Troublemakers

students for a democratic society decided that community organizing in urban poverty areas might build a movement for changing this society in june 1964 several sds members moved into the negro area of newark new jersey by fall the ex students and neighborhood residents had established the newark community union project ncup this film follows some of interrupts activities during september to november 1965 any movement any youth movement or most youth movements are idealistic in nature and i think this uh program is one of the idealistic movements but i think they came here with the wrong approach i think they came here with a hostile attitude it was just a few students at first and then they they grew and uh this is how they developed this organization to organize people to make uh changes organizing is something other than just you know saying the word it's people getting out into the street and getting and sitting in people's kitchens and living rooms or in the bedroom wherever the people are and talking to them people realize that a great change will come but enough to make them realize that people are not dummies and they will not sit back forever and let things go on as they have been going on a lot of people in this neighborhood want a change and i'd really like to hear from about the six women that are sitting there seven women or eight women and from this group over here now what was the question the question is what do you want to change what do you want to change what is there about this neighborhood that you want to change and that you think you can if we get enough people together [Music] yes ma'am young people so they can stay off the corners and out of the hallways place so they can go and have their fun and other than standing on the corner otherwise you want to use them safe nobody what would that place have in it would it just be a room like this no things would be my best thing on tables that's all right [Applause] once i'm gonna teach you [Music] [Applause] [Music] can i ask you two questions about that yeah the first question is that sounds real nice and i know that they got something like that in montclair and they got something like that in all the places where the fancy people live right and i know they ain't got nothing like that here and i know they ain't got nothing like that in clinton hill do we have a staff of organizers who go every which way depending on what they think is most important or the people they're working with think is most important or do we have organizers that work together as a team around one two three four whatever is most important you have people and they'll say well i got a bad house i wanna do something about landlords and somebody's gonna come right behind and say i wanna do something about police brutality certain issues have a high emotional quality they unlock a great deal of energy and the police brutality was one of those and certain meetings we had on the rent control bill seemed to be one of those and they were rolling for a couple of weeks a lot of the other things we discussed have low emotional energy or at least it's hard for organizers to find a way to tap them to make those issues relevant the problems of organizing dominate ncup staff meetings which of the many needs in the neighborhood will most clearly involve people what kinds of actions bring people together what actions lead to change staff members have ideas but no firm conclusions there are no blueprints for community organizing instead of blueprints ncup members improvise from a set of basic beliefs that the neighborhood needs fundamental change that those changes can't be imposed from above that those changes might develop from the needs and actions of people in the community n cup members organize that is they work in the neighborhood they try to reach and involve people who have never been consulted who feel outside society and irrelevant to power they provoke discussions about need and the possibility of change why won't he fix that because he got dogs he'll say well i'll send somebody down next week and uh next week never come you know it's just like uh what you gotta do about the gold mine rainbow this time the poor man start doing something for himself and everything even stole the day and you go out there tomorrow i don't use no snow [Music] that's right if the snow here is going to lay here on this street for two three weeks at the time if it doesn't melt and delay him in 63 61 it lays them for a whole three months until the friday yeah but what happened to the tax money right when anybody i've been wagging those tax money went into somebody's pocket in the power structure you mean unemployment is the same way i mean if you don't know somebody or if you're hanging up there you you you can't get a decent job for man they offered me i was drawing 40 40 42 dollars a week unemployment they wanted me to work for a dollar fifteen subscribers so what the hell i get home with that's right i mean it's just you got the wrong people upstairs running it for us it's time that they know that they can be defeated this time we get out and beat them and this is going to change it when we get a job so we can have money to support our children when we have the money to support our own selves and have homes like everybody else we have to live in this then yeah and win and all that stuff if if if we can get everyone to do this if how if this is a big word you know i'm saying when i go downtown and try to give me a job and i go down this unemployment office you understand i tell these people i said look here i want a job i said i'm not working i have four children nobody tell me well you fill out this little application i fill it out you understand now they tell me what are you capable i tell one cable for mostly anything you understand because i know i have to say this why because i know i can't go anywhere and get me a job see because i know the reason you understand i'm not committing myself but saying what is the reason why ain't the reason but i'm just gonna say i know the reason now what are they doing with me they say well all right will you come back tomorrow and then maybe we might have something for you yes now i'll come back tomorrow they tell me to come back next day finally the funny you know everybody out there doing huh i'll be out there down down the market right here trying a little trucks trying to take care of my four children you understand my wife and this is the things that i'd be doing but listen what about this head you could uh you go to court you get a subpoena to move right they tell you to move okay now you're supposed to move but where you gonna move to getting still they you they got a court order when your friendship and everything just put on street is what they say don't do not think but still in all you have to have your children out here starving with nothing and you can't even get a job now you just tell me i mean what's right well see we know it's not if people get together and try to try to change that then it probably could be changed if everybody get together we can fight it but as long as everybody walk on by and don't speak up and don't try to look out for not just themselves for everybody the majority then we would all have a little more than we got right now yeah the better advantage to it amen when organizers draw out the anger and frustration people feel about conditions in the neighborhood they also draw out people's doubt and despair about the possibilities for change people's experience indicates that nothing changes and that the power which controls the neighborhood is immune to anything they could do organizers have no easy answers to that doubt and despair what they argue is the possibility that united action might build power that if people could come together decide what issues they wanted to attack and how best to attack them an effective movement for change might begin in the neighborhood so organizers try to get people to come to neighborhood meetings where common problems can be discussed where people's anger can begin to work i've been mad but there's nothing i can do about the individual you understand i am i am mad when i see my people they have to live in these damn houses they have to pay this red pirate the man don't fix nothing from it's no different the rich man controls and his nook is 52 percent negro 52 negro you understand what i'm saying now i'm in office but you know how they got up there they got it was white watched by a rich white man and he put him there he controlled him that's not a damn thing working but his brains nothing but his brains was working right there there's nothing working for you and me the other side now his time that we do stuff everybody wants to stand around and get on the corner say well let's let's do something about what's happening to us but now there's ain't no one where you're going to do it is your night you ain't going to do that you can go imagine up there with your gun you can kill one they're going to kill you and that's the law that's the law that's [Applause] for me the first meetings release anger and frustration they also suggest that if so many angry people can come together maybe something can be done but if that anger is not focused on an action meetings become repetitious nothing is decided people get discouraged and stop coming so organizers try to develop actions they try to find issues which will involve people all the places that didn't be fixed up and all the places didn't have steam he it will be rent control on didn't he tell us that they were the ones who told us that this building had 108 violations and then this building had 105. that was early june late may or early june we went down to that rent control stuff ncup has worked with tenants in this building for more than a year mrs gaskins and mr and mrs solomon each pay more than a hundred dollars a month rent but their apartments are barely livable because the landlord refuses to make basic repairs and cups constant complaints to housing officials and housing courts have proved useless the building continues to deteriorate officials downtown that are there and i'm not doing anything and trying to hold up the progress of what is trying to be done these things should be exposed if we can get the human rights commission to embarrass them into doing at least that research for us and finding out what's happening then we can have them you know get us that information which we've been unable to get on jesse's been down to city hall and unable to find out a few days later mrs gaskins carol and mr solomon went downtown again this time to ask for help from the human rights commission they were skeptical because they had been downtown too many times before without getting results no one had found a way to get results direct pressure doesn't work rent strikes which everybody talks about don't work because a tenant has no protection under new jersey law when a tenant refuses to pay rent the landlord simply evicts bad housing is a chronic issue for end cup the problem is to find an effective way to fight local slumlords without risking evictions they decided to try the human rights commission a new city agency set up to deal with the problems in the negro community and also in my kitchen in the same way and um over three months now i've been um [Music] [Music] that we submitted to them from the from the whole building remember the checkout forms we did and then they reported back to us what was the violations yeah i think it was 80 in one [Music] they left the commissioner's office somewhat hopeful he had promised to cooperate and had guaranteed an inspection of their building three days later housing officials came made an inspection and sent the landlord a copy of their report somehow the landlord found out which tenants had been responsible for the inspection a week later mrs gaskins got a letter of eviction that afternoon she came to the end cup office to talk about what had happened i guess he did find out that i was one of the temps that did go down so he wrote 11 this morning i got a little and i tell you how he tricked me he had to place the rear in state office and i paid 150 before i moved into place then everything was all torn up and fears come in there to dave before i moved anything in he promised me put locks on the front doors which i never had unlocked since it was there and the big hole still and in the flow uh just as you go in the front door cause i'm still going back down there and report that roy is still leaking downstairs in my bathroom after begging him and telling him all about the things got to be dead in the house and he run at my 115 a month every every month and uh then because i pressed him to get some of the things did in the place he he gave me a big nose he was just tickling me i'm being so stupid ncup had been trying to force the landlord to repair now they were faced with the problem of preventing mrs gaskin's eviction the staff was already preparing for the monthly meeting of the pag the local forum of the war on poverty they decided that the pag might be willing to help special emotion that the pages stop and consider the eviction of a pag member and a member of the board of trustees right gaskin okay she has 101 violations according to city official records uh she's had numerous inspections and she had a promise one week let's say friday from three to direct to the human rights commission that something will be done about her building what's been done is today she got an eviction notice from the landlord the real clause of poverty is that the landlord fleeces the tenants so much the tenant doesn't have enough money to get out of poverty okay so you form a committee give it full power to act and back up uh emma's rent strikes you want someone to get up and make that motion down at the p18 meeting tonight to support her in her wrist strength and otherwise go back and tell what has happened so far in the last couple what's been going on and then ask for them to form a committee from the pag are the members that are down there tonight okay will you be prepared to uh talk about the history of what what's going on in this building how long you've been fighting him the fact that you've you know that you've been paying rent all the time but that you've been trying to get the landlord to fix up that there was something like over 100 uh violations in the building that you've been to see the human rights commission because that you know seemed to me that if that if people were presented with with that whole picture that you know they might react more favorably i will fight as long as i can fight even if you send some send somebody in they'll the pag is the people's action group it was set up by newark's war on poverty to encourage community participation in the poverty program ncup members are active in the pag because they see it as a new center of power in the neighborhood they hope that the pag might find a way to block mrs gaskin's eviction one of the members of the area board wanted to speak on arm housing mrs gaston [Music] a question i would like to ask first in case if you are [Music] at least three months you don't do anything about it and um when you had to put pressure on him to go down to the uh human rights commission to get action from him then he wants to evict you from your apartment then i want to know what action can be taken then probably [Applause] did everyone hear her [Music] anyone here uh it's it's open for discussion what she's talking about yes i think this would be a legal thing because i think it would be pretty difficult to even discuss this and give her an advice on what to do in this area i think that this is a problem that this group should be actively involved in because we're right here in the midst of this area where these sort of things are happening every day i happen to have lived in this particular building where mrs gasly now resides for three years and i do know of the conditions that does exist in that particular building and i would like to just point out that here's [Music] and i even are added up the monies that he gets off this one particular building in one year i would just like to point out that it's not even fit for a pig living it's females i would like to just project that we work from this one annual because he is the one landlord that really deserves it let's just try to work on the families that live in that building where him and i reside and have that rent strike now where she lives if he so he tries to evict her because i know the steps of falling down the doors is knocked out and that house had deteriorated long before emma moved there it's not that she is a filthy woman because her apartment is much better than mine [Music] the building was deteriorating the jews move down this i know and he is getting more rent off of hammer people like emma that it is even worse she has no locks on her door falling down the doors are knocked out she did knock them out it was knocked out what she used to do so if we can get this sprint strike going from her building 14 families hold out that rent for the month of january november moves out good and we got it jessie picked the whole building the pag voted to support mrs gaskins and decided to picket the landlord's house the picketing was symbolic and everybody knew it nobody expected the landlord to withdraw the eviction the talk about rent strikes was also symbolic even if all the tenants in the building had withheld their rent the landlord could easily have evicted them and found new tenants without effective means of forcing landlords to repair all action becomes symbolic landlords remain free to charge exorbitant rents and neglect their buildings many organizers feel that if n cup could find a way to change housing conditions it could build a massive movement in the neighborhood but nobody knows how no one has the answer so mrs gaskins moved out rather than be evicted but her building continues to deteriorate the problem remains my son got killed last year the 25th of a december and i want a traffic light and one of their white kids got hit they wouldn't feel and i think these folks out here feel different too they don't want their kids hitting i know the white man don't want his kids until the black man don't want their kids hitting me can i say something well just a little while ago this little boy almost got run over and the cop didn't the only thing a lady shouted out you know that's why we need to stop light instead of saying yes he says no you don't need to stop like you need mothers out here to watch their kittens go across the street as old as i am you need me tell me i'm going to get my mother out here watch me go across the street that's full of stuff sometimes n cup organizes around an issue in which the course of action seems clear when months of writing letters and sending petitions downtown brought no results people went into the streets to demand a traffic light [Music] tonight [Music] [Music] deliberately blocking traffic means exposure means openly risking arrest people were cautious they found no way to confront the police you can't scare the police how can you scare me you can't scare it when you're scared of police is when you go to jail when you go to jail somebody is there what do you think you should do do you know anything about philosophy do you remember plato's statement do you remember plato's statement which one the one that he made when he said the uh the seed of a rising nation and in the blood of a martyr yeah all right that's it that's it somebody's got to pay some dudes okay well how come you didn't come out right now i didn't come out on this i didn't come out on this because i got three mickey mouses at home and the politicians got me a job and i can feed my three mickey mouses and that i am not that's why i'm not going to jail right oh no no no i have been to jail everybody says i've been to jail i've been to jail and and i'm only telling you i don't want to do it for a loss car all right one day what day next week will you go to jail well i'll tell you i'll go to jail what then when are you going to have it i'll pick the day i'll get the people all right then they could put me in jail that day well i think i'll get prepared for this wednesday huh how about wednesday wednesday yeah you want me to handle uh it in my own method in my own way what's that um i'll have people that's willing to go to jail yeah okay all right for a red light this is this is for a good cause this is not for no uh shaman right this is for a good cause we need a red light here all right what day i tell you you said wednesday right be monday don't matter to me all right let's see i would i would rather get locked up on monday so i'll be out thursday for my payday all right see wednesday i'll get busted and i won't be able to feed my kids but monday i might be able to get out in time to get my check to feed my children he didn't show up on monday but people went back into the streets again [Music] [Applause] [Music] this time the police were cautious instead of clearing people out of the streets they sent for the precinct captain now i can't promise you a traffic light i don't have the right to do that but we have been in conversation with the deputy mayor that's paul riley now he has given me the go-ahead to promise you people that within 48 hours there will be stop signs put at this location well where you get them you'll be decided by the deputy mayor in the morning i don't handle the traffic division i'm gonna i'm gonna give you something temporary yeah while i can now i don't handle traffic man the point is this if the stop signs will be put up pending the survey to be made with regard to the traffic and if if traffic lights are needed stop signs went up within 48 hours but after a month of no word about a traffic light people decided to demonstrate again this time a group of city officials showed up including the director of police and the human rights commissioner uh directors of it and inspector melch is the person who's involved in [Music] this is illegal but we've done it because we realize there's a problem here which the state does not realize now it's up to the state now to do something about this uh stop signs too people are paid going down there to talk to the city all they got to do we left it so convenient for that all they had to do was pick up a telephone dollar number and say we are still working on it paul we are trying to get you right or we're not going to get you like it's not going to tell us no mr thompson this is you might be well writing this all i'm going to say of is today i'll communicate with you now you give me the names of the people right now and i'll get back in touch with you let you know what's going to happen now we can't talk about what has happened in the past but i'll get back into it let you know what the process is what the progress is on the light now who do you want me to get in touch with out here and i'll get in touch with you now anybody who give me that name i'll get in tesla or you have my name call me yeah let me get that on your way i can't say what that's what i'm saying what is your name all you do is say give me your things and i think you all get in contact with the people here that'd be much easier don't you think so that's right and one more thing and final component please have a little patience just have a patient i know the city is doing that [Music] and those promises were that he would him they would seek to get all the information on the traffic light for this area and that he would call me and notify me before by friday of this week before taking place and what they know now to date they have called me he has called me he has told me that they set up a meeting with a group of the people from the block with the mayor next wednesday at [Music] delightful badge and avon has been approved and it's only a matter now of getting the money from the city and that shouldn't be too big a problem we've had an invitation to be at the council meeting when it comes up before the council for approval the mayor and his staff were persuasive most of the people left the meeting convinced that the traffic light was a reality only a matter of time first of all you have to go through bureaucratic procedures in order to get certain things that you want uh for example when you want a traffic light in the city of newark or any other city or municipality in new jersey you you your own department or your own city must make a survey and there are certain standards that must be met with in order to justify a light and after you do meet these standards you uh apply to people were confused the mayor had said that the light was justified that it had already been approved now the city was saying that it had no power to get a traffic light that it was up to the state the city's conflicting stories continued nobody could get a straight answer without knowing who had the real power to get a traffic light people were unclear about what more they could do they themselves send their own representative to make a survey and if then they feel that it's justifiable they will give you their approval and that's when you get your light after 10 months there is still no traffic light on the corner as far as anyone knows the city does not intend to install one petitions street demonstrations even a promise from the mayor were clearly not enough the city had absorbed all activity by agreeing to install a light and then claiming it had no power to do so ncup never found a way to break through that duplicity instead organizers and the people in the area shifted their focus they set up a new project office on the corner and began to consider a more permanent approach to neighborhood problems the united committee for political freedom is a coalition of negroes whites and puerto ricans primarily of civil rights orientation that have come to see that if they're going to achieve their goals as far as civil rights is concerned that they must be involved in the political process of our accounting late in august ncup was approached by george richardson head of the united freedom ticket with a request for support and an offer to join his coalition once we get this power then these people are responsible to us whether they be white or black if we're the people that can make these folks and that's what we're attempting to do now we feel certain that we may be able to come up with anywhere from twenty five thousand votes on don't tell how far we're gonna go i think in in cup we have for the first time really reach members in the grassroots community i think the another thing that this group can accomplish is to really to develop real grassroots leadership richardson's offer caused a heated discussion about the nature of ncup and the nature of politics joining the freedom ticket seemed to offer a chance for ncup to increase its power and to reach new people through political organizing but there were doubts i come burdened with enormous prejudices against politics my whole life has been spent trying to figure out i mean how stinking the political system is and i don't really understand how all of a sudden we're going to step in and change it i'm not saying that that risk is going to walk on a chopped line i mean i put out who saved it up that he can't do a damn big walk and the people in the arena doing and then you can make him do a little bit better because he is a damn movement behind when george richardson sets up a coalition and sets all the ground rules and they're setting up a structure over there right now and then a couple of people walk into that situation i mean what choice do they have but to accept a lot of the stuff they have no choice and that's what i'm worried about do you know about the freedom campaign yeah united freedom ticket the group i work for you know is tied in with that we decided to support them uh that guy named george richardson who's the head of that ticket who maybe you heard of he's from the central ward he's a real good guy i mean he's he's kind of a politician you know and you know what a politician means you know all that stuff but yet but yet he's really into things like he was a bartender in the central world for a long time and there's a lot of real people that know him you know and he's like he's you know he's not a rich man you know those things really make you think that he's probably pretty straight you know so we tied in with him and three of our people a guy named melvin higgins who lives on hunterdon and a girl named anita who lives um goes up on osborne terrace i guess and a guy named george fontaine who's been with for us for a long time uh they they ran for state assembly the problem of ncup's relationship to politics was never resolved instead n ncap was swept into the freedom ticket and absorbed into the intensity and excitement of the campaign [Music] [Music] income has dedicated themselves to this movement this is not going to be an easy task because that man sitting down at the hall of records he has the power where they control the courthouses they control the institutions the prisons the highways all of our county hospitals all this power they have and they don't attend and let us take it away from it but we got that one thing that can take it away from and that's that vote for the united freedom thicket and be free votes for the united freedom tickets the united freedom figure wants to see all our cheerleaders get a decent education i say to you let's all join this fight for freedom let's support the united freedom ticket by coming out november the second and vote united freedom line better housing better police protection vote united freedom ticket for state senator george richardson david blumgaard frederick wearing and ken steffensen for freeholders stanley winters reverend horace sharper and hilda hidalgo vote united freedom let's join this life of freedom let's support the united freedom ticket a campaign generates its own momentum and its own rhetoric faced with a need to reach and influence a lot of people quickly organizers found themselves using the tools and style of traditional politics soundtracks leaflets campaign slogans [Music] this is a fight against police brutality the same thing a fight against job discrimination fight against half day school safety slum landlord they rap me how we are trying to bring rent control back to the city of news there are people living in cold water flights yeah paying 25 30 a week it shouldn't happen why is it happening because we don't have rent control here have they had our people in there before sure [Music] on tuesday november 2nd vote for the united freedom ticket on modern day and drug discrimination you know what kind of people are going in now you know what i mean do you have any ideas lived under these conditions and i am one of them no that's not what i'm saying what i'm saying is we've had our people in there before and they haven't been able to to uh to do this right now these people that was themselves she said now she's part of this i want to know if she has new ideas that's better than the old ones you know that they had because the ones that was under before were under the power machine the structure of the people and they are not no no we're not on no power what part of [Music] [Applause] no if you know what the democratic party is you know that the boss is dennis carey i mean i understand politics period this is why i was asking her as an individual yeah there's always that awful guy that that governs your way of thinking period all right oh a third party that's right this is the thing you know another republican party oh yeah [Music] if you want to be free vote line b that's line d november 2nd which is tomorrow it will only take a few minutes so let's get out and vote for the united freedom chicken line d the united freedom ticket during the last weeks of the campaign many organizers were uneasy the sound trucks the leaflets the canvassers had all gone out but there was little feedback nobody was sure about how effectively the freedom ticket had gotten through to people here comes this group late calling itself the united freedom ticket which no one has ever heard of and it says it's running on a third party which very few people ever heard of it says it's not really running to win it's running to get enough votes to defeat the democrats or scare the democrats which no one has ever heard of becomes the bond a little because i can see that if you're going out and you're talking to a whole group of people that you don't know and then you may not see again that if you start talking about you know trying to get the democrats to lose and that kind of stuff that either they won't understand they'll think you're republicans or you know they just won't make any sense to them you got the great mass negro stuck in the south ward in the central ward and the whole country hangs together on the fact that these people have been brainwashed to either be afraid to vote or if they do vote they vote for the democratic party line a all the way line a all the way the democratic party is here to stay the democratic party among negroes has the highest image and this is what these fractional groups fights they're more or less than fighting the local democratic party they will be fighting the national image of the democratic party and i'm a democrat by choice and that was a choice that i made and i'm not going to tell you the democratic party without fault but certainly most of the gains that have been made by minority groups working class people has been made within the democratic party [Music] [Applause] [Music] you cannot lose this is the way to protect your gains protect your potential voting line a all the way the rest of the day foreign [Music] is [Music] uh [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] okay [Music] [Music] [Music] called the united committee for political speech we just analyzed the results and it appears that our ticket done somewhat better than we've done in 1953 [Applause] but because of the big sweep by governor hughes who we all supported [Music] [Applause] the freedom ticket was crushed by the democratic landslide its vote was so small it was barely noticed organizers were sobered by the defeat free from election pressures they began to reconsider the limitations of the campaign and the nature of ncup's involvement in politics we're sitting here we have the foggiest idea of where those votes came from and when somebody asks you you know when somebody asks you uh how many votes do we expect to get people say it could be thousands you know it could be as high as 25 000 on the other hand it could be 10 000. and the question is where are they going to come from well obviously they're going to somehow magically be attracted to the freedom ticket you know they're going to be they're going to be brought by this sort of charismatic richardson type of you know campaign and that seems to me that this that without being redundant that this is not the basis of real power that this type of campaign where you could you don't know where the hell votes are coming from where you're trying to vaguely project an image into this you know this sort of uh unstructured black community that somehow just comes out and votes magically and then goes back is exactly what people like myself thought of elections before i came to work here canvassing didn't go on contact didn't go on real organizing of any sort whether it's around the campaign or around issues didn't go on and so on but i separate that from our role because i think our role began to change people in the freedom ticket number one and also it was no different than a goddamn big picket line i mean our presence at those polls and going around the central war talking to people were just as as vital it seems to me as having a picket line at city hall basically i mean we're going to get 50 people to city hall for a picket line we are only going to get 10 percent of the total vote but it's i think it's an equally significant threat and you know involves the possibility of growing and we can see ourselves as a an election like the november election as a fringe element that's beginning to you know to fight politically for two years and cup organizers have worked these neighborhoods bringing people together around a variety of needs and cups continuing activity to fulfill those needs has created a constant pressure for change in the neighborhood but in spite of all n-cups activity and all the people n cup has organized little concrete change has resulted it may be that n cups methods are wrong that the change they want is possible through different means but what if the question of method is irrelevant because the kind of change n cup wants is impossible to achieve within this society what then should ncap and all the people it organizes do [Music] you