Oregon standoff: Feds forcibly removed black occupiers from wildlife refuge in 1979

A striking "similar" incident to the Oregon Malheur Wildlife stand-off with armed-to-the-teeth white
supremacists, occurred in Georgia, in 1979. But THESE 'occupiers' happened to be unarmed and
their skin was black, so it took the FBI exactly 2 days to get a court-order and promptly arrest &
forcibly remove them from the refuge, which had been their home, before they were forced off the
land to build a fucking Airforce base.

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Oregon standoff: Feds forcibly removed black occupiers from wildlife refuge in 1979
by Joseph Rose * Jan. 15, 2016 * The Oregonian

The group's anger was a slow burn.

But after decades of being ignored by federal authorities, it's members decided to take a very public stand against what they saw as an unjust land grab by the U.S. government.

Without warning, they started an occupation of a sprawling national wildlife refuge. The year: 1979.

The drama unfolding with armed occupiers holed up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns is similar to a standoff that made national headlines 39 years ago in Harris Neck, Ga.

But there are also stark differences, including the race of the Harris Neck occupiers – mostly displaced descendants of West African slaves -- and the tactics used by the FBI to quickly remove what the media casually called "squatters."

Also, the 40 members of People Organized for Equal Rights who set up a camp on the patch of land south of Savannah on April 30, 1979, were unarmed.

Instead of guns, the demonstrators, including prominent civil rights leaders, brought concrete blocks and bags of mortar to build new homes. Their protest was straightforward and, upon reflection, heartbreaking.

Following the Civil War, a white plantation owner deeded the land on the Georgia coast to a former slave. In the decades that followed, the descendants of slaves moved to Harris Neck to build houses, factories and boats. They fished, hunted for oysters and grazed cattle.

Harris Neck evolved into a thriving community. Its members were recognized as a culturally unique group of African Americans called Gullah.

But in 1942, U.S. military officials gave Harris Neck residents just three weeks via eminent domain to leave their property so they could construct an airbase for training pilots and conducting anti-submarine flights. ~snip~

In contrast to the Burns occupation, federal authorities secured a court order to remove the Harris Neck demonstrators a day after the 1979 camp-in began. However, four of the unarmed protestors -- Edgar Timmons, Jr., Hercules Anderson, Christopher McIntosh and the Rev. Ted Clark -- refused to leave.

On May 2, 1979, U.S. deputy marshals "forcibly removed" the men, according to a story in The Oregonian. "Their bodies taut and motionless," the men were dragged out of their tent, handcuffed and hoisted into a waiting van.

MORE: http://www.oregonlive.com/history/2016/01/oregon_standoff_feds_forcibly.html#incart_most-readnews