A Letter from the Rt. Rev. Leland Stark, Bishop of Newark, on the National Black Power Conference
Diocesan Press Service. August 7, 1967 [56-5]
TO THE CHURCH AT LARGE
I am pleased to share with you a copy of my recent letter to the Diocese of Newark concerning the Diocese and the Black Power Conference.
I would like to stress that this was a study conference and that each resolution passed was a call for further study by the Negro community.
I also want to acknowledge and express my appreciation for aid, both in personnel and money, from the Executive Council, during both the recent riot and the Conference.
Leland J. Stark
Bishop of Newark
Dear Friend in Christ,
There is so much misunderstanding of the role of the Diocese in connection with the recent meeting of the National Conference on Black Power that I believe you will welcome a letter of explanation from me.
To begin with, perhaps a chronology of events will prove helpful to put the matter in perspective.
1. In September of last year Bishop Rath and I were approached by the Steering Committee headed by the Reverend Dr. Nathan Wright, Director of our Department of Urban Work, about a projected National Conference on Black Power in July, 1967, with the hope that Cathedral House might be used as its administrative center. We immediately challenged both the term and the concept of "Black Power," pointing out its connotation of violence in the minds of most people. We were told that it would be the intention of the Conference "to redeem the term," for in its essence it meant "the empowerment of black people for self-fulfillment for the good of all," but the conferees promised to rethink it and approach us again.
2. Several days later we conferred again, and Bishop Rath and I were told they felt the term in its new definition was worthwhile, and while we dissented strongly, we respected their decision.
3. In its original intent, the conference was to be relatively small with an attendance of between 150-200 Negroes from all segments of the colored community, and the agenda consisted mostly of papers dealing with legitimate means by which their economic, social, and political status can be improved, which were to be read and discussed at fourteen workshops to be held at the Military Park Hotel, where most of the conferees were also to be lodged. After counselling with other members of the staff, Bishop Rath and I gave our consent to the use of Cathedral House.
4. By Thursday, July 13th, one week before the opening of the Conference only sixty-five registrations had been received, and there was no reason to believe the Conference would go in number beyond the original, modest expectation.
5. By that night, however, the riot in Newark had accelerated to alarming proportions, and apart from our major concern about the rioting, the burnings, the looting, and the killings, our secondary concern was what to do about the Conference.
6. On Friday afternoon I was asked to confer with Governor Hughes and Mayor Addonizio, and it was the Governor's feeling that the Conference should be called off because of the increased tension. I explained to them my position, that I was not even a member of the Conference, that neither the Diocese nor the Urban Department was in any sense a sponsor of the Conference, but that I would immediately take the matter up with the officials of the Conference.
7. I conferred at length with several of my top advisors the next day and found it was virtually impossible to call off a national conference due to begin in a few days although members of the Planning Committee immediately began to try to find places where the Conference might be moved, efforts which continued up to the day before the Conference opened.
8. In the meantime, I had informed the Governor personally that efforts were being made to find a different site, and when it looked as though these efforts would prove fruitless, I reminded the Governor, through the Attorney General, that the Governor alone had the authority to demand the Conference be cancelled. This he declined to do.
9. Should I have withdrawn permission to use Cathedral House at this point?' I seriously considered this, but as the Chancellor of the Diocese, Mr. Charles W. Kappes, Jr., Vice-president and General Counsel for Mutual Benefit Life, put the matter to me in a letter: "...it seems obvious to me that to cancel the forthcoming black power conference could very well be another indication which to the Negro community would represent repression and an attempt to stifle their opportunity to consider their own problems. There may be undesirable effects if the conference is held, but it seems much more important to me to consider the extremely negative reaction which would be inevitable if the conference were cancelled as a result of recent events."
So the Conference was held. The mass media played up the sensational and largely ignored the solid discussion being carried on in the workshops. Television picked up those in curious costume. Quotations were made out of context or distorted. There was one scuffle, responsibility for which rests on a small group whose members were not registered delegates. When the Conference was over, Cathedral House was left undamaged and clean.
It would have been a different conference altogether had not strident militants overwhelmed the Conference on Sunday afternoon and shouted through some resolutions that reveal the deep-seated frustration many Negroes feel. Only a few of the 150 resolutions were publicized, and they were the most radical. One of them called for the exploration of the possibility of a separate Negro state; yet one newspaper had as its headline, "Separate Negro State Asked by Black Power Conference." .
Of course, I was disappointed with the outcome of a conference which had such good potential. I am distressed with the separateness that seemed to gain emphasis, especially by the last day, and the constructive meaning of Black Power, in my opinion, was eclipsed
Yet there were positive results. It brought together Negroes from various groups that had never talked together. For the most part, they dealt seriously and critically with problems they face as black people. New and responsible leaders will continue to emerge.
What can you and I do? Work harder, under God, than ever for the alleviation of the conditions which make the Negro community the most submerged in America. May God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Faithfully yours,
Leland Stark