H. Rap Brown Speaks at Cambridge, Maryland (July 24, 1967).

Full Speech Transcript: msa.maryland.g...
"H. Rap Brown was invited by local activist Gloria Richardson to speak at a rally. Brown was no stranger to Cambridge, having protested in the city on numerous occasions in recent years. But Brown was more of a student in those days, watching the rebellious senior leaders work the crowds with their vitriolic rhetoric before the jobless and silent. Now it was Brown's turn to part the Red Sea of racism and tortured Cambridge would be that proving ground. The undercurrents of hatred that had rippled through the Second Ward for decades would now spill over into the streets. For Cambridge, its victims of history still smoldering with anger, Brown’s tirade became a galvanizing apparatus, the red flag to the bull, for it is only a small minority that storms the Bastille. Cambridge’s date with destiny was at now at hand. It's class and race-driven anger directed right at the government steamroller that had been flattening them for years. He arrived in town at 6:30 p.m. on the historic evening of July 24th. Brown began his inflammatory attack from the hood of a 55’ Buick in a drug store parking lot at the corner of Pine & Cedar in the black Second Ward, his exhortations ramping up a crowd of 400 fist-pumping confederates for some ninety minutes, “Detroit exploded. Newark Exploded. Harlem exploded! It’s time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black folks built America. If America don’t come around, were going to burn America down. We’re going to burn it if we don’t get our share of it. In a town this size, three men can burn it down.” Asked later if he had urged burning, “Be serious, man. Do I have to tell black people what to burn?” With Brown’s diatribe now expended, he led his cadre of converts down Race Street only to be fired upon by the local police. Brown received a shot-gun pellet about the left eye. He was quickly spirited out of town by concerned supporters. Only hours after his departure was the Second Ward engulfed in flame. The all-white, volunteer fire department at first refused to enter the Second Ward (with good reason), citing personal safety concerns, to put out the fire. By the time they were induced to try, the fire was too far advanced for the one truck department of novice firemen to contain. The fire, as if on a mission of its own, leaped across Pine Street and then back again, doing its ghastly dance of destruction. Seeking a scapegoat, federal authorities immediately launched a man-hunt for Brown who had seemingly vanished. He was charged with inciting a riot, rioting, and arson. While Brown shares some culpability, the racially charged atmosphere of Cambridge was present for all to see long before H. Rap Brown showed up, as evidenced by the seemingly perpetual occupation by the Maryland National Guard. The Kerner Commission also took this stance, much to the chagrin of the political leaders who sought vindication, that the powder keg that had built bombs like Cambridge was created and enforced by white racism for decades. While his methods may have seemed crude and his language insidious, it was the H. Rap Browns of the world who forced to the surface the ugly and naked truth that America had not progressed since the Civil War and the silent majority were content to honor dead beliefs from a stillborn Constitution. It was the H. Rap Browns of the world, the street corner demagogues, who resorted to gangster tactics, not because of a criminal gene in their DNA but rather than become another nameless victim of history they chose to rise up much like Washington and Adams did long ago, to right oppressive wrongs foisted upon them. It was H. Rap Brown that took on the 800 lb. gorilla of government and wealth, that unholy alliance that has always dictated how the country runs, who benefits and who does not. It was H. Rap Brown who thumbed his nose at the millionaire's club that Congress has become, who helped reveal that the country was no longer “for the people, by the people” but “for the rich and famous” and “by the mega-corporations,” the worst of both worlds. Brown reminded us that it is a lesser crime to rise up against oppression than to remain silent and it is the disease of the spirit of entire generations that is the greater tyranny. In that bizarre twist, perhaps the non-violent world of Dr. King and the militant world of H. Rap Brown, two antagonistic universes light-years apart, did have one bond, often espoused by King during his journey, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” -www.detroits-gr...