Pop Up Archive Item: "Black manifesto, 15 May 1969" :

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[George E. Sweazey speaking] Now with the report of the committee on the report and
the General Council. [Smith, John Coventry, speaking] Mr. Moderator. Fathers and
brothers.

Last night I became what former moderator Ganse Little says is the person who is
next to being a living moderator. I expect it to report to you this morning on
minor details, significant and important, but still minor details of the actions of
General Council. But I now find myself reporting in a preliminary way to you about
a very serious issue.

I was on this platform before you twenty-one or two hours ago conducting a
communion service in which we declared our unity in Jesus Christ, a unity that
binds us together in spite of differences and tensions and triumphs over it because
we are in Christ. Two weeks ago today in New York some of the members of General
Council were together talking about

what we would do as representatives of the United Presbyterian Church if the

presentation of the Black Manifesto was should be brought to our church. We were
aware that they were, that it would be brought and would probably be brought to the
General Board of the National Council [National Council of Churches] on the next
day.

And we decided as we met together that our response would not be one of obstructing
conversations and negotiate and conversations and dialogue.

We would seek to listen but that our response then would be within the regular
responsible avenues of church structure by which decisions are arrived at.

In the General Board meeting of the National Council the next day, this kind of
procedure was followed. Mr. James Forman, representing the Black Economic
Development Group spoke, with restraint and within a time limit. And, he was
heard, and the matter was referred to heads of communion a special committee
representing all denominations which will consider the requests that were made and
will give an answer some time the end

of June. The General Council of this church met on Monday here in San Antonio. I
have never seen a General Council in the more than 10 years that I've been related
to it as a corresponding member deal so exhaustively so seriously with a single
problem.

What should we do in anticipation? For certainly,

Mr. Forman knew that the assembly was meeting in in San Antonio. Should we try to
arrange a way that had been successful before the General Board or should we wait
and and perhaps have a disruption in which we would not be able to talk to one
another? And

by yesterday about noon we decided.

By that time we knew also that he had made an approach through the office of the
Board of National Missions. So we invited him.

What I'm saying to you is that the consideration of an invitation had begun several
days before. We still believe that the process of listening without compromising
our position is a Christian one.

Secondly. Every agency and committee of the General Assembly is an agency of the
General Assembly.

And while the General Assembly is in session for one of its major agencies to deal
with an issue that has national significance without any reference to the General
Assembly is irresponsible. We do not expect that you will be able or want to or
should respond by an action. But at least you should know something of what the
issues are and should give your tacit approval to the continuing process through
the committees of this assembly and the agencies of the church by which

answers to these problems may be arrived at. Needless

to say we are here. For the first day one bit of hope. We had gotten better
acquanted with one another before issues of this kind would come up.

But we're here to listen to one another even to listen to people who disagree with
us and to listen then to God

and act.

We had expected that Mr. Forman would speak to us for 20 minutes.

There would be some other presentations under the church's Committee on Church and
Race with Dr. Hawkins [Hawkins, Edler G.] concluding the presentation.

But this morning it became evident that there were two presentations that were
clamoring to be made to this assembly and actually needed to be made, one from the
brown group as well as the black group. And, therefore, we now present to you a
spokesman for the brown group first. Mr. Forman having kindly stepped down and
allowed the brown group to speak first. And, I represent the Reverend Antonio
Medina one of our own pastors in the Los

Angeles area, who will introduce the speaker for the brown group.

He has 20 minutes.

Thank you, Dr. Smith [Smith, John Coventry]. Mr. Moderator brothers and
sisters. God is at work in the world.

We know that he is at work because this is a time of tension and a time of conflict
and a time of crises. We also know that he is at work because it is also a time of
redemption and a time of reconciliation. Reconciliation and redemption through the
work of God through His Holy Spirit God in His infinite freedom to speak to us not
perhaps through the vehicles that we may define instruments that he himself uses.

You have noticed no doubt in the display area the sign that read the motto for our
display area of La Raza that says that the Spirit speaks for LaRaza.

But the Spirit speaks through La Raza.

It is in keeping in line with this that I take now the privilege of introducing to
you Mr. Eliezer Risco, who is the editor of La Raza, a barrio communications paper
in Los Angeles. He is also professor of ethnic studies at Fresno State University.
He is a member of the IFCO board. And in his spare time is a national consultant to
the Spanish speaking ministries, not only of the Presbyterian Church, but also for
the other Protestant denominations. And, I present to you at this
time, Eliezer Risco.

I speak to you, not as a leader. I speak to you not as spokesman. I speak to you as

a mouthpiece. I'm speaking here only because the brown caucus or the caucus of La
Raza decided that all of us couldn't speak. So one would have to do it. But,
what I'm going to say was written down by the group as a whole. Upon days and days
of deliberation we have been working on these.

Demands for quite a while.

People throughout the Third World in Latin America Africa and Asia speak about the
church in connection with the whole phenomenon of what Western civilization has
done to the third world.

And people speak about what I call the "three m's." missionaries, money and
Marines.

The church by omission sometimes, sometimes by silence but many times by active

collaboration has inflicted to people throughout the third world some of the same
ills that colonization has brought to the third world. And that doesn't apply only
to people who are third world people in Latin America Africa and Asia, but also to
people who are members of that third world here

in the U.S. I think that. I remember reading somewhere in the history of the
Reformation that one of the goals, one of the spiritual goals, as well as
institutional goals, of the Reformation was for the community of believers to have
self-determination as against the Roman Curia. I seem to remember reading somewhere
also that the World Council of Churches since

their meeting in Madras has been talking about the need for self-determination of
people that up to now to then on up to now where being can see they're only as
subjects for missions. And I think that, if the church is going to survive the
crisis that the world and the church is faced with today, the church has to make
good that promise of self-determination. And I repeat if the church is going to
survive the crisis, the church has

to make good that promise of self-determination because people throughout the world
are involved in a revolutionary struggle for self-determination and liberation. And
the church has to do what Eldridge Cleaver sometimes says: You have to decide
whether you are going to be part of the problem or part of the solution. And more
than that I think that even for the church spiritually, not just institutionally,
If the conscience of

Christianity. If the moral credibility of Christianity is to remain. And, it has

been quite damaged up to now. The church has to deal within itself with the
question of self-determination, justice, and more than that with the pressing
question of liberation. With what. Throughout Latin America and within the US there
is a movement that we call the

movement of La Raza. Mexicans, Cubans, and Bolivians and Colombians and

Argentineans and Chileans are involved. Here in the US, predominantly Chicanos in
the southwest and Puerto Ricans in the Northeast and in the island of Puerto Rico
are engaged in that very same struggle for self-determination and liberation.

The display that you see in the display area referred to before, that says "La Raza
a la spiritu" is a conviction that is within the Latin American people that we are
arriving at a historic moment in which the possibility for fulfilling the potential
that is historically in us to be fulfilled, and that we ourselves will have to
carry through to fulfillment that promise of greatness and potential
of human experience that is within La Raza and that is the point from which we are
addressing you today. Point one community control of health, education and welfare
programs and agencies in the U.S. and Latin countries to those communities. This
also means community ownership of such facilities and buildings as neighborhoods
and settlement

houses, schools, hospitals, and the turning over of real estate holdings for the

occupation and ownership of low income families where the church has holding into
day slum areas in order to guarantee the operation or continued operation of those
facilities and services.

Budget based on need as determined by the community should be guaranteed for as

long as the community deems necessary.

The process of raising those health education welfare programs and agencies should
be begun as soon as possible but no later than the fall of 1969. Point two. The
Spanish speaking churches will no longer be considered as missions. Boards,
agencies, and judicatories of the church will be mandated to facilitate with his

Spanish speaking churches

the development of a style of life and ministry that is reflective of our culture

and a spiritual reality. This not only applies to U.S. Spanish-speaking churches
but to those in Latin America also. The implementation of these autonomous rule for
Latin American churches will be entrusted to Spanish speaking churches within the
US.

Point three. A proportion equal to the national percentage of the Spanish-speaking

population nationally or local percentage, whichever is higher, of all program
funds for ministries, services, church and community development will be earmarked
for the use of  Spanish speaking communities. Point four. These programs and the
goals of the movement of La Raza

cannot be implemented without financial resources.

Therefore, we request from the United Presbyterian Church

seed money as follows.

A. Seed money for phasing in community control of these programs mentioned above as
soon as possible. B. Seed money for assistance in the building of the now-going on
movement of La Raza through conferences, workshops, training institutes, and so
forth.

An approximate figure for the seed money would be in the area of $250 to $500,000.

Point five The church will liquidate and transfer to a co-operative associtions of
poor people in Latin America all investments and holdings in private corporations
in Latin America. Furthermore the church should disassociate itself from any
programs of the U.S. government and private corporations that Latin American
liberation forces denounce as exploitative and neo colonialism.

Sixth. Furthermore we support any and all demands of our brothers in the Third
World, as made within The Black Manifesto. Point 7.  Once this Assembly has
approved and set in motion mechanisms for implementation of these demands, the
General Council should be supportive of our request through JSAC, National Council
of Churches and any other church agencies of other Protestant denominations so they
can
respond likewise.

One specific example I want to bring to you today comes from Chicago where as of
last night people from the surrounding Latin American community in Chicago of
Lincoln Park have occupied McCormick Seminary. But somebody from that community
should explain to you much better what is happening there. And, it is only as an
illustration of the. What it means in those communities to talk about self-
determination and liberation.

[Lopez speaking] Last night the poor community of Lincoln Park under the leadership
of the Young Lords organization, the Latin American Community, a political action
group took under its control the McCormick Theological Seminary of Chicago or
rather the administration building of the Theological McCormick Theological
Seminary. The

purpose of this action was to confront the church with its own inconsistency and
with its own inadequacy. The poor community of Lincoln Park presented ten
demands to the board of directors of the McCormick Theological Seminary and gave a
reasonable time for an answer. And, the answer that the community received was not
considered satisfactory.

The demands that are, that are presented to them are the following. Number one that
McCormick Seminary immediately turn over to the community six hundred and one
thousand dollars

for low cost housing development. Number two. That McCormick Seminary provide a
building and re creational for a badly needed co-operative day care center. That
the Seminary provide a bus so that children can be picked up for the center. Number
three. That all theapartment owned by McCormicks may not be rented to people in the
community should be rented to poor and working class families. Number four. That
the

fence around McCormick Seminary be torn down so that the Seminary can become a part
of the community, not a fortress against the community. Number five. We demand that
the Stone building be made available to the Puerto Rican community for the creation
of a Puerto Rican cultural center to preserve and strengthen our cultural and
historical heritage and to transmit these values to other people in our community
and in Chicago. If it is found mutually advantageous to the McCormick Seminary and
to

the Young Lords organization, we propose that the Seminary make available to the
Young Lords organization sufficient funds to purchase the property of Armitage
Avenue Methodist Church to be made the Puerto Rican cultural center. Number six.
The McCormick Seminary extend a grant in the amount of twenty-five thousand
dollars to the Young Lords organization to be used in a community leadership
development program and in the continuation and strengthening of the work

of protecting and serving our poor community. Number seven. We demand that the
McCormick Seminary actively support the efforts of the Latino-American defense
organization to end the arbitrarinous of the Cook County Department of Public
Aid in its dealings with welfare recipients and with welfare recipients defense
groups. Specifically, we demand that McCormick publicly support the three demands
that GLAVL the Latino-American defense organization along with the Lincoln Park
coalition for welfare right have meet it to David Daniel, Director

of the Cook County Department of Public Aid, and to George W. Dunne, president of

the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The demands are one the removal of Walter
A. Cunningham, district office supervisor and James Patterson, the front office
supervisor for their lack of sensitivity to the needs and the human dignity of
welfare recipients at the Lincoln Park Public Aid office. Voice of the
community served by the Lincoln Park office in the selection of a new director of
the office. Voice in the interpretation and implementation of welfare laws and
regulations at the Lincoln Park office level. We

demand that this report be expressed in letters to David Daniel, Director of Cook

County Department of Public Aid ,and to George Dunne, President of the Cook County
Board of Commissioners.

Number eight. We demand that McCormick Seminary extend a grant in the amount of

$25,000 to the Latino-American Defense Organization to further our aims of creating
a strong organization for welfare recipients in our community. Number nine. We
demand that the McCormick Seminary publicly oppose and condemn the political
persecution carried out by the city of Chicago against poor
peoples' organizations, such as the Black Panther Party, the Latin American Defense
Organization, and the Young Lords organization.

McCormick Seminary must demand from the respective authorities that charges arising

out of political outrage be dropped by the complaining institutions, namely
Department of Urban Renewal, Cook County Department of Public Aid, Chicago Police
Department, the city of Chicago and the state attorney's office. The Young Lords
organization and the Lincoln Park welfare office and in particular  Jose Cha-Cha
Jimenez, chairman of the Young Lords organization, must not be jailed  and punished
for their belief in justice and for their

concern for their communities' rights. Number ten. W e demand that McCormack

Seminary extend a seed money grant in the amount of $25,000 to establish a legal
bureau controlled by poor people's organizations, the attornies to be chosen by the
organizations, to work full time for them, and to be responsible only to them.

Mr. Moderator, I wish that you would now recognize Dr. Gay Wilmore [Wilmore,
Gayraud S., Jr], who is the Secretary, the executive director of the Council on
Church and Race. Dr. Wilmore.

Mr. Moderator, fathers and brethren. I have been in direct contact with the La Raza
caucus here in San Antonio and the caucus representing the National Black Economic
Development Conference with respect to the procedures to be followed during this
hour.

I think you ought to know that you have massed on the platform representatives of
both the black and the brown community, who

are members and clergy of our United Presbyterian Church and who are members of the
San Antonio community, both

brown and black citizens. And, they are here to demonstrate visibly their support
in principle, in spirit of the challenge that is being presented to our General
Assembly by these two groups in concert and in coordination with one another.

It was agreed that the two principles of the two groups would be brother Risco for
the Spanish speaking caucus and brother Forman for the black caucus. You've already
heard from Brother Lopez as a, shall we say, supplementary presentation in
connection with Risco's presentation. And, you will hear Brother J. Metz Rollins,
[Rollins, Joseph Metz, Jr.] the Executive Director of the National Committee of
Black Churchmen as a supplementary supporting presentation of the black church
community.

Then we suggested that this hour of be wound up by your hearing from one who is
well known to every commissioner here, I'm sure, and certainly respected and
honored throughout our church, Dr. Edler Hawkins [Hawkins, Edler Garnett], who is
the chairman along with Mr. Neal [Neal, George F.] of New York of the Council on
Church and Race of our denomination. After that I think, we must begin to think

what kind of response this church is to make to what many of us, and I

personally, feel are legitimate justifiable demands from a beleaguered people. I
first met Mr. Forman when our church was bearing witness to freedom in Mississippi
in 1964, when John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] former moderator himself ,walked
the picket line at Hattiesburg, Mississippi. James Forman at that time was
Executive Director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

I got to know Jim at that time, and so did John Smith, as a courageous man, a man
of integrity, a man with a passion for freedom burning in his breast. He is today
the chairman of the international affairs division of SNCC. But, more importantly
for us, he is the representative of the National Black Economic Development
Conference, which has acclerated the black revolution in this country within the
last three weeks.

And he comes here to speak on behalf of that new movement, which has taken the
place of the civil rights movement in this country, which represents the militant
black poor in this country and every other black person, who is concerned about
freedom and justice in American society. A sermon that I preached in Germantown
Community Church last Sunday I called Jim Forman a prophet for our time. And I
still call him that. Scriptures tell us that if a man has ought against us, we
ought to go

to even find out what it is and be reconciled to him and then go to worship.

That's why we have interrupted the regular order of business because this man says
he has something against the Christian church.

Some of your own black brethren and some of your brown brethren say, "Amen!" Let us
hear him speak

now, James Forman.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, members of the police

department, the press and what have you. I'm happy to be here. As you know I come
to you as chairman of United Black Appeal, which is division of the National Black
Economic Development Conference. I'm extremely appreciative of the conference for
allowing the brothers from the Spanish-speaking community La Raza to appear before
you and to allow me to appear before you.

I think that this is a very significant occasion for oppressed people in the United
States that have united to present before the white Christian church, which we
maintain is racist. a position that we think that the church can help to eliminate
itself from the racism . The brother from La Raza spoke to you about the three
"m's": the money, the missionaries, and the Marines. It is an objective fact that
when black people came to the United States in 1619, long before the descendants of
many of the Europeans came to this country. We came not as Christians, we came as
pagans, as the Christians called it. And the

justification for our coming to this country was rationalized by saying that it is

better for us to be slaves in the United States, working 16 to 17 to 18 hours a day
without any rights without any pay. It is better for us to be slaves inside the
United States where we have a chance to become Christians than to remain in
Africa, our continent, our motherland, where we were dwelling in peace.
This rationalization continued to extend throughout the period of slavery. And that
cannot be denied. And the fact that our justice our demands against the Christian
Church today is based upon several principles. Number one that the Christian church
is not just a building in and of itself. It represents its membership. And, the
membership of the white Christian church was predominantly white, which began to
exploit the resources of black people in this country. This is a fact which the
church cannot deny. Many of the black brethren have pointed out that the church
itself owned slaves in many

instances. And, certainly the slave owners would go to church on a Sunday morning

and pray to God, but would whip our mothers and fathers with lashes on the back the
next day. The same is true after reconstruction. After during the period of
reconstruction, after the Emancipation Proclamation, many of the Christians who had
been defeated in the Civil War began to leave us through a process of
sharecropping. And at the turn of the 20th century black people were not involved
in the industrial process of this country. That the resources and the riches of the
country had been gathered by the White racists who had been exploiting us, who had

enslaved us in the name of Christianity for the most part. In the name of
Christianity for the most part. This is an objective fact that we cannot deny. The
church itself ,which is involved in very heavy financial responsibilities
throughout the world, has accumulated the resources and the richness of the church
through that process of exploitation, through that process of slave income if you
will. The church today has tremendous amount of investment, so much investment that
the church can not be considered a religious institution. The

church today, and this is the point that we try to make, and we are trying to let
everybody understand this, black, brown, green, or white, that the church in the
United States today is a financial institution. Elders sitting in this room do not
even know where the funds from the United Presbyterian Foundation is in fact
invested. Many sitting in this room do not understand that the Presbyterian
Foundation is investing in South Africa, in corporations which invest in South
Africa, which further exploit black people as well as Rhodesia. Many people in this
room today do not question

what in fact the Presbyterian Foundation does with the money that it has
continually accumulated over over years after years after years when they do not
question the real estate holdings of the Catholic Church, which is the largest
corporation inside the United States, larger than General Motors and certainly
around the world, and is responsible primarily for the exploitation of our brothers
and sisters from La Raza. The same is true of the Episcopalian church. Trinity
Episcopalian Church in New York City alone has assets of over 350 million
dollars, which it continually invests. And, it is a small church on

Wall Street. And where did it get this money from? Who were the rock bottom
Christians who came to this country and began to enslave black people? Were they
pagans? Were they Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists,
Methodist, Baptists? These are the premises for which we make our demands upon the
white racist Christian church today. And, to make it more contemporary, let us look
at Riverside Church, which projected me unfortunately into a national situation.
But we will have to deal with that. Lets look at the Board of Trustees of Riverside
Church in New York, not the board of Deacons which

traditionally has the power in the Baptist church, but the board of trustees at
Riverside Church comprises Winthrop W. Aldridge, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, who's
related to the Rockefeller family, Victor C. Great, president or rather the
Graduate School of Business at Columbia which owns the land at Rockefeller Plaza is
located on. James A. Forman, Sr., of American Telephone and Telegraph. John H.
Fisher, he's from Teacher's College small fry. Robert G. Robert G. Fuller president
of the board of Erie Lackawanna, railroad company. William H. Green of the

American Can Company. Francis S. Armand, former Mississippi Attorney General.

Charles Lynn King director of the Research Grants Administration of St. Luke's.
Ward B. Ogden, the treasurer of the board of Price, Waterhouse and Co. Charles C.
Killingham, Jr., who's President of Trans World Airlines. Donald H. Elliott, who
is Secretary of  the board of the city planning commission in New York, directly
related to Mayor Lindsay. And, it is the board of trustees which controls the
tremendous wealth of Riverside Church. Now Reverend Campbell of Riverside Church
[Campbell, Ernest T.] has admitted, in his own words, that the moral

thrust which we injected into the church has forced him and the board of deacons to
grant that they have to pay reparations, which is a form of penitence, to the black
community to the disadvantage. Of course, they're not willing to give that to the
National Black Economic Development Conference and that's another fight. But
nevertheless he has admitted the justification and the correctness of the position
we have put before him. What we are saying,  gentlemen, and we are saying this
about the Presbyterian church today, that it is not a religious institution. It is
not just a religious institution. It has not been just a religious institution

since its inception on the shores of the United States. For, if it were a religious
institution, then Presbyterians would not have been slaveholders. Presbyterians
would not be investing in South Africa if we took the teachings of Jesus to all to
our hearts. And, we say that we are on sound theological grounds when we go to any
Christian church and say that you are money moneylenders hustlers what we have
followed in the footsteps of Jesus. But we don't make that comparison that is for
the Christian Brothers to make for us. What we are saying though, is that we make
certain demands of the white racist Christian church and the Jewish synagogue

today. We are asking for 500 million dollars in reparations, which is to be

spent in the following way. Now we escalated the demands because the new knowledge
that we found out about the church. And I'll explain that in a minute. But
nevertheless our original program called for two hundred million dollars to
establish a national land bank in the Deep South where we would have co-operative
farms, where we know our people are sharecroppers, tenant farmers and day laborers
and have no economic base whatsoever in the south. But with a 200 million dollar
land bank, we could establish tremendous amounts of co-operative

farms. Second point of course was four major print printing industries. Now no
Presbyterian can deny the value of a printing establishment as long as Presbyterian
Life is being printed by the Presbyterian Church. We're saying the black community
we need to have four major printing establishments funded with no less than 10
million dollars each, which comes to the sum of 40 million dollars, to be located
in Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York.

Our third demand was for the establishment of television networks in four major

cities of this country, which would be the most scientific, futuristic television
operators that we can locate. These to be funded by 10 million dollars each. We
have some copies of the Manifesto, which we will pass out after the service. The
the next point.

Thank you.

The next point was the establishment of a research skills center to be funded by no

less than 30 million dollars each. The next point was of course a training center
in film-making, radio-making, television-making to be funded with no less than 10
million dollars. We all know that the television industry in this country is
racist. That its cameramen's look around us, exclude black people by and large.
And, if you go to the TV stations, you will see that NBC, CBS, and ABC have all
tied up, are all tied up with basically white technicians. And, we want a training
center where this can be eliminated. And, we then know that our next move will be
to

bust the racist white unions. We also call for a national army, I mean, for ten
million dollars to assist in the organization of welfare mothers. We call for a 20
million dollar national labor strike and defense fund. Black people in this country
are extremely dissatisfied and many of them are not organized. In the major plants
of this country, we see black workers 60 and 70 percent of the population. And yet
we say that the United Automobile Workers is a racist union, for, if it were
not, then it would be supporting the demands of some of the churchmen that all
United States investment come out of South Africa. But

instead, we find General Motors, Ford, Chrysler all investing in South Africa and

the unions in this country are not doing anything about this particular situation.
And we know that black workers understand the condition of our people in Africa.
And, they have to understand that more and more. But in order to organize black
workers, we must have a labor strike and defense fund. Next thing, of course, we
call the United Black appeals to be funded with 20 million dollars each. This
United Black Appeal is to generate capital, raise money throughout the United
States not only for the program of the National Black Economic Development
Conference but also to establish

cooperatives in Africa. We recognize that we have to be self-reliant in so far as

that is possible within the black community, given the structure of government
under which we live. And it is necessary to launch a massive United Black
Appeal, which we have started to do. And, with the money from the United Black
Appeal, we intend to establish a black Anti-Defamation League to protect our
African image inside the United States. Then we call lastly for 130 million dollars
for the establishment of a black university. To us this means more than just a
black board of trustees, teachers and faculties. This means, in fact, that

we will eliminate some of the class bias that operates in American education today.
The reality of black life is that many people can not get into college because
they've dropped out of school at 17 18 years old in the tenth grade or the sixth
grade or what have you. And we want a university where any body of any age can feel
that there's a community to which he can come in order to learn. Because many of
our people reach the age of 35 or 45 because they had to go to segregated
schools, want to learn, but there's no place available for them to come. And, our
egos are important because many people who cannot read and

write will not tell you they cannot read and write because of the whole emphasis
and value, prestige upon reading and writing in the society. And it works a
psychological handicap. That basically is how we intend to spend the 500 million
dollars, which we are asking in reparations. Now we have been going to different
churches and different synagogues, not been in the synagoges as of yet, but we've
also been making certain demands. Now as you know there was an ad hoc committee for
justice when the Presbyterian Church which made certain demands upon the
Presbyterian Church. We had intended to come to this church in a different
manner, but certain events made us

come to it in the manner in which we did.

And therefore we would like to say, to read out the special demands that we're
making of the Presbyterian church. The first demand that the ad hoc committee
made, I'm authorized to tell you has been dropped. And that demand was that Kenneth
G. Neigh be replaced as the General Secretary of the Board of National Missions. We
have dropped that demand, because we have come to find out that there was a certain
amount of bureaucracy involved in this particular letter, which went out, which
shows you how bureaucratic the church structure is. But we never the less,
are reasonable people and are willing to drop this particular demand.

So that's out of the window.

Although we certainly think that Brother Neigh has to look at that administrative

apparatus, which he has up there, and not to allow these kinds of mistakes to occur
again.

Second demand is just a general demand. And, that is that the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church self help implement the Black Manifesto. Now concretely,
Demand number three has been enlarged from that the Mexican-Americans to be given
all land held by the Presbyterian Church in New Mexico to the total support of the
demands which have been made here this afternoon by the representative of La Raza.
Number four.That the Presbyterian Church turn over all its land holdings in all
Southern states specifically the states of Alabama, Georgia, South
Carolina, Mississippi to the National Black Economic Development Conference to be
used for the benefit of poor black people through its

program.

What we are saying is this, gentlemen, is that, and sisters, that the church does

not need all of the land it has. Much of the Presbytery land is idle in the state
of Mississippi for instance. And, this is something that you do not realize as
commissioners, as members of the Presbyterian church. And, we're saying that an
investigation of this land would reveal that much of it it is idle and much of it
could be used in the development of co-operative farms inside the United States and
would give a an opportunity to have economic development for black people. Thank
you. Second

point was that 80 million dollars be channeled through IFCO, the Intereligious
Foundation  for Community Organiation, by the by the Presbyterian Church for the
National Black Economic Development Conference for the implementation of the Black
Manifesto. Now, somebody will say, "Well, the church doesn't have 80 million
dollars which it has in fluid funds." But, the church has a membership, which
represents some of the richest people in this country. In fact, some of them
operate the CIA incidentally.

And you know, S. A. J. Hamm, who is a Presbyterian. He works with the Central
Intelligence Agency.

If you check the other Presbyterians, you will find that they're very very involved
in the power structure, in the business enterprise of this country. Now, that is
also our contention that the church is not just an edifice. The church is not just
made up righteous men, such as you sitting in this room, but the church is also
made up of people, you know, who call themselves Christians, who contribute to the
church. And, the church has a moral responsi bility to exact tithes from these
people for the economic development of black community, because they are all
involved in exploiting machinery. Englehart is a classic example. I'm not sure he
is a Presbyterian, but nonetheless he's all involved in the

economic operations of Africa and throughout the world. And, that the church has a
right to go and call upon its membership, who are rich, white, racist businessmen,
to put some money back into the black community and the Spanish-speaking community
of this country. Next point. Let the Presbyterian Church liquidate all its assets
in South Africa, which is a demand that is almost non negotiable, and channel those
assets through I.F.C.O. to go to the National Black Economic Development Conference
and that a black person acceptable to the United Black Presbyterians be put in
charge of the African desk and that the program be enlarged.
This is a very serious problem, gentlemen, because one of the things that we make
in our Manifesto is that in fact the only guarantee that black people have against
the guarantee they have against racism is to have revolutionary black people
concerned about the total humanity of this world in charge who's really in charge
of total control of the country. But to exercise humane leadership. And, that
whites who are prepared to deal with their racism, must be prepared to accept black
leadership. Now, it is ironic that in the Presbyterian Church, the man who is in
charge of the African program is a white man when

there are so many qualified black Presbyterians who could run that program. That is
a very very real problem. That is a question the church ought to grapple with
certainly at this particular meeting. Next point is that the Presbyterian Church
make available, and this is for the benefit of everybody in the Presbyterian Church
incidentally. A complete listing of all church holdings and stocks, bonds,
real estate investment, unrelated business interests, pension,
retirement,  investment funds. And that 60 percent of the income from all
these investments be annually given to the National Black Economic Development
Conference. The purpose of that is is that

you know the church has tried to maintain a rationale, give up thy goods for the
poor and go and do some stewardship. We say that if that is true, then the church
which is a financial empire unto itself, must make certain sacrifices. The church
has accumulated wealth through the whole exploitive machinery and that is
true, gentlemen, we cannot doubt that. I've seen the directory of the Presbyterian
Foundation. I know where the money is invested in stock and so forth. And I also
know that those companies are exploiting black people around the world, as well as
other people of color. And, that the church does not need all

those assets in order to function as the church. The church does not need  all
those assets to function. There is an interlocking relationship today between the
church, business, and government. They're all in cahoots.

Now many of the people who are out here, who are normal Christians, good Christians
trying to be good Christians, do not in fact understand what James Pew [Pew, J.
Howard] is doing with the United Presbyterian Foundation. This is a
serious problem. And if it can't be resolved at the General Assembly, then where
can it be resolved? This is the

point that we are raising. Where can it be resolved?

People will tell you that the Presbyterian Foundation is a separate entity. The
Episcopalians try to tell us that the pension fund was a separate entity
from Bishop Hines, [Hines, John E., Presiding Bishop] the bishop in charge of the
church, that he has nothing to do with the pension fund. Well, where is the pension
fund invested? The same  thing is true that we tried to raise with the membership
of Riverside which is why all of that notoriety, We were  saying to the membership
of Riverside that if you can't control the board of directors , or ratherf the
Board of Trustees, then who can? By what right does a few people have to
perpetually sit up on money and to continually invest it in God knows what? Because

we know that the Riverside Church in New York is heavily involved in real estate
investment inside the United States, inside New York in particular.
When Rockefeller Plaza can be completely tax exempt then something is wrong. So
what we say we're not really raising the question that the church should be paying
taxes to the United States because we don't feel it should, But, it should be
paying taxes to the National Black Economic Development Conference. But this is
a real problem. And, so we are saying, that if we take serious. If we take
seriously the question of our stewardship of our ministry then we must begin to
divest the church of its financial

involvement in business and government. No one is saying that the church should not
operate. No one is saying that some people have to be cut back from their salaries
or that some people don't need three secretaries and what have you, although they
could do with one. Nevertheless we're saying that the church has to seriously
consider whether or not it is a financial entity in the United States at this
particular moment. This is the question that we're trying to get across. And we
know many commissioners, many average church people, who give dollars and dimes to
the church do not understand how involved the church is in the government and how
the government uses the church for

legitimate interests. How the C.I.A. is involved in the use of the church and
overseas domination. And we say that is relevant for black people today because we
are concerned about the total humanity of the world. We are concerned about our
brothers and sisters in Africa, about our Spanish speaking brothers in Latin
America and inside this country. And we come to you today.

Clearly if you don't do anything else to understand and and we will still have them
liberated territory up there at 475, which is being expanded to the 9th and the
12th floor.

But nevertheless if you don't do anything else, then certainly begin to understand

how in fact that  the church is a financial empire inside the United States. And
that was not the original intention of the church and the church can begin to make
restitution, reparations is in fact a part of business. And we thank you for this
time. We'll be available to discuss with you anywhere else. And, we can say, we
must, in fact, begin to make reparations. We must begin to have econo mic
development in the black community. And, reparations is legitimate. And the white
Christian church, which has been a part of our exploitation, must begin to pay
those

reparations. And, we hope that this General Assembly will act as men and women and
not let somebody tell you, Let's refer this to some sort of board, which is going
to be bureaucratic and stifle demands. Where is your power as the General Assembly,
if in fact, you are concerned? If in fact you are interested in eliminating
racism, then we should not leave here until there are some answers to the demands
made by Spanish-speaking and black people of this country.

Thank you.

[Rollins, Joseph Metz, Jr., "Metz" speaking ] There are several reasons the least I
think why I'm here as a part of this program. Because, in addition to being a black
Presbyterian clergyman, I'm also the Executive Director for the National Committee
of Black Churchmen. And, perhaps in this statement which wasn't too widely
circulated those of you will have to wrestle with the demands of the Manifesto may
get some clue from black churchmen who have taken seriously this demand and who
through the years in the context of the predominantly white church institution have
struggled

mightily to be taken seriously. And in part, this is why we are here and why the
spirit of many black churchmen, including black Presbyterians, is right in the
heart of what Jim Forman is saying. Now, the National Committee of Black Churchmen
is made up of everybody from black Roman Catholic priests to Church of God
people, black denominations primarily. We have what we call real soul ecumenicity.
It has nothing to do with creed or dogma.

The common recognition of the black experience regardless of the religious Hang-Up
that we were a part of. And, this is important to understand. And so it was the
board of directors that met a week ago yesterday. They considered the Black
Manifesto. And we considered it after we had heard from brother Forman and we gave
this following response.

And we call upon this church and the other churches to look at the spirit of this
response as they debate for the confrontation that's been put upon them. We rise to
salute the entire religious foundation for community organization which sponsored
the National Black Economic Development Conference, which, in turn, became the
channel through which James Forman could appear as a modern day prophet to speak to
the churches.

We are mindful that the program proposed has troubled the waters of Siloam. We dig
it, baby, it's biblical. Yet we know that how much the churches may shake to the
vibrations of its own cleansing, the healing of Christ is working upon them.

In other words we're trying to say that this is not something from the outside.

This is very much a part of God's ongoing activity in the history of the world and
in the history of the church. We have taken action to support in principle the
demands of the National Black Economic Development Conference upon the churches and
synagogues of the United States as a beginning.

And I want to say to you that it's important to realize that there were some
brothers last week in Atlanta who thought Jim Forman was too conservative. And,
that there were some who said that the Manifesto was essentially a reformist
paper, position.

So I just keep in mind that those of us who were a part of the National Committee
of Black Churchmen, we emphasize as a beginning. And, the next thing is fairly
historical statement which Jim has already alluded to and into the interests of
time I'll move on to the gut issues of our statement.

It must be clearly understood that the black church does not stand in the same dock
as a white church before the bar justice and that includes the black church within
the predominant white churches.

Black churches were victims rather than the guardians and perpetuators of racism in
America.

Yet this is a thing that has not been picked up and I emphasize that again we do
nevertheless accept the responsibility of the black churches to share in the
remuneration of the black community.

But we recognize that it is these communities which have sustained our churches

over the years and even our black brothers, who have been a part of the United
Presbyterian Church all these years, we are beginning to discover and understand
where our life and our heart and soul is.

It is with black folks no matter, our commitment, our belief in order procedure.

Our commitment is with the black revolution.

We urge the Black caucuses in the predominant white churches and the black
denominations to play a major role in interpret the justness, the humaneness and a
theological soundness of the demands of the Black Manifesto.

This is important. Therefore, we urge all the religious Black Caucuses and our
brethren within the predominantly black denominations to accept the responsibility
to develop the strategy that is necessary to obtain the funds which are demanded.
We further call upon them to assess the institutional assets of their respective
denominations and to negotiate specific amounts which are to be allocated through
I.F.C.O. for the purposes outlined in Manifesto. We become wise in the ways of
those who act.

My sisters and brothers. And, there was an effort to isolate Jim Forman, to make
him look like a kook as an effort to discredit I.F.C.O.

So there's an effort to discredit any of those who have responded positively to the
Black Manifesto.

And this is why it was so important what the board of directors of the National
Committee did in Atlanta last week.

The pursuance of these eons. We appealed to the black caucusses and the black
denominations to unify their efforts of advocacy and implementation of the
Manifesto the recording nation provided by the National Committee of Black
Churchmen.

We instruct the executive director of NCBC to immediately begin this activity. And,

this explains my presence with Jim Forman at the Catholic Archdiocese on last
Friday in New York and on Monday in the presence of Bishop Hines [Hines, John E.,
Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church]

I want to say again that those representatives of Cardinal Cook on Friday and

Bishop Hines, they did take us seriously.

They did take the whole idea of their Manifesto seriously. In that sense, they were
acting as responsible churchmen.

The other filip that we added to the statement in support was that we insist that
the great foundations not be excluded from this Vanguard contributors from the
private sector. Many of the foundations are creatures of corporations whose
founders and stockholders amassed incredibly huge fortunes from a capitalistic
system, which was rooted and grounded in the exploitation of our forefathers. While
a few of them have supported the civil rights movement, none of them have done what
they ought to have done about the mounting crisis among non-white peoples in the
urban

and rural ghettos are the nation. We call upon the foundations, as well as the
churches and synagogues, to provide millions of dollars for economic and social
development in the black community.

The NCBC, through its executive director and its affiliates, is ready to

participate whatever conferences and negotiations may ensue from the demands of our
brothers for the reparational relief of the suffering of black people. We urge the
private sector of the American economy, particularly the churches, synagogues, and
foundations to receive these demands with utmost seriousness.

One of the things that's probably going in your minds. And then, I'm through. Is
that, you know, in each place that we've gone, each time Jim has been, the church
always trots out its record of involvement, but we never really were radically
changing anything. We would never radically changing our modus operandi, our style
of mission. And, in our response to the civil rights movement in the past, much of
what we did, while it was helpful, was also no more than protection and buffer. It
kept the rank and file of our membership from really knowing what it was about.

On Sunday I was up in Northern Westchester, one of our nice predominantly white

congregations. And, I didn't realize how uptight they were, after I made my
presentation on behalf of this. In the word coming back followed almost the sort of
physical sense because for the first time, despite all that our Presbyterian church
had been doing over the last 10 15 years, the Manifesto, the Black Manifesto had
finally gotten under their skins. And, they were upset.

And this is what it's all about.

Radical challenge has been placed before us. And, it's too late to talk about
moderation and propriety and understanding and gradualism and give us a little
time.

The means are available. The will to use them must not be withheld.

Peace and power.

[Hawkins, Edler Garnet] I suspect that perhaps the only person in this auditorium
that has a more difficult job than myself is our moderator [Sweazy, George E.].

I would hope that that we might find the occasion for movement today.

What we

have had a demonstration of is not so much the fact that there is anything new in
the deep critical nature of our time in relation to the black and the brown
community. All that we have had is a very sharp indication of the new sense of
drama with

which this condition has been lifted up very dramatically before us. And it seems
to me that no great length of words should be the part of any of us. We are a part
of the problem.

We were involved.

In the complicity, in the compilation of evil in our time.

And yet there are some of us who have some very real problems.

Because somewhere along the line, there were those of us who stood in a church such
as ours

and made a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

A commitment that was born out of the idea that this was a Christ. Our own words
who did proclaim release to the captives and all the rest that we know so well.

There's been that desire on the part of some to live by that.

And there's been a desire on the part of many of us, who

are part of the black community and also who are part of a church such as ours.

The hope that we could live in these two

worlds.

This has been our faith and we've tried to live by this.

There's a sense in which, to some degree, we have felt a responsibility to our

White Brothers as we have lived within this common fellowship.
And we want to remain within it.

We have been trying to say as part of that responsibility.

Let's not perhaps the deepest but certainly one of the deepest levels of
frustration and disillusionment on the part of the black community and the brown
community came at the point of the Koerner report that did not say anything new but
that lifted up dramatically this sense of the two societies into which we were
drifting.

The response to which was so so terribly disappointing. And we come to this moment
that many of us hope will represent both a challenge and the necessity to respond.

I recall some other words that come back, came at another point in the struggle for
civil rights.

And we remember those words, "Late

we have come."

But there was a sense in which at that point and for that level we came. The basis
of our faith requires a response.

Some of us who are on the platform here. We had a very distinct disadvantage
because we were not able to hear the terms of these demads.

That's not important. It seems to me that our will, our determination, to move as

fast and as full as a church such as ours can move becomes becomes our immediate
responsibility at this point.

And if I was if I happened to be a Commissioner of this General Assembly, I would

like very much to make the kind of motion that within the framework of how this
General Assembly can operate.

The motion that would enable us to move seriously and as completely as we can in
the direction of a response to what we have heard this day from our brown and our
black brothers. And, because we do stand with in this kind of faith that requires a
response, the

hope is that somehow under God we may be able to give[ it.

[Smith, John Coventry speaking] Mr. Moderator, this completes the presentation from
the General Council's report. I am led to say that if we had a Cardinal Cooke
[Terrence, Cardinal Cooke]. That's where we would have recommended that James
Forman and our brown brethren also should go. W e don't have a cardinal. If we had
a Presiding Bishop Hines, as the Episcopal Church has, we would have recommended
they go there. We don't have a presiding bishop, but we

have a General Assembly. So this is where we recommended that these things should
be heard. And now, we have a procedure in the General Assembly.

Sometimes it's a very bureaucratic procedure, but when we pay attention and use it,

It can get things done. There's an article in the manual, page 136 and 32

136 32 that says that all resolutions for the appropriation of money, and these
resolutions were at least that, shall be submitted to the General Council for
consideration and recommendations before action is taken by the General Assembly. I
believe that this is the channel. I have talked to the Secretary of the General
Council. And we are prepared to call a meeting immediately following the closing of
the session this evening in the

St. Anthony Hotel, where we've been accustomed to meet. Edler Hawkins is a member
of the Council. Gay Wilmore is on the staff. Bryant George and others are there to
advise us. Roger Granados and, I would say, Reverend Antonio Medina would also be
invited on this occasion so that we will have the full reading of those
presentations. Some of us behind the microphone are not able to hear nearly as
clearly as as you can hear. And may we make Gay

and one of you responsible for. And perhaps if you would like to bring someone else
with you, it will be satisfactory.

That will be our initial look at them. There should be some immediate places where
some of these go. Some of them are long term and will take far longer than this
meeting of the General Assembly.

But some of them can be given attention. And, we shall

try our best to report to you about what we do with all of them as soon as
possible.