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MANI N ORUM SOUTH BEND, INDIANA September, 1966 Vol. 6, No. 17 THE NORTHERN REBELS A few years ago, when certain politicians iscovered they could attract Northern votes by promisfng to end segregation in · the South, most r)eople thought that -civil rights problems were confined to Dixie. Northern Liberals took up the banner of t1equality for allt1 in the South. It was argued that State laws requiring segregation in certain areas of life were unconstitutional laws. Much was said about the thesis that laws which are "immoral" need not-and should not-be obeyed. (In the flurry righteously to disobey immoral laws, whole mobs of people sat down and blocked rush-hour intersections. Did they decide that traffic laws were immoral?) The Northerners pontificated about the evils of the Southern "system. ti Demonstrations in Southern cities were televised to Northern audiences, who shook their heads and wondered how the people of Dixie could be so terrible. And then it boomeranged. Today it is the North-where t1segregationt1 is not legally imposed; where the "immoraltl laws do not exist-it is the North where trouble is taking place. The action center is now in cities like Cleveland and Chicago and Los Angeles , and smaller cities as well. There are "demonstrations"-a gentle word for what has happened in some places-everywhere. The leaders of these incidents would like the public to believe that the outbursts are merely the spontaneous reaction of downtrodden people ~ Yet, reports seep through the propagandar eports of outside agitators who never set eyes on the local t1downtrodden" people before. During the Hough uprising in Cleveland, there was evidence that many of the rioters came from out of town , a nd that they came specifically to create a disturbance. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to launch a probe into the question of whether a pro-C astr o organization had anything to do with the Cleveland incidents. The House Committee on Un-American Activities may hold hearings to discover the details of the "Revolutionary Armed Movement" (RAM) which is said to hold "Black Powert1 workshops in various cities. By merest coincidence, these workshops precede riots by a week or so. There is suspicion in some quarters that the RAM may be very much connected with Robert Williams, who broadcasts out of Havana in pr ograms designed to a gitate American Negroes into an uprising. A side effe ct of the civil rights demonstrations in Chicago has been an alarming increase in cri me . The police superintendent says this is due to the fact that the polic e force is obliged to protect the civil r i ghts marcher s during their continuous m a rches-and the rest of the city is left with insuffic i ent police protection. The facts support the super intendent's contenti on : During the recent period of daily m a r ches , serious crime increased in the city by thi r ty pe r cent . In other words , the t ime ha s come when a vocal minority can not only cause civil strife by invading private nei ghborhoods, but can deprive all citizens of police pr otection against as sault, rape, robbery , and mu rder. P e r haps it is time for the majority of citizens t o dem onst r ate for their rights . ' ' • l. l �" . . . through some 15 FederaLageucies admi nistering E;ome 70 programs, (the Federal Governm ent) ha s invested 96 billioJLdoJlars over the past decade in city and State aid ... We have all thes e programs and yet we keep slipping further and further behind ... We are reaping a whirlwind of violence." -Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn. ) "The r iot-scarred ghetto of Watts will once again erupt in flames if the militant-and predominantly white-leaders of the Progressive Labor Party have their way . " The PLP was founded several years ago by Milt Rosen and Mort Scheer, self-proclaimed revolutionaries who left the Communist Par ty, U.S. A. , because they were convinced it was lacking in ideological zeal. Scheer, the newer group's vice president, is currently directing West Coast operations. PLP leaders are working closely with black nationalists to keep the Watts cauldron boiling. When a white policeman shot and killed a Negro motorist earlier this year , P LP agents turned out thousands of 'Wanted for Murder' posters that bore his picture. "The handbills were distributed throughout Watts by white-hating Negro m ilitants . These same black nationalists are now circulating a PLP petition entitled 'The Revolt in Watts and the Coming Battle. ' " This particular tome drives home the point that Los Angeles is 'the hub of a mammoth industrial complex ... The greatest fear of the imperialist enemy is that the black people in the s outh Los Angeles ghetto will shut down the factories ... The black people of south Los Angeles posses s a weapon more powerful than 22, 000 guns! And black people can choose their own time and places of batt le. "' - Bill Schulz, King Features Syndicate , as quoted in Human Events "The United States office of education has just r eported to Congress its two-yea r study on equality of educational opportunities in the nation , and it' s about as unsurpr ising as possible. " The study c oncluded , primarily , that predominantly Negr o schools aren't as good as pr edominantly white s chools . Although the report itself contained no r ec ommendations, the public statements of Harold Howe II, the commissioner of education , indicate wh at he wants t o do . He wants to r earrange childr en so that a s many s chools as fe asible will have s ome sort of ' racial balance. ' "That will not be easy for Mr. Howe. The fact is, a lot of Am er icans want their children to go to s chool in thei r own neighborhood-and for r eas ons that have nothing to do with prejudice .. . "But Mr. Howe has a major weapon-spell it Money. The Federal Government is more and more a direct financial supporter of education ; it is l'egally committed to encou rage desegre gation, and its l eaders seem firmly convinced that they have the right and duty to use financial leverage toward that end . .. " There may be something to l ose in breaking up one of the keystones of American education. Such a c ourse could help fracture the society. " -The National Observer "Politics is a curious trade in which at all times it is the constant aim of its practiti oner s to have their cake and eat it too. This is the reason why President Johnson has thrust hims elf into the contr adict ory position of encouraging and discouraging civil str ife at one and the s ame time. During his years in the House and Senate, Johnson voted against every single civil r i ghts message that cam e before Congress . .. When Johnson succeeded to the Pres idency upon Kennedy 's sad and untimely death, he became the str ongest suppor ter of civil r ights in the White House ... The offic ial encouragement c annot be blamed fo r inciting all the civil str ife that has followed, but it did not deter demons trations . " - Walt er Trohan, in the Chicago Tribune ' I • I �