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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5796
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Posted on Thursday, December 20, 2007 - 8:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Detroit Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality was active in the 1960s as a strong and militant civil rights group, Black and White together. Headed by James Farmer, there were active chapters across the country back then. jjaba was a grad student at Wayne State then and very active in the Detroit Chapter. Please share any personal recollections.

jjaba on the Westside.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5829
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 4:16 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba bumps this thread up so maybe some will comment. Thanks. If interest is here, jjaba can describe some of the projects and tactics used in this civil rights organization.

jjaba.
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Royce
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Post Number: 2463
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Posted on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 7:00 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba, do tell.
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East_detroit
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Post Number: 1340
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Posted on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 8:41 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes, please share. Some of today's student activists, including those aligning themselves with the memory of SDS, think that writing slogans in chalk on Old Main is going to enact change.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5832
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Posted on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 12:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

In the 1960s before the 1967 conflagration, Detroit CORE met at 12th and Clairmont in an exciting weekly evening meeting.
CORE always had a campaign going on. jjaba broke in on a picketline at Grinnel's Music Store on Livernois and W. Outer Drive. Later he also picketed on Woodward Ave. in front of the downtown store.

At issue was hiring Black people. Grinnel's was the foremost record, sheet music, and piano store in Michigan, yet refused to break the color line.

The picketline always kept moving, had nice big signs, and full of life with song. We would commit to a two hr. block of time and put 50 people on the streets. jjaba was a grad student at Wayne State at the time.

When the management was ready to negotiate, our leaders were willing to go inside. We generally had a flyer telling people on the streets what the issues were with an invitation to come to a meeting. It was always absolutely non-violent and even with detractors, never any serious confrontations. Often, in winter, cars, trucks, cabbies, and buses would splash us. Even police cars liked to participate in that sport.

The print press would walk the line and interview us.

jjaba, recollections of Detroit CORE.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5861
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Posted on Saturday, December 29, 2007 - 5:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroit CORE started out in 1960 and was active until 1967. They were involved in 2 counties in Tennessee in support of the Southern civil rights workers and 3 Detroit CORE members were on the Freedom Rides buses to the South.

The Gloria Brown Papers from her chairmanship of Detroit CORE are at the Bentley Library at UM.
Maybe someone might post some info. from that.
jjaba was a picket captain in those days, 1963-65.

Clyde Cleveland was also Detroit CORE Chairman.
Perhaps you can access his recollections.

jjaba.
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My2cents
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Post Number: 176
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Posted on Saturday, December 29, 2007 - 9:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba would you please illuminate the beginnings of CORE from 47' - mid 60's? And also any thing on Viola Liuzzo would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5864
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Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 1:23 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Viola Gregg Liuzzo,1925-1965, and mother of five children, a student at Wayne State at the time, was taken by the violence on the bridge in Selma, Alabama against peaceful civil rights marchers, March 7, 1965. She told her husband, Anthony, a Teamsters Union Business Agent, that she would organize a protest on Wayne's campus, and then go to Selma to assist. It was everybody's fight, not just those in Selma.

So she drove her 2-door 1963 Oldsmobile, registered in Michigan, down there and joined the civil rights movement. She was active in the Unitarian Church in Detroit.

On the night of March 25, 1965, Viola was driving some civil rights workers home, and there was one remaining young black man in the car when the KKK pulled up beside her on a highway and shot her twice in the head. She died instantly. The kid played dead as the KKK inspected the car. When they left, the kid ran away, unharmed.

Amongst the KKK in that car was Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant, who ratted out his compatriots.
There were numerous trials, prison for some, and acquittals for others. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson announced the arrests 24 hrs. after they were hauled in. This violence led to the quick passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act signed by Pres. Johnson.

Viola Liuzzo was returned to Detroit with a public funeral at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Detroit. It was attended by Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, James Farmer of CORE, Michigan Gov. Milliken, Walter P. Reuther of the UAW, and James R. Hoffa, of the Teamsters Union.

Viola's husband Anthony never remarried and died on Dec. 10, 1978. Some of her children have changed their names to Lee to avoid the bitter reminders of the death of their mother.

A 2004 movie documentary of her life and death is called "Home of the Brave."

jjaba.
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East_detroit
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Post Number: 1368
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Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 1:50 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

More info on Ms Liuzzo:

http://www.daahp.wayne.edu/int erviewsDisplay.php?id=6#
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Danny
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Post Number: 6913
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Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 9:14 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

James Farmer, founder of CORE used to be one of the Great Debaters. He was on the Debate Team for Wiley College. His Debate team was 16 and 1 and defeated Harvard's Debate Team with an outstanding rebuttal argument by witnessing a real live lynching of a young black male by mob of racist white folks. He said that in Texas there is CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE and that is Jim Crow. He also said that civil disobedience can be solved by violence. However civil disobedience can be stopped if our govt' install more laws to protect people. He also made this final quote:

" If my people were hurt with civil disobedience, they will answer it with violence. But I hope you all pray that my people will choose the latter."
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My2cents
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Post Number: 177
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Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 2:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thank you jjaba, East_Detroit and Danny!

jjaba, continually rounding out My2Cents' education over the years........priceless.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5868
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Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 7:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

We all knew of James Farmer, Jr. of Marshall, Texas. CORE had national conventions.

Let it be known that jjaba and many Detroit CORE members were not African-Americans. The organization was integrated and it was "Black and White together." We organized together, we marched toegther, we sat in together, we went to jail together.

jjaba, Detroit CORE in the 1960s.
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65memories
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Post Number: 496
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Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 9:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Danny...The Great Debaters is an excellent film, capturing the era of the pre-Civil Rights movement in the 1930's. Although Denzel Washington took some liberties with the story (the team actually beat USC...Champion at the time, not Harvard and except for James Farmer, the other debaters are composite characters). Still,it is a very moving film. Great cast. Great acting. Four stars.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5879
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Posted on Tuesday, January 01, 2008 - 4:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

65, ditto from jjaba. He saw the film New Year's Eve. jjaba recommends it, and really enjoyed it given his connection with James Farmer and CORE.
jjaba.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5882
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Posted on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 3:36 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Krogers in the 1960s and before, would not promote Black workers very far above clerk, stockboys, or sweeps. Detroit CORE tried to convince them to promote worthy employees or hire from outside into the ranks of management.
They refused so we picketed stores. After that didn't work, we conducted nicely tailored "shop ins".

We'd pick a Saturday and 50 members of Detroit CORE on our own would hit the closest store to our homes. We'd have a ketchup day around 4th of July and load up all the ketchup in our carts from the shelves and then push the cart around. Then, we'd check out, then tell the clerk, we decided we didn't need the ketchup and not pay.

Another tactic was to just shop and fill our carts with assorted single items, place them on the checkout counter and refuse to pay, walking out. Re-stocking understock in a grocery store is very time-consuming and expensive.

Or we'd have another item, pick clean the shelf, and just leave the cart in an obscure aisle, and boogy on out of the store.

Shop-ins went on for quite a time, until Krogers caved and started practicing fair employment practices.

This is the legacy of Detroit CORE in the 1960s.

jjaba, Picket Captain.
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Dds
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Post Number: 496
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Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 3:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow! 4:08 am and 3:36 am post times. That must have been some New Years Eve party. Don't you ever sleep?
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5890
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Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 5:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba is the night janitor in a Detroit Blind Pig and posts on his breaks. But thanks for asking, Dds.

jjaba, 1960s Detroit CORE.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5895
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Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 9:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Michigan AAA would not sell policies to Blacks nor employ them in their agency. Detroit CORE made some demands which went unheard.

So at the AAA retail office on Bagley behind the Statler hotel, Detroit CORE ran pickets and even did sit-ins after the offices closed. We refused to leave. jjaba was a picket captain and stayed outside. He was arrested elsewhere.

For negotiations, we went upstairs to the AAA bosses in the United Artists Theater Bldg. After a long fight, we did make progress. Ofcourse, later they moved to Dearborn and left the city altogether. jjaba has never been in the new bldg.

jjaba urges you to see "The Debaters" with Denzel Washington, now playing. It is about James Farmer, leader of CORE.

jjaba, Westsider.
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Jimaz
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Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 10:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ah, thank you, Jjaba. "Shop ins" is pure genius! We need more stories like that.

This reminds me of a chapter in Divine Right's Trip wherein brightly-colored, and therefore innocent-looking, squirt guns were loaded with hydrochloric acid--just strong enough to weaken the fabric of uniforms on contact yet not strong enough to cause personal injury (avoid the eyes).

Imagine the humiliation of progressively-denuded officers trying to maintain their dignity while attempting to arrest conscientious civilian patriots!

Hilarity ensues.

(Message edited by Jimaz on January 03, 2008)
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5896
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 12:28 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jimaz, the most dramatic of the shop-ins was Saul Alinsky and his Woodlawn Organization in Chicago. They shopped Marshall Fields. Fields was known as an all-white store, customers and the help.

They ordered tvs, ranges, beds, big sofas for delivery. Then, at the curb at home, the customers said they had changed their minds. All of the items were from regular charge customers, mostly unsuspecting white people. Imagine that warehouse nightmare when the trucks came back with the merchandise. They caved like a house of cards after a few of those events.

jjaba, Civil Rights Memories.
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Omaha
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 4:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember hearing a story, I think it was in graduate school at Wayne State, about the Woodlawn Organization and Marshall Fields. It’s another story about putting economic pressure Fields to get it to change its hiring policies. At Christmas time, black women entered the store downtown and tried on expensive clothes only to restock them on the shelves and racks. As a result, white matronly shoppers who had come into the city from the suburbs were "appalled" and avoided shopping at Marshall Fields.

Then there was the story about threatening to go to O’Hare airport (the jewel in Mayor Daley’s crown) and for just one day to use and stand in line to wait at every urinal and toilet in the place so that departing and arriving passengers couldn’t use them. Woodlawn wanted Mayor Daley to agree to increase city services on the South Side to the same level that his Bridgeport neighborhood enjoyed. The mayor caved! Ah, those were the days.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5908
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 5:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Omaha, welcome to The Forum. You are absolutely right about ORD. The threat was enough for Daley to cave. It was known as a Shit-in. The planners were to hand out magazines.

Where the hell was Senator Larry Craig when we needed him?

jjaba, wide stance.
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Eastside61
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Post Number: 705
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 5:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba - As an actual student who went to an Eastside HS I am sure you remember ESSVID in the mid to late 60's......an active civil rights group in the Southeastern neighborhood.....
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Goblue
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Post Number: 878
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 8:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba: You continue to evoke the guilts in me...while you were on the lines I was partying in my ignorance...I shoulda been there with you...especially on the WMU campus.
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Eastside61
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 10:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

GB - You feel guilty? Remember ... you never were on the WMU campus BUT us TRUE EASTSIDERS like Jjaba and myself were working the streets on the eastside.....

Esatside and Jjaba - Totally Eastside
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Lefty2
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Post Number: 849
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 11:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I thought Romney was Governor 1963-69.
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Detroitinmyheart
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Username: Detroitinmyheart

Post Number: 171
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 11:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba joined the right group.
We can only hope some of your wisdom will rub off on these dumb ass kids and they will see that CORE is the only true civil rights and equality movement left and they will stop listening to hate mongers such as the likes of Farakhan,Sharpton and Jackson.
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Whithorn11446
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Post Number: 176
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Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 11:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"I thought Romney was Governor 1963-69."

That is correct. George Romney defeated Gov. John Swainson in the November 1962 election. Bill Milliken became governor in 1969 after Romney left Lansing to become Nixon's HUD secretary.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5910
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Posted on Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 12:45 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Soapy Williams handed jjaba his diploma at WMU in June, 1963. Was he not Governor then?

Eastside61, thanks for adopting jjaba to the Eastside. It's an honor jjaba cherishes. As for your group, never heard of it. Talk to us about your campaigns. In the time jjaba was active in Detroit CORE, we worked cases either downtown or West of Woodward. We met at 12th and Clairmont storefront.

jjaba, Detroit CORE in the 1960s.
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Whithorn11446
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Post Number: 177
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Posted on Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 12:52 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Soapy Williams handed jjaba his diploma at WMU in June, 1963. Was he not Governor then?"

No, he was not governor in 1963. Mennen Williams did not run for reelection in 1960 and he accepted a State Department position with the Kennedy administration in 1961. I believe the position was under Secretary for African affairs.
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Professorscott
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Post Number: 1021
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Posted on Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 12:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Professor had the pleasure of knowing the late George Pickering, one of the finest minds who ever graced our presence in Detroit and co-authored "Confronting the Color Line", a book about the successes and failures of the civil rights movement in Chicago. One of my proudest possessions is an autographed copy of the same.

Another good read is Dr. Isaiah McKinnon's book; the former police chief tells a story about his encounter with a southern-import bigot cop early in his life and how it formed him. That's just one story out of many. I got to meet Ike about 15 years ago and despite that am probably misspelling his name. We knoshed on Thai food in Ferndale.

Fantastic thread; this history has not been adequately communicated to our youth IMVHO. Jjaba, I am fascinated by your history as described here. In fact I was thinking about you when I boarded the northwest-bound Dexter bus, about 12 hours ago. We (riders) discussed how insane it was that Mrs. Lynne Spears had been planning to write a book on parenting. The discussion alone was worth the buck fifty, not that it cost me that (the Prof carries a regional bus pass).

Prof. Scott
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5913
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Posted on Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 2:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Professor Scott, thanks for your kind words.

So here's one for you about the Southfield Post Office on W. Seven mile Rd. I'm certain you know it. It was segregated, no blacks allowed to work there. Period. No carriers, no clerks, no drivers, nada.

Detroit CORE put up a picket there. They caved like a cheap envelope from Europe. Soon, the post office assigned some Blacks out there and they worked the routes, etc. and the fear of a Black mailman quickly evaporated in that district.

After picketing each morning, jjaba and his merry band wanted to have breakfast across the street at a Greek joint. Onliest problem, they didn't serve Blacks. What do do?

So one morning there in 1964 after picketing, only the white guys went in and were ordering when in walked the Blacks form CORE who were refused even to be seated. They left and went to another location.

When our food arrived, jjaba passing for white, and about ten others, stood up, and pitched our entire plates of basted eggs, hash browns, coffee, sausages, etc. on the walls of the place and left. The plates were flying like missiles. Then, at the planned other location, jjaba called on the payphone and told the Greek owner guy what had happened. He was closed already for the day. Then up went the butcher paper, "closed for remodel."

Two weeks later, freshly painted, the son re-opened up and welcomed all customers, including the new Blacks employed by the Post Office. The father had retired, never to cook again, and unable to serve all customers. That's how we did it in Detroit CORE when we did a "dine-in."

jjaba, Westside memories from 1964. jjaba lived a mile from there on Sussex and W. Seven Mile Rd. at that time, WSU grad student.
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Detroitinmyheart
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Post Number: 172
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Posted on Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 7:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"jjaba passing for white, and about ten others, stood up, and pitched our entire plates of basted eggs, hash browns, coffee, sausages, etc. on the walls of the place and left"

Maybr I was wrong ,obviously you did not follow the groups rules either.
no matter what the circumstances may be,If you are proud of damaging others property then I feel sorry for you.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5916
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Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 2:02 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Means-ends. It's very personal. All's jjaba is doing is describing behaviors. Behavior follows circumstances and values. On that day, date, and time, civil disobedience seemed logical.

Those who commit civil disobedience are driven to do it for some reason. And for some reason, there were no police involved. That day, jjaba drove off to school and was in class at WSU that day.

In the subculture of the civil rights movement, it was endorsed by our peers. Read about the Freedom Rides on Southern Greyhound buses. They too violated the laws, and paid in blood. Means-ends. The ends justify the means. Rosa Parks violated the law on that Montgomery bus, and her bus is in the Henry Ford Museum. jjaba is certain that the Ford Museum doesn't condone law breakers for an instance. So jjaba asks Detroitinmyheart to explain that.

Examine what circumstances in life might press you to violate some immoral law. Think about the 1960s and think about public accomodations in a neighborhood restaunant in the City of Detroit.
Don''t feel too sorry for jjaba, feel sorry for a racist city which wouldn't serve everybody.
This thread is about history, that's the long and short of it.

jjaba.
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Reddog289
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Post Number: 178
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Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 4:15 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba,in my mind you speak the truth, i,d been pissed if that was my resturant but things change and they sure did back in the 60,s. having seen the debaters film i,d do what i had to if i was oppressed. im glad that i didn,t have to live in an era where a black man could not go into the same place of business as me.
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Omaha
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Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 9:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Speaking of destroying private property and obeying the rules/laws, here’s a post that I added to another topic that may help put the idea of destroying property into another context. I hope Lowell will allow me to post it here as well.

Andrew Jackson wasn’t the only person on this side of the Atlantic concerned about corporate power. Our Founding Fathers were very wary of corporations. The largest “multinational corporation” of that age was the English East India Company. Among other things, it grew tea in India and sold it around the world. Many of its investors were English Royalty and other well connected people of the day. The job of the East India Company was to make profits for its investors, not unlike the “fiduciary responsibility” that senior corporate decision makers have today.

Americans who studied our revolution remember the expression: “No taxation without representation.” The cry arose in the Colonies as England tried to pay off the large war debt incurred during the Seven Year War with France. The version on this side of the Atlantic was the French and Indian War.

Just like today, wars cost money. And unlike in the U.S. today (Iraq and Afghanistan), the English government raised that money to pay the war debt by taxing its citizens. But the English tax payers had had enough and were asserting their rights and rejecting the idea of additional taxation. So, how could Parliament raise taxes to pay off the war debt and not further anger those living in Mother England? You guessed it, tax those living in the 13 Colonies. There were quite a few taxes imposed on the Colonials to help pay off the war debt: the Sugar Act of 1764; the Stamp Act of 1765; the Townshend Acts of 1767; and finally the Tea Act of 1773.

This last tax act brings me back to the East India Company. It had unsold tea and no place to sell it. And that can be hard on profits! The Company needed a break…a tax break! So it used its political power to get itself exempted from the 1773 Tea Act.

Because of the East India Company’s “competitive advantage” this sweet deal was not only intended to help it sell its tea, but also to drive small entrepreneurial tea merchants in the Colonies out of business. Don’t you love the way competitors play when left to themselves in the “free market?”

The Americans didn’t like the Colonies being used as a profit center for the East India Company. The resulting brouhaha on this side of the Atlantic was considered, by some, the turning point in this nation becoming independent. The act of vandalism, this intentional assault on private corporate property was later called the “Boston Tea Party.” Imagine, Americans on limited incomes not wanting to take advantage of cheaper goods (boycotting tea) because the seller, the East India Company, would drive small mom and pop tea sellers out of business.

The memory of the East India Company also made an English economist named Adam Smith nervous about the unfair advantage that large corporations have in free markets of the emerging capitalist economy.

And the memory of corporations using their near monopoly power in the free market led Thomas Jefferson to lament that there wasn’t an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to address the issue. He wrote nearly forty years after the Boston Tea Party, “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

So Andrew Jackson, for all his faults, wasn’t alone in worrying about the creation of a new aristocracy in America, an aristocracy based on wealth. Wealth attributable to corporations.
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Detroitinmyheart
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Post Number: 173
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Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 10:36 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"On that day, date, and time, civil disobedience seemed logical"

Ordering the food and leaving would have been enough to get the point across to them.
You took it to a criminal level.

Civil Disobedience it was not.Civil Disibediance does not involve the destruction of one's property.
Criminal is what it was.
This is exactly why decent groups like CORE end up with a bad rep in the long run.
If you are still involved please just be more careful on how you carry out plans.

(Message edited by detroitinmyheart on January 06, 2008)
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5919
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Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 3:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroitinmyheart, your point is very well taken.
Ofcourse, you know that all civil disobedience violates the law. The subject is disobedient to law that he/she violates.

In the case of the neighborhood restaurant out on W. Seven mile Rd. near Southfield Rd., ordering food and not paying for it is a violation of law in itself. There were various forms of dine-ins, including the famous sit-ins at Woolworth lunch counters all over America. jjaba described an instance of a day and time in Detroit, our version, however far away it might have been from what others might have done.

To put you at ease, jjaba is talking about the 1960s and Detroit CORE. This thread is limited to that perspective as an oral history.

jjaba, civil rights memories.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 5920
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 4:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

At the corner of Grand Blvd. and Woodward sits the Ford Motor Company Service Building, which in the 1960s was the Detroit headquarters, Michigan Employment Security Commission, the main unemployment office for Detroit's unemployed workers. This is a State of Michigan public office bldg., open to everybody.

In the lobby of that bldg. was an Italian-American barber who had been cited by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission for refusal to serve all people. But he continued to violate the law.

So Detroit CORE decided to become a party to the testimony using the "sandwich" technique.

jjaba went in for a haricut one morning and the barber was cutting his hair, jjaba passing for white. Everything was honkey-dorey until Ray, a Black CORE member came in to wait for his haircut in the one-man shop.

As he cut jjaba's hair, he barked at Ray to leave since he didn't cut "your kinds". Ray, is blind, and really a charming and fearless young man. The barber referred him to another shop, the barber said he didn't know how to cut his hair, that he'd wreck his haircut, etc. Ray offered to show him how, and coach him through it. Ray demanded service there, and it got heated while jjaba is sitting there, and with barber, razor in hand.

In walks another white customer to wait for a haircut, another CORE member. The barber says to him, "You're next." "This n-word is just causing trouble." Always polite and without any show of anger, Ray simply leaves.

Then, the barber lectures two white CORE members of the evils of the way the State is pushng him around. He pulls out a leter from the State demanding he cut everybody's hair, and to appear at a hearing. He's hanging on, protecting his right to refuse service, and spilling hit guts about how it was before the 1960s changes.

So the two white guys finish their haricuts and all three of us re-group in a mutually planned restaurant and write our notes for legal actions.
Over coffee and a roll, we discuss our experiences.

Over the next few weeks, the complaints were filed as principals in State and Detroit City actions against the barber. Then, we observed that he had moved out. A new barber who served all had rented the space. We were never called to testify in the action.

jjaba, recalling the "sandwich technique."
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Detroitinmyheart
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Username: Detroitinmyheart

Post Number: 174
Registered: 12-2007
Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 4:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I know what civil disobediance is. Taking it to that level is always uncalled for.
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Jimaz
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Username: Jimaz

Post Number: 4219
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008 - 8:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba, I envy your life spent well.

The Boston Tea Party involved destruction of property too. Sometimes there's a principle at stake higher than property rights involving a few plates.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 5923
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, January 07, 2008 - 1:01 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Omaha and Jimaz, the Boston Tea Party is part of of our collective traditions. We all learned it and we can easily see where it occured in Boston. Nobody hides the facts of revolution.

Our country has been built on such such rebellion.

jjaba.
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Hankrogers
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Username: Hankrogers

Post Number: 1
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Monday, January 07, 2008 - 8:50 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba-

I'm doing research on Hank Rogers, the WCO, the United Tenants, CORE, and attempts to secure community control of urban renewal and construction. I have information on CORE's campaign against the slum lords the Goodman brother, including the St. Regis hotel. Could you talk about how these groups interacted on these issues? Also, do have personal reflections of either Hank Rogers or United Construction trades Local 124, an independent, Black-led, multi-trades construction union formed in Detroit in 1968. Lastly, what organizations/activities did CORE members enter after the organization folded?

Thanks for your time and for sharing your memories
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 5926
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, January 07, 2008 - 12:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba is sketchy about The St. Regis hotel but remember something about scab labor there, right?

By 1968, jjaba had taken a job in Cincinnati, left there, and was working in Chicago. His Detroit CORE activities were mostly 1963-65.

You might refer to the Gloria Brown papers at the Burton Library at UM. She gave them boxes of records which are catalogued. She was President of Detroit CORE during that period.

jjaba, hope this is helpful.
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Hankrogers
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Username: Hankrogers

Post Number: 2
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Monday, January 07, 2008 - 10:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba-

Thanks for your thoughts. I've visited the Brown papers, and would also recommend the archives of the Reuther library at Wayne for those who are interested. The St. Regis was where five CORE members chained themselves to a fence to halt construction on a high end hotel when its owners, the Goodman brothers, had failed to repair their numerous inner city properties. Did you know Hank Rogers at this time...He was active in the NAACP, particularly its efforts organizing tenants.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 5930
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 - 1:43 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba presumes you are Hank Rogers. If so, did you know Clyde Cleveland or a guy named Niederhauser.
jjaba can't recall Hank Rogers without a photo.

jjaba was very involved and went to jail over the Azam Family Store case, Mc Graw and 14th St.s. Remember them?

So what did you find out in the historical papers at the two collections? jjaba could post his name if need be, this would be a first in al his posts. If oyu found jjab'as real name there, that would be something. (Detroit CORE 1963-65)

jjaba.
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Hankrogers
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Username: Hankrogers

Post Number: 3
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 - 10:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'm not Hank Rogers...Just used the name to see if it caught anyone's attention. Hank rogers passed away in 1971 after heading Detroit's Ad Hoc Construction Coalition. My explorations into Detroit CORE has been limited to community organizing around the tenants issues, although the many of the things you've mentioned prior can be found in these papers - the AAA protests, Kroger, etc. I'll work on your name, though...I'll also post the paper I'm writing when it's completed.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 5931
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 - 12:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hankrogers, welcome to the Forum.
email jjaba if you want his name.

jjaba would love to read Gloria Brown's notes on some of those actions.

apanitch@comcast.net

jjaba.
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Craig
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Username: Craig

Post Number: 622
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 - 10:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hank - sounds like you're describing DRUM. Am I wrong?
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Hankrogers
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Username: Hankrogers

Post Number: 4
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 1:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No, not DRUM but groups that worked with DRUM, the LRBW, and community control groups and organizations - and were in many ways part of the same local movement.
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Omaha
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Username: Omaha

Post Number: 18
Registered: 12-2007
Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 9:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was familiar with the WCO when in school at Wayne State and in the early to mid '70s, together with my fellow students, did a project supporting them that surprisingly upset Maryann Mahaffey who was also a faculty member at Wayne.

I also remember DRUM and LRBW. Their history is detailed in the book Detroit, I Do Mind Dying.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 5936
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 9:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba has read that book but didn't perticipate in that movement. jjaba participated in integration efforts, black and white together, and has never been involved in anything uni-racial.

Black empowerment movements are fine but not something jjaba joined.

jjaba, Detroit CORE in the 1960s.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 5951
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 1:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

John Christian was a young Negro man killed at the Azam's Grocery Store, corner of 14th and Mcgraw on the inner Westside of Detroit. He was in the store during a theft of a 12 cent cake by a young kid. Jacob Azam came from the back room, firing. Christian had been arguing with a female clerk not to worry about the 12 cent cake.

The Azam's were war refugees from Lebanon, victims of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. They had tatooed numbers on their arms. Life had not been pleasant for them. The parents, Louis and Emily Azam had come to America in 1920. They had two sons, Jacob and Abraham.
They lived upstairs above the grocery.
They pack guns under the grocery counter and when they thought kids were stealing from them, shots rang out. Owner Jacob Azam pulled the trigger.

Detroit CORE took action to drive them out of business since the Detroit Police would not make arrests. Detroit CORE picketted the Azam's store, at various times of the day and night, often after our Weds. evening meetings, 10-11pm.
It was dark and cold, the store shuttered at night. Sometimes, 50 of us, singing civil rights songs and carrying picket signs marched in dead of winter. Some days, the pickets were there 16 hrs. a day. It was a real effort.

Across the street was Abraham Azam, Jabob's brother, who owned Zam's Liquor Store. He was a retired Detroit Police Officer. He had killed too. Detroit CORE picketed the liquor store also. This was dangerous stuff, armed camps all around. The pickets were non-violent.

The neighorhood was deeply divided and news stories were printed about how wonderful was this Lebanese-American immigrant family who served this poor community. Azam's belonged to the St. Agnes Catholic Church and their children went to school there. Their priest was for civil rights and for the Azam's. These were troubled times for him.

Police photgraphers under cover, marched with us. They took jjaba's picture and later took up a dragnet to arrest CORE members. jjaba was arrested at his home on Petosky and Ewald Circle
April 4, 1965, age 23, on a charge of "Conspiracy to Injure and Defame." He was held overnight and bailed out the next day in Recorder's Court. While at the Police Headquarters in a large holding cell, jjaba was put in a lineup on a murder rap in the middle of the night. jjaba was not fingered.

On April 23, 1965, the jjaba case was deemed "Nolle Pros" and jjaba's fingerprints, mug shot and arrest records were mailed to him.

Today, 14th and Mcgraw is a ghost corner in Detroit, long abandoned and taken over by nature.

jjaba, Detroit CORE memories.
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Craig
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Username: Craig

Post Number: 627
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 5:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Any idea when the store closed? When did the family move out?
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 937
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 5:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba: I continue to stand in awe of your courage and commitment. Thanks for being there...I deeply wish we'd known each other better at WMU.
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Eastside61
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Username: Eastside61

Post Number: 763
Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 5:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jjaba - What kind of CORE stories do you have that occurred on the Eastside???????
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Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 5954
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 10:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sadly, for reasons unknown, jjaba and CORE didn't campaign on the Eastside while he was there. Like today, Detroit is quite divided and you must trust that jjaba knows very little about that side of town.

The Azam's case was quite scary and divisive. There were so many issues, so much angst on both the family and the neighborhood.

Zam's Liquor Store had just been purchased four months before Detroit CORE arrived and Abraham Azam was worried about having to give back the store to the previous owner if he couldn't make his payments. He grew up living above his parent's store so he knew the area well.

Much like today, these inner city grocery store owners risk alot, yet when they defend themselves, all hell breaks loose. Detroit CORE came up on the side of an angry neighborhood.

jjaba doesn't know how long they held out but he doubts if it was very long. Some customers were loyal, some ministers were loyal, and many were ready to see them go.

How long would you last with a barrage of 16 hrs. a day constant picketing? Like today, people don't like crossing a picketline.

jjaba, Detroit CORE memories.

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