"This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed" by Charles E. Cobb (2014)

White Supremacists take note; African-Americans have the same love affair with the Second Amendment as you do. And more reason to cherish that right. After all, they were actually enslaved, you weren't. In this engaging little book the author has taken on the subject of just what part guns played in the non-violent movement for Civil Rights in the 1960’s.  And you know what? Even Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. kept a loaded pistol handy.

Tracing the story of slavery and the early slave rebellions Mr. Cobb shows just how the mere specter of armed blacks sent cold fear up the spines of their owners. (What a nasty term to apply to another human being – owner!) This is also a book filled with heroes; the ones they never taught you about in school. These were the people behind the headlines; the ones who sheltered the Civil Rights workers from the north when they came down south to help secure the Right to Vote.

Each chapter is filled with new names of ordinary people who; though down at the bottom the pecking order of a racist environment; managed to make not only make a difference, but also maintained some of their dignity in the process. 

How to explain the actions of old Mr. “Joe” McDonald who, after being shown the Constitution for the first time by the author, went into town and demanded that the sheriff return the shotgun which had been confiscated illegally. “I came to get my gun”, was what he said. When the sheriff told him he had no right to it, old Mr. Joe produced the book which the author had given him and said, “This here book says I do.” The startled sheriff returned the weapon without any further ado.

The author also traces the relationship between slavery and the path of gun control in America. The first gun control law was passed in 1640 in Virginia and was aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of slaves. Since Africans outnumbered the colonists this was of genuine concern. Have you ever seen the film “Mandigo”? This was a real fear to the plantation owners.

African-Americans fighting in the American Revolution faced the hard choice of gambling on becoming free men if they worked for the British, or maybe becoming free men sometime in the future by working for Independence. Surprisingly few slaves actually went over to the British. But their participation in the fight for freedom did nothing to assuage their lot as slaves. As a matter of fact, with the passage of the new Constitution they were enshrined forever as less than whole human beings.

The Civil War was a kind of tipping point for African-Americans and their exposure to weapons. W.E.B. DuBois characterized it like this, “The slave pleaded; he was humble…. And the world ignored him. Then the slave killed white men; and behold he was a man!”

But the best part of this book is the section which covers the African-American journey to freedom between the two World Wars and just after. The old song “How You Gonna Keep ‘em Down On the Farm” was never more applicable than it was for African-Americans returning from the First World War. Having been treated on a somewhat equal basis in Europe, the average black soldier was hard pressed to dampen his disappointment upon returning to the United Sates. He had fought for this country and half expected that sacrifice to be acknowledged. It wasn't.

After the First World War the South seemed to double down on restrictions where African-Americans were concerned. Jim Crow became even tighter and lynching’s; which were never uncommon; increased. Night riding KKK members resurrected the old bed sheets and began a reign of terror against the African-American which would continue unabated for the next 50 years.

I must note, here, that there is a common misconception which holds that the average African-American at the time did not consider the Second World War to be of concern to black folk. This belief is common to both black and white people, but the fact of the matter is that the Second World War was all about race; from genocide in Europe at the hands of the Germans, to enslavement in the Far East by the Japanese. Black folk had to have known that. And after fighting against racism abroad they expected some improvement back home. Moreover, they were now willing to fight for it.

At the end of World War Two things really began to stir. In early 1946, in Columbia Tennessee, an ex-serviceman named James Stephenson, along with his mother Gladys, went to a department store to retrieve a radio which had been left for repair. The radio had been sold after 30 days, which was store policy. But the way in which they were treated and even beaten by store employees on the way out created an incident in which Stephenson; who had been a boxer in the Navy; knocked out a white man. The mother and son were arrested, but the arrests caused such outrage that they were released. But it didn't end there.

Fearing reprisals the black residents of the town massed in the section known as the “Bottom” and organized a defense. Many of the men were ex-servicemen and all had rifles or shotguns in their homes. When the local riff-raff showed up, intent on violence, they got it. Caught between cars of sentries posted at both ends of town, the white intruders were allowed to enter and then escape under a withering fire of bullets. They didn’t bother to return. This was probably the beginning of the armed resistance to the outrages of Jim Crow.

By 1949 this scene would be repeated in several locations; and nowhere more dramatically than in Monroe, North Carolina. Monroe was home to a returned serviceman named Robert Williams; no relation to me, unfortunately. I would be honored to have it so.  After another black man in Monroe was beaten for needing a half day off work and asking for his pay, there was a fight and the man was convicted of murder for defending himself. He was executed in 1947. The KKK would not allow the townsfolk to have a funeral. They threatened the undertaker and anyone else who sought to simply bury the man, who was also a wounded ex-serviceman with a Purple Heart.

At this point Mr. Williams began to organize the towns African-American citizens into a defense league. They surrounded the funeral home armed to the teeth. When the KKK showed up they were fired upon. Just as in Columbia, Tennessee, the KKK fled under a hail of bullets. Williams eventually became President of the local NAACP, over the objections of many other blacks, including Thurgood Marshall, who all considered him to be too radical. He was later exiled to Cuba, later returning home to America where he died in 1996. Rosa Parks gave the eulogy.

The story of a man named C.O. Chin is so fascinating and inspiring that I will leave it to you to read the book if you want to know about him. He was a legend in Madison County, Mississippi and had land holdings, night clubs; including the famous Club Desire; and a thriving liquor business. He played an instrumental role in the early life of CORE.

 

The Deacons for Defense and Justice, the SNCC, CORE and all the rest; even Martin Luther King; owe a great debt to the Second Amendment and the people who availed themselves of that right while living under great peril during the time of Jim Crow. Their stories are told here, some for the first time, by the author.

This is a book which is long overdue, written by a man who was actually there with old Mr. Joe McDonald and showed him how to get his gun back. Until you have read this book you cannot have a complete understanding of what the Second Amendment meant to the Civil Rights movement. Simply put, this is a superb book.

"The Chicago 8" with Danny Masterson and Orlando James (2011)

Based on actual transcripts from the Chicago 8 trial, this film explores the heady world of the late 1960’s and the 1968 Democratic Convention. It is focused mainly on the subsequent trial of 8 main participants in the demonstrations that took place there in what was described by news reporters as a “police riot.” 

The names are familiar to anyone who grew up during those days; Abbie Hoffman, played by Thomas Ian Nicholas; Jerry Rubin, played by Danny Masterson of “The ‘70’s Show”; Bobbie Seale, played by Orlando Jones; Judge Julius Hoffman, played by Phillip Baker Hall, and Defense Attorney William Kunstler, played by Gary Cole. There were 5 other defendants, one of whom was later elected to Congress and married to Jane Fonda. You may decide on which was the greater achievement.

The film is narrowly focused on the abuses of the Prosecution during the trial, including the infamous binding and gagging of Black Panther Bobby Seale, who was acting as his own attorney. A very neat trick to pull off while bound to a chair with a rag stuffed in your mouth.

To be fair, the film leaves out an awful lot about the plans to disrupt the convention in a way that would insure violence took place. However, the police did go way overboard in their re-action; deliberately corralling the protesters into the park from 3 sides, with the river to their backs and no place to go when ordered to disperse. To anyone who grew up at the time, watching it unfold on TV was just as unbelievable as watching Lee Harvey Oswald murdered only 5 years earlier. It just didn’t seem possible.

Judge Hoffman was the perfect villain for the role which was thrust upon him. He was ruthless in his censuring of both the defendants and their attorney, William Kunstler. At various times during the trial he had almost all of the black spectators escorted from the courtroom for even the slightest whisper. Everything portrayed in this film actually happened, which is what makes it such an important film to see, if only to dispel the notion that “it can’t happen here.” It did. And it can happen again.

The music was, of course, all 1960’s and there was body painting and drug use enough to satisfy viewers of all ages. But that’s the part of the film that kind of annoyed me. They were heady days, no doubt about it, and there was plenty of drug use and body painting going on.  But the younger people seeing this film may misconstrue these to be what the “revolution” was all about. And that’s a pity.

The film did begin with an encapsulated history of the war, beginning with Kennedy, and breezes through the Johnson years, which is when the largest build-up of American forces took place. The war is thus cast as being the sole result of President Nixon’s policies, which drew down the number of forces from 500,000 when he took office, to less than 45,000 within about 6 years.

As I am writing this I realize that the film takes place at the Democratic Convention, yet the trial seems to center on the policies of the newly elected President Nixon. This annoyed me, as it misrepresents not only history, but also the actual purpose of the demonstrators in Chicago at the time of the Convention. Most were there to keep Hubert Humphrey from getting the nomination for Presidency, having campaigned hard for Eugene McCarthy and then Robert Kennedy, who had been killed only about 8 weeks before the convention took place. Both of these men, and recent events, are completely left out of the story.

This is an interesting film to watch, as it exposes the dynamics of political dissent in America back in the 1960’s. Watching the events in the courtroom unfold, you realize that the defendants never had a chance. The word had come down from above that the men, and their lawyer, were to be convicted at all costs. The proof of this assertion is that not one of the defendants were convicted of the crimes for which they were charged. They all received jail terms for “Contempt of Court”, arising out of their own  courtroom antics, and all were; at a later time; pardoned, calling into question whether they were really convicted by anyone but themselves in the first place.

"The Savage City" by T.J. English

When I was about 11 years old, my family took a trip down South from New York City. We went as far as North Carolina, which is where I live today. At the time, while passing through Lumberton, I had my first upclose look at the last vestiges of the Jim Crow era, which had just come to an end with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1964. But that didn't stop the sweet, and pretty, young cashier at the Howard Johnson's from calling the little black kid, who worked there, "nigger." I was so glad to have come from the North, where this type of thing did not occur. Or, at least that's what I thought.

I grew up in New York City, in the borough of Brooklyn, at a time when the whole country was undergoing a radical shift in race relations. The TV was filled with images of police dogs being loosed upon non violent protesters; women and children included. I was proud of the fact that we were so different in our handling of race issues in the North.

Of course, as I got older, I realized that the only difference between the North and the South was the way in which we were racist. In the South, it was overt. In the North, it was covert, and swept under the rug, where no one could see it.

"The Savage City" is a good, hard look at what was under that rug. And it's not a very pretty sight. Institutionalized racism was as rampant in the North as it was in the South. The author, T.J. English, has given us an insightful, and revealing look at the way things were done in New York City during the 1950's through the 1970's. And along the way he provides the historical background necessary to understand both the differences, and the similarities, of both systems.

Using 3 individuals as examples, the author expertly weaves their lives, and their troubles, into a tapestry of officially sanctioned racism, as insipid and evil as that of the South. Beginning with the social history of the great movement of blacks, and Puerto Ricans, to the North, looking for jobs during the Second World War, he traces the seeds of a different kind of racism, one that would eventually boil over in the hot summer months of the mid-sixties, leaving our cities burnt and scarred for decades to come.

The book kicks off with the attempted murder of Martin Luther King in Blumstein's, a Harlem Department store where he had gone to promote his book "Stride Toward Freedom." A black woman plunged a letter opener into his chest, just missing his aorta. She had been stalking him for several years, believing that his work in the Civil Rights Movement was Communist influenced. This incident exposed the divisions between the various African-American factions of the time in regards to the expolsive issue of Civil Rights. Some thought we were moving too fast, while others believed that we were not moving fast enough.

Three individuals are explored in this book. First, and foremost, is the real victim, George Whitmore, Jr., a young black man from Wildwood, New Jersey. He decides to leave the junkyard where he grew up for the opportunities that he believes await him in Brooklyn. His decision will change his life forever when he is falsely accused, and then imprisoned for the notorious "Career Girls" murder in Manhattan, a crime which took place while he was still living in New Jersey! Tried and convicted, he wins an appeal, only to be retried 2 more times for the same crime. Remember, this is happening in New York, not Alabama! He is also charged with 2 other crimes which he did not commit, just to be sure they "get him." Along the way, evidence is lost, destroyed and tampered with, all in the name of convicting Mr. Whitmore rather than admit to a mistake on the part of the police.

The second story here is that of Police Detective Bill Phillips, one of the most notorious of the "crooked" cops who so brazenly extorted, and shook down, everyone in his path. His criminal activities eventually landed him back in uniform, pounding a beat, where his corrupt methods of law and order served as one of the openings for the Knapp Commision hearings in the late 1960's. His story is one of avarice, greed and violence. The racism he adhered to was considered to be just a routine part of his job.

Dhoruba Bin Wahad was a kid from the Bronx, who was serving time for robbery when he became a Muslim. Released in time for the long hot summers of 1967 and 1968, he is trying to turn his life around during the social revolution sweeping the land in the form of Black Power, and the Black Panthers. In short order, the streets of New York would be awash in the blood of slain officers. Some were shot while on patrol, ambushed with phony calls for police, while others were injured in the rioting which scorched whole neighborhoods, leaving the urban landscape forever changed.

This is an unflinching look at the racial disparities, and attitudes, which combined to destroy our cities, and portions of African-American culture during the post-war years in New York. For a kid from Brooklyn, who grew up in the midst of all of this, the book is an eye opener to what was really happening all around me in the city where I grew up.

Well written, historically accurate, and compelling in it's scope, this book proves the old adage, that sometimes "you can't see the forest for the trees."

"Vice" by Sgt. John R. Baker

If you are a fan of the TV series "The Shield" with Mike Chiklis, then you will love this book. This is the true life story of the Compton California Police Department in the years leading up to, and including, the rise of gang violence in Compton. The book also examines the role that economics and race, along with the growing drug trade, have played in the devolution of a city.

John Baker was born to a multi-cultural family, and raised in the Compton area in the 1950's during a unique time of change, both socially, and economically. This perspective gives him a very different approach to law enforcement. He has all the sensitivies and knowledge required to deal with the different cultures that make up Compton.

One of the most interesting parts of this book is the way it chronicles the rise of gang violence after World War Two. The how's and why's of the turf wars, along with the graffiti known as tagging, are all carefully explained to the reader, in order to provide a better understanding of the war that rages in the streets of most American cities today.

When the end of the 1950's rolled around, and with it the Fair Housing Act, "white flight" became the driving force behind the deterioration of once vivrant neighborhoods. As the real estate agents took advantage of the fear in these areas, the racial balance of whole sections of the city was changed forever. On some levels this was a good thing, and fair. But on other levels it would prove to be disastrous.

The 1960's brought even greater social change, and upheaval, to Compton. The Black Panthers and other politically motivated groups moved in. With them came the drug trade, and soon the various gangs were waging war upon one another in the streets. This brought about the return of the "drive by shooting", which had been absent from the streets since the days of Prohibition.

But politics makes strange bedfellows, and sometimes the threat of violence has united the police and the gangs. The Watts riot was actually kept at bay by a group of Latino gangs that formed a blockcade at the edge of Compton.

Sergeant Baker also regales the reader with some of the finest anecdotal stories of police work that I have ever read. The cast of characters, and villians, is as long, and varied, as the author's career in law enforcement. This book will take you to the highest rooftops in Compton, as well as deliver you to the depths of depravity that the average Police Officer sees every day on the job. A riveting and informative read, this book looks beyond the headlines and TV shows which purport to portray life in the streets. Compared to Sgt. Baker's action packed memoir, they are all pretenders to the throne.

"1969 - The Year Everything Changed" by Rob Kirkpatrick

This book is a chronological review of the year 1969. With so much having been written about 1968, sometimes 1969 gets lost in the shuffle. I have always considered 1969 to be the year that the "Woodstock Nation" died. The era of peace and love sort of ended at Altamont Speedway in California that December when the Rolling Stones hired the Hells Angels to be the "security" for the concert. A crowd of over 500,000 people allowed themselves to be intimidated by less than a couple of hundred bikers. The fact that someone was murdered in front of the stage, while the Rolling Stones kept playing, underscores the myriad of problems which plagued our society throughout the 60's and would spill over into the 70's. Some might say that the seeds for some of todays problems were planted back then.

The year itself was just as exciting as 1968, but in a different sort of way. While 1968 was a year of great hope, 1969 was a year when the "hippie" movement clearly became commercial. Capitilizing on the sexual revolution, "O! Calcutta" became the number 1 show on Broadway. "I Am Curious (Yellow)" was considered a landmark movie.

In California Charles Manson was able to use the mind expanding properties of LSD to control a band of followers, directing them to murder for the dubious purpose of inciting a race war. San Francisco was reeling under the threat of the "Zodiac" killer, while Lt. William Calley was charged for his role in the systematic killings of unarmed women and children in My Lai, Vietnam.

In politics, President Nixon was in office and beginning his slow descent to his place in history. Ted Kennedy was busy partying with his own campaign staff and made his famous "swim" against unbeatable currents, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to die, trapped in his car at the bottom of Chappaquiddick. Although this would end his hopes of ever becoming President, it had no effect on his position as head of the Senate Ethics Committee, a post he would occupy for 41 more years, until his death in 2010.

In the midst of all of this there were some very positive things going on as well. Man landed on the Moon, and the first Boeing 747 "jumbo jet" took flight, enabling more people than ever before to travel at an affordable rate. Gays grew tired of being harassed for their sexual orientation and fought back against police in New York City's Greenwich Village, in what would become known as the "Stonewall Riots." This would be the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement.

The Arts and Music scene were active. The Who released the first so-called rock opera, "Tommy." Neil Young and Steve Stills left Buffalo Springfield to form their own bands. Neil Young formed Crazy Horse and Steve Stills founded Crosby, Stills and Nash, which Neil Young would later join.

In Sports, there was Joe Namath, quarterback for the New York Jets, losing his career because he owned a restaurant where alcohol was served. The New York Mets were on the way to their first World Series against the Baltimore Orioles, which they would win. (I think I went to Game 5, at Shea Stadium, with John DiStefano.)

The book is augmented by a time line showing the news events of the year. And it was a busy one. Reading this book makes you aware that 1969 was not only the turning point of a decade, but also a watershed year, both in who we were and what we have, as a society, become.