This week Chief James Craig was openly endorsed by President Trump. After watching the Chief on Fox News, Trump called the Detroit Chief “terrific.” The Chief parrots Trump’s assertions that the national demonstrations against police brutality and the killing of black people by police are organized by “outsiders,” “professionals,” “anarchists,” “leftists” and people advocating a “Marxist ideology.”

Trump said, “You have a great police chief. I watch him. I really like him a lot. Say hello to him. I think he’s terrific. I think he’s just an incredible representative; he speaks so well about a very important subject, which is crime and rioting, and all the things you see in certain cities.”

Meanwhile Craig has continued his appearances of Fox and Friends. If the implications were not so serious, his recent commentary on the use of a cheap U-Haul truck by protesters in Louisville to cart around home made signs and drums would be laughable. He explained with a straight face that such efforts were signs that protestors are “financed by Marxist outsiders” trying to “undermine our government.”

People across the city are taking notice of Chief Craig’s cozying up to Trump. They are also taking notice of his attacks on people who are publicly protesting his actions. They are taking note of his efforts to invoke fears of communists and left wing influence on demonstrations.

This tactic of invoking charges of “communist” against those who criticize the US government and its policies is an old trick. It is a trick Detroiters have proudly exposed and rejected. 

In 1952, as US Senator Joseph McCarthy held hearings to intimidate critics of U.S. domestic and international policies, Detroit played a critical role in unmasking the foolishness behind the viciousness of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

It was by standing up to this committee that Coleman A. Young became a Detroit hero. His testimony was broadcast over WJR and records of it were sold around the city. It is still worth listening to. It is a model of courageous truth telling in the face of powerful, destructive forces.

Instead of being intimidated by the Congressional hearing, Young turned the tables on his questioners, aggressively attacking them.  He challenged Southern committee members on their pronunciation of the word “Negro,” and actually forced them to apologize to him.

When one committee member accused Young of being unwilling to fight communism, Young replied:

I am not here to fight in any un-American activities, because I consider the denial of the right to vote to large numbers of people all over the South un-American." To the HUAC congressman from Georgia, he said: "I happen to know, in Georgia, Negro people are prevented from voting by virtue of terror, intimidation and lynchings. It is my contention you would not be in Congress today if it were not for the legal restrictions on voting on the part of my people.

To another HUAC congressman he said:

Congressman, neither me or none of my friends were at this plant the other day brandishing a rope in the face of John Cherveny, a young union organizer and factory worker who was threatened with repeated violence after members of the HUAC alleged that he might be a communist. I can assure you I have had no part in the hanging or bombing of Negroes in the South. I have not been responsible for firing a person from his job for what I think are his beliefs, or what somebody thinks he believes in, and things of that sort. That is the hysteria that has been swept up by this committee.

Coleman Young understood the historic role Communists, Socialists, Marxists, Anarchists, Black Nationalists, revolutionists,  and all progressives have played in the long struggle for human rights and for the liberation of Black people. 

Chief Craig may call himself a Detroiter. But Craig is no Coleman Alexander Young.

For an extended discussion of the hearings and the atmosphere that led up to them, we recommend: "I'm Fighting for Freedom": Coleman Young, HUAC, and the Detroit African American Community.