BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The Ronald B. Saunders Project
GI Resistance Movement Archives
Pittsburgh PA
November 11, 2010
Ronald B. Saunders was part of a revolutionary militant group of Black GI's known as the Fort Sam 7, who published and distributed Pro-Black Panther pamphlets on January 19, 1968 at Fort Sam Houston Texas supporting Black Power, and we were vehemently against the racially oppressive wars that were being waged against the colored peoples of South East Asia.
We advised all
Black and Puerto Ric an GIs to refuse to go to Vietnam or anywhere that the U.S. government was conducting wars against the native colored populations. We provided outside counsel to any GI who refused to serve in said Republic of Vietnam, and we worked in concert with other outside Anti-War Organizations, and the
Oakland Chapter of the Black Panther Party for
Self-Defense.We set up
conscience raising circles that were designed to enhance the Black and
Puerto Ricans GIs levels of awareness to the actions of the racially oppressive U.S. Military, and its government.
We conducted intense two-week, four hour a day sessions that dealt with the restoration of true Black pride and culture, and Alton Jones whom we all called PRIDE along with Blogger Black Buzz conducted these sessions which were open to all Black and
Puerto Rican GI's. White
GIs were also welcome only if they had the
mentality o
f one our heroes the radical Abolitionist
John Brown.
No whites joined are our organization nor were they recruited. But we did have working relationships with progressive organizations and groups such as the SDS and Maoist centered organizations.
Pride and I gave each new inductee a heavy dose of what Black pride was really about long before James Brown's "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." We told them we wanted to make it perfectly clear that they must be proud of everything about their person from their woolly hair, big lips, broad noses, and dark skin tone and color that they are somebody of importance and that they have worth as individuals; and to say it loud and clear I'm Black and I'm Proud.
Each Negro that we recruited was a Detroit Red, a Boston Blackie, New York Red, or Chicago Brownie and it was our job to resurrect and build a new type of Negro, and turn that Negro into proud and educated Black man. We taught each new member that the first education one receives should be the knowledge of self and your history, and not the American White man's version of your history. We reminded each new inductee that the victors of that warped Manifest Destiny Policy of White Supremacy of the last 150 years had the luxury of writing the history in the fraudulent school boy books. Each new inductee into our Organization was a work in progress, and a big challenge but it was our charge to make that Negro into a new proud being.
It was a very difficult task because of the 400 plus years of intense Euro brainwashing, and indoctrination that has been so devastating on the psychic of each person of color in the USA.
Each new member was required to read the Autobiography of Malcolm X, various speeches by Malcolm X, Chairman Mao's Little Red Book, Invisible Man, 100 Amazing Facts On The Negro, Africa's Gift To America, Black Skin and White Mask, The Wretched of The Earth, The Soul Of Black Folks, The Suppression of The Slave Trade, Revolutionary Life, by Che Guevara, and various other books by Che etc.
You had to listen to, and understand Nina Simone's Anthology of Four Women, and Goddamn Mississippi. Lessons +Critiquing and oral exams were given to each GI at different intervals of their development.
They were taught that Africans resisted their forced enslavement from the first day the first European set foot on the African Continent, and the first Africans in the so-called new world in Brazil conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Portuguese slavers, and other Europeans. They were taught that the Africans always fought against the Euro Slave powers, their Africans surrogates, and their colonial masters.
I personally taught my fellow brothers on the successes and the weaknesses of the proud Mau Mau's, and the impact of the Mau Mau movement on the other revolutionary movements on the African Continent.
I taught them how the Talmudic Rabbinical Scholars first introduced the concept and idea that Blacks were cursed through Ham, and how they passed it on to the Christan European Theologians during the Middle Ages. Thus we are still suffering from that racist ideology of those ancient Rabbinical Scholars.
I gave them comprehensive lessons on each period in Egypt's glorious history (Kemet) from the Archaic Period to the Late Period.
( I ) emphasized the fact that the Egyptians of the Archaic Period, The Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdo
m were predominately Black, and that the Egyptians are descendants of
Mizriam, who was one of Ham's sons.
I taught the new members correctly that Africa was the birth place of man, civilization, and the Garden of Eden. I further taught them that the Garden of Eden was a luxurious, warm, plentiful place of fruits and other splendid things. They were also taught that Europe was the this cold Barbaric heathen place, and that Greece was the first European Country to have a civilization. They were also taught long before the popular Afrocentric Scholarship of the past twenty five years that the Greeks stole and copied many of their ideas of government, worship, culture from my proud Egyptians.
This was a serious movement, and we weren't just sitting around listening to the Last Poets, or rapping about non-sense, or shooting the breeze. This is why the U.S. Army was scared to death of our Movement. All of the social changes that were happening in the U.S. society were also occurring in the U.S. Military and it was twice as hard, and difficult organizing in the Military in comparison to civilian life. And the U.S. Military was not prepared for all of these political and social changes.
Alton (Pride) Jones was the theoretician of our organization and Ronald B. Saunders (Blogger Black Buzz) was the meticulous planner, organizer and recruiter for new members.
Alton Jones was a member of SNCC, and a graduate of Howard University. Alton was also a close friend of Stokely Carmichael ( Kwame Ture). At Central State University I was a member of a SNCC off-shoot called Unity For Unity.
I along with Sam Anderson of Pittsburgh was part of a delegation of Antioch College Students and Central St. Students who attempted to integrate Gegner's barbershop in the fall of 1963 in Yellow Springs Ohio. Mr Gegner had refused to cut the hair of Blacks. I will write about that experience and the legal issues involved in Gegner's barbershop at a later date.
Most Afro GIs on the base ( Fort Sam) joined our organization, but the Negroes on the base avoided us as though we had the plague.
Chip Maxwell another member of our organization said Pride is the Lenin of this organization, and brother Saunders is the Leon Trotsky of our Organization.
One Negro from Pittsburgh Herb ( Herky)Moffett refused to join our organization, and he told one of my mentors at Central State University located in Wilberforce Ohio (Mrs. Austin) that was I was down in San Antonio causing trouble for the white man. I grew up with this same Herky on the Hill, and we played on the same Herron Hill Jr. High School Softball team. But I knew you could never trust a Negro.
I understand that even to this day how Negroes, and House Servants have always feared real authentic African Americans and African Caribbeans like Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Marcus Garvey, Nina Simone, and W.E. Dubois. Thus the internal battle between Negroes and African American people still wages to this day, and we can see how that conflict manifest in many different forms and pathologies.
One evening there was GI dance on hill at Fort Sam, and we had received word that a group of white Special Forces troopers were fighting with Black, and
Puerto Rican GIs and we came to the Black
GIs defense. Those white Special Forces got their tales kicked all over the place, an
d of course the MPs arrested only the Blacks and
Puerto Ricans.
The conflict between the
Special Forces, and
Blacks started because some of the white Special Force Troopers didn't like the fact the some of the White (females)
WAC's were dancing with Black and
Puerto Rican men.
Yes it was quite a battle, and their were many injuries on both sides. We gave those special forces guys the battle of their lives, and we were only a group of Black and Puerto Rican medics. But one of the Black GIs in our group was John Milner a professional Heavyweight boxer from Philadelphia, and he loved to fight and kick behind. Many of the Afro Americans and Puerto Rican brothers had been battled tested on the streets of the various cities throughout the 1960's, and who participated in the violent popular Urban Insurrections and Rebellions. Being in the Special Forces didn't mean a damn thing to the brothers who came from Harlem, Brownsville, Red hook, Brooklyn, the Bronx, the Hill District of Pittsburgh, the Filmore District, South or North Philly, the East Side of Cleveland, D.C., Roxbury in Boston, the South side of Chicago, or Watts in L.A., Detroit, Gary Indiana, Camden New Jersey, Newark, the East Side of Columbus Ohio, Avon dale in Cincinnati, East St. Louis, Nap town, and other towns and cities in the USA. Note many of these cities had erupted before the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr such as in Watts , Detroit, Newark, the Huff area in Cleveland. Further the residents of the Harlem section of New York City were always engaged in combat with the racially oppressive white police, and the absent Jewish landlords.
Some of the brothers had gone to Jump School, and they were bona-fide paratroopers, and they didn't mind a good fight . They would always shout " I wanna be an Airborne-Ranger." "I wanna live the life of danger". "Airborne-Ranger."
The
Special Forces troopers were at
Fort Sam to get specialized medical training. Fort Sam Houston was one of the Army's Medical Training Centers, and all the
Black and Puerto Ricans were in training to be medics, but we kicked those Special Forces butt's.
Even before we passed out our literature to each
Black and Puerto Rican GIs on the base ( Fort Sam) on January 19, 1968 we were under surveillance and investigation by the
Army's G2, CID, and other elements within the top security apparatus of the U.S. Government.
Prior to the passing out of our
literature on January 19, 1968 Blogger Black Buzz received an Article 15, and fourteen days extra duties, barracks restriction for a physical confrontation with a white cadet Sergeant during a 3 am shakedown.
My CO Lt.
Fairchild said I shouldn't have sucker punched his sergeant . I told
Fairchild that we was talking to me in a nasty disrespectful manner." Lt.
Fairchild basically tolerated me because I was a good athlete, and leader.
Fairchild was trying to convince me to go into Officer's Candidate School, and I told
Fairchild that (
OCS) wasn't for me and that I had 2 years of Army ROTC. Lt.
Fairchild played QB at some college in Utah.
Taken from GI Archives + Press and Movement Organizations, 1965-1972
1968- January. Chicago-First Issue of Vietnam GI Published
....Fort Sam Houston-GIs publish pro-panther pamphlet supporting " Black Power...
Free the Fort Dix 38" petition distributed in GI papers across the country... May 15, Grand Forks AFB-GI and GI wives for Peace coffee house with Dave
Dellinger...
www.sirnosir.com/timeline/chronology_GI_press.html-coached-similar
PUBLIC PROTESTS- 1965-1972
The Film- CHRONOLOGY OF GI RESISTANCE{ Protests and Demonstrations}{ Combat Refusal and Refusal of Orders}
{ AWOL and Desertion}{ {Papers, Coffeehouses and Organizations}
{ Riots and Rebellions} { Harassment and Repression}
1965April 17
Washington D.C-First large antiwar demonstrations, organized by SDS
October 11
New York City-A large group of World War 2 veterans join 25,000 other people in the first big demonstration against the Vietnam War.
October 11
Ad Hoc Committee of Veterans for Peace in Vietnam founded.
November 2Washington D.C.- Norman Morrison sets himself on fire in front of the Pentagon in protest of the war in Vietnam.
November 6
El Paso- Lieutenant Henry H. Howe, Jr Joins a demonstration to protest the war in Vietnam. Off -duty and wearing civilian clothes, he carried a placard which read, "End Johnson's Fascist Aggression In Vietnam," Although he broke no laws, including military regulations, he was arrested and surrendered to military police.
November 9
New York City-Roger Allen LaPorte sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in protest of the war in Vietnam.
November 24
The Ad Hoc Committee of Veterans For Peace in Vietnam sponsor a full page ad in the New York Times denouncing the war in Vietnam. The ad contains the signatures of 500 veterans.
1967
June 1
New York City-Vietnam Veterans Against the War founded.
June 23
Berkeley-First Issue of the Bond published.
July 1New York City-Committee for GI Rights founded.
July 21
Richard Perrin publishes antiwar statement in the Bond.
September 1
Chicago-First issue of Veterans Stars and Stripes For Peace published.
November 12
PFC James Chung published Antiwar-statement in the Bond.
December 10U.S. Navy reportedly warns its personnel in South Vietnam to avoid Peace groups whose members would try to induce them to desert.
December 24
American Servicemen's Union Founded at Fort Sill.
1968
* Chicago- First issue of Vietnam GI Published.
* Columbia- Fred Gardner opens First GI Coffee House the UFO.
January 19
* Fort Sam Houston- 7 Black GIs ( Kenneth Calloway, Tyrone Exum, Alton Jones, Chip Maxwell, Robert Meek, Ronald B. Saunders, Zachary Scott) printed, and distributed Pro- Black Power, Black Panther pamphlets that said in part: " What happens when, or rather if , a brother comes back from Vietnam? He still has to be bothered by the same old honkie racism. On Christmas leave, a train of GIs stopped in Texas. Some Black troops went inside to eat, but were made to sit in the 'Black Section'or to take the food out or they weren't served. They were wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army, but they were still Black."
*
The people in the Old Confederacy, and throughout the country didn't give care about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and I had refusal to serve cases in Ligonier and Grove City PA in the 1970's while employed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Pittsburgh Regional Office.
I will stop here for now, but it must be said we were told that we were the first group or organization of Black GIs who resisted the war in Vietnam and all of the systemic racism in the military. I must say that as young bucks ( Bloods) we didn't realize that at the time how revolutionary, and important our actions were as we became part of the history of the GI Resistance Movement, and the Anti-War Movement and the continued struggle for Black Liberation. We are all proud to be included in any film that tells the story of the Fort Sam 7, who were really over 300+ Black and proud men. How can any legitimate author write a book about Black soldier resistance in any era, and not mentioned the famous Fort Sam 7? When we graduated from the Medical Training Center in February 1968 the following members of the Fort Sam 7 were sent to the following country's:
1. Kenneth Calloway- Panama
2. Tyrone Exum- Stateside
3. Alton Pride Jones- West Germany
4.Chip Maxwell- West Germany
5. Robert Meek- West Germany
6. Ronald B. Saunders- West Germany
7. Zachary Scott- West Germany
I told the folks in G2 that we wouldn't go to jail if sent to Vietnam, but we would organize every Black and Puerto Rican, Native American and others into a separate military to fight U.S. Military aggression.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr., said in his famous Riverside Baptist Church speech in New York in 1967 that the United States government was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.
Dr King, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Nat Turner, Che, Chairman Mao, Chief Crazy Horse, Ramses II, Imhotep, Askia Muhammad, Olaudah Equiano, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Cinque, William and Ellen Craft, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Shields Green, John Copeland, Chief Victorio, Marcus Garvey, Geronimo, and Malcolm X, Toussaint L'Ouverture the slave who beat Napoleon, were our heroes along with the great Frantz Fanon.
*The Fort Sam 7 brothers who went to bases in West Germany kept alive what we had started at Fort Sam Houston by organizing the Black troops in West Germany.
I along with Thomas Barlow of Philadelphia, Tim Holt of Detroit organized the Black troops within the Third Armored Division in West Germany into Afro-American Soldiers Clubs, which were cells of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. We were infiltrated and investigated again by the highest levels of G2, and charged with various violations of the U.S. Military Code of Justice. All of the Army's charges were bogus, and they couldn't prove any of the alleged violations. I was represented by the prominent New York attorney Roland Watts, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. also assisted me and other Black GIs with numerous trumped up charges. Note the U.S. Military was dead set on destroying our Movement because they sent my top leader Tom Barlow to Vietnam, but he never reported to duty, and they transferred brother Holt to some other obscure base in West Germany.
I would love to have a reunion with the Fort Sam 7, and I haven't talked with any of those men since 1968.
I once saw Chip Maxwell at the 97TH General Hospital while I was on a hospital run in Frankfurt Germany, and he told me he had received word that Pride was up for a Court Martial for plotting to overthrow the U.S. government. We both knew that charges against Pride were false and bogus.
West Germany was an extreme hot bed of racial confrontations between Black and white troops. Two White GIs from Alabama stabbed to death a Black GI in K-town or Kaiserslautern in the spring of 1968, and the entire base erupted into major violence. The two white murderers were secretly send back to the states at 2: A.M. in the morning from Rhein Mein Airport.
When Dr. King was murdered in April 1968 every base in West Germany was put on lock-down as Black and Puerto Rican GIs were attacking white troops at Enlisted Clubs, NCO Clubs, and everywhere. They didn't have enoug MPs in Germany to put down all of the battle zones.
A real big brother from Chicago named Sanford knocked out a white GI at the Enlisted Men's club on our base at Kirch-Gons, and a major battle erupted between Black and White troops. Another brother name Smith from L.A. in A Company of the 3/36 infantry at Girch-Gons hit a white Sergeant over the head with a bunk adapter after the Sergeant called Smith a "nigger."
A white GI from Kentucky stabbed one our boys in my organization in Frankfurt and we retaliated by beating the White GI.
When Dr. King was murdered many fire base's in Viet nam erupted.
Black and White Marines fought hand to hand against each other at Khe Sanh, and they shot and killed each other. There was numerous fraggings between Black, and White troops in Vietnam. All the Black and Puerto Rican troops that were housed and detained at LBJ prison fought and attacked white troops after King was murdered. Major confronational shooting battles were common place between between Black and white troops in the Army, and the Marines.
Blacks attacked their white comrades who were flying the Confederate flag at Binh Thuan in 1968, and these same White troopers had sent mortars into a Black compound. Blacks were systematically discriminated against in all the systems of assignments and promotions throughout the U.S. Military in both the states and overseas. Blacks were always last in receiving decorations, promotions, and assignments. The Blacks were not only at War with the Viet Cong, and NVA but also with their white fellow troopers and white America. Many Brothers attacked their white officers in both the Vam and West Germany. There were over 100 fraggings, or grenade attacks, on army officers during the summer of 1969. A favorite tactic of the white racist was to flaunt the Confederate flag.
Check this out at An-Loc, whites raised the Confederate flag over one camp, and later a gas grenade was hurled at into all Black barracks.
When brother James Taylor, a Black asked the new company commander to tell the Inspecter General that the racial situation was out of hand, the captain refused to listen. Brother Taylor was so damn out raged that he killed his commander before several witnesses. He was sentenced to 15 years in a federal penitentiary.
A childhood friend of mine who grew up on Francis Street in the Hill, Michael X said we had to take care of the bad actors in his Unit, and Charlie.
There were many unsolved killings between Black, and Whites in the Jungles of Vietnam, and you won't here a word about these killings or incidents on fake programs like 60 Minutes or Night Line.
At Camp Lejune North Carolina Black troops rebelled for 4 straight days in 1966. In 1970 a group of Black troopers in Vietnam through a hand grenade into a White bar/club injuring 67 Whites and Vietamese.
Yes there are stories where Black and white GIs fought harmoniously in the Vam but the USA hadn't been this divided over a war since the great conflict between the States in 1861.
I recall receiving a letter from one of my classmates from Fort Sam who was sent to Vietnam, and he informed me of the following. He stated that his squad was involved in a fire fight with Charlie and they got the drop on him and this white trooper, but Charlie told him that he could leave the scene. He further stated that Charlie told him in some broken Viet Langauge that he was free to leave, but the white guy had to stay. He further reported that Charlie told him that he shouldn't be over here fighting for the USA against him. My former classmate who was from Detroit also stated that Charlie said they had fought the Black Sudanese back in the early fifties, and they had kicked their butts along with the racist French. The brother from Detroit said he begin to walk away and he heard shots ring out and he turned around and shot both of the VC's with his 45 that they forgot to take. He said "Saunders they shot the Honkie's head off" but he was an American, and when they did that to him I froze, and I shot those bastards." Later he wrote me and stated that he was in Japan because his legs were blown off by a mine or boo boo trap. I never heard from him again.
I do recall when he was at Fort Sam that he flirted with our movement, and he always had one step in the movement and one step out of the movement because he enjoyed that (Detroit Red ) type of lifestyle.
Chip also stated that he had traveled to Libya, and Algeria and he had enjoyed himself . I told chip that I had planned to visit Morocco and Algeria in the very near future. I did travel to Copenhagen Denmark, Holland and Paris France. I remember visiting the Left Bank in Paris, and Canal Street in Amsterdam.
I traveled throughout Italy, Switzerland, West Germany, Austria, with a young WAC by the name of Evelyn, who was Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Haitian and Italian, and she lived across the street from the famous Albert Anastasia in New York. We wrote each other a couple of times after we were discharged from Uncle Sam, and I still have many pictures of her, and the country of Italy.
I spent five days in Spain, and stayed at a sea side resort on the coast of Spain called the Costa Del Sol. I still have the Post Card that I had written to my mother from that sea side resort in Spain.
The U.S. Military refused to let me swim in the Berlin Games because they said I was a secuirty risk. I replied "a risk to what and where." I wasn't in any kind of swimming shape because I hadn't swum competitively since the fall of 1963, but that was my way of traveling to Berlin.
I have earned a double doctorate in the school of life. I went from growing on Francis Street in the Hill District to walking six miles home after basketball, and track practice at Slippery Rock Area Joint High School to meeting with the South African Ambassador to the U.S. at the South Africa Embassy to breaking bread with the Dr Leon Sullivan at his church in Philadelphia in an effort to lure GM into the state of Penna to build the now defunct Saturn Automobile.
Indeed this was quite a feat for a young brother growing on Francis Street, who came from a Black middle class family that I have already written a ton on previously.
My Brigade Commander Colonel Papille said "Saunders you are one of the brightest, and most dangerous GIs that I have ever commanded." I told the Colonel that my mind was the biggest weapon that I had in my arsenal, and that you could investigate/infiltrate our organization, but I will still be Black and Proud. Kirch-Gons was also known as the 'Rock, and it was the toughest and meanest base in West Germany.
To write about all my activities in West Germany, and Denmark would require another 200 pages so I will stop for the time being, but my involvement at Fort Sam Houston and at Kirch-Gons West Germany and throughout West Germany was part of the GI Resistance Movement and the struggle for Black Liberation.
Malcolm X said, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."
I have been standing up for Negroes, and others all of my life even when they didn't have the stamina, heart or courage to stand up for themselves.
Note the New Pittsburgh Courier did write a weak article about me in May 1974 titled Black Man Calls For Scrutiny of The Civil Rights Act of 1866. This article also touched briefly on some of my activities in West Germany. Most Negroes don't even know what the Civil Rights Act of 1866 is or was.
Happy Veterans Day to the 23 Million U.S. Veterans.
*The Struggle Must Continue.
* Never forget the 167 brave Black men of the 25th Infantry Division whom I will call the Brownsville 167)
* Since I wrote this post I had a Negro call me, and he asked me was I concerned about getting a Bad Conduct Discharge or a Dishonorable Discharge.
I responded to the Negro by saying was "sister Rosa Parks afraid of getting arrested and hauled off to jail?" I asked the Negro this question! What did sister Harriett Tubman tell the Boots who where in slavery that didn't want to go with her on the Underground Railroad to freedom? The Negro remained silent. Further I asked the Negro was John Carlos, and Tommy Smith scared of the repercussions they would receive as a result raising their clinched fists at 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City?
I told the Negro that all of the Negro athletes at 1968 Summer Olympics had agreed to stand -up and show some type of solidarity with the cause of Black Liberation and the systemic discriminatory plight of Blacks in the USA, but only Carlos and Smith emerged as the only true Black people.
Again the Negro was silent. I asked the Negro "what was he doing when all of the historic revolutionary changes were taking place in the USA in the 50's, 60's and 70's. The dumb Negro replied that he was sitting on the side-lines watching the social changes on TV, and living in LA LA Land. I also asked the Negro was he aware of the fact that two brave, and bold Duquesne University African American Law School faculty members have filed racial bias suits against the Fourth-Tier Law School at Duquesne? Again the Negro looked dumbfounded. I would like to commend, and give
Kudos to Kellen McClendon and
Mrs Vanessa Browne- Barbour for standing up to the racial injustices, and overt, and undercover discrimination at Duquesne Law School. The Negro asked me did Duquesne Law School admit that they discriminated against the two African American faculty members. I asked the Negro what planet did he live on? I also asked him has he ever known a discriminator, sexist or racist admit to their discriminatory behavior or actions? The Negro stuttered in answering my question.
Furthermore I informed the Negro that the Pittsburgh Branch of the NAACP had two racial discrimination complaints against Duquesne University in 1976 that were filed by African American students. And Bob Pitts head of the Labor and Industry Committee of the Pittsburgh Branch of the NAACP asked me to accompany him as he met with the Respondents ( Duquesne ). Bob considered Brothers like me and the late Dennis Schatzman as heavyweights that he could rely on too kick butt, and who werent afraid of work place reprisals or retaliation by the system. Indeed Duquesne University did discriminate against the African American students in question and I pointed out to Bob where the disparate treatment existed. I rest my case for now.
Dennis and I were both members of the Pittsburgh Branch NAACP and said Labor Industry Committee. Blogger Black Buzz was also a member of the Greensburg-Jeanette PA NAACP, and the beautiful Connie Craig was the President of that chapter.
Blackbuzz was also a faithful member of the Burgettstown PA NAACP headed by the late Ralph Smith, and the honorable Dorothy Atkins. It seems as though every community that Blogger Black Buzz worked in they adopted him as one of their own family members.
*
The Editor notes that the above pictures are as follows:
A. Picture number 1 is the port in Algecircas, Spain with the Rock of Gilbrator in the back ground.
B. Picture number 2 is my only picture in the Army Green dress uniform which you were required to wear when hopping from US base to base.
C. Picture number 3 I'm giving the Black Power raised fist salute at the U.S. Army Training Center in Hohenfels Germany.
D. Picture number 4 shows me swimming backstroke at the Torrejon Air Force Base in Madrid, Spain. Note I will be doing an extensive blog post on our Herron Hill Jr. High School Swimming team that won back to back swimming titles in 1956 and 1957 in Pittsburgh, PA. Note the Herron Hill Jr. High School teams of 1955 to 1957 featured the greatest Black Swimmers on any one team in the history of the US.
E. Picture number 5 shows my friend Evelyn and me sitting on the steps of a cafe outside of Aviano Italy.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
