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REVENUE SHARING FUNDS THREATENED: U.S. GOVERNMENT CONFIRMS OAKLAND RACISM CHARGES

(Oakland, Calif.) -- In response to administrative complaints by this city's Black policemen and firemen, the federal government has confirmed widescale discrimination against Blacks, women and other minorities in the police, fire and public works departments and ordered "corrective action" within 60 days or the possibility of loss of federal funds.

This development came to light last week when Black community leaders, led by Pastor J. 'Alfred Smith of Allen Temple Baptist Church of East Oakland, revealed to a hastily called press conference the existence of a letter received by Oakland Mayor John H. Reading from Graham W. Watt, director of the Office of Revenue Sharing in the U. S. Treasury Department.

The letter, dated July 31, 1975, reveals that the findings of a civil rights investigation of Oakland, conducted on October 30-31, 1974, in response to complaints showed that Oakland is clearly in violation of sections of the Civil Rights Act as regards hiring, promotion, training and firing of Blacks, other minorities and women, in the respective departments.

Present with Pastor Smith at the press conference, held at his church last Thursday afternoon, were Raymond Clark, president of the Oakland Black Officers Association. Michael White, vice-president of the Black Firefighters Association. Alphonso Galloway, executive director of the Oakland NAACP, and Sandre Swanson, administrative aide to Congressman Ronald V. Dellums.

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Pastor Smith told the sparsely attended press conference: "We are here today because certain of us who have been leaders in the fight to expose racism in the Oakland police and fire departments, as well as the public works department, have learned of a letter that has been sent to the office of Mayor Reading from the Office of Revenue Sharing in Washington, D.C., that the city is not in compliance with federal regulations, as it relates to non-discrimination in employment.

"Many of us who have pushed for the racism to be exposed are happy to hear this news because when we and community followers dramatized this to our City Fathers they were somewhat slow about recognizing this. We do know that the City Council committee on Police Racism is supposed to give a report very soon."

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Pastor Smith then asked Galloway to indicate "those areas in which the federal government found the city wanting."

Galloway said: "As Pastor Smith has said, all along we have been charging the city of Oakland with racial discrimination. The letter … specifically points out that the police department is in non-compliance as well as the fire department and the public works department. Specifically to the police department, there have been no time tables or goals set in terms of hiring minorities to meet its affirmative action policy.

"There have been no specific plans and goals as far as time tables in terms of promotions, assignments or training of minorities. These are the known areas in which non-compliances exist.

"There was a direct violation, according to the letter, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Furthermore, we would certainly like to have community participation in any plan the city has been called upon to develop within 60 days. … The city must answer to the charges in the letter within a 60 day period. If the city does not come up with an adequate plan, according to this letter, it is our speculation that funds may be cut off."

Pastor Smith pointed out that the city receives approximately $5.4 million in revenue sharing funds. "If these funds are cut off," Pastor Smith said, "our people will greatly suffer, the city itself will suffer, so we will exercise our influence to see to it that the funds are not cut off, to see to it that the city will come into full compliance with the regulations of the federal government so that we can keep this money here in the city."

Dennis Richmond, Black reporter for Oakland-San Francisco television station Channel 2 asked Pastor Smith if this report (letter) is basically saying that the city of Oakland is racist insofar as the city government is concerned in relation to minorities.

Pastor Smith answered: "Yes, The report says that the city government is guilty of what we call institutional racism. For example, the letter says that neither the police department nor the public works department plans establish specific goals and time tables, despite substantial minority under-representation in the respective work forces.

"The goals as stated in the plans related to percentages and not actual job vacancies, and further did not appear to be based on the results of any manpower utilization analysis but, rather, appear to have been arbitrarily determined. This means that the statistics that the city used to defend its position were illegally used. They did not take into consideration the best techniques for statistics and tests and measurements."

Raymond Clark, president of the Oakland Black Officers Association (OBOA) said: "Back in July of '74 the OBOA filed an administrative complaint, along with the Black Firefighters Association, in regards to racial discrimination in both the police department and the fire department, which prompted the investigation conducted by the Civil Rights team back in October, '74.

"I think the document does reveal, generally, if not specifically that the charges initiated by the coalition and the community on police racism do confirm that the police, fire and public works departments do have some discriminatory policies and programs within the city government.

"I think it's up to us now to be concerned because we're talking about a total of about $30 million in revenue sharing monies, of which $5 million goes specifically to the police department, and that these funds would be in jeopardy if the city does not come into compliance with the equal opportunity

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program guidelines that are set down by the ORS (Office of Revenue Sharing)."

Asked if all of the revenue sharing funds could be cut off. Clark replied. "That's correct." including those that go to other agencies of the city government.

"Congressman Dellums' office, along with other community groups, had participated in the police sub-committee hearings on police racism and we at that time were convinced by the testimony received from the citizens that there was a very serious problem in the city. This, of course, discloses another indication that there is a serious problem.

"But it also represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of the problem we are facing here in the city with respect to discrimination. We're talking about an audit of a limited amount of money compared to the city budget administered by the City Manager's office. But if, in fact, we can infer that this is indicative of how the city is administering its complete budget, then we have a very serious and tragic problem here in the city of Oakland with the millions upon millions of dollars that are administered.

"We fear, and with justification that they are doing a very poor -- and very illegal -- job of administering and employing people in a city with such a large Black population. It is our intention to make sure that there is compliance not only with the laws that govern federal revenue sharing monies, but federal laws that govern personnel discrimination policies with respect to all citizens in Oakland, throughout their job categories."

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EDITORIAL: JoANNE LITTLE CASE

The JoAnne Little trial is making history, having set major legal precedents as well as important implications for the issues of women's right to self-defense when sexually attacked, the treatment of women prisoners, particularly Black women prisoners, and law enforcement of rape cases.

First, JoAnne is acting as her own co-counsel, a highly significant development which has been downplayed by the establishment media.

Second, in the first such case in North Carolina history, JoAnne's attorneys succeeded in getting her trial moved from Beaufort County -- where the murder of Clarence Alligood took place -- to Wake County (Raleigh), on the grounds that JoAnne could not receive a fair trial because of the extreme racial prejudice against Blacks in Beaufort County.

Third, the defense team has skillfully employed social psychologists who developed in-depth psychological profiles in an effort to select jurors with attitudes on race, rape and the death penalty that would be most favorable to the circumstances in JoAnne's case. This tactic succeeded in the selection of a jury which the defense believes will find JoAnne not guilty.

Fourth, the issue of the sexist treatment of women prisoners in general and the sexist and racist treatment of Black women prisoners in particular is on trial in the JoAnne Little case. JoAnne herself has said that she is just one of hundreds of women whom jail guards -- who are usually White men -- have sexually abused. The difference is that JoAnne is a Black woman, and Black women prisoners are more often mistreated than their White counterparts.

Finally, the JoAnne Little case will have far-reaching effects on the issues of women's right to self-defense when raped and law enforcement of rape. The people, through their enthusiastic nationwide support of JoAnne, have sternly warned would-be rapists, police departments and district attorney's offices across this country that we will no longer tolerate the chauvinostic and flippant attitude generally taken toward rape cases.

Elaine Brown has correctly said that JoAnne Little acted for us all when she killed Clarence Alligood. The people realize that, and therefore the power of the people will set JoAnne Little free.

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Letters to the Editor

Thanks For THE BLACK PANTHER

Beloved Comrades,

I have begun to receive the Black Panther Paper. I must express my most humble thanks to you for allowing me and some of my and your comrades to receive this beautiful and most truthful paper. I would like to say, for my comrades here with me in North Carolina's Dept. of Corruption, may strength be with you and we are at your side. We all send our revolutionary regards to you. We all must continue strongly to strive and struggle to overcome our oppressors as one, because we are as one. Power to the people, Shalom Harambee. Let it ring.

In Armed Struggle
Rafikis of the PDO
N.C. Penitentiary
Ashebord, N.C. 27203

"Death Wing" Support For Waupun Brothers

Greetings of Solidarity,

Once again I'm forced to drop y'all a few lines of praise and sincerely hope it finds you all in the utmost of Black health.

It took a little time to circulate the petition since I'm in "Death Wing" but I have them signed. Still, we have a lot of people scared to get involved. But, I explained to them that as long as they think they can use the racist oppressors' tools to free themselves, they will only keep fooling themselves and in the end perish right with them. I'd like to thank Brother Barry Bazzell and you all for taking time in sending us those articles. It's beautiful what y'all did. Everyone has a contribution to make regardless of his or her circumstances. If everyone knew the disasters that lie ahead, they would transform the racist society tomorrow for their own preservation. Everyday makes it clearer we are being denied our rights of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. I know many brothers have been assassinated/shot down by racist, ass KKKers/Pigs!! and crossed out. Many brothers will die if those torture chambers are built. The Black Vanguard Party there are strong warriors, so get behind Waupun and support you Survival Program now! We cannot keep up with Waupun here because the paper is not allowed in here no more. I thank you also for making the community aware of existing conditions we face by printing my letter. I would like to ask if there is any sister there who would like to communicate with a brother in Death Wing, to write because conditions are bad here and female correspondence is needed here. I want y'all to know that there are fighters in here and that you are not fighting alone out there. With love for you as in me I'll close but I want you o remember this and to keep it in mind. We are all of the same family; we live, we die together. Let's end the fighting among ourselves and struggle to Win.

Give support to Waupun!!

In Love and Struggle,
Alonza Malik Shabari Hugy
P.O. Box 27264
Death Wing
Richmond, Virginia 23261

P.S.: Give my regards to all!

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Revolutionary Greetings From Vs. Prison

Power Comrades,

Just a brief communication to send my revolutionary greetings to all the struggling brothers and sisters there and to our many P.O.W.s in this country.

Due to some righteous pressure room the outside Black community, the pig officials here have returned our privilege to receive the B.P.P. How long this is going to last is anyone's guess.

At this time I would like to ask the B.P.P. if they could send me a copy of the fall edition of the CoEvolution Quarterly.

I know the Party is pressed for funds, but at this time I am unable to send my donation. I would also like to ask if you could renew my B.P.P. subscription.

The B.P.P. is a true Unity builder, therefore every one in general and every displaced African brother and sister here in the slave snakes (States) of America should read it. It is one of a few papers that tells all the facts, both inside and outside the prison walls.

In closing this letter, I would like to remind all our African brothers and sisters that before we can achieve our freedom and liberation, we must first achieve Unity, Love & Self-Respect for our own kind. I remain,

Your Brother & Comrade.

We Shall Conquer.

Issac Archer-Aka, Shomari Jokun

Richmond, Vir.

Support For JoAnne Little, Brothers At Waupun Prison

Greetings Comrades,

Our paper has given me a new awareness of the struggles of the Black and oppressed people not only of Amerika, but of the world.

I'm looking forward to renewing my subscription to the paper. Also there is another brother, Brother Reginald Robinson. #6405, who would like a subscription to the paper. I will be passing your letter around to the brothers so that the ones who would like a subscription will have your address.

We, the Brothers of Pendleton Reformatory, would like to offer our moral support for Sister JoAnne Little and to the Brothers of Waupun State Prison. I feel that together we can help this sister and these brothers overcome and win their struggles for justice.

Power to the People,

Bro. Shakur Abdul AI-Jabbar

P.O.Box 28

Pendleton, Indiana 46064

Sumter Prison In Florida Exposed

Dear Editor:

I am an inmate at the Sumter Correctional Institute in Bushnell, Florida. As a reader and subscriber of the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, I would like to give you an idea of the situation here at Sumter. As for the brothers, the Blacks outnumber the Whites here almost two to one. There are only a few of us brothers here that are really dedicated to the struggle of freedom, justice and equality for all Black and oppressed people throughout the Wilderness of North America.

There are a lot of brothers around here that are so blind and so White inclined until you get the impression that there is no hope at all for them. When one of us brothers who are devoted to freedom and liberation for our people try to put some wisdom, knowledge, and understanding into these blind brothers' heads, they think that you are crazy or on dope. One brother told me right out that "the man told me to stay away from Niggers like you." And still there are others that are simply "scared" because they fear of jamming their time. Listen, brothers and sisters. Don't you know that these racist dogs aren't going to let you go until they get ready. I don't care how much you "jeff"' or "tom" to them. They tell you to be good and you will make an early parole. That's just a form of their ability to use tricknology and besides, we've been good for too long. It is time for us to get off our ass and put a stop to his oppression.

So beautiful Black brothers and sisters, wake up! Come out of that fantasy world that you are in. Look around you. It's plain as day that that beast is trying to kill us slowly but surely, and he will if we let him. All we need is unity and devotion in the struggle for freedom and liberation for all our people. So let this be done.

In unity,

Bro. Raleigh Mack #044557-B-6

P.O. Box 667

Bushnell, Florida 33513

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COMMENT: Political Or Social Revolution?

The following is an editorial reprinted from Azania News, the official political organ of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania, the Black revolutionary vanguard party in South Africa. The editorial points out the necessity for all revolutionary vanguard parties to successfully combine the political and social aspects of revolution in order to establish people's power.

The colonial question cannot be solved without guns or with guns alone. Those who seriously want to make revolution should grasp the nature of the revolution that is feasible in their own country. The method of doing so lies in their ability to identify correctly and adequately the root cause of the war that is on the agenda in order to determine whether it shall take the form of a political or a social revolution.

The fundamental task of our revolutionary movement of liberation in the present circumstances is to determine the general orientation and the strategic objective of the struggle and to define how to carry these into effect. The essence of revolution, therefore, is to define the place of property in national relations in the country. Political struggle attempts to transform the idea into reality by "converting men's hearts into more noble ways," but social revolution determines what part the poor shall play in the affairs of the state, defines a concrete scheme of how to achieve that in practice successfully and demands the existence of a competent force to apply the scheme.

Ever since the military power of the African people was broken in the late 19the century, generation after generation of our people has been striving to make political revolution peacefully as well as violently in the country to no avail. Our people reached the end of the road in this direction with the Sharpeville/Langa experience of March 21, 1960.

The latest experience by which the racist regime has sought to liquidate the "Black consciousness" movement should dispel

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any idea that armed struggle can bring about victory in political struggle. The great distinction between political and social revolution comes with the realization that successful revolution is grounded in a set of objective economic activities and cannot merely be the result of even determined organization when economic conditions are premature. We have to understand the place of property in state relations and how political authority is related to economic power so that our reaction to the disparity between the rich and the poor does not merely take the form of moral criticism however radical it may be. The social revolution is our concept of the form the remedy to the situation should take.

Everybody is now talking about revolution, but the majority of the people do not know exactly what to do. Peoples and nations which are under feudal or foreign suppression have no way out of their predicament and can only finally stand up to make war to overthrow their oppressors. The enemy can only be finally defeated through correct methods of revolutionary action, and no field of human endeavor demands a higher creative spirit than this. In order to carry out armed struggle we must adopt the principles and combat methods of peoples' war which alone can enable us to carry the revolution through to the end. On no account must we allow ourselves to lose sight of this objective. We shall briefly define the essential elements of these principles.

STATE POWER

The basic purpose of a social revolution is to seize, retain, consolidate and protect state power. Its basic task is to settle national relations regarding the land. The basic law of that revolution is that the struggle must take place step by step with the first step coming before the second and adhering to that stage until it is fully consummated before proceeding to the second step. The first step is the national democratic revolution and the second is the socialist revolution. That law must be observed strictly to avoid adventurism.

The basic principle of the revolution is to demolish the military strength of the enemy in which lies his ability to bully and oppress us. The basic line of the social revolution is to emancipate the mass slaves of imperialism.

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Every nation has the inalienable right to determine its independent statehood, economy and culture as it wishes. The basic method of applying all the elements of the social revolution is to raise the political consciousness of the broad masses of the people and enable them to understand the nature, source, development and ultimate fate of colonialism and to strive to muster the means, measures and methods of carrying our revolutionary action.

PRINCIPLES

The first requirement in the observance of these principles is to make sure that the political line of the party of revolution is correct and is correctly applied. The major point of deciding whether or not our political line is correct is four-fold. It must express fully the ambitions, aspirations and expectations of the broad masses of our people; it can only do so when it takes into account and sets out to serve the material and spiritual interests of the people. It must have their considered approval and loyal support, and must be based on historical reality, which means that our struggle must be revolutionary and be part of the democratic movement of our people. It must be a people's war of self-defense with a political as well as a military character. Politics cannot succeed without military action while military action can only succeed when the political line is correct. Those who are purely politically-inclined do not realize the importance of violence in history while the militarists can only move from one blunder to another.

The second requirement is the establishment of a heroic people's army which is without the vulgar tastes of hired killers. It is of the people and fights for the people. It originates from them and ends with them.

The third is that of competent military command which is a constituent part of a heroic people's army. Its task is to serve as a managerial apparatus that sees the revolution in its entirety. It distinguishes itself by turning defeat into victory; difficulties into advantages; weak points into strong ones.

The fourth, which is another major point for our attention, is that the struggle must be wholly national. The unity of the people must be in the political, economic, cultural and military spheres. Ideology is our instrument for unifying our thoughts and actions so that we may guard against defeatism, idealism and pessimism. The question of national unity is very important at the present time in our country. The enemy is striving hard to divide the people in order to delay or divert the struggle, and this places a premium upon the liberation movement. It takes a fully mature movement to grasp this historical necessity.

The fifth is the ability to carve ourselves a safe and secure base of operation inside the country. We must be properly organized to be able to fight resolutely and heroically.

When we decide to wage a social as distinct from a political revolution, our struggle takes the form of a program of social reconstruction rather than a mere expression of bitter historical experience. We accept that the rule of equity is the end result necessary to the well-being of man and that we have a reliable method of bringing it about. That decision is not exactly a choice but the acceptance of historical responsibility and the stuff out of which revolutions succeed. It has been pointed out that "revolutions which fail are organizationally bureaucratic and practically amateurish."

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GARRY OPENING STATEMENT: “George Jackson Set -- Up Sparked San Quentin Deaths”

After two and one-half days of highly sensationalized and misleading opening arguments by prosecuting district attorney Jerry Herman, noted trial attorney Charles R. Garry arose, on Thursday, July 31, to give an eloquent defense plea for his client, Black Panther Party member and San Quentin 6 defendant Johnny Larry Spain.

In Part 1 of the exclusive serialization of attorney Garry's opening address, presented in last week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER, the general defense outline for Johnny Spain was explained: (1) The existence of an intricate conspiracy to set up and assassinate Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson; and (2) the "cesspool" -like conditions within the notorious San Quentin Adjustment Center, which together were the true underlying causes for the deaths of Jackson and five others at San Quentin Prison on August 21, 1971.

In Part 2, which follows, attorney Garry skillfully overcomes the repeated objections of trial judge Henry Broderick and D.A. Herman in order to proceed with his defense statement.

PART 2

THE COURT: "You haven't said anything that's relevant, yet."

THE COURT: "We will have some quiet, please."

MR. GARRY: "Well, if your Honor doesn't think this is

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relevant, then I might as well go home."

(Voice from the audience: "Right on, right on.")

MR. GARRY: "Because I think this is relevant. I think this is the very heart of this case."

THE COURT: "We have a different view of that."

MR. GARRY: "Well, unfortunately -- or fortunately -- it's my client that I am defending and it's not your Honor who is defending this man."

THE COURT: "Let me tell you something, Mr. Garry, I didn't hear anything related to the charges, except you did mention some writings that apparently are going to be brought out."

MR. GARRY: "Yes."

THE COURT: "That may have a bearing on what you are saying. What you say, a psychiatric defense, I don't understand that."

MR. GARRY: "I intend to show that on the date this happened, because of the emotions and everything else that had happened, Johnny Spain was not in any position to have the specific intent for malice a forethought. He was not in any position to be able to participate in a so-called conspiracy. I intend to present evidence to that effect."

THE COURT: "What is that, sort of `diminished capacity' type of defense? Is that what you are saying?"

MR. GARRY: "Well, you can call it diminished responsibility, but you can also call it impaired consciousness. An impaired consciousness is a total and a complete defense, whereby a diminshed responsibility defense is not a total and complete defense, as your Honor knows.

I intend to present psychiatric testimony to support that position, and the authority for this is the case of People versus Huey P. Newton. Both defenses."

THE COURT: "So what you are saying is that the statement you made and you intended to pursue, is one that will have relevance and materiality to a defense of an impaired consciousness."

MR. GARRY: "And diminished responsibility."

THE COURT: "And diminished responsibility. All right, what do you say to that, Mr. Herman?"

MR. HERMAN: "Your Honor, I think that the Court has the right or the duty to control the evidence which comes before the jury to show any -- to prove any defense, or far that matter to prove any of the elements which the People intend to put in.

"I believe that going back to his childhood, nine years old, talking about not knowing his father, etc., I fail to see the relevance that this is going to have to an issue such as the writings and the intent of the writings.

"This could just be a disguise or a method of trying to get all of this prejudicial material before the jury which goes to sympathy and elicits sympathy.

"I guess I could have talked about the correctional officers --

THE COURT: "Don't dwell on what you could have talked about."

MR. HERMAN: "The only relevancy which he has shown so far is indicating that he's going to put on a defense of diminished responsibility or impaired consciousness, and I take it that's going to be from expert testimony. And I think that the degree of background that is allowed to be gone into before the jury is something that the Court will have to rule on.

"Of course, if Mr. Garry brings all of this information out before the jury now, the ruling that the Court may make later on limiting him will be of little value.

THE COURT: "That's not true. The jury is aware of the fact that nothing Mr. Garry says, or you or any other counsel says, is evidence.

"But this is an interesting defense, and I'm sure that psychiatrists or psychologists who testify in support of it will make reference to these things. But I don't think that it should be done in the extreme."

MR. GARRY: "I don't ever do anything in the extreme, your Honor."

THE COURT: "We'll have the jury back in. We will permit you to pursue that, insofar as it's relevant to the impaired consciousness defense."

THE COURT: "All right. Let the record show the jury has returned to the courtroom and we are convened in session before the defendants and counsel. Mr. Garry?"

MR. GARRY: "Thank you, your Honor.

"During that six year period Johnny went through what we would literally term `hell.' During that period of time, the man of the house, the husband of the mother, would call him a `god-damned nigger.' Johnny Spain did not know what a `nigger' was. He didn't understand the terminology.

"His brothers and sisters did not understand why this man was picking on Johnny. And when this man would get drunk, which was quite often, he would just literally beat the hell out of Johnny Spain.

"This got to such a point, that the mother -- Johnny's biological mother -- sent Johnny to Los Angeles to Helen and Johnny Spain.

BIRTHNAME

"You can see from what I have already said that Johnny Spain's birthname is not Spain. That's a name that he has adopted from Johnny and Helen Spain, whom he considers as his real mother. They are Black.

"Helen Spain treated Johnny as one of her own children, loved him, gave him affection. Johnny went to school, participated in scholastics, participated in sports, became the all-city tennis champion, played basketball, but he went through some psychological problems during this period of time.

"Since he was neither Black nor White, the Whites would not accept him in Los Angeles as part of the people who they would work with, live with, play with, and the Blacks resented him because he was part White.

"Johnny went through this dichotomy, went through these problems. he eventually got involved in some difficulty.

"He got involved in a robbery or a killing, where someone was killed. And Johnny, at the age of 16, going on 17, was convicted of first degree murder.

"Johnny has been in prison ever since I told many of you that in voir diring (voir dire -- the preliminary examination of prospective witnesses and jurors, to determine competence) during the jury selection."

TO BE CONTINUED

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S.Q. 6 TRIAL: GUARD ADMITS KNOWING PLOT -- STATE'S “GUN-IN-RECORDER” STORY DISPROVED

(San Rafael, Calif.) -- Testimony of direct knowledge of the plot to set up and assassinate Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson, plus the discrediting of the state's sensational "gun-in-a-tape-recorder" story, highlighted the trial of the San Quentin 6 last week at the Marin County courthouse here.

On Thursday, Daniel Scarborough, a San Quentin guard who was in the visiting room on August 21, 1971, the day of the incident, testified under cross-examination that he had been shown a letter from the FBI in November or December, 1970, alerting the prison of a plan to smuggle George Jackson a gun.

"We had word that someone would try to smuggle a gun into Jackson and the (prison) administration didn't seem to want to do anything about it," Scarborough said under cross-examination by public defender Frank Cox, attorney for David Johnson.

Johnson, together with Hugo Pinell, Willie Tate, Luis Talamantez, Fleeta Drumgo and Black Panther Party member Johnny Larry Spain -- collectively known as the San Quentin 6 -- are on trial for an assortment of murder and conspiracy charges arising from the state's attempt to cover up the assassination of author/revolutionary George Jackson on August 21, 1971.

The defense, as eloquently expressed by famed people's attorney Charles R. Garry in his opening statement (see article, this page), asserts that a wide-spread plot to assassinate George Jackson, in addition to the cruel and inhumane conditions within the Adjustment Center where the six Black and Brown prison activists were warehoused, are the true underlying causes for the death of Jackson and five others that fateful afternoon.

FBI LETTER

Scarborough's testimony that he and "all visiting room officers" were shown the FBI letter by a Lt. Wagner eight or nine months before the incident tends to uphold attorney Garry's contention.

Earlier in the week, the prosecution suffered another critical setback when, under cross-examination, another San Quentin guard all but admitted that no gun was smuggled into Brother George via a tape recorder as the state had claimed.

Using a blackboard diagram, Michael Dufficy, attorney for Fleeta Drumgo, had Bernard Betts, the metal detector guard at San Quentin on the day of the incident, describe the tape recorder he inspected as 9.5 inches

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long, 5.5 inches wide and nearly 4 inches deep.

Handing Betts an Astra 9mm. automatic that the state claims fugitive attorney Stephen Bingham smuggled into Jackson on August 21, Dufficy asked the guard to measure it. It was a little over 9 inches long.

Returning to the blackboard, Dufficy very convincingly demonstrated that it is completely and totally impossible for the gun to fit into the tape recorder according to the dimensions Betts provided. Betts himself added that he felt confident that the measurements he gave were true.

Further, Betts said that he inspected all but four inches of the tape recorder and that he saw a small speaker taking up close to two of the inches he could not get to.

"I saw no weapons," Betts said when prosecutor Jerry Herman pressured him.

Attorney Cox drew from Betts a statement that it was "extraordinary" that five guards were carrying illegal knives the day of the incident. San Quentin rules prohibit guards from carrying weapons on the yard or Adjustment Center areas.

"They must have known that something was going to happen," Cox commented.

Also, late last week, Judge Henry Broderick granted Brother Hugo Pinell permission to act as his own attorney for the remainder of the trial. Pinell sought to represent himself under a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision reaffirming the right of self-representation.

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FALLEN COMRADE

SYLVESTER BELL

Assassinated August 15, 1969

Fallen Comrade Sylvester Bell was murdered in cold blood in San Diego, California, on August 15, 1969, by members of Ron Karenga's US organization, who have now proven themselves to have been police agents. Sylvester Bell was the fourth comrade of the Black Panther Party to be killed by US police agents, and his death came at the time when the trial of the US members who assassinated Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins was about to begin. His death can be viewed as a blatant and futile attempt to intimidate witnesses at this trial.

Sylvester Bell was 34-years-old at the time of his death, and justice has not been achieved as his murderers were never even prosecuted. His spirit will live forever in our memories and forever in our struggle to obtain justice for humanity. Long live the spirit of Sylvester Bell!!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

August 12, 1890

The Reconstruction period following the Civil War was a political and economic "Golden Age" for Black people in America. Blacks became mayors, judges, congressmen, and senators and attained political power unheard of for Black people in that day. However, when federal troops were pulled out of the South following the 1877 compromise of President Hayes, the ex-slaves were left at the mercy of their ex-slave masters.

On August 12, 1890, the Mississippi Constitutional Convention began the systematic exclusion of Black people from the political life of the South. The Mississippi Plan -- literacy and "understanding" tests specially designed to disenfranchise Black people -- was later adopted by other Southern states. One by one, the local Black leaders were killed, driven out of the state or forced to compromise the Black population. Polling places were located on bayous (outlets of a river), on islands, in barns and fodder houses. Armed White men were stationed on the roads leading to the polls. When Black voters showed up at the polls, the polls were closed for the day. In Mississippi, White men from Alabama and Louisiana streamed across the state line and voted early and often. Black Republicans (the Republican Party was progressive at the time) and their allies put up a good fight, but their resources were meager. When the showdown came, Blacks were unarmed and unorganized.

August 14-19, 1908

One of the numerous race riots throughout the history of Black people in America occurred from August 14-19, 1908, in Springfield, Illinois, making it necessary to call out troops. However, this riot stands out uniquely in Black history because the anger and frustration caused by the riot did not die and led directly to the founding by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and others of the NAACP in 1909.

-- 5 --

ELAINE BROWN IN CHICAGO: “THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY IS NOT DEAD”

On Saturday, July 19, Ms. Elaine Brown, leading member of the Black Panther Party, addressed an audience of over 200 Chicagoans as part of two days of panel discussions on "Watergate -- Style Repression. "The discussions focused on the infamous assassination of Illinois state Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in a predawn police raid on December 4,1969, and the ongoing cover-up of that tragic event.

Warmly received (as she had been the night before when over 500 people turned out at the People's Church on W. Lawrence for the first day's talks), Elaine presented a forceful and memorable dialogue on the history of the Black Panther Party and the repression the Party has received for steadfastly serving the human needs of, and providing positive direction for poor and oppressed communities throughout the country. As she constructed the scenario of struggle and sacrifice, Elaine repeatedly reminded her audience of Fred Hampton's creative contributions in implementing the Party's Survival Programs in the city of Chicago, in organizing people around concrete issues and patiently raising the community's consciousness to the power they already have. Part 2 of Elaine's speech follows.

PART 2

"Under Fred Hampton's leadership, the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party became one of the most dynamic Chapters in the Party. When I say `dynamic,' I mean, in the sense of organizing people around issues, around issues of concern.

"If Fred had started sitting around having only Mao reading classes, as many organizations have, this would not have been any danger. When three or four people sit around in a book class and talk about `revolution,' these people are not set upon by every piece of powerful machinery in this country.

"We're not talking about just the local police. I think that's been made clear. We're not talking about some two-bit cop walking along the street getting angry about Fred Hampton.

"We're talking about the whole machinery of the United States government, taxpayers' monies in the millions, being spent to do one thing: that is, to destroy one organization, the Black Panther Party, and particularly some of its leaders, and particularly, in this case, Fred Hampton.

"And why was that? I think that Flint (Taylor) mentioned the business of the ice cream truck robbery (referring to a 1969 conviction Fred Hampton received for allegedly stealing some ice cream bears out of a truck and distributing them to neighborhood children). Actually, that was a more dangerous act than if Fred had stolen some guns, more dangerous because it reached out to more and more people. The more people that are involved, the greater the difficulty to attack the Party, to attack individual Party members, to isolate the Party from the community.

"The struggle that I believe we're involved in is not a Black Panther Party struggle, or a NAACP struggle, or PUSH (People United To Save Humanity) struggle, or an SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) struggle, or an AIM (American Indian Movement) struggle. It's the struggle of masses of people in this society who are tired, tired, tired; and have been tired, since not only the '60s but the '20s, and not only the '20s but the 19th century and even the 18th century. Tired of looking at and dealing with oppressive conditions.

"This is the struggle that we're dealing with an the more people that become conscious of this, the

-- 22 --
more dangerous we become. The more Blacks and Whites, young and old, poor, middle-income and working people get together, the more dangerous we become in numbers.

"We outnumber them. We do, in fact, outnumber those people who wish to contain us, to keep us dump and silly and fighting among ourselves. We outnumber them and we have the power, so it's just a question of organizing ourselves to be effective with the power that we already have.

"They will do things to be disruptive and to get rid of those people who can spark that notion -- of the power we already have -- in the heads of whole bunches of people. Fred Hampton was such a person."

"He was a charismatic speaker and people came to listen to Fred Hampton just to hear him talk, to be enthusiastically involved in some of the meetings that he would put together where he talked about, "The Beat Goes On!"

"But more than that, Fred began to organize. Remember, the first attack on our Chicago office was one in which medical supplies were ripped up, torn up and thrown out of windows. This was the program that Fred had started to provide free medical care for poor people in the Chicago area.

"This is a dangerous notion. What if people began to demand free medical care from the government? What if people began to demand free food, free houses, next thing you know they'll be wanting to talk about total freedom in this country -- much too dangerous to talk about.

"So they came and raided our office and they raided Black Panther Party offices all over the country in 1969.

"1969 was the year that John Mitchell, former attorney general, now convicted criminal -- which I find interesting because John Mitchell did not survive but the Black Panther Party has survived -- John Mitchell said that, '1969 will be the year that we will wipe out the Black Panther Party in its entirety.'

"I at the time was in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles, California, became one of the key centers of police intelligence operations and our Chapter had the notoriety at that time of being the one Chapter that had more people killed by police than all the other Chapters and Branches put together in the entire Black Panther Party. In the year 1969, I personally attended 11 funerals in the Los Angeles area of the people in our Party, just about one a month.

"In August, 1968, there were three young brothers killed at a gas station. In December, 1968, there was one man found in an alley with three bullets in his head, and in January, 1969, was the beginning of the serious assault upon the entire Black Panther Party. You had in Des Moines, Iowa, the office of the Iowa Chapter being leveled by bombings. You had the Los Angeles Chapter raid which took place four days after Fred Hampton was killed, if you can remember.

"You know they say when they raided the SLA's house in Los Angeles last year that it was the biggest massing of Los Angeles policemen that had ever been in history. But, in fact, in 1969, December 8, 1969, four days after Fred Hampton was killed, some 500 Los Angeles police officers, tanks and something known as a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) Team came into plain. view. They assaulted that office for five and one-half hours, with everything that they had; including the kinds of dynamite you use from helicopters, separate helicopters and all kinds of war weapons, like the use of M-16s, the same gun that was used in Vietnam.

"There were 11 people in that office at that time. It was amazing none of them were killed. They were able to defend that office for five and one-half hours and somehow came out alive.

"The point that I'm making is this: that in 1969 there were those kinds of raids and assaults that took place, and by the time it had reached December of 1969 and the Party hadn't collapsed, they became desperate. People were supposed to be so frightened to come to any of our programs that the Party was going to collapse just on that notion alone.

BREAKFAST PROGRAM

"For example, I can remember a time in Los Angeles we had a breakfast program in the Watts area on a little street called Hickory Street. It was just in a little house and I don't think we had more than maybe 75 kids that would come every morning to eat breakfast. One morning approximately 15 to 20 police came into that small house with shotguns leveled on children that were no more than five, six, 10-year-olds. As usual, they said they were looking for someone who was indicted or for somebody who was charged with something.

"Obviously, there were no criminals hiding out from the law at that particular facility. But, of course, you can understand what the parents thought about sending their children to the breakfast program and what they thought about the Black Panther Party: `If I send my children there they'll get hurt. Gonna get killed if they go there.' It's only natural that people feel that way. That was part of the kind of program that developed against us."

-- 5 --

Jamacian Dancing Thrills Sunday Forum

(Oakland, Calif.) - Last week at the Sunday Community Forum a rousing exhibition of Jamaican dancing was presented by a well-practiced quintet composed of PHIL GILMOSO, ROOSEVELT GOLDMAN, MIMI HUGHES, LEILANI WATTERS, and GAIL ZENO. Robert Lane was featured on conga drums. Several times during their performance applause surged from the appreciative audience.

Another treat was given by Love, Power and Strength, who have appeared before at the Son of Man Temple and this week gave a stirring rendition of "Everything Must Change," a Quincy Jones composition.

-- 5 --

Seattle Mayor Curbs Arrests Of B.P.P. Member

(Seattle, Wash.) - As a result of the recent false arrest of Morris White, a member of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party, a special memo was issued by Gary Blumquist of the mayor's office here requiring that police in the University of Washington district contact the mayor's office before any future arrest of Brother Morris for selling THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, July 7, 1975.)

In addition, a meeting is being arranged between the mayor's office, the Black Panther Party and other community groups to discuss the vague and ambiguous anti-solicitation ordinance in Seattle.

The special memo came as a result of the recent trial of Brother Morris presided over by Judge Corbett in Department 1 of Municipal Court. Brother Morris, who was charged with assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, was found guilty of the resisting arrest charge by Judge Corbett.

The actual trial was preceded by pretrial shenanigans by the courts in assigning Brother Morris for trial. Originally the trial was scheduled to be held in Department 4 where Judge Sweet was judge pro tempore. Judge Yanick normally presides in that court but wasn't present that day, although she presided the next day after Brother Morris' case had been continued a week.

JUDGE YANICK

A week later when Brother Morris returned to Department 4, Judge Yanick was presiding. Due to what she called an overloaded calendar, Judge Yanick moved Brother Morris' case to Department 1 where Judge Corbett presides.

Brother Morris maintains this was done for two reasons: Judge Yanick has acted favorably in previous cases involving the Black Panther Party, and the state was acting to prevent a favorable ruling; and the other reason was to assure a conviction on some technicality in Corbett's court.

During the trial, an excellent defense was presented by attorney John Caughlan, who pointed out irregularities, inconsistencies and contradictions in police testimony.

-- 25 --

Officers Bisson and Elmore, who made the arrest, were not sure of who said what or in what order events happened. Through defense witnesses and cross-examination of the police officers, it was shown that Brother Morris' legs and feet were held, making the officers' statement that he was kicking wildly at them look flimsy at best.

During the trial Officer Bisson admitted harassing Brother Morris as many as 15 times over the past year about his "illegal" methods of soliciting on city streets.

All defense witnesses testified that the police attacked Brother Morris and threw copies of THE BLACK PANTHER into the street and into a garbage can, then proceeded to brutalize him.

As an alibi for the resisting arrest conviction, Judge Corbett claimed that the attempt, however slight, made by Brother Morris to retrieve his papers from the street, was an attempt to resist the arrest. The conviction is being appealed in King County Superior Court.

-- 6 --

STANFORD SURVIVAL MINISTRY FORMS TO CONTINUE WORK OF MIRIAM CHERRY

(Sunnyvale, Calif.) -- As announcement was recently made of the formation of the Stanford Survival Ministry to guarantee the continuation of the work of fired ex-assistant Catholic Chaplain at Stanford university, Miriam Cherry, THE BLACK PANTHER learned that the Social Concerns Commission of the Los Altos Methodist Church voted to reverse its earlier decision to stop funding the Marie Hill Child Development Program in order to give the funds to Vietnamese refugees.

On July 20, the Commission decided to donate $2,400 to the Marie Hill Program, one of two Peninsular Child Development Centers founded under the leadership of Miriam Cherry, for new equipment and playground construction. In addition, the Commission decided to apply to government authorities to sponsor only a Vietnamese family that wants to return to Vietnam. As of this writing the Commission's "sponsor them home" proposal has been ignored.

HUMAN WARMTH

Announcement of the formation of the Stanford Survival Ministry was made on July 23 at an affair held at the Marie Hill Child Development Center. Some 60 supporters of the new ministry gathered in a spirit of human warmth and friendliness to concretely demonstrate their united opposition to the firing of Minister Cherry on March 10 by St. Ann's Roman Catholic Council of Palo Alto.

Friends and supporters came from Oakland, San Francisco, San Mateo, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Jose, as well as Sunnyvale, all convinced that a ministry based on serving the most oppressed must continue.

Since Minister Cherry's firing, a collective ministry composed of campus ministers, students, faculty and staff of Stanford University as well as people from the oppressed communities have united their efforts on the issue of survival.

A successful drive to acquire financial pledges has been conducted guaranteeing Miriam Cherry a small salary over the next six months. An additional plea for funds is making it possible for Ms. Cherry to attend a Theology of Liberation Conference in Detroit this month.

Parents of children enrolled in the two Child Development Centers operated by the Intercommunal Survival Committee, and friends expressed feelings of volunteers of survival programs being honored that David G. Du Bois, Editor-in-Chief of THE BLACK PANTHER, and the famous people's lawyer, Charles Garry (presently defending Black Panther Party member Johnny Larry Spain in the San Quentin 6 trial in San Francisco), were present on the occasion of the announcement of the formation of the Stanford Survival Ministry.

A slide show presentation by members of the collective who had just returned from a trip to Mexico illustrated the wretched poverty of Mexican peasants who had collectively pooled together their human and material resources to build a house for a neighboring family over several Sundays, their only free day.

Following the show Minister Cherry offered a religious reflection pointing out that in that same spirit, parents, staff and friends of the Marie Hill Center had built the new, large additional room in which the assembly was gathered to make it possible for the Center to accommodate more children.

To the beautiful Missa Creola, a mass based on South American Indian folk rhythms sung and played on folk instruments, and the "pop" tune "The Hustle" by Van Mc Coy, Minister Cherry and one of the five-year-olds of the Center broke loaves of bread made by the children of the Center, and distributed them to those present. A goblet of wine was passed throughout the assembly.

Minister Cherry referred to the sharing of the bread and wine as an "intercommunion," because with all the diversity of backgrounds present "we all face problems of survival. And, as Huey P. Newton writes in Revolutionary Suicide," she said, "we are interconnected and interrelated as it is understood by the African custom of when being asked, `What is your name?' replying, `I am We.'"

-- 6 --

OUR HEALTH

Cancer -- PART 1

Cancer is a group of diseases caused by the runaway growth of useless cells that crowd out tissues needed for essential body functions, such as digestion, circulation, motion, excretion, etc. Next to heart disease, cancer is America's leading cause of death, killing over 300,000 people each year.

In the U.S., six out of every 24 people, or 25 per cent of the total population, will have cancer. Of these six, two will be cured, and three will die because no cure has been discovered for cancer. One will die needlessly of a cancer which might have been cured if treated in time. This means that 100,000 people could be saved from cancer each year.

The two main types of cancer are carcinoma -- cancer affecting the skin and the lining of hollow organs and passageways -- and sarcoma -- cancer of the bone, muscle, cartilage, and lymph system. Not all tumors (lumps or swellings) are cancers. Most are benign -- harmless -- not malignant or dangerous. However, only tests can reveal the difference.

The basic causes of most cancers are still unknown, but scientists have discovered several conditions often connected with abnormal cell growth.

Mechanically caused cancers result from such conditions as chronic irritation of warts or moles; excessive rubbing of mouth tissue from pipestems; and badly fitting dentures. Chemically caused cancers arise from substances proved to be cancer-causing in animals such as coal tars, irritants in cigarette smoke, arsenic compounds and some dyes. Radiation-caused cancers develop from prolonged overexposure to the ultraviolet (tanning) rays of the sun or overexposure to X-rays, radium or radioactive isotopes.

All these conditions are associated in some people with some types of cancer. The effects are long-term and vary from one individual to another.

With the exception of a rare type of eye cancer (that is highly curable in its early stages), there is no evidence that cancer is inherited. However, the environmental and occupational conditions and the habitual practices that may be peculiar to family members may be substantial factors in the development of cancer by blood relatives.

-- 7 --

Sister In North Carolina Rebellion Appeals From Men's Prison

THE BLACK PANTHER has recently received an eloquent and forceful appeal from Sister Marjorie Marsh, one of the 26 women transferred from the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women to a men's medium security prison at Morganton, North Carolina.

We print, in full, this sincere message from a woman struggling for justice in a corrupt penal system. We would like to thank Sister Jinni Storeman for providing us with this inspiring letter of determination.

"I sit here day after day waiting the unknown that will follow, to continue the reality of my struggle for liberation. My thoughts ramble into uneventful hours with no verbal facts or opinions to alter their course. My actions which have promoted this incarcerated situation, have been plundered and relived with no justification for the actions of my keepers. Assumptions and expectations are worthless, my schedule is unknown because it is controlled by my keeper, yet even in my blindness I am not afraid nor weak. Perhaps I am lonely, bored or tired, but it's a good feeling, for it is for a cause.

6th WEEK

"Today (the letter is dated July 25) marks the sixth week of my incarceration here at Western Correctional Center. I, along with 25 others, who fought and stood for our lives on June 15-19, 1975, at the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women. We have stood patient throughout this political experiment performed by the N.C. Correction Department staff. We have not changed our position or determination in our attempt to expose the Department and its deceit to the people.

"We were not willing to stop for the many pacifiers that have been offered us, instead we offer ourselves as guinea pigs to be used as the tools of the people, to destroy the now corrupt political ballgame of the corrections department that uses the oppressed people as equipment.

"Despite of all the temporary defeats, the discrimination, the

-- 10 --
Prejudice, the deceitful efforts of the keepers to alter or prevent us, we will educate the people of the political corruption and misconduct of those who make the governing policies of the system.

"Our intentions are to convince the people these actions taken against us were politically motivated, to maintain the silence that has persisted in the Department for years. Our hopes are that the unjust actions the state has performed against us (the representatives of the oppressed) will motivate the people to counterattack and seek justification for their murderous deeds.

"STAKED OUR LIVES"

"We have staked our very lives on the continuation and further development of the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed. Our `love' for the people strengthens decision daily, this motivation is greater than the materialistic one that our keepers have. It's a feeling that makes you feel the blows aimed at your sister's head, a feeling that assures you each day you sit in this 7 by 6 foot, cell, it's a contribution to the people, a feeling that makes you feel pride in your loyalty to your sistas, a feeling that lets you say with confidence, `I am somebody,' a feeling that brings a tear of happiness to receive word of a minor victory, a feeling that you are free, at least in the mind, a feeling of pride in the strong unity that grows daily and this love is a feeling that makes you know the life you have devoted to the struggle will not be in vain.

"As the previous days go by, we await tomorrow and summarize the past six weeks as an attempt on the Corrections Departments, to silence its' victims of the unjust actions that were ordered by the Department and approved by the state's governor. Our destiny hence depends not on the keepers of our body…but the participation of people, in this our struggle for liberation from the oppressors.

There's much more involved in this than merely a convict bucking the penal discipline procedures, that's not the issue. This is the door of corruption opened to allow the exterminator (the oppressed peoples) to enter to deal with and bring a new cleanser on the market -- Unity and Love.

"My life is your tool -- use me as an example of the racism, sexism, and discrimination of the oppressors of our land. Stand with me, my bruthas and sistas, that we may lift the depression and oppression from the oppressed peoples. Much love to the people.

PAMOJA TUTA SHINDA EUSI UMOJA

Revolutionary in Arms,

Marjorie Marsh

-- 7 --

JoANNE LITTLE ESCAPES DEATH PENALTY - CHARGES REDUCED TO SECOND - DEGREE MURDER

(Raleigh, N.C.) -- JoAnne Little no longer faces a death sentence as the result of a ruling made last week by Judge Hamilton H. Hobgood, who reduced the original first-degree murder charge against JoAnne to one of second-degree murder.

Judge Hobgood's ruling was a major victory for the defense and provided renewed hope to Ms. Little's supporters that the 21-year-old Black woman will be acquitted of the August, 1974, killing of Clarence Alligood, a 62-year-old White jail guard whom Ms. Little killed while defending herself against a sexual attack.

30 TO LIFE

Conviction on the second-degree charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years to life. Judge Hobgood denied a defense motion to throw out all charges against JoAnne, including lesser charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter that were automatically included in the state's original first-degree murder indictment against Ms. Little.

Defense attorney Marvin Miller of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in arguing that all charges be dropped against JoAnne, cited legal precedent which maintains that insufficient evidence had been presented to cause "a reasonable member of the jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that JoAnne Little is guilty of an offense."

Miller contended that the prosecution had failed to prove that JoAnne was the sole actor in Alligood's death; that the time of death had not been adequately fixed; and that the prosecution had failed to demonstrate conclusively that Alligood's death was unlawful because "death at the hands of another is not necessarily unlawful."

Evidence lost by the prosecution, its failure to take extensive photographs of the crime scene and the lack of presentation of any full recollection of the incidents surrounding the death were also cited by Miller as reasons that all charges be dismissed.

The day following the reduction of the charges to second-degree murder, one Black woman testified that Alligood had made overt sexual advances to JoAnne on two occasions. Two other Black women testified that Alligood made repeated sexual advances towards them.

Mr. Phyllis Ann More, who was held in Beaufort County Jail -- the scene of the murder -- in early July, 1974, testified that two times Alligood came into the women's section of the jail and asked JoAnne -- did she miss her man?

Ms. More said that both times JoAnne turned away from Alligood and once made a remark indicating her disgust.

A middle-aged Black woman, Rosa Ida Mae Roberson, who spent 21 days in Beaufort County Jail in April, 1974, testified that Alligood had made sexual advances towards her seven or eight times and that, "I told him if he touched me I'd kill him."

The third Black woman, Annie Marie Gardner, 26, who was incarcerated for 44 days in Beaufort County Jail in late 1973, testified that Alligood made sexual overtures to her three or four times while she scrubbed the jail floor. "He (Alligood) would always try to feel my breasts," Ms. Gardner testified.

The testimonies of the three Black women provided strong support to the defense's charges that Alligood habitually sought to sexually abuse the women inmates at Beaufort County Jail, particularly the Black women.

-- 7 --

First Polynesian Panther Newspaper Released

(Ponson by, Auckland) -- THE BLACK PANTHER has just received the first edition of Panther's Rapp, the official organ of the Polynesian Panther Party of New Zealand.

The Polynesian Panther Party (PPP) was founded over four years ago and embraces the Black Panther Party's ideology of intercommunalism, realizing that all of us are victims of a reactionary U. S. imperialism which knows no national boundaries or borders.

In their struggle to organize the Polynesian people, the PPP has initiated various Survival Programs which include tenants' unions, food cooperatives, busing to prison programs, police investigation, as well as tutorial, informational and educational services.

In their effort to serve the people, the Polynesian Panther Party has always taken a stand with the people, helping the Polynesian people in their everyday struggles against landlords, police, the courts, and the unjust political system which is controlled by the White New Zealand society. At the present time the Polynesian Panther Party is a principle force in a Maori Land Rights movement whose goal is to return control of land inhabited by Polynesians to the Polynesian people.

THE BLACK PANTHER extends our congratulations to the Polynesian Panther Party for the publication of its newspaper with the knowledge that the bond between our two parties and our two peoples will grow stronger as our common struggle continues.

-- 8 --

1 OF 4 BLACK WORKERS JOBLESS IN EARLY 1975

Black Unemployment Skyrockets To 3 Million, Thousands Discouraged

(Washington, D.C.) - According to statistics recently released by the National Urban League's Research Department, Black unemployment in America has reached such a critical level that one out of every four Black workers was jobless during the first three months of 1975, with the total number of unemployed Blacks reaching an all-time high of close to 3 million.

The statistics, released in the Quarterly Economic Report on the Black Worker, reveal a continuing gloomy trend for Black workers in 1975. (See Tables 1. 2. this page, Table 3 on page 12.

Indeed, the bleak picture of present Black unemployment and the future hopelessness for job prospects is perhaps nowhere more strikingly revealed than in this Urban League study. The study utilizes a technique -- known as the Hidden Unemployment Index -- which presents a more accurate account of the national unemployment scene than the official government figures distributed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reason for this is that the official Labor Department definition of "unemployed" does not include "discouraged workers" -- those who want a job now, but are no longer actively seeking one -- and part-time workers who want full time jobs.

TABLE 1

Table 1 compares Black and White unemployment rates under both the "official" and "hidden unemployment" indexes.

From these statistics -- First Quarter of 1974 and 1975 refers to the months of January. February and March, Last Quarter of 1974 refers to the months of October, November and December and all figures are given in the thousands -- it can be seen that:

- While the official Black Unemployment rate is 14.2 per cent, a more accurate figure -- the "unofficial" figure -- for Blacks is 25.8 per cent, meaning that one out of every four Black workers was jobless during the first three months of 1975. This represents 2,934,000 Black workers unemployed during the first quarter of 1975, an increase of almost 900,000 from the first quarter of 1974 and an increase of over 500,000 since the last quarter of 1974. An incredible statistic not revealed in either account is that of the 49,000 new unemployed workers throughout the nation between February and March, 1975, 47,000 were Black!

- The hidden unemployment figure of 2.9 million for the first quarter of 1975 includes 1,201,000 potential Black workers who are "discouraged," who after months of unsuccessfully looking for a job, have "dropped out" of the labor market, stopped looking for work and are therefore "hidden" from the official government statistics. Significantly, the "discouraged" workers statistic includes close to 200,000 Black workers who, in the six month period from the start of the last of the first quarter of 1975, left the labor market in total frustration and hopelessness. The 2.9 million Black jobless figure also includes 298,000 Black workers holding part-time jobs but preferring full-time employment.

- Contrary to official government statistics which list nationwide unemployment at 9.1 per cent, the Hidden Unemployment Index reveals that 16 per cent of the country's total work force was jobless in the first quarter of 1975, an increase of 4.0 per cent over the last quarter of 1974 and an increase of 4.8 per cent over the first quarter of 1974.

- Not detailed in Table 1 is the fact that Black residents of poverty areas are even harder hit by the current economic crisis than Blacks living elsewhere. Thus, while the official rate of Black unemployment was 14.2 per cent nationwide, for Black residents in poverty areas the official statistic jumps to 16.4 per cent in the first quarter of 1975. Considering that past surveys of unemployment in poverty areas indicate that the "hidden" rate for Blacks in poverty areas is at least three times higher than the official listed statistics, the Urban League research suggests that Black unemployment in poverty areas is 50 per cent or more!

Table 2 breaks down official unemployment rates of White and Black workers by age and findings here reveal that:

- Black teenage females experienced a sharp rise in unemployment in the first quarter of 1975, and maintain the highest jobless rate of any group of Black workers at 41.3 per cent.

- Black Women and Black teenage males were the most discouraged by the bleak job picture in the first quarter of 1975, with 34,000 adult Black women and 52,000 Black teenage males officially discontinuing their never ending search for jobs.

TABLE 1

Computation of NUL Unofficial Unemployment Rate
(Numbers in Thousands) 1st 0. 4th 0. 1st 0.
Total 1974 1974 1975
Unofficial Unemployed1 10,520 11,524 15,423
Official Unemployed 4,968 5,611 8,283
Discouraged Workers2 4,316 4,480 5,345
Part Time Unemployed3 1,236 1,1,433 1,795
Unofficial Civilian Labor Force1 93,704 96089 96,497
Offician Civilian Labor Force 89,388 91,609 91,152
Disouraged Workers2 4,316 4,480 5,345
Unofficial Unemployment Rate 11.2 12.0 16.0
Official Unemployment Rate 5.6 6.1 9.1
Blacks4
Unofficial Unemployed 2,045 2,392 2,952
Official Unemployed 961 1,124 1,453
Discouraged Workers 904 1,006 1,201
Part-Time Unemployed 220 262 298
Unofficial Civilian Labor Force 11,049 11,356 11,443
Official Civilian Labor Force 10,145 10,350 10242
Discouraged Workers 904 1,006 1,201
Unofficial Unemployment Rate 18.9 21.1 25.8
Official Unemployment RAte 9.5 10.5 14.2
Whites
Unofficial Unemployed 8,433 9,132 12,470
Official Unemployed 4,006 4,487 6,830
Discouraged Workers 3,412 3,474 4,144
Part-Time Unemployed 1,015 1,171 1,496
Unofficial Civilian Labor Force 82,655 84,733 85,054
Official Civilian Labor Force 79,243 81,259 80,910
Discouraged Workers 3,412 3,474 4,144
Unofficial Unemployment Rate 10.2 10.8 14.7
Official Unemployment Rate 5.1 5.5 8.4

Numbers are not seasonally adjusted, but are the original, unrevised BLS figures.

"Discouraged Workers," according to NUL usage, includes all persnos in the labor force who "want a job now," while BLS includes only the subgroup who "thing they cannot get a job."

This group contributes 46 percent of part-time workers who want full-time jobs, according to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee formula.

Black include other non whites.

Source: Prepared by the National Urban League Research Department from U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

TABLE 2

Official Unemployment Rates of Black and
White Workers by Sex and Age Status

[Percent Unemployed of Total Labor Force]1 1st 0. 4th 0. 1st 0.
Type of Workers 1974 1974 1975
Total 5.6 6.1 9.1
Black2 9.5 10.9 14.2
White 5.1 5.5 8.4
Adult Men
Black 7.3 7.7 12.5
White 3.8 3.9 7.1
Married Men
Black 4.7 5.0 9.8
White 2.8 3.0 5.7
Adult Women
Black 8.0 9.6 11.3
White 4.8 5.5 8.0
Teenage Males
Black 29.9 34.3 38.1
White 14.2 15.2 20.3
Teenage Females
Black 30.9 38.0 41.3
White 13.6 14.9 17.4

(Number Unemployed in Thousands)1 1st 0. 4th 0. 1st 0.
Type of Workers 1974 1974 1975
Total 4,968 5,611 8,283
Black2 961 1,124 1,453
White 4,006 4,487 6,830
Adult Men
Black 374 399 646
White 1,698 1,780 3,201
Married Men
Black 169 172 338
White 1,026 1,068 2,061
Adult Women
Black 334 411 481
White 1,309 1,564 2,266
Teenage Males
Black 142 169 167
White 551 612 785
Teenage Females
Black 110 144 157
White 449 531 578

Numbers are not seasonally adjusted, but are the original unrevised BLS figures.

Blacks include other non whites.

Source: Prepared by the National Urban League Research Department from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

-- 12 --

- The rate of unemployed married Black men, traditionally the lowest jobless rate among Blacks, was disproportionately affected in the first quarter of 1975, skyrocketing from 5 per cent in the last quarter of 1974 to 9.8 per cent by the end of March, 1975.

- Although not specifically listed in Table 2, the unemployment rates for young Black Vietnam-era veterans skyrocketed during the first quarter of 1975, leaping from 22.7 to 30.3 per cent between October, 1974. and March, 1975.

Significant findings in Table 3, which detail types of unemployed, are:

- The number of unemployed Black workers who were laid off their jobs nearly doubled -- from 484,000 to 851,000 -- between the fourth quarter of 1974 and the first quarter of 1975.

- By the first quarter of 1975, 89 per cent of all unemployed Blacks who had been laid off their jobs were adults and 60 per cent of them were Black men.

- Adult Black men were the most likely to have been job losers in the first quarter of 1975, and were also the least likely to be re-entering the labor force during that time. Indeed, the percentage of job re-entrants (fired but finding other jobs) for all Black categories was markedly down during the first quarter of 1975, reflecting the increasing hopelessness and despair of Black workers across the country.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

C.I.A. - Mafia Link

(Washington, D.C.) -- A former chief of clandestine services for the Central Intelligence Agency said last week that he personally approved CIA cooperation with Mafia figures who wanted to assassinate Cuban Premier Fidel Castro in 1960. Richard M. Bissel, the ex-CIA official, said also that he believed the late Allen W. Dulles, then director of the CIA, received regular reports on the Mafia connection.

F.B.I. List

(Washington, D.C.) -- The FBI maintained a list of thousands of "potential" spies and saboteurs liable to be arrested in case of a "national emergency," it was disclosed last week. A spokesperson for the bureau said the list was started in the early 1950s under the Subversive Control Act but was destroyed in 1971 when the law was repealed. A Justice Department official was quoted as saying that the list was likely to include "political dissidents, Marxists and members of such terrorist groups as the Weather Underground."

K. K. K. Organizing

(Harlan, Ky.) - The United Mine Workers (UMW) president, Arnold R. Miller, urged the Harlan County local UMW last week to resist any organizing attempts by the Ku Klux Klan. "The Ku Klux Klan is an un-American, anti-union organization that has always opposed the rights of working men and women," Miller declared in a letter to UMW coal miners. The Klan has been running advertisements in the newspaper here, offering information or enrollment cards to anyone returning the coupon.

Calif. Penalized

(Washington. D.C.) - California has been penalized $1.9 million for failure to comply with federal requirements of a medical program for low-income children. The state failed to notify all eligible recipients that early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment program services were available, according to Secretary Casper Weinberger of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). Seven other states have been penalized for failure to comply with the requirements, but California's penalty was the largest so far.

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BLACK EDUCATORS VICTIMS OF NATIONAL CONSPIRACY

Officials In D.C., Baltimore, Chicago And San Francisco Under Attack

(Washington, D.C.) - In what appears to be a national conspiracy against Black educators, Black school superintendents, in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, are being pressured to resign, while in Chicago, another highly qualified Black educator was passed over when a White school superintendent was selected. In San Francisco, California, several Black high-level administrators were removed from their positions and badly needed funds slashed from the budget.

In Washington, D.C., the case of Barbara Sizemore has gained national attention as Ms. Sizemore is known for her innovative ideas on education. Her critics, who are supported by high level figures within the federal government, are accusing Ms. Sizemore of mismanagement of funds when the real issue is lack of funds which, for the District of Columbia, are allocated by the federal government through Congress.

In her fight to retain her position, Ms. Sizemore has a wide spectrum of community support ranging from militant organizations to religious societies. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) sees the case of Ms. Sizemore as a "rallying point" of a nationwide effort to halt attacks on Black educators.

Meanwhile, Black Baltimore School Board Superintendent Roland Patterson is fighting to keep his job, while school officials Ed Forte of Sacramento, California, Alonzo Crime of Atlanta, Georgia, and Stanley Taylor of Newark, New Jersey, are experiencing serious difficulties in trying to provide a decent education for the Black community.

In San Francisco, the new school superintendent, Robert Alioto, from Yonkers, New York, has already gained the wrath of the Black community because of a reshuffling in the administration of San Francisco city schools which has caused 13 Black school officials to be removed from their posts. To add to this, his budget cuts will seriously affect the level of education in the classrooms. Again Black and minority students will bear the brunt of these cuts.

The situation in Chicago Illinois, is another internal part of this conspiracy against Black educators but in a somewhat different form. Black Deputy School Superintendent Manford Byrd had worked in the Chicago school system for 21 years with his present task being directly responsible for the day-to-day operations of Chicago city schools. On the "promotion ladder," he was "just in line" for the job of superintendent. However, when the post of superintendent was vacated, the majority White Chicago School Board (although Chicago's schools are 58 per cent Black) passed over Byrd and appointed Joseph P. Hannon, an Irishman with backing from Mayor Daley.

This has caused a general uproar in the Chicago Black community. Inside sources have stated that Hannon not only had backing from Daley but also from trade unions and construction companies. As assistant superintendent for Facilities Planning, Hannon death with these unions and construction outfits constantly.

Already a coalition has been formed to oppose the appointment of Hannon over Manford Byrd and in the words of Chicago Black activist and journalist Lu Palmer, this coalition could be used to "shut down the school in September, if necessary."

Educate To Liberate

-- 9 --

White Businessman Beaten At

(Oakland, Calif.) - "I WAS BEATEN AT SANTA RITA CENTER (JAIL)," screamed the frontpage headline in the August 3, Oakland Sunday Tribune. So, why headlined in the Oakland Tribune? readers of THE BLACK PANTHER might ask. It happens every day!

It was headlined because the victim, Athens, Greece, born George Spiliotopoulos, is a former Pleasanton, California, city councilman and vice mayor, a prominent businessman, and currently an Alameda County Planning Commissioner. But, the cops that beat him mercilessly on the night of July 28, at Santa Rita "Rehabilitation Center," following his arrest on a reckless driving charge did not know all this.

ARRESTED

Earlier that night, Spiliotopoulos, 35, driving a modified 1929 Model A Ford, was arrested by California Highway Patrolmen on a charge of reckless driving as he passed the scene of an accident. Although he admits having had a couple of drinks earlier, he says he passed the CHP field sobriety test with apparent ease.

But he was ordered booked at Santa Rita and placed in a holding cell with several other prisoners. The Tribune story explains that he soon noticed a Black man, naked to the waist, shaking and biting hard on a folded paper towel.

"This man needs medical attention," Spiliotopoulos said he

-- 12 --
told the booking officer. The officer replied help was on the way. After a while, Spiliotopoulos said, the man began to shake more violently, which brought another request for help for the man from Spiliotopoulos. He was told by another officer to shut up, but Spiliotopoulos, unfamiliar with the ways of the keepers of this country's jails, insisted the man needed immediate attention.

At that point, he says, the cop bolted into the holding cell twisted his arm behind his back in a hammerlock, dragged him out of the cell and "slammed my face against the booking room screen." He was immediately surrounded by a half-dozen cops who spread his arms and legs wide apart and "began beating and slamming my head against a wall."

He does not remember how long he was beaten on ("It seemed like a thousand years," he said), but eventually he was shoved into another cell where a deputy "with his fists in a fighting posture" told him to remove his shoes, which he did without protest. The cop shut the door to the windowless cell, leaving Spilitopoulos in a corner of the cell, blood streaming down his face from cuts on his forehead and the bridge of his nose.

"I was angry, frightened, frustrated, perplexed and shocked," he is quoted as saying. "It was then that I realized that what was being written and said about Sant Rita (jail) was true. It was happening to me. I started to cry like a three-year-old."

Later, when a sergeant entered his cell asking if he needed medical attention. Spiliotopoulos says: "I told them I didn't want either of them to touch me. I told them I wanted people to see me the way I was and I asked for an attorney."

He said the sergeant, whom he declined to identify, then asked him why he "resisted" an earlier request of a deputy to leave his cell. "I thought they were trying to set me up." Spiliotopoulos said. "I told the sergeant he and his deputy were liars."

Spiliotopoulos' stay at Santa Rita lasted from about 11:30 p.m. until about 4 a.m., when he left with attorney John Corley and a young prisoner whom he befriended while in jail. He gave the younger man motel money and is trying to find him a job."

"You know, when I was in that cell I felt a common bond with all those prisoners," he said, "We had one thing in common." Admitting he never once told the cops he was a county planning commissioner or prominent businessman and civic leader, he says he intends to "see this thing through to the end."

The Oakland Tribune's front page treatment of Spiliotopulos' story is one more expression of its racist and classist editorial policy. It knows what happened to Spiliotopoulos happens daily to Blacks and poor Whites in Alameda jails. But. you'd never know it reading the columns of the Tribune.

TABLE

Type of Unemployed" Among Black And White

Written by Son and Apa Swim

(Percentage Distributions) 1st O.1974 4th O.1974 1st O.1975
Type of Unemployed Black Whites Black Whites Black Whites
Total Unemployed
Precent 100 100 100 100 100 100
job Loser 48 50 43 47 59 61
job leaves 15 15 10 15 7 10
Re Entrants 25 25 31 27 22 22
New Entrants 13 10 16 11 12 7
Adult man
Precent 100 100 100 100 100 100
job Loser 70 70 69 69 80 79
job leaves 11 13 9 13 5 8
Re Entrants 16 15 19 16 12 12
New Entrants 2 2 3 2 3 1
Adult Women
Precent 100 100 100 100 100 100
job Loser 40 42 38 41 50 53
job leaves 18 19 14 18 12 12
Re Entrants 31 35 38 37 31 32
New Entrants 11 4 10 4 8 2
Teenage Males
Precent 100 100 100 100 100 100
job Loser 31 33 20 29 35 41
job leaves 13 13 6 15 5 9
Re Entrants 27 29 37 29 31 25
New Entrants 29 25 37 27 29 25
Teenage Females
Percent 100 100 100 100 100 100
job Loser 13 23 15 14 21 24
job leaves 18 14 5 15 4 12
Re Entrants 31 27 35 27 28 30
New Entrants 38 37 46 44 46 34

1 numbers are not seasonally adjusted, but are the original, unrevised BLS figures

2 Black include other non while

Source prepared by the National Urban Leauge Research Department from U. S. Bureau Labour Statics date.

-- 9 --

In Memorium Marry Thomas Prendez

The recent news of the murder of Mary Thomas Prendez saddens the heart of many who knew her, loved her, and recognized her selfless contributions and never-ending dedication to the idea that all people have a right to a decent and fulfilling life.

Mary Thomas Prendez was a woman of the people, a self-acknowledged and outspoken aide to Congressman Ronald Dellums and in the community always sought to put the people's interests first.

Throughout her 49 years, Mary Thomas Prendez knew hard times as well as joyous times; knew first-hand the depths that people can sink to; and knew the struggle and sacrifice of rising up from those depths while maintaining an integrity and dignity which sparkled with that particularly warm, human glow that made her life radiate with confidence of the victories to come, victories she sought to share with us all.

-- 10 --

ON THE BLOCK

How Can Local Health Care Services Be Improved?

ASKED OUTSIDE KAISER HOSPITAL IN OAKLAND.

Marcia Pittman Berkeley Housewife

I think the attitudes of the nurse's aides could be improved toward the patients. I don't think they should be real personal, but I don't think they should have such a negative attitude toward some of the patients. Also, I think is (the services) could be free.

By people caring more for people. Giving more specific care to the needs as well as the disease. The disease is one thing, but the needs of the person are another.

Charles Pierson
8420 B Street
Minister

Henry Robinson
7101 Lockwood St.
Baker

Really, by being more prompt with their services and by having more help, more Black help, minority personnel. Just take better care of business, you know.

The only thing that I could see is that they have a better staff than they have. A lot of time people want attention and they don't get it because they don't have enough help. They should have special attendants in the room for the patients.

Mrs. Harris
866 41st St.
Retired/Housewife

Joyce Davis
Oakland
Teacher

I think the doctors should really limit the number of patients they see a day, and show a bit of personal concern. You're just a number. Kaiser has some good doctors, but the good doctors aren't taking patients anymore. At first it was a good thing, but now they're so many people involved it's just like an assembly line -- you feel like a car on an assembly line.

We need more doctors who are genuinely interested in human care. I think we need more facilities for people who don't have money. And a lot more humanness involving the whole thing, an appreciation for health and human beings.

Shirley Jackson
Harrison St.,
Berkeley
Secretary

-- 11 --

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS: RACIAL VIOLENCE “A RELIC OF THE PAST”

In its continuing series on the small east Texas community of Nacogdoches, THE BLACK PANTHER has been attempting to expose the racial injustices committed against the Black community of Nacogdoches, which makes up 43 per cent of the town's population of 22,000. It is our hope that our series detailing the long time racial violence, harassment and discrimination against the Black people of Nacogdoches by the racist power structure of Texas will stimulate national public pressure on federal authorities to do their duty in prosecuting those who have grossly violated the Constitutional rights of the Black people of the town.

We are grateful to Brother Arthur Weaver, head of the Nacogodoches NAACP, who has provided us with the extensive documentation for this series of which Part 3 follows.

PART 3

(Nacogdoches, Tax.) -- The poverty of many Black people in Nacogdoches can be directly linked to the local White police department's racist enforcement of liquor laws, according to Brother Arthur Weaver. Although Texas is a "dry" state, Whites drink openly in front of police while Blacks who dare to do the same are unjustly fined an put in jail.

Brother Weaver makes the following explanation on the problems caused by "bootleg booze":

`…We wish that some of you could ride through the Black community in Nacogdoches on a weekend and see how the police officers of the city ride back and forth through the area watching for the bootleggers' customers so they can arrest them and file drunkenness charges against them. The Black citizens often … have not even been drinking, but they are not given a fair test to see if they are intoxicated. They (Blacks) also claim that, in some cases they have been drinking and although not intoxicated, they are always charged with being drunk.

"Black citizens are frequently charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, cursing an officer or being drunk in a public place. If they plead guilty to a drunk-in-public charge, they are fined $75 or $100. If they plead not guilty to such a charge, they are charged with a DWI' (driving while intoxicated) and transferred to the county jail and fined $150 or more.

"It seems as though the police officers here are not concerned about the bootleggers, but are concerned only with the bootleggers' customers. The bootleggers are seldom arrested. The bootleggers' customers, however, are frequently arrested. Some of the Blacks who make $50 to $75 weekly are unfairly arrested on weekends and fined $50, $75 and $100. This keeps happening over and over. This is making slums in the Black communities, and it is making the Black people poorer and poorer and more and more bitter. They know that their hard earned money is going to the city and county unfairly.

BLACK AND POOR

"These people are Black and they are poor, but they are somebody. You have got to be Black or live in the Black community to understand Black people and know what is going on in the Black community and know the pain and suffering of the Blacks," Brother Weaver insists.

Another example of the racist treatment which the Black people on Nacogdoches suffer at the hands of White racists involves the case of Brother Joseph Murchison, who has been unjustly convicted to life imprisonment for the alleged attempted rape of a White college coed in January, 1973.

In a sworn statement, Freddie Chatman, who was with Murchison on the night of the alleged attempted rape, said that the young White woman, a coed at SFA State College in Nacogdoches, asked Murchison and Chatman for a ride to her dormitory. The two brothers agreed and dropped her off at her dormitory.

-- 22 --

Later they returned to the campus and saw the young woman whom they had dropped off earlier. As the result of the coed mistakenly thinking that Murchison was making sexual advances toward her, she slapped him. When he slapped her back, she began screaming, drawing the attention of the campus police. Both man were handcuffed and taken to jail. Chatman was later released.

One of the campus policemen claimed that the coed's wrist was broken, that her left leg was bruised and that her clothes were torn from an alleged beating that she had received from Brothers Murchison and Chatman.

Civil rights workers who began an investigation of the case on behalf of Brother Murchison were given the classic run-around by police when they attempted to get the facts. A simple attempt to learn the name of the young woman led them from the sheriff's office, to the police department, to the security police department at the college, to the district attorney's office and finally to the local justice of the peace who released her name but said he didn't have her address.

While at the district attorney's office, the civil rights workers were told that there was little evidence to hold Murchison and that the charges might be dropped. However, the DA's office held Murchison for allegedly breaking his parole.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice concerning Brother Murchison's case, members of the Board of the Nacogdoches County Voters League said, in part:

"Black people are now tired of this kind of treatment; they are tired of being pushed around; they are tired of being treated like dogs; they are tired of being falsely accused of crime, rape, etc.; they are tired of false and unfair arrests, brutality and injustice in court …

"…Now is the time for you to do something about this and help get equal justice and equal protection under the law for Black people. Now is the time for you to do something and make the changes here or the Blacks will change and they may change wrongly.

"We have sent signed statements of Black citizens to the U.S. Department of Justice for years and nothing has been done. Now is the time for you to act and do something, or the Blacks may change, act and do something…"

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 11 --

FOCUS '76: Workshops Scheduled For Calif. Black Political Education Conference

(Sacramento, Calif.) -- Under the theme of Focus '76, a three-day Black political education conference is scheduled to be held here August 22, 23 and 24.

The conference is being cosponsored by the Legislative Black Caucus; the California Democratic Council Black Caucus; Lt. Governor Mervyn Dymally; Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley; and Congressional representatives Ron Dellums, Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, and Augustus Hawkins.

The backbone of the conference will be series of workshops:

Health -- moderator Assemblyman Leon Ralph; Education -- Moderator Assemblyman Willie Brown; State and National Politics -- moderator Assemblyman John Miller; Youth -- moderator Assemblyman Julian Dixon; Employment -- moderator Senator Bill Greene; The Emerging Role of Black Women -- moderator Assemblywoman Hughes; and Local Politics -- moderator Senator Holden.

Persons wishing to attend the conference must be registered by August 18.

The registration fee is $15 for attendance at the workshops only and $25 for the full conference including Friday and Saturday dinners and Saturday lunch.

Registration should be sent to: Focus '76, P. O. Box 1536, Sacramento, California 95807, For more conference information, call (916) 445-8800.

-- 13 --

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE: “Changing”

By Huey P. Newton

In this portion of "Changing" from Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton, chief theoretician and leader of the Black Panther Party. Huey shares with us the strength and dignity that his father passed on to him. His father, Walter Newton, grew up in the "Old South" in Louisiana where racism was not only overt, but meant death for anyone who seriously opposed it. Huey tells how, despite this ever-present racism, his father never bowed down to this racism, even with the threat of serious bodily harm or death always upon him.

PART II

The story spread quickly around town; my father became known as a "crazy man" because he would not give in to the harassment of Whites. Strangely, this "crazy" reputation meant that Whites were less likely to bother him. That is often the way of the oppressor. He cannot understand the simple fact that people want to be free. So, when a man resists oppression they pass it off by calling him "crazy" or "insane." My father was called "crazy" for his refusal to let a White man call him "nrigger" or to play the Uncle Tom or allow White to bother his family. "Crazy" to them, he was a hero to us.

He even stood up to White men when they were armed. One evening, as he rode home from work with some other Black men, for some reason they stopped their car in front of a White man's house and began to talk and laugh. They did not see the White woman on the front porch, but pretty soon a White man came out of the house with an ax and yelled at them for laughing at his sister. The driver panicked and drove off.

When they reached the corner, my father made him stop. He climbed out and walked back alone. The White man was advancing down the road with the ax. My father asked him why he had come out with that ax and what he had in mind to do with it. The White man passed off the incident lightly by saying something about "you know how these Southern women can be," and how he had to make a show to satisfy his sister. My father realized that in the etiquette of Southern race relations this was an apology. He accepted it, but not before he made it clear to the White man that he would not be threatened.

He never hesitated to make his view known to anyone who would listen. Once, when he felt cheated by a White man, he let all the town know what had happened. The man heard the stories and came to our house to see my father. This White man carried a gun in the glove compartment of his car. My father knew that, but he nevertheless went outside unarmed to talk. He maneuvered around to the right side of the car, and sat on the running board with the White man in front of him so that he could not get to the gun. Then he told the White man what he thought of him and said, "If you hit me a lick, the other folks will have to hunt me down because you'll be lying here in the road dead." The White man drove off, and my father heard no more about it.

Another time some Whites invited him to go hunting. To this day I do not know why they asked him. They all took their shotguns. Knowing my father was a preacher, they tried to goad him into a discussion about the Bible and the origin of man. Adam and Eve were surely White, they said, so where did Black people come from? Their convenient interpretation was the Blacks must have sprung from the union of Adam and a gorilla. My father countered by saying that Adam must have been a low-life White man to have had sex with a gorilla. At this, the situation grew fairly tense, but nothing came of it.

PROTECTION

His protection extended to every member of our family. At the age of fifteen, my oldest brother, Lee Edward, went to work with my father in a sugar-cane mill. The first step in the sugar-cane process was to feed stalks into a gasoline-powered grinder. The grinder never stopped, and it had to be kept full or it would burn out. This was Lee Edward's job. They had cut the engine down some in the hope that Lee Edward could run it, but he got tired his first day in the mill, and about eleven o'clock, after four hours on the job, he could to keep the machine full. It ran down and burned out.

When the owner saw this, he began yelling at Lee Edward, but before he could say much, my father was right there. This White man was over six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds, but my father got right in the middle of it. He shut off the motor and told the owner it took a grownup to keep cane in the mill. My father took Lee Edward off the job after that. He wanted us to be good workers, just as he was, but he also wanted us to grow up proud.

I heard these stories and others like them over and over again until in a way his experiences became my own. Anyone who tried to bother us, Black or White, had to contend with my father. It made no difference that the South did not tolerate such behavior from Blacks. My father stood up to the White South until the day he left for California. He has never returned.

The fact that my father survived these encounters may go deeper than a simple White defense mechanism. His blood was, after all, half White, and that same blood flowed in the veins of other local people -- in his father, his cousins, aunts, and uncles. While local Whites were willing enough to shed the blood of Black people, it may be that they were afraid of being haunted by the murder of another "White." Statistics bear this out. The history of lynching in the South shows that Blacks of mixed blood had a much higher chance of surviving racial oppression than their all-Black brothers.

In any case, my father's pride meant that the threat of death was always there: yet it did not destroy his desire to be a man, to be free. Now I understand that because he was a man he was also free, and he was able to pass this freedom on to his children. No matter how much society tried to steal our self-esteem, we survived on what we go from him. It was the greatest possible gift. All else stems from that.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 14 --

MOBUTU: A PUPPET TREMBLING WIHTOUT THE MASTER PULLING STRINGS: Revolution In The Congo/Reaction In Tanzania?

By Makambajek

The central African country of Zaire (formerly, the Congo) gained international attention last year when its capital city of Kinshasa was the site of the world heavyweight contest between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. The world may have assumed that all is well in Zaire -- and in the period preceding the fight, Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko worked actively to give that impression -- but such is not the case. Below is the fourth in a series of articles on Zaire and Mobutu -- a known collaborator with the U.S. CIA -- and the kidnapping last May of four students, three of them Americans, from Tanzania by the Popular Revolutionary Party (PRP) of the Congo, a group of revolutionary followers of the late Patrice Lumumba who are waging a determined armed struggle to end the reactionary rule of Mobutu. This week's article details the reasons which led the PRP to kidnap the four students, all of whom have since been released unharmed. This part of the series is written by Makambajek, a member of the PRP.

PART 4

The kidnap of four Stanford University students (the students were kidnapped last May and have since been freed) from the Gombe Game Reserve in Tanzania by guerrillas of the People's Revolutionary Party of the Congo (PRP) has shattered one myth and is seriously challenging a second. The shattered myth is, of course, that all is well in Mobutu's Zaire. The myth being challenged concerns the revolutionary nature of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere's Tanzania.

Since 1972 when Mobutu went on a diplomatic offensive which took him to the United Nations, the People's Republic of China, Guinea, Ethiopia, and the United States, and he mended longstanding feuds with his African neighbors, Zaire's internal propaganda machine -- which proclaims Mobutu "le redempteur," le clairvoyant," the father of Zaire's "authentic" revolution -- has gone international. Mobutu's vainglorious image has appeared on magazine covers and in feature articles heralding the dawn of a new day in Zaire. Gone were the regional and tribal divisions which rocked the Congo during its first 10 years of independence. Gone were the multitude of political parties and avaricious politicians who fought, regrouped, went into exile, returned, sold out, and died in the mad scramble for the Congo. All had been replaced by a single party -- the Movement Populaire de la Revolution (MRP) -- and a single man who stood above politics, Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko.

The publicity campaign reached its zenith with the "rumble in the jungle" -- Muhammad Ali's foot-in-mouth appellation for his world heavyweight championship fight with George Foreman staged in Zaire's capital city, Kinshasa. This was to be Zaire's coming out party -- an open invitation for foreign investors, particularly American, to come on in. The message in this pugilistic spectacle was clear: Mobutu rules with an iron fist to insure the safety of your investment.

In the wake of a recent assassination attempt which claimed the lives of six of Mobutu's bodyguards and the PRP kidnapping, this has all gone for naught. The world has been alerted: There's a revolution in the Congo.

On the night of May 19 an armed group of guerrillas crossed Lake Tanganyika from Zaire and made its way to a game reserve in Tanzania, site of the Combe Stream Reserve Center, funded by the Tanzania government and America's Stanford University. The guerrillas first accosted two guards from the game reserve and demanded to know the whereabouts of the "foreigners" -- in

-- 15 --
particular, Dr. Jane Goodall who runs the center where behavioral research is done on chimpanzees and baboons. The guards at first resisted but acceded to the group's demands when the seriousness of the mission was impressed upon them. At the hostels which housed the 30 foreign students studying under Dr. Goodall, the guerrillas were able to seize four students -- three Americans and one Dutch national. Dr. Goodall, alerted by the screams of the students, escaped and hid in the bush surrounding the center. After a fruitless search for Goodall, the guerrillas disappeared into the night along with their four hostages.

When news of the kidnap reached Dar-es-Salaam, the Tanzanian capital, all that was known was that the kidnappers were a group of about 40 armed Africans who spoke French and Linguala -- two of the principal languages of neighboring Zaire. An intensive search was mounted along the shores of Lake Tanganyka. The Tanzanian Government appealed to Zaire, Burundi, and Zambia, which also border the lake, to join in the search for the "bandits" and the kidnapped students.

The Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on May 24: "At the very least, the kidnappers are requested to confirm by any effective means the safety and well being of the students and whatever requirements those holding them may have for their safe release."

The next day Tanzania had its answer. Barbara Smuts, 24, one of the kidnapped students, appeared in Kigoma town, a few miles from the site of the abductions. She carried a ransom note addressed to Tanzania President Julius Nyerere and asked to be taken immediately to Dar-es-Salaam.

The ransom note, signed by the Parti de la Revolution Populaire, demanded of the Tanzania government:

1. The release of PRP Secretary-General Yumbu Gabriel, and Central Committee member Saleh Kilenga and his staff.

2. 500,000 American dollars or 200,000 pounds sterling,

3. A consignment of American and Belgian arms and munitions including automatic weapons and cannons.

TO BE CONTINUED

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KDIA Radio's Furaha Hayati In Mozambique: “The Spirit Of The People Struck Me Most”

Sister Furaha Hayati (Elizabeth Johnson), longtime news editor for Black-oriented KDIA Radio in Oakland, California, was one of the three Black American journalists privileged to attend the independence day celebration ceremonies of Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, on June 25, 1975. Sister Hayati attended the historic event as a member of the delegation from the U.S. - based African Liberation Support Committee and was accorded privileged treatment by the new government of Mozambique, led by President Samora Machel.

In her comments below, Sister Hayati describes the joyful independence celebration and reminds us of the bond between African and Black Americans who are both struggling for the liberation of the peoples of the world from oppressive forces.

"Mozambican women, Mozambican men, workers, peasants and fighters, compatriots:

"At 00 hours today the People's republic of Mozambique was born, a state born of our people's struggle for freedom and independence which spanned many centuries, a state in which the power of the alliance of working people is being established in our country for the first time."

With those words Samora Moises Machel announced the death of 500 years of colonialist domination, with its attendant racism and oppression, and the birth of a free Black African nation.

President Machel understood in its entirety the significance of FRELIMO's victory, not only for Mozambican people, but for the world:

"The profound historial significance of this moment in the life of our people cannot escape any Mozambican, nor any citizen of any other country, whether free or still opressed, and neither can the international dimension of this fact in relation to the Community of nations, of which we are now becoming a full and integral part."

For Black people here in America, the phrase, "… nor any citizen of any other country…." is a key one. Oftentimes the argument is used that the oppression that afflicts us here is different and somehow more difficult from that practiced against our brother and sisters on the African continent. "After all," the argument goes, "we're in the minority here and there's no way we can overcome the `man's' forces. Those people over there in Africa have the numbers, plus it's their country." The fact of Mozambique's liberation after 500 years and the continuing struggles for freedom in southern Africa, should illustrate the point that it is not simply through numbers alone that freedom is achieved.

The central fact that Afro-Americans have to keep in mind is that we are not struggling alone in our attempts to be free; a primary tool used by the oppressor is isolation. Through control of the means of mass communication, we are kept deliberately ignorant of the true state of world affairs. We are kept physically and mentally isolated from others of African descent; we are encouraged to forget our common heritage and to ignore cries for help from our brothers and sisters who have chosen

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to snatch away the whip of imperialism, and break the oppressor's arm.

Machel paid tribute to those groups and individuals who chose to support FRELIMO, support that contributed to the success of FRELIMO in winning its political and military battle. One of the groups cited was the African Liberation Support Committee. It was as part of that delegation that I went to Mozambique.

The East African Airlines plane that took us to Lourenco Marques, capital city of Mozambique, also contained the party of MPLA chief, Agostinho Neto; the prime minister of the Republic of Somali; members of FRELIMO, including its representative to the U.N.; members of delegations from most of the "progressive" countries and diplomats from many African nations.

SUNDOWN ARRIVAL

We arrived at sundown and my immediate impression upon entering the terminal was that I had arrived in an American city with a large Black population. As a result of 500 years of intermixing, the brothers and sisters look just like us! And because of the European influence (the Portuguese), many Mozambicans sported platform shoes and tight pants. Fortunately or unfortunately, as the case may be, the majority of the people could not afford these luxuries and wore the very beautiful patterns and colors that reflect the vibrancy of African life.

Perhaps the spirit of the people is what struck me most. Everywhere, one is addressed as "Camarada" meaning that you are considered a friend, that your presence in Mozambique is a commitment to the principles of FRELIMO expressed in the slogan of "Unidad, Trabalho, Vigilencia" (Unity, Work, Vigilance).

On the eve of independence, thousands of Mozambican men, women and children stood in line (some, upwards of five hours) in the rain, waiting to enter the stadium to witness the official end of colonialism. There were no attempts to "cut." Their courtesy and consideration towards each other remain a high point in my memory of the events of that night.

The unity of the people and the necessity to wipe away all vestiges of colonialism, were themes constantly touched upon by Machel:

"It is imperative that all these specific peculiarities give way to real unity between Mozambicans. We do not know tribes, regions races or religious beliefs. We know only Mozambicans who are equally exploited and equally desirous of freedom and revolution," President Machel said.

In ending his speech, Machel left no doubt about the position of the new People's Republic of Mozambique:

"Within the context of its policy of peace, friendship and solidarity with all peoples, the People's Republic of Mozambique wishes to establish healthy relations of international cooperation with all states, irrespective of their social regime, on the basis of non-interference in internal affairs, absolute equality and mutual benefit.

"These principles, however, do not permit us to sacrifice the true interests of the people to transitory historical circumstances. As has always been the case in the past, we shall not coexist with fascism and colonialism."

Faced with seemingly overwhelming problems, the people of Mozambique are determined to solve those problems, some of which were identified in Machel's independence address and are to be given priority: unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, abandoned children, prostitution and banditry.

In the midst of their celebration, the reality of their situation sobers many Mozambican citizens, but with the leadership of people like Machel, Dos Santos, Chissano and the memory of the leadership of Mondlane (Edwardo Mondlane, the founder of FRELIMO), the Mozambican people cannot but triumph.

"WE SHALL MAKE REVOLUTION TRIUMPH! LONG LIVE FRELIMO! LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE! THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES…"

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THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM

MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.

We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALIST OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.

We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.

4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING. FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.

We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.

5. WE WANT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and the world then you will have little chance to know anything else.

6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.

We believe that the government must provide free of charge for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses most of which have come about as a result of our oppression but which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information. So we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care.

7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.

We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program or oppression against Black people, other people of color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right therefore in defend ourselves against such armed forces and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for self-defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.

8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.

We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desires of the U.S. ruling circle and government to force its dominati