Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press, Part 1

Contents

Contents Foreword to the Voices from the Underground Series by Markos Moulitsas xiii Foreword to the original publication of Voices from the Underground by William M. Kunstler xvii Foreword to the original publication of Voices from the Underground by Abe Peck xix Preface to the Voices from the Underground Series by Ken Wachsberger xxv Preface to the original publication of Voices from the Underground by Ken Wachsberger xxxiii Messaging the Blackman John Woodford 1 In 1968, H. Rap Brown was in jail in Louisiana on trumped-up charges and the Black Panther Party was striding around northern California declaring it the right and duty of African Americans to defend themselves with arms against brutal police. Against that backdrop, journalist John Woodford, Harvard class of 1963, moved from Ebony magazine, the country’s biggest magazine aimed at African American readers, to Muhammad Speaks, the newspaper of the Black Muslims, in order to play a more active role in events of the period. In this article, he provides an intimate account of his experience at both newspapers. The San Francisco Oracle: A Brief History Allen Cohen 35 Few people realize the tremendous influence that the Haight-Ashbury community and its voice, the San Francisco Oracle, had as both symbol and focal point for the social, artistic, psychological, and spiritual changes that were taking place during that chaotic period known as the sixties. In this history, Allen Cohen, founder and editor of the Oracle, chronicles the Haight-Ashbury community from its post–World War II working-class beginnings to the end of its days as the mecca of the counterculture, and draws lessons. A Fowl in the Vortices of Consciousness: The Birth of the Great Speckled Bird Sally Gabb 91 In 1968, a collective of young-type humans in Atlanta, Georgia, spit out a response to the then-present insanity because they believed in possibility. It was naturally a collection of graduate students. Who else had been so groomed to take themselves so seriously? Budding historians and philosophers they were—mostly men, with women in the shadows, women on the brink of bursting forth to be heard. They were men and women joined by a certain lesson: the South. In this article, Sally Gabb recalls the history of Atlanta’s Great Speckled Bird. Akwesasne Notes: How the Mohawk Nation Created a Newspaper and Shaped Contemporary Native America Doug George-Kanentiio 109 To understand how Akwesasne Notes, the most influential aboriginal newspaper of the twentieth century, came to be, one must understand the history of the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, where it was born in 1968. When a Mohawk person speaks of his community, it becomes a narrative in which he carries the experiences of his ancestors across the generations. Akwesasne is a community rich in story, tragic, comedic, and dramatic. By intertwining the oral and written records, a compelling epic emerges, one that is about not only mere survival but also perseverance through decades of adversity. The Joy of Liberation News Service Harvey Wasserman, with a sidebar by Allen Young 139 Founded in youthful genius, LNS moved this country as few other rag-tag operations ever did. It was the AP and UPI of the underground, supplying the counterculture with a wide variety viii | Contents of articles and essays, proofs and spoofs that were read and loved by emerging millions. Then came the split, and co-founder Marshall Bloom’s suicide in 1969. Even today, the extent of FBI penetration and involvement is unknown, but Freedom of Information records show it was significant. In this article, LNS alumnus Harvey Wasserman tells his story. Allen Young’s profile of Marshall Bloom is reprinted from Fag Rag. off our backs: The First Four Decades Carol Anne Douglas and Fran Moira 157 off our backs was founded in late 1969 with $400 that had been collected to start an antiwar coffeehouse for GIs. The name was chosen, according to co-founder Marlene Wicks, because “We wanted to be off our backs in terms of being fucked. We wanted to be off our backs in terms of being the backbone of American or every society or culture with no power. And we wanted the flack we would get from everyone about being strong to roll off our backs.” Forty years later, off our backs still operates on a shoestring while continuing to report on women’s struggles worldwide and their interconnectedness...