Moynihan Terms Black Panthers 'Crazies'

Danicl Patrick Moynihan, back at Harvard after serving as President Nixon's advisor on urban affairs, yesterday dismissed the Black Panthers as "a bunch of crazies."

Moynihan, who said he had never met a Panther in person, described members of the party as "displaying standard Southern behavior: making race extraordinarily important."

His remarks came after a tea in Longfellow Hall at which he was guest of honor. At the tea Moynihan expressed amazement that "the idea that there existed a federal conspiracy to kill Black Panthers gained credibility on campuses."

Formerly director of the Harvard-M.I.T. Center for Unban Studies, Moynihan is giving a seminar at the Center for Educational Policy Research this semester on government attitudes toward higher education.

Asked at the tea about the memorandum in which he recommended to Nixon a policy of "benign neglect" toward America's racial problem. Moynihan explained that "I meant we must stop looking at people as primarily white or black: we should concentrate on the progress blacks have been making, not on racial rhetoric."

After Moynihan said that the United States "has just about reached 'zero population growth,'" one member of his audience remarked that the Vietnam war has been a contributing factor. "Don't say silly things like that," Moynihan replied.

Moynihan described Harvard as "essentially a place where the well-to-do can give their children an education: the people here who aren't well-to-do are here because the well-to-do want them here."

He said that a National Institute of Education, with original government funding of $150 million, probably will begin operating in Washington this year. The Institute, he said, is indicative of growing federal concern with education.