Woodlawn Booster (Newspaper) - June 2, 1965, Woodlawn, Illinois IDE DOUBLE U Portrait Of America HUAC Style By DAVID LLORENS TENSION filled the air The four men ing The Establishment sat like gods in their huge chairs peering cynically over the crowded room Their leader a sinister looking man reminded people that this was a magnificent opportunity to deny or affirm their affiliations with the Communist party This may sound like the beginning of a novel but it is not It is instead a Portrait of America as in this city at last week's House can Activities Committee HUAC hearings on communism in Illinois IT IS EXTREMELY difficult to deal with a sub- ject such as HUAC because we live in a country that has in the course of its brainwashing created an educational vacuum that cannot be remedied overnight As recently as four years ago this writer would have been reluctant to assail HUAC With that ad- mission I am not so sure that ignorance is bliss If you read a newspaper last week or looked at the news on TV you could not avoid seeing the demonstrations surrounding the HUAC hearings It is not by accident that the same people who were demonstrating against HUAC last week are largely the same who have been demonstrating for the human rights of the Negro in this country I was not at all surprised to see at the HUAC demonstration white people who I last saw in sippi last summer they were working for dom there also It is not an accident that HUAC has consistently been composed of conservative or reactionary men dominated by Southerners and that today it is led by Rep Edwin Willis of Louisiana an avowed segregationist and a floor leader against the 1964 civil rights IN ITS EARLY days HUAC was recognized as a weapon against the reforms introduced by the New Deal and was called sordid flagrantly unfair and by president Franklin Delano Organizations devoted to freedom have ly argued and this writer agrees that HUAC is an institutionalized bastion of racist and far right power which utilizes the power of government to sell and enforce its conceptions alleged communist influence in an effort to focus public atten tion on communism and detract attention from the real issues that civil rights and peace groups are con BUSY DAY FOR MAN SOME CALL REBEL An Active Senior THIS GROUP of senior citizens gathered Thursday May 27 Opportunity Center 746 E St and nominated Mrs Phillips THIRD FROM LEFT for the Senior Citizens Hall of Fame A member of Opportunity Center Study Clubs for the past three years Mrs Phillips stays active with volunteer work in schools and hospitals and it a member of the Retired Workers Club 5TH WARD Alderman Leon if Despres had an unusually msy day Wednesday May 26 t the City Council session Despres fought the ment of William L of Local 1 Chicago rial Janitors Union He sub- mitted that McFetridge was unfit to hold public office stated that tridge has actions in the past and has interests that should be questioned Despres made the statement after May- or Daley submitted for mation a five-year ment of to the cago Park District board McFetridge has been engaged in litigation with Building vice Employes Union Local 4 The was ed voted against it IN OTHER ACTIONS man stated his ments against the approval of an ordinance formally setting up the Chicago Committee on Urban Opportunity the war on poverty agency which calls for a committee made up ol a cross-section of all interests including representatives ol areas where the program is to operate Despres remarked thai Chicago had been criticized for not having any poor people on the committee and asked foi Continued on Page 4 THE MOST WIDELY READ NEWSPAPER IN A COMMUNITY THIRTY-FIRST YEAR NO 33 Week of June 2 thru June 7 1965 Published at 639 E St STewarl WILLIS IN PROTESTS BEGIN Leaders Blast Board Decision Plan Boycott cerned with I believe it is a national tragedy that wim HUAC is responsible for such an enormous amount of fear throughout this country and that the victims of the fear are unaware of what it is they fear Men ruled by fear can hardly evade taking blind who are paths By RICHARD TAYLOR SCOTT ALL OUT SUPPORT for next week's protest against the School failure to re- move Supt Benjamin C Willis was pledged by The Woodlawn Organization was represented among some 40 civil rights and com- munity organizations who met in the Washington Park YMCA last Saturday and emerged with plans for a city wide protest including a two-day boycott June 10 and 11 members were among the earliest arrivals at the de- board meeting last day that produced the cause of the current furor They were among a large group of anti Willis persons who angrily stalked out of the meeting after the board 7 to 4 to offer Willis another contract after his term expires this ust 31 WILLIS after accepting the offer read a statement that he does not intend to remain in the job after his birthday Dec 23 1966 This was called a mise agreement by board members who voted for the re tention of Willis but was sailed by other board members including Warren Bacon who called it a conspiracy and James Clement who labeled the action an illegal makeshift agreement The Rev Stevenson president asserted thai he was ashamed of the of the hoard members who are intimidated and pres sured by Dr Willis He saic that a clean break with Willis could have been as a coo breeze blowing into what pro mises to be a long hot sum mer STEVENSON warned that the retention of Willis would cause the temperature to go up 5th Ward Aid Leon M Despres who recently ventured tha Mayor Daley had decided tha Willis was through in Chicago was also vocal in expressing his disdain over the decision It is a tragedy for Chicago and especially for the thousand of children affected by said Despres A serious mis take in judgement extends harmful administration and saddles us with a lame due administration which will im poverish the quality of the edu cation he contended Al Raby convener ol th Coordinating Council of Com AUTHOR JAMES BALDWIN has called HUAC one of the most sinister facts of the national life He It is not merely that we do not need this committee the truth is we cannot afford it It always reminds me of a vast and totally untrustworthy bomb shelter in which groups of frightened people lessly convince one another of its impregnability while the real world outside by which I mean the facts of our private and public lives calmly and inexorably prepares their destruction According to the brilliant essayist and bold ist We must not allow their fear to control us and indeed we must not allow it to control them Rather we should attempt to release them from their panic and their unadmitted sorrow We ought to try by the example of our own lives to prove that life is love and wonder and that that nation is doomed which penalizes those of its citizens who recognize and rejoice in this fact THE FIRST AMENDMENT to the Constitution states that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances The legislative power to conduct investigations is based on the need to get information for legislative purposes if Congress cannot legislate in the areas which mandate covers speech press cal activity and then it has no business investigating in those areas It is for reasons such as this that HUAC has been called an instrument of ex- trying people in public without the protections of a court of law HUAC has ruined the reputations of people who have not violated any law Those who are called before the committee are not afforded the op- of having their counsel cross examine the government informers who accuse them of being com- munist or of participating in communist activities DURING LAST week's hearings Atty Albert E Jenner Jr counsel for two of the subpenaed persons denounced the committee as embarking on a program of exposure for exposure's cited the character disparagement inherent in HUAC activity and con- tended that the time has come for loyal citizens to stand up and resist the high-handed un-American tactics of this committee Before Jenner could finish chairman Willis cast I during the hearings that is if 1 am not aside his phony southern charm began pounding his under investigation by then munity Organizations and Syd Finley field representative f the NAACP emerged from ast Saturday's meeting as hairman of the committee to vork out details for the ong protest program The protest will include de- mands for Willis removal un- ess he drastically changes his with regards to ion of the city's public schools according to Raby THE MEETING closed to he press lasted six hours and concluded with plans for a variety of direct action protests during the according to finley He declined to reveal he nature of the plans but he that they would have effect The plans for the two-day school boycott aroused sources and from Mayor Daley The Mayor appealed to the lic to unite behind the Board of Education and he ed that the decision speaks for itself He ed hope that the children are not kept out of school for the boycot SPOKESMEN for the week of protest have announced that children will be encouraged to attend special freedom schools during the boycott Freedom schools were operated during the two previous school held in Chicago on Oct 22 1963 and Feb 25 AN OLD FAMILIAR PHRASE Throw Willis Out was the theme of delegation of members as they left for last Thursday's school board meeting only to be defeated by the 7 to 4 vote in favor of Willis supplied free trans- to the scene of the fateful meeting only to be turned away with dim spirits and knowledge that protest must be intensified rather than forsaken In the words of president the Rev A clean break with Willis could have been as a cool breeze blowing into what promises to be a long hot summer 5th Annual Affair At Area Church The 5th Annual Tea and hion Show of Woodlawn church 1208 E St will be presented Sunday June 6 p.m in the church and Woodlawn Co-chairmen of the affair are Mrs Mae Herman and Mrs Bertha Table men Mrs Velma man 6225 Woodlawn Mrs Grace Allen 6552 Ellis Mrs Irene Simpson 4414 Cottage Grove Mrs Opal Travis 6558 University Mrs Alice liams 7008 Crandon Mrs rene Gibson 6400 Minerva Mrs Dons Anderson 1325 E St Mrs Rusa Mae Buggs 6619 bark Mrs Ola Games 1749 E St Mrs Barbara ander 6700 Paxton Mrs Helen Lathan 405 E St Mrs Lovetta Burrow 6529 Kenwood and Mrs Ruth Smith 6557 Uni- versity Area Pickets Arrested In 3 Days Of Story Untold gavel frantically and screamed You made your point You may file your statement but you cannot read anymore Willis reaction was I thought quite symbolic of the committee of which he is chairman I would like very much to do my part in helping Atty Jenner make his point I think Americans should understand what and why this committee is about and I think black Americans should definitely be made aware that HUAC is among our enemies and enlists as its the John Birchers the Mississippi people who were on the Goldwater bandwagon and the many other types that I believe cannot be separated from the philosophy of fascism those who would send us to the gas chambers if they had their way and I remind you that Nazi Germany is not so many years past as one might like to believe I HAVE WRITTEN this column because I think readers should know exactly why people demonstrated against HUAC last week and in the very near future I intend to give you more insight into HUAC itself and to share with you some of my personal oh By DAVID LLORENS COUNTED among the more than 50 demonstrators arrested at last week's House can Activities Committee ngs were area residents than Birnbaum 1005 E St David Vigoda 1005 E St Katherine Delacy 6106 Ellis Garfield Harris 6141 wood and Peter Allen and his wife Merry 6141 Greenwood The hearings held last day Wednesday and Thursday were to investigate alleged communism in Illinois because in the words of the committee chairman Rep Edwin Willis Louisiana segregationist Communists decided a long time ago where they would try to build their est strength in the United States CHAIRMAN WILLIS called the hearings a tribute to the city of Chicago citing of the tremendous im- portance the enemies of this country both here and abroad attach to Illinois and its great city Chicago The session became an extravaganza as a result of the presence of some 000 pickets who insured that Chicago the custom of protest that has become traditional against the committee that was called un-American itself by president Franklin D Roosevelt in the days of the New Deal The demonstrations were spearheaded by such tions as the Chicago Committee to Defend the of Rights chaired by the Rev William T Baird corresponding se cretary Students for a cratic Society 1103 E St Congress of Racial Equality Chicago Friends of the Student Coordinating Com and various peace groups THE PICKET LINES were filled with university sors housewives laborers and omnipresent students some of whom are often called niks because they wear their hair a bit long but who upon inquiry arc found to be for the most part scholarly tual and of social ness Countering these demonstrators was a group whose loud praise for Hie ern congressmen dominated committee rather belied their imall numbers and whose com- position included members of the John Birch Society ing women who paused in be- tween stanzas of the Star Spangled Banner to scream insults toward the larger group and one lady who constantly proclaimed that she was st integration although that was not supposedly the issue of the day THE AREA residents ed were cited for such things as breaking police lines and crawling under police wagons an act that was performed by Garfield Harris in protest against the arrest of fellow de- monstrator Ron Woodard Woodard the first tor arrested staged a one-man sitdown m the lobby of the building U S Court of Appeals 1212 N Lake Shore Dr The incident was accurately re- ported in the daily press but the details connected with his act were the actual beginnings of a chain of events that turned a peaceful demonstration into something described three days later as disorderly and sometimes riotous Woodard was among a group of about 14 tors inside the hearing room last Tuesday At about p m chairman Willis called a re- cess for lunch ordered the room cleared and set 2 30 p.m as the reconvening time At this point the 14 VC spectators refused to leave according to James form an executive secretary f SNCC who was one of the group many of the people who eft were given passes to get lack in at Forman said hat he requested that his group granted the same privilege and was refused hence he de- that they should stay in lie room WOODARD one of that group walked out to use the men's room and when he attempted to he was denied entrance hus he staged his sit down He lad waited patiently that ng to get one of the 150 seats in he hearing room The seats were even difficult for un- cnown newspaper editors to He protested his rigl to retain his place at a ope hearing that he had deeme important enough to arise earl in the morning and travi across town to attend WHEN WOODARD was s rested Garfield Harris crowle under the Police Wagon to pr test the arrest along wi three others The guilt or lai of same of the two young m opens up the controversial d bale of civil disobedience This was the first of the HUAC hearings The ne two days brought about heigl ened tension additional im dents and many arrests t with each hidden insights perhaps only visible to the e in the peaceful picket line Hyde Park Has Large Grad Class 423 students will receive ation diplomas from Hyde Park ligh school 6220 Stony Island at commencement Thursday June 24 Approximately high school students will be ated throughout the city on that day an increase of about over the number graduated last year The city's public elementary schools will graduate ately pupils this June Noted Artists Form Board A distinguished guild of wr ers and actors recently form an advisory board for Hi House's new Parkway Commu ity House Theater at 500 Ea St Community theater o ens Friday evening June I with two one-act Doul by Lewis John Members of the advisory boa include Gwendolyn Brooks poi ess Ossie Davis playwright a Conrad Kent Rivers pis wright and poet Hughes poet playwright Best Food Buys This Each week the Booster publishes the best food buys at your local food store as advertised in your Booster Finest FRYING CHICKENS only Ib Whole 2 Bag Limit Wonder Food Page Package of t Hot Dog Bune with Purchase of 1 Ib Package of Oscar Mayer Wieners Page S A 10
