Read Online Dark Stain by Benjamin Appel - Free Book Online Page B

looked as if Hayden was married, too, something he hadn’t known in Chicago.
    “We’re going to work together,” Hayden said smoothly. “This is the picture. This Monday a Negro called Randolph was killed in Harlem by a Jewish policeman. Feeling is at white heat. The Jewish policeman is a bit of luck. Our Harlem contact, a man called Dent, phoned the news to me two hours after the killing. As I viewed it, we had been presented with a splendid agitational opportunity.” He stretched one small hand to a folder on his desk, opened it and took out a leaflet printed on green paper. “I wrote this item the same night. By Tuesday morning, it was being distributed throughout Harlem. Look it over, Bill.”
    Bill read:
    STICK TOGETHER HARLEM
    NEGROES MUST STICK TOGETHER AGAINST
    THEIR ENEMIES
    OUR ENEMY ISN’T ONLY THE JEW COP MILLER
    HARLEM IS FULL OF OUR ENEMIES
    WOP BAR OWNERS WHO WON’T HIRE NEGROES!
    JEWBOY LANDLORDS AND BANKERS!
    MICK COPS WHO THINK. K. K. THEY’RE THE
    OLD MASSA DOWN SOUTH
    WOPS MICKS JEWBOYS — ALL ENEMIES!
    WITH THEIR RED UNCLE TOM (BOGUS) NEGROES!
    WE REAL NEGROES MUST STICK TOGETHER!!
    AGAINST THIS SO CALLED WHITE MAN’S
    (BOGUS) DEMOCRACY
    “It’s good,” Bill said.
    “You like it?”
    “Yes. I understand now what the Colonel meant when he said you were going to use the niggers to dig their own graves. If I have any criticism at all, it’s — You don’t mind my saying so?”
    “I can anticipate it. You object to that derogatory line about the Irish, don’t you?”
    “Yes. Swinging the niggers against the Jews and wops is a fine idea. Agitation against the Jews is paramount as our instructors were always saying in Chicago.” Right away, he sensed it was a mistake reminding Norris Hayden of their common training period. He wouldn’t do it again. “As for the wops, that comes under the heading of anti-foreign agitation.” Hastily, belatedly, he realized that Hayden wasn’t interested in his criticisms or opinions. “I wish you would explain further what the Colonel hinted at. As I understand it, you’ve discovered a new propaganda technique.”
    “I wouldn’t say that,” Hayden disclaimed. “But none of us can escape certain facts. For example, the majority of the world’s peoples are colored. That should be a fundamental factor in all our Negro agitation, a paramount factor as our instructors did not instruct us in Chicago.” He smiled at Bill as if his choice of words were accidental. “Unfortunately, too many people in the organization are still thinking along Civil War lines. In the South, with the exception of Governor Heney and a few other far-sighted leaders, the organization is simply a streamlined Klan. That’s one reason I wanted you. You’re going back South after your work here. You’re going to carry the torch as it were.” He raised one oratorical hand but his eyes were hard cold balls. “Our motives in Harlem are two-fold. A riot? Of course. But we also are going to demonstrate the successful use of new tactics.”
    Bill was listening with the concentration of a waiter hovering around the table of a big tipper. He was thinking: This lousy desk genius, this high-toned bastard!
    “Harlem is the Negro capital of the country,” Hayden continued. “A riot in Harlem would interest every black belt in the country. It would interest the colored races of the whole world. We are going to organize a riot that will enlist the support of various Negro groups who would oppose us if they knew who we were. This Sunday, the All-Negro Harlem Committee is holding a mass meeting to protest the killing of Randolph. We are going to enlist their support — ”
    “How?”
    “By using their meeting as a mask for our own activities. I’ll explain this later. But right now I want to give you a general picture of the average Harlemite’s thinking. He resents the newspaper stories of ‘Harlem, the crime capital of the world.’ Some of the press have been sending reporters