alma
10-27-2008, 08:31 PM
What an incredibly handsom man he was..
I first saw him when he was sitting on the doorstep at 14th and U Sts in washington d.c. while i was working for Martin Luther King's Poor People's campaign in the late sixties.
He sure didn't look, on that day, like he carried himself shortly later after when he began to come in more and more and seemed to take over the place as much as he could.
When any white person would try to talk to him, he would say, "I don't talk to the press", and dismissed them abruptly.
Actually, he spent a lot of time on the second floor mixing with all kinds of people, and was a friend to one of my white friends.
He had had a slight automobile accident with him and was good on his promise to have the car fixed at his expense, etc.
I saw him on t.v. last night, and it brought mny things to mind about the man as i knew him.
He didn't appear to like me at all, and would hover over any work i was doing and got a big kick out of harrasing me.
When i would try to go through a door to go up stairs, he would stand in my way with his hand leaning across the door and i had to talk to him when i sure didn't want to speak to him and have him dismiss me, but i would have to say "Excuse me" to get by, and he would laugh like it was great fun.
He is the one who coined the phrase "black power" and injected a lot of energy into the civil rights movement that was not the same spirit that Dr. King was trying to bring to bear.
I was at the headquarters when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, as i recall, and stokely, who had been listening on the radio to Dr. King's shooting and talking on the telephone.
I was sitting on a chair next to him and when he began to take pleasure in finding that it was a white man that had shot him.
I got so mad, i pushed my chair into him and took off.
He got up and started to go out onto the street to stir up some kind of trouble, and took the little transister radio with him.
Small radios were not very common in those days, and the police thought he had been carrying a gun.
Later we all had to tell them that he had taken our silver radio and that was all he had with him.
A riot started shortly after and we were escorted out of the city because of the increasingly hostil environmnet, and some people just stayed upsairs.
Many people called us to make long distant calls to their folks to tell them they were ok.
The next day the national guard had occupied the streets and we were asked to bring in food and we did, as well as other people.
Thats all i can think of at the moment.
I think stokely was from jamaca.
These were truly the best of times and the worst time in d. c. in the 1960s. love, alma
I first saw him when he was sitting on the doorstep at 14th and U Sts in washington d.c. while i was working for Martin Luther King's Poor People's campaign in the late sixties.
He sure didn't look, on that day, like he carried himself shortly later after when he began to come in more and more and seemed to take over the place as much as he could.
When any white person would try to talk to him, he would say, "I don't talk to the press", and dismissed them abruptly.
Actually, he spent a lot of time on the second floor mixing with all kinds of people, and was a friend to one of my white friends.
He had had a slight automobile accident with him and was good on his promise to have the car fixed at his expense, etc.
I saw him on t.v. last night, and it brought mny things to mind about the man as i knew him.
He didn't appear to like me at all, and would hover over any work i was doing and got a big kick out of harrasing me.
When i would try to go through a door to go up stairs, he would stand in my way with his hand leaning across the door and i had to talk to him when i sure didn't want to speak to him and have him dismiss me, but i would have to say "Excuse me" to get by, and he would laugh like it was great fun.
He is the one who coined the phrase "black power" and injected a lot of energy into the civil rights movement that was not the same spirit that Dr. King was trying to bring to bear.
I was at the headquarters when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, as i recall, and stokely, who had been listening on the radio to Dr. King's shooting and talking on the telephone.
I was sitting on a chair next to him and when he began to take pleasure in finding that it was a white man that had shot him.
I got so mad, i pushed my chair into him and took off.
He got up and started to go out onto the street to stir up some kind of trouble, and took the little transister radio with him.
Small radios were not very common in those days, and the police thought he had been carrying a gun.
Later we all had to tell them that he had taken our silver radio and that was all he had with him.
A riot started shortly after and we were escorted out of the city because of the increasingly hostil environmnet, and some people just stayed upsairs.
Many people called us to make long distant calls to their folks to tell them they were ok.
The next day the national guard had occupied the streets and we were asked to bring in food and we did, as well as other people.
Thats all i can think of at the moment.
I think stokely was from jamaca.
These were truly the best of times and the worst time in d. c. in the 1960s. love, alma