"The near-record 55 per cent membership turnout in Wednesday's United Steel Worker Local 65 officer election in South Chicago had a message loud and clear....

"It is time for a change. It is clearly labeled for all bosses and would-be bosses....

"The old order as exemplified by International President I.W. Abel; Local 65 President Frank Mirocha; 10th Ward Alderman Edward Vrdolyak; and sub district director Carl Alessi was soundly rejected here.

"You don't have to be a magician to read that. It is very, very clear. And it was not wasted on the steel workers. They want their union back.

"As a key member of the victorious Chico group told me, 'They can't mistake this. This is a message to U.S. Steel and to Abel, the honeymoon is over.'

"At the international level this issue involved Abel, who took a personal hand in the Local 65 matter, and [a] former Local 65 president by the name of Edward Sadlowski. When Abel retires next spring, Sadlowski wants to succeed him. Abel doesn't want that. The only use Abel had for the Local 65 election Wednesday then was to embarrass Sadlowski. Abel wanted Sadlowski's supporter Chico to be defeated so he could ridicule Sadlowski for not carrying his own home local.

"It didn't go that way. Sadlowski gained enormous stature because not only was this his home local, a substantial effort was made to get rid of Chico."  
 
June 4, 1951
DETROIT, May 27--Charles Gordy Sr., Negro victim of police brutality, stands convicted this week of first degree murder. He had dared to defend the sanctity of his home against illegal police entry. That is his crime.

Last November after his home was invaded by Detroit cops without a warrant, his son manhandled, himself shot at, Gordy had fired back in self-defense and killed one of the police officers. For thus protecting his constitutional rights, he is now branded a murderer; the penalty in Michigan is mandatory life imprisonment.

The daily press for months used every trick in the book to stir up hatred for Gordy and sympathy for the cops. They described the police as protecting "law and order," and charged Gordy and his family with being crooks, slurring their characters without a shred of proof.

While a retrial is being demanded by the defense, it is not likely it will be granted. Against the forces line up against the Negro minority, an effective campaign can be waged only if the populace of the city is alerted. This requires the energetic intervention of the labor leaders and the Negro leadership in a united effort.

Gordy is not the only victim of the vicious "racist" police force in this city. He is one among many. Before him there were Beverly Lee, Leon Mosley, and others. The latest is Costello Hickson, beaten brutally last week by three cops after he had had a slight auto accident.

These cases will go on and on until the public is aroused, and with one voice says, "NO."  
 
 
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