It's Very Simple: The True Story Of Civil Rights
Chapter Seven: The REVOLUTION
By Alan Stang
Late in May 1964, students of the Blood Brothers who opened the New York Times were intrigued to learn that the Brothers were looking forward to a planned "hit," or attack, against Harlem police, probably some time in July, to protest the enforcement of the "no-knock" and "stop-and-frisk" laws, which become effective July 1. On the morning of July 16, a police lieutenant shot and killed a fifteen-year old Negro boy named James Powell. All he had to say for himself was that young Powell had repeatedly attacked him with a knife. On the night of July 18--little more than forty-eight hours later--a riot "somehow broke out" during a march on a police station, and only a few hours after that, large sections of New York City were fast approaching open warfare. "The instructions [to Communist terrorists in Vietnam] stress the desirability of violence and serious injuries--even deaths--to produce martyrs and a focus for further resentment. Some time later, it developed that young Mr. Powell had not been what is called a model boy: FBI report on summer riots in NYC, Philadelphia, Rochester, reveals for first time that 15-year-old James Powell, whose killing by New York policeman Gilligan touched off the three-day NY riots, had long history of street fighting, bullying younger children; had once been treated for a stab wound, had been arrested earlier in the year for robberty.4 But that didn't mean anything. There had to be a "hit," you see, to protest the phenomenon called police brutality.
So the "freedom fighters" went to work: Posters appeared in the streets bearing the legend: "Wanted for murder--Gilligan the Cop." Almost from the inception of the Harlem riots, an army of some 200 young toughs, mostly Negroes, but with a scattering of whites, descended on two streets in the W. 80s, between Broadway and Columbus AVe., in about 50 cars, most of them from out of town, and camped there for the duration of the turbulent week . . .6 (italics added) Black youth with the right orientation can stop this entire country. Small bands can damage the eight major dams that supply most of the electricity . . ."7 "Mr. Lumumba" Despite the obvious resentment of the residents, the burly young men set up what amounted to command posts from which they moved on to the racial battle-grounds in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant. They returned to the cars to change clothes, get some sleep and food, consume quantities of booze and, sometimes, nurse their wounds. "In the first phase of fear and insecurity, the Communists [in Saigon] are trying to establish what they call 'safe zones' in sections of the city. These are areas in which arms could be stored and agents, even military personnel, could gather secretly in the guise of youths or workers, ready for a full-scall revolt against the government."8 . . . Police who infiltrated the meetings said the conspirators were heard making plans for participation in the Rochester troubles . . . ". . . The only serious organizational principle the active workers of our movement can accept is: Strict secrecy, strict selection of members, and the training of professional revolutionists . . ."9 V. I. Lenin [They] were spotted in the forefront of the Harlem rioting, participating in the blood-letting, brick-tossing and the throwing of Molotov cocktails. "Communist cadres [in Saigon] have also been told to have grenades ready to throw into crowds. One boy seized Sunday had a grenade in his clothing."10 Malcolm X, however, was in the clear. In fact, six days earlier, on July 12, he arrived in Cairo to attend a meeting of the council of ministers of the Organization for African Unity. So he's in the clear. May, 1929: "What happened these past May days in Berlin were not accidental disorder resulting from the disregard by the working classes of the order issued by the police not to organize street manifestations, but was really a deliberate attack on the police by a Communist band armed with rifles . . ." 13 (Emphasis added) According to a front page story in the New York Journal American of July 21, many incidents broke in different places at the same time; several men seen rioting in Harlem at midnight were seen rioting at two a.m. in Brooklyn; and organizers were everywhere equipped with walkie-talkies. Yes, walkie-talkies. June, 1960: "The whole thing, it is now clear, was manipulated by Communists [in Tokyo] as part of an organized world-wide campaign . . . The signals are called in Moscow. ". . . "There were evidences of careful planning behind the seemingly hysterical mob. Rioting flared, subsided, flared again as though on signal . . ."14 It is in those areas [Harlem and Brooklyn] that Negroes are being organized for guerrilla warfare.15 "The New concept of revolution defies military science and tactics. The new concept is lightning campaigns conducted in highly sensitive urban communities, with the paralysis reaching the small communities and spreading to the farm areas."16 Robert Williams A Negro civil-rights leader says that thousands of Negroes in Harlem are armed and that "sooner or later they will use their guns against the cops." "The new concept is to huddle as close to the enemy as possible so as to neutralize his modern and fierce weapons. The new concept . . . dislocates the harmony and order and reduces central power to the level of a helpless, sprawling octopus. During the hours of day sporadic rioting takes place and massive sniping. Night brings all out warfare, organized fighting, and unlimited terror against the oppressor and his forces . . ."17 Screams of the injured, bursts of flame from "bottle bombs," the sharp crack of pistol shots, shrieking sirens of police cars and ambulances, the crashing of bricks through store windows made it a bedlam.18 And if you didn't know how to make a "bottle bomb," you could of course refer to a handbill circulated by the "Harlem Freedom Fighters": "Any empty bottle filled with gasoline, use rag as a wick. Light rag, toss bottle and see them run."19 On July 19, Jesse Gray got mad. Mr Gray is usually described by the New York Timesas a "rent-strike" leader. He was also described under oath before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in February 1963, as an organizer for the Communist party.20 Counterattack of July 3, 1964, reports that he also found time to manage the campaign of Communist official Benjamin Davis in his 1958 try for the New York state senate. Counterattack reports the testimony on February 2, 1960 of Albert Gaillard, before the House Committee on Un-American Activities: Gailard quoted both Gray and Davis as saying that the conspiracy badly needed to organize and stimulate a Negro youth movement in Harlem. And so on July 19, 1964, the day after the trick worked, Jesse Gray appeared at a "protest" rally, where he made the following statement, according to the New York Times: "There is only one thing that can correct the situation, and that's guerrilla warfare." He called for "100 skilled black revolutionaries who are ready to die," Mr gray said that he was seeking platoon captains, who could each recruit one hundred men loyal to themselves.21 ". . . Another way in which the above statement has been confirmed is through knowledge acquired concerning the preparations made by the Communist Party in Germany in the fields of politics and military strategy, viz. that the German Communist Party's organization of armed force is planned along the lines of hundred-men groups (in factories, etc.) which can be united into regiments and battalions and . . . trained in the use of fire-arms and street-fighting . . ."22 (Emphasis added) "This city can be changed by 50,000 well organized Negroes," says Mr. Gray. "They can determine what will happen in New York City." "Today the Ku Klux Klan has taken off its sheets and donned a uniform--a police uniform. Guerrilla tactics are the only way of letting the underdog equalize a situation."23 Malcolm X. Among those in the audience were William L. Patterson and Robert G. Thompson, top state Communist party officials.24 That fact was nowhere to be found in the New York Times. At the time, as you will recall, Malcolm X was still in Cairo. On the morning of July 22, in a front page story of the Times, Acting Mayor Paul Screvane was reported to have charged that "known Communists" had something to do with causing the trouble. And on the same day, Americans read as follows on pages three and thirteen in the News: A five-month investigation by dozens of top detectives, working in close cooperation with FBI, has disclosed widespread Communist infiltration--so much so that they command 1,000 young fanatics dedicated to violence. Their instructions are: "Deploy! Incite!" One high source described them as "beatniks, crumbums, addicts and thieves," some of whom are paid in narcotics as well as cash . . . Those of you who remember your geography will forgive me for emphasizing that the capital of the United Arab Republic is Cairo. Cairo of course is where the decision was made and the money spent to launch the Communist coup in Algeria--under the cloak of Islam. Cairo--of all places--was where Malcolm X was at the moment. On the same night that all this was revealed, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in Jackson, Mississippi, according to the New York World-Telegram of July 23, page two, that he is "sick and tired of people saying this movement has been infiltrated by Communists and Communist sympathizers. There are as many Communists in this freedom movement as there are Eskimos in Florida." On July 24, the Journal-American, on pages one and four, published an interview with an Eskimo by the name of William Epton, chairman of both the Progressive Labor Movement (PLM)--which describes the 135th Street police station as "the Auschwitz of Harlem"--and of the Harlem Defense Council--whose leaflets urges Harlemites to organize "with the purpose of defending each and every block in Harlem from the cops"--both of which share offices at 336 Lenox Avenue. "It's no crime to be a Communist," Mr. Epton states. "They can't put us in jail because of our political beliefs. As a matter of fact, I would like to see the police try it." Mr. Epton readily admits that he is a Communist and that his organization is a Communist organization, the Journal reports. "We arrived at what we consider to be a correct Marxist-Leninist position. Our position happens to be almost the same as that of the Chinese." Mr. Epton says that PLM has four offices in New York and others throughout the country. He estimates national membership at "more than 1000." Mr. Epton, who is a Negro, says that seventy-five percent of his membership is white. He says that his members "are very generous. They contribute all of the money." At two p.m. on July 26 station WPAT reported that police files show PLM's money comes "from Red China through Cuba." Williams [Robert F. Williams: the Communist and former NAACP official who now broadcasts from Havana] did not arrive unheralded in Peking from Cuba last Autumn. Chairman Mao had paid him tribute in a rare public statement. Six weeks before Williams came, the Party Leader was receiving a group of African visitors and opened his audience with them by declaring that Robert Williams, writing from Havana, had asked him to speak up 'in support of the American Negroes' struggle against racial discrimination. On behalf of the Chinese people I wish to . . . express our resolute support.'"25 "People of all countries always encourage and support each other in the struggle against imperialism and old and new colonialism and for national liberation . . . we consider it our unshirkable international duty to support all just, revolutionary struggles of the peoples throughout the world."26 Kuo Mo-jo, chairman of the China Peace Committee, at a rally in Peking. The New York Times of July 28 reports, on page fifteen, the New York state supreme court testimony of Detective John Rivera, who says he heard Mr. Epton make the following announcement at a meeting on July 18: "We're going to have to kill cops and judges." Two Negro patrolmen, Clifton King and Clarence Crabb, told of attending another meeting on the next day at Mr. Epton's headquarters, where Mr. Crabb says Epton made the following remarks: "If there was any opposition, it should not be dealt with on the avenue but the police should be sucked into the side streets where they should be bombarded with missiles." Patrolman King added that Mr. Epton said "people were wasting their time throwing empty bottles but if they filled them with some kind of liquid it could create more disturbance." So it was interesting indeed to read the following paragraphs in the same story: Mr. Gray, who has been leading Harlem rent strikes, protested at the start of the hearing that he had no lawyer present. During the session, Abraham Unger, a lawyer, came up to represent him and contended the only link between the Epton and Gray groups was a Harlem Defense Council circular listing a rally by Mr. Gray's group. "Another building in Brasil [a town in Columbia] a smaller one, is the two story Casa Comunista, where a mimeograph machine grinds out cheap propaganda sheets urging support of the 'Democratic Front of National Liberation'--the euphemism that now replaces the former, more explicit 'Communist pary' . . ."27 That Friday night, July 24, rioting broke out in Rochester, New York. As residents of the city will probably recall, a shouting, cursing group of about 20 persons descended on a nearby police car, pelting it with vegetables, rocks and cans of paint. June, 1952: "Around the world last week the Communists exploded in uprisings, upsets and general uproar . . from the similar patterns of their uprisings everywhere, it seemed clear that they were all centrally directed as part of a master program . . ."29 As the officers tried to clear the walks and pavement by pushing demonstrators into doorways and side streets, they were pelted with eggs, beer cans, bottles and broken window glass.30 "During the original rioting Saturday night [in New York] one policeman reported, he and other cops--white and Negro--were insulted by youngsters 'who didn't even speak New York English. They had obviously been brought up from the South.'"31 "They [the White Shirters] were seen at the Jesse Gray '100 men willing to die' rally, and in Bedford-Stuyvesant. At least one of them was spotted in Rochester."32 Burglar alarms were ringing all over Joseph Avenue now. We couldn't see a store window that wasn't broken. Negroes were walking around with clothes, television sets, boxes of merchandise.33 " . . . the party is not hostile towards those who steal from the enemy because this would bring the government into difficulties and would prevent the money which had been obtained by bleeding the little man dry from being put by or taken to Europe . . . A third of the goods obtained by crime would be for the offenders and two-thirds for the PKI [Indonesian Communist Party]."34 7/26/64: New York Journal-American, front page story: All of Rochester's gun shops were ordered closed. 10/13/55: The 40th Moroccan Goum Regiment finds some papers in the Djebel Krouma belonging to Balkacemi Mohamed Ben Messaoud, the terrorist chief of the region south of the Aures. A document headed "Moghrebin Army of Liberation--Directives for September/October 1955--Zone of Tebessa," reads in broken French as follows: Anything of use to the enemy must be destroyed: schools, churches, stations, post offices, camps, telephone installations, etc. . . "Attacks on coaches, trains, taxis, bicycles. Insecurity on all the roads. These actions are to be unceasingly continued. . . "Kill all the caids, khodjas, presidents, councillors, etc . . . Kill the wives of the Moroccans. "Do all that you can against the colons, goums, traitors, gardens, houses, farms, Lock them in, burn them up." Rioting bands of Negroes fired shotguns and pistols into the air. Police fought back with tear gas barrages.35 Of the riots in Rochester we read as follows: Federal investigators are increasingly leaning to the view that communist planning, instigation and leadership played a major role in this savage rioting. The riots in Philadelphia, which broke out soon after, were explained as follows: The Negro riots that ravaged North Philadelphia were caused by a small band of Communist-influenced agitators who used lies and command-like precision to trigger an "explosion" that still has the city reeling. Seizing on a minor incident, these agitatos quickly put into operation a well-organized plan that touched off the violence along Columbia Ave., much like demolition experts would touch off a series of charges. According to a top police official, "as few as 20 men" put the plan into effect. These men had been stationed along Columbia Ave. for the last few weeks, one or two in every block, waiting for a chance--an incident involving the police--to go to work. Meanwhile Malcolm X, as you will recall, was in the clear--in Cairo. What was he doing there, among other things, says Leonard Lyons, was "negotiating for munitions."38 In fact, says Victor Riesel, while in Africa Malcolm spent a considerable amount of his time in the presence of international Communist propagandists . . . In fact, on December 20, 1964, he said--again--that like the people of Kenya, "we need a Mau Mau' to win freedom and equality for Negroes in the United States."40 Soon after the 1964 New York riots were over, the Negro leaders and their groups formed the Unity Council of Harlem Organizations, which is composed of "such diverse organizations as the Black Muslim, the recognized civil rights groups, three african nationalist associations, and various church and civic groups."41 April, 1963: ". . . The first step, it seems would be the convening of a national convention of the Negro people, representative of all points of view without exception, which would address itself to the task of uniting the national Negro community around a common, effective method of achieving freedom now. . ."42 Communist official Benjamin J. Davis.
1. Testimony of J. Edgar Hoover before a House subcommittee, January 29, 1964, as quoted by David Lawrence, U.S. News & World Report, vol. 56, no. 18 (May 4, 1964), p. 108. 2. New York Times (May 29, 1964), p. 108. 3. Ibid. (December 2, 1964), p. 9. 4. National Review (October 13, 1964), p. 3. 5. New York Times (December 2, 1964), p. 9. 6. New York News (August 2, 1964), p. 5. 7. William Worthy, "The Red Chinese American Negro," Esquire, vol. 62, no. 4 (October 1964), p. 177. 8. New York Times (December 2, 1964), p. 9 9. V. I. Lenin, What Is to Be Done? (New York, International Publishers, 1929), p. 131. 10. New York Times (December 2, 1964), p. 9. 11. As quoted by syndicated columnist Dorothy Kilgallen (April 22, 1964). 12. U.S. News & World Report, vol. 57, no. 5 (August 3, 1964), p. 22. 13. Literary Digest, vol. 101, no. 8 (May 25, 1929), p. 14. 14. U.S. News & World Report, vol 48, no. 25 (June 20, 1960), p. 61. This was the riot that greeted Presidential Press Secretary James C. Hagerty, who was supposed to be followed by President Eisenhower. 15. U.S. News & World Report, (August 3, 1964), p. 24. 16. As quoted by Worthy, p. 176. 17. Ibid. 18. U.S. News & World Report, (August 3, 1964), p. 22. 19. Ibid. 20. Senator James O. Eastland (D., Miss.), speech, Congressional Record (July 22, 1964), p. 16037. 21. New York Times (July 20, 1964), p. 16. 22. Harry J. Benda and Ruth T. McVey, editors, The Communist Uprisings of 1926-1927 in Indonesia: Key Documents (Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University, 1960), p. 3. 23. New York Journal-American (July 1, 1964), pp. 1, 8. 24. New York News (July 20, 1964), p. 18. 25. Worthy, p. 132. 26. Ibid. 27. Eugene K. Culhane, America, vol. 102, no. 23 (March 12, 1960), p. 702. 28. Rochester Times-Union (July 25, 1964), p. 2A. 29. Life, vol 32, no. 23 (June 9, 1952), p. 30. 30. Rochester Times-Union (July 25, 1964), p. 1. 31. New York News (July 22, 1964), p. 13. 32. Ibid. (August 2, 1964), p. 5. 33. Rochester Times-Union (July 25, 1964), p. 3A. 34. Benda and McVey, p. 3. 35. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (July 26, 1964), p. 1. 36. "Allen-Scott Report," Chicago American (August 4, 1964). 37. Philadelphia News (September 1, 1964), p. 3. 38. Boston Herald (July 31, 1964), p. 3. 39. Hollywood Citizen-News (September 8, 1964). 40. New York Times (December 21, 1964), p. 20. 41. Ibid. (November 8, 1964), p. 20. 42. Benjamin J. Davis, Against Tokenism and Gradualism (New York, New Century Publishers, April 1963), preface. | |