excoriated Mayor Loeb: CA, March 19, 1968, p. 1; SSC Video, March 18, 1968.
“These men tell us that”: SSC Video, Reel 18, March 18, 1968.
“Loeb said we could pile up”: Ibid., Reel 19, March 18, 1968.
“We will not stop until”: Ibid.
O. W. Pickett, AFSCME staff, and COME: PS, March 19, 1968. Crenshaw and Lucy raised one fund; O. W. Pickett and Reverend C. W. Porter of the Church of God in Christ raised another; it seems that they both channeled donations through COME. FBI/MSS, March 12, 1968, Doc. 145, p. 3.
“The Negro minister has taken”: COME Appeal, Vol. 1, No. 1, Box 12, Folder 87, AFSCME Washington Files, SSC.
Charleston striker: Seeger, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, pp. 32–35.
He began quietly: audio recording and annotated transcript, SSC.
“We will not go to schools”: PS, March 19, 1968.
Lucy viewed King’s response: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, pp. 459–60.
“saw how many Negroes”: CA, March 16, 1968, p. 1.
“a series of demagogic appeals”: FBI/MSS, March 17, 1968, Doc. 87.
“King’s Eye on Washington”: CA, March 20, 1968, p. 6.
“a handy starting point”: Arkin Report, p. 40.
When he innovated and moved: Halberstam, “The Second Coming.”
“Nobody knew it except us”: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 459.
downtown businesspeople to wonder: Trotter, “The Memphis Business Community.”
“an undertone of criticism”: TSD, March 23, 1968.
with Abernathy, Young, Bernard LaFayette: Arkin Report, p. 39.
“confer with Negro ministers”: FBI/MSS, SAC to Director, March 19, 1968, Doc. 105.
14. “SOMETHING DREADFUL”
“It had never snowed that late”: Lanetha Jewel Branch int., “Behind the Veil,” used by permission.
King’s strength, said Bayard Rustin: King “did not have the ability to organize vampires to go to a bloodbath,” joked Rustin, but rather relied on inspiring speeches and events to make the Movement. D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, p. 337. The NAACP’s Herbert Hill, for one, considered King more a mystic than a revolutionary. Hill int. (M.H.).
eighty-four of the city’s 180 trucks: PS, March 19, 1968.
“Never before in the history”: COME Appeal, Vol. 1, No. 1, Box 12, Folder 87, AFSCME Washington Files, SSC.
widely distributed a leaflet: COME, “Martin Luther King and the Community on the Move for Equality Invite You to March for Justice and Jobs,” 98-19, SSC.
“a momentous event for Memphis”: COME Memo, 14-12, SSC.
“His march will be the most”: COME, Flyer to Public School Teachers of Memphis, 97-17, SSC.
“be united in harmony”: COME, Statement on Purposes of March, 97-20, SSC.
“Whites interpreted militant”: Marshall and Van Adams, “The Memphis Public Employee Strike,” p. 99
bringing in Stokely Carmichael: FBI/MSS, SAC to Director, March 19, 1968, Doc. 105.
said he would invite Carmichael: FBI/MSS, March 18, 1968, Doc. 112A, p. 4.
not stopping the garbage trucks: In a meeting at Dr. Vasco Smith’s house, Smith and Harold Middlebrook criticized Lawson for being “too lenient” and advocated lying down in front of garbage trucks. G. P. Tines to J. C. MacDonald, Chief of Police, MPD, March 28, 1968, File 6, Holloman Papers.
at the March 18 meeting, Ralph Abernathy: FBI/MSS, March 19, 1968, Doc. 117, p. 2.
“We are expecting to have 10,000”: PS, March 19, 1968.
COME sent a letter: Ezekial Bell et al., “Dear Friends,” March 27, 1968, and Lt. E. H. Arkin to G. P. Tines, March 27, 1968. Both in File 9, Box 5, Folder 6, Holloman Papers.
used more coercive tactics: Arkin Report, pp. 39–41.
had left behind James Bevel: FBI informants observed Bevel at a meeting in the office of the Chicago W. E. B. Du Bois Club. When someone declaimed that he was not a Communist, Bevel responded, “Every thinking American should be,” and went on to say, “Negroes have not begun to read yet, but when they do, they will all be socialists.” Bevel may have been toying with agents. FBI/MSS, March 21, 1968, Doc. 110; FBI/MSS, March 19, 1968, Doc. 117, pp. 3–4.
Bevel spoke at Warren Temple: Ibid., March 30, 1968, Doc. 122, pp. 3–4.
“a virulent black power talk”: Arkin Report, p. 41.
urged students to read Frantz Fanon’s: FBI/MSS, March 21, 1968, Doc. 129, pp. 4–5.
“Bevel is organizing for”: Ibid., pp. 7–8.
an excuse to carry matches: Ibid., March 20, 1968, Doc. 122, p. 7.
supposedly threatened the Memphis: Arkin Report, p. 42.
twelve unemployed “young militants”: FBI/MSS, March 21, 1968, Doc. 129, p. 7.
“doing his best to talk”: Ibid., Doc. 124.
sanitation supervisor Leonard Ward: Ibid., March 18, 1968, Doc. 112A, p. 5.
Someone even fired a shot: Ibid., March 25, 1968, Doc. 138A.
increasingly risky to scab: CA, March 20, 1968.
the window of a Loeb’s Laundry: Ibid.
frequently pulled fire alarms: FBI/MSS, March 20, 1968, Doc. 122, p. 5.
striker named Leslie Robinson: Ibid. March 22, 1968, Doc. 134, p. 2; CA, March 22, 1968, p. 19.
were both African American: The woman’s street address, 1253 Englewood, seems to be in south central Memphis, a black area. CA, March 22, 1968, p. 19.
“unlawfully disturbing and disquieting”: The law was used only once in its 110-year history. Ibid., March 20, 1968.
Police singled out Ferguson: Blackburn int., SCC.
sanitation worker Willie Kemp: FBI/MSS, March 22, 1968, Doc. 134, p. 3. Kemp tried to convince black undercover agent Willie Richmond that he had not attacked Ed Redditt. See W. B. Richmond to G. P. Tines, March 26, 1968, File 7, Box 5, Holloman Papers.
“Loeb is deeply hated”: FBI/MSS, March 19, 1968, Doc. 114, pp. 1–2.
Don Stevens reported to the police: Arkin Report, p. 41.
“The ‘Real’ Martin Luther King, Jr.”: Enlightened People on Communism, “The ‘Real’ Martin Luther King, Jr.,” 43-9, SSC.
“Rev. Dick Moon’s wife Glenda”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 192.
“You black son of a bitch”: Ibid.
“It was as if a whole host”: Ibid., p. 193.
“pillage, burn, loot and destroy”: Kuykendall, “The Immorality of our Times,” March 22, 1968, Box 5, Folder 9, Series II, SSC.
“pick pocket party”: Kuykendall, “The Republican Party Is the Party for Our Time,” February 14, 1968, Box 5, Folder 9, Series II, SSC.
effects of “communism everywhere”: Kuykendall, “Demonstrations and the War in Vietnam,” April 25, 1967, Box 5, Folder 9, Series II, SSC.
“shouting and gesturing obscenities”: CA, March 20, 1968, p. 6.
“To Dr. King and His Marchers”: CA, March 21, 1968, p. 1.
“Save Our City”: flyers, March 4, 1968, in 5-4, SSC.
had been holding interracial social meetings: Murray, “White Privilege, Racial Justice,” pp. 207–15.
“Where were you born, honey?”: SSC, anecdotes, 51–33.
“I wouldn’t do a single thing differently”: CA, March 15, 1968.
“Upon entering the Union Hall”: Mary Doughty, SSC, anecdotes, 51–162.
200 strike supporters attended: CA, March 20, 1968, p. 1; CA, March 21, 1968, p. 1.
members discussed Patterson’s proposal: FBI/MSS, SAC to Director, March 20, 1968, Doc. 106.
“deftly fielded questions”: CA, March 20, 1968.
“I think people found out”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 198.
“was definitely on the defensive”: Louise McComb to Lewis Donelson, March 21, 1968, 8-22, SCC.
“and now here comes Dr. King”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 109.
Any form of mediation: Ibid., p. 187.
UAW’s Fair Practice Council: Edward Taylor, president; Mark Deason, vice president; James Bridges, recording secretary, to Henry Loeb, March 26, 1968, Donelson File, SSC.
gave their workers the day off: FBI/MSS, March 21, 1968, Doc. 129, pp. 2–3.
Even the mass media took notice: Beifuss, At the River, p. 201.
“The printing of that information”: Ibid.
Council passed Chairman Pryor’s resolution: CA, March 22, 1968, p. 1.
“If one is to gamble so much”: CA, March 20, 1968, p. 6.
he traveled the Deep South: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 608.
In Grenada: Branch Canaan’s Edge, pp. 483–85, 526–29.
“We are tired of our men not being able to be men”: King, Poor People’s Campaign Rally Speech, Grenada, Mississippi, March 19, 1968, Series III, MLK Papers.
“The thing wrong with America”: King, Poor People’s Campaign Rally Speech, Laurel, Mississippi, March 19, 1968, Series III, MLK Papers.
“We want some land”: King, Poor People’s Campaign Rally Speech, Clarksdale, Mississippi, March 19, 1968, Series III, MLK Papers.
gave King a hundred-dollar bill: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 720.
King despaired at Mississippi’s poverty: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 606; Garrow, The FBI and MLK, p. 189.
two people raised their hands: FBI/MLK, March 20, 1968, p. 329.
he canceled his last speeches: FBI/MSS, March 21, 1968, Doc. 127.
stranded at the Birmingham airport: Ibid., Doc. 131.
He spent much of the night: FBI/MSS, March 21, 1968, Doc. 131; FBI/MSS, March 22, 1968, Docs. 132, 134.
“war on sleep”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 433.
“Snow Blanket Bundles Dixie”: Jackson Clarion Ledger, March 24, 1968.
Nature had gone on strike: Beifuss, At the River, p. 205.
“We’ve got a perfect work stoppage”: Ibid.
Twenty hardy souls showed up: FBI/MSS, March 22, 1968, Doc. 134; Beifuss, At the River, p. 205.
“Do Right Mr.? Mayor”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 205.
shot into a strikebreaker’s home: Arkin Report, p. 43.
“There’s no way in the world”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 607.
flew out again to New York: Ibid., p. 608.
“It gets very discouraging sometimes”: King, “Unfulfilled Dreams,” in Carson and Holloran, eds., A Knock at Midnight, pp. 194–99.
when union representatives renewed talks: CA, March 23, 1968, p. 1; CA, March 24, 1968, p. 1; CA, March 25, 1968, p. 1.
representatives again met behind closed doors: CA, March 26, 1968, p. 1.
no longer receive food stamps: CA, March 27, 1968, p. 19.
“The strike is illegal”: CA, March 28, 1968, p. 1.
“‘Recognition’ meant the rights”: Marshall and Van Adams, “The Memphis Public Employee Strike,” p. 179.
“After three days of meetings”: CA, March 28, 1968, p. 1.
COME announced that King would lead: CA, March 26, 1968, p. 1.
Another giant march: Ibid., March 27, 1968, p. 1.
“They were shouting as they walked”: Richmond to Tines, March 26, 1968, File 7, Box 5, Holloman Papers.
George Wallace indefinitely canceled: Arkin Report, pp. 43–47.
to limit mass meetings: FBI/MSS, March 27, 1968, Doc. 151, pp. 1–2.
Redditt reported that “Deacons”: G. P. Tines to Chief J. C. MacDonald, March 28, 1968, File 9, Box 5, Folder 6, Holloman Papers.
“All present agreed”: FBI/MSS, March 18, 1968, Doc. 125, p. 3.
15. CHAOS IN THE BLUFF CITY
“Be cool, fool”: Flyer, March 27, 1968, File 9, Holloman Papers.
Eleven incidents of vandalism: Arkin Report, p. 48.
strike supporters began confronting: Arkin Report, pp. 47–48; CA, March 29, 1968.
“in a rather boisterous manner”: FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968.
trying to march toward the downtown: SSC Video, Tape 5, Reel 23; Jackson int., SSC.
At 9:14, police headquarters sent: CA, March 29, 1968.
turned up to defend their children: Middlebrook int., SSC.
the FBI reported they had: FBI/MSS, To Director, March 28, 1968, Doc. 160, p. 2.
Jo Ann Talbert was hit in the head: Arkin Report, p. 49; Beifuss, At the River, p. 212.
By 9:30, a torrent of human beings: CA, March 29, 1968.
Tommy Powell, Bill Ross, Dan Powell: Beifuss, At the River, p. 212.
King and the ministers: Ibid., p. 217.
Joyce Palmer, a young white mother: Ibid., p. 214.
atmosphere changed as word spread: Arkin Report, p. 49.
King would be killed: Beifuss, At the River, p. 216.
Lester High School students joined: Jackson int., SSC.
police could hardly keep track: Arkin Report, p. 49.
Older people carried placards: Beifuss, At the River, p. 217.
youngsters created their own signs: Ibid.
“We’re going to get some white folks”: PS, March 29, 1968, p. 15.
estimated that only 3,338 to 6,338: Arkin Report, pp. 49–50.
Police also identified a number: FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 184, pp. 4–5; FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 160, p. 3.
BOP organizers stayed behind: FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 184, pp. 1213.
“It seemed as though we were”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 216.
disheveled men, young and old: Ibid., p. 219.
“a textbook example”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 453.
did not have enough marshals: Beifuss, At the River, p. 219.
“drinking anything they could get”: Ibid., p. 220.
asked such people to leave: Ibid., p. 218.
“There was an element in the crowd”: Ibid., p. 220.
“white presence wasn’t exactly”: Ibid., p. 214.
police had circled the area: Ibid., p. 215.
twenty-five men raided a liquor store: CA, March 29, 1968.
“LOEB’S HANGING TREE”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 217.
asking them to join a “coalition of conscience”: “Conversation with Martin Luther King,” pp. 1–19; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 608.
he was “losing hold”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 608–9.
his flight to Memphis: Garrow says King flew to Atlanta and then to Memphis. Young says he flew from Newark to Memphis, as do the FBI records. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 609; Young, An Easy Burden, p. 451.
“Martin must have been so fatigued”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 451.
four-foot-long pine sticks: Arkin Report, p. 50.
tore the signs off the sticks: Beifuss, At the River, p. 219.
King an hour to get out: Abernathy, Walls Came Tumbling, p. 417. The Commercial Appeal wrote that it only took ten minutes to get King out of the car. CA, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
Ministers locked their arms: CA, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
“The people were trampling”: McKnight, Last Crusade, p. 66.
unruly sea of young people: Beifuss, At the River, p. 222.
“make the crowds stop pushing”: PS, March 29, 1968, p. 15.
considered the possibility of aborting: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 220–22.
Pressed upon by the crowd: At the River I Stand.
“people were trying to walk”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 223.
Kay Pittman Black remained behind: Ibid., p. 221.
observed that a band of youths: Arkin Report, p. 50.
a riot had begun behind them: Beifuss, At the River, p. 224.
“Windows! They’re breaking windows!”: Ibid.
“to interfere with the march”: Ibid.
“Burn it down, baby!”: Ibid., p. 225.
Up ahead on Main Street, at Gayoso: FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 159, pp. 1–2; CA, March 29, 1968.
“Take Dr. King down McCall”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 225.
“Jim, they’ll say I ran away”: Lawson int., ATR.
“Martin balked, so I said”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 225.
“I’ve got to get out of here”: Arkin Report, p. 51; FBI/MSS, To Director, March 28, 1968, Doc. 163, p. 3.
Bernard Lee flagged down: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 454; FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 165; FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 171.
“only concern was to run”: FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, p. 3.
“This is Reverend Lawson speaking”: Arkin Report, p. 51.
At 11:22, Fire and Police Director Frank Holloman: CA, March 29, 1968.
police waded into the crowd: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 225–26.
shooting tear gas or rolling: CA, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
effort to “restore order”: Arkin Report, p. 52.
“You don’t have to show your manhood”: CA, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
A flying wedge of policemen came: Ibid.
resistance infuriated the police: Ibid.
John Kearney ran, but the same officer: Wilmore int., SSC; G. P. Tines to J. C. MacDonald, Chief of Police, MPD, March 28, 1968, p. 4, File 6, Holloman Papers.
P. J. Ciampa, with his bum knee: Beifuss, At the River, p. 228.
“We didn’t have trouble”: Ibid., p. 227.
“I didn’t run”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 310.
“It looked like just a big steamroller”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 229.
In the pandemonium, children lost: Ibid., p. 226.
“That was an exciting time”: AARP et al., “The Voices of Civil Rights: Ordinary People. Extraordinary Stories,” www.voicesofcivilrights.org/ Approved_Letters/479-Rogers-TN.html.
“came roaring back”: PS, March 29, 1968.
Only James Lawson with a bullhorn: Beifuss, At the River, p. 228.
“calmly, but with great dignity”: CA, March 29, 1968.
Reporters taking pictures: Beifuss, At the River, p. 231.
“I saw women, young children”: Ibid., pp. 215–16.
marshals kept control over: Lawson int., SSC; Middlebrook int., SSC.
“except the people that had looted”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 230.
“The police seemed slightly reluctant”: TSD, April 6, 1968.
Barnes Carr, documented: PS, March 29, 1968.
Beale Street looked “like a battlefield”: PS, March 29, 1968, p. 15.
One officer, surrounded by a crowd: CA, March 29, 1968.
Numerous officers were hurt: CA, March 29, 1968; PS, March 29, 1968.
Looters tried to steal guns: FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 159, pp. 1–2; CA, March 29, 1968.
“I wish this was a real live one”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 229.
people battered and torched a car: Arkin Report, p. 50.
“You white folks get on out”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 229.
“Main Street and historic Beale”: CA, March 29, 1968.
Private ambulances refused to go: Beifuss, At the River, p. 237; FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 161.
Holloman asked Mayor Loeb to call: CA, March 29, 1968; Arkin Report, p. 51.
police tactical units that continued: Beifuss, At the River, p. 231.
“I was terribly frightened”: Ibid., p. 224.
“Inside the A.M.E. building”: PS, March 29, 1968, p. 15.
like the aftermath of a war: Beifuss, At the River, p. 235.
“All of you that are on our side”: CA, March 29, 1968; Beifuss, At the River, p. 233.
Lawson worried about what had happened: Beifuss, At the River, p. 231.
“looked ashen. His hands were shaking”: PS, March 29, 1968, p. 15.
police attacked them with mace: TSD, April 6, 1968.
“Behind me I could see bottles”: PS, March 29, 1968, p. 15.
police moved down Hernando: CA, March 29, 1968.
thirteen officers with gas masks: TSD, April 6, 1968.
“but once the command was given”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 234.
“Everyone was either hurt or mad”: Ibid., p. 236.
some 250 people took a stand: CA, March 29, 1968.
Holloman called back, asking: Ibid.
his officers had not used gas: Beifuss, At the River, p. 237.
Charles Cabbage stood on the steps: FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 160, p. 4.
“We’re trying our damnedest”: CA, March 29, 1968.
firebomb into a Loeb’s Laundry: PS, March 29, 1968.
“I told them that there were women”: TSD, April 6, 1968.
rumor spread that a police officer: FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 160, p. 4.
“Get your children from school”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 238.
“Honey, anything you can name”: Ibid.
“began swinging at people’s legs”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 239; Arkin Report, p. 52.
Doctors treated many people: Injuries are recorded in John Gaston Hospital Records, SSC.
the strike’s first fatality: FBI/MSS, To Director, March 28, 1968, Doc. 160.
Sixteen-year-old Larry Payne: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 240–42.
got a call about youths looting: Arkin Report, p. 52.
eyewitnesses claimed that Payne did not: CA, March 30, 1968, p. 25.
“He had his hands up”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 242.
“a muffled sound, like busting a sack”: CA, March 30, 1968, p. 25.
photo of Leona Jackson: TSD, April 6, 1968, p. 1.
More witnesses came forward: CA, March 30, 1968, p. 25.
exonerated Jones: McKnight, Last Crusade, p. 56.
he was not even suspended: CA, March 31, 1968, p. 14.
Payne’s parents unsuccessfully sued the police: McKnight, Last Crusade, pp. 56–67; Beifuss, At the River, p. 357.
“Yes, we have a war”: CA, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
“I think you should realize”: PS, March 29, 1968.
“We were in a civil war”: Ibid.
“Police charged into the crowd”: Ibid.
16. “THE MOVEMENT LIVES OR DIES IN MEMPHIS”
people poured into the hospital: John Gaston Hospital Records, March 28, 1968, SSC.
“strongly feel some elements”: FBI/MSS, Message to Director, March 28, 1968, Doc. 165, p. 2. A second FBI memo later in the afternoon used the language: “Negro group who dislike him and desire to cause KING trouble.” FBI/MSS, March 28, 1968, Doc. 168.
“the violence was caused by”: FBI/MSS, From Atlanta’s A. G. Santinella, March 29, 1968, Doc. 168.
“really didn’t have any idea”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 611.
Lawson soon arrived, and he and Kyles: Garrow, The FBI and MLK, p. 193.
investigating committee later concluded: U.S. House of Representatives, House Select Committee on Assassinations, Final Assassinations Report.
“Did MARTIN LUTHER KING”: FBI/MSS, From ASAC C. O. Halter, March 28, 1968, Doc. 167.
documented that the Globe-Democrat: The U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations believed that the paper’s invective might have encouraged a conspiracy to kill King that was operating out of St. Louis. McKnight, Last Crusade, pp. 60–62.
“get everything possible on KING”: FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 173. The FBI constantly pressured agents to “find something” on King, causing them to twist their reports to that end. An FBI agent in Memphis related Lieutenant Arkin’s comments after watching a post-riot television interview in which King “said he did not finish what he set out to do. He didn’t elaborate.” This suggestion that King wanted violence is clearly wrong: King was saying that he had not done the job of leading a nonviolent march. Such false inferences and political ignorance appear commonly in intelligence files.
“All racial sources have been”: FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 159, p. 3.
avoided the “fine Hotel [sic] Lorraine”: Memo from FBI Assistant Director William Sullivan. Reprinted in Friedly and Gallen, The FBI File, pp. 575–76. See also Garrow, The FBI and MLK, p. 196.
King had stayed at the dilapidated: Lawson int. (M.H.); William Bailey int., SSC.
When a raging mob had trapped him: Eyes on the Prize, A Film History, part 6, “Bridge to Freedom.”
“The issue is not a question”: SSC Video, Reels 25, 26, March 28, 1968, transcript, pp. 693–885.
“I thought the march itself”: CA, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
“we won’t be a part of violent”: SSC Video, Reels 25, 26, March 28, 1968, transcript, pp. 693–885.
“abandoned by its leaders”: Ibid.
“get your ass out of Memphis”: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 462.
“You mustn’t hold yourself responsible”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 612.
“terrible and horrible experience”: Garrow, The FBI and MLK, p. 194.
Faires called King’s role “deplorable”: CA, March 30, 1968.
denounced “mindless violence”: Washington Post, March 30, 1968, p. 1; Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” p. 274.
“Johnson Warns on Rioting”: Washington Post, March 30, 1968, p. 1.
“a powerful embarrassment”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 615.
Meany urged Mayor Loeb to recognize: CA, March 31, 1968 p. 14; AFL-CIO News, April 6, 1968, p. 4.
“Moment of Truth”: CA, March 29, 1968.
“Memphis has had enough”: CA, March 31, 1968, p. 6.
“Chicken a La King”: CA, March 31, 1968. Both Memphis dailies ran consistently anti-King editorials. Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” pp. 203–8.
“the headline-hunting high priest”: CA, April 2, 1968, p. 6.
“Young militants jostled and pushed”: Arkin Report, p. 55.
“King Before Disappearing Act”: Clarion Ledger, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
“exposed” King’s ties to Jack O’Dell: Clarion Ledger, March 28, 1968.
“King Vows to Press Attack”: Clarion Ledger, March 30, 1968, p. 1.
Natchez Democrat cartoons linked King: Natchez Democrat, February 1, 1968.
“noted Communist Negro Educator”: Natchez Democrat, March 22, 1968.
southern media regularly vilified King: See media scrapbooks collected by Edward Hunvald, retired Memphis department store executive, Container 12, SSC.
man “inflated by ambition”: CA, March 30, 1965.
“to break laws in the name”: CA, April 2, 1968, p. 6.
Memphis proved King could not lead: CA, April 30, 1968, p. 1; CA, April 2, 1968, p. 21; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 616.
“like striking a match”: CA, March 30, 1968, p. 1.
“self-seeking rabble-rouser”: CA, April 2, 1968, p. 21.
“agitating destruction, violence and hatred”: SSC Video, Reel 28; Kuykendall Speech File, SSC.
Eugene McCarthy pointed out: CA, March 31, 1968, p. 16.
“Memphis on Fire”: TSD, April 6, 1968.
described him as “the bomb”: Ibid.
Stern interviewed Coby Smith: SSC Video, Reels 29–32.
“If the community can only respond”: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 740.
“Young black people want”: CA, April 1, 1968, p. 25.
“Younger Negroes…say their allegiance”: Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1968, p. 19.
“Don’ mak no diff’unce”: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 737.
When King entered the room: Taylor int., SSC. Taylor also recalled King as having said he had met with Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton when he was in California.
he was surprised to see Cabbage: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 613.
warning of a plot to kill King: Cabbage int. (M.H.).
“what must be done to have”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 612–13.
laughed and said he had to be kidding: Cabbage int. (M.H.); Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 613; Beifuss, At the River, pp. 253–54.
“a person that was so clear”: Smith, “March On.”
he explained to reporters: For press conference quotes, see SSC Video, Reels 35–37, March 29, 1968.
“I think our Washington campaign”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 615.
“Frankly, it was a failure”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 614.
“influenced by what they read”: Ibid., p. 614.
“Martin Loser King”: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” p. 274.
Wilkins warned that Memphis showed: CA, April 3, 1968, p. 1.
“NAACP Official Blames King”: PS, March 20, 1968. Quoted in Arkin Report, p. 55.
“get me out of Memphis”: Abernathy, Walls Came Tumbling, p. 422.
covered King’s press briefing by noting: CA, March 30, 1968.
“We didn’t bring in Rap Brown”: Ibid.
“the times before the Montgomery”: Abernathy, Walls Came Tumbling, p. 423. Coretta Scott King makes no mention of this dinner, My Life, p. 322. Abernathy’s account is riddled with mistakes, but Juanita Abernathy recalls the same dinner, Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 463.
never seen King so depressed: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, p. 463.
“He was experiencing a great deal”: Scott King, My Life, p. 322.
“You as much stuck in Memphis”: Epps, “March On” Epps int., SSC.
met with his SCLC executive staff: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 457; Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, pp. 741–44.
Suffering from a continual migraine: Jesse Jackson, in Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, pp. 463–64.
“It was obvious from the beginning”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 458.
“but the staff was upset with him”: Ibid., p. 457.
“took the position very sharply”: FBI Levison Wiretap Files, April 1, 1968. 100-111180-9-16227a, on microfilm. Thanks to Erik Gellman for reminding me of this source.
King rebuked him as if he: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 616.
“As somberly and seriously”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 459.
17. STATE OF SIEGE
legislation deemed necessary to curb riots: PS, March 29, 1968.
power to proclaim civil emergencies: Public Chapter No. 485, Senate Bill 1360, Series III, Box 84, Sanitation Strike 1968, Loeb Papers. See also Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 733.
felony to enter into a conspiracy: Public Chapter No. 485, Senate Bill 1169, Series III, Box 84, Sanitation Strike 1968, Loeb Papers.
the federal anti-riot law: Most famously, the anti-riot act produced the trial of the Chicago 8, the antiwar protesters charged with inciting the police riot at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in August 1968.
fifteen years’ imprisonment for looting: Public Chapter No. 485, Senate Bill 1196, Series III, Box 84, Sanitation Strike 1968, Loeb Papers.
“degenerated into a riot”: PS, March 29, 1968.
Loeb’s curfew lasted for: Curfews Issued During Sanitation Department Strike, Series III, Box 84, Sanitation Strike 1968, Loeb Papers.
some 4,000 National Guardsmen: For details, see Beifuss, At the River, pp. 243–44; SSC Video, Tape 5, Reel 27.
“traditionally been a white outfit”: CA, March 30, 1968.
military occupation of Detroit: Fine, Violence in the Model City.
infrared telescopes on their rifles: CA, March 30, 1968.
“How you conduct yourselves”: CA, March 29, 1968, p. 1.
300 policemen, 50 sheriff’s: CA, April 3, 1968.
The number of calls for police: Beifuss, At the River, p. 244.
news showed flames consuming: SSC Video, Reels 27, 28.
Arkansas also mobilized National Guard: PS, March 29, 1968.
“At some point when police are faced”: New York Times, July 7, 1968.
police stopped and searched black people: CA, March 31, 1968, p. 14.
police jerked a cab-driving minister: CA, April 1, 1968.
black areas, however, continued under strict curfew: CA, March 29, 1968.
whites traveled the streets: CA, March 31, 1968, p. 14.
fired several shots at a police car: PS, March 29, 1968.
125,000 students who stayed home: PS, March 30, 1968.
“plywood wasteland for ten blocks”: Vicksburg Evening Post, March 30, 1968, p. 1.
“It’s going to take maybe forty years”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 247.
rioters smashed 200 storefronts: Vicksburg Evening Post, March 30, 1968, p. 1.
$400,000 in initial damages: Ibid.
$1.5 million to pay for troops: PS, April 1, 1968.
Henry Lux assessed the situation: FBI/MSS, March 30, 1968, Doc. 201, p. 3.
“overall good performance”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 247.
NAACP said that black Memphians “deluged” it: Maxine Smith to Ramsey Clark, May 10, 1968, Box 5, File 18, SSC; Maxine Smith to Phil Canale, May 10, 1968, Box 5, File 18, SSC.
“They caught my uncle”: Memphis Branch NAACP News Release, April 15, 1968, Box 5, File 18, and anecdotes files, SSC.
shot the husband of Elizabeth Stevenson: Police and Civil Disorders, Box 5, File 18, SSC.
“only a small part of the accusations”: PS, May 20, 1968.
“long-haired, foul-smelling hippies”: Holloman, “Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We Are Going,” Memphis Rotary Club, February 18, 1969, Holloman Papers. See also PS, April 20, 1968.
“permissiveness and appeasement”: Holloman, “Responsibility,” Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, November 15, 1969, Holloman Papers.
“Brutality Claims Linked”: PS, July 13, 1968.
“thin blue line” protecting society: Holloman, “Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We Are Going,” Memphis Rotary Club, February 18, 1969, Holloman Papers. See also PS, April 20, 1968.
“We have stood against anarchy”: Statement of Frank C. Holloman to City Council, January 6, 1970, Holloman Papers.
the full brunt of a police crackdown: Beifuss, At the River, p. 244.
“Blood streamed down the side”: CA, March 29, 1968.
Police shot one black man: PS, March 29, 1968.
200 African Americans faced charges: CA, April 3, 1968.
black youth laughed and joked: CA, March 30, 1968, p. 18.
“We expected Memphis to respond”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 249.
“keeping the militant youth”: SSC Video, Reel 30, Tape 6.
“Ain’t we gonna march”: Billings and Greenya, Public Worker, p. 198.
film footage showed them: SSC Video, Reel 34, March 29, 1968, pp. 54–55.
Starks shook the hand of each man: Ibid.
“most famous streets, memorialized”: CA, March 30, 1968, p. 1.
placards reading, “I Am A Man”: SSC Video, Reel 42, April 1, 1968, p. 70.
“Their willingness to go out there”: Washington Post, March 31, 1968.
sent out a letter to unions: AFL-CIO News, April 6, 1968, p. 4.
did better on strike benefits: Beasley int., ATR.
“By the time we got to the platform”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 258.
ministers met at Reverend Dick Moon’s: Ibid., pp. 249–50.
wrote a manifesto: Ibid., p. 250.
seminary professors also wrote: Washington Post, March 31, 1968.
began talk about a summit meeting: Beifuss, At the River, p. 251.
transcend the black-white divide: Ezekial Bell, depicted as such a firebrand and black nationalist in the press, joined with Darrell Doughty at Parkway Gardens Presbyterian Church in an attempt to form a “truly integrated congregation.” On April 4, he would write an open letter to whites asking them to join his interracial church, also suggesting many specific things they could do to increase communication between blacks and whites. See Ezekial Bell, “Open Letter,” April 4, 1968, and “Dear Charles,” April 4, 1968. Both in Box 5, File 18, SSC.
“do unto others”: Memphis Ministers Association, “Appeal to Conscience,” March 31, 1968, Box 5, File 18, SSC.
“has expanded into a broad human rights”: Washington Post, March 31, 1968, p. 1.
“the Negro racist groups [that] converted”: Donelson to C. M. Herron, Equitable Life Insurance, March 5, 1968, Folder 8, Item 22, SSC.
“give in to criminals and law violators”: A “Concerned Citizen” to Councilman Lewis Donelson, March 13, 1968, Donelson File, SSC.
“cower before the union”: Mrs. B. S. Eastman to Councilman Lewis Donelson, February 23, 1968, Donelson File, SSC.
Donelson pressed a resolution: Taylor Blair to Downing Pryor, March 28, 1968, Box 8, Folder 13, SSC.
Others voted against: Beifuss, At the River, p. 251.
As the sixth week of the strike drew: Ibid.
450 people marched again in single file: FBI/MSS, April 1, 1968, Doc. 199.
Fearing the showing of his body: Ibid., April 2, 1968, Doc. 206, p. 3.
“They shot you down like a dog”: Ibid., SAC to Director, April 2, 1968, Doc. 210.
“There will probably not be a Negro”: FBI/MSS, SAC to Director, April 2, 1968, Doc. 206, p. 3; Arkin Report, p. 61.
sanitation workers marched peacefully: FBI/MSS, SAC to Director, April 2, 1968, Doc. 210.
King’s staff pulled into Memphis: FBI/MSS, April 1, 1968, Doc. 199.
The Invaders—on SCLC’s bill: Cabbage int. (M.H.).
Jackson had initially told Cabbage: Cabbage, “Memphis Strike Roundtable.”
“fed up” and “disgusted” Jackson: FBI/MSS, March 30, 1968, Doc. 201, p. 9.
The Invaders were not responsible: An FBI informant verified that though some of the Invaders had been “agitating” young people, “the actual BOP people did not participate in any of the vandalism.” FBI/MSS, April 2, 1968, Doc. 206, p. 12. Many students claimed to be Invaders by putting the name on their jackets, but few of them were affiliated with BOP. FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 184, p. 12. An FBI source also said that only one percent of marchers were involved in looting, and many of them were “criminally inclined” rather than movement people. FBI/MSS, March 29, 1968, Doc. 184, p. 13. Another FBI report said that young adults with criminal records started the looting, and it even listed the names and addresses of some of them. FBI/MSS, April 2, 1968, Doc. 228. The Memphis Police had also found black men selling merchandise stolen during the looting. FBI/MSS, April 3, 1968, Doc. 236.
Ballard was the only BOP organizer: PS, April 4, 1968, pp. 6, 25.
“There are only about 12 to 15”: The FBI said Cabbage, John Burl Smith, Charles Ballard, Edwina Jeanetta Harrell, Verdell Brooks, James Phillips, Charles Harrington, and Clifford Taylor had identified themselves to the FBI as Invaders leaders on February 16, 1968. FBI/MSS, March 30, 1968, Doc. 201, p. 11, quote on p. 8.
“all want to destroy the King image”: FBI/MSS, April 2, 1968, Doc. 206.
“keeping the lid on”: Ibid., pp. 8–9.
“the preachers aren’t going”: Arkin Report, p. 61.
At a press conference on Monday, April 1: SSC Video, Reel 40, April 2, 1968, p. 66.
for an end to “plantation rule”: Ibid., Reel 42, April 1, 1968, p. 70.
a plan to “redistribute the pain”: CA, April 3, 1968, p. 8.
“White businesses in the Negro community”: Arkin Report, p. 61; CA, April 2, 1968, p. 1.
“We’re here as political psychiatrists”: FBI/MSS, April 3, 1968, Doc. 237, p. 3.
“We unequivocally believe in”: CA, April 2, 1968, p. 1.
make the mass march a national event: FBI/MSS, April 2, 1968, Doc. 210. According to Frank, King announced the march as a national event at the airport, but it is not clear who actually made the decision to turn it into a national march, or when. Frank, An American Death, p. 43.
increased their pressure on the Invaders: FBI/MSS, April 2, 1968, Docs. 230, 249. See also Arkin Report, p. 61.
COME Strategy Committee met: FBI/MSS, April 5, 1968, Doc. 273.
$3,000 in legal fees: FBI reports tell of the Invaders’ continuing struggle for money and legal expenses to be paid by COME. See FBI/MSS, June 1968.
The Invaders now turned to SCLC: Jim Bishop wrote that the Invaders had asked for $100,000 from the Memphis ministers, but they told them “they wouldn’t get one dollar.” Bishop, The Days of MLK, p. 35. Branch puts the demand at $200,000, and it may have been more than that. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 754; Cabbage int. (M.H.).
“keep the pressure on the white man”: FBI/MSS, SA Lawrence to SAC, April 13, 1968, Doc. 326. Charles Cabbage corroborated this discussion. Cabbage int. (M.H.).
“Mr. Chandler, we have just about”: CA, April 3, 1968, p. 8; Beifuss, At the River, p. 264.
John T. Fisher thought: CA, March 30, 1968; see Fisher File, SSC.
Ned Cook, one of the city’s most: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 286–87.
go to court to place strike leaders: Arkin Report, p. 59.
“We’ve won the strike”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 266.
18. SHATTERED DREAMS AND PROMISED LANDS
made a powerful moral appeal: King, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” in Carson and Holloran, eds., A Knock at Midnight, pp. 201–24.
Johnson bowed out: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, pp. 745–46.
“We cannot stand two more summers”: CA, April 1, 1968, p. 35. King was not fantasizing about the potential for a fascist state: Congress had funded and actually built federal concentration camps for “subversives,” to be used if the president declared a national security emergency under the 1950 McCarran Act.
In an article slated for publication: King, “Showdown for Nonviolence,” Look, April 16, 1968, Vol. 32, pp. 23–25. Reprinted in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 64–72.
King seemed willing to call off: “Dr. King Hints He’d Cancel March if Aid Is Offered,” New York Times, April 1, 1968, p. 20.
“Dr. King’s picture came before me”: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 261–62.
called in a threat to kill him: The FBI did not tell the MPD about the plane threat until 2 pm, several hours later. Arkin Report, p. 59.
“Well, it looks like they won’t”: Abernathy, Walls Came Tumbling, p. 428.
Death threats against King: Kotz, Judgment Days, p. 119; McKnight, Last Crusade, pp. 68–69; FBI/MSS, April 1–3, 1968; Arkin Report, pp. 61–63; and FBI/MLK reports, passim.
On April 2, a white businessman: Arkin Report, pp. 61–63.
deplaned at the Memphis airport: FBI/MSS, April 3, 1968, Doc. 215.
SCLC bookkeeper Jim Harrison: Harrison joined King’s staff as a bookkeeper in October 1964, began receiving FBI payments a year later, and remained an FBI informant and staff member at least until July 1971. Garrow, The FBI and MLK, pp. 174–75.
“Wilkins Doubts King Can Control”: PS, April 3, 1968, p. 1.
“If I were a man”: Redditt int. (M.H.).
MPD squad of four white men: Arkin Report, p. 64; Pepper, Orders to Kill, pp. 150, 224–25, 281, 291. According to Pepper, the white group included Davis, Lt. William Schultz, Detective Ronald B. Howell, and Inspector J. S. Gagliano. He says D. Hamby and someone named Tucker were also at the Lorraine. See U.S. House of Representatives, Final Assassinations Report, p. 547.
Davis asked Matthews: Department of Justice, Security and Assassination Investigations, p. 27.
Don Smith, a leader of the city’s: McKnight, Last Crusade, p. 67.
Lawson was not oblivious: Lawson int. (M.H.).
did not ask for police protection: Frank, An American Death, p. 46.
“I’m committed to nonviolence”: King, “Showdown for Nonviolence,” Look, April 16, 1968, Vol. 32, pp. 23–25, reprinted in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 64–72. See also Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 746.
As Redditt and Willie Richmond followed: Redditt int. (M.H.).
Hoover had said in 1964: McKnight, Last Crusade, p. 69.
later censured the FBI: Ibid., pp. 57–58.
listed twenty-one long-distance calls: FBI/MSS, SAC Memphis to SAC Cleveland, March 28, 1968, Doc. 180, pp. 4–6.
After one late-night bargaining session: Lawson comments made at the Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University, tape courtesy of Mike Smith.
who fought KKK anti-union terrorism: Alzada Clark int. (M.H.).
Wharlest Jackson in Natchez: Payne, I’ve Got the Light, p. 197.
McCullough of the Invaders: Pepper, Orders to Kill, pp. 431, 444.
“would have given their eye teeth”: McKnight, Last Crusade, p. 154.
The MPD named him Max: On April 13, the FBI reviewed its work on the Invaders and said Max had been operating in BOP and The Invaders since at least early March. He worked for the police, not the FBI, which had no black agents, and was apparently the only full-time police officer inside in the Invaders. FBI/MSS, SA Lawrence to SAC, April 13, 1968, Doc. 326. Another report says Max’s undercover assignment began in February. Department of Justice, Security and Assassination Investigations, p. 25.
McKenzie unwittingly signed him up: FBI/MSS, April 3, 1968, Doc. 232; Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 754.
“felt that BOP has been infiltrated”: FBI/MSS, April 2, 1968, Doc. 206, p. 7.
later worked for the CIA: Posner reports that McCullough was employed by the CIA as late as 1998, but he refused to be interviewed. Posner, Killing the Dream, p. 31. Lawson and Cabbage both heard of his later involvement in the CIA.
111th Military Intelligence Group: CA, November 30, 1997; CA, March 19, 2003; CA, May 19, 2003.
units had been tracking King: Posner concludes MID surveillance activities against King were real, but conspiracy theorists inflated them to include assassinating King. Posner, Killing the Dream, ch. 22. For another theory, see Pepper, Orders to Kill, pp. 441–43, 446, 448, 449, 454, 457, 459.
MID regarded labor, civil rights: CA, November 30, 1997.
MID units had in fact tracked King: CA, March 21, 1993.
destroyed its surveillance records: CA, November 30, 1997.
“What some people don’t remember”: CA, March 21, 1993.
FBI regularly shared its reports: These memos were furnished to William Bray, 111th Military Intelligence Group, Memphis. FBI/MSS, March 27, 1968, Doc. 152, and others. FBI/MSS, March 26, 1968, Doc. 155.
Holloman surely knew of FBI efforts: McKnight, Last Crusade, pp. 64–65; Garrow, The FBI and MLK, pp. 190, 194–97.
Ray grew up in miserable circumstances: For a devastating portrait of the depressed Ray family, see Bishop, The Days of MLK, pp. 37–43, and Posner, Killing the Dream.
“Nobody can reason with Jimmy”: Huie, He Slew the Dreamer, p. 106.
“standing offer” of a reward: U.S. House of Representatives, Final Assassinations Report, pp. 471–89.
Ray had been in Los Angeles, Selma: Huie, He Slew the Dreamer, pp. 122–24, 128–30, 132–33, 135.
“the fastest hand operated”: Ibid., p. 138.
stayed at the New Rebel Hotel: Posner, Killing the Dream, p. 22; Beifuss, At the River, p. 271.
“MARTIN LUTHER KING has proven”: Arkin Report, pp. 62–63.
On the day of King’s return: Arkin Report, pp. 62–63.
“would have been the end”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 286.
Another black minister went to the police: Arkin Report, p. 62.
tried to publish a quarter-page ad: Beifuss, At the River, p. 269.
run the picture as a news item: A full picture of this billboard had also been carried by the Press-Scimitar. PS, March 23, 1965.
stories about King’s disruptive activities: Beifuss, At the River, p. 263.
“We are not going to be stopped”: CA, April 4, 1968, p. 1.
In Judge Brown’s courtroom: The city linked King to a conspiracy whose combined actions “are calculated to lead to great racial agitation and hatred and will disrupt the peace and well being of the entire community, both white and negro.” City of Memphis v. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., et al., C-68-80, signed by Loeb, Frank Gianotti, E. Brady Bartusch, James Manire, and Frierson Graves, SSC.
“We are fearful that in the turmoil”: CA, April 4, 1968, p. 1.
“from organizing or leading”: Temporary Restraining Order, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Western Division, C-68-80. Reproduced in FBI/MSS, April 3, 1968, Doc. 234.
“There was no more reason”: Abernathy, Walls Came Tumbling, p. 437.
Memphis attorney Lucius Burch: Beifuss, At the River, p. 270; Burch int., SSC.
he believed that Loeb and most of his: Burch said Loeb “had no experience at being exposed to what is developing and what has developed among Negroes. Nor does he know Negroes very well.” Burch int., SSC.
Labor mediator Frank Miles: Beifuss, At the River, p. 273; Miles int., SSC.
a meeting with black ministers: For details, see Beifuss, At the River, p. 275.
Chamber of Commerce, Future Memphis: SSC Video, Reel 43, April 3, 1968.
“The BOP group is still uncontrollable”: FBI/MSS, April 4, 1968, Doc. 244.
Young nearly came to blows: Garrow says Young and Smith had “a heated exchange” about demands for money. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 622. Cabbage said Smith and SCLC staff had to be restrained early in the evening of April 3, and that Smith physically attacked Young later that night when they went to the Paradise nightclub together. Cabbage int. (M.H.).
“KING endeavored to convince”: FBI/MSS, April 4, 1968, Doc. 251.
“Unless King spends many hours”: Ibid., Doc. 244.
“King was very much afraid”: Garrow, The FBI and MLK, p. 199.
“will spend much money”: FBI/MSS, April 4, 1968, Doc. 244.
When Abernathy walked into Mason: Beifuss, At the River, p. 277; Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, pp. 755–56; Abernathy, Walls Came Tumbling, pp. 430–31.
Various people spoke and sang: SSC Video, Reel 44, April 3, 1968; FBI/MSS, Lowe to SAC, April 4, 1968, Doc. 252.
“despite Dr. King’s honors”: Bishop, The Days of MLK, p. 35.
some people thought he was nervous: Kyles, Middlebrook, and Lawson, SSC ints.
King stepped to the podium at 9:30: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 756.
“Something is happening in Memphis”: For all quotes, see King, “I See the Promised Land,” in Washington, ed., Testament, pp. 279–86. An earlier transcript with different punctuation and notations on audience response is in the MLK Papers.
aimed these words especially at Cabbage: Cabbage int. (M.H.).
through one of his favorite lessons: He gave variations on the parable at the New Covenant Baptist Church in Chicago in April 1967; at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery in December 1967; and to his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on March 3, 1968; as well as other places.
Ben Davis, formerly the black Communist councilman from Harlem: Friedly and Gallen, Martin Luther King, Jr., pp. 21, 118; District 65 RWDSU stewards and officers to King, September 29, 1958, Western Union, in MLK Papers, 580929-000, Stanford University, courtesy of Kerry Taylor.
Lawson had moved off the podium: Frank, An American Death, p. 54.
King had told his followers: Burns, To the Mountaintop, p. 151.
“He had a strange look on his face”: Barbara Brown, “The Voices of Civil Rights: Ordinary People. Extraordinary Stories,” www.voicesofcivilrights.org.
“ministers who ordinarily would”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 280.
“There was an overwhelming mood”: Hampton and Fayer, eds., Voices of Freedom, pp. 465–66.
“King was like Moses”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 309.
“His hands were as soft as cotton”: Barbara Brown, “The Voices of Civil Rights: Ordinary People. Extraordinary Stories,” www.voicesofcivilrights.org.
19. “A CRUCIFIXION EVENT”
“The white man has killed”: CA, April 8, 1968, p. 8.
King went to eat at Reverend Ben Hooks’s: Frank, An American Death, p. 57.
They stayed up until 4:30 AM: According to FBI agents, King arrived in the Lorraine Motel courtyard with Abernathy and Bernard Lee at 4:30 am and then stayed up until 8 am visiting with his brother and Mrs. Davis. FBI, “Report of the Department of Justice Task Force,” p. 21. Nothing corroborates Abernathy’s account, in which he recounts King’s conflicts with two women earlier that night, in a book loaded with factual mistakes and distortions. Walls Came Tumbling, pp. 434–36. King apparently may have had a sexual liaison that night and at other times with Kentucky State Senator Georgia Davis. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, pp. 589–90, 759.
“I don’t think anybody can have”: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 5.
met at 10:30 that morning: Frank, An American Death, pp. 47, 56.
a newcomer from Detroit: Theodore Manuel claimed to have participated in the Detroit riot. FBI investigations in Wayne County found no arrest record for him, although they did find a record that he had been injured during the Memphis riot on March 28. Arkin Report, p. 67.
King entered the discussion: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 760.
John Burl Smith felt angry: Smith, “The Dish,” Vol. 2, Issue 1.
had already proposed to Cabbage: Cabbage int. (M.H.). SCLC had already listed Cabbage on a staff roster. SCLC Papers, Box 280, Folder 9.
“grim and businesslike”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 622.
“I’d rather be dead than afraid”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 622; Abernathy, Walls Came Tumbling, p. 437.
“We tended to assume”: Young, An Easy Burden, p. 460.
started a lively pillow fight: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 623; Eyes on the Prize: The Promised Land, PBS film; and Young, An Easy Burden, p. 464.
Jensen directed FBI surveillance: Arkin Report, pp. 38–40.
refusing to advance black firemen: Black fireman Carl Stotts later sued the city in federal court for systemic discrimination against blacks. For NAACP suits and complaints on behalf of black firemen, see Box 5, Folder 18, SSC.
At the mass meeting: Frank, An American Death, pp. 64–65.
This left Redditt and Richmond: The Justice Department investigators documented the fire-department lookout but said there was no electronic surveillance on King. Department of Justice, Security and Assassination Investigations, pp. 24, 29–30. Frank seemed to assume that Holloman’s police agents were there for King’s protection, but Lawson did not believe it. Frank, An American Death, p. 46, and Lawson int. (M.H.).
investigators allegedly watched SCLC: In the fifth official investigation of King’s murder, the Justice Department interviewed some 200 witnesses relating to the assassination, including an ex-Army agent who participated in the MID surveillance. CA, June 9, 2000. Freelance investigator William Pepper alleged that MID snipers had King in the sights of their rifles at the time of his shooting, but he couldn’t prove it: a lawsuit forced his publisher to retract his identification of a military officer as false. CA, June 22, 1999. See also CA, March 21, 1993, and CA, November 30, 1997.
“for fear that they might be blamed”: Arkin Report, p. 66.
false reports that Stokely Carmichael: Ibid.
marshals guarded the homes: Ibid., p. 69.
black revolutionary from out of state: One version said the threat came from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, but Holloman and Lux told Redditt it was from the Revolutionary Action Movement. Arkin Report, p. 66 and fn. 345. These were both false reports. Department of Justice, Security and Assassination Investigations, pp. 30–31, and Frank, An American Death, p. 65.
Redditt protested: Redditt int. (M.H.).
MPD’s TAC Unit 10: Arkin Report, p. 45.
signed over a $10,000 check: Cabbage said photographer Ernest Withers even took a picture of the check so that SCLC could not claim it was no good. Cabbage int. (M.H.) The House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that King rejected any funding for the Invaders, but Cabbage said they did not ask him about this, so he didn’t volunteer any information. U.S. House of Representatives, Final Assassinations Report, p. 364.
SCLC had made no such payment: U.S. House of Representatives, Final Assassinations Report, p. 364.
a car pulled into the courtyard: Department of Justice, Security and Assassination Investigations, p. 25.
Around 5:50, the Invaders left: Arkin Report, p. 67. Pepper says some Invaders left with Cabbage and others left on foot. Pepper, Orders to Kill, pp. 256, 258.
Cabbage felt particularly: Cabbage int. (M.H.).
whole scene seemed “eerie”: Smith, “The Dish.”
“This is like the old Movement days”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 291.
he stood on the balcony talking: Beifuss, At the River, p. 292; Young, An Easy Burden, p. 464; and New York Times, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
Everyone in the courtyard: Frank, An American Death, pp. 77, 81.
The force of this powerful rifle shot: The autopsy report came from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Tennessee Department of Health. FBI, “Report of the Department of Justice Task Force,” pp. 154–55. See also Bishop, The Days of MLK, p. 23.
“Oh, Lord, they’ve shot Martin”: Kyles int., SSC.
Kyles could not make a phone call: descriptions of the moment in Frank, An American Death, p. 76; Beifuss, At the River, p. 305; Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 767; and Kyles int., SSC.
150 police officers suddenly swarmed: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
“When I turned around”: New York Times, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
By 6:06, a police dispatcher sent: Frank, An American Death, p. 84; Arkin Report, pp. 67–68.
By 6:09, an ambulance sped King: Arkin Report, p. 68; Kyles int., SSC.
identified a white man fleeing: FBI, “Report of the Department of Justice Task Force,” p. 47; Arkin Report, pp. 67–68; Beifuss, At the River, pp. 292–93; Bishop, The Days of MLK, pp. 66, 72. For the most recent investigation of the assassination and theories about King’s killer, see Posner, Killing the Dream.
late-model blue or white Mustang: New York Times, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
“‘John Henry, what’s wrong with you?’”: Smith int., SSC; Beifuss, At the River, p. 296.
Fanion showed up a few minutes later: Beifuss, At the River, p. 294.
Lucy and Baxton Bryant quickly obtained passes: Ibid., p. 297.
“I just went numb”: For reactions to King’s death, see Beifuss, At the River, pp. 295–306.
“Just respect the man [King] enough”: Ibid., p. 303.
“We used to have a choice”: Ibid.
“The people were telling us to go to hell”: Ibid.
“They were having a terrific argument”: Ibid.
reporters trying to get to the Lorraine: Ibid., pp. 295, 303.
At St. Joseph’s Hospital: Bishop, The Days of MLK, pp. 79–82.
“Memphis and America damned to hell”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 300.
“If only they had listened”: Ibid.
Loeb asked Netters to unite them: Netters interviewed in the film Eyes on the Prize: The Promised Land.
The mayor moved on and spent: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 8; Beifuss, At the River, p. 294.
Wax and friends heard the news: Beifuss, At the River, p. 297.
“Son of a bitch. You remember”: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 13.
“Like any other dead nigger”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card 231.
Powell decided Memphis was not safe: Michael Loler, “Tommy Powell, the Face of Labor,” Mid-South Magazine; CA, February 2, 1986.
“We just killed that black S.O.B.”: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 13.
later that evening, Ernest Withers: Frank, An American Death, pp. 109–10.
“He just act so different”: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 8; Beifuss, At the River, pp. 305, 366.
She went into a coma and died: Beifuss, At the River, p. 305.
riot conditions once again descended: New York Times, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
blacks with guns pinned down police: Arkin Report, p. 69.
“He died for us”: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
more than 30,000 long-distance calls: Beifuss, At the River, p. 302.
“Rioting and looting is rampant”: Arkin Report, pp. 69–70.
“If a riot or violence would erupt”: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
“I wish that Stokely Carmichael”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 308.
“Truthfully, I wanted to go out”: Ibid.
That night, police received 806 emergency: For figures, see CA, April 6, 1968, p. 8.
subjected blacks to preemptory searches: TSD, April 6, 1968; Lawson int., SSC; Beifuss, At the River, pp. 304–5.
“Our neighborhood was like a tomb”: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” p. 110.
“When white America killed Dr. King”: Wall Street Journal, April 8, 1968, p. 1.
“You could see the enormous pall”: Pyle, Military Surveillance, p. 113.
smoke ringed a White House: New York Times, April 6, 1968, p. 23; Pyle, Military Surveillance, pp. 100–3; Gilbert, Ten Blocks.
“America shall not be ruled”: PS, April 5, 1968.
He called on Congress to enact aid: CA, April 6, 1968.
“Brotherhood was murdered”: National Review, April 2, 1968, p. 376.
“This is America’s answer”: CA, April 5, 1968, p. 12.
In response, urban riots: CA, April 7, 1968, p. 4.
$100 million in damages: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” p. 114. Frank lists $130 million in damages within the first twenty-four hours of the riots. Frank, An American Death, p. 78.
“In its sweep and immediacy”: Time, April 19, 1968, pp. 15–16.
50,000 soldiers standing by: Pyle, Military Surveillance, p. 98.
“We have an insurgency”: Ibid., p. 104.
Guardsmen patrolled black Memphis: SSC Video, Reels 45–51.
indicted Willie Henry, striker Willie Kemp: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 8.
Initial police reports said Ellis Tate: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 8.
Black people expressed a mixture of rage: For quotes, see CA, April 6, 1968, p. 8.
police report to the U.S. attorney general: For figures, see International Association of Chiefs Police, “Civil Disorders, After-Action Reports,” Box 5, File 16, SSC.
Coke bottles: Military veterans in North Carolina favored beer bottles over Coke bottles for Molotov cocktails by a wide margin. Tyson, Blood Done Sign.
“That’s what I thought everybody”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 313.
others across the globe expressed outrage: New York Times, April 6, 1968, p. 1.
“King’s Murder Horrifies World”: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 1.
“Dark Continent Weeps for King”: CA, April 7, 1968, p. 2.
In the garment district: The Dispatcher, April 12, 1968.
the movement to declare his birthday: Will P. Jones, “Working-Class Hero,” The Nation, January 30, 2006, pp. 23–25.
In Vietnam, many black soldiers: New York Times, April 8, 1968.
“There was a great sense of unity”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 314.
20. RECKONINGS
“Here came a man talking”: Cabbage int., Bunche oral history collection.
“It hit me hard—not surprise”: Scott King, My Life, p. 318.
Mrs. King returned home and spent: Ibid., pp. 319–21.
“This is what is going to happen to me”: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 307.
“You realize that what you are doing”: New York Times, April 5, 1968, p. 34.
Coretta knew all about his deep depression: Scott King, My Life, pp. 30915.
King met with his parents: King, Sr., Daddy King, pp. 186–87.
“Martin didn’t say directly”: CA, April 2, 1978.
people poured through the R. S. Lewis Funeral Home: SSC Video, Reel 47, April 4–5, 1968.
“a pitiful handful of whites”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 316.
King’s brother A. D. and his sister Christine: King, Sr., Daddy King, p. 189; Scott King, My Life, pp. 324–25.
“would plead with us all the time”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 316.
150 forlorn people stood at the runway: CA, April 6, 1968, pp. 22, 36.
“his face looked so young”: Scott King, My Life, p. 324.
She spoke for King at a mass: New York Times, April 5, 1968, p. 34.
she presided at a WILPF conference: Memphis Police and Fire Director Frank Holloman was also in Washington that day to meet with the International Association of Police Chiefs to plan riot control in the cities. Pepper, Orders to Kill, p. 452.
“All women have a common bond”: Press release and photo, United Press International, March 28, 1968, in 5700, PS File, MVC.
“He gave his life for the poor”: CA, April 7, 1968, p. 9; Scott King, My Life, p. 327.
white Memphians suddenly caught a glimpse: CA, April 7, 1968; CA, April 8, 1968, p. 26.
“restraint, gentleness, charity”: SSC Video, Reel 54, transcript, pp. 88–91.
“We had to express something”: SSC Documents and Artifacts, Folder 40, File 8, Midge Wade.
He had been among the white moderates: Bass, Blessed Are the Peacemakers.
“to restore human dignity”: SSC Video, Reel 60, April 7, 1968, transcript, p. 96.
“wounded for our transgressions”: Lewis, “Southern Religion,” p. 128. Joan Beifuss provides a slightly different account of this ministerial gathering. Beifuss, At the River, p. 318.
“We who are white confess”: “Ministers’ Statement to Mayor Given after March from St. Mary’s Cathedral to City Hall on April 5, 1968,” Box 7, Folder 41, SSC.
approached the ministers with their pistols: Lewis, “Southern Religion,” p. 131.
“to create a new community”: SSC Video, Reel 49, April 5, 1968, p. 82.
“We came here with a great deal of sadness”: SSC Video, Reel 47, April 5, 1968, transcript. Accounts differ as to the exact wording of Rabbi Wax’s comments. See Beifuss, At the River, p. 321, and CA, April 6, 1968, p. 17.
“I understand and share with you sorrow”: SSC Video, Reel 57, April 5, 1968; Beifuss, At the River, p. 320; and CA, April 6, 1968, p. 17.
“Will you agree to a dues check off”: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 17.
“If we had been able to get a hearing”: SSC Video, Reel 49, April 5, 1968, p. 83.
captured the contradictions of Loeb: I Am A Man: Photographs, p. 115.
they camped out at city hall: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 322–23. “An Open Letter From the Hunger Strikers,” April 15, 1968, Box 9, Folder 66, SSC, includes fifteen signatures.
Ramsey Clark, ashen-faced: SSC Video, Reel 48, April 5, 1968, transcript, pp. 81–82.
“no evidence of a widespread plot”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 324; CA, April 6, 1968, p. 22.
“Mobs Must Not Rule”: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 6.
FBI sent around an absurd memo: Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, p. 769.
Time magazine surveyed black Memphians: An FBI report cited the Time survey and said a rumor was going around that a police officer had killed King. FBI/MSS, April 12, 1968, Doc. 307, pp. 1–2.
“If he was shot out of a window”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 312.
“Oh, Mrs. Viar,” the woman responded: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card 135.
“got some sharp-shooters, too”: Honey, Black Workers, p. 312.
ninety FBI agents and twenty-seven police detectives: CA, April 7, 1968, p. 1.
Cartha DeLoach, who had engineered: Ibid.
some fifteen of them: New York Times, April 5, 1968, p. 1.
James Orange and John Burl Smith claimed: Arkin Report, p. 68.
“There is a basic mistrust”: PS, April 12, 1968, p. 1.
Netters and Fred Davis both said blacks: Arkin Report, p. 82.
The capture of James Earl Ray: Posner, Killing the Dream, pp. 44–47.
“This fellow was a link”: TSD, April 20, 1968.
Dr. Benjamin Mays, preaching at King’s funeral: April 20, 1968, p. 1.
surveillance on King: U.S. House of Representatives, Final Assassinations Report, pp. 471–89.
MPD burned its surveillance files: The author was a plaintiff in an ACLU suit (Kendrick v. Chandler, 76-449) to stop the Memphis Police Department from burning its files. Despite a court order not to do so, the police burned them on September 10, 1976.
In a civil trial: Douglass, “The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed.”
many civil rights supporters, however, asked: Lawson int., SSC.
“It obviously was not done by a citizen”: CA, May 5, 1968.
“All this to-do over King’s death”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card 56.
“if they come through my door”: Ibid., Card 214.
“Martin Lucifer”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51, Card 49.
“Martin Luther Coon”: Ibid., Card 106.
why someone hadn’t killed King sooner: Ibid., Cards 45, 62, 149, 77.
A white insurance agent could not believe: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card 247.
“Each of us’ heart and prayers”: SSC Video, Reel 47, April 10, 1968, transcript, pp. 80–81.
“King brought violence everywhere”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card 201.
a white man “laughed and laughed”: Ibid., Card 185. Another white man in a restaurant blurted out, “Well, we got one, now we’ll get the rest of them.”
“What’s black and slower”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a.
“Do you know why they’re looking”: Ibid.
“Why do the colored people want”: Ibid.
“I hear there’s to be a Spider march”: Ibid.
teacher distributed My Weekly Reader: Ibid., Card 265.
“How am I going to teach law and order”: Ibid., Card 196.
a survey of 173: Beifuss, At the River, p. 358.
this “political debasement” made it difficult: Wander, “Symbols in the Radical Right,” pp. 4–14.
“the biggest Communist in the nation”: CA, April 7, 1968, pp. 3–4.
“Don’t you think this is all part”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card 27.
“King with his Communist background”: Ibid., Card 60.
“so stupid he is easy to dupe”: Ibid., Card 76.
“In the Negro movement”: Ibid., Card 152.
“has been to Russia”: Ibid., Card 286.
“was organizing a communist revolution”: Ibid., Card 109.
“Abernathy will never make it”: Ibid., Card 378.
Mrs. King would also be killed: Ibid., Card 327.
“Way to go, fella, way to go”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a.
“Got a gun?”: Ibid.
that the “crazy nigger” King: Ibid., Card 136.
“I just can’t stand feeding lazy people”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a.
“No matter what else there is”: Ibid.
Johnson demanded his counsel: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, p. 462.
Rustin and Norman Hill: Lawson int., SSC.
“Dr. King understood that political”: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, p. 462.
Infusions of funds from labor: PS, April 16, 1968, p. 1; Wurf int., SSC; Lawson int., SSC; Billings and Greenya, Public Worker, p. 187; “AFSCME Wins in Memphis,” The Public Worker, April 1968, p. 6.
Field Foundation donated $30,000: New York Times, April 17, 1968, p. 24.
“I feel that Henry Loeb is the cause”: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 8.
“Mens are mens these days”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 328.
white auditor named Richard Pullen: CA, April 9, 1968, p. 17.
An anonymous donor also made an offer: CA, April 6, 1968, p. 17.
“more than outrageous, it’s laughable”: Ibid.
adopted a resolution by Lewis Donelson: SSC Video, Reel 50, transcript, pp. 83–84.
wouldn’t even “take the first step”: CA, April 18, 1968, p. 16.
“I don’t care whether you are asked”: Reynolds int., SSC.
ten deaths and 711 fires: Time, April 19, 1968, p. 16. See also Gilbert, Ten Blocks.
“National Guardsmen Find Memphis”: CA, April 7, 1968, p. 12.
“I don’t come here as a meddling”: Ibid., p. 1.
“We are not ever going to recognize”: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 330–31.
Meanwhile, seventy-five or eighty volunteers: Ibid., pp. 331–33.
Sunday sermon, distributed in print: For quotes, see Dimmick, “Palm Sunday, April 7, 1968,” Box 7, Folder 41, SSC.
“Well, I may be a bigot”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card marked, “Bigotry in White Church.”
“The quiet, complacent middle class”: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Memphis, To Honorable Henry Loeb, April 7, 1968, Box 41, Folder 17, Church Response, SSC.
During Sunday services: The Chamber of Commerce asked 1,146 local ministers to tell their congregations that the chamber was planning a series of meetings to improve black economic and work conditions.
Complaints about this apparent turn: For quotes, see CA, April 7, 1968, pp. 8 and 12 and Sec. 6, p. 3.
workers could cure their own poverty: CA, April 14, 1968, Sec. 6, p. 3.
had taken leave of their senses: Lewis, “Southern Religion,” p. 85.
write to the newspapers and criticize white racism: For examples, see CA, April 7, 1968, Sec. 6, p. 3; CA, April 10, 1968, p. 7; and CA, April 14, 1968, Sec. 6, p. 3.
white backlash against activist ministers: Lewis, “Southern Religion,” pp. 137–40, 144, 147–50, 160.
James Bevel spoke of Jeremiah: CA, April 8, 1968, p. 17.
“The only thing left to do”: Charles Rego Warren, Students’ Responses, SSC.
“You could see and feel the hate”: Frankie Gross, age 17, Ibid.
“are sincere or just trying to console”: Calvin Dickerson, age 17, Ibid.
“I was so hurt when I heard”: Alice Wright, age 17, Ibid.
“I wanted to go out and do as much”: Milton Parson, age 17, Ibid.
“to stop her children from getting”: SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a, Card 298.
9,000 people, about 40 percent of them black: Beifuss, At the River, p. 334.
“Memphis Cares” organizers asked them: CA, April 8, 1968, p. 1.
Mary Collier, a black woman: “Presentation at ‘Memphis Cares’ Meeting, Sunday, April 7, 1968,” Box 7, Folder 39, SSC. New York Times, April 8, 1968, p. 33.
“America is the greatest country”: Beifuss, At the River, pp. 334–36.
“God’s judgment on you and me”: Ibid., pp. 337–38.
“the only power that Jim Lawson has”: CA, April 10, 1968, p. 21.
“If I want a place to walk”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 338; Fisher, “Memphis Strike Roundtable.”
that city—as well as Nashville, Raleigh: New York Times, April 9, 1968, p. 1.
350 AFSCME workers and 250 members: Unionists apparently expected 1,000 workers to participate. CA, April 9, 1968, p. 10.
Scores of well-known public figures: FBI/MSS, April 9, 1968, Doc. 292, p. 2.
Undercover police and FBI agents: Ibid., April 7, 1968, Doc. 304, pp. 1–2.
“militant young Negroes”: Ibid., April 11, 1968, Doc. 301, pp. 1–3.
Ted Hoover gave his will to his secretary: Beifuss, At the River, p. 342.
“I really am a right-wing Republican”: CA, April 11, 1968, p. 59. See also Beifuss, At the River, pp. 339–40.
“We were carefully monitored”: Myra Dreifus, “I’ll Tell You Like It Was,” Box 40, Folder 6, SSC.
“HAVE YOU STOPPED TAKING”: Flyer passed out on April 8, 1968, Box 40, Folder 4, SSC.
“Today we honor Dr. King”: COME Flyer, April 8, 1968, Box 40, Folder 2, SSC.
“Keep it quiet, down to a limited number”: CA, April 9, 1968, p. 17.
“I would much rather be burning”: Ibid.
Police banned all traffic in the area: Ibid., p. 39.
“The most shocking sight”: Myra Dreifus, “I’ll Tell You Like It Was,” Box 40, Folder 6, SSC.
“I never have marched for any cause”: CA, April 9, 1968, p. 17.
“gave Dr. King what he came here for”: CA, April 9, 1968.
April 8 also represented the coalition: Beifuss, At the River, p. 341; New York Times, April 9, 1968, pp. 1, 33; and Lawson int., SSC.
Wurf declared that AFSCME would support: CA, April 9, 1968, p. 10; SSC Video, Reel 64, April 8, 1968, transcript, pp. 100–5.
“a land free of joblessness”: New York Times, April 9, 1968, p. 34.
“make all people truly free”: New York Times, April 9, 1968, p. 34; see also Scott King, My Life, pp. 344–47.
“If Mrs. King had cried”: Luella Cook, SSC, anecdotes, Box 51a.
“I got very tired but I felt”: Alice Wright, Ibid.
“too stunned to cry. Everything left me.”: Ernestine Johnson, age 18, Ibid.
“Yes, I marched. All the while”: Milton Parson, age 17, Ibid.
At least nineteen FBI agents had observed: FBI/MSS, April 10, 1968, Doc. 305, p. 5, and Doc. 306.
ILWU shut down many of the ports: CA, April 10, 1968, p. 8.
“about war and peace”: New York Times, April 10, 1968.
“believed especially that he was sent”: Scott King, My Life, p. 353.
“If death had to come”: Ibid., p. 355.
21. “WE HAVE GOT THE VICTORY”
“[Union organizers] think they’re peddling”: Billings and Greenya, Public Worker, p. 201.
“A pebble dropped into a calm pool”: CA, April 19, 1968, p. 19.
At dawn, Loeb went home to bed: Beifuss, At the River, p. 346; PS, April 8, 1968, p. 20.
“Mayor Loeb beamed as he showed”: CA, April 10, 1968, p. 1.
claimed to have received 1,000 letters: SSC Video, Reel 76, April 10–11, 1968, transcript, pp. 115–16.
“Critics Say the City”: Wall Street Journal, April 8, 1968, p. 1.
“The will to do the type of things”: Aldridge, “Memphis: The Pain of Transition,” Tempo, January 15, 1969, pp. 5, 11.
“100 Days of Love and Prayer”: CA, April 11, 1968, p. 59.
violence erupted in several cities: In Kansas City, one man was killed on Tuesday and five more people were killed on Wednesday. CA, April 10, 1968, p. 4; CA, April 12, 1968; and CA, April 13, 1968, p. 5.
Senate passed the 1968 Civil Rights Act: New York Times, April 12, 1968, p. 1; Public Law 90-284, April 11, 1968.
One hundred House Republicans had split: CA, April 11, 1968, p. 1.
Maddox conjectured that Communists: New York Times, April 12, 1968; Kotz, Judgment Days, pp. 356, 361, 367.
The National Rifle Association: The Nation, April 22, 1968, pp. 522–23; Bijlefeld, ed., Gun Control Debate, p. 76.
“Now all Negroes know”: Arkin Report, p. 77; PS, April 12, 1968, p. 1.
“violence of hatred”: CA, April 13, 1968.
200 black women intensified the pressure: FBI/MSS, April 15, 1968.
“City Must Bear Costly Loss”: CA, April 14, 1968.
$1 million in property losses: Arkin Report, p. 83.
“a vicious character attack”: PS, May 2, 1968.
Memphis Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary: Wurf int., SSC.
white businesspeople urged Loeb: Trotter, “The Memphis Business Community,” pp. 282–301.
turned over to the police a tourist’s lost wallet: CA, April 13, 1968. The wallet’s owner gave Wilson all the cash he had in the wallet—a $14 reward.
“have attacked and vilified Martin”: Time, April 26, 1968, p. 44.
Press-Scimitar editorially recognized: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” pp. 210–11.
editors at both major newspapers: Ibid.
Loeb received daily death threats: Arkin Report, pp. 78, 81.
sent him an anonymous postcard: Letters From Donors to COME After Assassination, 57–1, SSC.
Cabbage, John Burl Smith, Edwina Harrell: Arkin Report, pp. 78–81.
“some of the most militant nonviolent”: PS, April 16, 1968, p. 1.
“After Dr. King was killed”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 345.
“I think we would still be negotiating”: Billings and Greenya, Public Worker, p. 199.
“an independent, employee-run system”: Billings and Greenya, Public Worker, p. 199. The city admitted that it “has no control over the relationship between the employees and their Credit Union,” and that credit unions “are wholly separate corporations operating under Federal statutes.” “Memorandum of Understanding,” Folder 38, April 16, 1968, SSC.
sign an agreement with the union: “Memorandum of Understanding,” Folder 38, April 16, 1968, SSC.
city now balked at giving any money: New York Times, April 17, 1968, p. 24.
Miles approached industrialist Abe Plough: PS, April 16, 1968, p. 1.
a garbage tax that most affected poorer: CA, April 25, 1968. Netters and Patterson called for a sliding-scale tax based on income, but it didn’t happen. Cornelia Crenshaw said that even many blacks still objected to the increased fees. Crenshaw int., Bunche Papers.
“As we were going over the final”: Billings and Greenya, Public Worker, p. 200.
T. O. thought the union had watered: Jesse Jones int., ATR.
“This has been your fight”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 350.
“We are here to tell you about”: CA, April 16, 1968. See also PS, April 16, 1968, p. 1.
the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled: Union News, February 1969, p. 4.
“is a matter exclusively between”: Beifuss, At the River, p. 346.
As Loeb later pointed out to the press: PS, April 17, 1968, p. 1.
Workers listened tentatively as Wurf: SSC Video, Reels 77, 78, April 16, 1968, transcript, pp. 118–20; CA, April 17, 1968, p. 1.
Lawson now took the podium: PS, April 17, 1968, p. 1.
“COME will not be disbanded”: CA, April 17, 1968, p. 19.
Workers said the key to the victory: Ibid., p. 1.
“We won, but we lost a good man”: Newsweek, April 29, 1968, p. 22.
“There is no winner, except all of the people”: PS, April 17, 1968, p. 1.
250 strikebreakers would keep their jobs: Ibid.
“at least 200,495 people backing us up”: Loeb to Charles H. Tower, Executive Vice President, Corinthian Broadcasting Corporation, April 20, 1968, Series III, Box 84, Loeb Papers, SSC.
Reynolds and Frank Miles signed: SSC, “Memorandum of Understanding,” Folder 38, April 16, 1968.
“When I did that as a child”: Marshall and Van Adams, “The Memphis Public Employee Strike,” p. 179.
Even firemen and policemen: Most sanitation workers made about $312 a month; of 1,827 policemen and firemen, 1,045 made between $460 and $570 a month. PS, April 17, 1968, p. 12.
long-delayed 10 percent raise: CA, April 17, 1969, p. 1.
accepted virtually the same agreement: CA, March 30, 1975.
The mass media acknowledged: Lentz, “Sixty-five Days,” pp. 216–17.
“We’ve got a union to fight for us now”: Ibid., p. 218.
That night, before some 1,500 celebrants: FBI/MSS, April 18, 1968, Doc. 331.
EPILOGUE: HOW WE REMEMBER KING
Lawson called a threshold moment: Lawson remarks, May 5, 2005, Labor Studies Conference, University of California, Santa Barbara.
In its wake, public employees: See McCartin, “‘Fire the Hell Out of Them.’”
“echoes of Memphis”: Time, April 25, 1969, p. 23. Fink and Greenberg, Upheaval, ch. 7.
Appalled at the poverty they witnessed, affluent white women: Murray, “White Privilege, Racial Justice,” pp. 204–38.
highest hourly rates for sanitation workers: AFSCME’s three-year agreement included a $2-per-hour minimum pay; wage hikes of 18 cents an hour two years in a row and 15 cents an hour in the third year; free uniforms; and the banning of involuntary overtime. Union News, July 1969, p. 1.
In the fall of 1969, black workers at St. Joseph’s: See CA for October 7–8, 1969; October 12, 1969; October 14, 1969; October 16–17, 1969; October 20, 1969; October 24–25, 1969; November 1, 1969; November 4, 1969; November 6, 1969; November 8, 1969; November 10–11, 1969; November 14–19, 1969; and November 22, 1969. Also see Newsweek, November 24, 1969, pp. 38–39; and PS, July 5, 1969. The Memphis Public Library has a file of clippings on unions and strikes.
Guthrie and many others—ended up in jail: Jet, January 15, 1969, p. 10. See also Jet, January 22, 1969, p. 9.
Jones never obtained a full-time: McKinnon int., (M. H.) Thanks to Mrs. McKinnon for sending me a copy of Jones’s funeral program: “A Celebration of Life for a Servant,” Union Grove Baptist Church, James Smith, pastor, April 17, 1989.
“Tell the guys to stay with the union”: Memphis Magazine, April 1988, p. 34.
Jackson, and other ministers came under intense: This included a suit against Jackson by AME members. CA, September 11, 1970; PS, June 8, 1970; and CA, July 22, 1970.
made armed and threatening demands: FBI agent William Lawrence described the events with words that seemed to come from Cabbage himself. FBI/MSS, SA Lawrence to SAC, August 12, 1968.
COME decided to become: Lawson and other ministers tried to make COME a permanent federation of individuals and organizations united around a program of unionization of poor workers, leadership development, direct action, community-wide organizing for better housing, an end to police brutality, and improvement in education. FBI/MSS, July 26 and August 12, 1968.
SCLC when it held its convention: “SCLC, Invaders Iron Out Discord,” CA, August 17, 1968.
Cabbage was arrested: According to Ed Redditt, Cabbage provided information to the FBI in return for federal leniency in sentencing for his draft refusal. Lack of work and health problems also sidelined him from further organizing.
Petty holdups: CA, February 2, 1970.
the wounding of a police officer: CA, August 28, 1968; CA, February 15, 1969.
shooting death of a black youth: CA, November 11, 1969.
thirty-five of them in jail or under indictment: PS, February 20, 1969.
The aftermath of King’s death did not lead: The Nation, March 31, 1969, pp. 401–3.
In reviewing the 1968 strike: Arkin Report, pp. 83–86.
beat sixteen-year-old Elton Hayes to death: PS, May 17, 1973.
Poor People’s Campaign proved to be: Fager, Uncertain Resurrection; Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul, pp. 386–91.
The King family suffered more: CA, July 1, 1974.
Despite many setbacks: Robinson int. (M.H.).
Black women especially: Carter, “The Local Labor Union as a Social Movement;” Cornfield, Becoming A Mighty Voice; Jones int., by Laurie Green.
In 1976, AFSCME was the largest: PS, May 17, 1976.
In April 1977: McCartin, “‘Fire the Hell Out of Them,’” pp. 81–83.
“acknowledged master of the imagic art”: The New Republic, April 20, 1968, p. 25.
Schisms between the black poor: Memphis Magazine, April 1988, p. 89; David Ciscel int. (M.H.).
Poverty encompassed 58 percent: PS, March 13, 1964.
thirty years later, the figure: New York Times, October 5, 1999, p. 14.
“A dogged coalition builder”: Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1993, p. B-3.
“Even if it had been poor white workers”: Rogers, in Honey, Black Workers, p. 301.
“I don’t think we can show enough”: SSC Video, April 1973, transcript, p. 67.