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Supporting Materials for Sir! No Sir!
Two Black Marines Get 8 And 6 Years
PFC George Daniels and LCPL William Harvey received 8 and, 6 years respectively for talking with their brothers like it is. Both are marines whose homes are in the slums of New York They joined the marines to get out of the poverty and away from the racism that was their daily experience
In a short time both found that they escaped little and now were being trained to fight in Vietnam. This was in 1967, a year of revolt in the ghettos of our cities. While at Camp Pendelton, Calif. they spent many hours talking with their brothers about their training, about their eventually being bent to Vietnam, and that really their fight for peace and freedom was not there but here in the U .S., in their home town
Both Daniels and Harvey decided that they would not go to Vietnam. For their beliefs and their, talking to their brother GIs they received General Court-Martials. Daniels was charged with causing insubordination and disloyalty and Harvey with making disloyal statements. Their case, being defended by the ACLU is now before the Board of Review.
Their lawyer, to the court, expressed how it was then beore the charges and how it still is now. "This peaceful assembly (referring to the get-togethers Daniels and Harvey had with their brothers) was held when this country was in a state of civil turmoil as evidenced by riots in Newark, Detroit and Milwaukee, and other areas within the. country for the same reason that the people didn't have any proper way to express their grievances and that here a group of individuals, specifically those accused, had a peaceful assembly, went through the Captain's Mast (they told their CO that they would not go to Vietnam), and now are being forced to suffer.possible punitive measures because of this. In effect, the government is denying the fact that they had a right to assert their First Amendment right
Both men are presently confined in the Naval Prison in Portsmouth, N.H. while their fight for freedom is in the long struggle through the court system. They have and will suffer greatly for their beliefs, though they are far from inactive. The movement goes on in prison
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Rough Draft, no. 1