Subversive Influences


House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

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Source: Congress. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Subversive Influences in Riots, Looting, and Burning. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1967, 1968. Pt. 6: San Francisco - Berkeley (June 27, 28, 1968). Congress. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Subversive Influences in Riots, Looting, and Burning. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1967, 1968.
Pt. 6: 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
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Edward S. Montgomery of the San Francisco Examiner testifies in Part Six of the HUAC hearings. Among the items brought into the record are two flyers put out by the Progressive Labor Party one which states in part:

"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 other Progressive Labor Party flyer entitled "You don't have to go!" announces a rally with speakers from the Black Anti-Draft Union. It reads:

"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 H[igh] S[chool]) -- 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 the 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."
Another interesting item brought out in Montgomery's testimony is from an article that originally appeared in San Francisco's News-Call Bulletin. The article, published on May 4, 1965, and written by NAACP leader Roy Wilkins indicates the stance of the moderate civil rights leader on communism. Wilkins writes:

"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 the suns..... 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."
Edward Montgomery himself comments on the attitudes of African-Americans towards radicalism and communism by giving an example of a conversation he had with a woman over a cup of coffee. Montgomery was working as a reporter trying to locate two witnesses to a murder who had fled the scene. Montgomery related the conversation to the committee:

"She went on to say 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."
Montgomery's testimony concluded the HUAC hearings on "Subversive Influences in Riots, Looting and Burning."


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