Right now. Sorry, RL took precedence, but today's rain gave me a chance to get some things down:
HARLEM MUSLIM TEMPLE RAIDED BY FBI- Police Report One Agent Dead, Nation of Islam Founder In Critical Condition, Numerous Injuries
-New York Times, 2/4/58
Cohn had spent his time in the doghouse, and now he was slowly working his way back into the President's favor. The first hint that Cohn was back in the game came in early 1958, when the President pulled several military advisors out of Indochina and sent them to assist the Batista regime in Cuba. This had Roy's fingerprints all over it: I knew from reading his files that he had some low-level contacts with the "gentlemen" who ran various casino enterprises around that area. Also, Director Hoover was more concerned about Cuba's revolutionary potential, and Cohn gave him the chance to express this indirectly to the President when his domestic sphere of influence made it inappropriate to state his concerns directly.
Of course, Cuba was just beginning to heat up, and we barely had a clue as to what was to become of that. The major concerns were domestic, mostly due to the increased rioting and other racial unrest that had been occurring for the past several months.
The one positive thing that could be said about our party's response to the crisis was that whatever our differences, we were attempting to make up for lost time, and attempt to understand the point of view of the Negroes. Not so much Cohn, but several other prominent leaders from the liberal wing of the party. Nelson Rockefeller, candidate for Governor of New York, spoke movingly of us as being the "Party of Lincoln", and of the need to couple tough anti-riot measures with a hand extended in friendship towards the Negro community.
Then Hoover sent his agents into the Harlem Mosque of the Nation of Islam. Ten wounded, one dead. One by the name of Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam. The information that we received at the White House was that as the FBI moved in to arrest Mr. Muhammad on various federal charges (since thrown into legitimate dispute), a bodyguard drew his weapon. An FBI agent shot in self-defense, killing the bodyguard immediately, but also wounding Muhammad in the process. The aged cleric was already in poor health, and the extra trauma caused him to perish the next day despite heroic efforts on the part of paramedics and doctors.
Of course, the facts of the situation mattered little to Muhammad's followers. After a brief power struggle, a single young minister named Malcolm X rose to lead the Nation of Islam, and immediately set his people on fire with a series of speeches laying the blame squarely at the feet of a conspiracy including President Disney, Roy Cohn, Director Hoover, and all white people for that matter. Also, a single word was now being introduced into his speeches, one that the Attorney General's research indicated as having never appeared in any Nation of Islam material in the times before the unfortunate death of Mr. Muhammad. Our operatives even had to go to a translator to find the exact meaning of the term (it had several definitions, as it turned out).
That single word, soon to set America on fire, was jihad.
-The Truth Of Fantasy: A Washington Memoir, by former White House Press Secretary James Dodd
One thing that all boys and girls should keep their eyes out for is the "front group". Unfortunately, many otherwise intelligent people will join an organization claiming to promote peace, or equality, or to fight for the rights of the unfortunate. Sadly, many of these organizations are nothing more than methods by which young and impressionable people can be corrupted into supporting Communist ideals.
Before you join any group like this, ask yourself the following questions: Are the people who surround me generally pro-America? Do they support the government, or do they criticize it unfairly? When they talk of peace, do they really mean that, or are they really saying that America should be defenseless? When they talk about equal rights, are they giving rights to one group at the expense of the freedom of another?
A Mouseketeer knows what the answers to these questions should be. If you have any problems regarding a group that you have joined, or are suspicious of one in your community, then immediately speak to a trusted advisor such as your minister, teacher, parent, principal, or Mickey Mouse Club Group Leader.
-Mickey's Guide To Patriotism, 1958 Mickey Mouse Club Pamphlet, by Youth Morals Director Anita Bryant
The American Zone of Berlin has many fine sights and unusual places to see. One of the most popular recent additions for homesick Americans has been Emma's Place, a jazz club and cafe reminiscent of the former Bohemian nightlife that could be found in New York City and San Francisco. Located next to the bookstore Jack's Stacks, Emma's Place combines excellent coffee, good wines, and some of the best up-and-coming jazz musicians in the world. Owned by American expatriate Wally Hedrick. For a more unusual experience, attend the Friday night poetry readings hosted by Alan Ginsberg, but do not under any circumstances bring the children to this event. Adults only!
-Berlin On Pfennings A Day, 1958
SLAY TWO IN NEGRO TERRORIST RAID
-Los Angeles Herald, 3/19/58
"Well, what are they going to do? They say that they're for freedom of speech? Great. I'm saying that they're communists and should go back to Russia. Are they going to defend that?"
-Anonymous Mousketeer, archival footage of anti-ACLU protest, quoted in Let Us Hold Our Banner High, Documentary Prize winner at the Cannes International Film Festival, 2002.
PRESLEY TO GIVE ROYAL COMMAND PERFORMANCE
-News release from Colonel Tom Parker, 3/58
It was approximately 8:30 a.m. when J. Edgar Hoover's car rounded the corner and pulled up in front of the headquarters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a group to which he was scheduled to give a speech on the threat of alleged communist influence on the American labor movement. As Hoover's driver opened the door and the Director lifted himself from the car, a man stepped forward, managing to fire two shots before Hoover's FBI bodyguards shoved the Director back into the car, firing enough shots to immediately kill the would-be assassin. Struck in the lower stomach and the left upper thigh, the Director was immediately transported to Bethesda Naval Hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery.
The attempted assassin was Harvey Lange, a sharecropper's son originally from Norfolk, Virginia. Lange was well-known to local law enforcement authorities as a drunk and a braggart who had been run in several times for vagrancy and public intoxication. Recently, he had claimed to have given up drinking as a member of the Nation of Islam, though no records existed of his membership, and no FBI reports of the period mention him as belonging to the organization in any capacity whatsoever. Additionally, The Nation of Islam itself disavowed any knowledge of Lange's plans, and stated that while he had been seen at a few of Minister X's talks, he had never taken steps to become a member of the faith.
All of this was lost on a vengance-ridden Director and increasingly fretful President Disney, both of whom found themselves taking drastic steps as the Spring of 1958 turned into a racial crisis unseen in the United States since the Civil War.
-Our America, Scholastic Books, 2002
