Dublin Core
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
'
‘A 10
Sindoy, Sept. Il, 1966
THE WASHINGTON POST
By Robert E. Baker
Washington Post Staff writer
ATLANTA, Sept. 10—This
' was the week that Atlanta
declared unconditional war
on the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, By
the end of the week, Black
Power, SNCC style, was reel-
ing from the assault,
SNEC's leader was in jail.
The Mayor was a hero. The
police force was riding a
wave of praise. Negroes were
revolting against ~SNCC’s
brand of revolt and ‘were
threatening SNCC with vio-
lence.
“A national conspiracy to
destroy us,” cried SNCC. |
This first battle was a de-
feat for SNCC. But it was a
battle and not the .
The spark at set off the
war came last Mnesday? the
day after Labor Day, with a
white-cop and Negro-suspect
incident, the same kind of
spark that has set off a
score of riots in Northern
cities over the past few sum-
mers.
But Atlanta's riot was dif-
ferent. It was smaller by far
than the Watts and Harlem
riots. No looting, no shoot-
ing, no Molotov cocktails.
And Mayor Ivan Allen Te
a Southern liberal, went to
the scene and mixed with
the crowd, trying to talk to
angry people. The police ,
used no firearms, wielded no
billy clubs.
And unlike the Northern
riots, where agitators are
generally blamed but un-
named, Atlanta put the
finger of blame on Stokely
Carmichae]_ and his wild
signs of image-smashing. It
_had changed its own image.
No longer was it the ideal- ~
istic integrated youth move-
ment struggling to change
society’s institutions to let
the Negro
virtually all black, with a
Black Power slogan, appar-
ently convinced that so-
ciety’s institutions must be
brought to earth and rebuilt,
and that each concession by
the whites only peeys the a
day.
‘In. July, a SNCC cotta
truck toured the Vine City
slum area where Hector
Black, a white, Harvard-edu-
cate um worker, has a fol-
lowing of Negro poor, blar-
ing: “What has your white
_ Jesus done for you today?”
In August, Carmichael led
a Negro crowd that sur-
rounded a policeman issuing
a traffic ticket to an Ala-
bama SNCC worker.
SNCC workers stormed
the Atlanta Army Induction
Center to protest the war in
Vietnam.
“The Viet Cong never
called me nigger,” said one
veteran of the war.
Last Tuesday, after police-
men wounded a Negro who
they said was a fleeing car-
theft suspect, Carmichael
was asked to organize a pro-
test demonstration. He and
in. Now it is ~
IvAN ALLEN
Photos by UPI and AP
STOKELY CARMICHAEL
., + Atlanta Mayor declares war on SNCC
ten other SNCC workers ar- ~ off
rived with a sound truck.
Speakers. harangued the
crowd With cries of Black
Power 40d charges of police
brutality. One speaker said
a white Cop had murdered a
black brother. Another said
the Negro was shot while he
had his hands held up high.
Another Said he was shot
while handeuffed,
A Negro policeman on
duty at the scene arrested
Wiliiam Ware, a SNCC
speaker, 4nd the riot began
as Ware Was being hustled
together, 1000
involved. Three police cars
were damaged, a dozen per-
sons were injured and police
fired tear gas before calm
was restored.
Mayor Allen and Police
Chief Herbert Jenkins im-
mediately said Carmichael
and SNCC were responsible.
Nearly everybody else
joined in.
Eugene Patterson, editor
of the Atlanta Constitution
and member of the U.S.
Civil Rights Commission,
ealled SNCC a “violence-
prone little band of racists.”
The Summit Leadership
Conference of Negro leaders
here warned Negroes to
“refrain from cooperating
with those who would make
you the tools and victims of
violence.”
By Wednesday night,
SNCC was on the run. In
Vine City, a SNCC storage
center with its pamphlets on
SINNCC Is Losing Support of Atlanta 1 Neg
: dom for Carmichael. To |
of ficial Atlanta, this Was al
‘Said its Cleveland sellers:
‘he only way this country ||
pla I people.”
White liberals, SNCC’s
Black Power, Vietnam and 5 i
police brutality was burned
after calls by Negroes threat- Fe
‘ening to burn them out.
In Summerhill, where the
riot took place, Negroes
formed “Good Neighbor
Clubs” and people there tore ©
up SNCC pamphlets and
threw them back at the
SNCC workers.
Carmichael talked back at
‘a street rally on Thursday:
aac) Mayor Tvan_ Allen is:
ae city . the revolt is
against the. bestiality of |
racist Mayor and his corrur
police department ...” |
But only a few people
gathered around. It appearet
SNCC had suffered its great
est defeat. :
But Atlanta as
through. Just before mid
night Thursday, police —
rested Carmichael at his’
fice and charged him w
inciting a riot and crea
a disturbance. He was hauled,
off to jail.
To many eet ue fe
ft
seapaop any Aaenercnnreaniibetaann ans tanle
rtunities and the fact that
Atlanta leadership seems to
spond only | to crises.
“Only by our own default
il any outside group gain
nta,” said the Atlanta
uncil on Human Rela-
ima" of the destiny of At-
4
’ ‘tions.
eae Carmicha! and SCC,
was be. to take an-
other look at itself and the
conditions that made a riot
possible.
‘
And unlike the Northern
riots, where agitators are
generally blamed but un-
named, Atlanta’ put the
finger of blame on Stokely
Carmichael and his wild
SNCC crew who were on
the scene as big as life.
The showdown between
Atlanta and SNCC was
bound to come. Atlanta is
obsessed with its image of
progress and SNCC is ob-
sessed with smashing im-
ages.
That Atlanta is a city of
comparative racial progress
cannot be doubted. Such
progress has been ham-
mered out by its white
power structure and _ its
Negro leadership, operating
through the Summit Leader-
ship Conference coalition.
The city sends racial
liberals, by all Southern
and most Northern stand-
ards, to Congress. Its Ne-
groes vote. Integrated high
school football games are
played without incident.
Fourteen community
schools for poor people are
operating at night. At-
Janta’s antipoverty program
has been praised as a
model. ‘
For a quarter of a cen-
tury, the mayors of At-
lanta—first William Harts-
field and now Ivan Allen—
have been moderate to lib-
eral, racially. Mayor Allen
supported the 1964 Civil
Rights Act and now sup-
ports the 1966 one.
Allen has a nearly daily
habit of riding to work by
way of Atlanta’s slums,
several relatively small
pockets of shacks, and
harassing his department
heads to clean up streets.
He had a study made of all
available Federal aid and
goes after every penny he
can get.
Yet there is another side
to Atlanta. Racial progress
at times has been grudging.
Eight Atlanta hospitals are
under a Federal ultimatum
to stop discrimination hy
next Thursday or face with-
drawal of Federal funds,
Sn and Atlanta were
le to swittly miear a sium
Falcons to alinch the status
' of a Big League city, but
don’t seem able to clear
slums and provide de-
cent housing as swiftly or
with the same determina-
tion,
For all its progress and
shining image, Atlanta hasn’t
been able to reach down yet
to the poor Negro who, as in
other cities, has poor hous-
ing, poor jobs if jobs at all,
and poor schools.
SNCC had been showing