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munist Party and, subsequently, organizations of the Red Chinese-oriented Communists, such as the Progressive Labor Party and organizations affiliated with it. Mr. Romerstein declared that the Communist Party had very little success in gaining recruits among the Negro working class in the past. He added:

But we have suddenly seen a new approach by the Communists. Rather than attempting to win over Negro workers whom they have been unsuccessful with, there is now an attempt to win over another segment of the Negro population, a segment which exists in every population, the juvenile delinquent and semicriminal element. * * *

The committee investigator introduced documents which showed "police brutality" agitation by the Communists, from 1948 on, in this country. He made specific references to Progressive Labor publications which were disseminated in the months prior to, during, and after the 1964 Harlem riot. These publications deliberately framed police brutality incidents in propaganda form. The headlines: "POLICE WAR ON HARLEM," "COPS TRIGGER TWO MORE MURDERS," "COPS BEAT PICKETS IN THIRD ST. 'WAR," are indicative of the type of inflammatory literature which was distributed by PLM. The witness told of a rally of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) which was held shortly after, and only a few blocks away from, the PLM rally of July 18, 1964, the day the riot started.

The CORE rally, aforementioned, actually served to bring a large crowd marching down to the police station in Harlem for a confrontation with the police.

Mr. Romerstein told the subcommittee of the statement of rent strike leader, Jesse Gray, at a July 19, 1964, meeting of various Harlem-based militant organizations after the first night of rioting. The committee investigator stated:

He called for a hundred skilled black revolutionaries who are ready to die to correct what he called the police brutality situation in Harlem. He said, "There is only one thing that can correct the situation, and that is guerrilla warfare." Jesse Gray was a fifth amendment witness before the Committee on Un-American Activities in 1960. He had been identified in sworn testimony as the former organizer for the Communist Party in Harlem. James Farmer, then CORE director, made a speech at this same meeting (which he repeated later the same day on WABC-TV) that he was eyewitness to a policeman in Harlem coldly shooting in the groin a Negro woman who had merely asked him for directions out of the riot area. He, Farmer, later admitted-long after his inflammatory statement had had its effect-that he had only been told of the incident which, after investigation, proved to have never taken place.

Farmer's statement was quoted in a black nationalist magazine and was accepted as fact until months later when the statement was repudiated as nothing more than rumor.

Mr. Romerstein disclosed that the Lower East Side Club of Progressive Labor refused to trigger another riot (during the Harlem disturbance) in their area of New York City "because they felt that they only had a small percentage of the juvenile delinquents **** on the

Lower East Side.

The committee investigator asserted that the Harlem 1964 riot was a classic pattern of a Communist-manipulated civil disorder.

Mr. Romerstein offered for insertion into the record the criminal

contempt citations against five members of the Progressive Labor Movement in New York County.

The five PLM members refused to answer the questions of a New York City grand jury pertaining to the Harlem riot, even though the grand jury voted to confer immunity upon them for any crimes that might have been revealed by their testimony.

TESTIMONY OF RAYMOND WOOD

On November 1, 1967, subcommittee hearings resumed at 10 a.m., and the next witness, Detective Raymond Wood, a member of the New York City Police Department, was sworn in.

In April 1964 Detective Wood, assigned to the Bronx section of New York City, had joined the Bronx chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

He testified that in July 1964, following the riot, he, Herbert Callender, leader of the Bronx CORE chapter, and John Valentine, a member of Bronx CORE, attempted to make a "citizen's" arrest on the mayor. The three were subsequently arrested.

Detective Wood told of meeting, on December 14, 1964, Robert Collier, an ex-member of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). The witness revealed a conversation with Collier pertaining to the need to obtain a list of technical books for Major Ernesto "Che" Guevara, then a member of Castro's Cuban U.N. delegation. Mr. Wood agreed to help Collier obtain the books.

Robert Collier told the witness that he was interested in forming a "Black Liberation Front." The former RAM member described how to use mortars on a police station and disclosed a plan to obtain arms from New York State armories. Collier also had a plan for an alliance with "French Liberation forces," a Canadian activist group, to obtain "plastique" explosives.

The former RAM member also hoped to persuade the leadership of the all-Negro Freedom Now Party to become a "front organization for the Black Liberation Front."

Mr. Wood detailed Collier's plan to blow up docks along the New York City waterfront and the Statue of Liberty. Plans were also discussed among members of the RAM front to blow up the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument.

The witness stated that Robert Collier, Walter Bowe, and Khaleel Sayyed were all convicted in the conspiracy, as fourth member, Michelle Duclos, turned "state's evidence" and was subsequently deported to Canada.

The police detective concluded his testimony by saying that Robert Collier had formulated his plans to blow up the docks and national monuments in order to help create a situation of guerrilla warfare in the United States by showing young Negroes who wished to fight that somebody was prepared to take positive violent action. Collier hoped that these young Negroes could be recruited for guerrilla warfare or for future riot activity.

TESTIMONY OF HERBERT ROMERSTEIN-RESUMED

Committee investigator Romerstein resumed his testimony concerning the 1964 Harlem riot on November 1, 1967. His testimony was centered around the postriot period of the 1964 riot and outlined the activities of various organizations which have continued to foster discord among the races and which continue to circulate highly inflammatory literature designed to maintain a high degree of racial tension in the New York area.

The committee investigator noted that "Progressive Labor continued its agitational activity after the Harlem riot." He introduced several exhibits which graphically demonstrated the postriot propaganda activity of the Progressive Labor Movement.

Mr. Romerstein testified briefly regarding the East Harlem disturbances in 1967. He recalled that the altercation was termed "minor" in terms of the number of participants and damage.

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Committee investigator Romerstein emphasized the point that a "relative handful" of people "trained and prepared to commit acts of violence can always be considerably more dangerous than a large mob that has no direction and that can be controlled by the police.' Mr. Romerstein reported in his testimony on the activities of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) in this country in order to further demonstrate how far a small handful of individuals, dedicated to violence, can go toward disrupting society. He cited the abortive plot by RAM members to assassinate moderate Negro leaders as one example of the determination of RAM members to disrupt American society.

The witness described the backgrounds of certain RAM members in order to show that, for the most part, these individuals were highly educated-one member was an assistant principal of a school in New York City-and held "extremely good white-collar jobs."

Mr. Romerstein noted that a Black Arts Theater in New York City had been a recipient of Federal poverty funds. The theater, discovered to have been a storage house for weapons, had once produced a play instructing Negroes in methods of slaying white persons.

The witness went on to cite example after example of continued organizational propaganda activity in and around the Harlem area in the postriot period (July 1964 to the present day). He cited the examples of agitation of groups such as:

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), whose director of international affairs, James Foreman, called for the various Afro-Asian U.N. delegations to put direct and indirect pressures on the U.S. Government to stop "unwarranted and brutal suppression' of Americain [sic] Negroes by police."

Mau Mau Society, whose leader, Charles Morris, was quoted as saying Negro youth "must take machetes and destroy Uncle Toms" (Negroes friendly to whites).

Exhibits were entered on these and other groups which have been involved in racial agitation in the New York City area following the 1964 Harlem riot. Mr. Romerstein emphasized that such racial agitation is currently taking place as it has over the past 4 years and longer.

At the close of testimony into the Harlem riot, Chairman Willis stated:

I do not believe there can be doubt in the mind of any reasonable person but that these activities tended to-and were designed to-inflame the community and arouse emotions to such an intense pitch that any number of incidents might have touched off a riot.

The Progressive Labor Party, of course, was not the only subversive organization operating in the area. Other such groups took actions and distributed propaganda which inflamed the community. The most important role, however, was clearly played by the Progressive Labor Party.

In my view, there is no doubt but that subversive elements played a major and probably the key role in precipitating the Harlem riot of July 1964.

SUBVERSIVE INFLUENCES IN RIOTS, LOOTING, AND

BURNING

Part 2

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1967

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES,

PUBLIC HEARINGS

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., in Room 311, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C., Hon. Edwin E. Willis (chairman) presiding. (Subcommittee members: Representatives Edwin E. Willis, of Louisiana, chairman; William M. Tuck, of Virginia; Richard H. Ichord, of Missouri; John M. Ashbrook, of Ohio; and Albert W. Watson, of South Carolina; also John C. Culver, of Iowa, in absence of Mr. Willis.)

Subcommittee members present: Representatives Willis, Tuck, Ichord, Ashbrook, and Watson.

Staff members present: Francis J. McNamara, director; Chester D. Smith, general counsel; and Herbert Romerstein, investigator. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

Gentlemen, I respectfully request that there be no photographs taken in the room.

Will you call the first witness?

The first witness this morning is Mr. Adolph W. Hart.

Mr. Hart, will you please raise your right hand?

Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give the subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. HART. I do.

TESTIMONY OF ADOLPH W. HART

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, as the committee is aware, the hearings will cover the Harlem riot of 1964 and activities conducted by certain groups prior to, during, and after the riot.

The riot broke out on July 18, 1964. It lasted 6 days. It resulted in 1 death, 118 reported injuries, 465 arrests, and millions of dollars in property damage.

It should be pointed out that notwithstanding the fact that there

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