The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee

Author:Sam Greenlee [Greenlee, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC049070 Fiction / African American / Urban, SOC001000 Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies, POL004000 Political Science / Civil Rights
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

“I sit here in my soul-hole,

forgotten,

like a can of black caviar on my ghetto grocer’s shelf.”

Freeman nodded, read some of the other poems, glanced through some short stories.

“OK, baby,” he said, “you’re the propagandist. Keep the stuff like this, ironic, understated, blues things written for black folks; no shit about white devils, don’t give whitey any stature by screaming what a big drag he is. Put him down and you build him up; the put-on is what we want. Keep the themes simple, few in number and then work out varieties on those; like in the blues.

“Use blues rhythms, your poetry, doggerel, anything catchy that people will remember and pass along; we want to plug into the ghetto grapevine. You understand the kind of thing we need?” Willie returned to the kitchen table with two mugs of steaming black coffee.

“Yeah,” he said, “yeah, beautiful; I have some ideas already. I can let you see something next week. OK?”

“Groovy. Top security, though.” Willie nodded, smiling to himself, thinking things over. “Who else would be good at this kind of thing?” Freeman asked.

“Ted, Tan-Dan and Charlie.”

“Set up your own cell, you’re in charge. Let Hips know what kind of equipment you need—mimeo machines, typewriters, paper, ink, office supplies. Keep your operation simple and lightweight, stuff we can move quickly and easily. Use the two-car garage on Indiana Avenue as your headquarters and scout around for alternative sites in case you have to run. Work out a budget and get the money from Hips: get as much of the stuff hot as you can and buy the rest through a dummy so it can’t be traced back to you by the fuzz. You know the routine.

“We’ll need leaflets, handbills, homemade bumper stickers and scripts for propaganda broadcasts. We’ll use cheap transistor tape recorders for that. I want you to work out a complete propaganda program with major themes, priority target groups and including counterpropaganda for what you anticipate whitey will say about us once we begin operating.”

“First thing he’ll do is cry Red.”

“Right. But don’t spend too much time denying we’re Communists. Our people will know better and we really don’t care what whites will think. Also, I want you to work out an international propaganda program for distribution to overseas publications in Europe, Africa and Asia; they’re not likely to get our side from the ‘free’ white press.”

“How about artwork? Cartoons, stuff like that?”

“Excellent. Who do we have?”

“Lots of the cats can draw; no trouble there. Songs, too?”

“You have the idea. Anything to get our message across, but remember that a lot of this stuff will be done after we’ve gone underground and are being hunted. The more you can do now, the easier later.”

“I can work up a rough outline of the whole program in about two weeks. OK?”

“Take as much time as you need and get in touch whenever you have questions.”

Willie reached over and turned on the transistor radio which stood on the kitchen table; it was tuned to the station beaming its broadcasts to the ghetto.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.