photo of Bronx CORE chairman Herb Callender

herb callender.tiff

Dublin Core

Title

photo of Bronx CORE chairman Herb Callender

Subject

Bronx CORE members

Description

This is a 1964 photo of Bronx CORE chairman Herb Callender.
A union leader in a Ford auto plant, he was one of the original 1961 Freedom Riders. The case that resulted from his particpation, Herbert E. Callender v. Florida, went all the way to the Supreme Court. He was successfully defended by CORE attorneys Carl Rachlin and Floyd McKissick.

He is recognized as the leader who put Bronx CORE on the map with the 1963 White Castle demonstrations, a campaign that exposed the existence of southern style violence and neo-nazi members in NYC.

Along with Malcolm X and rent strike leader Jesse Gray, he was denounced in the press by Police Commissioner Murphy. It later came out that Callender had been targeted by the Bureau of Special Services (BOSS/NYPD) who had planted an undercover police agent, Ray Wood, in his chapter.

After placing the Mayor Wagner of New York City under citizen's arrest with Wood, Callender was briefly sentenced to Bellevue for mental observation. Unperturbed, he became one of the three leaders of the 1964 Stall In campaign.

He eventually became a field secretary and then the national organization director for CORE, the third highest ranking position at the time. He left just before Roy Innis became the national director but was part of the unsuccessful effort in the mid-1970's along with James Farmer to take CORE back from Innis. In between he received a degree from Cornell University.

Callender later changed his name to Makaza Kumanyika which according to his son means "a cold wind blows for Black people."

Source

LIFE magazine- Apr 24, 1964

Publisher

Life Magazine

Format

image, .tiff

Type

image

Coverage

new york city, 1964

Collection

Citation

“photo of Bronx CORE chairman Herb Callender,” corenyc.org, accessed October 9, 2024, http://corenyc.org/omeka/items/show/3.

Output Formats