Sept. 22, 1963 - Ten thousand persons in New York City today cheered denunciations of President Kennedy and calls for civil disobedience campaigns that might spread to 100 cities. The aim was to intensify civil rights drives as a memorial to six Negro children killed by a bomb and shooting in Birmingham, Ala. The two-hour gathering in Foley Square (pictured), where the President was assailed by Negro leaders for alleged inactivity, was one of a series of rallies and services held throughout the country to mark the deaths. About 3,000 whites and Negroes gathered at Washington’s All Souls’ Unitarian Church. Thousands more joined their ranks as the marchers, carrying pictures of the dynamited church, headed for Lafayette Square two miles away. The march was led by comedian Dick Gregory. Before they arrived, a dozen American Nazis in khaki uniforms plastered with swastikas paraded along the sidewalk in front of the White House. They carried signs saying “Negroes Murdered Whites” and “Who Knows Bomber Wasn’t Black or Red?” Police kept a close eye on the Nazis and their corncob pipe-smoking leader, George Lincoln Rockwell. Six thousand demonstrators in Boston raised $2,000 to help rebuild the church damaged in the Birmingham bombing. About 1,000 staged a procession down the main street of Columbia, S.C., and 1,500 Negroes and whites marched silently through downtown Miami. In Houston, a memorial service was held with 400 Negroes and 40 whites. A minister prayed that Governor George Wallace of Alabama might “be so touched that he too will join the human race.”
Comments