33.Michigan Chronicle, September 3, 1966; interview with Reverend Milton Henry by author, 1, 9, 10 (hereafter cited as Henry Interview); Dunbar, “The Making of a Militant,” 27-28; Boggs, Living for Change, 119-20. On Jackie Robinson’s wartime experience see Rampersand, Jackie Robinson, 99-109; for Coleman Young’s see Young, Hard Stuff, 67-75. (back to text)
34.For the history of this idea and the debate over it, see Phillips, American Negro Slavery; Stampp, The Peculiar Institution; and Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind. (back to text)
35.The series “Conspiracy of Silence” ran in the Michigan Chronicle April 10, 17, and 24, May 1, 8, 15, and 22, and June 5, 12, 19, and 26, 1954. Henry’s analysis of inferiority is in the April 10 article; he discussed Egypt in the issue of April 24. For a passionate contemporary debate on the role of Africa, and especially Egypt, in African American consciousness, see Bernal, Black Athena and Black Athena Writes Back; Lefkowitz and Rogers, Black Athena Revisited; Walker, We Can’t Go Home Again. (back to text)
36.Richard Henry tried his hand at irony as well, in a manner that reflected the influence (but not the comedic timing) of Langston Hughes’s nationally known fictional character, Jesse Simple. See Henry, “Is the White Race Vanishing?” Michigan Chronicle, November 27, 1954. (back to text)
37.Henry Interview, 7-8; on the defense of street corner speakers see untitled clipping [Detroit News], July 8, 1957. Cleage’s critique is in Michigan Chronicle, August 1, 1959. (back to text)
38.Charles J. Wartman, “Race Relations—1960!” Michigan Chronicle, January 9, 16, 23, and 30 and February 6, 13, 20, and 27, 1960. Wartman’s analysis in 1960 can be compared with his earlier series, “Detroit—The Years After” (Michigan Chronicle, February 21 and 28 and March 7, 14, 21, and 28, 1953), and with the far more optimistic and, to that extent, misleading analysis by a local reporter, “This Is City of Promise to Negro,” in the Detroit Free Press, June 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27, 1957. (back to text)
39.Stovall, The Growth of Black Elected Officials in the City of Detroit, 136-37; Michigan Chronicle, January 7 and 14, 1961; Detroit Free Press, January 4, 1961. See also Patrick’s letter to Miriani concerning integrating the police force in Detroit Free Press, March 7, 1959. For details on the relations between Miriani and black Detroit see Detroit Free Press, May 17 and 24 and November 29, 1958; February 17, July 25, and September 5, 26, 1959. A detailed analysis of the highly biased process that resulted in seventy-one white and two black Detroit police officer candidates in 1959 is available in Staff Report, Detroit Commission on Community Relations, “A Synopsis of Background, Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations of a Study of Detroit Police Department Personnel Selection Practices,” January 15, 1962, Box 59, folder 11, JPC. (back to text)
40.On the 1961 election see Michigan Chronicle, October 21 and November 18, 1961; January 6, 1962. Stovall, The Growth of Black Elected Officials in the City of Detroit, 138; Young, Hard Stuff, 156; interview with George W. Crockett by Herbert Hill, 35-36, ALUA; interview with Mel Ravitz by Sidney Fine, 18, MHC; Dillard, “From the Reverend Charles A. Hill to the Reverend Albert B. Cleage, Jr.,” 244-45. (back to text)
41.Michigan Chronicle, December 16, 1961. (back to text)
42.On Cecil see CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 58-59. (back to text)
43.On Erma see Michigan Chronicle, February 9, 1963; December 19, 1964; June 12, 1965; Sabrina Garrett-Owens (Erma Franklin’s daughter) to author, e-mail, July 17, 2003. Erma Franklin’s recording of “Piece of My Heart,” is on Franklin, Golden Classics. Some months after the record was released, Janis Joplin’s subsequent cover version became a national hit. (back to text)
44.Ward, Just My Soul Responding, 189-92; Lornell, “Happy in the Service of the Lord,” 35-37; Michigan Chronicle, April 19, 1958; Giddens, Riding on a Blue Note, 278; Hirshey, Nowhere to Run, 26-27; Nager, Memphis Beat, 179-80; Wolff, You Send Me, 86-87; Robinson, Smokey, 213-16; Maultsby, “The Impact of Gospel Music on the Secular Music Industry,” 28. Thomas Dorsey criticized those who crossed over (see Wolff, You Send Me, 87); so did Martin Luther King Jr. (see Ward, Just My Soul Responding, 189). (back to text)
45.Hurley Interview, 21-22; Todd Interview, 18; Corbett Interview, 17-18; Penn Interview, 12-13; Margaret Branch Interview, 11; Lewis Interview, 18; Jasper Williams Interview, 22; Matthews Interview, 42; Kimble Interview, 42. (back to text)
46.Michigan Chronicle, March 5, 1960; Jasper Williams Interview, 22; Corbett Interview, 17-18; Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 14 and 19, 1961. On Aretha’s first years in the record business see CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 59; EF Interview, 30; Kyles Interview, 50; and the following letters: Aretha Franklin to “Miss Jo Basil King,” August 30, 1960, Detroit; unsigned [President, Columbia Records] to “Miss Aretha Franklin, c/o Rev. C. L. Franklin,” June 25, 1960, New York (draft of proposed contract); Hobart Taylor Jr. to “Dear Frank,” n.d. [January 27, 1961], Detroit, all in CLFP. (back to text)
47.Michigan Chronicle, November 5, 1960; August 8 and September 1, 1962. On the course of her career, see Franklin, Aretha, 84-127; Guralnick, Sweet Soul Music, 332-52; Wexler, Rhythm and the Blues, 215, 245, and passim; Broughton, Black Gospel, 100; Ward, Just My Soul Responding, passim. Cecil Franklin is quoted in Maultsby, “The Impact of Gospel Music on the Secular Music Industry,” 28; Ray Charles in Charles, Brother Ray, 269; CLF on Aretha Franklin’s album Amazing Grace. The power of this sacred tradition on a spectacular, live, “secular” performance can be vividly experienced with the Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles duet “Spirit in the Dark” on Aretha Franklin Live at Fillmore West. The four-disc collection Queen of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings gathers together Franklin’s most influential recordings. (back to text)
9. A RISING WIND
1.Henry Interview, 4. (back to text)
2.Illustrated News, November 27 and December 4, 11, and 18, 1961. The quotes are taken from the issue of December 11, 4-6; Boggs, Living for Change, 121. For a popular discussion of the economic difficulties in urban, black communities during the 1950s, see J. B. Lenoir, “Eisenhower Blues,” on Lenoir, The Parrot Sessions, 1954-5. (back to text)
3.Henry Interview, 19. (back to text)
4.For GOAL’s activities in 1962 see, concerning education, Michigan Chronicle, February 3 and 10, April 14, June 16, and December 29, 1962; Illustrated News, April 2, 1962; Ward, Prophet of the Black Nation, 80-81; Boggs, Living for Change, 20; concerning urban renewal, Richard B. Henry to Edward M. Turner, January 12, 1962, Detroit, Part 1, Box 2, NAACP; Michigan Chronicle, May 5, 1962; concerning an all-black vote, Reverend Nicholas Hood to Henry Cleage, April 16, 1962 (copy), Detroit, Box 13, folder 12, DCCR; Michigan Chronicle, June 30, July 7, and August 4, 11, and 18, 1962; Illustrated News, April 2 and July 2 and 23, 1962; Detroit Free Press, August 4, 1962; Detroit News, August 4, 1962. (back to text)
5.Henry Interview, 2-3; Fine, Violence in the Model City, 26; Michigan Chronicle, February 3 and 10 and April 21, 1962. (back to text)
6.Michigan Chronicle, September 15, 1962; Detroit News, October 16 and 18, 1962 (the quote is in the issue of October 18). See also Business Week, July 20, 1963, 32, 34, for a slightly later assessment of Cleage’s tactical abilities in negotiating antidiscrimination policies with major corporations in Detroit. (back to text)
7.Illustrated News, March 5 and December 3, 1962. (back to text)
8.For New Bethel’s experience with urban renewal and its search for a new site, see New Bethel Baptist Church, “Church Resolutions,” (typed), November 23, 1959; New Bethel Baptist Church, “Agreement with lawyer Kenneth N. Hylton” (copy, unsigned), n.d. [August 1960], both in CLFP; CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 66; Michigan Chronicle, January 16 and March 12, 1960; January 21, September 9 and 23 and November 11, 1961; April 14, 1962; National Baptist Voice, April 1962. On taking possession of the new building see Michigan Chronicle, February 2 and 16 and March 9 and 16, 1963; Thompson Interview, 37-38; King Intervie
w, 3; Francis A. Korngay to “The Reverend C. L. Franklin,” March 8, 1963, Detroit, Box 12, FAK. (back to text)
9.On CORE in Detroit see interview with Grace Bazemore by author, 2-7, 11-18; interview with Ray Bazemore by author, 11-18; interview with Clyde Cleveland by author, 3 ff. (hereafter cited as Cleveland Interview); Michigan Chronicle, June 27, 1964. A useful history of the national organization is Meier and Rudwick, CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942-1968, passim. (back to text)
10.It was while in jail at this time that King wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which became famous only later. The document is reprinted in Washington, A Testament of Hope, 289-302. (back to text)
11.Branch, Pillar of Fire, 41-49, 75-81; Manis, A Fire You Can’t Put Out, 344-390. (back to text)
12.Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby, 348-51; EF Interview, 50; unsigned report, “The March,” n.d. [June 1963], typed, closed files, DCCR. (back to text)
13.The meeting where GOAL supporters demanded Cleage speak is recounted by James Boggs in Nicholas, Questions of the American Revolution, 11; on TULC’s call (which never materialized that May) see Michigan Chronicle, May 11, 1963. The Nicholas article gave rise to the legend that Cleage was the singular leader of the ensuing Detroit mobilization. “Through his [Cleage’s] influence, preachers all over the city began holding nightly meetings in their churches, building up momentum for the march,” Boggs told Xavier Nicholas in Questions of the American Revolution. These meetings simply did not occur, in part because by May 1963 Cleage was persona non grata to many ministers who had a year earlier withdrawn permission for GOAL to distribute the Illustrated News in their churches. See Reverend Nicholas Hood to Attorney Henry Cleage, April 6, 1962 (copy), Detroit, Box 13, folder 12, DCCR; Michigan Chronicle, August 4, 1962. For Cleage’s equally harsh assessment of all other black leaders closer to this event, see his “Notes for a Conference on Uncle Tomism,” Illustrated News, February 18, 1963. Both Boggs, Living for Change, 124, and Smith, Dancing in the Street, 26-27, follow James Boggs’s account uncritically. (back to text)
14.For a discussion of the May 10 meeting see unsigned report, “The March,” n.d. [June 1963], closed files, DCCR; Michigan Chronicle, May 18, 1963. (back to text)
15.See unsigned report, “The March,” n.d. [June 1963], closed files, DCCR; Joseph E. Coles to Richard V. Marks, memorandum, “Negro Leaders Meeting on Birmingham, Alabama,” May 22, 1963; Coles to Marks, memorandum, “Detroit Council for Human Rights,” May 22, 1963; Coles to Marks, memorandum, “Third Meeting of the Detroit Council of Human Rights,” June 4, 1963, all in Part 3, Box 19, folder 6, DCCR; Michigan Chronicle, May 18 and 25, 1963. For a list of officers of the DCHR see “Letterhead,” n.d. [May 1963], Series 11, Box 16, folder: “Detroit Council for Human Rights,” ACLU. (back to text)
16.On the permit for the march (originally called for June 11), see CLF to William Patrick, May 20, 1963 (copy), Detroit, CLFP; Albert B. Cleage, “100,000 Negroes to Protest Birmingham Brutality,” Illustrated News, May 27, 1963. On the tensions within the Baptist Ministerial Alliance see Michigan Chronicle, June 1, 1963; Detroit Free Press, June 12, 1963; untitled, undated clipping, “Preachers Nearly Come to Blows,” Box 19, folder 6, DCCR; McCoy Interview, 16-17. (back to text)
17.Michigan Chronicle, May 18, 1963. On the continued opposition to CLF see unsigned report, “The March,” n.d. [June 1963], closed files, DCCR; Michigan Chronicle, June 1 and 8, 1963. (back to text)
18.Johnson Interview, 29-32. In an anonymous, handwritten evaluation of the DCHR leadership, a staff member of the Detroit Commission on Community Relations, a city department with close ties to the established black leadership, wrote of Franklin that he was “congenial” and “Democratically orientated” but lacked the desire for personal advancement through his political activities. “At a distance he looks weak,” the evaluator continued, “but perhaps apparent weakness means strength.” The final comment sharply caught Franklin’s lasting image among black elites: “Hair do: conk.” Cleage was described as a consistent supporter of Franklin, who nonetheless “feels a bit threatened by Cleage.” The DCCR writer estimated Cleage’s influence within the community “at a high point” that spring and noted that Cleage “has insistently argued for maintenance of Negro leadership of the DCHR.” Unsigned evaluation of DCHR leadership, handwritten, n.d. [spring/summer 1963], Box 12, folder 12, DCCR. For a sympathetic, historical overview of black Detroit’s traditional leaders and organizations, see Ofield Dukes’s eleven-part series in Michigan Chronicle, September 14, 21, and 28, October 5, 12, 19, and 26, and November 2, 9, 16, and 30, 1963. (back to text)
19.Johnson Interview, 32-33; interview with Arthur Johnson by Sidney Fine, MHC, 11-12 (hereafter cited as Johnson Interview (MHC)); Mose Atkins to “President Naacp [sic],” May 7, 1963, Detroit, Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence May 1963, Incoming, NAACP; Patterson to “Hi” [Arthur Johnson], n.d. [received June 10, 1963], Detroit, and Patterson to “hi” [Arthur Johnson], “Wednesday Morning” [June 19, 1963], Detroit, Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence June 1963 Incoming, NAACP (the quotes are from the second letter); anonymous to [Detroit Urban League], June 19, 1963, Detroit, Box 3, FAK. See also Cleage, “Notes for a Conference on Uncle Tomism.” (back to text)
20.A. A. Banks to “Detroit Council of Human Rights,” June 5, 1963 (copy), Detroit, Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence June 1963 Incoming, NAACP; unsigned report, “The March,” n.d. [June 1963], closed files, DCCR; Johnson Interview (MHC), 11-12. (back to text)
21.Detroit News, June 8, 1963. (back to text)
22.Detroit Free Press, June 12, 1963; Stepp Interview (1999), 7-8, 9; Stepp Interview (2000), 16-19; Johnson Interview, 32-33. See also CLF to Richard V. Marks, Secretary/Director, Detroit Commission on Community Relations, June 8, 1963, Detroit, and Marks to James Trainor, Mayor’s Office, June 10, 1963, Detroit, both in Box 4, folder 8, DCCR; and Arthur L. Johnson to Garrison Clayton, Chief of Police, Dearborn, MI, June 19, 1963, Detroit, Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence June 1963 Outgoing, NAACP, for that organization’s efforts to hold a march through heavily segregated Dearborn on June 22, 1963. (back to text)
23.New York Times, June 24, 1963. De La Beckwith would not be convicted of the murder of Evers until three trials had occurred and thirty-one years had passed. (back to text)
24.Ofield Dukes, “Walk for Freedom Drew Many Types,” and Reverend Malcolm Boyd, “It’s Everyone’s Struggle,” both in Michigan Chronicle, June 29, 1963; Broadus N. Butler, “Freedom March in Perspective,” Michigan Chronicle, July 6, 1963; Detroit Free Press, June 24, 1963; Detroit News, June 24, 1963. (back to text)
25.Detroit Council for Human Rights, Official Program, n.p. (back to text)
26.Michigan Chronicle, June 29, 1963 (not the complete text of King’s speech). (back to text)
27.There were also letters critical of the march from Detroit-area blacks, usually citing the hostile reaction of white employers to the march and, as a consequence, to the writer as well. See anonymous to “NAACP,” postcard, n.d. [postmarked July 21, 1963], Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence June 1963 Incoming, NAACP; “Cora to N.A.A.C.P.,” postcard, n.d. [postmarked August 4, 1963], Part I, Box 7, folder: Correspondence August 1963 Incoming, NAACP. (back to text)
28.On the movement for equal employment see Detroit Free Press, June 25, 1963; Michigan Chronicle, July 6, 13, and 20 and August 10, 1963. On unity efforts see Patterson to “Hy” [Arthur Johnson], June 25 [1963], Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence June 1963 Incoming, NAACP; Mrs. E. Backer to “Leaders of Negro Equality,” July 7, 1963, Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence July 1963 Incoming, NAACP; “Minutes, Metropolitan Detroit Conference on Religion and Race,” July 12, 1963, Box 8, MDCC. On discrimination against black professionals see Richard S. McGhee, M.D. to Arthur L. Johnson, August 10, 1963, Detroit, Part I, Box 7, folder: Correspondence August 1963 Incoming, NAACP. On ONE see Michigan Chronicle, July 20 and August 3, 1963; Detroit Free Press, Jul
y 1, 1963; Richard H. Austin [chairman of ONE], “Greetings,” August 15, 1963, Detroit, Part I, Box 7, folder: Correspondence August 1963 Incoming, NAACP. For a prescient analysis of the need for, and the pitfalls associated with, such unity, see Dan Burley, “Why Negroes Don’t Get Ahead,” Michigan Chronicle, July 15, 1961. (back to text)
29.On Cleage see Michigan Chronicle, July 6, 13, 1963; unsigned evaluation of DCHR leadership, handwritten, n.d. [spring/summer 1963], Box 12, folder 12, DCCR. On ONE see unsigned, “Report on the TULC Meeting of July 11, 1963 concerning ONE (Operation Negro Unity),” July 12, 1963, Detroit, Box 4, folder 1, DCCR. Concerning Del Rio see Michigan Chronicle, July 13, 1963; James Del Rio to “The Board of Directors, Detroit Branch of the NAACP,” July 17, 1963, Detroit, Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence July 1963 Incoming, NAACP; Arthur L. Johnson to James Del Rio, July 29, 1963, Detroit, Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence July 1963 Outgoing, NAACP. For CLF’s reaction to Del Rio’s charges see Raymond McCann, “Man of Many Moods,” Michigan Chronicle, July 6, 1963. (back to text)
30.Detroit News, June 25 and July 3 and 21, 1963; Detroit Free Press, July 10, 1963; Michigan Chronicle, August 3, 1963; Albert Cleage, “Detroit Feels Brunt of Negro Pressure,” Illustrated News, July 8, 1963 (reprinted from Business Week, June 29, 1963). On King’s praise of Franklin see “Martin” to “Dear C. L.,” July 10, 1963, Atlanta, CLFP; Michigan Chronicle, August 3, 1963. The march raised more than $33,000; see Michigan Chronicle, July 27, 1963. (back to text)
31.Michigan Chronicle, July 13 and 20 and August 17, 1963; Hersey, The Algiers Motel Incident, 126; Patterson to “Hy,” Thursday [July 11, 1963], Part I, Box 6, folder: Correspondence July 1963 Incoming, NAACP. (back to text)
32.Michigan Chronicle, July 13, 20, and 27 and August 3, 1963; C. Rodgers to anonymous, “Re: demonstration 7/13/63 before 1300 Beaubien,” July 15, 1963, Box 4, Folder 1, DCCR; Featherstone Interview, 15; Patterson to “Hy,” Thursday [July 11, 1963], Part 1, Box 6, folder: Correspondence, July 1963 Incoming, NAACP; (Reverend) Louis Johnson to Councilman Ed Carry, (copy), n.d. [July 1963], and Reverend Lillia Mae Fate to “Mayor Cavanaugh,” July 11, 1963, Detroit, both in Box 88, folder 7, JPC; On Uhuru and Luke Tripp, see Ofield Dukes’s interview, “Must Crush White Man,” Michigan Chronicle, October 19, 1963, and Dukes’s two-part opinion column, “Purely Personal,” Michigan Chronicle, October 19 and 26, 1963. (back to text)
Singing in a Strange Land Page 47
