Farmer Urges Negro Political Activity

"The only thing that surprises me about Watts is that there have been so few Wattses," James Farmer, National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality said last night about last summer's riots in Los Angeles.

Speaking before a capacity audience of 400 in Burr B, Farmer said that "the civil rights movement has lost contact with the urban poor" and went on to outline a three-point program by which the movement could help meet "heightened expectations" in the northern ghettoes.

First, he said, "the movement must go into politics. The potential political power of the Negro is great not only in the South, but also in the North where the Negro population is constantly increasing. We must set up block-by-block organizations all over the ghetto."

CORE, Farmer said, is growing more political. He predicted that "the New York City CORE chapters will endorse either Lindsay or nobody at all" in the New York mayoral race. "Personally," he added, "I prefer Lindsay."

Better Education

Farmer also urged civil rights groups to work for "educational upgrading in the Negro community." Endorsing student busing he said, "In rural areas we bus students all over counties to central schools for the sake of quality education. We must do it in cities too for the benefit of both races. Both white and Negro children in segregated schools are not being prepared to cope with our small world."

Thirdly, the civil rights leader urged the movement to work for a greatly expanded war-on-poverty program in the northern ghettoes. "Not $1.5 billion, but something like $15 billion is needed," he said. "This is one war that needs to be escalated." He added that the federal government should begin a massive public works program to provide more jobs for unskilled workers.

Turning to a discussion of the movement in the South, Farmer urged that Congress pass a law making the murder of a civil rights worker a federal crime. He also recommended that the Constitution be amended to allow such cases to be tried outside of the states where the killings are committed.