Saturday, August 25, 2012

Harlem Headlines of the 1960's

 
HARLEM HEADLINES
 
 
Aug. 17, 1958 - The Savoy Ballroom, nightclub and one of the jewels of Harlem Renaissance, is       closed.
 
July 4, 1959 - rent strikes break out over rat infestations, a liquor store whose owner refuses to buy from Negro wholesale liquor salesmen and a demand for improved bus service uptown.
 
Aug. 6, 1960 - Elijah Muhammad speaks to 8,500 Harlemites for two and a half hours at 369th Regiment Armory, calling Democrats and Republicans hypocrites.  "Stop begging and licking the boots of White America!" he says.
 
Oct. 6, 1960 - Cuban Premier Castro Fidel and his entourage walk out of Shelburne Hotel in midtown and move to Hotel Theresa in Harlem, complaining of "unacceptable cash demands".  Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Egyption Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser, also in town for United Nations conference, visit Castro.
 
June 30, 1963 - Martin Luther King's car comes under egg-throwing attack as a crowd gathers at Salem Methodist Church where King was on his way to speak.  Police blame "Muslim sympathizers" for the attack.
 
Dec. 2, 1963 - Malcolm X says the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was "the chickens coming home to roost".  Spoke at Manhattan Center.  Black Muslim leaders rebuke Malcolm.
 
Dec. 7, 1963 - Amsterdam News reports 55 Harlem buildings are taking part in rent strike.
 
July 17, 1964 - James Powell, 15, of 1686 Randall Ave. in Harlem is shot to death by off-duty police Lt. Thomas Gilligan in Yorkville.  Policeman says boy pulled knife.  Thousands riot in Harlem for several days.
 
Feb. 6, 1965 - Malcolm X tells of an attempt on his life teh previous week in Los Angeles and says "my death has been ordered by higher ups in the Movement."
 
Feb. 21, 1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom at 166th Street and Broadway.  Police arrest Thomas Hagan and charge him with the slaying.  Three people are wounded by some of the 30 rounds fired at Malcolm.  Hagan is beaten and wounded by a bullet before police rescue him.
 
Nov. 14, 1965 - Martin Luther King gives sermon at Abyssinian Baptist Church, urging a negotiated settlement in the Vietnam and asserting that the Vietnam issue cannot be separated from the Civil Rights movement at home.
 
Feb. 12, 1966 - Amsterdam News reports that despite presence of a police precinct on the same block, merchants on 135th Street are forced to hire their own guards.
 
Sept. 3, 1966 - Black Panther Party holds membership drive on 125th Street as Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee stages a rally featuring Stokley Carmichael, head of the organization.
 
Nov. 18, 1967 - Harlem on My Mind exhibit opens at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 
April 5, 1968 - Sporadic violence breaks out in Harlem and in parts of Brooklyn over assassination of Martin Luther King.  Mayor John Lindsay walks streets to urge calm but has to be hustled into Percy Sutton's limousine because of unruly crowd at 125th and 8th Ave.  Lindsay returns to Harlem short time later.  Members of HARYOU, NAACP, CORE, Harlem Cadets Corps and other groups are praised for roving neighborhoods for two days asking residents to keep their cool.
 
April 23, 1968 - Students take over much of Columbia University in protest against plans to build a gym in Morningside Park on border with Harlem.  New York Times first editorial on the matter calls protestors "hoodlums".
 
Nov. 16, 1968 - Amsterdam News reports that thugs and addicts have brought on a reign of terror along 116th Street.
 
Nov. 3, 1968 - Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. loses bid for reelection with Charles Rangel winning in a six-way race for the Democratic nomination.  His defeat followed a Congressional attempt, later ruled unconstitutional, to deny him his seat in the House.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 


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