The series began on Wednesday, January 23, 2008, and meets each Wednesday through March 5 from 5:30 to 7:00pm in the auditorium of the South Carolina Archives and History Center (8301 Parklane Rd., off Highway 277).

For Further Information, call the Department of History at 803-777-5195.

To return to the History Department Home Page, click here.

 
 
 

 
 

 

  • June 23, 1964

    12:35 p.m.
    To Lee White

    LBJ called Lee White, his chief aide on civil rights matters, to discuss how to respond to James Farmer, the director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

    President Johnson: I asked [J. Edgar] Hoover last . . . two weeks ago . . . after talking to the Attorney General to fill up Mississippi with FBI men and infiltrate everything he could; that they’re hauling them in by the dozens; that I’ve asked him to put more men after these three kids; that he hauled them in last night.

    Lee White: Right.

    President Johnson: That I’ve asked him for another report today; that I’m shoving it as much as I know how; that I didn’t ask them to go, and I can’t control the actions of Mississippi people. The only weapon I have for locating them is the FBI. I haven’t got any state police or any constables, and the FBI is better than marshals, and I’ve got all of them I’ve got looking after them. I can’t find them myself—[section closed under the terms of the deed of gift]

    ~ Edit ~

    President Johnson:  . . . and that I’ve got—given them already a standing order to stay on it day and night. Now, have you . . . What do they think happened? Think they got killed?

    Lee White: This morning they had had absolutely no trace. There’s no sign of the automobile. They have found nobody who’s seen the car or the three people. So, as far as they’re concerned, they’ve just disappeared from the face of the earth. 

 
 
   
  Materials for this course were developed by the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. Site design and Flash transcript+audio design by David Coleman. Flash transcript+audio files by David Coleman, Marc Selverstone, and the Presidential Recordings Program. Audio courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Presidential Libraries of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. For more resources on the White House tapes see www.whitehousetapes.org or click here or here.
   
  To return to the University of South Carolina History Department Home Page, click here.