Congress. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Subversive Influences in Riots,
Looting, and Burning. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1968. Pt. 6: Subversive Influences
in Riots, Looting, and Burning (San Francisco - Berkeley) (June 27, 28, 1968).
SuDoc No.: Y4.Un1/2:R47/pt.6
Date(s) of Hearings: June 27, 28, 1968
Congress and Session: 90th - 2nd
 EXCERPTS
SYNOPSIS
On June 27 and 28, 1968, a subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met
in Washington, D.C., to continue hearings on subversive influences in riots, looting,
and burning. The hearings, part 6 of the series, concern events related to the San
Francisco, Calif., riot of September 1966. The subcommittee was composed of Representatives
Edwin E. Willis (D-La.), chairman; William M. Tuck (D-Va.); Richard H. Ichord (D-Mo.);
John M. Ashbrook (R-O.); Albert W. Watson (R-S.C.); and John C. Culver (D-Iowa) in the
absence of Mr. Willis.
Edward S. Montgomery, in the employ of the San Francisco Examiner since 1945, was
called as a witness. As an investigative reporter, he had received numerous awards,
including a Pulitzer Prize in 1951 for the best local reporting.
PRERIOT PHASE
With reference to the importance of radical and subversive propaganda disseminated in the
San Francisco area prior to the September 1966 riot, Mr. Montgomery made the observation
that –
there are social aspects that cause a riot, but the propaganda distributed in the riot
area of San Francisco prior to the riot was very inflammatory. In my opinion, it would
lead to the condition in the Negro community, making them more receptive.
Discussing Communist Party activities related to riots and propaganda of a racial nature,
the witness quoted Northern California Communist Party Chairman Albert J. "Mickey"
Lima as saying in a speech at Stanford University in May of 1964, "Communists are
definitely involved in America's civil rights revolt." He quoted party General
Secretary Gus Hall as saying on May 7, 1968, that while Communists do not dominate urban
race riots, "we are a factor in their direction" and that "Wherever there
is struggle and movement the general fact can be accepted that party members are playing
militant roles."
Mr. Montgomery read from a May 4, 1965, column written by NAACP Executive Director Roy
Wilkins and published in the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin. Mr. Wilkins
stated, "Once again the Communists are seeking to use American Negroes to help
bring about a revolution." After developing the history of attempted Communist
exploitation of Negroes, Mr. Wilkins concluded:
It remains to be seen whether this legitimate movement, representing the aspirations
of millions of Negroes who are Americans, first and always, can be perverted and made
a tool to serve communism.
The witness disclosed that he had knowledge of a meeting "during the past summer"
in the Finnish Hall in Berkeley, "a district meeting of Communist chieftains."
Present were Gus Hall; Mickey Lima; Lima's aide, Roscoe Proctor; and others. According
to Mr. Montgomery, these Communist Party leaders were disturbed at losing too many
Negro party members to more militant organizations; thus, they decided that "a
concerted effort should be made in the Bay area to bring as many Negroes back into the
Communist fold as possible."
Mr. Montgomery stated that "propagandizing of the Communist Party and front groups
has been evidenced over a period of years" in the areas of civil rights and alleged
police brutality and that he had made a study of such propaganda appearing in the San
Francisco edition of the People's World, official Communist Party organ on the
West Coast, from January 1, 1962, until May 1968. Numerous exhibits from issues of
the paper were introduced into the record. Referring to the San Francisco situation,
Mr. Montgomery said –
the Communist Party official newspaper, the People's World, for a number of years
prior to the riot published a continuing barrage of inflammatory antipolice, racist,
antigovernment racist articles, and I think it set the foundation for a gradual buildup
of animosity within the minority groups toward law and order, toward the so-called
Establishment, the term they like to use.
According to the witness, several groups were involved in racial agitation and propaganda
in the San Francisco area prior to the September 1966 riot. Among these organizations,
in addition to the Communist Party, were the following: the Direct Action Group; Ad Hoc
Committee To End Discrimination; Progressive Labor Movement (later known as Progressive
Labor Party); Committee to Defend Resistance to Ghetto Life (CERGE), a Progressive Labor
front; W.E.B. DuBois Clubs; Communist Party U.S.A. (Marxist-Leninist); and Anarchist League
of Los Angeles.
The Direct Action Group, according to Mr. Montgomery, was formed at about the time the
Communist Party inaugurated all-out support for integration picketing. Among its activities
was a demonstration at a drive-in chain in San Francisco and Berkeley, an activity which
resulted in some 93 arrests. Composed primarily of students at San Francisco State
College and City College, the group had as its spokesman Jeff Cole, son of identified
Communist Lester Cole of the Hollywood Ten.
The witness testified that the Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination had held numerous
demonstrations in the San Francisco area during 1964 and early 1965, including a
violence-scarred action at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel which resulted in the arrests of
167 persons, 91 of them alleged members or adherents of the Communist Party. According
to Mr. Montgomery's eyewitness account, this demonstration was led by Tracy Sims and
Michael Eugene Myerson, both of them members of the Communist Party's W.E.B. DuBois Club.
Mr. Montgomery submitted a detailed listing of people associated with the Ad Hoc
Committee's activities. Included in this list were children of Communists and notorious
fellow travelers, as well as activists in such groups as the DuBois Clubs and Young
Socialist Alliance. Among the organizations involved in Ad Hoc Committee activities were
the DuBois Clubs, Young Socialist Alliance, Student Peace Union, Young People's Socialist
League, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Freedom Now, SLATE, SCOPE, and National
Committee To Abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Introduced were numerous examples of Progressive Labor's revolutionary and racially
inflammatory propaganda, including leaflets, flyers, and several articles from two
official PLP publications, Progressive Labor and Spark. These exhibits
contain appeals for revolutionary violence, coupled with attempts to incite hatred and
fear of the police. One flyer distributed widely in the Bay area in August 1964 stated,
"The only path for winning freedom from oppression is by organizing for revolutionary
struggle..."
Mr. Montgomery introduced exhibits to document the activities of the Committee to Defend
Resistance to Ghetto Life (CERGE) in the San Francisco area. Stating that CERGE had
been created as a defense front by PLP to defend PLP Vice President William Epton after
the 1964 Harlem riot, the witness read from CERGE documents appealing for support for
Epton, an avowed Communist and revolutionist, as well as from a leaflet advertising a
CERGE meeting held in San Francisco on March 27, 1965, at which one of the speakers was
PLP official William McAdoo.
Documents provided by the witness reflected the concern of the DuBois Clubs with the
propaganda issue of alleged police brutality and racial agitation, although it was pointed
out that the clubs have concentrated primarily on the issues of poverty and Vietnam.
Included in these exhibits were antipolice literature and material urging support for an
activity of the Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination.
A leaflet distributed by the People's Armed Defense Groups, organized by the Communist
Party U.S.A. (Marxist-Leninist), called on readers to "Oppose the Reactionary
Violence OF THE RULING CLASS With the Revolutionary Violence OF THE PEOPLE." The
witness testified that this document was widely distributed in the San Francisco area.
Mr. Montgomery stated that the Anarchist League of Los Angeles distributed inflammatory
propaganda stickers bearing the phrases "BURN, BABY, BURN," "SUPPORT YOUR
LOCAL ANARCHIST," and "WARNING: YOUR LOCAL POLICE ARE ARMED AND DANGEROUS!"
He said this material was given wide circulation in various areas of San Francisco and in
the Negro area of West Oakland.
Two other documents distributed prior to the riot, according to the witness, were hippie
flyers, the first of which said in part: "A race riot seems just about inevitable.
Lots of people on both sides want it to happen, & they're all the kind of people who
generally get what they want." The second stated, "this is about the riots our
black brothers have planned for the city. There isn't much hope that they won't occur."
According to the Golden Gater, San Francisco State campus newspaper, for July 22,
1966, James Garrett, Black Students Union leader and former SNCC leader in the Los Angeles
area, is alleged to have stated that he was willing to do anything necessary to realize
the black nationalist goal of an all-black society, including "killing as the white
man has done so often."
Mr. Montgomery said:
I know of my own knowledge that Jerry Varnado [BSU coordinator] made two trips to an Army
surplus store... in Reno... Within a period of 10 days he had acquired and paid cash for
nine hand weapons, either .9 millimeter or .38 caliber.
RIOT PHASE
The spark that set off the riot occurred on the afternoon of September 27, 1966, when a
police officer, after two encounters and repeated warnings, shot and killed a young Negro,
one of three suspects who fled when the officer discovered them in a stolen car. The
witness said that –
by evening it [this incident] had become quite a cause of discussion throughout the Hunter's
Point area, and the agitators on the various street corners – groups were there, and
they began gathering in size and numbers. The police became alarmed.
Looting and violence broke out, but were at least partially contained by the police the
same evening. Violence increased in the Hunter's Point area on the second day. As the
rioting spread to the Fillmore area, also on the second day, Chief Cahill was forced to
call in the highway patrol and National Guard.
The disturbances were characterized by looting, firebombing, window-smashing, and pelting
of police and firemen with such objects as rocks and bottles. There were also instances of
sniping at police, including one of gunfire from the second floor of the Bayview Community
Center, Hunter's Point area headquarters for the local War on Poverty youth activity.
Mr. Montgomery testified that 457 persons were arrested, 326 of whom were brought to trial.
Of this number, 205 were convicted, 91 had their cases dismissed, and 2 forfeited bail.
Damage to property and loss from theft exceeded $136,000. Of the 161 persons injured
during the riot, 58 were policemen, 27 were firemen, 2 were highway patrolmen, and 5 were
otherwise employed by the city of San Francisco. Of a total population of 750,000, some
100,000 of whom are Negroes, some 4,000 persons were involved at the peak of the riot.
According to the official police estimate, the preponderance of the 4,000 was Negro; however,
most of the Negroes in the Hunter's Point and Fillmore districts were not involved.
POSTRIOT PHASE
Mr. Montgomery supplied numerous additional examples of Communist Party propaganda from
the pages of the People's World to illustrate the party's continuing exploitation
of the police brutality theme. He stated that the DuBois Clubs have continued to publish
racially oriented and antipolice propaganda in their magazine, INSURGENT.
Similar material has appeared in Progressive Labor Party leaflets and books and in the
pages of Spark, official PLP West Coast newspaper. PLP consistently refers to the
riots as a "rebellion" and a "battle between the cops and the ghetto
people..."
Documents introduced into the record indicated considerable activity by the Progressive
Labor Party through a front group called the Mission Tenants Union, an organization intended
to operate among Negroes and Mexican Americans. According to documentary evidence supplied
by the witness, the MTU has agitated and propagandized on such issues as police brutality
and draft resistance in collaboration with the following organizations: Mission Committee
Against the War, Students for a Democratic Society, Progressive Labor Party, Black
Anti-Draft Union, and the San Francisco Draft Resistance Union.
Another group discussed was the Afro-American Institute, located in San Francisco and
founded in January 1967. According to its own literature, the group was formed to foster
Negro economic development. Organizer of the institute was William Bradley of San
Francisco, characterized by the witness as an "extremely militant" and
"aggressive" individual who had been active in the Congress of Racial Equality
for some years. One theme of Bradley's propaganda efforts has been the issue of
concentration camps allegedly readied by the Government for the internment of black people.
Committee counsel pointed out for the record that this same issue had been the subject of
a considerable propaganda campaign waged by the Communist-front Citizens Committee for
Constitutional Liberties.
The witness recounted an incident which occurred in San Francisco in September 1967, when
the police learned, through a young Negro informant, of a plan to hold an "anniversary
riot" in San Francisco in the Fillmore district. The informant reported that some 800
Molotov cocktails had been stored secretly for use in the riot. A few hours before the
planned time for the riot on September 26, 1967, police uncovered 475 of the devices as a
result of a thorough search in the Fillmore area. Mr. Montgomery observed that this
incident occurred at about the same time that a document advocating urban guerrilla warfare
and giving directions in the preparation of a Molotov cocktail was being given wide
circulation in the area.
Considerable testimony was given on an organization known as the Bay Area Emergency Action
Committee, which Mr. Montgomery characterized as being "right from its founding
session... part and parcel of a Communist-front organization." This group engaged
in activity in the fields of opposition to the Vietnam war, propaganda against the Committee
on Un-American Activities, and active support for black revolution. Mr. Montgomery told of
a meeting held by the Bay Area Emergency Action Committee at the Hall of Flowers in Golden
Gate Park on July 22, 1967. He gave the purpose of the meeting as organization of the
black community and the poor whites in support of black power. Among the known members of
the Communist Party and/or the party's DuBois Clubs who were present at this meeting,
according to Mr. Montgomery's eyewitness testimony, were Howard Albert Harawitz (president
of the Berkeley Campus DuBois Club), Roscoe Proctor, Al Richmond, George Sandy, James
Fenton Wood, Albert "Mickey" Lima, Terence Hallinan, and Hursel Alexander.
Chairman for the meeting was identified Communist Don Rothenberg. Other known party members
connected with this project included Saul Wachter, Billie Wachter, and Peter Szego, as well
as prominent National Lawyers Guild member Beverly Diana Axelrod. After this meeting, a
circular was distributed which contained a proposal by Robert A. Avakian for the purchase
of guns for use by black militants in the San Francisco Bay area. Avakian's circular stated
in part that "we must... come to the aid of the black revolution..."
Mr. Montgomery disclosed that at least one such purchase had been made on February 15,
1968, in Reno, Nev., with $954 paid out for 26 firearms.
On June 28 Mr. Montgomery resumed his testimony with accounts of several incidents of
violence other than rioting since the September 1966 riot. This presentation included
accounts of snipings and attacks directed at police stations, along with an extensive
listing of incidents of sabotage of various utilities in the Bay area.
Mr. Montgomery provided the committee with detailed testimony on the situation at San
Francisco State College, beginning with an account of a seminar in guerrilla warfare being
given at the Experimental College of San Francisco State College. The course instructor
was Robert L. Kaffke, whom the witness identified as having been connected with Latin
American guerrilla movements. Exhibits also reflected Kaffke's connection with travel to
Cuba in 1963, with the DuBois Club at San Francisco State in 1964, and with a branch of
the Progressive Labor Movement in Brooklyn in 1965. Subjects covered in Kaffke's course
included "The Ghetto Uprisings," "Intelligence Operations," "Urban
Warfare," "Weaponry and Demolitions," "Counter-Insurgency Tactics,"
and "Perspectives of Revolution in the Americas." Recommended reading for the
course included works by such writers as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Regis Debray.
Mr. Montgomery quoted the Berkeley Barb of March 15-21, 1968, as saying that William
Mandel (Mr. Mandel was identified as a Communist by Louis Francis Budenz before the Senate
Internal Security Subcommittee on Aug. 23, 1951. On May 13, 1960, Mandel appeared as a
witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and invoked the fifth amendment
when queried concerning past or present Communist Party membership.) spoke to the class
about his appearance before the Committee on Un-American Activities and that tapes of speeches
by H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael would be played on a following date. Mr. Montgomery
observed:
The fact that Robert Kaffke has been engaged in racial agitation, however, and the fact
that his course on guerrilla warfare includes instruction on demolitions indicate that
there might be a link between the acts of sabotage that have taken place and the militant
race agitators who, it is known, are advocating guerrilla warfare. We have had them say
that the thing to do was to blow up power stations, blow up police stations, blow up
factories. There has even been an intimation that they were going to blow up the Standard
Oil plant in Richmond. These acts have been advocated by various spokesmen from within
the black militant group, as well as the leftists on the campus from time to time.
The witness discussed Dr. Harry Edwards, organizer of the 1968 Olympic boycott and one
of the principal organizers of the United Black Students for Action, a disruptive group
formed at San Jose State College in September 1967. Edwards is a part-time assistant
professor at the same institution. Mr. Montgomery read from a statement made by Edwards
in connection with the sniping attack on the Hunter's Point police station in November
1967. "When strategy doesn't work, you have to move on to something else that does
work. It doesn't make sense to go on being non-violent when everyone else is being
violent." On another occasion, Edwards was said to have stated, "I'm talking
about guerrilla warfare with snipers in buildings."
Among the organizations involved in inflammatory racial activity at San Francisco State
College, the witness listed the following: Black Students Union (BSU), Movement Against
Political Suspension (MAPS), Progressive Labor Party, Students for a Democratic Society,
Iranian Students Association, Vietnam Day Committee (VDC), W.E.B. DuBois Club, and Third
World Liberation Front (TWLF).
A member of the BSU mentioned by the witness was George Murray, an English instructor
who was once on-campus coordinator of the Tutorial Program. Murray was quoted as saying,
"Anything we do to the 'dog' cannot be wrong... The only crimes we can commit are
crimes against humanity..." [Murray is also known to be a member of the militantly
racist and violence-oriented Black Panther Party.]
Mr. Montgomery disclosed that the Black Students Union had engaged in acts of violence at
San Francisco State College. On November 6, 1967, for example, nine students, some of
them BSU members, broke into the offices of the campus newspaper, damaged property, and
physically assaulted the editor and other staff employees. All nine were arrested and
suspended, but five of the suspensions were later modified to probation or warning.
Investigation by the witness disclosed BSU representation on a number of other California
campuses: San Jose State College, Los Angeles City College, Stanford University,
California State College at Fullerton, Claremont Men's College, and Mills College, an
all-girl institution.
Another group very active in disruption at San Francisco State was the Movement Against
Political Suspension, MAPS was active in protesting the suspensions of the four BSU students
and two other persons who were connected with a campus magazine known as Open Process.
These two, Blair Paltridge and Jefferson Poland, were suspended for printing and writing,
respectively, obscene material in the November 14, 1967, issue of the magazine; however,
the suspensions were later withdrawn.
An item appeared in Open Process, which, the witness said, "advocates a general
program of hostility to Vietnam efforts":
Sabotage is the only remaining route to peace.
...
HOW DO YOU COMMIT SABOTAGE? Break war-related laws: draft, security, federal trespassing.
Damage war equipment. Join with your fellow workers in strikes, slowdowns, and
"botching the job" in key war industries: steel, transportation, aerospace,
electronics, etc.
Publish state secrets you have access to, either in the press or as leaflets. People have
a right to know what "their" government is up to.
On December 6, 1967, there was a violent demonstration at San Francisco State College.
Students and nonstudents, led by Progressive Labor Party member and MAPS leader John Levin,
in concert with leftist professor John Gerassi, broke into the school's Administration
Building. A few minutes later the rioting spread, with considerable resultant disruption
and damage to property. The names of those arrested were submitted for the record, along
with their organizational affiliations. Groups represented included Students for a
Democratic Society, Black Students Union, and Progressive Labor Party, these three being,
according to the witness, "the foremost leaders, the ringleaders," of MAPS.
Other groups were the Young Socialist Alliance and a local chapter of the Peace and
Freedom Party.
Another key faculty individual involved in disruptive activity at San Francisco State was
Juan R. Martinez, deeply involved with the Third World Liberation Front, for which he was
faculty adviser. The witness recounted one instance of TWLF activity in which the group
used imported high school students in a demonstration staged on April 30, 1968, at which
time the demonstrators invaded the office of the school's dean of admissions and baited him
into offering to resign. When the school refused to renew Martinez' contract at the end
of the school year, various groups on campus, including SDS, engaged in further disruption
and demonstrations.
The Berkeley Emergency Action Committee was characterized by the witness as a
"subsidiary" of the Bay Area Emergency Action Committee, formed at the Bay Area
Committee's July 22, 1967, Hall of Flowers meeting. Organizers were Brownlee W. Shirek
and Howard Harawitz. One activity of the Berkeley Emergency Action Committee was an
appearance before the Berkeley City Council on July 25, 1967, at which time Harawitz made
a statement which "touches with much emphasis on alleged police brutality existing
in the Berkeley area." Another speaker at this meeting was Communist Party functionary
Raymond Thompson.
The witness stated that the Oakland Emergency Action Committee was active in trying to
influence the Oakland City Council in much the same way that the Berkeley Emergency Action
Committee had tried in Berkeley. The Oakland Committee's propaganda emphasized the issue
of alleged police brutality. One of the Oakland Committee's documents submitted for the
record carried the name of the group's corresponding secretary and the following address:
985 60th Street, Oakland, which the witness identified as the address of one Ozzo J.
Marrow, identified as a member of the Communist Party.
TESTIMONY OF EDWARD S. MONTGOMERY
********************************************
Mr. Smith. Were there any convictions?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, there were.
Of the total number of cases tried, there were 326 cases brought to court: 205 convictions,
91 dismissals, 2 men skipped bail and trials are still pending, and there are some bench
warrants out.
They have a record of 70 percent convictions and 30 percent dismissals.
Mr. Smith. What is the total population of San Francisco?
Mr. Montgomery. About 750,000.
Mr. Smith. What is the Negro population of San Francisco?
Mr. Montgomery. The Negro population is estimated at 100,000.
Mr. Smith. Approximately how many people were involved in the riot?
Mr. Montgomery. Roughly between 3,000 and 4,000. At its peak, there
were about 4,000 people involved.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, for the record, again, this demonstrates that
the majority of the colored people were not involved in the riot.
Mr. Montgomery. The majority of the colored people in the Hunter's Point
or Fillmore districts were not involved.
The Chairman. While it has been a remarkable and consoling thing in
connection with all of the riots occurring in areas such as Watts, Newark, Harlem, and
Detroit, how the colored people stood up 10 feet tall and resisted the temptation, I don't
know. I think it is a real compliment to the colored race.
Mr. Montgomery. I feel, Mr. Chairman, there are social aspects that cause
a riot, but the propaganda distributed in the riot area of San Francisco prior to the riot
was very inflammatory. In my opinion, it would lead to the condition in the Negro community,
making them more receptive.
The Chairman. I am glad you brought that up. Let me tell you that other
committees of the Congress, both on the Senate and the House side, have inquired into the
"brink" causes of these riots – the ghettos, the underprivileged status
of the colored race, and all that – so far as we are concerned, we are operating
within the jurisdiction of the committee and we want to find out what, if any, subversive
influences were at play in connection with the riots.
That is what we are here to develop this morning. I know that there are social injustices
and social reasons besides that. Our limited purpose is to stick to and conform to our
jurisdiction in order that we might bring out the extent of subversive activities causing
and prolonging these riots.
Mr. Ichord. Mr. Chairman, will you yield at this point?
The Chairman. I yield.
Mr. Ichord. You said the Negro population of San Francisco was 100,000,
Mr. Montgomery. I did not understand the total population of San Francisco.
Mr. Montgomery. 750,000, of whom 100,000 are Negro.
Mr. Ichord. You stated there were approximately 4,000 people involved in
the riot.
Mr. Montgomery. 3,000 or 4,000.
Mr. Ichord. Is that your estimate or the police estimate?
Mr. Montgomery. That has been stated in print as a police department
estimate of the total number involved at the peak of the riot.
Mr. Ichord. Of those 3,000 or 4,000, did you have a percentage of what
were white and what percentage were Negro?
Mr. Montgomery. The preponderance were Negro, but there were some white
people arrested in this riot.
Mr. Smith. Have there been any other disturbances in the San Francisco
riot?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, there have been some minor disturbances, mostly at
the college level, one at the San Francisco State College.
Getting back to the riot itself, if you want a little additional detail on it, there was
sniping and gunfire at the police. These incidents were in addition to the lootings as
the riot spread from its inception.
At Hunter's Point, it spread to the second Negro area of our city, the Fillmore district.
While police were attempting to bring the situation under control at Hunter's Point, it
broke out in the Fillmore area and seesawed back and forth to the point where they were
finally obliged to bring in the National Guard. They brought in several hundred highway
patrolmen, and actually it was 128 hours from the time of the inception of the riot until
the time of its final conclusion when the National Guard was discharged and the highway
patrolmen were relieved.
********************************************
Mr. Montgomery. I have also an exhibit quoting Albert J. "Mickey"
Lima, who is the chairman of the Communist Party for Northern California.
He is quoted in the San Jose Mercury [May 20, 1964], a copy of which I have here.
This was an occasion when he was speaking at Stanford University. He had been brought
on the campus as a speaker and the lead sentence of this story is: "Communists are
definitely involved in America's civil rights revolt."
This is not an allegation being made by someone. This is Mickey Lima's own statement that
Communists are definitely involved in American civil rights activities in California.
The Chairman. Who made that statement?
Mr. Montgomery. Albert "Mickey" Lima, the chairman of the
Communist Party, U.S.A., for Northern California.
The Chairman. He acknowledges Communist activity within these riots?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes. Within various demonstrations.
The Chairman. If Ed Willis, as chairman of this committee, said that, he
would be gored to pieces.
Mr. Montgomery. It says his organization backs the movement of individual
Reds and Reds have participated in the various civil rights activities throughout the country.
He acknowledges this.
Mr. Smith. I request this document be received in the record.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 3" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Supplementing Mr. Montgomery's identification of Mr. Lima, I
would like to point out that he has been chairman of the district since it was created in
1957, the Communist Party district of Northern California. He is also a member of the
seven-man executive board which was set up to replace the district committee after the
Supreme Court upheld –
The Chairman. Is he a self-professed or identified Communist?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes.
The Chairman. Which one, self-professed or both?
Mr. Montgomery. I am sorry, I don't understand you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. I am asking if this gentleman is a self-admitted or
identified member of the Communist Party, which, or both.
Mr. Montgomery. Mickey Lima is self-admitted and has been identified time
and again.
The Chairman. Both?
Mr. Montgomery. You call him on the phone if you want to find out
something about the Communist Party – we call Mickey Lima – he is the publicly
acknowledged chairman of the Communist Party.
There is nothing sub rosa about it.
"RED LEADER – Albert J. 'Mickey' Lima, executive secretary of Northern
California's Communist Party" – this picture was taken as he addressed 450
university students at Palo Alto.
He is regarded as the number one man in the Communist Party in Northern California.
Mr. Smith. Mickey Lima has served on the National Committee of the
Communist Party, U.S.A., for many years and was reelected at the party's convention in
June of 1966.
Mr. Montgomery. Along the same line, I have with me a copy of the remarks
of Gus Hall, who also spoke in the Bay area. We had had a disturbance on the Stanford
campus recently, and this is as recent as May 7 of this year where Gus Hall said, among
other things, that "Communists do not dominate big city racial riots, 'but we are a
factor in their direction.'" That was a quote from the Oakland Tribune of
May 7, 1968. He also was quoted: "Wherever there is struggle and movement the general
fact can be accepted that party members are playing militant roles." Hall said,
"I am an old looter myself. I did time in Minneapolis for emptying retail stores
during the depression. People were hungry."
This is from Gus Hall, the general secretary.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request this document be received for the record.
The Chairman. It will be received.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 4-A" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. I would like also, Mr. Chairman, to refer to an article
by Roy Wilkins. He is a Negro columnist. This appeared in the San Francisco
News-Call Bulletin on May 4, 1965, and it is captioned "Negroes Should Beware
of Reds."
The lead on the story is "Once again the Communists are seeking to use American
Negroes to help bring about a revolution."
Elsewhere he says:
In the '30s the Communists were obsessed with the idea that the "black proletariat"
would arise and revolt if only it had their leadership...
He also states:
THE USA Communist Party in 1941 officially urged Negroes to cease their agitation against
all Jim Crow, especially that in the armed forces, until the Soviet Union was saved. The
Negro cause was dumped between suns.
Well, he concludes:
It remains to be seen whether this legitimate movement, representing the aspirations of
millions of Negroes who are Americans, first and always, can be perverted and made a tool
to serve communism.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit 4-B" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Chairman, I have knowledge of a meeting that was
held in the Finnish Hall in Berkeley, a district meeting of Communist chieftains. Hall
came out from New York; Mickey Lima, Roscoe Proctor, others were there during the past
summer at which a program was launched.
They were a little disturbed that they were losing too many of their Negro followers who
were going over to the more militant actions.
At that time it was decided a concerted effort should be made in the Bay area to bring as
many Negroes back into the Communist fold as possible.
Mr. Ichord. Mr. Montgomery, you referred to Mr. Wilkins as a columnist.
This is the same Roy Wilkins who is the head of the NAACP, is it not?
Mr. Montgomery. That is correct.
The Chairman. I might say, and it deserves to be said, that Mr. Roy
Wilkins is a 100 percent American. As a matter of fact, he has sponsored, and the NAACP
Council adopted, a very strong anti-Communist plan in their meetings.
Mr. Roy Wilkins is all right.
********************************************
Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Chairman, they seem to change their names every so
often. They have a group under one name and then they have a new committee, an Ad Hoc
Committee To End Discrimination, or something like that, but they are the same faces. We
see the same people over and over again and invariably we will have a Patrick or Terence
Hallinan acting as counsel for them or Beverly Axelrod counseling them on the side. We
see the same people repeatedly.
Mr. Smith. You made reference to an Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination.
Was this group active in the civil rights agitation?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, it was. They were the primary instigators of the
Sheraton-Palace demonstration. They held one demonstration outside, one in early March
at which time an injunction was granted by the court to limit the number of pickets and
soon they were held in violation of that injunction. There were some arrests made, and
then finally they came back for a third time and it was on that occasion that they
actually took over the hotel and practically ran the hotel for a few hours.
Mr. Smith. When was the Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination formed?
Mr. Montgomery. As close as I can get to the date of the formation would
be an article I have that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on March 2, 1964,
and at that time – well, there was a hotel meeting and "The wild, noisy Sunday
night hotel meeting melee ended with the arrest of 123 persons..."
This is referring to the initial riot of demonstrators at the hotel, in which two policemen,
incidentally, were injured in making arrests. A demonstration leader claimed there were
12 people bruised by police, but in the developments there, Mike Myerson, 23, and Tracy
Sims, 18, were spokesmen for the Ad Hoc Committee. They identified themselves as members
of the W.E.B. DuBois Club which we have described at times over the past as a Marxist
study group. They were among those arrested.
Myerson claimed the Ad Hoc Committee had been negotiating for nearly 3 months, so that
would put it 3 months prior to March or preferably around the end of 1963 or the early
part of 1964 for the formation of the Ad Hoc Committee.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request this document be received for the
record.
The Chairman. It will be so received.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 11" and retained in committee files.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Montgomery has mentioned the name of Michael Eugene
Myerson. I would like to enter into the record information from the committee's files
concerning Mr. Myerson.
(The information follows:)
MICHAEL EUGENE MYERSON
Mike Myerson is a 28-year-old native of Washington, D.C. He gained his first solid
experience at agitation as a member and later chairman of SLATE, a radical student
organization at the University of California. From organizing protests against ROTC and
the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Myerson graduated to the leadership of
the U.S. delegation to the Communist 1962 World Youth Festival. After the festival,
Myerson filed a number of reports on it from abroad. No information is available on his
whereabouts or activities from then until the fall of 1963 when he turned up in San
Francisco.
On November 3, 1963, Myerson was arrested at a demonstration at Mel's Drive-In. He was
charged with disturbing the peace and trespassing. Myerson identified himself as cochairman
of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Discrimination.
In 1964 Myerson was busy helping organize the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs. The People's World
reported that Myerson was a leading participant in the coast-wide conference of
socialist-oriented young people sponsored by the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of San Francisco,
San Francisco State College, Berkeley, West Los Angeles, and the Youth Action Union of
Los Angeles, held March 21-22, 1964. The national founding convention for the W.E.B.
DuBois Clubs was held in June 1964, Myerson was a member of the national coordinating
committee for the convention and a staff member of THE CONVENER, official newsletter
for the national coordinating committee. He was subsequently appointed West Coast
representative for the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America (DCA).
In January 1965 the DCA published a pamphlet by Myerson entitled "The United States
War in Vietnam." It was reviewed in the CPUSA's monthly propaganda organ
New World Review as a "useful account of our aggressive war in Vietnam."
In May 1965 Myerson was given the post of international secretary for the DCA. In July
he attended the Communist World Peace Congress at Helsinki, Finland.
He and DCA member Harold Supriano, with Chris Koch, an announcer for radio station WBAI,
and freelance writer Richard Ward, sought out members of the North Vietnamese Peace
Committee at the congress and requested permission to visit North Vietnam. The
invitation from the North Vietnamese was extended and the four spent the last week of
August and the first week in September in North Vietnam.
Myerson was made an honorary nephew of Ho Chi Minh and since he returned to the United
States he has sported a Viet Cong cap and carried a Viet Cong flag at demonstrations
protesting the war in Vietnam.
In 1966 Michael Myerson joined the staff of the Communist Party publishing house,
International Publishers.
Mike Myerson is currently director of the Tri-Continental Information Center in New York City.
He has held that post since the formation of the center was announced in the spring of 1967.
The declared intention of Tri-Continental is to propagandize on behalf of "national
liberation" movements fighting throughout the world against "US colonialism and
neo-colonialism."
Mr. Smith. What was the primary purpose of the Ad Hoc Committee?
Mr. Montgomery. Theirs was one of strictly agitation and picketing, not
only the Sheraton-Palace and the various drive-ins, but they also assisted in other
demonstrations including the picketing of the Oakland Tribune in November of 1964.
Mr. Smith. Were you present at the demonstration sponsored by the Ad Hoc
Committee To End Discrimination at the Sheraton-Palace in San Francisco in early March of
1964?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, I was there from the inception, from the time they
broke into the hotel proper until the last one was carted off by the police around 4 o'clock
the following morning.
I witnessed the functioning within the hotel. Myerson and a young Negress by the name of
Tracy Sims were the motivating instigators and had command of the situation, particularly
Miss Sims who was something of a major domo that night.
If you are familiar with the Sheraton-Palace Hotel, it has a long corridor leading almost
an entire block along New Montgomery Street.
There are three principal entrances, one on Jessie Street, one on Market Street, and one
on New Montgomery Street.
I was flanking Miss Sims most of the evening. She would confer with Myerson and walk
down one end of the hall and give a command, "I want 50 people to block this door
right now" and not only 50, but closer to 75, of the demonstrators, mostly students,
blocked off any ingress or egress of the Jessie Street entrance.
She went back and conferred again with Myerson and then walked to the Market Street
entrance and said, "I want 75 demonstrators to block this door," and they
actually had closer to 100 or so who sat there and no one could come in or out.
Following further consultation with Myerson, they decided to block the main entrance itself.
She said, "I want the rest of you to block this main entrance" – they sat
there, several hundred of them.
In the meanwhile, there were cigarettes burning on the furniture and rugs and some
demonstrators were asleep in the halls – stretched out asleep.
It went on from mid-evening, 9 o'clock, until 4 o'clock the next morning.
People were unable to come or go. It finally got to the point where the police themselves
took over because they said it constituted, among other things, a fire hazard, and it was
on that basis that the police, not the hotel, but the police themselves, moved in and
evacuated the demonstrators.
Mr. Ashbrook. Mr. Montgomery, as I recall the demonstrators when they
were brought to trial they received stringent sentences.
Mr. Montgomery. In advance of this demonstration, the Ad Hoc Committee
put out flyers giving instructions on how to link arms to make it difficult for the police
to remove them and then, once you were separated from the crowd, you were to go limp and
compel them to carry you out [Montgomery Exhibit No. 12].
Again, it identified Tracy Sims and Mike Myerson, along with a fellow named Roy Ballard,
as the principals of this demonstration, the people to look to. This was demonstrated
prior to the arrests.
Mr. Ashbrook. Do you remember what sentence Tracy Sims received?
Mr. Montgomery. They received sentences anywhere up to – I think the
most stringent sentence was to Dr. Thomas Burbridge, a Negro professor from the University
of California medical school. I believe he was given a 9-month sentence originally, and
then that was later reduced to 90 days and subsequently I think he did serve 30 days.
But some of them, for the most part, were given 30 days.
Tracy Sims I believe was given a 60-day sentence, but she skipped San Francisco and went to
New York –
Mr. Ashbrook. A true leader.
Mr. Montgomery. There is a warrant out for her. Police officials feel as
long as it is on the record she will not come back to San Francisco and they would just as
soon keep it that way.
So, as far as I recall, Tracy Sims never served a day in jail.
Mr. Smith. Does this organization presently exist?
Mr. Montgomery. So far as I know, no. To the best of my recollection,
there was a public announcement along in February of 1965 announcing that the Ad Hoc
Committee To End Discrimination had been dissolved.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that the document submitted by Mr.
Montgomery be received for the record.
The Chairman. It will be received.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 12" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. You have already discussed the question of arrests at this
demonstration, have you not?
Mr. Montgomery. There were a number of arrests. To the best of my
recollection, they were in excess of 200.
Mr. Smith. Do you have any further identification of Mike Myerson other
than what you have given?
Mr. Montgomery. I know he has been active in the Berkeley area since
around 1959. As a student he was very active in a leftwing group on campus known as SLATE.
He has traveled to North Vietnam. He traveled there with a man named Harold Supriano who
also was arrested in the Palace Hotel demonstration.
Supriano at that time was an employee of the California Prison Authority as a parole officer.
He subsequently was discharged.
He next landed a job as a social worker with the county welfare organization and he has
been discharged from that job because of a false statement with regard to a leave. He took
a leave saying he was going to go to New York and instead he went with Mike Myerson to
Hanoi, North Vietnam.
Supriano and Myerson both traveled the West Coast considerably, showing anti-United States
films and antiallies – pro-Viet Cong films throughout the coastal area.
One of Myerson's pet possessions is a metal ring which he says is made from metal of an
allied plane shot down in Vietnam. He was very proud of that.
So he has been around the Bay area in and out a great deal and has been associated with
such individuals, I might say, as Supriano who does have a Communist-affiliation background.
Mr. Smith. A few minutes ago you mentioned the name of Roy Ballard.
Mr. Montgomery. Yes.
Mr. Smith. Can you further identify Mr. Roy Ballard?
Mr. Montgomery. I have an exhibit that refers to Roy Ballard
[People's World, March 14, 1964, Montgomery Exhibit No. 13]. On November 14,
1963, he was arrested by the San Francisco Police Department at a demonstration under
the sponsorship of the Direct Action Group, and this was the demonstration at Mel's
Drive-In. Ballard was a functionary at that demonstration. He was one of the guiding
lights at the Mel's Drive-In demonstration.
On March 1, 1964, he was arrested at the Sheraton-Palace at the demonstration I referred
to, and on March 14 he was again arrested while participating in a demonstration at the
Cadillac agency on Automotive Row on Van Ness Avenue. This demonstration was sponsored
jointly by the NAACP with the support of the Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination. This
was prior to its dissolvement.
On May 17, 1964, he was arrested at the Army base at the Presidio for picketing on the
Vietnam issue.
This is not unusual. We see these same people picketing over and over again.
I have witnessed some of these people picketing or demonstrating for two separate, unrelated
causes on the same day.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, at this point, I would like to read into the
record the committee's file information concerning Harold Supriano:
HAROLD SUPRIANO
On June 24, 1966, Edward Montgomery, reporter for the San Francisco Examiner,
appeared as a witness before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and testified under
oath that he knew Harold Supriano to be a member of the Communist Party.
In 1962 Harold Supriano was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Communist Eighth World
Youth Festival held in Helsinki, Finland.
Supriano was a member of the national coordinating committee and Southern representative
of the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America in 1964. In 1965 Harold Supriano, Mike Myerson,
Chris Koch, and Richard Ward attended the World Peace Congress in Helsinki, Finland.
While at the congress, the four sought out members of the North Vietnamese Peace Committee
and asked for and received permission to visit North Vietnam. They spent the last week in
August and the first week of September 1965 as the guest of the North Vietnamese.
At the time of the trip to Helsinki and Hanoi, Supriano was employed as a social worker by
the San Francisco welfare department. When he sought a leave of absence from his job in
the summer of 1965, Supriano reportedly stated that he had to go to New York "because
his parents were ill." Instead he went to a Communist peace congress and then, in
defiance of State Department travel regulations, he visited Hanoi.
Supriano subsequently was dismissed from his position for having made false statements
when applying for a leave of absence.
********************************************
Mr. Smith. Has the Progressive Labor Movement, later known as the
Progressive Labor Party, been active in the San Francisco area?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, it has. It has been quite active.
Mr. Smith. Can you estimate its strength?
Mr. Montgomery. Well, it would be difficult to estimate the entire
membership. But it is considered to be a relatively small organization, with the center
of its activities currently at San Francisco State College. Originally, it emanated out
of the University of California for the most part, but its center of activity now is on the
San Francisco State College campus, and many of their members are interwoven with other
organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society, for example.
Mr. Smith. Do you have any documents which were circulated by the
Progressive Labor Party which would tend to incite people to riot prior to the San Francisco
riot of September 27, 1966?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, I have. The first document was received just prior
to August 1, 1964, and this is an announcement scheduling a meeting titled, "Police
Terror" [Montgomery Exhibit No. 35]. It bears three pictures, one showing a group
of demonstrators; the second is a picture of a sign being carried in a picket line which
reads "IF WE MUST DIE, We Will Die With Weapons In Our Hands." The third is a
photograph of police evidently making an arrest, which I assume tends to depict police
brutality. Now, this is a document which was circulated, given wide circulation in the Bay
area, and the speakers scheduled on this particular program for this meeting were John
Thomas, chairman of the Committee to End U.S. Intervention [in Vietnam]; Aaron Chapman, who
is a candidate of Freedom Now Party; and Mortimer Scheer, West Coast organizer for the
Progressive Labor Movement.
You probably recognize Mort Scheer as a former member of the Communist Party, U.S.A., who
was among those expelled when they wouldn't go along with the Khrushchev line of coexistence.
It was he and two others, Milton Rosen and Jacob Rosen, who formed the Progressive Labor
Party in New York in 1962.
Soon after its formation, Mort Scheer appeared in Berkeley as the West Coast chief of the
Progressive Labor Party, and he had working with him – he took on at that time a
lieutenant by the name of Lee Coe. Lee Coe also had been expelled from the party in San
Francisco for his failure to adhere to the Khrushchev line of coexistence. Lee Coe had
been at one time publicity man for Harry Bridges of the Longshoremen's Union. He later
had become labor editor for the People's World. He has been very active in the
party and, upon his being expelled, he linked up with Mortimer Scheer and the people from
New York and worked for Mort Scheer in Berkeley on the Berkeley campus on behalf of the
Progressive Labor Party.
Now, the document just introduced coupled with the Vietnam issue, the poverty issue, and
police brutality. In other words, it is sort of a scattergun that covered all three of
the principal issues of projects of the Communist Party at that time in the Bay area. It
had a little bit of everything in it.
Mr. Smith. Do you have the address of the Progressive Labor Party?
Mr. Montgomery. Well, the address given on that flyer that I just turned
in was given as Post Office Box 843, San Francisco, California.
Another document which I will introduce was distributed in San Francisco and originated
from the Progressive Labor Movement in Berkeley, and the address was given as P.O. Box 73,
Station A, Berkeley, California. I happen to know that that was the box at which Mort Scheer
received his mail.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, at this point I would like to introduce for the
record a copy of an application from the Post Office Department dated October 1, 1963,
which indicates that Box 73 was rented by Lee Coe, just mentioned by Mr. Montgomery, of
the Progressive Labor Party [Montgomery Exhibit No. 36].
(Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits Nos. 35 and 36," respectively. Exhibit
No. 36 retained in committee files. No. 35 follows:)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 35
THE PEOPLE RESIST
POLICE TERROR
DEMONSTRATION TO PROTEST POLICE TERROR
TIME: SATURDAY - AUGUST 1st - 1 P.M.
PLACE: McAllister & Filmore
SPEAKERS:
JOHN THOMAS &ndash: Chairman, Comm. to End U.S. Intervention
AARON CHAPMAN – Candidate of Freedom Now Party
MORT SCHEER – West Coast Organizer Progressive Labor Movement
PROGRESSIVE LABOR SAN FRANCISCO P.O. BOX,
San Francisco, California
Mr. Montgomery. I believe, Mr. Chairman, a classic example of the type
of propaganda that they were putting out at this time is a flyer that was given wide
distribution throughout the Bay area [Montgomery Exhibit No. 37]. It is entitled
"LET'S BLACKJACK JOHNSON," referring to President Johnson. I won't read it
all, just one paragraph.
But apparently it's all right for the Negro people to be clubbed, tear-gassed and blackjacked
by the Ku Klux Kops. And not only in Selma, but in every black ghetto across the country...
from Harlem to the San Francisco Bay Area.
And it continues:
The only path for winning freedom from oppression is by organizing for revolutionary struggle...
Finally:
Let us prepare and organize now to win political power! Yes, Mr. Johnson, you will be
blackjacked – and we will be free!
This, as I said, came from Post Office Box 73, Berkeley, California.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 37" appears on page 2094.)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 37
LET'S BLACKJACK JOHNSON
The events in Selma, Alabama have outraged the people throughout the country and the world.
President Johnson has been exposed as a hypocritical and callous racist who openly declares
when confronted with the people's demands: "I won't be blackjacked."
But apparently it's all right for the Negro people to be clubbed, tear-gassed and blackjacked
by the Ku Klux Kops. And not only in Selma, but in every black ghetto across the country...
form Harlem to the San Francisco Bay Area.
The events in Selma have proven that the civil rights tactic of meeting violence with prayer
is only an invitation to more violence. The rising wave of police terror against Black
people has proven that the only protection the people can rely on is self-defense. The
only time the Federal government sends its troops into action is to PREVENT the Negro people
from fighting back. Johnson sends troops into Vietnam for the same reason: to crush the
Vietnamese who have been fighting back to achieve their freedom. And the Vietnamese will
win regardless of how many Marines Johnson sends to the slaughter.
The Black people in the United States can and will win their freedom too. But not by
relying on the White House... nor by relying on prayers and those who advise to turn the
other cheek. Nor will demonstrations or protests be enough because they fall on the racist
ears of a President who says he won't be blackjacked.
Alabama Governor Wallace and Sheriff Clark should be arrested and jailed. But Johnson won't
do it. The people need decent jobs, homes and schools, but Johnson won't do anything about
that either.
The only path for winning freedom from oppression is by organizing for revolutionary struggle.
This will be a hard struggle. It will not win freedom. Now, but it will win Freedom. The
phony Civil Rights Bill didn't do it, nor will any phony Right to Vote Bill. The Black
people in the North who can vote know that they have no freedom as long as Mr. Charley
controls the cops' clubs, guns and dogs, the hiring and firing.
Let's Protest! Let's Demonstrate! Yes, we must and we will.
But let us prepare and organize now to defend ourselves!
Let us prepare and organize now to win political power!
Yes, Mr. Johnson, you will be blackjacked – and we will be free!
Issued by: The Progressive Labor Movement, P.O. Box 73 Station A.. Berkeley, Cal.
Mr. Ashbrook. Let me see that.
Mr. Montgomery. The next exhibit was circulated in March of 1965 by the
San Francisco Progressive Labor Party and gives a new address. It is the first time, or
nearly the first time, their address started showing up. 3382 18th Street, and is titled
"ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED?"
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 38" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. This was given particularly wide distribution in San
Francisco, more so than on the east side of the Bay, and it is an attack on President
Johnson and on police in general. It is intended solely to inflame the minority groups,
particularly the Negroes, inflame them against President Johnson.
For instance, referring to President Johnson –
HE HEADS UP A SYSTEM THAT THRIVES ON OPPRESSING POOR PEOPLE BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD.
NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND HAS ANY RULING CLIQUE GIVEN UP PRIVILEGE OR POWER OR WEALTH
UNTIL THEY HAVE BEEN FORCED TO DO SO.
And this is underscored in capital letters.
YET TODAY SUPPOSEDLY RESPONSIBLE NEGRO LEADERS LIKE ROY WILKINS ARE IMPLORING THE BLACK
PEOPLE TO REMAIN NON-VIOLENT IN THE FACE OF THEIR CONTINUOUS DEGRADATION AND BLOODSHED...
This is typical of how they will pick out someone whom they consider an Uncle Tom. Any
one of their own race who seeks to counterbalance them in any way at all immediately becomes
an Uncle Tom and an enemy of the people, particularly the minority.
This particular article continues:
IN HARLEM, N.Y. WHEN THE RESIDENTS RESISTED POLICE AGGRESSION, THEY WON THE FIRST BATTLE
ON THE ROAD TO HUMAN DIGNITY AND AN EQUAL RIGHT FOR ALL TO ACHIEVE COMFORT AND HAPPINESS.
IN JONESBORO, LOUISIANA, BLACK CITIZENS HAVE FORMED AN ORGANIZATION CALLED "THE
DEACONS FOR DEFENSE AND JUSTICE," WHICH PROTECTS THE BLACK COMMUNITY AND CIVIL RIGHTS
WORKERS FROM ATTACKS AND HARASSMENT.
Further:
THESE MEASURES POINT OUT THE ROAD FOR ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLES!
WHEN NON-VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS FAIL. THEY MUST BE PREPARED TO DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS FROM
A POSITION OF STRENGTH.
This, again, came from the Progressive Labor headquarters in San Francisco.
We have further examples along the same line. The next is an announcement which is undated,
but from the text I would say it came out sometime in the late spring or early summer of
1965. Notice, this document announces a meeting sponsored by San Francisco Draft
Resistance Union. The speakers scheduled represent the Black Anti-Draft Union, the
Stop-the-Draft-Week, Progressive Labor Party, and the Mission Youth Organizations.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 39" appears on page 2096.)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 39
You don't have to go!
NO DRAFT FOR VIETNAM!
OUR FIGHT IS HERE!
In Oakland, this week, a lot of people have "discovered" just what kind of
"democracy" we really have. A lot of people have learned what some of us
have known for a long time (especially around Mission HS) – what makes this country
run: police clubs!
The reason more and more people are coming into conflict with the system, is because they
are coming to hate the rich man's war in Vietnam.
Young men are throwing away their lives in a war run by the rich and for the rich. Racism
and poverty keep the establishment in power. The Cops, army, big business and school
authorities work together to push us into a war that we had no part in making and no
reason for continuing.
We must stand together and resist this war. Support liberation in Asia, Africa and Latin
America. Our fight is for freedom and democracy right here at home.
Vietnam, Santo Domingo, the Congo, to name just a few, should be free of U.S. domination.
Support this fight.
You don't have to join the rich man's army. And if you do join, you can fight for your
rights inside, too.
Join this fight for freedom here. Learn more about what you can do to stay out of the
army, or what you can do inside it.
Come to a rally Friday (tonight) at 7:30 – 22nd & Mission to support the
anti-draft demonstrations in Oakland, and to continue the fight against the U.S. war
in Vietnam.
SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE YOUNG MEN WHO ARE REFUSING TO GO TO VIETNAM:
TIME: Tonight at 7:30 p.m.
PLACE: 22nd & Mission
SPEAKERS FROM: Black Anti-Draft Union
Don't Forget
Stop-the-Draft-Week
"I ain't going to Vietnam. I got nothing against those people. If I'm gonna die
fighting, it's gonna be fighting against the slumlords and loan sharks and crooked
politicians and cops right here in San Francisco." – Come and talk with the
young man who made that statement.
Progressive Labor Party
Come and get up and speak your piece!
Come and join the fight!
Sponsored by S.F. Draft Resistance Union
They quote from inflammatory statements concerning the police – "what makes
this country run: police clubs!" "The cops, army, big business and the school
authorities work together to push us into a war that we had no part in making and no
reason for continuing."
This was handed out particularly around Mission High School, Francisco Draft Resistance
Union, combining with them – in this instance, and I have direct knowledge of their
having been there – in this instance, and I have direct knowledge of their having
been there – was, among other people, Kathie Harer, who is the daughter of Asher
Harer, one of the functionaries of the Trotskyist party in San Francisco.
While these were prepared by the Progressive Labor Party, the Mission Youth Organizations,
that phase of it was headed up for the most part of Kathie Harer, and this was given wide
distribution, particularly at Mission High School where there is a preponderance of
Negroes.
Mr. Smith. Would the Trotskyist party that you mentioned be the
Socialist Workers Party?
Mr. Montgomery. That would be, yes. They are within the Socialist
Workers Party.
Mr. Smith. Proceed.
Mr. Montgomery. And they have a youth group, too. The Young Socialist
Alliance, I believe it is called.
Mr. Chairman, I have a publication of Progressive Labor, published by the
Progressive Labor Party in New York City. This issue I am referring to is for May-June
1965. This issue of the magazine is antipolice, as were other issues of the same
publication.
The back page consists of a number of mock-ups of older publications, some abroad, some
local, some foreign, every one pointed at the police department. "POLICE TERROR."
This would have been 72-point headlines. "'KICK OUT MURPHY.'" "POLICE WAR
ON HARLEM." "TODAY VIETNAM TOMORROW – THE WORLD."
The whole general tenor of it is of inflammatory nature, but more important, there is one
article in here, as I recall, "BLACK LIBERATION," which is highly inflammatory
from beginning to end. It relates that the black people will comprise the largest
minority of the United States, they are the most oppressed as a section of the working
class and as a people, with U.S. imperialism making superprofits because of the oppression
of the black. There is one inflammatory statement after another here, and the sole purpose
was to inflame the blacks toward revolution.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 40" and retained in committee files.)
I have also, if you please, a document, a leaflet, distributed by the Progressive Labor
Party Student Club, strongly supporting the W.E.B. DuBois Club. "ESCALATION AT
HOME" is the title of this leaflet, and it reads in part:
The Progressive Labor Party condemns the vicious bombing attack on the W.E.B. DuBois Club
national headquarters which occurred on March 6th...
Their headquarters were bombed on McAllister Street on that date.
I have some extemporaneous knowledge of that, but I think it would be perhaps just as well
not to go into it at this point, at any rate, but it continues:
The government's attack only serves to expose their hypocrisy – their ruthlessness.
The police attack on the DuBois Club –
They contend it was the police; we know otherwise.
– The police attack on the DuBois Club press conference in New York, the indictment
of more than 60 PLP members by New York kangaroo courts, the federal harassment of the
University of Michigan students opposed to U.S. aggression in Vietnam, the murder of
freedom fighters in the South, the framed-up conviction and jailing of Bill Epton from
Harlem... these are all recent instances of the ruling class' political repression of
radicals and revolutionaries in this country.
This also was given widespread circulation throughout the Bay area.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 41" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. I have also a flyer from San Francisco &nash; it is
headed "WANTED for the MURDER of Leonard Deadwyler: 'BOVA – the – COP.'"
Well, actually this revolves around a shooting in Los Angeles, but oddly enough, it was
given wide distribution in San Francisco although it was a Los Angeles affair.
'WANTED for the MURDER of Leonard Deadwyler: – (a member of the concentration camp)
'BOVA – the – COP' (a guard in the concentration camp)."
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 42" and retained in committee files.
(This exhibit is identical to Anderson Exhibit No. 13, reproduced in pt. 3 of these
hearings (Los Angeles–Watts), pp. 1245, 1246.))
Mr. Ashbrook. What date was this?
Mr. Montgomery. This is a highly inflammatory flyer and information
put out. "Murder by cops and death by unemployment are methods of systematic
extermination." "DISARM THE GUARDS IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMP," meaning
"Disarm the cops."
This would be May and June. This came out in late May or early June of 1966.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, this document here refers to the accidental
shooting of Leonard Deadwyler by a policeman of Los Angeles by the name of Bova.
Mr. Ashbrook. I was going to comment that that follows 2 years after
the Epton incident. Epton was later convicted of criminal anarchy.
The Deadwyler case was set before this committee by Lieutenant Clayton R. Anderson on
November 30, 1967.
(At this point Mr. Willis entered the hearing room.)
Mr. Montgomery. The next example I have of the Progressive Labor
Party's propaganda, and this is again both Los Angeles and San Francisco, is a flyer
put out in support of John Harris, who had been arrested for criminal syndicalism. It
implies that this was a frameup and that the reason he was being arrested was a further
subjugation of the Negroes and the Negro in the ghetto, and it takes out after General
Motors and other corporations.
"We will not stop our protests. On the contrary, we will redouble them!!!"
and "DEFEND JOHN HARRIS!"
Now, although this emanated out of the South, it was given wide distribution in northern
California as well.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 43" appears on page 2099.)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 43
Who Is Really Guilty? LBJ, Yorty, General Motors
JOHN HARRIS ARRESTED FOR "CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM"
John Harris, Progressive Labor Party worker in Watts, was arrested by the Los Angeles
County District Attorney September 20 for "criminal syndicalism." It was the
first time this law was used since 1937 – when it was used to break a farm labor
organizing drive in the San Joaquin Valley. The purpose of the government in using this
law now is clearly to suppress freedom of speech in the Black ghetto and to stifle the
rising voices of protest against inhuman conditions in Watts.
At 5:30 p.m., six plainclothes cops broke into the house where John Harris lives.
Although claiming to have a warrant, they refused to show it. They handcuffed John Harris.
Then they ransacked the apartment, throwing articles around, ripping down pictures and
causing other damage. They carried off boxes of personal belongings of the three people
who live there to use as "evidence." Also, they took PLP literature that was
stored there. For example, they took 250 copies of the new PL magazine and copies of SPARK.
They took books and notes for classes, all this as "evidence."
Why are they arresting John? The "criminal syndicalism" law states that it is
illegal to speak or leaflet so as to advocate "change in industrial ownership"
or to "effect political change" by so-called criminal means. A Grand Jury
meeting secretly apparently decided this is what John was doing – and set the bail
at $15,000.
In fact they are arresting John to scare and terrorize PLP members and others who protest
conditions in the Black ghetto. Although John is not guilty of any criminal or illegal
act, he certainly is guilty of protesting the wretched living conditions in Watts. He
has spoken and written about the fact that real income in Watts has declined eight percent
since 1960 while rising in the rest of Los Angeles. He has passed out leaflets which
pointed out that Watts is one of the biggest concentrations of industry – yet Black
people living there can't get jobs in these places, and there is 37 per cent unemployment
there. He has publicly denounced the war in Vietnam and urged his Black brothers not to
fight in that war. He has told them to oppose the draft and warmly supported people as
Richmond and Key, who refused to be inducted on the grounds that they are a colonial
minority and shouldn't fight the colonial master's dirty war against the colored people
of Southeast Asia. He has constantly worked to expose the brutal outrages of Yorty's
fascist cops in Watts who constantly murder and maim Black people, the Deadwyler murder
being only one example. What is more, John has held classes which sought to get at the
root cause of U.S. oppression both at home and abroad. He has not hesitated to name the
real enemy, U.S. imperialism, and has stated unequivocally that imperialism in this
country must be replaced by a socialist system. He has stated openly that he is a
communist and proud of it.
For this he was arrested for "criminal syndicalism."
The timing and charges of this arrest are significant, following on the heels of arrests
of Black militants in Atlanta, the so-called dynamite frame-ups in Philadelphia and the
indictments in Cleveland. Lyndon Johnson is ordering his local stooges to begin a
nation-wide roundup of all Black militants who refuse to sell out, because rebellions
in Black ghettos are hurting his war effort. Though the charges are serious and the
bail fantastic, we declare that the real guilty ones are Johnson and his gang for
pursuing the genocidal war against Vietnam, Yorty and his thugs who are daily murdering
and maiming Black people, General Motors and Good Year whose plants in South Los Angeles
poison the air of Watts but who refuse to hire its residents.
We must expect that as we get more effective in our protests, repression such as this
will get worse, but the use of such a shaky law indicates that the ruling class is
desperate.
We will not stop our protests. On the contrary, we will redouble them!!!
PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY
Los Angeles P.O. Box 19930 / Phone: 399-6819 or 933-0463
San Francisco 2929 16th Street / Phone: UN1-1300
[LABOR DONATED]
DEFEND JOHN HARRIS!
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, John Harris was also the subject under inquiry
by this committee to which Lieutenant Anderson testified last November 1967.
Mr. Montgomery. I have with me, Mr. Chairman, a copy of Spark, a
reproduction of a copy of Spark, which on its face identifies itself as the
publication of the Progressive Labor Party, and its subtitle is the "WESTERN VOICE
FOR REVOLUTION."
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 44" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. It depicts inflammatory views of policemen, various
policemen. It identifies the lineup. "Robber Cop Hit With Assault Suit."
"Oakland cop guns down boy." An editorial in opposition to the House Committee
on Un-American Activities, and to the right, "HUAC IS COMING TO S.F." They
anticipated your coming out there in 1965. There was no hearing held at that time, as
you know, but in anticipation of your coming, they spread the word in view of hoping to
create another such incident or disturbance as occurred at the time of your last hearings
there in May of 1960.
Now, this is edited by an individual who identifies himself as a Communist. He is a Maoist.
He follows the Peking line. His name is John Ross.
One of the first things he did – he has been very instrumental in the Mission Tenants
Union, among other things, but one of the first things he did upon coming to San Francisco
and getting organized was to get himself elected to the War on Poverty Board in that area.
In his capacity as a member of the governing board in that area to the War on Poverty, he
caused to be introduced and adopted a resolution denouncing the Federal Government for
having expelled some squatters from a piece of Federal property in Georgia or some such
State.
Now, of course, that had nothing whatsoever to do with poverty in the Mission district,
but it set the tenor for the type of activity he was espousing within this War on Poverty
Board, and eventually he became such an extremist on the board that the rest of the board
members within the Mission district had him expelled from the board. He just overstepped
his bounds on that point.
This is an example of the publication they are putting out.
********************************************
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, the name Bill McAdoo mentioned by Mr.
Montgomery, we have quite a lengthy record on Mr. McAdoo in the committee files which I
would like to enter at this point.
The Chairman. All right, it will be done.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 50" follows:)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 50
WILLIAM McADOO
William (Bill) McAdoo is an official of the pro-Peking Communist Progressive Labor Party.
He headed its front called the Harlem Defense Council and the Committee to Defend Resistance
to Ghetto Life (CERGE).
When the 1964 riots in New York City were investigated by a grand jury, McAdoo refused to
cooperate. He was subsequently sentenced to 4 months in jail for criminal contempt for
refusing to cooperate with the grand jury investigation of the riot.
He had "refused to answer questions as to when he had become a member of the Progressive
Labor movement...; whether he had demonstrated at the movement's headquarters how to make
Molotov cocktails and whether he had agreed with Epton to incite further rioting."
(New York Times 10/28/64 : C18)
McAdoo has been an open member of the Progressive Labor Party, and his membership has
been repeatedly acknowledged in PLP publications. The May 1966 issue of Spark notes that
he is from the Harlem Progressive Labor Party.
Mr. Smith. Have the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs been active in the area we have
under discussion?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, they have been very active, but most of their
attention has been focused on the Vietnam issue and on the poverty issue. There is no
little question but what they have agitated in areas where riots have occurred. In fact,
members of the club have been observed at these various demonstrations and riots.
I have as an example of their activity a copy of the front page of THE CONVENER.
Now, this was published by the preparatory committee for a new nationwide socialist youth
organization. This organization had its first convention June 21, 1964, and adopted the
name W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America. This convention was held at 150 Golden Gate Avenue
in San Francisco and turned out to be what constituted the founding convention of the
W.E.B. DuBois Clubs. This was a call for that meeting.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 51" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. It depicts pictures of – the issue that I have is
for April 1964, and the cover has two photographs of the Sheraton-Palace Hotel demonstration
of March 1964, and they claim victory in this demonstration. This later became the
INSURGENT. After the founding convention, they continued the publication, but rather
than being called THE CONVENER, it was known as the INSURGENT and I am more
aware of it under that title than I am THE CONVENER.
I have another document. It is undated, but it would appear to me to be some time in 1964
and it was printed by the Fillmore DuBois Club. At its original inception there in the
Bay area we had at least three chapters of the DuBois Club. It has gone downhill a little.
They are not as active as they were, but at that time they were most active and the Fillmore
district is one – well, the Harlem of San Francisco.
We have two, three predominantly Negro areas: Hunter's Point, the Fillmore area, and
portions of the Ingleside, but the Fillmore by and large is considered the Harlem of
San Francisco.
Now, this document is titled "HAVE THE COPS EVER GIVEN YOU ANY TROUBLE?" This
is aimed basically at police brutality.
"Has a cop ever walked into your house?
"Has a cop ever stopped you on the street for nothing?
"Has a cop ever pulled you out of your car without reason?" and so on.
"If a cop has ever done anything like this to you he is breaking the law.
"YOU DONT HAVE TO TAKE IT"
And they set up a committee to receive any complaints against the police. Their duty
was to gather any complaints of any nature against the police, and it is rather interesting.
You call this particular number or come to McAllister Street, which was the DuBois
headquarters, and here again you come across three names: Sharon Stallinger, Richard
Thomas, and, again, Harold Supriano. No matter where you turned, you would inevitably
come across Harold Supriano somewhere in the picture.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 52" and retained in committee files.)
********************************************
Mr. Montgomery. I have a sticker headed "BURN, BABY, BURN."
Now, this was printed by the Anarchist League of Los Angeles and was distributed prior to
the riot in San Francisco in September of 1966.
I might say that these are samples of the type of inflammatory propaganda – in
addition to "BURN, BABY, BURN," there were displayed "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL
ANARCHIST" AND "WARNING: YOUR LOCAL POLICE ARE ARMED AND DANGEROUS!"
There also appeared in little sticker form almost overnight throughout West Oakland in
the Negro area, and throughout various areas of San Francisco you would find these little
stickers on mail boxes, on metal utility poles, on postal boxes.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 56-A" follow:)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 56-A
Mr. Montgomery. There was one – I don't have a copy of it,
unfortunately – that came at the same time: "Watch Whitey Run," and people
were going around scraping these off the mail boxes who disagreed with them, but these were
given wide dissemination throughout the Bay area and, again, this was prior to the riot of
San Francisco.
They also put out a document "Uncle Sam wants YOU nigger," and I am not sure
where this came from. It is not identified, but this appeared in the Bay area about the
same time as these other inflammatory posters.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 56-B" and retained in committee files.)
(Exhibit 56-B offered by Mr. Montgomery at this point is exactly the same as Wheeler Exhibit
No. 50-A (pt. 3 p. 1300) except that it bears no indication of its source. The following
notation appears at the bottom of Wheeler Exhibit No. 50-A:
"Issued by: HARLEM PROGRESSIVE LABOR CLUB, 336 Lenox Avenue, New York 10027. For
additional copies send to: Progressive Labor Party: Chicago: 2049 North Dayton St.,
Los Angeles: 218 East 82nd Place, San Francisco: 3382 18th Street,
California."
It is also interesting to note that a flyer reproducing the famous Army recruiting poster
depiction of Uncle Sam pointing his finger but with the caption "Uncle Sam wants YOU
nigger" was also distributed in Newark, N.J. (See Kinney Exhibit No. 19, pt. 4,
p. 1911.))
Mr. Montgomery. We had one other, too, called "NO MORE POLICE
BRUTALITY! in San Francisco. CITIZENS POLICE REVIEW BOARD." This was put out
cosponsored by CORE and by Freedom House, which is an organization in the Fillmore district
calling for the establishment of a police review board in San Francisco.
They circulated a petition trying to create a pressure vehicle to call on the board of
supervisors for the establishment of such a board. It was unsuccessful.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 57" appears on pages 2112 and 2113.)
Mr. Smith. Mr. Montgomery, does this conclude the presentation of your
material on agitational activities conducted prior to the riot which broke out in
September 1966?
Mr. Montgomery. It does. This concludes everything that I have with me
up to the time of the riot; yes, sir.
Mr. Smith. Would you care to summarize your presentation up to this point?
Mr. Montgomery. Well, I feel that up to now, if I might summarize it,
I would say that it indicates that agitational activities were conducted prior to the
riots by the following groups, and I at one time or another named these various
organizations:
There was the Direct Action Group, the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination, Progressive
Labor Party – and its front, CERGE – the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs, the Communist
Party U.S.A. (Marxist-Leninist), the Anarchist League. And in addition, of course, the
Communist Party official newspaper, the People's World, for a number of years prior
to the riot published a continuing barrage of inflammatory antipolice, racist,
antigovernment racist articles, and I think it set the foundation for a gradual buildup
of animosity within the minority groups toward law and order, toward the so-called
Establishment, the term they like to use.
********************************************
Mr. Montgomery. I am submitting a list of several articles from the
People's World. Again you might notice, Mr. Chairman, every so often the patent
cartoon always depicting the policemen beating some individual.
The Chairman. These documents will be received.
(Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits Nos. 60-A through K," respectively, and
retained in committee files.
Mr. Smith. You testified to the W.E.B. DuBois Club's racial agitation
activity of an inflammatory nature prior to the riot. Has this organization continued
this activity since the riot?
Mr. Montgomery. Well, yes. I want to say this. They have not been so
active as they were previously. There has been a little dissension within the group.
They have lost some of their members. There has been some rivalry between the W.E.B.
DuBois Clubs and the Trotskyists, the Socialist Workers group.
For instance, Bettina Aptheker scheduled a 2-day conference on the Berkeley campus. They
were going to have workshops and seminars. Unbeknown to her, Kipp Dawson of the Trotskyists
group, the Socialist Workers Party, had sent out a quiet notice that the meeting was to be
boycotted and as a consequence where she had expected 200 or 300 people only a piper's
guard attended and the whole conference fell through by 11 in the morning.
So there has not been the activity from the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs that there had been
previously. The Hallinans have shown a disinterest. They are not active in the W.E.B.
DuBois Club as they once were or as they were prior to the riot. Then, too, the national
headquarters of the W.E.B. DuBois Club was moved about that time from San Francisco to
Chicago. With the movement of the headquarters and then subsequently, as I understand it,
the loss of most of their records in Chicago, it became pretty well known who some of
these leaders were behind the people out in front.
As a consequence there hasn't been too much activity by the W.E.B. DuBois Club as such.
But in April 1968 their issue of the INSURGENT shows on its cover a number of
pictures of various demonstrations and inside is an article entitled "War on
Racism," which, among other things, says:
STOP THE VIOLENCE AND TERROR AGAINST THE BLACK COMMUNITIES! STOP THE POLICY OF GENOCIDE
AGAINST BLACK AMERICA! END RACISM IN ALL ITS FORMS!!
Then there is a cartoon showing President Johnson with his arm around a member of the Ku
Klux Klan carrying a weapon, depicted here on page six of the INSURGENT. The tone
of the INSURGENT runs consistent throughout and these are just a couple of the
examples.
But since its national headquarters was moved, it has been rather quiet.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 61." Copy of cover page appears on
page 2117.)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 61
********************************************
Mr. Montgomery. There is one other matter of interest that was given wide
circulation. "ARM AND PREPARE – NOW!! STRIKE BACK AT WHITE RACIST COPS AND
BUSSINESSES [sic]"; "URBAN GUERRILLA WARFARE!" And it gives an example of
how to prepare a Molotov cocktail, complete with a diagram, a bottle with gasoline and even
the weight at the bottom of the bottle, enough dirt to make it weighted.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 84 follows:)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 84
Mr. Montgomery. I might say just about the time that was being circulated,
given wide circulation, there was an incident in San Francisco. Thanks to some preliminary
neighborhood relations work done by Police Chief Thomas Cahill in San Francisco, who is a
very capable administrator, he had established a good relationship with the Negro community,
the solid community. He learned early in September last year that there had been
widespread talk of more trouble, more trouble, we were going to have another long hot summer.
Thanks to a reputable Negro couple in San Francisco he was advised that their 17-year-old
son had precise knowledge of a plan to hold an anniversary riot in San Francisco that was
going to start in the Fillmore district. This was to mark the anniversary of the September
1966 riot.
While the 17-year-old youth didn't know precisely where these Molotov cocktails were, he
had knowledge that 800 Molotov cocktails had been prepared and were stored in an empty
apartment in the Fillmore district to be used on the eve marking the anniversary of the
earlier riot.
Chief Cahill assigned plainclothesmen to work the Fillmore area, block by block, building
by building, and for 4 days they searched for the apartment. Finally just a matter of just
a few hours before this second riot was to have been sparked or triggered, they did find
the apartment. In this empty apartment there were not 800 Molotov cocktails as the boy had
reported; there were something like 475 cocktails up to full quart size, some of them,
lined up, ready for use, in such a way that they would be handed out.
They would be handed out. They would come through one door and be handed a Molotov cocktail
and go out the other door, and there would not be any confusion.
These were discovered around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and the riot was originally scheduled
for 8 or 9 that night.
Mr. Smith. Could you give us a date on that?
Mr. Montgomery. This would be September, the night of September 26, 1967.
This was never publicized in print; we made nothing of it in print because we didn't want
to alarm people. All the police knew was there might be another cache of Molotov cocktails
somewhere, and it was felt best not to report this. As a matter of fact, it was not
reported to the press generally. I came upon it through my own connections.
But I think it significant about a reputable member of the Negro community. This is very
similar to an experience I had recently where I was investigating a murder case in Hunter's
Point.
The murder of a white municipal bus driver, shot and killed by four young Negro youths in
a robbery that netted them probably $40. There had been two girls on that bus. When the
police arrived they were in the process of interrogating them when some sniper fire broke
out up the street in which a United States sailor was shot and wounded while coming out
of the Hunter's Point Naval Base.
The police were diverted. Their attention was diverted to the sniper and when they
returned – by the time they returned, the two girls had disappeared. Well, I had
occasion to go looking for them. I was successful in finding them, but it entailed quite
a bit of doorbell-ringing in the Hunter's Point area. In the course of my rounds I met an
elderly Negro woman in the community there at Hunter's Point who invited me in for a cup
of coffee.
I spent about an hour and 10 minutes talking with her. She was very proud of the fact
that her two sons had completed high school and graduated and one went on to get 2 years
of junior college, and that their daughter finished high school and was married to a young
Negro man who had a responsible job with a good firm in San Francisco.
She was proud of the fact that they had not received a dime of welfare from the time they
came from Louisiana in the late forties to work in the shipyards. She went on to day that
she and the other members of the community she knew, her friends, wanted no part of H.
Rap Brown or Stokely Carmichael. They wanted no part of LeRoi Jones and as a matter of
fact, after he had gotten off on the Vietnam situation, they had sort of lost some
confidence in Martin Luther King.
She said they were being intimidated by a very small group of Negro nationalists. She
said that they lost faith in King when he got off into politics concerning the Vietnam
situation.
Now by contrast, two doors up the street, a woman answered the door. She first thought
I was a policeman. I convinced her I was a reporter and she said, "I can't talk to
you. If that man across the street sees me talking to you, I am in trouble. You get out
of here."
This is the difference. In connection with this same case I am referring to, it took a
great deal of perseverance on the part of the police and the coroner to get one of these
girls and the mother who had knowledge of this event to testify. They were afraid to
testify and they refused to testify in a morning session because they were afraid of
reprisal.
During the noon recess Cahill's men arranged to have her moved out of the Hunter's Point
project to another place. They moved them out that same afternoon, and it is a good thing
they did because at 1 in the morning that apartment was fired upon by two fire bombs.
They would have been in the upstairs bedroom and they could not have gotten out, or if they
had gotten out they would have been badly burned.
This is the type of militant intimidation that is going on in Hunter's Point today.
Mr. Ichord. At that point may I intervene and ask a question? What is
the source of the material on the Molotov cocktail?
Mr. Montgomery. What is the source of this, sir?
The source is not given. There is none. It was not identified, but it was left on park
benches, on mailboxes. Sometimes you would find as many as a dozen of them simply thrown
and left lying on a fire plug, or whatever, particularly near bus stops. Thousands of
these were run off, but there is no identification. To this day, so far as I know, the
police have not ascertained precisely where that came from.
Mr. Smith. You mentioned the distribution of inflammatory literature
during this situation. Do you have any example of such literature?
Mr. Montgomery. I have one thing here, Mr. Counsel, that is a pretty
sorry exhibit. I am not even sure you will want it for your records. It depicts a
policeman raping the Statue of Liberty, a second policeman raping the Goddess of Justice
while being held in both instances by other police officers.
I might say this is one of the most vile, obscene pieces of literature that I have seen
disseminated in San Francisco, yet this was given wide circulation, particularly in the
Haight-Ashbury and in the Fillmore. It is the work, again, of Cieciorka and his name is
C-i-e-c-i-o-r-k-a.
Mr. Smith. Can you give a date of about the time that was distributed?
Mr. Montgomery. This was distributed early this year. I first saw it
along about in January.
Mr. Smith. Of 1968?
Mr. Montgomery. It may have been earlier than that.
Mr. Smith. I request that we receive this document for the files,
Mr. Chairman, rather than for the record.
Mr. Montgomery. I might say that his wife, the wife of the artist, was
among those who were expelled from Mexico recently. She and others were on their way to
Cuba and they were intercepted in Mexico City, about six or seven of them. She was one of
them and they were taken back to the U.S. border and forced back into Texas. They were on
their way to Cuba, ostensibly a trip financed by the pro-Castro forces.
Mr. Ichord (presiding). The document will be received for the files.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 85" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. You mentioned Cieciorka in connection with this poster here
and one other incident preceding. Can you identify him a little better for the record?
Mr. Montgomery. I know he is a native. I do know this, his middle name
is Thomas, Frank Thomas Cieciorka, Jr. He was born in BInghamton, New York, on April
26, 1939. He first came to the attention of the intelligence agents there in the Bay
area in about August of 1959. This was in regard to a march from San Jose, which is about
50 miles south of San Francisco, a march from San Jose into San Francisco, sponsored by
the Acts for Peace. It was in protest of the Atomic Energy program and the explosion of
atomic weapons in the atmosphere.
I have a leaflet that was put out by that committee at that time. It gave a tentative
schedule for the march. It bears his signature, not only his typewritten name, but his
signature as well, and it lists him as one of the three coordinators and chairmen of
this particular march [Montgomery Exhibit No. 86].
He was a signer of a call to the national founding convention of a socialist youth
organization, that is, the founding convention of W.E.B. DuBois Club. He signed the
call for that meeting and I have the call document received June 11, 1964, showing he
represented an organization called Toward an Active Student Community, TASC, it was known
as, T-A-S-C, at San Jose State College. It has a general scene of student protestors on
its masthead [Montgomery Exhibit No. 87].
It sets forth a program and it sets forth individuals clear down to the high school level
– individuals who could be contacted and who to contact to join this organization.
It listed some 62 names, some of whom are known to us, some are new. But it ran from
Berkeley High School all the way back to the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis,
Minnesota. There are listed scores of names clear across the country, Missouri; San
Francisco to New York; North Dakota; Louisville, Kentucky; Portland, Oregon. They lined
up quite a deal, and their counsel was Matthew Hallinan. This was, in part, the founding
convention in which he participated, the call for the founding of the W.E.B. DuBois Club.
Then also the Spartan Daily, the San Jose State College paper, May 28, 1965,
reported that Frank Cieciorka, among others, will burn his draft card in protest, to
protest "the U.S. government's undeclared war against the peoples of Vietnam and the
Dominican Republic." [Montgomery Exhibit No. 88].
I have here an account of that burning and even a picture [Montgomery Exhibit No. 89].
While the face is not shown, it does show the hands, the burning of the draft cards on
the San Jose State campus. Again, the event did take place, pictures were taken.
Then there is an article which appeared in the People's World of July 16, 1966
[Montgomery Exhibit No. 90]. It stated that he would participate in a panel discussion
of the annual People's World Art and Book Fair festival and the topic of
discussion: "Art – is it a political weapon?" It was from this particular
discussion and this art fair that very vile exhibit appeared shortly after that. That was
typical of the stuff that he was teaching.
(Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits No. 86 through 90," respectively, and
retained in committee files.)
Mr. Ichord. Mr. Counsel, the bells have sounded. I am sure that the
witness and also the reporter would appreciate a rest. The committee will be in recess
until I answer the rollcall and return. We will resume as soon as I answer.
(Brief recess.)
Mr. Ichord (presiding). The hearing will come to order.
Mr. Counsel, you may resume the questioning of the witness.
The Chair will announce that I have an appointment at 4:45, so we will continue until then if
the witness can hold out that long, and the reporter.
Mr. Smith. A few minutes ago you mentioned the discovery of several hundred
Molotov cocktails in an apartment ready for use in the anniversary celebration of the riot
in San Francisco. Have there been any other incidents of a somewhat similar nature?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, there have, sir. Back in March, on March 26, three
Negroes were arrested following a militant meeting. There had been a meeting at Hunter's
Point of a militant nature, and following that three of them were observed in the process
of buying a 5-gallon can of gasoline at a service station. The search of the car by
police uncovered the material for the making of Molotov cocktails, for which gasoline is
a primary ingredient.
They all were arrested and booked and all three were charged with possession of fire bombs.
One of the three was arrested for the possession of a concealed weapon; he was carrying a
gun. Also, on the front seat of the car was a map, a regular city map printed by one of
the oil companies, on which certain tracings had been made.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, if I may interrupt at this point, our
investigative staff has secured a copy of this map, which I would like to pass to
Mr. Montgomery and have him explain the tracings and the locations so identified.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 91" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. The first place to be noted on the map is a single
dwelling which is located at 19th Avenue near Santiago Street. The only structure or place
of importance at this location is the office of Standard Building Company, Inc., at 2222
19th Avenue, which firm constructed Sunstream Homes near Daly City. This project was
restricted to the sale to Caucasians and it is outside the city limits, incidentally,
where the homes were. It was the focal point of earlier discussions and demonstrations
among minority groups.
The tracings then proceeded from the area of this headquarters in this building company
to a traffic circle at Claremont and Dewey Boulevard. The circle in this area is traced
on the map in the vicinity of the home of supervisor Terry Francois. Terry Francois is
a Negro, but he has been designated an Uncle Tom by the black militants. They have no
use for him. To my knowledge he is a very fine man. He is a member of the board of
supervisors and a very able and capable gentleman.
The tracing on the map then continues from the home of Terry Francois, or from that area,
to the Youth Guidance Center, which is located near the top of the Twin Peaks, right at
the head of Market Street as you go over the gap there and that is the juvenile facility
for the city and county of San Francisco.
Now bear in mind that many of these militants have repeatedly called for immediate
liberation of all Negroes in any jail, detention home, prison, or whatever, regardless
of what they are in there for, and at the Youth Guidance Center about 85 percent of the
youths incarcerated there are Negroes. So whether there was going to be an attempt to
spring them remains to be seen.
Then from there the map concludes with a drawing of what is known as Christmas Tree Hill.
That is a point right up on Twin Peaks. It is the northerly peak whereon are located all
of the police communication transmission towers, and this also is a circled place on the
map, the indication being that these two towers were to be the targets for this particular
expedition that was broken up when the police arrested these men.
The map was in their possession.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, sir. Now, Mr. Montgomery, changing the tenor
a little bit, we have heard a lot about the hippie movement in San Francisco. What is
their position regarding the police?
Mr. Montgomery. The hippies don't like the police. They never have
and they are very antipolice.
They put out some flyers, one in July of 1967 and another one subsequent to that
intimating that there was going to be trouble. The first flyer [Montgomery Exhibit No. 92]
says:
NOW ABOUT THAT RIOT – IF IT HASN'T HAPPENED YET – BEWARE!
A race riot seems just about inevitable. Lots of people on both sides want it to happen,
& they're all the kind of people who generally get what they want.
This is couched in typical hippie terms: "WATCH THE COMMUNICATION COMPANY," that
is their inner "underground" press deal, "& THE BARB FOR THRILLING
STORIES OF POLICE BRUTALITY AT THE CITY JAIL. COMING SOON."
Then they go into some of this, the terminology I don't think you would want to have in
the record. It gets a little vile in places. "Please: if anything starts to
happen," if there is going to be a riot, "cut out." That means get out.
It continues:
Get off the street & out of the area. If you're on Haight St., it's smarter
(probably) to move uphill than down. Head west, if you can, to Golden Gate Park &
keep going until you get beyond the noise. It's probably safe to stay in the park.
In other cities, the action has centered around buildings.
Another flyer advises them where to go and what to do when a disturbance does break
[Montgomery Exhibit No. 93]. It says, also, "SURVIVE, BABY," and:
Sorry to bring you down, but this is about the riots our black brothers have planned
for the city. There isn't much hope that they won't occur.
What do they mean to you, as white hippies, et. al.?
Riots mean that the black people are going to be busy and would appreciate your getting
out of the way...
It goes on from there that:
Curfew means if they see you they will bust you and if you run they will shoot you...
...
Within the black people's mind they will be fighting a revolution. If you hamper them in
any way, you will be their cherry.
Meaning you are apt to get it.
From there it goes on to advise them to look out, this will be "an excuse for
uncontrolled brutality" by the cops, "so don't," in a four-letter word,
"with them either." This is the way this is couched in pretty sad expressions.
It refers to:
Police can be expected to search house to house for snipers and looters, and will probably
smash everything they touch.
It is antipolice but it is also a warning to the hippies to get out of the policemen's
way and stay clear of the riots.
These were flyers that were distributed throughout the Haight-Ashbury hippie area.
(Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits Nos. 92 and 93," respectively, and
retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Mr. Montgomery, are you familiar with an organization in
San Francisco known as the Bay Area Emergency Action Committee?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, I am. I personally checked into this organization
and subsequently wrote an article which I will refer to later in my testimony.
Mr. Smith. Do you know when this organization was formed?
Mr. Montgomery. Approximately July 14, 1967. I have a letter in which
the organization is mentioned, from which I will read the following [Montgomery Exhibit
No. 94]. "July 14, 1967." The letter went on about antidissent legislation
that is "gaining dangerous strength in Washington." It refers to the Cramer
bill – it "will come to a vote in the House this Wednesday," and it
refers to the Pool bill –
a product of last August's riotous House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, is
again being pushed by HUAC in an attempt to stop the debate over Vietnam. Will you endorse
and support the advertisement on the following page, to be placed in the
San Francisco Chronicle?
It is a solicitation for funds, telling them they must have the money right away and
asking for a $5 contribution. It bears the names of seven persons, some of whom are
known to me.
Then there was distributed and given wide distribution – this was in July of 1967,
about mid-July is when the call went out – a call to a meeting to be held in the
Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park [Montgomery Exhibit No. 95]. The meeting was set
for Saturday, July 22, 1967, at 1 o'clock.
The call that went out bore seven names, some of whom are known to me to be members of
the Communist Party. They list, among others, Beverly Axelrod, a San Francisco attorney;
Don Rothenberg, East Bay; their phone numbers are given in each instance; Howard Harawitz,
Berkeley; Brownlee Shirek – and I have also seen that spelled S-h-e-r-i-e-k; Joe
Feit of Oakland; Billie Wachter of San Jose. The name Billie is a woman. That is the
mother of Douglas Wachter, the wife of Saul Wachter. Next is Isabelle Cerney, who lives
on the Peninsula down near Palo Alto. These were identified as the coordinators, Axelrod
and Rothenberg, the general coordinators.
The purpose of this meeting was to start to organize the black community and also it was
titled, "LONG HOT SUMMER – A CALL TO ACTION." The purpose was to give a
bigger understanding to the black power movement and also launching their campaign to
organize the poor whites along with the Negroes.
(Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits Nos. 94 and 95," respectively, follow:)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 94
July 14, 1967
Dear Friend,
Two pieces of anti-dissent legislation are gaining dangerous strength in Washington.
The Cramer Bill (see enclosed analysis) will come to a vote in the House this Wednesday.
The Pool Bill, a product of last August's riotous House Un-American Activities Committee
hearings, is again being pushed by HUAC in an attempt to stop the debate over Vietnam.
Will you endorse and support the advertisement on the following page, to be placed in the
San Francisco Chronicle?
A Bay Area Emergency Action Committee is forming to act against attacks on the ghetto
community, including such legislative assaults as the Cramer Bill. An emergency public
meeting will be held at the Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, at 1 p.m.,
Saturday, July 22nd. We would like to place the advertisement next Friday to help
publicize that meeting. (It would be impossible to place an ad before the Wednesday vote,
but there will still be a vote on the Cramer and Pool Bills in the Senate, and a vote on
the Pool Bill in the House.) SINCE TEXT HAS TO BE IN TO THE CHRONICLE SEVERAL DAYS
IN ADVANCE, PLEASE REPLY IMMEDIATELY. We ask that at least a $5.00 contribution be
enclosed to help finance the ad.
Sincerely,
GERALD N. HILL, President, C. D. C.
REV. EDWARD L. PEET, Chairman, Committee to Abolish HUAC
EDWARD M. KEATING, Congressional Candidate, San Mateo
WILL USSERY, National Chairman, CORE
TREVOR THOMAS, No. Calif. & Nevada Director, Vietnam Summer
REV. A. CECIL WILLIAMS
SUPERVISOR JACK MORRISON, San Francisco
CARL E. SCHORSKE, Professor of History, University of Calif.
(initiating signers)
MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT NO. 95
LONG HOT SUMMER – A CALL TO ACTION
Recently a large group of people formerly active in civil rights received a unique call for
a new kind and quality of involvement in the struggle to achieve racial justice in this
country. The challenge to this new type of involvement come from representatives of the
Black community in the Bay Area who were concerned about the growing indications of apathy,
disillusionment, and weakening of commitment among white people, apparently due to a
misunderstanding of the meaning of Black Power and of the significance of recent turns
taken by the Civil Rights movement.
Among these concerned black citizens were: Elijah Turner, Thomas Valentine, Kermit J. Scott,
Kenneth Simmons, Ron Dellums, James E. Vann, Savannah Bello, LeVerne Tribble, W.B. Faddis,
Lawrence T. Gurley, Ronald Stevenson, Sid Walton, Robert Neville, James Nolan Jr., Charles
Fountin, Donald R. Hopkins, Harold Supriano, Carolyn Craven, Aba Ramos, Ellis Sheppard,
John M. Davis.
In response to this call some seventy five concerned citizens from the greater Bay Area
met to initiate action. The need as we see it is to effectively combat what appears to
be an alarming growth of racism in the white community, and an increasing use of what
many regard as police state methods in handling unrest in black ghettos. This situation
necessitates an immediate campaign of action and education
directed toward the white community. Reaching those persons in the white community
who are in a position to make decisions that vitally affect both the lives of black people
and the welfare of the entire community, is particularly important. We agree that this
is a task that white people are uniquely qualified to carry out.
Because of your past activity we ask your participation in an emergency meeting and rally
to begin such a campaign. Because of the urgency of the situation (the long hot summer
is already bloody in close to a dozen cities) the meeting will be held
SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1967 ; 1:00 P.M.
THE HALL OF FLOWERS
GOLDEN GATE PARK (near 9th avenue and Lincoln Way), San Francisco
Although the interests of those who attend will be varied the main focus of this meeting
will be to deal with the deepening Summer Crisis. Already appointments have been made
with many public and private officials and agencies to confer with delegations to be
organized at the emergency meeting. Our goal is to develop constructive programs in the
critical areas of unemployment and police-community relations. We also look forward to
the establishment of a permanent organization which will actively support the Black
people's concern for achieving racial justice in this country.
This meeting is urgent. Please be there if at all possible.
BAY AREA EMERGENCY ACTION COMMITTEE
Coordinators
*Beverly Axelrod, San Francisco, LO-4-2669
*Don Rothenberg, East Bay, 526-0210
Howard Harawitz, Berkeley, 843-0984; Brownlee Shirek, 848-2172
Joe Feit, Oakland, 532-6959
Billie Wachter, San Jose, 258-0439
Isabelle Carney, Peninsula, 854-6967
*General Coordinators.
Mr. Montgomery. Now there also was made at that meeting a call which
went out for funds. A proposal was made by Robert Avakian, who is the son of a superior
court judge in Alameda County. Robert Avakian handed out circulars, which he called a
radical proposal. This was the first meeting of record of the Bay Area Emergency Action
Committee.
The San Jose area also participated and helped to organize the Bay Area Emergency Action
Committee. An attachment was made to Exhibit 95 which reads: "Dear Friend: Please
give your attention to the enclosed Call to Action. We of the San Jose area supporting
this call feel that your attendance is urgent. If you need a ride, call 297-2299."
The names that went out on that call were Merdelle Porter, Emma Gelders Sterne, Maureen
Smith, Andrew Montgomery, Vivian Fink, Charlotte A. Rogers, David Newman, Russ and
Dorothy Cline, Sol Zeltzer, Robert Wright, Sophie Mendoza, Peter Szego, Billie Wachter,
Pat Sherman, Yvonne Nakamura, Saul Wachter.
Now, among those known to be identified as members of the Communist Party are Peter Szego;
Billie Wachter, whom I previously mentioned; and Saul Wachter, her husband, which would
indicate, sir, that the Bay Area Emergency Action Committee right from its founding
session was part and parcel of a Communist-front organization.
Mr. Smith. You mentioned Beverly Axelrod a few minutes ago. Can you
further identify this person?
Mr. Montgomery. Beverly Axelrod, well, I will refer to a
News-Call Bulletin article that appeared on July 29, 1960, an article concerning
an interview with her [Montgomery Exhibit No. 96]. The article states that:
She joined the National Lawyers Guild before she passed the bar in 1949 and has been
continuously active in the organization which counts civil rights as one of its prime
interests.
I have a picture of her and the interview which appeared at that time.
I have a letter dated June 4, 1962 [Montgomery Exhibit No. 97]. The letterhead bears
the name of Beverly Axelrod as a member of the executive board of the National Lawyers
Guild, San Francisco chapter.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, at this point the committee staff investigation
has confirmed that Mrs. Beverly Axelrod as of this date is a member in good standing of
the National Lawyers Guild. I might remind the chairman that our Guide to Subversive
Organizations and Publications cites the National Lawyers Guild as a Communist front.
Mr. Montgomery. I make reference to the San Francisco Examiner,
September 4, 1963, wherein it is reported that Mrs. Axelrod was a volunteer lawyer for
the Congress of Racial Equality and toured the South on a voter's registration drive
[Montgomery Exhibit No. 98]. Again a picture of Mrs. Axelrod in which she said, referring
to what she experienced down South, "We just don't realize what it's like."
"For Negroes, it's a police state."
It is an antipolice interview in the main.
I also have an article from the San Francisco Examiner of July 9, 1964, which tells
of local CORE having its problems [Montgomery Exhibit No. 99]. The story in itself is that
Bill Bradley and the more militant members of the local chapter of CORE are slated for a
subordinate role in the civil rights demonstration during the Republican convention.
The article relates that:
The chapter is beset with financial troubles and has been admonished by responsible leaders
within the Negro community to refrain from acts of evil disobedience.
The chapter's treasury was hard hit by the expense of sending Chairman Bill Bradley to
Jackson, Miss., to study the voter registration drive there. He was accompanied by Attorney
Beverly Axelrod. They are expected to return this weekend.
"We now have less than $20 in the treasury," one chapter member said. He added
that the membership held divergent views on the necessity of the Mississippi trip at this
time.
It goes on:
As early as mid-May certain young militants, including Tracy Sims, outlined startling plans
by CORE to disrupt the convention...
There followed then this response from some of the older more responsible people in the
organization that they were not to conduct themselves this way, and they felt that Tracy
Sims was not justified in speaking for CORE as she did.
We know Mrs. Axelrod made a trip – well, this is from the News-Call Bulletin
of July 30, 1965 [Montgomery Exhibit No. 100]. It establishes Beverly Axelrod as a member
of the Women for Peace and reports a meeting she attended with women who were members of
the National Liberation Front.
The meeting was held in Indonesia, and among other things she said the meeting was with
Vietnamese women, six from the north and three from the south and all belong to the National
Liberation Front. And more important, "I really believe the only kind of military
strength that can win there is genocide," Mrs. Axelrod said. The article further
said:
She was told that American bombed a clearly marked leprosarium, far from military objectives
three or four days running and that churches, temples, schools and villages have been
bombed.
She said she thought the Viet women expressed the truth as they believed it.
Mr. Smith. I expect Mrs. Axelrod was referring to the Vietnam geographic
area in those statements?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, in support of the Viet Cong.
Beverly Axelrod is mentioned in a program issued by the Congress of Unrepresented People
which lists a number of speakers who will participate in discussion groups [Montgomery
Exhibit No. 101].
This was a revised program of discussion groups, in which Frank Wilkinson was a principal
speaker, speaking on "Effects of the War Machine on American Society" and then
under the heading of "American Democracy – Promise and Reality," Beverly
Axelrod of San Francisco Women for Peace speaking on "Race Exploitation: Mississippi,
Oakland, Vietnam." I also notice that police brutality was a subject to be discussed
by representatives from the Oakland Direct Action Committee.
(Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits Nos. 96 through 101," respectively, and
retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, the Oakland Direct Action Committee will be a
subject of testimony further in these hearings.
Also, Mr. Chairman, the People's World of December 6, 1955, reflects that Beverly
Axelrod was a member of the executive board, San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers
Guild. The committee staff investigation discloses that Beverly Diana Axelrod, nee Jerrod,
was born March 3, 1924, in New York City. She has been known by various names by marriage.
She was first married June 9, 1944, to Seymour Silverstein, whose name was changed by court
order on October 23, 1944, in New York City to Lourd. She was divorced in Montgomery County,
Alabama, on April 30, 1951. She then married Marshall Axelrod on December 24, 1951.
********************************************
Mr. Smith. Mr. Montgomery, in your testimony you mentioned and have been
describing the guerrilla attacks on the Hunter's Point police substation. One police
officer subsequently died of his wounds. You further testified to the effect that a letter
was written to various police stations in northern California by Associate Professor Harry
Edwards of San Jose State College. In the letter Edwards warned guerrilla warfare was near.
Can you tell the committee more about Harry Edwards?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes, I can, sir. He is originally from St. Louis, a
graduate of San Jose State College. His education in San Jose State College was obtained
by a basketball scholarship. He was an outstanding athlete.
After graduating from San Jose State College he received the Woodrow Wilson scholarship and
obtained a master's degree at Cornell University. He is resigning his position at San Jose
State College at the end of this semester and will again attend Cornell University to
complete his doctorate.
It is reported that he has an IQ of 163 and he is presently 25 years of age.
I would like to read from an excerpt from a feature article, "We'll Live Together or
Die Together" from the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle of
December 3, 1967.
The following excerpts were made by Edwards, describing his age and his background. He
said:
"People look at me and say, 'Edwards is mad.' I get stacks and stacks of fan mail and
they say, 'Edwards, go back to Africa.'
"But they're not going back to Europe and I'm not going back to Africa. We're either
going to live together in this society or die together."
He paused, sounding a snicker.
"Check this," he said to a small group lining the near wall and listening.
"Now, when this cat writes this up, it'll come out in the paper as, 'Edwards is for
integration.'"
The audience laughed.
And other of his statements are:
"I'm NOT for integration. I'm NOT for separation. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael
are NOT for separation. What we're all after is FREEDOM."
...
"Why do white folks always try to shove... [a four-letter word] down our throats?"
he snapped. "I'm not aligned with anybody. I'm aligning myself with whatever program
is aimed at getting black people freedom in this country. And I don't care what the white
people, the white press, or the white government thinks of me."
At another point he said:
"... I don't buy the idea that white people are born devils – I believe they're
turned into them.
"The same morality that makes it possible for a white man to call a black man a nigger
and refuse him a job is the same morality guiding the pilots in Vietnam – that allows
this country to drop napalm on women and children."
When he was asked why he avoided saying "our country," he retorted "YOUR
country!"
Meaning not ours, necessarily. So much for his remarks.
He says:
"I still advocate sitting down and talking with white folks," Edwards says,
"but I'm not going to be... [using an 11-letter word]. If the white man isn't going
to talk to me, then we move up to the next step.
"How far this thing goes doesn't depend on Rap Brown. The young blacks in this country
are just fed up with the lies, the trickery, the... [an eight-letter word] of white
people."
He is quite outspoken in his remarks.
Mr. Smith. I request this document be received for the record.
The Chairman. All right, that will be received.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 126" and retained in committee files.)
********************************************
Mr. Smith. Did any organization render aid and assistance to the Black
Student Union?
Mr. Montgomery. Yes. A new organization was created called MAPS, Movement
Against Political Suspension. The editor of the campus publication Open Process was
suspended. His name was Blair Paltridge, and one of his writers, Jefferson Poland, was also
suspended.
The paper printed some obscene material under Poland's signature. Poland is better known
around the San Francisco area for his leadership in the Sexual Freedom League.
I have a masthead and also a portion of the Open Process to submit as an exhibit.
(Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 137" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Montgomery. I might say that Jefferson Poland recently was a candidate
for the presidency of the student body at San Francisco State College, and prior to his
running for that office he legally changed his name to Jefferson and a middle name –
a four-letter word – and Poland. It followed his Sexual Freedom League philosophy.
Needless to say, he was not elected.
With regard to the Open Process publication, it is published weekly by the Board of
Publications for the Associated Students at San Francisco State College, and the office is
at Hut B on the campus, which, according to my recollection, joins quonset huts that are used
for student activities and that adjoins the hut of the student organization.
They say, and this next sentence is supposed to be humorous:
POSTAL REGULATION: "Effective at once, used clothing and used footwear in gift parcels
to East Germany is prohibited."
Our guest sermon today comes from Alan R. Fisher of the Port Chicago Vigil:
They maintain a vigil at Port Chicago, which is a harbor on the Bay, the northern reaches
of the Bay, from which are loaded munitions by the Navy, munitions being destined to Vietnam
and other military bases.
There is quite an article here on how to commit sabotage:
Sabotage is the only remaining route to peace.
Sabotage is anything that slows, damages, fouls up, or makes costly. It need not be violent.
Some forms of sabotage are legal; some are "hit and run" actions; another is
civil disobedience. Sabotage need not stop with imprisonment.
Targets for sabotage are any parts of government connected with war, and any war industry.
HOW DO YOU COMMIT SABOTAGE? Break war-related laws; draft, security, federal trespassing.
Damage war equipment. Join with your fellow workers in strikes, slowdowns, and
"botching the job" in key war industries: steel, transportation, aerospace,
electronics, etc.
Publish state secrets you have access to, either in the press or as leaflets. People
have a right to know what "their" government is up to.
It advocates a general program of hostility to Vietnam efforts.
MAPS was also supporting the four Black Student Union members who were involved in the
attack on the office of the Daily Gater. There were nine originally and finally
this was reduced to four by Dr. Summerskill. The president of the university, after being
threatened with mass demonstrations, withdrew the suspensions of Blair Paltridge and
Jefferson Poland. This information appears in the Examiner of December 2, 1967
[Montgomery Exhibit No. 138], in which James Garrett is listed as the off-campus coordinator
of the Black Student Union.
The story in essence is that after a backdown by President John Summerskill on the
suspension of a campus publication, its editor, and a writer, San Francisco State College
faced these upcoming events:
A demonstration by 1000 or more Black Student Union members and adherents next Wednesday.
Continued hearings the same day on the suspensions by the Student Board of Appeal and Review.
Also, on the same day, six major demands will be made on Summerskill by the San Francisco
State branch of the organization which recently emerged on other campuses and is known as
the Movement Against Political Suspension.
The story goes on to say that these demands are eventually going to be made. They are
referring to Blair Paltridge and Jefferson Poland who started Open Process:
Paltridge was suspended for publishing, and Poland for writing, a poem about sex in the
Nov. 14 issue of Open Process, which is financed by $14,000 in student fees.
James Garrett, off-campus coordinator for the Black Student Union, announced at the rally
the plan for 1000 or more of his members to appear next Wednesday.
The demands which the Movement Against Political Suspension will make that day are these:
That Summerskill drop all suspensions and give the accused a "trial by their
peers."
That he reinstate Open Process.
That he drop "political harassment."
That he refuse to permit San Francisco police on the campus.
That he give assurance of student control of campus publications.
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