No diplomatic immunity: African diplomats, the State Department, and Civil Rights, 1961-1964

Journal of American History

Volumn 87, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 546-579

  Romano, Renee ^a  

^a WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 1642320349     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2568763     Document Type: Review

References (242)

1. U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce, Civil Rights - Public Accommodations, Hearings before the Committee on Commerce, 88 Cong., 1 sess., July 10, 1963, p. 281.
2. For the argument that the Cold War exposed and highlighted American racism, see Paul Gordon Lauren, Power and Prejudice: The Politics and Diplomacy of Racial Discrimination (Boulder, 1988);
3. Mary Louise Dudziak, "Cold War, Civil Rights: The Relationship between Civil Rights and Foreign Affairs in the Truman Administration" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1992);
4. Mary L. Dudziak, "Desegregation as a Cold War Imperative," Stanford Law Review, 41 (Nov. 1988), 61-120;
5. Mary L. Dudziak, "Josephine Baker, Racial Protest, and the Cold War," Journal of American History, 81 (Sept. 1994), 543-70;
6. Brenda Gayle Plummer, Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935-1960 (Chapel Hill, 1996);
7. and Thomas Borstelmann, Apartheid's Reluctant Uncle: The United States and Southern Africa in the Early Cold War Era (New York, 1993).
8. All of these works focus on the 1940s and 1950s; none of them continues the story into the 1960s. For Dudziak's statement, see Dudziak, "Josephine Baker, Racial Protest, and the Cold War," 543.
9. There were only seventeen black foreign service officers in early 1961, and when President John F. Kennedy ordered each government department to hire more African Americans, State's efforts were described as "completely inadequate" by administration insiders and "inept" by black critics. Frederick Dutton to Harris Wofford, July 19, 1961, Subcabinet Committee no. 2 File, box 14, White House Staff Files, Harris Wofford (John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Mass.); John Davis, "The Employment of American Negroes in the Foreign Service of the United States," Nov. 23-25, 1962, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963, part 2: The Papers of Burke Marshall, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, ed. Carl Brauer (microfilm, 28 reels, University Publications of America, 1986), reel 6.
10. On the State Department's hiring problems, see Chester Bowles to Dutton, Oct. 6, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963, part 1: The White House Central Files and Staff Files and the President's Office Files, ed. Carl Brauer (microfilm, 19 reels, University Publications of America, 1986), reel 6.
11. Lee White to John F. Kennedy, Dec. 17, 1962, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963, part 1: The White House Central Files and Staff Files and the President's Office Files, ibid., reel 2;
12. Dutton to Wofford, July 19, 1961, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963, part 1: The White House Central Files and Staff Files and the President's Office Files, ibid., reel 18;
13. Louis Martin to Robert F. Kennedy, Dec. 4, 1962, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 2, ed. Brauer, reel 6;
14. Rupert Emerson and Martin Kilson, "The American Dilemma in a Changing World: The Rise of Africa and the Negro American," Daedalus, 94 (Fall 1965), 1055-85.
15. For efforts by the State Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and United States Information Agency (USIA) to control the image of the United States abroad, see Dudziak, "Josephine Baker, Racial Protest, and the Cold War";
16. and Penny Von Eschen, Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957 (Ithaca, 1997), 177-81.
17. Most scholarship on the relationship between the Cold War and domestic race relations focuses on how the anticommunism of the late 1940s and early 1950s discredited progressive organizations and impeded the struggle for civil rights; see Charles Cheng, "The Cold War: Its Impact on the Black Liberation Struggle within the United States," Freedomways (Third Quarter, 1973), 184-99;
18. Charles Cheng, "The Cold War: Its Impact on the Black Liberation Struggle within the United States - Part II," Freedomways ibid. (Fourth Quarter, 1973), 281 -93;
19. Gerald Horne, Black and Red: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Afro-American Response to the Cold War, 1944-1963 (Albany, 1986);
20. and Adam Fairclough, Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972 (Athens, Ga., 1995), 135-63.
21. Historiography on John F. Kennedy's civil rights record has gone through four main stages. The first studies, often by members of the administration, praised Kennedy's record on civil rights, but new works appearing by the mid-1970s were highly critical of that record. A third wave of scholarship argued that Kennedy accomplished as much as he could for civil rights given the political realities of the time. Most recent works describe Kennedy as a pragmatic politician who acted on civil rights only when forced by external pressures. For early critical works, see Lewis Paper, The Promise and the Performance: The Leadership of John F. Kennedy (New York, 1975);
22. and Bruce Miroff, Pragmatic Illusions: The Presidential Politics of John F. Kennedy (New York, 1976).
23. Works that defend Kennedy's record include Carl M. Brauer, John F. Kennedy and the Second Reconstruction (New York, 1977);
24. Robert E. Gilbert, "John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights for Black Americans," Presidential Studies Quarterly, 12 (Summer 1982), 386-99;
25. and John Hart, "Kennedy, Congress, and Civil Rights," Journal of American Studies, 13 (Aug. 1979), 165-78.
26. For a representative example of recent scholarship, see John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Urbana, 1995).
27. On Robert F. Kennedy's attitudes about race, see James W. Hilty, Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector (Philadelphia, 1997), 289-404;
28. and David Burner and Thomas R. West, The Torch Is Passed: The Kennedy Brothers and American Liberalism (New York, 1984), 150-223.
29. John Kennedy, "Address to the Nation," June 11, 1963, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 18;
30. Robert Kennedy, "Speech Delivered before the National Insurance Association," July 26, 1962, in Rights for Americans: The Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy, ed. Thomas A. Hopkins (Indianapolis, 1964), 152.
31. For more on Dwight D. Eisenhower's and Kennedy's Africa policies, see Henry F. Jackson, From the Congo to Soweto: U.S. Foreign Policy toward Africa since 1960 (New York, 1982);
32. Thomas J. Noer, Cold War and Black Liberation: The United States and White Rule in Africa, 1948-1968 (Columbia, Mo., 1985);
33. Thomas J. Noer, "New Frontiers and Old Priorities in Africa," in Kennedy's Quest for Victory: American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963, ed. Thomas G. Paterson (New York, 1989), 253-83;
34. Waldemar A. Nielsen, The Great Powers and Africa (New York, 1969), 245-304;
35. and Richard D. Mahoney, JFK: Ordeal in Africa (New York, 1983).
36. U.S. Congress, Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 87 Cong., 1 sess., June 16, 1961, p. 184.
37. The secret Kennedy administration study "Africa: Guidelines for United States Policy and Operation" (1963) is quoted in Edgar Lockwood, "The Future of the Carter Policy toward Southern Africa," in American Policy in Southern Africa: The Stakes and the Stance, ed. René Lemarchand (Washington, 1978), 435.
38. Although Africa was relatively unimportant to the United States economically, representing only 4% of its imports and 3.5% of its exports in 1960, there was a sense of urgency because of shirts in Soviet policies. Before 1956, the Soviet Union had criticized nationalist movements as bourgeois, but in 1956, the Soviets publicly praised them as a progressive stepping stone to socialism, and in 1958, they offered Guinea financial aid and support. See Zaki Laïdi, The Superpowers and Africa: The Constraints of a Rivalry, 1960-1990, trans. Patricia Baudoin (Chicago, 1990), 1-43;
39. and Peter Duignan and L. H. Gann, The United States and Africa: A History (Cambridge, Eng., 1984), 285-323.
40. United States Information Agency, Office of Research and Analysis, "Worldwide Reactions to Racial Incidents in Alabama," May 29, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 4;
41. Donald Wilson to John F. Kennedy, memo, May 17, 1963, "Summary of Foreign Reaction to Racial Tension in Birmingham, Alabama," May 17, 1963, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid., reel 18;
42. "Transcript of Meeting of the President with Business Executives on the Voluntary Desegregation of Commercial Establishments," June 4, 1963, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid., reel 3.
43. For more on housing discrimination in Washington and organized efforts against it, see U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Civil Rights U.S.A.: Housing in Washington, D.C. (Washington, 1962);
44. Constance McLaughlin Green, The Secret City: A History of Race Relations in the Nations Capital (Princeton, 1967);
45. and Spencer Crew, "Melding the Old and the New: The Modern African-American Community, 1930-1960," in Urban Odyssey, ed. Francine Curro Cary (Washington, 1996), 208-27.
46. "Progress Report of the Public Affairs Unit of the Office of the Chief of Protocol," April 1, 1961, box 1, Pedro Sanjuan Papers (Kennedy Library);
47. "Progress Report, Special Protocol Service Section, Office of the Chief of Protocol," Feb. 1, 1963, Progress Report of the Public Affairs Unit of the Office of the Chief of Protocol," ibid.;
48. "Progress Report of the Special Protocol Affairs Section," June 1, 1961, Progress Report of the Public Affairs Unit of the Office of the Chief of Protocol," ibid.;
49. Plummer, Rising Wind, 270.
50. "Minutes of the Meeting of the State Advisory Committee on Diplomatic Travel," Sept. 12, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers;
51. "Progress Report, Special Protocol Service Section, Office of the Chief of Protocol," Feb. 1, 1963, Minutes of the Meeting of the State Advisory Committee on Diplomatic Travel," ibid.;
52. Pedro Sanjuan telephone interview by Renee Romano, Aug. 18, 1998, typescript (in Renee Romano's possession), pp. 7-8.
53. "Living Conditions of New Diplomats in Washington and Vicinity and Suggestions for Easing of Tensions by the Office of Protocol," Feb. 29, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
54. Robert Biren to White, Jan. 11, 1963, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 11.
55. On the William Fitzjohn incident, see Pedro Sanjuan to Angier Biddle Duke, April 18, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers; "Progress Report of the Special Protocol Service Section," May 2, 1961, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid.;
56. New York Times, April 16, 1961, p. E10.
57. Quote from draft of memo, n.d., Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 7.
58. T his memo was probably written by Harris Wofford, who wrote a draft statement about the Fitzjohn incident for President Kennedy. Examples of mainstream press coverage of discrimination against diplomats include "When African Diplomats Come to Washington," U.S. News and World Report, June 12, 1961, pp. 86-88;
59. "The Color Line in Diplomacy," U.S. News and World Report, ibid., March 27, 1961, pp. 78-79;
60. "Big Step Ahead on a High Road," Life, Dec. 8, 1961, pp. 32-39;
61. New York Times, May 26, 1961, p. 21;
62. Washington Post, April 25, 1961, p. A14.
63. E. M. Debrah, "The Effect of the Existence of 'Segregation' in the U.S. on the American Image in Africa," Oct. 25, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 18.
64. While critical, Debrah also praised Pedro Sanjuan and the Special Protocol Service Section for acting forcefully to deal with racial discrimination. The statements from African diplomats are in "Discrimination Against Diplomats in Housing," SPSS Report to the Commission on Civil Rights, April 12, 1962, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
65. In the report, all the quotations are anonymous. On the incident involving Mali, see Sanjuan to Dutton, May 13, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 3.
66. On the political ramifications of discrimination, see "Progress Report of the Special Protocol Service Section," May 2, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers;
67. "Minutes of the 3rd Meeting of the State Advisory Committee," Sept. 12, 1961, Progress Report of the Special Protocol Service Section," ibid.;
68. and Pedro Sanjuan interview by Romano, May 26, 1993, typescript (in Romano's possession), pp. 1, 6.
69. Washington Post, March 10, 1961, p. A1;
70. "Progress Report on the Public Affairs Unit of the Office of the Chief of Protocol," April 1, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
71. On the units mandate, see "Report on the First Nine Months of the Special Protocol Service Section of the Office of the Chief of Protocol, Department of State," Nov. 1, 1961, Progress Report on the Public Affairs Unit of the Office of the Chief of Protocol," ibid.;
72. Arthur Pardee Jr., "Special Instructions on the Work of the Special Protocol Service Section," n.d., Special Protocol Affairs Section, Aug. 4-Sept. 12, 1961 File, box 9, White House Staff Files, Harris Wofford.
73. Dean Rusk wrote that he asked Angier Biddle Duke to tackle discrimination against diplomats "early on," since "discriminatory treatment was a severe barrier to cordial relations with many foreign states." Sanjuan, on the other hand, remembers having the issue "fall in his lap" and then approaching Duke for permission to work on it. Dean Rusk as told to Richard Rusk, As I Saw It, ed. Daniel S. Papp (New York, 1990), 583;
74. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 5;
75. Pedro Sanjuan telephone interview by Romano, Nov. 5, 1999, typescript (in Romano's possession), pp. 1-2.
76. On Sanjuan's background, see the United States Department of State, Biographic Register, 1966 (Washington, 1966), 474;
77. and Washington Post, Feb. 4, 1961, p. A10. Further information about Sanjuan was obtained in three interviews.
78. Duke was a well-known society figure who came from old money. He served as ambassador to El Salvador, Spain, Morocco, and Denmark. He died in 1995 at age seventy-nine in a rollerblading accident. See Washington Post, May 2, 1995, p. C1;
79. Washington Post, ibid., B6.
80. Sanjuan telephone interview, Nov. 5, 1999, p. 2;
81. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, pp. 4-5.
82. Milton Viorst telephone interview by Romano, Sept. 11, 1998, typescript (in Romano's possession), p. 1;
83. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, p. 1;
84. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 5.
85. Sanjuan telephone interview, Nov. 5, 1999, p. 1.
86. Information about the subcabinet group on civil rights comes from folders on the group, box 14, White House Staff Files, Harris Wofford; Subcabinet Group, 1962 File, box 24, White House Staff Files, Lee White (Kennedy Library); Harris Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties (New York, 1980), 144-50;
87. Hilty, Robert Kennedy, 298-99;
88. and Harris Wofford telephone interview by Romano, Sept. 28, 1998, typescript (in Romano's possession), p. 1. Sanjuan first appeared on the attendance list for a subcabinet group meeting in November, but he may have been attending earlier. Neither he nor Harris Wofford remembers when Sanjuan first became involved with the group.
89. Sanjuan telephone interview, Nov. 5, 1999, pp. 3-4.
90. On Robert Kennedy's character and his role in the administrations civil rights bureaucracy, see Hilty, Robert Kennedy, 304-15;
91. Jeff Shesol, Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade (New York, 1997);
92. and Arthur Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times (New York, 1978).
93. Dutton to John F. Kennedy, Nov. 3, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 4;
94. Frederick Dutton telephone interview by Romano, Oct. 16, 1998, typescript (in Romanos possession), pp. 1, 5.
95. Harris Wofford echoed Dutton's assessment that the State Department was reluctant to become involved in domestic affairs. Wofford telephone interview, Sept. 28, 1998, p. 1.
96. "Briefing for the Undersecretary on African Diplomats in Washington, June 2, 1961," box 1, Sanjuan Papers;
97. "Living Conditions of New Diplomats in Washington and Vicinity and Suggestions for Easing of Tensions by the Office of Protocol";
98. Rusk, As I Saw It, ed. Papp, 582.
99. Kennedy was speaking to Chief of Protocol Duke, who called Wofford after the incident to make sure Kennedy was behind SPSS efforts. See Wofford, Of Kennedys and King, 127.
100. See also Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, p. 1.
101. Peking to Europe, telegram, May 22, 1961, Personal Scrapbooks of Pedro Sanjuan, Department of State, vol. 1: Feb. 4, 1961-Feb. 27, 1963 (microfilm, 1 reel, Kennedy Library);
102. TASS Press Dispatch, Sept. 10, 1961, Personal Scrapbooks of Pedro Sanjuan, ibid.;
103. "Discrimination Against Diplomats in Housing."
104. "Briefing for the Undersecretary on African Diplomats in Washington, June 2, 1961." Sanjuan also criticized other agencies for downplaying the racial problem in the United States. He charged that a 1963 Agency for International Development booklet on civil rights tried to "whitewash problems of civil rights, perhaps to have the foreigner believe that racial discrimination is just human nature." Sanjuan to Lindsay Williamson, April 18, 1963, Foreign Nationals, Oct. 26, 1962-June 16, 1963 File, box 21, White House Staff Files, Lee White.
105. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, pp. 2-3;
106. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, pp. 5-6.
107. The State Department probably feared losing the SPSS to the executive branch because the department wanted to be able to point to the SPSS to prove to the administration that it was doing something about civil rights. See "Contribution of the Department of State to Progress in Civil Rights," Oct. 27, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 6.
108. "Report on the First Nine Months of the Special Protocol Service Section of the Office of the Chief of Protocol, Department of State," Nov. 1, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers;
109. Dean Rusk to Robert F. Kennedy, Jan. 31, 1961, Civil Rights - Miscellaneous, 1960-Jan. 1962 File, box 2, White House Staff Files, Harris Wofford. Pedro Sanjuan claims that he and Robert Kennedy devised this letter to see where Rusk stood on the issue of racial discrimination against diplomats. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 2.
110. Wofford telephone interview by Romano, p. 1;
111. Sanjuan telephone interview, Nov. 5, 1999, p. 4.
112. In addition to conducting the housing and Route 40 campaigns, the SPSS created the State Advisory Committee on Diplomatic Travel, which brought together representatives from seventeen states to aid the State Department in planning trips for nonwhite diplomats.
113. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Civil Rights U.S.A., 144. In 1960, over 45% of blacks in Washington, D.C., lived in areas whose population was over 90% nonwhite, and over 66% in areas whose population was over 75% nonwhite.
114. "Living Conditions of New Diplomats in Washington and Vicinity";
115. "Briefing for the Undersecretary on African Diplomats in Washington, June 2, 1961."
116. Allen J. Matusow, The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism from the 1960s (New York, 1984), 68-69.
117. On the housing order and Kennedy's delay in issuing it, see Brauer, John F. Kennedy and the Second Reconstruction, 206-7 ;
118. and Hilty, Robert Kennedy, 302-4.
119. J. C. Satterthwaite to Loy Henderson, Jan. 5, 1961, Civil Rights - Miscellaneous, 1960-Jan. 1962 File, box 2, White House Staff Files, Harris Wofford.
120. "Briefing for the Undersecretary on African Diplomats in Washington, June 2, 1961."
121. The Washington Housing Committee consisted of Sanjuan, Duke, Robert Weaver, the black administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, Walter Tobriner, the chairman of the District of Columbia Board of Commissioners, and nine building owners. See "Transcript of Meeting on Problem of Diplomatic Housing," July 6, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers;
122. "Minutes of the First Meeting of the Washington Housing Committee," July 10, 1961, Transcript of Meeting on Problem of Diplomatic Housing," ibid.;
123. "Housing Committee to Help Erase Discrimination against Diplomats," Department of State Bulletin, July 24, 1961, p. 155;
124. "When African Envoys House-Hunt in the Capital," U.S. News and World Report, July 1, 1963, p. 11;
125. and "When African Diplomats Come to Washington," U.S. News and World Report, ibid., June 12, 1961, pp. 86-88.
126. Washington D.C. Evening Star, July 7, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 2, ed. Brauer, reel 6;
127. "Minutes of the First Meeting of the Washington Housing Committee."
128. "Housing Committee to Help Erase Discrimination against Diplomats," 154.
129. On continuing housing problems, see "Special Protocol Service Section Housing Report," Nov. 1, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
130. For Sanjuan's criticisms, see Sanjuan to Dutton, "SPSS Housing Report," Nov. 16, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 3.
131. For the Washington Real Estate Boards criticism of Sanjuan's practice of putting the names of nondiplomats on the housing lists, see Frank Luchs to Sanjuan, Nov. 13, 1961, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid.
132. Sanjuan to Burke Marshall, "Progress Report, Special Protocol Service Section," June 16, 1963, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 2, ed. Brauer, reel 6;
133. "Special Protocol Service Section Housing Report," Nov. 1, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
134. Testimony of G. Mennen Williams in United States Commission on Civil Rights, Housing in Washington: Hearings (Washington, 1962), 127;
135. testimony of Duke, Housing in Washington: Hearings ibid., 140-41, 174-75;
136. testimony of Sanjuan, Housing in Washington: Hearings ibid., 146-47.
137. Testimony of Frank Luchs, Housing in Washington: Hearings ibid., 169;
138. William Everngam to Sanjuan, April 1, 1963, Housing - Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing, April 11-Sept. 19, 1963 File, box 21, White House Staff Files, Lee White; Sanjuan to White, April 11, 1963, Housing in Washington: Hearings ibid.;
139. "When African Envoys House-Hunt in the Capital," 11.
140. For press coverage, see New York Times, April 13, 1962, p. 22;
141. New York Times, ibid., April 14, 1962, p. 21.
142. For the commission's conclusion, see U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Civil Rights U.S.A., 21.
143. For Sanjuan's statement see "Report of Achievements of Special Protocol Service Section since January 20, 1961," May 1962, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 15.
144. "Fair Housing Practices Regulation Proposed for Adoption by the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia," in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 2, ed. Brauer, reel 27;
145. New York Times, April 14, 1962, p. 21;
146. New York Times, ibid., Sept. 28, 1962, p. 25;
147. Rusk to John F. Kennedy, Nov. 30, 1962, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 9;
148. "Progress Report, Special Protocol Service Section, Office of the Chief of Protocol," Nov. 1, 1962, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
149. For coverage of the adoption of the regulation, see New York Times, June 15, 1963, pp. 1, 8;
150. and New York Times, ibid., Jan. 1, 1964, pp. 1, 10.
151. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, pp. 9-10;
152. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, pp. 1-2;
153. Sanjuan to Duke, "Background to the Route 40 Campaign," Nov. 9, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 3;
154. "Progress Report of the Special Protocol Affairs Section, July 1, 1961," box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
155. Other information on the campaign is drawn from Dutton telephone interview, pp. 2, 4-5;
156. Dutton to Sanjuan, July 24, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 3;
157. Dutton to Alice Dunnigan, Aug. 28, 1961, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid., reel 7;
158. Sanjuan to Dutton, "Progress Report: SPSS," Oct. 1, 1961, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid., reel 3;
159. John F. Kennedy to John Feild, Sept. 22, 1961, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid., reel 1;
160. "Report on the First Nine Months of the Special Protocol Service Section";
161. "Progress Report of the Special Protocol Service Section," Feb. 1, 1962, box 1, Sanjuan Papers;
162. "Big Step Ahead on a High Road," 32-39.
163. Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 127;
164. Wofford telephone interview by Romano, p. 1;
165. Dutton to Sanjuan, July 24, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 3.
166. For Sanjuan's role, see Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, p. 3;
167. and Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 10.
168. Washington Post, Sept. 17, 1961, p. A24.
169. See "Big Step Ahead on a High Road," 32-39;
170. and "Troubled Route," Time, Oct. 13, 1961, p. 26.
171. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, p. 7;
172. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 6.
173. Statement by Sanjuan before the Legislative Council of the General Assembly of Maryland, Sept. 13, 1961, reprinted in "Department Urges Maryland to Pass Public Accommodations Bill," Department of State Bulletin, Oct. 2, 1961, pp. 551-52; Beryl W. Williams to John F. Kennedy, Oct. 2, 1961, Maryland Committee on Human Rights File, box 4, White House Staff Files, Harris Wofford.
174. For Clarence Rosier's statement, see "Troubled Route," 26.
175. "Report on the Achievements of Special Protocol Service Section Since 1961," n.d., Subcabinet Agency Reports, June 5, 1962-July 17, 1962 File, box 24, White House Staff Files, Lee White. Gov. Millard Tawes supported the Route 40 campaign only when he could do so without serious political cost; he would not exert leadership to get a public accommodations bill through the Maryland legislature.
176. Joe to Gordon Carey, Oct. 9, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967 (microfilm, 115 reels, Microfilming Corporation of America, 1980), no. 495, reel 46.
177. The memo was probably written by Joe Steinfeld of the Long Island chapter of CORE. For an account of the Route 40 Freedom Ride that does not mention the SPSS or the State Department, see August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942-1968 (New York, 1973), 162.
178. See "Route 40 Riders' Chart Plan," Wilmington Delaware Journal, Oct. 21, 1961,
179. in Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. 495, reel 46;
180. Minutes of Meeting of U.S. 40 Freedom Rides, Oct. 28, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid.;
181. Carey to CORE Groups, Officers, Advisory Committee, Nov. 1, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid.
182. For Julius Hobson's statement, see Baltimore Sun, Oct. 20, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid.
183. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 10. It was very unlikely that a civil rights law would pass in the regular session of the General Assembly scheduled for February 1962, when only statewide legislation could be enacted; if a single county exempted itself from a bill, it would be considered a local bill and could not be enacted during the session.
184. Washington Star, Oct. 20, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. 495, reel 46;
185. W. C. R. Sr., Chairman Governor's Commission on Interracial Problems and Relations, n.d., Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid.;
186. Dutton to John F. Kennedy, Nov. 3, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 4.
187. See also Washington News, Oct. 20, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. 494, reel 46.
188. Howard University Hillton, Nov. 10, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. 34, reel 19;
189. Carey to CORE Chapters, Advisory Committee, Nov. 15, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid., no. 495, reel 46;
190. James Farmer, telegram, Nov. 9, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid., no. 43, reel 10;
191. News Release from CORE, Nov. 8, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid., no. 495, reel 46;
192. Walter Carter and Solomon Baylor, telegram, Nov. 29, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid., no. 495, reel 46;
193. "Progress Report of the Special Protocol Service Section," Dec. 1, 1961, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
194. The demonstrations did not go well. Fewer people than expected took part in the ride, a planned rally in Baltimore after the ride fizzled, and press coverage was light. Hobson complained that the December 16 ride "let the State off the hook as far as a public accommodations bill is concerned." Julius Hobson, confidential memorandum, Dec. 26, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. 35, reel 13.
195. On the campaign's problems, see Lincoln Lynch to Norman Hill, Dec. 26, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. ibid., no. 495, reel 46 ;
196. and Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 162-63.
197. Sanjuan to Duke, Nov. 9, 1961, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 3;
198. CORE Headquarters News Release, Nov. 8, 1961, Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, no. 495, reel 46;
199. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 10.
200. Wofford telephone interview by Romano, p. 1;
201. Harris Wofford interview by Larry Hackman, May 22, 1968, typescript, pp. 60-61, Oral History Program (Kennedy Library);
202. G. Mennen Williams interview by William Moss, Jan. 27, 1970, typescript, pp. 69-70, Harris Wofford interview by Larry Hackman, ibid.;
203. Dutton telephone interview, pp. 4-5.
204. "Progress Report, Special Protocol Services," June 16, 1963, box 1, Sanjuan Papers.
205. United States Department of State, Biographic Register, 1966, 474;
206. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, pp. 2-3;
207. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, pp. 6-8;
208. Dutton telephone interview, p. 4.
209. On the relationship between Dean Rusk and Robert Kennedy, see Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Waging Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years (New York, 1988), 268-69;
210. Hilty, Robert Kennedy, 410-11;
211. and Rusk, As I Saw It, ed. Papp, 296, 336. On Rusk's background and racial views, see ibid., 579-83;
212. and Schoenbaum, Waging Peace and War, 51-52, 242, 271, 381-83.
213. For his description of his Atlanta neighborhood, see Rusk, As I Saw it, ed. Papp, 48.
214. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, p. 3;
215. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, p. 2;
216. Sanjuan telephone interview, Nov. 5, 1999, p. 2.
217. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, pp. 5, 6;
218. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, pp. 2, 3;
219. Sanjuan telephone interview, Nov. 5, 1999, p. 3.
220. For recollections of the meeting at the State Department about the testimony, see Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, pp. 5-6;
221. Sanjuan telephone interview, Aug. 18, 1998, pp. 2-3;
222. Sanjuan telephone interview, Nov. 5, 1999, p. 3.
223. For Rusk's version, see Rusk, As I Saw It, ed. Papp, 586-87.
224. For Rusk's testimony, see Committee on Commerce, Civil Rights - Public Accommodations, Hearings before the Committee on Commerce, 315.
225. Baltimore Afro-American, July 6, 1963, Personal Scrapbooks of Pedro Sanjuan;
226. Washington Post, Sept. 6, 1963, p. A9;
227. Sanjuan interview, May 26, 1993, p. 6. Today Sanjuan is president of the Institute of East-West Dynamics, which works with the United Nations to help nations that had centrally planned economies make the transition to free-market economies.
228. Plummer, Rising Wind, 167-68;
229. Washington Post, Aug. 26, 1963, pp. A1, A2;
230. Sanjuan to Marshall, Aug. 26, 1963, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 2, ed. Brauer, reel 7.
231. John and Robert Kennedy often spoke publicly about the international implications of domestic racism. Typical examples include John F. Kennedy, "White House Special Message on Civil Rights to the Congress of the United States," Feb. 28, 1963, in Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, part 1, ed. Brauer, reel 8;
232. John F. Kennedy, "Supplemental Message on Civil Rights," June 17, 1963, Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, ibid.;
233. Robert Kennedy, "Speech at the Law Day Exercises of the University of Georgia Law School," May 6, 1961 in Rights for Americans, ed. Hopkins;
234. Robert Kennedy, "Speech at the Annual Luncheon of the Associated Press," April 23, 1962, Rights for Americans, ibid.;
235. and Robert Kennedy, "Speech at the Meeting of University of South Carolina Chapter of the American Association of University Professors," April 25, 1963, Rights for Americans, ibid.
236. Hilty, Robert Kennedy, 304.
237. See, for example, Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990);
238. Robin D. G. Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (New York, 1994);
239. Steven Reich, "Black Texans and the Fight for Citizenship, 1917-1921," Journal of American History, 82 (March 1996), 1478-1504;
240. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, Mass., 1993);
241. Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Chapel Hill, 1996);
242. and Fairclough, Race and Democracy.