Robert Lewis, 36, a sometime Western Union messenger, liked to hang around the only grocery store in Walnut, Calif, (pop. 929) and bend Co-Owner Leonard Harvey's ear. "I'm proud to say I got nothing against the Negro," Lewis would boast. "Why, I served with them in the Army for eight years, eleven months and 23 days." Grocer Harvey listened sympathetically; after all, he and the rest of Walnut knew that Lewis was the Negro's champion, and had thereby got himself on somebody's hate list.
Lewis' troubles began last December, after the Walnut town fathers refused his demand that they build...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
