Roy Emile Alfredo Innis (June 6, 1934 – January 8, 2017) was an American
activist and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
. He was National Chairman of the
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...
(CORE) from 1968 until his death.
One of his sons,
Niger Roy Innis, serves as National Spokesman of the Congress of Racial Equality.
Early life
Innis was born in
Saint Croix
Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...
, U.S. Virgin Islands in 1934.
In 1947, Innis moved with his mother from the U.S. Virgin Islands to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, where he graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1952. At age 16, Innis joined the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
, and at age 18 he received an honorable discharge. He entered a four-year program in
chemistry at the
City College of New York. He subsequently held positions as a research chemist at Vick Chemical Company and Montefiore Hospital.
Early civil rights years
Innis joined
CORE
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber
* Core, the centra ...
's Harlem chapter in 1963. In 1964 he was elected Chairman of the chapter's education committee and advocated community-controlled education and black empowerment.
In 1965, he was elected Chairman of Harlem CORE, after which he campaigned for the establishment of an independent
Board of Education for Harlem.
In early 1967, Innis was appointed the first resident fellow at the Metropolitan Applied Research Center (MARC), headed by
Dr. Kenneth Clark. In the summer of 1967, he was elected Second National Vice-Chairman of CORE.
Additionally that year, Innis became a founding member of the Harlem Commonwealth Council (HCC), a community action agency that has aimed to develop financial and human capital within upper Manhattan and Bronx communities. The HCC was established under the
Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 () authorized the formation of local Community Action Agencies as part of the War on Poverty. These agencies are directly regulated by the federal government. "It is the purpose of The Economic Opportunity Ac ...
as part of President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
's War on Poverty campaign.
Leadership of CORE
Innis was selected National Chairman of CORE in 1968 a contentious convention meeting. Innis initially headed the organization in a strong campaign of
black nationalism
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black nationalist activism revolves aro ...
. White CORE activists, according to
James Peck, were removed from CORE in 1965, as part of a purge of whites from the movement then under the control of Innis.
Under Innis' leadership, CORE supported the presidential candidacy of
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
in 1972. This was the beginning of a sharp rightward turn in the organization.
Politics
Innis co-drafted the Community Self-Determination Act of 1968 and garnered bipartisan sponsorship of this bill by one-third of the
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
and over 50 congressmen. This was the first time in U.S. history that CORE or any civil rights organization drafted a bill and introduced it into the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
.
In the debate over
school integration, Innis offered an alternative plan consisting of community control of educational institutions. As part of this effort, in October 1970, CORE filed an
amicus curiae brief with the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
in connection with ''
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education'' (1971).
Innis and a CORE delegation toured seven African countries in 1971. He met with several heads of state, including
Kenya
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's
Jomo Kenyatta,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
's
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, af ...
,
Liberia's
William Tolbert
William Richard Tolbert Jr. (13 May 1913 – 12 April 1980) was a Liberian politician who served as the 20th president of Liberia from 1971 until 1980.
Tolbert was an Americo-Liberian and trained as a civil servant before entering the House of ...
and
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
's
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
, who was awarded a life membership of CORE.
Innis met with Amin and the aforementioned African statesmen as part of his CORE campaign drive for finding jobs in Africa for black Americans. In 1973 he became the first American to attend the
Organization of African Unity
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...
(OAU) in an official capacity.
In 1973, Innis was scheduled to participate in a televised debate with
Nobel-winning physicist
William Shockley
William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointl ...
on the topic of black intelligence. According to sources, Innis pulled out of the debate at the last moment because the student society at Princeton University organizing the event refused to allow the press and the public into the event. The debate went forward with Dr. Ashley Montagu replacing Innis.
Criminal justice and National Rifle Association
Innis was long active in criminal justice matters, including the debate over
gun control and the
Second Amendment
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...
. After losing two sons to criminals with guns, he became an advocate for the rights of law-abiding citizens to self-defense.
A Life Member of the
National Rifle Association,
[ he also served on its governing board. Innis also chaired the NRA's Urban Affairs Committee and was a member of the NRA Ethics Committee, and continued to speak publicly in the US and around the world in favor of individual civilian ownership of firearms, gun issues, and individual rights.][
Innis lost two of his sons to criminal gun violence. His eldest son, Roy Innis, Jr., was killed at the age of 13 in 1968. His next oldest son Alexander, 26, was shot and slain in 1982. Innis told Newsday in 1993 "My sons were not killed by the KKK or David Duke. They were murdered by young, black thugs. I use the murder of my sons by black hoodlums to shift the problems from excuses like the KKK to the dope pushers on the streets."
]
Controversy
Innis was noted for two on-air fights in the middle of TV talk shows in 1988. The first occurred in the midst of an argument about the Tawana Brawley case during a taping of ''The Morton Downey, Jr. Show
''The Morton Downey Jr. Show'' is a syndicated American talk show presented by Morton Downey Jr. that ran from 1987 to 1989. The show and its host pioneered the concept of "trash TV" format.
Starting as a local program on New York-New Jersey su ...
'', when Innis shoved Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democrati ...
to the floor. Also that year, Innis was in a scuffle on '' Geraldo'' with white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
John Metzger. The skirmish started after Metzger, son of White Aryan Resistance
White Aryan Resistance (WAR) is a white supremacist and neo-Nazi organization in the United States which was founded and formerly led by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Tom Metzger. It is based in Warsaw, Indiana, and it is also incorporated ...
founder Tom Metzger
Thomas Linton Metzger (April 9, 1938 – November 4, 2020) was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi skinhead leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux ...
, called Innis an "Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, '' Uncle Tom's Cabin''. The character was seen by many readers as a ground-breaking humanistic portrayal of a slave, one who uses nonresistance and gives his life to prot ...
." Innis grabbed the seated Metzger's throat, appearing to choke him. The incident started a brawl in the studio, resulting in Rivera's nose getting broken.
Innis raised American volunteers to fight for UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( pt, União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, abbr. UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for ...
, an Angolan rebel army fighting the communist government. UNITA was also supported by Uganda and apartheid-era South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
.
Prosperity USA, a non-profit run by aides of presidential candidate Herman Cain, attracted controversy after it gave a $100,000 donation to CORE shortly before Cain's speech at a CORE event.
Political campaigns
In 1986, Innis challenged incumbent Major Owens
Major Robert Odell Owens (June 28, 1936 – October 21, 2013) was an American politician and librarian who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 2007, representing the New York's 11th and then 12th Congressional distri ...
in the Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional District, representing Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. He was defeated by a three-to-one margin.
In the 1993, New York City Democratic Party mayoral primary, Innis challenged incumbent David Dinkins
David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office.
Before enteri ...
, the first African-American to hold the office. Given his conservative positions on the issues, he explained that "the Democratic Party is the only game in town. It's unfortunate that we have a corrupt one-party, one ideology system in New York City, and I'd like to change that. But being a Democrat doesn't mean you have to be a fool." During his own campaign, Innis also appeared at fundraising events for the Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
candidate Rudolph Giuliani. Innis received 25% of the vote in the four-way race with a majority of his votes coming from multi-ethnic areas, while he failed in less culturally diverse Assembly Districts. Innis lost to Dinkins, who then lost to Giuliani in the general election.
In February 1994, his son, Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as ...](_blank)
in the Democratic primary.
In 1998, Innis joined the Libertarian Party
Active parties by country
Defunct parties by country
Organizations associated with Libertarian parties
See also
* Liberal parties by country
* List of libertarian organizations
* Lists of political parties
Lists of political part ...
and gave serious consideration to running for Governor of New York as the party's candidate that year. He ultimately decided against running, citing time restrictions related to his duties with CORE.
Innis served as New York State Chair in Alan Keyes
Alan Lee Keyes (born August 7, 1950) is an American politician, political activist, author, and perennial candidate who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. A member of the Repub ...
's 2000 presidential campaign.
Death
Innis died on January 8, 2017, at the age of 82, from Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
.
Bibliography
* Frazier, Nishani (2017). ''Harambee City: Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the Rise of Black Power Populism''. University of Arkansas Press. .
References
External links
CORE's Official Website
A history of Harlem CORE
*
Harambee City
Archival site incorporating documents, maps, audio/visual materials related to CORE's work in black power and black economic development.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Innis, Roy
African-American activists
1934 births
2017 deaths
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from New York City
American gun rights activists
Right-wing populism in the United States
American people of United States Virgin Islands descent
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
New York (state) Democrats
New York (state) Libertarians
People from Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Military personnel from New York City
Politicians from New York City
Stuyvesant High School alumni
Neurological disease deaths in New York (state)
21st-century African-American people
Black conservatism in the United States