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Black Power part 7
Surprisingly, Carson quit as chairman at the beginning of October. He was succeeded by co-chairs Irv Joyner and Ali Lamont. He continued working with Independent BK CORE through which he opened the School of Common Sense (SCS) to teach African history and culture, yoga, Swahili, and martial arts. Among the lecturers was Leroi Jones. The building which housed SCS was owned by an anonymous donor, most probably Jim Cuffie, who, while never a member of CORE, was known to be a mentor to Carson.
While Carson would later claim this was one of the first of the Black independent schools, it is unclear whether the school was ever accredited by the state.
That November, Carson was arrested and charged with possession of a stolen car and grand larceny. He had actually been driving a friend's car who worked for the SCS. Carson claimed he was framed because of his involvement in the school protests. Independent BK CORE countered with 'Operation Watch the Police', a campaign to protect its members from and educate the community about how to organize against police harassment and 'take whatever action necessary'. While this campaign may have been influenced by the Black Panther Party's first campaign in Oakland, California, it also corresponds to an earlier BK CORE campaign in which Arnie Goldwag and other members followed cops around and monitored them as they pulled Blacks over.
Independent Black Schools
As a result of his participation in the protests at JHS 271, Les Campbell was arrested, indicted by a grand jury for obstructing governmental administration and charged with harassing and threatening the teachers that tried to get back into JHS 217. By the end of 1968, he was also suspended while on trial.
As these events were unfolding, Campbell was also charged with anti-semitism because of a poem he read over the air on WBAI at the end of December that was crudely critical of Jews. Even though he eventually apologized, the charges stuck with Campbell for the rest of his life.
The poem, which the show's host asked Campbell to read, had actually been written by a fifteen year old student. It was only one of several written by his students and read on the show. Campbell used the poem to illustrate the type of enmity created by the mostly Jewish UFT and of how the students were pointing to the fact that these historical victims of racism were just as guilty of being racist themselves. Usually referred to by the beginning of its opening line, 'Hey Jew boy', the poem had been dedicated by its student author to Al Shanker, head of the UFT.
Mayor Lindsay in speaking against racism, bigotry and anti-semitism stated there was no place for people like Campbell in the school system and "requested the BOE take appropriate action against him".
Just before his suspension, Campbell was also the program director for the adult education classes held at night in JHS 271. One of those classes, 'how to stage community demonstrations', listed Sonny Carson as its instructor. Herman Ferguson was listed as another instructor for a course on 'how past revolutions had been planned and carried out'.
During Campbell's suspension, he served as the adviser for a group of high school student activists, the Student Citywide Strike Committee, by helping them to organize NYC students. The group's name was a reference to the 1964 Citywide School Boycotts. According to the New York Times, Campbell 'played a leading and public role in inciting high school students to an illegal strike against the schools. He specifically urged them to march on Ocean Hill-Brownsville, setting off a dangerous clash with the police and much violence'. Cops were pelted with bottles and rocks during the several confrontations that took place at these demonstrations and rallies that were attended by hundreds of students.
One of the groups that made up the committee was the African American Students Association (AASA) whose name referenced the teacher's organization Campbell founded. As with Long Island CORE, this was another example of CORE members, while taking a background role, helping students (as 'local people') to organize and lead themselves.
Campbell eventually left the BOE. With members of the AASA and other supporters, by 1970, Campbell started the Uhuru Sasa Shule, which means Freedom Now School in Swahili. 'Freedom Now' was a slogan used by CORE at many of its demonstrations. An outgrowth of the Freedom Schools of the 1960's, Uhuru Sasa became one of the first and arguably most influential of the independent Black schools of the 1970's according to Dr. Russell Rickord. Along with its emphasis on Pan-Africanism, the school taught core subjects such as math, science, language arts and history, as well as martial arts and Swahili as a second language.