By Chris Eckl

Black power, black POWER, BLACK POWER.

This was the cry of young Negroes at the Baptist Tabernacle on Boulevard Ave., Monday night. The chant grew louder and louder as Willie Ricks, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee worker, shouted into a microphone:

“If we depend on Uncle Toms, we won’t have nothing...the coppers come here and one of us gets killed...we want our freedom and black power...we’re willing to pay any price...we want black power.” The young Negroes then left the church. They came back to hear and argue with Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Williams got the microphone and said, “We are involved in a movement that has a purpose. We are involved...”

A girl shouted, “Don’t be redundant,” and Williams fired back, “Let me expound.” The veteran civil rights worker continued, “There’s a problem -- one of ignorance. White folks never allowed us to get an education...the white man never let the black man earn enough money to feed their families...” Williams began to perspire under the heat of the television lights as he continued his litany of grievances. “A white man can shoot down a Negro because he is a black man...I don’t care how big a job you got, how big a car you got, as long as you’re black you’re a nigger down South.” But Williams continued to say, “You had better think for yourself.” Then he continued: “Even if you go to school, they won’t give the job of a white man unless you’re twice as good...listen baby, listen, we deserve something they have robbed us, whites and Negroes have robbed us, but we got ‘em now. Everybody can play this game, it’s the game of equality...you have dramatized the evils of segregation, and you can now demand what you want.” The SCLC leader then told the crowd, “Don’t overplay your hand, because they’ll call in the National Guard and crush you.” Williams said later while leaning against a car about three blocks from the church that black power is not as entrenched in the Negro community as reported in the news media.

As he talked to newsmen, police cars moved up and down Boulevard and several of them were hit by flying bottles and bricks. Glass was scattered in the street. Officers arrested several Negroes, but the area made it through another night of tension without too much damage.

Williams said he thought the city was willing to work with Negroes, but “if they keep rioting they will lose everything.”

Several Negroes, not involved in the disturbance, said the city must move to help the slum people. One Negro man said black power was a cry of despair...the cry of those who have no education, no training...the cry of those who know they have little or no chance to obtain a decent standard of living. He said they will not listen to Negro leaders and accuse them of selling out to the white man.