From Julian Bond to Jim Gibson, 9 Feb 1972

February 9, 1972

Dear Jim,

I'm writing this after our Tuesday evening talk, so other things may have transpired since then.

In re being the communications chief: what I should like is someone like this fellow you mentioned and/or Bill Cherry who can split between them the following:

(1) preparation of sample press releases for local and state caucuses and conventions before the March meeting in Gary. Many of the groups will need a "form" release into which they can insert local addresses, dates and names of meetings or announcements of delegate selections. Perhaps what I'm talking about here is an internal press kit for state coordinators, with materials listing conference site and dates, local (Gary and Washington) contacts, delegate selection procedures, and suggestions to state coordinators for maximizing publicity.

(2) a series of press mailings to national black press lists which Cherry's office must have. These should be timed - he will know how - to build up to the Thursday before the Gary meeting begins, and should explain what the Gary meeting is about, how it is structured, how anyone gets to go, who will be there, what could - or could not - be done there. This can be helped with quotes from Hatcher, Diggs, Baraka, et al.

(3) coordinate through Tom Johnson of the NEW YORK TIMES or Charlayne a breakfast with Percy and/or Dick with the New York based Blackwriters for Black and white media. Coordinate with Godfrey Sperling Washington correspondent for the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR a breakfast with you, Diggs, Dick, Percy, Baraka (probably only two of the preceding) and a group of correspondents who regularly breakfast with newsmakers. This is an ideal way to get a sympathetic

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hearing in a number of influential newspapers around the U.S.

(4) set up an onsite press office to issue credentials, provide telephones, typewriters, hold press conferences, decide what will be open to press and what won't.

(5) arrange with all speakers, workshop leaders, etcetera for advance texts of all remarks made for public consumption.

(6) work with whatever continuations committee is - or will be - established to insure that unlike other gatherings of this nature, committee reports, recommendations and resolutions can be printed and distributed to participants before the 1976 elections are upon us.

(7) be able to soothe ruffled feelings of newsmen whose "Blackness" or commitments is challenged by a delegate from Des Moines, etcetera.

Can this be done? I am up to my neck in being General Chairman of the YMCA campaign through the first week in March; the General Assembly; and trying to get myself, my brother, and Carolyn Long Banks elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

As for keynoters, let me again recommend Zelma Wyche, the Tallulah, Louisiana town marshal.

Other possibilities might include:

Vincent Harding, Institute of the Black World, Atlanta Bobby Hill, Georgia State Representative, Savannah, Georgia John Lewis, Voter Education Project director, Atlanta

Bobby hasn't had much exposure outside Georgia, is a dynamic speaker and would do very well. Where Zelma is earthy, Bobby is erudite, but both are rousers.

Vicent is not a rouser, and might bring much of what Lerone Bennett

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would, with a slightly more philosophic bent.

John is all things.

As more come to mind, I will send them on.

Keep in touch. Let me know what develops.

In additional note: many of the Black elected officials here - not excluding myself - are leery of coming to meetings and making decisions with people who unlike ourselves, don't have go before the public every two or four years and explain our actions. There doesn't seem to be much interest here in the Convention, particularly since what many thought was semi-decided at the Northlake meeting was never acted on or followed through, and particularly since the Southern Black Caucus Meeting in Mobile which has never developed into anything at all, which did pass resolutions which no one but me has ever lived up to.

Sincerely,

Julian Bond

Jim Gibson Potomac Institution 1501 18th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20036