July 27, 1964 - A left-wing Harlem Negro was said today to have urged Negroes to kill policemen and judges.
Testimony by police witnesses in New York State Supreme Court ascribed the actions to William Epton, leader of the Harlem Defense Council and a top member of the Progressive Labor Movement. He was also said to have urged Negroes to lure policemen into side streets where they could be bombarded with bottles and other missiles.
Justice Gerald P. Culkin continued a restraining order against demonstrations in Harlem by Epton’s group and by Jesse Gray’s Community Council on Housing. The restraining orders have been sought by the city to avert further racial disorders.
There were these other developments in New York City’s race problems:
— Police Commissioner Michael Murphy transferred five Negro sergeants into the three Harlem precincts to replace five whites.
— The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King flew to New York at the invitation of Mayor Robert Wagner and met with the Mayor at Gracie Mansion.
— A Harlem unity committee held a press conference at which Dr. King’s presence in the city was denounced. A spokesman said Harlem leaders were “mad as hell at Mayor Wagner for importing Dr. King from Atlanta to discuss problems of Harlem.
— The City Council, in a move endorsed by Mayor Wagner, arranged for a five-member subcommittee to go to Philadelphia tomorrow to study operations of that city’s five-member citizens board for handling charges of police brutality.
— A grand jury spent more than two hours today hearing several witnesses in the killing of James Powell, the 15-year-old Negro youth who was shot dead by an off-duty police lieutenant, Thomas Gilligan. This incident was instrumental in touching off the Harlem racial rioting.

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