“Uncertain Resurrection” is an indispensable case study of how badly the best intentions of even highly-talented and dedicated people can go wrong. Its concise, suspenseful narrative shows how an ill-starred crusade that was aimed at advancing peace and justice, took shape in the wake of murder and riot, and marched into a maelstrom of confusion and chaos.
Yet its example has helped keep hope alive.
From the report: “In contrast to the July 8 event, the City of Charlottesville protected neither free expression nor public safety on August 12. The City was unable to protect the right of free expression and facilitate the permit holder’s offensive speech. This represents a failure of one of government’s core functions—the protection of fundamental rights. Law enforcement also failed to maintain order and protect citizens from harm, injury, and death. Charlottesville preserved neither of those principles on August 12, which has led to deep distrust of government within this community.”
Suppose for a moment that the bullet at the Lorraine Motel had missed Dr. King that evening in April, 1968. Suppose he had continued with the campaign there in support of sanitation workers — and then gone on to lead the Poor Peoples Campaign in Washington that summer.
Besides these boiling issues (along with the continuing Vietnam War), there were others waiting to ambush him, and one of these was sex.
The male chauvinism behind much of his and others’ behavior was corrosive to the cohesion of the key cadre of the movement: marriages were broken up; colleagues parted ways; many rank and file supporters backed away. These patterns were not “victimless.”
Of course, Spencer wanted a huge media circus, and he got one; but he didn’t draw a meaningful audience from his targeted institution. They handed out 800 tickets for the event, but only about 400 showed up, including numerous press.
He also, with difficulty, got to make his speech, in the face of nonstop jeers & boos, advocating that a “white nationalist ethnostate” be carved out of the U.S. by “peaceful ethnic cleansing” (whatever that would mean).
On the way out, he was crowing:
Orlando Sentinel: “As . . . the throng of protesters who disrupted the event headed for the exits. Spencer insisted they hadn’t defeated him.
“You think that you shut me down? Well you didn’t,” he said. “You actually failed at your own game … because the world is going to look at this event and the world is going to have a very different impression of the University of Florida because you acted this way.”
Outside there was a crowd of a couple thousand protesters: rowdy, often profane, but essentially nonviolent; two persons were “detained”; a few pro-Spencer fans were roughed up, but were then escorted away by police.
Of course, the protesters had lots of help in keeping their overall cool: 500 or so police, state troopers, many heavily armed, including SWAT team snipers perched on the roofs and balconies.
While we worked on finding another suitably notorious Communist, we also set out to get a right-wing spokesman. This one was easier.
What was the most right-wing organization in the country? The Nazi Party, of course. And George Lincoln Rockwell, its flamboyant leader, was only too happy to talk to anyone who would listen. One telegram and he was set to go.
When Rockwell came, we moved to a smaller theater space in the student center, where it was still standing room only. Rockwell’s speech was a bombastic stream of bizarre sociological and anthropological “facts” that added up to, “they’re bad and we’re good.” I remember him saying that there were “breeds of people, just like breeds of dogs.” Dennis and I did not sit on a platform with him, as we had the others; the front row was close enough.
Several people walked out during his presentation advocating racism, anti-semitism & national socialism.
Rockwell caused lots of talk. A few days after his speech, some sociology professors held an open discussion they titled, “Is George Lincoln Rockwell a Closet Homosexual?”
While many dismissed Rockwell as a kind of evil clown, and he was murdered by own of his own in 1967, he remains a cult figure for sectors of the rightwing which are still around.