LIBERATORVol . IV, No. 7

JULY 1964

35c

EXCLUSIVE THIS MONTHWe Are All

Blood BrothersMALCOLM X

NationalismHarold Cruse

James BaldwinOfficial Angry Negro

Review ; Blues For Mr. CharlieClebert Ford

GhostsLangston Hughes

NATIONALTHE ECONOMICS OF BLACKNATIONALISM (part 1 of 3)

by Harold Cruse . . . 8JOHN LEWIS OF SNCCAn Exclusive Interview

by Clebert Ford . . . 14UN REPORT

by Daniel H . Watts . . . 16NATIONALIST STUDENTCONFERENCE

by Don Freeman . . .18THE BAG'S TOO HEAVY

by Herb Ottley . . . 19UNCHAIN THE LION

by Rolland SneIIings . . .20

AFRICA

WE ARE ALL BLOOD BROTHERSby Malcolm X . . . 4

U .S . IMAGE IN GHANAby T . D . Baffoe . . .17

THEATREJAMES BALDWIN : OFFICIALANGRO NEGROReview of "Blues for Mr. Charlie"

by Clebert Ford . . . 7

SPORTSBOXING : BLACK HOPE,WHITE COP-OUT

by Clayton Riley . . .12

PO ETRYGHOSTS

by Langston Hughes . . .21

BOO KS

. . . 22

LIBERATORVol . IV, No . 7 July 1964

1,1111-R.ITOR : is the voice of the Afro-American protest movementin the United Sta .tes and the liberation movement of Africa .Copyright 1964, by AFRO-AMERICAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC .Office : 244 East 46 Street, New York, N .Y . 10017

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Who Speaks For The Negro?

EDITORIAL

"It matters not what our friends may do; they may make OUR CAUSEtheirperpetual theme . . . yetall will be of no avail,so far as we,ourselves,are personally interested without our thinking and acting, as a body, forourselves ." (Philip A . Bell in the Weekly Advocate, New York, January,1837)

The above statement was made 127 years ago, yet a century later we are stillfighting for the right to speak for ourselves .

Congressman Adam Clayton Powell is one of the few authentic black leaderswho has been democratically elected by the black masses as their spokesman .Despite this incontrovertible fact, the white community through their propagandamil Is continue to impose on the black community their hand picked handkerchiefhead "responsible leaders", KING, WILKINS, YOUNG and FARMER .

The recent dispute between Congressman Powell and the kindly old professor(complete down to his pipe) from City College, is another clear indication of howthe white power structure maintains its stranglehold on the black community .This kindly old professor (a Negro) from the Gothic bluffs overlooking Harlemperformed a greatly needed service to the community : his monumental documenton Harlem, its ills and its cure is a testament to his personal integrity as a scien-tific researcher . There can be no argument with his conclusions and proposedcures ; with the publishing of his report, it was expected by all concerned, includ-ing the professor, that he would return to the classroom on the hill . But now welearn that this "naive non-political" professor has solicited the support of thedarling of the white Iiberals,our do-nothing Mayor Wagner, to impose once againa hand-picked "nigrah" leader to direct the affairs of this much needed first stepprogram of rehabilitating Harlem . Immediately the white press and the Greekchorus (Uncle Toms) launched the verbal assault ; Congressman Powell was being"irresponsible" for insisting that the director of the project must be a black manwho has been with the joint project from the beginning and has his roots in theblack community, not one who takes the rubbernecking sightseeing tour of Harlemevery four years . On the other hand, the white press insists that Mayor Wagnerand the professor are for motherhood and against sin ; translated into Mau Mautalk, Harlem was once more to be on the receiving end of the shaft .

The phrase that is being bandied about today by the white liberals, "whospeaks for the Negro," is another device the power structure has come up with inorder to divide and rule . No black community has elected King, Wilkins, Youngor Farmer as their spokesman; they have never campaigned for "public office,"yet we are constantly being told that they speak for us . This lesson should not belost to the freedom fighters in the South who are giving their lives in order to in-crease Afro-American voter registration . Even if the right to vote is gained, wemust vote for the approved "responsible leader . " Even in the so-called demo-cratic processes, the will of the black people is ignored .

Now, White Man, hear this : Adam Clayton Powell was nominated and electedvia the secret ballot by the black people of Harlem as our spokesman and leader ;until we vote him out of office, he will continue to represent us. No amount ofphony white liberalism and missionary tears can change this fact!

The one remaining service that the kindlyold professor can perform for Harlemis forhim to retire tothe weed-covered eclectic Gothic structure on 137th Streetand Amsterdam Avenue and leave the "driving to us," the black people of thecommunity .

DANIEL H . WATTS

LIBER.-ITOR` july 1964

3

We Are All Blood Brothers

Malcolm X poses beside a statue of President Nkrumah inscribed withhis famous statement, "Seek ye first the political kingdom and all otherthings shall be added unto it .

Malcolm X

The collective African reactionto America's treatment of the 22million Afro-Americans first cameto my attention in Beirut, Lebanon,where 1 stopped for three days onmy way back to Coiro from Mecca .When it was learned that I was inBeirut, the African students at theAmerican University of Beirut im-mediately arranged for me to lec-ture at the Sudanese Cultural Cen-ter . The overflow audience re-ceived the lecture warmly andgave me a glimpse of the interest,sympathy and support our case hasamong the people abroad once theyfully understand our deplorableplight herein America . The Sudan-ese and Lebanese Muslim studentskept me up until 3 a .m . after mylecture, trying to learn how theythemselves could help the Afro-American in his struggle for free-dom and human dignity .

In Nigeria I received an evenwarmer response at the Universityof lbadan . After my lecture there,a visiting professor from the WestIndies triedto defend America witha verbal attack upon me during thequestion and answer period . Theyoung Nigerian students leaped onthe stage and grabbed the micro-phone from him . Then they ran himoff the stage, out of the hall, offthe campus, and wou Id have I ynchedhim had not Dr . Essien Udom(authorof "Black Nationalism," who

Nkrumah's Government has welcomed Afro-American exiles to Ghana ; above are Julian Mayfield (left),Shirley Graham DuBois, Maya Angelo Make, and Alice Windom .

is teaching at the University ofIbadan) intervened .

At a banquet that night the stu-dents made me an honorary memberof the Muslim Student's Society ofNigeria, and bestowed upon me thename, Omowale , which in Yorubameans "the child has returned ."

l appeared on Nigerian T .V .and radio explaining the plight ofthe Afro-American to the Nigerianpeople . I had private discussionswithmony governmentand religiousleaders and other persons ofprominence in Nigeria . All showedgenuine concern for our problem,and expressed a sincere desire tohelp .

Nigeria has unlimited naturalwealth and beauty . It is impossiblefor that country to be so heavilyveg stated and not have h igh I y fer-tile, productive soil . With modernagricultural methods Nigeria couldeasily become the "bread basket ofthe world ." In fact, most all of theAfrican continent has this samenatural wealth and beauty .

One white American whom Imet in Nigeria, stated emphaticallythat Africa was the "last frontier,"the only continent left with un-I im ited untapped suppI ies of notura Iresources . He agreed that ifAmerica was to be considered the

t11;/.N irOrr

July 1964

land of the past in current history,Africa was definitely the Land ofthe Future .

Ghana is one of the fastest mov-ing countries on the continent . Sheknows what she wants and whereshe isgoing ; her leaders are flexibleenough to experiment with all sortsof ideas and methods in order totake the Ghanaian people forwardon the path of progress .

Signs of modernization and in-dustrialization are everywhere,andthe Ghanaian people show an unquenchable thirst for education .President Nkrumah told me himselfthat the T .V . network now beinginstalled in Ghana will be usedprimarily to educate his people . Itwill not be misused to corrupt themoralsof the people by giving theman overdose of western movies ashas been the case in some of theother African countries . In fact theDirector of Ghana's T . V . networkwill be Shirley Graham DuBois,thewifeof the late world famous Afro-American scholar who renouncedhis American citizenship and madeGhana his home .

Ghana probably has the largestAfro-American community on thecontinent . The Nkrumah government has welcomed all of them .Some refer to themselves as ex-

patriates, others as exiles . ManyAfro-Americans and West Indianswho have migrated to Ghana haveplayed a prominent role in the veryprogressive intellectual atmospherethat prevails throughout the coun-try . Some of the more famous namesinvolved are the late Dr . W .E .B .DuBois, his charming wife (theformer Shirley Graham), GeorgePadmore, Miss Cecil McHardy, Dr .T .R . Makonnen, and many others .

The Ghanaians regard the 22million Afro-Americans as theirlong lost brothers, and their con-cern with our plight reflects itselfat all levels of government . Theyinvited me to lecture at the Uni-versity of Accra at Legon, at theKwame Nkrumah Ideological Insti-tuteat Winneba,and also permittedme to address the Members of theGhanaian House of Parliament .

My topic in all these speecheswas the "22 m i I I ion colonized Afro-Americans," the violation of ourhuman rights by the U .S . govern-ment, and the necessity of the inde-pendent nations of Africa, Asia andLatin America giving us their activeandopen support in our struggle forfreedom and human dignity . I en-countered no closed minds . I foundopen ears and sympathy everywhere .They told me that injury to us was

con nef page

5

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Brother Malcolm poses with Shirley Graham DuBois in Accra, Ghana

MALCOLM cont.injury to them, that our problemswere theirproblems . We are all onepeople-Africans or of Africandescent . We are al I blood brothers!

During my hour long audiencewith President Nkrumah he made itclear that he would not considerGhana free until all Africa and allpeople of African descent are free .His philosophy of Pan-African ismisthe most advanced political doc-trine being voiced on the AfricanContinent today, and for this reasonPresident Nkrumah is both fearedand hated by the White WesternPowers whoare stiI I trying to main-tain a neo-colonialist foothold onthat continentof beautyand wealth .

While in Ghana I was able toconfer with ambassadors from atleast fifteen African, Asian andLatin American countries . The en-tire Dark World is beginning to seeAmerica as the 20th Century's lead-ing neo-colonial power .

I had tea at the home of theChinese ambassador,who later gaveadinner in my honor at the ChineseEmbassy . He was very impressive,intelligent and well-informed onthe plight of the Afro-American .He very politely reminded me thatMao Tze-Tungwas the first head of

state todeclare the open support ofhis government and its 800 millionpeople behind the Afro-Americanstruggle for freedom and humandignity in America .

The Cuban Ambassador, a small,boyish-looking man, was an experton Africanaffairs . I proudly visitedhis embassy and accepted an invi-tation to his home where I met hisbeautiful wife and children . Theymademefeel likeone of the family .He was so down-to-earth and un-assuming, it wasdifficult to remem-ber that he was actual ly H is Excel-lency Armando Entralgo . He alsogave a dinner in my honor to whichhe invited the entire diplomaticcommunity .

Another very impressive diplo-mat was the Algerian Ambassador .He had a razor-sharp mind, and waswell-versed

in

the

principles ofrevolution . His image of militantsincerity isstill strongly pictured inmy mind . He led the five ambassa-dors who accompanied me to theairport on the moming that I leftGhana for Senegal, Morocco andAlgeria .

Travel broadens one's scope .My outlook after my five weeks'tour of the Mid-East and Africa ismuch broader than before I left .

My first observation at "Bluesfor Mr . Charlie" was the racialcomposition of the audience . Yes,there were Negroes in attendance,about 20% of that night's audience .But they were not the "jungle" Ne-groes of Harlem or the "box" Ne-groes of Brooklyn ; rather those E .Franklin Frazier types who, liketheir liberal white bourgeoisbrethren, seem to be compelled tokeep abreast of the revolution as ittakes its various courses . This par-ticular relationship between audi-ence racial composition and playmay seem tenuous, but one cannothelp but feel that there is o positivecorrelation between the lack oftotal black support of "Blues" andan increasing disenchantment anddisillusionment with Baldwin in theNegro community . James Baldwin,after oil, has become an "inte-grated" Negro in the fullest sense .Indeed, one could go as far as tosaythat Boldwinhas beenappointedthe "official ongryNegro in charge"or "resident house Negro" by theestabl ishment, and we a I I know whatthis means . Baldwin now finds him-self less and less involved in hardcore, black community centeredactivities and more indulged andcourted by the white powerstructure .

"Blues" is essentially a rework-ing of the Emmet Till Mississippilynching of several years ago .Written in a rather eclectic style,imaginatively lighted and surpris-ingly well directed by BurgessMeredith, "Blues" remains con-sistently interesting if not par-ticularly enlightening or fresh inidea or conception, Mr . Meredithhas gleaned at least three brilliantperformances from AI Freeman, Jr .(who is rapidly becoming one of thefinest actors on the American stage),

rru1PI/IM, July 1964

Rip Torn and Diana Sands .When one looks closely at the

play its faults, however, becomequite obvious . Cases in point : Arethe Negroes projected on stage thetruthful representation ofthe South-ern ruralNegro? WouldnotRichardHenry, the "crazy nigger" pro-tagonist of the piece, be silencedby the Negro community long be-fore he was allowed to go far pastthe point of any reality in LyleBritton's rural country store? DoesBaldwin want to hate or does hewant to love and be loved? I mightadd that fully fifty percent of"Blues" is devoted to a white pointof view . Would "Blues" have beenproduced by Actors Studio, certainlythe establishment of the Americantheatre, had it been written by aNegro other than Baldwin?

It is impossible not to be im-pressed by Baldwin'simmense talentafter viewing "Blues," but is his

Theatre

James Baldwin : off icial Angry NegroReview of "Blues for Mister Charlie" Clebert Ford

face the only image of the Afro-American to be exposed on theAmerican stage? All blacks don'tdesire to love or be loved by ourwhite society, and Mr . Baldwinshould realize that what the blackman wants is just that-to be a freeman, a free black man, and notnecessarily an "integrated" man . IfBaldwin finds himself becomingmore alienated from the black com-munity hehas onlyhimselftoblame .The black community needs histalent, his passion, his intelligenceand fervor . The James Baldwin of"The Fire Next Time" seems to beno more . In "Blues" Baldwin theplaywright instinctively begins tosay certain truths about freedom,black manhood, and the white so-ciety . But James Baldwin the offi-cial angry Negro intrudes . As afriend of mine said, "in the be-ginning he was groovy, but he gotlost somewhere ."

James Baldwin at the March in Washington, August, 1963 .TONNAIRE-TAYLOR

The Econom ics ofBlack Nationalism

PART ONE OF THREE

The great conflict betweenW .E .B . DuBois and Marcus Garveyin the early 1920's had its roots inthe earlier leadership rivalry be-tween DuBois and Booker T . Wash-ington that had agitated Negroleadership circles from the turn ofthe century until 1915 when Wash-ington died . The basic, underlying,issues that gave rise to this Wash-ington-DuBois-Garvey continuumwere fundamentally economical-though Negro historians do not tellthe story this way. The historians,both Negro and white, have so dis-torted and confused the issues in-volving Washington, DuBois, andGarvey that it is impossible for thepresent generation to comprehendthe real meaning of the roles theseleaders played . There were deepconflicts between DuBois, firstwithWashington and then with Garvey .But in reality these confl icts weremore concerned with leadershiptactics than with certain racialprinciples involved in such goals as"civil rights," "racial equality,""higher education," "voting rights, ""gradual isrry" "accommodationism,""political power," "back to Africa,""separatism," "integration," "no-tionalism," etc ., etc .

In the attempt to explain theconflicts between DuBois and hisrivals, the historians have done theNegro a serious disservice by elab-orating on the slogans and theideologies of these leaders withoutcaring to explain the fundamentaleconomic compulsions behind theseideologies . For neither Washington,nor DuBois, nor Garvey can beunderstood in their proper contextsunless one, at the same time, com-prehends the basic economic reali-ties and motivations behind Negroclass ideologies at any given time .For, while it is true that ideologiesmove men, it is economics thatfeeds, clothes, and shelters them .Hence, if ideologies are not under-stood in terms of economics thenthese ideologies are not understoodat all . Individual leaders can pro-ject ideologies of many kinds andcolor them with the hues of theirownpersonal aspirations which veryoften obscure the very fundamentalissues which are of crucial interestto the people for whom the leadersspeak . Then the historians comealong and completely forget oroverlookwhat the basic issues werefor the people in the mass and cen-ter their attention on the personal

Harold Cruse

characteristics of the leaders . Inthis fashion was the fundamentaleconomic question that first splitDuBois and Washington, and thenDuBois and Garvey, almost com-pletely lost in the historical ac-counts of these men . Thus, both thehistorians, and also the partisan fol-lowers of these leaders-Washing-ton, DuBois,and Garvey-will haveyou bel ieve that these three leadersrepresented three, clearly defined,separate schools of racial thoughtconcerning the Negro in America .But forall these seeming differences-and they were very marked atcertain times - these differenceswere essentially tactical ratherthan substantive . This can be shownby the fact that DuBois wound upessentially agreeing with bothWashington and Garvey on the ne-cessity of the "black economy"which was Washington's originalidea, and then on the "back toAfrica" possibility which was Gar-vey's main platform which in turnwas a further elaboration of the"black economy" theme . In hisautobiography Dusk of Dawn (1940),W .E .B . DuBois protested againstthe charge that he had any seriousdifferences with Washington . He

EDITORS NOTEThe split between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammed that occurred in the Muslim Movement last March was

the result of a profound crisis not onlywithin the Muslim ranks but within the entire Negro civil rights movementas a whole . The real compulsions behind this split lie in the fundamental economic problem that is inextricablybound up with the Negroes' struggle for racial equality . This basic economic factor is obvious, but it isobscuredonly because of the ideological, religious, political and racial ideas by which the Muslim split is being ex-lained publicly . This split was heralded in the press both radical and liberal as a "step forward" for Malcolm Xcause of his expressed desire to participate in the "broader" civil rights movement . But this remains to be seen

because in departing from the Muslims official organization, Malcolm X actually exchanged one movement'scrisis for another inasmuch as the official civil rights movement is also in a crisis . The fact that it was the con-cealed economic realities of the Negroes' existence in America that worked to force a split in Muslim ranks isproven by the fact that Malcolm X could not avoid projecting the idea of the "black economy" and the "eco-nomic control of the jobs and businesses,etc ." in the Negro community . Whatever Malcolm X says about "poli-tics," "Black Nationalism," etc ., has its importance but the crucial issue is economics-black economics . Butthis idea of the "black economy" is by no means anything new . It has been discussed many times before in ourhistory but it has never been thoroughly understood . Thus it becomes necessary again to examine this question ofeconomics but from an historical point of view because that is the only way in which this complex economicfactor can be understood today in terms of the Negro movement as a whole .

stated he was "not against Wash-ington's ideas" but he insisted onthe rights of other Negroes to ex-press their ideas . But DuBois ad-mitted in his book that Washingtonwas the undisputed leader of tenmillion Negroes of his time . If so,who were these "other Negroes"and what were their views on Ne-gro leadership . DuBois admitted ofhimself," I was not a natural leaderof men ." But then he argued that"the question was as to how fareducated Negro opinion in the U . S .was going to have the right and op-portunity to guide the Negrogroup ."

Here were the seeds of DuBois'"talented tenth" elite leadershipconception . In other words, DuBois'

conflict Gritk Washington was aleadership powerstruggle expressedmainly through a difference oftheories of Negro education .DuBois, being a Northern-bornproduct of Fisk, Harvard and BerlinUniversities, would naturally havea much different point of view oneducation of the Negro than Wash-ington, a southern product of slaveparentage . But DuBois had, thirty-seven years before Dusk of Dawnwas published, stated much moreclearlythe real basis of his opposi-tion to Washington's "undisputedleadership ." In his Souls of BlackFolk (1903), he summed up his viewsun Washington most thoroughly inhis essay, "Of Mr . Washington andOthers ." if one analyzes this essay

lIRI R fIOR July 1964

very thoroughly and also very ob-jectively, without the partisanemotionalism common to most Ne-groes these days, one can arrive ata clearer comprehension of whatthe Negro problem is all about andalso better understand what iswrongwith the Negro movement today,and why this movement is hung upin a programmatic crisis .

Booker T . Washington had statedhis position in 1895 with his famous(or infamous-depending on howyou look at it) Atlanta Expositionspeech . DuBois quoted him :

"In all things purely social wecan be as separate as the fivefingers,and yet one as the handin all things essential to mutualprogress . "Thiswent down in Negrohistory

as Washington's "Atlanta Compro-mise" which, according to DuBoisand others (mostly from the saferNorthern states), was a "civilrights" sell-out . Washington's soft-pedalling of civil rights agitationin the South was interpreted ascounselling Negro submission . Andso it might seem if we were to lookat the South of 1895 to 1910 andmistake that South with the Southof today . DuBois' attitude was:

"Mr . Washington's counsels ofsubmission overlooked certainelements of true manhood, andthat his educational programmewas unnecessarily narrow ."Notice the reference to "edu-

cation" theory . However, DuBoishadto recognize that circumstanceshad elevated Washington to therank of "the one recognized spokes-man of his ten million fellows, andone of the most notable figures in anation of seventymilIions ." There-fore, DuBois softened his criticismsof Washington by saying :

"One hesitates, therefore, tocriticize a lifewhich, beginningwith so little, has done somuch . "Then DuBois continues with what

is the essence of his conflict withWashington's leadership :

"This is an age of unusual eco-nomic development, and Mr .Washington's programme natur-ally takesan economic cast , be-coming a gospel of Work and

Money to such an extent as ap-parently almost completely toovershadow the higher aims oflife . (Underscoring ours .)Here the question of economics,

the real underlying social com-pellent,forces its way into the picture .

DuBois, then, elaborates onthis economic theme as follows:

"(Mr . Washington) is strivingnobly to make Negro artisansbusiness men and propertyowners; but it is utterly im-possible, under modern competi-tive methods, for workingmenand property owners to defendtheir rights and exist withoutthe right of suffrage ."Washington's views on "suff-

rage" were expressed as follows:

Booker T . Washington

"Brains, property, and characterfor the Negro will settle thequestion of civil rights . Thebest course to pursue in regardto acivil rights bill inthe Southis to let it alone; let it aloneand it will settle itself . Goodschool teachers and plenty ofmoney to pay them wi I I be morepotent in settling the race ques-tion than many civil rights billsand investigation committees . "DuBoiscountered this byvoicing

the sentiments of his own and "theother class of Negroes who cannotagree with Mr . Washington . . ." Hesaid, " . . .Such men feel in con-science to ask of this nation threethings: 1) the right to vote ; 2) civilequality ; 3) the education of youth

con+ next Poqe

9

according to ability ."This reference to "education of

youth according to ability" was areflection of the Wash ington-DuBoisdisagreement over "education theo-ries ." Washington favored "com-mon-school and industrial training"for Negroes in the South and, ac-cording to DuBois, "depreciated in-stitutionsofhigher learning," whichimplied that, for most Negroes inthe South, what Washington wasteaching at T uskegee was not"higher learning ." Here, again,DuBois' educational "elitism" and"talented tenth" ideas were in con-flictwith Washington's "functional"or "practical" educational ideas asconcerns the mass of illiterate or

1 0

Carter G . Woodson

semi-illiterate Negroes who had tobe fitted into an industrial society .Washington did not see what thestudy of "French, Latin and Greek"had to do with enobl ing the class ofNegroes he was most concernedwith to earn a "practical" living .This educational controversy is nolonger valid today, but it is note-worthy that Carter G . Woodson inhis book The Miseducation of theNegro (1933) apparently favoredthe Washington school of thoughtand does not mention DuBois any-where in his study . Woodson ob-served that :

"The large majority of the Ne-groes who have put on thefinishing touches of our bestcolleges are al l but worthless in

in the development of theirpeople . "He speaks of the "Contempt for

Negroes on the part of educatedNegroes" and added that :

"Negro scholars taught in uni-versities outside the South-languages, mathematics, andscience-may serve well . . . Butwhat has been taught in eco-nomics, history, literature, re-ligion, philosophy ispropagandaand cant and a waste of timeand has misdirected Negroesthus trained ."Th is was, without a doubt, a slap

at the DuBois "talented tenth" idea .Woodson added that "classical edu-cation "produced noNegro thinkersor philosophers . Woodson did notdisagree with Washington's "indus-trial Education" theory in principlebut observed that it resulted in nouplift of Negroes as artisans andmechanics because of lack offacilities, obsolete methods andtechniques which did not equipNegroes to keep up with rapidchanges in industrial techniquesbased on division of labor . As wasto be expected the inevitable"economics" of the race questionfound its way into Woodson's re-marks . He observed that :

"In the schools of business ad-ministration Negroes are trainedexclusively in the psychologyof andeconomics of Wall Streetand are, therefore, made todespise the opportunities to runice wagons, push banana carts . . .among their own people .Foreigners,whohave not studiedeconomics but have studied Ne-groes, take up this business andgrow rich ."From all of this it must be

seenthat theWash ington-DuBois contro-versy over race leadership andpolitics was fundamentally eco-nomic but fought out in terms ofrivalry over "education" theoriesmainly because the Washingtonschool of thought was getting thelion's share of white philanthropyfor Negro education . Hence,Washington had more pull with the"big white folks" than DuBois . ButWashington's position in all thisforced him to soft-pedal "civil

rights" and "politics" to placateSouthern opinion in order to furtherhisown "economic" platform whichhe considered more important than"civil rights ." The latter, he felt,could not be won under Southernconditionsof that time . But DuBois,as we shall see later, didnot reallydisagree with Washington over"economics" but had to force Wash-ington's hand on "civil rights'.' byposing 1) the right to vote; Z) civicequality ; 3) higher education,asocivil rights program . This DuBoisposition on civil rightssoon flower-ed into the Niagara Movement-aprotest group composed of the verysmall group of articulate critics ofWashington . This dissident groupwas soon absorbed by white liberals

Marcus Garvey

and assorted Socialists to form theNAACP . Thus it was that the offi-cial civil rights protest movementwas forever separated from thebasic economics of the Negro situ-ation in America as first posited byBooker T . Washington and givenorganizational form in the NationalNegro Business League establishedby him in 1900 . This businessleague still exists in Washington,D .C .

But time has proven that the is-sues first raised by Washington andDuBois are still very much with us .Neitherthe "civil rights" of DuBoisnor the "economics" of Washingtonhave won their full measure ofac-ceptance and the "education" prob-lem on another level is more a bone

of civi l contention among the racesthan ever before . Moreover, evenDuBois' educational "elitism" wasgiven the critical downgrading byCarter G . Woodson, the founder ofNegro History Week and the Associ-NegroHistoryWeek andthe Associ-ation for the Study of Negro Lifeand History . But fundamental to allissues growing out of the originalclash between Washington andDuBois is the central fact that hasstill not been resolved in Negrothinking : It is impossible to separatecivil rights from the economics ofthe problem of Negro existence inAmerica . And by civil rights andeconomics we do not simply meanthe question of "jobs" and "dis-crimination in employment ." Thequestion is much deeper than this .This was brought home to DuBoismore profoundly several years afterhis conflict with Washington whenthe Garvey Movement came intobeing . For Garvey, even before hecome to America, had been a stu-dent of Booker T . Washington's"economics" which DuBois had al-ready said grew out of "an age ofunusual economic development ."

This was an important observa-tion on the part of DuBois for it isassumed by too many people ofvarious political persuasions (bothNegro and white) that there issomething verystrange that Negroeswould want to develop a capitalist

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1964

IF RATS AND ROACHES

COULD VOTE . . .

class . Or that it is even necessaryin terms of capitalist developmentthat such a class should come intoexistenceor else strive to cultivatea capitalist (bourgeois) ideologyeven though a real capitalist classwell entrenched in the corporatestructure of American capitalism isnever achieved . This has been aunique problem for the AmericanNegro . We have cultivated amongus a very strong bourgeois outlookamong our articulate, educatedclasses . Butthis bourgeois mentalityis not matched by any parallelachievements as capitalist pro-ducers, entrepreneurs, or managers .Hence,this bourgeois mentality be-comes, in many ways, a troublesomeintellectual abnormality in manyNegroes . These bourgeois trappingsare worn like expensive but ill-fitting clothes bypeople who harborexaggerated bourgeois ideals butwho lack the substance to back upthese ideals . It would not be halfso bad if these bourgeois idealsgrew out of a profound knowledgeof economic thought which thepublic libraries are full of . But ourbourgeois-oriented Negroes are,economics-wise, the most ill-equipped of all people . They clut-ter up the Negro civil rights move-ment with their strident protestsand really believe that Americancapitalism is going to grant themracial equality while they remain

in blithe ignorance of the innerworkings of American capitalism .

These Negroes have been keptin ignoranceabout economic reali-ties not only by themselves but bytheir white liberal, radical, and"revolutionary" friends from left ofcenter to left . The liberals havepromised them "full integration"withouteconomic integration abovethe level of token jobs, which is alie . The white Leftists have advisedthem to forget about capital ist eco-nomics of the market place todayand place their hopes on "social-ism" tomorrow, which isa dishonestdeception . It took DuBois almost alifetime to see through the first lieof the white liberals concerning"civil rights ." Washington sawthrough that tale by pure common-sense reasoning . But then DuBoishadmuch longer to Iive than Wash-ington and a much broader life'scanvas to paint on and morehorizons to conquer . Right afterWashington died Garvey came onthe scene . Hence, Washington'soriginal "black economy" theoriestook on broader implications thanhe gave it in 1900 . For now the"black economy" theory was pushedonto the international scene andhad to include the continent ofAfrica and the American Negroes'relationships to that continent .

TO BE CONTINUED

Sports

For longer thananyone now liv-ing can remember, prize fightinghas enjoyedon enormous popularityin this country-apopularity due, inno smolI measure, to the favor withwhich it has historically beenlooked upon by the nation's press .John L . Sullivan, Jack Dempsey,Gene Tunney and others were, andin fact continue to be, lionized asheroes by white sports writersthroughout America, as living sym-bols of all that is masculine,righteous and upstanding in this so-ciety . Recently, however, pugilismhosfallen into a state of il I repute ;witness the tumultuous roar of pro-test from newspapers all over the

1 2

Boxing : Black Hope,White Cop- OutUnited States when Muhammad Ali-formerly called Cassius Clay--boasted he would win the heavy-weight championship from SonnyListon, won it, then outraged thewhite establishment by declaringhimself a disciple of Elijah Mu-hammad and the Nation of Islam .Indignation swelled like a malig-nant tumor in sports columns every-where . The fight surely had beenfixed, it was asserted . Liston wasan over-rated fraud, said many whohad previously claimed he was in-vincible by virtue of the fact that,in their view, he was not a humanbeing .

All that was missing from this

Clayton Riley

hysterical journalistic outburst wasa public display of froth on whitesports writers' lips . The brutallysavage sport would have to beabolished, became the cry as it hadbeen in the furor attending thedeaths of Benny "Kid" Paret andDavey Moore . However, no fatalitywas involved in Muhammad Ali'sMiami Beach triumph . Why thenthe renewed effort to ban boxing?

At the moment, black or tanfighters hold four of the six majordivision titles and, in addition,seem for the first time in history tobe earning and holding on to con-siderable sums of money . Many ofthe top contenders are quite well

fixed financially . Floyd Patterson,for example, has become a wealthyman and, it seems, will remain one,having wisely engaged trustworthylawyers and advisors to guard hisearnings . Sonny Liston and Muham-mad Ali have tapped a goldminewhich, after two more bouts to-gether, will probably leave themthe dollar champions of boxing his-tory . The good old days, so regu-larly lamented by America's whitepress, are gone . Those were thedays when boxing made white menrich and black men cripples . Thereare, the Caucasian columnists con-tinue,no longerany decent fightersin the ring . Freely translated, thismeans there are no more whitefighters of more than mediocreability in the ring today .

The situation has crystallizedmore clearly in the heavyweightranks, where the purses, like thefighters, are the largest and the titleis the most coveted for its prestige .It is an exclusively black domain;probably no white fighter will everagain rule this roost, a fact whichwhite fans and writersfind most un-palatable . There are no moreDempseys,TunneysorMarcianos norwill there ever be again on theseeffete Anglo-Saxon shores . This be-ing true, prizefighting can no longerbe called the "manly art of self-defense;" boxers can no longer beheroes, for in this republic it isdangerous to consider Negroeseither men or heroes .

In

keeping with

this ancientAmerican tradition, the World Box-ing Association, an organizationpeculiarly silent in other matters,attempted to void Muhammad Ali'stitle after the youthful fighter hadpublicly admitted membership intheBlack Muslims . Such an allegianceis detrimental to the best interestsof boxing and conduct unbecominga champion, this august body ofboxing senators decided . Lookingback a few years, one wonders whyformer middleweight king GeneFullmer'smembership inthe Mormonfaith, whose tenets include anassertion that all black people areeternally damned, was not viewedas at least equally "detrimental ."The question is academic . We know

LIBERATOR duly 1964

why . Just as we know why the WBAhasnever raised a finger to end theexploitation of hundreds of fightersby their unscrupulous handlers andmanagers . Theft and other mol-practices are holyendeavors intheeyes of organizations like the WBAso long as they are carried out byother white men .

It is becoming, however, in-creasingly difficult for theoverseersof boxing's vast plantation to robtheir chattel any longer . Far toomany fighters today can read andwrite and are no longer the smiling,trustful charges of yesteryear, acause for increasing alarm andchagrin in the white community .With boxing's money and its cham-pionships out of the grasp ofschemers and sophisticatedcriminals, it should come as no sur-prise that a campaign is beingmounted to abolish the venerablering sport, for this is nothing morethan a reaction to the possibility ofNegroes seizing the reins of an ex-tremely lucrative enterprise . Ofcourse, no one can deny boxing'sinherent dangers as a sport ; menare killed or maimed in the ringevery year . But instead of pushingfor its abolition, the white pressmight give some consideration tomaking the prize ring a safer placethan it is now . If this means federalcontrol, then so be it .

On the day when America canofferNegroes consistent opportuni-ties for sharing in the nation'swealth, boxing may die a naturaldeath, at least on a professionallevel . What youngster would riska scrambled brain in the ring ifthere were sufficient possibilitieselsewhere to earn the big money topurchase the posh goods and ser-vices presently available only to achosen few in this country? Thoseopportunities are not now accessibleto young black men; boxing moneyis . Until Negro youngsters can thinkin concrete terms about being presi-dent of these United States, whiteAmerica and its newspapers wouldbe well advised to direct theirpassionate abolitionist sentimentsto something like professional ten-nis, which at last report was still alily-white operation .

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SNCC PHOTO

14

Atlanta, Georgia-"You'l I haveto excuse my bad mood today,"John Lewis, National Chairman ofthe Student Non-Violent Coor-dinating Committee, said after Ihad been in his office only a fewminutes . "You see, an agent of theFederal Bureau of Investigation washere this morning to question meabout something ." Mr . Lewis re-frained from further comment onhis "morning meeting," but it wasobvious that he was somewhat con-cerned by the United StatesGovernment's interest in SNCCactivities . In the course of the in-terview I was to learn at least partof the reason why . "The nationalatmosphere with regards to civilrights has definitely changed sincethe late President Kennedy's assas-sination . Kennedy representedyouth and change and was willingto listen to us . I don't get the samefeeling with Johnson ." He adds

EXLUSIVE INTERVIEW

John Lewis of SNCC

curtly, "We would be willing tomeet with him at any time, how-ever ."

John Lewis was born and raisedin Troy, Alabama some twenty-oddyears ago . He attended BaptistSeminary where he received an A. B .in Religion and is three hours shortof a second A.B . in Philosophyfrom F isk University . " I expect tofinish up some day when the struggleis over," he says . Lewis' SNCC ac-tivities have led to his being ar-rested thirty-one times inthe Southas well as the North . "I've beenarrested in Tennessee, Alabama,Georgia, Mississippi, Illinois(Cairo, Illinois is a typical southerncity . We had a demonstration at aswimming pool

there), and Mis-souri," he said .

I asked Mr . Lewis how SNCCpersonnel were recruited . "We sendout questionnaires to college stu-dents," he answered, "but most ofour people are gotten through per-sonal contactwith staff people . Wealsohave 'Campus Travelers,' work-ers who visit colleges for the spe-cific purposeof recruiting students .We geta great deal of student par-ticipation in the summer months,but we do have a problem gettingNegro summer participation sinceit is generally a financial problemfor them to get funds to supporttheir college training . However,private Negro colleges are becom-ing increasingly willing to givestudent scholarships, and we aretrying to get more funds to financeour summer program . "

"Whatabout whiteparticipationin your activities?" I asked .

"Out of a staff of 150 we haveabout 45 white workers . We arenot a membership organization, butthere are areas (some 100% white)in which 'friends of SNCC' numberin the thousands, " Lewis said thatthere are areas in Mississippi andAlabama where SNCC is quite

Clebert Ford

strong in commur,iry support as op-posed to Negro college studentsupport . "You see, our name canbe quite misleading," he added .

This writer's observations onAtlantawere confirmed by Lewis inhis co^9ments concerning the racialsituation here . "Atlanta is uniquein a sense," Lewis said, "I know ofno other city like it . The press hasadvanced the image of Atlanta as a'progressive' city, but the visitor tothis 'gateway to the South' will begravely disappointed . There areonly 140 Negroes in the entire cityin desegregated schools ." He con-tinued, "One of the Negro schoolsis on triple shift . Only T4 out ofmore than 100hotels and motels aredesegregated, and there are lessthan 20 restaurants in downtownAtlanta where a Negro can eat .The administration here has refusedto take a stand on a public accom-modations law and has even re-quested the House Committee onUn-American Activities to investi-gate 'Communist' infiltration in theCivil Rights Movement ." As toSNCC's image in Atlanta, Lewissaid, "Mayor Allen thinks of SNCCas a bunch of irresponsible nuts .Atlanta is also a stronghold of theblack middle class, and this pre-sents some problems ." Lewis wenton to say that SNCC's traditional"uniform" of workingmen's overallsand rolled up sleeves were not be-ing readily accepted amongst Ne-groes in Atlanta and would have tobe re-examined at SNCC's upcom-ing national conference . "The free-dom struggle here in Atlanta is go-ing to require a long, hard cam-paign, one that is going to becomeincreasingly dirty," Lewis said ."Demonstrators are not going tostand in lines smiling and cheerful .There's going to be a great deal ofnon-cooperation . In 1960 thepicket lines were dignified andbeautiful, full of college students ;

but now it has got to become a massmovement . Mass demonstrationshave got to become a type of force .If a restaurant is going to serve atall it is going to have to serve on adesegregated basis ."

Throughout the interview JohnLewis used the term "aggressivenon-violence ." "Aggressive nonviolence is non-cooperation,"Lewis said simply . "It is civil dis-obedience on all levels ."

We spoke of the North andLewis said, "I don't have any realknowledge of the North sincebasically I'm a southerner, but itappears to me that there is too muchcivil rights activity without thenecessary support of the mass ofblack people . In New York, for in-

I ,_

11

NCC PHOTOstance,

there

is an absolute needfor civil rights people to go intothe dens and dives of Harlem andget a mass movement started, amovement that must be led by theseNegroes who are the true victimsof the system . If Harlem Negroescould go downtown and blocktraffic on a summer's day, Detroitwould soon follow suit . I get asense of pride when I am in Harlem,I get a kick, A mass movement inHarlerlawould have a significant in-fluence on Negroes across theUnited States . The Harlem RentStrike is a fine thing and should bedeveloped on a national basis . Iknow Harlem's potential ."

On the subjectof Negro leader-ship Lewisbecomes quiteanimated ."There are too many 'symbolic'leaders in the movement today,"Lewissaid . "A leader must lead notonly by words but by actions . Hemustgo into the bars and taverns of

the Negro community . He must puton his sandals and walk the dirtroadsof Missouri andtheMississippiDelta . There are hundreds of kidsin SNCC, CORE and SLC who arethe real leaders of the movement . Iwouldn't like to say that our leadersare selling out, but too many ofthem are committed to politicalends . . . and I mean the DemocraticParty . "Lewis failed to enlarge up-on this very sensitive area of themovement; and sensing a hesitancyon his part to discuss the matterfurther, this writer did not press theissue any further .

It was getting late in the Atlantaafternoon and I asked Lewis for abrief comment concerning the BlackMuslims . "Black Muslims are serv-

ing a useful purpose in Americansociety," he said . "They're doingthings for the forgotten mass ofblack people all over the country .SNCC,for instance, could well usesome of the disciplines of the Mus-I ims . It would work wonders in ourorganization . Do you know thattheir paper, "Muhammad Speaks,"reports more of SNCC activitiesand of the entire freedom strugglethan any other paper in the UnitedStates, black or white ." Lewissmiled when asked about a possibleliaison between SNCC and theMuslims . "No," he said, "there's noconnection, but Jeremiah X here inAtlanta is a good friend of ours ."

Our interview ended on an in-teresting note . A cliche questionpertaining to the outlook or forecast of things to come in the revo-lution evoked the following re-sponse

"I see a great cry for modera-

BlackAmericaSpeaks

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fromwhiteliberal sources, and much more ex-tremist Klu Klux Klan and WhiteCitizens' Council activities-bomb-ings, fires, etc . But our immediatejob will continue to be liberatingan oppressed people with emphasison the angry and now of the wholesituation . "

15

SECRETARY-GENERALSPEAKS OUT AGAINSTAMERICAN RACISTS

Recently Senator Goldwater,appealing to his right-wing lunaticfringe and other racists, suggestedthe possibility of using "low yieldatomic bombs" in Vietnam, in orderto destroy the foliage and flush outthe Viet-Cong .

It was encouraging to the Afro-American community to learn thatSecretary-General U Thant, whonormally maintains a hands-off po-sition on internal American affairs,felt compelled to speak out force-fully against the suggested use ofatomic weapons, particularly in onarea populated by non-whites . Athis press conference recently, inOttawa,Canada,when he was askedto comment "on the suggestion thatatomic bombs should be used inSouth Viet-Nam," the Secretary-General replied : "As you are nodoubt aware, I am against the useof atomic weapons for destructivepurposes anywhere, under any cir-cumstances . Anybody who proposesthe use of atomic weapons for de-structive purposes is, in my view,out of his mind . . . Such action issure togenerate widespread resent-ment and bitter criticism, particu-larly from quarters which so forhave not been very vocal, and havenot been very outspoken regardingthe situation in South-East Asia .Lastly, and this in myview is a veryimportant element, there is, if I may

1 6

say so, a racial factor in such aprojected operation . In 1945, whenatomic bombs were dropped overHiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan,there was a widespread feeling inmanyparts of Asia thatthese deadlyatomic bombs were dropped onJapanese cities because the Japan-ese were non-whites, and it was alsoargued at that time that the atomicbombs would never have beendropped over cities in Nazi Ger-many at that time . As you know,Nazi Germanywas also at war withthe Allies . So there is also a racialelement in these things which Iwould commend to the attention ofthose-who are th ink ing of launchingsuch atomic blasts ."

Many of the African and Asiandelegates at the UN were pleasedto hear the Secretary-Generalspeak out against the racist attitudeof Senator Goldwater and his neo-Nazi cohorts .

Daniel H. Watts

BIG POWERS ABSTAIN ONVOTING CONDEMNATIONOF SOUTH AFRICA

The United States, France andthe United Kingdom abstained on aresolution sponsored by 58 delegations, calling for an end to the"arbitrary" trials of anti-apartheidleaders and to call off the execu-tion of those already sentenced todeath . Underthe guise of not want-ing to inflame a flammable situationin South Africa, the big powers, re-sorting to their worn-out hypo-critical position of being concernedfor the safety and I i ves of 9,000,000South Africans, refused to support aresolution sponsored by the repre-sentatives of the imprisoned Africanleaders . What they did not say,wastheirmain concernwas "protecting"their billion dollar investment inthe racist government of SouthAfrica .

Secretary General U Thant receiving a special phonograph album

of the opera "Aida" from Miss Leontyne Price, world famous operasinger .

U.S . Image in Ghana

The following article appearedin The Ghanaian Times (5/30/64)under the by-line of its Editor-inChief, T. D . Baffoe, who recentlytoured the U.S. as a member of aGhana delegation .

President Lyndon Johnson of theUnited States was due on a visit toChicagoan April 23 for an electioncampaign dinner by his Party .

In the morning we had noticesof security warnings stuck in ourhotel rooms .

The warning said :"Dear Shera-ton-Blackstone Guest: We havebeen requested by Security Personnel that during the visit of Presi-dent Johnson to Chicago, April 23rd,that you refrain from either openingthe window in your room or anygesturing inside the windows whichmight cause alarm to any of theSecurity Personnel . Thank you verymuch for your cooperation .

And as if this keep-off-your-window inconvenience and threatwere not enough, we were soon toexperience another method ofoperation by U .S . security, for atthis stage America was donning itsrobes as a police state to protectthe life of its President .

An Afro-American couple wemet among some friends in Chicagowere startled early in the morningon the day of President Johnson'svisit by secret police .

This poor worker and his wife,who hold strong views opposed tothe capitalist systemwhich has sentenced millions of Americans,black, white, ebony and yellow, toa life of humiliation, poverty andfrustration, were told that theirhouse had been under police sur-veillance for some time and thatthey were to be under close guard,night and day, throughout Mr . Lyn-don Johnson's visit .

Two p istol-packing secret po I i ce

rir1ER i ruin

July 1964

officers whisked off the man, OdisHyde, to his place of work in apolice car and were to stay withhim wherever he went, from thetoilet to the lunch room, while athird rather well-mannered giant ofa -security agent was put on thewife, Ruth .

I learnt from investigation thatsimilar warnings like those in ourhotel rooms were distributed to allthe hotels, offices, shops and build-ings in the area of the Democrats'campaign dinner, with thousands ofsecret police numbering more thanhalf of the reception crowds .

I learntalso thatwhot happenedto Mr . and Mrs . Hyde was not anisolated case, but a well-knownhighly practiced security policeoffensive .

Nobody is grudging the UnitedStates any police state methods totighten its internal security and toprotect the life of its President es-pecially after they had murderedtheir beloved President JohnKennedy .

But when their journalists, whohavenot carefully studiedevents inAfrica and seem not to know thehistory of America's own strugglefor independence and the difficul-ties of reconstruction and the tearsand tragic effects of the years ofthe depression in U .S . economy,dare to moralize to Ghana, and toAfrica, about the I iberty of the in-dividual in a democratic society,then it is the duty of the press andGovernments in Africa to tell offthe holier-than-thou hostile U .S .press which ignores the beam thatis in the American eye and pointsfalsely and hypocritically at animaginary mote they behold in theeyes of Africans and the other op-pressed nations in Asia, LatinAmericaand the Middle East whereUncle Sam cannot create puppets todance in its anti-communist hys-

terical drama .The Afro-Americans' struggle

strengthened by the successes of theAfrican Liberation movement andthe social and ideological revolu-tion raging in our continent, is nowbeyond the point of appeasementand empty civil rights platitudes .

What has made his struggle sofruitless for decades is not becausethe African-American turned theother

cheek

after

he had beenstruck in one, but mainly becausehis cause had lacked organization,leadership and direction .

The feeble leadership that hadrisen every now and then had onlyled the struggling and angry massesin demonstrations into the cages ofpolice assaults and into floods ofdespair and humiliation, while theso-called civil rights leaders onlyescaped into safety to dine andwine with so-called white sym-pathizers to their own prestige andbrief sensations as "heroes"-theirshortlived militancybought over bypowerful interests that desire to seethe black man perpetually keptdown under the borderline of humanprogress .

As more and more enlightenedAmericans throw in their voices insupport of new civil rights legislation, and as race-conscious senatorsengage in inciting speeches to ob-struct the work of the Administra-tion, white resentment toward Ne-gro pressures appear to be growing,thusnursing the dangerof violence .

Nor is the feared outburst of ra-cial violence in the United Statesthe only major problem facing theU .S . Government . Automation andthe introduction of new productionskills have produced for America abooming economy that should pre-sent a picture of general prosperity,but hasmany Americans, blacks andwhites, hoping against hope in areasof acute distress .

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Nationalist Student Conference

Don Freeman

National ist m inded Afro-Ameri-can students from North and Southconvened in Nashville, Tennessee,to form a Black Nationalist YouthMovement last May 1-3 . The con-vention asserted the vanguard roleof young nationalists in the BlackRevolution in America, and agreedthat they must create : ])an organi-zation to translate Nationalistideology into effective action, 2)black financing to insure blackcontrol of such an organization, 3)dedicated, disciplined and decisiveyouth cadres wi I I ing to make sacri-fices to build and sustain a dynamicNationalist Movement .

A conference session on Bour-geois Reformism concluded that thepresent crisis within the integrationist civil rights organizationssubstantiates the position of Dr .W .E .B . DuBoi s that "capitalismcannot reform itself, a system thatenslaves you cannot free you . " In-creasingly frustrated young militantsare gravitating to a nationalist po-sition . It is the responsibilityof theemerging Nationalist Youth Move-ment to forge a concrete alternativeto Bourgeois Reformism, now .

A discussion of American Marx-ism resulted in support for the posi-tion which Harold Cruse stated in"Marxism and the Negro" (LIBERA-TOR, May '64), i .e ., that the es-sential ly racist and reformist natureof the white working class leavesMarxists without a revolutionaryproletariat to lead, and that theonly revolutionary force in this so-ciety, the Afro-American freedomstruggle, must be led by blackradicals, not opportunistic whiteMarxists .

The reasons for the impotenceof traditional Bourgeois Notional-ism were examined . It was decidedthat emphasis on rhetoric ratherthan action left no programmaticalternative to Bourgeois Reformistcivil rights activities and that inprojecting an autonomous Black

Economy, Bourgeois Nationalistsfailed to recognize the colonialnature of the exploitation of theblack ghettoes and were thus in-capable of taking the kind of ac-tion necessary to achieve theirgoal,nomely,a "strategyof chaos,"as Rev . Albert Cleague has calledit, involving more devastating civildisobedience than undertaken byestablished reformist groups .

A young African scholar pre-sented a paper on Pan-Africanismin which he suggested that Africanleaders today, in their narrow pre-occupation with the elimination ofthe remnants of overt colonial rulein Africa, have lost sight of theequally important elements of Pon-Africanism as outlined in the Man-chester Conference of 1945 . He as-serted that only permanent revolu-tion that annihilates neo-colonial-ist puppet regimes and establishescompletely socialist African socie-ties can achieve the goals of Pon-Africanism and relate Africa mean-ingfully to the Afro-Americanstruggle .

The conference agreed that afundamental cultural revolution orre-Africanization of black peoplein America was a prerequisite for agenuine Black Revolution . Re-Afri-canization was describedas the re-pudiation of decadent materialistvalues and pathological egoism in-herent in American society . It em-braces a humanism derived from theAfrican heritage which exalts aes-thetic, intellectual and spiritualdevelopment and communalism orcooperation rather than the ex-ploitation of humanity .

Afro-Americans must know theirauthentic history in Africa andAmerica in order to demolish thepsychological rapeof white Ameri-can indoctrination . The Afro-American self-image must be revo-lutionized to foster a sense of col-lective ethnic identity as a uniqueBlack People before Black Na-tionalism can emerge triumphant .

The Bag's Too Heavy

I've been reading this heremagazine for about a year or more .It's saying some boss stuff . It showsthe black man like he is in thejungle-rough and tough . And likeit shows him screaming on thosejive cats who's pick-pocketing thepiggy-bank when the soul brothersare out there trying to make it . Itattempts to get inside the problemof the black struggle not just forcivil rights, but to keep twentymillion black people alive on thisjive scene .

But the hang up is the magazinejust can't begin to say the soulbrothers are restless and stop .'Cause the soul brothers alwaysbeen restless . Baby, hunger makesthem restless . And empty stomachsdon't know no peace .

Dig,my brother suggested that Iread "Marxism and the Negro," bythis cat named Harold Cruse . Mybrother said Cruse was one of thetoughest cats that hit the scene ina long time, and that he could giveme some answers . My brother gaveme a dictionary and told me to useit if necessary . Shit! I read moreWebsterthan Cruse . Dig, man! I'mno dummy . I finished high school,but I'm no Einstein either . Mybrother is one of those screwballcats, too . Just nineteen, dig theshit he writes about the jungle ."In one's attempt to evaluate theinequitable realities in terms of thepresent colonial status of the blackghetto, it is necessary to explorethe historical forces which manifestthese realities . Political and eco-nomic factors must be placed inproper perspective, for these areonly effects of a given circum-stance . If the historical Americanpurity myth is unveiled,racism as afundamental cause screamsout withunparalleled clarity ." Goddam,how is the soul brothers in the streetgoing to understand, or even followsuch a shaky bag? It's too heavy .

Man, you intellectuals are piss-ing on the parade . Soul brothers

L113E1d, fTOR

ju ly

1964

are marching and you cats arewriting letters to each other . That'snot where it's at . Where it's really

at, is where it always has been, outtherein the jungle, where it alwayswill be .

Herb Ottley

Unchain the Lion

Among all the peoples of theearth-races, nations,tribes, ethnicgroupings, everyone, with one ex-ception!-there exists a caste ofwarriors whose sole purpose is theprotection and preservation of thelives of those particular people . Itishumon nature,and is asold as theflow of human blood inhuman veins .To deny this is to deny mankind .Unfortunately, only among thepeople of black America--an op-pressed NATION-is there an ex-ception . OnlyblackAmericathinksthat freedom can be won under theleadership of singing, prayingclergymen, old church-sisters, bour-geois intellectuals, students, andliberals . Black America-eventhough given the examples ofstruggles of brother oppressed na-tions and peoples in Asia, Africa,and Latin America-still persistswith the myth of singing and pray-ing its way to freedom, and callingthis a Negro Revolution!

Now, in writingthis letter, it isdefinitely my purpose to speak for acaste which represents potentiallythe finest fighting machine on thisplanet : the fighting man of blackAmerica! Called the "Lion" in an-cient and biblical times; endowedwith a rich ancestral heritage dat-ing back to the dawn of history-including the magnificent armies ofthe pharaohs of Egypt, the warrior-kings of Ethio io, Hannibal's hostswho marched trough the Alps withelephants and astounded a world,the Islamic Moors-the scourge ofsouthern Europe, the Zulu legionsof King Chako . . . and down throughthe slave-holding lands of America,where hewas bred on stud-fanmsfor"stamina and strength"; the fightingman of black America-participat-ing grandly inevery American war-from the Revolutionary to theKorean "police action"-looms inthe background : brooding, grumbl-ing, and drinking more and more,and still more : while churches ex-

20

plode barbecuing our daughters,police dogs bite and mangle ouryouth, and hairy, neonderthal beastswith shiny badges of law and orderfondle our women on freedomdemonstrations . Black America : howlong will you allow your protectorsto bear the brunt of shame and cas-tration while people who should besomewhere in schools, churches,rocking chairs, or just plain OUTOF SIGHT!, try to lead us to free-dom?

If you've observed "Mole" (acomplimentary name derived fromthe pharaohs : Thutmose, Ahmose,Ramose, etc . ), you'll notice that heseldom attends such "foolishness" ascivil rights rallies or forums . He'llonly go to civil rights demonstra-tions inorder to "get it on" in caseany violence erupts . Then, he'll-

Rolland Snellingsif not severely wounded or jailed-vanish into the smoldering interiorsof bars, cafes, or poolrooms to"drink the blues away," and wait,and wait, and wait, and wait, andwait . How long, block America,how long will your strong right armhang limply in despair?

The curious thing about thebourgeois-reformist movement (so-called because it has similar valuesto wh ite America, and believes thatcapitalism-a power system--canreform itself and give black peopletheir civil rights, i .e . to becomelike white, capitalist, exploitative,decadent America!) is that there isa latent fear of "hose" inherent initswhole makeup . Amixture of fearand guilt that recalls E . FranklinFrazier's Black Bourgeoisie, and tofollow history back a bit, the atti-tude of the "house nigger" towardsthe black field hands . Such state-ments andquestions as these alwaysarise when they speak of the masses :"But how can we reach them?""They just won't cooperate . ""They're violent at the drop of ahat; non-violence just doesn't seemto reach them ." "Don't THEYrealize that WE (note the schism)and liberal white people are fight-THEIR battle for them, while theywallow in the mire of those horriblebars?" Fear, guilt, frustration . . .from . . .class, status? Well, what-ever it might derive from, I'm hereto state that there can be no blackliberation without "Mole" and ourmilitant, young soul-sisters whomake up the angry, exploitedmasses-'cause they're the very lifebloodof our people, our future, andthey'll

NEVER rol ly to a basicallysuicidal, masochistic movementsuch as non-violence in a policestate .

The main point is that "Mose"knows where it's really at, even ifhe doesn't articulate it, he knowsthat black communities are reallyreservations, and essentially, death-

pens and occupied territories wherethe might of Westem Rome is dis-played to keep him down . . . Theclip-clop of horse-troops echoesthrough the bleak streets of Harlem,where even dogs learn to fight forsurvival from puppyhood . Pregnantteenage girls nod in urine-spatteredhallways after sweet daddy's ar-rival with the fix . Night streets ex-plode with feminine giggles as ourhope and his boy friends (every bitof seventeen, tight leotards) swishalong like sexy female movie-stars ."My country 'tis of thee, Sweetland of Genocide ." Yes, "Mole"KNOWS! . . that eventually therewill come a final clash betweenblack Americaand imperial istwhiteAmerica which will shake theplanet to its roots and bring on theFinal War . He KNOWS that liberalsare only white-washing the issuesand distorting the realities of theNegro problem and-for whiteradicals-that white workers areracists, and identify with imperial-ism, and will NEVER unite withthem "niggers" ; being in directcompetition, and as automation in-creases, reacting with more andmore violence as the blacks pushfor universal justice . Finally, heknows that rich folks-with the aidof

"N igro

Leaders"-continue tocoax black folks to remain non-violent at all

costs, and clon't-please don't-destroy our techno-logical society (vulnerable to socialdislocation-traffic tie-ups, water-wastage, mob-action, and manyother things) . Yes, "Muse," thoughbound, "Mole," the conqueringwarrior of civilization's dawn,KNOWS where it's REALLY at,andwaits, and waits, and waits, andwaits . . .for the final confrontation .

Black America : if you valueyour existence, your survival as apeople . . .unchain your hero, unchain the mighty lion, and girdyourself to meet the gatheringstorm! SUNRISE!

r.rrsr r MIR

July 1964

GhostsGhosts of all too solid flesh,Dark ghosts come back to haunt you now,These dark ghosts to taunt you---Yet ghosts so solid, ghosts so realThey may not only haunt you---But rape, rob, steal,Sit-in, stand-in, stall-in, vote-in(Even vote for real in Alabam')And in voting not give a damnFor the fact that white was rightUntil last night .

Last night?What happened then?Flesh and blood ghostsBecame flesh and blood men?Got tired of asking, When?Although in the minority,Suddenly became majorit(Metaphysically speakingIn seeking authority?

How can one man be ten?Or ten be a hundred and ten?Or a thousand and ten?Or a million and tenWhen a million and tenAre but a thousand and tenOr a hundred and tenO r ten---or oneOr none---Being ghostsOf then?

Langston Hughes

2 1

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LIBERATORVol . V,

No. 5

MAY

1965

35c

EDI TORT AL

White Man's Burden

Malcolm X: A Tragedyof Leadership

C . E . Wilson

SNCC in- DangerOssie Sykes

Black PoetsCalvin C . Hernton

Joe JohnsonLeRoi Jones

F. D . RichardsonLDrenzo Thomas

Faces of AfricaPhoto Essay

Twilight of the GodRev . Dr . Martin L . King, Jr .

Buford Thompson

CONTENTSANALYSISTwilight of the God

by Buford Thompson

SNCC in Danger

THEATREAmen Corner

MOVIESGoidfinger

BOOKSWith Grief AcquaintedThe Summer That Didn't EndWretched of the Earth

The Quotable Mr. X

11by C.E.Wilson

by Ossie Sykes

4

Malcolm X: A Tragedy of Leadership

7by C.E.Wilson & Ossie Sykes

14

PHOTOSWomen of Africa

16African Women at the U.N .

18United Nations Photos

POETRYLiving Poetry by Black Arts Group

19reviewed by Clayton Riley

Black Poets

20LeRoi Jones . Calvin Hernton,

Lorenzo Thomas, FrederickRichardson, Eliot Black

Joe Johnson & Carlos Russell

RELICAONThe Prophet Drew Ali Has Spoken

24

26

28

292930

LIBERATOR .

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EDITORIAL BOARD

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White Mans Burden

The sun has set on the British Empire, and events of the last twenty yearshas proved the Pacific Ocean is not an American lake . However what has notoccurred to official Washington,is that Vietnam, and for that matter, Asia, Africa,and Latin America has never been theirs to give or take . The 19th century men-tality of the white man's burden continues to dominate the thinking o£ PresidentJohnson and his advisers .

Recently the world was shocked to learn that in violation of the GenevaAgreement of 1925, civilized United States, publically admitted that it was usinggas on the people of Vietnam . The explainers and the apologists were galvanizedinto action ; The gas that was being used was "non-lethal" and "humane" "weuse it on our own people" (Black Americans), "it only produces tearing of theeyes, nausea and vomiting." What these students of Herr Goebbels choose toignore is that tearing of the eyes, nausea and vomiting is not part of our dailylife habits, like breathing, eating and sleeping .

Less than 12 hours after President Johnson delivered his speech on U. S.policy in Vietnam calling for unconditional negotiations (surrender) 200 Americanplans bombed North Vietnam . As commaUder-in-chief of the U . S . armed forcesthe President must have known of the planned raid before he delivered his Madi-son Avenue inspired (something for everyone) policy statement on Vietnam .Walter Lippman, with his usual clear insight stated after the massive U. S .bombing that "For my part, I am inclined to think that Hanoi will endure all thepunishment that we dare to inflict ." The people of Vietnam, will indeed endure .Their 20 year struggle against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism willprevail .

Despite the refusal of "the official civil rights leaders" and professionalpacifists to support the April 17th march on Washington, calling for an end tothe War in Vietnam, 25,000 Americans Black and White, mostly college studentspicketed the White House and then marched to the Washington Monument to hearspeeches by 1 . F . Stone, U. S . Senator Ernest Gruening, Paul Potter and manyothers . It was Paul Potter, president of Students for a Democratic Society,(SDS) one of the sponsoring organizations who delivered the most stinging in-dictment of American foreign policy not only in Vietnam but in the Congo, Cubaand all of Asia, when he said "U. S . policy in Vietnam provided the razor, theterrifying, sharp cutting edge that has finally severed the last vestige of illusionthat morality and democracy are the guiding principles of American foreignpolicy."

The theme of most of the signs carried by the marchers were, "We will notfight in Vietnam."

DANIEL H. WATTS

5th Anniversaryof

LIBERATORJUNE 1965

All Day Conference of Writers, Artists and Musicians

Presentation of Literary Awards at Social in EveningWATCH FOR ANNOUNCEMENT DATE

EDITORIAL

by Buford Thompson

For these ten years, we have been

lulled by that mellifluous cant of hislitany :"uhf blood he shed, let it be ours-not theirs."

For a decade, lacking some months,he has bade us endure the slobberingfangs of the dogs, the spewing bul-lets of the guns, the crackling bombsslaughtering little children .

"Love is the only force capableof transforming an enemy into afriend," he says in one of thosebest-selling books largely read bystarry-eyed whites . So let's readya wreath of welcome for our future"friend," Sheriff James Clark ofSelma, Alabama .We have been bidden by both thenaive and the calculating to worshipMartin Luther King as a god . Andworship him we did .

Shouted hosannas to him becausehis lips dip with such dewy eloquence .Let him dominate this whole nascentperiod of the most consecrated anddedicated struggle that Negroes havewaged since that original one foremancipation from chattel slavery .

But our god has brought us some-thing less than heaven . For theAmerican Negro is still in hell .

Slipping HaloHis halo started slipping at Selma.He's on his way out though the

Twilight of the God

press and the politicians of the whitepower structure are doing their best

to keep him on his cloud . Howrapidly can we release that militancywhich he has so long muzzled that hewill no longerbe needed even for win-dow dressing? How much longer willtoday's militants, grouped around theStudents' Non-Violent CoordinatingCommittee, continue to be awed bythe King legend?--continue to backaway in fear from his very shadoweven at a time when his close aidesallegedly feed deceitful and destruc-tive propaganda about SNCC to anywhite paper that will publish it?

Maybe Martin Luther King is suchan ominous image because it hasn'tbeen given the minute examinationthat is required since Selma .

For Selma is where he beganstumbling . But he had started riding

high for a fall even back in thoseearly days of Montgomery .

He was a local pastor in Mont-gomery when the epochal bus strikeerupted on the morning of December 2,1955 . That he assumed the leader-ship was due to no special qualitiesof his, but because he stepped intoa void that almost anybody with acommanding personality and an im-pressive education might have filled .

Pawns of White PowerFor more than a generation the

Alabama Black Belt had been

pro-

ducing militant leaders who had beenthe unsuspecting pawns of one oranother white power play . During the

1930's, the militant SharecroppersUnion had broken up because itsheroic Negro leaders had let them-selves become divided in a dogmaticwrangle between white Socialists andwhite Communists who'd muscled inon a spontaneous peoples' movement.

During the great days of the CIO,Negroes had been among the mostcourageous militants in the Birming-

ham steel mills . Then the CIOstarted "loving" Negroes less andjust about stopped organizing them .At the time of the Montgomery strugglesAlabama's NAACP branches were onthe verge of that long outlawry suf-fered at the hands of state authoritiesand were hamstrung by the Wilkinsmachine in New York besides .

More learned than most of Mont-gomery's clergymen-Negro or white--,carrying the prestige of belonging toone of the Atlanta colored dynasties,Martin Luther King emerged as theleading figure of the bus strike . Hemade like Gandhi by preaching a totalpacifism during that decisive conflict .Eventually it was won, not by King orany individual but by the sheer fervorand united strength of the Negro com-munity organized around the Mont-gomery Improvement Association .

King then made his pacifism thesine qua non of all the struggles yet

to be waged by black Americans ."With Jesus on the Cross, we mustlook lovingly at our oppressors," hewould write . Most of us lapped it up,because we are powerfully conditionedby the established, still largely seg-regated church, and the slavish inter-pretations of Christianity that it hasgiven us .

That tactics have to be flexible interms of given battles is something wemust now realize as we-start marchingbeyond and away from Martin LutherKing . At best, pacifism is only atransient weapon, useful in proportionto the willingness of the ruling ele-ments to concessions,but no more .

What worked at Montgomery clearlydid not work at Selma where the whiterulers were out for blood-and drewblood . In Selma, King had to be has-tily propped up by both the white pressand the white-dominated government inWashington .

Molding of a GodYet many other factors have entered

into the molding of the faltering god .Space limitations permit us to list buta few .

During the 'SO's, white authoritiescrippled the NAACP in several South-ern states, including Alabama andTexas, then represented by an uncom-plaining U . S . senator named Lyndon1 . Johnson . The NAACP had beenthe only Negro mass organization inDixie . Into a second vacuum steppedMartin Luther King with his South-ern Christian Leadership Conference :

So that, explainably, the ReverendKing was adopted by one part of thewhite power structure while the otherpart was despising him . Once again,a situation was made to order for theman carrying the padded crucifix

Northern . white -liberals took him up .these people are always looking for aNegro "leader" who will tell themwhat they want to hear about thepeople of the sweaty fields . and thestinking ghettoes . Northern politic-ians, including the late John Fitz-gerald Kennedy, soon saw his valuein terms of the ghetto vote, so theystarted wooing him, their mouths drip-ping with chumminess after the im-

LIBERATOR May 1965

memorial fashion of ballot hustlers .But stupid Southern stump jumpe rs

caught in their own peculiar back-wash, began visualizing young Dr .King as somebody sprouting hornsalong with a moustache The lateBooker T . Washington had been too"vadical" for some of their grandad-dies . Few of this element realized .that King's policies were accom-plishingexactly what they wanted withtheir "nigras."

Immobilizing them by sermons .It must be said categorically that

nobody made Martin Luther King the"national" leader of Negroes exceptwhites adoringor hating him . Negroeswere dazzled by the image becausethey control few communications mediaexcept a handful of newspapers andmagazines existing on the bounty ofwhite advertisers .

cont. next page

5

TWILIGHT OF THE GOD Bona.But Martin Luther King, for all the

love jive, knows how to hamper op-position as ruthlessly as any back-room politician .

'

The Official NegroBy 1960, he had become the offi-

cial Negro of the Northern section ofthe white power structure John Ken-nedy, afterwards assassinated inJohnson's Texas, won the presiden-tial election of that year by the Negrovotes that he garnered after gettingKing out of jail in Atlanta . John-son is less personally cordial to him,but King cooperates fully with thatFlorida ex-governor, Leroy Collins,who accomplished no miracles of inte-gration in that Dixie state yet who is,for all practical purposes, the U. S .Civil Rights Commission.

After King received the Nobel Prizein 1964, his reputation soared in thedominant White Establishment and itsless powerful imitation, the BlackPsuedo-Establishment. But the massof Negroes did not thrust that laurelinto his willing hand. For Negroesknow no "peace" in a racist societyconstantly greasing ropes for them .

The Price TagLaurels don't come without price

tags-nor do padded crucifixes . Ex-cept that the price,a high one,has beenpaid by Martin Luther King's ownpeople .

The tab this time is government con-trol, through this eloquent one, of thevery Negro liberation struggle itself .By the logic of his own position, Kingmust "go along" with what Washing-ton wants .

That he does acquiesce to the WhiteHouse and the Democratic nationalmachine is shown by his behavior atAlbany, Georgia, in 1961, where theissue was again a bus strike ; and atblood-spattered Selma, Alabama, withits voter registration struggle ; in 1965 .

Everybody knows that the militantleaders of the collapsed Albany Move-ment were indicted on Federal con-tempt of court charges after King lit ashuck and pulled back to Atlanta .Hundreds of Negroes, a large part of

6

them young students, went to jailalong with the god . King, after vowingto stick it out behind the bars, withthem, allegedly deserted because heresented the influence of the burgeon-ing Student Non-Violent CoordinatingCommittee . So far as is known, he hasdone nothing for the Albany defen-dants since .

"Had he stuck to this (meaningstaying in jail)," says Louis E . Lomaxin The-Negro Revolt,"as Gandhi wouldhave done, Albany would have beendesegregated . But Martin came out onbond."

Did Washington indicate to him itsdispleasure with SNCC, which hassprung up right out of the Southernheartland? Mr . Lomax, who has knownthe Atlanta Kings since his boyhood,adds : "One day, perhaps, Martin willtell the true story of Albany ; he is theonly man who can tell it . A few people-about a dozen-know the truth, butMartin Luther King is the only man whocan tell it . Knowing Martin as I do, Idoubt if he will ever part his lipsWhen I unearthed the truth and askedhim to confirm it, his only reply was :`If you print it, I will not be non-vio-lent with you' ."

Apparently, the Reverend King hasmade no public answer to this scarce-ly-veiled public accusation . But byhis own scriptures, "that which ishidden shall be revealed ." And Selmawas the place where Negro militants,as well as white allies mustered byKing himself, began seeing througha mask.

Disgusted by TacticsNewspapers reported that visiting

clergymen, present at King's invita-tion, were disgusted by his namby-pamby tactics and felt that they'dwasted their time in coming . King ad-mitted that he'd made accomodationsto the authorities about limiting thescope of demonstrations . He was en-gaged in constant counsel with LeroyCollins, the lame duck Southernpolitician sent from Washington tohold down the lid on disfranchised,outraged Negro citizens in Alabama .

And while one can admire the cour-age of all the white allies who flockedinto Selma, would not visiting dele-

gations of Negroes from all over Amer-ica have been more effective in termsof all the ultimate issues involved?

Negroes would have gone to Selmahad the word been given . They wouldhave descended upon this patricianwhite center of the Black Belt by busand train, in motorcades bearinglicense plates from the Atlantic Coastto the Pacific .

They would have been impatientof rhetorical prayer and unctuousplatitude . They would have madehistory .

For history is not a stagnant seabut an inevitable coursing flood break-ail dams .

King has come out of Selma withrips in his mantle . lie did not showup in some of the crucial set-toswith the badge-bedecked bullies ofSheriff Jim Clark . lie was able tomaintain qualified authority only be-cause of the shock that reverberatedthroughout the nation followingtheas-sassination of the Reverend Reeb.

So he profited by that "blood"which he has always so disavowed .But would James Reeb and ViolaLiuozzo and Jimmie Lee Jacksonhave been lost to the Negro freedomstruggle had show of might beencountered with show of might? Didnot King's very disavowal of resis-tance help to load the guns of theKlan and the posses at the very out-set of the Selma troubles?

You don't whip an enemy by lettinghim know in advance that he can doanything he likes with your person -and the persons of everybody else onyour side .

From Selma we shall learn . ButMartin Luther King will hardly be ourteacher .

Next time- next battle- the motor-cades will come . And no black agentof the white power structure will flagthem, by the sly word, to any haltsanywhere .

Next time! Next battle - when thegreat chariots of time will sweepacross another crumbling sward of theConfederacy .

Let's leave the mumbling god tothe dust of archives .

Let's get on with business stillunfinished .

Malcolm X:by C. E . Wilson & Ossie SykesNegroes of whatever political, -cul-

tural and religious persuasion havealways placed great value on leader-ship . They seem to place little faithin ideologies or institutions, but placetheir faith and hope in "unselfish in-dividual leaders ." Anyone who ap-pears to have that certain intangiblesomething, apparent honesty andarticulate verbal skills, is considereda possible leader . Malcolm X pos-sessed these very attributes to whichNegroes gravitate . Despite the bre-vity of his career, we might do well toexamine his leadership style and iso-late some of the lessons to be learnedfrom his life, so that those who arewilling to learn the lessons of historyneed not repeat the same mistakes .

Understanding Negro Leadership:It is impossible to understand any

Negro leader unless we understand themilieu and the social conditions whichpropel him to the forefront .

In employment the conditions of theaverage Negro people is on a tread-mill, -slowly losing ground to the aver-age white citizen . 20% of the Negrolabor force is unemployed ; a wopping37% of the youthful "lout of school"Negro group are not working. TheNegro family income has dipped to 52%

LIBERATOR May 1965

A Traeedv of Leadershiof the white, and thedollar gap betweenNegro and white workers is widening.

In housing the degree of segre-gation in urban cities increases witheach passing year. In education thepublic education apparatus teeters andtotters under the weight of demands forequal opportunity without sufficientwill or resources to perform the task .Police brutality exists without ade-quate police protection for those whowould be law-abiding . The Negrofamily reels under these successiveshocks from the broad American cul-tural system . Social scientists sug-gest that the disorganization the Ne-groes experience would not be so de-moralizing if Negroes had not accep-ted the values and aspirations of thedominant white society .

The established Negro leadershipis, at this juncture, effectively tiedto the Democratic Party coalition,and thus separated from the desperateplight of the masses . Historically, theNegro leadership has maintained thefiction that the inequality of treat-ment which the Negro people endureis purely a domestic affair . This do-mestic affair is allegedly totally un-related to worldwide conditions . Themore avant-guard of these Negro lead-ers see that economics is the meansby which the inequality its assured,

but few are radical enough to recog-nize that the racial problem is basicto the Europeans' quest for power andworld dominance . Not only is theleadership basically conservative,but their followers are devoted to ap-proved cultural goals . Within the lastgeneration this leadership has beenimpressed by the emergence of theAfrican nations, but they believe thattheir future must be resolved withinAmerica, by America, and in terms ofthe American Dream .

IdeologyConditions alone, however, do not

make the leader . Sometimes the lead-er's ability to act is effected by hispolitical orientation . Malcolm Xseems to have been a nationalist . Tounderstand him, therefore, one shouldunderstand something about the dy-namics of nationalism and Negro radi-cal movements . Nationalism denies thebasic assumption of most Negroesabout their situation in the UnitedStates, vis "+things are getting betterevery day ." Nationalism articulatesthe tensions of the masses.

Negro radical movements historic=ally share five major characteristics :1) They seek to withdraw the Negrophysically or psychologically from thesociety .2) They are basically an urban phe-

eont. pext page7

TRAGEDY cons.nomenuu uun a product of periods ofgreat distress and crisis .3) They have suffered from unstablemembership . The membership is madeup of people on their way to middle-class respectability and standards .4) They are traditionally bound by areligious doctrine which seeks eitherto create a theocratic, separate stateor to re-interpret the Old testamentand the old-time religion into a cur-rent political and social context .5) Negroes have not been able to sup-port or sustain a radical movement.

Styles of Negro LeadersIf we understand the conditions and

ideology we need only understand thestyles and categories of minoritygroup leaders . The dominant styles ofNegro leadership are :1) The moderate style of the bar-gainer lawyer who sees life with itssubtleties and complexities ; seekswelfare aims, considers time as aninevitable component of change, andbasically shares the attitudes of thewhite conservative .2) The militant or protest style of theindividual who sees the world as itshould be, and shares the view of thewhite liberal or radical . He seeks

8

status ends and wants unity, but notat all costs . This style involvesmass demonstrations and loud pro-tests .

The tension which resuls from theconflict between the conditions of thepeople and the orientation and stylesof various leadership creates a situ-ation in which unity is the most fer-vent hope and cry, while division

within the community is the most com-mon experience, except in times ofextreme danger .

It is witntn this milieu that Mal-colm X, like any other aspirant forleadership, had to function . Theleader is bound by his own conceptof the society's restraints as well asthe outlook of his audience .

The Muslim Period :In the first'part of Malcom X's

pub-lic career he was not a leader, -but aspokesman-administrator . The Muslimmovement provided a formidable plat-form for addressing the dispossessedand the downtrodden urban masses aswell as the rest of the Negro popu-lation . Malcolm X attracted peoplebecause he could directly articulate

the suffering of those people andplace the blame for that suffering

squarely where it rested . lie possess-ed tremendous skills as a debator,plus an uncompromising "ghetto-eyed" point of view . Fortunately, theMuslim movement was not bound by thesame cultural constraints that tightlycircumscribed the actions of the Civil

Rights Movement . In his role asspokesman, he liked to be called Min-ister Malcolm X . Malcolm X alsoacknowledged that he had helped tofound the newspaper, MuhammedSpeaks . He asserted that the early

The powerful rhetoric of the Mus-

lims limited their ability to enlarge

their membership . Negroes are tooconformist . They conform to the ma-terial necessities of survival, even ifthis means further degradation anddebasement . The rhetoric of the Mus-lims was altogether too threatening .Malcolm X devoted considerable ef-

fort to gaining the attention of theblack and white college elite as wellas the masses.

Yet his experiencewith the Muslimswas not limited to solely that of a pro-test leader . As an administrator for

the Honorable Elijah Muhammed of theMuslims, he devoted his energies tothe service of the cause he espoused .The disciplined oligarchic nature ofthe Muslim religion provided Malcolm X

With the kind of administrative train-ing opportunity not generally availa-ble to Negroes.

to addition, from his spokesman-administrative role with the Muslims,Malcolm X derived invaluable experi-ence in the international arena . InJuly, 1959, he was named the per-sonal envoy of the Honorable ElijahMuhammad to the United Arab Repub-lic, The Sudan, and Nigeria . Thisexperience gave him an opportunityto think in terms of international con-tacts rather than along the customarylines of traditional U.S.-bound Negroleadership.

The apprenticeship and training ofMalcolm X within the Muslim move-ment provided various experiencesnecessary for successful leadership .He was exposed to opportunities forspeechmaking, administrative respon-

sibility and overseas contacts . Eachtype of experience was invaluable inthis 20th Century context .

After the Break with the MuslimsWhen Malcolm X broke with the

Muslims, he carried with him many ofthe concepts that he had learned .Ile initially called his organizationThe Muslim Mosque, Inc . and declared,"I am a follower of the_ lionorableElijah Muhammed . I believe in theIlonorable Eli jah Muhammed."

Ile pro-posed that his new organization wouldhave a base designed to propagate themoral reformation necessary to rid theNegro community of the evils that de-stroy its fiber . Further, he advoca-ted a unique "Go It Alone Plan" forAmerican Negroes . Ile advocated com-pletely controlling the Negro com-munity, with no outsider able to pullstrings . Whites were to be excludedfrom membership in this organization .He postulated that nationalism mighthave some immediate goals besidethe exodus from American shores .This theory carried with ii .

ii". i n-plicit suggestion that Malcolm X'sbrand of nationalism was departingfrom the Utopian view of race rela-tions characteristic of many blacknationalists for a more attractive, re-alizable goal .

One interviewer suggested that interms of the formidable obstacles thathe faced, Malcolm X would not onlyhave to be a charismatic leader, butalso a magician to get his organiza-tion off the ground . The interviewerdid not doubt his basic sincerity andpurposefulness . He recognized, how-ever, how great the obstacles and thelimitations would be in the Mosqueorganizational structure .

Assessment of Malcolm X's LeadershipOnce outside of the Muslim fold,

Malcolm X found it necessary to sof-ten his uncompromising rhetoric . Hebecame less and less antagonistic to-ward whites, and even apologized toother civil rights leaders for his for-mer slashing attacks on them . In Octo-ber, 1964, he suggested that he wassorry he had led so many well-meaningNegroes into the fold of the Muslims .Malcolm X called for unity and even

LIBERATOR May 1965

participated in a school boycott, which,while ostensibly about school inte-gration, was in reality a test of strength

grationn, was in reality a test of strengthbetween Negro grass-roots leadershipin New York City and middle-classorganization leadership .

livery poll conducted by whites ofNegroes and whites placed Malcolmfar down the list among those whoaspired to leadership . In one poll,the whites of New York City ratedMalcolm X and Adam C. Powell theleast popular Negroes . Negroesthroughout the land gave him scarcelymore popular support . This lack ofpopularity can be attributed to hisbasic protest style, the attachment ofNegroes to their material possessions,and the fact that what most Negroesreally want is a way into the societyand not out of it .

The youthful Harlem ghetto dwell-ers, however, saw him as a leader andchanted his name in the midst of theHarlem Uprising of 1964, although hewas, at that time, thousands of milesaway .

His reputation was soiled by thefact that he was frequently condemnedby all sides for his "extremist" views .

Malcolm X was a leader that Ne-groes could not publicly acknowledge .Ilis rhetoric and style were too directand too frightening . He never wonpopularity contests for he was a cul-tural bad guy . Yet, how he might havewon such contests if Negroes weren'tafraid to be themselves and think forthemselves! He was an extremist in amoderate society.

Outside of the American Straight-Jacket

In the eleven months between hisdeparture from the Muslim fold to hisdeath, Malcolm X spent considerabletime trying to gain the support of sov-ereign African States for the AmericanNegro's Human Rights struggle . Hewished to expand the civil rights move-ment to a Human Rights movement,internationalizing it and providing anopportunity for African nations toattack U.S . racism .

Malcolm X was an observer at theAfrican Unity Council in Cairo, Egypt,

in July, 1964 . He issued a stinging,eight-page memorandum condemningU . S . racism and requesting aid fromthe sovereign African States . In Jan-uary, 1965, Malcolm X claimed that hisefforts had been crowned with success ,and that a link had been forged withthe African governments and the Or-thodox religious Muslims as well . Onhis last journey overseas in February1965, he visited England where a num-ber of individuals who are caught inthe Western world's racial conflictwere interested in hearing from him .lie was barred from entering Paris,where a large colony of American ex-patriots now live . Malcolm X believedthat he was barred by the French Gov-ernment at the behest of the U . S .Government .

This barring from France was onlyone indication of the nature of theAmerican response to Negro efforts tobreak out of the straight jacket thatbinds their struggle . Foe his efforts intrying to place the civil rights issuein the international arena, Malcolm Xwas frequently shaiowed by the C .I.A .and harassed and denounced by U.S .-I .S.(Information Service) . Ile openlyacknowledged that he recognized hishome phone was tapped . In the Sat-urday Evening Post, he quipped : "If Isaid on my home telephone right to-day, '1'm going to bomb the EmpireState Building,' I guarantee you thatin five minutes it would be surround-ed . "

His efforts within the confines ofthe United States paralleled his effortsin Africa . He tried to forge a link . Heasked Negroes to accept the Africancultural component of their lives andsuggested active use of the word Afro-American instead of "Negro." Thename of his organization, Organizationof Afro-American Unity (OAAU) re-ifleets his continued effort in that di-rection . lie repeatedly called uponNegroes to look culturally and spiritu-ally to Africa . Malcolm X blamed theU . S . Administration's continued sup-port of Tshombe as a cog in the never-ending Congo turmoil.

Malcolm X further suggested uniqueAfrican solutions to the violence ofthe American racists (Mau-Mau) andrepeatedly urged self-defense for Ne

cont. next page9

TRAGEDY cons.

groes .

This was a unique type ofnationalism .

Malcolm X's brand wasactually internationalism . He wasstruggling to get out of the straightjacket that constricts Negro leader-ship . Only in this international arenawas there a chance .

Unfortunately, healone made the international contactsand his untimely death may have oncemore broken the tenuous link .

Hung Up On OrganizationThe skills required of a protester

as well as an international negotiatordrew effort, energy and time away fromthe task of building a national institu-tion . From its outset, any organiza-tion made up of Negroes can expectlimited financial backing . Such anorganization needs time to developindividuals with the appropriate ad-ministrative skill and can expect toget very little sympathetic coopera-tion from other Negro organizations .However much these organizations maywant to assist, their own human andfinancial resources are not capable ofproviding assistance . The middle-class Negroes pursue their own pri-vate goals through escapism and naiveindividualistic effort . Therefore, theNegro community, while screamingabout the need for leadership, cannever develop the skills of follower-ship which can propel racial organi-zation . Malcolm X then made littleimpact in this area . This area cannotbe considered a failure because Mal-colm X did not have enough time to de-vote to the development of the neces-sary organizational hierarchy andtrained cadres which are needed .

The Legacy of Malcolm XMalcolm X's death marked the end

of prospects that the Negro revolutionmight become revolutionary . Therewill now be no spokesman for thewretched bottom . His death, coupledwith the attacks on the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)and the current investigation of thewhite radical left, indicates the truefeelings of the society toward Negrodemands and the apparent need forstructural change in the society .

This

1 0

moderate society has decreedthat TheNegro Revolution should become areligious reform movement, be legal inapproach and not affect any of the re-alities . Malcolm X leaves to succeed-ing generations of aspiring leaders astrange legacy . He was never able tomake the full impact of his attempt tointernationalize and escalate the Ne-gro struggle in the U . S . felt . His lifein the big arena was far too short .Yet, his brillant effort may bring thefirst rays of light into the Negro'stunnel vision . Actually, his leader-ship is another leadership tragedy .

The brevity of Malcolm X's leader-ship career is only a single aspect ofthe tragedy that has befallen the Ne-gro people . The direction which hechartered would have required a long,strenuous effort . But beyond this lackof sufficient time, Malcolm's life inthe leadership arena revealed threeother catastrophes of major propor-tions . His life was first a tragedy ofstyle and character. The proteststyle is not generally productive inbuilding a strong institutional frame-work (organization). The rhetoric ofthe protester is often too frighteningfor most Negros, and this rhetoric de-mands maintenance of a high level oftension over a long period of time .The protester skills are not geared tohold people for the long period of timenecessary for assembly, orientationand training. The escapist and ex-tremist character of Malcolm X's move-ment is not suited to the middle-of-theroad approach of the agricultural andindustrial black peasantry and blackbourgeosie . A movement such as Mal-colm X's was too closely tied to thesingle charismatic leader . When thischarismatic leader goes, the move-ment is threatened with dissolution .

Malcolm X's leadership was furthera tragedy of concept . Malcolm X pro-pesed a radical solution to the raceProblem (nationalization of the Negrostruggle and internationalization ofthis struggle through the support ofthe Asian-African bloc) . Although therace problem has always been a radi-cal problem vis a problem at the rootof the society, the dominant Negrobourgeosie, truncated in their political

thinking, does not accept either theradical nature of the problem or theneed for radical solutions, for they aretied to the concept of political reform .

Although in their hearts the Negromasses understood the nature of Mal-colm X's message, their minds didnot fully grasp the unfamiliar natureof Malcolm's concepts . Malcolm wasat one and the same time talking overthe heads of many while scaring theheads off some.

Malcolm X's leadership was even

more profoundly a tragedy of follow-ership . Although he was sensitive tothe thinking of the mass, Malcolm Xwas not willing to wait till the massescaught up with him . He was, there-fore, alone, isolated and vulnerable .The Negro people still by and largecling to the belief that the society willkeep its promises . As long as suchthinking predominates, radicals willbe outcasts and marginal men. Mal-colm X was such an outcast .

The Negro people have alwayswanted and still crave a strong au-thoritarian father figure leader whowill tell them what to do, solve theirproblems, boss them around and takethe responsibility : They are as yetnot willing to take the lead in theresolution of their own destiny . Oncethey take this step they will choosetheir own leaders from those who havestruggled with them . That day, un-fortunately, has not dawned, and willnot as long as the great majority pic-ture a world of fantasy and make-be-lieve (racial reform) . Malcolm X'sleadership was, then, a tragedy offollowership .

It has been said that people get theleaders they deserve . Conversely,they loose those leaders they don't de-serve .

Malcolm X was just a ma nahead of his time .

A genuine tragedy . .But the truly tragic figures are thosewho will stand around wistfully talk-ing about his abilities, instead ofpushing on in their own thinking towhere their fallen leader was. If thepeople go that far, they will findanother leader whose life need not beso tragic . After ail, the new leadersmay have an opportunity to learnfrom Malcolm X's experience .

by C . E . WilsonWhen Malcolm X was imprisoned

almost twenty years ago it was report-ed that he spent considerable timesteadying. Reports state Malcolm Xcopied the entire dictionary in histhirst for knowledge and a good vo-cabulary . On his release from prison,he set about becoming one of the mosteffective and dynamic speakers on theAmerican scene . Quick, direct, sar-donic, confident, even arrogant, hepossessed the natural ability andskills that belied his formal schoollevel, eighth grade . He often visitedcolleges and handled himself well innumerous debates with individuals ofsuperior formal education .

His uncompromising ghetto-eyedpoint of view could embarrass and an-tagonize an enemy or strengthen theresolve of a believer . His press con-ferences were always alive, cracklingwith quips and jests that probed deep-ly into the heart of a problem . Oftenhis words were descriptive ; sometimesthey were prophetic ; always they wereentertaining . Here are collected someof his morepungent comments . Listen

LIBERATOR May 1965

The Quotable Mr. Xto the words of the late Malcolm X :

On White America :Malcolm X was noted for his caus-

tic comments about white America .One major theme dominated his out-look. Once, for a change of pace, hewas quoted as saying ;

"Todos somas hermanos . EI hom-bre blanco es el diablo." Even inSpanish Malcolm X's estimate of whiteAmerica was always out in the open ."All men are brothers, the white manis a devil ."

Malcolm X described the goal ofAmerica, "America wants the wholeworld to bow down to her, but the ma-jority of the people who own thisearth are dark people . . . and the yard-stick bywhich they measure this whiteman is his treatment and attitude to-ward the twenty million so-called Ne-groes in this country."

Malcolm X was once asked whatwere the motives of a magazine forproviding him an opportunity for freediscussion of his views . He replied :"I think you want to sell magazines .I have never seen a sincere white

man, not when it came "a helpingblack people."

On another occasion he made thefollowing observation about UnitedStates newspapers to his followers :"Don't trust a line ." Sound adviceby any standard .

He was once asked about the worstcrime of the American white man. Hereplied : "The worst crime the whiteman has committed has been to teachus to hate ourselves ."

He was even more scathing in hischaracterization of white participationin the civil rights movement. "A manwho tosses worms in the river isn'tnecessarily a friend to the fish . Allthe fish who take him for a friend, whothink the worm's got no hooks in it,usually end up in the frying pan . Allthese things dangled before us by thewhite liberals posing as a friend andand benefactor have turned out to benothing but bait to make us think weare making progress."

Once, at Harvard University, Mal-colm X perceived the problems ofAmerica in this light : "This is thecore of America's troubles today, and

cant. next page11

QUOTABLE MR. X coat .

there will be no peace as long as thetwenty million so-called Negroes arehere begging for rights which Americaknows she will never grant .us ."

Several years ago he made a state-ment on Federal protection for the Ne-gro in the face of local tyranny whichseems now like a prophecy in light ofthe Selma, Alabama, situation : "Youwill never get protection from the Fed-eral Government . Just like King askingKennedy to go to Alabama to stand ina doorway, to put his body in a door-way. That's like asking the fox to pro-tect you from the wolf . The masses ofblack people can see this, and it isonly the Negro leadership, the bour-geois, the handpicked handful of Neg-roes who think that they are going toget some kind of respect, recognition,or protection from the government . Thegovernment is responsible for what ishappening to black people in thiscountry." -

Malcolm X's homey expressionssometimes caused, him considerabletrouble . His "chickens coming hometo roost" statement is an example .But his comment on the last presi-dential election may bear carefulscrutiny :

"Johnson and Goldwater, I feel that

as far as the American black man isconcerned, are both just about thesame. It's just a question of Johnson,

the fox, or Goldwater, the wolf .'Conservatism' is only meaning `let's

keep the niggers in their place .Liberalism is meaning 'let's keep thekneegrows in their place, but tellthem we'll treat them a little better .Let's fool them with more promises .'Since these are the choices for theblack man in America, I think he onlyneeds to pick which one he choosesto be eaten by, because they bothwill eat him."

While he could see the nationalpicture clearly, he was also acutelyaware of the overseas efforts of theUnited States Information Service todiscredit him : "This was a white-balling from the highest level . But,ironically, what they did made me evenmore welcome . It told Africans ex-actly where I was ."

1 2

On Black AmericaWhile he was a perceptive commen-

tator on the white side of the domes-

tic scene, he was also an apt-critic

of the Negro's role in the cultural

dialogue : "The western world is sick .

America is sick, but the Negro in

America is the sickest of them all .

The sickening condition of the Negro

in America [s infecting Uncle Sam's

entire body and endangering the se-

curity and future of the western

world." America often accused him

of racism and he often had to discuss

the entire subject of black racism .

During one interview he suggested :"As soon as the white man hears the

the black man say that he is throughloving white people, then the whiteman accuses the black man of hating

him."Malcolm X was an arch foe of

"so-called Negro progress ." He

once evaluated a statement aboutNegro progress in these terms : "I

hear that everywhere, almost as you

stated it . This is one of the biggestmyths that the black man believes in .Every immigrant ethnic group that has

come to America is now a genuinelyfirst-class citizen group . . . Every one

of them but the black man who washere when they came . . ."

"The Negro is like a man on a

luxury commuter train doing ninety

miles an hour . He looks out of the

window along with all of the white

passengers in the pullman chairs, and

he thinks he's doing ninety, too .

Then he gets to the men's room and

looks in the mirror and he sees he's

not getting anywhere at all . His re-

flection shows a black man standing

there in the white uniform of a dining

car steward . He may get on the 5 :10

all right, but he won't be getting off

at Westport ."Progress is merely one area of

Negro self-deception . Once, in an

interview with Louis Lomax, Malcolm

X commented on another area of self-

deception . "You Negroes are not will-

ing to admit it yet, but integration will

not work . Why, it is against the white

rian's nature to integrate into hishouse. Even if he wanted to, he would

no more do that than a Model T can

sprout wings and fly . It isn't in hisnature ."

Malcolm X's continued warningsobout the future now seem extremelyrelevant . One of his predictions isquoted in William Stringfellow'sA y People is the Enemy : "The blackn.asses that are waking up don't be-lieve in Christianity any more . Allthat's done for the black man is toI elp keep them slaves."

While he could warn of the awaken-ingof the masses, he was quite scorn-ful of the Negro Middle Class . It isreflected in such comments as : "Forthe masses are not the brainwashed,satisfied Negro middle class ." Andmore directly, "The black middleclass, in its attempt to protect thecrumbs the white man gives, whiletrying at the same time to decide todeceive him, is the most acrobatic ofNegroes ." Following this line of rea-soning, he came to the conclusion that94the clergy politician leadership doesnot speak for the Negro majority . Theydon't speak for the black masses.They speak for the black bourgeois,white-minded, middle class minority ."

Malcolm X was not in love with thecurrent Negro national heroes, partic-ularly those who win Nobel Prizes .Throughout his career he made scath-ing comments about Martin LutherKing . When he was asked how heevaluated Dr . King, Malcolm X said :"You don't have to criticize Rev. Mar-tin Luther King. His actions criti-cize him."

On another occasion, he said : "AnyNegro who teaches other Negroes toturn the other cheek in the face of at-tack is disarming the Negro of his God-given right to defend himself . Every-thing in nature can so defend itselfand is right in defending itself exceptthe American Negro."

On The Overseas ArenaMalcolm X's travels through Europe

and Africa gave him an opportunity to[ ..sake observations on the world scene .I or example, after the Congo Affair,l e defined United States participationin the Congo as a criminal action ."They've got some more innocentIlood on their hands ." He referred to7 shombe as "The worst African ever

born . . . The Worst African ever born! andhe actually has the nerve to come here . .Vl ell, we must welcome him-properly ."

Since Malcolm X was a thorn in theside of the United States overseas op-erations, he had choice comments fortl .e United States Information Service ."They have done a vicious job . . . . avicious job . They were there all right . . .and steadily at work to prevent realcontact and honest communication be-tween American blacks and Africanblacks . The United States Governmentprefers to regulate our contacts . . . . andrepresent us ." Malcolm X had a wordof warning for his African brothers-"Don't let American racism be legal-ized by American dollarism ."

After Malcolm X was prevented fromentering Paris he quipped about Gen-eral DeGaulle, "DuGaulle had too muchgall." He characterized police acti-vity at Paris Orleans Airport as, "Ithought I was in South Africa by theway the police acted." On England's

race problems he remarked : "Englandhas a severe racial problem . She hasbecome almost hysterical over theproblem . "

Malcolm X Was Just Too MuchPerhaps two additional quotations

from his life would be quite illumina-ting at this time . Once, Malcolm Xwas asked by a knowledgeable re-porter about his reluctance to speakof socialism .

He quipped ; "Why speakof it . If you want someone to drinkfrom a bottle, you never put the skulland crossbones on the label, for theywon't drink : the same is true here."

His definition of Black Nationalismwas quite an interesting one, and itshould be repeated over and over againso that perhaps one of his many mes-sages might sink in . "By BlackNationalism I mean that the black manmust control the politics of his owncommunity . He must control the radio,newspaper_ television for our com-

munity . I also mean that we must dothose things necessary to elevate our-selves socially, culturally and to re-store racial dignity."

The entire racial scene is too tame,too dull, now that Malcolm X's truthhas been removed . The establishedNegro leaders are now cautious, cor-rect, responsible (to the white socie-ty), reliable and evasive . Malcolm X'svoice is silent . We suspect that manyof the civil righters secretly wish thatMalcolm X was still around to say whatneeds to be said . Only a person whoisn't connected with the status quo canmake such comments .

Since he wasn'tconnected - he could tell'em like it is,and the Quotable Mr . X did just that .

Maybe the readers have personalmemories of quotes by Malcolm X thatthey would like to share . Maybe you'dlike to send them in to us . The onlyrule is that the quote must tell it likeit is . No other way is worthy of theof the Quotable Mr . X .

by Ossie Sykes

Suddenly the Student Non-ViolentCoordinating Committee (SNCC) hasbecome the prime target for criticism,red-baiting and caustic comment ; it isbearing the brunt of attacks on theFreedom Movements . It has beenclaimed that the effectiveness ofdemonstrations can be determined byby the volume, pitch, and intensity ofhostile white reaction . If this is trueSNCC and its Chairman, John Lewis,are leading contenders for FreedomHonors in 1965 .

Opposition From All SidesSNCC critics now come in all sizes,

shapes, colors, and descriptions .Theodore White, in Life, November1963, called SNCC "an extremist or-ganization which has attempted to con-vert peaceful demonstrati ons intoPutsches (against government officesin Southern cities) and consummatedthe adoption of a sinister militaryplan that would start another civilwar." Of all the civil rights organi-zations, White preferred the quiet,conservative Urban League and dis-missed'SNCC's members as "lunaticsand aliens."

The Herald Tribune's Evans andNovak, on December 2, 1964, reportedthat the responsible leaders of theCivil Rights movement were worriedlest SNCC will put into practice thesuccessful revolutionary technique ofthese emerging countries of Africa .Not to be outdone by white critics, onMarch 21, Washington D .C .'s Rev.Jefferson P . Rogers, a SCLC aide toDr . Martin Luther King said, "Therewere deep strands of the Irresponsiblein the movement manifested by a fool-

14

SNCC in Danger

ish kind of radicalism--a radicalismthat does not have any capacity forreconciliation . SNCC seemed moreinterested in protest than achieve-ment." His black audience did notprotest, and the New York Times car-ried the story the next day .

The pride of radio liberalism, Ed-ward P . Morgan, got in his licks atSNCC soon thereafter, but the prizecritic of all was the Rev. Martin Luth-er King himself . Rev. King was quo-ted as saying that his organization(SCLC) had not yielded to "vadicalgroups in the Alabama civil rightsdemonstrations." Dr. King, known insome circles as ",Da Lawd," statedthat "many members of the Non-Vio-lent Committee were young people whotended to become frustrated and im-patient over the slowness of progressin the civil rights field . We questionat times if their tactics and decisionsare decisions we would make." As ishis custom, Dr . King refrained fromoutright attacks on the leaders ofSNCC, -but it appears that the task ofrestraining SNCC has been turned overto his underlings .

Everybody but the LIBERATOR andand a few others seems to be mad atSNCC . LIBERATOR, in December1964, awarded SNCC the Anti-racismforthe service SNCC has performed onthe grass roots level .

Why Is Everbody Mad At SNCCEverbody, especially anyone with

an interest in maintaining the statusquo, is mad at SNCC first and fore-most because SNCC has gone to thepeople to work with the people rightwhere they are,--in the hamlets andhovels of the Black Belt, facing andsharing with the people the terror and

intimidations and helping developlocal leadership . The organizationhelps fight the awesome fear thatbinds, imprisons, and disarms the Ne-gro of the back country . With SNCC'shelp, direction and encouragement toface the white terror and intimidationthe communities are better able tocarry on the job of fighting for theirrights .

Some of the criticism from the hide-bound and chairbound generals of theolder civil rights groups is a matter ofself-interest and envy . Self-interestbecause the older groups have made agood thingof bourgeois reformism with-out the masses of black people . Envybecause, unlike the valiant youth ofSNCC, they can no longer get out intothe back country--without custom cig-arettes, foreign cars, and fancy foreignfoods .

White criticism of the back-to-thepeople approach is more relevant, forthe whites recognize clearly that or-ganizing the disorganized is a directthreat to white dominance . White lib-eralism, which never organized any-thing, is afraid that it might loose itsstranglehold on the Negro protestmovement if Negroes were organized .Everybody is mad at SNCC for goodreason : They have gone back to thepeople .

SNCC Is A Threat To Everybody'sNon-Violent Daydreams--

For the past five years, SNCC hasLeen testing the mythology of the non-violent approach . Through their workand suffering, SNCC workers have putNon-Violence to its most severe test .Often these tests have been withoutthe benefit of the kleiglights of nation-wide television and world press cov-

KINMEPTMUSED ToSEmDTOM,

611NINOI~l1

John Lewis (left) and James Foreman (right) of SNCC participating in the Harlem demonstration in support of Selma .

erage . Some of their beliefs have cer-tainly by now been shaken in conceptslike :

1 . Unmerited suffering will reap re-wards .

2 . The sadist will grow tired of bea-ting the masochist .

3 . The

nonviolent revolution canbring change in a direction contraryto the values of the majority ofthe people .

4 . Americans love and respect free-dom as a reality for all men .By now the brave young men and

women might well be impatient withtalk of brotherhood and reconciliation,having experienced night-stick broth-hood and jail reconciliation wheneverthe cameras weren't focussed .

It is no small wonder that devo-tees of TV Non-Violence (Sing AlongWith King)shouldbe angry with SNCC .White liberals and white conservatism,too, is angry with the idea that SNCCis really trying out non-violent resis-tance as a creative weapon withoutclearing with them . flow could anyFreedom group dare to operate withoutclearing with its Masters .

SNCC Testing the American Mythology-The third big reason why everybody

is upset over SNCC is that SNCC isreally testing out the limit of theAmerican Dream Using raw courage,very little money, and without the vast

LIBERATOR May 1965

public relations machinery,the gallantyouth of SNCC have tested the follow-ing Sacred American beliefs :1 . We have equal justice under the

law .l . The right to vote cannot be a-

bridged .3 . There is fair play and justice for

all .4. Success comes by hard work .5 . The Federal Government protects

the constitutionally guaranteedrights of citizens .

6 . There are constitutional guaran-tees of freedom of speech and as-sembly that should not be abridged .

In testing these shibboleths, SNCChas been radical and revolutionaryenough to go right to the roots, andeverybody is just plain embarrassed .When Americans black or white, areembarrassed, they don't attack theproblem or the problem-makers, theyattack the people who made them con-scious of the situation . In this case,SNCC .

The vast majority of Americanshave been safe and silent spectatorsto racial violence and beastiality .Now they react in opposition to thosewho have made them conscious oftheir smugness . While Washingtonissues communiques about povertyprograms and structural changes,SNCC has been changing some struc-tures .

Therefore, everybody is angry .

SNCC Has Earned Support�SNCC is an organization of men,

not demi-gods . As such, they haveoften been too busy fighting off whiteenemies andblackracial reform criticsto evaluate all they have learned frombitter experience . SNCC has learnedtime and time again that civil rightsmovements is often a seething kettleof jealous fish, with several Kingfish,rather than a purposeful cauldron ofhot water. SNCC has learned thatmilitancy and bold programing and ef-fort can cause the most hostility a-mong so-called friends . The Editorsfully understand that the SNCC or-ganization has in some ways failed tore-examine the premises of Americansociety like other Americans who holdon to American mythologies, but theyare some of the most effective workerswe have got, so let us not be guilty ofletting the baby go down the drain withthe dirty water . We need good people-let's help to keep them .

In the words of an old African pro-verb : "Those who cross the river ina crowd are not eaten by the croco-dile."

All right, you other crocodiles,let's have no tears and let's helpSNCC.

We are sure that the mounting stormof criticism means militants betterhang together or we will hang sepa-rately .

1 5

United Nations Photographs

Women 0above: .A Bahutu girl from Burundi.

above: A young Sarakole girl from Mati .

below: A woman from 'Tarit in the 5onthern Sudan.

below: A student in an English lan+ruaae class org

>f Africa

ganiaed by the Union of Women of Togoland .

above : A Somali girl at a political rally celebrating her country's independencebelow : A woman from the Genalle region of Somalia unloading bananas, the

country's principal export .

African Women at the U . N .Wrican women served on many missions during thelast scssion of the United ,Nations . Shown here(clockwise from the upper left corner) are Miss Nancy1{ajumhula of Uganda, Mrs . Iteutcha of Cameroon,Miss F lorenue kddisun of Ghana, .'Ass Margaretlguta of Nigeria, and Mrs 13egine Gbedcy of Togo.

United Nations Photos

LIBERATOR May 1965

Living Poetry by Black Arts Groupby Clayton Riley

I will not say I enjoyed the pro-gram, BLACK ARTS, which was pre-sented at the Actor's Playhouse onApril 12-- I felt it ; I lived it . Theprospect of clever men reading aloud,in a program that begins late and isconducted in the dim confines of asweltering downtown auditorium, wouldordinarily inspire your reporter tonaught but dismay . In the case ofBlack Poets, however, the experience,the event was not only worthwhile butmemorable .

Host and participating poet CharlesPatt.erson greeted the audience withthe statement that he hoped the read-ings would "nun you out of the thea-ter." This was not an entirely pro-phetic remark, for the humor, fire andfrequently awesome power of theirindividual works kept a large gather-ing rooted in the house for nearlythree hours . And if a single wordcould possibly describe the evening,1 would venture to say it was an ur-gency of the sort that attends a jazzset when musicians are "into some-thing," when that undefinable threadof connective tissue we sometimesrefer to as rapport is established withthe listener. All of which is to saythat poets were there, deep in a thing ;I was there digging, and, baby, itcooked .

The Black Poets were: (in alpha-betical order) LeRoi Bibbs, AlbertHaynes, David Henderson, CalvinHernton, LeRoi Jones, Larry Neal,Ojijiico, Charles Patterson, IshmaelReed, Lorenzo Thomas and SteveYoung . Each in his own way was thestar of a star-studded evening . Reed,for example, leads a marvelous visualand vocal quality to his penetratingwords . His work is both vividly de-scriptive and charged with an electri-fying current of scathing social com-mentary .

Calvin Hernton (see poetry section,this issue) a veteran of the old DeuxMegots Cafe readings, was perhaps themost emotionally engaging poet of thenight . There is about Hernton's voice

and material, a quality that is faintlyreminiscent of the music of RayCharles . His verse recollection of atrip to his former S . Carolina homewas, in anguished intensity, a work ofeminent beauty .

LorenzoThomas and Albert Hayneswrite with a quiet but forceful skill ;their works crackle with sardonic hu-mor and wit . Thomas' "Inauguration,""iThe Subway Witnesses," and "Bureauof Missing Persons," were particu-larly impressive . Haynes, reading ina small, almost gentle voice, revealeda craft that is highly articulate andsoulful .

David Henderson's "They are Kill-ing All The Young Men," is a thrillingseries of poems dedicated to thememory of Malcolm X. There is sad-ness and a profound level of percep-tion in his reference to "Harlem:Dallas of the Fast." Another of hisselections, "To Elvin Jones," con-tains the kind of muscular prose thatembodies the type of jazz ethic andspirit to which I previously referred .

The works of LeRoi Bibbs, SteveYoung and Ojijiico, presented somedifficulties for me, -and I believe theyare artists whose writing is moreprofitably read than heard . The sub-stance, the nitty-gritty is all there butis not fully illuminated by the spokenword . Bibbs' "To Jimmy Baldwin :Everybody Knows Your Name," is, Ithink, a particularly good example ofthis .

Charles Patterson's "115th Street"was undoubtedly the best of hisespecially fine selections . In forth-right, graphic language that fully suitsthe topics he chooses to explore, Pat-terson vivifies much of the frustrationand pain that attends life in the ghetto .(A child looks up from the squalor ofhis block at the Grand Central com-muter trains carrying crowds of grin-ning whites who gaze down at Harlemthinking "those niggers are having aball ." To which the child, with atrenchant wisdom and logic replies,"if we're having such a ball, comeand

play

with

us . . . . . . . . . . . . s"

Patter-

son's insights are stiletto-sharp .Larry Neal of the LIBERATOR

staff made a notable contribution tothe evening with his "iTo Black Wri-ters and Artists," among others, allof which were skillfully written andread .

The quality of LeRoi Jones' poetrygrows fantastically in stature eachtime I am exposed to it . One of ourgreat contemporary tragedies lies inthe fact of the one-dimensional viewmost critics and nearly all the whitepublic takes of him . For, to think ofJones as merely angry or bitter (as,indeed, most whites do) is to overlookthe enormity of the man's considerabletalent and expansive vision ; a visionthat embraces the need and responsi-bility for loving and feeling, for com-municating the entire range of the hu-man emotional mechanism, which in-cludes, in addition to what I have justmentioned, rage, violence, and yes,hate .

The white community it seems iscapable of regarding such an artistonly with almost complete misunder-standing or, more commonly, totalalienation . In Jones' work lives thatrare example of communion-the suc-cessful unity of heart and mind, thatmarriage of passion and intellect thatis so conspicuously absent from"Charlie's" scene .

Of tire works read by Jones, I found",Twentieth Century Fox," and "Readyor Not," especially interesting . Oneother, the title of which I cannot recallbut which includes the line "J am ameditative man," personified what Ifeel poetry can do to and for the spiritof the listener.

The program was presented by TheBlack Arts Repertory Theater, whichwill shortly be moving into 109 West130 St ., N.Y.C . Let that address andthe names of the poets I have listedhere become familiar to you . Muchneeds to be said in this madhouse weeuphemistically call the United States,and I believe these poets will be say-in ; it . Do yourself a large favor :listen .

79

Black PoetsPoem For Half-White College StudentsWho are you, listening to me, who are youlistening to yourself? Are you white orblack, or does that have anything to dowith it? Can you pop your fingers to nomusic, except those wild monkeys going onin your head, can you jerk, to no melody,except fingerpoppers get it togetherwhen you turn from starchecking to checkingyourself . flow do you sound, your words, are theyyours? The ghost you see in the mirror, is it reallyyou, can you swear you are not an imitation greyboy,can you look right n ext to you in that chair, and swear,that the sister you have your hand on is not reallyso full of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton iscoming out of her ears . You may have to be Richardwith a white shirt and face, and four million negroesthink you cute, you may have to be Elizabeth Taylor, old lady,if you want to sit up in your crazy spot dreaming about dresses,and the sway of certain porter's hips . Check yourself, learn who it isspeaking, when you make some ultrasophisticated point, check yourself,when you find yourself gesturing like Steve McQueen, check it out, askin your black heart who it is you are, and is that image black or white,you might be surprised right out the window, whistling dixie on the way in .

TerroristFor the (our Negro children in Birmingham

who were murderedwhile praying to God

Like his stricken faceThere were stroke of midnight .Torn by crack of thunderOr dissonance of vowel,The deed, like an agonized tooth,Fell from his mouth

And exploded .

In a dark room in a crumblingHeart, the deed conceived its victims :Ninety-one nails in the breast of Christ ;The deed made terror, ripped open

20

LeRoi Jones

A revolution must draw blood .

In the manacled chambers of our egoesWhat we do not know about deathComes alive, and though love agonizedThere, hate is a better madness

When terror expires our frail hearts .

For the four who died, without tears,Outside of cognition--their endis ubiquitous, everlasting ;Their beginning is eternity .

To die young, before the rodent of exchangeImperils the flesh, when you are innocent

Flesh and bone . No one knew,

And immaculate to the paranoid itch,Not even he himself, eight fragile legs

Is lambs blood,Would never walk from that debris .

Is bread transubstantiatedI am the door . Hammer me down

To galaxy, to love beyond ego .Ninety-one and four .They were like chrysanthemums,

if I were loin from whose painTender flesh cracked by thunder--

The esctasy of these four little girlsUnknown to his grotesque facie .

Lcaped, I would wail and weep,

Seek revenge ; fly, with shotgun,Amuck in the streets .Yet, 1 knowWhen all of this raving, tortured loveAnd flagellating hatredIs reckoned up to stars,These four will illuminateThe dark more than a billion heavens .

I wish 1 had died as thcv .Before the thunder in your face isDone, you will too ; there shall beNo shaking hands later onAnd forgetting ; Blood will heave

In your chattered streets,Birminghamr

And Cod, the tornadoShall rave down on you like an angeredBlack fist, merciless

And violent!Even unto the blazing sun .

Calvin C. Hernton

Embarcation For Cytheria

"And out of the solitude / Voice and soulwith selves unite . . ."

C . Okigbo

This color, its pure absencein other words a space

some African mothers, childrencupped in their slim armsThey are bending into the sandand it is their lesson written there .

A new motif ofdestruction-

The idea of a written languagewhen before,

the words in ourmouths were enough .

Not that it takes anything awayfrom the people we are,

"Education"You don't write "corn" if you

mean okra .Along Merrick Blvd, standing in frontthe dance hall

it's the same thing, thecop in a luminous blue

His badge spreads all over his face,threatening me . There should be

some way to get in without paying .

Here I StandHere I stand, America the pity .

With justice, equality, and libertyWith poor, hungry young men hast'ning to riot .

And rich, fat old men yelling "Quiet!"With today's young, black men taking a stand .

And the South, rampant with the Ku Klux Klan .Washington, his troops, Bunker hill, equality .

And a young, black policeman saving the Statue ofAnd my white liberals numbering in many .

And my black militants emerging from the Cotton Jenny .And Jack Ruby or Bryon l3eckwith-aquitted-with-luck.

And all mankind-trying to make a buck .Here I stand, America tire pity .

With justice, equality, and liberty.

Liberty

F=rederick Douglass Richardson

Rain that falls into the dustylife of the people on

the street, it turns into a new languageAll the fine mammas walking inside,getting out of Grand Prixs

Can hardly readthis paper without stumbling over "embarkation"What someone has done to us, that

my words become unintelligible .It says, do not despise your own

I wonder if they see that,All those foxes . All of a sudden,I'm so glad I have on my widepants, my 10 dollar bonlon shirt

The girls wish I wasinside, too . At least, I think so .

This much is understoodI go down to Benson's Burgers

and sit in the parking lot .Food smell, but I don't have any money

All I have is the bluesand a ticket for someplace called Cythereaa bus outing on Sunday .

Got this magazine telling about the greatnew thing going on in Nigeria

-And I have my beautiful high,

a green alcove of the eveningcalled "music"

My voice when it is understood,piped into clancehalls and restaurants by

this very intricate and lovely machine .

Assimilation

Lorenzo Thomas

I enjoy being brown.Colour makes no difference .My homestead is valued at thirty thousand .My daughter's in the Jack and Jill .A car I have, a Cadillac .I'm just as good as any grey .But when I make my voice dull Harvard,When I suppress the rythmic tap,When mine I rebuke for the lure of white.'then the innate heritage arises and asks .Why am I being buried and for what?

E:liot Black

2 1

NineSun was up like a past due billPushin' for my full bellied woman walkin' two and a toaster(lands honk hurt I don't. wanta cry ragsBones asphalt cling forces me to sing ragsFlo' shine shoe give me the blues-tight-sparrow lipped womenGive me the orders to pick ragsGot a greased-creased crown 3 .50 to keep down south I worked(lard I swear befo' God if I had my wayPosum-jawled fools wouldn't shout rag scented reasonAt nineAt ragtime 9At ragtime 9 to 5TenOver my head LawdOver my headPray MaryPray MotherBlessed art thou amongst womenBlessed art the fruit of thy pussyOver my head LawdBow-wow blues urges me to choose rags(Jesus wept on the step---pushin' rags)Over my head Lawd piss scented anthems belly-born ripe for dustHeat stumblin' throat causes me to choke on ragsOver my head LawdDeath ridin' side-saddle across my faceElevenSummer stains my veins dry 1 don't wanta cry ragsPut glasses on to keep sun outPut glasses on to keep blues inGod we trust Miami man tanned tailored greenOver my head, Lawd(One monkey don't stop a show)TwelveReady to flag onePride not too far from the groundFeelin' down Lawd, feelin downFear next door to hate LawdTo hate LawdRecidivistic rituals rushin' rawComin' close to one Lawd, One lawdFeelin' too Lawd, feelinTwoIf I had my wayThe sun would shine on my timeNot ragtimeLiquor runnin' thin can't muster up a grinBut narrow-nosed women presuppose that I love ragsOver my head(1 can't bleed on this man's rags)Dreams kickin' dust[fang on or Hand upCan this be Lawd, can this be?Street clock close to three to

22

Ragtime Nine to Five

Three(Up tight as only a m

can be, can be)Now thou lay me down to sleepPray the Lawd my soul to keepDamp gutter dreams that interveneWhispering obscene soliloquies on my backRag 9Rag 5My woman feeds me love to stay aliveIf I had my wayIf I had my wa y(In the beginning God created--Amen)FourLet me ride this iron horse marked "A" till I dieAt ragtimeNot my ragtimeAt ragtime 9RagtimeSubterranean cattle move toward darker pasturesFive.

Joe Johnson

Sermon On the U . S . Mint

"The Revelation"

The two week old baby was bitten by a rat,In a broken down Harlem, cold water flat .And as the rat filled his jawsWith a Second Plug,Mama couldn't hearThe baby bawlCause she was fussingDown the hall,With the Super who had not fixedThe hole in the wall .

"The First Blessing"

The thirteen year old boy,Stretched on the Project roofBreathing not-Lightless eyes sra ring at the skiesThe stench-filled air of Bed-StyA trickle of bloodFrom a punctured arm, (take heed)Black folks do bleedBoy escaping from a world of Harm.Blessed be Urban Renewal

"The .Invocation"

Praise be to Allah!Hossana in the highest!

"The Second Blessing"

Two P.R.'s in a back seat,Bullets in their heads .Two courageous men in blue,Now pound a foreign beat .A city sleeps,While two women mourn,And silently weep .The two cops?Uh". merely soak tired feet .Hallelujah".Police brutalityIs a myth .

"The Lamentation"

We have a new prophet,Harrington is his name.He is the prophet of the poor,Now reaping .profit from the unpoor,For telling how,To make the poor,Poor no more :

Now the General of this warTo make the poor unpoorIs a SergeantHe once waged a war for peace :Peace or war,Ballots or Bullets,What's in a name!U.S . Steal, oops, Steel,Has gone up two points,Big Deal!Anyone for a New Deal?

"The Salvation"

But, fear not,For God is in His heaven,Johnson is in WashingtonAnd as sure as the dicewill roll seven,And not eleven!Everything is alright with the world,For the joint is rigged

"The Response"

Who the hell really cares .

Amen!

Carlos E. Russell

Joseph Jeffries-E1, Grand Sheikof the Moorish Science TempleBrooklyn, Mew York .

24

The ProphetDrew Ali

Has Spoken

Joseph Jeffries-El

Many sons and daughters of thatproud and handsome race which in-spired the architecture of NorthernAfrica and carried into Spain the influ-ence of its artistic temperament havebecome citizens of this Nation . In theState of New York there exists a Moor-ish Science Temple of America maderip of Moors who have found here theend of their quest for a home and ofthe children of those who journeyedhere from the plains of Africa . Thisorganization has done much to bringabout a thorough absorption by thesepeople of those principles which arenecessary to make them good Ameri-can citizens .

We Moorish-Americans do not askfor social equality (Integration) withthe European, because we, as a cleanand pure nation descended from the in-habitants of Africa, do not desire to

4 view of Chaven,a holy city at the foot of Mount Kalay PI iflayot in ',lorocco.

amalgamate or marry into the familiesof the pale skin nations of Europe .Neither do we serve the Gods of theirreligion, because our forefathers arethe true and divine founders of the firstreligious creed for the redemption and,alvation of mankind on earth .

Our divine and national movementstands for the specific grand princi-ples of Love, Truth, Peace, Freedomand Justice to all mankind . Wr ask allAmerican citizens to Help us in ourefforts of uplifting the fallen humanityamong the Asiatic race and nation ofNorth America . For we have sufferedmuch and severely in the past throughmisunderstanding of what the move-ment is dedicated to . It is the greatGod Allah alone thatguides the destinyof this movement .

We are trying to build a Nation . Weare calling on all true American citi-zens and others alike for Moral aridFinancial support . Our program con-sists of establishing the following:

1-Products to manufacture aridsell .

2-Markets to sell our products .3-Schools to advance our posterity .4-Hospitals for those in need ofmedical care .

5-Recreation facilities for our youthand aged .

6-Temples to propagate the faithand extend the learning and truthof the Great Prophet of Ali inAmerica,

7-Newspapers to spread our iritcr-ests and also to unite Our brothersand sisters throughout the world .

8-Mousing for our people .9-Jobs for our people in our ownplaces of business .

10-All other projects which arenecessary for building and main-taining a nation of people .

If you have race pride and love yourrace, join the Moorish Science Templeof America arid become a part of thisdivine movement . Then you will havepower to redeem your rare, becauseyou will know who you are. and whoyour forefathers were, because wherethere is unity there is strength . "To-gether wr stand and divided we fall ."Come, good people, because we whoare trying to redeem this nation frommental slavery which you now have,need every one of you who think thatyour condition can be better . This isa field open to strong men and womento uplift the nation and take your placein the affairs of men . If other nationsare helping us, why not you? It isyour problem. The "Negro" problemis being solved only as it can and thatis by the Moorish National F)ivineMovement . If you have a nation youmust have a free national name inorder to be recognized by this nationas an American citizen . This is whatwas meant when it was said : "Seekye first the Kingdom of Heaven and allthese things would be added unto you ."

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LIBERATOR May 1965 25

AVAILABLE AT LASTIN ENGLISH :

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Fanon speaks out loud ; he hidesnothing . . . he fears nothing ."

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By FRANTZ FANON. Preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. $5.00, now at your book-store, or direct from GROVE PRESS .

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26

Theater

Amen Cornerreviewed by

Bea Richards . The name should besynonomous with the term actress .For rarely, if ever, will it be possi-ble to see a more magnificent theaterperformance than that which MissRich-ards offers in James Baldwin's drama,The Amen Corner. As Sister ,Margaret,the tortured evangelist of a Harlemstore-front church, she illuminates thestage of the Ethel Barrymore Theatrewith a brilliance that is matchless inits depth and aglow with a warmth andsplendor quite wondrous to behold .The role is a difficult one, more so forhaving to emerge from a play that isnot always structurally sound andsuffers from a painfully uneven pro-duction . To further encumber matters,Miss Richards is frequently hamperedby a supporting cast that seems nei-ther as capable as she nor as hardworking. Despite these obstacles,shereveals a talent - no, an art - so ex-traordinary and pure . that one's breathis continually taken away by it ; a con-summate,impassionedskill with whichis conceived and executed an actingaccomplishment that is truly over-whelming.

The Amen Corner concerns itselfwith the plight of a woman preacher(Sister Margaret) whose overzealousdedication to "The Lord's Work" hasdestroyed her marriage and caused con-siderable emotional damage to herteen-aged son . The sudden return ofher husband, after an absence of near-ly ten years, forces Sister Margaret toconfront the fact of her needs as awoman; needs she has spurned as"worldly" and therefore unbecominga minister of the gospel . She is fur-ther faced with a rebellious congrega-tion whose members, long intimidatedinto a false sort of spiritual piety bythe example they imagine their pastorto represent, are now champing at thebit of her Calvinist-oriented doctrine,The revelation ofher past - a marriageto a wandering, lusty jazz musicianwhose passions lie somewhat removedfrom the paths of righteousness, pro-vides the flock with a fine excuse for

Clayton Riley

freeing themselves from Sister Mar-garet's grip . The husband, Luke, whois now a dyingman, strives harts to re-establish a relationship with his wifeand son . He succeeds with the boy tothe extent that the lad breaks loosefrom his emasculating maternal bondsand leaves home . Luke dies and SisterMargaret goes off to face her bellige-rent parishioners who have conspiredto remove her from the pulpit by charg-ing her with misappropriating fundsfrom the penurious church coffers . Theplay ends with what I am not sure isan affirmation on the part of SisterMargaret . i say, not sure, because thefinal curtain left me somewhat bewild-ered . At that point, Luke is dead,David has fled, and just what theseevents meats to those who remain -most notably to Sister Margaret -seems rather blurred .

The drama in its entirety does notwork . There are several fine individ-ual scenes and, of course, the stunningpresence of Miss Richards, yet TheAmen Corner could profit consider-ably from a lot of intensive re-writing.The characters, with the exception ofSister Margaret, are incompletelydrawn - they speak but do not revealmore than superficially constructedpersonalities . I am told that Mr . Bald-win has done little or no additional"drafting" of the piece since it wascompleted some twelve years ago .This, I believe, has been an egregiouserror on his part, one that is far tooobvious throughout the evening. Yet,the fault is not entirely his . I mustsay, quite frankly, that the directionand general level of playing is some-times extremely unprofessional . Asthe husband, Luke, Frank Silveraseems to lack an even basic know-ledge of who and what he representsas the classic figure of the Negro malehistorically in flight, maligned andemotionally lacerated by the very factof that flight ; oppressed by personaldoubts and often stunted into enragedhelplessness . Silvera gives no senseof having been there, and an inclina-

tion toward stereotypical Actor'sStudio histrionics Io0Ms continuallyin his portrayal, robbing the characterof its much-needed definition and, moreimportantly, leaving the pivotal re-lationship between Luke and SisterMargaret largely unexplored . Morethan anyone else in the cast, Silveraseems to need direction badly, andhere again he bears much of the re-sponsibility for any inadequacies inthat area - he is the director .

As David, the son, Art Evansstruggles with admirable determina-tion but is simply not equal to therole's numerable demands . He ap-proaches the part far too tentativelyand never achieves it . Evans fre-quently seems to be moving about thestage in the throes of a terrifying de-feat that results from an attempt toshoulder dramatic weights he isn'tprepared for .

As for the retraining members ofthe company, only Isabel Sanford, inthe role of a dedicated church elderequally dedicated to the maintenanceof her virginity, gives a genuinely en-gaging performance . Her part (SisterMoore) carries with it a good deal ofcomic possibility, which Miss San-ford handles quite well . Her use of astrong voice, an exceptionally expres-sive face and pair of hands deservescommendation . Whitman Mayo, asBrother Boxer, another church elder, isa droll and interesting figure in theearly part of the show but his deadpanwit and funereal manner wears thinlater on . More significantly, he failsto bring the proper quality - that of amenacing but essentially hollow mar-tinet - to a third-act confrontation withSister Margaret . Boxer is a small, pet-ty being whose sense of self has van-ished in a unending parade of churchactivities ; who has only begun tosense the nature of his loss and subtlebut irrevocable descent into the sub-missive bondage of a woman-dominatedhouse of worship . Heisthe only adultmale who appears on stage as a mem-ber of the congregation (David playsthe piano for all services) and the de-gree to which his manhood becomesimperiled in this play would in itselfmake a forceful drama. Mayo, ,however,does not seem up to playing the more

LIBERATOR May 1965

serious facets of the role, and faltersbadly in the potentially rich scene withSister Margaret. It is she who has for-bidden him to take a job driving aliquor truck, she, in fact, who domi-nates and controls much of his lifefrom her place in the pulpit . Andwhen she asks him, "Why do you hateme?" a powerful moment of theatergoes down the drain with Mayo's in-ability to fully realize the characterhe is playing, his torment, and themonumental significance of the ques-tion he has been asked.

Juanita Moore works without dis-tinction as Boxer's somewhat candidwife, giving us few clues beyondwhat the text provides her as to thewoman's abundant physical and emo-tional needs. Josie Dotson appearsbriefly as the mother of a child whodies despite Sister Margaret's bless-ing, and handles the part with tasteand restraint . But like GertrudeJeanette, who plays the woman minis-ter's long-suffering sister, Odessa,she is undone by an odd circumstance .Both actresses seem to possess a deepinsight into their respective char-acters, a thorough understandingof who they are . This knowledge, how-ever, is rarely extended to the audi-ence ; it remains a personal awarenessthat begs to be translated from theirprivate considerations into a sharplydelineated portrait that is displayedwith all the powers of clarification atthe player's disposal . Both Miss Dot-son and Miss Jeanette seem convincedat times that the forces motivatingthem to a rapport with their parts willsufficiently inform the viewer. Thisis not true, of course, for those forcesmust not only be harnessed by theactor but expanded beyond their nor-mal dimensions until they are visibleto the spectator in the last balconyseat . A play such as The Amen Cornerespecially requires this, lest careless-ness beget a cartoon of the author'sintention .

As it is, Baldwin has written a playcontaining numerous sections not par-ticularly well served by the dramaticform . Little seems to happen inThe Amen Corner during thosemoments between important speecheswhen a play is most apt to-falter .

It

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limps from one "big moment" to an-other, and since there are not reallyenough of those to justify three acts,the play regularly becomes tedious .Moreover, -the very place in which theplay is being presented conspires todefeat its purposes . The sound ofgospel music (a rather tepid exampleof it actually) coupled with a story oftrial and tribulation in a Harlemchurch, seems ludicrously out ofplace when offered as fare for patronsarriving in Rolls Royces, clothed inmink, custom tailoring and Tiffanytrinkets . How far removed is such aspectacle from the plantation era withits heartfelt, "in the evening by themoonlight you can hear those darkiessinging"? Why not a large Harlemchurch auditorium as the setting for aplay about a small Harlem church? Atrip uptown might be good exercise formidtown-bred limousines .

In sum, The Amen Corner fails toimpress on several counts, yet I urgeyou to see it for one reason . For thatreason I am able to say : Miss Richards,BRAVO!

2 7

THESUMMERiHAiDION'iENDLEN HOLTWith burning conviction, Len

Holt tells all of the story of the

1964 Mississippi Civil Rights

Project, much of it never before

published . A powerful, vital, dis-

tressing, yet hopeful book, writ-

ten with passion, and thoroughly

documented. $5.00

WILLIAM MORROW & CO.425 Park Ave . South, N.Y . 10016

28

Movie Review

Goldf i ngerreviewed byL . P . Neat

He is a connoisseur of fine liquors .He wears custom tailored suits, speaksseveral languages . He is charming atthe cocktail hour, responds the mostsubtle nuances in discussions on art,horses, books, and sex . He is themost incredible agent ever dreamed upin the wishful fantasies of the Westernmind . Agent 007 is about the closestthing to a superman that her Majesty'sgot going . And go he does . First, hesingle-handedly quells a Latin-Ameri-can revolution ; kills an attacker (sawhis reflection in the eye of this chickthat he is about to screw) by electro-cuting him . He then turns up in Miamito save a rich sucker from fallingdeeper into debt with GOLDFINGEIVHe screws Goldfinger's chick, butGoldfinger gets revenge by havingBondconked Karate style--by an orien-tal valet and what do you know the girlturns up painted in gold--yes gold .Her naked body is painted all over withthe stuff ; and 007 he gets mad andgoes after GOLDFINGER! And . littleCharlie in there applauding when 007gets his special instruments of de-struction . All in good fun . . He gets alittle help from the C.I .A . once inawhile ; but for the most part, he takescare of himself . But he's got oneweakness--sex .

lie's got to have it,but he overcomes it in the end, anddestroys the plot by the YELLOWMENACE (the Chinese) .

That's basically it .

You could justsit there and "enjoy" all of this-afterall living in this country must have af-fected our values somewhat. Themovie oozes with the stench that is9restern culture .

Its evils are morepenetrating in that they exist surround-ed

by

tongue-in-cheek, innuendo, - un-derstatement, and gimmicks . Bond,

_the Western all-purpose boy, driven to

do his duty for the Queen, the UnitedStates and his insatiable sex drive .Somehow, 1 believe that they need thiskind of hero . 1 understand the JamesBond films are very popular, especial-ly among the culturally "hip" pop-artofay set .

For has not the chief pursuit ofAmerican society been that of plea-sure? A rampantly hedonistic impulsepervades all areas of her culture . Andhas not the society ceased to partici-pate collectively in healthy artisticexperiences (as if it ever did so)? Isnot Bond's popularity another symptomof a dying culture which is rottingaway because it is devoid of human-istic content and purpose .

And, yes, her racism, it intrudesagain, this time the Indians or someother "heathen" race have been re-placed by the mainland Chinese . But"love" conquers all . The West tri-umphs because Pussy Galore needswhat Bond's got ; and she is suddenlyreformed when she gets it .

What underlies all of this? Gold .As the United States gets its asskicked on the international scene, herhodge-podge phoniness is beginningto show. She maintains her powerthrough terror in Alabama, Congo, andSouth Vietnam . A million or so JamesBonds, white and Negro, are her lasthope . This reviewer has already in-dulged himself, the worse part of thatself; and I suggest that maybe there issome inverted lesson to be gained fromthis movie. You'll laugh at it at least .But just remember, somewhere in thecity 007 is watching you, waiting topractice one of those death-gadgets onyou, waiting to lure you with his moneyand his women, waiting to betray hisown people, rather than see this thingfall .

Book ReviewWITH GRIEF ACQUAINTED : byStanford Winfield WilliamsonFollet Publishing Co. 127 pp . $6.95

With Grief Acquainted, a book ofphotographs with text, is the best bookof its kind to appear on the scenesince Richard Wright's One MillionBlack Voices . While Wright's bookhad primarily a rural setting, With GriefAcquainted is set in Chicago's SouthSide .

The photographs are by JamesStricklin, Don Sparks, and Jerry Cog-bill ; dealing, for the most part, withthe Negro folk culture of Chicago,placed together, they make a strikingappearance that gladdens the heart .

However, first-rate as the photo-graphs are, to this reviewer at least,the outstanding thing about With GriefAcquainted is its text . Written in theNegro idiom, the language is some-times sharp, sometimes witty, some-times grand, but always sensitive .

My personal favorite is a picture inwhich there is a portly, matronly wo-man who is looking askance at a spea-ker out of the camera's view . The textaccompanying the picture says :

"Now what she sayin' is all welland good . . . must be somethin' right`bout countin' cal'ries and balancin'meals . . . but long as my pocketbookdon't say nothin' but neck bones andnavy beans that's what I got to cook . .DOW them cal'ries want to get in thepot with them bones and beans ain't noway I can stop 'em!"

Gn each page of the book, the au-thor reaches a delightful medium :With Grief Acquainted manages to de-pict a portion of Negro life with ver-isimilitude, and yet at the same timedeal with it in such a realistic mannerthat each part becomes as great as thewhole .

If you happen to be one of thosepeople who wants empirical evidencethat Negroes are, indeed, beautifulpeople, my advice to you is : Run,don't walk to the nearest book storeand get a copy of With Grief Acquain-ted before your friends beat you thereand buy them all up .

C. L. Russell

LIBERATOR May 1965

THE SUMMER THAT DIDN'T END,by Len Holt . William Morrow & Co.,1965 .

Regular readers of this magazinewill be familiar with the hard-hitting,plain talk of Len Holt, a member ofthe LIBERATOR Editorial Boar4 . Hehas written a book about the 1964Mississippi Summer Project whichtells so much of the truth and steps onso many toes that it just barely stayswithin the boundary line of permissibledissent . Reading between the lineswith some analytical thought, onequickly finds himself well over thatmagic line into the area of revolu-tionary ideas, which, I suspect, wouldnot disturb the author at all .

The Summer That Didn't End isrefreshingly and frankly a partisan de-fense of the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC). Inlanguage which ranges from lyrical tohumorous to coldly analytical as theoccassion requires, Len Holt buildshis well constructed argument with awealth of documentation and a mini-mum of phrasemongering cliches . Helets the reader draw his own conclus-ions . Thus, by giving us a detaileddescription of the actions of Rev.Martin Luther King, Jr . during theMississippi Freedom DemocraticParty's challenge at the DemocraticNational Convention, without usingthe term "Uncle Tom" he leaves nodoubt in the reader's mind about thenature of Rev . King's role . Similarly,author Holt scrupulously avoids theterm "sell out" in narrating the partplayed by Bayard Rustin, nor does hecall Walter Reuther a "Typical WhiteLiberal ."

But far more important than the fail-ings of certain individuals, are theimplicit and explicit lessons to bedrawn from this account of last summerin Mississippi :

1 . Mississippi is part of the U.S.A .As the author points out in the intro-duction, the major difference betweenMississippi and the rest of the countryis that it reflects more of the worst .This meansthatan examination of thatstate's problems reveals a magnified

reflection of the rest of the countryand the lessons are perfectly appli-cable elsewhere .

2 .

Theproblem is deeper than inte-gration . The organizers of the SummerProgram specifically prohibited demon-strations for the integration of publicfacilities in hopes of being left aloneto develop their main objectives : theorganization of Freedom Schools andthe voter registration drive along withthe building of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party .

This, ofcourse, was a more fundamental at-tack on the status quo than the sit-insand freedom rides and evoked greaterresistance .

3 . Any movement for change notcontrolled by the power structure isrevolutionary. There is nothing newabout educational and voter registra-tion programs even in Mississippi .Government and private organizationshave been playing at this kind ofactivity for years . It was only whenSNCC, demonstrating forbidden inde-pendence from the Establishment,started to do an effective job alongthese lines, that massive resistancewas displayed on a State and Nationallevel .

4 .

The Federal Government is nobetter than the State Government .Even those who are already convincedthat no knight in shining armor willcome riding down from Washington torescue the distressed black folks ofMississippi should read the chapter on"Federal Law in Mississippi" to findout exactly why this is so .

5. Legal and moral right is notenough . After you read the chapter onthe "Democratic National Convention"and see what happened to the delega-tion from the Mississippi FreedomDemocratic Party which had all thelaw and morality working for it, youwill conclude that such consideration sare irrelevant in the struggle for po-litical power.

Elsewhere in this issue is anarticle on the ever increasing attackson SNCC from all quarters includingRev. King's SCLC and Roy Wilkins ofthe NAACP. Whatever reservations onemight have about SNCC's program, the

cone, next page29

WRETCHED OF THE EARTH: byFrantz Fanon, Grove Press - 1965pp . 251

The clique of angry black writerscan now relax . Bayard Rustin, thenon-violent theoretician and the so-called Socrates of the civil rightsmovement can now take hemlock ."The Wretched of the Earth" tells thewhole story of racism and colonialismclearly, concisely, with a passion,without wildness . The book goes di-rectly to the core of the world wideracial problem, sparing neither blacknor white profiteers . This book is asimportant as any book written sinceMyrdal's American Dilemma and itgrasps the basic error in Myrdal's for-mulation . In contrast to Myrdal,Fanon sees no dilemma : racism andcolonialism are Western society'sunique twin double of degradation andprofit . Grove Press is to be commend-ed for translating and publishing thisbook .

Different From Other BooksThe Wretched of the Earth differs

radically from the usual anti-colonialliterature . This is a book by a blacktheoretician for blacks, wasting notime trying to appeal to the humanityor conscience of white Westerners .The author,a Martinique-born psychia-trist, who cast his lot with the suc-cessful Algerian revolutionary forcesand became one of Africa's mostarticulate spokesman, doesn't care ifwhites hear his message. The mes-sage is for the beleaguered children ofAfrica, wherever they may be . JeanPaul Sartre has written in the preface,"When Fanon says of Europe, that sheis rushing to herdoom,far from soundingthe alarm, he is merely setting out a

diagnosis . . . he does not give a damnwhether she lives or dies."

It is Sartre who is eloquently pleadingwith whites to listen . With the comple-

SUMMER THAT DIDN'T END cant.widespread, vehement attack is proofenough that SNCC is onto somethingand must be defended . Len Holt's

30

tion of the preface, the reader finds nomore messages for whites, for the book isnot the usual anti-colonial tract .

Unlike the current U . S . materialproduced by Negro writers and scho-lars, Fanon's book does not singbeautiful superficial songs. The au-thor plainly recognizes that these vio-lent, resounding, florid writings merelyreassure the occupying power .

Fanon, in this classic insightfulstatement, laughs at European (andAmerican) claims at humanism, dis-missing talks of liberty, equality,fraternity, love, honor, patriotism,oLjectivity,public opinion, conscience,liberalism, as merely camouflage forthe basic narcissitic racism of con-tempt which whites exhibit towardtheir inferiors . The author does notfind it necessary to waste time on thecliches of the American struggle for heknows who he is and what he is about .He is an African who does not wish tobe an imitation Westernized carboncopy . He wishes to be himself, hewishes to be free .

Radical and Revolutionary DocumentFanon's book is a radical document

because it goes to the root of the prob-lem . Western opulence is built onslavery . Nothing is legitimate aboutthe murder for profit, brutality, or ex-ploitation . Western pretenses of jus-_tice

are

exposed

for

what they are -pompous fakery .

Fanon's document is revolutionarybecause he does not believe in thecult of the individual leadership, orthe Talented Tenth, or the BlackBourgeoisie, but he believes in thepeople . He believes in the peopleand their ability to decide the propercourse for themselves . It is the peo-ple, he says, that are the wealth andstrength of a nation or a group . There-fore, he wastes no time on abstractmaster plans and concentrates onurging on Africans the task of inven-

book is a powerful defensive weaponin this battle . If it is recognized assuch by the press, there is a dangerthat it will be ignored . In that event,

ting for themselves and, incidentally,for humanity, new ways of thought,new forms of participative social lead-ership, -and a new image of man .

The Wretched of the Earth is revolutionary because the author recognizesthe basic, mechanistic, non-thinking,machine-oriented nature of capitalismwhich, because of its basic nature,will yield only to violence - physicaland psychological .

Political reform, trade unionism,non-violence are seen as mere stages,sometimes detours, along the road tofreedom .

"Shall

We

Overcome . . . . Someday"by compromise, by private agreement,by secret conferences, by marches, byspeeches, by concessions which arelittle more than sops? Fanon says,"most unlikely", for Racism and Co-lonialism give nothing away, everyconcession must be won . Bourgeoisiegroups who talk of non-violence cannever fulfill their historic role of cul-tural intermediaries in the capitalisteconomic order .

Fanon is revolutionary because headvocates that Africa's children mustseize their manhood in order to becomethemselves . (Striking a powerful blowagainst the current naive conceptionof racial integration .)

Confirmation of RealityFanon will confirm the reality of

the urban black man in the street, theSNCC worker in the field,the frustratedmiddle class Negro who sees the cur-rently exploitive character of Negrobourgeoisie ; the migrant farmer, andthe automation-displaced worker . Heconfirms their reality by accepting thegrim reality of these people who arethe real victims of Western Societygone mad-mad with power, conceit,indifference and contempt .

After reading The Wretched of theEarth, one has no choice but to sharethe treasure with other blacks .

C. E . Wilson

it is up to LIBERATOR readers, andother right thinking people, to seethat it gets around . Order your tencopies today .

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LIBERATOR Book ServiceLIBERATOR BOOK SERVICE is a response to the numerous requests by LIBERATOR readers for material on African and Afro-American affairs.We have selected items of interest to our readers, but inclusion in the list does not imply editorial approval . We welcome suggestions foradditions. To order, merely fill out the order form below a2d return with payments in full .

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BLUES FOR MR . CHARLIE, by James Bald-win. A play about a young man who goesnorth and gets "spoiled"; then goes home andgets wasted . 600

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DECISION IN AFRICA, by W. AlphaeusHunton. Forthright condemnation of U.S .and European neo-colonial maneuvering inAfrica . $1.85

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FACING MOUNT KENYA, by Jomo Ken-yatta. Anthropological study of the Kikuyupeople by the father of Kenya nationalism.$1.45

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NOTES OF A NATIVE SON, by James Bald-win. Collection of essays on the Negrostruggle to live in America. $1.25

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BLACK MUSLIMS 1N AMERICA, by EricLincoln. Factual study of one of the mosttalked-about protest movements in the U.S .today. $1.75

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I SPEAKOF FREEDOM, by Kwame Nkrumah.Collection of speeches by one of the greatAfrican leaders of our day. $1.95

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SCOTTSBORO 30Y, by Haywood Patterson.A true story of typical Southern "justice"and of the jungle conditions that prevail inAlabama prisons. 600

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THE NEGRO PROTEST. James Baldwin,Malcolm X,

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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUG-LASS, autobiography. The great blackabolitionist describes his life under slaveryand his struggle against it . $1.50

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AMERICAN NEGRO SLAVE REVOLTS, byHerbert Aptheker . Thebook which destroyedthe myth that Afro-Americans were happyunder slavery. $2.25

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Revolutionary TheatreLeRoi Jones

Monument BombPlot Victims

Bill Mahoney

Automation andthe

_ Black Community"

C . E . Wilson

Ornette ColemanJazz : Soul ofBlack AmericaCharlie Russell

THEATREThe Revolutionary Theatre

by LeRoi Jones 4

ANALYSISA Reply to .Bayard Rustin

by L.P.Neai 6Automation and the Negro

by C.E.®11son 8The New Left

Letter to Black Men

PICTORIAL REPORTLIBERATOR Fifth Anniversary

MOVIE REVIEWChinal

by Ossie Sykes 21

by Katty Gibson 29

16

reviewed by Clayton Riley 20

RELIGIONThe Prophet Drew Ali Has Spoken

by Joseph JefMes-El 24

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

25

SHORT STORYNow That Henry id Gone

by Clayton Riley 26

LIBERATORVol. V, No. 7July 1965

LIBERATOR:

is the voice of the African-American .Copyright 1965, by Afro-American Research Institute, Inc .Office : 244 East 46 Street, New York, New York, 10017Tel : YUkon 6-5939, area code 212

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Daniel H. Wattseditor-in-chief

EDITORIAL BOARD

Clebert FordLen HoltLeRol JonesL. P. NealClayton RileyCarios E. RussellCharlie RussellOssie SykesC. E. Wilson

STAFF

Lowell P. Beveridge, Jr.production editor

Evelyn B. Kalibalasecretary',

James C. Finkenataedt;''' distributionClebert Fordadvertising

Leo CartyTom Feelingsillustrators

Robert L. HagginsLeroy McLucasphotographers

Kattie Cumbopromotion

ADVISORY BOARD

James BaldwinOssie DavidL. H. MichauaRichard B. MooreCapt. Hugh MulzacPaul Zuber

EDITORIAL

Corrupt, Sadistic and Ignorant

Growing up in Harlem, it was not an uncommon occurrence for meto watch policemen on a hot Saturday afternoon attempt to shake downsingle action men, only to be chased away because they were frighten-ing away the action men's customers .

While waiting for the last figure and their payoff, the cops, for kicks,would saunter over to some unsuspecting and innocent soul brothersitting on a stoop and lean on him heavy-like, plant a numbers slip onhim, then proceed to ask for bread on the threat of being taken down-town and given a real going over.

As night fell they would make their way down the block shakingdown Boosters, Hustlers, Whores, Pimps, Rent parties and sneaky Petejoints.

Such was the Afro-American youth's exposure to the representativesof law and order. Even then we used to say there were only threequalifications to be a policeman: be corrupt, sadistic and ignorant.Nothing has happened in the intervening years to change that opinion.

The recent case of George Whitmore is another classic example oflegal lynching that takes place every day in up South. Two young whitegirls were brutally murdered and immediately the whole police depart-ment was out on a manhunt for a soul brother. It didn't matter who(we all look alike) as long as he was black.

Despite pleas and statements that he was innocent, George Whit-more was held for 26 hours without legal counsel, beaten and starveduntil he was willing to confess to any and all crimes . After all, hehad to be guilty - he was black. Condemned before the public and be-fore the trial by the eager press and TV, Whitmore was well on the all-too-familiar route that thousands of innocent Afro-Americans havetravelled. Except for the belief of his lawyer in his innocence and oneNew York City newspaper, white society's justice would have beendone .

The courts have thrown out the case against him, because anotheryoung man, -who couldn't pass as an Afro-American, -was found to bemore closely involved in the murder.

Not to be outdone, the white liberal community now points with prideand says, "At least he was saved." Some even call this progress. Wesay stop the lynching and persecution of Afro-Americans, up South anddown South and there will be no need to save a George Whitmore.

DANIEL H. WATTS

The Revolutionary Theatre

This essay was originally commissioned by the New York Times in De-cember 1964, but was refused, with the statement that the editors could notunderstand it. The Village Voice also refused to run this essay . It was firstpublished in Black Dialogue .

The Revolutionary Theatre shouldforce change, it should be change .(Ail their faces turned into the lightsand you work on them black niggermagic, and cleanse them at havingseen the ugliness and if the beautifulsee themselves, they will love them-selves .) We are preaching virtueagain, but by that to mean NOW, whatseems the most constructive uses ofthe world .

The Revolutionary Theatre mustEXPOSE! Show up the insides ofthese humans, look into black skulls .White men will cower before thistheatre because it hates them . Be-cause they have been trained to hate .The Revolutionary Theatre must hatethem for hating . For presuming withtheir technology to deny the suprem-acy of the Spirit . They will all diebecause of this .

The Revolutionary Theatre mustteach them their deaths . It mustcrack their faces open to the madcries of the poor . It must teach themabout silence and the truths lodgedthere . It must kill any God anyonenames except common Sense . TheRevolutionary Theatre should flushthe fags and murders out of Lincoln'sface .

It should stagger through our uni-verse correcting, insulting, preaching,spitting craziness . . . but a crazinesstaught to us in our most rational mo-ments . People must be taught to trusttrue scientists (knowers, diggers,oddballs) and that the holiness of life

4

by l»eRoi Jones

is the constant possibility of widen-ing the consciousness . And they mustbe incited to strike back against anyagency that attempts to prevent thiswidening .

The Revolutionary Theatre mustAccuse and Attack anything that canbe accused and attacked . It mustAccuse and Attack because it is atheatre of Victims . It looks at thesky with the victims' eyes, and movesthe victims to look at the strength intheir minds and their bodies .

Clay, in Dutchman, Ray, in TheToilet, Walker in The Slave are allvictims . In the Western sense theycould be heroes . But the Revolution-ary Theatre, even if it is Western,must be anti-Western . It must showhorrible coming attractions of TheCrumbling of The West . Even asArtaud designed The Conquest ofMexico, so we must design The Con-quest of White Eye, and show themissionaries and wiggly Liberalsdying under blasts of concrete . Forsound effects, wild screams of joy,from all the peoples of the world .

The Revolutionary Theatre musttake dreams and give them a reality .It must isolate the ritual and histori-cal cycles of reality . But it must befood for all these who need food, anddaring propaganda for the beauty ofthe Human Mind . But it is a politicaltheatre, a weapon to help in theslaughter of these dimwitted fat-bel-lied white guys who somehow believethat the rest of the world is here for

LeRoi Jones (left), whose article wasrejected by the New York Times,listens to author John D . Killens,whose article was not rejected .

them to slobber on .This should be a theatre of World

Spirit . Where the spirit can be shownto be the most competent force in theworld . Force . Spirit . Feeling . Thelanguage will be anybody's, but tight-ened by the poet's backbone . Andeven the language must show what thefacts are in this consciousness epic,what's happening . We will talk aboutthe world, and the preciseness withwhich we are able to summon theworld, will be our art . Art is method .And art, "like any ashtray or senator"remains in the world . Wittgensteinsaid ethics and aesthetics are one .I believe this . So the Broadway thea-tre is a theatre of reaction whoseethics like its aesthetics reflects thespiritual values of this unholy society,which sends young crackers all overthe world blowing off colored peoplesheads. (In some of these Hippy south-ern towns they even shoot up the im-migrants' Favorite Son, be it MichaelSchwerner or J . F . Kennedy.)

The Revolutionary Theatre is shap-ed by the world, and moves to reshapethe world, using as its force the natur-al force and perpetual vibrations ofthe mind in the world . We are historyand desire, what we are, and what anyexperience can make us .

It is a social theatre, but all thea-

The Revolutionary Theatre looks at the sky with the vic-tims' eyes and moves the victims to look at the strengthin their minds and their bodies . Above is a scene fromLeRoi Jones' The Toilet .

tre is social theatre . But we willchange the drawing rooms into placeswhere real things can be said abouta real world, or into smoky roomswhere the destruction of Washingtoncan be plotted . The RevolutionaryTheatre must function like an incen-diary pencil planted in Curtis Lemay'scap . So that when the final curtaingoes down brains are splattered overthe seats and the floor, and bleedingnuns must wire SOS's to Belgians withgold teeth .

Our theatre will show victims sothat their brothers in the audience willbe better able to understand that theyare the brothers of victims, and thatthey themselves are victims, if theyare blood brothers . And what we showmust cause the blood to rush, so thatpre-revolutionary temperaments willbe bathed in this blood, and it willcause their deepest souls to move,and they find themselves tensed andclenched, even ready to die, at whatthe soul has been taught . We willscream and cry, murder, tun throughthe streets in agony, if it means somesoul will be moved, moved to actuallife understanding of what the worldis, and what it ought to be. We arepreaching virtue and feeling, and anatural sense of the self in the world .All men live in the world, and the

LIBERATOR July 1965

world ought to be a place for them tolive .

What is called the imagination(from image, magi, magic, magician,etc .) is a practical vector from thesoul . It stores all data, and can becalled on to solve all our "problems ."The imagination is the projection ofourselves past our sense of ourselvesas "things." Imagination (image) isall possibility, because from the image,the initial circumscribed energy, anduse (idea) is possible . And so beginsthat image's use in the world . Pos-sibility is what moves us .

The popular white man's theatrelike the popular white man's novelshows tired white lives, and the prob-lems of eating white sugar, or else itherds bigcaboosed blondes onto hugestages in rhinestones and makes be-lieve they are dancing or singing .WHITE BUSINESSMEN OF THEWORLD, DO YOU WANT TO SEEPEOPLE REALLY DANCING ANDSINGING??? ALL OF YOU GO UPIN HARLEM AND GET YOURSELFKILLED. THERE WILL BE DANCINGAND SINGING, THEN, FOR REAL!(in The Slave, Walker Vessels, theblack revolutionary, wears an arm-band, which is the insignia of the at-tacking army . . .a big redlipped min-strel, grinning like crazy .)

The Revolutionary Theatre . . . must show

the missionariesand wiggly Liberals dying under blasts of concrete . Thescene above is The Slave by LeRoi Jones .

The liberal white man's objectionto the theatre of the revolution (if heis "hip" enough) will be on aestheticgrounds . Most white Western artistsdo not need to be "political," sinceusually, whether they know it or not,they are in complete sympathy withthe most repressive social forces inthe world today . There are morejunior birdmenfascists running aroundthe West today disguised as Artiststhan there are disguised as fascists .(But then, that word, Fascist, andwith it, Fascism, has been made obso-lete by the word America, and Ameri-canism . The American Artist usuallyturns out to be just a super-Bourgeois,because, finally, all he has to showfor his sojourn through the world is"better taste" than the Bourgeois . . .many times not even that .

Americans will hate the revolu-tionary theatre because it will be outto destroy them and whatever theybelieve is real . American cops willtry to close the theatres where suchnakedness of the human spirit isparaded . American producers willsay the revolutionary plays are filth,usually because they will treat humanlife as if it was actually happening .American directors will say that thewhite guys in the plays are too ab-stract and cowardly ("don't get me

coast . next page5

"Mme . Socrates" of the civil rightsmovement, Sayard Rustin .

REVOLUTIONARY T6EATRE coat .

wrong. . .I mean aesthetically . . .") andthey will be right .

The force we want is of twentymillion spooks storming America withfurious cries and unstoppable weapons .We want actual explosions and actualbrutality ; AN EPOCH IS CRUMBLINGand we must give it the space andhugeness of its actual demise. TheRevolutionary Theatre, which is now

6

A Reply to Bayard Rustin

The Internal Revolution

At a time when the struggle forliberation is taking place throughoutthe world along sharply nationalisticlines and the questions that have per-sisted among the non-white world,or the "Third World" ; if you will),questions about old and new valuesand the necessity of change ; veryfundamental changes in the order ofthings, changes in the idea of order,changes in the idea of what constitu-tes a civilized society, and what con-stitutes a humane or soulful person inthese emotionally unstable times - itis easy to forget what our particularmission in life must be, what thismission in life must be beyond any orfew personal considerations . Thislatter finally emerges as the care ofour dilemmas, for we have lived in asociety which has abnegated bothcollective and individual responsi-bility,asociety thatisdevoidof guide-lines for bringing about the necessaryinternal or spiritual changes whichwill enable us to move forward towardscontrol of our destinies .

Therefore, the Muslims represented,at least initially, an important philo-sophical and religious thrust into thehistory of our struggle for survival inthis graveyard of North America .Coming with a message of spiritualredemption and translating it into

peopled with victims, will soon beginto be peopled with new kinds ofheroes . . . not the weak Hamlets de-bating whether or not they are readyto die for what's on their minds, butmen and women (and minds) diggingout from under a thousand years of"high art" and weakfaced dalliance .We must make an art that will functionas to call down the actual wrath ofworld spirit . We are witchdoctors, andassassins, but we will open a place

by L.P.Neal

physical and objective terms was veryinspirational to many of as who areboth spiritually and culturally alien-ated in a society that basically hasno way of relating to us .

RUSTIN'S ARTICLE IN DissentThe phenomema of the Rustins and

many others of his persuasion is thatthese changes which seem to be af-fecting the emotional and politicallives of their brothers and sistersseem to be completly beyond them .By this I don't mean that they are notaware of the suffering of black peopleor the collective and individual ragethat black people feel in this society,but more fundamentally, they are un-aware of basic upheavals taking placein a whole realm of spiritual, social,and cultural values . They have beenbusy cultivating their Western tastesand values too long to see or hearanything else .

This lack of black awareness,therefore, leads to a sterile Westernanalysis of our needs and ideas ; thiskind of analysis is not wedded to thesouls of black people . And becauseit lacks black spiritual and emotionalcontent it is never enough .

Rustin's article in Dissent, writtenwith a white leftist, Tom Kahn, is anexample of such coldness, and exudes

for the true scientists to expand ourconsciousness . This is a theatre ofassault . The play that will split theheavens for us will be called THEDESTRUCTION OF AMERICA . Theheroes will be Crazy Horse, DenmarkVessey, Patrice Lumumba, but not

history, not memory, not sad senti-mental groping for a warmth in ourdespair ; these will be new men, newheroes, and their enemies most of youwho are reading this .

the attitude of holier-than-thou whitewriters when discussing Malcolm X orrevolutionary nationalism . We learnthat Malcolm did not have a "program(as if Rustin and Kahn do) . That he". . . strove to retrieve the Negro'sshattered manhood from the wreckageof slavery, from the debris of ma-triarchy and family instability, frompoverty and narcotics, from condi-tioned aimlessness, self hatred andchaos . He could not succeed becausethese are not problems that can beexorcized by religious mysticism ordenunciatory rhetoric . What is re-quired is a strategy for social change,and Malcolm was not willing (exceptperhaps when it was too late) to aban-don premises which had made him andhis program a maze of contradictions."

RUSTIN'S COMMITMENT TO ANANTI-'HUMAN SOCIETY:

As we read these words, we recallRustin's "program" -- he was thechief organizer of the March on Wash-ington, and we recall his programwhich, again, in its orientation wasfurther from the needs and aspirationsof black people than anything Malcolmever espoused. Rustin's program com-mits itself to a society which is atroot anti-human and devoid of spiri-tual content . At this point it shouldto noted that despite Rustin's 20year commitment to the white powerstructure, he has been relieved of allof his "executive titles" and posi-tions . Rumor has it, that after beingrun off the streets of Harlem last sum-mer '64 during the riots by militantblacks, the power structure finallydecided that Mme. Rustin spoke for noone, represented no one, exceptpossibly himself.

Malcolm told the truth . He madehis commitment to a more soulfulworld by attacking the whole range ofvalues and psychological barrierswhich have kept black people in asemi-colonized condition . Malcolmwas a soul messenger, a bearer of acertain kind of spiritual truth, and assuch, called upon others more tech-nically oriented to evolve an appara-

LIBERATOR July 1965

tus to decide what programs wereworth it, considering the times andthe direction of not only the nationalstruggle, but the world struggle . Afro-Americans, Malcolm explained, aredirectly tied to that world struggle,and were advised to "internationalize"their struggle . The OAAU, as Mal-colm envisioned it, was the first realstep toward revolutionary black unityever taken in this country. It is aunity essentially frowned upon by theRustins and the Farmers who openlycompete with each other for govern-ment favors and white acceptance .Malcolm's stance as a black man wasitself a program .

'SLACK MANHOOD :Rustin may have been irritated at

Ossie Davis' statement that Malcolmwas "our shining black manhood."But millions of black men and womenwere not . They have had their ex-periences with the "acceptable" Ne-gro leadership . They have gotten badvibrations from the effeminate pro-jections of the Rustins, the flabbyorientation of the Farmers, and theshuffling act of the Kings . They un-derstand that Malcolm's was not a"petty bourgeois" concept of man-hood, but was instead deeply rootedin something beautiful and ancient,and was deeply courageous since itwas conditioned, not by a sterile in-tellectualism, but by the facts ofsurvival in a world dominated now bybeasts of prey . The Western whiteman is the real creature of violence,and the rest of the world is defendingitself from his beastliness .

And Malcolm did not break down,did not give himself up to self-pity,but did his work until the end . TheRustins would disagree vehemently--but they have given in, have beenbroken down by advocating a narrowphilosophy of non-violence ; and morefundamentally, by the acceptance ofan ethic towards life that will notliberate black people - an ethic thatwill essentially make us "AmericanNegroes" who want to be decadentAmericans - freakish, fat, and fairly

satisfied with the direction that thiscountry is taking vis-a-vis the emerg-ing "new" world .

DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE INTER-NATIONAL NATURE OF OURSTRUGGLE:

The failure of the "civil rites"intellectuals to understand those ideasthat were first articulated for us byGarvey and Dubois ; and then trans-formed into concerted programs inAfrica and Asia has affected theirattitudes toward local politics in theblack community . The parallels thatwe find in Fanon's book The Wretched

of the Earth between our struggle andthat of our colonized brothers andsisters in other parts of the worldillustrate clearly what a people mustdo to liberate themselves. The blackyouth of Harlem called for Malcolmduring the uprising last summer . Un-derstanding the nature of the kind ofstruggle black people must ultimatelywage, they instinctively sought a blackleader who they felt measured up tothe task . Yes, we remember youBayard on that day as you came offsounding remote and freakish, thenature of your alienation deeper thaneven James Farmer's . Bayard, I askyou, what kind of program would havesatisfied us then?

The question remains . What kindof program?

Malcolm knew that the only realprogram for black people lay in thearea of black unity, black spiritualand intellectual awakening, blackleadership, and a Mau-Mau like com-mitment to change . And this is hardenough, because it lets the chips fallon the floor, and it warns those of uswho will ever get themselves togetherto do so, and to pay the painful pricethat this process exerts on us . Butthe Bayard Rustins who flirt amongus must not be allowed to speak ofour blood with so much disrespect .It would be better if they exercisedthe same "restraint" to attack inprint, as well as they exercised itwhen physical indignities are exactedupon their bodies .

7

Automation and the NegroWill We Survive ?

by C. E . WilsonAutomation and the Negro is a two-part article discussing the conse-quences of the new technology on theeconomic life of the black workingman. Part 1 gives a brief history andanalysis of the early introduction ofthe new technology and its effects .Part 11 gives an outline of the pro-posals on how to meet the changesthat the technology demands of theNegro if he is to survive.

While Civil Rights leaders boastabout the defeat of segregation, whilethe administration's spokesmen makeextravagant claims that constitutional-ly guaranteed voting rights are nowpractically secured, while the Ameri-can press hails the snail-like pace ofdesegregation, the average Negro'severyday world turns steadily into anightmare of frustrated hopes andcrushed dreams . As the yoke of openoppression and exploitation is slowlylifted, the average Negro now findshimself tightly bound in poverty byimpersonal, color-blind economicforces (automation and changing tech-nology) . In the words of Tom Kahn -author of Economics of Equality:

"it is as if racism, having put theNegro in his economic 'place,stepped aside to watch technologydestroy that place."

Automation, the common name forthe revolutionary new technology,is asprofoundly different from the indus-trial, agricultural, production systemof today as the factory system of theIndustrial Revolution was from thefeudal system of the 15th century .Automation can and does increase theamount of production while reducingthe number of workers needed to dothe jobs . Experts see that machinescan take the drudgery and monotonyfrom the many meaningless, boringtasks men do to earn a living . These

same experts, as far back as 1948,predicted that by 1967 there would befew jobs for the unskilled and semi-skilled . In the most advanced form(cybernetics), the technology will re-place human controls with electroniccontrols . The Negro is now especiallyimperiled. As a result of centuries ofpoor education and training, the Negroworker is largely concentrated inthose very job areas and catagories inwhich men are being replaced mostimmediately by machines . From thestandpoint of the present structure ofthe economy, the average Negro nowfinds himself unwanted and ignored .Middle-class Negroes, having foughtto secure a better education during thepost World War II years, now findthemselves competing with whites forthe very high status jobs in which dis-crimination is most subtle and mostdifficult to unmask.

The machine, which needs no lunchperiods, no coffee breaks nor vacations,and unlike human slaves, will not de-mand freedom, higher wages or CivilRights . Having provided the basis forAmerican wealth and opulence, Negrocommon labor is now superfluous;Negro skilled labor is now a competi-tive threat ; and Negro professionalmanagerial job seekers glut an alreadyovercrowded market .

A Well-Kept SecretWhen this society's leaders wish to

keep information from their whitecitizenry, the facts are hidden, dis-guised or distorted . While the infor-mation may be kept secret from whitecitizens, the same facts are made acomplete mystery to the society'schief victims - Negro inhabitants .From 1957 to 1963 most governmentand industry officials strained to keepthe secret of automation's real impact .There were some vague hints, predic-

Part Line of Two Partstions and contradictory claims aboutthe impact of this revolutionary changein production (automation) on thelaboring man. Conventional economistsand social scientists, having only thevaguest idea of the impact, led peopleto believe that service industries, thetraditional Negro jobs, would absorbmany of the displaced workers for thenew openings which would be created .

While these claims were beingwidely circulated, Negro workers werelosing their jobs . On the farms, newequipment make unskilled agriculturallabor unprofitable . The displacedfarm workers, many of whom wereblack, drifted into migrant farm work,the 20th-century form of serfdom, ormoved to the crowded urban areas ofthe North and South . The period(1948-1962) marked a dramatic occupa-tional shift of Negroes from agriculture .While 21 out of every 100 Negroesworked in farming in 1948, only 12 outof every 100 were so employed in 1962 .A small mechanical cotton picker, forexample, could harvest an acre of cot-ton in six man-hours, compared with74 man-hours for a hand laborer .

The new farm equipment made thesmall independent farm a thing of thepast as well. In addition, the govern-ment farm subsidies for non-productionof produce, which began to be paid inlarge sums to the big farm combinespossessing or controlling vast acreagesfurther discouraged the small farmersso that they were forced to sell outand move out .

In the factories, automated systemsbegan to reduce the need for vastforces of unskilled and semi-skilledworkers . In reducing the need for theunskilled and semi-skilled workers,the industrial apparatus was, in effect,reducing the level of Negro blue-col-lar workers back to the 1948 level ofNegro factory employment . By 1962,

more than 8 out of every 10 Negroworkers in blue-collar factory jobswere still unskilled or semi-skilled,while only 6 out of every 10 whiteworkers were in this category .

:tun-A-Way Factories :In some instances whole factories

were moved, lock, stock and barrel,and set up in brand new quarters inother states where Negro employeeswould experience difficulty in findingsuitable living quarters . The factorieswere lured away by tax inducements,tax abatements and various profitmotives .

In the service industries area, thedisproportionately high level of Negroemployment was maintained duringthis period . Service industries jobshave been the traditional work for theNegro. Fully 3 out of 10 Negro!workers were engaged in this area,while only 1 white worker in 10 wasemployed in service work . Fully 80%of whites employed in service indus-tries were not employed in the house-hold-work field . Between 1955 and1962 Negro employment in this ser-vice area increased somewhat, but theNegro worker found himself trapped inan area which, though rapidly expand-ing, was low paying and required onlylow to moderate skills .

The total effect of this'employmentpattern, agricultural, industrial andservice areas, was gradually to easeupward the Negro unemployment ratesfor the period 1955-1962 . During thisperiod, the official tally of Negro un-employment rose from 8% to fully 11%(1 Negro wor leer in 10 was out of work),

an unemployment rate of 2-1/4 timesgreater than the rate for whites . Whilewhite workers were suffering frommild technological displacement, Ne-gro workers were already in a reces-sion .

Furthermore, behind the officialfigures, Dr . Charles Killingsworth,Michigan State University labor ex-pert, found a growing "invisible armyof unemployed." This invisible armywas made of people who were beingforced out of the labor market, not

LIBERATOR July 1965

because they were not willing or able,but because they were becoming toodiscouraged even to search for jobs .

There is an old cliche that the Ne-gro is always arriving, but nevergetting anywhere . By 1962, the Negroworker had progressed right back tothe position he held in 1948 . The per-cent of difference between the incomeof the Negro worker and that of thewhite remained constant . However,the wage-salary dollar differenceactually widened. Even if the Negroworker graduated from college, hislifetime earnings only equalled that ofthe white high school graduate .

Paradoxically, the Civil Rightsspokesmen, trying to stimulate beliefin the fiction that a Negro Revolt wasoccuring, widely proclaimed that theNegro Revolution was a revolution ofhope . The "revolutionaries" were noteven challenging the basic Americanassumptions or values at this point inhistory . These revolutionaries seemedmore interested in gaining entranceinto the selfsame oppressive systemwhich was tooling up for a change inthe manner of production by riddingitself of unskilled workers - meaningNegroes .

The early period of the introductionof automation proved the accuracy ofthe sage observation of Murray Kempton

about Negroes - that "1 had known veryfew who really understood what wasbeing done to them."

1962 to the Present - Automation'sSecret is Out :

Despite continued efforts of socie-ty's leaders to confuse unwary anduninterested Americans about the trueeffects of automation, the little people,black and white, have begun to under-stand . The white laboring man hasbeen expressing his fear and anxietythrough his unions and other organiza-tions . White union workers, havingalready seen the mechanization of themines with the resultant loss of jobs,peer around now as the process ofautomation begins catching up withother industrial areas, like glass,steel, chemicals, rubber and ma-chinery . The industrial unions havebeen hard pressed to arrive at solu-tions - early pensions, no new open-ings, work speed-ups, the entire busi-ness of trying to stave off the inevi-table .

By 1963, it was no longer possiblefor Negro Civil Rights "revolution-aries" to ignore the pleas of Negroworkers for jobs . The plight of Ne-gro workers was so pitiful that theNegro bourgeois leadership was forced

cont. next page

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AUTOMATION cons .

to use the "Freedom and jobs" slo-gansfor the memorable March on Wash-ington . Few of the Civil Rights organ-izations, up to that juncture, had evenproduced studies about the Negro'seconomic plight, particularly in termsof automation .

It was not just a matter of lackingthe current work' skills that made itdifficult for the Negro unemployed;the total sham of job retraining waswaking against the Negro worker .One study from the United States De-partment of Labor - Officer of Man-power Automation and Training, datedDecember, 1963, showed that state em-ployment agencies were insisting thatNegro workers be better qualified thanwhite workers before being admittedto the training programs.

New machinery constantly beingintroduced requires higher basic ed-ucation, from which Negroes are ef-fectively barred. Comparison of ed-ucational levels alone of Negroes andwhites does not provide the real clue

to the disparity in their basic educa-tional training . . The educational dif-ference is apparent in so many areasthat it is difficult to estimate the dif-ference in terms of statistics alone .The result of the educational in-equity is, however, that the educa-tional life chances of a Negro personare constricted, particularly for thoseresiding in racial ghettoes . Fully 75%'of Negroes in urban areas live now in.those racially contiguous areas (ghet-toes) . The present education of theNegro is an education for his role inthe new automated society . The Ne-gro's role is to be one of uselessnessand he is being equipped in schoolsto carry out that very role . How doesthe society plan to do job retrainingfor the Negro? The society shrewdlyproposed job retraining when it neverdid basic LIFE training .

The Trend Widens and Deepens:New machinery has been introduced

at a faster and faster rate since 1962.On the farm, for instance, in 17 count-ties of Arkansas, typical of the South-ern cotton economy, there were 482cotton machines in 1952. In 1963,there were 5,061 machines . The Ne-gro tenant farm population droppedfrom 21,862 in 1952 to 6,587 in 1963 .What happened to the other 14,000 Ne-groes? They have left the farm, thecounty and state in most instances .Situations like this have been repeatedover and over again .

In the factories, plant relocationspreviously mentioned are still usedas ways to reduce the number of blackunskilled workers, as well as to re-duce the need for the workers . Onesuch instance was observed in theclosing of four regional plants by anationally-known paint concern . Allfour plants were replaced by a single,ultramodern plant on the eastern sea-board . The number of productionworkers dropped from 4,000 to 400;yet total production increased 25%and sales volume increased 40% .

One bakery plant in Cleveland,the Sara Lee Plant, employing 4,000workers in 1956, now has 400 work-

ers in its new automated plant, andtechnicians suggest that productioncould be maintained with new elec-tronic equipment with only 60 workers .Planning for a regulated, year-roundproduction schedule reduces the needfor increased numbers of workersduring "rush seasons."

It is important to recognize thatthis reduction in the amount of man-power needed has occured at a timewhen the numbers of potential work-ers entering or able to enter into thelabor force is increasing at a recordrate .

Negroes in the service industries,too, are feeling some of the effectsof the general labor market, especial-ly those Negroes in industrial clean-ing occupations . New machines nowclean, wash and wax floors in twooperations, thereby making it possi-ble for a machine tended by one manto do in one day the work of 10-12workers working the old wash-and-waxmethod . Because of the reductionof the number of workers needed inthe industrial area, whites are nolonger so scornful of the service in-dustries per se, and gradually arestrengthening and widening their holdon commercial porter-handyman posi-tions . The salary in the commercialcleaning concerns is considerablyhigher than the "normal" Negro portercapacity . The household servicejobs are still the low-pay, high-abuserefuge for Negro women who dailytake the "opposite direction express"to the suburbs and distant sectionsof major cities . As home builders usemore special materials to reduce theamount of household dust, as moredrip-dry-non-iron clothes are intro-duced, as more synthetic processesand special freezer packaging invadethe supermarket shelves, the need forunskilled household help will be re-duced . The net result has been thatbetween 1962-1965, Negro unemploy-ment, in a period of record-makinggood times, has risen to a leveleconomists say is 20% of the Negrowork force . In some cities, Detroit(or instance, the rate is 35% (mean-

ing Negro workers unemployed) . Inthe words of the New York Times,"Unemployment of these proportions,were it general, would be a nationalcatastrophe."

Current Proposals for Relief:Some of the criticism of the govern-

ments' activity about automation hasbeen allayed by the image-building,talk of progress, proposals for specialprograms, and promotion of the Negrobourgeoisie into special positions ofresponsibility and visibility . Nonehas proved effective in combattingthe ravages of the new technology .

The talk of progress (by giving theimpression that Negroes are doingbetter than ever)seems to obscure thereality that the Negro worker is drop-ping out of sight . Time magazine's,finding that - "The main source ofNegro discontent is economic hard-ship," has assured us that "unfor-tunately, this is one area whereprogress seems most likely . More andbetter jobs for Negroes are on theway." In answer to this assurance,Tom Kahn asks the important ques-tion, "more and better jobs for whichNegroes - and how many?"

The special programs to combatthis widespread unemployment areoften centered on so-called PovertyPrograms . These programs, by andlarge, are a bust, vulnerable to politi-cal manipulations and often run by thevery representatives of the status quo .Job retraining operation is a farce andsome critics have gone so far as tosee the Manpower Development andTraining Act (1962) as merely sophis-ticated economic tokenism. The pro-posed goal of training 400 thousandworkers in 3 years is nowhere nearthe level of 1 - 2 million jobs whichthe government's Manpower ResearchOffice estimates will need to becreated to offset the effects of thenew technology .

HARYOU, the Job Corps, etc ., aremerely token efforts to approach themassive problems of youth unemploy-ment created by the fact that there isno need for youth, black or white, in

LIBERATOR July 1965

modern industry .Others have proposed that a mas-

sive program of education is required.Such proposals indicate that the in-dividualq who advance these ideasbelieve that education, one of theculture's most conservative institu-tions,can take on a revolutionary roleand posture. Still more ludicrous isthe expectation that teachers, alreadymortgaged to the present status quo,will take on this new orientation whenthey themselves will be most vulner-able to competition from the verygroups they are now being asked tohelp .

The proposals of the so-calledradicals to solve the Negro worker'splight are warmed-over versions ofthe make-work schemes of the 1930'x .

These radicals are trying to attractthe advanced legions of the CivilRights forces to their position . Theirproposals are built upon the conceptof democratic, central governmentplanning, an idea which does not havethe support of the public at large, norof its corporate leadership .

In an Unpopular Essay on CivilRights - Joseph Lyford, of the Fundof the Republic wrote :

"The attitudes of business andpolitical leadership are still fro-zen against economic planningto insure productive and neces-sary work for every person whowants to work, but cannot findemployment in private industry."

Summing Up: ThePlight of the Negro:

The period 1957-1965 has seenonly the first two stages of the pro-cess of introduction of the new tech-nology to the American production andservices system . For the Negro, theperiod has been one of steadily in-

creased suffering, increased depriva-tion and mounting frustration . Auto-mation has made the Civil Rights cryof "Freedom Now" an inspirationalmyth .

The future looks bleak indeed ifwe project the findings from thesefirst two stages to succeeding dec-ades. While the Civil Rights move-ment is struggling desperately to winfreedom from restraints, -the Negro islosing his capacity to participate inhis freedom to pursue life, liberty andhappiness . Without an income, hedoes not possess the means to pursuelife and liberty . The more advancedCivil Rights groups are bringing thisquestion to the attention of a still-reluctant white middle-class societywhich clings to its bourgeois, fantasyworld slogan "I got mine; now youget yours."

What is the job-producing poten-tial of the Civil Rights forces? Pro-fessors Dillingham and Sly of CentralMichigan University at the Popula-tion Association of America conven-tion predicted that :

"The integrationist movement isindirectly an answer to unemploy-ment. However, growing Negropolitical power, even if used tothe maximum, does not appearcapable of opening to Negroeslarge numbers of current jobs,nor does it appear capable ofcreating new jobs."

The total effect of automation onthe Negro is to make the chant "WeShall Overcome" a mockery . How cana people overcome if the mass of thestruggling people have gone down thedrain? Automation, it seems, is mak-ing Negroes go under not overcome .

Concluded Next Month

Ornette Coleman Sounds Off

Ornette Coleman is one of thoseNegroes whose presence in our midstcannot be properly explained . Black,born in the South-Texas-he comesfrom the black poor, a class whosevery existence society is designedto crush .

As a class, the black poor has nospokesman . And because they rarelysee 'a positive image of themselves(even EBONY champions the suavelight-skinned Negro with Anglo-Saxonfeatures) : because they are caughtup in the basic struggle for bread ;because they are unable to effectivelydeal with the predatory outside forcesarrayed against them, members of theblack poor are ever at odds with eachother, inflicting deep lesions on eachother's psyches, completing the in-human task begun by white America .

Love and Hate Confrontation :Thus, in black America, love and

hate confront each other daily . Forinstance, at seven years old Ornette'sparents' house burned down . Rela-tives invited the family to live withthem temporarily . On the way to therelatives' house it was explained toOrnette that there were ghosts in thehouse, but that the ghosts only haun-ted the room upstairs where he wouldhave to sleep, alone . Imagine themany terrifying nights he sufferedthrough before he realized that a hoaxwas being played upon him ; think ofthe many lessons he could have learn-ed from such an experience .

In fact, all things considered, onecan only marvel that Negroes, unlikewhite Americans, have not gone com-pletely mad . That Ornette Colemanis a leading avant-garde jazz musicianis not only a tribute to a strong will,it is also a contradiction . But then,Ornette is a man who has known thefeel of cotton damp with early morn-ing dew, and the quiet joy of warmsand slipping through his toes . And

1 2

by Charlie L . Russell

America, violent America, is the coun-try where the rich are subsidized bythe government and the poor are leftto practice free enterprise .

Self-Imposed Retirement:Ornette recently returned to the

jazz scene after a two year period ofself-imposed retirement . lie cites thefact that he found it difficult to findmusicians who could play his musicas being one of the reasons for hisretirement . However, Ornette saysthat his main reason for retiring wasto free himself from night club ownersand other organizations that wantedto exploit him .

Records Sell, 3ut No Money:Ornette has recorded for two record

companies : Contemporary and Atlan-tic . At Contemporary, under the aegisof Lester Koening, Ornette recordedtwo albums, Something Else, andTomorrow is the Question . His recordssold well . His contract called for himto receive royalties of 3% of a 90¢wholesale price per album . However,although over five years have passed,he still finds himself paying the pro-duction cost of each album.

At Atlantic Records, under NeueshiErtegun, Ornette recorded six albums .This time he signed a contract callingfor 5% royalty per album . Again, hisalbums had good sales, (well over60,000, he estimates) ; however,Ornette finds himself paying for theproduction cost of the albums . Al-though the company sends him state-ments from time to time, he has neverbeen given an opportunity to see theactual sales figures of his albums .

Ornette's music is owned by theM.J .Q . Publishing Company. Recordcompanies pay the publishing com-pany for the use of the artist's mater-ial . For his troubles so far, Ornettehas received one dollar and changefrom the M .J .Q . Publishing Company.

Ornette Coleman, recently returned tothe jazz scene after two years of selfimposed retirement, the main reasonfor which was to free himself fromnight club owners and others thatwanted to exploit him .

Several months ago, Ornette foundhimself in a somewhat ironical posi-tion . A man whose albums were sel-ling well, he returned home one morn-ing after a date with one of the rich-est women in America, only to findthat he had been evicted, his meagerbelongings piled on the sidewalk out-side his door .

But it would be misleading, anddishonest, to describe Ornette as justanother Negro exploited . There isabout Ornette an innate existentialism

"I decided to take a chance ongetting paid for what I did," he says .

Hostile Reception To His Music:Ornette is still smarting from the

hostile reception that his music re-ceived from many of his fellow jazzmusicians . "I always thought that ifyou learned something, how to dosomething, a place would be found

for you," Ornette says with a bittersmile .

"At first no one believed that Iknew anything about music . I wasaccused of playing in the wrong key,the wrong notes, etc . But, I not onlyknew what they were doing, I had al-ready forgotten it . I play the way Ido because I believe that there is acertain music in America that mustexist . . . I'm dedicated to that cause .

"I want to use musical freedom inorder to make a contribution . Themethods of playing jazz are just asthey were in the times of Buck John -son -- only the times, and the languagehave changed . Unlike the whites whohave a sophisticated musical traditionto draw upon (although musically allthe whites are doing now is imitatingthemselves), the Negro musician hasto make something happen ; he has tocreate his own place . . . The Negroartist knows, has a message whichwill upset a lot of things, but thefunny thing is, he won't let it go,won't tell it . . .

"Jazz_ musicians are becoming tooconservative . They are becomingjudges, which is against the artist'scredo -- which has existed throughouthistory -- that an artist should neverjudge anything . An artist should justtell what's going on .

Jazz is Sound Put to Emotion :"There is no jazz musician on the

scene today who moves me . But, Iwill say this, that record that MilesDavis made in Europe is the mosthonest record I've heard in jazz inover ten years . . .

But there is a stand-ard evolving in jazz which says 'playyourself .' Many writers are also tryingto do this . . . Jazz musicians shouldbe creating their own music ratherthan playing pop tunes, the very musicthat keeps them from making it . A lotof Negro jazz musicians are not play-ing jazz . Jazz is sound put to emotion .

Jazz is a music that a jazzmusician brings into existence."

Considering the intense dedicationthat Ornette brings to his music, it isabsurd that in a land that has not pro-

GIRER,4TOR July 1965

duced one internationally great whitecreative talent (in any field), thatcrude money makers can dictate whatis art . "Of all the problems that aNegro is confronted with, none isworse than the Negro artist trying toachieve individuality and human dig-nity without the approval of someorganization that wants to controlhim," Ornette says ruefully .

"I want to keep my individuality . . .You know, this has been happening tome all my life," Ornette explains,almost soto voce . "All my life I havebeen surrounded by people trying tocontrol me . Trying to tell me what Iwant, when 1 can get it, how much. . . .That's what I'm rebelling against ."

White America Does Not Want NegroArti sts :

The pursuit of individuality isarduous, hazardous, and lonely . Forthe Negro artist the task is especiallydifficult -- white America simply doesnot want Negro artists . The existenceof Negro artists forces white Americainto conflicts with itself ; remindswhite America of the insanity of thissociety ; forces it to deal with a sideof itself that it has managed to keepout of its history books. And, evenwhen he practices his art, the Negroartist cannot be sure that societyviews him as an artist . One musthave a gimmick! White America wouldturn jazz into a personality syndrome ;Miles Davis pouts, Mingus preaches,Monk dances, Dizzy clowns, etc . Avirtue is made of excesses . Trainedby white jazz critics to view man-nerisms as entertainment, white Ameri-cans have no need to hear the eternalbeauty and the deep, bitter truths ex-pressed in jazz music . The net resultis thatNegro jazz musicians are oftenforced to become caricatures, (someNegro musicians are put down bywhites because they do not hate whitesenough!!) merging into the images thatwhites have of what a Negro jazzmusician is supposed to be . Ornette,like many other jazz musicians, (anda host of Negroes who are white blacknovelists and poets), has become, to

a degree, a white man's Negro jazzmusician and, perhaps, without beingaware of it, he is rebelling againstthis as well .

Again, it is not a simple case . Forif Ornette is rebelling against whiteattitudes and pressures, he also (in asense) caters to them . This explainsthe absurd hat he wears on occasion .While the hat is an expression ofhostility, it also flushes out whiteguilt feelings and makes them feelsorry for him! But then Ornette'sresponse is not uncommon . Almosttwenty years ago, Charlie (Bird) Parker,reportedly, dressed in a cowboy suit,rode a horse into a nightclub .

"All my life I have been surroundedby people trying to control me. Try .ing to tell me what I want, when I canget it, how much. . . . That's what I'mrebelling against .

Invariably, as we have just done,comparisons are made between OrnetteColeman and Charlie Parker . Ornettewas controversial from the start ; whenhe first arrived on the jazz scene, hewas hailed by many critics as the NewBird or an extension of the Bird . It isan easy enough thing to get into, butit is misleading and distracts from theessence of both men . There will neverbe another Bird as there will never beanother Ornette Coleman ; waiting forthe return of either will be like waitingfor Godot. The controversy wasstarted by white critics

who, havingmissed the genius of Charlie Parker

coat . next page13

ORNETTE r0LEMAN coat .entirely, wanted to make sure that thesame thing didn't happen with Ornette .Thus, the white critics tried to judgehim by the musical standards that theyattributed to Charlie Parker . But thewhite critics have never understood(or even really liked) Bird's music,and just as they mistakenly tried toevaluate Parker's music by usingSwing standards, they also erred intrying to judge Ornette by the musicalstandards they attributed to CharlieParker .

The distinctive thing about Ornetteis that he is not even concerned withthe musical problems that Parker wasconcerned with .

Old Musical Standards Must3e Discarded :

To understand Ornette's music, oldmusical standards must be discarded ;his music must be viewed as havingan entity of its own. The first timeyou hear his music it is apt to strikeyou as being the incoherent cries of achild . However, after listening toOrnette's music repeatedly, the emo-tional purity of his sound makes itselffelt . Lonely Woman, one of his origi-nal tunes, is a representative work :listening to it one gets a feelingsimilar to the one that Samson musthave felt after he decided to bring thetemple down upon his enemies, know-ing that he was doomed also .

Many jazz musicians, like manyother artists, are basically hostiletowards people . It is as if they haveseen the true side of life, caught awhole gob of people with their pantsdown, and as a result have becomeincensed . . . As if, if they did not havetheir horns, paints, or their pens, theywould either go stark raving mad, orbecome murderers . Ornette has alsoseen the true side of life, but becausehe basically loves people, the sighthas had an opposite effect upon him .He appears to have internalized mat-ters and directs his hostility notagainst others, buc towards himself .For instance, in conversations, heoften puts himself down -- one of his

1 4

most frequent expressions is : "S1an,I'm all fucked up." This can be dis-concerting until one comes to realizethat Ornette is as naive about himselfas he is sometimes naive about theworld -- get to know him and you beginto wonder when he will realize that heis really a beautiful cat .

Dares To 3e Himself :In fact, Ornette's main contribution

to jazz, is that lie dares to be himselfat a time when many jazz musicianshave become conformists . This doesnot mean necessarily that Ornette'sparticular style of playing will starta new trend in jazz ; rather, it meansthat hearing Ornette play younger j azzmusicians will say to themselves ;"Man, if Ornette can he himself andmake it, so can i."

Ornette, who is currently writing amusic book entitled A Theory o fMusic

in Story Form For The Player, de-scribes his music as being "compo-sitional improvisational music withoutthe regular two, five, one, and toniccadence."

Ornette's music is part of the bodyof music that has been tagged THENEW THING, FREE FORM, and/orJAZZ EXISTENTIALISM . Speakingof his own music, Ornette had this tosay :

"In my music, I came up with amusic that didn't require Europeanlaws applied to it . This was a revo-lutionary breakthrough as well as asupport for the jazz image . . . Now,the NEW THING came into being be-cause there was no definite structure .Now the structure is to play togetherless restricted to the old forms . It isan extension of jazz, involving theplayers' ability to absorb the formsand structure of a composition in hisrelation to all the techniques ofmusic .

"As I see it, there are three gen-eral groupings in the NEW THING.One group uses free form and employsimprovisational techniques in thethemes . There is another group whichuses improvised ensembles as its form .There is a third group which writes

orchestral parts and uses improvisa-tion as its movement . But, in all ofthese three groups, the players aretoo academic, too rudimental to ex-press their goals . The ru,limentsthat I use are a point of departure forme . I use the CDEFGA13 scale for akey resolution as all scales areused ."

Ornette also had these commentsto make about the jazz scene in gen-eral :

"Duke Ellington only representsall the Negroes who learned to readmusic luring the twenties and thirties .Duke simply wrote popular songs inthe European song form .

"Cecil Taylor is a sophisticatedperson and lie plays from that sense .In a sense he plays in one area and Ithink lie is best in that area ; ain'tnothing wrong with that, I'm not knock-

The absurd hat which Coleman wearson occassions while an expression ofhostility to white attitudes also flushesout the guilt feelings of whites andmakes them feel sorry for him .

Al flicks

ing it ."White homosexual businessmen

are destroying jazz . Jazz is fastbecoming friendship rather thanmusicianship, because homosexualshave a tendancy to look out for eachother .

People who want to understand mymusic should approach it simply, withtheir natural and intellectual instincts .

Critics Foil to Accept TheirResponsibility :

"Critics used me to verify theirown position . They're full of shitbecause they fail to accept their re-sponsibility . Because of their posi-tion, they try to dictate to musiciansand the listeners .

"I've written music for most of thetop figures of jazz. . They all want tohave my music around, but they won'tplay it because they're scared .

"Some jazz fans are as bad as thecritics . A guy came up to me a fewweeks ago and said to me : 'You knowwhy you're blowing that horn? You'reblowing it because you want peopleto love you!' How sick can you get?What that guy didn't undt rstand is thatI'd want people to love me if I shovel-ed coal."

Ornette Coleman's name belongswith other names like Archie Shepp,Cecil Taylor, LeRoi Jones, Sun Ra,Grachan Moncur III, Joe Overstreet,etc ., an iconoclastic aggregate ofNegro musicians, painters, and writerswho are holding forth in the Village,trying to establish themselves asblack artists . These men are mem-bers of a fresh, new, and as yet, un-named movement in America . Theirultimate direction at this point ap-pears to be uncharted, but so far wehave been fortunate in getting LeRoiJones' Dutchman out of the movement .While no Negro writer immediatelycomes to mind who seriously chal-lenges LeRoi Jones on his ownground,such is not true of the musici-ans mentioned . And, it will be in-teresting to compare the musical de-velopment of Ornette, Cecil, Shepp,etc . with the musical development of

LIBERATOR July 1965

scene from his front steps in Manhattan's Greenwichalong with . other iconoclastic Negro musicians, point-

ers and writers trying to establish themselves as black artists . They aremembers of a fresh, new, and as yet unnamed movement in America .

Coleman takes in theVillage where he lives

Donald

Byrd,

Stanley " Turrentine,Herbie Hancock, etc ., another aggre-gate of young musicians who Appearto be going in the opposite direction.(While the latter group is as techni-cally proficient as the former, theirNegroness is more salient in theirmusic) .

Basically, despite his full, fero-cious dark beard, Ornette is a gentleperson ; there is about his manner thehint of the celibate and he worriesabout how to get along with people .Many of his worries come about be-cause he has not fully accepted thefact that the life of the artist is alonely one, and that (as death is apart of life), vile attacks are as mucha part of the artist's lot as accolades .

But Ornette is still growing .After his recent return to the jazz

scene, a very successful one inwhich he played the violin (left-handed), and the trumpet (as well asthe alto saxophone), Ornette had thisto say :

"The experience of being downhad freed me in a sense . When you'reat the bottom there is only one way togo, up . The worst has already hap-pened to me . Right now, I'm not re-fusing any jobs that I want to play,but I plan to see some of the world .What do I really want to do? . . . Sur-vive as an artist without losing myvalues . There is a writer, John Kil-lens, who says that the artist's mainresponsibility is to tell the truth andsurvive . And that's what I want todo, tell the truth on my horn andsurvive."

1 5

Edith Schomburg presenting her paper on panel entitled "Role of theBlack Woman in the White Society" panelist Myrna Rain, on right

Panel Discussion : Is a Dialogue Desirable Between Black and White?Panelists : l to r Dave Dellinger, Ossie Sykes, moderator, RobertVernon, speaking and C . E . Wilson .

Panel DiscussimSylvester Leaks,Russell, moderate

At our Benefit DiRepublic of Taaaman, Secretary fro

Dur 5th AnniversaryWriters' Conference

yr

Must the Black Writer Lead? Panelists l to rfat Hentoff, standing, Rolland Snellings, Charlieand Richard B . Moore.

ce, Mr . E . P . Mwaluka, (left) from the Unitednia to the U.N . chats with Mr . Nathaniel East .the Liberian Mission to the U .N .

COMING IN AUGUST ISSUECOMPLETE REPORT ONCONFERENCE

A question from a member of theaudience (numbering over 200) duringthe question and answer period .

LeRoi Jones, recipient of LIBERATOR'S award for Playwrighting con-gratulates Charles S . Howard, Sr . recipient of LIBERATOR'S award forJournalism .

The Statue of Liberty Conspiracy TrialNo Hiding Place in Foley Square

by Bill Mahoney

Four foolish years ago, to the date,I joined the Freedom Rides to Miss-issippi . I was serving my function asI then understood it : to add color toan almost lily white protest effort .

Like the others, 1 was given myjust reward in the Mississippi stateprison at Parchmont . . .sfter hearingthe usual incantation of impartialjustice by white judges (minus hoods,and wearing black sheets) . My cupwas not quite filled by this . On toMonroe, N.C . I went with others fromSNCC, for more beatings and anotherjailing . While in jail in Monroe in amood of righteous tranquillity, ashocking ugliness was splattered inmy face by Lawyer Len Bolt . One ofus told him "Our rights have beendenied!" Holt's guffaw reverberatedthroughout the confines of the twostory brick building as he laughed sohard that tears came. At the time Icouldn't forgive him for this . Now Iknow that I should have joined thelaughing because "rights" are a jokefor all that have to claim that theyhave some .

Holt got no fee from me or tht hun-dred of others he defended in Monroefor the next several days as RobertWilliams made his way to exile inCuba . In partial payment of a debtowed, I came last week to New Yorkand to Foley Square to help Mark Laneand Molt find witnesses for the de-fense of their client, Robert Collier,who, along with Walter Bowe andKhaleel Sayyed, is charged with plot-ting to blow up the Statue of Libertyand other monuments . For four weeksthe trial has been going on . To getorientated to know what kind of wit-nesses were needed, Bolt had me readthe record of the daily trial transcripts .

A black cop named Raymond Wood,after having infiltrated CA.R .E.,appears to have planted the idea ofblowing up a statue, taken police de-

partment money to procure for thethree men on trial everything that thecop thought could be used to destroythe Statue of Liberty, and then arrestedthe trio for wanting to carry out thecop-inspired and cop-financed plan .For his efforts Wood got a $4,000

annual raise . It all sounded sofamilar and so southern .

And so was the atmosphere of the

court on the dates that I attended .The dreary, high-ceilinged federalcourtroom number 110 was selecting

a jury the first day I was there . Lane

Her back faces to Harlem .

and Molt had filed motions to strikethe jury for the systematic exclusionso£ Negroes and Puerto Ricans . Thejudge ridiculed the motion and threat-ened contempt . What gall, I thought,as I looked around and saw ninety (90)persons called in for the jury and onlyone black person in the lot . The panelfrom which my jury had been selectedin Jackson, Mississippi in 1961 hadthree Negroes out of 50 . It all seemedso familiar .

By an odd quirk of fate, the soleNegro on the panel of 90 got to theposition of being asked questions bythe federal judge, William 13 . Herlands ."Would your race cause you any prob-lems if you sat on this case?" thejudge asked. Not one of the whitepersons was asked if their race wouldcause any problems .

Though the answer given was"No," the United States Attorneystruck the Negro from the panel be-cause the stakes for the governmentwere too high ; nothing must interferewith "justice ." And there were otherinstances of the same old shit : south-ern shit, northern shit . .American shit .

Because the government had got-ten an all white jury and our "blackhero," Ray Wood, had used soullanguage like "Mr. Charley," "Get-ting next to the man," and similarjargon, the United States attorney hadput into the record definitions ofthese phrases so that the jury mightknow that it was white people thatwere being discussed .

To counteract this, Holt hadasked me to get Dr . Kenneth Clark,the black professor of psychology, tocome to court and try the impossible :toput in context for the jury the placeand role of threats by black peopleagainst white persons and white in-stitutionsand to provide abackgroundfor showing that the intervention andsubsidy of the New York Police De-

partment was the cause of the coin-mission of these federal crimes (ifindeed any federal crimes have beenCommitted) .

In an all too familiar fashion thewhite man sitting on the high benchwearing the black robe (lid his duty :lie denied Robert Collier and his law-yers the right to have Dr . KennethChar'. ; speak . And while Dr . Clark saton the witness chair thumbing througha book entitled The Summer ThatDidn't End written by defense lawyerMolt, the judge and the lawyers wentinto it back room where Molt and Laneargued for Dr . Clark to he lieard :

IIOLT: We have a situation inwhich the government has said throughits witness, Wood, that certain threatswere made by our client, Mr . Collier,and perhaps other persons on trialhere, against white institutions andwhite people . There have also beenthreats directly against "whitey"ant] "Mr. Charley."

By virtue of the fact that this juryis all white and does not know thelife of a black ghetto and does notunderstand the Negro, this jury canbest determine the guilt or innocencein a context of black life which Dr .Clark with his expertise can give them .1 know that this lily-white jury doesnot have this information . "To protectour client, Mr . Collier, we have to putthese statements that are supposed tohave been made in a setting withinblack society.

JUDGE: Are you finished?110LT :

Mr . Lane, my co-counsel,has just reminded me that Dr . KennethClark was the leading psychologistinvolved in the Supreme Court SchoolSegregation decision.

JUDGE: . . . . . . In a jury system suchas ours, where the jury system hasachieved its finest expression ofdemocracy in action, and where chal-lenges to our jury panels have beenoverruled, we have a jury systemwhich, not only in theory but in prac-tice, represents the technique bywhich we determine guilt or inno-cence.

To suggest that because the jury

r,113rr,ATOR July 1905

is all white that you need a Negroexpert to interpret Negro life is anargument which! is not only inherentlyillogical because it assumes thatwhite people (ho not know anything, atall about Negro life or are substantial-ly ignorant of Negro life, ii propositionwhich is just not true in a communitysuch as the Southern District of NewYork ; to suggest that use of a Negroexpert, because of an all white juryand Negro defendants, so that thernores and cultural values and socio-logical insights should be presentedin the form of expert evidence to thejury might well lead to the use ofsimilar experts who would testify to ajury consisting of non-Italians aboutthe cultural life and insight of defen-dants who happen to be Italians ."A day later Mark Lane and Len

Ilolt asked the judge tolet them with-draw from the case because the judgeexpressed attitudes making it impos-sible for the two to give adequaterepresentation to their client becauseof the judge's hostility. It was amove to put on record -- in indirectfashion -- that the judge had predeter-mined the jury's decision .

With reluctance and doubt I stoodas court was adjourned Friday ; a re-luctance and doubt as to whether Ihad surrendered something preciousby standing for a man in a black robewhom I could not want to honor. JamesLee was beside me as I walked outinto the corridor . lie turned around,looked at the number on the courtroomdoor: "Room 110, ell?" he said ."That's a number that I'll rememberfor another reason now."

"What do you mean?""This is the same courtroom where

the Communist trials were held . Inthere is where judge Kauffman, after!laving prayed for 16 hours, . .sentencedJulius and Ethel Rosenberg to (lie."

It was so familiar . . . .maybe becauseI'm still naive . . .and think the south isthe South and the north is the Northand there ought to be some place torun to where you can hide your face . . .without having the rocks cry out :"There ain't no hiding place ."

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-JEAN-PAUL SARTRE"Must be read by all who wish to un-derstand what it means to fight forfreedom, equality and dignity."-ALEXQUAISON-SACKEY, President, U,N. Gen-eral Assembly

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19

Movie Review

20

China

reviewed by Clayton Riley

There is an excellence about FelixGreene's documentary film, CHINA!,that proceeds both from the skill withwhich it has been made and the sub-ject matter it imparts . Greene hasused his camera, his mind and cour-age to let us glimpse the most "-en-recognized" nation in the world , anation that generally is projected tothe West as a vast conglamerationof war machinery surrounded by abloodthirsty horde of sneaker-cladwarriors .

The People's Republic of Chinais, first of all, people . Simple as thisfact is, we are all apt to forget it inlight of the daily barrage of distortionsrained upon us by the press and othercommunicative media. What become'smost striking about Greene's film isthe sensitivity and obvious care withwhich he has recorded the feelings ofmen, women and children in ChinaHe has managed this without recourseto the tactic of interviews but ratherby showing what people are doing andwhat has been the result of theirlabor . A documentary that generatesexcitement is rare . Greene achievesthis by bearing witness to a govern-ment, a nation that presently, at least,is throbbing with vitality . The mottoof the Peking regime could well be,taking care of business . In sceneafter scene, activity fills the life ofthese people . No one loafs, no onedrags feet .

The nation works, thenation learns, the nation moves .

How-

The People' Republic of China is, first of all,care,Felix Greene has recorded the feelingof men,

ever much anyone might disagree withthe philosophy of communism, it isimpossible to dismiss the effect ithas had in improving the lot of China'senormous population . By combininghis own footage with some historicalfilm clips, Greene has clearly estab-lished the degree to which Mao TseTung brought China away from beinga land traditionally ravaged by war,famine, and political turmoil . Chinesecommunism, it is asserted, must beviewed in terms of what it is actuallyaccomplishing . It is not propagandabut fact that Peking had but a singlepublic hospital when Mao assumedcontrol of the nation in 1949 . Thatcity now has thirty-five, Greene notes .

In a country crippled by illiteracyin the past, 100 million youngsterbegan school this year . New Roads,and bridges, housing construction andnumerous other projects are in con-stant, continual evidence .

China obviously has it problems .the quality of the goads it producesmust be improved . Housing develop-ment is not yet keeping up with the

people . With sensitivity andwomen and children in China .

ever increasing population .These difficulties seem minor,

however, when the energy, fervor anddevotion to country displayed by theChinese in parades, town meetingsand schools is shown. Propaganda?To a degree, one suspects, but sowhat? The nation is struggling,aching nightly perhaps from its grow-ing pains, enduring setbacks andfrustrating obstacles . But China is- and one cannot see Greene's filmwithout realizing this - tremendously,vitally, marvelously alive .

Alive without plaid stamps andCoca-Cola plants, without "the drink-ing man's diet" or discotesque syn-drome, but somehow, alive nonethe-less .

Every foot of this film is an ed-ucation and in many ways, an oddsort of inspiration . But decide thatfor yourself. CHINA! is, at thiswriting at the Carnegie Hall Cinemain New York City . It is playingalong with a splendid short that fea-tures the Peking Symphony Orchestra .I highly recommend both.

The New LeftAcceptance of Responsibility

by lassie Sykes

The United States of 1965 is notvery different, in general, from anyotherycar of its history . its policies,both domestically and internationally,are still concerned with the mainte-nance of mediocrity rather than asearch for excellence in solving thepressing problems of a world in need .From the time of Plymouth Colony,with people more interested in payingback their loans than they were inDemocratic Principles, to the present,where guns and lawlessness are used

Ambassador Nikolai T . Federenko

immediately to protect the financialinterest of the United States . We havenoted that the enthusiasm to "protectAmerican lives and property" has notextended itself to the southern blackbelt or, for that matter, to many otherplaces with concentrations of Afro-Americans . The difference in U.S.words and U.S . deeds has not goneunnoticed . Russia's AmbassadorFederenko addressing the SecurityCouncil on the present Dominicancrises stated, ". . .American troopswere sent to the Dominican Republic,a sovereign state, far more freely andfar more willingly than they were sent,for instance, into the State of Alabama,

LLF3ERATOR July 7965

Where, as is known, the racists areholding sway ." The New Statesman,a British Weekly, was moved to say,

. . .What may be called the civilizingelements no longer have full access tothe White House . The tone of UnitedStates foreign policy under Mr . John-son has become harsh, unsympatheticand ill-mannered . His increasing useof force conceals a VACUUM OFIDEAS . The inevitable conclusion to

be reached after looking at the "works"of the present Administration is thatthey refuse to accept any responsi-bilities except those which tend toprotect American financial enterprisesat home and overseas . Given thesituation, is there anyone in the Uni-ted States who is responsible for thewelfare of the poor and underdeveloped?Is there anyone interested in a genuineand meaningful change, rather than thesimple handout (we rob the world blind,and then offer a food for peace pro-gram)? We think there is ; a malignedand often misunderstood group ofpeople known collectively, as the NewLeft .

Acceptance of Responsibility :If one were to generalize roughly

about the New Left, we could saythat most of its adherents are youngpeople who have rejected AmericanDogma and propaganda; they areknowledgeable about world facts andconditions and are able to see re-lationships between them (much of thenew left is college centered) . Theyenjoy the writings of Vance Packard,C . Wright Mills, Bertrand Russell,Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon toname but a few . The most misunder-stood factors about them concernstheir liking for political leaders suchas Fidel Castro, Ahmed Ben Bella,Kwame Nkrumah, Mao Tse-Tung andHo Chi Minh . They have an enlivenedinterest in the plight of the world's

poor, and, most of all, they neverchicken out when it comes to pro-

testing or criticizing policies whicheither do nothing to change the condi-tion of the poor or make it worse .

The liking for political leaderssuch as Mao Tse-rung has less to dowith ideology than with the practicalaspects of solving the problems ofgreat masses of the poor . The Secre-tary-General of the United Nations,"drove the nail home" at a recentconference of "Non-Governmental

Secretary General U Thant

Organizations" ( 27 May 1965 ) as hetold us what the real problem of theworld was. Said U Thant, -[thinkthat if the leaders of thought, theleaders of ideas, the leaders of men,the leaders of governments, the lead-ers of countries, are to bend theirefforts to achieving significant resultsinthe creation of a stable worldorder,THOSE ENEMIES MUST BE FOUGHT:ILLITERACY, IGNORANCE, POVER-TY AND DISEASE . I think that topreach to them and tell them about theVIRTUES OF DEMOCRACY, thevirtues of human dignity, the virtuesof fundamental human freedoms, is notonly IRRELEVANT, BUT COMIC .

coast. next page

21

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NEW LEFT cont .Their first need is to have sufficientfood to eat, to have adequate clothing,to have suitable houses in which tolive . Those are their primary needs .I think that attempts to preach theseideas of parliamentary democracy andfundamental freedoms and human dig-nity will not go to their hearts . IN MYVIEW, THAT 13 NOT THE REMEDY.The remedy is to do away with thesecauses of illiteracy, ignorance, disease and poverty .

I think that we haveto go to the ROOT OF THE PROB-LEM if we are to establish a stableworld order, if we are to see that theprinciples of the United Nations Char-ter are implemented in all parts of theworld . "

The New Left has accepted theresponsibility of trying to do what itcan to get at "the root of the prob-lem." If they like political leaderswho at this time are unpopular withour government, it is because consid-erable improvements have occured formasses of people . While space doesnot permit us to review the statisticson such things as construction (new),or increase in manufacturing or agri-culture, it is quite cleat that masseso ¬ people have fared better under mensuch as Ben Bella, Nkrumah, Mao and

22

mrnn

Ahmed Ben Bella

Fidel . The change from foreigndomination to independence has notbeen easy . Cuba, for example, wasforced to adjust her entire economydue to the hostility of the UnitedStates . The recent figures on sugarwill show that Cuba has declined inthe number of metric tons producedwhen compared to pre-Castro days,but then the sugar was controlled bythe U .S . and the people receivedlittle benefit, whereas today, eventhough the tonnage is less, the peoplehave a higher living standard, becausethey control . The struggle of thesecountries to succeed is a study in rawcourage. It is this kind of couragethat captures the imagination of thenew left ; the courage to provide thenecessities for the masses of peoplein spite of the United States .

Since Mao Tse-rung is the "bigbad enemy," some of the commentswritten in The Selected Works of MaoTse-Tung, published by InternationalPublishers in New York, are enlighten-ing . At the height of the fight againstChiang Kai-shek (April 1948) Maotalked to an editorial group : "If wetried to go on the offensive when themasses are not yet awakened, thatwould be adventurism . If we insistedon leading the masses to do anythingagainst their will, we would certainlyfail . If we did not advance when themasses demand advance, that wouldbe right (wing) opportunism ." Atanother point he said, "We havealways maintained that the revolu-tion must rely on the masses of thepeople, on everybody's taking a hand ;and we have opposed relying merely

on a few persons issuing orders." Inthe "Manifesto of Chinese People'sLiberation Army " (1947) Mao states,"In order to overthrow Chiang Kai-shekand form a democratic coalition gov-ernment at an early date, we call onour fellow-countrymen in all walks oflife to co-operate actively with uswhere-ever our army goes in cleaningup the reactionary forces and settingup a democratic order. In places wehave not yet reached, they shouldtake up arms on their own, resistpressganging and the grain levy,distribute the land, repudiate debts. . . .We call on the people in the Lib-erated Areas to carry through the landreform, consolidate the foundationsof democracy, develop production,practice economy, strengthen thepeople's armed forces ." If one takesthe time to read the five volumes ofMao's writing, you realize immediatelythat he has no equal when dealingwith the masses . Small wonder thatthe revolutionary world looks towardPeking . Lederer and Burdick, writingin "The Ugly American," state thatMao is "one of the brilliant tacticiansof our time." lie is also human andunderstands the needs of his people .

In case anyone is tempted to saythat Mao's writings are propaganda,Lederer and Burdick also point outthat Mao has laid down a pattern ofstrategy and tactics which the Com-munists of Southeast Asia have "fol-lowed undeviatingly ." What is someof this strategy? What proof indicatesit is being followed?

In October of 1947 Mao reissuedwhat he called "The Three MainRules of Discipline and The EightPoints For Attention ." They wereinstructions of the General Head-quarters of the Chinese People'sLiberation Army :

The Three Main rules :1 . Obey orders in all your actions2 . Don't take a single needle or

piece ofthread from the masses3 . Turn in everything captured

The Eight Points :1 . Speak politely2 . Pay fairly for what you buy3 . Return everything you borrow

4 . Fay for anything you damage5 . Don't hit or swear at people6 . Don't damage crops7 .

Don't take liberties with women8 . Don't ill-treat captives

The New York Times, in a releasedated April 25, stated the following :"The Vietcong guerrillas (Vietnam)despite their offensive against theGovernment, have not attempted todestroy the economic structure . In-stead they have exploited it, exactingtaxes (they are the government of thearea) and, except in token cases, per-mitted industrial facilities to remainunscathed . . .Though Vietcong terrorismis centered in the countryside, theproduction of rice -- which occupiesabout 80 per cent of the cultivatedland -- has not been severely affected .Little land has been abandoned, andcultivation has remained high" . . .

Premier Fidel Castro

The rules are followed all over theworld . In Santo Domingo Americans

are captured, well treated and then

released . In Guatemala Freedom

fighters offer pay when the peasants

supply their needs. Peasants often

will return the money in gratitude .

This then has been just a capsule of

why the New Left can appreciate cer-

tain types of leadership . If Mao and

others have become heroes, in a

sense, it is because America has de-

faulted in her responsibility to solveproblems outlined above by U Thant

at the United Nations . It is this de-

fault that has put the New Left at

odds with the society .

Conflict of Views:The dcntonstrations carried out by

LIBERATOR July 1965

the New Left has served to bring intofocus the clash between basic founda-tions of thinking . On the one hand,most Americans accept the idea of"the strong shall dominate," whilethe New Left says "All should sharewith dignity ." Most Americans areinvolved with the protection of goodsand materials above the level of basicnecessities, while the New Left isinvolved in trying to get basic neces-sities . Some will ask about thelatest batting averages of A.T.T . orGeneral Motors ;

the New Left asks"How many ate a decent meal today?flow many are achieving a good educa-tion? Why do so many Negroes die inthe prime of life? Must we always beagainst the legitimate aspirations ofpeople overseas trying to better theirpoverty stricken lives? These arejust a few of the questions, but theyindicate the gap between acceptedvalue structures .

Problems of the Left :In utter stupidity, many Americans

wonder if the New Left is in somewaydirected by foreign enemies . Theanswer is no, and the proof is in theway they operate . If Mao were run-ning this operation, he would insiston Unity among peoples based on com-mon goals and objectives . The highlysplintered New Left hardly fits thisbill . Competition for power in theirranks ignores Mao's slogan, "Officersteach soldiers, soldiers teach officers,and soldiers teach each other." Whenthe meaning of this is learned, a forcefor meaningful change will be givenbirth . The militant governmental in-filtrators will, however, try to keepthis from happening .

If Mao were running this operation,he would start by making a completeand detailed analysis of the classesin America from the wealthiest to theunemployed . tie would then ask thequestion, "Who are our enemies, andwho are our friends?" We have anagging doubt that the New Left hasnot done its homework adequately ;there is too mu: , li d~~pen~~.r~tce onwhite motley and white conscience .

President Kwame Nkrumah

In China Mao was faced with a clas-sic problem of how to unite their realfriends to attack their real enemies .

Mao solvedhis problem ; the New Lefthas not .

Mao believed in protracted strug-gles when up against a powerful foe .He carefully executed well thoughtout plans, calculated to win . Wenote with interest the desperate movesto move in on the racial question forpurposes of unity . Problems arise notbecause they are not interested, butbecause so few have thought the thingthrough . A case in point : shoulddemonstrations be means or ends?Should they be used alone or in con-cert with other tactics? Should theybe geared toward the conscience orthe pocketbook? Does police counter-action nullify its effectiveness, andif so, what action does one take?Historically, how many "appeals"have ever borne fruit?

The moral to this article is thatunity, thoughtfulness, and study areprime necessities ; and, if I may bor-row the words of Frantz Fanon, con-sidered the conscience of the Algerian

Revolution, "A struggle which mo-bilizes all classes of the people andwhich expresses their aims and theirimpatience, which is not afraid tocount almost exclusively on thepeople's support, WILL 01,L

TRIUMI'll ." Such a goal isdifficult indeed ; and, while the NewLeft makes errors, they at least haveaccepted the responsibility - of tryingfor a bet :,-, r worl .l i�t!-mitp inmind .

23

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24

The Prophet Drew Ali Has Spoken

The last Prophet in these days isNoble Drew Ali, who was preparedin due time by Allah to redeem menfrom their sinful ways, and to warnthem o f the great wrath which is sureto come upon the earth . John theBaptist was the forerunner of Jesusin those days, warning and stirring upthe nation and preparing them to re-ceive the divine creed which was tobe taught by Jesus . In these moderndays there came a forerunner, whowas divinely prepared by the greatGod-Allah and his name is MarcusGarvey, who did teach and warn thenations of the earth to prepare tomeet the coming Prophet ; who wasto bring the true and divine Creed ofIslam, andhis name i s Noble Drew Ali,who was prepared and sent to thisearth by Allah, to teach the religionand the everlasting gospel to the sonsof men in that every nation shall andmust worship under their own vine andfig tree, and return to their own andbe one with their Father God-Allah .

The 3eginning of Christianity :The foundation of Christianity be-

gan in Rome . The Roman nationsfounded the first Church, of whomcrucified Jesus of Nazareth for seek-to redeem His people from under theRoman yoke and law . Jesus himselfwas of the true blood of the ancientCanaanites and Moabites and the in-habitants of Africa . Seeking to redeemHis people in those days from thepressure of the pale skin nations ofEurope, Rome crucified Him accordingto their law, then imposed its PaxRomana on the subjugated peoplefor a long time, until Mohammed theFirst came upon the scene and ful-filled the works of Jesus of Nazareth .The holy teaching of Jesus was to thecommon people, to redeem them fromunder the great pressure of the hands

Joseph Jeftries -EI

of the unjust ; that the rulers and therich would not oppress the poor, also

that the lion and the lamb may laydown together and neither would beharmed when morning came . Theseteachings were not accepted by therulers, nor by the rich because theyloved the principles of the "Ten Com-mandments . Through the Ten Com-mandments the rulers and the richlive, while the poor suffer and die .The lamb is the poor people, the lionis the rulers and the rich, and throughLove, Truth, Peace, Freedom andjustice all men are one and equal toseek their own destiny and to worshipunder their own vine and fig tree,after the principles of the holy anddivine laws of their forefathers .

The Moorish Science Temple ofAmerica is a lawfully chartered andincorporated organization . Any sub-ordinate Temple may receive a char-ter ; the prophet has them to issue toevery state throughout the UnitedStates, etc . That the world may hearand know the truth, that among thedescendants of Africa there is stillmuch wisdom to be learned in thesedays for the redemption of the sons ofmen under Love, Truth, Peace, Free-dom and Justice . We, as a clean andpure nation descended from the inha-bitants of Africa, do not desire toamalgamate or marry into the familiesof the pale skin nations of Europe norserve the gods of their religion becauseour forefathers are the true and divinefounders of the first religious creedfor the redemption and salvation ofmankind on earth . Therefore we arereturning the Church and Christianityback to the European Nations, as itwas prepared by their forefathers fortheir earthly salvation, while we, theMoorish-Americans, are returning toIslam, which was founded by our fore-fathers for our earthly and divineSalvation .

Letters To The Editor

LIBERATOR:Since you gave a page to The

Pawnbroker, you might be interestedin further comment .

It seems very interesting to me thatall the significant changes from thebook serve to downgrade the HarlemNegro. Your reviewer has noted thefact that the most malevolent characterhas been changed from Italian to Ne-gro . But the most sympathetic andvital character -- Ortiz - has alsochanged. I find no suggestion in thebook that either Ortiz or his motheris basically Spanish-speaking. Themothers' chat about religion withother mothers is in plain Harlem -accented American . But in the moviethese "good people" are set off fromother black folk by their Spanish .

The lonely man (Juano Hernandez)came across in the movie as a pre-tentious user of big words whosemeaning he probably didn't grasp. Inthe book his depth of knowledge onthe topics he discusses is underlined .

Finally, in the book, the old Jew'sdeath includes a fine vignette of asensible and sympathetic Negro doc-tor who refuses a fee . This has beendropped - perhaps a legitimate decisionin itself, but part of a pattern . So ofthe book's Harlemites, - the vitalyoung Ortiz is de-Americanized (de-Harlemized), the scholar is made abit of a fool, the wise and sympa-thetic doctor disappears, and we areleft with the newly - created racketeerplus three thieves and a whore -hardly the balanced presentationgiven in the book . What was themotive here?

Len RagozinNew York

Reader Len Ragozin is quite accurateon all counts . There is, of course, apattern involved here; one which ispresent to a degree in all attempts by

LIBERATOR July 1965

communicative media in America toportray Black people . Sidney Lumetand the producers of PAWNBROKERare guilty of a form o f racism that isperhaps more subtle than the brandespoused by George Wallace andJames Eastland but certainly no lessdangerous . Space did not allow meto deal with many disturbing aspectsof this film, several of which arementioned above, but I emphaticallyconcur with the points made therein .

Clayton Riley

Mr . -Watts;No Mr . Watts, we will not have a

long hot summer. Last winter wasprotracted and cold . There was nomore heat in our vermin infested hovelsthan the year before . We have learnedthat as long as what we do takesplace were we live and to those whochoose to take their chances dealingdirectly with us, we will be at astandstill . Our summer of discontentwill be expressed, but the anger willbe directed more wisely. We will notconcern ourselves with the poor shellof a man who cheats with the meatscale, and instead, will address our-selves to The White Power Structure .Kahn's Meat Market will be bypassed,we will invest a token and give Lordand Taylor's a chance to get in on theaction. Park Avenue will see our un-collected garbage, smell the odor ofdead rats, watch as their children areawakened by Black night riders burn-ing crosses, then slipping into thequiet of night. Twenty men, twentyminutes downtown during the lunchhour rush will provide more financialand emotional wreakage on Whiteythan two thousand on stores andapartments ready for the bulldosercould do given a weeks time! . . .Ourslogan : Kahn's Meat Market? No!Lord and Taylor? Yes, Yes!

ReaderCamden, N.J .

BlackAmericaSpeaksLIBERATOR

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LIBERATOR

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Address

Dear Editor :If there's been any doubt in the

minds of the deal-making civil rightsleaders as to just where PresidentLyndon B. Johnson stands on the"Rights of Negroes," the President'srecent appointment of the racist ex-governor Coleman of Mississippishould make the matter perfectlyclear .

The time has come for the Negroesof this country to come to the realiza-tion that they have been well used forvote-getting purposes, in exactly thesame manner that the politicianshave been using them for the past 170years .

When the hoodwinked masses makesome attempt to become factually in-formed as to whom the politiciansreally represent, they will find thetrue solution to their problems .

Jack BradyLake Charles, La.

25

Short Story

Now That Henry is GoneHenry fell without a sound, arms loose,he crumpled like cloth and hit the base-ment floor. There was laughter fromthe crowded room, from people whothought he was joking, and the womannamed Betty Toenail went right ondancing as if she expected him to riseagain, grinning and doing The Monkey,the way he had done all night .

"Get up, man," someone called,"quit acting the fool."The music and Betty continued, handsclapped in time with finger-poppingthrough the smoke and dimness - whata party it was .For two nights or three - no one wassure - the crowd kept coming, growinglarger, shouting louder, on and on itwent as few people left and many ar-rived, pushing into the basement of aSeventh Avenue building near 114thStreet where T . J . Jones was superin-tendent . And T. J . Jones had startedit all with a single half-pint of wine.He and Skeeter Davis drank withBrother Randolph-from-the-Bronx wholater bought a gallon jug of muscateland invited John Grimes who told BooJohnson, so Skeeter D. went back tothe liquor store for another and sooncame back with Horace Tubbs, RoCallister, Adam Travis, who all some-times take a taste . Before the newrefreshment could be opened, PonyBrewster was there with Leon Belland two phonographs they had found.Herman Lipscomb got the word - hehad LP records and 45's and his part-ner Charley Taylor who said, "Theold-timers are headed around," Includ-ing those who didn't need last names:Beazle, Twenty-one, Biggus andLittlus, Junebug, Pill, Fatlip, TheChopper, Deuce, See-me, Roadrunner,DoWrong, Trolleycar, and Quarter-to-Midnight . They were sippers all, soanother trip to the store was in order .Skeeter D. and Cousin Randolph con-ferred, being bankers for the day, anddecided to go for broke with gallons

26

and the ladies who returned with them.Deuce, said,"Check, here come SleepyWilla Morris and Lottie Jones, 'PearlBooker, Alma Brock, Lessie Fernan-dez, Mama Wright, Bea Brown, andBetty Toenail, Jr."Collation in paper cups, cigarettes andsome sticks to smoke, the phonographall the way up when Arthur Morris ar-rived and said to Betty, "Stack 'emback, baby!" The dancing began, Andnot to be left out, Miss Q trotted inwith Birdlegs and Sweetroll, who wentno place without I .I ., who stuttered alittle and traveled with Miss Jibbs,Sister Sidewalk, Miss Mouse, LadyFish and Princess Queen .

"Well," says Adam Travis, explain-ing somewhat later to the Investigator,"I go with the crowd, you see . I'mstanding on Lenox and `21st when mymain man Ro says, 'Dig, it's on.' SoI hat on down there with him and acouple of other cats to check the hap-penings . If it ain't swinging, you un-derstand, I'm ready to do the bird . Buteverything is cool, on time and lovely -make yourself to home . Party time!I get a buzz, light stuff though, andstep awhile with Lady Fish . She'llhip you to that . Pluck for days and Ididn't ask who's buying, I'm in myworld, you dig? Henry and me, wedidn't run together . Not that he wasuncool, just in another bag . I wasleaning when he fell, but at least onestud said it was Betty Toenail whodid him . Can I ask why you want toknow?"Some of which the Investigator doesn'tunderstand but puts it in the record,saying to the others in the gallery,"Gentlemen, it is my consideredopinion that a sordid collusion existsbetween these witnesses, there is acalculated attempt to confuse us . Wehave heard the woman called "BettyToenail" villified, maligned and re-peatedly accused of this heinous act .Yet we are not yet certain what that

by Clayton Riley

act wa.s or whether it even took place .Adam," he said to Adam Travis, "Weintend to get to the bottom of this."

"That's cool," says Adam.Henry fell without a sound, armsloose, he crumpled like cloth and hitthe basement floor . There was laugh-ter from the crowded room, from peoplewho thought he was joking . . . .

"Get up, man," someone called,"quit acting the fool ." It was Beazle,who told the Investigator, "Skeeter D.and Brother Randolph-from-the-Bronxdon't know, but I saw them making itdown `10th by Central Park, up-tightand looking for a scene . Pill andthem are supposed to play bid whistat Henry's crib, laying up the waythey do . Skeeter D . and Brother Ran-dolph are on the block or in the life assome folks call it - it's hustling anyway you cut it . Some of this, a littleof that, you pick up a few bills -enough to keep scuffling . Mostlythough, you move as much as you can,looking for a break, a good deal orsomething . Everybody's chance to copis lying around somewhere - you moveenough, you get yours and relax . SoSkeeter and Randolph don't know I'mpeeping when they beat some dude forhis bread . He's gray so I cool thewhole thing . But I dug it . And thesetwo dummies, because they haven'tseen a coin for a while, throw a' gigand blow that cash treating everybodyto some squeeze, down in T .J .'s base-ment. It was them, not Betty T, whogot into it with Henry. Another cattold me that Skeeter D . and BrotherRandolph gorilla'd Henry . Can I askwhy you want to know?"People kept coming in all night . EgyptLand and the big man called Bone-crusher were among them, though theyaren't known to socialize much. Andseveral more who could only be called,"Say, man," or "Listen, girl," or"Look here." A few thieves, a junkytrio, here a whore, there a pimp,

cont . pg. 28

~o

HENRY coat .amateur assassins, bullies, purse-snatchers, car-washers, pool sharks,muggers, stolen property agents,agitators, cowards, signifiers, beg-gars, and when everyone else wascounted, Henry arrived .Later, when Quarter-to-Midnight wastaken to the Great Hall, he would sitbeneath a harsh white light and besurrounded by an arena of spectators .Five hundred pale gray faces wouldsurround him . On a stool, rubbing hishands together, Quarter-to-Midnightwould wait . Presently - a stir in theassembly, a man in black robes, strol-ling and smiling, stopping and saying,"You are the individual called Quar-ter-to-Midnight?"

"Yes, sir, that's what I'm called.""Why?""People like to bug me about being

so dark.""I shall address you as Quarter,

henceforth.""Square business, baby . And you,

what's your stick?""I am the Investigator .

Address meas Mr . Investigator."

"Solid," says Quarter-to-Midnight ."Quarter, we are assembled here

today in order to discern what if anymalfeasance may have attended thedemise of an individual named HenryJackson, who was, I am told, a com-patriot of yours . Be advised that anyinformation you divulge shall be con-sidered confidential and remain con-fined to the members of this investi-gative body and their immediate fam-ilies . You are to discuss what yousay and hear in this chamber with noone . Is that quite clear?"Some of which Quarter-to-Midnightdoesn't understand . "Yes, sir," hereplies, "it's all clear."

"Then you may begin your testi-mony."While Quarter-to-Midnight speaks,Betty Toenail, Jr., subpoenaed as amaterial witness, sought as a primarysuspect, makes a phone call to ayounger brother who, as it turns out,is unable to receive the call but lateris given a message by his employer.

28

Betty Toenail, born in poverty, raisedwith indifference and hardened by herenvironment becomes a prostitute . Atfourteen she is a seasoned profession-al plying the trade in transient hotels,alleys, and subway stations . Her faceis embroidered with a number of stit-ches, the souvenirs she receives fromthe fists and other weapons of hercustomers and business rivals . Sheis arrested many times and counts heryears by these events . Picked up onChristmas Eve by a jovial patrolmanwho promises leniency in exchangefor her favors ; she complies butspends her holiday in a jail cell none-theless with a magistrate's wordsringing in her ears . "Trust no one .Learn to defend yourself." Yearslater, standing quietly on a sidewalknear Mount Morris Park, Betty Toenailmeets Henry and goes to live withhim . It is a fine relationship, lastingthrough many troubles and she is ableto retire from her work when Henryfinds steady employment as a waiter .They live in peace, insofar as such astate is possible in that district . Thebetrayal that separates them is notcaused specifically by a human failing .Their first meeting in months occursat T . J . Jones' basement party .And Quarter-to-Midnight began.

"It's early, you dig? Three o'clockand I'm loafing on `16th and Seventh .Skeeter D . shows and hips me to thehappenings at T . J.'s . Cool . We makeit and atfirst it's a lame set. Nothingbut hard-legs . T . J ., Skeeter D.,Brother Randolph and the crew. Henrywas on the scene too."A moan swept through the assemblyand the Investigator cried, "Henry?Did you mention Henry?"

"Henry," replied Quarter-to-Mid-night, "was there from the git-go."

"That's from the beginning, Gentle-men." a clerk explained .A moan swept through the assemblyand the Investigator cried, "We havebeen misled .

But continue .""Well," Quarter-to-Midnight went

on, "we started tasting . Sides wereblowing decent sounds . I start tostep with Miss Jibbs, she'll hip you

to that . Some youngblood shows andstarts to shoot up - I don't play thatsince my asthma but everybody is cooland the good times roll . I keep a cupof Must-I-Tell and my head startssmoking . All the people hit it prettysoon, The Chopper, See-me--

"We know who was there," theInvestigator interrupted . "Go on."

"The sounds get groovy and boom,baby, Betty T . comes in and takes thefloor . The chick's frame goes likehoney, in a solo first but before long,boom, baby, dig Deuce. He's velvet,no jive . They get together and startto gig, off-timing and the bit . Nevermissing step, saying the word, tellingthe story . Betty's moves were preach-ing the gospel and Deuce, with ease,testified to everything she said . Butthen he's an old time soft-shoe tapperfrom way back . Before it was over itwas rock-house in thejoint . Everybodygot up . It was something else . Soulgot to all those people . Cats whowould shiv each other for a bean werelaughing together, the broads werebehaving like royalty and the set be-came beautiful . Soul, baby . Love .Even me and Egypt Land, we nevermake it anywhere without scuffing, butwe were pouring pluck together . Areyou ready for that? Smiles, jokes,shake a hand, we were all beautiful .Cats couldn't believe it . Then, boom,baby, it was over . We thought Henrywas shucking but it wasn't a hype.You dig?"Henry fell without a sound, armsloose, he crumpled like cloth and hitthe basement floor. There was laugh-ter from the crowded room, from peoplewho thought he was joking, and thewoman named Betty Toenail wentright on dancing as if . . . .This noon, while I was out to tun ch,a telephone call came for me . Gen-erally my employer strictly forbidsuse of his phone for calls - incomingor outgoing - and it surprised me tohave him take a message, then pass iton to me. It's a small book ware-house, one large room divided intothree sections . If one of us has tocontact someone, send a message,

Is it the long silky hair which runsthe gamut from ash to coal? Is it the51ue, gray, hazel or brown eyes? Thesharp pointed nose with the narrownostrils? The high cheek bones? Thepencil-thin lips? Or, finally, is it thepale skin described by some as a"peaches and cream complexion"unkissed by the sun and its rays? One

HENRY cont .there's a drugstore up the street,where some of the fellows go to eat .They have several pay phones .

"Evans," he said, "you hadA woman ."

"I'm sorry," 1 told him, "I'veasked people not to call me on thejob."

"That's okay . Something aboutHenry . I couldn't understand her toowell, she didn't speak clearly ."I went back to my work certain therehad been a mistake or - perhaps that'sonly what I hoped .A shipment of children's books camein soon afterwards ; one of the new me nbrought them to me on a skid and saidthey were to be put away into thebins . The call began to bother me .Who could it have been ; what woman?And what about 1-lenry?Let me tell you, I spent several yearsontbeblock, or in die life as you will .A little of this or that - hustling, I

LIBERATOR July 1965

a call .

Letter to Black Menor all of these characteristics go intothe making up of that still-in-the-twentieth-century mystery to somemen of the Black race .

Could it be her pursuit of the "fin-er" things of life or her approach tothe more adventurous part of life?Her attitude toward sex, life, men,society, femininity? Her appreciationof art, music (the more "serious"type, that is), family, education orher awareness of the complicatedworld of economics ? That lialzac,Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Socrates, etc .,are more meaningful and pronounce-able names to her? Or maybe theway her !lips don't swivel when shewalks, mainly because of her flatderriere? Probably because her handsdo not bear the callouses which camefrom picking more than her share ofcotton--yes, the hard work startedthat long ago, or if you happen tohave been "saved" from this awesomechore because the "master" found

guess . Maybe you've seen a few ofthe people or dealt with some. Theystand on streets, eyes wide, waiting,clusters of them like famished birds .A few rush off, into a bar or some-body's apartment .I was arrested for petty theft a fewyears ago and spent time in prison .When I was released the warden toldme, "Trust no one . Learn to defendyourself." I was fortunate to get thisjob ; they ask no questions here andI'm treated well . I wear a shirt andtie to work each day and have severalpairs of good shoes . My father usedto tell us to keep clean and stay outof trouble . Betty and the othersturned out badly, but I'm in nightschool and working steady . Like myfather, who stayed out of trouble allhis life, wore a wing-collar and tieout of the house each day to "go tobusiness," I'm doing all right . lieran an elevator (changed clothes in

by KATY G13SON

favor in you anti assigned you to do-mestic chores in the "big house,"caring for the children, washing andironing, cooking, being the illicitmistress and an assortment of othermonstrous duties .

Really picking cotton, caring forchildren, cleaning, cooking, washing,ironing, being an illicit mistress (un-paid) and an assortment of other mon-strous duties has left little time, letalone desire, to pursue the "finerculture ." Take the theatre, Wednes-day at matinee time happens to be thesame time that has been assigned forcleaning windows . Saturday at matineetime the laundry must be done . Eve-nings at 8 :30 is the time to preparefor home and in most cases to dupli-cate the same chores .

When these things become so dis-tasteful to Black men that the glori-fication of that still-in-the-twentieth-century mystery becomes an obsessionand their main objective, the mysterycone. next page

the locker room) I work with books.Things have gotten better .But if something actually has happen-ed to Henry - I'll know tonight .

"Get up, man," someone called,"quit acting the fool." But Henrynever moved and soon the place wasempty . Scattering toward the street,stumbling, gasping ; no one wantedto believe or think about what hadhappened, what each had seen . OnlyBetty stayed behind, still moving tothe music, a little more high than sheusually got . And she waited, lookingdown at Henry through the smoke, thedimness, not realizing that Betty wasalone . Outside, the scrambling quick-ly began. There were those who wentalong Seventh - uptown or down - in atrot with their loose change jangling,while some went east toward Lenoxand the rest headed for Eighth .

Every-one disappeared . Until the investiga-tion .

29

LETTER cons.will never reveal itself . The mysteryis twofold and paradoxical . TheBlack Nationalist Intellects (if Nation-alist is an objectionable label, Intel-lect should compensate, for no onethese days resents being called anintellect even if he isn't one and mostare not) who speak, write and give alloutward appearance of Black pride andidentification, long natural hair not-withstanding, pulls the surprise ofhaving that still-in-the-twentieth cen-tury mystery as wife, lover and/ormother of their offspring . This is donewhile they write "angry" writings,make "angry" speeches and general-ly give a facade of "pure" Blackpride .

Is it to show that you too, yes evenyou, can have that precious and trea-sured masterpiece, and that it is with-in your reach? Pay back? It is saidin some circles that they are "payingthe national debt," whatever thatmeans. Of course, marriage is a per-sonal thing ; who would do it just toavenge some injustices heaped uponyour women? Disregard or disrespectfor the 400 years of continuous strug-gle that the female Black has enduredand still endures can't justify theirattitude . An "intellect" would cer-tainly have knowledge of this andshould not take lightly the strong roleof such women in their lives . Cer-tainlythelikes of Harriet Tubman can-not do less than evoke a deep senseof pride.

An interesting point to note is thatthe group that meets with the mostcontempt from the Black nationalistintellect (of course this doesn't in-clude all Black nationalist intellects)by and large does not marry other thantheir own . They may not and will notidentify with the Black masses, orgrass roots, and have tried desperatelyfor assimilation and do a poor job du-plicating their non-Black middle-classcounterpart (this is understandable inview of the fact that they do not comethat closely in physical contact withtheir non-Black counterpart) - -theBlack bourgeoisie married Black.

30

How the "angry" Black nationalistintellect who has chosen a non-Blackmate can seriously fight for Blackliberation is more paradoxical to methan anything else that I can think of,and at times seems quite preposterousand ridiculous . The fact that theyhave chosen non-Black mates to love,honor, cherish and to bear their off-spring, leaves little doubt in my mindthat their pro-Black, nationalistic,angry writings, speeches etc . shouldnot betaken seriously . That a systemof miscegenation that was not startedby us and has been around much long-

er than one cares to remember, cer-tainly cannot be ignored . "She hasbeen around me so long," it is oftensaid, "that she is just like me." Thisis a prize piece of assininity that ishard to match. No one is just likeanyone, white, black or indifferent .When Jews show distaste for inter-religious marriages (modern Jews in-cluded) no one accuses them of big-otry, narrowmindedness or being re-ligious fanatics, racists or extrem-ists, They are considered and ac-cepted as a people proud of theirancestry, "holders of the faith," re-tainers of their culture and are deter-mined to keep it pure . Not theseBlacks -- the great lovers of all andall things -- they would never conceiveof so narrow a thought . Of course,they are angry . In this struggle Blacksare angry for so many different reasons

that the issue and their actual goalsbecome nebulous . One might well saythat there is no Black unification andreally go uncontested . For everyonethe price is different . For some its a"good" job, others a non-Black spouseand still for others a decent homewould pay the tab . The Black inter-married nationalist intellects are angrymainly because they do not and nevershallreceive the universal acceptanceand recognition that their spousesassume and take for granted as soonas their eyes are open .

This great Black awareness seemsto come after the Black non-Blackmerger . Could it be the sudden re-alization that the attraction was notone based on common values or mu-tual interests after all, but because ofof the oppositeness -- the very oppo-siteness? The kinky hair, the full lips,the whiteness of the teeth against theblack skin (they swear that Blackshave the whitest teeth in the world)and the "primitive animalistic char-acteristics ." This comes after muchtime has been spent trying to estab-lish a certain image, moving awayfrom black ghetto neighborhoods tothe strange fascination of the "vil-lage," a different type of ghetto,only to realize and have a "real"appreciation for the former neighbor-hood. "I go uptown at least twice aweek," they say, "just to keep intouch with my people."

Not the pursuitof the "finer things"of life or the appreciation of art,music (the more "serious" type), northat Balzac, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky,Socrates etc . are more pronounceableand meaningful names, but the swivel-ling hips, the collard greens, the cot-ton picking, the calloused hands, thekinky hair, the flat nose with the widenostrils, the eyes that do not boast ofgray, green, blue or hazel, the darkcomplexion kissed by the sun and itsstrong rays, the washing and ironing,cooking, cleaning and an assortmentof other monstrous chores, the count-less illicit mistresses, unpaid, thematriarchal tendencies, and of course,the blues, are all YOU.

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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS on Contributions ofAfro-Americans to the American Culture,Kindergarten-6th Grades, $1.00

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Subscription to LIBERATOR (1 year) at $3.00

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NON-FICTIONDOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE NEGROPEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES : FROMTHE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD THROUGHPHE CIVIL WAR, edited by Herbert Aptheker .The actual words of Afro-American makersof history. $2.25

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DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE NEGROPEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES : FROMTHE RECONSTRUCTION YEARS TO THEFOUNDING OF THE NAACP IN 1910, editedby Herbert Aptheker . $2.25

(166)THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, by W.E.B .DuBois. Classic statement of the history andaspirations of Black America by the dean ofAfro-American letters. 60¢

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100 YEARS OF LYNCHING, by Ralph Ginz-burg . Our biggest seller to date--a powerfuland compelling book . 75¢

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BLACK MOSES, by E. D. Cronon . Excitingbiography of the fabulous career of MarcusGarvey . $1.95

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AFRICAN POLITICAL PARTIES, by ThomasHodgkin. Timely reference book for under-standing today's fast-moving developmentsin Africa . 95¢

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DECISION IN AFRICA, by W. AlphaeusHunton . Forthright condemnation of U.S .and European neo-colonial maneuvering inAfrica . $1.85

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FACING MOUNT KENYA, by Jomo Ken-yatta. Anthropological study of the Kikuyupeople by the father of Kenya nationalism.$1 .45 (107)

NOTES OF A NATIVE SON, by James Bald-win. Collection of essays on the Negrostruggle to live in America. $1.25

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BLACK MUSLIMS IN AMERICA, by EricLincoln. Factual study of one of the mosttalked-about protest movements in the U.S .today. $1 .75

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I SPEAK OF FREEDOM, by Kwame Nkrumah.Collection of speeches by one of the greatAfrican leaders of our day. $1.95

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SCOTTSBORO BOY, by Haywood Patterson.A true story of typical Southern "justice"and of the jungle conditions that prevail inAlabama prisons. 60¢

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THE NEGRO PROTEST, James Baldwin,Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King talkwith Kenneth B. Clark. $2.50

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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUG-LASS, autobiography. The great blackabolitionist describes his life under slaveryand his struggle against it . $1 .50

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AMERICAN NEGRO SLAVE REVOLTS, byHerbert Aptheker . The book which destroyedthe myth that Afro-Americans were happyunder slavery. $2.25

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A STAR TO STEER BY, by Capt . Hugh Mul-zac. The story of the authors 35 yearstruggle to become the first colored captainof a U.S, merchant ship, $1 .85

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