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<font size=3>Greetings!<br><br>
Part 3 of the Omaha Two story tells of the George Wallace rally riot in
Omaha on March 4, 1968. Mondo we Langa was there and got maced by
police. Mondo tells his story from the Nebraska State Penitentiary
where he and Ed Poindexter are serving life sentences for the murder of
an Omaha policeman.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/george-wallace-rally-omaha-triggered-riot-after-demonstrators-were-beaten">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/george-wallace-rally-omaha-triggered-riot-after-demonstrators-were-beaten</a>
<br><br>
</font><h2><font size=4><b>George Wallace rally in Omaha triggered riot
after demonstrators were beaten</b></font></h2>
<ul>
<li><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports">Michael
Richardson</a>, COINTELPRO Examiner
<li>March 12th, 2011 12:45 pm ET
</ul><b>Omaha Two story: March 4, 1968<br><br>
</b>Third-party presidential candidate
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace">George Wallace</a>,
the former-governor of Alabama, was in Omaha to qualify his American
Party in Nebraska. Wallace had arrived in Omaha on Sunday, the day
before, and held an angry news conference to provoke a large turnout at
his rally. The event was technically a convention and Wallace
needed to collect 750 signatures to appear on the ballot.<br><br>
Wallace said riots were “caused by militants, activists, Communists and
revolutionaries.” Further, “Leaders and sympathizers of militant
civil rights organizations are Communists.”<br><br>
A crowd of 1,500 supporters greeted Wallace on his arrival at the
airport. Excited news reports of the visit put Wallace’s critics on
notice and numerous protestors dogged him on Monday as he campaigned in
the city. Police guards had to hold off demonstrators blocking
Wallace from getting into his car after speaking at Omaha
University.<br><br>
Mayor A. V. Sorenson assigned four uniformed police officers to protect
Wallace by the city and off-duty policemen were also hired for crowd
control at the rally. George Wallace also traveled with his own
security detail.<br><br>
One of the protestors at the Omaha Auditorium Arena where the American
Party convention was held was
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case">
Mondo we Langa</a>, then known as David Rice. Mondo was a reporter
for two local underground newspapers, <i>Buffalo Chip</i> and
<i>Asterisk</i>, and often played guitar at Holy Family Church.<br><br>
On the floor were 1,000 Wallace supporters sitting on metal folding
chairs. The balconies were full with several thousand more
supporters. Mondo and about 50 other protestors, mostly black,
gained entry to the main floor and marched right in front of the podium
charging up the crowd as shouts rang out.<br><br>
Wallace delayed his entrance for nearly an hour while tempers flared from
the front rows where some of Wallace’s most fervent supporters were
seated. After Wallace came out to a thunderous ovation the
protestors got busy and jeered nearly every word. <br><br>
Soon some of the protestors began tearing up their signs and throwing the
bits of paper and stick at Wallace. Mondo attempted to stop the
group from pelting Wallace but was sprayed in the face with mace by an
undercover policeman. Two of the other demonstrators helped Mondo
outside through a side door.<br><br>
Police moved in to clear the aisles and suddenly the floor erupted in
violence as Wallace supporters began hitting the trapped protestors with
the metal chairs. The bloody battling continued outside the Arena
where $1,200 worth of windows were broken. Before the night was
over the Near North Side was in riot.<br><br>
Thirteen people went to the hospital with injuries and a 16 year-old was
shot to death by police attempting to break in to a pawn shop.
Horace Mann Jr. High had 50 windows broken out.<br><br>
On Tuesday two dozen black community leaders descended on the mayor’s
office complaining about police conduct during the disturbances.
That night more rioting continued with firebombs being thrown at
businesses. <br><br>
Police arrested two Catholic priests for their role in the protest at the
Auditorium. One of the priests arrested was Father John McCaslin,
head of the Catholic Social Action Office and pastor at Holy
Family.<br><br>
Seven youth were arrested Tuesday night including Central High School
basketball star player Dwayne Dillard who was scheduled to play in the
state tournament which had to be moved to Lincoln because of
rioting.<br><br>
Mayor Sorenson defended the police conduct saying the protestors were
handled “properly and superbly.” Governor Norbert Tiemann monitored
the situation ready to order in the National Guard.<br><br>
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was also watching. The FBI
director
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/fbi-s-director-hoover-let-killer-of-omaha-policeman-get-away-with-murder-40-years-ago">
J. Edgar Hoover</a> had ordered a secret counter-intelligence operation
against “Black Nationalist” groups, code-named
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/human-rights-group-calls-for-reopening-of-cointelpro-cases">
COINTELPRO</a>, into effect in 27 selected cities on August 25,
1967.<br><br>
Hoover’s secret COINTELPRO operation was established at a time when
Hoover was taking criticism for the lack of action by the FBI on racial
disturbances sweeping the nation and had been told his intelligence was
not good. To blunt criticism from the White House daily briefings
were sent culled out of reports sent to FBI headquarters from the field
offices.<br><br>
The “Confidential” FBI report to President Lyndon Johnson told of events
in Omaha: “Omaha, Nebraska, Police Department, advised yesterday
that as an aftermath of the appearance of former Alabama Governor George
C. Wallace at a political rally on the night of March 4, 1968, several
incidents of violence by Negroes took place in Omaha.”<br><br>
“Among these were the vandalizing of a pawnshop early yesterday morning
and the subsequent fatal shooting of a 16-year-old Negro boy by an
off-duty police officer during an attempt by the young Negro to loot the
pawnshop. Several assaults by Negroes against white persons also
occurred after the former Governor Wallace rally and two of the white
persons reportedly were seriously injured,” stated the FBI
report.<br><br>
The confidential memo concluded, “Public buses were stoned by Negroes as
they passed through Omaha’s north side and yesterday morning Negro
students of several Omaha high schools broke windows in business
establishments while on their way to school. The students later
caused minor damage in the schools by setting fires in wastebaskets in
the restrooms and by throwing rocks through the windows of the
schools.”<br><br>
On March 4, 1968, the day of the Wallace rally, Hoover sent out a new
COINTELPRO directive expanding the program to 42 cities, including Omaha,
Nebraska. Hoover’s order would soon be put into action by Paul
Young, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Omaha FBI office.<br><br>
When Mondo we Langa was maced at the Omaha Auditorium he did not know
that same day, far away in the nation’s capital, the director of the FBI
had issued an order that would lead to a lifetime of
imprisonment.<br><br>
<b>To view all the Omaha Two story articles click
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national">HERE<br><br>
</a></b><i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
</i>Continue reading on Examiner.com:
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/george-wallace-rally-omaha-triggered-riot-after-demonstrators-were-beaten#ixzz1GVjBbriy">
George Wallace rally in Omaha triggered riot after demonstrators were
beaten - National Cointelpro | Examiner.com</a>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/george-wallace-rally-omaha-triggered-riot-after-demonstrators-were-beaten#ixzz1GVjBbriy" eudora="autourl">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/george-wallace-rally-omaha-triggered-riot-after-demonstrators-were-beaten#ixzz1GVjBbriy<br>
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