Exercise 5

Key Questions: Do you think Rosa Parks thought that the police and criminal justice system operated differently in the North than they did in the South?

Examine the section called “The Northern Promised Land that Wasn’t”.

Discussion Questions:

• What did the police murder of Cynthia Scott reveal about the criminal justice system and about the police in the North?
• Did police act justly during the Detroit Uprising of 1967?
  • Why did Rosa Parks think the Uprising took place?
• How did Rosa Parks and other black freedom fighters challenge unjust police practices in Detroit?
  • Why did the establish a People’s Tribunal in response to the Algiers Motel killings?
• Why was Judge George Crockett criticized for his handling of those Republic of New Africa members who had been arrested in 1969?
  • What does this reveal about the nation’s criminal justice system?
• What is a “political prisoner”? Why did Rosa Parks help to fight for them?

Sources:

• Coverage of the march against police brutality in the wake of Scott’s murder
• Interview with Ed Vaughn
• “Acquit Detroit cop in killing of Negro youth in ’67 riots” article in Chicago Tribune, 11 June 1969
• Statement of George Crockett, 1969
• National Lawyers Guild ‘Resolution in Support of RNA Citizens Unjustly Held in U.S. and Mississippi Prisons
• Hurricane Carter’s support for the Gary Tyler campaign, October 18 1976 (page 8)
• October 25 1976 issue of Worker’s Power article on a recent demo of the Detroit Committee to Free Gary Tyler

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