Martin Luther King Jr. Special Edition
Œlje J^ortlanò (DbeerUer
January 19, 2000
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"A c A 1 1 T 0
C ll
A C T IO N "
APRIL FREEDOM DAYS
MOMENTS IN CIVIL
RIGHTS HISTORY
»
B r J a m s A dams = = ■
When CORE launched the Free
dom R ides in the 1960s, m any
thought it a new idea. It w asn’t. The
first Ride, called “The Journey o f
Reconciliation,” took place in 1947,
lasted two weeks, and traveled to
fifteen cities in V irginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
thers sought to rout.
Who was getting the news and
e d itin g th e p a p e r? T h e B lack
Panther’s “ M inister o f Information
underground” - a provocative allu
sion to the parole status o f Eldridge
Cleaver. W riting for the established
Ramparts m agazine was one thing;
editing the Black Panther was an
other. C leaver knew that his work
would target him for retaliation. His
ies promised as volume one, num
ber one, o f the Black Panther new s
paper went on sale on April 25, 1967.
Six m onths after founding the
party, the Black Panthers launched
their first cooperative business -
the publication and distribution o f
the newspaper. Two legal-size sheets
o f paper, typed and printed on both
sides, the Black Panther began with
a first printing o f ten thousand cop-
1
é
ê
A m azingly enough, as the group
w ound its w ay through Durham,
North Carolina, on a Greyhound bus
on April 11,1947, w hile they were
threatened with arrest, none w as ac
tually made. It was a first.
ies and grew to a circulation o f fifty
thousand copies within weeks. But
the look o f the newspaper only added
to its credibility - here was a voice
of, by, and for the people. That was
its mission - as was made clear in a
'H ®
would target him for retaliation. His
fear was later borne out in the parole
revocations o f several ex-offenders
who had become the paper’s street
vendors. The violation; “failure to
maintain gainful em ploym ent.” It
T he
n ext
t im e
YO UR
PO W ER
G O ES
□ U T,
R E M E M B E R ,
77ie Black Panther launched their first cooperative business - the publication and distribution of a
newspaper on April 25. 1967. Their tabloid size edition was a voice of. by. and for the people.
The Academy Awards ceremony
is a ritual almost everyone is famil
iar - the glamour, the tension, the
career-making voice that says “And
the O scar goes to ...” On April 13,
1964, Sidney Poitier was on the hot
seat with a Best A ctor nomination
for his perform ance as a handy-man
upholding a reluctant vow to needy
nuns in Lilies o f the Field. He won -
the first African American male ac
tor in the forty-five-year history o f
the Oscars. W hat is it like to be
there and to w in? He answered elo
quently in his autobiography, This
Life.
Why was Denzil Dowell killed?
the handwritten headline demanded.
It was ju st one o f the ongoing inquir-
later, more sophisticated, tabloid-
size edition o f the paper with a m ast
head proclaim ing “Pow er to the
people.” A major success, the Black
Panther becam e increasingly im
portant to the organization and the
com m unity as its profile heightened
around the innovative night patrols
that tailed police as witness and de
terrent to the brutality that killed
Denzil Dowell and inspired the first
o f many high-risk headlines and in
quiries. “ Denzil Dowell was un
arm ed” when shot by a Contra Costa
County s h e riffs officer, and the
angle o f the bullets suggests that his
hands were raised, the paper re
ported. “So how can six bullet holes
and shotgun blasts be considered
ju stifiable hom icide?” Justifiable
hom icide had been the frequent and
official response that licensed po
lice to kill blacks with impunity.
was a sign o f the times.
\P R II 2«
Asked to com ment in the press
on his 1 -A draft status. World Heavy
w e ig h t
B o x in g
C h a m p io n
Muhammad Ali tossed o ff the rhyme
that would turn his fame into in
famy: “ Keep asking me, no matter
how long - On the w ar in Vietnam. I
sing this song - 1 ain ’t got no quarrel
with the Viet C ong.” A year later,
having lost his bout for conscien
tious objector status on religious
grounds, at 8 :30 a m. on Friday, Apri I
28, 1967, he stood before H ouston’s
Local Draft Board No. 61 for induc
tion into the Army. Refusing induc
tion could mean five years in prison.
This is an excerpt from the hook.
"Freedom Days. " Perm ission fo r
reprint is given by John Wiley and
Sons. Inc.
LJ
T H IS
L IG H T
IS
ALW AYS
O N .
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J