I continue to hear with relative frequency from people regarding the alleged 1943 massacre of a thousand Black GIs at Camp Van Dorn in South Mississippi -- an account apparently initiated by the Carroll Case book, The Slaughter [1998], and given considerable recent publicity as the major front cover feature in In These Times [June 11 2001.] My initial post strongly advising sensible skepticism on this matter was put forth by me on May 22, 2001. At this point, June 20, apropos of my recently updated postscript on the matter [posted at several points in early June], there is still only one person from whom I've heard via e-mail who has directly challenged my very basic skepticism on this alleged atrocity [and that person offered absolutely nothing contrary of an evidential nature]; and there are still only two people who -- recognizing that such a tragedy could have occurred -- sought more evidence. Everyone else -- about two dozen at this point, old friends and new, including a number of Southern Black people and well-established academic civil rights scholars -- has joined me in my very, very profound skepticism. Breaking its policy of not reposting something they have previously posted, H-RADHIST [Radical History discussion arena] has reposted my postscript -- asking a now much posed query: Why did this massacre story appear? I have a thought or two of my own on this which I'll give in a moment. Two of my points disputing the Van Dorn massacre have struck many notes of positive resonance: [1] The fact that the very knowledgable and extremely capable martyred NAACP field secretary, Medgar W. Evers, himself a WW2 vet active in veterans' affairs, with whom I was privileged to work very closely from the Summer of 1961 until the night of his death on June 11 1963, never mentioned even a thread of a Van Dorn massacre -- nor did any other very involved Black veterans who were civil rights activists in the Mississippi setting and with whom I worked closely; and, [2] The fact that Camp Van Dorn would have had, within it in 1943, a very large number of local, employed Black civilians . A US Army base in 1943 -- especially anywhere in the 'States -- was still Old Army enough to use a great deal of civilian "help" and, in Mississippi, these would be primarily local Blacks: cooks, maids for officer BOQs and family residences, janitors, lawn maintenance, and much more. In dialoguing with various e-mail correspondents, I've made a few other additional points: I, myself, was eight and nine in 1943 and living in a semi-rural Western backwoods setting. Telephones abounded, radios were prevalent, there were cars everywhere and even "flying machines," people were swapping things for gas ration cards, there were railroads, post-offices were functioning at high gear, and Western Union existed. Less than a decade after the alleged 1943 massacre, I was a GI myself -- listening to very long-time Southern Black career non-com cadre bitching justifiably about the fact the Army was swimming in paperwork. It all began, I was told many times -- and the Real Army went to Hell -- right after Pearl Harbor -- just as soon as we entered WW2. [Of course, they very much approved of Truman's quick and determined and effective integration of the Armed Services -- but that's about the only change they liked.] Whatever 1943, the Army, and Wilkinson Co were, they weren't a Gobi in the days of Jenghiz Khan. In my initial post on this, I pointed out that Wilkinson County, Mississippi, is really quite close to New Orleans -- which has had for many generations an extremely active civil rights community, a vigorous labor movement, and a wide range of constructively engaged Left radicals. People from Wilkinson County have always gone down to New Orleans -- and many Blacks have gone there for employment. From the late 1930s onward, New Orleans was a bastion of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare [later the Southern Conference Educational Fund -- for which I, in the early and mid '60s, was Field Organizer] and New Orleans was also a major focal point for the very active and effective CPUSA-led Civil Rights Congress. It's very hard to see any of these sharp-eyed human rights eagles missing even a shadowy whisper of a "Van Dorn Massacre!" And as I mentioned in my previous postscript on all of this, I was contacted on May 27, 2001 by Mr. Rusty Denman, originally of McComb, Mississippi [the home of author Carroll Case] and now of Asheville, North Carolina -- who spent almost an hour endeavouring to convince me of the reality of the Van Dorn tragedy. [Mr. Denman, I learned independently, had substantially assisted in the publication of The Slaughter.] As I pointed out in my postscript, Mr. Denman offered nothing evidential. Material that I gathered he was going to send me has never come. So what do I think got this all started? Those of us who've soldiered in the trenches of Old Mississippi and the Old South generally -- and who've kept up with these settings in the seemingly endless flow of "New Souths" -- are aware that the Magnolia State and its regional kin are a major headwaters of Conspiracy Stuff. And there have been -- and I'm sure there currently are -- many, many bona fide conspiracies in Dixie -- most, in my opinion, relatively small ones but not always! But, frankly, a very great many Dixie conspiracies are, of course, just pure fantasy. I think author Carroll Case, an Anglo savings-and-loan exec at McComb, heard some typical Mississippi bull-shooting and eventually fell prey -- in not uncommon Mississippi fashion -- to yet another ungrounded conspiracy tale. What Mr. Rusty Denman's interest in all of this is, I know not -- but I did not pick up any altruism in my almost hour-long phone conversation with him. Why In These Times would run this sort of story -- obviously tilting heavily toward its presumed "reality" and giving it full-dress front cover status -- should be very disturbing to all social justice activists. The fact that ITT, has been, according to many reports, floundering fiscally and is now under the patron wing of a wealthy Silicon Valley angel, may have something to do with the journal's apparent journey off in a gambling new direction. If this is the case, ITT could be in danger of eroding its reputation for generally accurate and careful journalism. And, finally, to all of those countless martyrs who've shed blood and often given their lives in the human rights struggles of Mississippi and the South generally -- and elsewhere -- this "account" of the alleged Van Dorn "massacre" certainly does a great disservice. Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] Idaho _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
