Senator THURMOND. Has the United Community Corp., known as the UCC of Newark, been infiltrated by the black power groups? Mr. MILLARD. I don't have any knowledge of that, sir. Not to my knowledge. Senator THURMOND. What about area boards 2 and 3? Mr. MILLARD. I would say three. Senator THURMOND. How is that? Mr. MILLARD. I would say area board 3. Mr. MILLARD. I would say area board 3. Senator THURMOND. Were any United Community Corp. employees seen at any of the more disorderly demonstrations? Mr. MILLARD. Yes, sir. Senator THURMOND. You say they were? Mr. MILLARD. They were at demonstrations. Senator THURMOND. Were any United Community Corp. employees arrested for participating in the riots? Mr. MILLARD. Not to my knowledge, sir. Senator THURMOND. Do you know Charles McRae ? Mr. MILLARD. Yes, sir. Senator THURMOND. Was he arrested? Mr. MILLARD. I am not certain; I think he was. Senator THURMOND. What position does he hold with the UCC? Mr. MILLARD. I don't know the position he holds. I am not even clear if he is employed there. Senator THURMOND. How is that? Mr. MILLARD. I am not clear on whether he is employed there or not. Senator THURMOND. Is he an accountant with UCC? Mr. MILLARD. I don't know, sir. Senator THURMOND. You don't know? Mr. MILLARD. No, sir. Senator THURMOND. Do you believe that much of the agitation came from the employees of the United Community Corp.? Mr. MILLARD. Yes, sir. I believe they contributed-put it this way. Senator THURMOND. Do you know a Mr. Lofton? Mr. MILLARD. Yes, sir. Senator THURMOND. What is his position? Mr. MILLARD. He is a lawyer, legal services, UCC. Senator THURMOND. Can you tell us what part he played in these matters, if any? Mr. MILLARD. Well, he has made appearances at the city hall planning board hearings, the board of education hearings, and he has spoken. Transcripts of what was said by anyone is being made right now, complete transcripts. Senator THURMOND. Do you have any other information with regard to UCC in connection with these riots that would be helpful to this committee? Mr. MILLARD. No, sir; I don't. Senator THURMOND. That will be all, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. We certainly thank you. Mr. MILLARD. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Felicetta, Buffalo, N.Y. Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God? Mr. FELICETTA. I do. The CHAIRMAN. State your occupation and your name for the record. TESTIMONY OF COMMISSIONER FRANK N. FELICETTA, DEPARTMENT OF POLICE, BUFFALO, N.Y. Mr. FELICETTA. Frank N. Felicetta, commissioner of police of the city of Buffalo, N.Y. The CHAIRMAN. Do you have a prepared statement? Mr. FELICETTA. No, I do not, Mr. Chairman. I do have some notes. I have some official reports, and I have some statements that I would like to comment on. The CHAIRMAN. When was there a riot in Buffalo? Mr. FELICETTA. I never said that there was a riot in Buffalo. We did have some civil disorders, starting on the 26th day of June and continuing for five or six nights. The CHAIRMAN. Now, tell us what happened. Mr. FELICETTA. Well, I believe we have to go back to the third day of May, 1967, at which time the YMCA had a carnival on their property at 347 East Ferry Street, which is in the heart of the Negro area. The purpose of this was to raise funds for the "Y". Police officers detailed to this affair, and others, said three Black Muslims wearing "Fruit of Islam" uniforms and caps with the initials "FI" on their caps, talking to a group of youngsters 75 to 100 strong. These three men were complete strangers in the area, and not known to anyone. The youngsters left in a group shortly thereafter and proceeded about a block to Jefferson Avenue, where they proceeded to break windows in several business places. One of them, Ben's Pawn Shop, was entered and a large amount of merchandise stolen. The group fought with officers at the scene and took from them two Negroes that they had taken into custody. The officers were also assaulted at this time. We go to June 24 at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, There was a show called, "Rhythm and Blues," which was attended by 8,000 to 10,000 youngsters, about 75 percent Negro, about 25 percent white. We had heard before this affair that there was going to be some attempt to get a concentration of police to come to the auditorium, and while the police were pulled away from the area that we were watching very closely, that wholesale looting, burning, and window-breaking would go on. We took the precautions not to strip our manpower from these areas, and several fights did break out at the Memorial Auditorium, and after the affair was over, several windows in the downtown area were broken by those who had attended this show, while on their way home to their neighborhoods. On June 27, between the hours of 12:30 a.m., and 5 a.m., a number of windows were broken by a band of vandals, approximately 50 to 70 in number, in two of our precincts in the city which are predominantly Negro. One of the arrests was made by a Negro officer, Patrolman Kirkland, who was with our tactical patrol unit. The arrest, the person arrested was Charles Wesley Taylor, who lived at 460 Monroe Street, and who stated he had arrived only a couple of days before that from Tennessee. The arresting officer was injured when a crowd attempted to take the prisoner away from him. The person whose window this youngster had broken refused to prosecute. Another youth was taken into custody for breaking windows in the Electric-Gas Co., which is an appliance store at 655 Genovese Street. Again, the owner refused to prosecute. There was some $1,200 damage done that night. The owner feared retaliation if he did prosecute, and he stated that the mother of the youth at one time had worked for that company. Another youth was apprehended that night for breaking windows in a plumbing supply firm on Broadway, which is two short blocks from this Electric-Gas Co. Again, the owner refused to prosecute. Officer Kirland stated that he had answered a trouble call involving some special police officers at the Lake View housing project earlier that evening, and that he recognized some of the same faces as being at the Lake View housing incident as those found at the scene of the broken windows. I have the report here, dated July 21. A Mr. Major Cox, who owns an apartment house at 226 Emsley Street, gave this report to the police: That at or about April 1, a young man who represented himself as a member of VISTA wanted to rent an apartment. A Mr. Don Pace, white, after seeing the apartment along with a Frederick D. Hudson, Negro, of Detroit, Mich., rented the apartment. The week of June 26, due to the disturbance in the area, Don Pace paid his one-half of the rent. He then moved out to another part of the city. By this time a Negro, Charles Harris, went to live with Hudson. Mr. Cox was having trouble collecting his rent and he did not want to have anything to do about it because Mr. Harris and Mr. Hudson said they would move out about the middle of July. On or about the 16th of July, Mr. Cox had occasion to visit 226 Emsley Street, which is the apartment in question, and he found 25 clean quart bottles and pop bottles and on the driveway was spilled gasoline. This concerned Mr. Cox so he called the police where an investigation was made. Mr. Cox was very much concerned about the gasoline on his property and the possibility of a fire. He was asked how he knew there was gasoline and he said he smelled it, and was sure that it was gasoline. Mr. Cox also went into the apartment and observed a lot of literature on black power pasted on the walls, pictures of black power and antiwhite. In the front room of this apartment was a bar in which was whisky and beer. From the neighbors Mr. Cox was able to find out that kids from the neighborhood in the 10-to-12 age group were in and out of this house all the time. He did not know, however, whether they were served drinks. Mr. Cox was in the company of Mr. Ambrose Lane of the local CIO, which members of VISTA is under his supervision. Mr. Cox said that Mr. Lane was surprised at what he saw at 226 Emsley. Getting back to this Fred Hudson that I mentioned, Fred Hudson was arrested about 7:30 p.m. on June 28, 1967. The slim, bespectacled youth said it was all a mistake. Hudson said he and other VISTA volunteers were sent into the street to help quell the disturbance about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. We were called out by Ambrose Lane, executive director of the Community Action Corporation. He urged all Negro males in VISTA to get on the streets and try to help Hudson, he said. When asked what he was doing in Buffalo by Courier reporter, Hudson said that VISTA members seldom serve in hometown organizations and go where the national organization sends them. The CHAIRMAN. What was that national organization? The CHAIRMAN. Do you know what VISTA stands for? On July 2, 1967, a New York State trooper stopped an automobile in East Aurora, N.Y., with Ohio license 3384PF. East Aurora is about 12 miles south of Buffalo. It is a village. In this car the following people were found: Willie Shanks, age 19 of 539 South Euclid, Dayton, Ohio; Leroy Williams, 19 of 800 Dennison Street, Dayton; Michael Lee Early, age 21, of 2205 Erie Street, Dayton. The above three admitted being in Buffalo, N.Y., during the disturbance. We contacted the Dayton, Ohio, Police Department and this is their response: In response to your request, we are enclosing copies of local records of the three subjects inquired about. Although Willie Shanks was the only one arrested in connection with our riot last December, all three subjects are well known to our detective section, and the opinion there is that they are agitators and will foment trouble whenever the opportunity presents itself. The CHAIRMAN. They were from Dayton? Mr. FELICETTA. That is right. This youngster, Willie Shanks, although he is only 19 years of age, he has had about a dozen and a half brushes with the law. One of our assistant chiefs of detectives received some information The CHAIRMAN. Is it correct that VISTA, which you spoke of, is OEO-sponsored as the domestic Peace Corps? Mr. FELICETTA. I don't know. I have a report here from the assistant chief of detectives when he received some anonymous information that a black Mustang automobile bearing Ohio license 125KC occupied by two colored men in the area of Broadway and Michigan Avenue, which is in the heart of this area, and they were intercepting police radio transmission. I have a report here from Floyd Edwards, who is an assistant chief of detectives and a Negro. On July 18, 1967. I spoke to a group of young Negroes at the JFK Community Center on Clinton Street. The main speaker at this meeting was a young Negro about 25 years old named John Wilson. He was the national fund-raising Chairman for SNCC. He is from Chicago, Illinois. His whole approach was one of hate and to appeal to the worst in the young audience. He impressed upon the kids that the black men in America don't want integration. "We want our own now." He insulted all white people in the audience called Dean Rusk a Honky fool, Robert McNamara a Honky warmonger. He appealed to the Negro boys to refuse to serve in the Armed Services. He told all that the Negro doesn't need Whitey conservatives or liberals. "Ours is a black man's problem, and the black man should solve it alone by taking what we want." On July 21 the assistant chief reports further he heard from an informant that a load of guns and men were coming in from Detroit in white Bonneville convertible. On July 26 he received a call from the chief of detectives that a load of guns was to be unloaded on Davis Street, this presumably from out of town, not substantiated. I have here two lengthy reports concerning a leader in the Black Muslim movement in Buffalo. I find myself in a strange situation, because this case has not been tried, and some of this information I think should be treated a little confidentially. Mr. Chairman, how far should I go with this? The CHAIRMAN. Well, we will follow you. We don't want to prejudice a case that is in its course. We will follow your judgment. Mr. FELICETTA. I will try to give you as much as I have without mentioning any names. The CHAIRMAN. That is all right. Mr. FELICETTA. Pursuant to my request from our intelligence and narcotics division, I asked for an investigation to ascertain who may have been responsible for the recent disorders in our city. At that time our narcotics unit was already engaged in an undercover-type investigation and surveillance relative to one Mr. X, I will call him, who was suspected by this unit of the unlawful sale of heroin and narcotic drugs out of his place of business. It is an Afro-Asian bookstore, and I won't identify the address at this time. The subject has used the name of Mr. X and several other names, identified as a member of the Muslim cult by the New York State Department of Corrections. Past investigation disclosed that subject is an avid follower of the nation of Islam, attending meetings at Mosque 23, Buffalo, N.Y. The subject has a lengthy criminal record dealing primarily with narcotics. He was born in New York City in 1923. He is a male Puerto Rican Negro. His mother is deceased. She was of Puerto Rican birth. Subject resided within New York City until his entrance into U.S. Army in 1942. During his Army career he was arrested and associated with illegal narcotic traffic. Subject consequently received a dishonorable discharge and has been confined almost continuously in various prisons since 1946. He was released following maximum expiration of sentence on September 18, 1964, and after serving a 30-day contempt sentence at the Erie County Penitentiary in which Buffalo is located, he decided to make his future in Buffalo. Subject is considered a cured narcotics addict and has undergone treatment at the U.S. Public Health Service hospital in Lexington, Ky. Subject's ex-wife, Mrs. X, has contacted this office and adamantly stated that her husband, Mr. X, had failed to live up to the tenets and beliefs of the Muslim cult and is no longer considered an active Muslim but more likely a follower of the Black Nationalist movement. On July 15, 1967, shortly after midnight, members of the narcotics squad raided with a search warrant the premises of Mr. X on charges of sale of narcotics, felonious assault upon a police officer with a knife and possession of heroin. Also arrested was another young lady charged with the sale of narcotics, assaulting a police officer and resisting an officer making an arrest. Two other youngsters, both charged with frequenting a place where narcotic drugs were used, were also arrested. Substantial evidence of |