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k,-~ ~ ' -~~·::, ~ OP N~i rw~u~day jfaf . , • The Week in Perspective Obituaries, Weather B WASHINGTON, D. C., SEPTEMBER 11, 1966 Dead End Awaits the Black Power Road EDITORIAL The arrest of Stokely Carmichael gation of last month 's trouble in t he Anacostia a rea is a case in point. That affair, involving a clash between Negroes a.nd police, has been und er study by a group of prominent citi-zens appointed by Commissioner Tobriner. Its co-chairman is Sterling Tucker, a r espected Negro leader. The study group has reached . no wnclusions. In fact , it is just beginning the job of drafting its report. Yet Adam Clayton Powell, whose position in Congr ess entitles one to expect some thing better from him, has charged into print and two of his SNCC lieutenants on charges of inciting last week's riot in Altlji.Jlta may mark a turning point in w'ha.t appears to be a struggle for supremacy between the moderate and the extremist elements in the civil rights movement. The importance of the decision by Atlaruta's Mayor Allen, who has taken a strong lead in behalf of Negro rights, lies in one simple fact. Public officials, assuming that the requi ite proof is in hand, must be willing to prosecute a Carmichael or anyone else where a serious ottense is invo1ved. If for a political

reason or some other reason they will

not take firm action against a leader, how can they expect those in the lower echelons to respeCJt and obey the law? And, of at least equal importa.nce, why should anyone suppose that the moderate civil rights leaders will speak out and act against violence 1! the civil authol"itlies are unwilling to do so? This is a testing year, a year in which events may determine whether good sense' oc "black power" in tts extreme manifesta,tions will can-y the day. It will be tragic if, because of weak knees in ciity hall, it should be made to appear that the rock-thrower and the Molotov cocktail a.re tih.e wave of the future. There is risk of oversimplification in discussing the moderaJte as opposed to the extremist wings. There is good reason to believe thaJt a very large majoriity of Negroes do not support and are even opposed to the extremtst tactics. This does not necessarily mean, however, tha.t all moderates wm condemn the extremists out of hand. Some of them 'ffiaY even dertve a. certaiin vicaiious saJtisfactlon from the excesses of a Carmichael or an Adam Clayton Powell, even t hough they know in their hearts that an appeal to black power, for example, can eventually lead only to a dead-end st reet as !.ar as any perma- with.. the accusation that he investiga- 'Trouble I got, man-what I want is progress!' nent advancement of civil rights is concerned. In this connect ion, it ls interesting to note the result s of a recent survey conducted by a respeoted polling a gency in Watts, Harlem, Chicago and Baltimore. The questions were asked by trained Negro pollsters. And the responses revealed t hast most Negroes, even in the ghettos, want pretty much t he same things that most white people want. They want better housin g. Not surprisingly, since they are the p1incipal viCJtims, t hey are worried about crime, and they are mo-re inte'l'ested in adequaite police pr otection th?,n in talk about police brutality. They want their children to h ave a sound, disciplined education. In Harlem only 2 percent of those tn,terviewed sa'id that school int egration was their grerutoot problem. The real edu cational pmblem, in the majO'!:ity opinion, is the pressing need for better neighborhood schools. Again, a cautionary note is in order. It does not necess-artly follow from the survey findings t h ait most of the people in t he g·h ettos are against violence in pursuit of t heir reasonable objectives. In Watts, for example, 48.4 pe,r cent of those interviewed thitnk the riot ing there h elped t heir chances for equality in jobs, schools and housing. Only 23.8 percent believe the rioting was h armful t o amtainment of t hits objective. The obvious inference from this 1s t hat th e demagogue, t he racist-in-reverse, will fin d his best opportunit y 1n the gh eittos and that th~s ls w'hy he makes his major pit ch there. It should be bor ne in mind, however, that the ghetto is no,t synonymous with t h e Negro community in t he United· States. Many Negroes do not live in gherf:ltos. The moderate Negro leader, however, h as a respo nsibility t o help allev10Jte the conditions in the gh etto. And he also has a responsibiUty to stand up and be counted in oppositiion t o t hose who seek to exploit the distress in the ghettos for purposes of thedr own-from motives which are at best dubious and which in the long run can only retard t he drive of the Negro for his equ al and rightful place in the American society. Here 1n Washington, the invest!- t ion is a "whitewash" and that the commi ttee has too many "mild-manner ed Negroes." Following this lead, Julius Hobson, who heads the group known as ACT, paid his respects to "pasteurized Negroes" on th e committee who, he said , would sell . other Negroes short "for a few pieces of silver." To the extent that a nyone in Washington takes Powell and Hobson seriously, this sort of demagogic prejudgment is as harmful as it is outrageous. And it should not be allowed , to go unchallenged·. Although not ai med specifically at the Powell-Hobson combination, th e executive board of the District chapter of the NAACP has just approved a r esolu tion which is a reflec l:iion of responsible thinking by moderate leadership. The r esolut ion, offered by H. Carl Moultrie, presiden t of the local branch, said that the NAACP "must condemn with .equal vigor the gathering of crowds to pro test the arrest of an individual, or individuals, as it does any form of police brutality." If witnesses think the police are guilty of brutality in making an arrest, the resolution continued, t here are appropriate avenues, including the NAACP, through which corrective action can be sought. But "violence on t he part o,f a person, or persons, or groups of persons, must be unequivocally ·condemned." The resolu tion ended with an expression of hope that "all oth er organizations do the same as we in calling for law and order." So far the call from other organizations h as been considerably less than deafening. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, however, has just denounced "black power" in any conteX:t of violence. As the struggle within the civil rights movemen t shapes up, and if public aoohoriiti.es follow Atlanta's example in cracking down on violence and inci temen t to violence, the country should h ear before long from oth er moderate voices. For if one thing ls clear, l:t ls tha,t future prog-ress in civil rights depends upon co-operation wH1hin the framework of law by whit es an d _Negroes whose dedication to equal treatment and equal oppoirtunity is genuine r ait'lher t han opportunis·tic. If an yone doub ts this, let h im look ait what is happening to t he 1966 clivil rig·h ts bill in the Sen ate. There certaiinly is not hing to be gained in the future by following those who think or who · pretend to t hink o·f progress in t erms of black power, and who talk nonsense about burning down the city to get what they want . · An impo,r tant thin g for everyone t o remember is that g.ains can be lost. And one way to reverse th e na,tdonal mood which has produced so man y very substant ial civil rights gains is to enlist a n ~rmv und er t he racist bann er of hot 'l~~ds wh o wa,nt the Nei;,;ro to go it alone. �