Page 58 - YB1969

Dick Gregory and Andrew Hatcher Black Power Debate A debate was hardly the format of the Gregory-Hatcher assembly. Gregory spoke, Hatcher followed. Yet their messages were tied in a strong bond. Gregory, some- times laughing cynically, sometimes blaming and intimi- dating, told us the way things are. Hatcher, in quiet contrast, offered some well thought out solutions to the problems the other forced us to see. Gregory, in his field jacket, blue shirt and beard ... "It's insults that cause riots" ... "If you have the right to go to war at 18, you'd better get the right to vote at 17" ... Hatcher in pinstripes, glasses and cigar ... "I'm just not a revolutionist" ... "when you get a little older ... " Talking about a draft card burner-"America thinks more of a piece of cardboard than it thinks of my black mam- my and I'll bring her to her knees for that." "Negroes, sweet and humble, gentle and kind, Beware of when they change their mind." The answer to the civil rights problem lies in black power, but the power is "Negro use of economic and political strength to theirs and America's benefit." 54