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For lnstanre, while Ahmeo ran s, Aaolpl:i Hitler" r oams. He is the bearded, long-haired white youth wh'J commands the Deuces, a local motorcycle club that is patterned on • California's Hell's Angels and vows allegiance to George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party. Dur ing last summer's Hough riot the Deuces, decked out in Levis, animal-skin vests and chromed Nazi helmets, roared through the ghetto . flailing with chains at Negroes. " This is probably the group around which other white gangs will rally should an outbreak occur," declares a social worker. Both Ahmed and Adolph, and the circumstances that charge their activities with danger, are known to the police and presumably to the man who sits atop the Cleveland powder keg-Mayor Ralph Locher. Yet conversation with city officia ls turns up little hope of pre· venting n ew racial violence. Rather, discussion centers on when, where a nd how it will occur. Mayor Locher, a Democrat, up for reelec· tlon next fall, tries hard to accentuate the positive. "We're progressing nicely on many fronts," he says. But his optimism evaporates when he is questioned about the possibility of r iots this summer. "No mayor can guarantee peace," he replies. Others in the Locher administration and private welfare-agency officials com e close to predicting conflict. Mrs. Lolette Hanserd, a director of the Welfare Federation , an organization coordinating the activities of the city's social service agencies, has been receiving increasing reports of black and white gangs not only organizing but arming. "If the Negroes don't stir up trouble, then some whites may be trigger-happy," she says forlornly. An SOS to Washington Most pessimi tic of all is the director of Mr. Locher·s human r elations board, Bertram ' Gardner. He fears a n outbreak this summer larger than last summer's. "I suspect that it won' t be confined to th e Negro community," he says. "I'm afraid it will extend to the white communities and downtown - not a massive movement but guerrilla warfare." White neighborhoods n ext to Negro ghettos share these fears . The Justice Department in Washington already has r eceived an appeal for help from a social worker in Murray Hill , known as "Little Italy," which has been selected by some Negroes as a target for demonstrations this summer. If this happens, warns the sorial worker, "violence could erupt." He adds plaintively: "Our experience with local law-enforcing agencies has not been as comforting as we would like." Underlying such pessimism is the feeling that much of Cleveland's attempt to deal with its racial problems has fa iled, and that those groups that might be expected to join in a leadership effort are alienated from one another. City Hall and the Federal Government are at odds. During the past 15 years or so, the city, eighth largest in the U.S. with a 1960 population of 876,050, has drawn up plans for a dozen urban renewal projects; it now surpaases all other metropolises in acreage tabbed for renewal. Yet Cleveland has been able to close the books on only one project. a pace so slow that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Weaver has begun cutting oft the city's urban-renewal money. His ·'J,,, Pl6asa Turn to Page 16, Column 2 • �·voL. CLXIX NO. 50 Racial Powder Keg Negro-White Hostility Mounting in Cleveland As City's Efforts Fail Armed Youth Gangs Growing; Mayor Blamed by Business, Established Negro Leaders CORE, Reds, Klan E ye City By MONROE W. KAlij\1IN and DAVID Sta // Re,po1·t6)"8 o/ VIENNA Tim WALL STREET JOURNAL CLEVELAND - To Ahmed, the high priest of Negro militancy here, the white man is a "bea.st" to be overcome. He predicts May 9 will be the "terrible day" that the anger of this city's black ghetto erupts into violence partly because, by his calculations, that will be the day when an eclipse of the sun darkens th e sky. , Because of his devotion to astrology, Ahmed Is dismissed by many white Cl evelanders who doubt that astrology has any value. Besides, Ahmed, whose real name is Fred Evans, was arrested last week on charges of assault· ing a police officer; he has been released on $5,000 bond. Nevertheless, Ahmed's warnings that "blood must flow" and "some must die" are gospel to a small but growing number of followers, who gather every other Thursday night to hear him or other Negro radicals conduct what they call "dialogues in black." And though these sessions m ay be a muddle of mysticism and menace, they are all too symptomatic of the tensions that make this city one of the n11tion 's leading racial trouble spots. Even to 1;ome city officials, Cleveland's Inability to make a significant start toward coping with rar ial discontent seems to foreshadow a sequel , when the weather warms, to last summer's five-day riot in the "tough Hough" :;.!um that left four dead. Fears In Washi ng1on That also is the feeling of those In Washington who kPep watch on racial developments. John A. Hannah, chairman of the U .S. Civil Rights Commission, which hPld hearings here last year, says lhe a ccounting of (Cleveland's) accomplishments is very short, and the agenda of Its unfinished business ls very long." Another civil rights specialist asserts that "what makes Cleveland different from other cities" in its potentiality for a racial explosion "is its complete lack of effective leadership" on the part of City Hall, the business community and the respon11iblP Negro organizations. Thi11 le;idership vacuum and its effects are apparent to anyone who peers behind the ' ty,,;ltlve Image " that Cleveland offirialrlom SPeks to projer.t. OntsidP organizations ranging frnm natinnal civil right~ groups to whitP·SUpremacy group.:: , a re marking ClevP!and as an arena ! or artion th1l'I sr•·1ng Within thP city, for every anti -,\ r.,I P Negro i:rroup there is an • i 1 d anti-N white g1·oup. �-~ Racial Powder Keg: Negro-White inoe· Hostility Is Mounting in Cleveland Continued From Page One reason: The " long history of negotiations with, and broken promises from, the local government." Mayor Locher accuses Mr. Weaver of unfairness. · City Hall and the Cleveland business community are at odds. The Inner City Action Committee, led by Chairman Ralph Besse of Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co ., was created after the 1966 Hough riots, to help the city cope with its racial problems. But after six months it severed relations with the mayor because " the city administration will not accept meaningful assistance and coordination." Mr. Locher · accuses the businessmen of playing politics with the well-being of the people of Cleveland. City Hall and the responsible Negro leadership are at odds. ' 'Frequently when it's most needed, the Negro leadership just isn't there," the mayor charges. Leo Jackson, a Negro city councilman, replies with equal intensity: "Lecher's a decent, honest, sincere gentleman, but you can't be a gentleman and cope with the problems of this town. You've got to be a hardfisted, practical guy who'll take risks." Established Negro leadership and the Negro community are at odds. A training progra m sponsored by the National Associa tion for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League has flopped badly in its aim of getting Negroes into building trades jobs. Ernest C. Cooper, the Urban League director, says: "We were in the position of preparing people to be put on shelves." With this failure , the NAACP and Urban League dropped another notch In the esteem of Cleveland's Negroes. According to one civil rights s pecialist, "The NAACP couldn't mobilize a picket line of 10 people now. The Negro community and the police are at odds. Harlell Jones, a slender Negro Identified by a grand jury as a leading figure in last summer's riots, but never indicted, and who now works as a building maintenance man In Hough, assesses the current mood of the ghetto as worse than a year ago. The reason? "Police brutality," he says. Police Chief Richard Wagner replies: "We h ave no critics west of the Cuyahoga; we cannot appease those east of the Cuyahoga." Most whites live on the west side of the Cuyahoga River, which runs through the middle of Cleveland; most Negroes live on the east side. Movement ln the Schools Still, Mr. Wagner has established a new community relations unit in the department and has opened eight new police athletic centers for slum youths. Also, there has been some movement in education. A new school board has Initiated the construction of some new schools, the opening of more kindergartens, libraries and vocational classrooma, and the creation of a supplementary education center to draw white and Negro pupils for specialized instruction. "The only bright spot I can think of ls our schools, says Alan Kandel of the Jewish 11 ,.. some authorities expect Communist operatives to be active here this year; the grand jury investigating last summer's Hough riots found evidence of Communist Party participation. Local organization is proceeding on both sides of the color line. The United Black Brotherhood (UBB), formed last fall and regarded by Police Chief Wagner as "militantly racial," is actively involved in the "dialogues in black" that present Ahmed and others to the Negro community. The supposed aim of the "dialogues" is to steer militants away from violence and toward peaceful protest. But police say the effect is to unite Negroes under the UBB banner. Lewis Robinson, identified by a grand jury as a leader in last summer's riots but never indicted, and now a participant In the "dia· logues," says of them: "We've had factional ism . Now we want to pull all these things together." He views rioting as "productive and good, a warning that drastic measures must be taken." Harlell J ones also believes Negroes should crowd into a single group for "political" purposes. He plans to strike out on his own this month to organize such a group. White Organizing An organizing drive among whites is being planned by Rob ert Annable, chairman of the Cleveland-based National Christian Conservative Society and also head of the North American Alliance of White People. Mr. Anna ble, who believes that Negroes are "culturally and intellectually inferior," will begin holding ral· lies . in May. William Murphree, vice president of the White Citizens Council of Ohio subscribes to many of Mr. Annable's beliefs and also !)!ans rallie11. The special targets of all these racial organizers, whether they admit it or not, are the youngsters of this "city of nations," most of whom live in neighborhoods that are sharply segregated along nationality as well as racial lines. Murray Hill is largely Italian, Sowinski Park largely Polish, Hough largely Negro, and so on. As the pressures of social change have mounted, what once were youth clubs have become gangs and now, say social workers and police alike, they are turning more viciously racist. "We know that white and Negro youth gangs now are clashing," says Mr. Kan· de!, "and we didn't have that before." In Collinwood, a white neighborhood next to the Negro Glenv_ille section, a young fellow in his twenties says: "When the civil rights groups said they were going to march this summer in our neighborhood, a bunch of the guys tn our club decided to form vigilante groups." The "club" he refers to is a neighborhood social club. Mrs. Hanserd of the Welfare Federation says, "We keep hearing there's a bUlldup of guns in the Collinwood area. "Ohaln Gang" Target Practice In Sowinski P!!,rk, members of the white Chain Gang recently have acquired shotguns . "They're practicing with the guns in the base · ment of one member's home, shooting at pa· per targets they can 'niggers,' " R. social worker says. "The purpose for the guns, they say, Is to defend them �he creation of a supp emen ary e uca :Ion ' ~ ., . ,o 5""" m •• e oase- to a r aw w te and egro pupils or ment of one m em ber's home, shooting at papecialized instruction. per targets they call 'niggers,' " a social work"The only bright spot I can think of 1s er says. "The purpose for the guns, they say, our schools," says Alan Kandel of the Jewish is to defend themselves against the Negroes Community Fe~eration. -when the 1·iots come again this sum m er." There are ollier activists a t work, but wl~ In another white section, on the west ern much visi ble r esult. The Businessmen s fringe of Hough, signs tacked on telephone 1out [nterrac!al _C ommittee on Community Affairs poles and painted on buildings warn " Nigger , · s conscientious but, says Mr. Cooper, a m em- this ls All ey Rat territor y keep y u t" 0 r ass ou , lb " th ' in 1 d tly in Jong range • er, ey re vo ve mos . ,, · or urge "Wallace fo r P resident." This ls the planning, not immediate a.ction. Two wood- work of the Alley Rats gang whose member s . ' pr oducts trade associations have announced workers say,. have attended m eetmgs. of th pIans t o re ha bil I·t a t e a sec ti on of H oug h , but social the project is said to be stym ied by slum e_American Nazi P a rty in Detroit and Pittslandlords who have jacked up prices. Other bwgh._ The Outlaws, a Cleveland m otor cycle public and private r eha bilitation projects club, is reported laying plans to attack the Checkere d Cher ubs, a Negro mo torcycle club. amount to a drop in the bucket. Mayor Locher, for his par t, has some plans The United Black Brotherhood, whose he expects to r eveal as election time ap- strongholds have been found by police to conproaches. He already has r epaved some slum ta in fi re bombs, has begun wi thin the past treets, installed new street lights, and hauled few weeks to instruct som e Negro youth gangs off the streets hundreds of junked cars. Soon in "guerrilla warfa re." Police Chief Wagner he hopes to start a citywide rat control pro- says the UBB has ma de contact with the gram, collect ghetto trash weekly instead of P onderosas, a 200-member group preoccupied monthly, let some contr acts for play areas until re cently with vandalism but now turnand "vest-pocket" par ks , and augm ent the ing increasingly a nt i-white. city's supply of housing inspector s, policemen A similar turn, says the police chief, has and medical personnel. been detected among other Negro gangs , 'loney Problem s such as the Delamores, the Devil's Disciples But all this costs money, and the mayor is and the Marqui s. " They' re getting away from paving his tr oubles on that score. Voters de- gang a ctivity and are forming militant racial teated a city income tax in 1965. Last year the organizations,' ' Mr. Wagner declares. ity council ena cted a tax to be effe ctive this past J a n. 1, but disgruntled citizens have forced the levy to another ballot box test, to ~e held in May or June. " If the t ax is deI feated," says Mr. Locher, " then there will have to be a severe cutback" in his plans. Anyway, the m ayor is willing to move only o far . To him some specific recomm endaions for ea sing racial tension in Cleveland Boost in Common and Preferred, dvanced by the Civil Rlghts Com mission are Creation of a N ew Pref erred 'poppycock," and he Is steadfastly Jo yal to his city officials. The Inner City Action ComTo Enable Further Diversifying , ittee, in offering to supply the city with dollar-a -year m en to unsnarl the urban r enewal I tangle , insisted on the removal of the city's By a, WALL STREET J OURNAL Sta,f! R eporter }.'ban renewal chief. The mayor refused. ST. LOUIS - Interco Inc. shareholders Mr. Locher is looking to Washington for ome new help. The White House is expected clear ed the way for further diversification of o announce soon a crash program to provide the company by voting to increase a uthorized obs for unemployed Negroes in 19 cities, and common by fou r million shares, and the exlethe mayor believes Cleveland will be one. But ing preferred by 327,060 shares in addition , r. Kandel of the Jewish Community Feder - to creating a new prefer r ed issue of one miltlon, who has been In on some of the local lion shares. Janning, is not enthusiastic. "It's too However, aside from a pending a cquisiate," he says. "They're talking about placing ,000 p eople by June, and that'll onl y three tion of Sam Shainberg Co., Memphis, Tenn ., operator of 79 junior department stores, for 1onths away." Less than two months away Is the " dooms- 410,000 shares of the present preferred, Interco tlay" pinpointed by Ahmed. He is quite correct isn 't seriously studying any possible acquisin predicting an eclipse of the sun on May 9, tions , Norfl eet H. Rand, vice chairm an of the ut authorities say the eclipse will be partial board and treasurer, said after the meeting. nd won't tum the Qleveland sky dark. And Since 1964, Interco has pursued an active hmed's forecast of revolt may be wildly diversification program. It operates 210 junio~ xaggerated . But other events scheduled for department stores, eight work and play clotheveland soon are likely to arouse racial ing factories and six retail hardware stores empers. plus its shoe manufacturing and retailin operations. "We're interested primarily in the nter Martin Luther King The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will visit soft goods, although we'd consider any field leveiand soon to help prepare for simulta- that looked promising," Mr. Rand said. eous demonstrations this summer here and in Sales and earnings in December and Janther cities. The militant Congress of Racial uary, the first two months of the company's quality (CORE) has narrowed its search for fiscal year, showed an improvement over the summer "demons tration city" to Cleveland, similar period a year earlier, the executive akland, Calif., and Newark, N.J. A spokes- said. And th ere will be "an improvement" an here says it Is ;,quite possible" that Cleve- for the quarter ended Feb . 28 from the first and will be the final choice. period of fiscal 1966, when Interco earned " If CORE makes Cleveland its target city," $3,861,227, or $1.09 a share, on sales of $106,ays J . B. Stoner, vice chairman of the white- 639,944 , excluding results of Idaho Departmen upremacist National States Rights Party, Store Co., acquired in February 1966. ' we 'll come to Cleveland to stage peaceful Mr. Rand also predicted higher sales and ounter-demonstrations." Last summer, after earnings for the year ending Nov. 30, even States Rights Party rally in Baltimore, without a contribution from Sam Shainberg he 1966 CORE demonstration city, whites a.nd Co. On a pro-forma basis for last year, for egroes tangled in the streets. instance, Shainberg would have contributed 18 The Ku h."lux Klan is preparing for an or- cents a share, after preferred dividends, to Ina nizatlonal meeting In this city in a few terco 's reported earnings of $14,598, 000, or $3.91 •eeks . There are reports that the American a share, on sales of $469,100,000. Results of azi Party intends activity here this spring. Idaho Department Store Co. were included t t'he other end of the political spectrum, only for nine months. 1 lnterco Inc. Holders Vote Stoc k Jncreases . • ' �