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became disillusioned nd kids

who

neverhad

any

ilIu-

sions. I think it will occur spontaneously. All the condi-

tions are there. things are strung tight, and only the tim-

ing

of

the incident is unpredictable. If MayorWagner

and Police Commissioner Murphy were still on the job,

it would havehappened ast year. Lindsay saved it by

bending over backwards. But when it comes, it will be

thegranddaddy

of

them alk.”

Eptonhas a persuasive albeit Mao-Marxian view

of

rioting to dateand

of

that ocome (he himself

is

ap-

pealing conviction onanarchycharges growing out of

1he ’64 riots). He contends that “race riots” isa mis-

nomer. thatthese rebellions unconsciously reflect a

class position-people going after he system and uni-

formed symbols of the apparatus hat

is

robbing them.”

Epton believes

in

the classic black-laboring white revo-

lutionary coalition. He argues hat for all the publicized

snipers’ nests in Detroit,a comparatively fewwhites-

even police-died. White shops were burnedbut

not

a

single white shop owner has been killed to date.

If

the

black target s he white man’s body, he’s a poor shot.

From

1964

until this summer, here was no political

consciousness directing rioters and

no

cohesive ghetto

or-

ganization emerging fromhem.Riots, with theirown

internal lifetime

of

three days, burned themselves out

with nothing to sustain hem. But a new elementwas

discernible in Newark and pparent

in

Detroit where,

on the hird day, NationalGuardsmen moving into he

ghetto were chased ut. Some organization seemingly

existed to begin with, and more developed. This incipient

radical eadershiphas been learning revolution the hard

and only way itcanbe learned-through rebellion. At

this stage, no unified core of leadership exists to direct

a long-range struggle whose ultimate aim would be o

alterAmericangovernment and society beyond recogni-

tion. Or bring t down, as Stokely Carmichael vowed

in

the heady air of Havana.

But Harlem could be a unique ground for swift matu-

ration of revolutionary men and helr machinery. Sym-

bolically, it is the urban black heartland. Geographically,

its position on Manhattan Island could enable it to plunge

the city intochaos should a prolonged outbreak-rein-

forced by black riotveterans romother citiesaccur.

Commuter rains would be simple targets orsnipers

in

the clusters

of

housing pro~ects long the tracks; already

some night trains have run throughHarlemwithout

lights. Bridge and road rteries would be vulnerable.

Containment

of

violence inside ghetto confines would be

extremely difficult, short

of

cordoning off theentire top

of Manhattan and barring passage to anyone black. The

implications for New York nd orAmerica, ven

if

revolt were inevitably crushed by troops in a block-by-

block little Vietnam, would be melancholy.

This

is

a drastic image but it is not phantasy, Phantasy-

prone are legislators who kill a rat-control bill, pass anti-

riot legislation, and disdain to dkcuss

a

massive and

immediate public works type of program that might avert

calamity. Phantasy-prone is aPresidentdecrying treet

vioSence while sanctioning a ederalmania or violence

in Vietnam,and at the same time calling for anational

prayerday of racial reconciliation at home. Threatened

&ew York is not singular but merely the most gross

1 2

example of all the incompatibles in American societ

today, and Harlem is the physical reality

of

all the Har

lems of our minds where fears of black-white Armaged

don dwell. There is

no

national effort being made t

seek true social and conomic compatibility, andhe

best New

York’s

Mayor can do to aver t Armageddon

i

Harlem s to have police patrolwith heir eyes closed

No

wonder thata cool-eyed

16

year old on a Harlem

street orner aid to nolderblackman seeking hi

views: “There’s nothing in this country worth saving.

That is a terrible kind

of

sophistication for a boy, th

words a pIedge that he

wilI

seek his manhood ending

his house asunder.

DETROIT

Motown

Blues

Be WIDICK

Mr. Widlck

Q

restdent

of

Detrolt was a shop worker

in

a

auto plant for fr f teen years and a m e m b e r o he Trade Unlo

Leadershlp Cottncd. H e has written

two books

and man

articles

on

labor

Detroit, the symbol

of

hope in race relations in America

turned into a nightmare

of

shattered illusions on Sunday

July

23.

Seven days later its people were still dazed from

the shock of its conflicts and devastation, l i e a city

re

covering

from

its irstbombing

in

war.

The shock was greaterbecause it wasn’t supposed o

happenhere,at least not he way

it

did. Detroithad

more going for it han any city, so everyone knew.

had a dynamic and talented liberal mayor who had mor

federalfundsandprograms going than any other urba

area. Its police commissioner had the respect P most o

the Negro and white liberal community. Detroit was th

social base

of

WalterReutherand he UAW-a unio

with a civil rights ecord farsuperior omost unions

The Governor’s record had gained him over 35 per cen

of theNegro vote-a remarkable achievement in

heavily Democraticarea.

Yet

in

three days its edifice of progress was crumple

into ashes. The daybeforeall hell broke loose, Negr

City CouncilmanRev.Nicholas

Hood

had decried “th

longhotsummer iot mongers” andadded, “I haven

heard any Negroes talk about possible violence th

su mmer -o nly the white people re talking about it

Mayor erome P. Cavanagh had rritated some Negr

leaders with his warning to Detroiters hat he potential

for trouble had not yet been eliminated.

The

Mayor’s network of “citizen sentries,” includin

spies planted among

groups of

hostile Negroes, produce

only optimistic reports. Until the early morning raid o

a “blind pig” saloon n hecesspool of the ghetto,

th

informers gave no indication of alarm (and this was aft

Newark).Conrad Mallet, thealented citytaff ma

whose

function was to keep feeling the pulse of the “inne

city,” admitted the system broke down and failed. “Why

I don’t know.”

Detroit’s Negro spokesmen worked hard to calm thing

down. Young John Conyers, Jr., went nto his Congre

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sional District, focal point of the gathering storm. He was

booed and stoned when he ried to talk.

“You

try to talk

to hese people and they’ll knock you nto he middle of

nextyear,”hereported ater.Thiswas hereception o

a NegroeaderwhommanyellowDemocratsften

vlewed as “too chauvinistic.”

RobertBuddy”Battles

111

the urly UAW shop

leader,who IS president of theTrade Union Leadership

Council-often criticized by some UAW leaders as being

“too aggressive“-was on the streets for while, as were

others.He eported. “You couldn’tusedialect peech,

Swahili or anything else. You couldn’t peak o hose

kids. This was not hate he man Just ooting.”

The large and seeminglymposing Negroeadership

structure of the NAACP with 30,000 Detroit members),

theUrbanLeague,TULC,

UAW

activists. andmany

mtnisters,ostouch with and lackednfluence

on

the

growing numbers gathering on he streets, and theywere

the

f m t

to call forNationalGuardand ederal roops.

NegroCongressmanCharles Dlggs threatenedo buy

naclon-wide T V tlrne to denouncePresident ohnson if

he dldn’t bring in federal troops fast.

Dlsmayover the

wild

fury weeping he treetswas

expressed

by

Nelson JackEdwards,UAW nternational

executiveboardmember,Horace Sheffield.

TULC

leader

and Battles In a statement. “One day of violence threat-

enro estroy ears of effort to build aommunlty

Negroesandwhltescan be proud of. Wehavebeenfar

horn satisfied with thecondltionswhichhaveconfronted

Negroesgenerally

in

thecommunitybutnonecandeny

substantialrogress was made.”Theyenouncedhe

mobs a s “hoodlumsandhatemongers.” b u t the urging

people

o n

the treets weren’t listening, while thousands

of whites andNegroes in integratedneighborhoodskept

t o theirhomes, and theall-whlte suburbanareas eared

theworst.

Meanwhile. theDetroiterswatching their TV screens

saw

a

city blazingat nightwith

more

than

1,400

fires

counted, and with the impacton TwelfthStreet of to

of

napalmbombs.FireChlefCharlesQuinlanhas es

mated mor<

Than

250 m~ll ion n propertydamage.

formerair orcecaptain nStrategic Services told

us

didemind im

of

Europe in World War 11. “L

Berlin.” ald MayorCavanazh

The unreality of life came In theeyewitnessaccounts

of Integratedooting,nd wen snlplngNegroes a

whltes ~o~ned,n many nstances. in helping hemselves

By Friday, the gony was largely overand law a

order were restoredThe lessons were staggering, a

thehumansufferingenormous,butperhaps hegreatest

blow of ali was thedeath of a dream hatDetroit w

different and its “shared ower” oncept an ccep ted

and

effectwe eality.

For July,

1967,

was not a repeat

of

the race ri

o 1943.

Then

i t was

mainly racistwhite mobs eekin

to

exterminatehe

residents o

the black ghetto.who

foughtack I n desperation an d wlth high casualt

thirty-four killed andmorehan

700

in~ured-mainl

hegro)

~ l n t l l

federalroopsook verDetroit had

sunred that i t had come a long way from hatghastly

event,

and

by the generallyaccepted standards

of

me

uring soclal progress. thls view was conflrmed The labo

Ilheral-Negro coalition had effectedmanychanges.Long

hetore he 1964 CivdRightsAct.downtown tores h

hiredhundreds of NegroesAbout hird of the c

employment was Negro. Restaurants and bars were op

to all. Almost

200,000

Negroesand about

30,000

whi

hadmarchedbehindRev.MartinLuther Klng downto

In

Detroi:.

in

amawivedi\playhatoutnumberedhe

”MarLh o n Washington.”

BLli

the progressadn’trickledownoheis-

possessed In S

.CIC

qiantltyandquallty to preve

the socla xp.osmn

of

1967 What klndwas It’’

Tony Ripley, confldant,handymanandspeechwriter

tor

Mayo r

Cavanash.

analyzed i t

this way

“It

w

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mostly a rebellion of people who have no stake in society,

people of both races You put up with the st tus

quo as

long as It works for you. If you are going nowhere and

there

is

no end 1n slght, hen he hostility grows.”

TwelfthStreet

is

destroyed. On it, as described SUC

cinctly by Barbara tanton,Detroiteporter,here

were white budding owners from the suburbs who called

their econd-floor partments acant,henook ut

from he earnings

ot

theprostituteswhoworked here.

“TherewerehosewhoespisedheirNegro CUS

tomers. ndhowedt yhe filth tha t lay inheir

grocery alsles, he sour smells of clotted milk and rotting

meat hat ose rom heircounters.

“There were otherswhoreetedheNegroes as

friends.hired hem,befriended hem. ndwerewarned

by themwhen he ooting began-although itdid hem

littlegood.

“On TwelfthStreet. holdups were so common, hey

went unreported daily, numbers slips passed hands. small

children tole.pawn hops did a hrivlngbusiness, he

streets were clogged wlth carsandscattered with litter.”

The aftermath‘’ Whoknows

so soon.

evenwlth

all thebrave talk

of

rebulldlng Detroit‘ What eplaces

Twelfth. and where do thedispossessed gonext’)How

deepare the cars

of

thewoundedand he mprlsoned

(many of whomare totally nnocent. if the stories hey

told reporters are true)?What is theeaction the

white uburbs hke DearbornandWarrenand Birming-

ham and Grosse Polnte-the placescalledawhitenoose

around he neck

of

Detrolt by Mayor Cavanagh?

A heavy rainstorm

hrtngs

asuburb thedesignation of

adisaster rea by the ederalgovernment.butneither

MayorCavanagh orGovernorRomney an get that

designation or hedevastated city

so

that huge funds

could flow easily intohe ommunlty.Federal aid IS

coming.but at whatpace?

The new sound romMotown is no longerusthe

Supremes,a ivingexample of what a break

in

life can

dofor thepoor in Detrolt, It is the cry of dismayand

despan. Alreadypricegougers harged

$1

for a quart

of milk

or

a loaf of breaduntil he city councilpassed

an antl-price-gouge ordinance.Theealstate bIock-

bustersrelreadytwork. How blg will theut-

migrationbeagain7Over

500.000

Detroiters moved to

the uburbs rom 1950-60

Itmay ot e

too

late-this depends

on

national

reactionohevents,ndhettitude of Congress,

whichMayor Cavannghpointedout was reactionary”

andcuttingdown on heneeds

of

thecity. At themo-

ment

the issue is held nabeyance,withDetroitacity

of mixed andmixed-uppeopleduringheday, nd a

d r

fcrcfo apartheid society atnight.

One clue t o themmediateuture.ust before the

Ju ly

tragedy,CityCouncllwoman Beckadegun a

recallcampaignagainstMayorCavanagh orbeing oft

on crime.becauseDetroit’\ treets were no longer afe

at nlght. The outcome of this,now that Detroit has had

it, may tell a lot about the future

of

the motor city.

After a week of violence, a three-

or

four-week strike

in

theautoplants may look like“nice,clean fun”

by

contrast.

1 4

LOS

ANGELES

Western

Justice

One hundred and thirteen years ago, a

Los

Angeles mo

broke nto he own ]ail, emoved

a

convictedmurderer

whohad been granted a stay of execution andhanged

him horn the crossbeam

ol

acorralgatewayacross he

street. Thls informalxecution. one of manynhe

lynch-happy

Los

Angeles of thatra.epresented

commitment of MayorStephenCFoster,who befor

the trlalhadpromised o esignhis oflice and ead he

lynchparty himself If the accused man

was

not con

wctednd romptly anged

The hangmpseemed llkely to ake place

in

theafter-

noon. ndhe chedule ored

a

deadllne roblemor

an enterprlslngnewspaper ditorwhowanted to prm

anaccount

In

tlme to getbundle of papers

of

tha

morning o San Franc isco He wrote a lengthydescrlp-

tion of the event, A contemporary hlstorlan commented

“A

fewurplusopies

(ot

theewspaper) gave th

lynchers a unlque opportunlty, whlle watching he string

mg up7 of

comparing the written torywith the affa

as It actuallyoccurred ’’

Nearlyighty yearsater, a mobynched two kid

napers tSan oseGov ames “Sunny im”)Rolph.

J r of Californm.peaking In the finest tradition

o

frontler ustice, aid “I t

IS

the best les5on that Califor

niahasever gwen thecountry ’’

Violence often has been officially incitednd con

doned in California-from the

days of

theoldWest t

thepresent In the 1930s labordlsputes weptCaldor-

nla’sreatgriculturalalleys,ndaw-enforcement

agencies ~nclted , upported and

tooh

part

in

vigilant

action in behalt of thegrowersA L. Wirin.counsel

fo

theAmerlcan Clvil LlbertiesUnion, was havingdinner

with frlends on January 23.

1934,

in a hotel in Brawley

Calif.Later hatevenmg, he was tohavepresidedat

publicdiscussion of a lettuceworkers’ strike m the Im

perialValley.Brawley pol~cehad orb idde n all strik

meetings,but a federalcourt, in turn,haden~oined he

police not to Interfere. When a waiter old Wirin he was

wanted on theelephone, ewentohe otelobby,

whereozenmericaneglonnaires seized him

yanked him outside nd hoved him on he floor of

car

A

5tate highwaymotorcycle officer obllgmglycleared

the way Theydrove Wir ~n out of town,stoppedon he

desert.beat hlm andhreatened himwithdeath,hen

took him to theAmericanLegion alln earby E

Centro He was thenied, lmdfolded, riven

10

mile

from town,and urned oose barefoot on thedesert

In the warear

1943

frlctlonrokeut in

LO

Anpelesbetweenyoung ervicemen and he “zoot uit-

ers”

of theperiodAfter

a

zoot-smtgang beat two serv

icemen, oldlers nd ailors on leavedecidedo etal-

iate

As

oneobserver sald “Thehonor of one unifor

against heotherwasheld o

be

atstake On June

severalhousandervicemenndympathetic civilia

invadeddowntown Los Angeles. Themobcrashed nto

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July 23, 1967