Negroes To Be Brought To Washington For Non-Violent Protest

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31633, 20 March 1968, Page 9

Negroes To Be Brought To Washington For Non-Violent Protest

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, March 17. Summer will start a little earlier this year in the United States. The long, hot season, with its special meaning acquired over the last three years of racial violence, could begin as early as the first week in April, when Dr Martin Luther King brings 3000 poor people into Washington to campaign for sweeping social legislation. Recruiting in 15 centres across the country and training in non-violent protest techniques by officials of Or King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference is approaching its peak. The 3000 will camp out in the capital in tents, and mock shanty towns. Many thousands more protesters are expected to support them. Individual members of Congress are to be picketed at their homes. Traffic Blocks If nothing comes from a now-indifferent Congress after a fortnight or so of this. Dr King has said it may be necessary to tie up traffic in the capital by blocking the bridges across the Potomac. The campaign will go on, if need be, right through the summer, to culminate in giant demonstrations at both major party conventions in August. Dr King, in an interview with a news team from “The Times,” rejected the idea that his strictly non-violent approach to the Negro struggle has lost much of its appeal to the Black Power approach. But some of his officials at S.C.L.C. headquarters in Atlanta have acknowledged that the Washington cam-

paign is probably the last throw of the non-violent Integra tionists. In the light of the indifference of Congress, two things could happen: First, Dr King could fail utterly to achieve his aim of securing new laws: second, the campaign could turn into a bloodbath if the authorities over-react to it—of which there is very real danger. Whatever happens, Dr King’s authority will be irretrievably damaged, and with it that of the old-style civil rights movement. The activists' field will be clear for a national take-over by Black Power.

Thus, for the first time in the history of the Negro struggle, Washington occupies the middle of the stage. It has not done so before because the city’s 66 per cent Negro population (the highest of all United States cities) has shown itself to be less volatile than that of other cities. Stage Free

This year, however, Washington is not only the chosen scene for Dr King’s last stand—it is also the city to which Stokely Carmichael, formerly an office-holder of the Student Non-Violent Co-Ordinating Committee (5.N.1.C.K.) and now a roving revolutionary and the leading advocate of Black Power, has been devoting more time than anywhere else.

Stokely Carmichael has agreed to stand back and leave the stage free for Dr King. There will be no attempt by militants to turn the campaign into a violent confrontation.

But if white power does over-react to Dr King, there is no doubt that there are more than enough Negroes in the capital who will be angry enough to come out on the streets.

“We must,” a frail girl from S.N.I.C.K. told “The Times” team, “be prepared to die a little.”

If Washington explodes, or even if it does not, there will be rebellions in many other cities as summer goes on. All the signs suggest this will be the worst season yet. Nothing Done

Asked for his view of this year’s prospects, Floyd McKissick, the intense leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, replied with a question of his own: "What has been done about the basic problem since last summer?”

Essentially, nothing. The recently-published report of President Johnson’s Civil Disorders Commission makes this clear.

The Black Power section of the Negro struggle has been growing fast in the last two years. But there are within its ranks those who advocate caution, arguing that militant Negroes are exposed, and calling on them to wait until they get support from other areas of opposition within America. Student Support

This year, they are going to get that support. The continued escalation of the Vietnam war, and the changes in draft regulations which remove exemptions from most graduates will this summer produce student agitation across the United States aS never known before. Fo r politically-aware American Negroes, Vietnam serves as an inspiration, because this tiny, battered, nonwhite country has withstood

the assembled fire-power of the American military machine without cracking. White Problem

The human disaster known as the American Negro problem is in fact a white problem. The thesis of many white liberals that the answer to the Negro question lies in solving his economic problems has been exploded by the commission’s long overdue, but blunt finding that the root cause is white racism.

The report, prepared by 11 moderate “Establishment” Americans, presents their country with what must surely be the last chance to apply her immense ct pacity for doing good to her most serious internal crisis since the civil war. The report leaves no more excuse for excuses.

Dr King and Stokely Carmichael used the identical phrase in separate interviews with “The Times” news team: “The ultimate logic of racism is genocide." The commission has bluntly confirmed th j presence of facism. The facts confirm that white - power’s response to racial unrest is hardening. Genocide is a dirty word. Though many Negroes fear it, no white American intends systematically to destroy the black race. Yet the commission observes: “To pursue our present course will involve the continuing polarisation of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values.” Grave Danger It also says: “. . . There is a grave danger that some communities may resort to the indiscriminate and excessive use of force. The harmful effects of over-reaction are incalculable.” While the Vietnam war

continues to sap American energy and resources, and until these gigantic resources are turned to solving the Negro’s plight, a lot of dying remains to be done. And most of it will be done by Negroes. The prerequisite of the established American politician and administrator is success, expressed in this society, as in no other in terms of money. This means that the nation’s leaders, with few exceptions, are out of sympathy with the nation’s poor, many of whom are black. They have not understood that millions of Americans, not just a few, cannot climb out of the mud without help. Many other prosperous Americans share this feeling, expressed by a popular carbumper sticker which reads: "I fight poverty 1 work.” The commission presents these people with their last chance by telling them the truth about themselves: and about the prejudice of white society.