The rest of it is pretty much history as to what I have already testified to here. Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I request this document be received for the record. Mr. ASHBROOK. It will be received at this point. (Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 18" and retained in committee files.) Mr. SMITH. The Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination, did it engage in in any other demonstrations in San Francisco? Mr. MONTGOMERY. Yes, I referred to the demonstrations on Automotive Row, where the various car agencies were picketed. These demonstrations were sponsored by the NAACP, but the Ad Hoc Committee joined in the demonstrations giving their support and picketing. Incidentally, the chairman earlier expressed concern about the charges of police brutality. Here again the People's World of San Francisco [March 7, 1964, issue] was in the forefront with article after article and headlines such as "Police brutality charged; 120 demonstrators jailed." On this occasion there was nothing that could resemble police brutality, anything more than their pulling the demonstrators apart. In their linking of arms police had to use a certain amount of force to disengage them from the person next to them; but from that point on, if they went limp, they were carried to the patrol wagon. No one was clubbed in this demonstration. No one put up that much opposition. Mr. ASHBROOK. I am sure you are like many of us who are all amazed that civil rights demonstrators who are ordered to disperse do not respond. And the police officers do what they are obviously supposed to do, that is, to carry out their orders. If this means any kind of contact whatsoever, pulling away, subduing, or any type of activity affirmatively by the police officer, it is always considered brutality. They put themselves in the position of almost demanding action be taken, and then any action is deemed brutality. Mr. MONTGOMERY. Invariably when an act of brutality is depicted in the People's World or other press, you see one action by a police officer. You may not see what preceded it. There was wide distribution given to a picture taken by Douglas Wachter during the recent riots in Oakland at the induction center, which shows a demonstrator being clubbed. He actually was. He was knocked out, but they don't show that prior to that this same demonstrator threw a lighted magnesium flare into the face of a highway patrolman and was in the act of lighting a second one. You don't ever see that. You only see a man being clubbed and falling to the pavement. Mr. SMITH. I would request this document be received for the record. Mr. ASHBROOK. It is so ordered. (Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 19" follows:) Saturday, March 7, 1964 MONTGOMERY EXHIBIT No. 19 Peopie's World 3 Police brutality charged; 120 demonstrators jailed By CARL BLOICE SAN The FRANCISCO management of San Francisco's big swani Sheraton Palace hotel tried to go to court last weekend in an effort to disperse demonstration against the hotel's racial hiring policies, But it didn't work. Instead, the new tactic remulted in, the largest total of civil rights arrests in the city's history and brought the pros. pect of even more determined weekend demonstrations this than if negotiations for more a token hiring of Negroes in varied positions are not successful. There is also a threat of nationwide demonstrations against the Sheraton chain. On Sunda" night (March 1) 120 Negro and white demonstrators (plus several bystanders and three passing sailors) were hauled off to jail following three different methods of direct action protest. some hurried (and, as it turned out, improper) legal maneuvering by the hotel and a raft of charges and counter charges that put the Negro freedom movement back in the San Francisco headlines. The arrests also brought detailed charges of brutality against San Francisco's police department charges that Police Chief Thomas Cahill sought vigorously to deny. The Palace Hotel incident hit the headlines close on the heels of the Congress of Racial Equality's "shop in" campaign against Lucky Stores, which ended last week in a formal agreement between CORE and the Lucky management on hiring practice 3. The Palace hotel protest was conducted by the Ad Hoc Committee Against Discrimination. This group was joined later by CORE, and by the time it was all over Comedian Dick Gregory and a number of the Negro community's top leaders were behind bars. What the hotel tried to do was obtain a temporary restraining order against the pickets, after iling a damage suit against the leaders. injunction gambit was thrown out of court in less than The 24 it turned out hours, however, because the demonstra tors had been improperly served- not given proper notice that such legal action had been taken against them. Not, however before police had used the interlude to pile up a record total of 120 arrests. The pickets, as they were carted off to jail, sang somewhat prophetically. "Ain't gonna let no injunction turn me around, turn me around MANAGEMENT STUBBORN The charge against the Sheraton Palace is fairly simple. The Ad Hoc committee says the hotel has 550 employes, of which only 33 are Negroes all in menial positions. The events culminating in Sunday night's arrests followed a meeting last Saturday (Feb. 29) between the hotel management and the committee. the exam Miss Tracy Sims later said hotel spokesmen pointed to nine Negroes hired since protests began intentions and their ple of stubbornly refused to sign an agreement. as an moved in groups of 10 into the hotel lobby and took silent positions with their placards. Still no uniformed officers. As the group filed into the lobby a middleaged man lean ed against "e bell captain's desk, pointed to a picket and said, "There's a nigger lover." A Negro and white couple stood mute in the main corridor. A hotel guest walked up and said to the girl, "If you were my daughter, I'd kill you." At 9:15 the group was seated on the lobby floor singing. JUDGE ACTS A few miles away in the plush Marina District home of Judge Francis McCarty action was being taken that the hotel management hoped would bring the siege to an end. The judge scribbled a restraining order against the pickets on i a regular piece of typing paper The document was sped to the hotel in a patrol car. When it arrived there were policemen everywhere. Squad cars and paddy wagons jammed New Montgomery street. Two police dogs were held on leash nearby. The negotiators left the conference room. A few hours later they were served subpenas. They were being sued for $50,000 for disturbing hotel guests. The 18 year old Miss Sims At the urging of their lead called the action "a breach of ers the demonstrators rose faith" as no mention of le- from he lobby floor and filed gal action had been made dur- outside. the negotiations. FOUR NAMED Outside, a few minutes later, the group. now numbering about 300, sang "We Shall Ov ercome" one last time and left the scene. Named in the suit were Michael Myerson, Mrs. Linda Bensusen, Roy Ballard and At 6 p. m. the following day Miss Sims. They were named (Sunday, March 1) 100 pickas leaders of the Ad Hoc group. ets appeared at the hotel inThe committee is made up of tending to leave without enthe Direct Action Group, the gaging in any civil disobe Bois Clubs of W. E. B. Du dience. Berkeley and San Francisco, Youth for Jobs of Oakland and ARRESTS START San Francisco, the Citizens plainclothesmen This time Committee for Nuclear Dis- had been replaced by uniformarmament and the Berkeley ed officers. There was another Committee Against Racial Dis- hasty maneuver and from the crimination. pen of the same judge up That evening (Saturday) came another injunction. The over 160 demonstrators joined new order prohibited any more the picket line in front of the than three pickets in front of hotel. the building and five on the were no There policemen side. in anywhere sight except plainclothes types. The demonstrators young paraded around for two hours Shall Not Be singing, "We Moved," and chanting "Freedom Now." A crowd formed on the street TO PLEAD MARCH 16 Once again the rough treal ment was meted out to the gro males At 11 am. Monday, the demonstrators appeared in the courtroom of Judge Joseph 7. Kennedy. Their cases WTT continued until March 1ề wha they will enter pleas. A battery of prominent a torneys is representing the It includes onstrators, cis J. McTenan Janing Hi De don, Benjamin Dres 18 Beverly Axelrud. John man, Douglas Stewart Brotsky, Robert W seph R. Grodin Brown. The A P and Wa Mr. SMITH. Do you have anything else to offer in connection with this demonstration? Mr. MONTGOMERY. I might say this, that there was a plea made to drop the charges, the arrest charges of these pickets, and Police Chief Thomas Cahill-well, I have the article here. I am reading from the SF News-Call Bulletin of March 10 [1964]: Police Chief Thomas Cahill today bluntly rebuffed pleas to drop charges against the howling, jeering demonstrators arrested at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel. Right away a movement started to grant them amnesty, but it did not go over. The same thing always occurs-forget about it, let them go, but in this instance the police and the district attorney, Thomas Lynch, held firm, and prosecutions were had and in almost every instance there was a conviction. Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I request the document be received in the record. Mr. ASHBROOK. It will be received. (Document marked "Montgomery Exhibit No. 20" and retained in committee files.) Mr. ASHBROOK. You may proceed. Mr. SMITH. Have you made a survey or study of the People's World, the Communist Party publication on the West Coast? Mr. MONTGOMERY. Yes, but I find I have one other exhibit here concerning the Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination. On September 4, 1964, the Ad Hoc Committee staged a demonstration at the Oakland Tribune in Oakland. There were 56 pickets present and among those recognized on the line-and I, myself, recognized these people-were: Tracy Sims, Mike Myerson, Harold and Carol Supriano, Roscoe Proctor, Conn Hallinan, Terence Hallinan, Frances Tandy, and Margaret Lima. An article appeared in the Daily Californian, which is the student publication at U of C-Berkeley on September 16, 1964. It identifies certain organizations as composing the Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination, the same list of organizations that I referred to earlier. But you get along a little further and you find that they put out a flyer. This reads: "the Ad Hoc Committee To End Discrimination Presents a CONFERENCE on DISCRIMINATION & URBAN PROBLEMS in Alameda County," at a meeting to be held on January 23, and among others Mr. SMITH. What year? Mr. MONTGOMERY. They were going to have a workshop on police brutality. This was a particular workshop, on this occasion, police brutality, addressed by Malcolm Burnstein, an attorney, and Mark Comfort, who we have referred to earlier. Mr. SMITH. You indicated the rally was held on January 23. What year was that? Mr. MONTGOMERY. 1965. Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I request these documents be received for the record. (Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits Nos. 21 and 22," respectively, and retained in committee files.) Mr. ASHBROOK. This might be a good place to stand in recess until 2 o'clock. We understand you have a lot of additional information you can. give for the record so we will stand in recess at noon to reconvene at 2 o'clock to continue the same line of inquiry. (Whereupon, at 12 noon, Thursday, June 27, 1968, the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 2 p.m. the same day.) AFTERNOON SESSION-THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1968 (The subcommittee reconvened at 2:20 p.m., Hon. John M. Ashbrook presiding.) Mr. ASHBROOK. The committee will resume its sitting. We welcome you back, Mr. Montgomery. I remind you, you still continue under oath of this morning. Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, since Mr. Montgomery is going to be using a large number of documents in support of his testimony, I would like to make a blanket request that all of his documents offered be accepted for the record. Mr. ASHBROOK. To be inserted at the place where they are referred to? Mr. SMITH. Right. Mr. ASHBROOK. All right. That will be the operating procedure. Will you please propound the next question? TESTIMONY OF EDWARD S. MONTGOMERY-Resumed Mr. SMITH. Mr. Montgomery, just before we recessed for lunch, I asked you the question, "Have you made a survey or study of the People's World, the Communist Party publication on the West Coast?” Mr. MONTGOMERY. Yes, sir, I have. I have reviewed the San Francisco edition of the People's World from January 1, 1962, until May 1968. Mr. SMITH. What conclusions have you reached on its content? Mr. MONTGOMERY. Well, first, I am sure the committee recognizes the fact that the People's World is the propaganda medium, the outlet for the Communist Party in the San Francisco Bay or West Coast area. The articles in all the People's World issues run consistent. The Vietnam issue is favored with considerable space. The People's World supports minorities that receive major attention. There is hardly an issue that fails to make claims of police brutality, along with photographs showing the police in the worst light possible. These photographs cover demonstrations both internationally and within the United States. And when it becomes necessary for legal law enforce ment, the articles and photographs are always in support of participants in the riots and the attack on police for brutality for enforcing the law as enacted by the Federal, State, and local legislative bodies. I have some exhibits that can be introduced as examples of the type of propaganda I have described. I am sure this type of reporting has an influence on the type of reaction of any given community, but the point I am making is that the steady diet of this, particularly within the minority groups, is the type of propaganda that tends to inflame them toward the disturbances and riots that subsequently occur as part of a gradual buildup. As exhibits, I have the People's World for Saturday, May 2, 1964, "Civil rights runs into cop violence," in which the emphasis here is on the police rather than on the individuals who are putting on the demonstration [Montgomery Exhibit No. 23]. Again, "Police run amok in Harlem" [People's World, July 25, 1964, Montgomery Exhibit No. 24]. Now, even though this publication is on the West Coast, they will reach out to New York. Anything at all to put the police department in a bad light whenever they can. Again, "Harlem bitter-killer cop let off" [People's World, September 5, 1964, Montgomery Exhibit No. 25]. This is typical of the type of propaganda being disseminated in the Bay area, even though some of these topics have no connection at all with the State of California. (Documents marked "Montgomery Exhibits Nos. 23, 24, and 25," respectively, and retained in committee files.) Mr. SMITH. What documents do you have on the Communist Party agitation prior to the San Francisco riot on September 27, 1966? Mr. MONTGOMERY. Well, in addition to the copies that I have submitted for the record, we have Xerox copies of the same tenor, the same demand of a probe on police brutality and cop brutality. They run: "Crime wave? It was created with headlines, not with facts" [People's World, May 19, 1962, Montgomery Exhibit No. 26]. "Brutality slated to be trial issue" [Montgomery Exhibit No. 27]. "Behind Oakland 'riot'-cop brutality charge" [Montgomery Exhibit No. 28]. "SF police tactics stir new ire" [Montgomery Exhibit No. 29]. And they follow through in succession and quite often they call it racist violence, and even pictures from Harlem which are published in San Francisco depicting alleged brutality by the police, simply alleging how cops manhandle welfare sit-ins and what not. They are all part and parcel of the same type of material. I can list them one by one if you wish, but I hit the headlines of them, and I am sure you wouldn't want the entire text Mr. SMITH. Would you list them one by one, please? Mr. MONTGOMERY. Right. For instance, there is one, the article carries the caption, "Brutality slated to be trial issue" [People's World, July 21, 1962]. And the People's World of July 7, 1962 Mr. SMITH. Would you pass them over? |