What were you doing in 1968?
In 1968 I was 29, married, with two children (4 & 2), living in New York City. Look Out, Whitey! was published in June of that year. I was being interviewed by various news outlets about the book and its provocative title. I was doing radio for WBAI-FM in New York, covered the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago for the radio station. And I was trying to make sense of everything that was going on around me - the riots, the assassinations of Kennedy and King, the violence in the streets at the Democratic convention. In 1968 it really felt like the country was on the brink of anarchy.
Your book, "Look Out, Whitey" is a remarkable book in many ways. What was your intention in writing the book? Were you happy with the way the book was received by those around you?
LOW grew out of an article I wrote for "Sing Out" magazine called "The Angry Children of Malcolm X". I had been a folk singer throughout much of the 60's, recorded two albums for Vanguard Records, and began writing regularly for"Sing Out" in 1966. A publisher read the article and asked me to write a book expanding on the article. This was in 1966.In 1966 I had also started working as a photographer for SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) out of the main office in Atlanta. So I wrote LOW in the basement of the SNCC office. My intent was to show the Black Power had long historical roots, was not something new in black history. It was the first book that explained Black Power.
What made the book different was the language. I wanted the book to represent Black Power by speaking in the angry tone of voice of Black Power. So the book combined scholarship, sarcasm, anger, as well as humor. It's a very funny book.
I don't know if I was happy or not with how the book was received. I was happy that the book was widely reviewed - Time magazine, the Sunday and daily New York Times and many other publications. Some understood the book; others didn't. My favorite was a headline that appeared in a newspaper in Indiana - "Lester Out to Get White Mamas". Needless to say, the review was quite negative.
How did you feel about the country back then? What were your perceptions of the candidates running for president?
I did not have many positive feelings about the U.S. in 1968. And I was definitely among those who thought the country was in need of a revolution whose aim would be to create a country that made it easier for people to love each other. I was an odd combination of black radical and hippie.
I disliked Humphrey and Nixon, but looking back, I was short-sighted to equate the two. Humphrey would have been a better president than Nixon. At the time, I didn't think the two were that different from each other.
What did you think after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy?
I remember both events vividly, can recall where I was standing when I learned of each assassination. At the time I was not a supporter of either man. I felt both were too willing to compromise on matters of principle. I had a special animus against Bobby Kennedy and still do, though I've changed my feelings about King.
Certainly their assassinations contributed to the feeling that the country was falling into anarchy. Overall, the 60s were a time when too much happened in too short a span of time to really understand what was happening. I felt that I had been swept up by history and that things were out of control. The assassinations of King and Kennedy added profoundly to that sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming events.
Many people thought that the country would dissolve into a civil/race war. How do you think the country survived 1968?
The country survived 1968 by turning to the right. Nixon campaigned on a "law & order" platform, and people wanted sense of order restored. The event that finally restored order was the killing of the 4 students at Kent State in 1970. That put a chill on protest because 4 white kids were killed. A week or so before 3 black students had been killed at Jackson State College in Mississippi for protesting, and the country was indifferent. But when the government was willing to kill white kids, that meant the government was ready to kill anybody.
I don't think I ever felt there would be a civil/race war. I don't know why, but I didn't see that as a possibility. I saw anarchy.
What lessons do you think still need to be learned from that year?
I'm not certain there are any lessons from '68 that can be applied to today. The times are so very, very different. If anything things have regressed since 1968. At least in '68 people were angry about the war in Vietnam, and we can't forget that a lot of what happened in '68 was directed against the war in Vietnam. What baffles me about things now is that people aren't angry, or they aren't angry enough to protest. And the issues today are so much more profound than they where in 1968. I was really upset recently to read the results of a poll indicating that 50% of Americans were ready to dispense with environmental concerns if it meant producing more oil. If there are any lessons to be learned from '68 they have to do with caring about people other than yourself, about having a sense of social responsibility, about being will to risk one's own sense of well-being because others have no opportunity for well-being because of U.S. foreign and domestic policies. The primary difference between then and now is that people today are afraid to be idealists.
What would you like young people to know about that year?
I think I answered that above. Oh, I suppose I should add that when people look at photographs of the demonstrations of that year and that period, the photographs make things look more romantic than they were. The photographs don't show that on the inside most of us were afraid, but being afraid did not stop us from doing what we believed was right.
How have you healed from your experiences of that year and that period?
That's a threatening question. The question wants me to think about things I might not want to think about. And don't know how to answer it. I don't know that I have healed. There are some traumas you learn to live with but healing in the sense of feeling whole doesn't come. Growing up as I did under racial segregation, living in death's shadow at times during the civil rights movement, I am aware of the ways in which I was emotionally maimed. There are some traumas for which there is no healing. However, there is triumph, and that triumph for me has been to live in a way that affirms my humanity and everyone's; to live with joy, to have struggled so that my spirit, my soul express the sheer beauty of life itself. Even though one can be wounded, it does not mean that one's life is defined by the wounds. That certainly happened to a lot of people I knew from that time, but I refused to let that happen to me. I define myself; I am not defined by what others think or have done to me.
What advice would you give to young people who are interested in politics and social justice?
My advice would be to educate your minds and your spirits. Being educated in the mind will enable you to see events in the wider context of history, will enable you to analyze and understand what is happening. For example, if anyone in the Bush administration had known anything about Iraqi history, they would have known that Britain got bogged down in Iraq to no avail, and could have projected that the same would happen to the U.S.
One educates the spirit because it is one's spirit that sustains you, that helps you maintain a firm grasp on your humanity when you are fighting to change the inhumanity so prevalent in the world today.
Do you have anything else you would like to tell young people?
I don't think so, but you might find it interesting to look at a book of mine called Search for the New Land. It's kind of a companion piece to LOW. It is my history of the 60s written at the time. I thought that would be more valuable than writing about the period looking back after 20 or 30 years. It's out of print but there are plenty of copies online.
