bevery hurdle that the Afro-American has yet to jump stands
bthe Jew who has already cleared it” and “the already badly
bexploited Black” was allowed “to be further exploited by
bJews.”
bThirty pickets from the JDL demonstrated outside the
bmuseum while liberal, upper-class Thomas Hoving, the
bmuseum’s director, allowed as the observations “were any-
bthing but racist.” To the contrary, Hoving said, “I condemn
bthe tenor of the times which forces a young person who has
blived in Harlem all her life to have these opinions.” Presum-
bably the tolerant Mr. Hoving would have commiserated with
bthe Hitler youngster who burned Jews because he was
bforced to live in Berlin all his life. Robert Bernstein, Jewish
bpresident of Random House, the publishing company, was
beven more blasé, saying that his company did not “consider
bit part of our function to censor the opinions of authors
bwhose books we publish.” No one asked Bernstein why he
bdecided to publish the work in the first place. The book was
bput together by yet another Jewish liberal, Allen Schoener
bof the State Council of Arts and former assistant director of
bthe Jewish Museum. He said: “I believe the Jews must face
bthe realities of the world in which we live. Miss Van Ellison
bhas merely drawn attention to the facts.” We await with
bbated breath Mr. Schoener’s reaction to the American Nazi
bcatalogue which is so “realistic” and which calls attention
beven more vividly to “the facts.”
bOnce again, under pressure, there was a capitulation and
bthe catalogue was withdrawn by the museum.
bIn the weeks that followed, Jew-hatred in the schools grew
bworse. The “innocuous” poem by Campbell suddenly
bturned up at Intermediate School 258 in Bedford-
bStuyvesant when a seventh-grade teacher named Paul An-
bthony, as part of a class assignment, had his students copy
bthe poem word for word. We appeared at the school to
bdemonstrate and I told the white, hostile, but frightened
bprincipal, Mary McAssey, that we expected Anthony to be
bsuspended. On February 24, we received a request from the
blocal UFT chapter teachers of School District 15 in Brook-
blyn. Militants led by one Gloria Oliver were threatening to
b