BILL LOUDON: Good evening, I’m Bill Loudon.

ED HUGHES: And I’m Ed Hughes. Welcome to the Channel 3 Nightly News.

BILL LOUDON: Our top story tonight. This morning, only 24 hours after Major James N. Rowe’s daring escape, three American prisoners of war were released by the Viet Cong. The three soldiers, all captured more than a year ago—Donald Smith, James Brigham, and Thomas Jones—were set free fifty miles from Saigon, near the Cambodian border. This was the second meeting between US representatives and the VC to negotiate the release of American POWs. The first, on Christmas Day, ended in a stalemate after hours of negotiation. Each of the men wore open-toed sandals and carried a rice bag, apparently containing personal effects. One of them was heard to say, “Glad to be back.”

ED HUGHES: Russia’s supersonic airliner, the Tu-144, made its first test flight yesterday. The delta-wing, needle-nosed aircraft reportedly flew at speeds approaching 1,550 miles per hour, very much like what is expected of the French-British SST, the Concorde. This month, the final design of the American supersonic airliner will be presented to the FAA. The Boeing 2707 will have a cruising speed of 1,800 miles per hour and will carry more than twice the passengers of its European counterparts. Tu-144 designer, Alexei A. Tupolev, joked, “We outstripped our British and French colleagues by a year” at least. Meaning that the plane was flown on the last day of 1968, knowing full well that the Concorde is expected to fly later this month. As usual, the news came by way of the Soviet News Agency, TASS. There was no advance notice of the flight. The location of the airport was not disclosed. And no foreign journalists were present.

BILL LOUDON: We’ll be right back, after this word.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: And now, this remote report from Keith Stacey.

KEITH STACEY: On Monday, a federal grand jury charged that Illinois Revenue Director Theodore A. Jones willfully neglected to report $16,787 in income tax between 1962 and 1965. US Attorney Thomas A. Foran said that most of the unreported income consisted of mortgage broker fees, directors’ fees, and interest. Mr. Jones, the highest-ranking black in the Illinois state office, says that he is innocent of the tax charges, and also expressed puzzlement at his indictment.

THEODORE JONES: In my view, it’s a minimal situation that doesn’t warrant this kind of drastic action. I dislike to think that there is any vindictiveness in this action. And I welcome the opportunity to clear my position in the courts.

KEITH STACEY: The indictment was returned before Judge Edwin A. Robson, who did not say what Jones’s total taxable income was, or what additionally he might owe.

BILL LOUDON: When Congress convenes on Friday, it is likely that Adam Clayton Powell will reclaim his seat. Powell’s floor manager, Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Michigan, said that he didn’t expect there to be any organized opposition to his seating, because President-elect Nixon, quote, “doesn’t want the first day of the Congress of his administration to begin with a hassle over Powell.” Powell was expelled from Congress after it was revealed that he misused funds of the House Labor Committee, of which he was chair, and because of other misdemeanors. But Powell was, of course, always popular with his constituency back in Harlem, which kept on re-electing him. He won the election last November but did not attempt to reclaim his seat until he was cleared of charges, and he was cleared by a federal grand jury last month.

ED HUGHES: That fire, which started at Sergeant Peper at 839 State, had a doubly tragic ending this morning as Chicago fireman James Fisher was found dead in the rubble. Fire crews had to wait until daybreak to retrieve the body because ice in the building’s collapsing foundation had made entry too dangerous. The cause of death is still unknown, and the cause of the fire is also unknown, although arson is suspected. In 1968, fires in the US caused approximately 12,100 deaths and a loss of $2.2 billion in property.

BILL LOUDON: Jackie Hale reports on the current blood crisis.

JACKIE HALE: The Red Cross Emergency Donor Center at 43 East Ohio will remain open until Saturday. The center was opened a week ago to combat the shortage of blood badly needed for transfusions. The blood drive has so far added about 300 units to the city’s cache, but many blood types are still in dangerously short supply. About 15 percent of those who turned up to give blood last week were turned down because they showed symptoms of cold or flu. The number of blood donors slumped drastically throughout the city because of the siege of the Hong Kong flu, while the demand for blood has jumped because of the numerous traffic accidents over the holiday season. The flu epidemic appears to be abating, but it is by no means over.

BILL LOUDON: Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the first successful heart transplant. It was a little under a year ago that Dr. Christiaan Barnard of Cape Town, South Africa, replaced the failing heart of Philip Blaiberg with that of a mulatto who collapsed on a beach. Bernard’s success so encouraged doctors that there had been more than 100 similar operations around the world in the year since. And now, Ervin F. Cramer is the happy recipient of Chicago’s first successfully transplanted heart in an operation supervised by Dr. Hassan Najafi.

HASSAN NAJAFI: It was a very good match. And certainly his course has indicated that probably we have an excellent match. I think Mr. Cramer’s going to live forever.

BILL LOUDON: Mr. Cramer’s wife, Amy, told a press conference that her husband’s transplant was less painful than his teenage tonsillectomy, and that he has even begun talking about going back to work as a boilermaker. She thanked all those who prayed for her husband over the past week, and especially thanked the heart donor, Raymundo Montes, who, quote, “permitted my husband to have a second chance at life,” unquote.

ED HUGHES: We’ll be right back with news on the cold snap and sports highlights.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: Good evening, and welcome to the Channel 3 Nightly News, the news that matters. I’m Bill Loudon.

DENNIS CAMERON: And I’m Dennis Cameron.

BILL LOUDON: First of all, I’d like to welcome Dennis to the WAMQ news team.

DENNIS CAMERON: Well, thank you, Bill. It’s the first day of a new year, and a new decade, and I know I’m not alone when I say that I’m glad to be out of the sixties.

BILL LOUDON: Well, we’re not quite out of the sixties yet. Here’s a story that just keeps on getting worse and worse. The army has announced that it will try Staff Sergeant David Mitchell on charges of assault with intent to murder thirty civilians at My Lai last year. The army is already proceeding with the trial of Mitchell’s former platoon leader, First Lieutenant William L. Calley, who has been charged with the premeditated murder of 109 civilians during the same search-and-destroy operation. The army would not divulge any details about Mitchell’s charges, saying that it would prejudice his right to a fair trial. But is it possible for Mitchell to get a fair trial given all the publicity surrounding the alleged massacre? And especially when even the president himself has spoken out against it. Sergeant Mitchell says that he saw nothing out of the ordinary at Son My and has denied the charges laid against him.

DENNIS CAMERON: Also, on a sad but hopeful note, Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot was forced to return stateside without delivering the food and Christmas gifts that he had hoped to fly to Hanoi for American POWs. On a television talk show this morning, he appealed to people to send telegrams and letters that might influence the Communist leaders to allow the packages to go through to our captive Americans in North Vietnam. He has since received hundreds of replies from people all across the US, and even from foreign countries. John Holman, vice president of the United We Stand campaign, underwritten by the Texas industrialist, said that calls and telegrams started arriving shortly after Mr. Perot’s TV appearance, and haven’t stopped since. He said, quote, “we are getting offers from attorneys, professional people, blue-collar workers, and even college students,” unquote.

BILL LOUDON: We’ll have more news after this word.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: Welcome back. Our own Jackie Hale filed this report on the Conspiracy Seven trial, which is now beginning to heat up.

JACKIE HALE: Youth International Party leader and codefendant Abbie Hoffman was reprimanded by US District Court Judge Julius J. Hoffman for his humorous responses to questions today. I quote: “Mr. Witness, there will be no more of these antics,” the judge said. “I don’t like being laughed at by a witness. I don’t laugh at you.” “You should,” defendant Hoffman replied. Abbie Hoffman is the first of the seven to take the stand in his own defense on charges that he and the other defendants conspired across state lines to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Because of the length of Hoffman’s testimony, the long-awaited appearance of Mayor Daley has been delayed again. But defendant Hoffman suggests that an agreement between him and Mayor Daley was more likely than an agreement between him and his six codefendants.

ABBIE HOFFMAN: I remember the mayor saying that he—he just—Yippies, zippies, flippies, he loved them all. He loved a good snake dance, even; he himself preferred an Irish jig.

JACKIE HALE: The defense argues that the refusal to grant permits and the overreaction of the police officers acting under Daley’s orders caused the riots.

BILL LOUDON: In his annual report, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover stated that the Communist party is on the upswing now that its internal factionalism has been overcome. The FBI has learned that the Communist Party USA, which turned fifty last year, has been planning to create a new youth wing in secret meetings in Chicago. The Marxist-Leninist group would replace the W. E. B. DuBois clubs on college campuses in order to attract dissident youth and expand its anti-war, pro-Vietnam activities. The report also announced that many student groups adopted a pro-violence attitude in 1969, much like several extremist, all-Negro SDS-type organizations like the Black Panthers, which preach riots and revolution. Hoover also reported 100 attacks on police by black extremists in 1969, causing seven deaths and 120 injuries. He remarked that, quote, “many attacks on the police by black extremists are unprovoked, and nothing more than planned ambushes.”

DENNIS CAMERON: Yesterday, Coroner Andrew J. Toman stepped aside, and appointed the well-known attorney Martin S. Gerber to head the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Toman said he would step aside because he was a doctor, not a lawyer. Gerber, a former federal prosecutor with 30 years of experience in the Chicago area, gained celebrity while working on the inquest that led to the retrial of Michael Moretti, a Chicago policeman subsequently convicted of murder for the slaying of two youths back in 1951. Mr. Gerber says that he will not allow radio and television coverage of the inquest.

MARTIN GERBER: Considering the type of an inquest, and the type of public interest involved here, and concern involved here, we felt that in this particular case, especially, the precedent should be maintained.

DENNIS CAMERON: Police say they were fired upon by a woman. Panthers say the police fired first, and that both victims were shot while still in bed. Attorneys for the four other BPP members wounded said they would only cooperate if there was no affiliation with the state’s attorney’s office.

BILL LOUDON: We’ll be back after this message.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: Six men were arrested while attempting to burglar the Skil Tool Corporation warehouse at 3952 Washington Boulevard last night. Sergeant Kenneth C. Curin reported that the safe doors, torches, and other burglary items found during the search of the home of one of the suspects, Thomas L. Moretti, suggest that the gang was a big operation.

DENNIS CAMERON: Thomas L. Moretti, was he related to Michael Moretti, the Chicago policeman that Attorney Gerber helped convict of murder a number of years ago?

BILL LOUDON: Yes, he is, Dennis. The other burglars also arrested while carrying tools into an alley were Gus Kanakes, Peter J. Costello, Theodore V. Ristich, William J. Monaco, and Francis A. Micelli. Lieutenant William Hanhardt and a 10-man team had tailed the gang for a number of blocks, then laid in wait while the thieves raided the warehouse. All were apprehended after breaking through an alley door carrying a number of drills of the type that are used to crack safes.

Weather and sports next.

FINTON O’NEIL: Good evening. This is the Channel 6 WBMB Evening News.

Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Israel’s commando attack on Beirut International Airport last weekend and said that Lebanon was entitled to reparations for the damage. Thirteen aircraft were destroyed in the premeditated military action, which was a reprisal for the recent attack on an El Al transport plane at Athens Airport, and for the hijacking of an airliner last July, allegedly orchestrated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Israeli officials allege that the Lebanese government allows the terrorist organization to operate freely in its country. Although it avoided the suggestion of immediate sanction, the UN’s solemnly worded resolution is the toughest so far leveled against Israel in the Mideast conflict.

Three American prisoners of war were released this morning by the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong. Donald G. Smith, James W. Brigham, and Thomas Jones were all set free after a two-hour meeting held in a special corridor about fifty miles northwest of Saigon. The corridor became necessary when Allies refused to observe the traditional New Year’s Eve ceasefire. After the American delegation had been flown by helicopter to the 24th Evacuation Hospital at Long Bình, the exhausted soldiers had little to say to the press, except for, “Glad to be back.” Their release comes only a day after the escape of the officer Major James N. Rowe [who] was found by US troops during a sweep of the U Minh Forest on the Gulf of Siam. Major Rowe had been held captive for more than five years.

The news continues after this.

[Break in programming]

FINTON O’NEIL: The Democrat from Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell, will probably be seated in the 91st Congress. The flamboyant clergyman was excluded in March of 1967 on charges that he misused congressional funds, was prone to overseas spending sprees, and because of his defiance of a defamation judgment laid against him by New York courts. On November 5, he was duly re-elected, but he hadn’t attempted to reclaim his seat until after challenging his expulsion in the courts. Before his re-election, Mr. Powell said that he would return as a freshman, relinquishing the 22 years of seniority that he had enjoyed in Congress.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Annual Report says that there has been an expansion of foreign influence in black extremist groups, and that the Students for a Democratic Society has been infiltrated by the violence-prone, pro-Chinese Progressive Labor Party. The report states that, as a result, the SDS has moved from an anarchistic outlook to a Maoist ideology. There was a workshop on bombs and sabotage at the SDS meeting last June, and it was only a short time after the convention that the wave of bombing and arson occurred throughout the country. Black extremist groups such as the Black Panther Party were also identified as an organization which has grown tremendously during the past year.

Next, Barry Williams reports from Michigan on the SDS National Meeting.

BARRY WILLIAMS: In Ann Arbor yesterday, the National Council of the Students for a Democratic Society overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to stage demonstrations at President-elect Richard M. Nixon’s inauguration on the 20th. Although an inside source said some members might demonstrate anyway. The black caucus of the militant SDS urged the 600 delegates present to not stage the demonstrations. Leonard Williams, leader of the black caucus, argued that the march would not be in the interest of the black community. “Before we do anything like this, we’ve got to ask ourselves, who’s heads are going to be busted?” Mark Rudd, who led the Columbia University demonstrations last spring, countered that the proposed demonstrations would “clarify our position at a time when the ruling class seeks to inaugurate its newest spokesman.” Every proposition at the five-day meeting met with often-heated debate; even a resolution to fight racism only passed 83 to 81 after a disagreement about the role of black nationalism in the struggle to defeat the ruling classes. The five-page resolution called the Black Nationalist movement reactionary.

FINTON O’NEIL: Bombs exploded in two Canadian cities last night. In Montreal, 200 windowpanes on city hall were broken, and the federal building was slightly damaged in two separate blasts, and a third, unexploded bomb was found outside the office window of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau. Also, in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, a mailbox exploded outside an office building, which houses the secretary of state. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer Ross Pikely said that it would be speculative to link the latter explosion to those set by separatist terrorists in Montreal.

On the local scene, we have this report from Patrick Keenan on the blood crisis.

PATRICK KEENAN: Dr. Aaron Josephson, director of the Red Cross Mid-America Blood Program, says the blood shortage here is still critical. In spite of Red Cross blood drives, most hospitals find themselves in a state of peril because patients in need of operations have to wait until the blood supply increases. Dr. Josephson says the blood centers around the country are experiencing the same shortages, so that each community is on its own. The demand for blood is up because of the seasonal increases in holiday accidents, however, the number of blood donors is down because people who normally contribute blood cannot get out because of the bad weather, are away for the holidays, or have the Hong Kong flu. The blood banks around the country usually keep 1,500 units on hand. However, the shortage is so bad that hospital employees themselves are being asked to contribute blood.

FINTON O’NEIL: More news, weather, and sports, when we return.

[Break in programming]

FINTON O’NEIL: Good evening.

The army ordered Staff Sergeant David Mitchell court-martialed yesterday. This is the second charge so far arising from an inquiry into the alleged massacre at Son My last year. Lieutenant William M. Calley has already been charged with premeditated murder of 109 civilians, and now Sergeant Mitchell is being charged with assault with intent to murder 30 at My Lai. Twenty-four other persons are under investigation. On March 16, 1968, soldiers under Calley’s command allegedly murdered residents of the hamlet of My Lai Four, in an atrocity alternately known as the My Lai or Son My Massacre. The complex of hamlets at Son My are thought to be one of the places where civilian guerrillas conspire to set booby traps and mines, and relay information about American military troops. But American troops have little to gain if our tactics become identical to those of the enemy. So far, Mitchell has denied that the massacre took place. The trial is to be held at Fort Hood. No date has yet been set.

From the Federal Building, Keith Stacey has filed this report.

KEITH STACEY: Richard J. Daley’s appearance at the Chicago Seven trial has been delayed yet again. The mayor is now unable to appear until Tuesday at the earliest because of a city council meeting on Monday. Today’s delay was caused primarily by the long and often humorous dialogue between Abbie Hoffman and prosecution attorney Richard G. Schultz, which lasted more than seven hours. Schultz’s questions focused primarily on his oft-repeated assertion that the Yippies wanted the laws suspended only for themselves. Defendant Hoffman replied that, quote, “these laws are the same ones that are suspended for an American Legion convention.” Finally, when asked to explain what he meant by his statement that he wanted to “wreck society,” Hoffman gave a long answer, which uncharacteristically did not try for laughs. The defense contends that Daley is the villain behind the convention-week disturbances, because of the city’s refusal to allow permits, and because of its willingness to allow the police overreaction to the demonstration.

FINTON O’NEIL: New developments in the Panther inquest from Barry Williams at the Criminal Courts Building.

BARRY WILLIAMS: Yesterday, Coroner Andrew J. Toman stepped aside and appointed the well-known attorney Martin S. Gerber to head up the inquest into the shooting deaths of local Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. The two were shot to death during a raid by 14 police officers assigned to State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan. Gerber’s appointment follows challenges by the Chicago Bar Association and the BPP for Toman to dissociate himself from the proceedings after Toman’s suggestion that he would have a member of Hanrahan’s legal staff assume the role of coroner’s advisor. Sheriff’s deputies, rather than Chicago policemen, will provide security at the inquest into the deaths of the two Black Panther leaders. Attorney Gerber felt it would be better to have the sheriff, because the sheriff’s men were not involved in the police raid. But he was unsuccessful in his attempt to change the site of the inquest, which is scheduled to begin at 10 am Tuesday in the Criminal Courts Building at 2600 South California. Hampton and Clark were both shot to death before dawn on December 4, in a raid conducted to uncover illegal weapons in a house at 2337 West Monroe. Survivors claim that the police fired first, that the occupants made no resistance, and that the raid amounted to murder.

FINTON O’NEIL: More news after this.

[Break in programming]

FINTON O’NEIL: An American Civil Liberties Union study has concluded that the police treatment of the Panthers amounts to provocative and even punitive harassment, defying their constitutional rights. They found no evidence of a national campaign against the Panthers, but charged that many high officials have contributed to a climate of oppression. Vice President Agnew has called the Panthers a completely irresponsible anarchistic group of criminals, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover has called them the greatest danger to the internal security of the country. But this view is not held by all of their colleagues in Washington.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Someone said not very long ago that potential destruction of our nation will come from within this country, and not outside of this country. And there are many, many other forces that are really much more to be feared than the Panthers.

FINTON O’NEIL: But the official strategy, whatever it might be, may have backfired. Since the killing of local Panther leader Fred Hampton late last year, groups and individuals previously estranged from the Panthers are united in their horror at what they are calling a murder. Whether or not there is a campaign against the party, many blacks believe there is, giving the Panthers the sympathy they never had before.

In an effort to quiet criticisms that the police nationwide are out to get the Black Panthers, federal law enforcement officials yesterday published a list of raids that were made last year on what they call white right-wing organizations. The statement said that the extreme right-wing Minutemen organization had been targeted. In 1966, 19 Minutemen were arrested in New York, and their arsenal of hundreds of guns, mortars, bazookas, and explosives were seized. And last year, following up on the arrest of Minutemen leader Robert DePugh, the FBI uncovered a vast cache of weapons, booby traps, and ammunition in a New Mexico sandstone cave, the largest haul of its kind.

James Earl Ray contends that his confinement in a maximum-security cell measuring six feet by nine feet at the Tennessee prison in Nashville is cruel and inhuman, unconstitutional, and a danger to his health. This was his first time out since March, when he was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray wants to be part of the prison population, but prison officials countered that he is in confinement for his safety—that some inmates might kill Ray just for the publicity. Ray, who appeared pale and had obviously lost weight, says he would rather face that threat than 99 years in isolation.

JAMES DEVERELL: Good evening, I’m James Deverell.

DENNIS CAMERON: And I’m Dennis Cameron for the Nightly News on Channel 9, your good news station.

JAMES DEVERELL: Finally, the space agency has released film shot by Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Bill Lovell, and Jim Anders during their trip around the moon. The astronauts took this film as they were outward bound at 17,000 miles per hour. After their first orbit, this magnificent view of the Earth greeted our astronauts on this latest space mission. Notice the splash effect when meteors strike the moon. This one is perhaps 1 million years old, maybe 10 million. Many of these impact craters look like the Earth after a bombing raid. Frank Borman called the moon a stark, bleak, and lifeless planet. One of Apollo 8’s tasks was to shoot numerous surveying photographs of the moon’s surface. The big job now is to find out where each frame was exposed so lunar maps can be updated accurately, before the Apollo 11 crew puts down this July.

DENNIS CAMERON: Three American prisoners of war were released this morning by the communist Viet Cong. In a special corridor 50 miles northwest of Saigon, Donald G. Smith, James W. Brigham, and Thomas Jones were released by their VC captors. The meetings were held in the special zone near the Cambodian border because of reports the traditional New Year’s ceasefire was not being respected. A South Vietnamese government official said the ceasefire had been broken by the North at least 10 times. Two helicopters had been shot down, and two Americans wounded. Each of the freed men, who were imprisoned by the communists for more than a year, wore open-toed sandals and carried a rice bag, apparently containing personal effects. All looked forward to their return home.

JAMES DEVERELL: And we will return after this.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: We’re back with this remote report from James Mooney.

JAMES MOONEY: Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover said in his year-end report that the growing number of black extremist organizations throughout the United States represents a potential threat to the internal security of the nation, and their growth has definitely added to the FBI’s work in the racial intelligence field. The report says that there were over 120 police officers injured, and six killed, in the last six months. The radical Black Panther Party claims that 16 of their members were killed by police. Hoover also warns that the Red Chinese and American communists have had considerable success infiltrating the SDS with the intent to completely destroy our form of government, and that, quote, “the American way of life is threatened by unbridled vulgarity, obscenity, blasphemy, perversion, and public desecration of American ideals and symbols,” unquote. In 1968, the FBI set success records: 21,000 fugitives were located, 290 underworld figures were convicted, and recoveries of property totaled $335 million.

JAMES DEVERELL: It looks like we’re not alone in our fight against radical extremists. On New Year’s Eve, bombs rocked the Canadian cities of Montreal and Ottawa. In the French city of Montreal, dynamite bombs planted around city hall damaged structures and blew out 200 windowpanes. And an additional bomb was safely removed from the office of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau. In Ottawa, the Canadian capital city, explosives placed in a mailbox went off outside government offices. Separatists—people who want Quebec to secede from Canada—are believed responsible.

We’ll be back in a moment.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: One year after the first successful heart transplant on a human, a New York doctor has agreed to perform a heart transplant on a dog. After directing a 60-man team transplanting the heart and kidneys of a 48-year-old psychoanalyst to three recipients last night, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, surgeon-in-chief at New York Hospital, agreed to perform open-heart surgery on a four-month-old German Shepherd puppy named Kai. Dr. Lillehei agreed to perform this unusual operation out of gratitude on behalf of the many dogs who have served to benefit mankind in the development of these techniques. Dogs have been the backbone of open-heart surgery research, because a dog’s heart is almost identical to a man’s.

DENNIS CAMERON: The New Year’s cold snap caught many Chicagoans unawares because it was the first real cold of the season. Commuters got stuck in delays of up to 45 minutes on the freeways, and delays of 10 minutes or more on the CTA, caused by jamming doors. There was a record low of 10 degrees below zero in the city this morning, and 15 below in the suburbs, with winds of up to 40 miles an hour. There might be some relief tomorrow when temperatures could reach 20 degrees by the afternoon. But it’s not over. The mercury will likely dip below zero on the weekend as an arctic front moves eastward.

JAMES DEVERELL: Sports and some good news when we return.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: Good evening, I’m James Deverell.

JAMES MOONEY: And I’m James Mooney for the Nightly News on Channel 9, your good news station.

JAMES DEVERELL: Well, it’s a new year and a new decade, and I’m sure you won’t mind if I speak for us both in saying it sure feels good to be out of the sixties.

JAMES MOONEY: I don’t mind at all. The only good thing that happened last year was the moon landing.

JAMES DEVERELL: Right. Well, it was reported yesterday that Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, who was serving an eight-year prison term for jury tampering, might, in the underworld parlance, “sing” if he was offered a presidential commutation of his sentence. There are reports of Teamster members making overtures to federal officials for Hoffa’s release. But, like most things concerning the controversial Chicago figure, these rumors were difficult to confirm. They come in the midst of a bitter power struggle over the Teamsters’ $400 million pension fund. And there are as many people who want to see Hoffa remain behind bars as there are those who would enjoy his quick release. One of Hoffa’s lawyers, Jacques M. Schiffer, vehemently denies the rumor, saying “Jimmy would rather rot in jail than be put in a position that would hurt the reputation of the union.” Just two months ago, a parole board unanimously denied Hoffa’s request for parole.

JAMES MOONEY: H. Ross Perot has arrived in New York, still unable to get his planeload of Christmas gifts and food to American POWs imprisoned by the communists.

ROSS PEROT: They see these men as—holding these men as hostages as creating some kind of an asset. In their culture, and from their own point of view—and when you look at their lack of concern about the prisoners in the South, their own men, you can sort of see why they think the way they think. They genuinely can’t believe that the people in this country care about these men.

JAMES MOONEY: During his television appearance today, the Texas millionaire urged people to send letters and telegrams that he will use to try and influence the communist leaders to allow the packages to go through. He has since received hundreds of replies from people all across the US, and even from foreign countries. John Holman, vice president of the United We Stand campaign, underwritten by the Texas industrialist, said that calls and letters started arriving shortly after Mr. Perot’s television appeal, and haven’t stopped.

JAMES DEVERELL: More news when we return.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: Our own Keith McAllister has been keeping close watch on new developments in the Conspiracy Seven trial.

KEITH MCALLISTER: During the Chicago Seven trial today, Abbie Hoffman was reprimanded shortly by Judge Julius Hoffman for his antics. Throughout cross-examination, during which the prosecutor, attorney Richard J. Schultz, was trying to determine what the Yippies are, and their effect on the Democratic convention, the Yippie leader would respond with jokes and sarcasm. After Hoffman made one of these humorous remarks, Judge Hoffman told him, “no more antics, this is not a joke, you’ve taken the stand in a US District Court in your own defense, and you are going to behave properly.” Prosecutor Schultz read long passages from Abbie Hoffman’s speeches and from his book, Revolution for the Hell of It, suggesting that they anticipated the violence that occurred in Chicago last summer. The usually garrulous Hoffman only replied that he didn’t remember. Hoffman and his six fellow defendants tried to picture Mayor Daley as the villain in the violence. But because of time wasted during Hoffman’s testimony, the mayor’s appearance has been delayed again.

JAMES DEVERELL: The Weathermen faction of the militant SDS ended its War Council meeting today amid bickering, only agreeing that its objective to create revolution in the US had failed in the last year. Despite urgings to stay, many Weathermen members left on Tuesday and Wednesday after the division became obvious. Those who waited, expecting the announcement of goals for 1970, were told to go home and build their own party cell, and plan their own violence. Four hundred members of the pro-Red China Weathermen faction broke off from the SDS last July in Chicago.

JAMES MOONEY: President Nixon telephoned J. Edgar Hoover to wish him a happy birthday today. In response to a reporter’s question, the president later said that he knew of no plans for the controversial 75-year-old FBI director to retire.

This week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual report announced that since it has overcome internal factionalism, the American Communist Party has been very successful recruiting students on college campuses. Hoover also reported one hundred attacks on police by black extremists in 1969, causing 10 deaths and 120 injuries. He remarked that, quote, “many attacks on the police by black extremists are unprovoked, and nothing more than planned ambushes.” Huge arsenals are stockpiled by the 30 Black Panther Party chapters across the country, with guns, which they say are for legal self-defense. But the Panther Party organization is now in disarray. Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton was shot and killed in a controversial gun battle with state’s police officers. And, now that California Governor Ronald Reagan has granted a request for his extradition, Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader severed from the Conspiracy Seven trial two months ago, may now face murder charges.

JAMES DEVERELL: More news when we return.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: The Central Illinois Railway Commuter Station at 91st Street was destroyed by fire early yesterday. The fire also knocked out two of the IC’s four power lines, making trains share a single track. There were delays all along the south suburban line today. Transit during the morning rush hour was delayed by an average of 30 minutes, but regular northbound service was mostly restored by the afternoon. Even though construction crews will work through the night, we can still expect some delays tomorrow. The incident came only a day after the railroad announced that it would raise fares by 20 percent and was likely caused by vandals.

Sports and weather are next on nine, your good news station.

[Staticky intro music]

GARRICK UTLEY: . . . off . . . I’m Garrick Utley . . . The controversy continues . . . Nicaragua by the Soviet Union but . . . unlikely that they are Soviet . . . ambassador to the United Nations denied that . . . which made the original allegation . . . a White House official today was asked about . . . no comment . . . Robin Lloyd is following . . .

ROBIN LLOYD: Administration officials now say . . . they now claim that the Soviet ship . . . minesweepers and surf– . . . –ground aircraft . . . all . . . Nicaraguan port of Corinto . . . to try to determine the number . . . This was the second major Soviet arm . . . administration officials have confirmed . . . Soviet-bloc freighters headed for Nicarag– . . . All this came . . . were rapidly backing away . . . MiGs. State Department . . . charges that the administration had acted . . .

MALE VOICE: Uhh . . . and I do not think . . . be accused of . . . uh . . . or seeking to publicize . . .

ROBIN LLOYD: –though some diplomats say the administra– . . . try to place Nicaragua on the defense . . . there is increasing alarm at this . . . to Nicaragua. And in . . . that Nicaragua is upsetting . . . administration officials now believe that . . . Nicaragua. At least not in the short run. . . . Given the Soviets’ moderate tone . . . be less interested in fomenting a . . . Robin Lloyd, NBC News.

VARIOUS MALE NEWS ANCHORS: The Reagan administration is now play– . . . but isn’t. Tonight, the United Nations . . . to hear Nicaragua’s charges that it . . . and the target of an American invasion. . . . Nicaragua, the Sandinista leaders there . . .

The invasion . . . request for blood donors . . . to help at hospitals . . . karate class took their lessons . . . and 20,000 young volun– . . . civilians were told to trade– . . . without the harvesters, one of Nicara–

The Soviet freight– . . . recent call to arms at the . . . dockworkers said it did not . . . attack . . . the longshoremen . . . helicopters, patrol boats, and light . . . Corinto . . . they believe if not the be– . . . of another secret arms shipment . . . to launch an attack again– . . . –cials said MiGs in Nicaragua are . . .

HEAVILY ACCENTED VOICE: Only in the mi– . . .

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: . . . mind of the United States . . .

HEAVILY ACCENTED VOICE: Yah . . .

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: Spy planes flying overhead . . . port . . . again today . . . jet that broke the sound barrier ov– … northern and southern border . . . –quipped in Central America . . . might be sent to the region . . .

Military maneuver is seen here as . . . the denials of . . . –gua is hearing only sonic booms. NBC News, Managua.

. . . Union are feuding over Nicaragua but the . . . nuclear weapons . . . according . . . diplomats are showing interest in . . . President Reagan’s proposal to resume . . . –itations . . . In a moment . . . of simplifying your tax . . . going up despite what President . . . We will see the new edition to the Vietnam . . . monument to those who survived.

[Applause]

[Commercial: Music snippets throughout]

MALE VOICE: With noble spirit . . . Canon A-1 . . . –matic exposure modes plus . . . stop action . . . control depth of field . . . automatically . . . to . . . the Canon A-1 . . .

[Commercial ends]

FEMALE VOICE: Got his . . .

[Applause]

PRESIDENT REAGAN: The Sandinista dictatorship of Nicaragua, with full Cuban-Soviet bloc support, not only persecutes its people, the church, and denies a free press, but arms and provides bases for Communist terrorists attacking neighboring states. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense and totally consistent with the OAS and UN charters. It is essential that the Congress continue all facets of our assistance to Central America.

[Intermittent electronic tones]

GARRICK UTLEY: . . . off . . . off . . . I’m Garrick Utley . . . Nightly News. The . . .

In those crates the . . . but today it . . . –ly that they are Soviet . . . Soviet ambassador to the . . . and the Reagan admin– . . . allegation is now . . . House official today was asked . . . no comment.

. . . now say there are . . . now claim that the Soviet . . . combat helicopters . . . air missiles u–. . . . All day long . . . Nicaraguan port of Corinto . . . planes flew overhead . . . weapons onboard . . . major Soviet arms shipment . . . Administration officials have . . . six more Soviet. . . . It’s not known. . . . All this came at the end . . . –ficials were rapidly . . . claim about Soviet . . . officials today appeared . . . administration had acted too . . . wolf . . .

MALE VOICE: Uhh . . . and I . . .

GARRICK UTLEY: . . . wolf . . .

MALE VOICE: . . . uh . . . can affect . . . um . . . seeking to publicize . . .

GARRICK UTLEY: Still some diplomats . . . criticzed the MiG threat . . . –fensive . . . increasing alarm at this . . . military shipments to Nicaragua . . . amongst administration . . . setting the regional mili– . . . administration officials now believe . . . fighters into Nicaragua . . . these same officials believe . . . tone recently . . . less interested in fom– . . . America . . . Department . . . administration is now playing down . . . but isn’t. Tonight the . . . a special session to . . . the victim of American . . . American invasion . . . In Nicaragua, the Sandinista . . . the most of it.

VARIOUS MALE NEWS ANCHORS: Hysteria in Managua . . . blood donors . . . and be ready to help at . . . –isters at a government-sponsored . . . seriously today . . . 20,000 young vol– . . . of other civilians . . . muskets for rifles . . . Nicaragua’s largest . . . the Soviet . . . Nicaragua’s most recent . . .

Of a nearly bankrupt . . . did not carry . . . attack . . . delivered a cargo of helicopters . . . weapons . . . –lieve if not the recurring . . . excuse of another se– . . . ship due to arrive . . . against Nicaragua . . . MiGs in Nicaragua are . . .

MALE VOICE: On– . . . states . . .

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: In Corinto . . . spy planes flying overhead . . . just outside the port . . . tried to catch a glimpse . . . sound barrier over Corin– . . . northern and southern . . . largest and best . . . reacts to every rumor . . . sent to the region.

American military maneuver– . . . an American invasion . . . from Washington are listening . . . is hearing only son– . . . Thatcher, NBC News.

VARIOUS MALE NEWS ANCHORS: The United States . . . Nicaragua but there may be . . . –er nuclear weapons . . . –fficials, Soviet . . . And they are asking questions . . . Proposal to resume . . . preconditions . . . Some expert opinion on . . . tax returns and . . . despite what President . . . and we will see . . . War memorial in Washington . . . declines as . . .

[Applause]

[Commercial: Music snippets throughout]

MALE VOICE: . . . some are born to . . . endless ability . . . A-1 . . . five automatic ex–. . .

Or let it flow . . . –trol depth of . . . light automat– . . . light dramatic– . . . Canon A-1 . . . Don’t . . .

[Commercial ends]

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: The Marines came ashore at dawn. Eight hundred of them launched from mother ships and landing craft and helicopters to seize an airfield on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, part of an annual Caribbean exercise called Ocean Venture.

RALPH HEDGES: It’s important that we demonstrate our capability to protect the sea lines of communications throughout the Caribbean not only for the benefit of the citizens of the United States of America but also for all of our friends throughout the Caribbean.

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: And if American adversaries get the message as well, so much the better. This Russian intelligence trawler has been shadowing the fleet for the past several days. The Soviet helicopter carrier Leningrad has been conducting anti-submarine exercises with the Cuban Navy and Soviet long-range bombers are operating out of Cuba, keeping the American fleet under surveillance. The Reagan administration’s most immediate Caribbean concern is not the Soviet or Cuban Navy but the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Although a previous Ocean Venture exercise was seen by many in the Caribbean as a preparation for the invasion of Grenada, senior military commanders insist that this Ocean Venture is not a preview of coming attractions in Nicaragua.

WESLEY MCDONALD: There is no connection whatsoever with this war game and any future plans that the United States has.

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: But this exercise is a preview of the growing US military presence throughout the Caribbean. Senior navy officers say the recommissioned battleship Iowa will spend much of the summer operating off the coast of Central America. Along with increased naval operations will almost certainly go an increased American presence on land, a presence beyond the facilities already being built for US exercises in Honduras.

WESLEY MCDONALD: It would be helpful to have some ports of call and some bases where you could operate in and in small numbers and go in and go out and that type of thing.

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: Until these bases are built, exercises like Ocean Venture will show the American flag in the Caribbean.

DAVID MARTIN: The message sent by this exercise may be clear but what is not so clear is what the Reagan administration would really do if Cuba and Nicaragua failed to heed the message. David Martin, CBS News, Vieques Island, Puerto Rico.

DAN RATHER: Nicaragua is often cited as the case in point of Cuba’s self-appointed mission to export revolution. It’s also alleged that Cuba is increasingly the middleman in exporting hard drugs for hard cash. Now, new allegations that the drug running and gun running fuel each other and both are getting outside help, help from a well-known American fugitive from justice. Rita Braver has been investigating this.

RITA BRAVER: Federal investigators say that fugitive financier Robert Vesco and Cuban Premier Fidel Castro are partners, partners in an international drug-smuggling operation now being probed in a series of federal cases. A grand jury in Tallahassee, Florida, has been investigating the Castro-Vesco link, and other investigations are underway in Brownsville, Texas, and New Orleans. Government sources believe that Vesco is now under Castro’s protection in Cuba and is the mastermind of a system in which Colombian drug dealers use Cuban ports as safe harbor and get protection from Cuba in international waters in exchange for a cut of cocaine profits. Vesco is also alleged to be helping the Cubans spend their drug profits on illegal shipments from the US, some of the money going for high technology equipment to improve both Cuba’s industrial production and intelligence-gathering ability; other funds [are] reportedly spent on arms shipments for left-wing guerrillas in Latin America.

The government has long been aware of a US-Cuban drug link. Cases in Florida and New York in the past few years have established the connection. Last year, customs agents in Texas and Chicago seized sugar-refining equipment Vesco was allegedly having smuggled out of the US into Cuba. Federal investigators are uncertain of the extent of the Vesco-Cuban-US connection but a key Justice Department source has told CBS News that the government is now investigating Vesco’s son, Daniel, who’s believed to be in the United States, for allegedly laundering drug money through Panama. Rita Braver, CBS News, Washington.

[Commercial with upbeat music]

SINGING MALE: Gaming around on my future, making new strides every day. Infantry in the Army Guard is showing me the way.

[Unintelligible]

SINGING MALE: That’s the home where I wanna be, guarding all that’s close to me

[Commercial ends]

Ahh

Fahr

Auf

L.A.

I see

I see your hair is burning
Hills are filled with fire
If they say I never loved you
You know they are a liar

Fahr auf deinen autobahn

Cops in cars
Topless bars
Never saw a woman so all alone
So all alone
Alone, alone, alone, alone

So alleine
So alleine
Alone, alone, alone, alone, alone

Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah

Alleine
Took a look around
See which way the wind blows

Alone, alone, alone
Alone

Rock ‘n Roll lady in the City of Lights
City of Night
City of Night
City at night

Stadt der Nacht
Nacht
Stadt der Nacht
Nah-nah-Nacht

Ooo

Nah-nah-nah
Nah-nah-nah

Well

A woman
L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon
L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon
L.A. woman

Please note: This is an audio description for the work.

The work begins with stringed instruments playing major scales, while a single male voice intermittently follows the modulating tones. The instruments drop, and a voice hums alone. From there, female voices sing undulating notes. The voices do not form words, rather they create a series of sometimes staccato, sometimes exaggerated sounds. At times the voices are accompanied by stringed instruments, at times they perform alone. A piano plays in between sung sections. Toward the end of the piece, the voices recede leaving just the instruments.

I cannot remember when I began
except that I was here before Gilgamesh
before Enkidu—that I was fully at work
before they were foretold, fully ordained
by Osanyin and Osoosi because the very turning
of stones on a path change the song of bluebirds
and the destinies of serpents. Chosen and made
as most ferocious attendant to detail – prospected
apprentice to gods as aspect of god, even Enkidu
-the black one, the friend of streams and animals
the believer in bass, deep sound and the inventor
of freedom—was placed under my care. I, Humbaba
—weaver of the meaning of unconditional—called
Terrible to aid my job as protector, to preserve
sovereignty, last King mas of the Universe,
first iteration of Midnight Robber and Danse
Macabre, hat cocked to the side, caped or shawl’d
in the most navy of night, walk in syncopation
among the cedars and pick my teeth with the baobab.
Forget that to come here is folly, and that bothadem
bout to get mash up fine fine, why, would you want
to oppose the very idea of balance and bulwark,
upend the beauty and thickness of the deep?

Is it not enough to say you were there?
To celebrate without being celebrated?
To be celebrated in song without the evidence
of scar? Every future music is brewing in me,
every tiny hammer excoriating joy from a copper
reed, every drop step falling into a pothole
of bass, every fire lit under steel to mimic cello
and the peals of free peoples singing my name—
Humbaba the pan shouts, Humbaba it rolls
Humbaba basso profundo, andante e accelerando
alla marcia, these boys bout to know the thousand
ways to parse thunder borrowed from and improvised
on by cousin Sango himself. Dead, ah tell yuh!
Dead, Dead, Dead, Dead, Dead. My heart weeps
for the folly of the conquistador and his blind emissary.

Think I didn’t spot the hustle,
the early signifiying? Say they found
me running around naked and covered
in hair and drinking water from streams
and running with antelopes—freeing
their animals from traps?

That was the set-up. There’s always
a set-up; a reason to call 12.
We see a spook
liberating our profits
we signed these contracts all legally
for. He is too big and too fast
and look… we’ve seen him naked!
How do we get him sat down?
How do we move him off the land?
How do we send him west?
How do we get this thing—to work
for us? Did I mention I’ve seen him
naked? I’ve been Black
from jump. Black from the first
time they planted them tablets. I’ve been
Black in somebody else’s image
since before before.

I’m hotep Black—a conspiracy image
of my own imagining. A black man
in a watch cap stealing some white woman’s
kids, or a black boy whistling,
or a black man stabbing a white wife
and throwing her over the bridge.
The APB put out for me made me flesh
and still I made myself more real
than Gilgamesh’s fake pursuit of becoming.

Black before Jesus or Moses
or pimp-coat Joseph.
Black like lay-in-the-cut
black like oooo-we Shamat fine
and got me fucked up.
Black like got me a barber line-up
my whole body, neck-line to ankle.
Black like savage guide—like lead
a nigga to a mountain but know better
than to climb that shit myself.
Black like climb it with that nigga
because he not gon glow-up
on his own and I can’t let him
go out like that.
Black like tryna be free but whose
clothes are this anyway?
Black like swinging dick at the well,
the castle wall, the dance floor, black
like bop-walk, feel the dip before I knew
what music. Black like Bass
is what music.

So Black I’m blue. So black I’m Vishnu,
I’m Kali. I’m the road crossing itself in the night
to get to the other side. You know how fly
you have to be to make yourself
in another mutherfucka’s image and still
be more beautiful than that fool?
I mock myself minstrel black
and hide the blade beneath my tongue
to call Sun, dun—I’m so black
I gloom the light, I’m you and brighter
than the blight you bloom with all your blood
you sleight-of-hand our bodies to walk on.
So Black I shone myself a doorway into other
galaxies and still your fallacies called for me to be clothed
who came before, who was covered in forgiveness
who was dressed in something so pure I couldn’t
imagine how thorough the co-opt—what
canyon of harnessed sound could me and Shamat
have love-made had I known more, had I trusted
in the galaxies before this one whose burst stars
brought me forth, because I was imagined by one
who needed a foil and by so imagining,
was imagined in return, by me.

What a time?
To return a man to the understood
beyond, through a portal which made him—
ashes to ashes and a a woman’s pleasure/power
all contained in the pearlite moon
of her engorged clitoris—

Through a door to disrepute the man is led
and to death does that door go—and with it
all the small deaths too. In all worlds
there is an Eve lurking to teach man
he is not innocent—Imagine how old
woman must be—how much like the vast
unknowable beauty of the blue black night
she must always be to help man solve this wicked
riddle before he go unlocking doors to drive
him mad. Imagine a man at the other side
of a forest he didn’t have to cross; without
the forest say-so. Imagine a man in conquest
over life with no small deaths nicking him
to demise in slow blood; with no mocking
to make him humble in the face of the First
Unknowing.
So it have to be with Enkidu, so naive
as to nearly be arrogant. Pussy hates the inexplicable
paradox – and man, unable to explain its vastness
builds narrative in allegorical prayer and calls it
worship. Man flex a simple story, one easy
to sleep with come night. It riddle
like this: Man was one love with eternity.
Man new nothing of the perils of night
because he was beloved by the day. Man
lies down and finds himself with woman
and next thing you know, pressure.

Imagine Gilgamesh finally beginning to understand
telling that easy story on a corner stool by the bar
singing songs in memory of his friend, guide, slave,
beloved; buying rounds for the whole snackette
crying into the rum and dancing. Didn’t know
that the chance for fullness don’t even reach him
until Enkidu, blessed for the first time in a woman’s
sweet come to show himself to himself. First time
Gilgamesh understand that what was sweet, consecrated
him—and still, he build a golden statue rather than save
Beloved, still figure out a way to self-venerate
rather than tell the correct story, rather than hallow
the truth—that he used the best part of his nature
as foil to destroy nature and massacre Ishtar’s bull
at once—what a move; to exploit woman
rampaging power to harness in Enkidu
to defeat Humbaba, and then use Enkidu
himself to destroy that rampage, to remain
empiric and alone in power, with no other power
to balance or contain the singular conqueror
in his blood. Forgive Enkidu descendants
if they don’t trust in his later search, his nirvana,
his heaven, his songs and rafters, his holy spirits,
his bibles, or the found tablets bearing his name,
his monuments or histories, the crying of his mother,
his own tears, that Jesus is white,
the Santa Maria Pinta or the Nina,
that men on horseback are four-legged gods,
his fake hunger-strike (they know it is not in him)
that Eve is why we had to leave the same paradise
over which Gilgamesh ruled and from which he removed
Humbaba, the fake piety of God-led monogamy.
Forgive Enkidu’s descendants if they suffer from deep
seated knowledges they can’t always place, that they once
owned something that exalted them, that made them
beautiful, and were robbed and told a sleight-of-hand
story by the same man sitting at the end of the bar,
in the snackette, four o’clock in the morning, sliding
more money under the chicken wire to beg for a last
petit-quart of rum, that they asked for succor and were built
a monument of gold, which gold they couldn’t eat,
which couldn’t soothe the quarrels with their loves.

Enkidu is dead and the forest don’t yield manicou
or lappe with the same regularity, and there once
was a time they were covered in a glory, their father
lived for them. Forgive them if after Enkidu pyre
come down to ash, they drink all Gilgamesh
rum, leave him at the bar and go home
not knowing how to love their wives.

Please note: This work includes scenes with a flashing light effect that may affect photosensitive visitors.

[Electronic beep]

[Music: “Journey In Satchidanada,” Alice Coltrane ft. Pharoah Sanders]

My mother had twelve of us children and it troubled her in her heart, you know, the way we was treated, and she’d pray every night to her Lord to get her and her children off that place. Well, one day she was ploughing in the field and all of a sudden she let out a big yell and started singing and shouting and whooping and a-hollering and Master Jim came a-running and he says, “What’s all this going on out in the field? Do you think I sent you out here just to whoop and yell? No siree. I sent you out here to work, and you better work or I’ll put this cowhide across your black back.”

And . . . my mama she— she just smile all over her face and she say, “[Laughs] Lord has showed me the way. I ain’t gone grieve no more, no matter how you all done treat me and my children. The Lord has showed me the way, and someday we ain’t gone never be slaves no more.” And old Master Jim took that bull whip and started lashing mama across her back. But she didn’t say nothing. She just got up and went on back to the field a-singing and a-shouting, “I’m free! I’m free! I’m free! I’m free!”

[Ambient noise]

I decided.

You decided?

Yeah, it was time.

It was time. To—?

To escape, to try to escape and . . . uh . . . that’s what I did. It was a clean escape. No one was hurt. I planned it as well as I could plan it, and that’s all I gotta say about it.

[Ambient noise]

[Singing over sounds of static]

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

He’s trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword.

His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory hallelujah,

Glory, glory hallelujah,

Glory, glory hallelujah,

His truth is marching on.

[Electronic beep]

[End of Audio]

[Music with horns and snare drum]

“Harriet Tubman” [by Margaret Walker]

Dark is the face of Harriet,
Darker still her fate
Deep in the dark of southern wilds
Deep in the slavers’ hate.

Fiery the eye of Harriet
Fiery, dark, and wild;
Bitter, bleak, and hopeless
Is the bonded child.

Stand in the fields, Harriet,
Stand alone and still
Stand before the Overseer
Mad enough to kill.

This is slavery, Harriet,
Bend beneath the lash;
This is Maryland, Harriet,
Bow to poor white trash.

You’re a field hand, Harriet,
Working in the corn;
You’re a grubber with the hoe
And a slave child born.

You’re just 16, Harriet,
And never had a beau;
Your mother’s dead long time ago,
Your daddy you don’t know.

This piece of iron’s not hot enough
To kill you with a blow,
This piece of iron can’t hurt you,
Just let you slaves all know.

I’m still the overseer,
Old marster’ll believe my tale;
I know that he will keep me,
From going to the jail.

[From Think Blackby Don L. Lee]

America calling.
negroes.
can you dance?
play foot/baseball?
nanny?
cook?
needed now. negroes
who can entertain
ONLY.
others not wanted.
(& are considered extremely dangerous.)

“For Saundra” [by Nikki Giovanni]

I wanted to write
a poem
that rhymes
but revolution doesn’t lend
itself to be-bopping

then my neighbor
who thinks i hate
asked—do you ever write
tree poems—i like trees
so i thought
i’ll write a beautiful green tree poem
peeked from my window
to check the image
noticed that the school yard was covered
with asphalt
no green—no trees grow
in manhattan

then, well, i thought the sky
i’ll do a big blue sky poem
but all the clouds have winged
low since no-Dick was elected

so i thought again
and it occurred to me
maybe i shouldn’t write
at all
but clean my gun
and check my kerosene supply

perhaps these are not poetic
times
at all

[From “Harriet Tubman” by Margaret Walker]

Get up, bleeding Harriet,
I didn’t hit you hard;
Get up, bleeding Harriet,
And grease your head with lard.

Get up, sullen Harriet,
Get up and bind your head.
Remember this is Maryland.
And I can beat you dead.

How far is the road to Canada?
How far do I have to go?
How far is the road from Maryland
And the hatred that I know?

I stabbed that overseer;
I took his rusty knife;
I killed that overseer;
I took his lowdown life.

For three long years I waited –

“a/needed/poem for my salvation” [by Sonia Sanchez]

Am gonna take me seriously.
now. have
taken parents / schoooool / children / friends /
poets / seriously.
(have known
the cracker to be
SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS)
have taken day / time /
nite / time / rhetoric
seriously and been wounded
by / lovers of slick / blk / rappin .

(in blker words:
pimps & jivers)
am gonna loooook in a
mirror each time I pass one.
smile at my image

& say. Yeh sistuh. It ain’t easy.
but mooooove
beautifullee on passsst it.
keep on holden yo / head higher
cuz yo / besssss is yet to
coooome.
am gonna take me seriously.
toooday.

& study myself.
git a phd in soniasanhezism.

& dare any motha / fucka
to be an authority on
me.
(cuz i’ll be wounded with sonia / learnin /
beauty/love and will be dangerous)
yeh. all
things considered
gonna be serious bout
meeeeeee and livvvvve.

[Ambient sound]

[Music]

[From “Harriet Tubman” by Margaret Walker]

– Three years I kept my hate,
Three years before I killed him,
Three years I had to wait.

Done shook the dust of Maryland
Clean off my weary feet;
I’m on my way to Canada
And Freedom’s golden street.

I’m bound to get to Canada
Before another week;
I come through swamps and mountains,
I waded many a creek.

Now tell my brothers yonder
That Harriet is free;
Yes, tell my brothers yonder
No more auction block for me.

[Ambient sound]

I’m going to recite this poem.
This poem is entitled “Blood Smiles.”

I remember the time when I could smile
Smiles of ignorance.
This was about— years ago.
Now smiles do not come as easily as they are supposed to.
My smiles are now fixed and come slowly
Like the gradual movement of tomatoes
In a near-empty ketchup bottle
About to be eaten.

[Ambient sound]

[“I Want to Write” by Margaret Walker]

I want to write
I want to write the songs of my people.
I want to hear them singing melodies in the dark.
I want to catch the last floating strains of their sob-torn throats.
I want to frame their dreams into words; their souls into notes.
I want to cath their sunshine laughter in a bowl;
fling dark hands into a darker sky
and fill them full of stars
then crush and mix such lights till they become
a mirrored pull of brilliance in the dawn.

[Ambient sound]

[Music]

[From “Harriet Tubman” by Margaret Walker]

Come down from the mountain, Harriet,
Come down to the valley at night,
Come down to your weeping people
And be their guiding light.

Sing Deep Dark River of Jordan,
Don’t you want to cross over today?
Sing Deep Wide River of Jordan,
Don’t you want to walk Freedom’s way?

I stole down in the night time,
I come back in the day,
I stole back to my Maryland
To guide the slaves away.

I met old marster yonder
A-coming down the road
And right past me in Maryland
My old marster strode.

[Ambient sound]

[“Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap” by Audre Lorde]

It is a waste of time hating a mirror
or its reflection
instead of stopping the hand
that makes glass with distortions
slight enough to pass
unnoticed
until one day you peer
into your face
under a merciless white light
and the fault in the mirror slaps back
becoming
what you think
is the shape of your error
and if I am beside that self
you destroy me or
if you can see
the mirror is lying
you shatter the glass
choosing another blindness
and slashed helpless hands.
Because at the same time
down the street
a glassmaker is grinning
turning out new mirrors that lie
selling us
new clowns
at cut rate.

[Ambient sound]

Choose a beautiful song
In the tradition of our elders’ faith
Listen to it until the tears come
Stretch and dance
Your body reflecting the centuries-old spiritual of our people.

Bathe
Feel the blessing of cotton on your flesh
Look for the sun
Put one foot before the other
Glory in each single step
Until the trudging becomes a sprint.

[Music]

[From “Harriet Tubman” by Margaret Walker]

I passed beside my marster
And covered up my head;
My marster didn’t know me
I guess he heard I’m dead.

I wonder if he thought about
That overseer’s dead;
I wonder if he figured out
He ought to know this head?

You better run, brave Harriet,
There’s ransom on your head;
You better run, Miss Harriet,
They want you live or dead.

Been down in valleys yonder
And searching round the stills,
They got the posse after you,
A-riding through the hills.

They got the blood hounds smelling,
They got their guns cocked to;
You better run, bold Harriet,
The white man’s after you.

They got ten thousand dollars
Put on your coal black head;
They’ll give ten thousand dollars;
They’re mad because you fled.

I wager they’ll be riding
A long, long time for you.
Yes, Lord, they’ll look a long time
Till Judgment Day is due.

[Drumming]

[“Back Again, Home (confessions of an ex-executive)” by Don L. Lee]

Pains of insecurity surround me;
shined shoes,
conservative suits,
button down shirts with silk ties.
bi-weekly payroll.

Ostracized, but not knowing why;
executive haircut,
clean shaved,

“yes” instead of “yeah” and “no” instead of “naw”,
hours, nine-to-five. (after five he’s alone)

“Doing an excellent job, keep it up;”
promotion made—semi-monthly payroll,
very quiet—never talks,
budget balanced—saved the company money,
quality work—production tops.
He looks sick. (but there is a smile in his eyes)

He resigned, we wonder why;
let his hair grow,—a mustache too,
out of a job—broke and hungry,
friends are coming back—bring food,
not quiet now—trying to speak,
what did he say?

“Back again,
BLACK AGAIN,
Home.”

“The Idea of Ancestry,” Part 1 [by Etheridge Knight]

Taped to the wall of my cell are 47 pictures: 47 black faces: my father, mother, grandmothers (1 dead), grand-fathers (both dead), brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts,
cousins (1st & 2nd), nieces, and nephews. They stare across the space at me sprawling on my bunk. I know their dark eyes, they know mine. I know their style, they know mine. I am all of them, they are all of me; they are farmers, I am a thief, I am me, they are thee.

I have at one time or another been in love with my mother, 1 grandmother, 2 sisters, 2 aunts (1 went to the asylum), and 5 cousins. I am now in love with a 7-yr-old niece
(she sends me letters written in large block print, and her picture is the only one that smiles at me).

I have the same name as 1 grandfather, 3 cousins, 3 nephews, and 1 uncle. The uncle disappeared when he was 15, just took off and caught a freight (they say). He’s discussed each year when the family has a reunion, he causes uneasiness in the clan, he is an empty space. My father’s mother, who is 93 and who keeps the Family Bible with everybody’s birth dates (and death dates) in it, always mentions him. There is no place in her Bible for “whereabouts unknown.”

[Music]

[From “Harriet Tubman” by Margaret Walker]

I heard the mighty trumpet
That sent the land to war;
I mourned for Mister Lincoln
And saw his funeral car.

Come along with Harriet, children,
Come along to Canada.
Come down to the river, children,
And follow the northern star.

I’m Harriet Tubman, people,
I’m Harriet, the slave.
I’m Harriet, free woman,
And I’m free beyond my grave.

Come along to freedom, children,
Come along ten million strong;
Come along with Harriet, children,
Come along ten million strong.

[Ambient sound]

“For Theresa” [by inc. no world]

and when i was all alone
facing my adolescence
looking forward
to cleaning house
and reading books
and maybe learning bridge
so that i could fit
into acceptable society
acceptably
you came along
and loved me
for being black and b*tchy
hateful and scared
and you came along
and cared that i got
all the things necessary
to adulthood
and even made sure
i wouldn’t hate
my mother
or father
and you even understood
that i should love
peppe
but not too much
and give to gary
but not all of me
and keep on moving
’til i found me
and now you’re sick
and have been hurt
for some time
and i’ve felt guilty
and impotent
for not being able
to give yourself
to you
as you gave
yourself
to me

[Ambient sound]

“Homecoming” [by Sonia Sanchez]

i have been a
way so long
once after college
i returned tourist
style to catch all
the niggers killing
themselves with
three-for-oners
with
needles
that cd
not support
their stutters.
now woman
i have returned
leaving behind me
all those hide and
seek faces peeling
with freudian dreams.
this is for real.
black
niggers
my beauty.
baby.
i have learned it
ain’t like they say
in the newspapers.

[“Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall]

“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”

[Ambient sound]

[End of Audio]