LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore...

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LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY It Before the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money, I had to take my hat off and scratch my head, you see. And I had to look down at the· ground, you couldn't look him in the eye. Well, I'll never do that again." -- a Lowndes County man, active in the LCFO. that the Party in Alabama is still fully in the hands of racists. Those Negroes who ran in the Democratic primary either lost or were put into run-offs which they will probably lose. It may be that in Nov- ember the only Negroes running in the state will be those of the Lowndes County Free- dom Organization. "It's use if we' get the vote and still are poor," says Hulett. The leaders of the Organization have been thinking of ways to change more than just who votes in Lowndes County. They plan to use the taxing power of the County to redistribute the wealth. When Miss Moore ran for Tax Assessor, her platform was "Tax the Rich to Feed the Poor." Most of the big landowners are paying from 1/2 to one-tenth of what they should be paying in property tax. The LCFO plans to change that, by raising property taxes to the legal limit. "If Dan River Mills (the largest indus- trial plant in the county) can't pay its taxes, we'll take it over," says Hulett, "and run it ourselves." If they move out of the county, that's all right too. They didn't hire many resi- dents of the county and they didn't pay taxes, so it's no big loss." The Black Panther Party may begin a new direction for American Negroes. There has only been one demonstration in Lowndes Comity, and it achieved nothing. The weap- ons used are the vote and economic power. "We spend our money where it's appre- ciated," says Hulett. "If people aren't for us, they don't get our money." The new tactics have been very effec- tive. "We don't depend on the Justice Department, the white liberals, the Demo- cratic Party, the courts -- nobody to get done what has to be done. We depend on ourselves. And we'll win." 'FOR THE STORY OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY IN THE WORDS OF I'IS LEADERS AND ORGANIZERS , SEE PAGE 3. Pub Iished by The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of California FAC'IS ABOUT LOWNDES COUNTY County Population. ••..•• 15,417 Negroes. •• . ••...••••. 12,425 % Negroes . ••.•••••••.••• 81% Median Family Income: . white . •.•..• •••.••••. $4400 negro •.•••• .... •.•...••• 935 Voter Registration - 1964 White Negro Eligible 1900 5122 Registered 2240 0 There are now about 2700 whites reg- istered,- roughly 700 more than are eli-. gible, and 2500 Negroes. They nominated 7 candidates for the avail- 'tble offices: Sheriff - Mr. Sidney Logan, Jr. Coroner - Mr. Henry R03s 'Tax Assessor -Miss Allce Moore Tax Collector - Mr. Frank Miles, Jr. Board of Education - Mr. Robert Logan - Mr. John Henson -Mrs. Willie Mae Strickland The Lowndes County Freedom Organi- zation is independent in every way. It has taken no money from SNCC. It raises its money from collections taken in mass meetings and from a group of relatives and friends in Detroit. The SNCC Field Secretaries, Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mants and Courtland Cox, canvass for the LCFO, but they do not direct it. The major work is done by John Hulett, who works full- time for the LCFO, and other members and candidates. Their work this summer and fall will be to register as many Negroes as possible and to convince them to vote for the Black Panther rather than the Democratic Party. Their arguments have been given a boost by the results of the state-wide primaries. The choice of Mrs. George Wallace as the Democratic candidate for Governor proves $204. JUNE 1966 VOL. 2 NO.4 The lawyer then stayed up all night getting a written interpretation, signed by Alabama Attorney-General Richmond Flowers and the Probate Court Judge of Lowndes County, saying that it was within the law for the LCFO to hold its nominat- ing convention a half-mile from the Court- house at the First Baptist Church of Hayne- ville. LCFO leaders agreed to thiS; a safer location meant more people would come to the convention. The point of this story is that Lowndes County Negroes are serious about taking over their county. They have no illusion that whites will turn over their power peacefully. Already a $1000 reward has been offered for the person who kills the first Negro Sheriff. "We intend to become the power structure of our country," says John Hulett. "In any fair election, we will win. And we will hold onto that power if we have to deputize 1000 Negroes to do it." 900 Negroes met at the May 3 nominating convention. Several hundred more attended but were unable to vote because they had voted in the Democratic Primary. (Ibe charge that SNCC and the LCFO asked Negroes to " boycott" the Democratic pri- mary is false. By law no one can vote in two primaries. The LCFO urged Negroes in Lowndes County tQ. attend the Black Panther convention rather than vote in the primary.) < PICKE'IS AT DIGIORGIO SF Headquarters were spit on by DiGiorgio employees (story page 2). LOWNDES COUNTY, ALABAMA -- The story behind the May 3 Primary of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, the "Black Panther Party," tells a lot about the most powerful movement of Negroes in Alabama. Alabama law s.ays that a political nolp- inating convention must be held ' 'in or around a public polling place." The only public polling place in Lowndes County is the courthouse, which was also the loca- tion for the Democratic Party primary. The week before the primary, the lead- ers and organizers of the LCFO went to Sheriff Ryals, with their plans. The Sher- iff told them they could not hold their primary there. "We said -- the law says we have to hold it here," reported Stokely Carmichael, an organizer of the LCFO and recently elected Chairman of SNCC. The Sheriff refused to give them protection. "We said -- that's okay baby, we're going to bring our guns and we're going to have our meeting uninterrupted." Carmichael then wrote to John Doar of the Justice Department, explaining the prob- lem. Doar sent down a Justice Department lawyer to the country. The lawyer asked John Hulett, the Chairman of the CLFO to tell his members "not to start any trouble." '·'We don't intend to," replied Hulett. "We are within our rights. We will come armed. You .tell the crackers not to start any trouble, because if they start some- thing, we're going to finish it." AFTER THE PILGRIMAGE -A BURST OF ORGANIZING DELANO -- There is a popular song that is played on the juke boxes all over the San JoaqUin Valley, called "El Corrido de Delano." "In Kern County you hear the words - Come brother, join the union, It will be better for us- We only ask the justice and dignity of man." O.ne .day last month, when the NFWA pickets appeared on the edge of the fields at the DiGiorgio Sierra Vista Ranch, a DiGiorgio truck with a loudspeaker was driven up to drown out their cries. The driver turned the radio to a local Mexican station and went into the field. Suddenly, blasting over the rows of grapes, too loud to ignore, c"me "El Corrido de Delano." Things are not going well for DiGiorgio or for corporate agri - business in Cali- fornia. In the month after the Delano to Sacramento Pilgrimage all has changed. "1 can't wait to get back to the Arvin area," says Marshall Ganz, a SNCC field secretary on the organizing staff of the Association. "You walk up to a worker, say Ah, and he says, Where do I sign?" A DiGiorgio foreman, sympathetic with the union, says "The company men treat the workers different now. TIley're polite. They don't shout orders, they ask." And even those who still oppose the strike talk about when the Association will.win; not,g. Organizing The strategy of the Association has changed. The campaign is' now concentrated inside 'the state. The DiGiorgio boycott is not planned nation-wide, but state-Wide. The summer 'program, which hopes to involve 300 to 500 studtmts, will center in California. Student - worker teams will sweep the state, bring the word of the Association to farm workers from North to South. In the Delano-Bakersfield area theAsso- ciation, newly re-organized into 13 depart- ments, is putting its best people into signing up members. "Our best organizers," says a staff member, "are the young Mexican guys who were on the Pilgrimage. "There were some who didn't make much impres- sion on us two months ago. Then during the Pilgrimage their real talent came out." Whole DiGiorgio crews are being signed up. "We're finding out that the scabs aren't anti-union," says an organizer, "they just didn't know what was happening. We couldn't get to them, and their employers CONTINUED ON LAST PAGE A DIGIORGIO WORKER leaves field to talk with NfWA:pickets.

Transcript of LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore...

Page 1: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROESWORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY

It Before the Black Panther Party came, when I went tothe boss man to ge't a little :money, I had to take my hatoff and scratch my head, you see. And I had to look down atthe· ground, you couldn't look him in the eye. Well, I'llnever do that again."

-- a Lowndes County man, active in the LCFO.

that the Party in Alabama is still fullyin the hands of racists. Those Negroeswho ran in the Democratic primary eitherlost or were put into run-offs which theywill probably lose. It may be that in Nov­ember the only Negroes running in the statewill be those of the Lowndes County Free­dom Organization.

"It's ~ot use if we' get the vote and stillare poor," says Hulett. The leaders of theOrganization have been thinking of ways tochange more than just who votes in LowndesCounty. They plan to use the taxing powerof the County to redistribute the wealth.When Miss Moore ran for Tax Assessor,her platform was "Tax the Rich to Feedthe Poor."

Most of the big landowners are payingfrom 1/2 to one-tenth of what they shouldbe paying in property tax. The LCFOplans to change that, by raising propertytaxes to the legal limit.

"If Dan River Mills (the largest indus­trial plant in the county) can't pay itstaxes, we'll take it over," says Hulett,"and run it ourselves."

If they move out of the county, that'sall right too. They didn't hire many resi­dents of the county and they didn't paytaxes, so it's no big loss."

The Black Panther Party may begin anew direction for American Negroes. Therehas only been one demonstration in LowndesComity, and it achieved nothing. The weap­ons used are the vote and economic power."We spend our money where it's appre­ciated," says Hulett. "If people aren't forus, they don't get our money."

The new tactics have been very effec­tive. "We don't depend on the JusticeDepartment, the white liberals, the Demo­cratic Party, the courts -- nobody -~ to getdone what has to be done. We depend onourselves. And we'll win."

'FOR THE STORY OF THE BLACKPANTHER PARTY IN THE WORDS OF I'ISLEADERS AND ORGANIZERS , SEE PAGE 3.

Pub Iished byThe Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of California

FAC'IS ABOUT LOWNDES COUNTYCounty Population. • • • ••..•• 15,417Negroes. • • • • . ••...••••. 12,425% Negroes . • ••.•••••••.••• 81%Median Family Income: .

white • . • . • . . • •••.••••. $4400negro •.••••....•.•...••• 935

Voter Registration - 1964White Negro

Eligible 1900 5122Registered 2240 0

There are now about 2700 whites reg­istered,- roughly 700 more than are eli-.gible, and 2500 Negroes.

They nominated 7 candidates for the avail-'tble offices:

Sheriff - Mr. Sidney Logan, Jr.Coroner - Mr. Henry R03s'Tax Assessor -Miss Allce MooreTax Collector - Mr. Frank Miles, Jr.Board of Education - Mr. Robert Logan

- Mr. John Henson-Mrs. Willie Mae

StricklandThe Lowndes County Freedom Organi­

zation is independent in every way. Ithas taken no money from SNCC. It raisesits money from collections taken in massmeetings and from a group of relativesand friends in Detroit. The SNCC FieldSecretaries, Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mantsand Courtland Cox, canvass for the LCFO,but they do not direct it. The major workis done by John Hulett, who works full­time for the LCFO, and other members andcandidates.

Their work this summer and fall will beto register as many Negroes as possibleand to convince them to vote for theBlack Panther rather than the DemocraticParty.

Their arguments have been given a boostby the results of the state-wide primaries.The choice of Mrs. George Wallace as theDemocratic candidate for Governor proves

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$204.

JUNE1966VOL. 2NO.4

The lawyer then stayed up all nightgetting a written interpretation, signedby Alabama Attorney-General RichmondFlowers and the Probate Court Judge ofLowndes County, saying that it was withinthe law for the LCFO to hold its nominat­ing convention a half-mile from the Court­house at the First Baptist Church of Hayne­ville.

LCFO leaders agreed to thiS; a saferlocation meant more people would come tothe convention.

The point of this story is that LowndesCounty Negroes are serious about takingover their county. They have no illusionthat whites will turn over their powerpeacefully. Already a $1000 reward has beenoffered for the person who kills the firstNegro Sheriff.

"We intend to become the power structureof our country," says John Hulett. "In anyfair election, we will win. And we will holdonto that power if we have to deputize1000 Negroes to do it."

900 Negroes met at the May 3nominatingconvention. Several hundred more attendedbut were unable to vote because they hadvoted in the Democratic Primary. (Ibecharge that SNCC and the LCFO askedNegroes to " boycott" the Democratic pri­mary is false. By law no one can vote intwo primaries. The LCFO urged Negroesin Lowndes County tQ. attend the BlackPanther convention rather than vote in theDemocr~ticprimary.)

<PICKE'IS AT DIGIORGIOSF Headquarters were spiton by DiGiorgio employees(story page 2).

LOWNDES COUNTY, ALABAMA -- Thestory behind the May 3 Primary of theLowndes County Freedom Organization, the"Black Panther Party," tells a lot aboutthe most powerful movement of Negroesin Alabama.

Alabama law s.ays that a political nolp­inating convention must be held ' 'in oraround a public polling place." The onlypublic polling place in Lowndes County isthe courthouse, which was also the loca­tion for the Democratic Party primary.

The week before the primary, the lead­ers and organizers of the LCFO went toSheriff Ryals, with their plans. The Sher­iff told them they could not hold theirprimary there. "We said -- the law sayswe have to hold it here," reported StokelyCarmichael, an organizer of the LCFO andrecently elected Chairman of SNCC. TheSheriff refused to give them protection."We said -- that's okay baby, we're goingto bring our guns and we're going to haveour meeting uninterrupted."

Carmichael then wrote to John Doar ofthe Justice Department, explaining the prob­lem. Doar sent down a Justice Departmentlawyer to the country. The lawyer askedJohn Hulett, the Chairman of the CLFO totell his members "not to start any trouble."

'·'We don't intend to," replied Hulett."We are within our rights. We will comearmed. You .tell the crackers not to startany trouble, because if they start some­thing, we're going to finish it."

AFTER THE PILGRIMAGE - A BURST OF ORGANIZINGDELANO -- There is a popular song that isplayed on the juke boxes all over the SanJoaqUin Valley, called "El Corrido deDelano."

"In Kern County you hear the words- Come brother, join the union,It will be better for us-We only ask the justice and dignity

of man."O.ne .day last month, when the NFWA

pickets appeared on the edge of the fieldsat the DiGiorgio Sierra Vista Ranch, aDiGiorgio truck with a loudspeaker wasdriven up to drown out their cries. Thedriver turned the radio to a local Mexicanstation and went into the field. Suddenly,blasting over the rows of grapes, too loudto ignore, c"me "El Corrido de Delano."

Things are not going well for DiGiorgioor for corporate agri - business in Cali­fornia. In the month after the Delano toSacramento Pilgrimage all has changed.

"1 can't wait to get back to the Arvinarea," says Marshall Ganz, a SNCC fieldsecretary on the organizing staff of theAssociation. "You walk up to a worker,say Ah, and he says, Where do I sign?"

A DiGiorgio foreman, sympathetic withthe union, says "The company men treatthe workers different now. TIley're polite.

They don't shout orders, they ask." Andeven those who still oppose the strike talkabout when the Association will.win; not,g.

OrganizingThe strategy of the Association has

changed. The campaign is' now concentratedinside 'the state. The DiGiorgio boycott isnot planned nation-wide, but state-Wide.The summer 'program, which hopes toinvolve 300 to 500 studtmts, will center inCalifornia. Student - worker teams willsweep the state, bring the word of theAssociation to farm workers from Northto South.

In the Delano-Bakersfield area theAsso­ciation, newly re-organized into 13 depart­ments, is putting its best people into signingup members. "Our best organizers," saysa staff member, "are the young Mexicanguys who were on the Pilgrimage. "Therewere some who didn't make much impres­sion on us two months ago. Then during thePilgrimage their real talent came out."

Whole DiGiorgio crews are being signedup. "We're finding out that the scabsaren't anti-union," says an organizer, "theyjust didn't know what was happening. Wecouldn't get to them, and their employers

CONTINUED ON LAST PAGE A DIGIORGIO WORKER leaves field to talk with NfWA:pickets.

Page 2: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

TO OUR READERSWe're calling this issue the June issue. It started out

to be the May issue, but the editor had to go to the SNCCstaff :tneeting and then to" Lowndes County. This points outone of the problems THE MOVEMENT has: if the editorgoes away for two weeks, the paper doesn't come out.

If we had money to help pay an Assistant Editor thiswouldn't happen. Perhaps some of you know "how ·we canget financial aid. We also need money to pay the ex.:..penses of our photographer. We can't even afford to trans­port him where the news is happening, or install a tele­phone in his apartment so we can call him.

You, reader, can help us in other ways. Could youtake a few hours a week out to serve as MOVEMENTrepresentative in your community? If someone in everyarea was actively pushing individual and bulk subscrip­tions as well as keeping an eye out for news, we could getmore news to more readers and settle our financial crisistoo.

Can you help" us? Publishing a paper that tells the newsno other paper tells is too big a job for one person or ahandful of people to do.

"GOODBYE, MR. BROWN"These two letters are pretty clear. Father Kenny is

the pastor of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Sacra­mento. He has been active in the Delano strike since thebeginning. Pat Brown is the Governor of the State of Cali­fornia. We think more letters like Father Kenny's passionateepistle should be written.

Father Keith KennyOur Lady of Guadalupe711 T StreetSacramento, California

My dear Father:

I appreciate your concern for the farm workers and hope you will accept the fact thatI too am, and have been, concerned, Enclosed is a copy of a letter to Cesar Chavezwhich summarizes my record.

I spent Easter Sunday with my mother, children and grandchildren because it is oneof 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 governmentwill continue to enforce those laws which do exist and I will continue my efforts to movedifferences from the picket line to the conference table.

Sincerely,EDMUND G. BROWN, Governor

SNCC Rejects White House ConferenceATLANTA -

The following statement was released bySNCC on May 23:

The Stu den t Nonviolent CoordinatingCommittee believes the White House Con­ference entitled, to secure these rights, isabsolutely unnecessary and rejects its in­vitation to participate in this useless en­deavor for the follo'Ad-rig reasons:1. The foundation and consequences ofracism are not rooted in the behavior ofblack Americans, yesterday or today. Theyare rooted in an attempt by Europeansand white Americans to exploit and de­humanize the descendants of Africa formonetary gain. This process of universalexploitation of Africa and her descendantscontinues today by the power elite of thiscountry. In the process of exploiting BlackAmericans, White America has tried to shiftthe responsibility for the degrading positionin which Blacks now find themselves awayfrom the oppressors to the oppressed. TheWhite House Conference, especially withits original focus on the Negro Family asthe main problem with which America mustdeal, accentuates this process of shiftingthe burden of the problem.2. Regardless of the proposals which stemfi-om this conference, we know that theExecutive Department and the Presidentare not serious about insuring constitutionalrights to Black Americans. For example,murderers of Civil Rights Workers andBlack Citizens roam free in this countrywith the desire to kill more freedom fighters

and the National Government claims it isimpotent in many situations to bring aboutjustice. For example, Police Chiefs,

.Sheriffs and State Officials who have vic­timized black people, beaten and jailed themand further suppres sed our ,dignity are fullyaware .they were in effect given a blankcheck by the Executive Department of thisGovernment to inflict these lawless actsupon Negroes, since it is common knq.wledgethat throughout the South killing a "Nigger"is like killing a coon.3. We believe that the President has calledthis Conference within the United States ata time when United States prestige inter­nationally is at a low ebb due to our in­volvement in the Vi~tnam Civil War, theDominician Rep u b pc, the Congo, SouthAfrica and other parts of the Third World.

. We cannot be a party to attempts by theWhite House to ,use Black Americans to re­coup a loss of prestige internationally.4. Our organization is opposed to the warin Vietnam' and we cannot in good consciencemeet with the chief policy maker of theVietnam war to discuss Human Rights inthis country when we flagrantly violate thehuman rights of colored people in Vietnam.5. We affirm our belief that people whosuffer must make the decisions about whois to change and direct their lives. Wetherefore call upon all Black Americans tobegin building independent political, eco­nomic and cultural institutions that they willcontrol and use as instruments of socia'lchange in this country.

Mr. Edmund G. "Pat" BrownGovernor of California

Dear Mr. Brown:

In answer to your unsolicited letter, .I can only say that it fails to lighten the dis­appointment or cool the smouldering anger that I, along with all the little people of theState feel to discover that we really don't matter at all to the Governor of this State.

We all felt that surely you would not disappoint us, that the "public servant" wouldwant to be with the little people, with the Mexican citizens of California when they neededhim and where they needed him. But Easter has passed into history -and so have ourillusions.

We are fed up with promises that do not produce. We are fed up with a paton thehead and being talked to like little children - and your sanctimonious appeal to "mother­hood" and "family," and the "conference table" are just that. Easter Sunday haschanged a lot of things. We found out who our friends are, and we do not forget.

Once more the "gringo" has treated us like "poor MeXicans," has ignored our sen­sitivities, our dignity. It has always been like that, but thiS too we do not forget. Whenyou offended us by your absence it was only another example of the way you and youroffice, and other State offices have bungled and blundered the whole Delano issue, upto and including the latest DiGiorgio -owned conciliation service and the so-called in­vestigation of violation of civil rights by the Attorney General's office.

The poor still have no rights and no dignity in California - and no one in high officereally gives a damn, But Easter Sunday means that now we understand all this. It alsomeans that we are united now as never before in the history of California, You shouldread history, Mr. Brown, and you could learn something from it. Now we are just fedup, and fine words mean nothing - nor shall we be "bought off" by a couple of appoin­tive positions to our race. That time also is past.

I am sorry, Mister Brown, to have to say such hard things. You see, life is hard, burI guess you don't know about that. Easter has changed so much, We are not afraidanymore to say hard things. We are not afraid anymore of anything,

Goodbye, Mister Brown.Father Keith Kenny

4, Local 110 of the Miscellaneous CulinaryWorkers and various building trades unionsin the form of financial help and Unfairlistings.

The tenants, who are of Mexican andNicaraguan descent, demonstrated the i rsolidarity with the Delano strikers bymarching into SacrameJ;lto with the peri­ginos on Easter Sunday.

Rivas is the sublease of at least fivesouth of market hotels - the Daton, theRizel, the Kennedy, the Parks ide HotelApartments and the Netherlands. Granitehas 26 different holdings in and aroundthe Nob Hill and Marina sections of SanFrancisco. Its president, Ee\win Connor, isa close associate of millionaire WalterHaas, the Levi-Strauss magnite.

During the past six months, severalPresbyterian ministers have attempted tonegotiate a just settlement between the land­lords and the Gough Street tenants butRivas and Granite have failed to deal ingood faith. Backed by the Apartment HouseOwners Association, the landlords are stilldetermined to eVict, the Gough Street ten­ants,

The Apartment f louse O\v~ersAssoci ationhas entered into the picture because the bigrealty interests re~lize that a contract withthe Tenants Union would set a precedent inthe fight for barga [ning rights for tenantsand would also be a first step towardsrent control for the whole city.

ALONG, TOUGH RENT STRIKE GOES ONSAN FRANCISCO --

Five Latin families who live in a largeslum bUilding on San Francisco's GoughStreet have been witholding rent paymentssince December' from the owners of thebuilding, South of Market flophouse specu­lator Red Rivas and the Granite LandCorporation.

The rent strike was launched soon afterthe building's owners ·demanded a near100% rent increase -- from $60 to $115a month. Represented by the Mission Ten­ants Union of which one Gough Street ten­ant was recently elected treasurer, the rentstrikers are demanding one year leases at$80 a month. During the last six months,they have accumulated over $1300 in backrents in their bank accounts.

The owners, Riyas and Granite, haveresponded to these moves by attempting toevict all five families (who have a totalof 20 children).

, Actions against the owners by the MTUand th~ Gough Street tenants have included"lightning" picket lines at all of Rivas'and Granite's properties asking for the sup­port of other tenants, the regular picketingof the Granite Land office on Gush Streetfor the past tour months, and the picketingof Granite's vice - president Dudley C.Knill's $60,000 home in Marin county.

The MTU is seeking support from or­ganized lahor. Thus 'far, recognition of thestrike has come from Painters llnion Local

testing the assault of two National FarmWorkers' Association pickets by DiGiorgioarmed guards in Delano.

DiGiorgio employees walked blank-facedthrough the line while others spit and drop­ped pennies and apple cores on the picketsfrom the floor:,? above. Crowds of passers­by heard the speeches and the chanting of

. the marchers echoing between the tall build­ings of the financial district.

Pickets c han ted "Don't buy Tree­Sweet''', "Don't buy S&Wl" and "DiGiorgiomust go'" Leaflets announced the beginningof the boycott of DiGiorgio products.

The picket line was organized by the In­ternational Typographers' Un ion in re­sponse to the beating of Delano picketManuel Rosas and the assault of anotherpicket, Ida COUSino, by Herschel Nunez,a hired guard on the Sierra Vista Ranchnear Delano. The incidents broke up talksabout elections that were going on thatmoment between NFWA and the DiGiorgioCorp.

Pickets we reattempting to speak tostrikebreakers living on the ranch. (If theDiGiorgio proposal for elections were putinto effect, these scabs would be the onlyworkers permitted to vote).

One sign on the picket line read •'Ourtaxes pay for DiGiorgio water," referringto the federal subsidy that pays for 4/5of the water pumped for irrigation of,grower lands. Another placard bore a blackdollar sign with reel drops of blood on it.

Bobbi CieciorkaEllen EstrinBernice GlennTim Hall

Martin Van Buren

LOS ANGELES COMMrn'EE:478-9509

$2 per year, individual copies$3 per hundred per month,bulk subscriptions.

Bob NiemannSue DouglasBeth Hoffman

LOS ANGE LES ADDRESS:P.O. Box 117308 Wesvwood PlazaLos Angeles 24, Calif.

mlTORIAL GROUf>:

Terence CannonGeorge BallisGerhard GscheidleBrooks PenneyFrank Cieciorka

THE MOVEMENT18 publlshecl moodaly by the staff of me'SIudeDt Nonviolent CoordInating Committee~ CalIfornia.

mrroRlAL OFFI<..."'E:449 14th Street,San FranCisco, California

SAN FRANCISCO ­Sixty pickets, mostly from San Francisco

labor unions, marched before the centraloffice of the DiGiorgio Corporation pro-

DiGiorgio EmployeesSpit on SF Picketers

Page 3: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

Lowndes County Freedom OrganizationLeaders Talk About Their Party

Last month, THE MOVEMENT editor, Terence Cannon, spent several days in LowndesCounty, Alabama, a rural ccunty quickly becoming the center of an important new Negropolitical movement. It is reported that when a meeting was held in the courthouse of aneighboring county to form a similar Freedom Organization, the Probate Judge's secre-tf:ry announced, "The panthers are here." Cannon interviewed several of the LowndesCo:mty "panthers": here is their view of the independent political party that carries thesymbol of the leaping black panther.

JOHN HULETT· "The Black Panther is an animal. the comes out fighting for life or death"

Mr. Sidney Logan, 42, isa widower. He lives withhis children on an 80-acretruck farm.

He is the Black Panthercandidate for Sheriff.

SIDNEY LOGAN, JR."I'm not afraid"

After Mrs. Liuzzo got killed out on thehighway they had memorial services, Iwent up to take a part. A lot of them carnein singing What Side Are You On, so I hadto go out and show them what side I wason. The Highway Patrol wrote my tagnumber down and so the next day the whitepeoples questioned me about it -- "Tellme you was over messing around withthose people" •••And that's when theystarted to boycott me. They quit giving mehauling to do.

We went over to reddish back in Springof 65. The white people had a kind ofbad attitude you know. We went down andI said, ·"It's come time for the coloredpeople to get reddished."· The registrarsaid "Many of em?" And 1 says "A lotof them." He said, "You all done get alongall right with us. You all want anythingwe'll let you have it. We don't want allthose outside agitators in here!' 1 said,•Well, it's time for all us to get redishednow." They wouldn't let us register in thecourthouse, we had to go on down to theold Jailhouse.

Then one day we was going to have aFreedom Day, and the law say, ./All youall, get them children back homel Putem in schooL Ain't going to let nobodyregister until you do that. Go back horne:'

He's .standing in the door -- that's thedeputy. And I said to myself, .. People wantto get redished and he's supposed to bethe law and protect the citizen, We do theright thing and he want to run us away:'Then that gave me courage and I decidedsomebody else need that job.

Then when they boycott my truck on ac­count of I want to be a citizen it seems likethey have the law in their hands and aren'tusing it properly like they should be.

They put a colored deputy on there andhe been saying to me, "Better be careful,Stay out of Hayneville/'There's $1000 al­

. ready been put up to get me killed. But I. didn't quit going to Hayneville.

I'm I).ot afraid. If I had to lose my lifefor what 1 think is right, 1 ain't backingdown, cause I done made up.

I ain't running for it to get even withnobody and I ain't running for it to takeadvantage of nobody.

The white folks tricked us in the ASCSelections, that's when I started to get wiseto the Democratic Party. That's what gaveme the idea I better stick with the BlackPanther if 1 want to win. The The Demo­cratic Party is full of tricks. White peoplecontrol it.

They don't want us to corne together causewe got too much strength. Once we gettogether we can move them out, That'sthe reason for all those shooting.. Theythink if they get one afraid that'll frightena lot of them. But now Negroes ain'tplanning on scaring no more. We ain'tbacking up. Course now we ain't segre­gating ourselves from nobody, but we'r.elooking for power.

If I be cut down I still want it to go,I want somebody to step right up and keepO"();n(T

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Lowndes County school children have oneof the worst· school systems in the state.If we win we'll put most of our moneyinto the Negro schools to bring them upto an equal with the white.

One thing. According to state law, peoplecan tax the rich at %60 of their evaluation.This would provide our children with abetter education. It would mean that Negroesmaybe would have to pay a little more butpeople who own hundreds of acres of land

.and lots of property would have to paymore money.

People who pick cotton for $2 a day andtractor drivers who earn $4 a day -- theywould have to earn at least $1.25 an houror more. Even if it means they would have

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE, COLUMN 1

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T;he Black Panther is an animal thatwhen it is pressured it moves back untilit is cornered, then it comes out fightingfor life or death. We felt we had beenpushed back long enough and that it wastime for Negroes to come out and take over.As 'you know, the symbol of the Demo­cratic Party is the rooster and we feltthat the panther could destroy the rooster.That is our plan. On November 9 we feelwe can destroy the rooster in LowndesCounty.

What are your plans if youwin?

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The first page of a Primer written for Lowndes Countyvoters by SNCC staff. Other Primers are on the Sheriffand the need to join the Black Pan~"'er Party.

--rlie. +a.. t. d,SeJJor CPo Y'> CU!:(J..([

lJ..( ~ 60 % ¥ r"re/ ft~J I'u-/"~

A year'ago several of us met togetherwith the idea of going over to attempt toget registered. At this time several threatshad already been made that if a Negro wouldattempt to register then blood would runin the streets. 37 of us decided to go overanyway.

Since that time we have registered at least2500 Negroes.

We met one night with them to decidewhat would we do with our vote. The SNCCworkers brought the idea to us that wecould organize our own political group ifwe wanted to. It was left entirely to thepeople of Lowndes County. If we becamevictorious in our election then we wouldbecome the power structure in our country.

Personally 1 have seen many of thetrickeries on election day by people whocontrol the ballot box.

If we went into the Democratic Partythey would still control us; we would haveto do the things they wanted us to do.They set the standards and everything forus to go by.

Second thing -- after a large number ofNegroes had registered, the County Com­mitteemen of the Democratic Party uppedthe qualification fees from $50 to $500.As Negroes we felt it wasn't our job toincrease th.eir treasury. We decided it wastime to do some things for ours~lves. Ifwe were going to build up a treasury wewere going to build up our own.

FRANK MILES

John Hulett, the Chairmanof the Lowndes County Free­do m Organization, is 38years 0 ld. He was born inLowndes County and has awife and 7 children. Aftergraduating from the LowndesCounty Training School hewen t to Birmingham and,worked for 7 years inafoun­dry. There he was electedpresident of the foundryworkers local #7489. In 1956he moved to Georgia, workedas a const-ruction worker tmdparticipated in NAACP acti­vities. In 1959 he moved backto Lowndes County.

Peoples today believe that's the onlychance they do have -- is to join theFreedom Organization and try to come outunder the fear that they have. You can'thave any control over the DemocraticPartY. We knew that we couldn't win byjoining with them.

When we had the ASCS election, we foundout how we was tricked by the ASCSelection: the white peoples had controlover that.

One reason we hasn't had too muchoutside funds is because once a persongoes to aid you then he tries to give yousome advice and if you doesn't take theadvice then the next thing you know themoney is cut off. That's why we doesn'taim to depend on anybody except the peoplesof Lowndes County.

We had quite a few white peoples thatsay -- lf you get registered you have tofind you a new horne. Now we're takingthem into court because they were drivingpeoples off the land for registering to vote.

All those threats- is a· bluff they's beenpulling. Although they says they gonna killthe first sheriff we put out -- they sayyou better elect 52 sheriffs cause we gonnakill one every week. We know that's a lotof agitating, we ain't paying it any mind.But if they kill one, we gonna put anotherone in. We ai.n't planning to backing down.One day somebody's gonna get tired ofkilling, or else we're gonna start killingtoo. If trouble get in our way, we're gonnawalk through ie.

If SNCC should happen to pull out ofLowndes County, Lowndes County would stillgo just like it have been. SNCC have gaveus good information and supplied us withlots of stuff we needed. SNCC mentionedabout the third party and we decided wewould do it, because it didn't maice sensefor us to go join the Democrat party, whenthey were the people who had done thekilling in the county and had beat our heads.

Mr. Frank Miles, Jr., 35,was born in Lowndes Countyand works for a furniturecompany. He is the BlackPanther P arty candidate fortax collector 0 He lives withhis wife and children on asmSlll farm.

Page 4: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

STUKELY CARMICHAEL "Integration is completely irrelevant to us:what we ,want is power for people who don't have if'

BLACK PANTHER PARTY PRIMI\RY at First Baptist Church in Hayneville. 900 voted.

like the Democratic party and the Republi­can party. We want power, that's all wewant. After we get power we can talk aboutwhether we want all black of not.

The thing we get beat over the headwith by Martin Luther King and people likethat is that anything all black is as bad asanything all white. But that's not true. Allwhite is only bad when you us'e force tokeep it all white. And something all blackisn't bad if you don't use force to keep itthat way. But these arguments didn't makeanY difference to local people: they wantto see black and white together. You haveto leave some spaces open for whitepeople.No~ I have said, and I mean it, that the

Democratic Party is the most treacherousenemy of the Negro people on a nationalbasis. They step on us, they take ourvote for granted and we're completelyirrelevant. Johnson passed that VotingRights bill because he knew we were goingto vote Democratic. He knew he was goingto have all those votes in 1968~ And that'swhat's going to happen unless we begin tomove, and start controlling those thingswith indeper.dent forces.

Poor WhitesThere are also a lot of poor whites

and they're in the majority and they don't,control. That can start growing too: inde­pendent parties that those people control,and eventually we can hook up with. Thatmeans there's a chance for real deep changeto be wrought in this country. SNCC has tobecome less popular because it's going tohave to say the things that I'm talking about.

and Wilson Baker, and that they shouldignore the county level where their powerreally was. What you have in this countyis that Negroes are always told to votefor someone who is less of a racist insteadof more for Negroes.

We thought we could take over the Demo­cratic Party in Mississippi and that's afarce. Them crackers ain't never goingto let us in. We got to build something ofour own. The Negroes who voted Demo­cratic in Alabama are like Negroes allover the country who pulled the Demo­cratic lever: like Negroes in Watts -- theyvoted Democratic and they don't have adamn thing to show for it. Because theycan't control the vote. You've got to getpeople into independent political powerwhere they can control on the countylevel. They can control the money thatcomes into it, they control the law, 'thetaxes.

When they can do that, then they canmeet a white man with power. Right nowwe can't do that. When the Man says,jump we got to ask him how high.

"Black Nationalism'"I want to talk a little about- this "black

nationalism". Now a lot of people aretalking about how this organization has tobecome all-black. What I learned was whenwe were starting the Party we kept sayingto people -- "We got to have it all black,cause that's what we rea II y need."And they wouldn't touch it. Local peoplewould not touch something all black becausethey think it's bad. The way we had to doit was to say -- This is a party, it's just

and had a meeting with them. And theymade a committment to send $HlO a monthdown to Lowndes County. Now that wasgood because that meant you cut off allyour white liberal support. That's some­thing else I found out from the MFDP;when the chips were down the white lib­erals cut out and we were left holdingthe bag. But if you didn't depend on themfor anything you could do anything youwanted to do.

It Isn't IntegrationNow what happened in Alabama is that

we started building something, and we madewhites irrelevant to everything we did.Whites in the county and whites in theNorth. We were building a party for blackpeople, because they were disenfranchisedin Lowndes County. I'm not in any bagabout "Black -Nationalism" and all that.We've done it without talking about"Whitey" and "getting rid of Whitey" andthat shit. We just don't want to become apart of the Man.

What I've learned about integration isthat this country always defines it. Butit was always a one-sided thing: Negroeswere always going to whites and it was infact white supremacy. Because everythinggood was white.

For example: in Lowndes County we boy­cotted the school to get rid of the prin­cipal. She's still in there. But next year shewon't be. We will control the school boardand we will determine who is principal.And we won't need to protest anymore.Now you have to understand that veryclearly because that ain't anti-white.

It's impossible for a man making $3a day to vote for a man making $10,000a year. It's impossible for both of themto be iii the same party. I've seen thatclearly in Lowndes County. You just can'tdo it.

When you talk about going for power,, moral force and non-violence become com­,pletely irrelevant. When you go for poweryou go for it the way everyone in the coun­try goes for it.

Black people never have a chance todefine integration. It's always defined forus by the New York Times, by Time maga­Zine, by OEO and the Heaustart program.What can really happen in Lowndes County:Once we take over the Board of Education,we can spend the same amount of money'on the Negro schools as they do on thewhite school -- make it a real school -­then the problem of integration will becomeirrelevant. You can have integration beinginitiated on both sides. Integration in thiscountry has always been initiated on oneside; black people have always initiated in­tegration.

What King is about to do is integratethis county. That's what he tried to do inAlabama. He told all those Negroes thatthe best thing they could do was insteadof voting for black people like themselveswas to vote for cr'ickers like Al Lingo

No StringsWhen I went into LownJes County I had

a big argument with the Alabama E' 'iff.We decided that we weren't going to aSNCC for a penny and that all the moneywe got we were to raise in Lowndes County.Now we've done that.

Bob Mants went to Detroit. Everybody inthe county gave him a name of their sonsor daughters or their grandmothers or theirkinfolk. Bob got all those people together

Stokely Carmichael, newlyelected Chairman of SNCC.His work in Alabama led tothe organizing of the Lown­des County Freedom Or ­ganization.

The 'one thing I learned from the Missis­sippi Freedom Democratic Party was thatyou don't work for integration in this coun­try -- what you've got to worK for ispower. The mistake we made was that wewent to the National Democratic Partybegging them to come into their party. Ifwe're to do anything, we have to stopbegging.

Or.ganizing TechniquesOne of the first things we decided when

we moved into Lowndes County was that wewouldn't hold mass meetings at the samechurch. We held them at different areas

. of the county every Sunday night. Whatthat meant was that everyone in the county

. was able to come to a mass meeting and youwouldn't get just the same people. Onlytwo or three times did we have Ipss than200 people.

We also organized community meetings.Every community has a meeting once aweek where they discuss all the things thatare relevant to that community.

I also found that the role of the organizerhad to be minimized, but I got out of thatbag of manipulation. I went in there withcertain ideas. One idea was to organizepeople to get power. And if that is manipu­lation so be it.

JOHN HULEn - CONTI NUEDto stop working until they get it. Havingthe vote and people still being poor won'tsolve our problem. .

If we had our own Sheriff and if we wereto picket Dan River Mills then the Sheriffwould come out and protect the picketersand if anybody tried to interfere, he wouldarrest them.

Also I think we could get a larger sumout of them for taxes. If they refused topay the taxes they would have to move.We could take Dan River Mills and putthe equipment back into its place, hireour own people to operate it and the countywould get all the profits from it and wewouldn't have to be worried about taxesand our children not going to school. We'dhave a county-run plant. It would providemore jobs for our people.

I know one thing -- if Negroes becomestrong enough in the county then a lot ofpeople are going to move out. I don't thinka lot of these land owners are going to wantto be dominated by Negroes who's con­trolling the county. I do believe they'regoing to sell their land and move into someother area. And with the, taxes that are goingto be put on them, they aren't going to payit. Most of them have only been paying asmall amount of the 6CJfo they owe.I really don't think they are going to goalong with it.

How do you organize?We go from house to house. We go into

the worst areas where people are stillafraid and shaky, people who live on plan­tations. So far there have been at least 65or 70 families who've been evicted becausethey exercised their rig:lt to vote. We goin and talk 'll'ith these people and let themknow that they can live without these landowners. That the land owners need themto take care of their land. They need usworst: they make a living off of us and wedon't make a living olf of them. Once youstart telling people this they srart thinking

. about it. You may have to leave them for aday or two, but you keep going backto themand finally you're able to pull most of thosepeople in. Our biggest fight now is among"our own people, like the professional people,school teachers and preachers Who don'twant any part in it because once the commonNegro moves up he will become equal withhim. '

Once we win I think the Sheriff coulddeputize enough people to keep law andorder in the county. I also think that peoplehave made up their minds that they aregoing to be their own protection. The whitepeople aren't going to go out and starttrouble because they might end up on theworst end of it. \\'e don't bother people

and we don't intend to do evil for evil,but we definitely don't intend to be pushedaround in L<;>wndes County.

How has the movementchanged life in L 0 wnd e sCounty?

Before the movement came, Negroeswere being pushed around by white people.The law would come into houses and breakin, push their doors in and make searcheswithout anybody saying anything, withouta search warrant.

Today it's different.Then you could hardly ride the highway

on Sunday evening. State Troopers wouldblock the highway and' give just abouteverybody who comes along a ticket. Now,through the suits we'veiiled, hardly a personis getting arrested in the County.

Real changes have been made. A Negrocouldn't even go into the courthouse atone time, without the whites speaking roughto them. Now it's different -- when Negroeswalk in, the whites get together and standwhispering to one another and never sayanything. Negroes don't fear any more ofgoing to places they was afraid of going to.

Personally, I used to have a little fearof going into some places, but now it'saltogether difterent. A man just happento be a man now, I don't think no other way.

A gambler who carried his cards aroundin his pocket got to let someone else winnow and then to keep his game going. Thisis what the Democratic party is doing forNegro people. They have fixed it where oneperson can win every now and then and theyare picking their people. That's why'I thinkevery county, even if they don't have enoughto take over, should organize their ownpolitical group and they should endorse'the candidate they feel is the lesser of twoevils.

Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mants andCourtland Cox from SNCC moved into thecounty in February 1965. They brought alot of strength to our people, a lot of cour­age, they were good workers. I think todayall our people, whatever we have done forour county, we give those people credit for.They are, as far as we are concerned thebest organizers in the country. They alwayslet the people make their own decisions.They bring ideas to the people and youaccept whatever you want to accept.

I think once we take over the county'government, instead of having two com­munities white and black, we will have onecommunity, where people could sit downand talk across the table with one another.This is what we're working for. They'lldeal with us when we're in power.

We feel in Lowndes County that the powerdoes not lie in the person who runs foroffice but in the organization around theperson.

Page 5: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

THE MOVEMENT: DIGIORGIO BOYCOTT SUPPLEMENT

The National Fartrt Workers Association asks yo~: $104.

Please Don't Buy

TREE -SWEET FRUIT JUICESI, .

S&W FINE FOODSThese are products of the DiGiorgio Corporation, the

largest grower of grapes in the Delano area. It has em­ployed farm workers at miserable wages for years.

3,000 farm workers have been on strike in Delano sinceSeptember, 1965. Thousands more marched in the Pil­grimage to Sacramento. The Schenley Corporation brokedown and negotiated. But the DiGiorgio Corporation willnot grant UNION RECOGNITION and COLLECTIVE BAR-GAINING rights that should be taken for granted.

Instead it has made a fraudulent offer of elections amongscab workers to see if they want a union. The strikers havealready voted with their bodies, by going on strike. Theyhave voted continuously for eight months. Those workersnow working for DiGiorgio are scabs who went to workwhile other men starved for their rights.

Therefore, the NFWA is calling for a nationwide boy­cott of all DiGiorgio products, including S&W FINE FOODSand TREE-SWEET FRUIT JUICES, until DiGiorgio recog­nizes the NFWA as the sole bargaining agent for the Di­Giorgio workers.

The DiGiorgio Corporation has a heart - - right in itspocketbook. YOU can hurt it there. Help the boycott!

Help us succeed as we did against Schenley's!

Ij~

The DiGiorgio StruggleGeorge Ballis photo

DiGIORGIO ARMED GUAltD, Herschel Nunez. On April 21,Nunez assaulted Delano striker Marw,el Rosas, beating himon the side of the head with his nightstick. Rosas was hos­pitalized with 10 stitches. The incident broke up discussionsof elections that were gC!ing on at the very same momentbetween the DiGiorgio Corporation and the NFWA o

Members of the National Farm Workers'Association have been on strike against theDiGiorgio Corporation's 4,600 acre SierraRanch since September 15, 1965. They areasking for union recognition and a wage raisefrom $1.25 an hour and 10¢ a box of grapes,to $1.40 an hour and 25¢ a box. Since theyhave won neither union recognition nor the,wage raise, they are asking for your helpin a consumers' boycott of DiGiorgio pro­ducts.

The striking workers were not permittedto vote for or against a union before theywalked off the job. Once they had walked off,,the DiGiorgio Corporation began to bringin strike-breakers from other areas to workfor more than the strikers had been getting .themselves. When the strikers picketed theSierra Vista Ranch to run back the scabsthey were met with police harassment,threats of arrest for trespassing if they wenton the land to speak to the scabs, and phy­sical obstructions such as noise or cloudsof dust from tl actors run by supervisorswhile the scabs were in the field.

When the NFWA, with the help of the in­ternational Longshoremen's and Ware­housemen's Union, stopped the loading ofDiGiorgio grapes at the docks in San Fran­cisco and Oakland, the corporation askedfor a court injunction against union inter­ference with its products. The injunction wasrefused. .

As the unpicked grapes rotted on the·vines and as the scabs mishandled the grapesthey did pick, the growers, DiGiorgio in­cluded, insisted that there was no strike

going on, and even if there was one, itwasn't hurting . them~. More .grapes werepicked this year, they said, than ever be­,fore. Meanwhile, scabs began showing upfrom farther and farther away -<Winos fromStockton, Mexican nationals, even Arabs ­and the corporation began changing themarkings on its grape trucks and boxes toconfuse the boycott workers. Pruning sea­son came; the growers continued to denythat the picket line had any effect; and theDiGiorgio Corporation sued the NationalFarm Workers' Association for damagesand loss.

The strike is costly to the strikers and'it must be won. To dramatize their prob­lem, as the civil rights movement has done;the striking 'workers set out on a 300-milepilgrimage and organizing march up theSan Joaquin Valley to Sa(:ramento. Tre­mendous support developed during the 3­day march and by the end of it, Schenley's,the second largest Delano grower, hadagreed to recognize NFWA and negotiate awage raise. Unions and newspapers all overthe country had come out in support of thestrikers' demands. Governor Brown hadseriously embarrassed himself by not show­ing up to meet the marchers at the CapitolEaster morning.And then DiGiorgio offered elections. Elec­

tions to determine what union, if any, wouldrepresent the workers in the DiGiorgiofields. According to DiGiorgio, three"unions" would be parties to the elections- the Kern-Tulare Independent Farm Work­ers' Association, the Agricultural Workers'

Organizing Committee and the NFWA. TheIndependent Farm Workers' Association,as Senator Robert Kennedy proved in therecent farm labor hearings in Visalia, isnot a workers' union at all, but a: companyunion controlled by the DiGiorgio Corpora­tion and its labor contractors. AWOC, thesecond proposed party to the elections, hadnot been on strike against DiGiorgio. Onlythe NFWA can represent the workers, butthe DiGiorgio Corporation has refused torecognize the NFWA.

There were more problems. Although theNFWA supports the use of elections inlabor disputes before a strike, none of its,members are working for DiGiorgio anymore - they are all on strike. In the "Di­Giorgio elections" they won't even be ableto votel .

And even more problems. Before theelections, all parties entering would haveto agree to certain conditions. If they won,they would have to submit to compulsoryarbitration of any future disagreement by anarbitration board of one company and one'union representative, and a court appointee.The union would have to stick to the de­cision of this group - a rule rejected byall labor unions. Whether they won or not,none of the unions would be allowed to

'strike or bring economic pressure suchas a boycott either before, during or AFTERnegotiations, even if the negotiations brokedown'.

In short, DiGiorgio demanded that the'union accept ahead of time certain thingsthat no union would agree to once it hadsat down to the bargaining table.

Holding a free election, even amongscabs, would be a problem in itself. Tres­passing ordinances have always kept unionorganizers off the DiGiorgio land and awayfrom the homes of farm workers livingthere. How could the union campaign? Theday after DiGiorgio called for elections heheld a meeting of all the scabs working forhim. Anti-union speeches were made andthe men were served free candy and sodapop. Was a union represented freely at thismeeting? On Thursday, April 21, a DiGior­gio guard drew a gun on a woman strikerwho was trying to speak to the scabs,threw her to the ground and hit anotherpicket on the side of the head, requiringten stitches (see photo ahove). Is this freespeech?

Our only alternative is to keep the press­ure on the DiGiorgio Corporation with aboycott and strike until it makes an honestoffer of union recognition and negotiations.

Page 6: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

Boycott .Instructions1: 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 Retail Clerks Union, inform them of the boycott, and ask theircooperation. They might (unofficially) advise a large chain-store not to buy DiGiorgioproducts. This union could also collect all canned foods returned by the chains ,md sendthem 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 tobuy DiGiorgio products. You may tell the management that you intend to use a consumerinformational boycott: but you're forbidden by law to use threats of coercion or a generalboycott of the store. Students should try to persuade their school caf~terias not to serveDiGiorgio products.

4. Set up -- AS SOON AS POSSIBLE -- an informational consumer picket in front ofselected chains. This kind of informational picket means you hand out leaflets to all cus­tomers 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 signsand placards urging customers not to buy these products.

5. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT--in order to create the kind of persuasive tension that isneeded 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 bestway to build future support for California farm workers who are fighting for their rightof collective bargaining. IT IS UP TD YOU.

7. We are forbidden by law to boycott stores merely because they handle DiGiorgioproducts. Picket lines cannot encourage general boycotts by consumers of a store or byemployees of stores carrying DiGiorgio products.

Viva la causalNational Farm Workers Association, Box 894, Delano

WHAT 'DIGIORGIO TELLS ITS EMPLOYEESCesar's Evil Plan

--,.--:--- ----- ---

Another "DiGiorgio Election"

Jir.

Inc.

InsuranceIndustrial Indemnity Co.E.S. Dulin, Dir.

Pacific National FireInsurance Company

A.E. -Soarboro, v-rFiremen's Fund Ins. Co.~arl F. Wente, })it.

PetroleumUnion Cil Co.

obert DiSiorgio, Dir ..Prentis Hale. Dir.

Petroleu~ Equip~ent

Suppliers AssociationE S Dulin, Dir.

Uti] itiesSouthern California Edison Co.Hart J. Bauer, Dir.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co.Carl F. Wente, Dir.

The DiGiorgio Corporation's sales were$132,389,000 in 1964. Its net income in thatyear was $2,536,000. Its net income doubledbetween 1960 and 1964.

The corporation's assets are $65,049,000.They include about 24,000 acres of land ingrapes, citrus frUits, plums, pears, aspara­gus, potatoes, cotton, grain and other crops.

-- from FARM LABOR,

F. \'iente

S!l11th

-.J. NOS3er. Jr.Exec. Vice-Pres.

~.s._ r1crnight1,'-1> _8.~ Treasurer

J .A. DiGiorgioVice-President

DiGiorg io Fruit Corp.OFFICERS

DIRECTORS(other than officers

Robert DiGiorgioExec.Vice-Pres.

Joseph S, Di'';iorgioPres.. and Board cr. 1m ..

K .p. HudsonVice-Presiden t

I3.t'uce SanbornV-P &: ·Secretary

~1i1ip DiGiorgioSenior Vice-Pres.

~I arry J. Ua,-,t""e-,-r_~--Ih1A\/1

J. f,luMlein. Vice-President

~'iscel1aneous

tos Angeles Turf ClubPrentis Eale Dir.

Food Proce-ssine and Distributi.S .&'. 1ne Foo sJ. Blunlein Pres.J.S.DiGicrgio, Dir.R. DiGiorgio, Dir.P.DiGiorf.io, Dir.KooP. Hudson, Dir.R.S. Mcl:night, nir.

Treesweet ProductsJ(. p. Hudson, Secretary'J.S. DiGiorgio,D~~ir~.~XY'l\P. DiGiorgio,D~~ir~.c---//\XR. DiGiorgio, Dir.~ ilad·e lph ia TerlllinalsAuction CorporationC.J. Nosser, Jr. DirJ.S. DiGiorgio, Dir.R. DiGiorgio, Dir.P. DiGiorgio, ir

New York ~ruit Auction CorpC.J. Nosser, Jr.,P~r~e~s~' ~11

J.S. DiGiorgio, C~h~m~n~' -JIIR. DiGiorgio, !'.D~ir~''-- ----I'-J IP. DiGiorgio, UiL-.....

Pacific Vegetal>le Oil Co.Pren tis II ale. D~1~'r~ -/..

Foremost D'air les, Inc.Carl F. Wente,~

R"al EstateSpr1ng Street Realty Co.Harry J. Bauer, ¥res.

Bale Brotl,ers Realty Co.rrentis Hale,P~r~e~s~.--,-.--J

~.ft!rchants National Realty Co.A.E. Sbarboro, .!,:::Ji~r':"' --J

(signed)E.C. Fontana,Superintendent.

DI GIORGIO FRUIT CORPORATIONDear Di Giorgio Employee: May 5, 1966

Cesar Chavez and his ill-tempered followers have commenced a wicked boycott ofDi Giorgio products. We are confident that thiS boycott will not be successful. for it isbeing conducted by individuals that no self-respecting person would associate with.

In the meantime, Cesar refuses to meet with our representatives. He will not talkover the situation. He will not tell us what he wants. He will not explain his evil plan.

.Instead, he lets his pickets talk for him. You have all heard them shout obscenitiesand profanities. What manner of man is this who would permit thiS kind of conduct?What manner of man is this who refuses to have an election, but allows his lieutenantsto try to force you into joining his association by shouting vulgarities at you?

Cesar is on the way out. He cannot live without newspaper publicity. He will probablytry to start more fights, and try to keep things in a turmoil.

Do not worry about him. As we have said before, Di Giorgio has been here for nearlyhalf a century, and Di Giorgio will be here long after Cesar Chavez and his NFWA"No Fair Working, Association" are nothing but an unpleasant memory.

We much appreciate your continued loyalty, and we will continue to do all that we canto make your living and working conditions as pleasant as possible.

Sincerely,(signed)R. L. Myer,Personnel Director.

DiGiorgio Corporation Today

DiGiorgio and Hi.s Cronies:

1IIIIf.IIIIIIIII

____ -1

.20 single copy ­3.00 per hundred

per month

and the third and it's rotting. We're inthe shipping business and it's got to move.How can you have a union? If you thinkyou can, go ahead and try it. If this farmgoes to hell your jobs go, too." Theem­ployees then· "voted" and, after the votewas taken, announced the result. "Mr.DiGiorgio, we have voted." "That's a goodAmerican way," DiGiorgio replied. "Doyou give your pay to those fellows in thecity, or not?" To quote from the interview,"A smile flashed across the man's sun­burned face. 'The men say nothin' doing,'"Good,' said DiGiorgio, 'on the DiGiorgiofarms we grow crops -- and menl'''

-- from Factories in the Field, by CareyMcWilliams, 1939.

MacGillsVerbenaWhite RoseRedi-TeaPiquePremierSun Vista FoodsSunnylandJolly Farmer

We suggest that you also subscribeto the follOWing California publications:

E L MALCRIADO, newspaper of the NationalFarm Workers' Association, Box 894,Delano, California. Every two weeks.$2 per year.

VALLE Y LABOR CITIZEN, organized laborpaper of the central San JoaqUin Valley,479 North Fresno Street, Fresno, Cali­fornia. Weekly. $4 per year.

FARM LABOR, magazine published by Citi­zens for Farm Labor, Box 1173, Berkeley,California. $3 fop twelve issues,

ORDER BLANK___ copies of the Boycott Supplement.

subscriptions to THE lVlOVE1\l1ENT.

Supplelnent $1.00 per MO VEMENT $2.00 per yearhunared

S&W FINE FOODSTREE-SWEET FRUIT JUICESIndian RiverBlue FlagBlue ParrotBroadwayC&T PremiumDoughteryGolden peakHi-Color

is publislied monthly by the staff of theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committeeof California. Cesar Chavez, generaldirector of the NFWA, says, "THE MOVE­MENT publishes, more than any other paperI know, the news of the upheavals amonglow income and minority people in thiscountry. I urge those who support us tosubscribe to THE MOVEMENT," Subscrip­tions $2 per year. Write SNCC, 449 14thSt., San Francisco, California. 626-4577.

In an interesting interview in the LosAngeles Times, August 15, 1937, whichappeared under the title "I Work, YouWork; the Land Works," Mr. (Joseph)DiGiorgio set for t h his views on labororganization. It seems some organizersappeared at his factory and said, "Mr.DiGiorgio, we're going to unionize yourfarm." "You're going to what?" he de­manded. "My men are free men. You aren'tgoing to do anything here they don't wantdonel" So concerned was Mr. DiGiorgioabout the "freedom" of his employees,that he promptly called a meeting andaddressed his men on the subject of unioni­zation. "You know that one day the fruit isgreen," he orated, "and the next it' s ready,

1----------iI

: P lease send meIiI

IIIIIIII

! 449 14TH STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.L _

BOYCOTT CHECK LIST

Page 7: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

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. GeraldRosenfield of Berkeley, California, examining the poverty­program Child Development Group of Mississippi. We think'that the reasons for its success and failure are important.They tell us a lot about what has happened in Mississippi,about our government, and about the civil rights movement.

In the days following the revolt, thepicture of what happened in Washington thathad led to the order from OEO grew moreclear and more objectionable. CDGM staffwho visited Washington the week after therevolt came back with the story that Presi­dent -Johnson or Sargent Shriver, it wasn'tclear which, had promised Senator Stennisto move CDGM out of Mt. Be~lah. Thequid-pro-quo was that Stennis, a powerfulman in the Senate and on the Senate Appro­priations Committee, would take a lesshostile a~titude toward the 1.9 billion dol­lar appropriation for the second year of thepoverty program.

Worse: It was reported, through sourcesat OEO, that the national security was indeedinvolved in the order for CDGM to movefrom Mt. Beulah. According to this report,which was said to be common knowledge atOEO, President Johnson had reassuredStennis that he would do something aboutthe trouble with the poverty program downin Mississippi in order to placate him andinfluence him on another matter which wasfar more important to the President.

During the time Stennis was attackingCDGM he had also been attacking the Ad­ministration's policy of military expendi­ture- for the war in Vietnam. He claimedthat the Administration was drasticallyunderestimating the future cost of the warin Vietnam, that even without further escala­tion it would take an increase of $12 billiondollars to finance it during the coming fis':'cal year, and that the current expenditures ­were being kept artificially low by assigningequipment and supplies to Vietnam at theexpense of American military forces else­where in the world. House Republicans hadbeen making the same charges, claimingthe defense-budget was kept artificially lowfor political purposes. (Subsequent eventsseem to have confirmed these charges. Whatseems to have been involved is that theAdministration last summer was attemptingto minimize the economic impact of theescalating war in Vietnam to the public inorder to ease public acceptance of themassive increase in our military commit­ment which President Johnson announcedat the end of July.)

There is no real proof of Presidentialintervention in the CDGM issue, exceptfor Heller's statement about the order com­ing from "the White House itself" andthe rumors around OEO. Stennis did meetwith Johnson during the week before theoEO order, though, and one might conjecturethat at some point during the meeting Stennisdropped an angry word about CDGM and thePresident agreed to look into it. It is amatter of public record, however, thatSargent Shriver made a promise to SenatorStennis to move CDGM out of Mt. Beulah.

According to the records of the hearingsof the Subcommittee on Deficiencies andSupplementals of the Senate ApprupriationsCommittee on October 14, 1965, Stennis,interrogating Shriver about CDGM, claimedthat Shriver had personally promised him"about the first of August" that "We aregoing to move that group out of Mt. Beulah;'Stennis said that Shriver had made a pointof reassuring him about this, that Shriverhad called him out of the Senate restaurantwhile he was eating lunch "to tell me thatone minor fact:' At the hearing Shriveradmitted that he probably had made such astatement to Stennis, and he then went onto promise Stennis, this time publicly,that any future CDGM program would notbe headquartered at Me. Beulah.

We Were Part of a PlanNevertheless, when we stood our ground,

OEO had given in to us. We were not reallyexpendable. OEO's capitulation on the moveto West Point was partly due to the factthat some people in OEO were sincerepartisans of CDCM and it took the revoltto make the issues clear to them. Butthere were other reasons why Washingtonwas reluctant to let CDGM be physicallydestroyed, when that became the alternative.CDGM, we were informed, was part of the­Administration-'s plan to build a moderate,loyal Democratic party in MississippL

On July 18, moderate whites and Negroes,with the blessing of the Democratic Nation­al Committee, held a meeting to form astatewide midded - of - the - road politicalforce in Mississippi. They called them­selves the "Mississippi Dem~cratic Con­gress." The Democratic National Com­mittee sent one of its staff, Don Ellinger,to the meeting to promise the group supportand assistance from the national DemocraticParty. Among those attending the meetingwere moderate regular Mississippi Demo­cratic Party electors and NAACP leadersAaron Henry and Charles Evers. The Con­gress elected a wealthy Negro businessman,Charles Young, and the white chairman ofthe State AFL-CIO, Claude Ramsay, to beco-chairman. The Jackson Daily News notedthat "no bids (to attend the meeting) wentto "never-never" segregationists or tohard-line integrationist organizations -­FOP, SNCC, and COFO:' In Mississippi,the Administration was attempting to builda "third force" between two "unacceptable"alternatives.

The SiphonThe Anti-Poverty Program in Mississippi

we were informed, is to be part of theattempt to build this "third force" and tointegrate Mississippi into the' 'mainstreamof American life:' The role of the War onPoverty in this plan is to gh'e at least tokenrelief from their economic plight and thehope of eventual real improvement to theimpoverished Negroes, to give jobs to theleaders and siphon them off into a moreacceptable politics than that of the Free­dom Democratic Party, and to provide ameeting ground where moderate whites canwork with moderate Negroes to their mutualadvantage, thus building the base for jlmoderate Democratic electorate, includingthe newly -enfranchised Negro voters. Fu­ture poverty programs, and a say in thecontrol of millions of dollars of federalgrants would go to those white groupsWilling to work with moderate Neg roe swithin this framework.

The destruction of CDGM would have madeit difficult to sell the politics of coalitionto the Negro communities. To destroy theone federally sponsored program which,whatever its shortcomings, had some realroots i.n the Negro communities would havebetrayed to them the limits of the federalgovernment's interest in the i r welfare,given the FOP a talking point, and thushelped to keep the FOP alive as a politicalalternative for the Negro. It was necessaryto keep a place within the poverty programfor the more militant Negroes and a placeto drain off the energies of the young self­operating community groups that the civilrights movement had begun to develop. lfthese people were frozen out of a .shareof the federal money they would react withhostility and disillusi.onment a,bout theirchances of benefitting by casting their lotwith Washington.

Money to ModeratesSpecifically,- we were told, OEO planned

to spend nearly twenty million dollars inMississippi during the coming year, thatsome five million would go to a project tobe controlled by white moderates via theCatholic Archdiocese of l\1ississippi, thatanother five million would go to a grouparound Aaron Henry and the NAACP for aproject in the Delta, that other projectswould be granted to moderate forces in thestate as they developed, and that a fouror five million dollar grant to CDGM wouldbalance the program on the Left.

In August the grant to the CatholicArchdiocese "Project Star", was an­nounced, in the amount of seven milliondollars for two years, the largest programsponsored by the OEO in Mississippi todate. The orientation of Project Star isquite different from that of CDGM. Thecore of the project is a job-training pro­gram to be administered largely throughexisting agencies, which will provide in­comes to 25,000 poor people while teachingthem literacy, arithematic and simple bus­iness skills and then will attempt to place

• ;1\ ")1' '. t .': •.

them in jobs. Another function of ProjectStar is "to assist Mississippi in attractingnew business and industry:'

The Program Policy and Advisory Com­mittee, as originally planned, was to in­clude representatives from the MississippiState government, the state Chamber ofCommerce, the Mississippi ManufacturersCommission, the Mississippi EconomicCommission, the Mississippi state Depart­ment of Education, "and other authorities,"as well as six representatives of the povertycommunity. This is the new "broadly repre­sentatives" coalition against poverty: it isalso, it begins to seem, the new broadly­based coalition that is going to bring Missis­sippi into the fold of the national DemocraticParry and into the "mainstream of Ameri­can life:'

Milksop to MilitantsIt was clear the CDGM could only play

a "positive" role in the Administration'splans if it continued to be run by the poorin some fashion and to have a place withinit for fo~mer civil rights workers and forthose who would otherwise become workersfor the FOP, while not serving as a vehiclefor radical agitation by these people. There­fore the demand of OEO that "there mustbe increased Board control of the program"assumed greater importance.

Most of us on central staff who had triedto maintain the radical ends of the programand who had led the revolt against the OEOdirective would be leaving at the end of the.summer. We realized that although we hadwon the initial battle against the total sub­servience of CDGM to the ends of the poli­ticians in Washington, the later battles wouldbe lost unless some way were found to insti­tutiorialize control of the program some­where other than in the present Board ofDirectors.

We made an attempt, in a stormy meetingwith the Boa r d, to convince them thatmajority representation on the Board shouldreside with 'the representatives of the localCDGM centers. We made no headway. Duringthe course of this meeting, however, wediscovered that one of the policy-makingbodies of CDGM was supposed to be a"Council of Neighborhood Centers", a bodythat most of us h:.ld never heard of.

The Solution-Too LateCopies of the CDGM grant proposal ap­

proved by OEO had been impossib"Ie to findat central office all summer. But ArtThomas brought a copy to this meeting andread from it: "The Council of NeighborhoodChild Development Centers: The Councilwill have the responsibility of participatingin the shaping of the overall progrilm;allocation of financial and staff resources,and sharing of problems and techniquesdeveloped."

Also, " •.•each center will participatein the Council of Neighborhood Child Dev­e lopment Centers." Somehow, apparently,in the rush of getting CDGM _organizedand getting all those things d0ne that wereabsolutely necessary so the program couldphysically function, the Council of Neighbor­hood Centers had been forgotten and neverconstituted.

The Council of Neighborhood Centerswould be our answer. In the few weeks re­maining we made an all-out effort toeducate the communities about what wasreally at stake in our dispute with OEO andwith the Board of Directors, and we sentout a call for each center to choose t\Vorepresentatives to attend the founding meet­ing of the Council of Neighborhood Centers.

The meeting took place the second to lastweekenu of the summer. It was a debacle,Although only representatives from thelocal centers were allowed to vote, anyonewas allowed to attend and speak to themeeting. Tom Levin and members of thecentral staff urged the delegates to takeupon themselves the responsibility for over­seeing the future course of the program,so that CDGM could continue to be a people'sprogram. People from the FOP and SNCCcame and expressed their misgivings aboutthe purposes of the federal government andurged the people not to sell out their poli­tical involvement for a few pennies fromOEO: the conservative members of theBoard of Directors, mainly OJ, Horn andJoe Edmonson, warned the people againstallowing their centers to be used for thepolitical purposes of thc central staff whichhad bungled the progr;l!Tl all SUlllll1er.- Hornand Edmonso:l warneu thcm thdt thekderdl

government would not long tolerate inef­ficiency and misuse of its funds and that theyhad better watch to the proper managementof their centers and not allow the goodwork, the great benefits the program wasproviding for the children, to be destroyedby bickering and political interference.

The arguments of Horn and Edmonsoncarried the day. Speaker after speakerfrom the centers got up to testify to thegood that had been done for their childrenand to plead that whatever necessary bedone to insure that the program continue.As Quintell Gibson of Holly Springs put it,•'Don't let this ray of sunshine be snuffedout from the lives of little children:' Themeeting broke up with no specific plansmade, and confusion on the part of the peopleabout just what it was supposed to haveaccomplished.

Political Realities

CDGM has just been re-funded with a grantof 5.6 million dollars for a year-roundprogram. Its central headquarters is in aJackson office building. There will be 150centers rather than 84. The Board of Direc­tors will be the sponsoring agent of theproject and the Board "in cooperation withthe Council of Neighborhood Centers, will bethe effective policy instrument of the overallproject:' I don't know in what way thiscooperation will be effected, but I am notoptimistic about the future political dir­ection of CDGM. The children will continueto benefit, the year will be the best year ofschooling that most of them will ever have,and perhaps the spark it plants in them willenable to do something about their liveswhen they come of age. But if the spirit thatthe civil rights movement gave to theirparents and their teachers dies out and theprogram adjusts itself to the political•'realities," the enthusiasm for the programwill also gradually die: a teaching positionin a CDGM school will become like anyother civil-service teaching job, and theschools will become ordinary custodialday-care centers or perfunctory kindergar­tens within a few years.

The obvious lesson to the central staffwas that you can't run a radical programon government money: you can't developgrass roots democracy on a timetable setin Washington or structure freedom by thesame regulations that organize a bureau­cracy. This lesson was lost on the people.If the decision to work within the govern­men't framework really constituted a majordecision about the direction of their lives,the people made it unawares, because cen­tral staff never made a serious effort,

, until too late, to educate the people as towhat was at stake or to bring them intothe decision-making process.

The fact that Levin and the rest of us_knew in our hearts that we were for theNegro people was not enough to make themaccept our program as their own. Thepeople who organized and ran CDGM didn'treally bother to consult with the peoplebefore acting on their behalf. Our hand­picked Board of Directors, although itincluded community people, was hardlya representative body of the CDGM consti­tuency. But the most damning mistake wasthat Levin and the Delta Ministry, foundit unnecessary -- for whatever practicalreasons -- to organize the Council ofNeighborhood Centers, the one part of theprogram that was to give the communitiesof the poor a formal voice in the policydecisions of CDGM.

At the time CDGM was being organized,Tom Levin spoke to a SNCC conventionat Waveland, Mississippi and urged SNCCto take an active role in the program.Some SNCC people joined as individuals,but by and large SNCC rejected the over­ture as a sell-out. I understand that sincelast summer a SNCC conference has decidedthat they should have become more involvedin the program. Perhaps it wouldn't havemade any difference, perhaps the simpleand real, if limited, immediate benefits ofthe prog~am were all the people would havewanted from it in any event.

It may be that the concen.s of middle­class radicals for such concepts as' 'parti­cipatory democracy" h a v e no piace inMississippi -- it may be'that the Negroesof Mississippi are just one revolution be­hind, and all they really want is a decentincome and an equal access to the :\mericanMainstream. We didn't really present themwith a choice last summer.

I

Page 8: LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE …...LOWNDES COUNTY NEGROES WORK TO TAKE OVER COUNTY ItBefore the Black Panther Party came, when I went to the boss man to ge't a little :money,

STUKELY CARMICHAEL "Integration is completely irrelevant to us:what we want is power for people who don't have it"

BLACK PANTHER PARTY PRIM.'\RY at First Baptist Church in Hayneville. 900 voted.

like the Democratic party and the Republi­can party. We want power, that's all wewant. After we get power we can talk aboutwhether we want all black of not.

The thing we get beat over the headwith by Martin Luther King and people likethat is that anything all black is as bad asanything all White. But that's not true. Allwhite is only bad when you us'e force tokeep it all white. And something all blackisn't bad if you don't use force to keep itthat way. But these arguments didn't makeany difference to local people: they wantto see black and white together. You haveto leave some spaces open for whitepeople.

No\iV I have said, and I mean it, that theDemocratic Party is the most treacherousenemy of the Negro people on a nationalbasis. They step on us, they take ourvote for granted and we're completelyirrelevant. J0 h n son passed that VotingRights bill because he knew we were goingto vote Democratic. He knew he was goingto have all those votes in 1968~ And that'swhat's going to happen unless we begin tomove, and start controlling those thingswith indeper,dent forces.

Poor WhitesThere are also a lot of poor whites

and they're in the majority and they don't-control. That can start growing too: inde­pendellt parties that those people control,and eventually we can hook up with. Thatmeans there's a chance for real deep changeto be wrought in thiS country. SNCC has tobecome less popular because it's going tohave to say the things that I'm talking about.

f~,,, ',' " "'l.

".~

and Wilson Baker, and that they shouldignore the county level where their powerreally was. What you have in this countyis that Negroes are always told to votefor someone who is less of a racist insteadof more for Negroes.

We thought we could take over the Demo­cratic Party in Mississippi and that's afarce. Them crackers ain't never goingto let us in. We got to build something ofour own. The Negroes who voted Demo­cratic in Alabama are like Negroes allover the country who pulled the Demo­cratic lever: like Negroes in Watts -- theyvoted Democratic and they don't have adamn thing to show for it, Because theycan't control the vote. You've got to getpeople into independent political powerwhere they can control on the countylevel. They can control the money thatcomes into it, they control the law, 'thetaxes.

When they can do that, then they canmeet a white man with power. Right nowwe can't do that. When the Man says,jump we got to ask him how high.

"Black Nationalism"I want to talk a little about' this "black

nationalism". Now a lot of people aretalking about how this organization has tobecome all-black. What I learned was whenwe were starting the Party we kept sayingto people -- "We got to have it all black,cause that's what we rea 11 y need."And they wouldn't touch it. Local peoplewould not touch something allblackbecausethey think it's bad. The way we had to doit was to say -- This is a party, it's just

and had a meeting with them. And theymade a committment to send $fOO a monthdown to Lowndes County. Now that wasgood because that meant you cut off allyour white liberal support. That's some­thing else I found out from the MFDP;when the chips were down the white lib­erals cut out and we were left holdingthe bag. But if you didn't depend on themfor anything you could do anything youwanted to do.

It Isn't IntegrationNow what happened in Alabama is that

we started building something, and we madewhites irrelevant to everything we did.Whites in the county and whites in theNorth. We were building a party for blackpeople, because they were disenfranchisedin Lowndes County. I'm not in any bagabout "Black Nationalism" and all that.We've done it without talking about"Whitey" and "getting rid of Whitey" andthat shit. We just don't want to become apart of the Man.

What I've learned about integration isthat this country always defines it. Butit was always a one-Sided thing: Negroeswere always going to whites and it was infact white supremacy. Because everythinggood was white.

For example: in Lowndes County we boy­cotted the school to get rid of the prin­cipal. She's still in there. But next year shewon't ,be. We will control the school boardand we will determine who is principal.And we won't need to protest anymore.Now you have to understand that veryclearly because that ain't anti-white.

It's impossible for a man making $3a day to vote for a man making $10,000a year. It's impossible for both of themto be in the same party. I've seen thatclearly in Lowndes County. You just can'tdo it.

When you talk about going for power,, moral force and non-violence become com­,pletely irrelevant. When you go for poweryou go for it the way everyone in the coun­try goes for it.

Black people never have a chance todefine integration. It's always defined forus by the New York Times, by Time maga­zine, by OEO and the Hea'Clstart program.What can really happen in Lowndes County:Once we take over the Board of Education,we can spend the same amount of money'on the Negro schools as they do on thewhite school -- make it a real school -­then the problem of integration will becomeirrelevant. You can have integration beinginitiated on both sides. Integration in thiscountry has always been initiated on oneside; black people have always initiated in­tegration.

What King is about to do is integratethis county. That's what he tried to do inAlabama. He told all those Negroes thatthe best thing they could do was insteadof voting for black people like themselveswas to vote for cr'lckers like Al Lingo

Stokely Carmichael, newlyelected Chairman of SNCC.His work in Alabama led tothe organizing of the L own­des County Freedom Or­ganization.

No StringsWhen I went into LownJes County I had

a big argument with the Alabama [' 'lft.We decided that we weren't going to aSNCC for a penny and that all the moneywe got we were to raise in Lowndes County.Now we've done that.

Bob Mants went to Detroit. Everybody inthe county gave him a name of their sonsor daughters or their grandmothers or theirkinfolk. Bob got all those people together

The 'one thing I learned from the Missis­sippi Freedom Democratic Party was thatyou don't work for integration in this coun­try -- what you've got to worK for ispower. The mistake we made was that wewent to the National Democratic Partybegging them to come into their party. Ifwe're to do anything, we have to stopbegging.

Or.ganizing TechniquesOne of the first things we decided when

we moved into Lowndes County was that wewouldn't hold mass meetings at the samechurch. We held them at different areas

,of the county every Sunday night. Whatthat meant was that everyone in the county

, was able to come to a mass meeting and youwouldn't get just the same people. Onlytwo or three times did we have lpss than200 people.

We also organized community meetings.Every community has a meeting once aweek where they discuss all the things thatare relevant to that community.

I also found that the role of the organizerhad to be minimized, but I got out of thatbag of manipulation. I went in there withcertain ideas. One idea was to organizepeople to get power. And if that is manipu­lation so be it.

and we don't ihtend to do evil for evil,but we definitely don't intend to be pushedaround in ~wndes County.

Before the movement came, Negroeswere being pushed around by white people.The law would come into houses and breakin, push their doors in and make searcheswithout anybody saying anything, withouta search warrant.

Today it's different.Then you could hardly ride the highway

on Sunday evening. State Troopers wouldblock the highway and give just abouteverybody who comes along a ticket. Now,through the suits we've filed, hardly a personis getting arrested in the County.

Real changes have been made. A Negrocouldn't even go into the courthouse atone time, without the whites speaking roughto them. Now it's different --when Negroeswalk in, the whites get together and standwhispering to one another and never sayanything. Negroes don't fear any more ofgoing to places they was afraid of going to.

Personally, I used to have a little fearof going into some places, but now it'saltogether difterent. A man just happento be a man now, I don't think no other way.

JOHN HULEn - CONTI NUEDto stop wprking until they get it. Havingthe vote and people still being poor won'tsolve our problem. .

If we had our own Sheriff and if we wereto picket Dan River Mills then the Sheriffwould come out and protect the picketersand if anybody tried to interfere, he wouldarrest them.

Also I think we could get a larger sumout of them for taxes. If they refused topay the taxes they would have to move.We could take Dan River Mills and putthe equipment back into its place, hireour own people to operate it and the countywould get all the profits from it and wewouldn't have to be worried about taxesand our children not going to schooL We'dhave a county-run plant. It would providemore jobs for our people.

1 know one thing -- if Negroes becomestrong enough in the county then a lot ofpeople are going to move out. 1 don't thinka lot of these land owners are going to wantto be dominated by Negroes who's con­trolling the county. I do believe they'regoing to sell their land and move into someother area. And with the, taxes that are goingto be put on them, they aren't going to payit. Most of them have only been paying asmall amount of the 6CJfo they owe.1 really don't think they are going to goa long with it.

How do you organize?We go from house to house. We go into

the worst areas where people are stillafraid and shaky, people who live on plan­tations. So far there have been at least 65or 70 families who've been evicted becausethey exercised their rig:lt to vote. We goin and talk with these people and let themknow that they can live without these landowners. That the land owners need themto take care of their land. They need usworst: they make a living off of us and wedon't make a living olf of them. Once youstart telling people this they srart thinking

. about it. You may have to leave them for aday or two, but you keep going backto themand finally you're able to pull most of thosepeople in. oui:- biggest fight now is among"our own people, like the professionalpeople,school teachers and preachers who don'twant any part in it because once the commonNegro moves up he will become equal withMm. '

Once we win 1 think the Sheriff coulddeputize enough people to keep law andorder in the county. 1 also think that peoplehave made up their minds that they aregoing to be their own protection. The whitepeople aren't going to go out and starttrouble because they mig-ht end up on theworst end of it. We don't bother people

How has thechanged lifeCounty?

movementin Lowndes

A gambler who carried his cards aroundin his pocket got to let someone else winnow and then to keep his game going. Thisis what the Democratic party is doing forNegro people. They have fixed it where oneperson can win every now and then and theyare picking their people. That's why' I thinkevery county, even if they don't have enoughto take over, should organize their ownpolitical group and they should endorse'the candidate they feel is the lesser of twoevils.

Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mants andCourtland Cox from SNCC moved into thecounty in February 1965. They brought alot of strength to our people, a lot of cour­age, they were good workers. I think todayall our people, whatever we have done forour county, we give those people credit for.They are, as far as we are concerned thebest organizers in the country. They alwayslet the people make their own decisions.They bring ideas to the people and youaccept whatever you want to accept.

I think once we take over the county'government, instead of haVing two com­

munities white and black, we will have onecommunity, Where people could sit downand talk across the table with one another.This is what we're working for. They'lldeal with us when we're in power.

We feel in Lowndes County that the powerdoes not lie in the person who runs foroffice but in the organization around theperson.