Category Archives: Politics

Showdown on 11th

history, Rights

The Great Speckled Bird Vol3#8pg.4

 Showdown on 11th

showdownon11th People are putting the paper to bed Tuesday night when that old familiar call comes: “Pigs are busting people on 11th Street.” So our crack riot-trained team of reporters and photogs converge on the scene, to find: a big red fire truck, brandishing its fire hoses at a still (slightly) smoldering can of garbage; a Journal/Constitution, paper-box (Right On!) blocking the Peachtree entrance onto 11th; a small scattering of freaks (“Community People” we call them) hustling and bustling about in customary gaiety, exclaiming on the near riot; and the familiar voice of Harky (The Rev. Klinefelter)’first far away, then nearing and finally turning the corner of Peachtree onto llth.

 

The entire scene converges to a spot about a third of the way down the street, and the rap continues, Harky’s words about what you do when you get busted and who you should call and write all this down on the back of your hands so you won’t lose it but nobody has a pen, words punctuated by an occasional pop bottle thrown at random into the street, and Harky talks paranoid about “outsiders” throwing things to provoke the cops, maybe even paid outsiders, to give them the chance to bust heads (but they weren’t).

 

So, all things being normal, I begin asking individuals what happened prior to this happy time, and quickly piece together the basics: three plainclothesmen slipped into 127 11th Street and busted two people, presumably for grass though no one knew for sure. Curious folk gathered across the street to see what was going on, and the bluecoats started coming, hassling people to move on, to clear the streets before they got busted. No one seemed to know what started the arrests, but suddenly people were being grabbed and hustled into a waiting paddy wagon—thirteen in all, held on $100-200 bond for Stopping the Flow of Pedestrian Traffic, one of those bullshit charges trotted out once in a while to Take Care of Contingencies.

 

But meanwhile I am eyeballing about a dozen pigs snorting up on their three-wheelers (Whoopee!) and four black paddy wagons congregating with an equal number of cars kittycorner across Peachtree and everybody getting out and stretching their legs and flexing their arms and hitching up pants and things like that. So I walk down to where Harky is holding forth about how important it is to get badge numbers, because we can’t indict the Whole Force, we gotta get the bad eggs in the basket and I interrupt and say that this dark spot ain’t no good for a riot, how about folks going up on Peachtree, give the Cadillacs and curious Oldsmobiles a chance at a piece of the action in case there was to be some.

 

But the action is apparently over for the night, and instead we are treated to a display of the latest hippie-cooling-off tactics: congregate in a massive show of force, station a paddy wagon at every corner, then start patrolling the area in groups of five—two white cops in motorcycle helmets brandishing nightsticks and three black Task Force cops in soft headgear, just playing it cool, responding with a smile at any taunts. Five down this way, five down that way, five over there and the rest of you guys wait here.

 

Soon it is again Christmas calm on Peaehtree, and the Task Force captain is walking down the street, doling out popcorn from a blue box, and a narc in a blue suit and yellow tie is arguing with kids that, no he ain’t never been to Haight Street ’cause he don’t like California and no, he ain’t about to go to the East Village ’cause there’s too much snow in New York, and I am being offered purchase of various and sundry chemicals much like any other Tuesday night. Folks at the Community Center are receiving calls from the jail, taking down names and charges, arranging with lawyers and Detective Pate comes in and tries to buy some stamps and a girl bleeding from the mouth and crying stumbles through the door and say’s “Cass and Marty beat me up” and J. tells Pate about a friend of his who was busted for 100 pounds of grass and his buddies had to quick unload the other 200 pounds to get him out of jail.

All in all I analyze it as virtually a dry run for the summer. Better get it together, my friends.

-t.c.

Piedmont Park history

Community, history, Politics

The Great Speckled Bird Oct 19, 1970 vol3 #47 pg. 12-13

piedmontoldThe Piedmont Park of today began with the “Cotton States International Exposition of 1895.” The land, purchased from the Gentlemen’s (now Piedmont) Driving Club, was first used for a local event. “The Piedmont Exposition” in 1887 prepared the way for what became a world’s fair of its day.

The Exposition was a project of the South’s young white men-on-the-go who were working to industrialize the South in the North’s image. Many of today’s native white Atlantans look back nostalgically on the Exposition as an example of how Atlanta used to be able to get things done even in the most difficult times.

Atlanta and the South did overcome the effects construction with some bootstrap-tugging and a lot of help from Northern capitalists, particularly the railroad interests. The removal of the remaining Northern troops from the South in 1877 had sealed the fate of the newly “emancipated” blacks. The Exposition announces to the world that the South had made it. The Exposition was basically a trade fair ushering in heavy Northern capital like the textile industry, which for years would exploit Southern workers.

But not everything had been smoothed out by 1895. The Exposition needed financial support. To hold the Exposition it was essential that the U.S. Government make an investment. To convince a still northern Republican Congress to appropriate $200,000 for the Exposition and a Government Building, a committee of Blacks was formed and plans for a Negro Building were made. Congress was not hard to convince by that time and the money was appropriated..

So on opening day, in the auditorium at the top of the steps leading down to the Grand Plaza (now the athletic field), Booker T. Washington made his “Five Fingers” address, arguing that blacks and whites should remain socially as separate as the fingers on a hand, laying the basis for his later differences with a militant professor at Atlanta University, W.E.B. DuBois. The Exposition’s report describes how “a veritable era of good feeling between the white and black was ushered in by the Exposition.”It didn’t work out that way. Jim Crow laws were instituted throughout the South during this period, and Atlanta had “race riots” in the early 1900’s.

The Exposition was a grand affair. Gondolas and “electric launches” plied the waters of the lake. John Philip Sousa’s band played every day in the auditorium. The Liberty Bed was brought down from Philadelphia and placed on exhibit. In the Midway the first motion picture theater in this country did business as “living pictures” and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show performed in the southeast corner of the park.

The Exposition defined the park to come. The contours of today’s park were shaped by the chain gangs that labored for months preparing for Expo-95. The Grand Plaza became the athletic field, the foundation of the Manufactures Building became the tennis courts. Midway Heights and the Wild West area became the golf course, and the central terrace became the steps by the pavilion.

The City purchased the grounds in 1904 over the objections of some who argued that it was too far from town. By extending the city boundaries in the same year, the city fathers effectively silenced those opponents. During the years 1909-1910 the Exposition grounds were converted into the park, which today remains pretty much the same as it was then.

Now the Atlanta Parks Department has developed a master plan for the renovation of she park in keeping with its “Atlanta Parks and Recreation Plan-Projection 1983” recommendations.

The staff of the parks department has good intentions. Trouble is that Atlanta over the years has fallen far behind national park standards. Based on minimal standards, Atlanta has less than half the park acreage it needs. Over the past few years the Parks Department has been shaping up. A greenhouse complex was built in Piedmont Park, an arborist came on staff, the staff worked hard.

Then came Ivan Allen’s dream-The Atlanta Stadium. To obtain financing for the project the City agreed to guarantee the stadium bonds. The money to guarantee the bonds was taken from the Parks Improvement Fund. One half the fund-about $480,000 has been taken every year except fiscal 1969 and the chances are that it will continue to be lost to the Parks Department.

 Jack Delius. General Manager of Parks, has appealed to the Aldermanic Ordinance and Legislation Committee to request that the State Legislature increase Parks Improvement Fund, but so far nothing done. So the Parks department dues the best it can with limited resources to implement its vision of 1983.

So that means that the Piedmont Park Master Plan does not really fall in line with its 1983 projections. The report describes Piedmont Park as the only park in the city which “offers a large land area for unstructured leisure time use.” The report recognizes that one of the more common uses of a park is “simply the pleasure of getting away from traffic, buildings and others characteristics to enjoy strolling along wooded walks among trees and in fields or rowing a boat across a pond.” In fact the plan calls for the creation of four other large parks in the city to provide open space for “unstructured leisure time.”

But if the City’s Master Plan is put into effect as it stands, most of Piedmont Park’s usable “leisure time” space will be destroyed. The plan will create a central zone full of structures, parking lots, and program activities, areas bounded on the south by a pretty golf course, inaccessible to all but a few golfers, and a beautiful forest to the north, untouched by the plan but still used by a relatively few persons.

piedmonttoday Two of the main features of the plan should be implemented immediately. The Parks Department would like to close the park to cars and provide inexpensive bicycle rental to those who prefer wheels to foot. Boat rental is planned on the lakes, which are eventually to be connected with a bridge.

The problem is that the plan calls for lots of parking when the streets are closed. Land adjacent to the park is regarded as too expensive; another idea, to build underground parking under the tennis courts was rejected for the same reason. So parking is planned for the eastern and northern shores of the swimming lake, the area between the Legion Post and the 14th Street Gate, and the area around the greenhouses. That’s a hell of a lot of the park’s best “leisure time” space.

Is it wise to plan extensive parking in a central park along major traffic arteries in a city which must develop effective mass transportation? Is parking needed when office parking lots along nearby Peachtree Street stand empty over the weekends? What’s the sense of closing the park streets to cars if they are going to be sitting on parking lots inside the park?

The free and open athletic field will be lost in the plan. A new $387,000 softball tournament facility was to have been built this year in the southern end of the field. The city has an extensive softball program which serves many people. More lighted diamonds are needed. But tournament facilities are used for tournaments only one week out of the year and the complex will fence in over half of the athletic field. Perhaps the softball teams could get by with lights on all the diamonds and portable grandstands which would allow for other uses than just softball? Maybe the softball complex is one thing which could easily be located on other city property? In fact, the Atlanta Civic Design Commission, an advisory group, has come out against the complex, suggesting that it might be located at Lakewood Park. Apparently work on the complex (if it stays in the park) would probably not begin until next winter.

Also on the athletic field is to be a large swimming pool facility to replace the swimming lake. The Health Department says that the present facilities do not meet its requirements because there is no continuous filtration or automatic chlorination. The combination of the pool and softball facilities will mean little or no space for kite flying, informal sports, or music concerts.

To replace the present swimming facilities a waterside concert area is planned with a shell stage out over the water and seating for 1500—2000 where the present concession building stands. A smaller amphitheater is projected for the west end of the fishing lake near the 12th Street entrance.

 A restaurant and sidewalk cafe will be located along the north shore of the fishing lake. If they were reasonably priced that might not be too bad, except that very nice free space is destroyed. Then at the 14th Street entrance a gym and recreation center will be built. Both should be established in this community, both are needed-but perhaps not in the park.

The master plan is preliminary, subject to change. But three projects—softball complex, gym, and pool have been approved by the Aldermanic Parks Committee, although only funds for the softball complex have been allocated. No community or public hearings have been held on either the master plan or the three approved projects. According to Delius, hearings of some sort are planned this winter. The Bird will keep you informed of developments in the Park. When hearings are held we’ll let you know so you can attend. If they are not held we’ll let you know so you can raise hell. The park should not be lost to this community. It’s too important.

—gene guerrero

War on Rock

Music, Politics, Rights

The Great Speckled Bird March 30, 1970 Vol 3 #13 pg 14

War on Rock

 Santana and the Allman Brothers Band flew right into a hornet’s nest last week when they showed up to play at the Municipal Auditorium: there was a picket line of striking city employees there to prevent scabs from filling their jobs.

The word from California is that Santana is a pretty hip Rock group and not the kind to cross a picket line in support of a city administration that had fired the strikers and alerted that National Guard to deal with them. And this year, unlike the 1968 garbage strike when longhairs scabbed in the workers’ jobs, it was becoming clear at the time of the scheduled concert that the hip community was lining up in complete support of the strikers against the city. The Mid-Town Alliance had voted unanimously to support the strikers. The Bird was behind them, and people from The Laundromat, Women’s Liberation and other groups were planning to be on the picket line, not inside the concert. The Allman Brothers dig Atlanta and the music audience here—they didn’t want to cross the picket line either, although their management obviously didn’t give a shit about any black workers’ struggle. The Insect Trust, also on the program, are a fairly “political” group from Memphis (via Hoboken, New Jersey, recently), and they stated early in the day that they wouldn’t play as long as the picket line was up.

In order to deal with this political/cultural dilemma the fairest way possible, Santana met directly with representatives of the strikers. The city workers didn’t want to keep the concert from taking place, and they wanted the support of the hip community; at the same time, Santana didn’t want to run roughshod over the very real efforts of the strikers to maintain a solid front against the city. So Santana offered to make a financial contribution to the workers’ cause and give some time at the concert for a union speaker; in return, the strikers would remove their picket line during the time of the concert. Everything was delivered, but the city didn’t dig what went down—not at all.

Atlanta has an 11:30 “curfew” and Municipal Auditorium concerts have to take that absurdity into account. The Santana concert started on time, but the sound system, supposedly a special “Festival Group” system promised “especially for this performance,” was responsible for an incredible number of hassles.

The sound was terrible for The Insect Trust, and something terrible seems to have happened to the group itself, too. We got a chance to hear them last summer at the Memphis Blues Festival, and they were fantastic, one of the best things we had heard. They got it all in—folk, rock, jazz, blues, some of the new things black musicians are doing, and somehow it all hung together in an exciting way. Nancy Jeffries, the vocalist, we dug a lot, but Thursday night she was lousy. None of it came off, but again. it sounded as if at least a large part of the trouble was in the mikes and amps-or maybe that’s what happens to a good group when they are “discovered” by Bill Graham.

The Allman Brothers Band were great though—it’s hard to describe what happens between Atlanta and the Allman Brothers, but their music brought the house down. It’s terrific to have them back here. but it did seem strange hearing them in the setting of the Municipal Auditorium for up to six bucks instead of for free in Piedmont Park- seems like “success” should work the other way around. We hope to see them back in the park this summer.

A lot of shit was coming down backstage while freaks were tossing a frisbee from balcony to balcony in the intermission before Santana. Roy Eirod, the auditorium manager, didn’t take too kindly to the idea of a striker going on stage, and so pitched a fit. Santana said they wouldn’t play if the agreement weren’t lived up to, and Aftermath Productions had decided that they would support Santana’s position. Finally, Ed Shane came out and announced the speaker who was accompanied, with good reason, by four bodyguards.Most of us dug what he was saying, but a few freaks with warped priorities just had to stick in some booing. The speaker, John Releford, wasn’t fazed at all: “Now, you folks can agitate all you want,” he said, “but I’m gonna stay up here for just a while longer and rap some more!” This got him an ovation, and after a couple of short remarks about freaks not scabbing and freaks and strikers supporting each other, he turned the stage over to Santana.

It would be hard to imagine anyone who doesn’t dig Santana. They did some great stuff Thursday night— like the Allman Bros., mostly from their record—but after only a half hour of music, the mikes and amps suddenly cut off. Eirod, backstage, had flipped because of the union speaker and envoked the curfew bullshit. Shane was out front trying to cool everybody off, but in the wings there was some pretty unpleasant hassling centered around the power switch. The Santana people were furious at the city.

Finally, Shane, who had been playing mostly a “mealy mouth role (he had wised up considerably by the time of the scheduled Spirit concert on Sunday) finally turned to the drummers and said, “What happens now is up to Santana!” Like an explosion, the drummers began to play without mikes and amplification, and a freaked out audience burst into shouts and applause and streamed past the befuddled cops to rush the stage (several kids had been busted during the evening for such offenses as “blocking the aisles,” etc., and at one point, the cops even confiscated the frisbee). You can bet your sweet life the city personnel were quaking in their shoes about what to do—imagine a lot of city cops against the combined forces of freaks, musicians and striking workers. A lot of hands got near the power switch, but miraculously, the electricity came back on for one more ferocious, driving number.

When it was all over, Shane came back to the mike to smooth things over but Santana organist Greg Rollie grabbed the mike and shouted, “We’re sorry about all the trouble—next time we play for you, we’re gonna play for two hours, and we won’t care what the rules say: Right on!

The next day, the city of Atlanta pulled another of its tricks in what Steve Cole of Discovery, Inc. has called a “war on Rock & Roll” waged by Atlanta for a long, long time: it cancelled four concerts already scheduled in the Municipal Auditorium by Aftermath Productions (including Judy Collins and Jethro Tull), and threatened never to contract with that agency again.

A lot of people are angry now. At the same time that the hip community is coming together with the strikers, people who want Atlanta to have Rock & Roll Music are getting together to make sure all decisions about music— who when, where and for how long—are answered not by the city administration of Atlanta but by the people who dig those sounds. Power to the People!!!

————miller francis, jr.

Lester’s blind eye

Politics, Rights

Could members of the Governor [Lester Maddox]’s committee be the reason firebombings of troublesome Civil Rights and Counter Culture buildings around Atlanta never seemed to get solved or sometimes even investigated? makes you go, “hmm?”

What concerned the various sectors of the United States ruling elites in regard to SNCC’s position against the draft and the war in Viet Nam was that the organization was actively challenging the notion that Africans in America should fight in unjust wars overseas. In January of 1966, SNCC issued a detailed statement opposing the war in Viet Nam. In August of the same year there were picket lines set up outside a selective service induction center in Atlanta, Georgia by members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of numerous activists and drew the attention of the FBI.

In a confidential FBI report issued on September 7, 1966 entitled: “Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Stokely Carmichael”, the Bureau sought to provide a summary of recent activities of SNCC and its chairperson. Under the beginning section of the report entitled: “Picketing Activities Atlanta, Georgia,” it states that: “Since August 17, 1966, a small group of Negroes, the majority of whom are members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, have been picketing the Twelfth Corps Headquarters, Northeast, Atlanta, Georgia, protesting United States action in Vietnam and United States Negroes fighting in Vietnam. A number of these individuals have been arrested by the Atlanta Police Department and charged with various offenses ranging from disorderly conduct to assault and battery. The activities of these individuals in connection with their picketing of the Twelfth Corps Headquarters are also under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation relative to destruction of Government property and possible violations of the Selective Service Act of 1948.”

The confidential report of the FBI continues by making reference to a speech made by Carmichael on September 3, 1966 and a rebellion which erupted on September 6 in Atlanta. According to the FBI report: “A confidential source advised that the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee sponsored a rally in a predominantly Negro neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 3, 1966. Stokely Carmichael made a short speech at the rally. He attacked the Atlanta Police Department on police brutality matters. According to the source, Carmichael stated Negroes should form vigilante groups to observe police and should any acts of police brutality be observed, a committee should be formed among the Negro element to follow such matters.”

After the arrest of the pickets at the Twelfth Corps Headquarters, a delegation of SNCC members including Carmichael went to the Atlanta City Hall to demand a meeting with Mayor Ivan Allen. The SNCC members asked that the Mayor release the people arrested at the induction center. The Mayor replied that it was a federal matter and was beyond the control of the city of Atlanta. Carmichael was reported to have insisted that the city do something to affect the release of the demonstrators. Nonetheless, the Mayor abruptly ended the meeting by suggesting that the delegation become registered voters in the city. SNCC later held a street rally that same day, September 6, in emergency response to the police shooting of an African-American youth who was supposedly a suspect in a car theft.

Mayor Ivan Allen, who went to the scene of the rally in an attempt to calm the growing angry crowd, was pelted with rocks and bottles while standing on top of a police car. When the crowd began to rock the police vehicle the Mayor fell off after the roof buckled under pressure. The crowd grew rapidly and began to fight police in the surrounding neighborhood of Summerhill. The Mayor sent in a thousand police officers utilizing teargas and other forms of force to quell the rebellion in Atlanta. Allen immediately blamed SNCC for the unrest in Atlanta’s Summerhill District. Carmichael had issued an appeal over radio station WAOK asking that people come to the sight of the shooting of the youth by the police. The first two people arrested on the scene were SNCC members Bill Ware and Robert Walton for inviting people to broadcast their eyewitness accounts of the shooting by the Atlanta police over a loudspeaker.

Two days later Carmichael was arrested and charged with incitement to riot. On that same day another disturbance erupted in the Boulevard Section of the city after a black youth was shot to death on his porch by a white parolee, who was later sentenced to life in prison the following year. Hosea Williams of SCLC then attempted to organize a demonstration in the city after the arrest of numerous SNCC members, however, he was detained himself for leading a peaceful procession in the area where the youth was gunned down on his porch. The disturbances in Atlanta gained nationwide coverage with the scene of Mayor Allen being pushed off the hood of a police car repeatedly shown over national television. Atlanta, a southern city that attempted to cultivate an image of being moderate and business-oriented, was exposed as a bastion of racism and police brutality as well as intolerance to peaceful protest and other forms of dissent.

In the same confidential FBI report mentioned above that was issued on September 7, 1966, the bureau provides its own interpretation of the events on September 6 in Atlanta. The report states that: “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee scheduled a rally at Capital and Ordman Streets, Atlanta, Georgia, on the afternoon of September 6, 1966, in protest of the arrest and shooting of a Negro male for auto theft earlier in the day. During the rally several unidentified Negroes talked to the group in a haranguing manner. Members of the group started throwing rocks and bottles at police officers and white spectators. Ivan Allen, Jr., Mayor of Atlanta, was unsuccessful in quelling the disturbance. Several acts of violence occurred resulting in the arrest of seventy-two people by the Atlanta Police Department; however, specific charges are not known.”

Pressures mounted against SNCC throughout 1966 resulting from its positions on black power, the draft, self-defense, urban rebellion and the escalating war in Viet Nam. With the release of selected FBI documents of Stokely Carmichael since his death in 1998, the unclassified records of American intelligence and the White House have provided clearer insights into the role of not only the FBI’s Counter-intelligence Program COINTELPRO, but the direct involvement of the Johnson administration and the United States Military in efforts aimed at the destruction of the civil rights and black power movements that were in strong evidence during 1966.

Editor’s Note: The FBI documents utilized in this article can be found on the Bureau’s web site: http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/carmichael_stokely.htm The files have been divided into five parts and are published without comment or interpretation. These documents by no means represent the totality of FBI and other government agencies’ surveillance activities directed at Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating (SNCC). However, the examination of these records illuminate the thinking of the Johnson administration, the Department of Justice, the Secret Service, local police agencies and municipal and county governments in regard their efforts designed to stifle and eliminate the civil rights and black power movements of the time period.

http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_archive.html

 

Phooey!

history, Politics, Rights

time7-5-68phoo Why is the word Phooey associated with segregationist governor Lester Maddox?

Phooey was Maddox’s all purpose cuss word.  Remember Lester Maddox had been elected Governor because he was a segregationist. He was nationally known for having used axe handles, ‘Pickrick Toothpicks’, to threaten any “colored” people who would come to his restaurant. His other talent was riding a bicycle backwards in parades. Really. Those ‘talents’ got him elected Georgia governor.

Maddox leading Ga. into the past
Maddox leading Ga. into the past

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lester made Georgia a national joke, so

some had fun with it.maddox2

 A musical comedy about Maddox made it to Broadway.

rwmaddoxdroppedImage

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Then Lester moved from the Ansley Park Governor’s Mansion into the new Governor’s palace  just finished in Buckhead.droppedImage_2

 

phooey018

phooey017“The guest list of 400 includes140 negroes”.!! Actually the chicken came from Pascals which fed the Civil Rights leaders, not Maddox’s Pickrick.

droppedImage_3phooey020maddoxsellsmansion

Harrison Tells Why He Supports McGovern

Politics

Clark Harrison, Jr.  was my uncle.  He was the first WWII paraplegic to leave the VA hospital and live. He learned to fly his own plane and published his autobiography after being chairman of Dekalb County Commissioners. Taking this stand was considered crazy and political suicide  at the time, but was inspiring to me.  The best politician I ever knew.

PAGE 14A DeKALB NEW ERA  WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1972

Harrison Tells Why He Supports McGovern

Two, prominent DeKatb County citizens – Clark Harrison and former Congressman James A. Mackay – have publicly endorsed the Presidential candidacy of Sen. George McGovern.

In last week’s issue of the DeKalb News, Mr. Mackey, a Decatur attorney and former U.S. Congressman, emphasized his support for the Democratic candidate, and closed with the comment that “Senator McGovern is simply asking us to be something different than a modern, militaristic Rome.”

Clark Harrison, the out-going Chairman of the Dekalb County Board of Commissioners, is the head of the Dekalb drive to elect Senator McGovern.

Here, in an assessment of his desire to see George McGovern elected, Clark Harrison speaks candidly about war, patriotism and the economy of a nation.

By CLARK HARRISON

My endorsement of George McGovern for President is based on personal conviction that goes back many years.

I was in a hospital in England in 1944 when President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill made their historic demand for the ‘unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. I felt strongly at the time, and since that this unnecessary political statement cost the lives of young Americans.

Since I was wounded in combat, I have always felt strongly about the political use of patriotism of our young men. Historians have confirmed the feeling I had at the time about the ‘unconditional surrender’ statement, and I believe they will confirm the feelings many have today that the Viet Nam War, and the Presidential visits to Red China and Russia, have been used in a ‘political effort by President Nixon to assure his re-election in 1972.

The tragedy of this day is the fact that alter four more war years under Nixon, we can no better control the internal situation in Viet Nam than we could have when Richard Nixon took office in 1969 – and 20,000 young Americans have been killed in action in the intervening years.

1 am convinced we can stay in Viet Nam another 10 years and the final situation in that unhappy country will not be substantially improved.

We are told today that the only reason we do not totally withdraw, now, is because of our prisoners of war – and yet, there are 550 more Americans held prisoner in Viet Nam today than in 1969. And, every day, American men fly over North Viet Nam, and are exposed to capture or death.

President Nixon sold one-fourth of the U.S. wheat crop to Russia in a deal they have sought for years—and did not secure the release of a single American prisoner.

Domestically, the Viet Nam War has been used to silence critics of what has been the most disastrous administration of this century.

The disaster of the Nixon Administration has been that our involvement in a war we cannot win has been continued at great expenditure of this nation’s wealth, and without a corresponding tightening of our civilian belts.

We have, in effect, been told that we can have ‘guns and butter,’ and the result has been disaster to our economy with the bill paid in inflation, devaluation of the dollar, a stock crash that cost the small investor literally billions, and an unprecedented high in unemployment.

The price of the Nixon Administration has been paid by the youth of America, by the wage earner, whose income has been fixed, and by the elderly.

The most alarming development is the apparent intent of the Nixon administration to continue these policies for another four years.

I have always been proud that I could serve my country in combat in World War II. I hope today, that whatever influence I may have will be on the side of preserving the ideals that made this country worthy of the sacrifice of our young men.

At the moment, that means, for me, voting for George McGovern.

Mother David Convicted!

Clubs, history, People, Politics

Great Speckled Bird vol. 1 #4 April 26, 1968 

CONVICTED

ATLANTA, Monday, April 22 — Fulton County Courthouse, local hall of justice. David Braden, 30 years old, is to be tried this morning on charges of selling marijuana to a minor—the possible penalty, life imprisonment.

The elevator up. Lawyers, talking, joking about affairs of court. “Well, what’d you get for that woman? ” “Oh, she got off with eight years.” I marvel at the efficiency of Justice.

Fulton Superior Court. “ALL RISE.” All-American conditioned reflex, I rise. Enter Judge Emeritus Boy kin, known by some as a “hanging” judge. Defender of State, Solicitor Roger Thompson, hulks over his desk, ready for prosecution. The court seems anxious to get Braden, and dispenses quickly with other cases, mostly blacks. (“Boy, come over here.”) Black men are lead out chained in parallel.

A sense of inevitability seeps into the courtroom as Thompson reveals his talents and Judge Boykin renders his justice. (I set up counter court in my mind. Decide absolutely that Court is on trial, not Braden.)

Richard Koren, Braden’s lawyer, returns a special plea of insanity. The trial then is to determine whether Braden is mentally competent to aid his attorney in preparing a case. Selection of jury. Thompson systematically eliminates all blacks. He strikes anyone with more than Readers Digest experience with psychology. Braden sits oblivious ; to the trial, a slight bitter smile punctuated by a flicker when he recognizes the few friends who show.

Braden’s plea for insanity moves quickly. Dr. Wyatt, psychiatrist for the County Lunacy Commission, and Dr. Wiener, Georgia State psychologist, testify at length on Braden’s incapacity to aid his attorney. Korem testifies. Then three deputy sheriffs conclude, from their two to five minute observations of the prisoner, that Braden is perfectly normal.

Prosecutor Thompson moves into his summation. He reminds one of a slick small town car dealer, clinching a sale un a lemon. “Of course this man is too sophisticated for us Georgia rednecks. And now, you, the jury, representing the moral atmosphere of the community, and the welfare of our kids …” In five minutes the jury returns a verdict against insanity. Braden will be tried.

Tuesday morning. Braden attempted suicide the night before. Korem decides that Braden should try the leniency of the court, Braden pleads guilty. The court reduces the charge to possession. Sentence; seven year’s imprisonment. For possession of marijuana.

David Braden has been in solitary confinement in the county jail under$25,000 bond since March 12,1968 when he was indicted. I don’t recognize him—the pictures I have seen show him with a satanic intense smile, an actor. Now he sits, ashen, in pinstripe suit, unresponsive to the court.

Braden came to Atlanta in 1962 after completing most of a college education. He worked at the Atlanta Art School for a while. Since then he has set up several coffee houses. In 1966 he started an art gallery, the Mandorla. In the summer of 1967, Braden opened the Catacombs, originally a quiet coffee house.

When the young people started flowing in great numbers into the Fourteenth Street area, Braden fell into the role of provider for a large number. Hence his title, “Mother.” Then the media discovered him and set him up as the leader of the “hippy” colony. Now the court was condemning him as a “hippy.” ^

Braden had a particular charm that attracted many people while many disliked him intensely. However, the fact that Braden faced life imprisonment made his personal eccentricities seem irrelevant. The Mary Worth minds of the court seemed to see David’s elimination as the beginning of the destruction of the “hippy colony,” the threat to their “moral order.”

Braden has been harassed frequently by the police since 1962. On November 3,1967, he was arrested on the charge of possession of narcotics and on January 30,1968 he was given a one year suspended sentence.

On March 12, Braden was indicted by the grand jury for selling to a minor, 19yearold Chip Burson. According to newspaper accounts, “concerned parents” had forced the indictment. The Solicitor said at that time that “narcotics” seized in a January marijuana bust were allegedly purchased from Braden.

Four persons from the January 23 bust were listed as State’s witnesses, including Chip Burson. Since it was widely known that Burson sold marijuana, many wondered why Burson would have bought from Braden. It is also rumored that Burson was in New York on the date of the alleged sale, though witnesses to that effect were unavailable. There is no record of any court action thus far on Burson’s possession charges of January 23.

Braden’s lawyer Korem had talked to many people who said that Burson sold marijuana, but no one was willing to risk testifying to help Braden. Not more than a handful contributed to defense funds. Korem, with no funds and only a week to prepare, had virtually no case.

Braden was mentally unable to deal with the trial. Friends had received confused disconjuncted letters with no mention of his case. Dr. Wiener, psychologist at Georgia State, had visited David and found him severely depressed and unable to cope with the consequences of his trial.

Braden’s case is uncertain. Pending substantial contributions to a defense fund, Braden will probably spend at least 23 years in jail or hospitals. If he is certified for psychiatric treatment, there is no guarantee that he will not stay longer at Milledgeville.

The Georgia Uniform Narcotics Act of 1967 classifies marijuana with “addictive narcotic drugs” such as heroin, opium, cocaine. A first offense for selling marijuana can receive a minimum of ten years and a maximum of life. The death penalty is possible for a second offense.

Federal agencies and other established institutions have begun to receive scientific information concerning the non-addictive characteristics of marijuana. February Play boy reports that a paper circulating in the Health, Education and Welfare Department indicates that “so far as an objective analysis of the problem is possible, to that degree one can only conclude that the case against marijuana does not hold good.”

Dr. James Goddard, chief of the Food and Drug Ad ministration, recently stated that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol. Many who have used marijuana, claim that, in fact, marijuana is much less harmful to one’s health.

The guilt rests not with David Braden, but rather with a puritanical community and a brutal, ill-informed law. —jim gwin

I-485 wants to consume Atlanta

Community, Politics

Atlanta Time Machine collected a map showing the actual proposed routes  expressways planned on just the East side of Atlanta. Take a look and figure out if your neighborhood would still even exist.

Hear is what the historians now say about

The Great Speckled Bird Jan 7, 1974, Vol. 7 #1 pg. 10 

EPSON scanner imageI-485

The controversy that has been raging over Atlanta’s proposed downtown interstate freeway has been boiling hotter in the past few months, and while the Bird hesitates to make sweeping predictions, the chances for the construction of 1—485 are looking a little dimmer.

For those of you who have just entered the Atlanta scene, 1-485 is a federal interstate freeway that has been proposed for the east side of Atlanta. It would be built to relieve traffic on the downtown connector, or 1-75-85, and would run from near Broadview Plaza south through Morningside, Virginia Highlands, and Inman Park.

1-485 has been planned by the highway builders since the early 1960’s and has been a controversial road since the announcement of construction plans. Most of the opposition to the road stems from the fact that the proposed route runs through the Morningside and Lenox Park neighborhoods which are middle and upper income residential areas and which are very strong close-in neighborhoods. The other area that the road will effect is the Inman Park and Little Five Points neighborhoods, just to the south of Morningside. When the freeway was first announced, most of Inman Park and Little Five Points were strong working class neighborhoods with a portion of lower income transient families. The Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development (BOND) was formed initially to fight against the freeway. However, most of the BOND folks, lacking the power and influence which money brings, felt that about all they could do was push through certain changes in the freeway design which would lessen the impact of the road on their neighborhoods.

The State Highway Department came into the BOND area and cleared out around 600 homes and numerous businesses to make way for the road before most people knew what was happening. When the Morningside and Lenox Park folks saw that the State Highway Department was not joking about this freeway they began to mobilize with court suits and political pressure, to either get the road stopped completely or to insist on changes in the design which would lessen the impact on their neighborhoods.

At the same time that the Morningside-Lenox Park people were getting their act together for an all out fight against the freeway, a change was taking place in the BOND area. Rich folks were moving into Inman Park to restore the few fine old Victorian homes that had been missed by the Highway Department’s bulldozers. These people began to realize just how close this freeway would be coming to their backyards and also began to gear up to oppose the freeway and joined the old time residents of the BOND neighborhood in the fight, bringing with them money, planning expertise and political influence.

Thus, neighborhoods all along the route of 1-485 began to get together to present a united front against the freeway should now take a step back and look at why some people want 1-485 to be built and others do not. The main, up front, reason for planning 485 was to relieve traffic congestion on the downtown freeway. Who could possibly object to that?

However, things are not always as they seem on the surface. 1-485 is a crucial link in a whole series of urban toll roads that the State of Georgia has planned for the Atlanta area. Several years ago the General Assembly created a Georgia Toll Road Authority, with the power to sell construction bonds, build roads and charge tolls for their use in order to retire the construction bonds. This practice, of course, has been used extensively in other parts of the country, but in the past the state has felt that any road that would be a toll road would not generate enough traffic to retire the construction bonds.

Nonetheless, the newly created Toll Road Authority has been looking around for places to build its first toll roads and thought that Atlanta would be able to generate enough traffic for the roads to support themselves. Thus a network of toll roads has been planned for the Atlanta area: the Westside toll road, the Stone Mountain toll road, the Lakewood toll road, and the North Atlanta toll road. ( They got part of one- ed. )The important thing about all of these toll roads is that I-485 is the connecting link between most of the proposed toll roads. If the State of Georgia cannot build 1-485 then the whole toll road network becomes almost impossible to construct as planned. It becomes a meaningless jumble of unconnected road segments.

If the Georgia Department of Transportation is unable to construct I-485 then the newly created Toll road Authority will be hard pressed to justify its existence. And, of course, the highway planners and builders would like to keep their jobs.

It also appears that the Georgia Department of Transportation is concerned about keeping I-485 alive as a project because they will get more money from the federal government for highway construction each year that 1-485 is kept on the list of proposed freeways. The state is under no real obligation to construct 485 if it remains on their list, they just receive more money each year. So the state does have an interest in keeping the project alive, at least on paper.

The downtown boys, representing the central business district interests in the City of Atlanta, are also strongly pushing for the construction of 1-485. They are interested in routing through traffic around the downtown area, which 1-485 would do, so that people who do choose to drive downtown can do so without much hassle. But, also, the downtown boys are very interested in having this series of toll roads built in the Atlanta area. Somehow, people like these equate freeways and toll roads with progress and a healthy business community. However, in the past year or so the business community has had to take a closer look at their position on freeways and 1-485 in specific. They have taken a strong position, on paper at least, for encouraging close-in residential neighborhoods. Their concern is to attract more white middle and upper income families back into the city.

An obvious contradiction lies in the fact that 1-485 will be running through exactly the type of neighborhoods which the business community says that they would like to preserve and encourage. Even most people who support the construction of 485 will admit that these neighborhoods will not be very pleasant to live in once construction of the freeway is started. And opponents of the freeway say that 485 will effectively kill any residential viability that exists in the path of this freeway.

Opponents of the I-485 are objecting to it for several reasons. The first, which has already been mentioned, is that good residential neighborhoods will be destroyed by the construction of the freeway. Second is that MARTA should be fully utilized to provide a transportation system that is a real alternative to the automobile. If we are going to build a rapid transit system we do not need to continue to build additional roads for cars. Also with the energy crisis, either real or fake, we are going to have to reduce our consumption of fossil fuel over the long run and MARTA will help with that effort while another road will only encourage more gasoline consumption.

What is the status of 1-485, will it be constructed or will the idea by canned? It appears that the efforts of the anti-highway people are beginning to payoff.

Their first concrete effort to stop the freeway was in a court suit which asked for an injunction against any construction or additional acquisition of property until an environmental impact statement could be prepared. In July of 1970 an injunction was handed down which stopped construction only two weeks before the State Highway Department was to let the first construction contracts for I-485. The injunction said that no more work could be done on the road until the state prepared an environmental impact statement that was acceptable to the US Department of Transportation. The State Highway Department commissioned Griner and Associates to conduct this environmental study. Griner is the Maryland engineering firm that gained national publicity recently when it was revealed that the firm was involved in Agnew’s indiscretions while Governor of Maryland.

Griner conducted this environmental impact statement, but fortunately the statement was soundly rejected by the federal government last summer. The feds said that the statement did not give an adequate assessment of the construction of rapid transit on the transportation needs for Atlanta, that it did not study effectively the impact of related roads, specifically the proposed toll roads, and that it did not adequately look at alternatives to the road and other route alternatives closely enough.

In effect the federal government said that Georgia could not begin construction until some of these issues were looked at more closely. Meanwhile, several other things are going on that will effect the fate of 1-485.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is the role that the Atlanta Regional Commission is beginning to play in the fate of 1-485. The ARC is charged by Georgia law with planning responsibility within the Atlanta regional area. In the past they have been avid supporters of 1-485 and the road was included in the Atlanta Area Transportation study, which was supposed to be the last word on what transportation improvements would be made in the Atlanta region.

However, this fall the ARC apparently began to back away from its avid support of 485 to a wait-and-see attitude. The ARC omitted I-485 from a list of high-priority items which should be built. However, they say that this does not mean that they are not supporting the project anymore. A new regional transportation plan is being prepared by the planning staff of ARC and final word on their support or opposition will be whether they include the road in their updated transportation plan.

According to one of ARC’S transportation planners, during the process of preparing this plan they will be looking at some of the questions raised by the US Department of Transportation. This indicates that the Georgia DOT is in effect waiting for the ARC to take the lead in justifying the existence of 1-485 and subsequently the toll roads. This obviously places ARC in a pivotal role as far as 1-485 is concerned and also a very powerful one.

The Board of Aldermen have gone on record several times as opposing the construction of 1-485. Most recently they have passed a resolution which could set in motion the actual death of 1-485. In August the US Congress passed the 1973 Federal Highway Act which provides for the transfer of money that has been allocated to highways to local transit authorities. The law says, “Upon the joint request of a state governor and the local governments concerned, the (US Transportation) Secretary may withdraw his approval of an urban interstate, clearing the way for transfer of those funds to the local transit authority.”

The Board of Aldermen, two weeks ago requested that the $70 million of federal money that has been allocated for 1-485 be transferred to MARTA. The only real problem with this is that the governor of the State of Georgia has to also agree to the transfer of funds and apparently Governor Carter is not ready to do that. Carter, in response to the action of the Board of Aldermen said that the Aldermen were not the proper “responsible local officials” and said that the Atlanta Regional Commission is the proper group of local officials to make such a request.

Most observers feel that Carter’s position about ARC is wrong and would not stand if challenged. What will come of this is still unclear. However, the Board of Aldermen did set into motion an interesting action which apparently would be precedent setting and would, more importantly, spell the end of the 1-485 project.

Governor Carter has showed his colors in another way in-the past few months over 1-485 with his 1-485 opinion poll. Carter announced that he was going to commission a poll to find out what the people of the Atlanta area really feel about 1-485 and more freeways in general. He failed to announce that at the same time, and on the same poll, he was going to have many questions asked about the upcoming statewide races and about the success of his administration. The results of the poll were discounted even before, they were announced by many because of this practice of piggy-backing question areas on the poll. Also it became apparent that the questions on the poll were slanted in favor of 1-485.

Even with this biased type of poll taking the results were far from significant in favor of 1-485.

The establishment press in Atlanta loudly proclaimed that the poll showed that Atlantans want the construction of 485 by a two to one margin. But, actually the results were not that overwhelming. There are 38% who were in favor of constructing more expressways and 19% against. However, there were 43% who were undecided or who had no opinion.

It appears that no one is going to take the results of this poll very seriously because of the inconclusive results.

1-485 also became an issue in the recent City elections. It was generally understood that if a candidate took a strong stand in favor of constructing 1-485, it would mean certain political death. The important fact is that the new City Council is definitely more anti-485 than the old Board of Aldermen was. It appears that the new City Council will put up even more opposition to the proposed 1-485. Maynard Jackson also ran on a strong platform against 1-485. It will be interesting to watch how these people vote when it actually comes down to opposing freeways.

So what will be the future of I-485? It appears that the court injunction will be in effect against the construction at least until the Atlanta Regional Commission can finish its update of the Atlanta Regional Plan which will be near the end of 1974. It is also necessary that either ARC or the Georgia Department of Transportation satisfy the objections of the federal government before any construction can begin.

One of the main issues involved throughout the whole controversy over this freeway is not the pros and cons of transportation planning, but whether or not the people in the areas directly affected by this freeway have any input into the fate of their neighborhoods. Highway proponents say that the highway should be built because it would benefit the region as a whole, and that if certain areas or people are affected adversely, this is the unfortunate price that has to be paid for the common good. Opponents of the highways, on the other hand, are saying that some prices are too high to pay for the common good. More specifically, this particular highway, 1-485, is simply not needed enough in the region as a whole to pay the price. Whether or not the highway finally goes through, this is the first time in Atlanta that plain, ordinary people have made such an impact on the political mood within the city or such an impact on the institutional bureaucracy of Atlanta.

—Krista

Here is what the historians now say about the near secret plans.