. . . on the ranch.

Well, we had some good meetings down there, and I think they did all right.

Yes, I was just very pleased. I just talked with Lee White.[note 2] White was associate counsel to President Johnson and handled civil rights issues. He mentioned to me about what you’re thinking about doing today, and the two people, as far as the judgeships are concerned.[note 3] Spottswood Robinson was a native of Richmond, Virginia, and a graduate of Howard University Law School. He had gained a formidable reputation for his desegregation work with the NAACP and his role in the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision. Prior to this judicial appointment he was serving as dean of the Howard Law School and was a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Leon Higginbotham, a graduate of Antioch College and Yale Law School, was serving as a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. He was a moderate leader within the NAACP and had worked his way up through various public positions in Pennsylvania.

Yeah.

And I think this is excellent. I think both of them are good men.

I want to do it if your people want me to do it. I don’t want to do it just because they serve them up and got no one else, because I’ve got 40 men that would like to have a judge. But if these are the best ones in the community, and we can give them some recognition, and our people will understand it, and you-all can do something about letting them know that I’m not a hater and a bigot. You-all—you know that, but most of the—a lot of them don’t. They keep saying I have all this trouble in the Negro community, and I’ve never heard a Negro say that.

I haven’t either. I don’t . . .

I’ve got a new secretary here. Do you know this little [Gerri] Whittington girl?

I heard about that. That’s written—

Well, she’s in my office, and she’s my personal secretary, and I took her to church with me yesterday in Stonewall, Texas.[note 4] Whittington had previously worked for Ralph Dungan, who was a special assistant to the president. The day before, she had attended church with Johnson at the St. Barnabas Episcopal Mission Church in Fredericksburg. On New Year’s Eve, she had also helped desegregate the all-white faculty club at the University of Texas by walking in on Johnson’s arm. She stayed in my home down there for two weeks and [was] the most competent person in the world. But . . . We’re just doing fine. I’ve got to get two good civil rights commissioners.[note 5] Johnson filled two openings that fall, appointing Frankie M. Freeman, a Black woman and antidiscrimination advocate, on 15 September, and Eugene C. Patterson, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, on 3 October. John Macy to Bill Moyers, 28 December 1965, p. 25, “Book of Presidential Appointments” folder, Box 56, White House Aides—Bill Moyers, Lyndon B. Johnson Library. I want to appoint these judges. But I keep reading in the columnists where they don’t quote you, and they don’t quote Roy Wilkins, and they don’t quote [James] Farmer, and they don’t quote Martin Luther King, and they don’t quote Phil Randolph, because every damn one of them knows that I’m stronger for them than nearly anybody around this place, and have been all these years.

Well, now, you know, last night, in the TV film—I don’t know whether you saw it—the duties of the president and the job facing you and all of this . . .[note 6] On Sunday night from 10:00 to 11:00 p.m., NBC television had broadcast a program on the Johnson administration titled The Problems of the Presidency.

No, I didn’t.

Well, they quoted again from us and showed pictures of our meeting with you.

Well, that’s good.

And this was awfully good visibility—

Well, but Jet magazine—[note 7] Jet magazine was one of the United States’ major periodicals targeting an African-American audience. The President’s last dealing with Jet had come in mid-December, when correspondent Simeon Booker had published an article that infuriated Johnson, falsely charging that the President had refused to have his picture taken with civil rights dignitaries after a White House visit. In the wake of that story, Johnson phoned Young. See Simeon Booker, “President Johnson’s Rights Stand Praised by Leaders,” Jet, 19 December 1963, pp. 6–11; and the conversation between President Johnson and Whitney Young, 23 December 1963, in The Presidential Recordings, Lyndon B. Johnson: The Kennedy Assassination and the Transfer of Power, November 1963– January 1964, vol. 2, ed. Robert David Johnson and David Shreve (New York: Norton, 2005).

What Jet did—well now, Jet this past week talked about Miss Whittington, and I think their whole tone has changed after I talked with you.[note 8] Simeon Booker, “Ticker Tape U.S.A.,” Jet, 26 December 1963, pp. 14–15.

Well, that’s good then. That’s good. I hadn’t seen it. I just see it when it’s bad.

They have a beautiful story on Miss Whittington [unclear] be in there—

I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that.

—but you see, some of these people they figure their role—just like they were with JFK—they figure their role is to stick pins in him. But I wouldn’t get too concerned about this if you—

Well, I do want to get concerned [Young attempts to interject] because I want them to know that I’m their friend.

Well, if you make moves like you’re fixing to do today, you won’t have any questions on this.[note 9] Young was referring to Johnson’s recess appointments of Robinson and Higginbotham.

Well, but I’m afraid they just think well, that’s because that somebody recommended him that was with Kennedy.

No, this won’t happen.

All right now. If you want it, it’ll be done.

I want it.

Now, the President [Kennedy] wanted it, and he would have done it. I feel like I’ve got an obligation to it. But I don’t want to do it unless the whole Negro community knows that I’m doing it, and the Democrats are doing it. This damn Jet and the rest of them quit cutting us up and saying we hate the Negroes.

Yes. Well, no, you won’t have that to worry about. This is what we want done.

All right. It’ll be done.

All right.

Thank you, Whitney.

Thank you—

You be my ambassador, now, and talk to them about it.

OK.

Bye.

I’ll do it. Bye.