Lyndon B. Johnson, Ivan E. Allen Jr., and Lady Bird Johnson on 4 April 1968


Transcript

Edited by Kent B. Germany, with Kieran K. Matthews and Marc J. Selverstone

President Johnson spent most of this day in New York City, meeting with local political leaders and with officials at the United Nations. He returned to the White House around 6:30 p.m. (EST).[note 1] Memphis was on Central Standard Time (CST), one hour earlier than Eastern Standard Time (EST). All times in this conversation are EST. Approximately 30 minutes later in Memphis, Tennessee, a sniper’s bullet struck Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the neck and face. At that moment, the President was meeting in Washington, D.C., with his close friend and former Georgia governor Carl E. Sanders Sr. and with former president of Coca-Cola and Atlanta philanthropist Robert W. “Bob” Woodruff. At 7:24 p.m., a White House aide delivered the news of the King shooting. At 8:05 p.m., King was declared dead. The President received that notice from an aide 15 minutes later. For the next half hour, Johnson continued to watch news reports about the assassination and prepared to go before TV cameras. At 9:07 p.m., he read the following short statement to a national audience:

“America is shocked and saddened by the brutal slaying tonight of Dr. Martin Luther King. I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck Dr. King, who lived by nonviolence. I pray that his family can find comfort in the memory of all he tried to do for the land he loved so well. I have just conveyed the sympathy of Mrs. [Lady Bird] Johnson and myself to his widow, Mrs. [Coretta Scott] King. I know that every American of good will joins me in mourning the death of this outstanding leader and in praying for peace and understanding throughout this land. We can achieve nothing by lawlessness and divisiveness among the American people. It is only by joining together and only by working together that we can continue to move toward equality and fulfillment for all of our people. I hope that all Americans tonight will search their hearts as they ponder this most tragic incident. I have canceled my plans for the evening. I am postponing my trip to Hawaii until tomorrow. Thank you.”[note 2] President Johnson had planned to meet Gen. William C. Westmoreland in Honolulu to discuss Vietnam, but Westmoreland would end up coming to the capital instead. Presidential Daily Diary, 4 April 1968; “Statement by the President on the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” 4 April 1968, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1969), doc. 179.

At 9:36 p.m., President Johnson received an update from Tennessee governor E. Buford Ellington, a southern moderate and a close ally who had served in the White House as director of the Office of Emergency Planning and had managed the administration’s responses in Selma and Watts in 1965. Ellington reported that Memphis was “in a real rough situation” and that he had called out the Tennessee National Guard. This telephone call was apparently recorded, but no audio remains. The record of that exchange survives in a contemporary transcript made by the White House staff.[note 3] Presidential Daily Diary, 4 April 1968.

The only audio from that day’s White House telephone recordings involved the following conversation between President Johnson and Ivan E. Allen Jr., the mayor of Atlanta, King’s hometown.

What followed over the next several days was the most widespread moment of domestic civil disorder in the United States in a century, with notable riots occurring in over 125 cities. On the afternoon of 5 April, one day after the murder of Dr. King, the situation in the nation’s capital had deteriorated to the point that President Johnson mobilized 11,000 federal troops. For several other states, he federalized the National Guard in an attempt to restore order.[note 4] Presidential Daily Diary, 5 April 1968; Ben A. Franklins, “Army Troops in Capital as Negroes Riot; Guard Sent Into Chicago, Detroit, Boston,” New York Times, 6 April 1968; Murray Seeger, “Washington Ghetto Smoldering Ruins Block After Block,” Los Angeles Times, 7 April 1968. By 8 April, approximately 34,000 National Guardsmen were in action across the country, and the White House had deployed over 21,000 federal troops in Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.—all from the U.S. Army, except for 700 Marines in the capital. Another 22,000 stood by, if needed.[note 5] Neil Sheehan, “22,000 More G.I.’s Ready for Riot Duty,” New York Times, 9 April 1968. According to the Army’s history of the events (written by military historian Paul Scheips), the three disorders requiring federal forces involved 23,008 regular troops and 15,586 federalized Guardsmen. Those soldiers set off 5,972 tear gas canisters, “but only 16 rounds of ammunition.” The casualty toll for the disturbances in those cities was “31 deaths . . . 3,219 injuries, 16,268 arrests, and over 2,000 fires.”[note 6] For a thorough exploration of the use of troops in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Chicago, see Paul J. Scheips, The Role of Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1945–1992 (Washington, DC: United States Army Center of Military History, 2012). According to Scheips, “the Army prepared to use troops if necessary in a number of cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City (Missouri), Memphis, Nashville, New York City, Oakland (California), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), and Washington” (272).

White House Operator

Ready, sir.[note 7] The Presidential Recordings Program revised the following section of text in 2021 for inclusion in The LBJ Telephone Tapes, a project produced by the Miller Center in partnership with the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library to commemorate the library's 50th anniversary.

President Johnson

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Ivan E. Allen Jr.

Mr. President?

President Johnson

Yes, Mr. Allen.

Allen

I want to thank you for your very fine statement that you made so promptly, sir.

President Johnson

Thank you, Mayor.

Allen

We’re doing everything we can. We have a very heavy rainstorm here in Atlanta [Georgia]. It’s preventing any disorder at the present time. We’ve been through these situations before. And I think we can cope with them. I’ll do everything I can to hold the house in order here, sir.

President Johnson

Well, you’re mighty, mighty good, and I have great confidence in you, and I know that [coughs] you’re right on top of it. I called Mrs. [Coretta Scott] King and—[note 8] Coretta Scott King was a civil rights activist, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his assassination in April 1968.

Allen

I was with Mrs. King when you called.[note 9] The Presidential Daily Diary noted this call at 8:56 p.m.

President Johnson

Well, I—

Allen

I accompanied her to the airport, where we heard of Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.]’s death, and then went home with her.[note 10] Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the civil rights movement; pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, from 1954 to 1960; organizer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957; co-pastor (with his father) of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1960 until his assassination on 4 April 1968; and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. And Mrs. [Louise Richardson] Allen was with me, and we’ve done everything we possibly could, sir.[note 11] Louise Richardson Allen was the wife of Ivan E. Allen Jr., and the first lady of Atlanta, Georgia, from 1962 to 1970. Martin was my close personal friend. I had great respect and admiration for him, sir.

President Johnson

Uh-huh. Well, you’ve done a—you done a great job there, and I hope you’ll [clears throat] let me know anything—any suggestions you have. [Allen acknowledges throughout.] We had a little problem in Durham [North Carolina], and we have one here in Washington [D.C.].[note 12] The next afternoon, 5 April, President Johnson ordered in federal troops and federalized National Guard soldiers into the capital, while mobilizing the Guard in several states. Eventually, over 11,000 federal troops would patrol the streets. Ben A. Franklins, “Army Troops in Capital as Negroes Riot; Guard Sent into Chicago, Detroit, Boston,” New York Times, 6 April 1968. They’re moving around. We don’t know the extent of it, don’t know how serious it’s going to be [snorts], but they have 2[000] or 3,000 people gathered.

Allen

Yes, sir.

President Johnson

I was due to come out to Honolulu [Hawaii] in the morning, but I’ve decided I’d wait till the morning to take a look at it and see what to do. You have any suggestions as to anything else that I ought to . . . do?

Allen

Mr. President, I think you’ve taken exactly the right steps, sir, and I’m following the same pattern here, sir, and I’m just delighted that you’re running the show, sir.

President Johnson

Well, you’re wonderful to call me and stay in touch with me, and please know that I’m very grateful for your whole attitude.

Allen

You’re very fine, sir. I hated to hear that news last Sunday night, sir, but . . . [President Johnson acknowledges] you’re a great man, sir.[note 13] In a shocking move at the end of a long statement about halting the American bombing over most of North Vietnam, President Johnson announced, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.” See “The President’s Address to the Nation Announcing Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam and Reporting His Decision Not to Seek Reelection,“ 31 March 1968, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1969), doc. 170.

President Johnson

Thank you so much, Mayor, and I look forward to seeing you.

Allen

Give Mrs. [Lady Bird] Johnson my regards.[note 14] Lady Bird Johnson (née Claudia Alta Taylor) was the wife of Lyndon B. Johnson since 1934, and first lady of the United States from November 1963 to January 1969.

President Johnson

Here she is. I’ll let you say a word to her. [Hands the phone to Lady Bird Johnson.]

Lady Bird Johnson

Mayor Allen?

Allen

Mrs. Johnson, how are you?

Lady Bird Johnson

Oh, troubled and sad, but God bless those who keep on striving and trying, and you’re sure among them.

Allen

Thank you, ma’am, and we’re certainly proud of the President, and his statement last Sunday night was just magnificent, and he’s a great man. And I’m so grateful that he made the statement that he made [tonight]. It was exactly the right thing, and I’ve tried to follow the same course here in Atlanta, and I hope everything will be all right.

Lady Bird Johnson

[Slight chuckle.] Thank you. Thank you, and for many things.

Allen

Thank you, ma’am.

Lady Bird Johnson

Good night.

Allen

Good night.[note 15] End of 2021 revisions.

Cite as

“Lyndon B. Johnson, Ivan E. Allen Jr., and Lady Bird Johnson on 4 April 1968,” Conversation WH6804-01-12908, Presidential Recordings Digital Edition [Lyndon B. Johnson and Civil Rights, vol. 2, ed. Kent B. Germany] (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014–). URL: http://prde.upress.virginia.edu/conversations/4005993