RADICAL

AMERICA
November- _ Decerr:ber, 1967 Vo [. 1 No. 3

50 t

iNew York Rent Strike

Ana lysis and Comments b y Activists

James Weinstein on STUDIES ON THE LEFT

An 5DS Journal of the H i story of Amer-ican Radical i sm

 CONTENTS

James V/einstein, STUDIES ON THE LEFT: R.I.P.

f'.\ark D. Naison, THE RENT STRIKES I N NEI."J YORK 7

Robert GDbri ner, cor:NiENT . . . . . 50

Daniel /,Io,acGi (vray, A PAPERBACK APPROACH TG

H-!E Af!ERICMI RADICAL T RADITION 54

Leaflet� THE GENIUS OF AMERICAN POLITICS 59

BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN LA80Rr\\OVE/,\ENT, 1877_1924 62

RADICAL MIIERICA, an SDS magazine. Editors Paul Buhlep

Henry Haslach, Joseph 1I', ewshaw. Associates: Tom
Christoffel, Tom Cleaverp I'iLfwk V. Lapping� John N,edwid.

Subscription rate� �3/year (6 issues) or �2 for SOS

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Bulk rates upon request. Publi-hed by the ',\adison SDS
Free Pre�s. Address: �Butle, 1237 Spaight St.,
. ,adison, iscow-in 53703.

"

'e repeat for our ne'tI reeders that RADICAL A,\\ERICA

IS fin outgro,,·lth of ;:, progrem in the Radicel Educf'tion
Project of the Student for a Democr-ctic Society. The
editor'; hold thd the lessons of the Arr.er-ic;:;n r,-'dicei
Pi;st are critic,:1 for- the development of the �!ew Left.
'le hope to ::;timulate ,-,n intensified study of radiu11
histor-y by �tudents of the field, and a far greater
inter-est among SDS rc:nk-and-f i I ers concerni ng these
subjects. ;ie look 1'0 cooper-ation I'll th other- genera­
tions of Amer-ican Leftists nnd hope that the realiz0-
tron of our shared tradition wi II help br-ing the best
of the 'Old e:nd New,l Left together,

I.-Ii th tnis i ;sue our- cir-culation jumps to 2,000.

"'e ask all tho:e inter-ested in distr-ibuting RADICAL

[Continued on inside bECk cover-)

2

fun ct ion of Ameri c an inst itut ions . Studie s did l ittle

to arouse popular consc i ousne s s of the se deve lopment s .
But it did examine and explain the ir underlying
political economy . Studies made its main contribut ion
in the thin::ing of the new :radicals in two are as . 1)
It ident ified ,ie lfare st ate l iberal i sm as the polit ical
ideology of the large corporat ion throughout this
century, and , the refore , as the dominant polit i cal
ide ology in the United St ates . 2) It began the proce s s
o f orient ing soc i alist thought toward the problerrJ of
buildjng a post - industrial soc ialism .

The deve lopment of the se two sets of ideas are

central in making pos s ible a serious revolut ionary
TliOVement in the United State s . The f irst i s the key
to understanding the Ameri can pol it i cal economy . The
second is e s sent i al t o a strategy of soc ial revolut ion
in th is country . It dist ingui she s c learly between the
funct ion of s o c i alist t ransformat ion in the United
State s and in the agrarian countries where succes sful
revolutionaries face the need to industrialize rapidly .

Of these two set s of ideas only the first has been

w i de ly understood among new left act ivist s . The under­
st anding that l iberal i sm and the liberal bureaucrat ic
state i s the cent ral ideolog i c al enemy cle arly di s ­
t inguishe s the new left from the old . That knowledge
makes accept ance of the popular front i sm of the
Communi st party and the soc i al welfar i sm of the
Soc i al i st party unac cept able t o most new left ists .

The limited ac ceptance of the ideas about post ­

industrial social i sm in the United State s has several
c ause s , all of them closely related to the nature of
the exist ing soc iali st part i e s . The main c ause has
been the failure of these part i e s to develop a vis ion
of the k ind of l ife that would be pos s ible in the
United St ate s if soc iety were reorganized on the
princ iple of max imum individual freedom, self -develop­
ment , and part i c ip at ion in de c i s ion maki ng . Bec ause
soc i al i st s of all part i e s have been c aught up in de ­
b ates about the proc e s s of industrial i z at ion in Rus s ia,
China, or Cuba, they have been ob se s se d with
 3

centralized socio.l control, externally imposed

discipline, the subordi.nation of :;,.,�;scnal fulfil­
ment to collective economic development. For tre
United States, after the revolution, such concerns
vlill be mostly irrelevant. (Parts of the ne"\-I left
already understand this. SeIT:e are tryir:.g te live
as if the revolution had already been wen . )
We already have the industrial cacGcity and
t·2C�]nO�00ic.al d21e�ClJ_::er:t t,'J 3.t:,sure o.ffluenc..:c. ThE
need here ie nOT to achieve the bas:'.G
-+o:"i "q,;rificE'
for a full life", b1lt tJ c h ang p the pcliti,:::ai ec::mclYY
se th at corperat ion prefi ts aDCL a favorable climate
of ievestment s are '.10 loeger the real prj ncipJes
2.T'j1md which our socia l life is orgdnized. To do
that we :1t.st t.ar;::. pU\-J�r fro[L the co-::'porat ie!lE. 'l'hat
requires a c-r')uIJ cf people "lith the imagination to
create a nbl way of life and tLe ce rr,peten c e to
organize a society trat ,'Jill be a'ble to funct ion
-.iithout the incentives of the market econorry.

TH:2 REVOLljTIONJ'.R'; FhI\TY

The development of a rigorous program and the

capacity GO run a new society can be achieved only
by an organization of people committed to winning
power and carrying throu e;h tbe revolution. Sucb a
group will not achieve significant 30cial change
until it ':Jecomes involved full - t :i rr;e in convi12ing
otLers that a new social order is in their common
self interest. It cannot achieve serious action,
"Ihether intellectual or polit i c al, unless it ta::es
iteelf seri o'J.sl y. Any g::-cup that has a long range
goal And a ful:-time ce�mi�llient to it must construct
a comprehensive political stance aDd program) its
own means of cOllimunicating its views (a press ) , and
a permanent nationwide structure, Such an organiza­
tion is a political party, �hether it participates
in elections or net,

Most of the Studies editors would like to see

such a nev} socia] ist p2rty COlee into being) but there
is no agre eni en t OD hC'0 that LiGht ccrre about. :Jome
4

bel ieve that a party c an come about only more or less

spont ane ously -- out of the expe r ience of the new left .
I do not share that view . I see the c re at i on of a
party as an act of w i ll on the part of those who be­
l ieve it t o be ne c e s s ary . I do not think that a party
can be formed immediately, but if one i s to be formed
in the next tHO or three years , some group of people
wuat t ake the init i at ive now .

The pos s ib il ity of a revolut i onary party yl ithin

the next feH years w i l l be affirmed or negat e d only in
t he course of making the attempt . The only que st i on
that must be ansllered now i s whether there i s a need
for such a party at this t ime . If s o , then those who
underst and the need have the responsib i l ity to act .
The experience of re cent years should encourage such
act ion , s ince those Hho have acted against the YJar , in
the ghettoe s , and on the campuses have almost uniformly
found more popular support than they expe cted .

On the need for a party, the main reason is

axiO[;iatic: w ithout a revo lut io nary party there can be
no revolut i on . But why a ne � party and why nOH'; The
fLr.'st part is e asy . A new party be c ause all the
exist ing one s have f ailed t o develop a revolut ionary
theory re levant to transforming the United Stat e s , and
are h�pe les sly l imited by the ir long-term ide ological
dependen2e on one or anothe r tendency in the Soviet
Un i on or China . Furthe r , none o� them t akes it self
seriously as a revolut ionary for�e . They have no
strat egy of building a mass revo�ut i onary movement
here . Their thinking and progra.ns are shaped by
event s , rather than by themselves as makers of h i st ery .

THE TIME I S NeW

The re ason for a neH party lt th i s t ime i s that

the Moveme nt has cre ated the poseib i l ity of rapid
growth and re levacce for a revoluti onary party , even
though the Movement dee s not have -,Ii thin it the
potential to trans cend its pre sent l imit at i ons . In
the l ast fe\J ye ars the Movement ha.:; e duc ated hundreds
of thousands of young pe ople to a tetter understanding
 5

of the true nature of American cap it al i sm . It has

shown that radical act ions are po s s ib le , and that it s
own estrangement from the dominant value s of American
society i s w idely shared . It has exposed the s lav ish
loyalty to t he American bus ine s s system of our
pol it ical structure and our educational inst itutions .
It has demonstrat e d the value of spont aneous act ion
and of local init i at ive , as well as the pers onal
and group rewards that come from t aking an act ive
part in s ocial change .

But the Movement has also demon strated it s OvID

limit at i ons . The diver s ity which give s it much of
it s strength preve nt s the development of a rigorous
purposefulne s s . The primar ily student makeup of the
Movement make s it unl ike ly that a permanent core of
members w i ll be created, or that there ,viii be any
cont inuity in the deve lopment of program or strat egy .
The chance of the development of a revolut i onary
s ingle-mindedne s s withi n the Movement is almost non­
exi st ent, s i nce such a purpose doe s not, never has,
come spont ane ous ly out of d i s sent or re s i stence. A
movement led e nt ire ly by those under thirty i s w ith­
out benefit of the accumul ate d experience of other
revolut i onarie s and other revolut i onary movement s .
Without that knowledge revolut ionary the ory i s im­
p o s s ible . And , of course , without revolut ionary
theory there can be no revolut i onal'y party .

Every revolut ionary party that has become

relevant, as well as many that haven't, has been
cre at e d by the willf ul act ion of a small group of
men and wome n. If a new party i s t o be formed i n
the United St ate s , the s ame w i ll b e true here no
matter when it happe ns. In that sense , t he forma ­
t i on of a p arty i s an e l it i st act . But it i s s illy
not t o act because of a fear of elit ism . If an
el it i st party is formed, no one will follow it in
any case . The wors t that will have hap�ened is
t hat thuse who formed it wasted the ir t ime .

Thi s stat ement expre s se s one of t he te ndenc i e s

on the Studies board , a.d should explain , from my
penlpe cti ve , why St udie s had out lived its hi stori cal
purJ)ose. The next magaz ine that I hope t o be Tart of will
net be an independent journal with no spe c i fic focus ,
, cit +,he journal of a revolut i on ary polit i c al organi ­
zat ion.

Jame s Heinst e in
 7

The Rent Strikes in New York

Rent strikes in Nevi York are as old as the slums.

Already in the early 1090s, there were annual rent
strikes led by the Ladies' Anti-Beef Trust
Association' wnich - along with general labor un­
rest - "kept the Lower t:ast Side in constant tur­
r:1oil. ,,1 After the passage of the Tenement House
Law of 1901, the rent strike movement of the 1�90s
subsided; but in 1910 , the limited gains won in the
pre-war period. ,.Jere SViept mwy by a growing housing
shortage which permitted landlords to increase rents
by as much as 200% in a matter of months.

Tenants unable or unwilling to reneil short-term

leases at substantially higher re�1tals faced summary
disposses proceedin� s, and wholesale evictions fre­
quently took place. In the city's vlorking class
districts, hit hard by unemployment during the post
war demobilization, tens of thousands were in danger
of losing their homes.

THE EARLY STRUGGLES

In the Jewish section of the city, the housing

crisis brought with it a nell outburst of rent

1. Moses Rischin) The Promised City) (Cambridge)

1952), pp. 167-0.
2. Rudell) CCrlce!::ted-"B�0!-_!JHh�;L?:ing) p. 18.
8

strikes. On May 14, 1918) the New York Call,- the

Socialist party's English language newspaper, reported
a large rent strike in the Brownsville section of
Brooklyn. Tenants were doubling up and "threatening
to camp in the streets rather than submit to the unjust
demands of the landlord. " The Call's editor praised
the strike as a :forceful illustration of working class
solidarity" :

Entire blocks are being organized. The ousted

tenant is being welcomed with honors. No one
has any use for the woman who is submissive
and pays the rent. 3

These first postwar rent strikes, like those in the

18)0's were largely spontaneous. In the close-knit
J�'Nish con,munities, a landlord who refused to yield to
str:L:dng tenants might have to face condemnation by
respected leaders of his synagogue or fraternal or­
ganization, obstracization by his friends, loss of
patronage at his business, and verbal harassment and
even physical violence from his neighbors. In the
columns of the Call, we find the edifying tale of a
landlord named Katz who tried to break a rent strike
in a building he owned by hiring a band of thugs to
beat up the leaders of the tenants' committee, but who
was forced to yield to the tenants wheG they led a
successful boycott of his butcher shop down the
block. 4' Even in the sacred confines of his synagogue,
the landlord was not safe from harassment by embattled
tenants. During the height of the strikes, 200
tenants stormed a Brownsville synagogue in the midst
of passover services to embarrass a number of landlords
in the congregation. The heroic deed vJaS faithfully
reported in the Call:

Most of the pillars of the Ohev Shalom ( Pillars

of Peace) congregation are landlords. The head
of the congregation is said to have evicted some

3. �\Tew York Call, May 14, 1918, p. 8.

4. Ibid., Hew York Call, March 20, 1920, p. 4 and
March 23, 1920, p. 5.
 9

tenants Friday. He was reported to have

suffered some bruises in the excitement yester­
day when the tenants poured into the synagogue
crying, "Down with the services, stop raising
our rent. 5

As the year went on, tenants began to develop

more formal organizations for their protests. While
local action of the type just mentioned had some
success, it was clear that the housing crisis could
not be ended unless the city government and the
state legislature acted to reduce the immense legal
authority of the landlord over the tenant, which
gave him almost unlimited power to set rents, deter­
mine the length of leases and evict allegedly un­
desirable tenants.6 In 1919, tenant unions and
tenant-protective associations were formed in
Brownsville, Williamsburg, Harlem, the Bronx and the
Lower East Side, to expand the scope of local actions
against landlords and to articulate tenants' demands
for government action.

The new tenants' associations were closely

.linked to the major progressive organizations in
the immigrant community--the socialist parties and
the labor movement--and their leaders were avowed
socialists who saw in the tenants' revolts a mani­
festation of the new class consciouGness that seemed
to have seized workers all over the world after the
war had ended. Their imaginations, like those of
most American radicals had been stirred by the
proletarian uprisings that the European War had un­
leashed, and every strike, every mass action, seemed
to herald capitalism's imminent fall. The
revolutionary impulse of the tenant leaders found
outlet in periodic attempts to organize mass action

5. New York Call, April 9) 1920, p. 5.

6. Under New York City housing law, a landlord had
only to establish that he was 'acting in good
faithll in order to evict a tenant vlhom he con­
sidered undesirable.
 1

10

on E c ityvlide level to dramat i z e the tenant s' grievances.

In lIiay of 19 19, the Brooklyn Tenant s Un ion threatened
to cal l a "general strike ' i nvolving the cooperat ive
&2-: i0n of tenant s le ague s and labor un ions , to focus
attention on hous ing problems.7 And in September of
tile same year , 'soc ial i st ag itators , " a c cord ing to the
n:ayor's Committee on Rent Prof iteer ing , attempted to
o.cgan ize a -rent str i ke invo lving one mi ll ion te nant s . 8
Ile itber a f the se project s , however , were actually im­
p1emented . The mo st "revolutionary'; of the tenant s
"c.ll ions' actions Ilere tlce local rent strike s) which con ­
tinued under their dire ct ion to be primar i ly a defensive
act ion des i gned to force land lords to retract rent in­
cre ase s and stop ev ict ion proceed ings. The politi cal
G2mandp of the tenants were articulated through
trad it ional "democratic" mean s - - petition ing , lobbying)
and organ i z ing prote st ral l ie s-- although the s i ze of
tne loeal rent strike s ( the Brooklyn Tenant s Union had
onT 4000 tenants on strike i.n 1919) w ith t heir impl ied
threat of ma s s i ve disorder, added "Ie ight to the
pet itioners' reque sts.

yvhen the tenants un ions were f irst organ i z ed , the

cJ.ty admin i strat ion , caught up in the publ i c hysteria
about radical i sm wh ich the Bolshevik Revolut ion se emed
to hav� engendered in Amer ican soc iety, tr ied to s uppress
thbll. The Mayor' s Committee on Rent Prof iteeri ng,
ur;0an i z ed to arb itrate di spute s between te nant s ani
lendlords, opened an inve stigat ion of the tenant s'
�ovement w i th the warn ing that:

Bolsne vi srll unre st and anarchy are i ncreas ing

rap idly be cause of the act iviti e s of the se so­
called ant i-rent soc ieties and a stop must be
put to thpj.r worlr, 9

and initiated a serie s of pol i c e raids on t he local

tenant s' le agues. "Our me etings were broken up , our

7. 'Jew York T ime s , May 15, 1919, p . o.

0. Ibid. , Apr i l 24, 1920, p. 1.
9. Ibid. , October 4, 1919; p. 24.
 11

members imprisoned, our offices raided, and our

executives given the third degree," declared Harlem
Tenants leader J. Louis tubros in an interview with
the Call.lO Municipal court judges joined in the
effort to break up the tenants leagues. A typical
judicial response to the rent strikes was that of
Magistrate Shraub, who closed a Brooklyn rent strike
case by ordering tenants to pay their rents and
warned them that a second offense would bring them
jail sentences:

This a�Dears to be Clot,hing more than a caSe

of Bolshe��sffi sucn as seems to be running
::io-;:, over �he :::.� ty aT; c:,he :;Jresent. You have
�o rl:-sr�t �<) �Jr2·ien-c �his �and_lord -='rcI:� T·J.�ni�-.!.g
iis �ouGes. Jr �0 �reveClt, �jm �rom collecL,in�
:::';3 :::'''2��-CS . �-"=e �s 3. -�3.Xpay·er 3.na through )Bying
t2.�·:e s �/c'u .J.�e :3.:L'� ,'Jr'i:::: i ;;clic2 )TC"'Ge c"t �on _�rlci �

�ocd �a�7 ���e� �h�n3s. =f = am inforffie6 jy

-,. Yl -cl:2.t -�8�l �n-ser='·�::::-,e "C;Jl tt ii-:n -�n �r�e s=_ -! ght-

Serr.e judges 'ders .:nC:i"lD :'C �l-.[e �ardcns �G ten.ants

',lho "would infor�:1 on -;;heir :::-adical :::"eaders.
IvIanhattan judge of.=ered -:.hree :n.embers of the Harlem
Tenants League, :;onVlcc;eu of 20nspiracy charg es for
c-b st r uct i ng an e'fict,ion� �enient, -;;reatment if they
told him the names of -:'he organizers of the tenants
leagues to which they belonged.il

10. Few Y ork Call, >larch 25, 1920, p. 1. A more de­

tailed account of th e police raids can be found
in the issue of the Call from March 19, 1920,
which includes a speech made by a leader of the
tenants movement at a street rally in Brownsville:
'About a year ago, he complained, "when tenants II

began to offer resistance to profiteering land­

lords, the mayor issued a bill against such or­
ganizations, and threatened to send to jail all
the leaders of the movement. Many were sent to
jail, the municipal judges using their offices to
smash every rent strike.
11. New York Times, November 22, 1 919 ; p. 18.
 1
I

-,
, r

TH� �orERNMEj\JT'S SHIFT

'rhr: public authorities, hewever, did not succeed

tresf.iClt; the pOTtier of the tenants' lnoverr:ent. There
','0.S a �criod of relative quiet after the police raids
j' 2eptember and October of 1919, but a,;itation \'JaS re­
s ' w ed . i th even ,�':reater energy in the early l(,onths "c'
the next year. The mayor, anxious to appease
or IaTli ze,� laber 3n�)_ preyen".:, tIle strif;cs from grmving
l ar:;e_c, sent a series oc" -Dills to the state le,�islature
�e3i�ne to centrol rent gouging 8nJ prevent evictioDS.
In presenting these bills to the state legislature,
,eLich -,las then ,2ol1siuering the expulsion of its five
socialis;J rrembersj city officials warned that their
passage was necessary to prevent disorder from reach­
in,.,'; unLllal1ageable proportions. L' the lesislature
,Jere too doctrinaire to pass the flsocialistic" rent
cI)ntrol laws, Fiorello La '}uardia ( then a member of
Hie state legislature ) rlecl&red, it might finc1 itself
,::lominated by socialists after the next election;

Unless rapid relief le�islation is passed, next

year a radical legislature might be debating
;-Ihether to allow rive old party-men to sit in­
stead of a Republican and Democratic assembly
suspending five socialists ... and when the hot
days OL' A1Jgust have exhausted the people's
patience, the great body of citizens of New
Yor� will refuse to pay any rent whatsoever.
Then what can you do? You can't disposses
every tenant in New York.

The rechannelin, , of discontent into a legal

framework seemed to undermine the power of the or­
ganized tenants movement. '1'1,e local tenants leagues
suffered a r..lpiCi 1.0.3S 0: meL-1Dersllip once the rent lctws
wore passed Clnd the Tenants Defense Union, the city­
wide coalition cf Jewish organizations, fell apart
entirely, unable, in the face of widespread tenant
apathy, to develop a \wrkable program for the achieve­
lne!}j., cf its 2e;is�_8.ti\.re [£oals .. Ten8.r!ts' leaclers \,1110
had expected a permanent organization to be forged in
the hcrusins crisis -"ere serEly clisappointed. Within
 13

a few y ears, there ,ws no trace at all of the move­

D,ent that had inspired fear of a "rent revolution.
Some tenants' leagues in middle-cl&ss neighborhuods
were active, but they made little i�pact on the
housing policies of the c i ty or state government.
The rent control lavlS of 1920 remained essentially
ur.modifiec. until their expiration in 19.:-:9.

'IHE 1)30 ' S

'The De..oressioil) �:-:::wE'ler; initiated a re,2'.'-FL 0,'

tenants' agitation in Pew York City. In 1)31) re n �
f::tri�es v!ere begLAn oy tenantb in Brownsville the
Bronx and the Lower East side to prevent evictions
8n� to force landlords to lower rents. Cn January
1+, 1931, the D�ily �orker reported with some
exaggeratioG that

The slogan 'hiGh rent must curce dmm is

echoin2 throu hout the upfer Bronx territory
and iei ti:"i;·.� c'�ncr<o;tc= J:o]'u in growi.ng rerlt
strike. .. ,'i'.'erywhere, hundreri.s o�� wcr:�ers are
organiziu3 t0ilS� LAnemploveJ councils and are
>

demanding 10-15� reductions in rent. l'

�

Like the early postwar tenants revolts, these rent

strikes 0ccurred in Jewish neighborhoods) and "Jere
accompanied by considerable [Lob action. Both the
i'Te'tI Y or ;; Times and the Daily 1.JoL.er reportedJ from
rather different ferspectives, the use of viclence
and sabotage to force landlords to yield to tenant
demands, and to prevent city marshals from carrying
out evictions. Cn JaEuary cO, 1)3,-", four thcusand
tenants, tIle TitLeS reported, rioted and attac;.;.ed
poJtce r�serve forces +ryin7 to evict seventeen
b uildir.g. 3
1
tenants from an Onlinville Avenue ( Bronx )
The mob was led by warren poised on rcoftops who
directed the action wlth �e8aphones and hurled ob­
jects upon the poliCE, shouting "lith upraised fists
that "the WOL:ers stclggle has cOtHLenced. Thjs

1)31J p.
p. 4.
14

'Ylas the same ne ighborhood , the reporter noted, where

2000 pe ople , ' chant ing revolut ionary anthems , " had
tried to stop the evict i on of four tenant s exactly
one year before . In celebrat ing one rent strike
victory , the Worker pointed w ith pride to the courage
that tenant s had shoym in re s i st ing poli ce att acks :

After a bloody battle w ith the pol i ce and the

evict ion of a worker had failed to break the
organ i z at ion of the rent strike rs at Onlinville
Avenue , the landlord was forced to reduce the
rent on 2 room apartment s by $ 2 , on a 3 - room
apartment by i:; 2.50 , and on four -room apartment s
by r3 . . . earlier in the day, police and detect ive s
brutally att acked an open - air meet ing of the
tenants which was led by the Upper Bronx Un ­
employed C ounc il . Five workers were arre sted
and a number inj ure d . 1 4

The organi z at ion of strL:=ing tenant s appears t o

have largely been the work o f the Commun ist Party .
Scornful of the legalistic t actics of the "old -guard
s ocial i st s in the trade -un i ons and the Social i st
I

Party , it was w i l l ing to sponsor any kind of prote st

act ivity to deve lop and encourage "clas s - consci ous ­
ne s s") and it se i z ed upon hous ing ag itat ion as an
are a in which it could as sert it s leadership in the
class struggle. In deve loping the rent strike as an
effect ive we apon for the unemployed to use in deal ing
'ili th the ir hous ing prob lems , the Party f i lled a
vacuum of leadership in the Jew i sh community , which
the social i st s , now host ile to mas s act ion , had
left . In its coverage of the rent strikes , the Daily
Horker proudly reported several inst ances where party
wor�ers had won ove r buildings from social i st or­
ganize rs who had tried t o convince tenant s to fight
the ir l andJ_ords in court . 1 5 Sometime s , the landlords
themse lve s were socialist s . The Worker told of a
rent str i_� in the building of a Soc ial i st landlord ,
who was a member of the Workman ' s c ircle and several
democrat ic clubs . " l � 'This socialist landlord , " the
--
, ----
14. �te reily Worke r , January 2 3 , 193 2 , p . 4 .
15. Ib id . , The Daily Worke r , January 1 4 , 1931 , p . 2 .
Ib id . , Tte raily Horke r , January 2 8 , 1932 , p . 4 .
 15

art icle declare d , " i s most rabid in his attacks on

the worker s , egging on the police to break up the
meet ings of the rent striking tenant s and thre aten­
ing blood baths against the tenant s . "

After 193 3 , the se rent str ikes appear t o have

sub s i de d , de spite the growth of a p owerful tenant s
moveme nt in the city . The l iberal i z at ion of the
city's evict ion policie s , 17 comb ined w ith the
gradual extens ion of welfare service s by the state
and federal governn;ent s , made the problems of ten­
ant s far less acute and unsett l ing than they had
been in 1931-32 when the rent st rike s were most
common . There was not the same sense of urgency
ths.t there I,as in the e arlier period and the new
tenant s organ i z at i ons wh ich grew up after 1933 con­
centrated on the development of a stab le tenant s
movement capable of be ing a cont inuing source of
pre s s ure for enlightened government inte rvent ion in
the hous ing field . The C itYVl ide Tenant s Union , an
organizat ion 'dhich eventually included hlenty-four
affiliated tenant le ague s in different sections of
the city, emphas ized the use of lobbying and pub l ic
demonst rat ion t o arouse support for reform leg i s l a­
t ion . 18 Its local chapters , which tried to deve lop
a stable network of tenant s ' counci ls in the
ne i ghborhoods whe re they worked, used the rent strike
t o influence landlords only when all othe r forms of
pre s sure had f ailed, and then , only for ends wh ich
could be supported in court . They regarded the rent
str ike as an ext remely dangerous form of protest , t o
b e used only when tenant unity was h igh , and

17 . After pre s sure from a number of reform organi­

zat ions , who were pprt of the Unjted Front
Committee Against Evict ions , the Ivlayor i s sued a
direct ive to CTU marshals orde ring them t o de lay
evict i on until the Emergency House Relief
Bure au could f ind adequate shelter for the
evicted tenant .
10 . See Stuart D . Wright , The C ity-Wide T enant s
Un ion of New York , ( unpubl I she d ma ste r is the s i s ,
-
C:olu;bia: Un i v �1936 , pp . '+5-55.
extens ive legal aid avai l able . Before a rent strike
could be organized in a p art icular building , the act ion
had to be aplJroved by a st rike committee of the central
body , pre suffiably to prevent hasty act ion which might
harm the reput at ion of the organ i z at ion . The se careful
precaut ions regarding the rent strike ' s use prevent e d
i t from ever attaining t h e st atus o f a prot e st movement
under the Council ' s direct ion . From 19 4 0 to 19-.)3 , rent
strL_e s cunt i nued t o play a limited role V l ithin the
larger fre a�ework of tenant s ' agitat ion . The tenant s '
crgan i z at i ons becaffie hi ghly specialized during thi s
period, both on a local and a city-w ide leve l , w ith
a limited array of t act ics) and a legal i st ic , down­
to-earth way of doing things . The mas s ive rent strike
that arose in Harlem in 1953 , w ith it s extravagant
aims �md 111e s s i anic rhetoric, caught them ent irely by
surprise .
HARLEM, 1963

In the fall of 1903 , when rent strike s once more

began to make the i r appearance on a mass ive scale ,
hous ing condit i ons in New York C i ty's s lums were much
the s ame as they had been for the past �O ye ars . In
the old ne i ghborhoods which the European migrant s
once inhab ited---Brownsville , Williamsburg , Harlem,
the E ast Bronx and the Lower East Side - - -Negroe s and
Puert o Ricans now re s ide d , crowding tenement s which
had been regarded as sub st andard in the Progre ss ive
Era . Nine -hundred thous and people st ill l ived in
houses built before 1900 , 19 when the Tenement House
Law had estab l i shed the city ' s f irst set of he alth
st andards for re s ident ial construct ion .

De spite the cont inued decay of the s lum are as ,

only part i ally off set by the construct i on of low ­
income public housing, it required the impetus of
the C ivil R i ght s Movement to transform passive re ­
sentment int o act ive prot e st . Insp ired by the mood
of grow ing m i l itancy which the March on Washingt on
both reflected and ne gated , several CORE chapters
had begun , in the sumrrer 01 1953, t o apply the tac­
t ics of non-vi olent direct act i on to the f ie ld of
hous ing . Brooklyn CORE st arted w ith a campaign to
pre s sure the city into enforcing the exist ing hous ing
code . It t aught tenant s hml t o filr; forms w ith the
buildings department to set the code enforcement
machine ry into operat ion, and it p icketed the hOwe s
and busines ses of landlords who refused to yield to
te nant demands . Two college chapter s , NYU CORE and
C olumb i a CORE, also formed 'hous ing Committees" and
began t o organize slum tenant s in Harlem snd the
LOvler Edst S ide . The Columbia Chapter, lll�e the
Brook�yn group , tried to tedch tenant s to work
through the city agencies to improve condit ion s , but
NYU CORE and a small organizat ion called the Northern
Student s Movement , convinced tenant s in s ix bui ldir.g s
on the Lower East S ide to fight the ir landlords by
w ithholding rent .

19 . N.Y . Time s , January 13, 1964, p . 3�.

18

These rent strikes won the approval of James

Farmer, the national director of CORE. On November 9,
in a statement to the Amsterdam News' he declared that
"the rent strike had proved an effective weapon," and
urged that "more of them be employed by tenants having
problems with indifferent slumlords. ,,20 A week later,
he "larned of a "citywide rent strike with up to ten
thousand tenants on strike if slum conditions are not
cleared up,· and predicted that the civil rights drive
in the city would be stepped up on all fronts after
the first of the year.

ENTER JESSE GRAY

Although Farmer's prediction of a citywide rent

strike proved to be accurate, the initiative for it
did not COlJle fron; CORE but from a 3 8-year old Harlem
tenants leader named Jesse Gray. For ten years, Gray
had been trying to do what CORE chapters had only now
begun to thin,� about--organize a mass movertent in the
ghetto around the issues which mattered most to the
lower class Negro---poor housing, unemployment, police
brutality. A longtime radical expelled from the
National Maritime Union for his left-wing aS S OCiations,
he had begun his work in Harlem with a revolutionary •
"'
I
dream. But the response to his agitation was unen­
thusiastic, and instead of a mass movement, he was
able to develop only a small tenants organization on
a few blocks in Central Harlem called the 'Community
Council on Housing. In October of 1953 , at the head
of a protest march on city hall vlhich he had organized,
Gray threatened to lead a political rebellion of Harlem
tenants unless the city acted to take over buildings
with longstanding violations and meted out stiffer
punishments to landlords. "The Wagner administration
has proved that it is unable to handle the housing
problem, '}ray was quoted as saying, 'and we don't
"\Jant him to corr:e up to Harlem to ask for votes. 1,21

Imrr:ediately afte r this protest march which drew

_00 tec]ants, Gray decided to organize a rent strike in

'2o.-T he Pmsterdam NevJS) Hov. 9) 1953 ) p. 12.

21. The �E: � t � !_���)T ews, October 25, 1963, p. 1.
 19

the Central Harlem bui ldings he had been working in .

The stimulus for thi s deci s ion, made , apparently ,
w ith little preparat ion ( there had been no ment ion of
a rent strike at the prote st parade ) , w as the grow ing
militancy that Gray ' s followers had been show ing at
meet ings and protest rallies s ince the end of the
summer. Tenant s who had once meekly accepted G ray ' s
aid w ith the i r bui ldings department forms , were now
demanding dramat ic act ion to get repairs . "The
people , " Gray told the Amsterdam New s , " are much
more conscious than ever of the s lum condit i ons in
whi ch they are re ady to l i sten to an agitat or who
tells them not to be frightene d by evict ion no­
t ice s . ;,22 After one week of organ i z ing , Gray claim­
ed, he was able to place 16 bui ldings on strike .

The Commun ity C ounc i l on Hous ing , when it began

the str ike , was a smal l , informally run operat ion
that teetered on the edge of bankruptcy . It depende d
for it s support on a comb inat ion of membership due s ,
which were rare i n cOrting , and private contr ibut ions
from we althy radical s . Aside from Gray , Ilho managed
to eke out a me ager salary from it s treasury , the re
were four men who se rved as organ i zers , only one of
whom, Major Wi lliams , worked full t ime . Gray , more­
ove r , could expect very l ittle help from the tenant
members of the council in organiz ing the strike .
Most of them were wome n , who would join a p icket
line or give a small contribut ion to the Counci l ' s
tre asury , but who were content t o le ave the forma­
t ion of strategy and the organ i z at ion of buildings
t o Gray and his aide s . De spite the se disadvant age s ,
Gray was able t o almost triple the number of b ui ld­
ings on strike during the month of November . In the
few b locks that he had organ i zed before , the re ­
SpOC S 2 t o his me ssage was enthus iast ic, and the only
l im it on the speed of organ i z at ion seemed to be the
t i f[.e that was re quired to explain the mechan ics of
the strike . There we re buildings in Cent ral Harlem
where the name "Jesse Gray" would open any door . In

22. The Amsterdam New s , December 7, 19�3, p . 1.

 20

the ne ighborhood where he had l ived and worked for ten

ye ars , Gray , by countless hours of unpaid service , had
built. up a remarkab le reserve of t rust . Like the
Democrat ic district leaders in the old immigrant
quarters , Gray was the man people called upon when they
were in t roub le w ith the we lfare departme nt , the police ,
o r any of the other huge and confus ing bure aucracies
with which they were depende nt for the ir survival .

In early December, at a mas s rally he ld at the

Mi lbank Community Center ne ar rJ[ount Morri s Park , Gray
ann0unced the re sult s of November ' s organ i z i ng . Ten­
ants in 34 tenement s , he declared , had joined the
strike , rai s i ng the number of buildings part icipat ing
to 52. 'The rent strike , he proclaimed jub i l ant ly, had
become a mas s movement , ';w ith almost 3000 persons
ready t o part icipate in the act ion . : 23 It w as t ime
for tenant s to "ta,(e the ir case dmmtovm! . . and serve
not ice t o Mayor Wagner and other city off icials not to
come up to Harlem at elect i on t ime . "

The polit ical implicat ions of a mass movement

uuder Gray's le ade rship were not lost to Harlem ' s
08tahlished polit ical leaders . Men l ike Adam C layt on
Powell, Hue lan J ack , and Lloyd Dickens , '\-Iho had never
shown much zeal in demanding hous ing reform, quickly
announced the ir support of the rent strike . Rev .
i'owell, with characteristic flamboyance , decl ared at a
ra';"ly in the middle of December that he would dump
the Democrat ic Party if no act ion i s t aken t o remove
the blight from the Negro community and called for a
warch on city hall if the city failed t o t ake over the
st ruck buildings . :24 F ifteen church and civic group s ,
repre sented at the s ame rally, pledged the i r support
to the rent strikers and formed a coordinat ing commit ­
tee t o help extend the strike to other part s of Harlem .
The voice s were angry and the spirit s were h igh . "The
bells t ol l , the drums roll , " Adam Powell exulted,
Harlem i s on the March agai n . ' 25

23. The New York T in�e s , December 2, 1963, p . 30.

c:)+.'rhe Amsterdam New s , December 2 1 , 1953, p . 12 .
",5. Newswe e k , December 30, 1953, pp . 17-18.
 :::' 1

Gray seemed almost int ox i c ated by the c ommunity

solidarity that had been manife sted at the rally . He
began t o see a c itY'vide movement en;e rging from the
small strike that he had st arted in Central Harlem .
The great power blocs of the Harlem community, the
minist e rs and the polit i c i ans , were lining up behind
the str ike , and CORE groups in Broo%lyn and the Lower
East Side were alre ady beginning to organi ze the ir
locale s . "If our plans waterial ize , " he told a T in;e s
reporter two days alter the rally, "we w i ll have 1000
bui ldings on strike by the f i rst of the year . We
hope , by me ans of a c itywide rent strike , to force a
mass rehab i l it at ion of the slums . 26

NEW FACES

In the se last frantic days of De cember, s orre new

fac e s appe ared in the C ommun ity C oun c i l ' s c luttered
off i ce . On the morning of De cember 2 7 , while the
C ommunity C ounc i l ' s st aff nervously awaited the re ­
sult s of the f irst c ourt c ase , a well -dre s sed vlhite
man with a brus que manner vl alked into :}ray ' s off i ce ,
and asked "hOYJ h e could he lp the movement 27 He
. ..

had read about the rent strL:e in the ne,,,spapers , he

s ai d , and had c ome t o the conclus i on that it was the
f i rst s i;sni f i c ant radical movement in New York s ince
the 1930's . He w as rich, had exe cut i ve experience
and had many powerful friends in the "liberal
c ommunity' . What c ould he do? After a long dis ­
cuss i on w ith this man , who , it turned out , had been
pre s i dent of one of the large st s�elt ing and refin­
ing compan i e s in the United State s , '}ray de c ided to
put him in charge of the rent strike ' s pub l i c
relat i ons". H e vJas t o t ake over all o f the Counc i l ' s
de alings w ith the "white community" J from fund rai s ­
ing t o pre s s re lat ions, leaving '}ray free t o concen­
t rate on extending the st rike in Harlem . But he lIas
t o ren:ain completely anonyrr.ous , so that no stories
about a I"hite man behind the rent strike would be
pub l i c ly c irculated .

25. rLY� ime s , re cember 23, 1963 , p. 30 .

27. Thi s re ally happened, and in exact ly the way I
have de s cribed it .
22

Mr. Levin, as we shall call this �an, did an extra­

ordj narily effective job of publicizing the stril\.e.
Befcre he carre, the ret1t striKe was known among the
rather exoteric group of people whom it affected
l .. '·,'e.::tly---Harlem tenants, and politicians, city hous­
:;'Y'b of'ficials, civil rights vlOrkers, and the landlords.
':.le1'e had been five articles on the rent strif�e before
I;2ce:."!:..ier 2::-, but they had been hidden aw'dY in the back
1-3...;e5; and had not attracted t!lu.::;h publi:: notice .
.'\fteJ� L?vin t,SgdD \:01":; hOllever, art ':'cles or. the rent
seri .. e 'uegan to appear regularly 0:1 Lie front pages of
e'IE1'y major newsp&per in I�evl Yore except the Daily
�2WS, and stories on it were wri�ten in Newsweek, Ti�e:
qnd the Saturday Svening Post. Appearances were
arranged for Jesse '}ray and other rent strLe leaders
cn locp] and national television. The rent stri�e, for
1-.1 tirre) bec8ne the all important local political
�ssue, and the cause celebre of the civil rights lilove­
nent in the North.

Ivir. Levin had no experience in public relat ions

,vCL: to refer to in his new job. But the self-con­
i'idence and abilit;y to deal \lith people that his
E.xE"c�l.tive training had given him, vlere suL'icient to
c.ake hirr) a success. Eis rr)ethod was simple: he would
(;all up reporters on the various newspapers who
covered civil rights news and invite them down to
Har�L� to speak to Jesse and inspect the buildings
tf'lCit "Iere on strL:e. For lYlany of the reporters who
;:;8,;e down,
the experience was ovenvhelmingJ at once
fri[jhtening and humbling. Even for men hardened bJ
years of reporting 'lars, Eurders and riots, the sight
of a family sl1iverin� in a heatless tenen:ent while the
temperc::ture outside was eight degrees, oT a l!lother
treatinG the rat-bites on her ,'our-year old child,
cou l d not be borne c01rnly. Rcme� Big8r�, thp Pulitzer
Frize winning Times reporter came out of one strL,j.ng
"building qui vering vlith anger. ThE tenants in the
building had no heat and no water---because the build­
ing had no boiler, and the inspection report from the
buildings department listed no violations. 'This is
the worst �hing I've seen in all ruy ye�rs of report­
ing, he told Ievin; "I I J.1 wrj.te anyt:: ing you vl2nt.
 23

IvleamJhile, 3-ray ,varned,

The concept that tje Negro is going to explode

in t'he summer, Ilhen it's hot, man you '-cnovi
that's a farce. Harlem is going to explode
right novi in the cold ...He have been in touch
with Detroit and Chicago. We hope the impact
o f H.&1' 1em Wll
, 1 spread over th
' +
.e counury.2c, • "

�ray se e m� d t0 1rt. i culatc 'th� "eelinG ,-'f eVery Deor

!:arlemit� lihen he d",C'lr�red: '�'�othLng �s bei.[,.; '�cne
we n�ic:ht JS w'E::l� have.; a rat mEyer. t'�'9

Mrn THE CITY

A bar:'2ge JI:' cl'iticis�L cc�;e down uper, .'� �T2gner

Adniinistrat iCD -chat ",.'8S quite unnerved by the CCi1-
Plict�ng �oliti�a� pre ss ur e s �nEt the �o�e��nt h ad
lJY'le�C'h'�C.
LI� 'AU J. ...... . 30 ';l'n
V _� c'�
'- +crp
' . . ...., re'lt
L ....;v .... u'.:) 'h
" ,,, h ,-",,-l
0+"1, ;.".; "'7"D
�, ....... \...., l..) '-"- ., ci"or
--'-"',-,

o�;icials had desper�tely sought ways to prevent ]�

c'rcr,: sjJro::c.d�nG ·,:=-thClt sPJi1in; the Lr 1.ic,,:rc:l iT2c,e
or o��'i'ey}dlng 1!o\/ier��J.l -�i�.jll ri-b{��S leGdc:rc. T11c
:: it y ' s pO" icy :�'2:.�::'1l t ':�:2 rCt'c. as eST},j es I\::ce' .'t)er .

1, when the �eLt :tri.e w�s st ill ]cc�lized an a :e�

blocks in Central Harlem. i� comm i ttee of 33 c i ty
off ic ials, chaired by Robert Low, the city coun : i1,.,.;ar.
frolIc the district \I:here the rent strike h3d broken
out n:et :m that day and suggested that the city SF'=:::':
i�s�ections in the Harlem area, take more buildings
�ltO receivership and add lY,cre personnel to the
b::.ildings depertment staff. 3 1 The 1,Iayor rapidly
acted on these suggestions.

Finall� on January 5, after a hurried consulta­

tion ;Iith some of the rent strike's lawyers, \'lagner

28. Newsweek, December 30, 19� 3 , p. 17-13.

,,9. Ibid., p. 17-L.
30. A new leading housi�lg lawyer whorL I spoke to
claimed that City Hall was "in a state of complete
and utter pan i c J ' in December and January because
of the rent strH�e.
31. �lew York Times; De.:ey,-;ber 1, 19;3, p. IG.
24

announced a neY." housing policy de s i gned to ident i fy him

u ith the progre s s ive forces demanding hous ing reform .
In a seven -page statement t o the pre s s , h e announced
that he was sending a b i l l t o Albany to legal i z e rent
strike and initiat ing a " pocket b ook att ac k on the
slumlords. " He was going to " step up pre s sure for
maximum f ine s and j a i l sentence s for violat i ons affect­
ing health and safety, pre s s the legi slature for mini­
mum f ine s and j ai l sentences for hous ing violat i ons ,
increase the inspe ct ion force of the bulldings depart ­
ment by 3 5 , and t ry t o c lose the t ime between reports
of a violat ion and off i c i al act i on t o corre ct it , urge
the creat i on of spe c i al hous ing court s in Queens and
the Bronx , and ask for a study of the c ity ' s hous ing
and health c ode s , aimed at the el iminat i on of duplica­
t i on both in the c ode s and in the c ity ' s inspe ct ion
servi ce . " 3 2

Thi s program, impre s s ive as it sounded, was

greeted ',l ith profound skept i c ism by proponent s of
hous ing reforr[! . R . Peter Straus , the pre s ident of
WMCA, who had been leading a slum c le anup campaign
lmown as " C all t o Act i on , c alled the Mayor ' s proposal
a ' lot of hot air ' and pointed out that the c ity had
plenty of authority to mal�e improveElent s unde r the
pre sent l aws . ' 3 3 I n a devastat ing column ent itled
'Ho\.! Not t o Fight the Slumlords , ' Woody Kle i n enurrerat ­
ed all the oc cas ions that Mayor Wagner , in h i s various
c apac it ie s as a pub l i c off i c i al had " de c lared war on
the slumlords " ( there were 1 4 ) and as serted that the
new program was nothing more than a warmed ove r version
of past promi se s , w ith the pos s ible except i on of legal­
i z ing rent strike s. 3 4 The Hagner Admini st rat ion, it

32 . New York Time s , January 6 , 19 54 , p . 1 .

3 3 . New York Time s , January 7 , 19 )4, p . e:2 .
3 4 . The New-York'Telegram and Sun , January 2 , 1964,
p . 15 . The whole flavor of Wagner ' s approach to
s lurr, hO'J.s ing , and indeed t o most of the complex
soc i al problems in the c ity, is be aut ifully con­
veyed by Kle i n ' s c olumn , as the i' ollovJing ab stracts
i llust r ate :
Ill,ayor Wagner has de clared �-7 ar on the slum­
�: ords . Ho Hum . . . In 1947 , as chairman of the C ity
 25

34 . ( C"ont • ) " , ' , ' , '. ,' '

li�J.Y,! it�Q�; "re spons:i

" " : " .

-
, :. 1. :"' .::.; p�ann:ln�g�
:!: ,
Cqmni�q$i:9!l,�;J
-c " " " " 'i f'- - "
, � .-
:ie ·.pub:
' -
-' .� � r " �.' : � •. C. _ < ••• • '-
_ �. ' �• •.:. ' . 11
, ., ' ,b l J,rty ;fqr , tpe , :s af�tY:1 comf'9rt .and. y�ry ) l v� s . .
. - "" " -
....

. ..

. .... . of. ,New '(ork T.en,i:i.ni s � , : .tn ,[94"8'," �a$ Cha,.�.fin�n o('the
.
" ,' . ' " ¢ it.Y� ;PJ-cinning�'C q�f �ion;l h!= c a �::L:e d .f Rr a" :t old . ,

' ' :iirog:ram· .- ' � to� .c,le,an '

up s J..:l)ms. ,.;3.nd"
.

" ,
J:lle et ; the hpu�,i ng
,', , , ". : �r;�S :Lp " " ' 1 - .' , : ' .:, :, " ' -, , ' . i . ; ,
.

,: .

In 1959 , he announced that hous ing was the

, ,. , , ' , , .. . ' .

c ity I S No . 1 problem and mat1.e p'\J.bl i c a · progr?m, :

which, he s aid, had been " swe'ated out' for months . "
. ' It. called 1' o ;r -re.pt� rli'Q;u,ct io.ns , st Hfer . court ,

': ' • :Cine.s . and '!l1or:�� inspe�ctj" on-S � " ,_

:
- "

.- to +960 , Wagner , .re:n ewed his ple.dge , t o step

,

" up he hous�ing' prog:ram', �nd b Qasted,:, , "We a-re . do ing

. '

t,
, m.ore�,· :( believe',' than :the �e �t Qf : the 90untry : '
,combine d . ' ' .. ,,' .. � . ' , " .
' ". " ' ,

. ' In 1961) ; the, jYJayor a npo!J;nced , a : '1)lassive

.attack on s lums and t'.j, £ ix ::-.point · prograrn t O. help ,
'

. tena�r�_��� "
.
',' . � . . . - � , .c . " � "
.-� -

In 1962 , at a public . he arJng) he vowed t o .

d:(iv", . �lumlord-s oui {)f bus i ne s s in' a new war on
the real esta;te , vi Ua;Lns.- H� " called , f or more
,and t�ugher wgapons and, promi sed : to ; " pres s
vigo.rous ly " agaipst th� ter,lement , spe culator . , :
. � In 195 3 ) he predicted thai ' New ' Y ork wo:uld be
. a.
--"
, " s""um
1 1 e S i? I I' :�'l
" '
t Y ). n , 50
: . , ye.;3.r9' . '
.

,
'

, . ,

Als o in 1 9 53 , , afteJ' 8. meet ing, wUh. the late

Pre ;o idept l\EOPD,egy in Washil},gt-Jo , ' W,agne r' de c lared :
" I am determiqed · that ade<ll;la te means shall be
, deYelope d. t o . en""o:Le uf) t o ,.m.ount" "a. . new alid ' eve r � >,
mare ,effect ive attack Qn slum cQnd,it i.ons . '
iAnd ' in June ·. of 1963 , iIl : an : annoyncement ::
Q il�ed . as a maj or" pol i cy shift>,;,'''he pledged a ",
��ven;PQ�nt pragram t o ' �'hit ·" tl1e &lumlords where' ,
. it, hurt s - - -: �n the pocketboon. . :
, . � . He also - c-alled f.PI: more vac ate ; arders , L " '
.s,t,iffe:r. ;epforc�Rlerr� ,:af the r�cei Ver:s " program and
.tw:i c � � a -ye ar , i np,pe ct, �()�s af a:1,.l; qlg �te ne:me.nt s .; � .
" · No� in ;' 1,964 )',: Mayor : Wagne:r rgts Lan,c e again :.:;
..

c alled for a pocketboak att ack an the sluml ords . .

o., i . " ,. S� ye0�s :agQ", �}lay':�r :li?:gn�:r. , ;t ql� c:tAe irl' h i s

" ::Qifi.c,e, :LA ci tY .Eail :,, �: I;T here ' q. : nath.:\"-ng you Gau ,da
� iibOu,t� ·th� . s f�ms ,: y. ou · ,mow 'that ... - .... they I Te ,:always
going to. be that w ay . " The New Yark T ime s ,
J anuary 7 , 19 ;4 , p . 22 .
 26

w as clear , was not w i l l ing to commit itself to the

mas s ive rehab il it at ion of t he s lums w ithout a s ignif i ­
cant incre ase in the pre s sures on it from the white
and the Negro community . The fundamental que st i on was
- - ·- c ould the rent strike provide the se pre s sures ,
whether through the use of mas s ive civil dis obedience ,
or the thre at of a polit ical revolt of s lum tenant s ?

"MASS MOVEMKN'I" STUMBLES

In e arly December , when the Community C ounc i l was

beg inning to make plans to turn the rent strike into a
"mas s movement " , it was count ing on extens ive coope ra­
t i.on from civil right s groups and civic organ i z at ions
w ithin the Harlem commun ity . The init i al re sponse of
sU2h grou�s had been enthus iast ic j f ifteen Harlem or­
gan i z at ions , including block as sociat ions , church
groups , Democrat ic club s and a labor un ion ( Local 1199
of the Drug and Hospital Workers ) had j oined a co ­
ordinat ing committee set up by Gray to extend the
strike . Gray ' s expectat ions of support , howeve r ,
pr oved t o be ove r-opt imi st ic . As December came t o a
close , and the rent strike began to make the front
page s of the daily new spapers , the C ommunity C ouncil ' s
organizers were struggl ing to extend the strike in
Harlem almost ent i re ly unaided . The f ifteen Harlem
civic g�oups who supported the strike gave Gray some
money and he lped publici ze the movement in the com­
munity , but did not provide what the rent st rike need­
ed Kost t o become a mas s movement - - -manpower - - -t o
organize building s , to run the office , t o keep up con­
tact w ith the st riking tenant s and advi se them on
legal matte rs . They were content to remain patrons of
the st rike rather than full part ners . In the begin­
ning of January, the bulk of the organ i z at ion was
st ill be ing d one by thA same 7-10 worke rs f�om the
Community C ouncil and the Northern Student s Movement .
The strike expanded t o involve 100 buildings , far
short of the 1000 which Gray had predicted .

The maj or nat ional of�ice s of the civil r ight s

groups , more over , did not reply at all t o the Harlem
rent str ike ' s pleas for as s istance . Jame s Farmer of
=o�s re£'l:_s e c t -=, c crr:me nt cn the -:' act i c 32 s e en as 2."[

�:, - -'-, �, '�

- -� :. - - ' '-' ',-

- - ,- .-,.- ' . ...- �- .-

�.' ,_" , _ _ _ ..; G •

- '" -

_ _ _ �= -.S

:e ade r s t o the rent s�r��e : howeve r , d i d �Ot ac cur ­

he :'e e : =-ng of the rank and f L,- e of the
at e ly m i r r o r t
c ity ' s c ivil right s groups . Jes se G ray ' s init ial
s uc ce s se s in organ i z ing the people of Harlem, exag ­
gerated and glorif ied by a "muckraking " pre s s , cap ­
tured the imaginat ion of young c ivil right s act i ­
vists around the c ity, act ivists who were
unacquainted w ith Gray ' s radic al b ackground . One
after another , local CORE groups in the c ity dropped
the ir other act ivit i e s and began to organize rent
strike s in the ir district s . The Brooklyn chapter,
whi ch had been organiz ing tenants s ince the summer ,
placed its first buildings on strike on December 1 ,
and had a number o f c ases i n court before the end
of the month . Downtown CORE and Columb i a CORE ,

35 . From the middle of December on , James Farmer

did not make a s ingle statement on the subject
of the rent strike , although he had h imse lf
advocated a c itywide rent strike e arlier in the
year. In February, moreover , when interviewed
by The Saturday Evening Post about problems of
the c ivil rights movement , he declared at the
out set that he would answer no quest ions re ­
lat ing t o the rent strike and t o Jes s e Gray .
28

which had been operat i ng small housing programs which

worked through c ity agenc i e s , dropped the ir reformist
approach and began t o organize rent strikes e arly in
January . And Bronx CORE and East R iver CORE , which
had been devot ing most of the ir t ime to "employment "
campaigns , began rent strikes of the ir own in February .

With the pos s ible except ion of the Brooklyn groups ,

the se CORE chapters entered the rent strike with only
the vaguest not ions of what they were trying t o
ac complish and the most l imited experience with ten­
ant s organizat ion and hous ing l aw . The young act ivists
who c omposed the bulk of these organizat ions were re ­
sponding more to the general sense of exc itement which
surrounded the rent str ike , than to the appeal of a
\vel l -thought - out strategy of act ion . The headline s in
the pre s s , the radio broadcast s , the mas s meet ings and
the le aflet ing campaigns , cre ated what those who exper­
ienced it c alled a " rent strike feve r " , an extra­
ordinary sense of exhilirat ion and even of h i stor i c
de st iny that drew people t o the movement a s the in­
it i at or of a new st age in the civil right s movement .
The exc itement reached i t s he ight at a mas s meet ing
held in Harlem on January 11. A crowd of eight hun ­
dred pe ople , composed of Harlem tenant s and repre sent a­
t ive s of almost every c ivil right s group and tenant s
organ i z at ion in the c ity heard a group of prominent
spe �kers) including Jame s Baldwin , Will iam F itts Ryan ,
Jesse Gray and J ohn Lewis tell them t o spread the rent
strike to other part s of the c ity . " At this Meet ing, "
one leade r of a student CORE group told me , "everyone
c aught the fever- -Rent Strike . No one knew about the
legal c onsequence s , or the amount of work involve d . It
seemed l ike the th ing to do . . . the only w ay to beat the
landlord . ' I

I n addit ion, Mob i l i z at ion for Youth , a federally

sponsored soc i al w ork pro j e ct trying to encourage
soc i al act ion among low - inconle pe ople on the Lower
East Side saw in the mas s movement that Gray seemed to
be deve loping a model we ll worth imitat ing . Through­
out Decembe r , MFY ' s dire ct orate worked to devise a way
to sponsor a succes sful rent strike on the Lower East
 29

S ide w ithout offending the pol i t i c al inte re st s upon

wh ich it depended f o r it s funds . To be succes sful ,
they believed, a rent st rike on the Lower E ast Side
would have t o be as militant and vocal as the str i ke
in Harlem, it would have to attack the c ity 8o'Te r n ­
ment as well as the landlords . But if ��Y organ i zed
such a rent str ike , it m i ght j e opardizE it s e x i s ­
tence , f o r the use of gove rnment funds t o or g a n i�e
p r ot e st s a8ainst the government was then hardly 2:1
oi' f i c i ally s an c t i o n e d m e de 01 " c ommun i t y' (1Tt� 8 n i z "' -
t i on . � I Tr] f: ,;r de l... .l. dc d t l.J c :c g �:t � i z e t he r e nt s t r i \. 2 b e ­
h i n d a " srr oke s c r0 c' n o r e, ma l l c o mm unit y g r o u] s ,s e t '-' [
by MFY and prcj v ided ';l ith paid " orsan i 3 e n.;; ' . In =-ate
De c embe r a n d e21'1y J anuary ) MFY of f i c i a l s organ i z e d
g r oup s of te n a :1t s , gave the m s t o re f r on t s and ope r 2 -
t ",:1g expen s e s and ass igned to t h e m p a i d c ommunity
" , c r k e r s - - - n e i gr".J o rho o d p e op l e un FFY ' S ra'yT U '� � " ,110
h e.cd eX}Je r i e r: : t2 :i 1: the c i 'i i l r i �ht 8 lIovement - - -who
� e re to �c mo s t c f the w o r� c onne c t e d w it h th e
s t r i :=e . In adeE t i '_ n, they c o nt a l" t e d t e n a nt s o rg :m i ­

z at i o n s ) c h " U l" :i Sht s g r c up s and s o c i 8 1 f r at e r n a l

crGon i z 8 t i (: n � ( '� : lcL �1 S t :1E�' ,� c L � Y' e s 2 () f .F�2(: �t·t <) �. i (': r·? n
Organ i z at i on s ) , w h i c h h ad organ i z � d re nt s t r i ke s o r
expre s s e d i L � e =" r� � ' J "! !1 t h e n ,s L d '::. s �-\ e d t h e n : t c j 0 .l :.l
'"i i +, h t h e ne\vly f a nne d " t E: n a nt s " g r u up s in a c o ­
o r d i n at e d rent st r i k e or. the Low e r E ast S i de t h at
\ ,' cul d be p a r t i ally s ub s idi L e d by l,1FY I S fund s . The
i n v it at i on s w e re a c c e pt e Q ) anc on J anuary 1 1 ) 11
organ i z at i on s , repre s e nt ing th e:: mc ..lt d i v 2 r s e s o c i a l
c�:"d p ol i -c i c a l pe r spe ct ive s one --: ould imagi n " , 3 6 cet

I6-:-The gr:-oups p art i c ipat ing w e re The Ur:i 'Je r s ity

Set t lecent H o us i n g C l i n i c , the East S i de T e n an t E
C Ol:'2 C i l ( t r.e s e t,,' c \, ' e re Ee t r opo l i "c an C oun c i l cn
�� ous i :: 3 a{' i' i L i at e E ) tl:e E cluc at i cnal i-\.J.. i i an c e
Hous ing C l i n i c ) t h e Pre sbyt e r i an C hur ch of t h e
C ro s s ro ads Hous i ng C l i ni C , the Downtown CORE
Hous ing C omm it t e e , the I nt e g r at e d \-! o r ke r s ( P r o ­

g re s s i ve Lab o r P arty ) Hous i ng C l in i c , The Heus ::'ng

C l i n i c of the C ounc i l of P ue rt o R i c an O rgan i z a -
t i o n s , the Stanton Street Hous i n g e l i ni c ) The
C ommun ity House Tenant s As s o c i at ion H eu s i n g
c l i n i c , emd tb e :!c,src Act ion Groul) ( the l ast 3
w e r e groups s e t up by I\jFY ) .
30

at ��y headquarters and agreed t o work t ogether t o

cre ete a mass ive rent strike on the lower East Side .

G�AY AND COORDINATION

The task of c oordinat ing these local rent st rikes

and giving them a un ified pol i t i cal impact proved to
be a diffi cult one . "lilhile there was con s i de rab le
sharing of informat ion ab out methods of' crgan i z at ion
and an effective coordinat i cn of lesal serv i ce s ; there
was no succes sful attempt t o define the goal s of the
n,overLent on a ::: ityvl ide level and to dev i se t a ct i c s in
vlhich members of the part i c ip at ing orc;an i z at ions could
effe ct ively comb ine the ir ene rgie s . [\juch of the move ­
ment f s potent i al for c oordinated act ion lias deb i l i t a ­
t e d i n power strug31e s between le ade rs of the vari ous
rent - strL,ing groups . Perhaps the main ax is of con­
f l i ct was between Jesse Gray and the fJ:et ropol it an
Counc il on Hous ing , a fede rat ion of hous ing organ i z a ­
t i ons formed in the mid d le f i ft ie s t o protect rent
c ont rol and organ i ze sup�ort for the construct ion of
low - income hous ine; . Sarly in the st rL,�e , the Met
C oun c i l , vlhose le aders regarde d themse lve s as ' expert s "
on the polit i cal di�ensions of hous ing problems , made
tentat i ve efforts t o set itself up as a clearinghouse
for rent st rike ini ormat ion and to inc orporate the
rent st rike int o it s own legislat i ve campaigns . It
invited Jesse }ray to be come the le ader of a cityw ide
rent strike coordinat ing committee , which it proposed
to e st ablish . Gray , howeve r , re j e cted the ir offe r .
He .did not " ant h i s leade rship of the movement diluted
by what he called a white middle - c lass organ i z at ion . "
Afte r ten years of organ i z ing without recogn it i on , he
was not will ing t o share his newly won prest ige w ith
an organ i z at i on that he regarded as be ing out of t ouch
w ith the r i s ing spirit of race con s c i ousne ss and
nat ional ism in the b lack ghettos .

He de c ided , thus , t o c oordinat e the movement him­

self . He spoke at rallies in behalf of groups organi ­
z ing rent st rikes in all p art s of the c ity , and had
numerous private conferences w ith rent strike le aders
t o d i s cus s with them t e chnique s of t enant s
 31

organ i z at ion and related problems of hous ing law .

And in the pre s s c onferences and news broadcast s
which h i s pre s s agent arranged for h im, he drama­
t i zed the slum condit i ons which gave r i se to the
str ike and the movement s ' imme diate aims in a force ­
ful and ominous w ay , sett ing off a wave of short
term reforms by the c ity before the st rike had e ven
approached it s projected strength . On February 12 ,
rent strike leaders \.Jere invited to a mas s meet ing
in Harlem to f orm a C itYI'l ide C ommittee for De cent
Hous ing, which would c oordinate prot e st t o force the
c ity and stat e government s to act against the slu�s .
At this meet ing, Gray put on one of h i s better per­
f ormance s . In a c olorful speech, he c alled for a
March on Albany t o "remind Governor Rockefeller that
Central Harlem and are as li�e it are part of the
state of New York and that he should stop trying to
avoid his re spons ib i l ity by blamin6 othe rs all the
t ime f or the terrible hous ing c ondit ions . " 37 He
angrily as s ailed c ity off i c ials , assert ing that
r·layor Wagner was ' spinele s s , ' and his chief hous ing
I T
expert , Jul ius C . Edelst e i n " was a sorry creature .
"To get hous int; code enforcement i n the c ity, " Gray
c on c lude d, " c iti z ens had to ple ad, pray , beg, and
hold spe c i al c hurch servi ce s . " Other spe akers
j o ined the orgy of angry rhetori c . Rev . Browne ,
le ader of the Stryker ' s Bay Tenant s C ounc i l , and a
st rong supporter of the Harlem rent str ike , c alled
for a long fight against the enemies of pub l i c
hous ing , and de clared that G overnor Rockefe ller
�
he aded ' the l i st o f inks b e c ause he has no low rent
hous ing program . , 3 But "hen the spe eche s ended,
only two propos als f or direct act ion, and rather
mild ones at. that , were rat if ied by the delegates - ­
t o j oin the March on Albany for a a . 50 minimum wage
w ith a tenant s parade t o demand code enforcement and
the c onstruct i on of more pub l i c housing , and t o be ··
gin a " Rat s to Rockefe ller Campaign , " which con ­
s i sted o f a drive t o send rubbe r rat s to the Governor

37. The New Y�rk T ime s , February 15, 1 9 54 , p . 5 9 .

38 . Ib id . , p . 59 ·
32

along with form letters from t enant s urging the

Governor to support legi sl at i on t o provide emergency
repairs in slum hous ing .

The hope s voiced by the str ike ' s leaders a few

months before , that the movellient would mob i l i z e the
populat i on of the ghettos for mass act i on to force a
c Ollip rehens ive rehab i l it at ion of the slums seeme d
strangely remote from the debate now taking place - -the
propos als rat if ied were an extens i on of the " re spons ible "
methods that tenant s organi z at i on had engaged in for
years w ithout bringing bas i c change s in the c ondit i ons
of the home�J . There w as no init i at ive ( from Gray or
anyone else ) for a drive to force pub l i c authorit i e s
t o commit themselve s to a systemat i c program o f slum
rehab i l it at ion that would make use of the di srupt ive
paYJers of the black masse s . Gray was the man everyone
looked to for leadership, but he seemed unable to visualize a
way of n,aintain ing the militancy of the Harlem move -
ment w ithin the context of a coal i t i on of groups . H i s
re j e ct i on o f the Metropol itan C oun c i l o n Hous ing as
c omfort able and middle class seemed iron i c indeed, for
the new " mi litant " coordinat ing group that he had
formed began by appropri at ing it s methods . The irony
w as apparent even t o Gray . At fut ure meet ings of the
" c itywide corrmittee for de cent hous ing, " Gray himself ,
invoJ_ved in a campaign against the pol i ce in Harlem;
rare ly showed up .

In the last Heeks of Feb ruary, the aura of

c at ac lysmi c power that had surrounded the rent stri:,e
in its e arly days had lar gely faded away . The pre s s
seei1�ed to lose intere st in the movement . Reporters no
longer anxi ously kept track of Gray ' s predicat ion of
how large the strike was going t o g�t , and muckraking
art i cles ab out slum c ondit i ons and ineff i c ienc ies of
the buildings department seemed to go out of f ashion .
From February 11 emJard , no art i cle de aling \v ith the
str i ke appeared on the front page of the Time s . The
c ity gove rnment ceased i s s uing promi se s to appe ase the
l!!oveme nt s ' le aders and the aroused c onsc ience of the
pub�_ i c . The Mayor ' s last dramat i c ge sture to the
 33

stri ke calLe on February 8 , "'hen he announced the be­

ginning of a one mill i on dollar ant i - rat campaign to
he lp rid the s lums of pe st ilenc e .

Whi le the pub l i c authorit i e s re sume d the i r

hab itual c omplacence to",ard s lum c ondit i ons , toe rent
strike leade rs found the ir attent i on pulled furthe r
and further away from pol it i c al que st ions . There l ias
a clear shift in perspe ct i ve of the rent s t r i ke s from
c ity", ide "to a local leve l in this period, and a
grmving con cern "'I i th le;:;2.1 and te chn i c al problems
that had been ignored j n the beginn ing of t.he strL-:e .
The nlas s meet ings in Harlem 'wh i ch had confi rrr.e d and
inspired the h igh aspirat i ons of the movement , ",ere
nc,! he ld infre quent ly and had poor att endence . In
many part s of the c ity , indeed, the rent strike b e ­
gan to re semb le a soc i al service operat ion rather
than a militant prote st .

THE COURTS AND THE MOVEMENT

The Community Coun c i l on Hous ing had encered

the strike "l ithc ut c :e arly def in ine; it s att itude
to",ard the legal system . I t did not have much con­
f idence in the legal proce s s through which striking
tenant s could get repairs ( s e ct i on 7 5 5 of the
buildings c ode ) but it was unw i ll i ng to boycott the
court s ent irely, for it had promised t enant s that
the re would be no evict i ons . In the e arly st age s of
the strike , the organi zers had paid only pe rfunct ory
attent i on t o the �egal procedure s re quired t o win a
755 " - -which included f i l ing forms for inspe ct ions
w ith the bui ldings depar tment ; che cking that v iola­
t ions were actually recorded after inspe ct ions ; and
subp0enaing re c ords for the c ourt - -they were trying
t o get buildings on st rike qui ckly to give the move ­
ment polit i c al leverage . In many case s , ob serve rs
not ed, organ i zers s i mply called a meet ing of tenant s ,
t old therYl t o stop pay ing rent and left J ren�inding
them t o cal l the Community C ounc i l ' s off ice when
they re ce ived a di spos ses .

The confus i on of the organ i z e rs about the role

c ourt act ion would play in the movement \'I as increased
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 35
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NAME . . . . . . . ........... ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . __ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............

ADDRESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . ..

C i Ty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . STATE .. .. ............ ZIP . . . ........ .

by t" O favorab le but conflict ing de c is ions handed down
':Jy l')wer court magistrates in late De cember . On
De cerllber 30 J in the first court de c i s i on affe ct ing the
h '" c lem rent strike s 39 Judge Guy G i lbert R ibaudo
or d.e red 13 st riking te nant s in two Harlem t enement s to
P ? l :rent into court unt i l the landlord repaired out ­
st andinES violat ions , as sert ing that c ondit i ons in the
bui1.�iings were " shocking , and should be repaired as
soon a s pos s ib le . , , 4 0 This re aff irmat ion of the
applicab i l ity of 755 was accompaniec. by a stateUlent
Qe c l ar ing that the court did not condone rent strike s ;
It was illegal for the tenant s to "l ithold rent except
in cases involving " re al and so c al led c onst ruct ive
evict ion and where haz ardous violat i ons exist . · 4 1 Cne
,veek lat e r , however , a de c i s ion was handed down in a
Brooklyn court wt i ch went far beyond Judge R ib audo ' s
di ctum and broke dovm many of the guide l ine s whi ch the
organizers had set afte r the earlier de c is ion . Judge
Fred Moritt , after he aring the case of f ive strH.ing
ten9.nt s who argued that the ir l iving quarters were not
f it for human hab it at i on ruled that " any act or de ­
f ault on the part of the landlord whi ch deprive s the
tenant of the benef i c i al enj oyrr.e nt of h i s premise s ,
co�st it ute s , i n the eye s of the law , an evi ct i on . A
wrongful evict ion , by the landlord, whether p art i al or
t ot al , has an effect of terminat ing the tenant ' s
l iab i l ity for rent . ,, 4 2 This meant , he later explained
that in "ext reme cases , the landlord i s not ent it led
to eny rent unt i l the c ondit ions are remedied . . .
If it take s the landlord two years t o make the re ­
pai r s , he get s no rent for two years . Period . ' , 4 3
Thi s de c i s ion , which vlas not b ased upon se ct ion 7 5 5 ,
di ffe red from Judge Rib audo ' s in two s i gnif i c ant re ­
spe ct s ; it did not re quire the t enant s t o pay the i r

3 9 . Under New York C ity Hous ing Law , tenant s c annot

init i at e act ion in c ourt against a landlord for
grievances c onst itut ing a " c onst ruct ive evi ct ion ; "
they must Ilait for the landlord t o send a disposses
and t hen c ont e s t the dispos ses in c ourt .
40 . The New Yorl: T ime s , De cembe r 3 1 , 1903 , p . '7 .
� l . Ibid . , p . I S .
4 - Ib id . , p . 7 .
4 3 . Ib id . , p . 25 ·
 37

rent into c ourt , and it did not ent itle the l andlord
to back rent s for the period that the v i olat ions were
in exi stence .

Both the Ribaudo and Moritt de c i s i ons seemed to

sugge st that the movement could get repairs for in­
dividual tenant s through c ourt act i on . But ne ither
de c i s ion , as it turned out was repre sent at i ve of the
kind of treatment the strike was t o re c e i ve in the
hous ing court s . Once cases began t o appear in large
enough numbers to be free of pub l i c ity, the hous ing
court j udge s , a breed not orious for the ir subser­
vience to the party machines , showed strong re ­
s istance t o the use of the c ourt as an agency to
supervise repairs . In some case s , j udge s made no
attempt to h ide the ir c ontempt for the tenant s and
the i r opposit ion t o the rent strike , and didn ' t try
to separate the ir legal argument s f rom the i r personal
b iase s . But more c ommon was a str i ct adherance to
legal t e chn ic alit i e s on the part of " ob j e ct ive "
judge s , which, given the nature of the hous ing l aw s
and the pe cul i ar prob lems of the low - in c ome person
in a court s ituat ion , proved to be a frust rat ing and
confus ing b arrier to effe ct ive act ion .

In the hous ing court s , it was common , for

example , to grant part ie s in the c ase adj ournment s ,
when the i r cases were not suff i c iently prepare d or
re levant w itne sses such as buildings department in­
spe ctors were ab sent . When low - income pe ople were a
party to the c ase , t he seemingly innocent powe r of
adj ournment took on new importanc e - -the power to ad­
j ourn was the power to de stroy . For most of the
st r iking tenant s , l iving on the edge of sub s i stence
burdened by e c onomi c and familiar re spons ib il it ie s ,
a court appearance was a maj or sacrif i c e which had
to be arranged far in advance by the organizer . If
after extens ive planning and preparat ion, and the
loss of a day ' s s alary on the part of the tenant s ,
the re sult was only adj ournment , the tenant s ,
general ly anxi ous and fe arful t o begin w it h , might
begin to que st i on whether the yet to be achieved
gains of the strike were worth the price of the di s ­
rupt i c.n i t wrought i n the ir personal live s . Landlords ,
fully aware of the subvers ive effe ct s of adj ournment s
on the lliorale of a tenant s committee , would often pur ­
posely le ave the i r cases unprepared , or demand that
new w itne s se s be c alled i n , who were not pre sent at
the f irst hearing . Many j udge s , insensit ive to the
different i al impac t of the adj ournment on landlord and
tenant s , would grant the landlord I s re que st and bec orr.e
an uncon s c i ous party t o h i s haras sment - -othe r s , no
doub t , less innocent in the ir intent ions s aw in this an
in::onspi cuous and ' safe " way of frustrat ing a movement
they de spi se d .

In addit ion, the c ivil court j udge s interpreted

755 in a way that made it diff i cult for all but the
wost c arefully briefed tenant s committee to w in a c ase .
Virtually w ithout except ion, they re j e cted the proce ­
dure s of the Mor itt de c i s ion ; they would only ac cept
as evidence "violat ions of re cord " subpoenaed frem the
buildings department . When tenant s offered verbal
t e st imony about c ondit ions in the bui lding or phot o ­
graphs o f violat ions , they were t old that such inforwa­
t ion would not affect the out come of the c ase . This
me ant , in effect , that the strikers were dependent on
the c umbersome and quite fallible machinery of the
buildj ngs departme nt at every point in the strike ; they
had to get an e arly inspe ct ion, make sure that the
inspector t ook down relevant violat ions , see whethe r
they we re actually re corded at the Hall of Records
( whi ch cost two dollars and re quired a t rip downtown )
and subpoena the inspe ction she et from the Hall of
R e c ords on the day of the trial .

The organ i z at i ons sponsoring the rent strike soon

learne d that the only way to get inspe ct ions on a
workab le b a s i s was to put pre ssure on high off i c i als
of the b u i ldings department for an arrangement that
ent ire ly b ypasse d bure aucrat i c channe l s . Gray had
done that e arly in the str ike , and was able to get on
the s p ot in spE ct ions in Harler" b uildings rr:erely by
making a te lephone c all . But even so, there were
 39

prob lems in arranging the me chanics of an inspect ion .

At the t ime of day \vhen the inspe ctor arrive d , most
of the tenant s in the b ui lding c ould be out , and
only a fract ion of the vi olat ions would be rec orded.
It was nece s s ary t o arrange a t ime for inspe ct ion
mutually agreeab le t o inspe ct or and tenant , but city
law s didn ' t make room for such an arrange�ent . The
inspe ctor would often arr ive unannounced and find
most of the tenant s ab sent Or unw i lling to let him
in . Moreove r , there was no guarantee that the v i o ­
lat ions would be re corded once the inspe ct ion was
made . Inspect ors were not ori ous ly corrupt ' and amen­
able t o bribes , and ,.;auld often slant the ir inspe c ­
t ion report s t o favor the landlord . Finally , there
,Jere huge de lays in re cording the violat ion s once
they were reported by the inspe ctor . At the build­
ings department computer which proces sed inspe ction
!
report s , in � rmat ion was held up f or 1 3 \wrking days
by backlog .

THE FAIlUP.E CF LEGALI SM

It was c o�mon thus , for strik ing tenant s to

appe ar in court \'J ithout buildings department rec ords
to back up the ir case s , or w ith re c ords whi ch did not
truly refle ct the nature of the c ondit ions in the i r
building . Judge s , using a " strict c onstruction " of
the doctrine of constructive evict ion , would de clare
that the evidence pre sented was in suff i c ient t o
warrant i s suing a 75 5 , and would order the tenant s
to g ive back rent s to the landlords and re su�e
regular payment . Such a de c i s i on , the " f inal order"
gre eted a large number of the st riking tenant s
whose c ase s appe ared in c ourt . The lower ,East Side
Rent Strike was los ing thre e - f ifths of its cases
during tvlarch and Apri l , and improve d it s pe rformance
only s lightly later on . None of the other rent
strD,ing organ i z at ions seem t o have done much better .
The one except ion was Brooklyn C OR E , which found the
Brooklyn court s more respons ive to tenant s intere st s
than those i n other boroughs .

44 . The_New York T ime s , January 2 1 , 1954 , p. 1.

 40

Even when the j udge s actually granted a 755 , it

i,laS ty no IT.p. ans cert ain that condit ions in the building
woulc. be s ignificantly improved . As the law was inter­
preted, t he landlord was only re quired to corre ct
v � ) 1 2 -1; ions re corded on Bui ldings Department forms .
S i n c e the se re cords were often incomplete be cause of
i. . :J . ::L' i c ient or corrupt inspections , some of the worst
vi )lat. � O!:1 S i n the st ruck buildings were de c l ared out ­
s i ie of t nc c ourt I S j uri sdict ion . Ie ad d i t i on , the
p:" o c e CLU:-e s w; l "i. c h the c c':crt u s e d to c r: :::' ()2.<'e its orde r
\-le::"" 8 o f t e n �nre l i able . T o re c; e j vc i� J. ;c rent , the l and ­
= c' l'cl had t o e s t ab l i sh t o t he j udge ;:' s at i s f a c t L on that
h'-" n ed remove d : cr , i uulel r e r.:ove 1.L.1. 1 -; i o l dt i on s of re ­
c ord . Bu't rYlC� 3t ,j Jdg2 S '\-J e re re l l Lc t B_?1t c ,�� �: S S Ul�,e tIle
l e . s p on s ib ' l i t. y ,) f act ing SE a · 'ullt i !1 c e dm i n i st nJ.t'ir c.'
n' ,J a l r s , ano. t r i e d to get t he D :::. r t �L e s t :) s et t le out of
C' O 'lrt !'1.S Qui ckly as p o s s ib l e . Ll c a s e s i>i h e r e cl tuj ldi n "
r c qui re cl e xt e n s i�le remode l i ng t o :;�e e t t �: e st aDd·- �ds oi'
tt � c ourt , they w e r e � � o n e t 8 Brsat t�? � 3 nd] ori a
t r '� .::3 :� };: (� r L od r:ft e r 1tl h i c 2�L he l.;ou�cl. J ' c� '':: (-' � \1 0 �1 i s �L· ,�l .. _ 'v i i'
he uade e r e a s on ab l e .0e �" ,� e n t. 2ie ::; ]' ::: > 2 ';·q:,aj. r s . But u J.. ,
t JC oft e n , s uch t r i al �e r i Gj s served �s &n excuse t o
e llG.. j . .�r i s d l c t i o n ) B Il d J _ s n d J . o r d s \-12 1_"12 Clb �_(� to st op r '=: ­
pairs lJ./ itll i lYlpun lt.y �J1�le n the:r C arle: �, o '-'- halt II

There w e re many i nst anc E S , �h� r e a ' c ourt v i c � o ry

fcy the rent st ri�e re s ult e d ::' , 1 c o �-;:en rc: � a i r s . ii; Ie n if
3Jm� . " � clt c �' e d b y n:e n w ith t n e r e s t c f i n t e nt i on s - wI' l e D -

it ',las not - -the c o urt s y s t e;n ,,' a s ])0 ::1'1:[ ie s i gn e o. t u

s '.lp '? rv i s e a mas s ive p r o�ra!'- 0 1' re}a i r s i n s l um Lous . n 'S .
F o �' the r e nt st rike grcup s , t icc:-;: i n g c-. -:: 8. ::; e t o court ', ' a s
1 i ;;:e pi.lot ing a s h i p through a m in e f j e l d : at any
mome nt ) a 11 i dde n ob stacle c ould ap:J e oT & n �1 Cie st roy t he
"JL�le effort . The organizers ) :"(' C.l cy ��, [-"e e arly C OUl s e
or' th e m'J':errlent to ex.pect a " r e vo l llt i on ary " tra n s f o nn a ­
t i on of t h e 8111"1 e n v } Y' or: rr1ent . f n l )t1 d t b e i :r p n e r g ; e s
8.r sorbed � n legal preparat ions w'hich y ie lded inte rm H ­
t e nt and un s3 .c i sfying re sults . yIhen they were busy
c::rranging court c.:PJe arances, sup e r vi s i ng inspe ct ions -,
f '. l l ing out b u i l ding s department forms ) subpoenaing re ­
c ords and conferring w ith lawye r s , there was litt le
t i iilC i' Gl" c, fle s � re e t l'al i i.e s , Gl1e J.. e af l e t ing anel the
b u i l d ing organ i z at i on whi ch s e e rr,erl t o shake t he s lum
pOp�_j l 'lt 1 o n ol�t of its aps.thy , sue:. \\l h i c l: ILClc.e t h e Y'ent

L
 41

strike such an e �c it ing thing t o be a part of in its

e arly stage s .

In Cent ral Harlem, where buildings had been

organized most hast i ly. and hope s of cre ating a mass
movement had been highe st the emoti onal let -down
evoked by the advent of l itigat ion was part icularly
marked . The C ommunity C ounc i l ' s attempt to
s imultaneously perform the funct ions of a militant
political movement , de signed t o force maj or reforms
from the power structure , and of a t radit ional
hous ing clinic , working to improve conditions for
individual tenant s , began to falter badly once legal
perspe ct ive s and legal problems be came prominent .
But even those groups whi ch had committed themselve s
to a legal perspect ive from the start , such as
Brooklyn CORE and Ted Ve le z ' East Harlem Tenant s
C ounc il , eventually disc overed that they could
achieve the ir aims more effe ct ively by organiz ing
tenant s to use the c ity agenc ies to achieve repairs .
Regardless of whether court cases were won or lost ,
there was a huge di sproport i on between the amount of
t ime and energy whi ch they consurr.ed and the limited
re sult s obt ainable . Exhausted by the endle s s rou­
t ine of court appe arance s , frustrated by the impos ­
s ibility of act ively involving slum tenants in
complex legal procedure s , unable to sustain the
mil itant atmosphere of the e arly days , one group
after another abandoned the rent strike . While
Jesse Gray became involved in a c ampaign against
police brutality and corrupt i on , Brooklyn CORE -
which had organized 400 tenant councils and 200
rent strike s - abandoned tenant organ i z ation en­
tirely and applied it s energie s to the format ion of
an independent polit i cal movement known as the
Brooklyn Freedom Democrat ic Party . By the fall of
1964 , l ittle or nothing was left of the rent strike
movement in New York .
COl'JCLUSION : RENT STRIKES IN PERSPECTIVE

Most of the groups whi ch had parti c ipated in thi s

movement did so b oth i n order t o improve hous ing c ondi ­
t ions in the s lums and als o t o cre ate the b as i s for
last ing changes in the polit ical att itudes and behav­
ior of s lum tenant s . T o what extent were e ither of
the se goals achieve d ? On the first count , the rent
strike had a mixed re cord . Its short term gains were
fairly impre ss ive . Most of the b uildings which were
on rent st rike won a number of minor improvements as
a result of c ourt victorie s or informal agreements
w ith landlords who w i shed t o avoid l it igat ion . The
strike was part icularly effective in dealing w ith
"emergency" s it uat ions s uch as leak s , gaping rathole s ,
and lack of heat and hot water . Such c omplaint s were
not too diff icult t o deal with on a t emporary b as i s ,
and landlor ds were often w illing t o bear t he small
expense of pat ching up a w all or , f ix ing a b oiler, in
order to avo id public exposure as a s lumlord, or a
court appearance which involved the risk, however
 43

small , of "having the b ook thrown at him " and be ing

forced to make maj or repairs . In areas where the
rent strike . attained mass ive proport ions and
attracted the attent ion of the media, even unorgan­
ized buildings experienced a t emporary improvement in
services .

But though the immediate grievances often were

dealt w ith, the rent strike , in the vast maj ority of
c ase s did not change the bas i c c onditi ons in the
buildings which cont inually cre ated emergenc ie s - ­
thin and flimsy wall s , archaic plumbing and wiring
systems ; lack of ade quate bui lding service . What
good did it do to pat ch up ratholes in a wall that
c ould be gnawed through in a few hours by the rat s
that made the ir home i n the garbage ridden foundat i on
of the building ? Or to f ix a s ingle le ak in a pipe
system that was rusty and dec ayed ? To be made l ive ­
able , the se buildings re quired sub st ant i al rehab i l i ­
t at ion- -at the very minimum, new wall s , a new boiler
and new w iring system, and a floor t o roof c le aning
and extern;inat i on . But the cost of such repairs was
st aggering . In five buildings whi ch the c ity t ook
into re ce ivership, Real E st ate Commissione r Lazarus
told the Time s , the t otal sum re quired to remove all
violat ions was $97 , 139 . 28 . At an operat ing profit
of .$ 6 , 401 a year which the buildings yie lded w ith
the ir pre sent level of rent s , " it would take about
24 ye ars to amort ize the $97 , 1 39 . 28 inve stment w ith
4% intere st . The c ity, he concluded, c ould not de al
w ith the worst slums unle s s it was ready to operate
by a policy in whi ch "humanity c ome s before
economi c s . I I If the rent strike did not achieve maj or
polit i cal reforms , its effect on slum c ondit ions
would be entire ly trans it ory .

The polit ical achievements of the rent strike ,

howeve r , were not sub stant i al . There were three
main formal improvement s in hous ing procedures which
the rent strike brought about : ( a ) the init iat ion
of a million dollar rat exterminat i on program; ( b )
the addit ion of 50 inspe ctors to the buildings
department j ( c ) and the passage of three new laYlS
 44

legali z ing rent strike s . The se programs were hast i ly

devised by Mayor Wagner in'"'the e ariy months of. t'he c,

st rik:e t o 'meet the i�s i stent clamo:t' or-:: 1.hk ,'1n6v'��b:t" s

le ade r s ;�.tiid 'tn�j P�6t' fdr: \'a:�tiod' a�a:Y Hst;)�hkF: ��11lfil2
" ..'. ; : � , s ::; :: ' f ' ) , :<';' , '; \r; , :' �' :;'[ " j :' ,�; ,;" ,: '�, ,,' "" ' ;
l ord:$,�,:t(:;'!"
�) u :: ':: -;<': �> :
.. , j ;, "

The f irst two were slight improvement s' 'fn , ,a:' ' ," ;
system of admini st rat ing s;L:um p:ro:pert �� s yha� , \'las
c're 8.T If� idade'quaie:; : but � t1'le � thiTa/ ' th�c ' pew '" re·tlt , st:r;ike
law's' seerne d t'et 'off-e'i- the ' hbpe ", -oy" a� dr'arhat rc c)iange" in
the s-t rlicture of ' lar'1dloTd�ten'iibt r'e h,t i on'S .:: : Draftea
unde r the supe rvi s i on of , Bruce Gould, th�·' hkllg. iawy'� r
for ' the Harlem rent strike s') they seem� d' t b def ir;l� : a
,
procedtlre through wfliCh ' rEmt wltb:Old ihg' ccnll d' pe: mage
a cOnt rolled aha st�rndaY(h z e d" pr'oee � s f 6 r the , reh�b i ­
l it at i on ' of s luirF bui'ldings .: ,' , Amohg ' the ' �aj or ' impr6Y$ ­
ments made ' ov�r : Se ctIon ' 75 5 " were 'prov i s i oris"e nabll ilg
the · t en§lrit t o ip,it l at e aci: i 9n' ln the �ourt � ; rathe r:'
than w a it i ng ' f or the , l andior-d t o s1,le , foi: ev�ct i6n ; ,
s ilowirig · the couiF to appoiht ' a 'third pi:ir.-ty t o ad ­
riLi11 ist e r : repairs j ' ratIi.er ' than en�rust ing ' the ' .:l ab t o
thE? : lln'idlor'd; and eriab l i ng '�enarit s t o buy fue]� � i tq :
tHe rent' money ihree B.gys 'g:(te r the st d ke had ' b'eerl '
init iatec L The law s ) thus � ; rerrioved � he , d?nger of ,
evi�tion from the rent �trike, prdcedure , arid a:;; sure d
;
te nant' s that ' re:pair� wouid be c 6rcprehenE3i\f� it . B;
,
favora'6'le ' de 6 i s i'on we rEi' i s s ued � ' Th,ey w�'re � regar:de d ' by
houf:ling eXpe rt s, as 'the MayOr t s ' :Orie 'me an i ng,f 1.!:l c once s ­
,
s i cirr ':i d the re rit' strike , de s igned to :xeill (m( ti;e radi ­
c a'l ':extraltiga:l 'dimEtris'{ol1 ' trotiJ' the t act'i c wh ilg making
it '.a. s·ure � 'cind effe'ct iv�' �d� vice f6r achi,eyirjg ��e;PElin; .
,
Once the' b ill was p;as;s� d� : ,h.:6;;���,� r (
i � the purrU!ler
of 19 55 ) , t enant s ' drgan i'z c;i't i'ons d�i'scOve re,d �t:nat it: , '
was ext reme ly diffi cult to� use,':��'dup1ber�(om:e',,� expePf;live ,
and f ar from foolproof . ' 'Tlle'r'e' were Tar rri6re d'oC"u-"
ment s t o se rve under the ney ,lalNs, than pnQer -755 ,
which made the landlord ih�' ri"itiat or of tne suit r' '
'
� , ,

The minimum c dst of a ' new li:t�,". J:·e:n<,�tri k� ' f��r t < h�
t e nant s w as $500, at standElrdc J�ga� r�t:ecs . ,: . ' Unl� s s, ;,
:
spons ore d by a we althy organi zv<:J:tJOn '()1:-�,:;p'rQYidEi�f, �lith
free legal aid', no slum bui lding could i n it i at e s uch,
, " �

act ion . The new law , thus , has been used quite
sparingly , only i n fact by groups rece lvlng large
grant s from the poverty program or from private
foundat ions . For the unorganized, unsub s idized poor
who compose the vast maj ority of the s lurrs ' inhab i ­
t ant s , the new law did nothing, illustrat ng once
again the depths of the chasm separat ing the poor
from the democrat i c proce s s .

The greatest gains made by the rent strike were

not in the forTIi of new l aw s , but in change s in the
administrat ive procedure s of the c ity hous ing
agenc ie s . During the rent strike , the organ i z at i ons
such as the Department of Building s , the Department
of Health , and the Rent and Rehab il itat ion Admini s ­
trat ion , were sub j e cted t o extraordinary pre s sure s
t o improve the quality of C ode enforcement . To pre ­
serve the ir reputat ion, and perhaps the i r j obs ,
off i c ials of the se agenc ie s 'Here forced to make
radical innovat ions in the i r procedure s , which en­
ab led them t o meet the rent strike ' s demands for
more eff i c ient service . Tenant groups involved in
the rent strike were granted "hot line s " t o the
he ads of agenc i e s whi ch enab led tLem to get on the
spot convict ions and quick rent reduct ions - - spe c i al
phone numbers were set up for tenant s who lacked
heat and hot wat e r , and a study was begun by the
c ity to devi se a plan to st reaml ine and un ify c ity
agenc ie s de aling ,l ith hous ing c cmpl aint s . Lower
leve l offi c i als were instructej to keep c lose con ­
t act H ith mil itant tenant s organizat ions and t o aid
them in every pos s ib le way .

The rent strike movement thus had a s alutary

effect on s lum hous ing condit ions in the short run ;
but did not change the bas i c e c onomic re lat ionships
vlhi ch made for de cay and poor se rvice . The maj or
change s vlrought by the strike "Jere a general
improvement in building code enforcement machinery
and an increased intere st in reform and innovat i on
in hous ing in the community at l arge , but it did not
bring the k ind of mas s ive rehab ilitat i on programs
that were needed t o give the poor re al protect ion
from the dangers of te nement exi stence . This fail ­
ure was cruc i al . The earlie st organized tenant s
 :rov p s i n New Y ork h ad unde r s t o o d t h at the re c ould be
no j J st i c e for s l um t e nant s as l ong as I ml i n c Ol::e
tlO'J.s i n g w a s op e r a t e d by the p r i vate ent e rp r i s e system •
.L ,J t he se groups } l i ke t he Harlem Tent s t l' ike ; vl on
i . ,p r v v e ,l pub l i c re gu l at i o n of hous ing r athe r than
e:: 3 c ;;e s in ovlDe l' sh i i:J o r c(:Bs s i ve YE'fo ab i l ii::. a t i o n pro­
g i 'GG;S , 5.nd c E d not c �12nge tbe {undament al c o nd i t i on s of
l H ,� l I:: \, n e thous8nds o f o l d l a.TtI te naL2 Y: L, ?, '.ib i c h st ood
then 1 ci L i .:;t e n d t o d ay a s �l. b l i. ght o n t�\I,:: /ac:2 of the
'.2 i t y .

4s re g arCs t h e str ike ' s e ;fe : u on t h e Le ve l of

;::', c i a 1 a c t i oI:: l lJ. the C CI]]clm i t i c: s ""he n:: .it T O OK pla c e ,
its r e 3u::' t s , : e re e ve n l e s s S�iL st llt L ;3 1 . 'The ,ce nt
:o + r i ;:e d i d not c o nvert l arge n umbe :;'A s of s l Ul r; t e nant s
cc s c' c 1 a l 2. c t i ''' _·._ ,3l�! J jt did tl l._" \ r LQ � =� 2 1 � z e tl�e ghe t t c .
C�gg n i ' e r s i c a l l 9 � rt s Oi the � i ty �e�e s t ruck by the
e _ �t re lr.2 d i l-' __' i c 1_llty nf_ ge t ·t i :�L t '? �� -.:'.c:t s "I�, C; P 2�(·t -�. _� j_ .9 2t e
� �� (j n�{ o f e llc �=: c v0 l (e �t T ,s 8 c t i 'v �_ s � t2 S � ;Jr; c-� i j E: c :- -::. [" )
.J "c �' i : e i t S 2 1 1' . <i'..t rall i e s ) ::; t �<:: (:t iUc e c: ' n ; s E: r>j ,ie " c) 'J ­
s t :n ��t i CL1 S ) t L e re ;) t= re v 3 u��l l�l �\: ',>/ e T t e :-� ��nt s -� l� &{) c J-'J2-r,: �
: L t.' }:' :-.) 2nd � ur j, c "C.s G t v.,5 e -·1t s - - t l�� i s ,.'8.S �-:.: c: ! 't i �tJ.1 8 r :y t r ue
·:=,f J ::: 'C?:)r 1 s fStT"e cl ' rrH-: S s � '_ee t i n cS s v,lt2 i c l-. !j �'s�,: e X �. l' b ­
o r J in ary nUlilb e r s of' rn i ".1d le c l :" s s Ci c t i '·\o- � s t s ' ) b ut £'e \_,7
t �:l ant s . The t e r: El nt s C S(;� it t e E<: l'er, e el r)y t he
·=. r g an i z (� :;:' s t o J.d:il i n i st e r t h e -' :,:· � .:,-e in i n cli\T i c; u a l
' 1
b 'l i l � i nt:'C ,p�oved t o b e h i [;tly un s t ab l e un i t s .
t. h , " ugh t L e s t r L:e h a d r a i s e d llc.xpe s of dcve l o p i nb a

18 nr:an e nt m at r i x of t e n a nt s C O L . lil i t t e e s t 8 ;-ce ep ul) l,ne

b 1 1 i l d iIi g S d l� t e r t h e Yilove c e n t h .,.u sub s i d e d and t o
s e l ve a s r e s e rve un i t s o f organ i z at i on a l s t r e ngth t 'o
be ll'ob i l i � c; d f o r ot he r prote s t s , n o ne of t he group E
c,' '' 8 ", b i e t o m a i nt b i n t he s e c o ud t t e e s a s funct i on i n g
l.)n i t s b e yond t h e durat i on of the st r i ke . 'The i r f a i l ­
ure rrJ i r r o r e d that 0 1 T[laj or t e nant s group s in t h e P 8 St ,
\�h o had -c r i e a 'to apply p r i n c i p l,e s of l "" b o r o rgan i z a ­
Li ens t o h o u s ing and tm i on i z e " t e n ant s in in d i v i dual
b u i ld i ng s . Bot t the Te nant s Defense Uni on of 1919-
1 9 � 0 and the Ci ty,; i de Tenant s Uni on o f t h e 1930 I s had
de c l a r e d it the i r 0cal t o organ i z e i nt o p e r�aDent

fa llen ab surdly short of t h i s g o al . 8ve n among the

l"
t e nant s house cOllimi t t e e s w e r e a most d i f f i cult f o rm
of organ i z at i on t o maint a i n on a s t ab l e b a s i s .

ERRORS OF THE rv;OVEMENT

Whethe r or Got a d i f f e re nt k i n d of r e nt s t r i ke
movement c ould h ave p r o duc e d more st ab le organ i -:: a ­
t i onal f orms ren� 3 i n s an open que s t i on . Hhat is
c e rt a in i s t h at , b ot h i n t e r r.�s of orgap i z at i anal
i nv o l ven:ent and p o l it i c a l irr,p a ct , the rent s t r L:e
mo velT.e :1t Lud�e a s e r i ous e r r o r of j udgn,ent i Ll c:t t e u pt ­
ing t o s e c ure i��2 d i 2 t � irrpr ovcffient t h rough the
age n cy of the c ourt s . F or the c ourt s , did �OL , by
and l arge , deal w ith the t e n ant s I g r i e v c.:. n ce s . lViany
c a s e s w e re l o st e nt i r e ly and c a s e s that w e r e won
usually re s u l t e d i n t oken re p ai r s . B ut more
i mp o r t b.nt ly , i nvol vCl[;ent in c ourt act ion put s t r a ins
on the organ i z at i on of the rept s t r ike move r:.e nt
w h i c h p re vent e d it f rom at t a i n i ng the size, flexi­
b i l ity or i nt e rn a l s o l i da r it y re qu i re d t o f o r c e
gove rnment a c t ion t o rehab i l it at e S lUE; b u i l d i ng s .
The c it:;· , st 3.t c and fe d.::: ral gove rnment s ,lere t he
only b o d i e s wh t c h had the f i n an c i al re s our c e s t o
s ub s i d i z e c omp cete I' s i ve rep a i r s in s lur;) h ous i ng - ­
t he y w e re t h e one s \'Ihom the rent s t r i ke had t o f o r c e
to act , not t h e s l umlord . The rent st r i ke moven:ent
shoul d have g i ve n p r i o r ity to those of its att r i ­
b ut e s w h i c h h a d t he m o s t i nf l ue n c e o n p o l it i c a l
author i t y .

There "l e r e three n;a i n qual i t i e s of the rent

st r i ke t h at c o nt r i b ut e d to i t s p ol i t i c al e f f e c t i ve ­
ne s s . First , it s size . The l arge r the rc u t s t r i ke
gre\V , t he IDere p o l it i .::: i ans pe r c e i ve d i n it a t h re at
t o t he pub l i c o r de r , or the dange r of a b r o adly
b a s e d r ad i c a l movement: ari s i ng to un derrr i tH: : e s t ab ­
l i she d p o l it i c al r e l at i on sh i p s . Se c o n d , m i l it ancy .
The more the rent s t r L:e b rol:e l aw s , or m a s s e d
l arge num b e r s o f p e ople t ogethe r i n vo l at i le s itua­
t i o n s t h e more p o l it i c i a n s f e lt t h e danger of a
c ont a g i o n of c i v i l d i s orde r t o othe r groups and
other i s s ue s - - a b re ak d ovm of the p e a c e � u l ' rul e s of
the g ame " in 1/i h i ch t hey \"ere used t o ope r at i ng .
48

Third, rapport between leaders and followers . The more

stac ie the movement ' S-organ i z at ion was , and the more
c lose ly it s part ic ipant s "Jere l inked to its le aders ,
the more polit i c i an s grew afraid that agitat ion would
be lengthy , and would spre ad t o other i s sue s when the
rent strike ende d .

Court act ion , howeve r , hindered the rent striKe

movement severe ly in each of the se are as . It prevented
the rent strike frem attaining opt imum s i z e b e c ause it
ab sorbed so much of the organi zers ' energy in pape r­
\lOrk and me chan i c al problems re lat ing t o court appear ­
ance s such a s arrang ing transport at i on f or tenant s and
subpoenaing re cords . The t ime spent filling out forms ,
conferring with lawyer s , and arranging t ransportat i on
for the day in court could have been spent on act i ­
vit ies whi ch expanded the st rike . I n addit ion ) when
the organizers got involved in court act ion they were
unab le to devote as much t ime t o the organi z at ion of
demonst rat i on and rallies which had given the rent
stri;�e the aura of mas s movement in it s early days .
Involvement in court act ion seeme d t o impose a non ­
m i l itant psychology on the rent st rike ' s leaders and
subtly steere d them aw ay from mass act ion or c ivil
disobedience . The kind of mas s ive re s i stance t o evic ­
t ions that charact e r i z ed the rent strike s of the
twent ies and thirt ies did not take place in the Harlem
rent strike . The most pub l i c i zed instance of a re ­
s i sted evict ion involved only ten pe ople - - a far cry
from the 4000 people who massed before an Olinville
Avenue Building on rent st rike in 1933 . Finally , the
t e chni c al re spon s ib i lities as s o c i ated w ith court act i on
prevented the organi zers from us ing the ir t ime w ith
the ten ant s for politi cal educat i on or act ivit ie s
which strengthened tenant s ' organ i z at ion . Some pre ­
l iminary surveys by the School of Social Work of
t enant s involve d in the rent str ike , show that there
was very l ittle cont act beb"een organ iz ers and tenant s
and t hat ve ry l ittle of the rent strike s ' me aning was
commun i c ated to the tenant s . The organi zers , more ove r ,
had ve ry l ittle succe s s i n gett ing t enants t o part i ­
c ipate in re lated prot e st act ivit ie s , and thi s w as an
il; port ant re ason why government off i c i als felt they
 49

c ould safely stop making c once s s i ons after the f i rst

few months of the strike .

The rent strike , thus , by getting involved in

c ourt act ion severe ly c ompr omised it s strength as a
polit i c al prot e st , but it d i d s o in large part be ­
c ause it d i d not have a c l e ar c oncept i on of it se lf
as a polit i c al prote st . The rent strike began
suddenly and spre ad haphazardly- - it had an epidemic
qual ity . Many organizat i on s rushed int o it "\-J itho� � c
knmJ ing anything ab out hous ing , or w ithout previous
expe rience in organ i z ing l ow - income people . Hithout
a c le ar strategy t o guide them, and ,.; ithout real
c onf i dence in the i r ab i l ity t o st ay w ith the move ­
ment , they were pushed int o the s afe and legit imate
style of organ i z ing , which w ould not put themselve s ,
o r the tenant s , in danger . They d i d not knOVI e nough
ab out hous ing work, or pe rhaps ab out Ame r i c an
soc i ety in general GO realize that maj or e c onom i c
change s c ould not b e effe cted b y the c ourt s . A
cert ain naive and tot ally unj ust ified c onf i dence in
e st ab l i she d inst itut ions , charact e r i z e d the organ i ­
z e r s , many o f "'hom were white col lege student s and
profe s s i onal s . Unsure of the ir own c ommitment , at
once afraid of and patron i z ing t o the people they
were organ i z ing , and subtly beholden to the b ourge ois
not i on that re ason prevai l s in the chambers of power
- -they made of the rent strike an e lab orate form of
social work .

Mark D. liJai s on
 50

Comment

Mr . TJa i s on has w r itten one of the f i rst a c c ount s of

J e s se G r ay ' s C cmmun ity C ounc i l o n Rous ing . He i s
8 ppa�e nt ly f ami l i ar w ith many of the f a c t s c o n c e rn i ng
tbe rent str ike moverr.ent aft e r it Got off the g round .
The re i s , hovl e ve r , an e lus ive q ual ity t o the autho r ' s
"l ork \-1h i ch f rust r at e s rr:e . He d i s c u s s e s the r i s e an'j
f a l l of nume rous t e nant moverre nt s i n I'Jei-l Y o rk C it y ,
a n d f i nally narrat e s the h i st o ry o f the most current
at t errpt of rad i c al s t o addre s s them s e lve s t o the
h o u s i n g i s sue . I am c onfused a s to i-Ihy he b othered t o
w r ite t h i s pape r i n the f i r s t p l a c e , s in c e h e neve r
eX9 1 i c it ly s t at e s any s i gn i f i c ant c on c l us i on s . L :' h i s
t a s k w as rre re ly t o re c o rci the f a i lure s o f the left he
has done so adrrl i rab ly . But if he \w.nt e d to draw s ome
le s s on s f rom t h i s h i st ory of t e n ant - c ity .. l andlo :cd
st ruggle s , he has f a i l e d .

N a i s on ' s maj or c r it i c i sm of the rent st r i ke i s

i t s l a c k o f def i n it i on o f gcals . He maint a i n s t h at
the rflover:: ent 'd ould h a ve been r e l e vant ; and p e rhaps
e ve n suc c e s sful , i f i t had avo i d e d the c ourt s in pre ­
f e re nce f o r a c ampa i gn f o r gove rnment a i d t o s lum
hous ing .

The C omL!unity C ounc i l on Hous in . ( C CH ) o r i :s i na l ly

.
...
 51

sought t o build a t i ght cohe s ive polit i cally con­

s c ious ( re ad : radical soc i al i st ) b ase in a l imited
area in Harlem roughly between F ifth and E ighth
Avenue s , and 10 8th and 125th Street s . The rent
strike was one of many t act i c s t o aid in building
thi s b ase . Gray also empha s i z e d discus s i on se s ­
s ions w ith tenant s i n buildings ; court suits when
ne c e s s ary ; mas s meetings ; and e lectoral campaigns .
Cert ainly before October, 19 6 3 , Je s se Gray and his
organ i z e rs were bui lding that radical base . Nai s on
apparently sees no signifi c ance in thi s diffiens i on of
the story .

The rent st r ike t act i c was implemented as the

cold weather set i n , in the late fall of 1963 . Gray
and the Coun c i l organi zers managed to pull str ike s
in bui ldin g s where the Council was known and re ­
spe cted . The t otal was not lliore than 16 . The
second group of te nant s to go out on striKe was not
as famil i ar w ith the ideas of the CCH and Gray , but
neverthe less e ducat ion programs and building
counc ils had been implemented . The total in
November was not more than 50 .

It w as at t h i s point that there was a shift in

emphas i s . The de c i s ions of R ib audo and Moritt ,
coupled '-'l ith ge sture s of cooperat ion from stat e and
c ity agencies ( the "hot l ine " t o the off i ce of Rent
and Rehab il it at i on Administrat ion , and the de c i s ion
of the Department of 1i1e lfare not t o penal i z e
" c l ient s " who vl ithhe ld rent ) allowe d the rent str ike
movement to expand . The court s ' de c i s i ons and
1i1elfare ' s permiss i vene ss were strong points around
whi ch people could be persuaded to withhold rent .
A paradox deve lope d in vlhich, as Nai son point s out ,
the court act i on diverted the rent strike moverc.e nt ,
but as he fails t o note , the st rength of the [[!ove ­
ment depende d on it . Dmm at the b lock leve l ,
pe ople had t o b e as sured that they wouldn 't be out
on the street . Furthe r , all of th i s took place
w ithin the context of increased pre s s coverage and
the involvement of many '-'lhi te r2.d i c als and liberals .
The rent strike ffiovement be carre the public domain ,
and �ray sacrif iced locul or3an i z ing in buildings
52

for the cre at ion of a spe ctacle of thousands of tenant s

tying up the court s , the c ity admin i strat ion , and the
slumlords .

Prac t ically spe aking , the failure of the rent

str i �e movement began when 3ray ' s organ i z at ion de ­
c ided to go out s ide the bounds of the t i ny locale in
whi ch it b�ilt its base . The compli cat i on of pub ­
l i c ity , coord inat ion of a c itywide movel11ent and the
qttendunt fight ing behleen var ious le aders for power,
pluG the bott lene c K of c ourt c ases , compromi sed the
i L i t i a� vis ion of the C ommunity C ouncil on Hous ing .
For Nai son to st ate that the movement had no goals i s
a half -t ruth . To be ac curate , the C ounc il had an
obj e ct ive - -building a radi cal base for polit i c al
ad i on - -wh i ch was unfortunately sacrif iced for
expediency and opportun i sm .

II

Naison sugge st s a s imple alternat ive f o r the

rent s t r i k e movement : mas s ive fede ral a id to slum
hous ing . Thi s sugge st i on refle cts h i s f ailure to
draw cODclus ions from the h i st ory of the struggle s of
A.me r i c an r 3.dicals . The rent strike , he argue s , c ould
have been an effect ive st rategy de s i gned to pry
mon ie s out of Vlashington . Nai s on seems to assun;e
that the good soc iety i s the great soc iety . Char­
act e r i st i c of cl; any radical movement s and organ i z a ­
t i ons o f the 20th century i s a tendency t o def i ne
sol�t, ions for this nat i on ' s i lls in terms of a st ronG
nat lonal ,gove rnment . Nai son ' s answer follow s in tllat
t red lt ion . Radi c al s , in fact , have been st alwart
supporte rs of nat i onal reform programs which have
accelerated the deve lopment of c orporate c ap ital i sm,
a mult ituue 01' cO[;lpl icated det ent e between the pr i ­
vate e c onom i c se ctor and the nat i onal h i erarchy , and
a central i z at ion of authority and de c i s i on-making
whi ch has b e c ome oppre ss ive to all c it izens .

It w o u ld. s e er;o -+:.hat rQd�� c f' J 8 nO\ 7 have to seek

programmat i c solut ions in anothe r dire ct ion . The
2y o',vth of st rong r ad i � al locally - oriented
 53

organ i z at ions w ith demands for self - rule and cont rol ,
rather than nat i onal and state hegemony, is impera­
t ive if the current generat i on of Ame r i c an radi c als
w i shes t o seriously challenge and change this
nat ion . Se lf-determinat ion , and local owne rship
and control over ne ighborhoods and buildings ,
spe ak · both to the problems of poor people and t o
the large r i s s ue o f the kind of government al
structure radi c als would like to see e st ab l i shed
in this c ountry .

Naison i s a prisone r of h i s own narrat ive - style

of h i st ory . Thus he can relate the f act s and the
out come s of struggle s , but l itt le more . It w i ll be
up to other hi storians to analyze Nai s on ' s fact s
toward an unde rst anding of 20th century rad i c al i sm .

� cbert '::; abriner

 A Paperback Approach to the
American Radical Tradition I II

Editor ' s note : The follow ing is the concluding por ­

t i on of Mr . IvIacGilvray ' s two part art i cle .

A brilliant study of what happene d to the radi ­

cal thrust i s pre sented in Jan;e s lVl . lVicPhe rson ' s The
St r uggle i'or �qual ity : Abolit ionist s and the Negro in
the-civiIWar and-the-Reconstruct ion-rPrincet on, i'72 ,
,'iJ 3�'+5 ) � while-the-ciass ic- rad i c al account i s W . E . B .
Uu Boi � ' Black Re construction ( Meredi an , M170 , 5 3 . 45 ) .
The post - C ivilWar period i s further illuminate d i n
St aughton Lynd , ed . , Rec�r::�!-ruct �on ( Harre r , ,) 2 . 2 5 ) .
For th7 polit i c a l phase and an e arlier Johnson gone
wrong , see Eric L. McKitri cK ' s Andrew Johnson and
Re e�nstru��ion ( Phoenix , P1 53 , �). - --- --

Part of the painful legacy of the C ivil War w ith

whi ch radicals had t o contend may be re ad about in
Ra;,/ ford I'T . Logan , Bet rayal of the Negro : From
Rutherford B . Hayesto -WoodrowWilson (Collie r ,
0344"9-;-- 11 . 50) ; R alph Gimberg ' s .�OO YeB:!'_s of
Ly�chings .: JI:_§!20ck�ng_ Documeno��� ������ Violence �I2
x_
America-Tlancer; 74-20 5 , . 75¢ ) j and Thomas F .
iossett ' s Race : ,!���.!st�EL of ��_ Ide a_.!E- America
( Schocke n , SBlOS , 2 . 95) . The thoroughly corrupt ing
c� spe ct of rac i sm may be seen in the ruin of a
p c L e nt i. &l ly e;re at S o utLc rn r du ..L e: al re lated. by C . V an
\rJoodward , T Or:1 VJat son : Agrarian Rebe l ( Galaxy , GBI02,
;'::: . 5 0 ) . But-the rad-i cel--rcr1y t o T2.c i s m "J a s nr)b l y
 55

made in W . E . B . DuBoi s ' The Souls of Black Folk

( C rest , R699, . 60¢ ) .

The rampant exploitat ion o f the period whi ch

abs orbed much radic al effort is well de s cribed by
Matthew J osephson in The Robber Barons ( Harve st ,
HB47, $2 . 25 ) , and h i s The Polit icos ( Harve st , HB59,
$2 . 95 ) . Immigrant s were lured with lies and brought
i n drove s to be exploited . The ir p art whi ch added
to the radical tradit ion i s be aut ifully t old by John
Higham, St rangers in the Land ( Atheneum, #32 , $1 . 95 ) .
One phase of the radical effort t o aid them is set
forth in Ray Ginger ' s Altge ld ' s Ameri c a : The
Lincoln Ideal Versus Changing Realit ie s (Quadrangle ,
QP21, $2 . 25 ) .

On the agricultural front a grass root s revolt

flaired . See : Solon J . Buc k , The Granger Movement :
A Study of Agricultural Organi zat ion and It s Poli ­
t ic al , Ec onomic , and Social Manife stat ions (Bison,
BBlbJ, �1 . 50) ; John D . Hicks , The Popul ist Revolt :
A Hist ory of the Farmers ' Alliance and the People ' s
Party (Bi son, BBlll , :) 1 . 75 ) ; Ge orge B . T indall , e d . ,
APQPul ist Reader (Torchbooks , TB3069 , $2 . 25 ) . For
the cont inuat ion of Amer i c a ' s agrarian struggle ,
re ad Theodore Saloutos and John D . Hicks, Twent ieth
Century Populism : Agricultural D i s content in the
Middle We st , 19CO- 1939 ( Bi s on , BB175 , :5 1 . 85 ) .

INDUSTRIALISM AND SCC IALISM

On the industrial front rebellion also made

itse lf fe lt . A key crisis for radi cal s , growing
out of the 8 hour day f ight , is pre sented by Henry
David, Hi st ory of the Haymarket Aff air ( C ollier,
03124 , $1 . 95 ) . The Governor who t ook the radical
s ide and was cruc if ied for it has his st ory t old in
Harry Bernard, Eagle Forgotten ( Charter, <'1 16,
�2 . 85 ) . A strike of huge proport i ons i s de scribed
in Almont Lindsay ' s The Pullman Strike ( Phoen ix,
P165 , :) 2 . 9 5 ) . During it a s ignif icant labor le ader
was c onverted to soc ialism . He became the radical
leade r who captured the imaginat ion of Ame ricans as
no one has been ab le to do s ince . Hi s life bears
 L � �se study . Read Ray Ginge r ' s Euge ne V. Deb s : A
�1�g r; ,phy ( C oll i e r , BS21, )1 . 50) .

F � cm t h i s fe rment a l s o a r i s e s the m i l i t ant d i re c t

aCT i�� i st l e ader of the Indust r i al Worke rs of the
HOl _d w h o h a s l e ft anot h e r rad i c a l c l a s s i c , W i l l iam D .
:i a:, i c c r; ; The Aut c'b i or;;raphy of " B i g B i l l " HaYHood ( NE-'vi
H ') r�d , r " ,J5 9 ) :' 1 . 9 5 ) . A famous I . H . Vl . martyr of the
re --:- i od 'vJ�O was shot by a f i ring s quac. i n Ut ah I-J as the
� o l \ s i n 8E r Jce For h i m B e e : Ph i l i p S . Fone r ,
Hi ll .
'l' L o Case o f J oe H i l l ( 1:e],7 ltlo rld , F'tJ 5 4 , �1 . 45 ) ; F . S .
Fc];�-C r , - ed . , The lette:cs of Joe H E :;" ( Oa;� , ?1 . 9 5 ) ;
E 8 r r i e St Rvi s ana Fr ank Harrdon , eds . , The Songs of Joe
F i , � ( C'a\: , '31 . 00) ; and E l i z ab e t h Gurley Flyn n , 'I Spe al�
B�-CW:1 F- � �_c:::..:..
Aut ob i c[c;raphy of the 'Rebe l G i rl "
( l d e r nat ional , 11-' 4, :�2 . 9�who was an ama "l i ng rad i ­
c a l i n he r cwn right .

p.round t he century ' s turn , a s urpr i s i n0 nu�."!b e r of

�nt c lle ctuals b e c ame act ively i�volve d . C'ne such w a s
J a c :< 1 0 n Q u n \-I h o Ilelpeu TounLl a n L'rgan i z at i on the
2 L 1'C C 1 Stude nt s for !l DerLO c r at i c S o c i ety .
a n c e s t o r of
F e r t i'11 see , F . S . F e ne r ; e d . , J ack lonclon : Ame r i c an
£ �_r'c l ( C it ade l , c 14 3 ) ,;1 . 95 ) . An ant i - i mpe r i al i s t
c r i t i c of �me r i c a who w ould be 2 de l i ght t o have
a:rcund t oday has h i s s ay in J &net Smit h , ed . , lVidrk
'J" .-l 3 i l' ,� '1 t:1e Demned Human R a c e ( Hi l l & Wang , AC54';
)C H» ' ) ' An e ye - ope n i ng study of hini i s F . S . F one r ' s
Crit i c. ( new 1rJorld , 1\11r19 , )1 . 85 ) . }\
MQr _,_'J;'� a i.!2..:.2 oc i al:.
gre n t l e t t -w ing j ourn al i st of the pe r i od may b e h e arG
in '�J. l a �1int e r and Herb e rt Shap i ro , e o s . ) The Hor�d ()f
i i r. c o 2.r: St e ": f e n s ( H i l l & Vla ne; ) AC 5 3 , ; 2 . 4 5T� and
2nc t>1e r-b John -Re e d ) The ::<:duc at icn of John R e e d UTe\-1
T;Jcrld, m13 y � 1 . 45 ) . One of the G r e at l,uman it a r ian
f ; ?ure s of our t i.n�e al "' 0 s h a r e r'! the Y d.c1 i c al f a it·h : see
P. 3 . Fone r ;
e d . , He l e n K e l l e r : He r S o c i al i st Years
C�e\-I \"J orld , :';162 J $1 .35). A l s o w o rU. e x am i n i ng h e re
i :; l oui s F i l l e r , C ru s ade r s f or Ame r i c an Libe r i al i s m :
'l' h e Story of th� f:C-cf:raker s ( C ol l i e r , 03 222 , )l-:-5OT,
;:-'Jd t he ant h o l ogy , A:,T:hur and l i l a l"Je inbe rg , 'fhe
� :'L;,2'.�_L'J;�C .L· '-' ( C o.f J ' i c vrll J , C: '-1- � , ,J c::. . � ) ) .
 57

Reveal ing alc o at thi s t i n�e i s the rad i c al

polit i c al eff ort . F or it see Howard QUi nt , The
Forging of Ameri can Soc ial i sm ( Bobb s , AHSc:4 , - ? 1 . 95 L
David A . Shannon , The Soc i al i st F arty of Ameri c a : A
History ( Quadrangle , QP38, $2 .45) ; the document ary
anthology of H . Wayne Morgan , ed . , Ame ri can
Soc i al i sm , 1900 - 1960 ( Spectrum, S8 5 , $1 . 9 5 ) ; and an
intere st ing c rit i c al re c onst ruct ion , The cdore
Drape r , The R oot s of Ame r i c a'1 C ommuni sm ( Cca;p as s "
C 1 3 7 , $1 . 9, ) . Ant i -radi c al s were also act ive as
w itne s s Will iam Pre st cc , Jr . ' s Aliens and D i s senters :
Federal Suppre s s i on of the Radi c als , 190 � - 1 9 3 3
( T orchb ooks , T B1 2 8 7 , $2 . 45 ) , and a superb account
of yet anothe r 'witch hunt , II f or "Reds ' this t i lLe ,
Robert K . Murray ' s Red Sc are : A Study in Nat i onal
Hv ste r i a , 1919 -1920 ( McGraw -Hill , 4 407 5 , $2 . 95 ) .
A gre at strike of the period i s examine d by David
Brody , Labor in C r i s i s : the St eel Strike of 1919
( Lippincott , $i. 45 ) . It s Le ader was an L W . IV . who
later became a C ommun i st and tells h i s story in
Will iam Z . Foster, Page s from a Worker ' s Life
( Internat ional , IPl , $2 . 5 0 ) . Useful here too i s
R i chard O . Boyer and Herbert M . Morai s , Labor ' s
Unt old St or:'t. ( iv;aT2 Jm i & Munse l l , P . IO , $2 . 5 0) , .
whi ch t ake s in oppos it ion t o rad i c al trade un i onists .

One of the vJatersheds of the post World War One

period wh ich rallied inte lle ctuals t o a rad i c al
c ause i s splendidly surveyed in Louis Joughin and
Edmund M . Morgan, The Legacy of Sac c o and Vanzett i
( Quadrangle , QP7 , $2 . 85 ) , and may be felt
emot ionally in Mari on D . Frankfurter and Gardne r
Jackson , eds . , The Letters of Sacco and Vanzett i
( Dutt on , D62 , $1 . 85 ) . Als o helpful , e spe c i al ly for
stude nt s of l iterature , is Walter B . R i de out ' s The
R p '1 ; c al r ;"rel in the Vnit ed St ates 1900 - 1954 ( Hill
& Wang , Ac81 , $1 . 9 5) , while Daniel Aaron ' s Writers
on the Left ( Avon , WI03 , $1 . 25 ) , is a valuable
study of intellectuals in the 1930 ' s . For a view
through a great pair of intelligent eye s , try
Edmund Hi l s on , The Ame r i c an Earthquake : A
Document ary of the Jaz z Age , The Gre at Depre s s ion
and the New Deal ( Anchor, A382 , � l . 9)) .
�ECENT RADICALISM

For more recent history involving the radical

tradit ion , the follow ing provide insight : William A .
Nilliams , �he T ragedy o f American Diplomacy (Dell ,
:1002 , ,3)1 . 5,) ; :Javid Horowit z , The Free �lorld
C olos sus : A C rit i que of American Foreign Poli cy in the
::;old War ( Hill &: Wang , H33 , $2 . 45) ; Mart in Luther King ,
�r . . Stride T oward Freedom : the Montgome ry Story
( Perennial , PIJ, 65¢) ; Ma l c o lm X and Alex Haley,
�he Autob iography of Malcolm X ( Dell , 5174 , 9 5¢ ) ;
�-Icward Z i nn , SNCC : the New Ab o l it i on i s t s ( Be ac on ,
3P2 l 3 , � l . -:'5 ) ; �lizabeth Suthe r-12nd , ed . J Let t e r s
:'rom Ai s s i s s ippi ( Signet , T29L!.3 ) 751: ) ; Sal l�r Be lfr3ge J
? r e e doIT' S umme r ( C re st , T908 , -'5'� ) ; S c ot t �:e a r :: Lg )
::'he -:! .::J n s c l e n c e of a R ad i c2l : S :,; c �. 8 i. S c i e n c e I n s t ::' Lr� e j
3l. �O ) ; =-Ia.L �rape r ) :Se rkeley : '� l-Le �"�eY� St tlde l�t � e \rol t
::- -
:;rcve . 3C �0 3 , , 95i ) ; :1it c he �.i � ote ,-: "d ='2 n :-:i s :iale J

� Q S . " -"he _Te�·! Student ( 3e e.ccI: ) 3� ��·:-;· 'J � ; � � '] ; ) ;

:'eft
�� ac ::: �TeTtl f � e � d . .� :-,ro-chet i c [fli nc.rit.:'l ( Si[:;l"2et : 'T 3 141) }
. �5:� : . .�n""(, � - � ad i c al 3.ct i-vit:l of -�nost ��e c eut �Ia�· .i e t �r
::! ay �e :� e e Y1 _ n t1..JO 'rfl orKS of ?Y2 d �J . Cock 7 i- h e �:;- JI
' o b c QV .'=nutl s . Pyramld , ]12l4 � . 951; ) , and Earry
-; o ldwat e y : ::::x-c re m i s t OI' �he R i;�ht ( Black C at J
3�8l ,
• I 5¢ ) •

. �S �TOU c an re adily ::!erce i ve ) th e .�me r i c an

Radical Tradit i on i s quite a c c e s s ible in p ape rb a ck
e d it i o n s . To be sure , good p i c k ings st ill remain in
hard - c ove r . Here is the de liberately hidden h istory
of �ur country which the Est abli shment wants forgotten .
Knowledge Qf it can prevent errors and guide act i on .
It can inspire and make c onvert s t o the radical c �use .
let ' s be aware of it . G ood re ading �

Daniel MacGilvray
 59

A Leaflet: The Genius II

American Po l it ics

Last ye ar Je s se Lemi s ch was denied renewal of

h i s contract as As s i st ant Profe s sor of Hist ory .
Lemisch, a left - w ing act ivist whose s cholarship
f ocus se s cn the role of the c crrmon man in colonial
and later Ameri can hi story , was t old in explanat i on :
"Your c onvict icns j nterfere with your s cholarsh i p . ' I

In 195 3 , Daniel Boorst in, pree�inent colon i al

h i storian at the Univers ity of Chi c ago, in test imony
before the House Un - Ameri can Act ivit i e s Committee
( HUAC ) , said the follow ing about ,� onvict ions and
scholarship :

Mr . ( Morgan )Vl . ) MOULDER . C an you give us SOlY.e

statement as to how you expre s se d your oppos it ion
( t o the Com:nun i st Party ) s ince that t ime ; . . .
( Boorst in had te st ified t o le aving the Party in
lq �9 . )

Mr . BOORSTIN . Ye s , s i r .

My oppo s it ion has t aken two forms : F irst , the

form of an aff i rlY!at i ve part i c ipat i on in re ligious
act i vit i e s
. • . .
 r

50

The second form of my oppos it ion has been an attempt

t o discover and explain t o my student s in my te ach­
ing and in my writing, the unique virt ue s of
American democracy . I have done thi s partly in my
Jefferson book (The Lost World of Thomas
Jefferson, 1948) and in a f orthcoming book
• . • c alled
The Qeniu�!_ .f\merican Polit i c s , whi ch i s on the
presses at the moment .

I do feel that the most effect ive way t o fight

Communism- -the one effect ive way in which I may
have some competence i s by helping pe ople t o under­
stand the virtue s of our inst itut ions and the ir
spe c ial values as the se emerged from our hi story ,
and I have tried t o do that .

Mr . ( Gordon H . ) SCHERER . Profe ssor , do you feel

today that an act ive member of the Communist Party
should be a te acher in our public schools';

Mr . BOORSTIN . No, s ir .

Mr . SCHERER . Do you feel that he should be a

te acher in our college s ?

Mr . BOORSTIN . I n any area where I have any expert

competence , that i s , in the area of the human it ie s
and soc ial s c ience s , my answer would be no .

( U . s . , Congre s s , House ,of Repre sent at ive s ,

C ommittee on Un-American Act ivit ie s , Communist
Methods of Inf iltrat ion ( Educat i on) , Part I , 83rd
Congre s s , 1st Se s s i on , 195 3 , pp . 5 1 - 5 2 ; 60 , 5 9 - 50 . )

Thi s i s not reprinted in an effort at mudsling�

ing . We do not que st i on Boorst in ' s right to his
s chol arly orient at ions ; nor his right to explain his
ori e nt at ions and mot ivat ions to a congre ss ional
c Ol:Jmittee . (The human and moral appropriatene s s of
doing so to HUAC in 1953 is another matter . ) We
-Chink , though , that four import ant refle ctions can be
based on this test imony .
(1) The s cholarship of at least one mainstre am
soc i al s C ient i st , by his own te st imony , i s
written w ith a politi cal purpose , and this
purpose i s t o aid the Americ an s i de in the
Cold War . It i s probable that the s ame i s
true o f many other mainstre am soc i al s c ien­
t i st s .

( 2) In Boorst in ' s c ase the assert i on of a pol i ­

t i c al perspe ct ive through s cholarship and
te aching was not at all gent lemanly or tole r ­
ant . It went so far as to assert the legit im­
acy of excluding certain alte rnat ive
pe rspe ct ive s . Again, the same was and i s true
of many bes ide s Boorst in .

(3) Scholarship and convict ion are not exclus ive

value s . A scholar ' s cho i ce of sub j e ct and
tre atment , and h i s att achment to certain
hypothe se s , are inevitab ly influenced by h i s
convict ions - - or lack o f convi ction . Cert ainly
the se influence s must be sub j e cted to criteria
of obj e ct ivity and evidence . There w ill al ­
ways exist a cert ain tens ion between convi c ­
t i on and scholarship . Probably there are no
un iver s al ly val id guide l ines for re solving it .

( 4) Thus t alk of " convict i ons interfering w ith

J

s cholarship " in the case of one s cholar i s

hypocrit i cal . What must be noted is that
cert ain s cholarly b i ase s - -mainly those which
favor the st atus quo - - are tolerate d , even
praised by the profe ss ion , while others - ­
mainly those \lhi ch que st i on the st atus quo - ­
are exc lude d . Any claim that Lem i s ch lost his
j ob at the Univers ity of Chi c ago b e c ause his
convict ions interfered w ith h i s scholarship ,
but that Boorstin ret ains h i s j ob be c ause h i s
convi ct ions d o not , i s bul l shit .

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO STUDE��S FOR A DEMOCRATIC

SCC IETY ( 10 - 19-67)
 Boo ks on the Ameri (on La bo r
Movem ent, 1877 - 1 924

Louis Adami c , Dynamit e ; The Story of C l ass V i olence in

Ame r i c a (NY, 193 1 ; rev-.-,-1::?3 � ; -reprint , Glouc e st er-
,­
Mas s . , 1960 ) .
Harry Barnard , "Eagle Forgotten ; " The Life of J ohn
Peter A1t ge ld ( I ndianapol i s , 193BJ." -- -- -­

Samue l Bernst e in , E s s ays in Pol i t i c al --

and Intellectual
History ( NY , 1955), pp . 169- 182 .
, The F irst Inte rnat i onal in Amer i. c a ( NY , 1962 ) .
Paul Bri ssenden, The .! VI '!!.. ; !::. Study of �me ri c an
Synd i c alism ( NY , 1 9 19) .

i,;'ayne G . Broehl, Jr . , -The MG

-- � l.y Maguires ( Cambr idge ,
1964 ) .
He nry Joseph Browne , The C athol ic Church and the
Knight s of Labor ( Washingt on , 194� -- -­

R Obert � Bruce , - 1877; -

Year -- of Vi olence ( Indianapolis ,
1959 ) .
J . \I!alter C oleman , The Molly Magui re R i ot s ; Industrial
C oni l i ct in the Penns�ia C oal Region ( Ri chmond ,
1936) ; also pub l ished as Lab or-Disturb ance s in
Pennsylvan i a , 1850- 1820 ( Washington , 1936) . --
John R . C ommons , et a1 . �'-nist ory of Labour -- in --
the
United St ates , vol--. II ( �lY , 191"8) ,

Robert J . C ornel l , The Anthrac ite C oal Strike of 1902

( Washingt on , 19Y().
R ob e rt � .. C ro s s , The :r;,;e r;'J e D : c ()f r.ibe r- a l ;.� athol i c i sLl
in Ame r i c a ( Cambridge , 1958) . -
Henry David , The History of the Haymarket Aff a i r ; A
Study in the Ame rican Social -Revolut ionary and
Labor MOvement s ( NY , 1936; reprint , 1958) . -
Che ster McArthur De stler, American Rad i c alisHl,
1865 -1901 ; Essays and Docume nt s ( New london , 19 4 5 j
repriflt, NY , 1963 ) . --
R ichard Drinnon , Rebel in Parad i s e j A Biography of
Emma Goldman ( Chicago- , -1961 ) .

Paul H . Douglas , Real ltlage s in the United St ate s ,

1890 - 1926 ( Bust�1930). - --

Foster Rhe a Dulle s , Labor in "�me r i c a ( NY , 191+ 9 j

--- --

rev . , 1960 ) .
Donald D . Egbert and St mv Persons , eds . , Soc ialism
and American Life
- -
, vol . I ( Princeton, 1952 ) , chs .
�
0, 9 , n .
John Tracy Elli s , The Life of Jame s C ardinal G ibbons ,
Arcnb i shop of Baltim� lb34- 1921 , 2 vol s .
(Mi lwaukee , -r952 ) .
lvie lech Epst e i n , Jew i sh Labor in U . S . A . ; An
I ndust rial , P Olit i c alar:idcUIturaI HIst ory of the
Jew i sh Lab or r:ovement:., -2-vols . (NY , 1950 - 195 3 ) -
.-

Loui s F i ller , A Dictionary of' Ame rican Soc ial Reform

--

( NY , 1963 ) . -
Nathan F ine , lab or and F armer Part ie s - in the Un ited
- --

St ate� , 1 82B"=l928 cNy , 1928 ) .

Phil i p S . Fone r , H i st ory of the LaJor Movement - in the
--

United States , I - IV CNY- , 1947 ) .

John S . Bamb s , Th.:=. De c l ine of' the 1 . � . � . ( NY , 1932) .
Ray Ginge r , Altge ld ' s Ame r i c a j The L incoln Ideal
versus Changing Realit i e s (NY�958) .

, The Bending Cros s j A Biography of Eugene Deb s

�w Brunsw ick, 1949) . -
E l s ie GJ.. Llck , John Mitchell , Mine r ; Labor ' s Bargain
w ith the G ilded Age ( �IT , 1929 ) .
Margue rite Green , The Nat i onal C ivic Federat ion and
the American Laborl ioveme nt , I'9'5'O-"1 925 ( Hashingt on,
1956), -- -
---

Gerald N . Grob , Workers and Ut opi a ; A Study of

Ideological Conf l i ct in The-Ameri can labor Moverre nt ,
-- - --

1855 - 1900 ( Evanst on, 1961).

64

Jonathan Gros sman, William Sylvis , Pioneer of American

1;: at or ; !':. Study of the Labor Moverr,ent during the Era
of the Civil War ( NY , 1945 ) .
�8.vid. H . Grover, Deb aters and Dynamiters ; The Story of
the Haywood Trial ( C orvalli s , 1964) .
Lafayette G . Harter, Jr . , John � . Common�; His
As s au�t on Laissez -Faire-rcorvall i s , 1962�
Vernon H . Jensen , Heritage of Conflict ; Labor Relat ions
in the Nonferrous MetalS Industry - up - to 1930
--

TIthac a , 1950) .
Marc Karson, Ame rican Labor Unions and Polit i c s ,
1900- 1918 ( Carbondale , 1958) .
IraKipniS":" The American Soc ialist Movement , 1897- 1912
( NY , 1952)-
.- -

EClI-Jard C . Kirkland , Industry Come s of Age ; Bus ine s s ,

Labor , and Public Pol i cy , 18so:I8§7 ( NY , 19S1 ) ,
chs . 16-19 .
Don D . Le scohier and Elizabeth Brande is , History of
Labor in the United St at e s , 1896 -1932 , III : Working
Condit i on�Labor Leg i s lat ion , in John R . C Ollimons ,
et al.'";History (NY, 193 5 ) .
AlmontLindsey, The Pullman Strike ; The Story of �
Unique Experillient - and of a Great Labor Uphe avel
- ---- ---

( Chicago, 1942) . -
ClaYer:ce D . Long , VJage s and Earnings in the United
State s , 1860 -1890 (Princeton, 1960 )-.- --
Lew is 1 . Lorw i n , The American Federat ion of labor ;
Hi story , Pol i c i� and �rospe cts (Wash ington , 193 3 ) .

Donald L . McMurry , Coxey ' s Army; A Study of the

Industry Army Movement of 1894 TBoston , �929) .
, The Great Burlington Strike of 1888 ; A Case
HiSt ory-in labor B e lat ions ( Cambridge , 195b')-.-­
Charles A . :Madi son , American Labor Leaders ;
Personal it ies and Forces in the Labor Movement
( NY , 1950 ; reprint J 1962 )-
. - --

Be rnard Mande l , Se�ue l Gompers (Yellow Spring s , 1963 ) .

H . Wayne Morgan , Eugene V . Debs ; Social ist for
Pre side nt ( Syracuse , 1962r:--
Henry Pelling , American Labor ( Chicago , 1960 ) .
Selig Perlman and Philip Taft , A History of Labor in
the United States , 1896 -1932 ,-IV : Labor-MovementS,
in J ohn R . C ommons , et al . , History� 1935 ) .
Louis B . Perry and R i char�S . Perry , A History of the
Los Angeles Labor Movement , 1911- 19�1 (Berkeley , ---
--

1953) .
Howard H . Quint , The Forging of American Soc i alism
( Columbia, S . C::-1953) . -
Joseph G . Rayback, A Hist ory of Ameri can Labor
( NY , 1959 j rev . , 19bb'j.- -

Albert Ree s and Donald P . Jacob s , Real Wage s in

Manufacturing , 1890- 1914 ( Princeton, 1961 ) .­
Walter B. R ideout , The Radical Nove l in the Un ited
State s , 1900- 1954;-8ome InterrelationshiPs of
Literature and SocietY( Cambridge , 1956) . -
David A . Shannon , ---
The Soc ialist Party of America
--

( NY , 1955 ) .
Robert Wayne Smith , The C oeur d ' Alene Mining War of
1282 ; A C ase Study of an Industrial Dispute-- -­

( Corvallis , Oregon , -Y9bl) .

Phi lip Taft , The A . F . of L . in the T ime of Gompers
( NY , 1957 ) .
- - - - - - --- - --

, Organized Labor in American H i story ( NY , 1964 ) .

Stephan Thernstrom, Poverty and Progre s s ; Soc ial
Mobility in a Nineteenth Century C ity ( Cambridge ,
--

1964) . --
-

Lloyd Ulman , The R i se of the Nat i onal Uni on ; The

Deve lopment and-significance of Its Structure;
Governing Inst itut ions , and Economic Pol icies
( Cambridge , 1955) . ---
Norman J . T,Jare , The Labor Movement in the United
St ate s , 1860 -1895 ; A Study in Democracy (NY, 1929) .
Le on Wolff , Lockout ; The StorY-of the Home stead Strike
of 1892 ; ?:. Study ofViole'IiC'e , uniOrii sm, and the
C arnegie Steel Empire ( NY , 1965 ) .

Samue l Yelle n , American Lab or Struggles ( NY , 1936) .

Irwin Yellowit z , Labor and the Progre s s ive Movement
i n New York St ate , 1879-19lb ( Ithaca , 1965 ) .
 66
REP L I T E RA TURE L I ST

�EP �TUDY GU I DES 1 5¢ e ac h

P owe r i n Ame r i c a n S o c i e t y - Jim J �c o b s
The N e w Le f t - Ha l Benenson
Me rx i s� ; An I n t ro d u c t i o n - M i k e Go l �f i e l d
, ,. S . F o re i g n P0 l i ey and I rnp e r i a I i sm - S t e v e J 0 h n s o n
: {a d l c b F srr, i n Ame r i c a n H i s t o r y ( S em i n a r ) - \I/ � l z e r,R r: r e 9 g
' ,, 5 . l i c y Tovl a r d C h i n a S i n c e Vi" I I I - He n ry H i'l s l c: c h
Po
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NAD I S O tj S O S L I T E R;\ TURE

D e v e l o p me n t of
t h e Ame r i c a n P o l i t i c a l E c o n o m y g A
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Wi scon s i n 5 3 7 03 .

N E W E RA BOOK S HO P , I NC .
f e a t u r i n g b o o k s o n A f r O - Am e r i c a n h i s t o r y ,
Ma r x i sm_
L e n i n i sm p P h i l o s o o h y . P o l i t i c a l E r. o n o m y ,
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(lAn d w h e n t he h i p p i es say t o Ame r i c a ; V Forge t that
s q u a re s c e n e c a l l e d p o l i t i c s and l i ve , o o n e s i mp l y
has t o ask : S o wh a t e l s e i s new? Ra t i o n a l i ze d a p a t h y
is t h e n ame o f t he m i d d l e c l a s s g ame , the s ty l i s t i c
e s sence o f t h e n o t o r i o u s m i d d l e c l a s s s u rre n de r to t he
supers t a t e . A n d b e t we e n a po l i t i ca l a p a t hy wh i c h is
ra t i o n a l i z e d a n d o n e wh i c h i s poe t i c i ze d , I fai I to
see an i mp o r t a n t o p e ri9 t i o n a l d i f f e re nc e . "

. • • OF POLITICS AND OPINION

TH E AC T I V I ST
2 7 � W . Co l l e g e , Obe r l i n , O . $2/yr. J s amp l e s o n req u e s t

Amo n g f o rme r c o n t r i b u t o rs : G re g C a l ve r t , Tom H a y d e n ,

S t aughton Lyn d , Re n n i e Da v i s , a n d E d g a r F r i e d e n b e rg .

s u b s c r i b e now t o N EW SOUTH STUDENT

mo n t h l y ma g a z i n e o f the
S o u t h e rn S t u de n t O rg a n i z i n g C o rrm i t t e e
featuri ng:
- - a n a l y s e s o f S o u t h e r n p o l i t i c s a n d S o u t h e rn
rad i ca l h i s t o ry
--comme n t a ry o n t h e d ra f t a n d f o re i g n p o l i c y
--book re v i ews , p o e t ry , a n d mu s i c
- - news c o ve r a ge o f t h e mo veme n t
� 4 0 00 a y e a r ; s amp l e c o P y 5 0 ¢

T h e New So u t h S t u d e n t
P.O. B o x 6 403
Nash v i I I e , Te n n . 37 2 1 2

TOTA L 436 1 5

I
I
l
 (Con tinued frcm i n s i de front cove r )

AI,\ERICA to contact us at o n c e , \'/e are now seeking

Asso c i ates in various c i ties who are interested in
making a commitment of time, i ntellect, and perhaps
money to the end of shap i n� and improving our content
and form.

A s the reader I'd I I notep Vol. Ip No. 3 is f a r

more readable than p r-evious issues. \'Ie look towards
steady improvement and r-eques t of our readers sugges_
tions and criticisms -- but add f rankly t h a t this
p roblem� like many othe r s ; can be so lved o n l y
b y financ i a l contributions. I f you think RADICAL
M\ERICA is o r- can be i mportantp we ask you to help us
i n any way you can.

lastly? we apolog i ze f o r the late ness of th i ,,:

issue. The events in Madi son made it tempo r a r i I y
imposs i ble to reach our dead l i n e . It i s unders tood
that subsc r i ption., \'/i 1 1 be f i l I ed by number and n o t
b y time l i m i t .

Our Contributors

ROI3ERT GABRINER, now a g rcduate student at the Uni­

versity of Vlisconsin? Horkeel with Jesse Grey before
c n d during the 1963-64 rent strike campeign; DArHEl
i:,ACGI lVRAY is a g raduate student at Rutgers Univer-
sity; ,·.-\ARK D. N A I S O N , now c graduate student at Columbia,
or-qan i zed rent strikes i n East Her- r em i n 1963-6�, and
has s i nce done tenants� o r g anizing o n the V/es t S ide;
JAnES V!EINSTEINp an e d i tor of S t udies £!:!. the Lef.! >
hE'S recently had h i s DECLINE OF SCCIALI Sf.'\ I N Af'''ERICA ;
1 912_1925 pub l ished by MR Press,