ASDnet: Some strange experiences on a tortured discussion list

Note by Hunter Bear -- September 16 2012:  A discussion recently developed on the Redbadbear list concerning, in part, the old unofficial DSA discussion list, ASDnet. (That list still exists, but only as a shadow.)  Most of the people on that list were good people -- though often loath to say anything -- but there was a tight circle which took an active and eventually downright vilifying interest in myself and anything that I posted.  It was an interesting and challenging experience.  I had to put up with frequent "charges" of "Stalinist," "Stalinoid" -- and occasional references to "Hunter Bug Bear" and "Hunter Weasel" -- in the context of attempted satire which, in effect, ridiculed Native cultural perspectives.  This went on from 2001 well into 2003, with some occasional 
hostile stuff in the following year or two.  There were those on the list who were supportive of myself and much, at least, of that which I posted.  Eventually, this denigrating and deprecating stuff ended -- as the list itself began to die.

At one point, I was asked superciliously, how did I know [about certain aspects of the Southern Movement?]  Rather than write a ream at that point, I simply posted this.  That issue never arose again.  Earlier this morning, I found this post from back then -- transposed under my name via Google.   (HE)


Note by Hunter Bear [Hunter Gray, formerly John R Salter, Jr]  June 16 2002

This is with specific reference to an odd ASDnet situation -- with copies
to a few other lists where there may be some interest.


Mississippi Humanities Council
Mississippi Department of Archives and History


Civil Rights Oral History Bibliography

Interview list S


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Salter, John R., teacher and activist

1. Mississippi Department of Archives and History: Oral History Collection

Archive number: OH 81-06. 1 reel-to-reel tape. Transcripts: verbatim, edited, final (124 pp.). Index. 

Interviewed by John Jones on January 6, 1981

Subjects: A.A. Branch; A. Daniel Beittel; Aaron Henry; AFL-CIO; American Civil Liberties Union; American Friends Service Committee; Arthur Kinoy; boycott of Jackson's white merchants; Brandon, Miss.; Brookhaven, Miss.; Byron de la Beckwith; Carsie Hall; Charles Evers; CIA involvement in the civil rights movement; Citizens' Council of Greenwood; civil rights lawyers; Civil Rights Act (1964); Claude Ramsay; Colia Liddell Clark and Lewis Liddell; Congress of Racial Equality; David Dennis; Democratic National Convention (1964); Dorie Ladner; Doris Allison; Edwin King; Ernst Borinski; FBI involvement in the civil rights movement; Fellowship of Reconciliation; Freedom Riders/Freedom Rides; Gandhian nonviolence; George Raymond; Greenville, Miss.; Greenwood, Miss.; Gulfport, Miss.; Hazel Brannon Smith; Hodding Carter III; J.L. Ray; Jack Young; Jackson, Miss.; Jackson Movement; Jackson Public Library sit-in; Jackson public schools; James Meredith; John C. McLaurin; Ku Klux Klan; Lafayette, Miss.; M.B. Pierce; Martin Luther King Jr.; McComb, Miss.; Medgar Evers; Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; NAACP; NAACP Youth Council; Neshoba County; R. Jess Brown; Robert Honeysucker; Roy Wilkins; sit-ins; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Southern Conference Educational Fund; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; Tougaloo College; Virden Addition; White Citizens' Council; William Kunstler

2. Mississippi State University: John Stennis Oral History Collection    [December 26, 1990]

Transcript. Index.

Subjects: Byron de la Beckwith; Edwin King; Erle Johnston; Frank Smith; Hazel Brannon Smith; James O. Eastland; John C. Stennis; Medgar Evers; Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission; NAACP; Southern Conference Education Fund; Tougaloo College; White Citizens' Council

3. Southern Regional Council: Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

Archive numbers: 011-012. 2 cassettes. Transcript (30 pp.).

Interviewed by Worth Long in 1983

Subjects: Aaron Henry; Amite County; boycott of Jackson's white merchants; Burke Marshall; Charles Bracey; Civil Rights Act (1964); Clarksdale, Miss.; Coahoma County; Colia Liddell Clark and Lewis Liddell; Congress of Racial Equality; David Dennis; Dorie Ladner; economic boycotts; Edwin King; Ernst Borinski; Fred Shuttlesworth; Gloster Current; Greenville, Miss.; Herbert Lee; James P. Coleman; Jackson, Miss.; Jackson Movement; Jackson Public Library sit-in; James Meredith; John Doar; John F. Kennedy; Liberty Miss.; Medgar Evers; Meredith March; Mississippi Free Press; NAACP; NAACP Freedom Fund; NAACP Legal Defense Fund; NAACP Youth Council; Philadelphia, Miss.; Pike County; Robert F. Kennedy; Robert Moses; Roy Wilkins; sit-ins; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; Tougaloo College; White Citizens' Council; William Kunstler; Willie Richardson Day

(Inserted note by HG/JRS:  An excellent and full oral history interview was done in 2005 with me by Bruce Hartford, webmaster of Civil Rights Movement Veterans. This is essentially a Movement Life interview, including a number of campaigns of mine. Bruce came to our Idaho home. It is on that large and nicely done website  http://crmvet.org/vet/hunter.htm  and, with some supplementary material, on our Hunterbear website:  http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm

__________________________________________________________________________

The above are oral histories of mine [John R. Salter, Jr./Hunter Gray.]  This short excerpt which follows is from an oral history done by a former Tougaloo student of mine -- and a very noteworthy freedom fighter through all of these decades:  Lawrence "Larry" Guyot. Originally from Pass Christian, Mississippi, Mr. Guyot took many of my Tougaloo classes -- I gave him a book of speeches by Clarence Darrow -- and he went on to play a major role in the Southern Movement and later in the broad human rights arena in the North.  He  completed law school  and has resided for the last many years in Washington, D.C.  Here, he captures the Freedom Spirit of Tougaloo College in the early '60s. This   particular oral history of Lawrence Guyot's was done by University of Southern Mississippi.

And I met--there was a brilliant compilation of very freedom-oriented, very well-educated faculty at Tougaloo. John Salter was there. He was teaching as much socialism as he was history. He later--I worked with him on a lot of things. He later wrote a great book called Jackson, MS and was very involved in those demonstrations. Worked very closely with Medgar Evers. The ability of that faculty to bring out the best instincts of freedom and liberty and justice was uncanny. I mean, I believe that if Tougaloo--Tougaloo was an oasis for academic excellence and individual and collective liberation. 



HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

A Piece of the Scrapbook: 
(Three web pages with Jackson Movement stuff):
http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm

And see the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.)
 
For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at 
the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of
1962-63. (This page expanded 9/12):  http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

Witch Hunt: SCEF, FBI stuff, etc (with links):
http://www.hunterbear.org/witch_hunt_continuesthe_southern.htm