![]() The next day, the press said, “We will get the Jews, and the people in the long Black coats.” They showed a picture of me looking crazed with hands wildly gesticulating in the air. To repeat, my intention was to deliver the strongest, angriest message: “You better cease your assault on our people, or there will be serious consequences.” Clearly, my statement was not that we would initiate violence: “We will see what the people in the long black coats will do.” Neither was it passive. The community was angry, and I wanted to deliver that message to New York, but in particular the Hassidic community. I, as Chair of the Black United Front (BUF), sought to make as militant of a statement as I could. There had been a history of Hassidic vigilante attacks on the youth, women, and some men by said community. I said among other things, “When we organize our patrol, when men meet men, we will see what the people in the long black coats will do.” I denounced the police and the Hassidic community. It was a painful, infuriating time for Black people. On June 15, 1978, Victor Rhodes, a 16-year-old Black youth was beaten to a pulp by 30-50 members of the Hassidic community, according to the press. Arthur Miller, a respected businessman, was choked to death by the police on June 14, 1978. The jury pretty much acquitted the officer in 1977. Randolph Evans, a fifteen-year-old lad, was shot in the head for no reason by a police officer named Robert Torsney in 1976. What was I doing? Was I engaged in terrorist attacks, robbing banks, raping old ladies, or shooting babies? No, I was simply calling for justice, challenging America to live up to its promise. ![]() ![]() Again, reporters would come to me and say that they had never seen anyone receive the treatment which the press directed towards me. It is easy for some of us to believe in conspiracy theories, especially as it relates to the press. In fact, they were very, very supportive. Thank God 99% of the Black press did not participate in the character assault. It was practically all of them – electronic and print. Let me emphasize, it was not just one isolated media outlet. They presented their misinformation on television. The media, in their haste, never verified, checked, or validated their allegations. I visited the other Herbert Daughtry in the hospital. There was another Herbert Daughtry that was, perhaps, guilty of what was attributed to me. ![]() Perhaps, they were right in their allegations, but they had the wrong person. As God would have it, in their eagerness to destroy me, they were given wrong information, I believe, by the police. I was subjected to a constant barrage of derogatory languages. You have to prove among other things that they deliberately and maliciously lied over a period of time. We know it’s hard to win those cases regarding the media. I may be the only leader in recent times – surely, the only Black leader that won a lawsuit against one of the major television stations on a character defamation charge. Whom Should We Fear? Donald Trump or the Media ![]()
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