Widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, stands behind a podium at the Peace-In-Vietnam Rally in Central Park, April 27, 1968. (Getty)
Last night's Mad Men had one huge historical timestamp: the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Here is what was going on in New York that week, and how it compared to Matthew Weiner's version. (And for more on the lighter part of the episode, here's our post on Peggy's would-be UES apartment.)
PAUL NEWMAN AND THE ANDY AWARDS
Megan wins an Andy Award for a campaign she worked on before she left the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce firm. The Andy Awards were (and are still!) a real thing. And Paul Newman really was speaking at the event on the night that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Newman had been touting Senator McCarthy to the audience, and in the show his speech is accurate to ones he really gave, starting, "I’m not here because I’m an actor. I’m here because I got six kids, and I’m worried about their future.”
The NY Times recapped the scene the next day (PDF), noting: "The news came after dinner had been served and Paul Newman, the actor, had just finished a light-hearted-appeal for Senator Eugene J. McCarthy. A man stood up amid the formally dressed assemblage in the Grand Ballroom and asked, 'Do you know, Mr. Newman, sir, that Martin Luther King is dead, sir? What have you to say?"
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
The rest of the world was also finding out about the assassination in Memphis, and everyone had their televisions tuned in—here is Walter Cronkite's broadcast from that night. Cronkite had almost finished his CBS Evening News broadcast when he received word of the tragedy. Here's his report:
In last night's episode, almost every character is shown with a different New York newspaper from that time, and this morning we dropped by the microfilm room at the NYPL to scan the papers from that week, and below is some of what was printed.
The Daily News ran part of President Johnson's call for calm on its front page the day after the assassination. The entire statement, which was read by Johnson outside the entrance to the West Lobby of the White House, reads:
"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. Johnson and myself to his widow, Mrs. 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."
The NY Times recalled that King had been stabbed in New York a decade prior—"Once, on Sept. 20, 1958, he was stabbed in a Harlem department store in New York by a Negro woman later adjudged insane. That time he underwent a four-hour operation to remove a steel letter opener that had been plunged into his upper left chest. For a time he was critical list, but he told his wife, while in the hospital, 'I don't hold any bitterness toward this woman.'"
Following the assassination, Henry Francis (Betty's husband who works for Mayor Lindsay) says he has to be by the Mayor's side, because "They're gonna burn down the city." Clay Risen’s book, A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination, retold the events of Lindsay's night:
"At about 8:30 p.m., during the song 'Spring in the City,' a plainclothes detective came to the mayor’s seat and handed him a note about King. Lindsay immediately went to the lobby and called the police commissioner’s office. No violence yet, they said. But things are getting hairy in Harlem. Lindsay got into a waiting sedan and sped uptown to Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence on the far Upper East Side, not far from Harlem. Along the way, he talked over options with David Garth, his press aide. Lindsay wanted to get to Harlem immediately. 'That’s a really bad idea,' Garth said. But Lindsay persisted. 'Somebody just has to go up there,” he said. “Somebody white just has to face that emotion and say that we’re sorry.'"
In last night's episode, Henry says Lindsay was "smiling like he was going to a pancake breakfast" throughout his walk through Harlem.
Lindsay asked the city's youth to keep the peace, and the NYPD and FDNY were working overtime—in the end, they were praised.
But there was scattered violence throughout the city. Times Square saw looting, and the Daily News reported "Flareups" in Harlem and Brooklyn. Police fired shots in the air to disperse crowds in both neighborhoods, and 12 ended up arrested (PDF).
But then 20,000 peacefully attended a memorial for King in Central Park (this is what Megan to the Draper kids to in last night's episode). Washington D.C. was seeing the more violent riots, and DCist will have more on those. Here is video of King talking to Merv Griffin, not long before his death, mentioning violence in D.C.—"Washington can explode just as any other city in our country... now, I happen to be firmly opposed to riots, because I think they're self-defeating and socially destructive."
