The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 28

28 Southwestern Historical Quarterly July
Democrat, four Republican, and one, Alabama, did not put the national
Democratic ticket on the ballot and the Republicans carried it as well.
But there were long-term consequences. Though he met with
Johnson in the White House again, once with John Lewis regarding the
Voting Rights Bill of 1965, Farmer was never able to mend fences
destroyed when he supported the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party's effort to be seated at the 1964 convention and when he voiced
his opposition to the Vietnam War.76 By the time Johnson signed the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, a bill largely inspired by the violence of
Freedom Summer, Farmer was such a persona non grata in the White
House that Johnson almost refused to give the CORE director a ceremo-
nial pen. "Martin and the others kept saying, 'What about Farmer? Give
one to Farmer,"' Farmer said. "Finally he did, but he really didn't have a
choice.""77 Farmer felt as though his personal opposition to the Vietnam
War was another reason for Johnson's coolness. "A tenacious friend to
those who were 'loyal,' LBJ was an unforgiving enemy to the 'disloyal.'
His animosity showed itself in petty ways.'78
Moyers said that because Farmer was considered a radical, Johnson
didn't rely on him as much as he did on King, Roy Wilkins, A. Phillip
Randolph and particularly Whitney Young. He said, '"Young could talk
to the folks on Capital Hill, and he and the president were friends until
Young died."79
Charges were finally dismissed against all the students involved in the
Marshall sit-ins, and the town that sold the swimming pool rather than
integrate did not have another public swimming pool until 1988. It was
named for the town's first African American mayor, Sam Birmingham.
The public schools were not fully integrated until 1971.
Zephyr Black married Sammie Wright in Austin on November 10o,
1952. They had no children. She did not return to Texas with the
Johnson family in 1969 and remained in Washington, where she was a
member of Good Will Baptist Church and the De'Monsell's Social Club,
until her death.
76 See photo no. 39, taken August 6, 1965, in John Lewis, Walking With the Wznd, (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1998). Although Farmer was personally opposed to the war, he prevented
CORE from adopting an anti-Vietnam War resolution during its 1965 convention in Durham,
N.C. The resolution had been passed before Farmer's arrival, but he, fearing CORE would be
branded as a Communist front, convinced the delegates to rescind the action. Farmer to Beil,
Aug. 15, 1998, interview; Farmer, Lay Bare the Heart, 300.
"7 Farmer to Beil, Aug. 9, 1997, interview, notes in author's possession.
78 Farmer may be correct, but judging from recorded telephone conversations between
Johnson and others during the period before the election of 1964, the MFDP incident would
not have been forgotten by the president, either. It is of note that Johnson turned on Moyers as
well when he finally resigned from the Johnson administration
79 Moyers to Bell, Apr. 21, 1988, interview, notes in author's possession.