Vol. 81/No. 34      September 18, 2017

 

25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

 

September 18, 1992

MIAMI — Two weeks after Hurricane Andrew hit, the people of southern Florida continue to suffer from the combined effects of the natural disaster and an unnatural disaster: the negligent and inadequate response of the government. Tens of thousands are camped out in their crumbling homes; an estimated 350,000 remain without electricity; 57,000 have no phone service; 250,000 are homeless. The death toll from the hurricane and its aftermath stands at 38.

A health crisis is emerging in southern Dade County, with diseases ranging from dehydration due to intense heat and lack of water to salmonella and dysentery from contaminated food and water.

Meanwhile, politicians and businessmen are debating what and how much to rebuild, and who will profit, and who will foot the bill.

September 18, 1967

DETROIT — In a new display of unity engendered by the Detroit uprising, the Black People’s Tribunal, sponsored by the legal committee of the Citywide Citizens Action Committee, conducted a peoples trial of a national guardsman Theodore Thomas; two Detroit policemen, Ronald August and Robert Paille; and a Negro private guard, Melvin Dismukes. The four were found guilty by the Tribunal of conspiracy to maliciously murder three unarmed Black youths in the Algiers Motel during the July rebellion here.

Over 2,000 Black people attended the Tribunal, held on Aug. 30, and an equal number were turned away because of lack of room. The integrated jury included the well-known Black writer, John O. Killens, and Rosa Parks, whose courageous stand against discrimination on buses led to the 1955-56 Montgomery, Ala., Bus Boycott.

September 19, 1942

More than any other people, the Jews have become the burning symbol of capitalism in decay, of a civilization that threatens to fall back completely into barbarism. The Nazis have made the Jewish people the scapegoat of their system of rule by terror.

The inhuman treatment of the Jews by the Nazis has served also to test the pretensions to humanity of the democratic capitalist lands.

We know how England refused permission to boatloads of Jewish refugees to land in Palestine, even when already in sight of its shores. The sinking of several such boats with the loss of hundreds of lives became international scandals.

The United States has shown the same hypocritical attitude as the British. The whole machinery of government from State Department to foreign consular officials, was set into motion for but a single purpose: to keep the Jews out.

 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home