Hugh Pearson (1) (1957–2005)

My reaction to reading this book in 1994.

An interesting book.

Pearson reminded me of some of the horrific discrimination (not only lynchings but also torture-murders) suffered by blacks before the Civil Rights movement. In that context, the organizations like the armed patrols of Deacons for Defense and Justice or even the extremely confrontational Black Panthers clashing with Oakland police (who seemed to have a dubious history of beating up and unjustly killing blacks) are very understandable and even admirable.. ( For awhile, California law allowed the Panthers to carry loaded shotguns and rifles in public – subject to certain restrictions. Parading armed around California’s state capitol building got that law changed.) However, Pearson lays out the perhaps inevitable evolution from Martin Luther King style civil rights to Huey Newton type radicals.

He stops along the way to talk about how various black civil rights organizations worked, the respect the members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping-Car Porters (a highly respected job for blacks) had, the black attitude that tended to see some black criminals as heroic rebels against the white order and how this linked with black reluctance to criticize their own (lest they provide ammo to those who opposed the idea or reality of their equality) to form the corrosive and still present tendency to excuse black criminals. Huey Newton and the Panthers added a Marxist justification for this idea. The capitalist order oppressed blacks; therefore any act, no matter how criminal, that was against the established legal order was a justifiable, revolutionary act. (Peter Collier, ex-associate of the Panthers, said in his co-authored Destructive Generation that, in his radical days, he and his comrades thought every act – like smashing a window, hitting a cop – was “for the revolution”). Weakened was the old black middle-class notion – shared by the black author’s doctor father – that some blacks, like some whites, were just thugs.

Throughout this book, Pearson dryly relates the Panther and Newton tale of pretension, terror, extortion, rape, murder and, in the case of Newton’s attack on his lieutenant Bobby Searle, forced sodomy. He doesn’t talk in the angry tones David Horowitz does about the Party. Oddly, most of his anger – and disappointment given that he started out wanting to like the Party – shows in his afterword where he criticizes the Panthers for perpetuating – by their deeds – the notion of black males as brutalizers of women, as thugs inevitably created by white society. He also criticizes the Panther ethos for contributing to the notion that black, middle-class values of self-improvement and education and respect for the law and self-control are merely playing to whites. However, he does not criticize the 10-part Panther Party platform which mentioned (and it is laced with Marxist references and rhetoric) “full employment”, “end to the robbery by the capitalists” “education … that exposes the true natured of … decadent American society”, “freedom for all black men … in … jails” as a precursor to the harmful collectivist, welfare-society loyalty that permeates much of black's political culture. Instead, he says “the party platform contained interesting, justifiable proposals” (though he does criticize the notion of releasing all black prisoners.)

Still, Pearson writes a nice history. He shows how modest FBI COINTELPRO programs that always strayed awaying from provoking violent acts – became a convenient excuse for the Panthers whenever they were caught in crimes or misappropriating party funds. Newton eventually pleaded nolo contendre to similar charges brought by California in the ‘80s.) Oddly enough, even then the Los Angeles Department was engaged in intelligence gathering and agent provocateur activities to destroy white and black radical groups with LA connections – the intelligence groups operated nationwide – by “any means necessary”. LA Police may have done more covertly against the Panthers than the FBI.… (plus d'informations)

The main topic of this wonderful book is the near fatal stabbing of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Izola Curry, a mentally unstable African-American woman, during Dr. King's visit to Harlem to promote his book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story in September 1958. However, the author also uses this event to describe the political and racial climate in Harlem, New York City and the United States during that time, with rich portrayals of several important characters involved in this drama, which makes this book a valuable addition to the history of the civil rights movement.

King's four day visit to Harlem also coincided with the New York gubernational race between the incumbent Averell Harriman and the Republican opponent Nelson Rockefeller, who both recognized that the black vote in Harlem could decide who would be the state's next governor. Both supported the civil rights movement, and used King's visit for numerous photo ops and speeches to bolster their campaigns. Despite King's popularity he had a number of detractors, as the NAACP preferred to take a more conservative approach to the advancement of Negro rights, and its staid leadership did not fully endorse the tactics of the young preacher from Atlanta. They and other blacks also feared that Stanley Levison and Bayard Rustin, two of King's closest advisors, might damage the movement, due to their ties to the Communist Party. One of those who opposed King's methods was Izola Curry, whose distrust of preachers and Communists led her to heckle King and his supporters, and to decide to end his campaign once and for all. She approached him while he was signing copies of his book, and plunged a letter opener into his chest through his sternum. The knife's tip ended a fraction of an inch from his aorta; if the knife had punctured this blood vessel, King would have died within minutes.

King was rushed to nearby Harlem Hospital, and the hospital is soon surrounded by a huge crowd of well wishers and curious onlookers. The surgical team is prepared for him, but the Chief of Surgery, Dr. Aubré Maynard, cannot be located. The team defers to Maynard, as King waits on the operating table, with the knife still in place in his chest. While the reader waits for the great surgeon to appear, Pearson gives us a history of Harlem Hospital as a vital training ground for black doctors, and tells the story of the feared and hated Maynard and the other surgeons on the team, who prevented Maynard from a fatal mistake.

When Harlem Nearly Killed King was a far better read than I thought it would be, and is highly recommended!… (plus d'informations)