By David in TN
Monday, July 23, 2018 at 11:36:00 P.M. EDT
The book was published by Arlington House and was a second printing, August 1969.
The introduction gives Lokos' family background. His grandfather founded a clothing store in Harlem in 1910. Lokos wrote: "In the half-century of its existence, the Lokos Clothing Store apparently achieved a certain renown; a Negro co-worker told me it was considered the 'Brooks Brothers' of Harlem. After my grandfather died, the store was run by my uncle and his family until 1962, at which time they were 'persuaded' to get out of Harlem. Lest anyone, at this point, accuse me of being an embittered member of some fallen white power structure, I hasten to add that neither I nor my parents have ever had any financial interest in that store."
Lokos also wrote "If Dr. King mourned the 'spiritual death' of Negroes, Jews mourn the physical death of millions of their coreligionists in the human slaughterhouses of Nazi Germany a generation ago."
The main point of the book is that King decided which laws he would break, and which laws he expected others to obey. This was a common mainstream conservative criticism of King during his lifetime. Lokos believed King's actions caused violence and encouraged the numerous 60's riots.
The first chapter covered the assassination in Memphis and the garbage worker strike which King had come to Memphis for.
There are chapters on the Montgomery bus boycott, Birmingham, and Selma. These actions were followed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, which it is implied, were going to happen anyway.
There is a chapter on a failed campaign in Albany, Georgia in 1962. Why? The local police chief did not allow himself to be provoked.
In 1966 King campaigned for open housing in Chicago. He was hit by a rock during a march and met more resistance in the North than in the South. Mayor Daley had Chicago completely under his control.
By 1967, the media was promoting "Black Power" types like Stokely Carmichael, whom the MSM literally created. King was becoming yesterday's news.
He then made a big speech blasting America and the Vietnam war. This alienated many of his white liberal establishment supporters. King had "gone too far" in their estimation.
King's plan for 1968 was a "Poor People's March" on Washington D.C. The trip to Memphis was sort of a dry run. During a march, "violence broke out." Not what King wanted. His Memphis venture was considered a big defeat.
Then he was assassinated.
Throughout the book, Lokos used the term "Negro." King always refers to himself and his people as Negroes. So does Carmichael. The term "Black" came into use during 1968.
House Divided is not a hatchet job. Lokos gives Martin Luther King credit for his charisma, inspiration, and sincerity in what he was doing.
The author scorned "the White Toms—those white sycophants who will invariably defend in Negroes, because they are Negroes, conduct they would find indefensible in whites."
Lokos (writing in 1968) looked for things to get worse. He expected white counter-violence, which rarely happened. And the big riots tapered off after 1968. He also predicted "terrorism" in the future. He referenced a little remembered quote by Daniel Patrick Moynihan—"We must prepare for the onset of terrorism."
As it turned out, 1970-74 saw extensive leftist bombings, shooting of police, etc. And not least, the NOI Zebra murders.
This book is forgotten but worth reading 50 years later.
"If Dr. King mourned the 'spiritual death' of Negroes, Jews mourn the physical death of millions of their coreligionists in the human slaughterhouses of Nazi Germany a generation ago."
ReplyDeleteCorrect in both cases. Should be mourned.
"He was hit by a rock during a march and met more resistance in the North than in the South."
ReplyDeleteI don't think King was actually struck. I think a brick was thrown at him and it hit someone else.
jerry pdx
ReplyDeleteA 3 yr. old boy is a victim of an acid attack in England. 4 of the usual suspects have been arrested: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/07/23/4-men-arrested-in-connection-with-apparent-acid-attack-on-3-year-old-british-boy-police-say.html.
The ages of the perps is given in the article, but not their identities. Grainy camera footage says it all though, it's those dreaded Finnish men at it again...
The victims of these kind of acid attacks, because it causes disfigurement, are usually young women so a 3 yr. old boy victim is unusual. I'm going to guess that the mother of the victim is being punished by an ex or maybe the boy accidentally got in the line of fire. We'll see what happens if more details come out. The police are reticent to give out details or the media isn't publishing them, undoubtedly because the attackers are in a protected ethnic category and nobody wants to be perceived as contributing to "stereotyping", so they're carefully measuring how to present the story.
Lokos was unaware of the sexual deviancy of Michael King? That entire subject as it is causes doubts in the minds of many? And Lokos would say today?
ReplyDeleteHere (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1071577/the_new_york_age/) is a photo from the March 20, 1954 issue of the New York Age, a black newspaper. It shows Henry Lokos, Lionel's uncle, at his Harlem clothing store.
ReplyDeleteIn 1968, details of King's (or most any politician's) sexual affairs couldn't be printed.
ReplyDeleteFrom Ann Coulter's column today, it appears she read Lionel Lokos' book.
ReplyDelete