|
Roy Wilkins and Spiro
Agnew Speak
At Press
Conference in Annapolis, Maryland
19 July 1967
Governor Agnew:
Let me say at the outset, ladies and gentlemen,
that I consider it somewhat unfortunate that the visit
Mr. Roy Wilkins has paid the State of Maryland at my
request—the request having been made some four weeks ago
or better—comes starkly outlined against the backdrop of
the recent
violence in Newark and
Plainfield, N. J. To
some extent this thwarts the entire purpose of my asking
Mr. Wilkins here.
It thwarts it
because in my admiration for his efforts in civil
rights, the responsibility of his pronouncements, and
his outstanding leadership, I did not want to react or
show any reaction to action that was taken—that I
consider to be unfortunate and not in the best interest
of both the white and the Negro communities.
|
I wanted to have
Mr. Wilkins here to show him that we, the white citizens
of this country and particularly those of us in
positions of political leadership, do appreciate the
kind of guidance that his organization and he,
individually, is offering. I wanted to show that we can
make efforts and make progress to afford equal rights
for all our citizens—not because we are worried about
some outburst that is taking place, but because we want
to do something on our own initiative once in a while
without the dramatization of turmoil.
Unfortunately, we
have had these riots and there will be those who will
say that Mr. Wilkins has been invited here to put out a
potential fire in Maryland. I am sure that he can assure
you that this is not the case. We have had some very
fruitful discussions. We have talked about the needs of
education and job opportunities, the needs in the
housing area and accommodations, and we have covered the
gamut of the entire spectrum of the problems that beset
our country in its failure to afford civil opportunity
to all our citizens. We have some pretty good ideas
about how to proceed and I certainly want to express to
you, Sir, my very deep appreciation, in spite of your
very heavy schedule and in spite of some persistent
requests that you yield to a more immediate need than
this meeting, that you did come here and spend this time
with us.
|
 |
I feel
reassured by my conversations with you, and I just want
to urge the Maryland community, white and Negro, that
this is the kind of leadership that we have got to
follow if we are going to achieve what we are really
setting out to do.
Roy Wilkins:
Governor Agnew, I want to thank you for the invitation.
I certainly think I can put a date on the first
exploration for this meeting—it was something like June
4th or 5th—long before our Boston convention, and
certainly no one had in mind what happened in New
Jersey. As I recall your letter, it was to explore the
situation in Maryland with a view toward some
affirmative action while things were quiet, and as a
policy of the State and not a policy engendered or
stimulated by violence.
I am very happy to
be here and to learn what is being done in Maryland. Of
course, you were the first to state that all is not as
it should be, but the State is working on these
problems. I took the liberty of suggesting, Sir, both
today and in my communication to you that problems exist
in the business of employment among Negroes and
especially in the lower echelon, in the building trades,
in the State Highway Department and in all the
ramifications of State employment, but especially with
respect to contracts and contractors and Federal monies.
A recent decision
in Columbus, Ohio, had held that the State, as a
signatory to a contract—the Governor and other
responsible State officials— had the prime duty, not the
secondary duty, to determine that the people with whom
they signed the contract did not discriminate in their
employment policies. The ruling there in Columbus was
that a $12, 800, 000 medical building could not be built
on the campus of Ohio State University by the State of
Ohio because the contractor did discriminate, and I
suggest that this decision in Ohio might be helpful in
Maryland, although it is not binding upon Maryland, that
its lawyers, its Attorney General and others might want
to study.
I think the time
has come for us to realize that while we need not be
headstrong and headlong in our actions, there is an
urgency in this Negro-white problem, and in spite of all
the surface indications of arrogance and bigotry on the
part of both Negroes and whites, that the root of
correction lies in better schools, better jobs, better
housing, better administration of justice all along the
line, with particular emphasis on police-community
relations. It would be my hope that Maryland, which has
been proud of its title as the "Free State of Maryland"
and which has had more than its share of individualists
in the United States, might be the one to show the way
in many of these areas. Thank you for inviting me,
Governor.
Governor Agnew:
Nice to have you, sir.
Press Question:
In the light of what Mr. Wilkins was just saying,
Governor, Mrs. [Juanita
Elizabeth Jackson] Mitchell said in the afternoon papers
that the State is rampant with discrimination in both
hiring and promotion of employees. Do you have any
comment?
Governor Agnew:
One of the things that we are most interested in
working toward is the removal of all discrimination in
the State of Maryland, and I mean all the
discrimination.
Dr.
[Gilbert] Ware of my staff is presently
engaged in working up a "Code of Fair Practices, " a set
of regulations to be used by the executive branch, and
hopefully by all branches of the government, to be sure
that discrimination is removed wherever it exists. I for
one won't be satisfied until it is totally removed. I
certainly believe that there is some discrimination in
the State government.
I don't fault Mrs.
Mitchell's finding in that respect. Whether it is as
serious as she indicates will be revealed by a very
impartial and exhaustive examination by Dr. Ware in this
regard. I expect to have some results very soon. On
contracts that Mr. Wilkins mentioned, we are most
interested in seeing that discrimination on the part of
those who benefit from government contracts is removed
and we are taking steps in that regard. We have already
taken steps to make certain that there is a fairer
representation on the draft boards. I think out of the
last 15 appointments, the only 15 that I have made
(recommended to the President), over one-third have been
Negroes.
Press Question:
Governor, the Legislature at the last session defeated a
bill that would accomplish what Mr. Wilkins has achieved
in Columbus, Ohio. Are you considering issuing an
executive order that might achieve the same thing?
Governor Agnew:
I am considering doing that if I think it's a valid
device that will stand up. On the other hand, I
think it should be done by legislation, if practicable,
simply to reflect the policy of the State, and I will
offer such legislation again at the coming
session—irrespective of whether we will be able to move
forward in certain areas by executive order or not.
Press Question:
Well, sir, is there a possibility for an interim
executive order?
Governor Agnew:
It definitely exists.
Press Question:
Governor, I wonder if Mr. Wilkins will tell us if this
conference is unusual and if other governors have
requested similar conferences with him with no immediate
pressure to do so?
Roy Wilkins:
Well, it's the first conference of its kind, but I
honestly can't say that it is unique. Governor Agnew was
the first governor to suggest this voluntarily—with no
pressures at all—not from Mrs. Mitchell or a State
organization or anyone else. We have had responses from
governors all over the country in respect to the
Columbus, Ohio, thing which I used as a broadcast letter
to governors themselves, indicating that they would like
to discuss this matter and others in their state, but no
one went as far as Governor Agnew, nor as promptly or as
quickly. As a matter of fact, his letter came before the
Columbus, Ohio, letter was sent out.
It reflects what I
believe—and I say this because I am not voting in
Maryland and have no allegiances at all—it reflects a
very happy development in American politics, that the
chief office holder in the State, the chief
administrative officer, would feel within himself that
he wanted to approach a difficult problem with all the
advice he could get, and I discount all the nice things
he said about my leadership. The mere fact that he
wanted to discuss this, wanted to evaluate what his
State is doing, and does this voluntarily, without any
pressure, without party pressure or anything else, is a
very satisfying development.
Press Question:
In line with that, Governor, last week you'll recall
that Baltimore Negro ministers said they had to ask for
a meeting with you because they felt that the line of
communication was not as clear as they felt it ought to
be. Yet four weeks ago you invited Mr. Wilkins here. Do
you regard Mr. Wilkins as being able to do more than the
ministers in Baltimore?
Governor Agnew:
No, I wouldn't put it on that basis. But I will say
that in every great movement there are certain leaders
who are able to capture the imagination and respect of
most of the people, are interested in what's going on,
and I place Mr. Wilkins in that particular position of
leadership where he has not only struck the spark of
respect in the
Negro community but in the white community. He is a
common rallying point because of the sagacity of what he
said—and because of his ability to keep down the
sometimes very difficult to suppress, immediate
emotional reactions, that makes him of singular value in
approaching this problem. The ministers, of course, are
valuable also.
There is no question about it. Not just the ministers.
The people on the streets are valuable. Every cross
section of our population has its place in solving this
tremendous problem we have to face.
Roy Wilkins:
May I please have this one remark on this because I
wouldn't want to come to Maryland and leave—because you
can never tell what will occur to a reporter, of course.
I don't pose to know more about Maryland's problems than
the ministers do. I didn't come in the context of being
an alternative to the voice of the Negro citizens of
Maryland. It's simply a supplementary voice, if you will
have that kind of an interpretation, but not an
alternative voice.
Press Question: Mr. Wilkins,
did the Governor ask you anything about "riot control, "
and if he didn't ask you that, what would you have told
him if he did?
Roy Wilkins:
The Governor did not ask me about "riot control" since
this conference was not in the context of preventing
riots. I would expect that Governor Agnew would consult
with the Negro citizens of his own State and with the
white citizens of his own State on "riot controls."
There isn't any use in my answering an iffy question.
Press Question:
Would you have a formula you would give Governor Agnew?
Roy Wilkins:
No one has a formula for preventing riots that will
guarantee their prevention. There is one formula after a
riot starts—all people who believe in law and order
believe that riots should be stopped once they get
started. Our business, and I presume it is the business
of the Governor, is to try to prevent riots from
starting.
Press Question:
Mr. Wilkins, on the Hill yesterday there was an
allegation that in
Newark it was Federal antipoverty
workers who have agitated the Negro community to the
point of helping precipitate the riot. In your
experience in that city or others where Federal workers
are involved, do you think there is any substance to
such an allegation?
Roy Wilkins:
I only saw it as an allegation. I have no knowledge that
there is any authenticity to it. As a matter of fact, I
understood that the whole thing started over the arrest
of a cab driver and it was the reaction of the cab
drivers to his arrest which caused the riot. Now someone
else said it was the "poverty workers, " so a rumor mill
like Newark can turn out all sorts of things. In
Plainfield they said a policeman shot a 7-year-old boy,
and then they found out that no 7-year-old boy had been
involved in a riot at all. In Harlem we had a riot about
15 years ago, or 20 years ago, in which they charged
that a boy had been taken out of the back room of a W.
T. Grant store and beaten to death. Actually, the kid
had stolen a knife off a counter and had been
apprehended. The knife was taken away from him and he
was scolded and scooted out of the back door in order to
get him home, but someone spread the idea that he had
been beaten to death. They said his bloody body was in
the back room. I don't know about the poverty rumors.
Press Question:
At the same time, Mr. Wilkins, the NAACP passed a
resolution blaming the city officials of Newark for a
good portion of the riots. Will you comment?
Roy Wilkins: Yes, I'll be very glad to speak
about that particular sentence. That sentence did not
say that any of the—if you go back and read it again—it
did not say that the Mayor of Newark started the riot.
It said that he has ignored advice from the Negro
community on an appointment to the Board of Education,
and that the housing situation
in Newark was terrible, which it is.
The percentage of
substandard housing occupied by
Negroes in Newark is
something like the third highest in the United States.
This does not say that they started the riot, but it
says that they made no effort to correct conditions that
contribute to unrest and dissatisfaction that finally
could be triggered into a riot. I would like to have you
read that resolution and be careful about saying that
the NAACP had adopted a resolution which said that the
Mayor started the riot. Don't use such shorthand. That's
too short.
Press Question:
Mr. Wilkins, have you been in Baltimore recently or have
you firsthand knowledge of conditions in Baltimore? Are
you competent, and if so will you assess Baltimore's
flashpoint?
Roy Wilkins:
I
will not assess the Baltimore flashpoint because I don't
think I know enough about Baltimore's flashpoint. I
didn't come here to talk about Baltimore's flashpoint.
Press Question: Governor,
what is your reading about the Baltimore and Eastern
Shore problems?
Governor Agnew:
I am glad you asked me that question because I
don't think there is any such thing as a "flashpoint." I
believe that the talk about a flashpoint and a "dynamite
situation" and the preoccupation of people who reflect
this point of view can cause more trouble than anything
else that would trigger a riot. The people are malleable
and in a constant state of flux, and they are not
interested in rioting for the sake of rioting. But when
the suggestion is constantly made that there is a
flashpoint, that we're living in a room full of volatile
fumes that a single match can ignite, is repeated and
reiterated over and over again, you have too many people
believing it and you can cause riots with that kind of
philosophy.
Press Question: Governor, as
a result of your meeting with Mr. Wilkins, have you made
plans to do anything specific?
Governor Agnew:
The only thing that we have decided to do is to
keep doing what we are doing and to move forward as
quickly as we can in all areas to remove discrimination
in our State. We have also decided that it is important
for the leadership in government to reflect its
appreciation of the proper leadership in the civil
rights movement, the responsible leadership. And I don't
say that Mr. Wilkins is the only responsible leader.
There are others doing a wonderful job in this area, not
only in the NAACP but other organizations.
But I think it's
time for the white community and it's time for the Negro
community to assess the civil rights leadership on an
individual basis and not simply say the Negro
leadership. There is no such all inclusive term as the
Negro leadership or the white leadership. We have got to
do it on individual assessment.
Press Question: Governor,
would you include Mrs. Mitchell among those responsible
leaders in Maryland?
Governor Agnew:
I think Mrs. Mitchell has done an excellent job, and
most of her good work and the toughest part of her job
was done at a time when she bore the brunt of what she
had to do singlehandedly. Sometimes Mrs. Mitchell
becomes impatient with the speed at which government is
moving, and we had some long conversations on that. But
I think in the majority of instances she approves of
what is taking place, and I can't blame her for wanting
to see the achievement immediately. We are moving as
quickly as we can and will continue to move.
Press Question:
Governor, she said this morning that she agreed with the
Ministerial Alliance that there was a lack of
communication flowing out of the Governor's office to
the Negro community. Do you plan to take any specific
steps so that you will get an ear-to-the-ground so to
speak?
Governor Agnew:
Let me say, in response to that, it is not only in
the area of civil rights and civil opportunities that
the Governor's office is not able to communicate as well
with the total sector of the State as it would like to.
There is always criticism. We are a State of almost 4
million people—we are approaching that figure—and the
Governor can't talk to everybody as frequently as he
would like. So we have this criticism—not just in the
field of civil rights but in every field where citizens
are interested in some cause or objective. We are going
to try to improve our communication, but we are not
naive enough to think that we will not be able to
communicate as frequently as we should
and as people would desire us to communicate with them.
Press Question: Governor, in
view of the success of this meeting, do you expect to
invite
Mr.
[Whitney] Young here also?
Governor Agnew:
I had no thought about inviting
Mr. Young here, but
I would imagine Mr. Young would reflect the same basic
philosophies that we have discussed. I say this because
of reading what he has had to say in the past. If Mr.
Young would like to talk with me, or any other leader in
the civil rights movement would like to talk to me, I am
available. I want to learn how to cope with this problem
as best I can, and communication won't hurt us.
Press Question: Governor, is
there any specific objective that will result from this
meeting?
Governor Agnew:
There is no specific objective that arises as a
result of the meeting. I think the overall target is so
inclusive, and the removal of discrimination wherever it
exists has got to be done. I will leave my
administration completely flexible to move in every
area. Naturally, we are interested in the problems that
Mr. Wilkins has specifically raised to me by letter
previously, such as the problems of the contractual
relationships with the State and the problems of the
draft board. We are interested in the accusations of
discrimination within State government and the State
employment itself, and we will move on specific
complaints as quickly as we can.
Press Question:
Mr. Wilkins, the Governor stated just a few minutes ago,
"We are moving as quickly as we can." Is not part of
the ferment in the Negro communities the fact that the
government may not be moving as swiftly as the people
want it to?
Roy Wilkins:
I think the Governor also said that
Mrs. Mitchell, who
is head of our State organization, generally approves of
what has been done and I think his words were that she
is somewhat impatient. He might have added, and he did
inside, that it is a good thing in our type of
government for people to be impatient.
When you say,
however, too impatient for the people—here too, the
Governor pointed out that he is the Governor of the
whole State—of Maryland's Western Shores, South Shores,
Eastern Shores and all the other shores, and white and
black in Baltimore City, Somerset County too. Everybody
recognizes that
government is the art of the possible,
the great exponent of which
now sits in our White House,
but we also recognize that when problems become acute we
give them special recognition and attention.
I took the
Governor's invitation to mean that he was inclined to
recognize this as a problem which requires special
attention. It was not designed for this conference to
bring out concrete representation as to what should be
done in the State of Maryland. I don't pose to be an
expert. I leave that to Mrs. Mitchell. She is an expert
on every furrow and cranny in the State of Maryland.
This conference
means simply that the Governor felt that with all the
stresses and strains and pressures on him on other
problems, and recognizing what comes out must be the
art of the possible, he still wanted to give this special
attention and special recognition.
What will come out
of it I don't know. It could be either that the Governor
or the Legislature, or the business community, or
financial community, or the farming community, or a
dozen other specialized groups will bring their
pressures to bear to minimize the gains. I don't regard
that as any indictment of Governor Agnew's intentions in
this matter.
Press Question:
Mr. Wilkins,
some of the younger civil rights
organizations seem to be disowning white membership. Is
this a bad development?
Roy Wilkins:
I don't want to comment on their determinations. I only
want to say that the NAACP started out as an interracial
organization in 1909 and expects to continue as one. We
don't think that freedom is "black freedom" or freedom
is "white freedom." We think that freedom belongs to
everybody, and everybody who believes this should fight
for it.
Press Question: Would it be
better if all of them were interracial?
Roy Wilkins:
Here again, I don't want to pass judgment on someone
else's policy.
They had a meeting, they adopted a rule,
and they said that this is the rule for the people in
the room. They voted 322 or 92 to 6 or 52 to 1, or
whatever was there, and said this is our policy. I just
feel that our policy, the NAACP policy, is the best
policy. Our policy is interracial activity in a
multiracial society. How can you proceed in a
multiracial society on a racial basis? This is sort of
self-defeating.
Press Question:
Governor, does that mean that you agree basically with
Mr. Wilkins' philosophy, he being noted as the leading
moderate Negro leader in the country? Is this your
philosophy too?
Governor Agnew:
I don't think that Mr. Wilkins is a moderate leader
in the sense that he is impeding or not aggressive
enough in achieving the objectives that his organization
has set. I think he is much more effective because he is
reasonable and articulate, and not emotional, in his
approach to the problem. So when you say moderate this
again is a characterization that can mean many things to
many people. Among some of the younger Negro element, it
may mean slow,
uncle tomish.
I don't consider
him moderate in that respect. I think he is skillful,
and I think he represents the kind of leadership that
does not divide the races but unites them. I think that
is where his tremendous value comes in. I am delighted
that he is here and that the people in Maryland, through
the news media, have a chance to personally observe him,
to listen to the way he handles the questions, and to
see how his mind works because this is his real
strength.
Press Question:
Governor, I'd like to renew the question of Baltimore in
another context because when
Watts broke out
Mayor Yorty
of Los Angeles evidenced great surprise. Just recently
in
Plainfield the people said it could never happen
here. In that context, what does everything you've
looked at show you about the situation in Baltimore?
Governor Agnew:
Everything that I have seen indicates that I have
no cause for unrest, and as I mentioned at the outset of
this meeting the main reason I wanted Mr. Wilkins here
at a time when there was no problem was to demonstrate
that the way we can be most effective in our solutions
to the problems that exist is to act independently of
suggestion or force and act because we are convinced
within us that the action is needed and not simply to
put out a fire.
I don't think any
fire exists in Baltimore; I don't see any reason to feel
that Baltimore is close to an explosion. On the other
hand, I would be remiss if I didn't say that there have
been explosions where they were not expected before. I
have no way of judging this, and I emphasize that the
least amount of attention devoted to the fact that riots
do happen the better off we are going to be. Nobody
wants riots. Riots don't solve anything. Riots simply
impede the progress we're all interested in.
Press Question:
Governor, you mentioned housing as one of the areas in
which we can move a little bit more. Montgomery County
appears to be on the verge of passing a liberal,
far-reaching bill. What is your position on this bill?
Governor Agnew:
I am not familiar with the bill, but my position on
housing has been the same since I've prepared it, and
I've supported it. It's not changed. I've never
attempted to conceal it or to justify it in any fashion.
It's just the way I feel about the question.
Press Question:
Governor, you said that there was some discrimination in
employment in State government. How fast do you think
you can get rid of it?
Governor Agnew:
I don't think it will take too long. I am not sure
of the device we'll use to do it, but I can assure you
that every bit of the executive power will be directed
to the removal of it.
Press: Thank you very much,
Governor.
Source:
State Archives
* *
* * *
Roy Wilkins (August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981)
was a prominent civil rights activist in the United
States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most
notable role was in his leadership of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Wilkins graduated from the
University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology
in 1923. He worked as a journalist at
The Minnesota Daily and became editor of St. Paul
Appeal, an African-American newspaper. After he
graduated he became the editor of the
The Call (Kansas City). In 1929, he married social
worker Aminda "Minnie" Badeau; the couple had no
children.
Between 1931 and
1934, Wilkins was assistant NAACP secretary under
Walter Francis White. When
W. E. B. Du Bois left the organization in 1934, he
replaced him as editor of
The Crisis, the official magazine of the
NAACP. From 1949–50 Wilkins chaired the National
Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization, which comprised
more than 100 local and national groups. In 1950,
Wilkins—along with
A. Philip Randolph, founder of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and
Arnold Aronson, a leader of the National Jewish
Community Relations Advisory Council—founded the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). LCCR
has become the premier civil rights coalition, and has
coordinated the national legislative campaign on behalf
of every major civil rights law since 1957.
In 1955, Roy Wilkins was
chosen to be the executive secretary of the NAACP and in 1964 he
became its executive director. He had an excellent reputation as
an articulate spokesperson for the civil rights movement. One of
his first actions was to provide support to civil rights
activists in Mississippi who were being subject to a "credit
squeeze" by members of the
White Citizens Councils.
Wilkins backed a proposal suggested by Dr.
T.R.M. Howard of
Mound Bayou, Mississippi, who headed the
Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a leading
civil rights organization in the state. Under the plan,
black businesses and voluntary associations shifted
their accounts to the black-owned Tri-State Bank of
Memphis, Tennessee. By the end of 1955, about $280,000
had been deposited in Tri-State for this purpose.
The money enabled
Tri-State to extend loans to credit-worthy blacks who were
denied loans by white banks. Wilkins participated in the
March on Washington (August 1963) which he helped organize,
the
Selma to Montgomery marches (1965), and the
March Against Fear (1966). . . . In
1951,
J. Edgar Hoover and the state department, in collusion with
the
NAACP and Wilkins (then editor of
The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP),
arranged for a ghost-written leaflet to be printed and
distributed in Africa. The purpose of the leaflet was to spread
negative press and views about the Black political radical and
entertainer
Paul Robeson throughout Africa. . . .
Gil Scott-Heron mentioned Wilkins in his most famous spoken
word song "The
Revolution Will Not Be Televised" with this lyric: "There
will be no slow motion or still life of Roy Wilkins strolling
through Watts in a red, black and green liberation jumpsuit that
he has been saving for just the proper occasion."
Source:
Wikipedia
* *
* * *
Spiro Theodore
Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was
the 39th Vice President of the United States
(1969-1973), serving under President
Richard Nixon, and the
55th
Governor of Maryland (1967-1969). He was also the
first
Greek American to hold these offices.
During his fifth year as Vice
President, in the late summer of 1973, Agnew was under
investigation by the
United States Attorney's office in Baltimore, Maryland, on
charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy. In
October, he was formally charged with having accepted bribes
totaling more than $100,000, while holding office as Baltimore
County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President of
the United States. On October 10, 1973, Agnew was allowed to
plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report
$29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he
resign the office of Vice President.
Agnew is the only Vice
President in United States history to resign because of criminal
charges. Ten years after leaving office, in January 1983, Agnew
paid the state of Maryland nearly $270,000 as a result of a
civil suit that stemmed from the bribery allegations. . . .
Agnew ran for the position of
Governor of Maryland in 1966. In this overwhelmingly
Democratic state, he was elected after the Democratic nominee,
George P. Mahoney, a Baltimore paving contractor and
perennial candidate running on an anti-integration
platform, narrowly won the Democratic gubernatorial primary out
of a crowded slate of eight candidates, trumping early favorite
Carlton R. Sickles. Coming on the heels of the recently
passed federal
Fair Housing Act of 1965, Mahoney's campaign embraced the
slogan "your home is your castle". Many Democrats opposed to
segregation then crossed party lines to give Agnew the
governorship by 82,000 votes.
As governor, Agnew worked
with the Democratic legislature to pass tax and judicial
reforms, as well as tough anti-pollution laws. Projecting an
image of racial moderation, Agnew signed the state's first
open-housing laws and succeeded in getting the repeal of an
anti-miscegenation
law. However, during the riots that followed the
assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in the spring of
1968, Agnew angered many African American leaders by lecturing
them about their constituents in stating, "I call on you to
publicly repudiate all black racists. This, so far, you have
been unwilling to do."
Source:
Wikipedia
* *
* * *
The
NAACP Black Power and the African American
Freedom Struggle, 1966-1969—By Simon Hall—The
NAACP’s executive
director,
Roy Wilkins, had been appointed
assistant secretary in 1931. Three years
later he replaced
W. E. B. Du
Bois as editor of
The Crisis, the association’s
magazine, before succeeding Walter White as
head of the organization in 1955. Reluctant
to commit the association to a strategy of
civil disobedience and protest, Roy Wilkins
also equivocated about the efforts of groups
like SNCC to build a civil rights movement
from the bottom up by fostering indigenous
black leadership and empowering local
African Americans.
Indeed,
Wilkins agreed with civil rights strategist
Bayard Rustin that the black movement
needed to align itself with the liberal wing
of the Democratic Party to effect a
progressive political re-alignment in order
to best advance the cause of civil rights.
Rustin was not noted as a friend of black
radicals even in the early 1960s, and his
reaction to Black Power was unsurprising.
On 5
July 1966 Wilkins addressed more than 1,500
delegates to the
NAACP’s 57th annual
convention at Los Angeles’ First Methodist
Church. The veteran civil rights leader
attacked Black Power in remarkably
uncompromising language. “No matter how
endlessly they try to explain it,” he said,
“the term ‘Black Power’ means anti-white
power . . . it has to mean ‘going-it-alone.’
It has to mean separatism.” For the
NAACP
leader, it was a “reverse Mississippi, a
reverse Hitler, a reverse Ku Klux Klan” that
could result only in “Black death.” Wilkins
explained that the
NAACP
had fought racial discrimination for too
long to ally itself with a concept that
rested on “the ranging of race against
race,” and described Black Power as “the
father of hatred and the mother of
violence.”
Wilkins
kept up his attacks in the aftermath of the
convention. On 13 July he told New York’s
Republican Senator
Jacob K. Javits that the
NAACP
stood by his “branding Black power . . . as
carrying unmistakable connotations of being
antiwhite . . .” In August, Wilkins declined
to participate in an upcoming planning
conference for a
National Conference on Black Power. On
17 October, in a mailing sent to
NAACP
supporters, Wilkins reiterated his
opposition to Black Power. Then, in an
address before his native Missouri
NAACP
state conference in November, he called on
delegates to “throw out . . . this ‘Black
Power’ business” on the grounds that it made
“thousands . . . sorrowful, apprehensive and
fearful.”
Some of
Wilkins’s hostility can be understood as a
product of his deteriorating
relationship with
SNCC and Stokely Carmichael.
Never a fan of the “young squirts” and
“smart-alecks” who formed the shock-troops
of the civil rights movement, the
NAACP
leader’s rapport with the SNCC chairman had
recently hit an all-time low. At a 7 June
meeting in Memphis to discuss strategy for
the “March
Against Fear,” Carmichael started
“acting crazy”: “cursing real bad,” the SNCC
leader showered Wilkins with expletives,
accusing the veteran civil rights leader of
“selling out the people.” Wilkins left the
meeting “in disgust” and withdrew the
national
NAACP
from the march.—OnlineLibrary
posted 1 June 2011
* *
* * *
What We Want
By Stokely Carmichael
Reverend
Marion Bascom Civilrighting /
A
Christian Goon Squad in Black Baltimore
Clarence Logan and the Northwood Movement
/ Chester Wickwire Desegregating Gwynn Oak Amusement Park
Roy Wilkins and Spiro Agnew in
Annapolis /
Agnew Speaks to Black
Baltimore Leaders 1968
Wayfarer 4th Quarter 1967—Black
Baltimore
* *
* * *
Walter Hall Lively /
Forty Years of Determined Struggle
/
The Wayfarer 4th Quarter 1967 Black Baltimore
Putting
Baltimore's People First
Dominance of Johns Hopkins
A Brief Economic History of Modern Baltimore
Understanding the Monumental City: A
Bibliographic Essay on Baltimore History ( Richard
J. Cox)
* *
* * *
The End of Black Rage? Class and Delusion in
Black America (Jared Ball)
The Black Generation Gap (Ellis Cose) /
* *
* * *
Black
Power, A Critique of the System
/
Black
Power / What We Want
Amite
County Beginning
Kish Mir Tuchas
A
Tribute to Kwame Toure/Stokely Carmichael
Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy
Wilkins
By
Roy Wilkins and Tom Mathews
* *
* * *
|
The Shadows of Youth
The Remarkable Journey of the Civil
Rights Generation
By Andrew B. Lewis
With deep admiration and rigorous
scholarship, historian Lewis (Gonna
Sit at the Welcome Table)
revisits the ragtag band of young men
and women who formed the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Impatient with what they considered the
overly cautious and accommodating pace
of the NAACP and
Martin
Luther King Jr., the black college
students and their white allies,
inspired by Gandhi's principles of
nonviolence and moral integrity, risked
their lives to challenge a deeply
entrenched system. Fanning out over the
Jim Crow South, SNCC organized sit-ins,
voter registration drives, Freedom
Schools and protest marches. Despite
early successes, the movement
disintegrated in the late 1960s,
succeeded by the militant Black Power
movement. The highly readable history
follows the later careers of the
principal leaders. Some, like
Stokely Carmichael and
H. Rap
Brown, became bitter and
disillusioned. Others, including
Marion Barry,
Julian Bond and
John Lewis, tempered their idealism
and moved from protest to politics,
assuming positions of leadership within
the very institutions they had
challenged. According to the author, No
organization contributed more to the
civil rights movement than SNCC, and
with his eloquent book, he offers a
deserved tribute.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
* * *
* *
* * * *
*
Michelle Alexander: US Prisons, The New Jim Crow
/
Judge Mathis Weighs in on the execution of Troy Davis
 |
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
By
Michelle
Alexander
The
mass incarceration of people of color through the War on
Drugs is a big part of the reason that a black child
born today is less likely to be raised by both parents
than a black child born during slavery. The absence of
black fathers from families across America is not simply
a function of laziness, immaturity, or too much time
watching Sports Center. Hundreds of thousands of black
men have disappeared into prisons and jails, locked away
for drug crimes that are largely ignored when committed
by whites. Most people seem to
imagine that the drug war—which has swept millions of
poor people of color behind bars—has been aimed at
rooting out drug kingpins or violent drug offenders.
Nothing could be further from the truth. This war has
been focused overwhelmingly on low-level drug offenses,
like marijuana possession—the very crimes that happen
with equal frequency in middle class white communities.
|
* *
* * *
Obama and
Black Americans: the Paradox of Hope—By Gary
Younge—But for all the ways black America has felt
better about itself and looked better to others, it
has not actually fared better. In fact, it has been
doing worse. The economic gap between black and
white has grown since Obama took power. Under his
tenure black unemployment, poverty and foreclosures
are at their highest levels for at least a decade.
Millions of
black kids may well aspire to the presidency now
that a black man is in the White House. But such a
trajectory is less likely for them now than it was
under Bush. Herein lies what is at best a paradox
and at worst a contradiction within Obama’s core
base of support. The very group most likely to
support him—black Americans—is the same group that
is doing worse under him.—TheNation
* *
* * *
|
Here lies Jim Crow: Civil rights in Maryland
By C. Fraser Smith
Though he lived throughout much of the South—and even worked his way into parts of the North for a time—Jim Crow was conceived and buried in Maryland. From Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's infamous decision in the Dred Scott case to Thurgood Marshall's eloquent and effective work on Brown v. Board of Education, the battle for black equality is very much the story of Free State women and men. Here, Baltimore Sun columnist C. Fraser Smith recounts that tale through the stories, words, and deeds of famous, infamous, and little-known Marylanders. He traces the roots of Jim Crow laws from Dred Scott to Plessy v. Ferguson and describes the parallel and opposite early efforts of those who struggled to establish freedom and basic rights for African Americans.
Following the historical trail of evidence, Smith relates latter-day examples of Maryland residents who trod those same steps, from the thrice-failed attempt to deny black people the vote in the early twentieth century to nascent demonstrations for open access to lunch counters, movie theaters, stores, golf courses, and other public and private institutions—struggles that occurred decades before the now-celebrated historical figures strode onto the national civil rights scene. Smith's lively account includes the grand themes and the state's major players in the movement—Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, and Lillie May Jackson, among others.—and also tells the story of the struggle via several of Maryland's important but relatively unknown men and women—such as Gloria Richardson, John Prentiss Poe, William L. "Little Willie" Adams, and Walter Sondheim—who prepared Jim Crow's grave and waited for the nation to deliver the body.—Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008 |
|
* *
* * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update 8 March 2012
|
