ROMAN HOLIDAY IN CICERO
Jack, Homer A.
Roman Holiday in Cicero By Homer A. Jack IN MID-JULY an epithet-shouting and brick-throwing mob successfully prevented a Negro family from occupying an apartment they had rented in the lily-white...
...The church may yet redeem itself for its loud silence during the days of the riots...
...HOMER A. JACK, minister of the Unitarian Church of Evanston, Ill., was an eye-witness of the Cicero riots...
...No arrests were made during the first three nights of violence while the crowds were smaller...
...Since racial restrictive housing covenants are no longer legally enforceable, they use violence to back up their choice and they know the police will cooperate...
...Happily today, several religious groups are beginning the slow educational process of bringing together those isolated souls who must begin to turn around public opinion...
...Much must be done to prepare that beleaguered suburb for the time when another attempt is made, by the Clarks or some other Negroes, to move into Cicero...
...A Cicero Civic Commission for Justice has also been formed, but somewhere in the process the "for Justice" has appropriately been dropped...
...He is the editor of a forthcoming anthology, "The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi...
...On the basis of evidence secured from questioning almost 200 persons by the FBI, Attorney-General Howard McGrath announced that the Cicero case would be presented to a federal grand jury in Chicago...
...Both groups, to be sure, moved into Cicero as soon as the trouble started, like maggots on rotten meat...
...The first effort, naturally, was to punish those responsible for the violence...
...They frankly prefer the Capone interests to Harvey Clark...
...During the violence in mid-July, Cook County Sheriff John Babb publicly stated that the Cicero police "turned their backs" on the violence...
...The healing process, however, goes beyond courts and grand juries— and politicians...
...The racist forces in Cicero have, in the meantime, not been idle...
...It was all a mistake—this Roman holiday in Cicero...
...This attitude, widespread among the small homeowners in Cicero, could produce all the violence necessary, but it is hoped that the federal grand jury will explore any possibilities of some block organization with realtor connivance in the first stages of the rioting...
...Yet as Cicero faces the American holiday of Thanksgiving, not a single Negro will cook his own turkey dinner in this electrical capital of the world (Hotpoint stoves...
...At the time of the riot there was not a single voice in Cicero or neighboring Berwyn raised in favor of welcoming Negro neighbors...
...More than 100 men were arrested for unlawful assembly, but after several delays most of them were released by the court for lack of evidence...
...The jury will undoubtedly also examine more carefully the role of Joseph Beauharnais, head of the White Circle League...
...In June, Federal Judge John P. Barnes issued an injunction against the Cicero police chief demanding that he protect the right of the Harvey Clarks to move into Cicero (after the police chief himself had run Clark out of town in a previous attempt to occupy his apartment...
...They work with the prejudicial attitudes of many Negroes and indeed an estimated 15,000 Negroes come to Cicero to work each day, but Ciceronians do not want to live next to Negroes...
...Named were the owner of the apartment building and her lawyer, the rental agent, the attorney engaged by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Harvey Clarks—the Negro family who rented an apartment—and a person arrested for distributing Communist literature in Cicero several weeks after the riot...
...Undoubtedly the basic reason for the violence will be discovered in Cicero residents...
...Less known is what democracy is doing to heal its wounds to prevent permanently a racist rout...
...lence...
...This campaign, directed by a Chicago public relations firm, will "tell the people of the United States that Cicero is the electrical capital of the world, that churches are numerous, schools the best, crime rate the lowest in the entire country...
...Boyle said something about a "runaway" grand jury, which is not wholly true, and privately he agreed to quash the conspiracy indictment...
...when arrests were belatedly made, the crowds were so large and the police work apparently so sloppy that not enough evidence on the activities of each person arrested was collected at the time to make convictions and fines possible...
...The tragic details of this Roman holiday in Cicero were given in the press of the world...
...When the young men arrested at the riot first appeared in court, Beauharnais had distributed a circular which in part stated: "This is my tribute to the brave youth of Cicero, They proved that the spirit of the Boston Tea Party still lives in our white race . . . Wanted: 50,- 000 people in Cicero to join the Defense of Cicero...
...For five years he was executive secretary of the Chicago Council against Racial and Religious Discrimination...
...How spontaneous is a five-night assault on an apartment which involved upwards of 10,000 people...
...Further, not a single person who participated in the riot was indictedl This conspiracy indictment raised a furor in civic and legal circles in Chicago and throughout the nation, coming as it did shortly after another Cook County grand jury, also supervised by John Boyle, refused to indict a policeman attached to Boyle's office who killed two youths on Chicago's west side...
...One sure cause of the trouble is the corrupt machine running Cicero with a unique "town" form of government which is older than the Illinois Constitution...
...They have heard enough instances in greater Chicago where, in the past more than at present, neighbors have at least for a time successfully used violence to keep Negro neighbors away...
...While the arrests did help break the back of the violence at the time, the deterrent effect in the future is questionable, for it appears to be the widespread conviction out in Cicero that one can participate in such mobs, and even if one gets arrested, which is unlikely, the chances are one's case will be dismissed in court...
...Much of the political pressure for justice is being carefully planned and exerted by the Cicero Committee of the Chicago Council Against Racial and Religious Discrimination —an organization consisting of 126 church, labor, and minority-group organizations in greater Chicago...
...With some reluctance, Cook County States Attorney John Boyle presented the Cicero disorders to a holdover Cook County grand jury...
...Using the precinct machinery to solicit contributions from each homeowner plus other funds from real estate, financial, and manufacturing firms, the Commission is amassing $50,000 for a public relations campaign to offset what it asserts has been a plot, chiefly of the press, to besmirch the good name of Cicero...
...The allegations that Communists or "fascists" started the riots is possible, but certainly not probable...
...This group maintained power in 1950 on a racist strategem and the demeanor of the chief of police and the whole police department plainly reflect this racism...
...What this grand jury will find under a vigorous prosecutor is anybody's guess...
...The second effort of the democratic process was to ferret out those responsible for the outbreak of vioDR...
...Roman Holiday in Cicero By Homer A. Jack IN MID-JULY an epithet-shouting and brick-throwing mob successfully prevented a Negro family from occupying an apartment they had rented in the lily-white Chicago suburb of Cicero...
...to Keep Cicero White...
...It is unfortunately true that the owner of the building and her attorney engaged in some ethically questionable negotiations and manipulations, but they did nothing illegal...
...The town hired a former Illinois Supreme Court justice to represent it in various court appearances...
...The second indictment charged five persons with conspiracy to lower property values and to incite to riot...
...The National Guard had to be mobilized, but still the family has not been able to move back into the city of 75,000 persons...
...Civic indignation ran high against this theory that not the murderer but the murdered is guilty...
...Above all, they want to emphasize that "Cicero seeks no trouble and makes none...
...One accused the police chief of Cicero of misconduct as a public officer...
...After hearing evidence for almost two months and questioning more than 65 witnesses, the grand jury produced two indictments in mid-September...
...Indeed, there will be little for which any democracy-loving Negro or white can be thankful in this town where churches are numerous, but Christians are few...
...Losing faith in any local investigation, civic groups launched an effort to induce a federal inquiry into the riots...
Vol. 15 • November 1951 • No. 11
