Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / March 25, 1993, edition 1 / Page 10
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Army Spied On King, Feared Armed Revolt, Paper Reports MEMPHIS . Tenn. (AP) ? Army intelligence began spying on black Americans more than 75 years ago in a campaign centered on black churches in the South and covering three generations of Dr. Martin Luther King's family, a newspaper reports. The Commercial Appeal, in a copyright story Sunday, said the ?spying began with King's maternal grandfather, the pastor of a Baptist church in Atlanta, and that eight undercover Green Beret soldiers were in Memphis on April 4, 1968, when King was felled by a sniper's bullet as he stood on a motel bal cony. While surveillance of civil rights leaders has been well docu mented, it has mostly focused on work done by the FBI and police . agencies. ,, ... .. The Commercial Appeal's 16-month investigation relied on classified documents, meeting notes from government and private archives and more than 200 inter views with Army agents living in this country and in Mexico. The newspaper's investiga tion revealed an Army brass fright ened by the growing civif unrest at a time its resources fighting the Viet nam War were becoming increas ingly strained. Documents showed Army units relied on Ku Klux Klansmen for information about black gather ings and were involved in funneling sniper rifles to police departments to help repel an expected armed revolt. U2 spy planes were used to monitor the monthlong disturbances in Birmingham in 1963 and on dozens of other occasions during the following seven years. Such fears were fanned by wiretaps of meetings between King and other black leaders over tactics and their growing frustration that America's attention was on Vietnam and not the plight of poor Ameri cans. The Commercial Appeal reported the decades of spying were born of the Army's conviction that black Americans were ripe for sub version by German agents during World War I and later by Commu , nists and anti-war groups. The Army's files on King date from 1947 when he was pho tographed at Morehouse College after speaking to Dorothy Lilley's Intercollegiate Council. The Army suspected Mrs. Lilley of being a Communist. But intelligence files kept by the 111 th Military Intelligence Group at Fort McPherson in Atlanta regarded King as more of a phe nomenon than a threat. That's until 1957 when he spoke to the High lander Folk School in Monteagle, Tenn., which the Army had watched for years as a suspected Communist training ground. The Commercial Appeal reported that Army officers' under standing of the civil rights move ment was hampered by the fact that, since the Civil War through Viet nam. their ranks were almost all Martin Luther King Jr. white and resided on base camps where they seldom had contact with ordinary black Americans. Few understood the history of lynchings, economfc repression and denial of basic human rights at the root of black unrest. "Communism has chosen the Southern Negro as the American group most likely to respond to its revolutionary appeal," Maj. R.M. Howell told the War Department in a 1932 intelligence report from Fort McPherson. The feeling pervaded Army ranks, said Dr. Christopher Pyle. a former Army intelligence school instructor who in 1970 blew the whistle on the Army's domestic spying on ant i -war groups. "Anyone who appeared soft on communism" put their career in limbo, said Pyle, now a professor at Mount Holyoke College in South 1 Hadley. Mass. Army documents cited King's speeches as fomenting unrest among black soldiers in Vietnam. But it was the civil rights leader's call for a 1968 march on Washington that most frightened Army brass, many of whom had watched from the roof an anti-war demonstration at the Pentagon by 200,000 people in October 1967, the newspaper reported. ' The Army was over a bar rel," Maj. Gen. William P. Yarbor ough, the Army's top spy in the mid-'60s, said in an interview from his Southern Pines. N.C. home. "Blacks were using the uncertainty of the Vietnam period and taking advantage of it. You couldn't expect people to be rational and look at this in a cool way. We BUfilf were trying to fight a war at the same time where the home base was being eroded." Army officials said they found it hard to mesh King's non violent philosophy with the violence that seemed to follow his appear ances and with bugged conversa tions like one with black activists H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael at the Pitts Motor Motel in north west Washington on Feb. 7, 1968. Brown and Carmichael argued against turning the other cheek in an upcoming march in Washington. Army intelligence files showed increasing concern about the Wash ington peace march King had orga nized. He was followed at every stop and was being tailed by at least a dozen Army agents, including eight Green Beret soldiers, doing Army spy work when he was killed in Memphis. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination and is serving 99 years. The Commercial Appeal said it's investigation found no direct evidence of Army involve ment in King's death. Six months after King's death, then Attorney General Ram sey Clark sent a report to the White House saying the feared summer of violence had not materialized. Though there were some riots after King's death "there was a clear and significant decline in the number and severity of riots and disorders this summer," Clark wrote. =i T! I Reynolda House Museum of American Art I ? ? invites you to The Spirit of Reynolda House African- American Contributions, |,912-I9(?2 exhibit of photographs and reminiscences from peopltiwho lived at Reynolda researched by Eugenia Parent and assisted by Sarah Friende Hamlin Sunday, March 28, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Reception followed by slide lecture at 2:00 p.m. '? . St. Paul's United Methodist Choir at 3:00 p.m. FREE ADMISSION *41 Stand Off In Waco A group of people gathered near across on a hill so they can see the Branch Davidian compound about five miles away. The cross was put on the hill by a person hoping that cult leader David Koresh would see it The standoff between federal agents and the cult enter the fourth week. Escott-Russell Becomes First Black Woman In Alabama Senate MONTGOMERY . Ala. (AP) ? The Rev. Wedzell Escott always figured the seventh of his 13 chil dren would be successful, but he never expected her to make history. Escott stood proudly by his daughter, Sundra Escott-Russell, as she was sworn in last week as the first black woman to serve in the . Alabama Senate. "'She's always been a hard worker," said her father, pastor of Israel Community Church in Birm ingham. Escott-Russell. D-Birming ham, said she wasn't thinking about making history either when she got into politics as a legislative aide to Gov. Fob James in 1979. "That was my real big introduction," she said. She was elected to the House in 1981 to fill a vacancy and served there until winning a special elec tion March 8 to fill a Senate vacancy. .Both vacancies were caused by Earl Hilliard, D-Birming ham, moving to higher office, first from the House to the Senate and then to Congress. At her swearing-in ceremony in the Senate chamber, she was accompanied by her 2-year-old son, D.J.. and her husband, David Rus sell, whom she credited with "hold ing the family together" while she campaigned. D.J. was on his best manners during the ceremony, but he had lit tle to say about his history-making mother other than: "I was glad." It was also a proud moment for Sen. Fred Horn. D-Birmingham. who recounted how he taught phys ical education to Escott-Russell and most of her siblings in high school. Escott-Russell, 39. said her goal in the Senate is to create a state Department of Transportation. "There is a lot of federal money and federal programs we are not taking advantage of." she said. She is the second woman cur rently in the Senate, joining Ann Bedsole, R-Mobile. The only other woman who has served in the Sen ate is Frances "Sister" Strong. D Demopolis, who held officfe from 1983-86. KEEP NORTH CAROLINA CLEAN & BEAUTIFUL, INC. People who make things happen. "Preparing todays workers for tomorrow's opportunities is our immediate challenge." /#>/>;/ f . Jficoh President a nti < hief Exeat tire Officer \aliona! I rhtiti league ?ct> excited when lu* i.ilks In- future of tlu* National I rban . I nder h \it*oroiis leadership the lr;ii;iK s social and econonm pro grants are making a real difference in the li\c> of Black and poor \mcricans in 11$ cities throughout (Ins nation. rhilt $ win Vnlicuscr-Rusch supports the National I rban l.eague. jusi .?s we i support other e?lti( ational and i iiiturai programs, community projects and the development of minority businesses At Anheuj?cr-Biisi h weir committed to .1 better qualirClff life, lor c\ c r\ one ANHEUSLR-BUSCH COMPANIES tOftO A nhcuni'i Hus< h ( , pAmr*. ??U
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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March 25, 1993, edition 1
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