Eyes on the Prize II; Interview with Edward Vaughn

What? Mark? Edward 63, Malcolm's came to Chicago and spoke. That would give me a sense of what was happening in the community around the time Malcolm came to spoke, which you were doing at the community, what people were doing at the community? In 1963, when Malcolm came to Detroit, we were just beginning to organize a community of a few of the sisters were wearing naturals, Mrs. Mitchell was one I remember, and there were a few others that were wearing naturals, and of course that was quite phenomenal in the community and people that were just kind of looked at us. And we were basically politically organizing where we could. The Klegs had a newspaper called the Illustrated News, Henry Kleg and his brother Albert B. Kleg and Richard Henry, Milton Henry, who also involved with the Illustrated News. I was working at the post office at the time and my good friend, Kwameata, who was also

working with me. We were also working with the group on advanced leadership, and we were trying to mobilize the community. It was a difficult task, but people were beginning to come around, people were asking questions, people wanted to hear, any speaker that came to town, and they certainly wanted to hear this fiery young Muslim minister, Malcolm X Chibas. What were you trying to tell a community? I think what we were trying to say to them, I think what we were trying to say to them at that time was that we needed to control the community in which we lived. It was kind of sad that we lived in a community where we did not control the social, economic and political conditions of the community. We were surrounded by a white police force, we call them an army of occupation. We had hardly any blacks in any political offices in the city, we had no judges. We had had one on the City Council, a council of nine.

We did not have elected officials in any numbers. We did not own the significant number of businesses as we felt we should. We did not control the social life in the city. We felt that we needed to control that and that it needed a black orientation. You got this book, let's tell you about this book store and what it meant. Well Vaughn's book store was certainly something that was new in the community. They had not been a bookstore here before, and of course I got into the business because I was looking for a book called A Hundred Years of Lentions by Ginsburg and I was told downtown that they didn't have the book in stock and I decided that I'd see if I could find it and then when I found it and my friends at the Post Office said that they'd like to read that and other black books. I began to order them and sell them out of the trunk of my car and then about 1962 I had

opened Vaughn's bookstore and we were beginning to sell books rather briskly. People were asking questions and that was pretty much the mood around the bookstore. We were mainly oriented toward the people who already were pan-Africanists and nationalists or people who were on the left in the movement and they came to the store and soon school teachers, children began to come. There was sort of an awakening in the community. From New York we were hearing about things happening there. I sold a magazine called The Liberator and so the consciousness was being developed and of course Muhammad Speaks and those things were happening and so that was a consciousness that would be enraged throughout the community. Okay, let's go a second. I just need you to tell me to introduce the idea that you have a book that I'm going to tell you.

This will be take three. Well a great deal of consciousness was taken place in the community. More selling books, I was selling a magazine called The Liberator. We had the Afro-American Broadcasting Company which was broadcast in every Saturday on WGPR, broadcast in the speeches of Malcolm X, practically every Saturday. We had the Illustrated News newspaper which the Kleg brothers put out, Albert and Henry. The Henry brothers were working with a group called Goal and they also were responsible of the Afro-American Broadcasting System. General congregational church, pastored by Albert Kleg, was beginning to make some movement in this particular area. So that was a great deal of consciousness taking place across the community and that consciousness sort of came to bloom when people like Malcolm X would come to town or Elijah Muhammad came. Usually it was Elijah who came and Malcolm spoke before Elijah and of course set the audience

on fire and that was really the mood of the times. That was a great deal of change beginning to take place. It wasn't black power that caused the rebellion. It was the lack of power that caused the rebellions around the country. People did not see any hope for themselves. People were beginning to be unemployed more and more. We had no access to government. We were still pretty much confined to the ghetto and then our consciousness was being raised at the same time and I think the masses of people made a decision that they would do something and I think that they did. I don't think that it was the call for black power that did it. I think it was the lack of power that did it. Tell me about the lack of power in the Detroit community. What was in the...

Well we did not have anyone in the Detroit community. In the Detroit community we had very few people in political life and usually they were very conservative, the one or two that we had. It was difficult for people in the automobile industry because of unemployment. We had the police that was an army of occupation. The police would vape on the black community, ride down on us almost nightly. The big four and they were rather notorious. There were almost no blacks on the police force and so the police force was seen as an army of occupation economically. We weren't doing very well. Our businesses were being squeezed out especially with the oncoming of more acceptance of blacks downtown and so all of those things happen and I think that that turmoil caused turmoil among the people. Yeah we were driving back from Newark myself and two other brothers in Forum 6-6, the organization that we had established.

Of course this was in 67 and of course we heard that I think you just need to say I was with two brothers and we were returning from the black power conference in Newark and we were detained in Toledo, Ohio and not allowed to come into the city of Detroit. We were quite concerned, worried, we could not call our families. The back up was about three miles on the highway and all we could hear on the radio was that they were not allowing cars to come into Detroit. That the riot had broken out in Detroit and that Detroit was under some kind of martial law and we did know exactly what was happening and we were very concerned and we were not allowed to go into the city until about 3am that morning and we kind of went in the back way of the city. We decided to do that and we went in the back way using back roads and we finally got to our homes safely and of course the next day it was on again. That was Monday.

It started all over again. Monday. That would be true about the martial law. Mark? Mark? Okay. And tell us about when you were coming back from the black power conference. Yeah. Well I was with two other brothers and we were detained in Toledo, Ohio. Yeah. I was coming back from Newark. Newark. Okay. All right. Myself and two other brothers were coming back from the black power conference in Newark and we were detained in Toledo, Ohio which is about 46 miles from Detroit and not allowed to come into the city and we were detained there for several hours and not allowed to come in until around 3am. We drove in on back roads and we had heard that the riot was on. We had been listening to the radio all day and yeah. This will be take 7. Mark?

Marker? Yeah. We were coming from the black power conference in Newark, myself and two other brothers and we heard on the radio that the riot was on in Detroit and of course we were very concerned about it because you know our families were here and we didn't quite know exactly what to do. However, we were not surprised that the riot came because we knew that the unrest was there. It was see then it had always been there and we were not surprised that it happened but we were concerned about our families and we were detained in Toledo about 46 miles from Detroit for about three and a half hours and then we were allowed to go into Detroit early that morning around 3am. We went in on back roads and we were able to get to our homes safely and of course the next day the riot was on again. How did you see it? How did you feel to you when you got into Detroit? Well it was eerie.

That was hardly anyone on the streets. We didn't see anything. No people, no nothing, nothing on the streets. We didn't see anything. So we take A. We came into the city about 3am that morning and it was a rather eerie feeling that we had because no one was on the streets. I mean it was just deserted and we were concerned. We didn't know what was happening with our families. We didn't know the extent of the riot that first day and so we were able to get home early that morning and of course the next day the riot was on again. What was it like that the next day? Well the next day the next the first thing that I did was go straight to the bookstore. When I left home that morning I went to my bookstore because I thought maybe that the police or someone had done something to the store. I had no fear of the people bothering

anything although we knew that they had been looting all up and down next to Avenue. The first thing that I saw at Vaughan's bookstore was revolutionary slogans written all across my windows. No one had touched anything and I went to the bookstore and I knew I just felt that nothing would be wrong with my store at least from the people and of course I was correct and there were revolutionary slogans written all across to windows, long live the black revolution and Osalamalakum and those kind of terms were written on the windows of the building. There were four units and my store was one of those units and there were revolutionary narrows slogans all across there so it was something that was you know good for me. I enjoyed seeing that and of course I went in and it was business as usual in the bookstore even a little more. People began to come in because everyone was trying to compare notes and to try to find out what was going to happen next.

Well two days later the Detroit Police Department broke into my store during the curfew at night. They took one of the guards that was in the door out and used that to bust pictures that I had all across on the walls of the building. They made sure that they hit the face of Malcolm X. They hit the face of Martin Luther King. I guess the ones that they recognized and some of the others they didn't bother. Wrap brown and stokely and then they fire bummed the building and left. Fortunately the fire bum did not burn the building completely. It only burned part of the building. So the next day I came into the store and I cleaned that up and people came and began to buy books and of course newspaper reporters came out, people from the federal government came out to inspect and to look. So we cleaned up and I felt they were coming back the next night and of course they did. They came back the next night. They knocked all of the books back off the wall, the ones that we

had saved. Then they took the mop and they plugged the sink up, turned the water on and when I got there the next day that were about 8-10 inches of water and all of my books floating in water. You're going to ask me a question. You're going to ask me. No, you can figure it out. Mark? One second. Okay. Well two days later the Detroit Police Department broke into my store during the curfew at night. Took out the... Well we need to know how you do that. You saw some witnesses. Let me tell you what they did. Then I can tell you how to find out about it. The Detroit Police Department broke into the store, knocked all of the windows out and then busted all of the pictures on the wall and so as we were cleaning up I didn't know what had happened to the store but as we were cleaning up several of the neighbors came over and told us that it was done by the Detroit Police Department.

Damn. I thought that was enough. Here we go Marker. Okay, it's only about when you came back to bookstore two days later. Well I noticed that the windows had been broken out. I came to the bookstore two days later and I noticed that the windows had been broken out. I noticed that the pictures had been damaged on the wall and as I was inspected in the damage some of the neighbors came over and told me that the Detroit Police Department had done that damage and I noticed that they were especially interested in busting the faces of some of the more well-known blacks who were on the wall like Oakley Carmichael, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. And so I said well you know what am I going to do you know. So I called the police department. First of all I called the mayor's office and the mayor told me to call the police. I said well the police did it and so he said well

call them anyway. So then I called the 10th precinct and the sergeant in charge who told me his name was Sergeant Slotter said that yeah we did it. We did it before and we'll do it again. And he said that the reason we did it is because we heard you guys were storing guns in the store and he said we you know we don't intend to have any of that and I know you guys are the ones who started the riots and sure we did it and we'll do it again. And he wasn't lying because the next night they came back, they broke in again, knocked all of the boards off and plugged up the sink, turned on the water and knocked all the books off the wall and waterlogged all of my books in about 8 inches of water and that's what I found the next day I came into the bookstore. Well what happened was everybody was in the store looting the store and of course this story was I had been passing by this

store and they were looting the store and no sooner than you know I noticed that I then noticed that Carlo the brothers drove up I didn't know who they were and they asked everyone very politely had they gotten enough from the store and everyone said yes pretty much and then they asked the others to make sure they got what they wanted and then asked them to leave and once they did that they far bummed the store they said it on fire and they left they drove right off they didn't take anything just average people in the community to know we were not we were not out there looting it was just average people on the streets the ones who were were so called looting we called it taken rather than stealing you know taken back some of the things that we deserved and never got so it was called taken and so the people in the community were taken some of the things that they did

not have the opportunity to get what they took them because they felt that they had been oppressed that these things had been gained from them illegally in the first place that prices were too high that merchants were gouging the people in the community and so they took it out on them and they didn't feel that they were stealing anything or looting anything merely that they were taken back some of the things that they should have gotten in the first place well I felt like the revolution was here but I also felt like we were going to lose the revolution because I knew that you could not defeat tanks with bricks and that there was not enough weaponry in the community to really deal with this kind of of armaments and of course we had been reading the teachings of Mao Say Tong we had been reading the red book and one of the things that Mao always said is that you go never

go into battle unless you're certain of victory I was not certain of victory and I certainly wanted the fight into in and some kind of compromise take place you mean after it was over after it was over we had a strong sense of camaraderie on the streets people black people would greet each other hello brother hello sister people would shake hands with each other a very strong sense of brotherhood and togetherness was taken place on the street and there was more politeness brothers gave sisters more respect it was a great period and we all felt very good about it we felt that we had accomplished something that at last we had let our anger come out and that anger meant that some kind of truth was was called

and we felt that we had won that battle and and we just felt good about ourselves well I mean you know we we refer to them as Tom's that they didn't okay my reaction to those brothers and sisters who were negative about the ride said that we had burned our own community down we knew better we refer to them as Uncle Tom's we had checked and found out that the only black homes that were burned were those that were accidentally burned and there were a few black businesses that were destroyed but that was because the people who ran them were very negative and very anti the black community themselves one of the first businesses on 12 to go was owned by a black man it was a drug store

after the rebellion was over there was a strong sense of camaraderie in the community a strong sense of brotherhood and sisterhood we saw more and more sisters began to wear natural hairdos more and more brothers began to wear their hair in the new natural styles more and more people began to wear a dashikas we saw a very strong sense of camaraderie in the community that was all very good for us and we we enjoyed that feeling we felt that we had accomplished something that the riots had paid off that we finally had gotten the white community to listen to the gripes and to listen to some of the concerns that we were had been expressing

for many years during the riots I happened to be on Warren Avenue West Warren and a hardware store was being looted by a lot of people apparently people who lived in that community and they were just hauling all kind of things out of the store and a carload of brothers rolled up and I thought I knew all the revolutionaries in town but I did not know who these brothers were and they drove up and they asked everyone had they gotten enough and did they need anything else and people said finally said no after they had gotten what they wanted and so these brothers said fine and so they got everybody out of the store and they far-bombed it and they left they didn't take anything themselves well in 1967 the cabinet administration and of course we had put him in office because we were definitely

opposed to the Marianne regime that had gone before cabinet so cabinet was elected mainly by blacks and of course we felt that he was not moving fast enough he had very few black appointees and most of the federal money that was coming into town was being used for urban renewal which we term nigger removal urban renewal means nigger removal and of course they were trying to bring more upscale whites into a former black communities and of course blacks were being moved out they built the expressways which tore open the black communities split them up very seriously they built the Chrysler freeway which tore up a very very strong and important black community it used to be Hastings and then it became the Chrysler freeway and all of these things really divided these black communities and so we did not see anything coming from the cabinet administration of any magnitude that would bring about some fundamental change so we decided that we would take that effort for change to a higher plane and of

course that meant being a bit more vocal to demonstrate to do all kind of activities that were designed to bring the administration around to understand and our real needs. Well during the riots of the rebellion there were many people on the streets looting and at night there were people who were going out doing more a revolutionary type activities these people were community people they were people who lived in the neighborhoods they were not members of our organization by and large are the organizations that were a part of the revolutionary movement these were just a spontaneous movements on the part of people in the community I met a group of brothers who lived on Linwood near near Davison and they told me that every night they went out and with their guns and they shot at police

in National Guardsmen and they would drive back you know you cut all the lights off and they thought it was quite exciting what they were doing and they felt that they were doing something to help the people but in terms of black consciousness they had very little of that the people who were looting taken the people who were in the streets the people who were making the rebellion by and large were people who lived in the community just average people I came across a group of brothers for example who said they were just fed up and that they did not want to live like they had lived before and every night they went out and with their guns and they shot at police shot at National Guardsmen and of course went back into the home to cut their lights off and they did this on a

nightly basis during the curfew most of the people were just community people who just had a sense that they were fed up with everything and they decided that they would strike out and that was the way that they struck out that was the way that they would strike back at the power structure.