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ABSTRACT

THE ‘ADVANCE TEAM’: THE EVOLUTION OF COLLEGE ACTIVISTS

The tumultuous years of the 1960s evolved from the thaw of the Cold War era. College campuses’ emerging interest in the was exacerbated by the escalating violence within the Deep South. By the time events from Selma, Alabama reached the living rooms and college dorm rooms in the North, waves of activism had spread across the nation. This study follows a group of college activists who traveled south, quickly adapted to movement strategy, and forged lifetime friendships while working for Dr. Martin Luther ’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Most of the core group stayed in the South in the summer of 1965 after completing non- violence training in . Showing exemplary skills and leadership qualities, they would eventually form Rev. ’s ‘advance team’ within the . This ‘elite’ unit fought their own battles against poverty, racism, and violence while in Chicago. Their story is one from below, and captures the heart and spirit of true activism, along with memories of music, rent strikes, a lead-poisoning campaign, and even a love affair, within the Chicago Freedom Movement in 1965-1966.

Samuel J LoProto May 2016

THE CHICAGO ‘ADVANCE TEAM’: THE EVOLUTION OF COLLEGE ACTIVISTS

by Samuel J LoProto

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History in the College of Social Sciences California State University, Fresno May 2016

APPROVED For the Department of History:

We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree.

Samuel J LoProto Thesis Author

Ethan Kytle (Chair) History

Blain Roberts History

Daniel Cady History

For the University Graduate Committee:

Dean, Division of Graduate Studies AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER’S THESIS

I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in its entirety without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of authorship.

X Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must be obtained from me.

Signature of thesis author: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank Ethan Kytle, Blain Roberts, and Daniel Cady for generously assisting me in many ways during my time here at Fresno State. The Department of History has given me the thirst for knowledge, and I am eternally grateful. Additional thanks go to Gary Rice and Maritere Lopez for their guidance and support. I also want to thank my good friend Jimmy Collier, who gave his insight and expertise into the movement, while extending a helping hand through his personal friends and colleagues, who lived through the struggle to share their memoirs. Collier’s undying message will always be, Peace and Freedom.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

CHAPTER 1: PROLOGUE ...... 1

CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION, AMERICA AWAKENS ...... 11 CHAPTER 3: BEYOND SELMA. SCOPE: THE SUMMER OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING & POLITICAL EDUCATION ...... 20 CHAPTER 4: CHICAGO: THE WINDY CITY—THE ‘ADVANCE TEAM’ GRADUATES ...... 50

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...... 87

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 91

APPENDIX: RELEASE FORMS ...... 94

CHAPTER 1: PROLOGUE

Modern-day histories of the civil rights movement generally begin with the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, and climax in the passage of the and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which together unwound the noose of “southern-style .”1 Other exhaustive studies are more inclined to extend their scholarship to the bitter end, focusing on the death of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968 and the rise of the movement, which effectively splintered the non-violent philosophies of Dr. King and his framework of benevolent organizations.2 While these major political accomplishments changed the complexion of daily life in the Deep South, their deeper significance reflected the constant struggle faced by the poor black Southerner, who for nearly one hundred years lived with Jim Crow prior to these milestones being enacted into law. In retrospect and reality, these were in many ways the gratification of broken promises made during the period of Reconstruction, merely enforcing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.3 Existing scholarship of the modern-day civil rights movement is increasing in popularity, yet most studies are generally focused from the ‘top down’. The study presented here in contrast could certainly be considered an approach ‘from below’, through the lens of a small yet radical group of activists working under the supervision of Rev. James Bevel, while free-lancing as community organizers

1 Thomas J. Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North (NY: Random House, 2008), p. xiii. 2 Renee C. Romano & Leigh Raiford, eds., The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006), p. xxi. 3 Bruce E Baker, What Reconstruction Meant: Historical Memory in the American South (VA: University of Virginia Press, 2007), p. 164. 2 during the Chicago Freedom Movement in 1965-66. The Chicago ‘advance team’ earned their name while technically working as foot soldiers under the umbrella of Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This radical group of a dozen or so ‘foot soldiers’ grew to trust each other in the field, beginning with their involvement in Selma, Alabama, followed by a summer of voter registration drives in neighboring rural counties. As they morphed into the creative and ‘elite’ unit that they were by the time they were called up to Chicago, this group of college activists deserve recognition for their grassroots organizing in five different campaigns while working for the SCLC. Perhaps our study should be considered a history ‘from the middle’, covering the years 1965-1966, while in three different regions of the U.S. As it turned out the summer of 1965 would mark “the end of an era” of sorts. The “major non-violent, interracial civil rights protests” were a thing of the past. The on Washington and the police dogs and fire hoses of Birmingham most definitely captured the nation’s attention, but the sympathetic eyes of the North settled onto the Selma-to- Montgomery march with more interest than any other “black-led political protest” of the era.4 The blood and dust had barely settled on the in Selma, Alabama, when it was evident to mainstream civil rights organizations that the “tide of non-violent ” had reached its end throughout the South. It was time for the executive staff of the SCLC to “debate, discuss, and decide their options.” Dr. King and his executive staff retreated to Atlanta to rest tired and aching feet from the Selma march as the brass started planning a tour of the North, targeting the cities of Philadelphia, , Detroit, and New York. Dr. King

4 Dr. , Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2013), p. 35. 3 had his eyes set on a large northern city where he would launch another meaningful campaign. Yet, for all his victories in the South, which brought down the “state sanctioned denials of basic” de jure “political and civil rights”, King would be up against a wall of resistance while tackling the “de facto segregation” and housing discrimination of the North.5 Bevel had moved to Chicago on his own immediately after Dr. King’s crowning speech on the steps of the state capitol in Montgomery after the victory at Selma. Bevel was anxious to reunite with his good friend and fellow American Baptist Seminary graduate, , which turned out to be an alliance that may have been the “critical factor” in Dr. King’s decision to come to Chicago. Lafayette had come to Selma to help Bevel, and Bevel wanted to reciprocate. Lafayette was now chair of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) which was one of many of community organizations in Chicago destined to be a part of the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO). Lafayette’s wife, Colia Liddel, was a member of the West Side Christian Parish (WSCP) which would play an important role in the lives of the elite Chicago ‘advance team’ as she worked alongside her good friend, Bevel’s wife, .6 During the long hot summer of 1965, the SCLC field staff was busy with the Summer Community Organizing and Political Education project (SCOPE) deep within the rural counties of Alabama. The campaign focused around a voter registration drive similar to the previous campaign in 1964 organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Back in

5 James R. Ralph, Northern Protest: Martin Luther King Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), pp. 33, 2. 6 Ralph, Northern Protest, pp. 40-41. 4 Chicago, Bevel was lending a hand to Lafayette, implementing a campaign that was as curious as the outcome. The North Shore Summer Project of 1965 was a research project that was the brainchild of , a white housing expert for AFSC which Lafayette was now chairing. The AFSC became an organization that SCLC welcomed into the movement as an ally, as well as the CCCO. Moyer took a page out of the SNCC playbook, enlisting the help of nearly one hundred eager college students out on summer break, to go door-to-door interviewing “nearly 1500 homeowners” about their feelings concerning housing discrimination, protest rallies, and the topic of fair housing in general. After befriending Bevel, Moyer continued his research within the outlying communities, and attended countless scheduled SCLC staff sessions while keeping his opinions ‘in the ear’ of Bevel, as it concerned housing discrimination and the factors that created and maintained the slums. Moyer had based his offices in Winnetka, Illinois, and after successfully forging an alliance within the community he invited Dr. King to speak to the residents at a neighborhood rally. By mid-February 1966, Moyer finished preparing a detailed report revealing facts that white prejudice and discriminatory real estate practices “greatly restricted the housing inventory available to black families”, something that poor black Chicagoans knew all too well.7 For all of the battles on the war on poverty and the short-lived victories of the Southern civil rights movement, nothing had dramatically changed the lives of poor blacks living in large, white-dominated cities.8 Dr. King made the formal announcement that the SCLC had selected Chicago as its target of its first northern campaign after a boisterous weekend retreat in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, back in October of 1965. Bevel’s Chicago

7 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 100. 8 Thomas B. Morgan, “Requiem or Revival,” LOOK Magazine, June 14, 1966, p. 71. 5 ‘advance team’ was already assembled in the Windy City by now, and the staffers grabbed their first taste of a new and different campaign. Jimmy Collier was singing some of his new compositions along with seasoned ‘’, while Lynn Adler, Charles Love and the rest of the growing field staff blew off some steam at the lake with a monster barbeque and adult beverages, which they had not experienced in quite some time, working the dusty roads of Alabama only a few short weeks earlier.9 Dr. King and the SCLC would team up with , a retired high school teacher in Chicago, and after some wrangling for power and control they officially embraced the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO), which was a coalition of dozens of grassroots community organizations. Together with the SCLC the Chicago Freedom Movement (CFM) was born, and their combined goal was to eradicate racial injustice. Even though it was not the primary target, housing discrimination would take center stage.10 It wasn’t the original intention of Dr. King and the SCLC along with the local grassroots coalition of groups to tackle housing conditions, primarily they had been focusing on the removal of Chicago’s Public School Superintendent Benjamin Willis. Raby had gained notoriety by uniting community watchdog groups such as the Chicago Urban League, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the NAACP to boycott and resist the racist Willis for years over his policy of two shifts per day for the overcrowded public schools, among other issues. The boycotts had turned to physical protests when the Chicago Board of Education had resorted to erecting mobile classrooms. Angry mothers of the children laid their bodies down in front of construction trucks to block the effort,

9 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 53; New York Times, 11 Oct. 1965, p. 44. 10 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 1. 6 while supporters picketed the move.11 These modular pre-fabricated units, called Willis Wagons, were simply dropped on muddy, empty lots to accommodate young black students while the white children studied in permanent classrooms, with plenty of clean and shiny empty desks.12 The Chicago Freedom Movement, that captivated the city of Chicago in 1965-66, will serve as the backdrop of our study, while our focus will consist of an in-depth look at this small yet creative, radical group. The Chicago ‘advance team’ played by their own rules, picking their own battles while fighting the war on poverty, yet technically operating under the CFM. For all intents and purposes, these were not the average rank and file foot soldier of the civil rights movement, they had developed their combined education and ‘street smarts’ into a ‘mod squad’ of free agents, emphasizing an agenda that was connected to the very belief that activists participating in a ‘revolution’ would conduct themselves accordingly.13 The Chicago Freedom Movement as a whole fell victim to the political machine of Mayor Richard Daley, yet the radical corps that was the Chicago ‘advance team’, would form the East Garfield Park Union to End the Slums, and can effectively claim victory within their battle, within the war, on housing conditions in the tenement buildings of Chicago. As historians view the Chicago Freedom Movement of 1966 upon its 50th anniversary, it is mildly noted as important as any campaign that was generated during the civil rights movement of the twentieth century, and certainly one that boasted some innovative yet nearly overlooked victories of its own fruition. However, as we approach this milestone, it is certainly one of the least

11 Ibid., p. 20. 12 Henry Martin, “Roadblock,” JET Magazine, 22 Aug, 1963, p. 31. 13 Jimmy Collier, Interview with author, Oakhurst, Ca., Jan, 29, 2012. 7 remembered or celebrated campaign. “Aside from the small community of scholars dedicated to the study of civil rights,” few people would be able to recall the Chicago Freedom Movement. However, this alone should not defer from the “tremendous historical significance” of the events in Chicago in 1965-66, which gained its momentum from the Windy City’s local coalition of civil rights groups, inter twined with a core group of activists which at times behaved as radicals.14 As , historian at the University of Wales points out, on one end of the scholarship divide, “some historians have compared the SCLC to a church, and not an organization.”15 Perhaps this gave critics ammunition to compare the SCLC to SNCC, which became a more militant organization, and by late 1966 was shouting out “Black Power” in while ironically sharing the spotlight with Dr. King. While the ‘Great Man’ paradigm always focused on Dr. King himself, it was no secret that SCLC manipulated the media in order to achieve its goals. As the political scientist and author David J. Garrow points out, “such manipulation was pivotal to its strategic methodology of its protests.”16 Traditionally, historians have given the ‘advance team’, staff members and the rank and file members of the SCLC meager attention. However, Fairclough argues that the success of the staff members of the SCLC was a direct result of sacrificing a significant amount of efficiency and formality in favor of flexibility and creativity. Elite staff workers were allowed to operate freely, thinking liberally

14 David J. Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966: Open Housing Marches, Summit Negotiations, and (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1989), p. 1. 15 Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1987), p. 1. 16 David J. Garrow, Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), p. 226. 8 out of the box, as they learned from past mistakes as novices on previous campaigns such as Mississippi Freedom Summer, or the SCOPE project in Alabama. While the SCLC was a racially and gender integrated ‘elite’ unit, they knew their enemy was still the white, racist oppressive regime. Perhaps this allowed the staffers to sing out a little louder, march a little tighter, and pray a little more passionately than their enemy.17 Eugene D. Genovese may have been the first to suggest, “The loose informal structure of the SCLC staff, was probably the best way—perhaps the only way—of effectively mobilizing Southern Blacks.”18 As Fairclough is adamant to point out, contemporary historians were confounded at the logic of SCLC staff, who repeatedly broke the law, while they provoked white violence and exploited local black communities. While they created a white back-lash, critics, both black and white, labeled their efforts as ineffective and could never comprehend the brilliance in their strategies. While these efforts appeared objectionable or ineffective, they “often furthered the loftier goal of promoting federal action against white supremacy.” After all, it was only federal intervention that could resurrect the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments that the pursuit of the Lost Cause ideology by Southern whites had undermined. “Perhaps it was only the Second Reconstruction that could revive the promise of the first.”19 As many SCLC staff have proclaimed, “We were fighting a revolution, man!”20 While the term ‘radical’ can be misconstrued, a recent conversation with a world renowned scholar changed my understanding of the term, as it pertains to

17 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 4. 18 Eugene D. Genovese, In Red and Black: Marxian Explorations in Southern and Afro-American History (NY: Pantheon Books, 1971), pp. 155-56; Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 4. 19 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 7. 20 Jimmy Collier, Interview with author, Oakhurst, Ca., Jan, 29, 2012. 9 the research of the Civil Rights movement provided here. At a recent lecture on the campus of Fresno State commemorating Black History Month 2016, Dr. Clayborne Carson, who is the editor of the King Papers at Stanford University, recalled an incident from Dr. King’s excursion to Oslo, Norway, in December of 1964 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. During one of his many acceptance speeches that long weekend, Dr. King responded to questions concerning the Civil Rights movement in the United States. King made a reference to the movement in the U.S., and dismissed it as a minor event compared to what was happening in the rest of the world. From war and international violence to oppression and the recent independence of Kenya, from enslavement and the ongoing civil uprisings in South Africa, to poverty and global conflicts, Dr. King made “our revolt” seem inconsequential. Dr. King suggested that ‘our’ plight (in the U.S. at that time) should indeed be labeled as a ‘citizenship revolt’ instead.21 While pondering the reflection for a moment, there certainly seems to be enough rhyme and reason for academics to truly rename the revolutionary civil rights movement of the 1960s as the ‘citizenship revolution.’ It was a simple equation proposed by Dr. King on that chilly December evening in such a beautiful city, set in a world-class venue more than a half-century ago. After all, citizens of a country regardless of their color, might revolt when bitten by ferocious police dogs or blasted with fire hoses or when gathering in peaceful protest, as they certainly did in Birmingham. Citizens will certainly rebel when their equality is questioned when they are denied their Constitutional right to vote for their elected officials, or their county clerks and their governor of said oppressive regimes, as they did in Mississippi. And citizens will most assuredly

21 Dr. Clayborne Carson, “Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.” (Lecture, Fresno State campus, Feb 9, 2016). 10 rise up when they are beaten by a citizen’s council posse on horseback with billy clubs, and chased down in a modern day ‘reign of terror,’ as they did in Selma. And citizens will also react with fear and ignorance when asked to integrate their elite white neighborhoods, as Dr. King would soon find out during that violent summer of 1966 in Chicago. Perhaps the most unique reflections of Dr. King’s unfinished work here on Earth, came from King himself. While speaking to striking sanitation workers in Memphis the night before he was assassinated, Dr. King had another ‘dream’; this one was the vision of a “human rights revolution” , that would “bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect.”22

22 Carson. “Martin’s Dream,” p.3. 11

CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION, AMERICA AWAKENS

The weather in Chicago was remarkably warm that evening in late March 1966. Earlier in the day the skies were dark and gloomy, but just as the sun began to set the skies opened up, and a long sliver of sunshine broke through the clouds. Resembling a neon rainbow, the beacon of light touched down right on the apex of the stained-glass windows guarding the crusty-red bricks of the sprawling Warren Avenue Congregational Church. Nestled nearly “three miles from Chicago’s historic loop within the city’s West Side”, the church stood as a monument to the historic black neighborhoods of yesteryear, as weathered tenement style apartments and houses surrounded the stately structure. On this night the church exuded warm vibrations, the polished silver coffee pots were lined up in rows with warm steamy goodness filling the air. Donuts and pastries filled the tables and the hundreds of chairs on the main floor of the church were beginning to swell with curious local residents and parishioners.1 The make-shift congregation appeared to be jovial, full of hope, and surprisingly well-dressed as they penetrated the safe confines of the church. They were greeted by William Briggs, the young white pastor of Warren Avenue, and a youthful looking Lynn Adler, sporting her trademark pigtails and her infectious smile. Adler, a white Peace Corps dropout from Pennsylvania was joined by colleagues Luis Andrade, a smooth talking Hispanic born and raised in East Harlem, and Felix Valluena, who collectively were garnering support from Chicago’s large Spanish-speaking community. They all led the guests to their

1 Morgan. “Requiem or Revival,” p. 71; Collier interview with author, Oakhurst, Ca., Jan, 29, 2012.; Lynn Adler, interview with author, Oakhurst, Cal., April 9, 2015. 12 seats.2 A brown-yellow skinned and charismatic Jimmy Collier, strummed a guitar near the pulpit at times, crooning catchy phrases about Peace and Love, while Pastor Briggs scurried about tending to his flock.3 A very large black man wearing a crisp white shirt and black neck-tie was dressed in blue-denim overalls and a huge smile, as he walked slowly up and down the aisles making sure there was no trouble on this ground breaking night. weighed in at 295 pounds while holding a black-belt in Karate, who along with his quick thinking sidekick Jimmy Wilson, were certainly well qualified to handle any trouble. Sherie Land and Claudia King, who originally came out to Chicago in 1964 from a West Coast college to work for CORE, served coffee and shuffled recruitment applications back and forth to the administrative offices in the back of the church. Ms. King (no relation) would eventually work her way into Rev. James Bevel’s press secretary position, while both young women worked alongside their good friend Suzi Hill, who was originally from Chicago.4 Land and Hill would become newsworthy fixtures in the Chicago SCLC office soon enough, as critics of inter- racial involvement in the movement would surface.5 Charles Love, who migrated from in 1965 to help the cause in Selma, kept a watchful eye on the children and teens in the group as Love’s focus on education and community involvement would prove invaluable during the next few long months. Erik Kindberg, a white college graduate, was roaming around the floor in sincere

2 James R. Ralph, Northern Protest: Martin Luther King Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 51; Adler, interview with author. 3 Morgan, “Requiem or Revival,” p. 71. 4 Ralph, Northern Protest, pp.44-45; Sherie Land, Interview with author, Fresno Ca., Dec 12, 2013.. 5 Francis Ward, “White Queen Complex Angers Negro Women; Rivalry Revealed,” JET Magazine, June 9, 1966, p.15. 13 concern, making sure the poor white residents that he had been reaching out to felt welcome in the largely Black audience.6 The congregation was unaware that these energetic young staff workers who were peppered inconspicuously throughout the assembly this night were the Chicago ‘advance team.’ However, they did recognize them as the same local activists who wore the armband with the funny inverted peace sign on it, as they pounded their pavement with protest signs and knocked on their doors for support for the better part of six months. While the Chicago ‘advance team’ of the SCLC was obviously in the house, there were still plenty of other staffers who were either meeting, greeting, singing, serving coffee, or signing up volunteers and recruits for the upcoming struggles.7 Not more than two months earlier, the SCLC had organized a similar meeting at the much smaller Church of the Brethren, a few blocks over, and found that they would definitely need a ‘bigger church.’ Arrangements had been made to move the jam packed facilities of the Church of the Brethren, to the Warren Avenue Congregational site for this meeting in March, as well as now serving as the headquarters for the East Garfield objective. Warren Avenue had much more room and better hospitable facilities. Since the last meeting back in January the staff members of the elite Chicago ‘advance team’ had been housed at the spacious Warren Avenue complex, complete with studio apartments and office facilities, and had already been canvassing the residents of local tenement houses.8

6 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 51; Charles Love, interview with author, San Francisco, Ca., May 1, 2015. 7 Morgan, “Requiem or Revival,” p. 71. 8 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 44. 14 For months now, the staffers had been painting protest signs, creating flyers and leaflets, while going door-to-door and church-to-church, talking with anyone who would listen. Eventually, they would organize tenants, building-by-building, block-by-block, melding people together to join the newly formed “East Garfield Park Union to End Slums”. Tonight’s event would include two suspicious guests: local Realtors John Condor and Louis Castalis, who had been invited to by the staff of the SCLC to speak to the residents. Condor and Costalis, as they would now be referred to, were the largest landlords in the neighborhood, responsible for “more than 40 local” apartment houses. Staff workers distributed leaflets that invited residents to “COME, SEE, HEAR, your neighbors make complaints about raggedy buildings, rats, roaches, broken stairs, windows, unfair landlords.” Little did the congregation know that these two guests were their actual landlords, and within a few months would be taken to their knees by the Chicago ‘advance team.’9 Something special was happening tonight, you could feel it in the air. After all, ‘Moses’ was coming to speak to the congregation. ‘Da Lord’ was in the house; at least that’s what the beloved followers of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., lovingly referred to him. Rev. Bevel escorted Dr. King through the back door of the church, and after Orange and Wilson deemed the meeting site safe for Dr. King’s entrance, they gave Bevel the nod. As if in unison, Collier kicked up the staccato on his guitar, and his smooth velvety voice welcomed the ‘boss’, along with more than 600 local residents, who had filled the pews and chairs to voice their frustrations, opinions and anger about their neighborhood landlords, tonight in East Garfield Park, Chicago. Dr. King introduced Condor and Costalis to the

9 Morgan, “Requiem or Revival,” p. 71. 15 assembly, and while they received a lukewarm welcome, King encouraged parishioners not to fight the landlords, but “love ‘em nonviolently”.10 The road to victory in Selma, Alabama, which culminated with the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, was sandwiched in between the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Chicago Freedom Movement in Chicago, 1966. While the two campaigns were similar, Freedom Summer student volunteers had the very slight advantage of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under their belt, yet SCOPE volunteers and staff would have to sweat out the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 until the end of summer, which disavowed some of their efforts as President Johnson eventually signed it into law on Aug 6, 1965. These two aforementioned legislative milestones in American history, along with the afterglow of the SCLC’s sojourn to the North, certainly have been written about by scholars, historians and civil rights veterans. Perhaps this view ‘from the middle’ will shed some welcome light on the tactics employed by the creative and elite Chicago ‘advance team’, an unsupervised field staff unit of the SCLC. While in Alabama, and Chicago, the staff continued their fight against racism, segregation and poverty, while as a whole utilizing lessons learned from other pioneers fighting similar battles earlier in time. With the growing access to television and the national media, the nation was witnessing first-hand such violent and powerful images of events like Bloody Sunday, from the backdrop of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the prime time evening news. The “public-affairs-as-spectacle” phenomenon was born on ‘live’ network television, and continues to anchor today’s media outlets. These events evoked the “great moral dramas” of the civil rights movement: the Birmingham

10 Morgan, “Requiem or Revival,” p. 71; Jimmy Collier interview with author; Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 63. 16 police dogs and fire hoses, the March on Washington, the church bombings, and images of the burned-out car of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, or the murders of Rev. , or Jimmie Lee Jackson ultimately culminating with Selma’s “Bloody Sunday.” While these landmark episodes themselves have become the “icons of the historical struggle”, they are experiencing a renaissance of nostalgia, as “revisited by mass media on significant anniversaries.”11 When the lens of the national media captured non-violent activists under attack in Birmingham, and billy club-wielding police in Selma, a sympathetic national audience became instantly mobilized. While a flood of student volunteers and activists were on their way down South to support the movement and participate in the Selma to Montgomery March, so too were a small but fortified contingent of reporters, cameramen, and journalists. One of those national media correspondents was Paul Good, an ABC reporter who was one of dozens of Northern media sent to the South to cover the civil rights drama. He admitted as much that, he “received valuable on the job training on the subject of racism”. While “sympathetic media coverage also helped to spread the contagion of the sit-ins in the 1960s”, and the Freedom Rides of 1960, they also proved to be a boon to the “recruitment of new civil rights activists”.12 Historians of today are certainly thankful for the remaining news footage available from these urban war zones, as they can effectively corroborate oral histories from the surprising large numbers of surviving civil rights veterans. The events surrounding the Selma campaign which climaxed with the Selma-to-Montgomery March, attracted many of the student activists that came

11 Renee C. Romano and Leigh Raiford, eds., Edward P. Morgan. The Good Bad and Forgotten: Media Culture and Public Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006), p. 147. 12 Ibid., p. 148. 17 down South to join in the struggle. Chapter 3 of our study will discuss how these young activists were in some way or another influenced by the events of Bloody Sunday. The weeks and months after the march are an important timeframe for the elite corps of activists that would eventually work for James Bevel in Chicago. These activists would go through their ‘basic training’ as foot soldiers, at the SCOPE house in Atlanta, Georgia. This civil disobedience training was conducted by the Rev. Jim Lawson, before the foot soldiers headed out to the battlefields of rural counties of Alabama for their own Freedom Summer under the eye of the SCLC. The experiences of the SCOPE Summer volunteers are very similar to the ones that Freedom Summer workers had endured the year before: reaching out to the Black community, living in the homes of poor black working families, and canvassing neighborhoods to register as many Black voters as possible. They evolved into an elite unit after keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, dodging the Klan whenever possible, and of course going to the local jails frequently. The complete study of the Chicago Freedom Movement is still under construction, yet Chapter 4 of our study will follow the path of the elite ‘advance team’ as they are called up to the North. This study will delve deep into the personal lives of these activists, who risked their lives in tenant organizing, real estate testing, as it related to housing discrimination, as well as conducting a lead poisoning testing campaign for inner city youth, while creating music specific to each campaign by one of our subjects. While the larger studies of the Chicago Freedom Movement tend to focus on the violence that followed the open housing marches, and the Summit Agreement ratified by Mayor Daley, Dr. King, and the Coordinating Council of 18 Community (CCCO), they ultimately ignore the role of women, the non-violent training of at-risk youth and gang members, and the role of music. Mainstream studies may only briefly mention the ‘rent strike’ campaign, or the Union to End Slums that resulted in a precedent setting collective bargaining agreement between one of Chicago’s biggest slumlords and their fed-up tenants. They may mention the hostile takeover of a dilapidated apartment building on the West Side, and they might briefly speak of and the host of Churches that the congregations came to depend upon for information and solace. Moreover, they will most likely not speak of the Billiken Brotherhood program, which had been active for decades, but brought back to life by the elite corps of SCLC within the enclave of churches beholden to the cause. Nor will they speak of the special bond the Chicago ‘advance team’, including Dr. King had with Chicago’s toughest gang members. While other studies may or may not mention sexual liberation or the white queen complex, none of them will explore the Che Guavara references, as this study will explore, and they will certainly not re-create the cold Sunday afternoon in January 1966, when Dr. King himself presided over an interracial marriage between two of our most relevant subjects, inside the Warren Avenue Congregational Church.13 A brief conclusion of our study will follow the Chicago ‘advance team’ out of Chicago at the tail end of 1966, and briefly examine where they are now, and how they all mysteriously ended up on the West Coast for the Summer of Love, in 1967. And as if there was ever an honor or an homage paid to Dr. King after he was assassinated in 1968, the passage of the Federal Fair Housing Laws of 1968

13 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, p. 316; Collier, interview. 19 should be included in our conclusion of what really should be called the ‘human rights movement’.14

14 Carson, Lecture, Fresno State campus. 20 CHAPTER 3: BEYOND SELMA. SCOPE: THE SUMMER OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING & POLITICAL EDUCATION

As early as September of 1963, Dr. King had his eyes focused on Montgomery, Alabama, as an important location to stage the largest protest of its kind against the shroud of racism and violence emanating from the administration of Gov. George Wallace. Almost three weeks after the euphoria and optimism abounded from the March on Washington, a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Four little girls were killed, and while under the watchful eye of swarming National Guardsmen, a thirteen-year-old boy was shot and killed while riding his bicycle through town. Shortly afterwards a sixteen- year-old received a deadly blow, this time from a police shotgun. The police were unable to apprehend the suspects which created a quandary for Dr. King. It was evident, as later events would show, that the guilty were “being deliberately shielded from justice”.1 Two days after the bombing, Diane Nash, formerly of SNCC, and now an SCLC field secretary, prepared a detailed plan for an assault on Montgomery with massive demonstrations while ultimately calling for the resignation of Gov. Wallace. Nash had considerable support for her plan by her former colleagues within SNCC, and when she presented her plan to Dr. King and the rest of SCLC at their annual convention in Richmond, VA. Dr. King had labeled the plan “impractical and unwise”, and the rest of the executive staff of the SCLC followed suit.2 However, Nash’s husband did not agree, and by November of 1964, the plans for Montgomery took a twisted turn of fate.

1 Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1987), p. 156. 2 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p.157. 21 21 James Bevel had married the charming and beautiful Diane Nash when they were still field staff workers for SNCC. By 1963, Bevel had changed affiliations from SNCC and joined the SCLC, quickly moving up the ranks while shining as one of their most popular and effective speakers. While conducting mass meetings in Birmingham, Bevel was noted for his verbal abuse of Gov. Wallace and Bull Connor that delighted audiences. The words most often applied to Bevel from his critics were, ‘firebrand’ and ‘rabble-rouser,’ yet his passion for the cause overshadowed his flamboyancy.3 In November of 1964, Bevel found himself in the little town of Selma, Alabama. He had been here many times, and a year earlier he had come to support his friend Bernard Lafayette in a series of unsuccessful voter registration drives in the small community. He had watched his former colleague’s efforts (SNCC) in Mississippi that Freedom Summer of 1964 and knowing the possibility for violence, as was expected in Mississippi, he advised his wife that her plan to protest in Montgomery would need to be revised (after all the capital was only fifty miles away from Selma). While at the SCLC retreat at the Gaston Motel in Birmingham, the executive staff agreed with Bevel that there was no better place to begin the next campaign than Selma.4 Bevel started preparing his own battle plan, and began assembling his own elite team for the Selma campaign, many of whom would eventually form his Chicago ‘advance team’. Bevel was always thinking one step ahead of the movement, and was keeping a mental note of activists who had knowledge of ‘Northern’ city life, while being college educated, and possessing philosophical

3 Ibid., p.167. 4 , : Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1986), pp.358-59. 22 22 knowledge of non-violence. Bevel had deep ties to Chicago, and knew it was his next target, even if it was for his own dream team which didn’t involve the SCLC.5 But this was Selma in late 1964 and for now he would summon Eric Kindberg, a young white staffer who worked for Bevel, along with his wife Anne, to research Selma’s demographics in the political and economic sphere.6 Kindberg, who held degrees in agriculture and economics was certainly qualified for the task, as well as for Bevel’s ‘advance team’. Bevel himself would plan direct action across the state while his trusted sideman, the energetic C.T. Vivian, a Baptist minister, would visit Selma and meet with local black clergy and leadership factions “to show them our concern and convince them to build a mass movement there.”7 James Orange was called up from Birmingham to shore up security. Orange was a pivotal and imposing figure at six foot three, weighing in at nearly 300 pounds, and even though he held a black belt in karate he was a firm believer and practitioner of non-violence. It had been only two years earlier during the Birmingham struggle that Orange, while attending Parker High School in Birmingham, singlehandedly led the whole school out onto the streets of the city while police dogs and fire hoses waited with anticipation.8 He would play a pivotal role in the events leading up to Bloody Sunday.9

5 Jimmy Collier, Interview with author, Feb. 20, 2016. Bevel knew that Collier had worked exclusively for Bernard Lafayette and the AFSC in Chicago, while also working with the Chicago chapter of CORE. 6 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 359. 7 Ibid., p. 359. 8 Bob Hall, “James Orange, With the People,” Southern Exposure, 1981, p. 112. 9 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, pp. 238-39. 23 23 On Feb. 18, 1965, Orange had been beaten and jailed in Marion, Ala., after a night of marching and protest. The movement’s underground certainly had a unique way of relaying information, and when word reached the staff of the SCLC that Orange was in jail, the local activists gathered together at a mass meeting inside the Zion Chapel Methodist Church. More than 400 people gathered to organize a protest march to prevent a party, to which Orange himself was alerted. Orange claimed later, “They was gonna’ lynch me, man!” They were preparing to march across the street to the courthouse when Chief of Police T. O. Harris ordered them to disperse. The police had been waiting in ambush with the streetlights conveniently turned off, while pick axes, fists, and clubs were swung and the blood flowed. An Alabama State trooper shot Jimmie Lee Jackson in the stomach while he was trying to protect his mother in a diner down the street. Jackson hung on to life for eight days, but sadly he died. This injustice, along with the murder of Rev. James Reeb, among others, caught the attention of many students turned activists as well as sympathetic Northern whites, elevating the struggle beyond the national spotlight.10 Jimmy Collier was among those Northern college students who had been watching the violence in Alabama. In March of 1965 while still working for the Chicago chapter of CORE, he volunteered to drive a supply truck down to Atlanta, earmarked for Dr. King’s SCOPE house. Collier had selfish motives at first, but after arriving in Atlanta, Collier sensed the excitement surrounding the ‘movement’ and was whisked away into a whirlwind indoctrination into the SCLC in Atlanta. Collier arrived in Selma, on March 20th, less than a month after Jackson’s death. Collier quickly became an important field staff member of the

10 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 239. 24 24 SCLC, and during the Selma march, he was assigned to guard celebrities along the route, of which there was certainly an eclectic list of personalities. His charismatic persona and his soothing singing voice allowed him to diffuse confrontations while traversing U.S. Route 80, better known in Alabama as the Jefferson Davis Highway. Collier learned quickly to adapt into the SCLC and while using his guitar and music as his weapon, he found a passion that would sustain him through the movement and beyond. Collier, originally from Ft. Smith, Arkansas, had attended college in Chicago after a curious stretch in the U.S. Air Force. Collier had enlisted at the age of 15, yet was released from his duties a few days prior to his 17th birthday. While stationed in the Azore Islands in 1960, he was fortunate to have read works of both Fanon and Ghandi while immersing himself in the local subculture. These readings touched him deeply and eventually led to his confession to his superiors that he was still only sixteen years old, resulting in his discharge.11 Sherie Land and Claudia King had left college in California in late 1964 to come to Chicago and join CORE. After settling in to the city, they wasted no time earning their stripes as activists. During a CORE sanctioned protest on the weekend of March 13-14, 1965, they promptly got themselves arrested on a Saturday night after a melee at an Alabama boat manufacturer’s expo at the legendary McCormick Place. A group of about twenty protesters chained themselves together in a circle surrounding the boats. They began singing freedom songs, but after the representatives for the boat company became agitated they started chanting, “Alabama Sucks, Alabama Sucks!” The Chicago Police hauled them all off to jail, only after hours of trying to find a locksmith to unlock the

11 Collier, Interview with author, July 4, 2014. 25 25 shackles. Chicago Police finally used a set of bolt cutters to free the radicals, and arrested all 23 protesters.12 They were released on their own recognizance, but being the young activists that they were aspiring to be, they went back out the next day (Sunday) and did the same routine all over again. The police held the group as a unit this time, and CORE was summoned to post their bond. Their antics caught the attention of Collier, and a friendship began with the two young women in earnest and they left for the South the next day. The news of Jimmie Lee Jackson’s death circulated the close confines of the movement while the national media news coverage of Bloody Sunday captured the attention of many activists. Collier followed the two young ladies down to Atlanta in the aforementioned truck for their first visit to Dr. King’s SCOPE house.13 Lynn Adler had just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was about to return back to Guatemala for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps. Adler, a white college girl, had recently returned from a short training mission to Guatemala. After visiting the little village where she would be spending the next 24 months she began to ponder her future. Adler was aware that even though the administration of “President John F. Kennedy had shown dismal support and had stumbled in its support of civil rights activism in the South,” one sentiment had emerged in the early 1960s: “the unwavering impact he had on the consciousness of America’s youth with the creation of the Peace Corps.”14 While Adler was there she received a letter from her college roommate relating the wild protest scene on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, where they had spent many of their summer days. “My friends and I had been hearing rumors

12 John Tweedle, “23 Arrested at McCormick Pl.,” Chicago Daily News, March 15, 1965, p. 48. 13 Sherie Land, Interview with author, Fresno Ca., Dec 12, 2013. 14 Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer (NY: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 23. 26 26 from fellow students at Penn that the CIA was somehow involved with the Peace Corps. When I got back to my folk’s house it was too late for Freedom Summer.” But when she had heard the rumblings from Selma she severed ties with the corps. After informing her parents they thought she was crazy, but her friends all piled into a VW and drove down South anyway. A good friend of Adler had bought her a brand new Nikon 35mm camera with a telescopic lens to take to Guatemala, but she was afraid to take it with her this time. “I stashed it under my bed for safekeeping. That was one of my biggest regrets. On our way down there, we heard of the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson. That blew the whole thing up. Maybe my parents were right after all.”15 By the time they got there the March to Montgomery was over, but with good fortune and Adler’s good looks they ended up in Atlanta where she joined the SCLC instead. Adler, who was fluent in Spanish, certainly caught Bevel’s attention and became one of his favorite elite staff, while her education and travels also opened many doors for her. Adler, a white college girl, was quickly welcomed in to the fraternity and was nick-named Pocahontas by Dr. King because of her waist-length chestnut brown hair, which she kept in two long braids.16 Charles Love got the message soon enough. It was a cool morning in early January 1965 when Love told his graduate school professor at San Francisco State that he could not sit idly by when the South was being ravaged by the likes of Bull Connor and Jim Clark. Love fondly recalls that his professor took up a collection from his classmates on the spot, to buy him a bus ticket to Alabama. Years later Love would classify his time in Alabama as a reality check, in the form of a billy club from one of Alabama’s finest that would draw blood gushing from Love’s

15 Lynn Adler. Interview with author, Berkeley, Ca., July 3, 2015. 16 Lynn Adler. Interview with author, Berkeley, Ca., April, 12, 2015. 27 27 head. As luck would have it, SCLC field staff member, James Orange, picked him up and carried him to the local church where he was bandaged up. Love recalls Orange laughing and bellowing in his baritone voice, “Welcome to Alabama son, and the SCLC.”17 There seemed to be a recurring theme amongst these young people. They were mostly college educated and they were more likely to have been raised in a middle-class family, with some connection to the church and home, and were taught to speak out against injustice anywhere. It wouldn’t be difficult for the top brass of SCLC to see Bevel’s obvious attention to this motley crew of radicals and dreamers. They didn’t know it yet, but the roster of Bevel’s Chicago ‘advance team’ was nearly complete. As students across the nation along with their parents and political leaders watched the events unfold in Selma from their living rooms, the core group of the Chicago ‘advance team’, Collier, Love, Kindberg, Orange, Land, Hill and King, all marched proudly from Selma to Montgomery. Collier and Orange can be seen in rare stock film footage of the march at the end of the recent Hollywood movie, “Selma.”18 Orange is marching alongside Dr. King, and Collier is seen escorting through the final stretch of the march. Land, Hill and King can be seen in Charles Moore’s photo masterpiece, “Powerful Days, The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore,” where the three friends are practically carrying

17 Charles Love, interview with author, May 1, 2015. 18 Ava DuVernay, Producer. Selma, 2014. 28 28 each other through the mud to finish the march.19 Land was truly the sweetheart of photojournalists, appearing in Jet magazines multiple times.20 Collier is seen again in the stock footage of “Selma,” while strumming his guitar alongside Len Chandler beside the campfires the night before the final stretch to the Capitol. Chandler, whose eerie musical contribution, “Murder on the Road in Alabama”, detailed the Klan’s murder of a young housewife, Viola Luizzo, who was shuttling marchers to Selma from Montgomery after the march had ended.21 It is worth noting that before SNCC had embarked on its Freedom Summer Project 1964, they had laid the seeds of voter registration drives back in February of 1963 in Selma. Ironically it was led by Bernard and Colia Lafayette and by the Fall of 1964, they had managed to assemble more than 300 poor black voters, and along with a picket line and protest flyers, they marched down to the courthouse, to register to vote. They were all promptly harassed by the local sheriff for parading without a permit, and without the presence of four FBI agents and attorneys for the Justice Department, they would have all been arrested. The interest in the local movement “petered out” soon after.22 For Dr. King, the climax of the Selma-to-Montgomery march was a moment for to relish, but the impact that it had on the leaders of the SCLC pulled Bevel and King in different directions. For James Bevel, the march to

19 Charles Moore, Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991) pp. 194-95. 20 Francis Ward, “White Queen Complex Angers Negro Women; Rivalry Revealed,” JET Magazine, June 9, 1966, p. 15; Maurice Sorrel, “Best Photos of the Week,” JET Magazine, April 8, 1965, pp. 34-35. 21 Guy and Candie Carawan, Sing For Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through its Songs (Bethlehem, PA: Sing Out Corporation, 1990), p. 268. 22 David J. Garrow, Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), pp. 31-32. 29 29 Montgomery was not the end of his original Alabama project but only the beginning. While his ‘master plan’ had originally called for mass protests and demonstrations in Montgomery, along with a nationwide boycott of the state’s industries and products, Dr. King had different ideas. Even though Bevel had caught Dr. King’s interest in his plan the executive staff of the SCLC opted for a new plan — SCOPE, the Summer Community Organizing and Political Education project. This innovative approach would ideally take advantage of the new opportunities afforded by the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, while drawing on SNCC’s field strategies and tactics employed in Freedom Summer. Yet as it turned out President Johnson wouldn’t sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 until August 6, 1965.23 Dr. King’s executive director of field operations, , had been working on details of the project for several months prior to the march to Montgomery. His plan called for the placement of hundreds of student volunteers, mostly northern college students, in counties throughout the Black Belt stretching from Virginia to Louisiana— excluding Mississippi which SNCC had thoroughly explored in the previous Freedom Summer of 1964. Williams proposed that this plan would be in essence an expanded version of Freedom Summer conducted by SNCC, and could effectively be an extension of the citizenship education that had been overseen by Septima Clark and .24 Yet the bonus would be the anticipation of the assistance of the federal registrars that would be arriving in rural counties after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed. The ultimate goal was to make a concentrated Southern-wide “push to register Blacks to vote, and

23 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 415. 24 Ibid., p. 416. 30 30 teach them literacy and political skills that would give their franchise the maximum impact.”25 While the executive branch of the SCLC staff was still implementing the details of the SCOPE project, many of the students who migrated to the South were already in place while participating in the Selma campaign, while others lingered with no real ties to any particular organization. The plan made perfect sense to utilize the field staff of SCLC, and to absorb many of the activists who stayed behind. SCLC had already established bases in remote outposts, like Hale County, where James Orange was just gaining a foothold, and Lowndes County where James Bevel himself had established a following. The statistics were a sad reality to the project, as in Wilcox County, where there were no blacks registered to vote, and in Perry County where Marion sits as the seat, there were roughly 300 blacks registered to vote out of 5,000 adults.26 While some of the staff had stayed behind in Montgomery for field operations there, others were sent to Atlanta to undergo initial training for SCOPE while preparing the new recruits for the danger they might face in the field. Even though all of the activists were enamored of Bevel and had their respect, he had had enough, and he decided to leave Alabama after ‘his master plan’ was shelved.27 Another student activist who had been paying attention to the progress of Freedom Summer was a young and wild Jim ‘Strider’ Benston. He found himself wandering the Boardwalk in Atlantic City during the first few days of August 1964. Born in Tennessee to a well-to-do white family, Benston had always been

25 Charles Fager, Selma 1965 (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974), p. 167. 26 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 265. 27 Fager, Selma 1965, p.169. 31 31 taught to stand up and fight for what you believed in. His father had a bigoted Southern view of the Negro in America, and this racist attitude made Benston sick to his stomach. While still in college Benston left home at 19, to escape his family’s beliefs, and he somehow landed in Atlantic City. Benston couldn’t help but notice the large gathering of sorts closer to the beach. As he neared the scene he could hear singing, and chanting, yet something drew him closer. He noticed a powerful Black woman belting out some ‘gospel stuff,’ so he walked right over and joined right in. “I didn’t know exactly what I was singing, or what for, but I remember we kept singing, ‘We’ll Never Turn Back’, and I knew I felt right at home, and I myself would never turn back.”28 After a few hours of singing with his new friends and bantering back and forth with the State Police, Benston was formally introduced to and Stokely Carmichael. For another three days Benston hung with the crew and stood defiantly in unison with the rest of the group outside the Convention Hall, while Hamer gave her emotional testimony to the Democratic Credentials Committee.29 “Stokely (Carmichael) invited me down to Greenville, Mississippi to finish up the campaign (Freedom Summer) they had just completed. By the time I got back to college in Tennessee, I studied everything I could get my hands on about the movement. I dropped out of school, and I hitchhiked, actually I walked mostly, down to Greenville, Mississippi, in the freezing rain, and there was nobody there. I just kept on walking and caught up with all of them in Selma, Ala., in January of 1965.

28 Guy and Candie Carawan, Sing For Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs. p. 93. This song was a traditional hymn updated by Bertha Gober, of SNCC in 1963. 29 SNCC had organized the Freedom Summer Project of 1964, as a voter registration campaign, staffed with Northern college student volunteers. The ultimate goal consisted of the creation of a new political party, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, or MFDP. The culmination of the efforts resulted in the appearance of Fannie Lou Hamer as an elected delegate, on the floor of the main Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, in August 1964. 32 32 The march from Selma-to-Montgomery is still something that I hold most dear to my heart.”30 By the end of May 1965, SCOPE was finally underway with a little more steam thanks to an influx of ‘Northern’ college students on summer break. SCLC executive branch director Hosea Williams had asked colleges to distribute flyers to attract the volunteers with a new angle: they could “adopt” a county of their choice from the SCLC list in the Black Belt that summer of 1965.31 In Alabama it was apparent that the greater number of volunteers had chosen counties to ‘adopt’ for their proximity to Selma. Backed by more than 80 SCOPE foot soldiers, and a dozen full-time staff members, most of whom were the eventual Chicago ‘advance team’ who were scattered around fifteen counties in Alabama, they led the volunteers into the abyss.32 Freedom Summer 1964 had certainly awakened the spirit of college liberals around the nation. In the small confines of Tennessee, as Benston could attest, and even in rural western Oklahoma. At Panhandle A&M College, a young teenager named Dick Reavis had stumbled upon some brochures for civil rights opportunities while he was working in the mailroom. They were pamphlets encouraging students to participate in the SCOPE project that summer of 1965 with SNCC or SCLC, beginning with a training program in Atlanta. The deciding factor for Reavis was the fact that SCLC offered a stipend of $12.50 per week, whereas SNCC offered only free lodging within the community. SCLC offered the lodging but it was certainly the stipend that convinced Reavis to accept the SCLC offer. There were times when it felt like SCLC was courting the displaced white

30 Jim ‘Strider’ Benston, Interview with author, Nov. 25, 2015. 31 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 263. 32 Ibid., p. 264. 33 33 volunteers from SNCC, who found the southern-based leadership group to be glamorous. “As Reavis knew all too well, at least they paid.”33 Reavis, a white native-born Texan with a long and slow Southern drawl, recalls the day his folks drove him to the train station for the trip to Georgia, when his father slipped him a twenty dollar bill, even though he disapproved of the venture. Once he arrived in Atlanta, he felt a little better as the “taxi he rode in for the first time in his life,” rolled up to the SCOPE house— a two-story white craftsman that was formerly Dr. King’s home. He was greeted by a host of other college kids dressed nothing like he was. They greeted him while dressed smartly in their Freedom Fighter suits—“carpenter’s jeans and a blue chambray shirt”, and new straw hats. It would take a while for Reavis to feel comfortable in this new environment.34 After a few days of settling in, Reavis and his colleagues attended their first real training session at the Morris Brown gymnasium. gave an emotional and thought provoking speech, and as it appeared more than likely that Dr. King would arrive late, other speakers filled in, like a musical concert’s opening act would do. and a few others like gave stirring speeches, but it was Bayard Rustin who would organize and dominate the informative sessions that most students remembered.35 Yet as Reavis would later attest, it was the voice of that he heard in his head all summer long. Young advised the group of students to dress modestly, and that interracial sex with local teenage girls way down in Alabama was

33 Dick J. Reavis, If White Kids Die: Memories of a Civil Rights Movement Volunteer (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2001), p. 3. 34 Reavis, If White Kids Die, pp. 6-8. 35 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 263. 34 34 dangerous to say the least, and would be frowned upon by the hierarchy of SCLC.36 As one of the guests was speaking a great commotion broke from the rear of the room as Dr. King and his entourage swung through the rear doors of the gym, and the crowd parted like the Red Sea. Reavis recalled that Dr. King was “shorter than he expected,” but his oratory skills made up for it. He brought the house down, and afterwards he was ushered out much the same way he was brought in. The group formed a single line for the dinner buffet, and he noticed two men, obvious movement workers, handing out flyers for something. They were working their way towards him, when a handful of veterans dressed in those country Freedom Fighter suits, began screaming and hollering at these two men. It turns out they were SNCC workers, passing out flyers calling out the SCLC for not opposing the war in .37 By 1965 SNCC had become, according to critics, much more than a civil rights organization but a “burgeoning component of the New Left: a shapeless mass of young dissidents seeking new conceptual alternatives to mainstream liberalism.” While the radicalism within SNCC grew from multiple cultural and ideological sources, most of the SNCC staff supported the New Left: the resistance to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. “Only gradually did the black leaders who dominated SNCC during the mid-1960s develop a racial perspective that threatened the New Left dream of an interracial movement.”38 Perhaps the absence of a strong Black Church ideology, and the absence of a

36 Reavis, If White Kids Die, p. 14. 37 Ibid., pp. 11-12. 38 Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (London: Harvard University Press, 1981), p. 175. 35 35 gospel or musical presence, parted the waters of the different factions of the many civil rights organizations at that time. The pressures of the emerging new left and the growing dissent in the nation towards the war, may have persuaded Dr. King to come out against the War in Vietnam, much to the dismay of the Johnson administration. The differences in philosophy between the two organizations were subtle, yet defining. Looking back in retrospect, Collier believed that it was clear that SNCC had been run as a more practical organization. It certainly had its hierarchy of staff members but they didn’t succumb to the ‘Great Man’ theory. SCLC always operated under the umbrella of theology, with Dr. King sometimes being referred to as ‘The Lord.’ “We were raised in the large Black church where hand clapping and singing of gospel tunes had been in our soul. The music I carried into the back woods of Alabama and later on in Chicago was my tool, it opened many doors for me and allowed me to escape death, if you want to know the truth.”39 Reavis wondered if he really belonged here, after all most of the kids were from Northern liberal schools and here he was a white southern boy. He had heard about a fellow white Southern boy from Tennessee, so he began asking around about him. Most of the workers knew who he was, but they believed he had shipped out to the front lines deep in Alabama— counties like Lowndes, Marengo, Dallas and Perry Counties, all of which had a large black population with an even higher percentage of non-registered black voters. Some counties had a zero percent black voter database. As Reavis began bantering back and forth with his fellow workers, someone started to grind on him a little bit. One of the staffers hollered out, “What you want with that ole’ white boy?” It was just some word

39 Jimmy Collier, interview with author. 36 36 play, and Reavis played along. “You’d probably like to meet up with ole’ Arkansas,” they chimed back in unison.40 The ole’ Arkansas they were referring to was the aforementioned Jim ‘Strider’ Benston, who had been drifting through the South ever since the Selma to Montgomery march had wrapped up. Eventually he made it back to Mississippi to work with SNCC, but after too many altercations with staff he made his way back to Alabama to join the SCLC. He had fanned out across Alabama to organize local groups but he was beaten repeatedly by Alabama State Troopers and he got his nose busted more than once. By this time Benston, or ‘Arkansas’, as he was now called had created a legend around his persona and was considered to be a tough and fearless, yet undisciplined firebrand, a real urban guerilla. The staff told Reavis that he had been down in Greensboro, or Demopolis, Ala., during the last few weeks but in reality he had gone back to Mississippi to work with SNCC and his good buddy Stokely Carmichael. But, they also told him that Arkansas was something of a ‘Free Agent’, not specifically a SCLC member or an active SNCC field staffer. Half of the SCLC staffers had already been deployed in Camden and Demopolis, Ala., in April and early May, where Dr. King had stopped in to give a speech, and the staff had organized a big protest downtown where 600 had been arrested. A number of SCLC staff were involved including Arkansas, and a guitar slinging intellectual that Reavis had heard about: Jimmy Collier. Reavis wouldn’t have to wait long to meet his new heroes.41 Sally Belfrage had recalled the day she and her fellow student volunteers were leaving from a Northern college to head down to Mississippi to participate in

40 Reavis, If White Kids Die, pp. 15-16. 41 Ibid., p.17. 37 37 Freedom Summer 1964.42 The impressive scene of dozens of busses and cars leaving the Oxford College training module that was heading down to Mississippi for the voter registration drive dwarfed the mini-convoy that left Atlanta heading into the war zone of Alabama. The SCLC entourage consisted of only three cars, two sedans and a late model station wagon. The caravan stopped in Greensboro to meet up with another car that would escort them to Demopolis, and while being careful to integrate the cars they switched out the passenger arrangement and eerily crossed into Marengo County, home of the town of Demopolis. Stepping into the station wagon to join Reavis and Rev. Samuel B. Wells was Henry Haskins Jr. who actually lived in Demopolis, and a young yellow-brown staffer, who was carrying a worn out guitar case. It turns out that not only had Arkansas been stirring up things down in Demopolis, but so had a 21-year-old SCLC staffer named Jimmy Collier. Collier had been a veteran of CORE in Chicago and had worked for Bevel’s protégé Bernard Lafayette as a clerk for the AFSC. Collier used his military experience to supervise the building of a log cabin for underprivileged youth (with the blessing of the AFSC) before heading to Atlanta to join SCLC and later the Selma campaign. Before heading into Marengo County, Collier had been spoken of in the same amount of respect that Arkansas had been spoken about. The somewhat comical two car caravan now rolled onto the only ‘main street’ in Demopolis and as if on cue, two patrol cruisers pulled in behind the station wagon. Reavis could hear the groans of the other passengers as a red light splashed all over their interior. “Oh no. It’s Sergeant Johnson. Ugh,” Collier grunted. For the veterans that were riding with Collier and Reavis, it was old hat; name address and occupation. Once Sgt. Johnson heard where Reavis was from, it

42 Sally Belfrage, Freedom Summer (New York: Viking Press, 1965). 38 38 was all over. “You from Texas boy? You hear that boys, he’s from Texas!” The troopers erupted in southern laughter the activists despised, then they heard, “I hope you ain’t gonna’ end up like that ole’ Arkansas.” Just like that, Reavis had been in Alabama not even one hour, and he had his first run-in with the law. But this night, he would be spared, as it was Collier who was being carted off to the Marengo County Jail for refusing to tell Sgt. Johnson where he was staying in Demopolis, and not Reavis.43 The SCLC had taken a different strategic approach to the Alabama frontier. Collier had been studying Bevel’s tactical approach to the original Selma campaign and he began to organize boycotts of local businesses. Bevel had originally wanted to pursue this approach to all of Alabama, but Collier settled on Demopolis. Collier used his relationships with Bevel, and Eric Kindberg, who had studied the economic structure of Alabama (prior to the Selma march), to educate himself on how this smaller group of activists could appropriate some real change in these local communities. Collier was working deep within Marengo County, where he went door-to- door on his motor bike with his guitar slung over his shoulder, recruiting black voters. Alabama was a much different audience than he was accustomed to playing, after enjoying the spotlight alongside folksingers like Pete Seeger and Susan Reed back home in Chicago. In the summer of 1962, Pete Seeger had invited Collier onstage to sing a few songs at the Chicago Folk Festival after Reed had convinced Seeger of his charisma and sweet voice. The experience would lead to a life-long friendship and professional relationship.44

43 Reavis, If White Kids Die, pp. 21-23. 44 Dunaway, How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Books, 1981), P 239; Jimmy Collier interview with author. 39 39 It turns out that even Dr. King himself had visited Demopolis deep in Marengo County, some years earlier, and remembered it as being a friendly place. So, beginning in mid-April, SCLC staff had organized daily marches to the courthouse there, and within a few weeks it had garnered no success. Collier was sent down to “shake things up”45 After Collier had detected the slow Texas drawl of Reavis, Collier pulled a page out of his Air Force playbook. While stationed in the Azores, Collier was forced to portray a ‘poor southern boy’ to escape a barroom brawl, and he put Reavis’ accent to work for the cause. Collier gave Reavis a list of movement workers who were being held in jail on various counts, and with his thick Southern accent Reavis would call the outlying county jails and arrange their bail. It was a brilliant performance, as Reavis convinced the Sheriff in each county that the ‘boy’ in jail was needed back on the ‘white’ family farm.46 After completing a rigid two-week activist training module, Lynn Adler found herself and her ‘team’ deep in the woods of Alabama, participating in the Summer Community Organizing and Political Education project (SCOPE). She was sent to remote Hale County going door to door in poor black neighborhoods— if you could call it door-to-door. The area was so poor, some of the ramshackle huts had no doors. It was apparent that the white folks down there had not relaxed their anxieties over their racism, and the reaction of the local whites was one of “revulsion and cold fury.” Blacks in that county had made up about two-thirds of the population and once the ‘invaders’ were identified with their host black families, workers were fired, some tenants were evicted, and even two local churches were burned down to the ground.47

45 Reavis, If White Kids Die, p. 17; Jimmy Collier interview with author. 46 Reavis, If White Kids Die, p.29. 47 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 264. ; Lynn Adler interview with author. 40 40 It turns out that many of the small towns in the larger counties would be a hub or a center of activity for the folks in the outlying areas. In some remote areas, poor black folks would travel some 30 miles to purchase the bulk of their household goods and food staples. The problem was that the strip malls and grocery stores would not hire blacks, in any capacity. Collier, who had a knack for organizing protests aimed at a more significant audience, led a number of protest marches and assembled picket lines in front of local businesses with signs and placards reading: “Don’t Shop Where You Can’t Work,’ and “Blacks Buy Black Jobs.” “Of course the Alabama State Police didn’t find it amusing, and we spent a lot of time in jail,” Collier recalls.48 Collier was always organizing some kind of protest, and after the tiresome job of knocking on doors had fatigued him, he was looking for the next big protest. He managed to find a car that had been donated by a northern businessman. In fact, the anonymous sympathizer had donated a whole fleet of late model sedans to SCLC and the best part was they all had CB radios. Collier was able to communicate with staff members in outlying counties, as well as let friends know where he was if he chose to. Collier had heard from Adler about the continued use of literacy laws over in Greensboro, which was deep in Hale County. He organized a march down to the registrar’s office, and using his guitar like the Pied Piper he gathered a small army of sympathizers in front of the county courthouse. Police were not amused; teargas and clubs broke up the protest and arrested nearly 500 marchers.49

48 Jimmy Collier interview with author. 49 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 265; Adler interview with author; Collier interview with author. 41 41 Collier and Benston would be singled out by the police, especially Sgt. Johnson, so they employed some more military strategies, if at the least amusing the rest of the volunteers. During the day the scorching heat of the Alabama sun would prevent door-to-door canvassing. However, laying around in the host family’s living room provided an easy target for Sgt. Johnson and his posse, so they set up quarters underneath the neighbor’s house and took refuge there. “It was not exactly an old Victorian, but it had a taller than normal crawl space and a short ramp where I could hide my motorcycle.” Benston, Collier, and Reavis would escape the heat and the stealth enclave gave them a bird’s eye view of the street as to avoid any confrontations with any of Alabama’s finest.50 One of Reavis’ fondest memories of the dynamic duo Collier and Benston, was when they finally felt comfortable enough to spend a few days in their host family’s living room. As Reavis walked into the parlor he saw Collier spread- eagle on the couch with his mouth wide open, while Benston played dentist, removing some infected stitches from Collier’s mouth with a pair of needle nose pliers. There was only one dentist in Marengo County, and he wasn’t seeing any Black patients any time soon. After rinsing his mouth with some vodka, Collier was good to go again. Collier would get a chance to thank Benston soon enough.51 Collier always had his guitar with him, and while canvassing the local community he befriended Ruth Levin, a white college girl from Vermont. Levin, who had joined the SCLC staff a few months earlier had her guitar as well. She was an accomplished guitar player and they both appear with their guitars on the cover of Dick J. Reavis’ book, If White Kids Die. Collier and Levin had driven out of town to support a group of local activists at a picket line he had organized.

50 Collier interview with author. 51 Reavis, If White Kids Die, p.55; Collier interview with author; Benston interview with author. 42 42 Before they could get out of town, Collier noticed Sgt. Johnson following closely behind. As he kept his eye on the traffic conditions he spoke calmly to Levin without turning his head, “Watch this,” he said, “And hang on!” Just as he was approaching a red light Collier immediately hit the emergency brake on the big Buick they had borrowed for the trip. The car skidded towards the left while employing only the rear brakes, and Collier cranked the wheel hard to the left. Collier had learned the maneuver while on training in the military, and the long Buick sedan performed a perfect 180 degree turnabout, and as Collier smoothly hit the gas they were promptly headed in the opposite direction, just as Sgt. Johnson slammed on his brakes and stalled out in the middle of the intersection. “That,” Collier beamed, “Was an Alabama U-turn!” Levin finally regained her composure when they finally arrived in the outskirts of Demopolis where they were about to lead a group of about 200 local black protesters in front of the only grocery store in Uniontown, an all-black settlement some twenty miles east of Demopolis. They would be demanding jobs for local black folk while singing Freedom Songs. Collier and Levin began singing as luck would have it, “Ain’t Gonna’ Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” a revised traditional spiritual that was adapted by the movement for protests just like this one.52 The pair had their backs turned to the street as they led the group in song, and when they saw the protesters scurry in a panic, they turned around almost in unison to see a big white Oldsmobile hurtling towards them. In a flash of smoke and dust, the driver slammed on his brakes and slid right up to Collier and Levin, stopping inches from their guitars. And as if on cue, right behind that Oldsmobile was Sgt. Johnson, obviously not amused by Collier’s antics. Of course Collier was immediately arrested.53

52 Guy and Candie Carawan, Sing for Freedom, p.62. 53 Collier interview with author. 43 43 While Collier and Benston were sharing a local house deep in the Black community, Love was camped out in Perry County, Alabama, working on the voter registration drive along with Jimmy Wilson. The rest of their cohorts Lynn Adler, Suzi Hill, Sherie Land and Claudia King, had been sent to Dallas and Wilcox Counties, respectively.54 Back in Chicago in 1962, Collier was enjoying a summer internship as a field clerk for the AFSC under the direction of none other than Bernard Lafayette. With the approval of AFSC he was recruited by a field counselor for a group of underprivileged youth from the Winettka, Illinois area, who were about to embark on a summer excursion to Maine. The summer campaign was much like Outward Bound, and Collier supervised the youngsters as they all built a summer cabin together.55 Of course, at night, around the campfire, Collier was always thinking back to what Lafayette had been teaching him about strategic involvement in the movement even in 1962. Collier had learned of the many constitutional violations that the voter registration drives in Mississippi had uncovered, while Lafayette was still working with SNCC. Of course Collier had heard of the poll taxes, but voter literacy tests? By the time Collier returned to Chicago he had many questions for his mentor. They would come up with a plan, and when Collier got to the right spot he would know what to do.56 Collier, who was supervising Reavis and the other volunteers would canvass the neighborhood surrounding the Morning Star Church in Demopolis for interested parties wishing to register to vote. They went door-to-door for two

54 Charles Love. Interview with author, San Francisco, May 1, 2015. 55 Outward Bound is an international non-profit, independent outdoor-educational organization with nearly 40 schools around the world. Their goal is to provide programs aimed at fostering the personal growth and social skills of underprivileged youth. 56 Collier interview with author. 44 44 weeks before they finally assembled 200 or so applicants, and on a Monday morning they led them down to the courthouse, and Collier insisted on leaving Reavis behind. Collier slipped into a café across the street and waited for the right moment. As the hopeful registrants waited patiently for nearly two hours in the sizzling sun with no movement whatsoever, Collier telephoned Reavis, and he came screeching up to the court in one of the donated cars. He muscled his way to the front of the line and barged into the office and got right in the clerk’s face. He told her in his best Southern drawl that “he had his grandmother outside,” but she would in no uncertain terms wait in line with the likes of the local black folk. Of course to sell the ruse, Reavis painfully used the ‘n’ word to emphasize his point. The older white woman behind the counter smiled and nodded her head and “pointed to a side door, and told Reavis to knock three times.” She told Reavis she would have granny in and out in a jiffy. It worked but when the clerk saw the older black woman Reavis had brought in the side door posing as his granny, she called the Sheriff. After being questioned Reavis was released without being arrested, and he made it back to the safe house. Collier showed up later that night and Reavis worried his performance was a disaster. Collier responded with that grin he was noted for, and he said “On the contrary, my boy.” It turns out that the plan that Collier had devised with Lafayette was one that was more of an investigative nature. After a spiritual counseling session by Collier, Reavis typed up an affidavit on an old Corona typewriter they had borrowed from the church, detailing exactly what was said in the registrar’s office. After he signed and dated it he handed it to Collier. Collier looked it over, folded it meticulously, and put it in a special yellow envelope which he put it in his hat for security and bounced out of the house. Apparently, Lafayettte had a contact within the Department of 45 45 Justice who would collect the growing number of affidavits from Collier and the other staff members.57 Bevel was well aware of Collier’s, Reavis’, and Benston’s antics, yet it was only Collier that was called up to Chicago out of the SCLC crew in Demopolis. Collier’s organizing and leadership abilities were paramount to Bevel’s push for Chicago, and although there were other skills that Collier had perfected it was Collier’s exceptional musical skills that put him over the top. Very few activists could diffuse violent situations with a guitar and a velvet voice, and along with his social graces it gave him a rare and desired combination of talents. Reavis was always wondering, where was Collier when he was called out of town ‘on tour’? Collier was performing in a number of different events in the North, mainly in the greater Chicago area. Venues like Soldier Field, where Dr. King had made his first appearance in the summer of 1965, or regularly at the mysterious SCLC retreats in rural locations. Perhaps Collier’s most memorable and serious entry into the Chicago Freedom Movement at one of the largest retreats he had seen, in Madison Bay, Wisconsin, on the weekend of October 8-10, 1965.58 As for ole’ Arkansas, whenever Collier was out of town it seemed he would come and go as well. Collier would always drive Arkansas out to the deep woods and drop him off there. Arkansas would say, meet me back here in exactly two weeks. “And by gosh, ole’ Arkansas would be there right on time, albeit bloody, bandaged and bruised most of the time,” Collier recalls. It was not long after that when Arkansas had been re-arrested for vagrancy immediately after he was released from jail, after the team had posted his $400 bail. It was a bold move by Sgt. Johnson, because they would now take him to the Marengo County Jail,

57 Reavis. If White Kids Die, p. 38; Collier interview with author. 58 Ralph, Northern Protest, p.53. 46 46 where they had a basement. Arkansas was beaten to within an inch of his life and thrown into that basement with no food or water for two weeks. Near death, some of the inmates miraculously got word out to the SCLC staff of his dire condition. No one had really known where he was, but as Collier rolled into town that night from parts unknown he was now about to repay Arkansas for pulling those stitches out of his mouth earlier that summer. Collier bailed Arkansas out of jail at midnight on his 21st birthday. Ole Arkansas won’t ever forget that night.59 As for Reavis, for all the education and accolades he received during SCOPE summer, his proudest moment came when he received a personal invitation to attend the SCLC retreat in Frogmore, S.C. Finally, he would find out what the heck went on at those retreats. But, in the end, Reavis never got there. Reavis had been caught in a political crossfire between the movement and the racist Sgt. Johnson. To make matters worse his father had called Johnson and made a deal with the local Sheriff to put Reavis back on a bus to Texas. At first Reavis was feeling guilty about running out on the movement, but to his credit he returned the following summer to work on his own literacy project in Demopolis.60 The hard work and creative organizing that the staff and volunteers of SCLC during the SCOPE project, actually paid off into what some political scientists would label a success. Lynn Adler, who was parched and dusty after her time in Hale County, was told that by the time the Chicago ‘advance team’ had reached Chicago the registered voters in that county jumped from a paltry 236 to an astounding 3,242. The protest where Collier and Adler had led 500 potential registrants to their arrest had resulted in the DOJ sending in federal registrars to Hale County, and the five other counties where our ‘advance team’ had been that

59 Benston interview with author; Collier interview with author. 60 Reavis, If White Kids Die, pp. 85-86. 47 47 summer. Charles Love and Jimmy Wilson had been working hard down in Perry County, and their registered voters jumped from an astounding zero to 2,466. Suzi Hill and the others had been in Dallas County, where their numbers jumped from 320 to 6,789. The rest of the SCLC staff had worked very hard down in Lowndes County, where 6,085 registered voters could now be proud. After all they were now all first time registrants. In Marengo County where Arkansas, Reavis, and Collier cajoled and ham-boned their way through protests and Alabama U-turns, they still managed to increase the county’s registered black voter base from 295 to 4257.61 The rise in the number of registered voters is certainly due to the exposure and pressure the team put on the federal government with those signed affidavits that Collier was stuffing in his hat, and always insisting the team fill them out and sign them every time we made contact with the registrar’s office. Federal registrars were sent to the five counties that the ‘advance team’ was working, well in advance of the other counties. Collier sent as many affidavits as he could from each of the five counties, which would come into play when he would be fighting against housing discrimination in Chicago.62 As it turned out, the original intent of the executive staff of the SCLC was to send more than 650 students to the 120 counties that made up the ‘Black belt’ across the South. Yet after a careful analysis only about 300 volunteers took part in SCOPE summer, and less than 51 counties were canvassed. Reavis didn’t have these figures at the time, and even though he felt their summer was a failure, he should have been proud that such a small army of activists in the five counties that were handled by the SCLC skeleton staff managed to register some 26,000 new voters. In retrospect, the passage of the Voting rights Act of 1965 was delayed

61 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 265. 62 Collier interview with author. 48 48 until August 6, resulting in many of the registrant’s applications being rejected. The end of summer saw the students slowly return to school, which eventually stalled the program, and after Labor Day, voter registration drives ground to “an almost complete halt.”63 The rest of the state’s success as it pertained to SCLC was dismal at best. In the other counties of Alabama, literacy tests and other discriminatory practices continued to disenfranchise poor blacks. To make matters worse, the core group of SCLC staffers, as well as the ‘advance team’ were making their way north to Chicago. After the exodus of the SCLC and the student volunteers, the good old Southern hospitality was back to its old tricks. Registrar’s offices in many counties were only open one or two days a month, and when they were voters trickled through the clerk’s office at a snail’s pace.64 As for Collier, throughout his activist career he had been collecting a journal of musical ideas, militant tactics, and activist strategies that he had picked up here and there. His time in Selma watching and guarding musical and Hollywood celebrities gave him a deep personal contact data base, while his work with CORE in Chicago and New York gave him an advance directive for the tenant organizing that would soon become a reality in Chicago, teaming up with the starting line-up of the Chicago ‘advance team’. As Collier himself mused, “It was a glorious time to be fighting a revolution. There was James Orange who now was nicknamed ‘Shackdaddy,’ and Erik Kindberg who was always quoting Fanon—there was Jimmy Wilson, who was always singing, and Charles Love, who by now had fallen in love with Suzi Hill—and there was Sherie Land and I, who were about to be married, and Lynn

63 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, pp.263. 64 Ibid., p. 265. 49 49 Adler cracking jokes with her two flamenco side-kicks Luis Andrade, and Felix Valluena. And we had Claudia King, who was Bevel’s press secretary, giving us advance knowledge of any event we should attend or steer clear of, especially the open housing protest marches in white neighborhoods. And of course we had the support of James Bevel, who gave us freedom of creativity to fight the battles within the war.”65 While Collier’s own musical compositions which were each created around a specific campaign and never intended for the Top 40, ironically they are now housed in the Smithsonian Institution. Back home in Ft Smith, Arkansas, Collier’s musical mentor, Pee Wee Crayton, used to sing a song about “hearin’ that telephone a ringin.’”.66 Well, the telephone was ringing, and for Collier and the rest of the ‘advance team,’ it was Chicago on the line.67

65 Collier interview with author; Bob Hall, James Orange, With the People, p. 112. Orange was given the nickname ‘Shackdaddy’, after Dr. King reminded him and the rest of the SCLC elite staff they were only ‘shacking’ with the community they were working in, as opposed to marrying it. 66 Pee Wee Crayton, “The Telephone is Ringing.” VeeJay Records, 214, 1956. 67 Collier interview with author. 50 CHAPTER 4: CHICAGO: THE WINDY CITY—THE ‘ADVANCE TEAM’ GRADUATES

As William G. Roy points out in his book Reds, Whites, and Blues, the three most important components to the success of the modern day civil rights movement, per se, consisted of the faith in the Black church as a whole, education and the participation of schools, particularly at the college level, and the knowledge of the ‘radical’ philosophy of the Old Left.1 As the SCLC made their way to the Windy City, the role of the church could not be understated— divine help would be needed to conquer a metropolis of this size. Dr. King believed in his heart that the Church was truly the most important ideological factor for the movement overall, and especially for the Chicago campaign. This was not the Deep South, and while leaving no stone unturned, the SCLC began to utilize college campuses which would become a serious mobilization tool. Both King and Bevel would also utilize the New Left for their efforts in Chicago. Activists in Chicago had been instinctively turning to college and university campuses for decades in pursuit of support for their causes, something Bevel was well aware of. It had barely been two weeks since the victory at Montgomery and even though his ‘master plan’ for Selma and the state of Alabama had been passed over by the executive staff of SCLC in favor of SCOPE, he had put that chapter behind him, turning his attention to the greater Chicago area. With the help of Bernard Lafayette, and the resourcefulness of both their wives, Bevel had managed to concoct a lecture circuit on college campuses for both himself and Dr. King. King had inspired students and faculty at both the University of Chicago

1 William G. Roy, Reds, Whites and Blues: Social Movements, Folk Music, and Race in the United States (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2011), p. 182. 51 and the University of Illinois at Chicago.2 Bevel, “always a college favorite”, electrified the boisterous crowd at Northwestern University on April 4, 1965. His over-worked and raspy voice had somehow delivered a “soul-piercing allocution of the presence of racism in the North.” Bevel vowed to bring the movement to the Windy City. As Bevel managed one last gasp before his voice gave out completely he declared, “We plan to close Chicago down.”3 The West Side Christian Parish, a Chicago inner-city ministry outreach program, had embraced Bevel as its new leader and supported both theologians on their tour of Chicago in 1965. The WSCP stayed busy organizing workshops on non-violence, preparing and handing out flyers for recruitment on campuses as well as stepping up fund-raising events. The tandem of Church and Education was taking shape but it would take the third component of the ‘radical’ philosophy of the ‘Old Left’ to emerge if there was any hope of success for this campaign in the North. For all intents and purposes the Chicago ‘advance team’ was the epitome of the term radical, if not an embodiment of the ‘New Left.’ Bevel was garnering attention in Chicago and he encouraged his colleagues among mainstream civil rights groups in the city to reach out to Dr. King. One of the most respected groups in Chicago was the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO), a federation of local civil rights groups headed by Al Raby, an outspoken critic of the public school system in Chicago. Raby, a retired Chicago high school teacher turned activist had effectively been organizing school boycotts against segregation, overcrowding, and split shift school schedules. The CCCO represented nearly 40 established and newer militant

2 James R. Ralph, Northern Protest: Martin Luther King Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 69. 3 Ibid., p. 1. 52 minded local grassroots organizations. The CCCO carried some heavyweight membership: the NAACP, CORE, the Negro American Labor Council, Teachers for Integrated Schools, the Catholic Interracial Council, the American Jewish Congress, and one of the best Urban League branches in the country, to name but a few.4 In early October, Dr. King made the formal announcement that the SCLC had selected Chicago as its target of its first northern campaign at one of its retreats on a lake-front estate on nearby Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The SCLC had invited the leaders of the CCCO along with a number of civil rights advocates, to cement their alliance and discuss future plans. They were schmoozed by the long accepted tradition of workshops, speeches, and an old fashioned church picnic atmosphere, along with lots of singing led by Jimmy Collier and the core staff. Collier’s musical repertoire had grown by this time and his new ‘bag’ was mixed with traditional hymns and freedom songs, creating a stir within the groups of the cause. Many of the supporters of this new movement in the North had not heard the musical fusions of pop, Gospel music, and their own Chicago style R&B, morphing into protest and Freedom Songs. Collier had a wonderful ability to involve everyone in his music. Of course, Dr. King chose his words carefully as the top billing of the retreat, and he certainly delivered a timely and riveting oration. He spoke of the importance of a black and white alliance, and the importance of a victory in Chicago.5 The phrasings of Dr. King’s speech that day were effective in stirring the Chicago activists as King and the SCLC would team up with Raby. After some

4 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 431; Ralph, Northern Protest, pp. 9, 17; Collier interview with author; Adler interview with author. 5 New York Times, 11 Oct. 1965, p. 44; Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 53. 53 wrangling for power and control they formed the Chicago Freedom Movement.6 But critics would claim it was only window dressing, the retreat was nothing more than a revival style get-together. The CCCO had been pressuring Bevel and the SCLC to reveal the ‘secret blueprint’ to liberate Chicago yet Bevel remained vigilant when confronted by the press and other local community groups. Mary Lou Finley had been Bevel’s administrative secretary, and as his closest adviser she recalled that Bevel relied heavily on the ‘four steps’ of formulated SCLC guidelines for an effective non-violent campaign. Dr. King had utilized the same formula during the , the Birmingham marches, as well as in Selma. The first and foremost rule was to collect the facts to see if injustices are alive. The second was to negotiate for a positive solution. The third was self-purification, while the fourth culminated with direct action. Bevel was certainly collecting facts at this time and even though the creation of this collective organization of the Chicago Freedom Movement would be a key development bonding with the city of Chicago, there was more research to be done deep in the ghetto.7 It wasn’t the original intention of the local grassroots coalition of groups and the CCCO for Dr. King and the SCLC to tackle housing conditions, they had been focusing their efforts on the removal of Chicago’s Public School Superintendent Benjamin Willis. The Chicago Urban League, CORE, and the NAACP had been fighting Willis for years over his policy of two shifts per day for the overcrowded public schools, among other issues. The boycotts had turned to protests when the Chicago Board of Education had resorted to erecting mobile

6 Ralph, Northern Protest, p.1. 7 Mary Lou Finley, The Open Housing Marches: Chicago Summer ‘66, in David Garrow, ed., Chicago 1966: Open Housing Marches, Summit Negotiations, and Operation Breadbasket (NY: Carlson Publishing, 1989), p.14. 54 classrooms. These modular pre-fabricated units, called Willis Wagons, were simply dropped on muddy, empty lots to accommodate young black students while the white children studied in permanent classrooms with plenty of empty desks.8 Angry mothers of the children laid their bodies down in front of construction trucks to block the effort while supporters picketed the move.9 Comedian , who would become a familiar face to the movement, led a group of CORE pickets in the protest against the city’s mobile schools. Gregory had a serious side as well, calling “the tiny box-like units a shame”. Gregory had seen poverty in the South, and compared the move by Willis “like bringing Birmingham up North.”10 The presence of Bevel in Chicago in 1965 could be the most significant development for the Chicago campaign. The fiery and mercurial Bevel began his preparations for the Chicago movement by calling up his field staff workers from deep in the rural counties of Alabama, where they were finalizing the SCOPE voter registration drives. By late September of 1965 Bevel had reunited with Collier, Love, Kindberg, Land, Hill, and Orange, along with the rest of the group in Chicago. There were a few new additions to the ‘advance team’ as a young divinity student named and his mentor, Rev. Charles Billups, were called up from Birmingham. These two activists would be crucial in drumming up support from black ministers in Chicago.11 Bevel, always eager to share his knowledge encouraged staff to read the mantras of non-violence and other philosophical works. Bevel had learned the

8 Alan B. Anderson & George W. Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, p. 349. 9 Henry Martin, “Roadblock,” JET Magazine, 22 Aug, 1963, p.31. 10 Staff, “Riot Threat, School Issue Menacing Chicago,” JET Magazine, 22 Aug. 1963. 11 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 452. 55 deeper meanings of the ideology while studying at the American Baptist Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. As a campus leader he gravitated towards the protest side of the city’s burgeoning civil rights movement, continuing his journey into the spiritual writings of Leo Kuper and Frantz Fanon.12 Bevel would come to understand the philosophical nature of passive resistance, following the examples of Mahatma Ghandi’s march in protest against the salt tax in India, and the deliberate breach of curfew laws in South Africa. The evolution of the term ‘passive resistance’ grew out of the beliefs of ‘duragraha’ and ‘’, which translated to the campaign in Alabama quite well. The act of ‘duragraha’ was intended to create embarrassment to the oppressive leaders of a regime; in this case Sheriff Jim Clark and his posse of Klansmen. The beatings that aired on national television created shame in the South, while the philosophy of ‘satyagraha’, meaning truth and fairness, would lead to a conversation through a change of heart by the leaders of said regime; in this case President Johnson and his introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.13 Bevel wanted to apply this philosophy to the Chicago campaign but this was a different animal than Selma, Montgomery, or even Birmingham. There were many scapegoats for the creation of the slums and it would take much more than the act of ‘duragraha’ to dismantle the deplorable housing conditions in the northern ghettoes. Mayor Daley was certainly no Bull Connor, nor a Sheriff Jim Clark, as he was nearly always one step ahead of Dr. King’s strategical assault on the slums. Daley met Dr. King head-on at every turn, from the moment that Dr.

12 Finley, The Open Housing Marches, p.39. 13 Leo Kuper, Passive Resistance in South Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957), pp. 74-75. 56 King stepped off the plane for his official entry into the Chicago Freedom Movement, to the signing of the Summit Agreement14. Daley had acquired a reputation for “beating his enemies by taking their programs and running with them.” Daley launched his own city-run campaign to ‘end slums’ at this time, claiming it would eliminate sub-standard housing by the end of 1967. It was no coincidence that as soon as Dr. King arrived at his rat-infested apartment, Daley lauded his program in the media, as well as in the board room. City officials and inspectors stepped up their inspections and curiously combed the West Side, right next to the Warren Avenue Congregational Church and Dr. King’s new ‘slum flat’. If anything, it was Daley who would force ‘duragraha’ onto the SCLC, as the impressive ‘city-wide’ effort had demolished nearly 1400 abandoned buildings and brought some 9,000 other buildings into code compliance. Before the SCLC could even mount a ‘rat eradication’ campaign as was done in New York City, Daley announced he had sealed more than 140,000 rodent holes in 1966 alone, and within the West Side districts, of which King and the SCLC were housed, Daley’s army of housing inspectors cleared 16,000 structures.15 This grandiose effort by Daley would surely deflect the implied act of ‘duragraha’, relieving the embittered mayor of any embarrassment pertaining to his efforts to eradicate the slums. The success of this particular approach, non- violent in its manner, would require mass participation to achieve total embarrassment of the power structure. The executive staff of the SCLC began planning open housing marches which would attract the most attention to the

14 The Summit Agreement was a complex contract between the CCCO, CFM and the City of Chicago, The Chicago Real Estate Board and others. It called for the guarantee of open housing by city entities, and private citizens in order to eliminate the ghettoes of Chicago. The Summit Agreement was labeled a failure, as it contained no provisions for enforcement. This portion of the CFM requires a separate and exhaustive study. 15 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 86. 57 plight. The Chicago ‘advance team’ was aware of this by the time Daley had relieved himself of any embarrassment but they were too busy ramping up efforts to stage their own battle in the ghetto. The catalyst of this philosophy of non-violent direct action was ‘satyagraha’. This required the ruling class to have an open and honest discussion of the issues, which Mayor Daley certainly did. But the key element was for the power structure to have a change of heart. The open housing marches were obviously designed to use both of these mechanisms to force Daley into a change of heart (as it pertained to the Summit Agreement). However, the media focused mainly on the violence that followed the marches through the white neighborhoods of Chicago’s suburbs. This factor, along with the “political threat to Mayor Daley,” did force him into a quick negotiated agreement, although the promises made within the Summit Agreement contained no guarantee that the Chicago Real Estate Board or the City of Chicago Housing Authority would keep their word on fair and open housing. The whole media circus confused the general public in its understanding of the segregated and closed housing system in Chicago.16 The elite staff members of the Chicago ‘advance team’ would look beyond the pomp and circumstance that the leaders of movements would have to endure. As part of a larger spiritual ideology, Bevel carried aloft his philosophy throughout all the campaigns of the SCLC. Yet, in the move North, Bevel had “exchanged his blue denim overalls for corduroy suits,” and adorned his shaved head with his trademark yarmulke.17 Collier can still envision Bevel, “carrying a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s book, What Then Must We Do?,” under one arm, while

16 Finley, Open Housing Marches, p. 39. 17 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 50; A yarmulke was a traditional skull cap worn by Jewish men. 58 quoting Fanon with squibs like, “Each generation must out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, or betray it.”18 Bevel reminded his flock that their vision would be one that would organize the masses, in this case the slum dwellers who wanted help, yet “understood the source of their problems and would be willing to work together” as a unit to solve their dilemmas.19 Unfortunately, the philosophy was misguided at first given the immense size of Chicago’s ghettoes alone, and the hate and violence that would follow Dr. King through the streets of this town. The Warren Avenue Congregational Church was centrally located within the neighborhood of the East Garfield Park district, the target area of the campaign. One of the first tasks for the ‘advance team’ during the fall of 1965 was to help local community organizations fan out across their neighborhoods to prepare for mass meetings, organize kick-off rallies, promote bake sales and other fund-raising events held in the outlying areas. The goal was to attract as many volunteers as possible to strengthen the congregation, while bolstering attendance at the weekly workshops on non-violence, run by the SCLC core staffers.20 Orange and Collier would team up with another Chicago native and former gang leader, Jimmy Wilson, and start working with West-Side youth-gang members some of whom “seemed ripe for a real transformation.”21 The threat of gang violence was very real and Chicago had its share of gangs, the Blackstone Rangers, the Vice Lords, and the Cobras to name but a few. After Orange had been beaten up by the Vice Lords, mainly because he wouldn’t fight back, Orange,

18 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 1963), p.206; Collier interview with author. 19 Finley, Open Housing Marches, p. 5. 20 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 452. 21 Ibid., p. 452. 59 Collier, and Wilson began workshops on gang intervention. They counseled them on the absurdity of fighting one another, while they both fought poverty, and ghetto life. At a ‘gang summit’ at Chicago’s Palmer House, Dr. King addressed the gang youth, and saw a real improvement in their attitude. But it was to Orange’s credit that the progress really took hold. At one point the different gangs started talking some serious trash, and Orange displayed his anger for the only time Collier could remember. Orange told the rival gangs that if they wanted to fight, and were ready to die, then come on up. Orange was a hulking man, and while generally soft spoken, he was very dangerous. Apparently Orange was convincing enough that peace was made, opening the door to serious progress. Some of these gang members became Dr. King’s personal bodyguards and frequent guests at his apartment, while others became marshals along the Open Housing marches that were soon to come.22 The staff members settled into their roles within Warren Avenue and their new community. Wilson and Suzi Hill had both grown up in Chicago and were right at home after returning from Selma. Hill had literally walked out of school, “right in the middle of class” at her community college in Chicago to travel to Selma, while Wilson had been sent from the Westside Christian Parish Church where he had worked with Lafayette and his wife, teaching young children enrolled in the small but loving freedom school at the church.23 Kindberg was chosen as a key strategist to work within the poor white community on the Westside of Chicago. Kindberg and Collier would become close and personal friends while in Chicago and in future campaigns in San

22 Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 289; Orange, “With the People,” p. 112; Collier interview with author. 23 Ralph, Northern Protest, p.44. 60 Francisco, and Washington D.C. Kindberg had originally joined the SCLC along with his wife Anne, also a college graduate, but the struggles of life on the road as a civil rights activist became too much for her to handle, and the couple parted ways soon after leaving Alabama.24 When Charles Love finally landed in Chicago he would reach out to the lower middle-class children and their parents in the near North side, which included whites and Hispanics. His aptitude for teaching was an asset that would benefit the freedom schools that would emerge in the communities. Given the sad state of affairs within the Chicago School districts, his job was paramount to the grassroots community organizations at this time. He would be working alongside a newcomer, Dorothy Wright, who was nicknamed the ‘movement baby’. At the tender age of 18, she was wiser than her years, yet it took some time for her to become comfortable but eventually she fit into the group nicely.25 Adler and her new partner, Luis Andrade, were headed to the poor Latino communities. It was a blessing that Adler had taken four years of Spanish at the University of Pennsylvania; it turns out Andrade didn’t speak “a lick” of Spanish. Obviously it also came in handy during her summer internship with the Peace Corps in Guatemala.26 After sporadic appearances in late 1965, Dr. King finally came to town in earnest in January of 1966, and had one of his busiest months to date in Chicago. King and his wife Coretta had rented a dilapidated apartment within two blocks of the church, amidst a mild uproar of publicity within the neighborhood of East Garfield Park. His presence galvanized residents, and he listened to every one of

24 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 51; Collier interview with author. 25 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 45; Love interview with author. 26 Ibid., p. 45; Adler interview with author. 61 their grievances. King took advantage of the media attention while walking the neighborhood in the frigid temperatures, hovering near zero at times. While stopping to shoot some billiards in a local pool hall, the residents were thrilled that King would come to their ghetto. King believed he needed to immerse himself in their world to understand their plight. Mrs. King was supportive, but after walking up to the third floor apartment through a dirt entry level, and the “overpowering” smell of urine, she would not stay long in the Windy City.27 Dr. King was certainly concerned about the school boycotts and segregation that the CCCO had been rallying against, but after seeing firsthand the deplorable housing conditions, the peeling lead paint, and the absence of heat or running water in the ghetto he was moved.28 While the original emphasis for the Chicago Freedom Movement was to support the causes of school segregation and Raby in his pursuit of the ouster of Willis, Dr. King was appalled at the housing conditions he found in Chicago and changed his target. On a frigid night on January 26, 1966, nearly 700 people managed to cram themselves into the quaint Church of the Brethren, in East Garfield Park. Normally the pews would be empty on such a cold Wednesday night, but tonight the assembly was on the verge of spilling onto the street. This night the congregation was there to meet their newest neighbor and parishioner, King and his wife, Coretta, who had just moved into their “slum flat” not far from the church.29 Dr. King, along with Bevel and his wife Diane, arrived to listen to what the community concerns were and to prepare a plan of action to tackle their complaints concerning their lives in general. This night was a scene more

27 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 460; Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 55. 28 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 55. 29 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 460; Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 60. 62 reminiscent of Birmingham, Selma, or Montgomery. Hands were clapping to a “calypso” beat, as local residents testified while shouting their problems out to Dr. King and Bevel. Topics like the destruction of the Negro family, overcrowded and segregated schools, and poor health care abounded. Some residents were cognizant enough of the economic strife forced upon them by banks denying credit for home loans, in efforts to escape the shameful ghetto. It wasn’t until a middle aged woman jumped up on a chair, took off her coat and shouted, “I’m fed up.” She was disgusted with housing conditions and she said she wasn’t paying “no more rent” for deplorable housing. The shouts of approval and the thunderous ovation for Dr. King’s closing remarks could have brought down the walls of Jericho.30 Dr. King had now seen the new vision of the Chicago campaign and vowed to implement a program to overcome these dreadful slum like conditions. He vowed to employ the SCLC to organize a union to end slums, and he thanked the crowd for coming out on such a cold and crisp night closing with, “We must find a way to bargain for freedom.”31 Bevel had originally been working out of the nearby First Congregational Church, which had been the headquarters of the WSCP. But as the size of the congregation following this new movement grew, so did the need for a larger and permanent headquarters for the WSCP. The Warren Avenue Congregational Church was already home to the SCLC Chicago ‘advance team’, and with the Church of the Brethren bursting at the seams, the movement found its new base of operations, at least as it pertained to this battle.32 The mainstream war would be

30 Ralph, Northern Protest, p.122. Throughout SCLC campaigns, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson would attend church meetings, while leading the congregation in the singing of the hymn, “The Walls of Jericho.” 31 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 60. 32 Ibid., p.60. 63 fought down at City Hall and in the streets during the ‘open housing’ protest marches, something the ‘advance team’ disdained. The Chicago Freedom Movement and the violence that accompanied the ‘open housing marches’ in the summer of 1966, shall constitute a separate and exhaustive study. The Chicago ‘advance team’ and their battle for adequate housing was about to take a left turn at the ghetto. Bevel was adamant that the Negro community understand the forces that created slums, or ghettoes. The slum began as an exploited community, created and maintained by forces in the larger community. It originated within those institutions, public and or private, with “slumlords who overcharge for deplorable housing,” and the banks who will not loan for rehabilitation or purchase in the ghetto. It manifests itself into the school system, the welfare system, the political regime, and primarily with the “Board of Realtors, who systematically keep the Negroes “locked into” the ghetto, by refusing to rent or sell outside of their restrictive neighborhoods.”33 While the Chicago ‘advance team’ was quietly fighting their own war, the press was brutal on the leaders of the Chicago Freedom Movement, and in particular, Dr. King. The SCLC had still not identified a well-focused strategy, or even a plan of action. A journalist for the Chicago Sun Times compared the SCLC to a roving band of “romantic, disorganized tin gods who don’t know the city.”34 At the Warren Avenue Congregational Church the weekly community meetings produced a recurring and prevalent theme: many unhappy tenants lived in large and broken tenement buildings. Collier and Orange would need to go deep into the slums and spread the word of hope. This was not like Selma, or

33 Finley, Open Housing Marches, p.4. 34 Ralph, Northern Protest p. 91; Chicago Sun Times, 27 Jan, 1966, p. 32. 64 Demopolis, this was the North, and people were living in worse conditions than some of the staff had seen in the South. The ‘Great Migration’ had been no more than a ruse and these poor people had been living in squalor and needed help, and Collier and the ‘advance team’ were going to fight to get the word out. “We let the folks know that we were going after the slumlords, and we would picket outside the tenement buildings, and even better, we would picket the largest realtor’s offices in downtown Chicago.”35 Collier and his team took it a step further, and looked up the addresses of the landlords and picketed their houses.36 Of course they used common sense for the most part, once they got an inkling that the landlords might be mobbed-up, they passed on hitting their residences or their businesses. Even if they weren’t mob owned, the residents would be furious that they would picket their homes. “If you want to really piss someone off, go picket their house! We had to let everyone know ahead of time where we were, in case there was trouble.”37 Comedian Dick Gregory found out soon enough when he joined the picket line late one night, after the ‘advance team’ had gotten ahold of Mayor Daley’s home address. The marches began late on a Sunday night and lasted until around 3 A.M. when Chicago police arrested 65 protesters, including Gregory and Collier. Collier and Gregory had first met while behind the scenes at the Selma-to Montgomery march, and they shared a jail cell for a couple of nights after Daley took exception to the new boldness of the tactics implemented by the SCLC.38

35 Collier interview with author. 36 This was the emergence of Collier as a leader. His military experience gave him fresh ideas and tactics, mostly without any SCLC approval. 37 Ibid. 38 Anderson and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, p. 161; Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 75; Collier interview with author. 65 Within this community of nearly 70,000 people, the Chicago realty firm of Condor-Castalis had been managing nearly fifty tenements and apartments on the West Side. By early spring it was apparent to Bevel and the ‘advance team’ that they had finally found their intended target. After hearing horror stories from tenants, most of whom were living in units managed and owned by the same realty firm, community organizations began comparing their collective notes, and full- time activists, local pastors, and the residents were now ready to form a union in the quest to ‘end the slums.’39 Gilbert Cornfield, a Chicago civil rights attorney who had frequented the Warren Avenue Church along with his wife for years, had been hearing the same complaints and he quickly became involved. Cornfield had taken Collier under his wing, and they began sharing the same stories from CORE activists in New York City concerning the evolution of the Rent Strike. He advised Bevel and Collier on a few key points, which began with the actual formation of “the East Garfield Park End the Slums Union (EGPESU), a federation consisting of the SCLC and more than twenty East Garfield Park community organizations.” They created sub-committees who would ask tenants to provide photos of the condition of their apartments, provide signed affidavits of repeated requests for repairs, and coordinated the secure placement of their rent monies from each resident, which were documented into an escrow account created by Cornfield. More importantly for the longevity of the union each tenement house had a building ‘steward’ who would monitor the pulse of his building, while answering to ‘block councils’. The

39 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 61. 66 union held meetings and elected its own officers, including the taking of minutes by staff and residents.40 Adler, and her field partners Luis Andrade and Felix Valluena, teamed up with Sherie Land and Suzi Hill, and welcomed a handful of new staff members to the growing effort. Earless Ross, Diane Smith, Billy Hollins and Wendy Smith would help the team with informative meetings in the apartments of the long- suffering tenants, at least the ones who were willing to speak to the staff. Adler recalls huddling with staff and residents under blankets while inside the tenant’s apartments, with teeth chattering while trying to sign papers with the use of a candle for light. Other times the hallways were so dark and moldy, it was a danger just to walk through them. Lynn Adler recalled a discouraging moment in the ghetto one night as her and Collier found a poor young woman with a small baby who was crouched on the floor with nothing on the walls, no furniture, and no heat. The place was like entering a dungeon from the Dark Ages. This woman’s sole role in life was simply survival, she wasn’t interested in organizing or joining the Rent Strike.41 Sometimes the ‘advance team’ would hold meetings in the courtyard, if you could call them courtyards; strewn with trash, abandoned automobiles, and broken bottles, while the rats scurried about “putting the cats out of business” while looking for treasures.42 Yet while listening to Collier’s guitar and his self-penned song “Rent Strike Blues,” the tenants seemed to relax a bit and everyone joined in and sang along. The musical genius that was Collier began to emerge. During the

40 Ralph, Northern Protest, p.61; Gilbert Cornfield interview with author, Fresno, Ca., April 15, 2015. 41 Ralph, Northern Protest, pp .90, 62; Adler interview with author. 42 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 48. 67 Selma-to-Montgomery march Collier had advanced his improvisational skills, tailoring existing R&B songs into the relevance that was Selma. Now a year later, Collier was writing his own material to advance each cause and “Rent Strike Blues” was certainly prime-time for this moment. Collier had seen too many of these deplorable conditions and it struck a resonant chord with him, and more so with his music. Collier had been gathering musical ideas and little melodies here and there and had gained a lot of confidence since he was in Selma but it was time to get serious about his musical compositions. Just before Collier was called up to Chicago he was watching TV in a roach infested motel room, and was nearly hypnotized by the images on the screen. The conditions were just as bad in Los Angeles as anywhere else in the nation, but in August of 1965, riots nearly burned down the entire Watts neighborhood. The impact of the may have sparked the executive division of SCLC to move to a bigger stage in Chicago, but those same images gave Collier the impetus to write the lyrics to his most recognized song, “Burn, Baby, Burn.” “Middle of the summer, bitten by flies and fleas, Sittin’ in a crowded apartment, ‘bout a hundred and ten degrees, I went outside, the middle of the night, All I had was a match in my hand, and I wanted to fight, So I said, Burn, baby, burn”.43 Most people who heard the song only heard the words “burn, baby, burn,” and never really listened to the whole song. Collier added it to his playlist and began work on the rest of his half-finished songs, the most satisfying songs, the ones that really delivered a message to the establishment.44

43 Jimmy Collier, 1966. “Burn, Baby, Burn,” Sanga Music. 44 Guy and Candie Carawan, eds., Sing For Freedom, p. 284; Collier interview with author. 68 Eventually Collier, Land, and Adler, along with the staff convinced more than 350 residents to withhold their rent and join the ‘rent strike’ movement. But it wouldn’t be an easy task, at best it was still a trial-and-error program. Collier himself would emphasize the enormous amount of work and dedication it took to get people to talk with you. The residents were afraid of reprisals from their landlord, and it took three or four times, sometimes more, to get them to finally open up and talk. “It is difficult to picture how laboriously day after day we knocked on doors, talked to people,” Collier recalled years later. “Months went by with nothing seemingly happening.” Community organizing is a painstakingly slow, discouraging and thankless job, unless the results are rewarding enough. For the Chicago ‘advance team’ their reward would come soon enough. Cornfield made the arrangements for Collier to begin the somewhat amicable negotiations with Condor & Castalis on behalf of the small but growing clientele of the EGPESU. This time, Freedom Summer 1966 was the summer of the ‘Rent Strike’.45 Rent strikes were nothing new in the North. During the lean years of WWI, the construction industry was highly restricted in Chicago and New York City, resulting in a shortage of new housing units. This factor allowed unscrupulous landlords to hike existing rents sky high. Thousands of tenants gave rise to a newly formed Tenants Defense Union, which called for a ‘general revolt’ on May 1, 1919. The masses threatened to deny payments of rent until landlords agreed to lower their rent. There was no shortage of volunteers to man picket lines and hand out leaflets on the crowded streets of the Big Apple; they proved to be valuable and effective tactical tools. The massive publicity this generated provoked the

45 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 63; Gilbert Cornfield, Interview with author, Fresno, Ca., April 15, 2015; Collier interview with author. 69 state legislature of New York to “pass twelve bills designed to offer tenants protection against evictions and exorbitant rent increases.”46 CORE was certainly no stranger to the rent strikes that garnered national attention in New York in 1963 as interest began with independent efforts of CORE chapters that gained popularity on college campuses across the North, including the greater New York area. Student activists in CORE chapters from colleges such as New York University, Columbia, and Brooklyn were key in encouraging tenants in individual buildings to withhold their rent. A few affiliates used more militant style tactics, as the NYU chapter on the Lower East Side, while making headlines when they “attempted to dump a truckload of rubbish onto City Hall Plaza.”47 Compared with the other civil rights organizations at the time it was certainly CORE who had done the lion’s share of organizing in tenant’s rights, up to this time. By October of 1963, NYU CORE had organized nearly 110 tenants and announced that their rent monies that were withheld from the landlords would be held in a national CORE escrow account. , the founder and leader of CORE, warned the public that a “city-wide rent strike 10,000 plus families was looming on the horizon.”48 CORE chapters in New York seemed armed and ready to tackle the housing issues of the ghetto, but just as the Chicago ‘advance team’ had learned the hard way these student activists were soon to discover that these types of tenant organizing procedures required a tremendous amount of work, and took extended

46 Michael Lipsky. Protest in City Politics: Rent Strikes, Housing and the Power of the Poor (Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1970), p. 53. 47 Ibid. p.55 48 August Meier & Elliot Rudwick, CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement 1942-1968 (NY: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 245. 70 periods of time. In the early 1960s there was a strong emphasis on the integration of housing units, but to simply integrate one Negro family into even one white building was too much effort for the reward. They soon had changed their strategy: empowering the poor black community. Other CORE chapters were soon to follow. In Detroit, CORE began their focus on “integrating the suburbs” with an ‘open housing’ campaign, but soon embraced community organizing instead. Moving their headquarters to the heart of “Detroit’s Twelfth Street ghetto, they launched a new campaign entitled ‘Operation Cleanup’ that would target slumlords on Detroit’s West Side.” Cleveland CORE soon realized that they could never “solve the problem of housing” and welcomed a community based involvement from within the ghetto. Boston CORE had come to the conclusion that “better housing was needed,” and even when forced into integrated neighborhoods most Negroes wouldn’t move there anyway. The executive staff of SCLC should have paid more attention to this period, as they didn’t understand the open housing question in Chicago as the CORE chapters had done in New York.49 Jesse Gray and Clarence Funnye emerged as leaders of this Rent Strike phenomenon. Each man had his own unique curriculum and thrived on the energy exuding from the combination of civil rights interest, and the emergence of black power activists in their city. Both men were disturbed by the quality of life that had enveloped the city that they adored and were intertwined within CORE, yet Gray never joined the CORE chapter that Funnye headed.50 Gray served in WWII as a merchant marine, and began his career as an activist with the National Maritime Union. In a role that shaped his career, Gray

49 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, p. 407. 50 Ibid., p.401. 71 formed the Community Council on Housing in Harlem in 1957.51 While he dealt with tenant’s grievances, he also gained future political experience while “bumping heads” with the big-wigs of the city’s housing agencies. The rent strikes would also give Gray a reason to be hobnobbing inside city hall.52 While Gray was busy organizing the slums of Harlem, featuring some of the “grimmest” real estate in the city where tenants complained of “frequent fires from electrical short circuits, rooms without adequate heat, and bathroom commodes that haven’t worked in months, and rats as big as greyhounds,” Funnye was methodically working his way up the ranks of CORE’s New York chapter. Funnye was also a veteran of the service, but was able to serve in the “newly desegregated U.S. Air Force” as a navigator and an officer. By 1963, he had become increasingly impatient with the indifference that White America had shown towards the combined social problems of Harlem. Funnye embraced the more radical side of de-ghettoization, calling for “freedom fighters and shock troops to undo racial inequality, while mobilizing protests in front of grocery stores and construction sites that employed discriminatory employment practices. Funnye also targeted the Harlem Hospital, and camped in front of “Governor Rockefeller’s New York office, demanding equal opportunity in the building trades.”53 By 1966, CORE was endorsing Black Power and all that this revolutionary philosophy entailed. Funnye, who was still advocating “deghettoization,” aligned himself in a different stance. He embraced the open housing movement just as Dr. King would during the mainstream thrust of the Chicago Freedom Movement.

51 Ibid., p. 403. 52 Lipsky, Protest in City Politics, p. 57. 53 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, pp. 404, 411. 72 Yet, Gray was adamant that “the Black freedom struggle must be fought in the ‘back streets and alleys’ of urban America.”54 Gray had attracted a more radical following after he built alliances with nationalists and black Marxists. After the Harlem riots in the summer of 1964 Gray called for “100 skilled Black revolutionaries who are ready to die”, in a quest to end police brutality there. In November 1964 at a rally alongside , he chastised those who had unrealistic visions of social change. Gray took the spotlight, and shouted similar to Bevel, “It’s always very easy for us to be ready to move and ready to talk and ready to act, but unless we truly get down into the heart of the ghetto and begin to deal with the problem of jobs, schools, and the other basic questions, we are going to be unable to deal with any revolutionary perspective, or with any revolution for that matter.”55 In an ironic twist, Gray and Funnye embraced a mantra similar to that of Dr. King and Bevel, while they were under pressure in the CFM. The voice of the CFM and the coalition of CCCO had taken on the persona of Funnye’s philosophy. Dr. King’s non-violent approach to the open housing marches sought to liberate poor blacks from the segregated ghettos that perpetuated their status as second-class citizens, seemed to mirror Funnye’s philosophy. In contrast, Bevel and his ‘elite’ core staff members of Chicago’s ‘advance team’ of radicals were still operating out of the Jesse Gray playbook while employing strategies that believed in the Power of the Poor and their plight to improve their existing conditions, deep in the bowels of the city of Chicago. Just as “Gray and Funnye believed that the two approaches were compatible,” so too did the SCLC and the CFM, while joined at the hip with the CCCO. For their credit, Bevel’s elite group,

54 Ibid., p. 413 55 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, p. 406. 73 which operated pretty much ‘off the grid’, felt no congruence with the CFM or the CCCO. It was no secret to insiders that the ‘advance team’ held a higher calling, and set their own agendas and their own battles. Gray’s approach to the solution of ‘de-ghettoization’ and the deplorable housing conditions was to tackle the antiquated housing codes and laws already on the books in New York City. Certainly, building codes, sanitation laws and rent control laws needed to be upheld, if not updated. Fortunately for the SCLC and Dr. King, Bevel’s staff members had been reading and paying attention to Gray’s work. Initially, Dr. King would employ this strategy repeatedly, but with his best success coming in Selma, not in Chicago. Dr. King may have also been paying attention to Gray’s antics which appeared nearly daily in the New York Times, when he moved into that shameful apartment in January of 1966. Gray had been quoted repeatedly, “People ask me why I spend all my time on heat and hot water, and I say, heat and hot water is the biggest organizing tool we have; it may even kick off a revolution in the ghetto.”56 In New York, the stage was now set for a showdown in the courts for the outcome of these defendants, who were now being sued for non-payment of rents, and eviction proceedings. In a twist of fate, eight of the tenants who were on the docket being sued for non-payment brought dead rats the size of housecats to the courtroom. Only five actually managed to get past the guards, and even though they were certainly reprimanded for their actions, the chaos in the courtroom set the tone for a circus atmosphere. In the end the rats were not submitted into evidence, only to a swift removal from the courtroom. Although Judge Guy Ribaudo ordered the tenants to pay their rent, they were about to experience

56 Lipsky, Protest in City Politics, p. 57. 74 another twist: the judge ordered the rent monies to be held by the court until landlords could prove satisfactory repairs to each tenants respective building, at which time they could petition the court for their rent. While certainly no surprise to Gray, this unexpected outcome gave the movement new life and the number of buildings coming on board would now rise by more than 300 buildings after the holidays of December 1963, and certainly would impact the billfolds of slumlords by February 1st of 1964, as rents would be due in the slums of Harlem.57 In Chicago during the late summer of 1966, while the ‘open housing’ marches into the white suburbs provoked an unprecedented violent backlash, the ‘advance team’ was busy organizing grassroots tenant organizations, teaching at Freedom Schools, organizing lead poisoning awareness centers, and counseling at- risk youth. Collier, Orange and Jimmy Wilson were reaching out to some of the toughest gang members in Chicago, and Collier himself used his guitar to serenade high school students at the Billiken Brotherhood program, while Orange and Wilson turned out to be excellent singers as well. The objective was that by singing to the kids, and by their own participation, they would learn to become individuals. The pace seemed frantic in the spring of 1966, as Collier was singing at community rallies, and freedom fairs, while making the rounds in the Chicago communities and nightclubs.58 Collier utilized some of his original material, infused with some Gospel and R&B. He even recruited a handful of SCLC staff members who had caught his attention during the gospel choir rehearsals. As Collier recalled, “Some of those girls could really sing.” His new venture would be a quartet, along with Orange and the two newest staff members, Wendy and Diane Smith (no relation). Collier had visions of performing with a vocal group

57 Lipsky, Protest in City Politics, p. 63; New York Times, Dec 31, 1963, p.1. 58 Staff, “African Peace Rally, Sunday,” Chicago Defender, April 16, 1966, p. 22. 75 ever since he performed with Pete Seeger years earlier in Chicago. Collier took the initiative and booked venues within the ‘church circuit’ with the group that he would call the Movement Singers.59 When things got a little out of control, Collier would sing, “Never too Much Love,” an R&B tune written by one of Chicago’s native sons, Curtis Mayfield. The song allowed for students or parishioners to make up verses, as they felt like. The words were simple: “Too much love, too much love, Never in this world will there be too much love, I gotta’ fight for my freedom now, Join the movement and we’ll show you how”.60 About the same time the CFM was engaged in a war with Mayor Daley and the Chicago Real Estate Board, the West Side activists had their own agenda, and for a while the two paths maintained some momentum, but after the violence that followed the ‘open housing marches’ in the summer of 1966, and the shrewd political tactics of Mayor Richard Daley, the end was near. As could be expected, the enormity of the Rent Strikes in New York had set a precedent in Chicago, as the mere thought of 350 tenants withholding their rents would disrupt any realtor’s office, and eventually Condor-Castalis began their expected eviction process on all of the delinquent tenants, sometimes with unexpected results. Sheriff’s deputies would arrive to deliver an eviction notice and if they could enter the apartment, they would throw mattresses and clothing out the upper-floor windows, just for effect.61

59 Collier Interview; Staff, “Freedom Singers Perform at ‘End Slums’ Campaign,” Chicago Defender, Mar 26, 1966, p. 31. As Collier recalls, the media had misidentified the new quartet as , who had already been established by Bernice Reagon while working for SNCC, and their “Freedom Singers,” ironically managed by Pete Seeger. 60 Curtis Mayfield, 1964, “Never Too Much Love,” Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI). 61 Lynn Adler interview with author. 76 Cornfield represented every tenant that had signed the ‘Rent Strike’ agreement and had participated within the guidelines of the union (EGPESU). He knew full well the goal was to clog the court system for best results. Assisting Adler and the others with legal papers was a young and attractive female law student from Northwestern University, named Bernadine Dohrn. Dohrn would work closely with Collier and Adler, preparing legal briefs on each tenant’s behalf. Dohrn would later gain notoriety as a radical member of the Weathermen Underground, creating havoc and mayhem a few years later.62 Cornfield set court dates for all of the tenants, and showed them how to present proof of damages to the judge. Cornfield, still practicing law in Chicago at the age of 84, credits Collier and Adler for keeping the mass of tenants organized and “well behaved”. When entering the hallway for recess or lunch, the halls were filled with dozens of tenants who were on their finest behavior and dressed in their Sunday best. As Collier recalled with a chuckle, even the two or three rats that made it into the courtroom were nicely groomed.63 In the meantime, Collier, Adler, Orange, and Wilson kept the pressure on the local realtors’ offices with plenty of pickets, while singing old and new freedom songs. Nearby, on the streets of Chicago local teens were playing in the streets while water gushed from the fire hydrants they had managed to open, seeking relief from the sweltering Chicago heat. Collier had done the same thing years earlier, but this time the Chicago Police & Fire departments shut the

62 Dohrn worked for Cornfield & Cornfield as a law clerk while attending Northwestern University. Later she became a founder of the Weathermen Underground, who were responsible for the bombing of the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol building. She was a member of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list for three years. 63 Ralph, Northern Protest, pp. 64, 262, N. 62; Cornfield interview with author; Collier interview with author. 77 hydrants off and a riot ensued. It only made matters worse for the picket lines as the Police arrested the teens and the picketers too.64 Collier, Adler and the rest of the ‘advance team’ had managed to recruit literally dozens of protesters to man the picket lines in front of the Condor- Costalis realty firm for three days and nights in June of 1966. The realty firm had only made “token repairs” on the tenement buildings they had promised to repair. The presence of the protesters may have broken the backs of the realty firm.65 One day Collier was deeply engrossed leading the crowd in his unique musical talent, when he noticed a white man in a white shirt waving a white handkerchief in the air. The Realtors had given in—they wanted to know what the demands were to make the picket line and the evictions go away. Collier was actually stunned, he had to phone Cornfield for advice.66 That night the residents gathered in the courtyards in a surreal scene of singing and some crying, and brought their grievances to light in a list of demands and promises. After a few days, the Realtors agreed to a collective bargaining agreement with the EGPESU which kept the realtors responsible for timely repairs and maintenance issues, and the tenants promised to behave themselves in a respectable manner. The final report on the collective bargaining agreement was symbolic for the EGPESU, and the SCLC, as it was the first of its kind in Chicago concerning landlords and tenants. The agreement covered more than fifteen hundred residents, and the rumblings

64 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, p 493; Ralph, Northern Protest, Pp. 64, 109; Collier interview with author. 65 Betty Washington, “Westside Group to Continue Sit-In at Realty Firm,” Chicago Defender, Jun. 11, 1966, p. 1. 66 Collier interview with author; Cornfield interview with author. 78 were growing, another realty firm was rumored to be next on the movement’s hit list.67 In retrospect, the rent-strikes, which culminated in the collective bargaining agreement with Condor- Castalis Realtors, had been an ‘unintended victory’ for the CFM in East Garfield Park. When the agreement had been signed, “it boosted the Chicago movement’s reputation on the West Side”.68 During this phase of the CFM, Bernard Lafayette had been working out of the project house of the AFSC, which was located in East Garfield Park. Lafayette had earned the nickname of “Little Ghandi” after his ordeals during the Freedom Rides of 1961. Lafayette had been reading abstract medical journals that had been placed on his desk for months. He was alerted to the problematic presence of lead paint within the older and decaying buildings on the West Side. Lafayette had “encouraged local high school students to begin a testing program” to draw the attention of the city leaders of Chicago. The problem was worse than anyone knew. The executive staff of SCLC could not place this initiative at the top of their importance, but the Chicago ‘advance team’ took it very seriously. The residents of the neighborhood were impressed with the sincere concern that Lafayette placed on the problem, and in the bigger picture the locals began to hold their heads up and speak out against injustices in the ghetto.69 After some simple investigation techniques, Collier and the rest of the ‘advance team’ had learned that some thirty children had died from eating the “sweet tasting paint chips” that were flaking off their windows and walls. The

67 Anderson & Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, p. 218; Chicago Sun-Times, 13 July, 1966; Adler interview with author; Collier interview with author; Land interview with author. 68 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 64; Cornfield interview with author; Chicago Sun-Times, 26 May, 1966. 69 Ibid., p. 47. 79 children in the ghetto were always hungry, and would chew on anything. The risk was great: children could lose their eyesight or brain damage could result. Collier moved on Lafayette’s idea to involve teenagers to canvass the community, taking urine samples from kids in the neighborhood, to spot the danger before it was too late. The student volunteers would also be given information pamphlets to hand out to the parents of these kids. In order to raise the public health issue of this tragedy, Collier did what he could do best, he wrote another song. “Lead Poison on the Wall”, which was certainly not a Top 40 hit, but after a half dozen or so rallies and with the community’s outcry, the city of Chicago finally put nearly 300 people to work in the community to work on the issue.70 Mayor Daley thought it was prudent to use money earmarked for the War on Poverty, a program initially created by President Johnson. Apparently when this plan had been presented to the city council, it had been rejected. Collier sang the song dozens of times during the rallies, and at church meetings moving some parishioners to tears. The song is touching, as the words convey the lack of apathy amongst parents and landlords: “Lead poison on the wall, kills little guys and little dolls, It kills them big and it kills them small, While we stand by and watch them fall, And the landlord does nothing to stop it at all, That death on the wall… death on the wall”.71 Collier can still remember the kids knocking on doors with their little jars for urine samples, while he sang the song on the street.72 Some of the buildings that the teens were canvassing were in such a state of disrepair that even the kids

70 Guy and Candie Carawan, Sing for Freedom, p.280; Collier interview with author. 71 Jimmy Collier, 1966. “Lead Poison on the Wall.” 72 Collier interview; Carawan, Sing for Freedom, p. 280. 80 were appalled. One of the buildings turned out to be just down the street from Dr. King’s new slum flat. James Orange and Collier came to see for themselves at the urging of some of the local teens. Collier had seen these ghettoes before, but Orange himself claimed that “he had never seen those types of conditions.”73 During the frigid month of February, King had learned of a sick child in the same run-down apartment building, and learned there was no heat. After assembling his advisers, they witnessed first-hand the absolute shambles the place was in. There was no front door, you had to walk through a dirt entry level courtyard to get to the crooked and broken steps. There was no wooden siding left, it had been torn off years ago for those street fires to keep the destitute warm on freezing nights, leaving only the ragtag tar paper flapping in the breeze. There were no windows, only sheets stuffed in the vacant holes, and no hot water or heat of any kind. After seeing this, the SCLC decided to act on an unprecedented yet “supralegal” maneuver. The SCLC assumed ‘trusteeship’ of the structure, and on Feb. 23, 1966, they seized the apartment building located at 1321 South Homan Avenue. By taking over the apartment house, King and the SCLC hoped to embarrass a greedy slumlord, but were ostracized in the press after learning the owner of the building turned out to be a deathly sick and nearly bankrupt 80-year-old man. That didn’t stop the SCLC field staff, along with Dr. King, who grabbed shovels, hammers and paintbrushes to clean up the rat-infested building. The building was turned over to the tenants, the Townes family, yet they faced a lawsuit from the owner’s attorney. John Bender suffered from emphysema, and died two weeks after the seizure of his property.74

73Bob Hall, “James Orange, With the People,” Southern Exposure. 74 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 57; New York Times, 24 Feb. 1966, p. 75. 81 The Chicago ‘advance team’ was experienced enough by now to know there was no time to celebrate the victory of the collective bargaining agreement with Condor-Castalis. The ‘advance team’ and the rest of the staff of SCLC in Chicago did not rest on their laurels after this small conquest. During the next phase of the campaign a new technique, real estate testing, would begin in certain sections of the city. Most of the time a white staff member and his family would call or appear to inquire of an apartment for rent, and after being shown the property would retreat to confer with their family. Hours later a black staffer would appear and be told the apartment had already been rented and would be occupied that day and vice versa.75 The CFM, or as some would say, Freedom Summer 1966, created a new dilemma for the Chicago ‘advance team’. The real estate testing project that the SCLC brass had launched attracted nearly 200 participants on any given weekend in July and August of 1966, and in order to be effective this process would require documentation. But such detailed written reports were not always completed in a timely or proper format, thereby rendering the affair useless.76 The field staff, as well as volunteers within the ranks of SCLC would converge on real estate offices, and demand to see houses in white neighborhoods. “The realtors had known of the procedures and tactics by now, thereby limiting the effectiveness of this project. After all, any respectable realtor would not charter a bus for a group of dissidents to venture out in the suburbs to see homes they could not afford.” Collier recalls. Many of the ‘testers’ were not necessarily staff members of the SCLC at all. Eventually, protests began in earnest in front of the realtor’s offices, and while they were effective in gaining attention to the plight of

75 Anderson & Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, p. 220. 76 Ibid., p. 114. 82 housing discrimination, it was apparent more would be needed to be done to facilitate any real change. Some of the protests turned violent, as it did on Saturday morning July 30, 1966. A group of 200 protesters marched through the Southwest side of Chicago to man the picket lines in front of the offices of Halvorsen Realtors. The activists were pelted with rocks, bottles, and as if to add insult to injury, chunks of coal, by a growing throng of hostile white onlookers.77 Collier felt as if he needed to come up with a new twist on the stagnant approach to real estate testing. Collier consulted with Lafayette about his new strategy. Collier recalled, when the ‘advance team’ came to Chicago “it was like we were deployed into a war zone, we really were fighting a war”. This was the perfect place to carry out the revolution that they were so committed to, and it had all of the opponents.78 Sherie Land had known Collier from their days working within CORE in Chicago in 1964, and were teammates while down in Alabama and in Atlanta. That was their initial connection to the movement, but after working hard on the campaigns they became closer, and grew to care about each other even more after watching each other’s backs during their endeavors. In the first portion of the campaign they focused on community organizing in the neighborhoods around the church, and the actual living conditions in the slums. They were fighting just as hard as they knew how, and sometimes the anger and depression would try to get the best of the ‘advance team.’ At this time, “Sherie and I began to really care about each other.” Collier recalled. Perhaps their relationship could be compared to the passionate love story about Che Guevara and his lover Tanya, amidst the

77 Ralph, Northern Protest, p., 120; Collier interview with author. 78 Collier interview with author. 83 backdrop of a revolution.79 It was the ‘movement’ that had drawn Bevel into marriage with his wife Diane, and now here were two crazy kids that had fallen in love during this fantastic campaign under tough circumstances, for both of them. If color were an issue, “we would be blue, as in a true blue pure young couple, starting a life together.” The only problem they had was they were in the middle of a war, and sure, they were definitely an integrated couple, but they were revolutionaries, and Land was right there by Collier’s side. It was an adventurous, romantic odyssey, with real danger around every corner. They had found solitude in each other; they didn’t go out to expensive restaurants and dine by candlelight, they had very little money, but as committed members of the ‘advance team’ they made it to every meeting and scheduled business appointments, and events. The fellow team members made sure they had food every day, and donations from the church and others became an important part of the team’s survival. Remember, stipends were paid to the team, at a hefty $75 every two weeks.80 James Orange knew in advance Dr. King would be arriving in Chicago on January 19, to pose for the media while moving into the ‘slum flat’. He thought it would be a sweet gesture for King to marry the couple before the whirlwind of activity that would commence the next week of January 26, 1966. Pastor William Briggs organized the whole thing, decorating his house behind the church, while the girls of the group decorated the place, and someone baked a huge wedding

79 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, P. 316; Collier interview with author; Part of a black intellectual and political current that ran deep within the popular internationalism of the Great Depression and World War II, the Reform Action Movement, which was renamed the Revolutionary Action Movement by the 1960s, were radical activists inspired by the anti-colonial movements in Africa and Asia. Young RAM activists envisioned American blacks as key to the worldwide struggle against Western imperialism. Their interest in Third World revolutions led them to the works of Fanon, Mao Zedong and Che Guevara. Guevara was a favorite of Collier, and in tribute to him and his lover Tanya, Collier proudly wore his blue denim shirt accompanied by a black leather hat. Later Collier would add a bandolier with spent .50 caliber shell casings. 80 Collier interview with author; Land interview with author. 84 cake. It was a touching ceremony, including the placement of the ring on Land’s finger, and the cake thing that women do. Collier finally shared a piece of wedding cake with Dr. Martin Luther King, on that weekend in January of 1966, adding a serious family atmosphere to the SCLC. Collier was adamant, “Let me be very clear about something here, this was not a staged wedding for publicity, this was strictly a private matter between Sherie and I, and our very close friends.”81 After the wedding, they didn’t have a honeymoon, they stayed at someone’s apartment over the weekend, and were right back on the job on Monday morning, fighting for the cause. “After all, we were in the middle of a revolution, man. There was no time for a honeymoon,” says Collier. Dr. King and Dr. Abernathy decided it was time for Collier to upgrade that raggedy old Martin 000-18 guitar that had taken a beating down in Selma, and Demopolis, so, they gave Collier $500 to go buy a new guitar, and he bought a beautiful Guild D-40, with a blonde finish, and a new case as well. “That guitar today would be worth up to $10k, if it hadn’t been stolen out of my friend’s VW bus in New York a few years later,” recalls Collier.82 Collier had decided it was time to up the ante on the real estate testing project. Given the fact that Collier had a beautiful white wife, his undercover proposal was timely, and while neither the executive staff, nor the field staff of the SCLC had any knowledge of this proposal, Lafayette gave his approval. It would be a much different tactical approach to ‘testing’ than the obvious devices used by the novice activists. The Colliers, as they were now called within the elite of the

81 Collier interview with author. 82 Ibid. 85 SCLC, would put on their Sunday best, and venture out to the suburbs surrounding East Garfield Park.83 This assignment was a little more intricate, and it gave Land and Collier a chance to get to know one another even better. They had chosen this clandestine operation, and in reality, Collier believed it was no worse than the bait and switch the realtors in Chicago would pull on you, advertising an apartment as squeaky clean, or freshly remodeled, when in fact it was a dump. Their job was simple, and it went something like this: They would find an apartment that was advertised in the local newspaper with a set price and details, and in order to verify the condition and terms, Sherie Land, now Sherie Collier, would usually call for the availability and location. If the address was printed they would go in separate cars, and Land would go first most of the time and ask if the apartment was still available. They usually said yes it was, and she would say that she would bring her husband by that evening, without any real commitment. Then Collier would go up to the door 20 minutes later and ask if the apartment was available. Of course they would say they just rented it about 99 percent of the time. Later that night, they would appear together at the apartment, confusing most of the landlords. They would switch off sometimes, to keep the game interesting, and kept changing the methods, as to keep the game from being recognized. Most of the time they were dealing with realtors who were representing sellers or absentee owners, but occasionally a private party would represent themselves, and on at least one occasion found a willing landlord.84 They were so convincing with this routine, and considering their legal union it seemed to carry a heavier weight than others. Their efforts alone resulted

83 Collier interview with author; Land interview with author. 84 Collier interview with author; Land interview with author. 86 in dozens of documented housing discrimination cases. The real estate testing by the Colliers and the rest of the SCLC field staff, which had been conducted in the Oak Park neighborhood resulted in Dr. King and his direct action executives requesting a meeting with the Chicago Real Estate Board. This had a galvanizing effect on the movement, propelling it into the confrontation with the CREB and perhaps the George Wallace of the North, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.85 The Colliers were very serious about their work, and they would prepare their detailed affidavits and reports in the late evening at the Warren Avenue Church. They documented dozens if not hundreds of cases, with explicit details, and delivered them in person to Lafayette down at the AFSC offices, in those same special yellow envelopes. The same envelopes that Collier used to stuff into his black leather hat down in Demopolis, the same envelopes that Lafayette apparently forwarded to the Justice Department. The SCLC had labeled this as a Real Estate testing module, and it took a while to really take effect.86 Eventually these documents became helpful in the federal government’s drafting of the Fair Housing Laws of 1968, which were the backbone of Title VIII of the , something Dr. King never got to witness. President Johnson signed the bill into law only a week after the assassination of Dr. King.87

85 Ralph, Northern Protest, p. 101. 86 Ibid., p. 275, n. 26; These affidavits are still on file within the archives of the AFSC headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. 87 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, p.422. 87

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

The Chicago Freedom Movement in general, has been called a failure, a movement full of broken promises. After all, Dr. King had come to Chicago to fight the good fight over segregated schools, alongside the CCCO and its convener, Al Raby. After settling into the ghetto for a closer walk among the people, King had been shocked by the deplorable housing conditions, and vowed to integrate the city through his Open Housing campaign. The protest marches through the white neighborhoods were nothing like they were in the Deep South, nor did they accomplish the desired outcomes. Even to Dr. King’s own admonition, he had never seen such violence, and pure hatred from the white folks as he did in Chicago. On August 5, after being clobbered in the head with a rock “as big as a fist,” Dr. King may have taken one for the team.1 Mayor Richard Daley wanted the marches to end and King obliged, albeit too soon. Many within the movement called it a sell-out and the Summit Agreement that was signed between the CCCO and the city of Chicago and the CREB was nothing more than a truce to stop the violence and riots in the city. It would be nearly impossible to stop private party citizens from refusing to sell to Black or minority families in established white neighborhoods. Furthermore, did they really want to live there, even if they could afford it? The real victories of the CFM, were fought behind enemy lines, deep within the ghetto. The Chicago ‘advance team’ had been schooled while camped out in the mud on the road from Selma-to- Montgomery, and in the backwoods of Demopolis, Ala. They had created their own battle plans and strategies from

1 James R. Ralph, Northern Protest: Martin Luther King Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 123. 88 88 within the Warren Avenue Congregational Church. The East Garfield Park neighborhood scored victories over unscrupulous landlords, after creation of the EGPESU which set a precedent for inner city housing conditions and real estate management companies by incorporating a collective-bargaining agreement between tenants and landlords. The lead poisoning test campaign was a spontaneous campaign, yet significant enough to call attention to big city government, and within a few years lead paint had undergone a transformation from large manufacturers even though the awareness that was created by their efforts went unnoticed. The real estate testing compiled by the whole staff of the SCLC was enough to garner major media attention, yet the exemplary efforts of Jimmy and Sherie Collier to document the abuse by discriminatory methods used by landlords and private citizens went unrewarded. The Federal Fair Housing Laws of 1968 changed the game for the National Association of Realtors, and mortgage brokers as well, yet there was no mention of this Chicago ‘advance team’. The Chicago ‘advance team’ was drawn together from various locations throughout the country when sympathetic Northern eyes turned to the bloodshed in Birmingham and Selma. They had not worked together before the Selma-to- Montgomery march, yet became comrades in arms while undergoing ‘civil disobedience’ training at the SCOPE house in Atlanta. As field staff workers supervising student volunteers in the rural counties of Alabama during SCOPE summer, they learned to think quickly on their feet, while being unsupervised themselves. By the time they were ‘called up’ to Chicago they knew they could trust one another in precarious situations. They were not immune from violence, but seemingly numb to fear and confrontation. Chicago would prove to be a new gridiron for the ‘advance team’, utilizing creative approaches to organizing 89 89 grassroots community awareness to social and political constraints that kept them in the endless cycle of the ghetto. The Chicago Freedom Movement has been overlooked for 50 years by the mainstream media, yet scholars who have contributed scholarship to the movement, have not given the main players within the Chicago ‘advance team’ credit, and they deserve some serious recognition. They put their lives in danger every day and night in a dangerous city, made worse the deeper they ventured into the ghetto. After all, James Orange was beaten and targeted by the gangs initially, but he managed to gain their respect. Rev. Charles Billups wasn’t so lucky. He was found dead in his car one morning near the Warren Avenue Church complex. And yet, the Colliers managed to find love and marriage in a crazy mixed up revolution. The Chicago ‘advance team’ left the city in December of 1966, ironically as a team. They were sent to San Francisco to work within the Longshoreman’s Union, on the docks during the day, and blending into the Summer of Love at night and on weekends during the summer of 1967.2 As Collier recalled years later, they were just getting settled into the groove in Haight-Ashbury, before Dr. King called them all back to the movement, just three short months before Dr. King was killed. The next project for the SCLC, was the Poor People’s Campaign, and the ‘advance team’ was busy making battle plans for another battle, within an ever-growing war. Lynn Adler is currently an independent videographer for PBS, while living in Berkeley, Cal. Adler just finished a documentary on Sammy Lay, a Chicago based blues drummer, and is still finishing up a documentary about Diane Nash, and other women in the civil rights movement. Currently she is processing and

2 The SCLC had a long history with organized labor. There was certainly a camaraderie between the ‘advance team’ and the ILWU; Collier interview; Ralph, Northern Protest, pp. 70-72. 90 90 digitizing hundreds of rolls of 35mm film, some of which came from the Newport Folk Festival 1969, where Jimmy Collier gave her a ‘press pass’ to get some great shots of him and Pete Seeger, among others. Charles Love is an educator at San Francisco State, living only a few miles away from the Haight- Ashbury district. James Orange passed away in 2008. Dick J. Reavis went on to become a journalist with the San Antonio Express, among his other literary accomplishments. Sherie Land lives in Santa Fe, N.M, and has family in Fresno, Cal. Jim ‘Arkansas’ Benston went on to work aggressively within the anti-war movement, and eventually completed his B.A. in Political Science, as well as earning an M.A. in History. He is currently living in Colorado. Erik Kindberg died a mysterious death in China, while helping indigenous farmers learn how to break the cycle of poverty.3 Sadly, as Kindberg, and Bevel had learned earlier, the Colliers also found the pressure of a marriage too much to handle during the movement, and divorced in 1970. Collier went on to have a major recording career, appearing at the Newport Folk Festival and countless television and concert appearances, as a duet with Wendy Smith from the staff of the SCLC, including The David Frost Show and Sesame Street. In 1969, he worked alongside Pete Seeger, Don McLean, Len Chandler and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott in New York, during the “Clearwater Project” on the Hudson River.4 Collier still performs periodically on college campuses and lives in Oakhurst, Cal.

3 Benston interview with author; Adler interview with author; Love interview with author. 4 Dunaway, How Can I Keep from Singing, p.286. 91 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adler, Lynn. Interview with author. Oakhurst, Cal. April 9, 2015.

Anderson, Alan B. & Pickering, George W. Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promises of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1986.

Baker, Bruce E. What Reconstruction Meant. Historical Memory in the American South. VA: University of Virginia Press, 2007.

Belfrage, Sally. Freedom Summer. NY: Viking Press, 1965.

Bennett, Lerone Jr. “SNCC: Rebels with a Cause.” Ebony Magazine, July 1965.

______“Negro Progress in 1964”. Ebony Magazine, January 1965.

Benston, Strider (Arkansas). Interview with Author, Oakhurst, Cal., Nov. 25, 2015.

Carawan, Guy and Candie. Sing For Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through its Songs. Bethlehem, PA: Sing Out Corporation, 1990.

Carson, Clayborne. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. London: Harvard University Press, 1981.

______Lecture, Fresno State campus, Feb 9, 2016.

______Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2013.

Collier, Jimmy. Interview with author. Oakhurst, Cal. December 21, 2012, and May 12, 2014.

Cornfield, Gilbert. Interview with author. Fresno. April 15, 2015.

Dunaway, David K. How Can I Keep From Singing: Pete Seeger. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Books, 1981.

Fager, Charles E. Selma: 1965. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.

Fairclough, Adam. To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987. 92 92 Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. NY: Grove Press, 1963.

Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. NY: Random House, 1986.

______Protest at Selma. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.

Garrow, David, J. ed. Chicago 1966: Open Housing Marches, Summit Negotiations, and Operation Breadbasket. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1989.

Genovese, Eugene D. In Red and Black: Marxian Explorations in Southern and Afro-American History, New York: Pantheon Books, 1971.

Halberstam, David. The Children. New York: Random House, 1998.

Hall, Bob. “James Orange, With the People”. Southern Exposure. 1981.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Why We Can’t Wait. NY: Harper and Row, 1964.

Kuper, Leo. Passive Resistance in South Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.

Land, Sherie. Interview with author, Fresno, Cal. Dec 12, 2013.

Lipsky, Michael. Protest in City Politics: Rent Strikes, Housing and the Power of the Poor. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1970.

Love, Charles. Interview with author, San Francisco, May 1, 2015.

Martin, Henry. “Roadblock”, JET Magazine, 22 Aug, 1963.

McAdam, Doug. Freedom Summer. NY: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Meier, August and Rudwick, Elliot. CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement 1942-1968. NY: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Moore, Charles. Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991.

Morgan, Thomas B. “Requiem or Revival?” Look Magazine, June 14, 1966. 93 93 Pouissant, Alvin F. “The Stresses of the White Female Worker in the Civil Rights Movement in the South,” American Journal of Psychiatry 123 (No. 4): p. 401-407, 1966.

Ralph, James R. Northern Protest: Martin Luther King Jr. Chicago and the Civil Rights Movement. Boston, Mass.: University of Harvard Press, 1993.

Reavis, Dick J. If White Kids Die: Memories of a Civil Rights Volunteer. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2001.

Romano, Renee C., and Raiford, Leigh, eds. The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006.

Rothschild, Mary Aiken. “White Women Volunteers in the Freedom Summers: Their Life and Work in a Movement for Social Change.” Feminist Studies 5: p. 466-495, 1979.

Rowe, Gary Thomas Jr. My Undercover Years with the Ku Klux Klan. NY: Bantam Books, 1976.

Roy, William G. Reds, Whites and Blues: Social Movements, Folk Music, and Race in the United States. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Sugrue, Thomas J. Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North. NY: Random House, 2008.

Vincent, Rickey. Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers’ Band and How Black Power Transformed Soul Music. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013.

Washington, Betty. “Westside Group to Continue Sit-In at Realty Firm.” Chicago Defender, June 11, 1966, P.1

Wilson, Norman J. History in Crisis: Recent Trends in Historiography Boston: Pearson Publishing, 2014.

Zinn, Howard. SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Boston: Beacon Press, 1965. 94

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