The 1966 White House Conference on Civil Rights

Historical Journal

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 259-282

  Yuill, Kevin L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 77950088069     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X97007723     Document Type: Article

References (128)

1. Cited in Joseph Califano.Jr, The triumph and tragedy of Lyndon Johnson (New York, 1991), p.58.
2. See Lyndon B.Johnson, The vantage point (NewYork, 1971).
3. Many of the Johnson biographies follow his example: George Reedy, Lyndon B.Johnson: a memoir (New York, 1982).
4. Bernard J. Firestone and Robert C. Vogt, eds., Lyndon Baines Johnson and the uses of power (London, 1988).
5. Doris Kearns, Lyndon Johnson and the American dream (New York, 1976).
6. Booth Mooney, LBJ: an irreverent chronicle (New York, 1976).
7. James Macgregor Burns, ed., To heal and to build: the programs of Lyndon B. Johnson (London, 1968).
8. Philip Reed Rulon, The compassionate Samaritan (Chicago, 1981).
9. Joachim Joesten, The dark side of Lyndon Baines Johnson (London, 1968).
10. See, for instance, Mark Stern, Calculating visions: Kennedy, Johnson and civil rights (New Brunswick, NJ., 1992).
11. Harvard Sitkoff, The struggle for black equality, 1934-1980 (New York, 1981).
12. James C. Harvey Black civil rights during the Johnson era (Jackson, Miss., 1973).
13. Allen Wolk, The presidency and black civil rights (Cranbury, N.J., 1971).
14. Allen J. Matusow states in The unravelling of America: a history of liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 1984) that '[t]he real meaning of the conference was this: so far as the president was concerned, the civil rights movement was over' (p. 73).
15. Steven F. Lawson devotes more space to the conference, similarly to indicate the growing acrimony between the civil rights movement and the president - see In pursuit of power: southern blacks and electoral politics, 1963-1982 (New York, 1985).
16. Lawson also mentions the conference in his chapter, ' Mixing moderation with militancy: Lyndon Johnson and African-American leadership', in Robert A. Divine, ed., The Johnson years: LBJ at home and abroad (Kansas, 1994).
17. The broad themes running throughout these and many other accounts of the time are Johnson's relentless pursuit of votes, first black but later the white vote alienated by the civil rights movement, and the culpability of Johnson for neglecting the project of civil rights in favour of prosecuting the Vietnam War.
18. Lee Rainwater and William Yancey's book, The Moynihan report and the politics of controversy (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), the most comprehensive account of the conference, is perhaps the clearest expression of this outlook. Similarly, discussions by Daniel Patrick Moynihan himself express anger at perceived militancy on the part of the poverty movement as well as the civil rights movement.
19. see Daniel P. Moynihan Maximum feasible misunderstanding: community action in the War on Poverty (New York, 1969).
20. 'The president and the Negro: the moment lost', Commentary (Feb. 1967), pp. 31-46. For a clear exposition of this perspective.
21. see Ronald Berman, America in the sixties: an intellectual history (New York, 1968).
22. See Gunnar Myrdal, An American dilemma (New York, 1944). This massive two-volume tome exerted huge influence on nearly all areas touching upon civil rights up to twenty years after its original publication. For a useful demonstration of the book's influence.
23. see David W. Southern, The use and abuse of an American dilemma, 1944-1969 (London, 1987).
24. Walter A. Jackson, Gunnar Myrdal and America's conscience (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1990).
25. Jackson also gives some indication of the mood of racial liberalism in the 1950s in 'White liberal intellectuals, civil rights and gradualism, 1954-60', in Brian Ward and Tony Badger, eds., The making of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement (London, 1996).
26. Lee Rainwater and William L. Yancey disagree that this was the case, despite the fact that Moynihan mentioned it in an article written for America magazine ('Moynihan replies to his critics', America (18 Sept. 1965) to which they refer.
27. See Rainwater and Yancey, The Moynihan report. Moynihan also cites the importance of 1963 and 1964 riots in later works.
28. see Maximum feasible misunderstanding: community action in the war on poverty (New York, 1969).
29. The most useful article of the many written by Moynihan concerning the report and the ensuing controversy is 'The president and the Negro: the moment lost' in Commentary (Feb. 1967).
30. US Department of Labor (DoL), The negro family: the case for national action (Washington DC, 1965), p. 5. The report became known as the 'Moynihan report' after its authorship was leaked to the press.
31. US DoL, The negro family, pp. 3, 4.
32. Steven F. Lawson, In pursuit of power: southern blacks and electoral politics, 1965-1982 (New York, 1985) p. 24.
33. Steven F. Lawson, In pursuit of power: southern blacks and electoral politics, 1965-1982, 1985, p. 24, Ibid.
34. On 10 August 1965, Lee White sent the president a memo on 'Notes for meeting with Whitney Young and A. Philip Randolph' indicating that the conference would build on the 'universal approval' for the direction outlined in the Howard University speech.
35. See Memorandum to the president from Lee C. White, 'Notes for a meeting with Whitney Young and A.Philip Randolph', 10 August 1965, .
36. White House papers, Human rights - equality of the races, EX HU 2, Part II, Civil rights during the Johnson administration, 1963-1969 (microfilm), Steven F. Lawson, ed.
37. See Rainwater and Yancey, The Moynihan report, p. 141. The authors express surprise at this fear, which they acknowledged was rife amongst the administration officials.
38. In July of 1965, for example, Martin Luther King had led a march of 3, 000 people through the streets of Washington, DC, to thank Johnson for his efforts to democratize the District of Columbia.
39. Dr Benjamin Payton, a black cleric, organized a'Pre-White House conference' early in Nov. 1965 which aimed to pressure the White House into dropping the' black family' as an agenda item at the main event. Two weeks after publishing an attack on the report, he apparently told Moynihan that his paper was really an attack on Johnson but that he had named Moynihan for 'strategical purposes'.
40. See Daniel P. Moynihan, 'The president and the Negro: the moment lost', Commentary (Feb. 1967).
41. David Levering Lewis, King: a biography (Boston, 1971) p. 309.
42. 'Pre-White House Conferences' were held in New York and Cleveland weeks before the main event. The conference held in New York, organized by black churchman Dr Benjamin Payton, demanded that the family be removed as a subject from the WHCCR agenda.
43. Interview with McPherson conducted by T. H. Baker, 24 Mar. 1969, p. 14 Civil rights during the Johnson administration (microfilm) 1963-9 Part III: oral histories.
44. Rainwater and Yancey, The Moynihan report, p. 208.
45. A memorandum from Lee White to the president sent on 10 Aug. 1965 indicates that a planning session comprised mainly of experts and government employees was part of the original plan. The original planning session was to occur a 'few weeks' before the main conference in Nov.
46. See 'Notes for a meeting with Whitney Young and A. Philip Randolph', 10 Aug. 1965, EX HU 2/MC Files, Civil rights during the Johnson administration, 1963-1969 (microfilm), Steven F. Lawson, ed.
47. Bayard Rustin, ' From protest to politics: the future of the civil rights movement', Commentary, 39 (Feb. 1965).
48. In a memorandum to the president, Clifford L. Alexander indicates that' [o]ur 350 elected Negro Democrats' would attend the spring conference, indicating a political bent to the invitations (memorandum to the president from Clifford L. Alexander, 26 May 1966 EX HU/S Files).
49. Rainwater and Yancey, The Moynihan report, p. 248. No record of this exists in the Records of the WHCCR.
50. Lawson, 'Mixing moderation with militancy', in Divine, ed., The Johnson years, III, p. 85.
51. Transcript of a speech given by A. Philip Randolph, 17 Nov. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
52. Final draft - planning session for the White House Conference, "To Fulfill These Rights "', Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 1.
53. Memo to Carl Holman from Vivian W. Henderson, dated 29 Dec. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
54. 'Final draft - planning session for the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights"', transcripts to' Panel no. 5: the family: resources for change', planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 1.
55. Jean M.White, 'Moynihan report criticized as "racist"', Washington Post, 11 Nov. 1965.
56. 'Press reports', Records of the WHCCR.
57. Jeanette Hopkins, from a recording of a press conference given on 18 Nov. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
58. Memorandum to Lee C. White from Carl Holman, Berl Bernhard, and Harold Fleming, ' The family: resources for change - preliminary report', dated Dec. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
59. Transcripts of panel no. 4, 'Health and welfare', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR.
60. Transcripts of panel no. 3: Voting, 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, pp. 66-7.
61. Editorial, Philadelphia Bulletin, 22 Nov. 1965.
62. 'Press reports', Records of the WHCCR.
63. Transcripts of panel no. 3: 'Voting', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 227. Roche, a Democratic loyalist, remained faithful to Johnson even at the height of the protest against the war.
64. Transcripts of panel no. 3: 'Voting', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR.
65. Transcripts of panel no. 3: 'Voting', 18 Nov. 1965, p. 70.
66. planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 289.
67. Transcripts of panel no. 8, 'The community: institutions and social action', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 333.
68. Memorandum to Lee C. White from Carl Holman, Berl Bernhard, and Harold Fleming, dated Dec. 1965, 'Health and welfare - preliminary report', Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
69. The exceptions to this were the representatives of labour and the churches, but for different reasons. Labour was put on the defensive by civil rights organisations throughout the planning conference on issues relating to trade union restrictions. On other issues, labour leaders were unaccountable as, indeed, were church leaders who, of course, could not be voted out of office.
70. Transcript to panel no. 4, 'Health and welfare', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 292.
71. Rustin, 'From protest to polities'.
72. Memorandum from J. Q. Wilson and H. D. Price to 'White House Conference on Civil Rights', dated 3 Nov. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
73. Memorandum from Sterling Tucker to Berl Bernhard, Harold Fleming, Carl Holman, Liz Drew, dated 5 Nov. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 3.
74. Memorandum to Lee C. White from Carl Holman et al., 'Housing and the neighborhood -preliminary report', 3 Dec. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 3.
75. Hylan Lewis, preliminary paper for the session on the family, 'The family: resources for change', Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
76. Planning session agenda paper on education, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 43.
77. Transcripts of panel no. 5: 'The family: resources for change', 17 N0V. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 81.
78. Transcripts of panel no. 4: 'Health and welfare', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 150.
79. Letter from Reverend Gayraud S. Wilmore, Jr, to Carl Holman, 7 Jan. 1966, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
80. Memorandum to Lee C. White from Carl Holman et al., 'Education - preliminary report', 3 Dec. 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 2.
81. Transcripts of panel no. 3: 'Voting', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 125.
82. Rainwater and Yancey, The Moynihan report, p. 25.
83. See Philip M. Hauser, 'Demographic factors in the integration of the Negro', Daedalus, Fall 1965, p. 866.
84. Transcript to panel no. 5, 'The family: resources for change', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 63.
85. Preliminary report on 'The community: institutions and social action (panel VIII), Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
86. Transcript to panel no. 3, 'Voting', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 361.
87. Transcripts of panel no. I-A, 'Jobs', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 64.
88. Transcripts of panel no. 3: 'Voting', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 314.
89. Transcripts of panel no. I-A, 'Jobs', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 188.
90. Transcripts of panel no. 4: 'Health and welfare', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 292.
91. Transcripts of panel no. I-B, 'Jobs', 18 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 290.
92. Some government resource people, who generally favoured racial statistics and also were responsible for reporting back to the conference organizers, resolved the difficulties in the reports. In the Health and Welfare session, the recorder stated that' the panel agreed on racial statistics on all programs concerned with providing health services to the public'. According to the transcripts, the panel had agreed nothing of the sort (preliminary report of panel no. 4: 'Health and welfare', Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR).
93. Transcripts of panel no. 4: 'Health and welfare', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, p. 135.
94. Transcripts of panel no. I-A, 'Jobs', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR, pp. 118, 117, 138.
95. Also of interest in this discussion is Harrington's contention that 'it is as a result of Negro action that we have a poverty program'. This, from the most influential writer on poverty in the early 1960s, largely credited with inspiring Kennedy's efforts on poverty, seems damning evidence indeed against those who contend that the poverty discussions emerged independently of the issue of civil rights. This point of view has been recently propounded by Gareth Davies.
96. (see 'War on dependency: liberal individualism and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964', Journal of American History, 26.).
97. Memorandum to Lee C.White from Carl Holman et al., 3 Dec 1965, Sylvester papers, Records of the WHCCR.
98. Transcripts of panel no. 4: 'Health and welfare', 17 Nov. 1965, planning session papers, Records of the WHCCR.
99. Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, 'civil rights disaster', syndicated column, 21 Nov. 1965.
100. Interview with Harry McPherson, 24 March 1969, Oral histories, p. 17.
101. This is a debatable point. The appointment of a businessman to a leadership position of a civil rights body was hardly unprecedented. Truman, for instance, had appointed Charles E. Wilson, president of General Electric, to chair his 'President's committee on civil rights'.
102. Harry McPherson, cited in Lawson, In pursuit of power, p. 45.
103. Allocation of delegates approved by the Council to the White House Conference, from a letter from Berl I. Bernard to James Linen, president of Time, Inc., dated 19 Apr. 1966, papers of the chairman, Records of the WHCCR.
104. Jim Bishop, The days of Martin Luther King (New York, 1971), p. 427.
105. Cited in Lawson, In pursuit of power, p. 45.
106. Rainwater and Yancey, The Moynihan report, p. 279.
107. Peter Lisagor, News World Service in the Charlotte, N.C. News, 4 June 1966, planning session - press coverage, Records of the WHCCR.
108. Richard Rovere, 'Letter from Washington', New Yorker, 28 June 1966.
109. general area - press clippings, Records of the WHCCR.
110. Ctte no. VI, p. 43, Ctte no. VII.
111. 'White House Conference - Committee Hearings', Records of the WHCCR, p. 123.
112. Transcript of an interview with Ben Heineman by Joe B. Frantz, 16 Apr. 1970, Oral histories, p. 17.
113. Rainwater and Yancey, The Moynihan report, p. 281.
114. The phrase is used no less than five times in panel no. 1 in their discussion on education. See panel no. 1, education discussion, 'White House Conference - committee hearings', Records of the WHCCR, pp. 58, 65, 84.
115. Transcript of an interview with Ben Heineman by Joe B. Frantz, iGApr. 1970, Oral histories, p. 17.
116. Cited in 'Is integration irrelevant?', an editorial in The New Republic, 4 June 1966.
117. Christopher Jencks and Milton Kotler, 'Black government?', Ramparts, July 1966.
118. David Danzig, ' In defense of "black power"', Bayard Rustin '"Black Power" and coalition polities', Commentary (Sept. 1966).
119. Holmes Alexander, ' Can LBJ and others shatter such a wall?', Indianapolis Star, 3 June 1966.
120. general area - press clippings, Records of the WHCCR.
121. James J. Kilpatrick, 'Civil rights vs. ancient principles of law', in The Sunday Star, 15 May 1966.
122. 'Civil rights conference', in the Evening Star, 7 June 1966.
123. general area-press clippings, Records of the WHCCR. Kilpatrick must have been a recent convert to colour-blindness. In 1964 David Danzig called him 'probably the most effective segregationist thinker in the South'.
124. (David Danzig: 'Rightists, racists, and separatists: a rightist bloc in the making?', Commentary (Aug. 1964).
125. McPherson, A political education, pp. 61-2.
126. Many books recently published confirm this unfortunate fact. Among the best are Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, American apartheid (Chicago, 1993).
127. Andrew Hacker, Two nations (Princeton, N.J., 1992).
128. While many rightly blamed Nixon for following this advice, it might be pointed out that liberals and radicals have also shied away from answering this seminal question, making the Vietnam war the focus of political and moral protest rather than the longer-lasting question of race.