Ralph Poynter
In his own words
EDITORS NOTE
This page is still under construction.
It represents REVISION #3 as of 03/15/2024.
I am Ralph Poynter and many of you know me as the fiery and uncompromising leader of the frequent Stewart campaign. After organizing thousands in her support, we won and now I’m back to fighting what I consider are other most important struggles. None is more important than continuing the struggle for community control of schools and continuing the struggle to free all our political prisoners.
The overriding element in every situation or circumstance in a black life is racism. Birth, Elementary School, Housing, Health, Food, Etc. Black lives have never mattered except during slavery and other circumstances where money is being made by our labors for others. The modern death penalty, 80% black moved lynching indoors. The police, as the army of occupation have taken lynching outdoors again. The Lynch Mob is the racist system including the courts and the media. Because the lives of our HEROES AND SHEROES do not matter to us who once protected us in our communities do not matter to us, THE PEOPLE, our political prisoners our POLITICAL PRISONERS are now dying in captivity. THEY ARE TORTURED AND ISOLATED. Only armed struggle can recreate our image-in our own minds and to the mind of others. WAKE UP! NOW IS THE TIME!
Born in Western Pennsylvania, I am one of six children of a union organizer when Pittsburgh was the steel capital of the world. I arrived in New York City in 1962 and began teaching elementary school in Harlem. I became a lawyer and progressive member of the UFT remaining true to the principles of Unionism. When the UFT joined management by supporting the racist central New York City Board of Education against the legitimate demands and struggle of black communities, I found teachers freedom party and became a leader in the struggle for community control for schools.
My political activism spans over 60 years and was always focused on the improvement of black public education. During the late 60s and 70s my leadership was able to place the first black and Puerto Rican principles in the New York City system. In order to accomplish this and other reforms which are still present today, I had no choice but to confront the Army of occupation (NYPD) who were placed to protect the tremendous financial and ideological control of the schools. Acting in self-defense and always in defense of my community I naturally was convicted and served time in Rikers Island. While there I organize my fellow prisoners and we took over the jail (one of the first successful prison rebellions) and and wrestled concessions from the administration.
After returning home in 1969 I was no longer, as a convicted person allowed to teach. I worked in a drug-free therapeutic community and then open my own business– a motorcycle shop on Avenue B and later in the West Village. Lynne went to law school. We had seven kids between us now complemented by 12 grandchildren and I mostly worked to keep us going but we were always ready to answer the call of a righteous cause.
As the years passed, I became men’s investigator partner in her many cases. I was able to enhance a great talent as a fighter of the double standard in justice system by my ability to communicate with everyone on every level. It was the Larry Davis case in the Bronx where we championed the right of self-defense, that gave me great satisfaction.
Now my primary focus is the political prisoners or serving unconscionable sentences and the sacrifices were responsible for the modern advances in civil rights in the 60s. I have formal education for my university studies on the master’s degree level. I also unfortunate that I got an education by the people while running my local neighborhood business. I’ve also been active in Uhuru, a national organization dedicated to the freedom of Africans and those of African descent everywhere and the Green party. I found it with Betty Davis the new abolitionist movement.
Now I want to be able to use my strength and experiences in an effort to save WBAI, a free public access radio station and all of our political prisoners. I understand the changes that must be made, more creative and progressive programming reflecting diversity and minority struggles and victories WB AI. I believe I have the will and purpose of intellect to rescue this valuable outlet from co-optation and exploitation. To save ourselves and change our political system we must start with WB AI. To guarantee our human rights and to maintain the gains we have achieved in human rights we must free all political prisoners.
On June 1, 2008, I made a request. My request was that my burial coffin is a SHARPE’ S rifle wooden crate box with the word Sharpe’s written on it. This is a symbol of John Brown. John Brown ordered shops rifles for the revolt of Harper’s ferry. A carpenter can make the wooden rifle case, in addition an African spear should be carved on the crate.
Once I woke up from a dream which reminded me of my past. My oldest brother Norman got us let the Christmas. The white family down the road had two boys. They stole the sled and painted a different color. When my mother knocked on the door to complain and request the return of the sled, the white parents slide and claimed it was theirs not Norman’s. Later on when I started school and about the second or third grade I cross the street and beat up the same kids because my mother had made me a new winter jacket and they had me smeared snow and dirt on my jacket. Later on when I got home and I saw the tears in my mother’s eyes as she clean and repaired my jacket was all it took. I went to school the next day and the both of the older boys because they made my mother cry and because I had heard a new all the stories of what was done to black people.
Americans can never do it right anywhere because their motivation is to rape the natural resource resources everywhere and anywhere they go. In addition, only the most vile and corrupt leaders in any community/society can agree to that. So these are always the ones who become the Allies of America, those who would protect their community\society from these abuses i.e. Slavery from America all the good, just people such as Ho Chi minh, Mao tse tong, Fidel Castro, etc. and if you’re for justice, you support them.
The most important factors of any concept are reality and the perception of reality. Consequently, American democracy, communism, socialism, religion, etc., community control is no different. Often perception is based on ”who’s ox is being gored”. Therefore, we must begin with what we see and can put our fingers on. That is today’s reality of democracy and capitalism, without examining details of these concepts racism and wealth there is no reality. The concept of reality has no meaning.
All [?] presentations are the same, as they are responses to the same oppression, to all victims of the same oppression and oppressor. It’s the same treatment to members of the colony. The same colonial interests oppose the interests of members of the colony. The lessons for us as so-called progressives are this, nobody knows where the people are and what they think. Our job as leaders is to lead. We abandon our responsibility when we refuse to enunciate a clear position (progressive fundamentals stated infinitum). Therefore we abandon leadership. Is it because we lack understanding of social realities called “The people”? Are we incapable of hearing the voices of those who have been more successful at predicting economic and political conditions? Is there a third reason for refusal to lead? There are not many conclusions that can follow.
An element in the anatomy of oppression is the dummying down of society by misusing the press and America’s major media is controlled by corporations for the benefit of corporations. Without truth there can be no understanding. The same thought processes that are affecting the general American public are affecting Leftist thought that is the fear of the unknown. We on the left rely on the Russian Revolution for answers. We criticize the Chinese revolution, the Cuban revolution, the Vietnamese revolution etc. based on the value system formulated by the Russian Revolution these revolutions reflect the realities of their situation that’s why they are different we must be able to do the same are pink and futuristic terms to create our own revolution. The future of our social movement or any movement is rooted in the past, but it cannot be limited by the frameworks of the past. The elements of our future were unimagined by those who came before us. Therefore, we must be creative, understanding and courageous in our strategies and thinking of our future that we have difficulty imagining that means we must be willing to create something new that is equal or surpass is the un-imagined present which we now occupy.
We must recognize that in our time the root of progress in our movement today is the freedom of our political prisoners. Never has a society seen or been confronted with by the things we are seeing today. The world’s resources are divided among those who have gunpowder. We must continue our warrior culture in order to survive we are our own liberators to quote Jalil Montagim. We must free our fallen captured comrades.
Democracy has never existed in America problems increase i.e. immigrants at the border America’s foreign policy. Haiti, Honduras, Egypt, Mexico, South Africa all are coming here. Why America because of the resources which were stolen from around the world. It’s called imperialism. Although money generated by capitalism improve the life of the oppressed in terms of materialism I. E. Cars, refrigerators, houses, things etc. Above all, however, the most important resource economically which created capitalism economically was slaves. History tells us there were thousands of slave revolts and they would definitely not nonviolent. Consequently, self-defense is a critical issue and we must make it whole by bringing all of our political prisoners home to make a complete struggle.
The news headlines revealed yet another black man killed by law enforcement for selling new cigarettes. Another headline reveals the genocide of the Palestinians. False leaders still lie about the problem and project false solutions. The problem is that we don’t have any power or organizations that exert power to solve our problems i.e. Education, social –political- economic authority.
This solution begins with understanding that we have a problem. It is necessary to explore the problem with real-life examples. The next thing is to develop an organization that has a track record for helping the people. We must support those who support us we must support and build institutions that support us. We can and must do this to save ourselves or ask what is next?
What has become clear is that the people refuse to be the ball in the ping pong game of the two party system or dictatorship of the two party system. It’s very clear to anyone who will deign to look that the defeat of sitting government proves that neither party represents the people’s desire.
There are many among us black folk whose challenge to America was that of allowing us to become a part of America as it is and always has been. Then there are those among us who challenged America to become the America that it claimed to be while we steadfastly rejected service to that America and its great hypocrisy. No Buffalo soldiers we. This is the current addiction that must be recognized and realized before a real ‘we’ can be a reality; and they must be a part of the progressive ‘we’ that is in constant formation.
The solution to social and political problems are honest workers or honest participants. Presently, the honest participants or Truthtellers are in jail or being put in jail. What role must political and social organizations play? We must be correct in our analysis that proves themselves correct analysis because tomorrow is coming. If we are correct that B follows A and C follows B the state and in a manner that everyone can understand and will determine who captures the minds and hearts of the people. We must define goals. We must define success and achieve those goals and successes.
We still with us a corporate antisocial everything for the rich media that refuses to honestly or properly frame the issues. Imperialist world organizations accept and preserve the Empire at any social cost to the poor and minimal costs to the rich. To rectify these problems and project solutions is our challenge. We must accept these challenges. What is more, we must solve them. This is our task. At the heart of this political problem is correct analysis of the ping-pong game with the people being the ball paddled by the two political parties. The heart of the economic problem is the correct definition of capitalism and the role of imperialism that is never separated in the minds and pocketbooks of Americans.
From the 40s to the 80s the middle class was gaining economic independence through increased wealth. Economic independence can lead to political independence from the moneyed classes i.e. ruling class. This is not a desirable turn of events for capitalist open-source. Therefore, they pursue policies that deter this i.e. home foreclosures, immigration policies that prevent citizenship for immigrants etc. these anti-people governmental policies will continue until people were able to recognize them and are willing to fight to change them.
American communities cannot police their way out of problems. The recognized solutions for poverty and crime are education and jobs. America itself cannot police its way out of global problems. That is sending armies to enforce economic deprivation i.e. capitalism. The money that comes out of exploited Africa and of the countries is astronomical and only economic and educational justice will solve the problem. Resistance movements of Every stripe will arise to resist these injustices.
Recently Obama correctly states that the US has always stood shoulder to shoulder with the French for example, Gen. George Washington supported the Haitian slave holders with his own money and the Haitian people’s liberation struggle against the slaveholders and slavery. US supported the French in their war against the Vietnamese liberation struggle. Presently the US France and Canada altogether and maintaining the slave colony of Haiti. The US Marines drove Aristide and anyone else who supports Haitian freedom and justice out of the country. The USS supported every dictator in Haiti to keep the people in slave.
Politics without power equal colonialism Obama is the Trojan horse and all of its elements most of all psychological. Valor is no problem in the black community. Metaphysical imperialism is the problem. That is the belief that we can be accepted by America because of morality or moral suasion, Julie Judeo-Christian heritage, in spite of the lessons of history.
America constantly mis-states the problem and wants the correct answer. Not dealing with core issues such as what is America and what is American education and what is public education all about and who judges who is good and who is not. The US government will no longer share the profits of imperialism with the common man. Legal injustice is the history of slavery i.e. is the legacy of slavery. Reconstruction was an attempt at dismantling the effects of Jim Crow. Another example of American mistakes or the attempt to correct American mistakes is the civil rights movement and a recent response to this attempt at arriving at a correct answer on the part of the government is the antiterrorist effective death penalty which represents or reflects Bill Clinton’s states rights philosophy. Sleeping politicians of color i.e. the black congressional Congress voted, along with others in the Democratic Party, for the patriot act. We must stop this walk into fantasyland.
The revolution in progress and its outcome will be based on the ability of people to perceive reality i.e. the class war, the race war along with the free speech of corporations, the free speech of right-wing Islam a phobics. 350 years of continued oppression cannot be considered accidental. For example, stronger regulations on environmental problems slows the movement of money i.e. capital from the bottom and middle classes to the top of the economic pyramid. It increases the GDP as well as well. Another example, is the hypocrisy of nonviolence and the support of this concept of nonviolence vis-à-vis oppressed people who continue to vote for governments and presidents who export the most outrageous form of violence as standard government policy. The misinterpretation and misrepresentation of America is and how its institutions function has led to the mistakes made in building a defense against the repressive forces that have widened their smiles to expose their teeth and fangs which they have begun to use on a segment of our population previously immune to their acts.
The issue is how the contradiction of races and yesterday, today and unfortunately, tomorrow will do directly affect our ability to achieve human rights in America and abroad. Besides the false narrative of unreasonable resistance i.e. Al Qaeda there has always been a false narrative in the history of America. This is the consequence of denying the reality of the American Empire. Responsibilities include explaining today and predicting tomorrow. Knowing what’s coming, can help people to be prepared for tomorrow and make decisions that will improve their lives and the lives of their children. This includes analyzing correctly issues such as unemployment, Social Security, single-payer health care, non-aggressive wars. This also includes recognizing the reality that trickle down reality means the rich have 10% more profits and economic resources than they did before the so-called economic crunch.
We must be able to overcome this mental, psychological and emotional condition. This misdirected allegiance to a system that is destructive to our very existence must be redirected. The continued display of virulent anti-black anti-African racism by the European general population must be a dagger in the heart of this accepted myth of white supremacy in the minds of African Americans. There are several kinds of people of color. There are those who want to be a part of Rome i.e. the evil Empire. There are those who want to change the evil Empire into being what it says it is. Those who surrender to what ever when ever you do not understand that society will not and cannot let them alone.
Why am I here? I’m doing my life’s chosen work. I’m trying to make it better, in my home, for my family, my community and the nation I was born in but not of as well as the larger world. What could I say that might and could make a difference for you. Why are we here? We are in the same boat driven by the same factors; race and money, black and poor. How do we get off the track to an oppressed life to a better one understanding where and why we are here?
In spite of the lessons of history, we must be able to overcome mental and psychological and emotional oppression we must be able to overcome metaphysical imperialism. We must be able to overcome this misdirected allegiance to a system that is destructive to our very existence. This pattern must be redirected. The continued display of virulent anti-black, anti-African racism by the European general population must be a dagger in the heart of this accepted myth of white supremacy. We must begin to teach our population starting with our you that all interest as a people is most often not the same interest of the controlling class and we must be proud of our history. We must stop thinking that we can be a part of this society are joining this society as individuals.
We African Americans are the European Jews of the 1930s without money or a sense of identity politically, socially, economically. Why am I here? My task is to define what’s happening and to try to make sense of it. America loves to talk about democracy but hates people elected democratically. Black people live now I have always lived under and around arbitrary authority that is white authority.
The revisiting of the history of the death camp i.e. going back to the camps to relive the experience, raises the issue of how do we as black people better emphasize slavery all bear witness to its history. We never left slavery as Jews left Europe left the death camps with their religion language and rituals intact. Instead, we morphed into a new slavery with a common experience of slavery. All of the experiences of slavery are with us. White rate of black mothers, children and all other indignities of class, color, and economic deprivation etc.
“The truth will set you free” only if you follow the truth and do not use the truth as a verbal gimmick to appear profound and real. All oppression has the same dynamic. Only the names and situations have been changed to benefit the oppressor or protect the oppressor. My life is organizing around the truth. People seem to be easily manipulated by CNN. Historically, Chinese peasants were blank pages to be written on, according to Mao. Black people have been organized to be a against their own best interest. Everything is connected figuring out the connections is important and difficult. Is race biological? Is race cultural? One thing that can be stated without contradiction is that race is real enough to get you killed, when you are the wrong race. In America, the numbers on lynching-legal; illegal and otherwise and the fact that one black death occurs every 28 hours is certainly a relevant fact. Understanding our relationship to this Empire means knowing that the police are an army of occupation in our communities. It means understanding our relationship to this Empire and who do we serve and what principles do we follow.
All of our institutions and organizations are controlled by our enemies i.e. our churches our schools are political parties etc. Our misleadership class, represents an American director re-of certified uncle Tom’s. Their purpose is to put the people to sleep blending and blurring the lines of morality and immorality. Consequently, evil is good and good is evil. George Orwell predicted this and Plato predicted it much earlier. There is very little black nationalism and there is very very much black cultism. There is a national epidemic of a lack of morality in leadership positions in religious organizations, and political organizations, and cultural organizations, and social organizations. All of this is reflected in false leadership or the misleadership of the black leadership class. To get out of this situation we must be able to analyze what we say we believe then and on our conclusions. Having an idea is like sitting on a pin. It will make you do something. It forces you to act.
The pressing issue of our time is education; and its corollary this education and the control of the economy around this practical application of democracy in this America. We must dispel the myth that we accept as reality for example myth the new South, the old self,; the new government of Obama. Reality dictates that we accept the fact that every law is used to steal money. The best example of this other traffic laws which are most outrageous. Justice is not at City Hall. Justice is not at the state capital house. Justice is not at Washington DC in the White House. Justice is where you are and you have no justice you are not willing to defend. You have no rights you are not able to use or exercise.
No people can be oppressed without the connivance of those they believe to be their own. Freedom begins when people are able to separate themselves from those who sell out their interests to slavers who paid for their bodies. World freedom struggles are won when people break the chains of false beliefs. We must be clear about rights of all people. We must be clear about how we define success in the struggle for the rights of all people. You cannot call operate with evil that the law is used to deny people justice is old news for people of color. It is new to middle-class white people. They all like deer caught in the corporate headlights.
So many issues reflect this mythology system of the oppressed. We must understand everything is related. With this economic depression, everything will continue to worsen. We have become zombies because we continue to believe in the nonsense and the nonsensical. This situation epitomizes our situation in America. We are very aware of the words of the law. We must become aware of the re-reality of law and this awareness of reality of the law will properly inform us as to what strategies we must use to solve our problems down here on the ground. Understand this. There is no law that this government is bound to respect where we, people of color, are concerned. We must develop communities of like-minded people who work for justice and truth. We must disengage from those who are not with us for justice. We are at an American moment of logical conclusion.
This nation and its allies are rooted in the theory that white men with means are superior to any of the people and every white man who achieves economic success by any means has the moral prerogative to rule the world by any means. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is lacking in understanding of Eurocentric thought and direction and will pay the price. Society is targeted. No jobs, no housing, no healthcare, no with minimum-wage workers. We cannot support those who do not support us. For example we cannot support Obama’s patriot act. Everyone who works for justice is now and has always been targeted.
An anatomy of repression requires an anatomy of colonialism. The anatomy of colonialism is merely a description of the connections that we have which relates to economics i.e. jobs, education, housing, health etc. Jim Crow is not dead but alive and growing by the minute the question is, “ do we have the emotional capacity to deal with this reality” i.e. the new slavery? An anatomy of colonialism and repression demands the separation from false prophets with their meaningless demands. I would demands awful freedom for all political prisoners and community control of education and all public institutions. An element in the anatomy of oppression is the dumbing down of society by the misuse of the press. America’s major media is controlled by corporations for the benefit of corporations. Without truth there can be no understanding and thus the advent of the trumps and the trumpalike. Another element in the anatomy of oppression and the dumbing down of society is the charter school wars against the public school system of education which is the tool of oppressors to destroy unity and continue the process of dummying down society.
I like to say that education is life, miseducation is death. There never was a question as to whether we could have a good school system or not. I was as I was saying a few minutes ago there is no question whether we can have a good school and we had a good question is after we get a school can we keep a school. now am I’m going to bring you up-to-date as to what happened over the past decades on the political of educational history.side now a few weeks ago several of our parents to come attend a Sarah to committee to discuss why they were supporting Ms. Davis and one of the things that came out was Mr. Coletta, former Superintendent of BASIS Highschool division, is alleged to have said to one of our parents is that if Ms. Davis is so upright and honest how come she doesn’t have a case in court? Ms. Davis did have a case in court. She also had a lawyer, Lynne Stewart, but what makes this remark significant is that that evening while in the street, Ms. Davis bumped into one of her previous coworkers a person who worked in one of the high school and she said, we heard that you were fired or released from the school (she wasn’t fired she was transferred) because one of the people who had been with taking her case the court came from Mr. Coletta, Boro Superintendent . We put that alongside of the rumor that she was removed because one of the people and I say that must’ve been myself because I’m the person who was helping Ms. Davis as a volunteer was arrested trying to take drugs into the school and that she did not take the case to court, that is her own personal case of transfer. What makes this rumor so significant is we know where the rumor came from that I had a so-called criminal record. I fought in the schools to have the first four nonwhite principals put in the schools, the first black construction crews put in the schools, to have black history put in the schools and to have black music put in the schools but these victories did not happen just because we asked. We fought. I ended up with five or six charges of assault. I went to jail and I lost all my education licenses and out that Ms. Davis had a criminal working with her in the schools and then we heard the rumor that this criminal was caught taking drugs into the school or tried to take drugs into the school. Now we all know that there is a police record if you’re caught doing anything. Now I have an extensive police record involving many assaults. My assaults have not been against women and children but against police officers who were overzealous in doing their job. My struggle has always been around the school issue. Mr. Coletta, who was a district superintendent, the person who removed Betty Davis, was the source of these rumors Now what were asking the public to do {listening audience} was for anyone who had heard the rumor to please call attorney Lynne Stewart and give information as to where the rumor was coming from because we had names of people who told us about this and we knew we could trace it right back to {Mr. Nicholas Coletta.}—-(Libel?) These were the same tactics that were used against people who fought for the public schools in 1965, 67, and 68. The opposition, past out a flyer which was attributed to myself that was negative, it was stupid, it was irrational, it was a racist, it was written in poor English and they signed my name to it. However, the problem with the signature was that they misspelled my last name my name is Poynter with a Y not and I. I could spell my name. They got away with this one because a lot of people didn’t believe I could spell my own name at the age of 45. But this is another story. We have documented proof that Albert Shanker distributed a half 1 million of these flyers that were attributed to me. However, this time, we had documentation that we could follow back.
Let me put it very succinctly, one of the problems we’ve had in this country for many years is miseducation. This is why we of the New Abolitionist Movement are making our voices heard. In American history, the abolitionist movement was when people of all races, nationalities, all groups came to join together to abolish the injustice of slaver. It was a very powerful movement. It was so powerful that they don’t teach you about it anymore. We want to continue teaching about people of all ethnicities, all groups coming together to overthrow corruption. I recommend Justice such as that the people, anybody who would steal the Board of Ed money should be sent to Rikers Island along with the people whose future they have stolen. Put them on Rikers Island or , I would suggest, they put them in the federal system with people, i.e. with some of these kids who because they had no education and whose future persona was stolen because they couldn’t read, write or count and the only equal opportunity employer available to them, in this America, is the drug business. Put them in there and then that would give me some kind of hope that those with positions of authority mean it when they claim they are investigating corruption.
A conversation with Ralph Poynter on Community Control.
Exactly where. And so now whatever movement people had, we tried to turn it to our thing. And the government has movements. There is COINTELPRO, there is offering of rewards of the system, because understand the democratic system, the capitalist system of America, is about winning and rewarding. That’s where corruption comes in. You win, you reward your friends. But it’s gotten to a ridiculous extent in America, corruption seems to be the major problem now they have, we say we want community control. The government comes in with the
Ford Foundation, and they say, you want decentralization, and we’re going to practice democracy community control before we allow you people to have what we white people have. That’s what, in essence, it was, every experimental district, every advancement of black people in America was preceded, was slowed down by this concept, as we have to see if you people can do it. And I would fight with people when I was a young man, and I’m saying: “What in the world are you talking about?” We would see what you people doing is racism by white people better than anything we could do. And so we don’t need this practice experimental district. We need democracy, and we’ll take care of it from there. Now, in terms of changing something which is subject, how do you take somebody else’s issue and turn it into your own. So they take our issue of community control and they turn it in to decentralization. And so they’re having this decentralization. They won the narrative by overwhelming us in the media. It no longer became community control. It became decentralization
When did the Ford Foundation first get into this?
Wow, I imagine around 1965 66 they offered me the world. No, they just put me in jail. Destroyed me a job. They says, you’re talking about community control. Will make you the first black principal, you know. Just keep your mouth shut. Keep going along with us and you’ll be okay. We went to let me get it Metropolitan Applied Research Commission Office on 95th Street, 96th Street, Central Park East. Kenneth Clark had the dinner. He wanted to meet with me, and we discussed it at Teacher’s Freedom Party. So I said, Can I bring some of my friends? And they says, of course. And so we arranged this meeting. You got Lynn Stewart. Dick Menally, myself, and Harvey Shapiro. We figured this is the brains of the organization will go to the meeting. And so we go to the meeting, and they’re talking to me about things and gold plates, gold rimmed plates, you know, people serving us real nice. Ralph, you can you do this? Ralph, we understand. You have a lot of organizations, an organization on the Lower East Side, an organization on the West Village, an organization in in the Bronx, an organization in the Harlem , but you got no money. Suppose we gave all of you IBM selected typewriters, and we’ll hire your secretaries, and you’ll have space, and you’ll be able to do what you want to do. You know, in terms of education, I’m going to shortcut this and go way back and say, you know, we had a meeting. Can’t be done. They control the money. They control everything. You know, forget about this. But anyway, we have the meeting, and we’re discussing this, and we go back and we find out Betty’s “saying, fast forward. ” Okay, fast forward. We find out that they’re having a demonstration at Ocean Hill Brownsville, but it’s all cast. We’re not in the cast. Sonny Carson’s with core the UFT, everybody, also Al Sharpton, everybody’s in. Mr. Oliver, what’s his name? The minister Oliver, I don’t think Al was on the scene yet.
Okay. What year is this? Again?
1968. Anyway, but all of this is in a newspaper, the decentralization, Ocean Hill, Brownsville scene. Okay, so we have a meeting. What can be done with this? They got the narrative. They’ve taken community control, they turned it into decentralization and, demonstration district, not community control, and it’s all set up. And so we have this big meeting. We’re discussing it like we are now. And he says, what can what can we do? And I said, “Let’s vote.” So we all voted on it. And they says: nothing can be done. We’ve been outmaneuvered. No outspent, out bought out everything, and so, and that’s the vote. And so at the end of the meeting, I says, Well, okay, I’m going to go and see what’s happening. I’m just going to show sorry.
This is the Teacher’s Freedom Party that had this meeting?
Yes, They said, can’t be done. Parents had come and told us, yeah, we’re bought. They bought us a new refrigerator. They promised them stuff, and so we’re against you, and you know, like we’re just telling you the truth. What’s happening
So your caucus and the parents were all against the proposal that was coming to you.
No, no, they had been bought. They ended. What do you mean? I understood the question
About the demonstration project?
They said, Yeah, we were going for the demonstration projects because they promised a lot of stuff. They promised us refrigerators, houses. We’re going for that. And so we listen, and we says, honest people. And I says, that’s all I require. Tell me the truth, so I know what I’m up against. They told me the truth. And I says, Okay. And so they voted, we can’t do anything. We’re too small an organization. Teachers freedom can’t do anything.
What was the proposal to do?
To interdict this decentralization and cooptation, and turn it back to what we thought was real, which was community control. Like all white communities enjoy, we want to enjoy contracts, control all the contracts, $20 billion at the time. Black people have none. And so and then the other thing, the educational issue. If you’re not fighting for somebody’s freedom, you’re not fighting for their education, all of the educational philosophy, all of that is real. And so we vote. Nothing can be done with 20 people, teachers, parents, everything. And so it didn’t I said, I’m president. And I says, Okay, that’s the vote. But do you mind if I go and just watch, look, see what’s happening? And he says, of course, Ralph, you can go. And then Betty says, Well, if Ralph’s going, I’m going. And then Lynn says, Well, if Ralph and Betty are going and Dick minnerly, let me not exclude Dick Minerly, which is major player in this whole a white guy who was a major player in this issue of community control, and so don’t anyone think that we’re a racist group. Dick Minnerly Is my executive secretary. And Lynn Stewart, you know, Lynn Stewart is she went on to leave teaching and went to law, but her same spirit was there. And so she says, I’ll go to the office, and if Ralph calls in a flyer, we’ll print it up. And Dick had the keys to the printing office of Pace University. He worked there. And so Susan Ribner says, Well, if Dick and Lynn are going to be there to print up these flyers, as I would call flyers in and say, boom, and then Dick would be out there an hour later, printing out flyer, passing out flyers with our message. And so that’s the way it went. So we all went home. I go out there and I see the setup. What’s happening is the cameras, the TV cameras, are there. The teachers are going to come to the school, because we had taken over the school, we want to keep it, and the teachers are going to come and Sonny Carson is going to be there, and he’s going to spit on the teachers, call them names. Who’s that? Sonny Carson’s the head of Brooklyn court. He’s supposedly the militant. He was owned by the system, and the kid he was owned by the system, and the kids he worked with were therefore owned by the system. They did what the system what Sonny said? And Sonny would say to them, you can’t if you go against me, you’re going to end up in jail because your sentence was shortened because of me. You belong to me. And there’s one guy still alive who knows this is the truth. And I’m trying to think of his name but he never speaks of it. He knew Sonny was a fraud, and they wanted to name the street after him. Okay, anyway. And so we show up, and I’m looking, Sonny was supposed to spit at him, the cameras were there, and I’m thinking, I’m saying, wait a minute. This is a golden moment. We have all of the cameras there, and Betty’s inside the door, and Sonny announces, we’re going to spit on the teachers. I’m going to call them names, and then we’re going to step aside and they’re going in. And so I’m standing there, and I make the announcement, and I says, “No, we’re shutting the school down. Everybody on my side stay in here, and everybody not get out because I’m chaining the doors.” And so they look at me, and I’m pretty tough guy, and I say, “get out, or stand with me.” They got out. I chained the doors. Now the principal at the school comes and he thinks, this is the program, and he sees Betty there, and he says, young lady, and Betty was a young lady. She had her little Afro and she was skinny. And he says, you can come into the office and use our phone. Betty goes into the office and she calls every political group in the city and says, “Come to Oceano Brownsville. We’ve taken over.” And so they get we closed the school from the teachers. We keep them up. We’ve taken over, and they didn’t know what was happening. And by this time, our group, teachers, Freedom Party, has gone home, gone asleep. I’m calling in and flyers to Dick, minority dick, just printing them out and coming in, yellow paper, red paper, spreading the issue hour by hour to the people in Ocean Hill, Brownsville. And so now I have my briefcase in Rhodey McCoy’s office. He’s got a special office in an apartment building that they had bribed the community with. We’re going to give you this. Just go along with us.
One of the parent leaders?
No. Rody McCoy was a minister. I believe he became superintendent of the demonstration district. So he was working with Ford Foundation, Ford Foundation. Fantini was the assistant of what was the guy who did the pacification plan for Vietnam? There was two brothers. Two Brothers, yeah, he was the one guy did the pacification for Vietnam. The other brother did the pacification plan for American black communities. Fantini was assistant to William Bundy McGeorge Bundy, William Bundy, his brother was, did the pacification plan. How do we pacify black communities? And so, yes, this is deep and so I said, McGeorge William and Fantini was the assistant of William Bundy, or George William Bundy, and so he was working with the minister, Brody McCoy, they have an office. So I leave my briefcase in the office because, you know, I’m an action person. Never know what’s going to happen. And so I go back to the office to get my briefcase, and I over hear. Rody McCoy, speaking to Fantini, saying, These people are out of control. I can’t do anything. Hey, whose side is he on? He’s not on our side, and I’m saying, Holy mackerel! Now we have another piece of the puzzle. We’re going to keep it going, and now I’m going to have to and so Betty is there. She’s made all the phone calls, so all the organizations are there, and we’re talking to the kids in the assembly, talking about what it means in the classrooms. Us, and we’re doing all of this, and the day comes to an end. We still have control of the school, and so now we have to stay Sonny Colin, Sonny Carson and his the Brooklyn Corps, the guys are there. We hadn’t managed to grab other militant organizations to our breast at the time, and so we’re depending on them. And so we’re blocking every door. And we tell everybody, you know, this is what it’s gonna be, you know, boom, we’re making our plans. And then Sonny Carson says, “Everybody out.” And so one of the guys says, What are you talking about? And so he says, Come here, let me talk to you. And that’s the guy who’s alive today, who knows what the truth is. And so he goes and he talks. And he says, You know, I gotta leave. And he leaves. So Betty and I are supposed to be at a certain door to let the parents in when they come in the morning, the parents and students to take, keep control of the school. Betty and I are the only ones in school.
So at the end of the day, the students went home, to their parents?
We stayed hold the building; CORE, Betty and I, CORE leaves Sonny Carson, and I’ll remember his name before this story goes. If my mind gets to it. And I says, He knows he couldn’t understand Sonny, seeing we’re all out. And so Betty and I are supposed to be at a certain door, you know, to let the parents in. So I says, you know, everybody knows the door we’re at, Betty, so we better go to another door to let the parents in, because I believe we have been sold out. So about five o’clock in the morning, we’re looking out the window, and we see the busses, tactical police force, yellow busses pull up. They go right to where we are supposed to be at, holding the door. They break the door down. Come in, but we’re in the kitchen, underneath the sinks in the kitchen, and so the police are you could hear their walkie talkies going through the building. “they’re going to die in a blue jacket and a afro and he’s, you know, like he’s got jeans, etc, about 5’10, in 180lbs” and we could hear this on the walkie talkies. How do they know all of that? How do they know who they’re looking for now that day at the the delegate Assembly of the United the United Federation of Teachers is being held in Union Square. Now I’m a delegate because I’m a chapter Chairman the United Federation of Teachers, and we find out that Sonny Carson is going to get the stage, and he’s going to terrify all the white teachers against community control and but I’m going to be there and I’m going to say that’s not the issue at all. I’m going to have Lynn Stewart with me, a white teacher. That’s not the issue at all. But you have to fight to get the microphone at the delegate assembly, because Al Shanker controlled it. And so I said, say, we’re going to fight. We’re going to get it. Don’t worry about it. And so at the same time, the school were out at Ocean Hill, Brownsville, and we hear the microphone, the walkie talkies of the police who they’re looking for. And so I said to Betty, after all day in the school, I says, you know, I got to get to the delegate assembly. Now we’ve been under the sink all day, and people have been cooking back and forth, and we’re hiding under.
Was school open?
School was open, and we’re under the sink. And so I said to Betty. I says, You know something, you look like a student. Nobody will notice you. And there was a cop sitting outside of the kitchen. And so I says, Just brush up your hair and walk out. And I says, and tell everybody, get to a phone, tell them where I am. And so Betty gets up, walks out, nobody notices anything. In the meantime, she’s telling people where I am. And so a cook, a help comes by, and the guy’s got his hat and his white coat. And I’m like, you know there’s a cop sitting outside the door. They’re waiting there looking for me. And you know, the guy looks and I says, And he comes over and I says, he says, What can I do for you, brother? I says, I need a suit just like yours, a white coat that goes over everything, and a garbage can. And he says, You got it? So he leaves. He comes back. In about five minutes, he throws me to suit. I get up, I put on the white suit, I get the garbage can. I walk right past the cop at the front, and now my motorcycle is parked out front, but I don’t dare get on my motorcycle, because the cops are watching that too. They don’t want me at the Union meeting that has been set up for Sonny Carson’s to frighten all of the white teachers, and so it’s very difficult to get to the speaker at the delegate assembly, to get to the microphone, because Al Shanker, the union leader, controlled it. You had to fight push and carry on. Sonny Carson’s gets the microphone. He gets on stage to all the teachers, and he takes the flag, the American flag, and wipes his behind and says all kind of negative things about how they’re going to fire the white teachers. And our position was anybody who can teach. We want them. We want teachers who can teach, and want to teach, and we don’t ask them their color, race, religion, ethnicity, none of that, age, gender. Come teach and be accountable to the community. Be accountable to community, and we’re going to make sure that you have no discipline problems. We’re going to fight for you to get teachers pay the whole number. We understood what it was about. In the meantime, Sonny Carson’s is there frightening teachers, as opposed to my saying, there’s nothing to be afraid of. We want education. We will help you educate. We will work for our children. So Sonny Carson’s wife is behind. I’m stuck hiding until I get out with my suit and my barrel, and I get out, and I start running to get get a cab to get to the delegate assembly to convince the teachers that community control is the right thing and the only thing to do that will bring about education. And I miss the meeting and it’s over. But to show you how you try to change an agenda, we said it couldn’t be done at the meeting. And then we says, I says, Well, I’ll just go look. And then Betty says, Well, if Ralph goes, I’m going to go and it all happened. We pulled it together. Betty goes to the office, calls every organization, and now we’re doing our thing, and at the same time they’re doing their thing.
Who is Sonny Carson again?
So he was the head of Brooklyn CORE. He was a rat, a fake. They tried to name a they admitted at the Black Desk that he was an agent. He was was distraction, he was pretending. He was. He was the most militant Brooklyn CORE, Manhattan CORE. Sonny Carson was in Brooklyn. Roy Ennis was in that nothing but an opportunist.
So he went to that meeting to act like he was advocating for community control?
Yes, he went in to talk all crazy to teach us to death. Pretend he is for the community, but actually scaring them off. And that’s what went down. And so we’re talking about changing the narrative. And so we tried to change they took a turn off community control. They turned it to decentralization. We tried to turn it back to community control. This is what the narrative means. We want people to understand. And then we talked about, what does it mean? I says, $20 billion budget, New York City contracts, all of the jobs, stationary, buying the tables, buying the desk. We in New York can change the issue of racism in America. We say we’re not buying your desk unless you hire some black people to make them we’re not buying your ink unless you your pens, unless you hire you know some black people on your staff. We can control $20 billion because we were 65 to 70% of the school population, and we want to control 65 to 70% of that budget, and everybody is over 51% controls. We didn’t want to do anything bad. We wanted to bring justice in economy and all things, and so this was how you know we’re going to buy from people who support justice, who support equal opportunity. Can you imagine what that would have been in 1965 $20 billion dollar control. We’re not going to buy an eraser unless it’s equal employment, unless it’s equal pay for equal work for women. So I’m operating out of out of