William Kunstler Speaks at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio (Part A)

Good afternoon and welcome my name is Bob Clapton and I'm a student at the U.S. law school. I've been asked to make a couple of announcements before we begin the program. First of all there's no cigarette smoking. When capacity is reached looks like it's already been reached. The fire marshal supposed to be here somewhere to shut it down there's loudspeakers outside for people that can't get in. The ad hoc committee to end repression is scheduled a meeting for noon Saturday at the federal building as it where the questions for today's program because of the size of the crowd will be kind of infused will be taking them directly from the audience. So I think that we've already begun to circulate cards and the questions are being brought up here and being sent up to the microphone to law professors and one law student professor Dewey Professor Goldstein and Dave here of the law school. The reason for this is mainly to avoid repetition. He's only going to be here for an arrow not to have that much time. So we want to get good the good questions up there so that we can have a good discussion. Also I'm told there's a class in here to a cause. We could split as soon as things over I

think a professor probably a pushchair. Perhaps the best way to introduce today's speaker of U.S. to review how do they came to be here. The law school sponsors a monthly forum in which we invite legal persons of national importance to come and speak to the law school. As for back of last November we contacted today speaker invited him to speak here U.S.. He graciously accepted. This man was invited because his experience and background was different than most of the persons generally available to us in the little community in Cincinnati for our educational program was worse. He was suffocated at Yale and Columbia Law School. He's practiced law for over 20 years. He's argued before the Supreme Court of United States many federal courts and state courts. He's written 10

books and published many articles during the last 20 years of practice. He's gone from Jackson Mississippi to Albany Georgia defending southern blacks in their student Freedom Ride demonstrations. It's not just Council for the late Morton Luther King. For Adam Clayton Powell for a flat brown and Stokely Carmichael few words would have been worse. The words that have been presented him by many civic organizations are too numerous to list here is their biography deep in my heart which was published in 1966. It describes his dedication to racial justice in his own words. And you might be interested in reading that. This then was the med that we contacted in November to speak at the U.S. law school. Since that time as we all know too well events the book is named for the footprint the events that are supposed to of course are those who are running one of the most bizarre trials in the

history of American jurisprudence. The trial of the Chicago Seven. Well it's conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic convention. Since the trial has ended our speaker has become the center of a bitter controversy. There are those who blame him as a villain of the piece who quote As for your sentence for contempt of Judge Thomas Quirk who see in him the most evil portent of future the future of violence and destruction. And then there are those of us who view him as a leader of change as an agent with whom we can battle repression. As a man sincerely dedicated to change of the system because that change is necessary and. And you know but this is America. It is not each one of you individually to make up your own mind before attack us. Ladies and gentlemen I introduced you Mr. William M. Cutler

are actually. Oh thank you very very much. I there are I'm not used to that kind of applause. And I think it makes for years quite well worthwhile. You all.

Was I think it kind of significant that you have two visitors to that campus today. Representing somewhat different views of life. And I'm very happy that I am the first one rather than the second the University of Cincinnati medic great deal to walk in Chicago because one of our clients was and I spoke to Jerry before I came out and he want to wish those who remembered and with kind have it but with it. I'm also very grateful that the University of Cincinnati did not succumb to any pressures not to continue to speak the University of Illinois as some of you may know its

regions voted 6 to 3 to exclude me but to defer my parents and or ban it tonight. We had the same problem with UCLA and with Valley State and the Los Angeles area. The other day I went anyway because the governor that day at Pratt and to have me arrested if I entered the state and no. I was determined that no X movie actor was going to get away with that or at a if. So we went. Six thousand people turned out in the rain at a Unitarian carriage parking lot.

We were entered in by the garden by the police but it turned out to be a very good meeting and the fears of the paranoid were not realised I just spoke to the students at other annoy who ran to Chicago today to hire a lawyer which they did to bring suit against the University of Illinois. They are going to give the university two weeks in which to reschedule the speech. And I thought that was at least showing that the students are not what Ronald Reagan what praised them as Mad be running around at every turn they responded to the university. They have given them a two week period to reschedule the speech and I hope that I will be on the campus of the University of Illinois just as I'm on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. But I must say that there is extreme pressure being brought to bear

on university campuses which are really the place that my clients think that if there is to be a change in the United States that's going to come from these campuses and that perhaps indicate why some of the can campuses tickly the state universities public universities are becoming somewhat concerned with speakers because the surest sign that you're affected is when you're excluded. And I think that it is not a bad start that the fears are shown at this point. I hope the universities will realize that the word university is going to recite university had it mean. More than we give it credit for. It means universal That means every opinion every shade of opinion have to be heard and listened to and that the block speech merely because it may prove to be effective is really to deny the real meaning of the First Amendment

because the First Amendment is not needed for popular speech. It never needed to be protected from anybody but unpopular. The had to be protected and that the reason for the first amendment and it would be a shallow mockery to say that speech is protected which we think is ineffective or which we like and exclude that be which may be affected or which we don't like. So I thank the University of Cincinnati for not wavering as did the University of Illinois last night. Now the Chicago trial had a very beautiful moment had some inspiring moments had some prophetic moments and had some tragic moment. It was a microcosm I guess of life in the United States today. And I thought of a way of bringing it home to you. Before we go into whatever meaning it does by indicating something

that happened almost at the end of the trial in fact three different things which I thought at the end of the trial one of them occurred on the day before the verdicts were in that I received in the mail a little piece of paper from a woman somewhere in Ohio. Unfortunately we lost the address. And which he said this. Dear Mr Kunstler my 13 year old son wrote this in reaction to the trial. I thought you might enjoy Kenia. He sees hopefully many many more. And he sent me a little parable which is as ingenious as it is heart thought and probably embody a great deal of pride. It's

called the continuing story of jungle gym. This week's episode in Title 10 Little Wanderers. And it goes as follows. It was already a restless day when the eight Wanderers entered the city and when they had left the city was in ruins. But at the same time a warrior was chosen this area went to battle and despite his place he was defeated by the Great Lord of elephants. And this prophetic wrinkle that had defeated him in battle took the throne and by and by called upon a peasant in his had but the highest of all present and said someday thou shalt became not in my day but someday go back and bring forth the eight wonders protect me as I know you will now do thy duty. And so it was that the high peasant came to the wanderer and as he suspected they were ready for it. And now there were ten. And by and by he noticed that one of them was black

and that nine were white and he said this is not good. But this may surely bring together many black and white which would prove a threat to the purity that radiate from the house of white. And then there were nine and one of the nine remaining said. But this black man is good and there were eight. And one said one of the provisions were. And there were steps and one bake the cake. And there were six. And many spread love to the roof that represented their enemies in such erratic gestures as blowing kisses and by and by. But to remain and they stood with the wanderers with heads high and then they were not. And think how it would be if the peasant's fury had come and that the ten Wanderers are innocent. They may walk free and the highest of all persons would say no they may not. Because I have declared them guilty

at the foot of a great mountain and a little stone prison drop attended a wondrous and they looked at the mountain and saw that it was slowly being washed to the sea and they were saved because they were not on it and that they look they realized it was they not the people on the mountain who were truly afraid. Oh AA. Oh OK. Now the second document took place on the day of the birth and we came into the court on that day. In order to await a

wiretap. But instead after the court had decided the most. It decided to sentence the defendant and each one was permitted to make a speedy pre-sentence remarks. The lawyers called and the last to speak. Well one of our number the one little wonder who simmered up here in the University of Cincinnati and Gary's book called doing a very important copy of which I have with me was published that day or at least copies arrived in the courtroom that day still but complete otherwise. And after Jerry had given his pre-sentence for Mark he ended it by offering him this copy which I have here to the judge and he had put two inscriptions in the book on the title page he says

do it. If the demonstrations in Chicago in 1968 with the first step of the revolution and what happened in this courtroom was the second that I think the area of the ohel and then Terry pointed to the judge that there was a second inscription by this time he had brought almost up to the bed and was directly under this awesome edifice. And with the judge requiring You know Jerry read the second disk inscription to do it. You radicalize more young people than we ever could. You have the country's top 50 every river.

Will the judge ordered the book returned to Jerry but by the time the bailiff brought it back. Jerry was on his way to Cook County Jail and I picked the book up and I'm hoping to keep it with me as long as the pages hold together. But the book was very symbolic to me because the judge to the end would not open up a line of communication even to the passive enterprise of receiving the book even if he would have thrown the Press back in his office 10 minutes later. He would not receive the book because like so much of American power it cannot look the future in the face and the judge ordered the book returned together.

Now the third document is a short clipping from the newspaper Chicago today dated March 1st on March 1st. Bail was awarded in our cases. Those of you that can recall will remember that the judge had ordered no bond for anyone not for the client not for the lawyer on the theory that there was no substantial grounds of appeal. And to that we were dangerous men and should not be at large. The court of appeals reversed it with the entire on bond court. Five judges sitting and they reversed him completely. They found that one there was a substantial appeal here both from the contempt convictions and from the main case. They

found that the men were not dangerous men and really they found there was no possibility of anybody being a bad bad risk and so they imposed and freed everyone. I had been preparing for my maid for a day. I had already seen the warden checked up my cell and even had a job. You are looking at a man who came close to succeeding to becoming the chief clerk of the work of the Cook County Jail. I hope the job is still open when the appeals have been terminated. The judge was told by his own court an elderly gentleman by the name of Tony bright blue for five months. Day in and day out announced the call of the calendar every morning and

adjourned court every night. I think I'll hear his voice for many years to come. In the back of my head Tony the judge at the Court of Appeals order was delivered to him and this is the little squit about that phone call that appeared in Chicago today on March 1st. JetBlue USGA Hoppen reacted curtly and quickly yesterday when read a transcript of the United States appeals court ruling freeing the conspiracy seven defendants Hoppen was read the decision over the phone by his Lockhart Anthony but when Bryce read the part of the ruling which said there was no danger of flight by the defendant and that the government had not proved the men were dangerous Hopman snapped. That's enough and hung up. I think that probably tells in brief language what the judge feels was the end result

of the Chicago Seven case. I want to indicate to you that the word Chicago Seven All right misnomer. We are now out of Chicago 10. They always let Bobby Seal off that he was separate from this case because he took the simple expedient of asking the judge to give him permission to defend himself when his lawyer was ill and could not make it. The seven white defendants never referred to themselves as a said I was a newspaper. They were the eight and they are the eight today Bobbie feel a part of this case and a very important part of this case. And now we have added unexpectedly the two letters. We weren't part of the case in the beginning but by God when it ended we would just as much apart the defendant. And I think I'm quite grateful that I

can be excluded finally at 8:50 into a numbered group of defendants. I never thought I'd have that opportunity. Oh I will. Now the trial had deep significance. It was not the most serious problem American history. Hope from what happened and from the penalties involved they received five years they received $5000 fine they received a call which maybe eight or nine thousand dollars a man assuming we moves all the way fro. But there are many other defendants facing much more serious penalties around this country. Political defense ranging from UAE Newton in California will.

And third in New York the gun thing Clair in Michigan. Those of you who know Leo out of Johnson and used in Texas who had 30 years for possession of one joint and was the leader of a snake in its days in Houston. But there are many cases that are extremely serious. Bobby still faces the death penalty in Connecticut and that pride will open in the spring. And there are so many more that you and I haven't even heard of where people who have political views and are expressing that are being persecuted by the state and all done in the name of the law. This is not an unusual thing. There wasn't a single prosecution in Nazi Germany that was prosecuted outside the law whether it was under the Nuremberg Laws or some

other aspect of the Third Reich. The law is the great leveler. It gives legitimacy to all the persecution modern countries don't. Use methods which don't look legal. People are no longer merely seized off the street decapitated in the cellar and their bodies hauled away in quicklime to be buried. No. Now in every country that uses as instruments of oppression the law is followed to the letter. The words due process cast a rosy glow over every political persecution. As a lawyer in the courtroom as a judge on the bench the jury in the box has a court room. The pressure is admitted limited numbers of selected public are admitted. And you have what looks like a trial

and all of the liberal say the law will work it out. If the judges on the appellate court will reverse and if occasionally they don't. The next one will get the benefit of this man's ordeal. And liberals among whom I was included until rather recently. Take that position. But once it's done legally and once the method of the court system are used then everything will be fine and all's right with the world. The only thing of course is that that Dr apocryphal and not true. If it were true then I wouldn't be here today. Maybe you wouldn't be in that audience today but it is not true. Everyone knows it is not true from Judge Jay Feely right of the Court of Appeals of discipline via who says no poor man ever got a fair shake in American courtrooms. Two Black Panthers who put in

jail and Manhattan on $100000 bond for conspiracy to blow up some department stores where white people accused not of conspiracy but of actually bombing the criminal court building walk out on $20000 bond. Our people are that independent should not be out of jail. Its not fair or right that theyre out of jail and they know it best of all why should they be out on $25000 bond for a worthy cause a riot at the Democratic National Convention when Black Panthers did in New York on $100000 bond.