Marshall leaves library Korean War diary
WASHINGTON (AP) — Among the
173,700 items thot Thurgood Marshall
gave the Library of Congress, probably the
most personal is a diary he kept briefly in
1951 while on a mission to the Far East
for the NAACP during the Korean War.
He jotted down big things and small —
the segregation he noted at a U.S. Army
post and the relaxed momenta when he
"swapped stories, drank whiskey" with
reporters in Tokyo.
The diary shows Marshall's sense of
humor and curiosity about his surround
ings even us he conducted a grueling
probe of Army discrimination against
black servicemen.
The red-covered diary is among the
documents that Marshall, who retired
from the Supreme Court in 1901 and died
last January, left to the library.
In 1951, Marshall w'as legal director of
the National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, which sent him
to the Far Fast to investigate numerous
complaints of unfair trials and imprison
ment of black soldiers in Korea. Gen
Douglas MacArthur had ordered an offi
cial investigation, and he also agreed to
give Marshall access to Army personnel
for his wparate inquiry.
“Cleared Customs without difflc uIty
No one to meet me." Marshall wrote of
his arrival at the Tokyo airport on Sunday
morning. |an U, 1951 “Asked sergeant
on duly, who called his captain, who
called his major, who colled his colonel.
... Northwest Airlines could not find a
hotel "
Finally. Marshall re< minted, an Army
officer found him a hotel th.it was quiet
hut far from the city 's < enter He had din
ner at the officers' dub at the Army base,
where he found "no segregation in club,
but segregation on post
In town, he noted, taxis for (npanosa
residents were old and burned charcoal,
while those marked " Tourist'' or For
eigner" were Fords running on gasoline
There were “Foreigners Welcome" signs
at a numlier of restaurants
On Jan. 17. in a meeting w ith an aide to
Mai.Arthur and other Army brass. Mar
shall said, "Everyone promised full coop
eration" in allowing him to interview
black prisoners in the Army slot kade
near Tokyo and other matters.
The diary shows the civil rights
lawyer’s gregarious, playful side in the
years before Lyndon B Johnson named
him to the Supreme Court in 1007. when
he became considerably more solemn.
There's an entry for Jan 16. for exam
ple. in which Marshall descrilied how he
relaxed after a day of meetings with mil
itary offit nils
'Went down to (press) Correspondents
Club — was made a guest member and
had lot of talk, with a lot of people All of
correspondents had l>een to Korea at least
once — swapped stories, drank whiskey,
etc."
And on Jan 22: "The slot machines at
Press Club are real one-armed bandits
Marshall wont to the Army PX com
missary on Jan. 20: “Converted depart
monl store — huge place everything
but what you want
By Sunday. Jon 21. when he worked
all day in his hotel room. Marshall said
his investigation was "beginning to shape
up ' During bis three weeks in Tokyo, he
interviewed scores of imprisoned him k
soldiers wrongly convicted of i ownrdu e
and other charges by i ourts martial.
Beaten motorist honored before trials begin
DETROIT {AH — Faded plastic flowers,
a torn poster of Malcolm X and a rain
streaked mural of Malice Green memori
alize the corner where the 35-year-old
black motorist was beaten to death seven
months ago.
“First Rodney King, now Mali™ Green."
says a sign taped on a boarded-up build
ing across the street.
Separate, simultaneous trials are to Itugin
Wednesday for three white police officers
who witnesses say bludgeoned Green with
heavy metal flashlights outside a suspected
drug house last Nov. 5.
Green was beaten when he failed to obey
officers’ commands.
The beating began as officers pulled
Green from his parked car and he refused
to open his clenched fist, witnesses said.
Accounts of what he was holding vary —
a wallet, a piece of paper, maybe drugs.
Green, an unemployed father of five,
died of at least 14 blows to the head. Part
of his scalp was torn off. An autopsy
showed alcohol and cocaine in his system.
Officers Larry Nevers. 52. and Walter
Budzyn, 42. are charged with second
degree murder. Officer Robert Lessnau. 32.
r
is charged with assault with intent to do
great bodily harm. Never* and Hudzvn
could be sentenced to life in prison and
Lessnau fat es up to 10 years if convict
ed.
A fourth officer. Sgt. Freddie Douglas,
who is black, was charged with a misde
meanor — willful neglect of duty — and
is not being tried with the others
All four went fired. None has publicly
commented on the charges.
Although nothing in a preliminary hear
ing indicated race was a direct factor in
the treating, "the events speak for them
selves,” said (oatm Watson, executive
director of the Detroit branch of the Nation
al Association for the Advancement of Col
ored People.
The beating stunned Mayor Coleman
Young, who became Detroit's first black
mayor six years after a police raid set off
the lfW>7 race riots Young has made inte
gration of the police department a cor
nerstone of his administration
The case's similarity to the police beat
ing of another black motorist. Rodney King,
has some people concerned that acquittals
in Detroit could provoke the kind of riot
1
mg and looting lint! devastated s*s turns of
Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four
white officers who were videotaped (mat
ing King
Hut community leaders and legal experts
point to the striking differences between
the cases as reasons violence will not break
out Among them
— The jury. In the first King heating tri
al. moved to Sum Valley, a mostly white
Los Angeles suburb, the jury was made up
of 10 whites, one Asian and one Hispan
ic. The Detroit juries will bo drawn from
a population that is nearly 75 percent
black.
— Evidence. Hie inner city tensions that
existed in lass Angeles well before the King
beating were exacerbated by repeated tele
vising of an amateur videotape of the heat
ing The Detroit case has witnesses who
saw the beating close at hand but nothing
so publicly inflammatory as the famous
video.
— Official response. Detroit leaders were
quick to condemn the beating. The mayor
(.ailed the floating "murder." Police Chief
Stanley Knox immediately suspended sev
en officers.
Frank, Nunn
argue over
gay issue
WASHINGTON (AP) Son Sam
Nunn says turning a blind evo to
openly guv off base lifestyles fur
militarv jiersonnol would !»’ equix
alout to taking a hands off attitude
on off-baso drug use
Nunn. i hairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, reiter
ated Ids opposition to a proposal by
Rep Barne> h'rank that would let
gay and lesbian military personnel
maintain an openly homosexual
lifestyle off-fmse as long as they did
not dot hire their sexuality on-ltase
Nunn opposes lifting the ban
against gays and lesbians in tbe
military. but lias said be could liye
with a compromise now effm
lively in place under which
recruits are not questioned about
their sexual preferem es when they
enlist and are allowed to serve as
long as they do not make an open
display of their sexuality
"If you took Kep Frank’s propos
al and you said that nothing off
base matters, you would reverse
everything about the code of mili
tary justice." Nunn said Sunday on
NBC's Meet the /‘/css
He said the hands-off policy was
tried m the t‘l?Os "based on a mil
itary i ourt ol appeals de< ision that
off-base drug use would not be
prosecuted That was a disaster for
the military. It was an absolute dis
aster "
Nunn also responded to remarks
in interviews in which Frank, who
is openly gay. accused the conser
vative Georgia Democrat of being
"obsessed with sex” and on “an
anti-gay witch hunt."
"I appreciate Rep Frank trying to
enhance my dull image, but in
terms of the obsession with sex. Fin
not in Barney's league. I would say.
so I'm not trying to compete in that
arena." Nunn said.
The House reprimanded Frank in
1990 for his relationship with male
prostitute Stephen Goble.
The Jnsurgence oT Islam
and Hie Implications Tor The West’
a lecture by Professor Sami Al-Arian
Friday, June 4,11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Ben Under Room rtfrtshmtmit wiU
Erb Memorial U nion, prvvuieti<
University of Oregon
I Professor Sami AlAmn leaches ai the University of Sooth
5j Florida and is currently ihe president .>1 the Islamic Comminee of
f Palestine He is also ihe editor of (he magazine Inquiry"
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CaM Minim SCudntf Aw W-1TM
Ktrotor b mtktm I
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