The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

On April 8, 1967, the Chicago Tribune ran this “Guest Editorial” from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The unctuous Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been something of a hindrance to the civil rights movement since he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. Since the award, he has specialized in speaking in Olympian tones, rather than addressing himself to the practicalities of the civil rights movement.
However, he quite definitely crossed the line when he lent himself and his prestige to an “anti-Viet Nam War” rally in Chicago.
“This war,” he said sonorously, “is a blasphemy against all that America stands for.
“We are arrogant in not allowing young nations to go thru the same growing pains of turbulence and revolution that characterized our history. We must combine the fervor of the civil rights movement with the peace movement. We must demonstrate, teach, and preach until the very foundations of our nation are shaken.”
What Mr. King means by this he alone knows, but it would seem he is calling for a revolution – certainly he wants to fuse the civil rights movement with favor of the pro-Communist North Viet Nam aggression.
What arrant nonsense it is for Mr. King to say: “We are arrogant in not allowing young nations to go thru the same growing pains of turbulence and revolution that characterized our history.”
Does he really equate a communist take-over with “growing pains”? Is being a victim of aggression something we should “allow young nations” to experience, as if it were part of a process of maturity?
Communists took part in some early phases of the civil rights movement, certainly not to help the Negro but to create as much dissension as possible, and the promises they made were about as valid as those made by Germany in World War I when it sought to enlist Mexican support by promising Mexico the southwestern part of the United States.

Also from the archives:
July 29, 1969: “Negro Clerics Indorse Daley Riot Warning.”
“Twelve Negro clergymen from the west side congratulated Mayor Daley in his office yesterday on his strong warning Thursday to those who might try to incite violence in Chicago.”
It’s the standard script: The real problem is outside agitators and TV cameras.
The article ends this way:
“Rep. Roman C. Pucinski [D., Ill.] said after conferring with Daley in City Hall that the “same people who tore up Detroit” are in Chicago now trying to organize violence.”
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Readers of this article were also alerted to see the editorial “Timely Warning,” but I couldn’t find it.
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On June 4, 1968, the Tribune editorialized that “The Militants Take Over.”

Words and deeds alike make it clear that the militants are taking over the “poor people’s march,” just as a good many people expected they would.
Yesterday’s stepped-up demonstrations followed the appointment of Hosea Williams, a rabble rouser of the first order, as field operations chief. He replaced the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Chicagoan more closely associated with the milder tactics of the late Martin Luther King Jr.

You can catch up on the real Hosea Williams here.
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Continuing . . .

Mr. Williams lost no time over amenities. “We are going to start some demonstrations in this town,” he said, “that those folks on Capitol hill ain’t going to take . . . If the police want to use those clubs, we’re going to give them a chance . . . the picnic is over.”
The threat of violence was plain.

Yes – the threat of violence from the police, who would be given the opportunity to beat demonstrators silly.
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More . . .

He urged the cooperation of every marcher “who is prepared to go to jail . . . and who is prepared to get beat up.”

Somehow the Trib read this to mean that those preparing to getting beat up were the ones preparing to commit violence.
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Then . . .

It was inevitable that the militants would take over the march, partly because they have wanted to all along and partly because increased militancy is the only way to keep up the sagging morale in Resurrection City.
The only way things can go from here, if the marchers stay in Washington and turn to violence, is worse. Worse for the poor themselves, worse for the blacks, worse for Washington, and worse for the country. If there is no leadership left among the marchers sincere and intelligent enough to recognize this, then it will have to be up to the authorities of Washington, or to the federal government, or to Congress itself, to ring down the curtain on a performance which started out from good enough intentions but which is rapidly turning into a tragedy.

Let me assure you, the Tribune never thought this “performance” started out with “good enough intentions.” Further, the only threat of violence seemed to be the Trib’s wish for authorities to “ring down the curtain.”
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If today’s media pundits had been writing then, they’d have complained that ALL civil rights matter, not just the civil rights of blacks. I’m looking at you, John Kass.
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For all the violence whites have visited upon blacks in this country, white people sure have had a steady and outsized fear of black violence, and from what they can see, for no justifiable reason.
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See also:
* King in Chicago.
Daley went into a rage about King, calling him a sonafabitch, a prick, and a rabble-rouser.
* McClain’s Pain.
How the Tribune’s first black editorial writer learned to hate Chicago.
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Chicagoetry: Bare Trees
Fallen star men, lost heroes.
62 vs. 99
“Just 62 people, 53 of them men, own as much wealth as the poorest half of the entire world population, and the richest 1 percent own more than the other 99 percent put together, anti-poverty charity Oxfam said on Monday.”
Game, Set, Match-Fixing
“16 players who have been ranked in the top 50 had been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit over suspicions they had thrown matches in the past decade.”
Sexy Skype
Faking TV news authenticity even better!
The Week In Chicago Rock
Featuring: The Go! Team, Dorian Taj, Javelin, Palehound, Torres, JD’s Revenge, San Fermin, The Wailers, Panther Style, and Julien Baker.
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Must-See TV
British House Of Commons Debate On Barring Donald Trump From The U.K.
C-SPAN
7 p.m.
The British House of Commons debates a resolution to bar Donald Trump from the U.K. following the Republican presidential candidate’s comments about Muslims. A petition to bar his entry received more than 560,000 signatures. (tvguide.com)
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BeachBook

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TweetWood
Will return once Twitter fixes the freakin’ embed code it fucked up. Get it together, Twitter.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: House of Commons.

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Posted on January 18, 2016