Presidential Recordings Program

President Johnson called Roy Wilkins, the Executive Director of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People], to discuss the potential appointment of Robert Weaver^∇ as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Earlier this day, on the floor of the Senate, Senator John J. Williams said that Lawrence L. 'Larry' Callanan of St. Louis, an official at the St. Louis Steamfitters Union who had been convicted of labor racketeering a decade earlier and whose sentence had been commuted by President Johnson, had donated a total of $2,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 1965.

President Johnson: Yes, sir?

Richard Daley: Hiya pal, how are you doing?

President Johnson: Pretty good, pretty good. Have you--

Daley: I hear you're still rousing the crowds wherever you go.

In Kansas, Robert Docking, the son of a former Kansas Democratic governor, defeated the incumbent Republican governor William H. Avery in a tight race.

President Johnson: Hello?

Robert 'Bob' Docking: Mr. President?

President Johnson: Yes.

The Democratic primaries in Illinois served as a test of political strength of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and the Illinois political machine he headed. A series of primary and other votes on June 15, 1966, reaffirmed Daley's continuing influence despite concerted attacks from critics leading up to the votes. 

White House Operator: He'll be with you in just a moment, sir. 

Hubert Humphrey: OK.

Telephone operators heard speaking indistinctly in the background.

President Johnson: Hello?

Humphrey: Hello, Mr. President.

Five days before the midterm election, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and President Lyndon Johnson briefly compared notes.

Recording starts after conversation has begun.

Hubert Humphrey: That was a great press conference.

President Johnson: Well, I don't know.

Until the previous day, October 2, 1966, Nicholas Katzenbach^∇ had been Attorney General. He had been replaced by Ramsey Clark^∇. Katzenbach had resigned from the post to become Undersecretary of State.

Nicholas Katzenbach is on hold for 1 minute 33 seconds. A woman's muffled voice can be heard briefly.

In this call with John Kenneth Galbraith, President Johnson discussed the appointment of Arthur Goldberg as Ambassador to the United Nations. Galbraith was an economist, public intellectual, former Ambassador to India, and an influential liberal.

In this call, President Johnson asks Judge Thurgood Marshall to be Solicitor General to replace Archibald Cox, who was planning to resign his post and return to his position at Harvard University's Law School. In 1961, President Kennedy had appointed, Marshall, at the time Chief Counsel for the NAACP, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Johnson had recently returned from Honolulu where he had met with U.S. military commanders and South Korean President Chung Hee Park. On March 31, Johnson had called for two weeks of greatly reduced U.S.

At 6:01 P.M. on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 P.M. At 9:07 P.M. that same evening, President Johnson read a short statement for radio and television broadcast from outside the entrance to the West Lobby of the White House. The statement read:

Operators connect the call.

President Johnson: Senator?

John Stennis: Yeah, good morning, Mr. President.

President Johnson: How are you?

Stennis: Oh--

President Johnson: By God, you're a hard man to find. Had to get the FBI^∇ after you.

The Houston Post and Oceanside Daily Blade-Tribune, a local California newspaper, had both published stories that Reedy had resigned after a disagreement with Johnson over whether the President should go to Atlantic City Wednesday night for the Democratic National Convention.