Judgment Days by Nick Kotz
Two leaders, who could not be more dissimilar, worked pragmatically and collaboratively to advance civil rights. This is the underlying theme of Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America. Judgment Days scans the years 1963 to 1968 (the Johnson presidency through the assassination of Dr. King).
Early Praise:
Judgment Days is an outstanding piece of research providing a chronological account of the unique working relationship between President Lyndon Johnson and civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr. Masterfully, Kotz details the parallel rise and fade of both leaders and the challenges they faced in their struggle for this common cause and with each other.
Out of the sorrow of John F. Kennedy's assassination and the passion, determination, and skill of President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had emerged the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Out of courage an horror on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and in fiery protest throughout the nation, the two men again ignited the nation's passion for justice in passing the 1965 Civil Rights Act. And out of the ashes of burning cities following Dr. King's assassination and Johnson's decision not to seek reelection had come one final declaration for justice written powerfully into the fabric of American law. (p. 421)
Here is what you can expect when you read Judgment Days: Engaging narrative. Surprising facts. Clarifying history. A holistic picture of the tragedies and triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement on the 60's.
Themes I saw in Judgment Days:
1. The political pas de deux (dance by two persons):
Popular conceptions of key figures in the fight for Civil Rights are often generalized misconceptions. I think this is the case with LBJ and MLK. Johnson's caricature is often shaded, a politician who uses civil rights to his own end; a second-string player to JFK in this drama for human freedom. Actually, JFK's political acumen did not match his vision. It took Johnson, the undisputed master of political process to secure not one, but four major pieces of Civil Rights legislation: The Civil Rights Act of 1957, The Civil Rights Acts of 1964, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. For his part, Martin Luther King is paraded as angelic, the unflappable unifier of his people, a people on a quest for the Dream. And while King was a leader worthy of his accolades, he was a man of clay feet. He navigated bitter battles within his own movement and was at times at a loss as to his next step. Kotz show us both men, the wonder and warts.
2. Seeing the middle way:
Kotz paints both LBJ and MLK as leaders who pursued "a middle way." Example: King championing a moratorium on civil rights demonstrations for three days prior to the 1964 election (pp. 184f).
King believed that his success as a leader depended on his maintaining credibility with a large, diverse constituency. He would sit quietly through long arguments, and then seek a middle way (p. 186). . . . In their goals, both Johnson and King were seeking radical change in the equities of social justice in America [they both spoke for it, but disagreed about the role of nonviolent demonstration]. In action, however, they both revealed a belief that change is achieved most effectively pragmatic, conciliatory leaders (p. 186).
3. It's Complicated!:
Kotz expertly chronicles "the dilemma" both Johnson and King faced. For example, in 1965, Johnson was pushing legislation associated with his Great Society, while navigating an escalating situation in Vietnam, while working toward voting rights and supporting King, while attempting to avoid a clash with Alabama leadership and the broader "state rights" movement by stepping up federal efforts to protect marchers.
If he were to join King's court petition, it would look as if he were "advocating the god-damn march. If every time [King] wants to march, I go in and tell the judge, 'I want you to enjoin the local officials,' it may look like I'm stirring up those marches. . . . But if you don't you get a lot of killings, and they say, "What did you do?" He paused: "And you didn't do anything." "You've got a hell of a dilemma," sympathized Senator Hill. "Yes, I do," replied Johnson.
King had his own dilemma. Having missed the Selma march (1, preaching at Ebenezer Baptist; 2, concerns over death threats; 3, he didn't expect much to come of march; 4, he was frustrated by the organizers poor planning) he now had hundreds of leaders flooding into Selma to show solidarity for a second march.
On the one hand, canceling the march would embarrass King and the SCLC before both local and national civil rights forces. The momentum building in Selma wold also be lost. On the other hand, SCLC mantra had always been that local and state segregation statues were invalid, but that federal laws must be followed. And King had never defied a federal court order (p. 292).
And now there was a federal court order as Judge Johnson ordered King to cancel the second march until the judicial proceedings (initiated by SCLC and NAACP) concluded.
4. Leaders in a pickle:
King felt the squeeze. Kotz writes, "Martin Luther King, like Lyndon Baines Johnson, walked the treacherous path between a white majority whose consent he had to gain and impatient activists unwilling to follow any leader they judged to be too timid" (p. 320). Johnson too was pressed, enduring constant pressure from Southern Democrats always ready to filibuster against civil rights legislation, the blasé of an American public slow to see or own the everyday difficulties of being black in America, the pressure of African American leaders impatient with the speed of change, and the economic frustration of not being able to afford both guns (increase in defense funding for Vietnam) and butter (increase in domestic spending).
5. The rise and decline of leadership momentum:
LBJ knew his political landslide came with a price. Winning the presidential election in 1964 meant losing the South to the Republicans for the foreseeable future (he was spot on). He also knew that he had to act quickly to secure civil rights legislation as each victory would draw heavily on his tremendous store of political capital.
Perhaps, had he been willing to "lose" the war in Vietnam he could have continued to see Great Society come to fruition. As it was, the writing was on the wall as he approached the election of 1968. He might win, but it would be hollow as his grip on Congress had loosened significantly.
For his part, King's negative reaction to Vietnam and Johnson, while understandable and shared by millions, was actually out of step with African Americans at the time. "A Gallup Poll on September 6, 1967, showed that 67% of nonwhite Americans supported Johnson, compared to only 38% of white Americans" (p. 394). King's efforts to focus on "justice" both at home and abroad gave him a weaker voice with his constituents, especially in the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC).
Kotz' summary is worth repeating:
King's popularity, like Johnson', was sinking. As 1967 drew to a close, Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, now avowed political enemies, faced identical dilemmas: how to end an escalating war, with mounting casualties, which was siphoning funds from the dream they still shared of a more just society -- and how to deal with increasing hostility from each other as well as from their own hard-won constituencies (p. 378).
Turning Points in the American Civil Rights Movement:
1. Republicans lose the mantle,"The Party of Lincoln."
African Americans abandoned the party of Lincoln for the Democrats due to Republican foot-dragging regarding civil rights. We see this shift in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) fighting for a place at the 1964 Democratic Convention (see chapter 8). At the same time Barry Goldwater courted Southern Democrats to the GOP with a speech proclaiming, "that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" (pp. 192-3). A shift was taking place that Johnson saw coming.
2. Watts riots in Los Angeles: Both Johnson and King were caught off guard by the rioting in Watts, which occurred five days after LBJ signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Each was basking in the success (and understandably so) of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Kotz tagged it hubris on the part of both leaders. "With Watts, King came to a fuller awareness that the two great civil rights laws of 1964 and 1965 basically addressed the evils of southern segregation but had barely touched the ghetto's problems of poverty, joblessness, isolation, family disintegration and hopelessness" (p. 343).
With Watts, Martin Luther King began moving toward a far more radical critique of what ailed American society (p. 343).
3. Vietnam becomes LBJ's downfall:
Appreciation for LBJ:
1. LBJ paid the price of progress: LBJ weathered the segregationists split in the 1964 as Southern states rallied against civil rights, even while knowing that the 1964 election and his reforms "were setting in a motion a historic realignment--that the Democrats were about to lose the South, on his watch " (p. 196).
2. LBJ urged Hoover to infiltrate the Klan in '64: This made possible the quick arrest of four men charged with murdering Viola Liuzzo on her way back from the Selma to Montgomery march. The white mother of five had gone to help and was driving back Ben Mouton, a 19-year-old black volunteer.
3. LBJ masterfully navigated a thorny group of constituents to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. One reason his aids pressured him to run in '68, was that he was "the only guy who could get anything done! No one else knows how to get anything through Congress" (p. 408). LBJ was also responsible for delivering the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, almost a century earlier.
4. LBJ read the times: He knew that, despite winning the '64 election by a landslide he would lose both the South and his grip on Congress "by expending his political capital gained in the landslide 1964 presidential election" (p. 330). Facing what would most likely amount to a hallow victory at best in the '68 presidential election, John refused to run.
5. LBJ changed! "As a young Texas congressman, Johnson had opposed even the most modest civil rights efforts. Now he was working with the nation's preeminent African America leaders to venture beyond even their efforts to level the racial playing field, economically as well as legally" (p. 335). See also Johnson's comments regarding past mistakes (p. 330).
6. LBJ integrated the federal government: LBJ appointed Thurgood Marshall as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court, tasked Robert Wise to head the new Department of Housing and Urban Development, he appointed Constance Baker Motley as a U.S. district court judge, Andrew Brimmer, a Ph.D. economist as the first African American to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He appointed and mentored younger black leaders on his staff: Roger Wilkins (33), Clifford Alexander (33), and Major Hugh Robinson. See the story of Brimmer and Senator Russell long on page 357.
Appreciation for MLK:
1. King was thrust into the good fight: He was 26 when he began his work of civil rights. He had just received his doctorate from Boston University and begun his pastoral work when he was selected to the lead the bus boycott by black leaders in Montgomery (p. 45)
2. King endured the jealousy of younger Civil Rights leaders (SNCC) and worked to conciliate factions that favored militancy with those working through peaceful means (p. 197).
3. King navigated a thorny group of constituents to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. His death is 1968 was the impetus for Congress to pass the Fair Housing Act, which until then had twice stalled in House and Senate.
4. King's stamina (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, relational) was amazing. King was just 36 when the Voting Rights act of 1965 passed and had been a leader in the civil rights movement since he was 26.
5. King went to difficult places to pursue justice: Seeking to address the difficulties northern blacks faced, King went to Chicago to confront leaders about joblessness, overcrowded housing, poor schools, lack of health care, [and] a powerless black population locked in their ghetto neighborhoods," King said that the venomous hatred expressed in Chicago was as bad as--or worse than--anything the movement had encountered in the South" (pp. 365-7).
6. King always pressed on despite harboring doubts about his worthiness to lead. "I could hear an inner voice saying to me: 'Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And, lo, I will be with you even until the end of the world.' I heard Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone" (p. 48).
7. King championed "nonviolent direct action resistance" and maintained it despite calls from many (especially as the movement endured delays and setbacks) to resort to violent upheaval. (p. 49)
Both MLK and LBJ saw the bigger picture and the importance of the legislative process -- not violence -- to bring about change. (p. 197)
Disdain for FBI Director Herbert Hoover:
Hoover utilized wire taps throughout the fight for Civil Rights, constantly eavesdropping on MLK and doing everything within his power to paint King as a communist and degenerate. He attempted to smear those associated with the movement, including Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered by the Klan for her involvement. Kotz: "Hoover seemed determined to show that anyone involved with the civil rights movement was either politically or morally suspect" (p 326). Kotz notes, "Literally hundreds of FBI communications to the White House and to other government agencies clearly captured Hoover's animus toward King and his desire to destroy King's public standing and influence" (p. 386).
Civil Rights in America: How bad was it?
Kotz, as many before him have, helps readers understand the plight of African Americans since Reconstruction. He puts faces on "injustice," "poverty," and "murder."
1. Interesting statistics: On the third attempt at a march to Montgomery, the parade of protestors marched down Highway 80 through Lowndes County where 80% of the population was black--and "not a single African American was registered to vote" (p. 323)
2. Troubling stories: SCLC Volunteer Viola Liuzzo (mother of five) shot and killed by the Klan when on the return trip from Montgomery to Selma (p. 325).
3. The plight in the North as well as in the South.
Leadership Lessons from Judgment Days:
1. Never have an event without a process. Reflecting on Watts, Kotz notes, "that the rhetorical claims of [Johnson & King] for the poverty programs far exceeded any proven knowledge of what they might accomplish" (p. 345). Furthermore, many Johnson allies were claiming that there was too much confusion and lack of coordination in implementing the programs. Watts revealed new problems, problems that government leaders were not willing to tackle with the same alacrity due to initial challenges implementing Great Society programs.
2. Spend your leadership capital wisely. LBJ knew he was quickly using up the political capital of his 1964 landslide victory. He predicted the victory in '64 would cost the Democrats the South (which it did), and he knew his opportunity to act with the same degree of decisiveness and effectiveness would diminish quickly. Watts and the congressional willingness to respond to it legislatively was proving him correct.
3. Leaders Persevere: MLK and LBJ persevered as they faced multiple challenges internal and external.
4. Leaders "know the rules": America's founders intended the filibuster to be an "impediment" against "improper acts of legislation," as Hamilton and Jay wrote in Federalist Paper 62. Kotz notes that the filibuster helps ensure such impediment. In 1919, the Senate adopted Rule 22, providing an end to the filibuster by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Taht was changed in 1975 to 60 votes. The filibuster is how we got New Mexico and Arizona (p. 113, 115).
Lyndon Johnson, the Enigma:
1. Johnson's response to riots surrounding the assassination of MLK: "What did you expect? I don't know why we're so surprised. When you put your foot on a man's neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what's he going to do? He's going to knock your block off" (p. 418).
Helen Gahagan Douglas, a liberal California Democrat on LBJ's contradictory qualities: "Ambitious, driving, alert, careful, calculating, secretive, seemingly with inexhaustible energy, sensitive to criticism, vain, an explosive temper that could erupt over the smallest details, a natural talent for organization, a listener--not a reader, a legislative director, organizer--not a legislative designer, an activist--not a planner. LBJ perfected the plans of others. he was an operator, and I say that in the best sense, not a creator" (p. 29).
Quotes to keep:
1. Leadership (King): "A real leader does not rely on consensus. He builds consensus" (p. 409).
2. Opportunity (Johnson): "We must overcome unequal history before we overcome unequal opportunity" (p. 424).
3. Old black lady during the Montgomery bus boycott: "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested" (p. 416).
4. Seizing the moment (Johnson): When a veteran insider cautioned him about expending early goodwill on controversial civil rights legislation, Johnson retorted: "Well, what the hell's the Presidency for?" (p. 22).
5. MLK on LBJ in 1963: "LBJ is a man of great ego and great power. He is pragmatist and a man of pragmatic compassion. It just may be that he's going to go where John Kennedy couldn't" (p. 67)
6. Senator Thomas Kuchel on civil violence: "Civil wrongs do not bring civil rights" (p. 123)
7. MLK on the Klan's threats: "I don't mind bearing the cross, but I'll be damned if I am going to go looking for it" (p. 147).
