AMERICA'S EXPLODING GHETTOES
By Evelyn Sell
A continuous series of major eruptions in America's Northern ghettoes marked the summer of 1966, On June 22 Cleveland, Ohio, erupted and an even greater explosion took place in the same city July 18- 24, Omaha, Nebraska, witnessed similar events on July 2 and again on August 1. Chicago's ghetto flared on July 12 and the conflagration continued for six days. On July 12 ghetto residents battled the police in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On July 13 an outburst. shook: Brooklyn, New York, and a "truce" wasn't declared until -. ten days later. On August 3-4 police in Providence, Rhode Island, . were pelted with rocks and bottles for two nights. Smaller outbursts occurred north, south, east and west.
As in 1964 and 1965, incidents between police and ghetto residents provoked the Afro-Americans to express their frustrations and grievances with fire bombs, bricks and -bottles. Some new features. were: evident.in this summer's rebellions against ghetto conditions: defending themselves against the police and National Guardsmen, ghetto dwellers turned whole areas into battlefields; the city authorities, unable and unwilling to take steps to relieve ghetto conditions, attempted to blame the "riots" on carefully laid plans of militant. black groups; there was a rapid growth of the cleavage between moderate Negro: leaders and those. black people who agree with the ideas underlying the slogan "black power. "
The events in Cleveland. and. Chicago clearly highlighted these features. On July 18 Cleveland. gunfire was. exchanged between police and Negroes in the Hough: area. The battles were set.off by | trouble between a policeman and a:Negro resident. On the following day firebombs were thrown, store windows were smashed and looting occurred. Black snipers shot at police.. National Guardsmen: were brought in the next day to. seal off the area. On the twenty-first, carloads of white youths rode through the area, provoking continuation of the open conflict. The area was not declared "peaceful" until July 25 and: 26 had passed with no major incidents.
Cleveland authorities immediately claimed that the "rioting" was organized by Negro "extremist groups." A particular target of these charges was the "JFK House," a youth center organized by » 37-year-old Lewis. Robinson who said the main purpose of the center was teaching Negro history and "getting the kids off the street." Authorities :claimed that the JFK House, named after Jomo "Freedom". | Kenyatta, was a school to teach _ young Negroes how to make fire . bombs.
City Council President James Stanton said, "The selectivity | of the fire-bonbings and the lootings makes it clear there was organization." Ohio's Democratic Senator Frank Lausche said that the "riots" in Cleveland and .other large cities "are part of a national conspiracy executed by experts." A grand jury was con-
vened and heard testimony from a 17-year-old Negro boy who claimed that a 200-member gang called -the "Black: Panthers" had planned. the systematic sniping, looting and fire-bombing.
On August 9 the grand jury report was issued. It stated that the outbreak was "organized, precipitated and. exploited by -g- relatively small group of trained. and disciplined professionals. at | this | business. 7
"They were aided and abetted by misguided people of all ages and colors, many of whom are avowed believers in violence and extrenism, and some of whom also are either members of or officers in the Communist Party."
- Cleveland Mayor Ralph Locher, testifying on August 26 before, a Senate ‘subcommittee investigating the crisis of America's big : cities, said that the Cleveland "riots" had been fomented by trained. agitators who were assisted by Communists. Locher disputed the statements made by U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach who said on August 17:
"The Department of Justice has looked carefully into the causes of the riots. We conclude that they were indeed-fomented by agitators .-- agitators named disease and despair, joblessness | and. hopelessness ,.. iRateintested housing. and. long impacted cynicism.
"These sources of agitation are not the product of Communists or black nationalists or terrorists. They are the product of generations of indifference by all the American people to the rot and rust and mold which we have allowed to eat into the core of our... cities." wt ;
Katzenbach said that extreme ‘Left-wing elements had tried to.. capitalize on the situations in.Watts and Hough, "But .there is no. indication that these riots were planned, controlled or run by extreme left-wing elements." :
The truth of Katzenbach's statements is well known to everyone in America ‘not blinded by racism and anti-Communism. Government officials across the country:have echoed:the idea that poverty and misery lay behind the long hot summers of 1964 and 1965. They: made great promises about how the Great Society's War Against Poverty . was going to cure all the ills of the big cities and their ghettoes. But the glittering promises have not been kept and ghetto frustrations have mounted ever higher. More and more big city officials are relying on the naked force of police, National Guardsmen, courts and jails. to combat the deepening black revolt. 7
: The attack against black militants has sharpened and will continue to sharpen even more as Martin Luther King's philosophy of nonviolence is replaced with the ideas of black power. || :
A year ago King imported his methods and organization into Chicago in an attempt to infuse his nonviolent attitude into the
Northern ghettoes. At the time he started this work in the North, his leadership hold in the South had already been challenged by young militants in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee LSNCC] and the Congress of Racial Equality [CORE]. A further sign of the disintegration of King's hold on the movement was the raising of the "black power" Slogan during Meredith's March in Mississippi at the beginning of this summer. The test of King's effectiveness in a porthern ghetto came when the rebellion broke out in Chicago on July le.
' King rushed to the scene, pleaded for calmness and urged people to attend meetings and tell him their grievances in order to "relieve the tension." He was so ineffective in his appeals to the black people in the streets that he was forced to go on television and publicly beg the white power structure to give him help, grant a few concessions, give him something to take back to the ghetto to help him maintain his leadership position. The power structure met with King and some small concessions were granted but King's reputation was not enhanced.
Pressured by the growing strength of the black power ideas and the ghetto outbursts, King was forced to prove his militancy, fearlessness and ability to lead. He articulated his problem: "Somewhere there has to be a synthesis. I have to be militant enough to satisfy the militant, yet I have to keep enough discipline in the movement to satisfy white supporters and moderate Negroes. " The tactic he hit on has failed to satisfy either group.
' On July 30 King launched a campaign to make Chicago an open city by breaking down all housing discrimination. Along with 250 followers he marched into an all-white neighborhood and was met witr a barrage of rocks, bottles and jeers. Police had to protect the marchers from the violence of the whites. This scene was repeated time and again during the ensuing month. ,
The American Nazi party and the racist National States Rights party involved themselves wholeheartedly in the attacks against the open-housing demonstrators. One leaflet distributed by the American Nazis was a call to arms. "We expect you to be immedi- © ately available," the leaflet stated, "with your own weapons and ammunition at home when we call on you to:stand against the black rioters...when the police are overwhelmed. "
A climax was reached in this campaign when King announced plans to march into Cicero, a Chicago suburb which was the scene of terrible race riots fifteen years ago. Local authorities declared they would order out the National Guard to protect the marchers because of the expected trouble from the white population. Meetings were held with King in an attempt to-avert the proposed march. On August 26 King announced that he was calling off the march in return for promises given by city, business and church officials to vigorously promote open housing.
A group of Negroes organized ‘in the West Side Organization
denounced King's agreement -as.a "séllout." A spokesman of the group said King's actions were "a betrayal, and I call it treason." Chester Robinson, head of the organization, announced that he would have 300 persons ready to march into Cicero on August 28 as originally planned.
King’ obviously didn't “satisfy the militant." A black power spokesman in Detroit derided King's whole open-housing campaign with the comment that he didn't want to move into the hate-filled neighborhoods of racist whites. On the other side, King didn't satisfy the "white supporters and moderate Negroes" who became’ alarmed at the violence and tension created by the marches.
All King accomplished was to show the white capitalist power | structure that he was no longer the useful tool that had served them so conveniently in the past. All King accomplished was to make black militants in the North say the same things this summer that’ black militants in the South were saying last summer: "No sir. No more marching. It don't accomplish nothing. From now on we're using black power; muscle."