Their Statement:
On Friday, March 4, 1966, Attorney General Nicholas D. Katzenbach presented the subversive Activities Control board with a petition asking them to list the W.E.B. Du Bois Clubs of America as a “Communist front group” as provided under the McCarran Act.” This act would require the Du Bois Clubs to register as a “Communist Front Group.” For every day that we fail to register, we are subject to a $10,000 fine and five years in jail. We will not register.
This attack is not solely directed at the Du Bois Clubs. The Johnson administration, in its desperate attempts to stifle all dissent against the War in Vietnam, has singled out the most vocal sections of American youth in a Congressional resolution, the Students For a Democratic Society, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, and the Black Muslims were named with the Du Bois Clubs as “Communist front groups.” All these organizations have taken stands opposing the War in Vietnam. The Du Bois Clubs have become the first direct target because our program calls for an end to the War in Vietnam, a beginning of a real war on poverty, an end to segregation in both the North and the South and protection for civil rights workers, full employment for all those youth who seek work at a decent wage and equal opportunities for an education for all youth regardless of race, religion or national background. We have fought for these’ goals since our inception in June 1964.
We demand that Attorney General Nicholas D. Katzenbach drop the phony charges against the Du Bois Clubs and instead, investigate the bombing of the National Offices of the Du Bois Clubs in San Francisco on March 5th and the brutal beatings Of the New York Du Bois Club people by the New York City police on March the fifth. We demand that he investigate instead the vicious murders of civil rights workers in the South and the Bombings of Negro Churches. This attack on the Du Bois Clubs has given encouragement to those members of the ultra-right who use the bomb and the gun to stifle dissent.
We call upon those Americans who support the right of this generation to speak and dissent and act to condemn this transparent effort of the Johnson administration to silence its critics. We call upon those Americans who support our constitutional guarantees of free speech and thought to put an end once and for all to the McCarran Act and the travesties of Justice and human rights that it sanctions. We call upon the students and faculty of Wayne State University who have taken such a principled stand in the defense of free speech to reaffirm their position by protesting this attack on the right of an organization to exist. Join with us and Staughton Lynd, David Herreshoff, Donna Allen, Dagmar Wilson, the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees to end the War in Viet Nam, the National Office of the Students for a Democratic Society,- the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee & Congressman Philip Burton of California in defeating permanently the threat of McCarthyism in America.
Sidebar
89th Congress
2d Session.
Res. 738
Resolved, That the Committee on Un-American Activities, acting as a whole or by subcommittee, is authorized and directed to conduct a full and complete investigation and study of the organizations known as Students for a Democratic Society, the American Youth Peace Crusade, American Youth for Democracy, Progressive Youth Organizing Committee, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Labor Youth League, and the Black Muslims, and to study and report upon their involvement in protests relating to official United States policy in Vietnam, for the purpose of aiding the Congress in the consideration of any necessary remedial legislation. In the conduct of such investigation and study the committee or subcommittee also shall give attention to the character of other similar groups and organizations involved in such protests and the nature of their activities.
For the purpose of carrying out this resolution the committee or subcommittee is authorized to sit and act during the present Congress and at such times and places within the United States,-including any Commonwealth or possession thereof, or elsewhere, whether the House is in session, has recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, and to require, by subpoena or otherwise, the attendance, and testimony of such witnesses and the production of such books, records, correspondence, memorandums, papers, and documents, as it deems necessary: except that neither the committee nor any subcommittee thereof may sit while the House is meeting unless special leave to sit shall have been obtained from the House. Subpoenas may be issued under the signature of the chairman of the committee or any member of the committee designated by him, and may be served by any person designated by such chairman or member.
The committee shall report to the House as soon as practicable during the present Congress the results of its investigation and study, together with such recommendations as it deems advisable. Any such report which is made when the House is not in session shall be filed with the clerk of the House.