Long Island CORE (part 6)

The Anti-Lynching
At the end of the year, a tap was discovered on the pay phone in Village Hall, the center of the municipal government and of several of the Rockville Center protests. The Mayor of Rockville Centre, who had gone on record as promising to get rid of Negroes in Rockville Centre, admitted the tap was placed on the only pay phone in the Village Hall lobby municipal employees with his approval. Lynch saw it as an attack against LI CORE and the other groups negotiating with local officials.

Lynch, clearly one of the most successful practitioners of CORE’s concept of non-violent direct action, in February, 1965 urged that members of civil rights groups be permitted to defend themselves if attacked during demonstrations. He did not suggest initiating violence. “It should be made clear to racists that they can no longer attack picket lines… with impunity.” A CORE official responded that such a stance would be self defeating, but members such as Mark Dodson had raised the issue as early as 1963. Lynch’s statement was in response to more than just SPONGE. The murder of Reverend James Reeb a few weeks later had only hardened his stance. Members Dan Hester and Jon Moscow supported Lynch’s position in standing guard around a Black couple’s home after their front window had been smashed in by a trash can. The incident came a month after a cross burning on another couple’s lawn.

Ironically, Lynch was among first civil rights leaders to speak out against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war, preceding even the old line pacifists in CORE such as James Farmer and Jim Peck.

This House of Fire
In a speech at a rally in front of a fire house, Lynch again ‘warned that the days of nonviolent demonstrations by Negroes were ending’. Suffolk County CORE had started a series of protests that fall against the fire departments of Long Island. In Suffolk County, there was one all Black fire department, but in the rest of the one hundred and ten fire departments, out of the other 10,000 firemen, there was only one that was Black. There was only one Black fireman in all of Nassau county. The first campaign demanded the all White department in the predominantly Black community of Wyndanch accept and recruit non-whites. Suffolk CORE won, but the fire department only accepted one and agreed to a fair recruitment of other applicants. The success in reaching the agreement, However, caused the protests to spread against other fire departments. During a July, 1966 demonstration at a L.I. fire fighters tournament, Lynch and Harold Trent according to Newsday “provided the struggles ‘most dramatic moment’ ’’ when they disrupted the events by jumping in front of a moving fire truck.

LI CORE’s was successful in getting two Blacks into the Roosevelt Fire Department but campaign to integrate the Hempsted fire department slowed by that fall, 1966. By December, 1970, Newsday reported the fight to integrate L.I.’s fire departments was virtually over and not much had changed. Despite the public and government pressure, the fire departments refused to give in. Even examples of token employment were rare.

Another campaign against alleged job discrimination focused on the defense industry on Long Island. LI CORE took on Gruman, the largest employer on Long Island, to ensure that non-Whites were employed in all phases of the operation. Less than 5% of the work force was Black, all of whom did menial work. Demands included a more vigorous recruitment and training program as well as an upgrading of jobs for non-Whites. Gruman conceded in less than a week. While LI CORE got most of its demands the fight continued over the actual implementation of new procedures.

At the beginning of 1966, Lynch became the associate national director and then the first vice chairman, the second highest position in CORE. He was even seen as a forerunner for replacing Farmer the top position went to Floyd Mckissick. Credited with bringing the civil rights movement to the suburbs, Lynch, picked up on Black Power immediately and declared ‘Black Power is here to stay!”