July 19, 1964 - Jesse Gray (pictured), the leader of the Harlem rent strike, called in a speech today for “100 skilled black revolutionaries who are ready to die” to correct what he called “the police brutality situation in Harlem.”
With his face bandaged and swollen from a beating he said he had received last night at the hands of the police, Gray mounted the rostrum at the Mount Morris Presbyterian Church at 122nd Street and Mount Morris Avenue West.
“There is only one thing that can correct the situation, and that’s guerrilla warfare,” he said.
He was greeted by applause from the audience of 500, about half of them Black Nationalists.
Gray said he was seeking platoon captains who could each recruit 100 men loyal to them.
“This city can be changed by 50,000 well organized Negroes. They can determine what will happen in New York City,” he declared.
The rent-strike leader drew loud and extended applause as he described the Police Department as “deeply rooted with hatred and racism.”
He said the “Police Department in Harlem is 99% white” and declared that “there is money in murder in Harlem” and that “graft is a concession for loyalty to the police to white merchants and other persons in the power structure.” These words also brought cheers.
Gray said that the height of last night’s disturbance he had heard a policeman pointing him out to a group of other police, saying: “That’s Jesse Gray. Get him.”
He characterized Police Commissioner Michael Murphy as a “crumb snatcher and a stooge for Mayor Wagner.”
As Gray made his plea for guerrilla leaders, a young woman distributed cards to those in the audience wishing to volunteer.
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