Master of the Senate (233 page)

At one point; “He was not asked”; “scratching”:
NYT
, Feb. 14.
“Only”:
NYT
, Feb. 22.
“Or was”:
Krock,
NYT
, Feb. 14.
“Personally”:
Richard Rovere, “Letter from Washington,”
The New Yorker
, Feb. 25;
NYT
, Feb. 16.
It “was limited”:
Report No. 1724, p. 2.
Suspended sentences:
NYT
, Dec. 15, 1956.

Its “strangest”:
WP
, April 9.
“Carefully circumscribed”:
Childs,
WP
, April 4.

“A great stench”:
Ambrose,
Eisenhower
, pp. 302, 303.
“Doubt”:
NYT
, Feb. 18.
Ike’s veto:
Ambrose, p. 302. Ambrose notes that “Eisenhower wrote private letters to a number of his oil-industry friends, including Sid Richardson, explaining his motives and assuring that he felt the ‘questionable aura that surrounded its passing’ had been created ‘by an irresponsible and small segment of the industry.’”
“Since”:
NYT
, Feb. 18.

“Slippery”:
Denver Post
, Feb. 16.
“The honor”:
WP
, Feb. 20.
“every reason”:
NYT
, Feb. 15.
“This city”:
Reston,
NYT
, Feb. 20.

“Unfairly”:
NYT
, Feb. 22.
“Saddle your horse”:
Time
, March 5.
“Has been”:
NYT
, Feb. 21.
“Liveliest”:
Time
, Feb. 27.

Bridges’ maneuvers:
Congressional Quarterly Almanac
, 1956, pp. 743, 744;
NYT, WP, WS
, March 1–10.
“Boiling”:
Newsweek
, March 12.
“Bipartisanship”:
New Republic
, March 12.
McClellan’s law firm:
“Memo to DP from Donovan,” March 8, Pearson Papers.
“Evinced”:
NYT
, March 1.

“Which might”:
NYT
, March 12.
“File clerk”:
WDN
, April 13.
Never asked:
A discussion of the committee’s work is in
Congressional Quarterly Almanac
, 1956, pp. 743–48.

“The big to-do”:
Wild interview.
“As his first assignment”:
“Report of the Special Review Committee of the Board of Directors of Gulf Oil Corporation, In the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 75–0325: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Gulf Oil Corporation and Claude C. Wild, Jr., Defendants,” p. 64.

“Shirks”; “Insufficient”:
Richard A. Smith, “The Unnatural Problems of Natural Gas,”
Fortune
, Sept. 1959.
$10.7 billion:
Ibid
.
Value of Kecks’ stock:
NYT
, June 20, 1959.
Had Texas Eastern:
Richard A. Smith, “The Unnatural Problems of Natural Gas,”
Fortune
, Sept. 1959; Standard & Poor, 1959–1960, p. 9051.
A billion:
Actually $1,045,943,000;
ibid
., p. 1286.

“I don’t”:
Smathers OH.
“I have had”:
Cain to Corcoran, Feb. 8, “Lyndon Johnson,” Thomas Corcoran Papers, LC.
Johnson’s examination:
NYT, WP
, Feb. 20.
“He could be”:
Brammer interview.
Rowe told Johnson:
Jenkins, Rowe interviews.

Brown could not:
Clark, Oltorf interviews.
“Quite sincere”:
Evans and Novak,
LBJ: Exercise
, pp. 154, 155.

“Over a year”:
Evans and Novak, p. 157.
“Clearly”:
Reedy interview.
“I happen”:
Johnson to Meany, July 19, LBJA FN.
“The Administration”:
Reedy, quoted in Miller, p. 189.
Malone vote:
Evans and Novak, pp. 158, 159; Miller, p. 189; Oliver OH.
“Dog loyal”:
Mooney, p. 50.
“Serious”:
Smathers OH.
“Bob”:
Oliver OH.
“Johnson fully”:
Evans and Novak, p. 159.
Refused:
Clark interview.
“Was seated”:
Baker OH.
“He arranged”; “infuriated”:
Mooney, pp. 50, 51.
“I remember”:
Mooney OH.
“No doubt”:
Evans and Novak, p. 159.
“Put a lot”:
Baker OH.
Johnson’s reaction:
Mooney, p. 51.
“Senator Clements”; “Johnson tried”:
Baker OH.
Does not jibe:
Busby, Clark, Wild interviews.
“Pointed out”:
Mooney, p. 51.

Six works are the basic sources for the general background on black voter registration and on the legal situation of black Americans and the civil rights movement up to 1960. They are Taylor Branch’s
Parting the Waters
, John Egerton’s
Speak Now Against the Day
, Richard Kluger’s
Simple Justice
, Steven F. Lawson,
Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944–1969
, Margaret Price,
The Negro Voter in the South
, and United States Commission on Civil Rights,
With Liberty and Justice for All
, 1959.

Bullock County incident:
Aaron Sellers et al. versus S. B. Wilson et al
.—United States District Court, Middle District, Alabama, Sept. 10, 1954, 123 F. Supp. 917, in
CR
, 85/1, pp. 13320–322; United States Commission on Civil Rights, Dec. 8, 1958, “Hearing Held in Montgomery, Alabama,” pp. 267–81, 313–14, 321 (referred to as “1958 Hearing”); United States Commission on Civil Rights,
With Liberty and Justice for All: The Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
,” 1959; Price,
Negro Voter
, p. 11; Strong,
Registration of Voters in Alabama;
and author’s interviews with John Holt, Aaron Sellers, and Gladys Sellers Washington.

“Voucher System”:
1958 Hearing, pp. 176–77, 313–14.

Out of eleven thousand, five:
With Liberty and Justice for All, An Abridgement of the Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1959
, p. 73;
Birmingham News
, Sept. 18, 1960.
“Was not connected”:
Kennamer, district judge, in
CR
, 85/1, p. 13321.
“What’s your trouble”:
Sellers, in 1958 Hearing, pp. 270–71; Sellers interview.
“The white people”:
Sellers interview.
Only Wilson appeared:
CR
, 85/1, p. 13321.
“Told us”:
Sellers, 1958 Hearing, p. 272.
“I just”:
Sellers interview.
“Whenever the plaintiffs”:
Kennamer ruling, in
CR
, 85/1, p. 13321.
“We couldn’t”:
Sellers, 1958 Hearing, p. 275.

“Fragments”:
William P. Rogers, in U.S. Senate,
Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary
, p. 225.
“Flashed”:
Kluger, p. 88.
“The Jim Crow era”:
Kluger, p. 72.
“Officially”:
Kluger, p. 9.
“Blotted out”:
Bilbo, quoted in Egerton, pp. 402–03.

“Serious consideration”; Only about 2 percent:
Henry W. Grady, quoted in Kluger, pp. 62, 233.
Smith v. Allwright:
Egerton, p. 380; Kluger, pp. 234–36.
15 percent, “the warning siren”; “success”:
Egerton, p. 397.

“Things
would
be different”:
Egerton, p. 329.
“A lot of”:
Hastie, quoted in Kluger, p. 294.
Life
covers:
Egerton, p. 513.
“Spreading sense”:
Egerton, p. 324.

“Stomach turned”:
William E. Leuchtenburg, “The Conversion of Harry Truman,”
American Heritage
, Nov. 1991.

Brown v. Board of Education:
General situation from Kluger.
“I have”:
Kluger, p. 667.
Reed looking at Marshall:
Marshall, quoted in Egerton, p. 608. And see Kluger, pp. 7, 8, 9.
Knelt:
A vivid scene of two black preachers—the Revs. Wyatt T. Walker and Vernon Johns—kneeling by the side of a Virginia highway when they heard the news over the car radio is in Branch, p. 285.

Confederacy rose in rage:
Egerton, pp. 615–18. Martin,
Deep South, passim;
Stan Opotowsky, “Dixie Dynamite: The Inside Story of the White Citizens Councils,” series in
NYP
, Jan. 7–17, 1957.
“Refuses to recognize”:
Brady, quoted in Martin,
Deep South
, p. 16.
“A separate suit”:
Martin, p. 73.

“These laws”:
Egerton, p. 615; Kluger, pp. 702, 720, 723–24, 752–53, 778; Martin, pp. 72–73, 79–103.
Fifty-three Negroes:
Martin,
Deep South
, pp. 20–30; Halberstam,
The Fifties
, p. 430.
Jackson petition:
Martin,
Deep South
, p. 29.
1955 situation:
Martin,
Deep South
, p. 163.

Attempts to liberalize Rule 22 in 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953:
See notes for Chapters 3, 7, 8, 19, 20. Also Douglas,
Fullness of Time
, p. 277.
Sixty-one separate bills:
Congressional Record Index
, 1953, 1954, 1955.

“In view”:
Douglas,
Fullness of Time
, p. 281.

Rev. George Lee murder:
Civil Rights Education Project,
Free at Last
, pp. 36, 37.
“A real”:
Halberstam, p. 430.
“Get the niggers”; “When I saw”:
Ruby Hurley, quoted in Howell Raines,
My Soul Is Rested
, p. 132.
Could “have been fillings”:
Wilkins,
Standing
Fast
, p. 222; Civil Rights Education Project,
Free at Last
, p. 37.

Lamar Smith murder:
Civil Rights Education Project,
Free at Last
, pp. 38–39.

Gus Courts wounding:
Price,
Negro Voter
, pp. 21–22. Senate Committee on Judiciary, “Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights,” 1957, pp. 532–63;
WP
, March 1, 1957.
Brownell said:
Brownell,
Advising Ike
, p. 204;
NYT
, Dec. 7, 1955.
“The nation’s press”:
Halberstam, p. 431.

Emmett Till murder:
Basic sources are Halberstam, pp. 430–40; Whitfield,
A Death in the Delta;
Williams,
Eyes on the Prize;
William Bradford Huie, “Approved Killing in Mississippi,”
Look
, Jan. 24, 1956; I. F. Stone’s columns, collected in
The Haunted Fifties;
and Murray Kempton’s columns in
NYP
, Sept. 19–26, 1955.

Talking “fresh”:
Whitfield, p. 16; Williams, pp. 41–42.

Taking Till away:
Whitfield, pp. 20, 38.
“Mama, Lord have mercy”:
Reed, a witness at the trial, quoted in Whitfield, p. 40.

“Went by custom”:
Smith, quoted in Whitfield, p. 21.
Identified by ring:
Williams, p. 43.
“Have you ever”:
Mamie Till Bradley, quoted in Williams, p. 44.
“Is aroused”:
Whitfield, p. 22.
“Jungle fury”; For many reasons; “Here”:
Halberstam, p. 436.

“The boy who”; “How old”:
Williams, p. 42.
If he testified:
Whitfield, p. 38.

Unusual public officials:
The Nation
’s correspondent singled out Swango and Chatham as “native Mississippians whose devotion throughout this occasion was to justice above states’ rights and local customs”; Wakefield, quoted in Whitfield, p. 44.

Not a single Negro:
Whitfield, pp. 44–45.
“There ain’t”:
Strider, quoted in Halberstam, p. 49.
Diggs incident:
Halberstam, p. 440; Whitfield, p. 37.
“Like a circus”:
Hurley, in Raines, p. 132.
Wright at the trial:
Vivid descriptions of the trial are in Whitfield and Halberstam, among others, but best is Kempton in
NYP
, Sept. 19–25, 1955.

“An expression”; “humble”:
Whitfield, pp. 40–43; Stone, p. 107; Williams, p. 41.

“Sexy whopper”:
Stone,
Haunted Fifties
, Oct. 3, 1955.
“Your ancestors”:
Carlton, quoted in Halberstam, p. 441.
Bottle of pop:
Whitfield, p. 42.
“If she tried”:
Jury foreman J. A. Shaw Jr., quoted in Stone, Oct. 3, 1955.
“For the first time”; “We’ve got”:
Whitfield, p. 333.
“The fear”:
Moody,
Coming of Age
, pp. 121, 127.
“Shook the foundations”:
Myrlie Evers, quoted in Whitfield, p. 60.
“Cried”; “Everyone”:
Williams, pp. 43, 47.
“Covered”:
Hicks, quoted in Williams, p. 51.

“The fact remains”:
NYT
, Sept. 7, 1955; Whitfield, p. 24.
“Both the wolf whistle”:
Whitfield, p. 46.
“Scandalous”; “the life”:
Quoted in Whitfield, p. 46.

“The other”; “needs a Gandhi”:
Stone, pp. 107–09.
“The same disease”:
Whitfield, pp. 45–46.
“Evil, bigoted”:
NYT
, Sept. 25, 1955.
“A critical junction”:
Halberstam, pp. 436–47.
“Emmett Till’s River”:
Quoted in Martin, p. 8.
“That river’s”:
Whitfield, p. 34.
“Controlled hostility”:
NYT
, Sept. 20, 1955.
“You lie”:
Dan Wakefield, “Justice in Summer,”
The Nation
, Oct. 1, 1955.
“Historic”:
Diggs, quoted in Williams, p. 49.

Start of Montgomery Bus Boycott:
Branch, pp. 131–35.

“I’m not”:
Johnson, quoted in Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, pp. 232, 230.
“The man”:
Reedy OH III, p. 27.
“I’m telling”:
Douglas,
Full Life
, p. 363.

“You’re dead”:
Clifford and Virginia Durr OH.

In 8-F:
Brown, Clark, Oltorf interviews. “He went
out of his way
to let them know he felt the way they did,” Oltorf says. “He didn’t wait to be asked.”
Clark’s “joke”:
Clark interview.

“We were”:
Stibbens interview.
“Natives very much”:
“LBJ World War II Diary,” p. 3, Box 73, LBJA SF.
Reinforced:
Connally interview.
“Negro problem”:
“LBJ World War II Diary,” p. 8.
“I don’t think”:
Stibbens tape.
“I know”:
Wicker,
JFK and LBJ
, p. 196.
“If we”:
Sidey to NYK, Jan. 29, 1968, p. 4, SP.
Eurasian references:
Dugger,
Politician
, p. 312;
AA-S, DMN, HP
, May 23, 1948; Busby, Clark, Vann Kennedy, Lawson interviews.
“I talk”:
Caro,
Path
, p. 70.

“He said”:
Hopkins OH.
“My God”:
Hopkins interview.
Snake joke:
Dan White to Caro, April 2, 1986 (in author’s possession); Bethke, Lon Smith, Stehling interviews.
“Boy, you”:
Clark interview.
“I’ll make you”:
Bethke interview.

“
We
shall overcome”:
Caro,
Means
, pp. xiii-xix.

“No ‘darkies’”:
Johnson,
Vantage Point
, p. 155.

“Yet for years”:
Parker,
Capitol Hill
, pp. v, vi, 16, 23. When Parker’s book was published in 1986, Jack Valenti and Horace Busby attacked his veracity. Busby said that although he was on Johnson’s staff in 1949 and 1950, Parker was “no one I knew. I never saw him.” Valenti called the book a “hoax.” But Johnson aide Lloyd Hand, who was on his Senate
staff from 1957 until 1960, “confirmed” to Lois Romano of the
Washington Post
, as she reported on June 14, 1986, “that Johnson had known Parker, and said he remembered Parker serving at Johnson’s parties.” John Connally confirmed to the author that Parker had indeed served as Johnson’s part-time chauffeur and as a bartender and waiter at his parties. Walter Jenkins, during a discussion with the author—some years before Parker’s book was published—about Johnson’s use of “patronage” employees to supplement his own staff, mentioned Parker as an example.

“There wasn’t”:
Crider, quoted in Dugger, p. 71.
Description of picking cotton:
Caro,
Path
, pp. 115–16.
“A man-killing”:
Humphrey,
Farther Off
, p. 55.
“Boy”
: Ava Johnson Cox, quoted in Caro,
Path
, p. 121.
Working on the road gang:
Caro, pp. 121, 132–33.
“Did not”:
McPherson,
Political Education
, p. 138.

Lyndon Johnson in Cotulla:
Caro,
Path
, Chapter 10 (“Cotulla”).
“I saw”:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, p. 66.
“I could never”:
Dugger, p. 115.

“I’m gonna”:
Johnson-Walker Stone telephone tape, Jan. 6, 1964, citation 1196, White House Tapes.
“No teacher”:
Caro,
Path
, p. 168.

Saving from foreclosure:
Caro,
Path
, pp. 256–58.
Brought electricity:
Caro, Chapter 27 (“The Sad Irons”) and Chapter 28 (“‘I’ll Get It for You’”).

“The best”:
Corcoran interview.

“Hustle”; “It sorta”:
Dugger, pp. 187–88.
“You have any”:
Elliott, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon
, p. 56; Monroe Billington, “Lyndon B. Johnson and Blacks: The Early Years,”
The Journal of Negro History
, Jan. 1975, p. 29.

Choreographed:
Interviews with Deason, Morgan, and one NYA staff member who asked not to be quoted by name.