Clifton DeBerry Speaks at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio (Part A)

The topic for tonight is the subject that's uppermost in the minds of the rulers of this country is the question of black liberation. The question of black people getting their freedom that's a key issue that is shaking up the white capitalist policy structure in this country before going into the present day developments. I believe it's necessary to sort of examine the evolution of this process that we see unfolding today. You would know then the title from civil rights to black liberation. Now everyone has either read about have heard about the civil rights movement and they have read about

or heard about black power while on the one hand it appears as two distinct movements within the black struggle and they are in that they represent two rudes to achieve freedom. But when we think in terms of the development it is in historical terms of development of the consciousness of the people. We see this as two stages in the development of the struggle of black people for their liberation. And I say that because as we look at some of the opponents of

black Hala we are aware that they came out o the civil rights movement such as Stokely Carmichael wraparound and several others. Now when we speak of the Civil Rights Movement I think we should give credit to what it accomplished. And I'm not raising here the question of the tactics that we use. But even raising the question would I agree and disagree because they were there they did what they felt was necessary and what I'm doing is your point of view of history too where for many many years people believed that black people

were free. Because we have been taught in school that since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation that black people were free. The ROE played by the Civil Rights Movement demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that black people are not free. And when they strive to just exercise their democratic rights as a citizen in this land they can be beaten jail or killed. And this so-called land of the Free and Home of the brave. So when we speak of the civil rights movement I would rather view it as we as the civil rights era which began with the Montgomery bus boycott in

1955 and ended with the assassin's bullet and methods Tennessee in 1968. It was with the murder of Dr. King. It marked the end to the civil rights era. Now once again if we look back in historical terms we see how long a phenomena come into existence is all rises out of necessity it arises out of a given need struggles to maintain itself reaches a peak. Then it began its decline. But in the process of reaching its peak creates those elements within it. Which will replace it. Now we see this within the civil

rights movement when we see the its highest achievements was the march in Washington and I'm viewing it here from the point of view of the amount of people that turned out. I mean ignoring for the time being. How was it was hard by and you know everything was supposed to be pure. Nobody is saying nothing you know contrary because after all the powers that be will there and everybody who's supposed to was there and don't see nothing duty about nobody this kind of a thing. But in a point of view of the turnout in and of itself was massive. But at that massive demonstration we saw the beginning of a change in the thinking of black people. And I'm referring specifically to the censored speech of John Lewis from Snick.

Which began a new process within the civil rights movement. Whereas many of the blacks who had gone through this whole process of nonviolent demonstrations began to realize that black people must develop their own leaders which began the whole process of the rise in black nationalism which is the it means black people coming into their own home. And within the civil rights movement like everywhere else of course it was criticized. Many of the white liberals were critical because after

all they had done for the Negro. They were rejecting them. But I would rather view it this way. There were some whites who went down and participated in the demonstrations and some were killed and beaten in jail and so forth. But it seems to me that rather than rejecting the notion of the idea that black people recognize that they must develop their own leadership rather than feeling isolated and rejecting this concept they should have hailed it. Because what the black people are beginning to do what we're beginning to do then and are doing now is what every people in the history of the struggle of mankind for survival has done.

That is a people who want to be free must organize themselves as a people develop their own organization their own program their own leadership and carry out their own strategy and tactics. Every people who have achieved their freedom have organized themselves have developed their own leadership and worked out their own strategy and tactics. Yet when black people proceed to do it it's wrong. It is in the minds of the power structure in this country and in the minds of many of the brainwashed negroes in this country. They add here to the old belief one that black people don't stick together.

That black people must always be led by somebody else. That black people cannot organize. And those who believe this. Of course they are believing what they are have been taught. But they are ignoring their own history. I mean that history. That's not it. That is not taught in the high schools. That is not taught in the colleges. That part of history which is denied black people which goes back to the days of slavery where black people organized white black people organized the runaway slaves where black people threw up leaders like Nat Turner

Frederick Douglass and many many others. And to take a more recent example take to Montgomery bus boycott. In this area in Montgomery Alabama the entire black community's dude has won for over a year. They had one organization which spoke for the entire black community on the issue they spoke to him of course was to break down the segregation in bus riding buses and when Gomery. And in the course of the struggle in order to get black people back and forth to their jobs they organize a better transportation system than the one they were fighting against trying to desegregate.

They had one organization which represented the entire black community and this organization embodied everybody in that community including the ministers. And the real architects of that movement recognize that the ministers are important to a movement as long as you are able to control the ministers. They became the spokesman to go out get the money. Publicize the movement. So as a concession to the ministers so they wouldn't violate their Roves or whatever it is that they believe it. They call it passive resistance. For those of you who haven't read about it it would be good if you would. You'll find that it wasn't passive

in the sense that we think of nonviolence nonviolence being where people make a principle out of being beaten up. If that were the case then explain to me why in Montgomery Alabama the cradle of the Confederacy during that whole period. There were no beatings no jailings no killings during the whole period of that struggle. It was want to attempt to both Dr. King's house while I was down there. And I say want to tell you because

some of these bereaved people in white sheets draw up in their car. He got out he dropped a bomb then Dr. King's house and we were there was kind of a delegation was sent to the. Police Station and these were young men and young most overhead paid men on the army too long and they you know they knew what to school were they knew what had to be done. They wanted to march you saw sitting in the churches in the prayer meetings. They were the ones who were repairing the cars around the clock. They were ones who were escorting black people back and forth to their jobs around the clock. They were the ones who were hanging out in the pool rooms. Yet they were the ones who were defending the homes of the leaders of that movement. They sent a delegation down and told the authorities and I look. So now we're right what we're doing now we

understand he tried to bomb Dr. King's house and we want to tell you one thing. We also hear you try at the Planning to the plan is planning to bomb Mr. Nixon's home. For those you don't know Mr. Nixon was the architect of that movement. He's the man who in this it it he's the one who organized it from the beginning till they told Piers if you drop Oh no balm in Montgomery this whole town is going to hell. And they backed it up. When I got there that later on at night I found out that there was an Army base not two four from there and that night around Mr. Nixon's

home there were some of the largest machine guns all current I don't know must have been about one hundred twenty one hundred and forty men with modern automatic weapons right out of the arsenal from the Army base with floodlights around the whole areas or anybody hit in that he helmet hit into a crossfire no matter what spot they hit. He didn't kid and this is why the development of the struggle in Montgomery was different than any other that took place in the south until the deacons for justice and freedom hit the scene. Now

this of course has been subordinated to this whole struggle for integration and nonviolence. But as I've mentioned earlier it played a role in X and demonstrating to the world that this country is I'm just that black people are denied their rights as human beings. He's also played a role in teaching black people that they had to develop their own leadership build their own organizations and lead their own struggles. So when the Senate was

reflected in John Lewis then within others within snake it is within the civil rights movement outside the civil rights movement. One of the first organizations to go to hit on the scene. I did not hit on the scene but began to express racial pride. Was the Nation of Islam which Malcolm X was a spokesman for. We began to project the ideas of black nationalism. We began to have an effect both within the civil rights movement and among black people throughout this nation and that movement has been growing ever since. Now here to taking these two movements when you think of

two symbols are two individuals which reflected these movements we take. Martin Luther King as the symbol of the civil rights movement and Malcolm X as the symbol of the movement of black nationalist here too is the it really important lesson to be learned that this nation is oppose to anyone who speaks out against injustice whether you are for nonviolence or not. From the point of view of Dr. King you will know what it was after he came out against the war in Vietnam and he began to run into all kinds of trouble from the liberals

that the Civil Rights Movement began to waver and there were all kinds of signs it was beginning to make a turn of some kind. And then to add fuel to the fire in Dr. King we can to think in terms of going into the union movement and supporting black workers sanitation workers in Memphis Tennessee. Malcolm X was silenced because he spoke out against the system against this injustice and he sought to break the thinking of blacks out of the narrow confines of being a minority within this country. He sought to point out to black people in this country numerically they are a minority in this country

yet throughout the world blacks and non-whites are in a majority and that the black people in this country are a part of that. It to national struggle for human rights that are taking place throughout the world and that the black struggle here in this country is part and parcel of it. But the black struggle here is against the racial oppression of the white capris rulers of this country as well as their cohorts in other parts of the world who are struggling to keep black people and non-whites down and exploit them. This constitutes a danger. To the rulers of this country. So both were assassinated

because they pose a threat to be establishment. Now there's just this difference as I mentioned earlier the assassination of Dr. King marked an end to the civil rights era in this country. The assassination of Malcolm X began an acceleration of black nationalism in this country and began to cause black people to identify with themselves more and more than the head at any other time. It is since the Gandhi movement.

You know I could see this reflected throughout the country because I toured the country in 1962 63 and 64 and then during 1968 you know three years in visiting I I visited more than a thousand campuses over that span of time from coast to coast mainly California from Mexico to Canada. There were very few Afro-American groups of any kind

on any campus. There were a few but not many. Now if we contrast that with today you will find very few campuses that do not have some kind of an Afro-American group. What I found to be the case that on many campuses blacks didn't want to associate with each other. And you talk about that get in get out of the question if they didn't have to. I didn't want to be bothered with you know what I want to sort of mess. That's not the case today. It's not the case because the black youth of today are now a generation.

They want their freedom. Right now they want to you know they want to be like eight 10 50 years ago. They're doing something about it now. And in the recent period I retched been speaking at a number of campuses a lot of the faculty members have been been very critical of the activities of young people. Some of them say well don't you think that these black students are alienating themselves by carrying on this kind of activity. I told him no because what the black students are doing today what all of the students are doing to day is what had the older generation did in the struggle for freedom.

Would be much further ahead. So I say to any old fossil who's critical. You didn't do what you should have done. So naive a good man or a Shah. Because what they are demanding is just they're not demanding anything isn't reasonable. They are saying to every educational institution that but people have to build this land. Black people have been denied that culture. They have been denied to history. And how in the hell can you talk about American history and exclude the role played by blacks in this country. It's a falsified case you know history to justify. White

supremacy and capital slavery. Atl. Because. It's important for black people to know their history to know their culture. To do this they will take pride and say Oh yes. They will feel proud of that history to see a rich history. They have a very rich heritage. There are many great black leaders. Who helped to make this land greet. The young people are seeking the truth. They entitle to it and they're going to get it. And I think anybody who disagrees with it you living in the past

now you better get with it even to find someplace else to go. Because the time has come when. When black people are beginning to do little thinking. You go back you read any part of American history. You will not find in any of the history books when you read about any world America has been and you won't find any history book. The role played by blacks. Yet every wall of this life has participated in blacks have played a role in it and an important role. They have been on a fine line consistently to defend a democracy founded on miles away where they cared little about a human being in

this land. And young people are tired of it. And they got a right to be tired of it. The of the ones who are dying in Viet Nam. They're the ones who are dying in Korea. They're the ones who had died during World War 2. They always the one who were called upon to die for so called democracy.