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FREEDOMWAYS THIRD QUARTER 1966 that is used by our people in the south has distinguished itself. Certainly Negroes in the south were angry but the leadership was wise enough to articulate to America and make its nonviolent assault felt on the system, thereby gaining white allies necessary for any revolution in this country. I remember Birmingham prior to 1963 as being the largest urban segregated city in the south. The nonviolent movement confronted the power structure in that city and in a real sense it was a confrontation with George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama. Had we gone to Birmingham with a few knives, guns and other weapons at our disposal there would have been wholesale slaughter of our people. Instead we went there with the ability to mobilize people to action and every day hundreds of Negros marched and sat-in and faced the dogs. Bull Connor, the police commissioner at that time, had a tank and we withstood the roar of his armored vehicle. When all else failed, the fire department was called out and thousands of Negroes stood up against the powerful surge of their water hoses. But we kept coming; we kept on coming for we were saying to the racists that there is a fire here that water can't put out! Think of what could happen if 100,000 Negroes marched out of the squalor of Harlem down the main thoroughfares to City Hall or at 4:50 in the afternoon sit-ins would take place on the Brooklyn Bridge or at the Midtown Tunnel, East River Drive and through these demonstrations we would say we will not move until there is a complete and thorough renovation of Harlem and "open occupancy." Think of what would happen if thousands of Negroes came out of Watts, marching down the Freeways tying up traffic and demanding jobs. These types of demonstrations are far more effective than bullets. These are the type of demonstrations that bring about social change. There is nothing weak or cowardly about nonviolence for I have seen it work with amazing success. We must not forget that the two most important Civil Rights bills to come out of the Congress since Reconstruction came through the power and usage of tactical nonviolence. For we have found that some things are worth dying for and if a man hasn't found something that he will die for then he isn't fit to live. Victor Hugo once said: "There's nothing more powerful in all the world than an idea whose time has come." Certainly the idea of freedom has come to our people and it is left to those who have the ear of the masses of our people to make a creative expression for free- 260
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-09 12:17:43
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-09 13:22:44
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-09 13:26:37