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JUNE 1966 < VOL. 2 PICKE'IS AT DIGIORGIO NO.4 SF Headquarters were spit Pub Iished by on by DiGiorgio employees The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of California (story page 2). $204. LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY
They nominated 7 candidates for the avail- that the Party in Alabama is still fully 'tble offices: in the hands of racists. Those Negroes Sheriff - Mr. Sidney Logan, Jr. who ran in the Democratic primary either It Before the Black Panther Party came, when I went to Coroner - Mr. Henry R03s lost or were put into run-offs which they the boss man to ge't a little :money, I had to take my hat 'Tax Assessor -Miss Allce Moore will probably lose. It may be that in Nov off and scratch my head, you see. And I had to look down at Tax Collector - Mr. Frank Miles, Jr. ember the only Negroes running inthe state Board of Education - Mr. Robert Logan will be those of the Lowndes County Free the· ground, you couldn't look him in the eye. Well, I'll - Mr. John Henson dom Organization. never do that again." -Mrs. Willie Mae "It's ~ot use if we' get the vote and still Strickland are poor," says Hulett. The leaders of the -- a Lowndes County man, active in the LCFO. The Lowndes County Freedom Organi Organization have been thinking of ways to zation is independent in every way. It change more than just who votes in Lowndes LOWNDES COUNTY, ALABAMA -- The The lawyer then stayed up all night has taken no money from SNCC. It raises County. They plan to use the taxing power story behind the May 3 Primary of the getting a written interpretation, signed its money from collections taken in mass of the County to redistribute the wealth. Lowndes County Freedom Organization, the by Alabama Attorney-General Richmond meetings and from a group of relatives When Miss Moore ran for Tax Assessor, "Black Panther Party," tells a lot about Flowers and the Probate Court Judge of and friends in Detroit. The SNCC Field her platform was "Tax the Rich to Feed the most powerful movement of Negroes Lowndes County, saying that it was within Secretaries, Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mants the Poor." in Alabama. the law for the LCFO to hold its nominat and Courtland Cox, canvass for the LCFO, Most of the big landowners are paying Alabama law s.ays that a political nolp ing convention a half-mile from the Court but they do not direct it. The major work from 1/2 to one-tenth of what they should inating convention must be held ' 'in or house at the First Baptist Churchof Hayne is done by John Hulett, who works full be paying in property tax. The LCFO around a public polling place." The only ville. time for the LCFO, and other members and plans to change that, by raising property public polling place in Lowndes County is LCFO leaders agreed to thiS; a safer taxes to the legal limit. the courthouse, which was also the loca location meant more people would come to candidates. Their work this summer and fall will be "If Dan River Mills (the largest indus tion for the Democratic Party primary. the convention. to register as many Negroes as possible trial plant in the county) can't pay its The week before the primary, the lead The point of this story is that Lowndes and to convince them to vote for the taxes, we'll take it over," says Hulett, ers and organizers of the LCFO went to County Negroes are serious about taking Black Panther rather than the Democratic "and run it ourselves." Sheriff Ryals, with their plans. The Sher over their county. They have no illusion If they move out of the county, that's iff told them they could not hold their Party. that whites will turn over their power Their arguments have been given a boost all right too. They didn't hire many resi primary there. "We said -- the law says peacefully. Already a $1000 rewardhas been by the results of the state-wide primaries. dents of the county and they didn't pay we have to hold it here," reported Stokely offered for the person who kills the first The choice of Mrs. George Wallace as the taxes, so it's no big loss." Carmichael, an organizer of the LCFO and Negro Sheriff. Democratic candidate for Governor proves The Black Panther Party may begin a recently elected Chairman of SNCC. The "We intend to become the power structure new direction for American Negroes. There Sheriff refused to give them protection. of our country," says John Hulett. "In any has only been one demonstration in Lowndes "We said -- that's okay baby, we're going fair election, we will win. And we will hold FAC'IS ABOUT LOWNDES COUNTY Comity, and it achieved nothing. The weap to bring our guns and we're going to have onto that power if we have to deputize County Population. ••• ••..•• 15,417 ons used are the vote and economic power. our meeting uninterrupted." 1000 Negroes to do it." Negroes. ••••. ••...••••. 12,425 "We spend our money where it's appre Carmichael then wrote to John Doar of 900 Negroes met at the May 3nominating % Negroes .• ••.•••••••.••• 81% ciated," says Hulett. "If people aren't for the Justice Department, explaining the prob convention. Several hundred more attended Median Family Income: . us, they don't get our money." lem. Doar sent down a Justice Department but were unable to vote because they had white •.•.•..• •••.••••. $4400 The new tactics have been very effec lawyer to the country. The lawyer asked voted in the Democratic Primary. (Ibe negro •.••••....•.•...••• 935 tive. "We don't depend on the Justice John Hulett, the Chairman of the CLFO to charge that SNCC and the LCFO asked Voter Registration - 1964 Department, the white liberals, the Demo tell his members "notto start any trouble." Negroes to " boycott" the Democratic pri White Negro cratic Party, the courts -- nobody -~ to get '·'We don't intend to," replied Hulett. mary is false. By law no one can vote in Eligible 1900 5122 done what has to be done. We depend on "We are within our rights. We will come two primaries. The LCFO urged Negroes Registered 2240 0 ourselves. And we'll win." armed. You .tell the crackers not to start in Lowndes County tQ. attend the Black There are now about 2700 whites reg 'FOR THE STORY OF THE BLACK any trouble, because if they start some Panther convention rather than vote in the istered,- roughly 700 more than are eli-. PANTHER PARTY IN THE WORDS OF I'IS thing, we're going to finish it." Democr~tic primary.) gible, and 2500 Negroes. LEADERS AND ORGANIZERS , SEE PAGE 3. AFTER THE PILGRIMAGE -A BURST OF ORGANIZING DELANO --There is a popular song that is They don't shout orders, they ask." And played on the juke boxes all over the San even those who still oppose the strike talk JoaqUin Valley, called "El Corrido de about when the Association will.win; not,g. Delano." Organizing "In Kern County you hear the words - Come brother, join the union, The strategy of the Association has It will be better for us- changed. The campaign is' now concentrated We only ask the justice and dignity inside 'the state. The DiGiorgio boycott is of man." not planned nation-wide, but state-Wide. O.ne .day last month, when the NFWA The summer 'program, which hopes to pickets appeared on the edge of the fields involve 300 to 500 studtmts, will center in at the DiGiorgio Sierra Vista Ranch, a California. Student - worker teams will DiGiorgio truck with a loudspeaker was sweep the state, bring the word of the driven up to drown out their cries. The Association to farm workers from North driver turned the radio to a local Mexican to South. station and went into the field. Suddenly, In the Delano-Bakersfield area theAsso blasting over the rows of grapes, too loud ciation, newly re-organized into 13 depart to ignore, c"me "El Corrido de Delano." ments, is putting its best people into signing up members. "Our best organizers," says Things are not going well for DiGiorgio a staff member, "are the young Mexican or for corporate agri - business in Cali guys who were on the Pilgrimage. "There fornia. In the month after the Delano to were some who didn't make much impres Sacramento Pilgrimage all has changed. sion on us two months ago. Then during the "1 can't wait to get back to the Arvin Pilgrimage their real talent came out." area," says Marshall Ganz, a SNCC field Whole DiGiorgio crews are being signed secretary on the organizing staff of the up. "We're finding out that the scabs Association. "You walk up to a worker, aren't anti-union," says an organizer, "they say Ah, and he says, Where do I sign?" just didn't know what was happening. We A DiGiorgio foreman, sympathetic with couldn't get to them, and their employers the union, says "The company men treat CONTINUED ON LAST PAGE the workers different now. TIley're polite. A DIGIORGIO WORKER leaves field to talk with NfWA:pickets. TO OUR READERS "GOODBYE, MR. BROWN" We're calling this issue the June issue. It started out to be the May issue, but the editor had to go to the SNCC These two letters are pretty clear. Father Kenny is staff :tneeting and then to" Lowndes County. This points out the pastor of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Sacra one of the problems THE MOVEMENT has: if the editor mento. He has been active in the Delano strike since the goes away for two weeks, the paper doesn't come out. beginning. Pat Brown is the Governor of the State of Cali If we had money to help pay an Assistant Editor this fornia. We think more letters like FatherKenny's passionate wouldn't happen. Perhaps some of you know "how ·we can epistle should be written. get financial aid. We also need money to pay the ex.:.. penses of our photographer. We can't even afford to trans port him where the news is happening, or install a tele Father Keith Kenny Our Lady of Guadalupe phone in his apartment so we can call him. 711 T Street You, reader, can help us in other ways. Could you Sacramento, California take a few hours a week out to serve as MOVEMENT My dear Father: representative in your community? If someone in every area was actively pushing individual and bulk subscrip I appreciate your concern for the farm workers and hope you will accept the fact that I too am, and have been, concerned, Enclosed is a copy of a letter to Cesar Chavez tions as well as keeping an eye out for news, we could get which summarizes my record. more news to more readers and settle our financial crisis I spent Easter Sunday with my mother, children and grandchildren because it is one too. of the two days each year I have been able to keep as a family occasion. The farm labor problem requires the continuing concern of all of us. State government Can you help" us? Publishing a paper that tells the news will continue to enforce those laws which do exist and I will continue my efforts to move no other paper tells is too big a job for one person or a differences from the picket line to the conference table. Sincerely, handful of people to do. EDMUND G. BROWN, Governor SNCC Rejects White House Conference ATLANTA - and the National Government claims it is The following statement was released by impotent in many situations to bring about SNCC on May 23: justice. For example, Police Chiefs, Mr. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown The Studen t Nonviolent Coordinating .Sheriffs and State Officials who have vic Governor of California Committee believes the White House Con timized black people, beaten and jailedthem ference entitled, to secure these rights, is and further suppressed our ,dignity are fully Dear Mr. Brown: absolutely unnecessary and rejects its in aware .they were in effect given a blank vitation to participate in this useless en check by the Executive Department of this In answer to your unsolicited letter, .I can only say that it fails to lighten the dis deavor for the follo'Ad-rig reasons: Government to inflict these lawless acts appointment or cool the smouldering anger that I, along with all the little people of the 1. The foundation and consequences of upon Negroes, since it is common knq.wledge State feel to discover that we really don't matter at all to the Governor of this State. racism are not rooted in the behavior of that throughout the South killing a "Nigger" We all felt that surely you would not disappoint us, that the "public servant" would black Americans, yesterday or today. They is like killing a coon. want to be with the little people, with the Mexican citizens of California when they needed are rooted in an attempt by Europeans 3. We believe that the President has called him and where they needed him. But Easter has passed into history -and so have our and white Americans to exploit and de this Conference within the United States at illusions. humanize the descendants of Africa for a time when United States prestige inter We are fed up with promises that do not produce. We are fed up with a paton the monetary gain. This process of universal nationally is at a low ebb due to our in head and being talked to like little children - and your sanctimonious appeal to "mother exploitation of Africa and her descendants volvement in the Vi~tnam Civil War, the hood" and "family," and the "conference table" are just that. Easter Sunday has continues today by the power elite of this Dominician Rep u b pc, the Congo, South changed a lot of things. We found out who our friends are, and we do not forget. country. In the process of exploiting Black Africa and other parts of the Third World. Once more the "gringo" has treated us like "poor MeXicans," has ignored our sen Americans, White America has tried to shift . We cannot be a party to attempts by the sitivities, our dignity. It has always been like that, but thiS too we do not forget. When the responsibility for the degrading position White House to ,use Black Americans to re you offended us by your absence it was only another example of the way you and your in which Blacks now find themselves away coup a loss of prestige internationally. office, and other State offices have bungled and blundered the whole Delano issue, up from the oppressors to the oppressed. The 4. Our organization is opposed to the war to and including the latest DiGiorgio -owned conciliation service and the so-called in White House Conference, especially with in Vietnam'and we cannot in good conscience vestigation of violation of civil rights by the Attorney General's office. its original focus on the Negro Family as meet with the chief policy maker of the The poor still have no rights and no dignity in California - and no one in high office the main problem with which America must Vietnam war to discuss Human Rights in really gives a damn, But Easter Sunday means that now we understand all this. It also deal, accentuates this process of shifting this country when we flagrantly violate the means that we are united now as never before in the history of California, You should the burden of the problem. human rights of colored people in Vietnam. read history, Mr. Brown, and you could learn something from it. Now we are just fed 2. Regardless of the proposals which stem 5. We affirm our belief that people who up, and fine words mean nothing - nor shall we be "bought off" by a couple of appoin fi-om this conference, we know that the suffer must make the decisions about who tive positions to our race. That time also is past. Executive Department and the President is to change and direct their lives. We I am sorry, Mister Brown, to have to say such hard things. You see, life is hard, bur are not serious about insuring constitutional therefore call upon all Black Americans to I guess you don't know about that. Easter has changed so much, We are not afraid rights to Black Americans. For example, begin building independent political, eco anymore to say hard things. We are not afraid anymore of anything, murderers of Civil Rights Workers and nomic and cultural institutions that they will Goodbye, Mister Brown. Black Citizens roam free in this country control and use as instruments of socia'l Father Keith Kenny with the desire to kill morefreedom fighters change in this country. DiGiorgio Employees Spit on SF Picketers SAN FRANCISCO ALONG, TOUGH RENT STRIKE GOES ON Sixty pickets, mostly from San Francisco testing the assault of two National Farm labor unions, marched before the central Workers' Association pickets by DiGiorgio SAN FRANCISCO -- 4, Local 110 of the Miscellaneous Culinary office of the DiGiorgio Corporation pro- armed guards in Delano. Five Latin families who live in a large Workers and various building trades unions DiGiorgio employees walked blank-faced slum bUilding on San Francisco's Gough in the form of financial help and Unfair through the line while others spit and drop Street have been witholding rent payments listings. THE MOVEMENT ped pennies and apple cores on the pickets since December' from the owners of the The tenants, who are of Mexican and 18 publlshecl moodaly by the staff of me' from the floor:,? above. Crowds of passers building, South of Market flophouse specu Nicaraguan descent, demonstrated the i r SIudeDt Nonviolent CoordInating Committee by heard the speeches and the chanting of lator Red Rivas and the Granite Land solidarity with the Delano strikers by ~ CalIfornia. . the marchers echoing betweenthe tall build Corporation. marching into SacrameJ;lto with the peri ings of the financial district. The rent strike was launched soon after ginos on Easter Sunday. mrroRlAL OFFI<..."'E: Pickets c han ted "Don't buy Tree the building's owners ·demanded a near Rivas is the sublease of at least five 449 14th Street, Sweet''', "Don't buy S&Wl" and "DiGiorgio 100% rent increase -- from $60 to $115 south of market hotels - the Daton, the San FranCisco, California must go'" Leaflets announced the beginning a month. Represented by the Mission Ten Rizel, the Kennedy, the Parkside Hotel of the boycott of DiGiorgio products. ants Union of which one Gough Street ten Apartments and the Netherlands. Granite mlTORIAL GROUf>: The picket line was organized by the In ant was recently elected treasurer, the rent has 26 different holdings in and around ternational Typographers' Un ion in re strikers are demanding one year leases at the Nob Hill and Marina sections of San Terence Cannon sponse to the beating of Delano picket $80 a month. During the last six months, Francisco. Its president, Ee\win Connor, is George Ballis Bobbi Cieciorka Manuel Rosas and the assault of another they have accumulated over $1300 in back a close associate of millionaire Walter Gerhard Gscheidle Ellen Estrin picket, Ida COUSino, by Herschel Nunez, rents in their bank accounts. Haas, the Levi-Strauss magnite. Brooks Penney Bernice Glenn a hired guard on the Sierra Vista Ranch The owners, Riyas and Granite, have During the past six months, several Frank Cieciorka Tim Hall near Delano. The incidents broke up talks responded to these moves by attempting to Presbyterian ministers have attempted to LOS ANGELES COMMrn'EE: about elections that were going on that evict all five families (who have a total negotiate a just settlementbetween the land 478-9509 moment between NFWA and the DiGiorgio of 20 children). lords and the Gough Street tenants but Bob Niemann Corp. , Actions against the owners by the MTU Rivas and Granite have failed to deal in Sue Douglas Martin Van Buren Pickets we reattempting to speak to and th~ Gough Street tenants have included good faith. Backed by the Apartment House Beth Hoffman strikebreakers living on the ranch. (If the "lightning" picket lines at all of Rivas' Owners Association, the landlords are still LOS ANGE LES ADDRESS: DiGiorgio proposal for elections were put and Granite's properties asking for the sup determined to eVict,the Gough Street ten P.O. Box 117 into effect, these scabs would be the only port of other tenants, the regular picketing ants, O\v~ers 308 Wesvwood Plaza workers permitted to vote). of the Granite Land office on Gush Street The Apartment f louse Association Los Angeles 24, Calif. One sign on the picket line read •'Our for the past tour months, and the picketing has entered into the picture because the big taxes pay for DiGiorgio water," referring of Granite's vice - president Dudley C. realty interests re~lize that a contract with $2 per year, individual copies to the federal subsidy that pays for 4/5 Knill's $60,000 home in Marin county. the Tenants Union would set a precedent in $3 per hundred per month, of the water pumped for irrigation of The MTU is seeking support from or the fight for barga [ning rights for tenants bulk subscriptions. ,grower lands. Another placard bore a black ganized lahor. Thus 'far, recognition of the and would also be a first step towards dollar sign with reel drops of blood on it. strike has come from Painters llnion Local rent control for the whole city. Lowndes County Freedom Organization Leaders Talk About Their Party Last month, THE MOVEMENT editor, Terence Cannon, spent several days in Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural ccunty quickly becoming the center of an important new Negro political movement. It is reported that when a meeting was held in the courthouse of a neighboring county to form a similar Freedom Organization, the Probate Judge's secre- tf:ry announced, "The panthers are here." Cannon interviewed several of the Lowndes Co:mty "panthers": here is their view of the independent political party that carries the symbol of the leaping black panther. JOHN HULETT· "The Black Panther is an animal. the comes out fighting for life or death" John Hulett, the Chairman A year'ago several of us met together T;he Black Panther is an animal that with the idea of going over to attempt to when it is pressured it moves back until of the Lowndes County Free get registered. At this time severalthreats it is cornered, then it comes out fighting do m Organization, is 38 had already been made that ifa Negro would for life or death. We felt we had been SIDNEY LOGAN, JR. years 0 ld. He was born in attempt to register then blood would run pushed back long enough and that it was in the streets. 37 of us decided to go over time for Negroes to come out and take over. Lowndes County and has a anyway. As 'you know, the symbol of the Demo "I'm not afraid" wife and 7 children. After Since that time we have registered at least cratic Party is the rooster and we felt graduating from the Lowndes 2500 Negroes. that the panther could destroy the rooster. Mr. Sidney Logan, 42, is We met one night with them to decide That is our plan. On November 9 we feel a widower. He lives with County Training School he what would we do with our vote. The SNCC we can destroy the rooster in Lowndes wen t to Birmingham and, workers brought the idea to us that we County. his children on an 80-acre could organize our own political group if truck farm. worked for 7 years inafoun we wanted to. It was left entirely to the What are your plans if you dry. There he was elected people of Lowndes County. If we became win? He is the Black Panther president of the foundry victorious in our election then we would candidate for Sheriff. become the power structure in our country. Lowndes County school children have one After Mrs. Liuzzo got killed out on the workers local #7489. In 1956 Personally 1 have seen many of the of the worst· school systems in the state. highway they had memorial services, I trickeries on election day by people who he moved to Georgia, worked If we win we'll put most of our money went up to take a part. A lot of them carne control the ballot box. as a const-ruction workertmd into the Negro schools to bring them up in singing What Side Are You On, so I had If we went into the Democratic Party to an equal with the white. to go out and show them what side I was participated in NAACP acti they would still control us; we would have One thing. According to state law, people on. The Highway Patrol wrote my tag to do the things they wanted us to do. vities. In 1959 he moved back can tax the rich at %60 of their evaluation. number down and so the next day the white They set the standards and everything for This would provide our children with a peoples questioned me about it -- "Tell to Lowndes County. us to go by. better education. It would mean that Negroes me you was over messing around with Second thing -- after a large number of maybe would have to pay a little more but those people"•••And that's when they Negroes had registered, the County Com people who own hundreds of acres of land started to boycott me. They quit giving me mitteemen of the Democratic Party upped .and lots of property would have to pay hauling to do. the qualification fees from $50 to $500. more money. We went over to reddish back in Spring As Negroes we felt it wasn't our job to People who pick cotton for $2 a day and of 65. The white people had a kind of increase th.eir treasury. We decided it was FRANK MILES tractor drivers who earn $4 a day -- they bad attitude you know. We went down and time to do some things for ours~lves. If would have to earn at least $1.25 an hour I said, ·"It's come time for the colored Mr. Frank Miles, Jr., 35, we were going to build up a treasury we or more. Even if it means they would have people to get reddished."· The registrar were going to build up our own. was born in Lowndes County CONTINUED NEXT PAGE, COLUMN 1 said "Many of em?" And 1 says "A lot and works for a furniture of them." He said, "You all done get along all right with us. You all want anything company. He is the Black we'll let you have it. We don't want all Panther P arty candidate for those outside agitators in here!' 1 said, •Well, it's time for all us to get redished tax collector 0 He lives with now." They wouldn't let us register in the his wife and children on a CD courthouse, we had to go on down to the smSlll farm. old Jailhouse. Then one day we was going to have a Peoples today believe that's the only Freedom Day, and the law say, ./All you chance they do have -- is to join the all, get them children back homel Put Freedom Organization and try to come out -- em in schooL Ain't going to let nobody under the fear that they have. You can't {-d;(. a.ss~ssor IS -/::I,e register until you do that. Go back horne:' have any control over the Democratic pa.rs-o,., ,,., {"h eo. co...... ,., hoot Wh 0 He's .standing in the door -- that's the PartY. We knew that we couldn't win by Sa..-~ ~c~r deputy. And I said to myself, ..People want joining with them. ho....:> Mud. rOfCt+t to get redished and he's supposed to be When we had the ASCS election, we found /3 !.Cort£, fo ... r ...... a.fID'1 F<-<--rpos,.r, the law and protect the citizen, We do the out how we was tricked by the ASCS right thing and he want to run us away:' election: the white peoples had control Then that gave me courage and I decided over that. somebody else need that job. One reason we hasn't had too much Then when they boycott my truck on ac outside funds is because once a person count of I want to be a citizen it seems like goes to aid you then he tries to give you they have the law in their hands and aren't some advice and if you doesn't take the using it properly like they should be. advice then the next thing you know the They put a colored deputy on there and money is cut off. That's why we doesn't he been saying to me, "Better be careful, aim to depend on anybody except the peoples Stay out of Hayneville/'There's $1000 al of Lowndes County. . ready been put up to get me killed. But I We had quite a few white peoples that . didn't quit going to Hayneville. say -- lf you get registered you have to I'm I).ot afraid. If I had to lose my life find you a new horne. Now we're taking for what 1 think is right, 1 ain't backing The -ta..7:-assessur IS, .r.V-ff6sseJ them into court because they were driving down, cause I done made up. 1- :'J.J peoples off the land for registering to vote. tt.<;;' eSs, frof er+~( "'-I I' S I ain't running for it to get even with All those threats- is a· bluff they's been -fa..., r &>~ncl re.;"Jono...!'/
and had a meeting with them. And they and Wilson Baker, and that they should like the Democratic party and the Republi made a committment to send $HlO a month ignore the county level where their power can party. We want power, that's all we down to Lowndes County. Now that was really was. What you have in this county want. After we get power we can talk about good because that meant you cut off all is that Negroes are always told to vote whether we want all black of not. your white liberal support. That's some for someone who is less of a racist instead The thing we get beat over the head thing else I found out from the MFDP; of more for Negroes. with by Martin Luther King and people like when the chips were down the white lib We thought we could take over the Demo that is that anything all black is as bad as erals cut out and we were left holding cratic Party in Mississippi and that's a anything all white. But that's not true. All the bag. But if you didn't depend on them farce. Them crackers ain't never going white is only bad when you us'e force to for anything you could do anything you to let us in. We got to build something of keep it all white. And something all black wanted to do. our own. The Negroes who voted Demo isn't bad if you don't use force to keep it cratic in Alabama are like Negroes all that way. But these arguments didn't make It Isn't Integration over the country who pulled the Demo anY difference to local people: they want Now what happened in Alabama is that cratic lever: like Negroes in Watts -- they to see black and white together. You have we started building something, and we made voted Democratic and they don't have a to leave some spaces open for white whites irrelevant to everything we did. damn thing to show for it. Because they people. Whites in the county and whites in the can't control the vote. You've got to get No~ I have said, and I mean it, that the North. We were building a party for black people into independent political power Democratic Party is the most treacherous Stokely Carmichael, newly people, because they were disenfranchised where they can control on the county enemy of the Negro people on a national elected Chairman of SNCC. in Lowndes County. I'm not in any bag level. They can control the money that basis. They step on us, they take our about "Black -Nationalism" and all that. comes into it, they control the law, 'the vote for granted and we're completely His work in Alabama led to We've done it without talking about taxes. irrelevant. Johnson passed that Voting the organizing of the Lown "Whitey" and "getting rid of Whitey" and When they can do that, then they can Rights bill because he knew we were going that shit. We just don't want to become a meet a white man with power. Right now to vote Democratic. He knew he was going des County Freedom Or part of the Man. we can't do that. When the Man says, to have all those votes in 1968~ And that's ganization. What I've learned about integration is jump we got to ask him how high. what's going to happen unless we begin to that this country always defines it. But "Black Nationalism'" move, and start controlling those things it was always a one-sided thing: Negroes with indeper.dent forces. I want to talk a little about- this "black The 'one thing I learned from the Missis were always going to whites and it was in Poor Whites sippi Freedom Democratic Party was that fact white supremacy. Because everything nationalism". Now a lot of people are you don't work for integration in this coun good was white. talking about how this organization has to There are also a lot of poor whites try -- what you've got to worK for is For example: in Lowndes County we boy become all-black. What I learned was when and they're in the majority and they don't power. The mistake we made was that we cotted the school to get rid of the prin we were starting the Party we kept saying ,control. That can start growing too: inde went to the National Democratic Party cipal. She's still in there. But next year she to people -- "We got to have it all black, pendent parties that those people control, begging them to come into their party. If won't be. We will control the school board cause that's what we rea II y need." and eventually we can hook up with. That we're to do anything, we have to stop and we will determine who is principal. And they wouldn't touch it. Local people means there's a chance for realdeep change begging. And we won't need to protest anymore. would not touch something allblack because to be wrought in this country. SNCC has to Now you have to understand that very they think it's bad. The way we had to do become less popular because it's going to Or.ganizing Techniques clearly because that ain't anti-white. it was to say -- This is a party, it's just have to say the things that I'm talking about. One of the first things we decided when It's impossible for a man making $3 we moved into Lowndes County was that we a day to vote for a man making $10,000 wouldn't hold mass meetings at the same a year. It's impossible for both of them church. We held them at different areas to be iii the same party. I've seen that . of the county every Sunday night. What clearly in Lowndes County. You just can't that meant was that everyone in the county do it. . was able to come to a mass meeting and you When you talk about going for power, wouldn't get just the same people. Only , moral force and non-violence become com two or three times did we have Ipss than ,pletely irrelevant. When you go for power 200 people. you go for it the way everyone in the coun We also organized community meetings. try goes for it. Every community has a meeting once a Black people never have a chance to week where they discuss all the things that define integration. It's always defined for are relevant to that community. us by the New York Times, by Time maga I also found that the role of the organizer Zine, by OEO and the Heaustart program. had to be minimized, but I got out of that What can really happen in Lowndes County: bag of manipulation. I went in there with Once we take over the Board of Education, certain ideas. One idea was to organize we can spend the same amount of money' people to get power. And if that is manipu on the Negro schools as they do on the lation so be it. white school -- make it a real school - then the problem of integration willbecome No Strings irrelevant. You can have integration being When I went into LownJes County I had initiated on both sides. Integration in this a big argument with the Alabama E' 'iff. country has always been initiated on one We decided that we weren't going to a side; black people have always initiated in SNCC for a penny and that all the money tegration. we got we were to raise in Lowndes County. What King is about to do is integrate Now we've done that. this county. That's what he tried to do in Bob Mants went to Detroit. Everybody in Alabama. He told all those Negroes that the county gave him a name of their sons the best thing they could do was instead or daughters or their grandmothers or their of voting for black people like themselves BLACK PANTHER PARTY PRIMI\RY at First Baptist Church in Hayneville. 900 voted. kinfolk. Bob got all those people together was to vote for cr'ickers like Al Lingo
and we don't intend to do evil for evil, A gambler who carried his cards around JOHN HULEn - CONTI NUED but we definitely don't intend to be pushed in his pocket got to let someone else win around in L<;>wndes County. now and then to keep his game going. This to stop working until they get it. Having How do you organize? is what the Democratic party is doing for the vote and people still being poor won't Negro people. They have fixed it where one solve our problem. . We go from house to house. We go into How has the movement person can win every now and then and they If we had our own Sheriff and if we were the worst areas where people are still changed life in L 0 wnd e s are picking their people. That's why'I think to picket Dan River Mills then the Sheriff afraid and shaky, people who live on plan County? every county, even if they don't have enough would come out and protect the picketers tations. So far there have been at least 65 to take over, should organize their own and if anybody tried to interfere, he would or 70 families who've been evicted because political group and they should endorse' arrest them. they exercised their rig:lt to vote. We go Before the movement came, Negroes the candidate they feel is the lesser of two Also I think we could get a larger sum in and talk 'll'ith these people and let them were being pushed around by white people. evils. out of them for taxes. If they refused to know that they can live without these land The law would come into houses and break Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mants and pay the taxes they would have to move. owners. That the land owners need them in, push their doors in and make searches Courtland Cox from SNCC moved into the We could take Dan River Mills and put to take care of their land. They need us without anybody saying anything, without county in February 1965. They brought a the equipment back into its place, hire worst: they make a living off of us and we a search warrant. lot of strength to our people, a lot of cour our own people to operate it and the county don't make a living olf of them. Once you Today it's different. age, they were good workers. I think today would get all the profits from it and we start telling people this they srart thinking Then you could hardly ride the highway all our people, whatever we have done for wouldn't have to be worried about taxes . about it. You may have to leave them for a on Sunday evening. State Troopers would our county, we give those people creditfor. and our children not going to school. We'd day or two, but you keep going backto them block the highway and' give just about They are, as far as we are concerned the have a county-run plant. It would provide and finally you're able to pull most of those everybody who comes along a ticket. Now, best organizers in the country. They always more jobs for our people. people in. Our biggest fight now is among" through the suits we'veiiled, hardly a person let the people make their own decisions. I know one thing -- if Negroes become our own people, like the professionalpeople, is getting arrested in the County. They bring ideas to the people and you strong enough in the county then a lot of school teachers and preachers Who don't Real changes have been made. A Negro accept whatever you want to accept. people are going to move out. I don't think want any part in it because once the common couldn't even go into the courthouse at I think once we take over the county a lot of these land owners are going to want Negro moves up he will become equal with one time, without the whites speaking rough 'government, instead of having two com to be dominated by Negroes who's con him. ' to them. Now it's different -- when Negroes munities white and black, we will have one trolling the county. I do believe they're Once we win I think the Sheriff could walk in, the whites get together and stand community, where people could sit down going to sell their land and move into some deputize enough people to keep law and whispering to one another and never say and talk across the table with one another. other area. And with the, taxes that are going order in the county. I also think that people anything. Negroes don't fear any more of This is what we're working for. They'll to be put on them, they aren't going to pay have made up their minds that they are going to places they was afraid of going to. deal with us when we're in power. it. Most of them have only been paying a going to be their own protection. The white Personally, I used to have a little fear We feel in Lowndes County that the power small amount of the 6CJfo they owe. people aren't going to go out and start of going into some places, but now it's does not lie in the person who runs for I really don't think they are going to go trouble because they might end up on the altogether difterent. A man just happen office but in the organization around the along with it. worst end of it. \\'e don't bother people to be a man now, I don't think no other way. person. THE MOVEMENT: DIGIORGIO BOYCOTT SUPPLEMENT
The National Fartrt Workers Association asks yo~: $104. Please Don't Buy TREE -SWEET FRUIT JUICES I, . S&W FINE FOODS
I j These are products of the DiGiorgio Corporation, the ~ largest grower of grapes in the Delano area. It has em ployed farm workers at miserable wages for years. 3,000 farm workers have been on strike in Delano since September, 1965. Thousands more marched in the Pil grimage to Sacramento. The Schenley Corporation broke down and negotiated. But the DiGiorgio Corporation will not grant UNION RECOGNITION and COLLECTIVE BAR- GAINING rights that should be taken for granted. Instead it has made a fraudulent offer of elections among scab workers to see if they want a union. The strikers have already voted with their bodies, by going on strike. They have voted continuously for eight months. Those workers now working for DiGiorgio are scabs who went to work while other men starved for their rights. Therefore, the NFWA is calling for a nationwide boy cott of all DiGiorgio products, including S&W FINE FOODS and TREE-SWEET FRUIT JUICES, until DiGiorgio recog nizes the NFWA as the sole bargaining agent for the Di Giorgio workers. The DiGiorgio Corporation has a heart -- right in its pocketbook. YOU can hurt it there. Help the boycott! Help us succeed as we did against Schenley's!
George Ballis photo DiGIORGIO ARMED GUAltD, Herschel Nunez. On April 21, Nunez assaulted Delano striker Marw,el Rosas, beating him The DiGiorgio Struggle on the side of the head with his nightstick. Rosas was hos pitalized with 10 stitches. The incident broke up discussions Members of the National Farm Workers' going on, and even if there was one, it of elections that were gC!ing on at the very same moment Association have been on strike against the wasn't hurting . them~. More .grapes were DiGiorgio Corporation's 4,600 acre Sierra picked this year, they said, than ever be between the DiGiorgio Corporation and the NFWA o Ranch since September 15, 1965. They are ,fore. Meanwhile, scabs began showing up asking for union recognition and a wage raise from farther and farther away -
1: C-111 an emergency meeting of your group to form an ad hoc committee to aid the farm workers' strike. Delegates from interested and sympathetic groups: civil rights, church, union...should also be invited. 2. Send a delegation to the RetailClerks Union, inform them of the boycott, and ask their cooperation. They might (unofficially) advise a large chain-store not to buy DiGiorgio products. This union could also collect all canned foods returned by the chains ,md send them to the NFWA office in Delano for families of strikers. 3. Send a delegation to the management of selected chains and ask them officially not to buy DiGiorgio products. You may tell the management that you intend to use a consumer informational boycott: but you're forbidden by law to use threats of coercion or a general boycott of the store. Students should try to persuade their school caf~terias not to serve DiGiorgio products. 4. Set up -- AS SOON AS POSSIBLE --an informational consumer picket in front of selected chains. This kind of informational picket means you hand out leaflets to all cus tomers entering the store and ask them to respect the boycott. IN ADDITION to this kind of picket line we would also like to see some lines with signs and placards urging customers not to buy these products. 5. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT--in order to create the kind of persuasive tension that is needed in Delano -- to make every effort to publicize this boycott through the newspapers, radio and TV in your area. 6. This intensive and short-term effort to inform the consumer-public can be the best way to build future support for California farm workers who are fighting for their right of collective bargaining. IT IS UP TD YOU. 7. We are forbidden by law to boycott stores merely because they handle DiGiorgio products. Picket lines cannot encourage general boycotts by consumers of a store or by employees of stores carrying DiGiorgio products. WHAT 'DIGIORGIO TELLS ITS EMPLOYEES Viva la causal National Farm Workers Association, Box 894, Delano Cesar's Evil Plan DI GIORGIO FRUIT CORPORATION Dear Di Giorgio Employee: May 5, 1966 Another "DiGiorgio Election" Cesar Chavez and his ill-tempered followers have commenced a wicked boycott of Di Giorgio products. We are confident that thiS boycott will not be successful. for it is In an interesting interview in the Los and the third and it's rotting. We're in being conducted by individuals that no self-respecting person would associate with. Angeles Times, August 15, 1937, which the shipping business and it's got to move. In the meantime, Cesar refuses to meet with our representatives. He will not talk appeared under the title "I Work, You How can you have a union? If you think over the situation. He will not tell us what he wants. He will not explain his evil plan. Work; the Land Works," Mr. (Joseph) you can, go ahead and try it. If this farm .Instead, he lets his pickets talk for him. You have all heard them shout obscenities DiGiorgio set for t h his views on labor goes to hell your jobs go, too." Theem and profanities. What manner of man is this who would permit thiS kind of conduct? organization. It seems some organizers ployees then· "voted" and, after the vote What manner of man is this who refuses to have an election, but allows his lieutenants appeared at his factory and said, "Mr. was taken, announced the result. "Mr. to try to force you into joining his association by shouting vulgarities at you? DiGiorgio, we're going to unionize your DiGiorgio, we have voted." "That's a good Cesar is on the way out. He cannot live without newspaper publicity. He will probably farm." "You're going to what?" he de American way," DiGiorgio replied. "Do try to start more fights, and try to keep things in a turmoil. manded. "My men are free men. You aren't you give your pay to those fellows in the Do not worry about him. As we have said before, Di Giorgio has been here for nearly going to do anything here they don't want city, or not?" To quote from the interview, half a century, and Di Giorgio will be here long after Cesar Chavez and his NFWA donel" So concerned was Mr. DiGiorgio "A smile flashed across the man's sun "No Fair Working, Association" are nothing but an unpleasant memory. about the "freedom" of his employees, burned face. 'The men say nothin' doing,' We much appreciate your continued loyalty, and we will continue to do all that we can that he promptly called a meeting and "Good,' said DiGiorgio, 'on the DiGiorgio to make your living and working conditions as pleasant as possible. addressed his men on the subject of unioni farms we grow crops -- and menl''' Sincerely, zation. "You know that one day the fruit is -- from Factories in the Field, by Carey (signed) (signed) green," he orated, "and the next it's ready, McWilliams, 1939. E.C. Fontana, R. L. Myer, Superintendent. Personnel Director.
The DiGiorgio Corporation's sales were BOYCOTT CHECK LIST $132,389,000 in 1964. Its net income in that S&W FINE FOODS MacGills DiGiorgio Corporation Today year was $2,536,000. Its net income doubled between 1960 and 1964. TREE-SWEET FRUIT JUICES Verbena The corporation's assets are $65,049,000. Indian River White Rose They include about 24,000 acres of land in grapes, citrus frUits, plums, pears, aspara Blue Flag Redi-Tea gus, potatoes, cotton, grain and other crops. Blue Parrot Pique -- from FARM LABOR, Broadway Premier C&T Premium Sun Vista Foods Doughtery Sunnyland Golden peak Jolly Farmer DiGiorgio and Hi.s Cronies:
Hi-Color ~'iscel1aneous DiGiorg io Fruit Corp. Uti] ities tos Angeles Turf Club OFFICERS Southern California Edison Co. Prentis Eale Dir. Hart J. Bauer, Dir. Joseph S, Di'';iorgio Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Food Proce-ssine and Distributi. Pres.. and Board cr. 1m .. Carl F. Wente, Dir. S .&'. 1ne Foo s We suggest that you also subscribe J. Blunlein Pres. ~1i 1ip DiGiorgio Petroleum to the follOWing California publications: J.S.DiGicrgio, Dir. Senior Vice-Pres. Union Cil Co. R. DiGiorgio, Dir. obert DiSiorgio, Dir .. is publislied monthly by the staff of the P.DiGiorf.io, Dir. Robert DiGiorgio Prentis Hale. Dir. EL MALCRIADO, newspaper of the National KooP. Hudson, Dir. Exec.Vice-Pres. Petroleu~ Equip~ent Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Farm Workers' Association, Box 894, R.S. Mcl:night, nir. Suppliers Association of California. Cesar Chavez, general Delano, California. Every two weeks. Treesweet Products I3.t'uce Sanborn ES Dulin, Dir. director of the NFWA, says, "THE MOVE J(. p. Hudson, Secretary' V-P &: ·Secretary $2 per year. J.S. DiGiorgio,D~~ir~.~XY'l\ MENT publishes, more than any other paper VALLE Y LABOR CITIZEN, organized labor P. DiGiorgio,D~~ir~.c---//\X ~.s._ r1crnight I know, the news of the upheavals among paper of the central San JoaqUin Valley, R. DiGiorgio, Dir. 1,'-1> _8.~ Treasurer ~ ilad·e lph ia Terlllinals low income and minority people in this 479 North Fresno Street, Fresno, Cali Auction Corporation -.J. NOS3er. Jr. country. I urge those who support us to fornia. Weekly. $4 per year. C.J. Nosser, Jr. Dir Exec. Vice-Pres. subscribe to THE MOVEMENT," Subscrip J.S. DiGiorgio, Dir. FARM LABOR, magazine published by Citi R. DiGiorgio, Dir. J .A. DiGiorgio tions $2 per year. Write SNCC, 449 14th zens for Farm Labor, Box 1173, Berkeley, P. DiGiorgio, ir Vice-President St., San Francisco, California. 626-4577. California. $3 fop twelve issues, New York ~ruit Auction Corp C.J. Nosser, Jr.,P~r~e~s~' ~11 J. f,luMlein --,.--:------J.S. DiGiorgio, C~h~m~n~' -JII . Vice-President 1------R. DiGiorgio, !'.D~ir~''------I'-J I 1 P. DiGiorgio, UiL-..... K .p. Hudson i I Pacific Vegetal>le Oil Co. Vice-Presiden t I Prentis II ale. D~1~'r~ -/.. ORDER BLANK I Foremost D'air les, Inc. DIRECTORS Carl F. Wente,~ (other than officers : P lease send me I ~I arry J. Ua,-,t""e-,-r_~--Ih1A\/1 Inc. I I i ___ copies of the Boycott Supplement. f. I subscriptions to THE lVlOVE1\l1ENT. I Insurance I Industrial Indemnity Co. I E.S. Dulin, Dir. I Pacific National Fire I I Insurance Company I Supplelnent $1.00 per MO VEMENT $2.00 per year I A.E. -Soarboro, v-r Firemen's Fund Ins. Co. I hunared .20 single copy I S!l11th ~arl F. Wente, })it. I 3.00 per hundred I R"al Estate F. \'iente I per month Spr1ng Street Realty Co. I I Harry J. Bauer, ¥res. I Bale Brotl,ers Realty Co. rrentis Hale,P~r~e~s~.--,-.--J ! 449 14TH STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. I ~.ft!rchants National Realty Co. L _ ____ -1 A.E. Sbarboro, .!,:::Ji~r':"' --J Jir. WHAT HAPPENED TO .THE' "-MISSISSIPPI CHILD DEVELOPMENT GROUP? Pa~t 3: Playing With The Politicians This is the last part of a three-part article by Dr. Gerald them in jobs. Another function of Project government would not long tolerate inef Star is "to assist Mississippi in attracting ficiency and misuse of its funds and that they Rosenfield of Berkeley, California, examining the poverty new business and industry:' had better watch to the proper management program Child Development Group of Mississippi. We think' The Program Policy and Advisory Com of their centers and not allow the good that the reasons for its success and failure are important. mittee, as originally planned, was to in work, the great benefits the program was clude representatives from the Mississippi providing for the children, to be destroyed They tell us a lot about what has happened in Mississippi, State government, the state Chamber of by bickering and political interference. about our government, and about the civil rights movement. Commerce, the Mississippi Manufacturers The arguments of Horn and Edmonson Commission, the Mississippi Economic carried the day. Speaker after speaker In the days following the revolt, the On July 18, moderate whites and Negroes, Commission, the Mississippi state Depart from the centers got up to testify to the picture of what happened in Washington that with the blessing of the Democratic Nation ment of Education, "andother authorities," good that had been done for their children had led to the order from OEO grew more al Committee, held a meeting to form a as well as sixrepresentatives of the poverty and to plead that whatever necessary be clear and more objectionable. CDGM staff statewide midded - of - the - road political community. This is the new "broadly repre done to insure that the program continue. who visited Washington the week after the force in Mississippi. They called them sentatives" coalition against poverty: it is As Quintell Gibson of Holly Springs put it, revolt came back with the story that Presi selves the "Mississippi Dem~cratic Con also, it begins to seem, the new broadly •'Don't let this ray of sunshine be snuffed dent -Johnson or Sargent Shriver, it wasn't gress." The Democratic National Com based coalition that is going to bring Missis out from the lives of little children:' The clear which, had promised Senator Stennis mittee sent one of its staff, Don Ellinger, sippi into the fold of the national Democratic meeting broke up with no specific plans to move CDGM out of Mt. Be~lah. The to the meeting to promise the group support Parry and into the "mainstream of Ameri made, and confusion on the part of the people quid-pro-quo was that Stennis, a powerful and assistance from the national Democratic can life:' about just what it was supposed to have man in the Senate and on the Senate Appro Party. Among those attending the meeting accomplished. priations Committee, would take a less were moderate regular Mississippi Demo Milksop to Militants a~titude cratic Party electors and NAACP leaders hostile toward the 1.9 billion dol It was clear the CDGM could only play Aaron Henry and Charles Evers. The Con Political Realities lar appropriation for the second year of the a "positive" role in the Administration's poverty program. gress elected a wealthy Negro businessman, plans if it continued to be run by the poor CDGM has just been re-funded with a grant Worse: It was reported, through sources Charles Young, and the white chairman of in some fashion and to have a place within of 5.6 million dollars for a year-round at OEO, that the national security was indeed the State AFL-CIO, Claude Ramsay, to be it for fo~mer civil rights workers and for program. Its central headquarters is in a involved in the order for CDGM to move co-chairman. The Jackson Daily News noted those who would otherwise become workers Jackson office building. There will be 150 from Mt. Beulah. According to this report, that "no bids (to attend the meeting) went for the FOP, while not serving as a vehicle centers rather than 84. The Boardof Direc which was said to be common knowledge at to "never-never" segregationists or to for radical agitation by these people. There tors will be the sponsoring agent of the OEO, President Johnson had reassured hard-line integrationist organizations - fore the demand of OEO that "there must project and the Board "in cooperation with Stennis that he would do something about FOP, SNCC, and COFO:' In Mississippi, be increased Board controlof the program" the Council of Neighborhood Centers, will be the trouble with the poverty program down the Administration was attempting to build assumed greater importance. the effective policy instrument of the overall in Mississippi in order to placate him and a "thirdforce" between two "unacceptable" Most of us on central staff who had tried project:' I don't know in what way this influence him on another matter which was alternatives. to maintain the radical ends of the program cooperation will be effected, but I am not far more important to the President. and who had led the revolt against the OEO optimistic about the future political dir During the time Stennis was attacking The Siphon directive would be leaving at the end of the. ection of CDGM. The children will continue CDGM he had also been attacking the Ad The Anti-Poverty Program in Mississippi summer. We realized that although we had to benefit, the year will be the best year of ministration's policy of military expendi we were informed, is to be part of the won the initial battle against the total sub schooling that most of them will ever have, ture- for the war in Vietnam. He claimed attempt to build this "third force" and to servience of CDGM to the ends of the poli and perhaps the spark it plants in them will that the Administration was drastically integrate Mississippi into the' 'mainstream ticians in Washington, the later battles would enable to do something about their lives underestimating the future cost of the war of American life:' The role of the War on be lost unless some way were found to insti when they come of age. But ifthe spirit that in Vietnam, that even without further escala Poverty in this plan is to gh'e at least token tutiorialize control of the program some the civil rights movement gave to their tion it would take an increase of billion relief from their economic plight and the $12 where other than in the present Board of parents and their teachers dies out and the dollars to finance it during the coming fis':' hope of eventual real improvement to the Directors. program adjusts itself to the political cal year, and that the current expenditures impoverished Negroes, to give jobs to the We made an attempt, in a stormy meeting •'realities," the enthusiasm for the program were being kept artificially low by assigning leaders and siphon them off into a more with the Boa r d, to convince them that will also gradually die: a teaching position equipment and supplies to Vietnam at the acceptable politics than that of the Free majority representation on the Board should in a CDGM school will become like any expense of American military forces else dom Democratic Party, and to provide a reside with 'the representatives of the local other civil-service teaching job, and the where in the world. House Republicans had meeting ground where moderate whites can CDGM centers. We made no headway. During schools will become ordinary custodial been making the same charges, claiming work with moderate Negroes to their mutual the course of this meeting, however, we day-care centers or perfunctory kindergar the defense-budget was kept artificially low advantage, thus building the base for jl discovered that one of the policy-making tens within a few years. for political purposes. (Subsequent events moderate Democratic electorate, including bodies of CDGM was supposed to be a The obvious lesson to the central staff seem to have confirmedthese charges. What the newly -enfranchised Negro voters. Fu "Council of Neighborhood Centers", a body was that you can't run a radical program seems to have been involved is that the ture poverty programs, and a say in the that most of us h:.ld never heard of. on government money: you can't develop Administration last summer was attempting control of millions of dollars of federal grass roots democracy on a timetable set to minimize the economic impact of the grants would go to those white groups The Solution-Too Late in Washington or structure freedom by the escalating war in Vietnam to the public in Willing to work with moderate Neg roe s Copies of the CDGM grant proposal ap same regulations that organize a bureau order to ease public acceptance of the within this framework. proved by OEO had been impossib"Ie to find cracy. This lesson was lost on the people. massive increase in our military commit The destruction of CDGM would have made at central office all summer. But Art If the decision to work within the govern ment which President Johnson announced it difficult to sell the politics of coalition Thomas brought a copy to this meeting and men't framework really constituted a major at the end of July.) to the Negro communities. To destroy the read from it: "The Council of Neighborhood decision about the direction of their lives, There is no real proof of Presidential one federally sponsored program which, Child Development Centers: The Council the people made it unawares, because cen intervention in the CDGM issue, except whatever its shortcomings, had some real will have the responsibility of participating tral staff never made a serious effort, for Heller's statement about the order com roots i.n the Negro communities would have in the shaping of the overall progrilm; , until too late, to educate the people as to ing from "the White House itself" and betrayed to them the limits of the federal allocation of financial and staff resources, what was at stake or to bring them into the rumors around OEO. Stennis did meet government's interest in the i r welfare, and sharing of problems and techniques the decision-making process. with Johnson during the week before the given the FOP a talking point, and thus developed." The fact that Levin and the rest of us oEO order, though, and one might conjecture helped to keep the FOP alive as a political Also, " •.•each center will participate _knew in our hearts that we were for the that at some point during the meeting Stennis alternative for the Negro. It was necessary in the Council of Neighborhood Child Dev Negro people was not enough to make them dropped an angry word about CDGM and the to keep a place within the poverty program e lopment Centers." Somehow, apparently, accept our program as their own. The President agreed to look into it. It is a for the more militant Negroes and a place in the rush of getting CDGM _organized people who organized and ran CDGM didn't matter of public record, however, that to drain off the energies of the young self and getting all those things d0ne that were really bother to consult with the people Sargent Shriver made a promise to Senator operating community groups that the civil absolutely necessary so the program could before acting on their behalf. Our hand Stennis to move CDGM out of Mt. Beulah. rights movement had begun to develop. lf physically function, the Council of Neighbor picked Board of Directors, although it According to the records of the hearings these people were frozen out of a .share hood Centers had been forgotten and never included community people, was hardly of the Subcommittee on Deficiencies and of the federal money they would react with constituted. a representative body of the CDGM consti Supplementals of the Senate Apprupriations hostility and disillusi.onment a,bout their The Council of Neighborhood Centers tuency. But the most damning mistake was Committee on October 14, 1965, Stennis, chances of benefitting by casting their lot would be our answer. In the few weeks re that Levin and the Delta Ministry, found interrogating Shriver about CDGM, claimed with Washington. maining we made an all-out effort to it unnecessary -- for whatever practical that Shriver had personally promised him educate the communities about what was reasons -- to organize the Council of "about the first of August" that "We are Money to Moderates really at stake in our dispute with OEO and Neighborhood Centers, the one part of the going to move that group out of Mt. Beulah;' Specifically,- we were told, OEO planned with the Board of Directors, and we sent program that was to give the communities Stennis said that Shriver had made a point to spend nearly twenty million dollars in out a call for each center to choose t\Vo of the poor a formal voice in the policy of reassuring him about this, that Shriver Mississippi during the coming year, that representatives to attendthe founding meet decisions of CDGM. had called him out of the Senate restaurant some five million would go to a project to ing of the Council of Neighborhood Centers. At the time CDGM was being organized, while he was eating lunch "to tell me that be controlled by white moderates via the The meeting took place the second to last Tom Levin spoke to a SNCC convention one minor fact:' At the hearing Shriver Catholic Archdiocese of l\1ississippi, that weekenu of the summer. It was a debacle, at Waveland, Mississippi and urged SNCC admitted that he probably had made such a another five million would go to a group Although only representatives from the to take an active role in the program. statement to Stennis, and he then went on around Aaron Henry and the NAACP for a local centers were allowed to vote, anyone Some SNCC people joined as individuals, to promise Stennis, this time publicly, project in the Delta, that other projects was allowed to attend and speak to the but by and large SNCC rejected the over that any future CDGM program would not would be granted to moderate forces in the meeting. Tom Levin and members of the ture as a sell-out. I understand that since be headquartered at Me. Beulah. state as they developed, and that a four central staff urged the delegates to take last summer a SNCC conference has decided or five million dollar grant to CDGM would upon themselves the responsibility for over that they should have become more involved We Were Part of a Plan balance the program on the Left. seeing the future course of the program, in the program. Perhaps it wouldn't have Nevertheless, when we stood our ground, In August the grant to the Catholic so that CDGM could continue to be a people's made any difference, perhaps the simple OEO had given in to us. We were not really Archdiocese "Project Star", was an program. People from the FOP and SNCC and real, if limited, immediate benefits of expendable. OEO's capitulation on the move nounced, in the amount of seven million came and expressed their misgivings about the prog~am were all the people would have to West Point was partly due to the fact dollars for two years, the largest program the purposes of the federal government and wanted from it in any event. that some people in OEO were sincere sponsored by the OEO in Mississippi to urged the people not to sell out their poli It may be that the concen.s of middle partisans of CDCM and it took the revolt date. The orientation of Project Star is tical involvement for a few pennies from class radicals for such concepts as' 'parti to make the issues clear to them. But quite different from that of CDGM. The OEO: the conservative members of the cipatory democracy" h a v e no piace in there were other reasons why Washington core of the project is a job-training pro Board of Directors, mainly OJ, Horn and Mississippi -- it may be'that the Negroes was reluctant to let CDGM be physically gram to be administered largely through Joe Edmonson, warned the people against of Mississippi are just one revolution be destroyed, when that became the alternative. existing agencies, which will provide in allowing their centers to be used for the hind, and all they really want is a decent CDGM, we were informed, was part of the comes to 25,000 poor people while teaching political purposes of thc central staff which income and an equal access to the :\merican Administration-'s plan to build a moderate, them literacy, arithematic and simple bus had bungled the progr;l!Tl all SUlllll1er.- Horn Mainstream. We didn't really present them loyal Democratic party in MississippL iness skills and then will attempt to place and Edmonso:l warneu thcm thdt thekderdl with a choice last summer. • ;1\ ")1' '. t .': •. I STUKEL Y CARMICHAEL "Integration is completely irrelevant to us: what we want is power for people who don't have it"
and had a meeting with them. And they and Wilson Baker, and that they should like the Democratic party and the Republi made a committment to send $fOO a month ignore the county level where their power can party. We want power, that's all we down to Lowndes County. Now that was really was. What you have in this county want. After we get power we can talk about good because that meant you cut off all is that Negroes are always told to vote whether we want all black of not. your white liberal support. That's some for someone who is less of a racist instead The thing we get beat over the head thing else I found out from the MFDP; of more for Negroes. with by Martin Luther King and people like when the chips were down the white lib We thought we could take over the Demo that is that anything all black is as bad as erals cut out and we were left holding cratic Party in Mississippi and that's a anything all White. But that's not true. All the bag. But if you didn't depend on them farce. Them crackers ain't never going white is only bad when you us'e force to for anything you could do anything you to let us in. We got to build something of keep it all white. And something all black wanted to do. our own. The Negroes who voted Demo isn't bad if you don't use force to keep it cratic in Alabama are like Negroes all that way. But these arguments didn't make It Isn't Integration over the country who pulled the Demo any difference to local people: they want Now what happened in Alabama is that cratic lever: like Negroes in Watts -- they to see black and white together. You have we started building something, and we made voted Democratic and they don't have a to leave some spaces open for white whites irrelevant to everything we did. damn thing to show for it, Because they people. Whites in the county and whites in the can't control the vote. You've got to get No\iV I have said, and I mean it, that the North. We were building a party for black people into independent political power Democratic Party is the most treacherous Stokely Carmichael, newly people, because they were disenfranchised where they can control on the county enemy of the Negro people on a national elected Chairman of SNCC. in Lowndes County. I'm not in any bag level. They can control the money that basis. They step on us, they take our about "Black Nationalism" and all that. comes into it, they control the law, 'the vote for granted and we're completely His work in Alabama led to We've done it without talking about taxes. irrelevant. J0 h n son passed that Voting the organizing of the L own "Whitey" and "getting rid of Whitey" and When they can do that, then they can Rights bill because he knew we were going that shit. We just don't want to become a meet a white man with power. Right now to vote Democratic. He knew he was going des County Freedom Or part of the Man. we can't do that. When the Man says, to have all those votes in 1968~ And that's ganization. What I've learned about integration is jump we got to ask him how high. what's going to happen unless we begin to that this country always defines it. But "Black Nationalism" move, and start controlling those things it was always a one-Sided thing: Negroes with indeper,dent forces. I want to talk a little about' this "black The 'one thing I learned from the Missis were always going to whites and it was in Poor Whites sippi Freedom Democratic Party was that fact white supremacy. Because everything nationalism". Now a lot of people are you don't work for integration in this coun good was white. talking about how this organization has to There are also a lot of poor whites try -- what you've got to worK for is For example: in Lowndes County we boy become all-black. What I learned was when and they're in the majority and they don't power. The mistake we made was that we cotted the school to get rid of the prin we were starting the Party we kept saying -control. That can start growing too: inde went to the National Democratic Party cipal. She's still in there. But next year she to people -- "We got to have it all black, pendellt parties that those people control, begging them to come into their party. If won't ,be. We will control the school board cause that's what we rea 11 y need." and eventually we can hook up with. That we're to do anything, we have to stop and we will determine who is principal. And they wouldn't touch it. Local people means there's a chance for realdeep change begging. And we won't need to protest anymore. would not touch something allblackbecause to be wrought in thiS country. SNCC has to Now you have to understand that very they think it's bad. The way we had to do become less popular because it's going to Or.ganizing Techniques clearly because that ain't anti-white. it was to say -- This is a party, it's just have to say the things that I'mtalking about. One of the first things we decided when It's impossible for a man making $3 we moved into Lowndes County was that we a day to vote for a man making $10,000 wouldn't hold mass meetings at the same a year. It's impossible for both of them church. We held them at different areas to be in the same party. I've seen that ,of the county every Sunday night. What clearly in Lowndes County. You just can't that meant was that everyone in the county do it. , was able to come to a mass meeting and you When you talk about going for power, wouldn't get just the same people. Only , moral force and non-violence become com two or three times did we have lpss than ,pletely irrelevant. When you go for power 200 people. you go for it the way everyone in the coun We also organized community meetings. try goes for it. f~ ,,, ',' " "'l. Every community has a meeting once a Black people never have a chance to ".~ week where they discuss all the things that define integration. It's always defined for are relevant to that community. us by the New York Times, by Time maga I also found that the role of the organizer zine, by OEO and the Hea'Clstart program. had to be minimized, but I got out of that What can really happen in Lowndes County: bag of manipulation. I went in there with Once we take over the Board of Education, certain ideas. One idea was to organize we can spend the same amount of money' people to get power. And if that is manipu on the Negro schools as they do on the lation so be it. white school -- make it a real school - then the problem of integration willbecome No Strings irrelevant. You can have integration being When I went into LownJes County I had initiated on both sides. Integration in this a big argument with the Alabama [' 'lft. country has always been initiated on one We decided that we weren't going to a side; black people have always initiated in SNCC for a penny and that all the money tegration. we got we were to raise in Lowndes County. What King is about to do is integrate Now we've done that. this county. That's what he tried to do in Bob Mants went to Detroit. Everybody in Alabama. He told all those Negroes that the county gave him a name of their sons the best thing they could do was instead or daughters or their grandmothers or their of voting for black people like themselves BLACK PANTHER PARTY PRIM.'\RY at First Baptist Church in Hayneville. 900 voted. kinfolk. Bob got all those people together was to vote for cr'lckers like Al Lingo
and we don't ihtend to do evil for evil, A gambler who carried his cards around JOHN HULEn - CONTI NUED but we definitely don't intend to be pushed in his pocket got to let someone else win around in ~wndes County. now and then to keep his game going. This to stop wprking until they get it. Having is what the Democratic party is doing for the vote and people still being poor won't How do you organize? Negro people. They have fixed it where one solve our problem. . We go from house to house. We go into How has the movement person can win every now and then and they If we had our own Sheriff and if we were the worst areas where people are still changed life in Lowndes are picking their people. That's why' I think to picket Dan River Mills then the Sheriff afraid and shaky, people who live on plan every county, even if they don't have enough would come out and protect the picketers tations. So far there have been at least 65 County? to take over, should organize their own and if anybody tried to interfere, he would or 70 families who've been evicted because political group and they should endorse' arrest them. they exercised their rig:lt to vote. We go Before the movement came, Negroes the candidate they feel is the lesser of two Also I think we could get a larger sum in and talk with these people and let them were being pushed around by white people. evils. out of them for taxes. If they refused to know that they can live without these land The law would come into houses and break Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mants and pay the taxes they would have to move. owners. That the land owners need them in, push their doors in and make searches Courtland Cox from SNCC moved into the We could take Dan River Mills and put to take care of their land. They need us without anybody saying anything, without county in February 1965. They brought a the equipment back into its place, hire worst: they make a living off of us and we a search warrant. lot of strength to our people, a lot of cour our own people to operate it and the county don't make a living olf of them. Once you Today it's different. age, they were good workers. I think today would get all the profits from it and we start telling people this they srart thinking Then you could hardly ride the highway all our people, whatever we have done for wouldn't have to be worried about taxes . about it. You may have to leave them for a on Sunday evening. State Troopers would our county, we give those people creditfor. and our children not going to schooL We'd day or two, but you keep going backto them block the highway and give just about They are, as far as we are concerned the have a county-run plant. It would provide and finally you're able to pull most of those everybody who comes along a ticket. Now, best organizers in the country. They always more jobs for our people. people in. oui:- biggest fight now is among" through the suits we'vefiled, hardly a person let the people make their own decisions. 1 know one thing -- if Negroes become our own people, like the professionalpeople, is getting arrested in the County. They bring ideas to the people and you strong enough in the county then a lot of school teachers and preachers who don't Real changes have been made. A Negro accept whatever you want to accept. people are going to move out. 1 don't think want any part in it because once the common couldn't even go into the courthouse at I think once we take over the county a lot of these land owners are going to want Negro moves up he will become equal with one time, without the whites speaking rough 'government, instead of haVing two com to be dominated by Negroes who's con Mm. ' to them. Now it's different --when Negroes munities white and black, we will have one trolling the county. I do believe they're Once we win 1 think the Sheriff could walk in, the whites get together and stand community, Where people could sit down going to sell their land and move into some deputize enough people to keep law and whispering to one another and never say and talk across the table with one another. other area. And with the, taxes that are going order in the county. 1 also think that people anything. Negroes don't fear any more of This is what we're working for. They'll to be put on them, they aren't going to pay have made up their minds that they are going to places they was afraid of going to. deal with us when we're in power. it. Most of them have only been paying a going to be their own protection. The white Personally, I used to have a little fear We feel in Lowndes County that the power small amount of the 6CJfo they owe. people aren't going to go out and start of going into some places, but now it's does not lie in the person who runs for 1 really don't think they are going to go trouble because they mig-ht end up on the altogether difterent. A man just happen office but in the organization around the a long with it. worst end of it. We don't bother people to be a man now, I don't think no other way. person.