AMERICA'S GHETTOES EXPLODE AGAIN
By Evelyn Sell
For weeks the headlines in the United States have revolved around "riots," "Negro mobs," "racial rows" and the efforts of city. and state authorities to~put them down through the use of. armed force. The headlines are not exactly novel. ‘They, echo the events. of the two previcus summers .
i. Between July 18 and August 31. 19604 there were explosions in the-ghettoes of seven: East Coast cities. In 1965, from-August 11 to August 17, there was the record-breaking eruption in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles: on the West Coast.
‘These actions signified a getievalized protest dgainst the’ totality. of Northern ghetto life. They compelled the capitalist power, structure to consider what to do-to avert further. social blowups. In the pacification campaign that was decided: on, major emphasis was placed on the War Against. ‘Poverty. ae
Despite the Johnson: administration! s year-long efforts, however, the summer of 1966 has “again brought ghetto explosions and new peaks in militancy.
One day before the: summer was officially listed on the calendar, the Detroit News carried: an article which. began: "Pompano Beach, “Fla. , dune 22 -- Hundreds of Negroes rioted early today, throwing rocks and bottles at police,: stores and cars. Riot police finally cleared the streets with billy clubs and the threat of tear Bas. "
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“The incident that set off these actions” was a white ‘merchant' s slapping of a ten-year-old Negro boy. Local Negroes explained how such an incident could lead to a’ flare-up of tensions. Attorney Alcee Hastings stated, "When: you have people living in squalor and seething desperation -- with poor housing, miserable menial jobs, inferior schools -- you have the exact ‘situation they have in Watts.
‘W.K. Johnson, now working in a community improvement project, placed major blame on the police. "I was sitting one night in my car, talking quietly with friends when a tough cop shined a*light on me and said, 'Hey, boy, what ‘the hell are you doing here?! While -white America was looking :the other way, a new Negro has emerged. He is a Negro who has‘had a little more education, has a little more money, has been exposed to the better things. He has more pride in himself and wants a little more for his family.
"He! s a Negro who won't be pushed around any more.
The same day that Pompano Beach flared up, Negroes in Cleveland, Ohio, set off a two-day disturbance along Superior Avenue which marks the boundary between white and Negro neighborhoods.
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A nine-year-old boy was wounded by a white man shooting from a passing convertible. Two policemen were fired at. A white woman was hit by a brick thrown by someone in a group of Negro teen-agers shouting, "We want freedom."
In Omaha, Nebraska, national guardsmen with bayonet-mounted rifles and police armed with shotguns went into action because "there was a general’ assault on the police officers," according to | Public Safety Director Francis Lynch. The trouble started on the night of July 2 when a group of Negro youths set off fireworks in a supermarket parking lot located in the North Side's predominately Negro area. Neighbors complained about the fireworks and ara rushed’ in, provoking a strong reaction from the crowd of about... 200 Negro teen-agers. ak ad
When asked about the cause for the defiance of the police and the breaking of store’ windows , Nebraska Governor Frank Morrison stated, "Omaha's near: North Side isn't’ the best place to live. It's underdeveloped as far as housing is concerned and there are places there that aren't fit to live in. El,
Government spokesmen again and again pointed to the antipoverty program as a means of forestalling such ghetto uprisings. Speaking before a congressional subcommittee hearing in October, 1965, Sargent Shriver, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, said, "The difference [between a peaceful Harlem and a riot-—torn Watts] is $1.5 million invested in antipoverty." He told the congressmen that community leaders and police officers believe that the Harlem Neighborhood Youth Corps "has. been a definite factor in reducing racial tension this summer."
In actuality, the glittering promises of the antipoverty program have only served to increase the frustration and bitterness of black people in this country. Shriver was booed off the platform by dissatisfied black militants when he addressed a "poor peoples convention" held in Washington during April. The gathering was organized by the privately financéd Citizen's Crusade Against ..: Poverty, a ‘broadly based coalition of 180 national organizations such as churches and labor unions. pe
When Shriver took the platform to make his usual glowing speech about the efforts of the government to wipe out poverty, Mrs. Unita Blackwell, a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party, shook her fist in his face and ‘shouted, "I want to ask a question." The podium was taken over physically by the protesters who said they were tired of "pussyfooting," tired of people “all | smiling and juicy" when nothing was being done "in Cleveland or... Brooklyn or Washington or you name it." A resident of the Watts ©... ghetto summed up the antipoverty program results as "one big laugh."
Even more recently, Shriver and the antipoverty program were lashed by James Farmer, who had been so seduced by the war-onpoverty propaganda’ that he’ ‘resigned his post as national director.
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of the Congress. of Racial. Equality [CORE] March 1 in order to become the head of a new nationwide literacy.and job-training program financed by federal and private antipoverty funds. Farmer had proposed the idea of such a program to President Johnson in Setober, 1965, and it was reported. that Johnson was enthusiastic about it..
The New York Times hailed Farmer's step as a sign that the: civil-rights movement had entered a new phase. M.S. Handler wrote " that Farmer's new position "signals the decline of the [civil a rights].movement now that the Federal Government and Congress have: taken, over many of its essential functions...The massive move of ~' the Federal Government into the vast arena of rehabilitating the Negroes' economic, social, and political status in the United States has also created a new situation for the civil rights movement. Formerly, the movement enjoyed a monopoly in this social struggle...The relevant question today is who is going to lead the parade and who is going to set the pattern. Under these changed circumstances, can. the civil rights. movement preserve its high visibility on the American scene. since it has become quite clear that the Federal Government has decided to take charge of the new social revolution?" . ; .
Although the federal government clearly intended to "take charge of the new social revolution," it. failed miserably as the debacle. at the "poor peoples convention” and the Farmer affair proved., Speaking on July 4.to 200 delegates at the CORE national convention, Farmer announced that he was withdrawing his proposal for a nationwide literacy and job-training program because he had been given the silent treatment by Sargent Shriver and the Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO]. The former’ CORE chief declared that the federal government's failure to act on‘his proposal was "another broken promise to the millions outside the mainstream. He said the antipoverty program was like "trying to cure tuberculosis with cough drops." "I consider this a colossal betrayal, he told.the delegates. The war on poverty "failed to make any change in the life of the ghetto dweller." ;
Hyman Bookbinder, assistant director of the OHO, answered Farmer's blast by saying that the proposed literacy and job— training program was not dead. The problem was _ that Farmer's "was a very raw project. The concept was great but-needed strengthening in a number of areas." Bookbinder explained that it is not unusual for a proposal to take a year to get through the OEO.
But black people have said NOW! -- not a year from now.
The war on poverty was not the only method used by the administration during the last year in its aim to divert and stifle black social protests. A great deal of scheming. and effort was put into gestures at passing additional civil-rights legislation and into attempts to further entangle civil-rights leaders into the machinery and goals of the established organs of the
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government... ‘The failure to keep Farmer ensnared was only one example of how thesé methods failed. The highly touted, long-prepared-for White. House Conference on Civil Rights was another. example.
‘President Johnson first promised a White House Conference on civil rights in a June 4, 1965, speech to graduates of Howard ~ University. The original plan was to hold the conference during the fall of 1965 but the civil-rights movement wasn't docile enough to be trusted to follow Johnson's script. so the conference was put off and a "planning session" was scheduled instead for November 17-18. The planning session was an obvious attempt to line up °°) civil-rights, business and community leaders ahead of time so that the full conference could be staged exactly as Johnson desired. ~ President Johnson set the stage by announcing just before the opening meeting of the planning’ session that he was preparing legislation to correct the abuses of the all-white jury system in the south and had asked the Civil Rights Commission to start a study aimed at making the’ nation's schools "colorblind." Vice- President Hubert Humphrey carried the: soothing promises one step further when he addressed the planning session and guaranteed that the federal government would take whatever action was necessary to assure that all civil-rights laws were obeyed.
Although the 200 planning session members applauded the remarks of. Johnson and Humphrey, even stronger measures were urged. A. Philip. Randolph, honorary chairman of the Conference and a veteran civil-rights and union leader, asked for a $100 billion "freedom budget." to wipe out the nation's black ghettoes. The planning session turned. into a series of "speak bitterness" meetings in which,the government, was criticized for lack of progress in |: ameliorating discrimination and President Johnson was castigated for not. using the powers he already possessed to combat racism.
Analyzing the ‘pesults of the planning session, a Detroit News [November 28,1965] article stated: "Nothing in the glittering two-year history of President Johnson's Great Society has failed so dismally..." Despite all attempts to smooth over differences, reports filtered out about the "Dissident civil rights leaders seeking a more militant. approach. .
These. grim forebodings. ‘for the full White House Conference” set for June were underlined by the news that a more militant ‘southern activist, Stokely Carmichael, was elected as new head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC] already the most militant of the civil-rights organizations in the South. On May 23 SNCC rejected an invitation to the White House Conference, declaring, "Our organization is opposed to the war in Vietnam and we cannot in good conscience meet with ‘the chief policymaker of the Vietnam war to discuss human rights in this country when he flagrantly violates the human rights of colored people in Vietnam."
On May 41, the day before the Conference was to open, another crisis loomed for the carefully made administration plans..
Floyd McKissick, who. became the head of CORE after Farmer quit, stated that the reason-CORE was participating in-the conference was "in order that the militant can bring forth ideas which otherwise would..not be. brought forth." He announced that he. was planning to introduce a motion to throw away the prepared agenda. "There's a prevailing ~ ‘sentiment that the conference has been rigged by the’ Administration," he said. .
The agenda | ‘had been prepared by a 40-member council appointed by President Johnson. when the original Novembér planning session > hadn't proved reliable enough for administration purposes. The ~ council had prepared a 102-page document listing recommendations and proposals in four major areas: economic security and welfare, education, housing and administration of justice. The 2,600 conference members were to read and discuss these proposals but were not: going to be allowed to vote on anything or make any motions of their own!
CORE's pressure on this point resulted in a hasty compromise ; resolutions and, votes were allowed at the panel discussions. -+ but the full. conference. was, still prevented from voting on anythi ng and all: panel discussion leaders were briefed to “maintain control.
Rev. ‘Andrew Young, executive director of: Martin Luther King’ s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, characterized ‘the con-' ference this way: "It's a. nice tea party where we can renew ol1d~ acquaintances, but it's not much more than that. The President got himself into a corner last year promising things he couldn't ~ © deliver. Vietnam got in the way. So, now we have’ this conference so we can all do a little talking, and let the People know we're still thinking about civil rights."
The June 5, 1966 New York Times summed up the effects of the conference: ",..it was evident that Mr. Johnson was still firmly in control and that his influence among civil rights leaders was as high as ever...But the conference also revealed a split between the mass of the civil rights workers and the leaders. The dissatisfaction was all in the ranks. The leaders -- with the ~! | exception of Mr. McKissick -- seemed willing. to let the President. set the. pace and the direction.'
The dissatisfaction and pressure of the ranks: burst out in: full view during Meredith's March in Mississippi which started just two days after the conclusion of the White House Conference. The events .of the March brought to the surface_ ‘changes in outlook +). and tactics that had been evolving during the relative calm that?! existed in the freedom now struggle during the last months of T965, and the early months of 1966. New leaders and new slogans of ae struggle were catapulted into national prominence.