Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed AmericaOpposites in almost every way, mortally suspicious of each other at first, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., were thrust together in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Both men sensed a historic opportunity and began a delicate dance of accommodation that moved them, and the entire nation, toward the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Drawing on a wealth of newly available sources -- Johnson's taped telephone conversations, voluminous FBI wiretap logs, previously secret communications between the FBI and the president -- Nick Kotz gives us a dramatic narrative, rich in dialogue, that presents this momentous period with thrilling immediacy. Judgment Days offers needed perspective on a presidency too often linked solely to the tragedy of Vietnam. We watch Johnson applying the arm-twisting tactics that made him a legend in the Senate, and we follow King as he keeps the pressure on in the South through protest and passive resistance. King's pragmatism and strategic leadership and Johnson's deeply held commitment to a just society shaped the character of their alliance. Kotz traces the inexorable convergence of their paths to an intense joint effort that made civil rights a legislative reality at last, despite FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's vicious whispering campaign to destroy King. Judgment Days also reveals how this spirit of teamwork disintegrated. The two leaders parted bitterly over King's opposition to the Vietnam War. In this first full account of the working relationship between Johnson and King, Kotz offers a detailed, surprising account that significantly enriches our understanding of both men and their time. |
Contents
The Cataclysm | 1 |
Let Us Continue | 17 |
A Fellow Southerner in the White House | 42 |
Hoover King and Two Presidents | 68 |
A Fire That No Water Could Put Out | 87 |
An Idea Whose Time Has Come | 112 |
Lyndon Johnson and the Ku Klux Klan | 156 |
A Political Revolution | 189 |
Shining Moment | 313 |
This Time the Fire | 336 |
Another Martyr | 377 |
The Legacy | 420 |
Acknowledgments | 433 |
Authors Note on Sources | 437 |
Notes | 441 |
Interview List | 473 |
Hoover Attacks | 229 |
LBJMLK A Quiet Alliance | 248 |
We Shall Overcome | 276 |
Bibliography | 478 |
Index | 492 |
Other editions - View all
Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws ... Nick Kotz Limited preview - 2005 |
Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws ... Nick Kotz Limited preview - 2005 |
Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws ... Nick Kotz No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
Abernathy African Americans aides Alabama Andrew Young asked attorney Bearing the Cross called campaign church cities Civil Rights Act civil rights bill civil rights leaders civil rights legislation civil rights movement Clark cloture committee Communist Congress convention David Garrow Deke delegates DeLoach demonstrations director Dirksen Edgar Hoover FBI's federal filibuster Freedom Democrats going Governor Hubert Humphrey James John Johnson told Justice Katzenbach Kennedy's King's Klan Lady Bird Lady Bird Johnson LBJL LBJOH leadership liberal Luther King Jr Lyndon Johnson marchers Martin Luther King meeting MFDP Mississippi Montgomery NAACP nation Negro Nicholas Katzenbach Party political poverty President Johnson president's Press programs protest racial Rauh Republican riots Robert Kennedy Roy Wilkins Russell Schwerner SCLC segregation Selma Senate SNCC South southern speech Stanley Levison Taylor Branch telephone Texas tion Vietnam violence voter voting rights Wallace wanted Washington White House York