Editing H. Rap Brown (section)

==Cambridge riot incident==
{{main|Cambridge riot of 1967}}
In this period, [[Cambridge, Maryland]] had an active civil rights movement, led by [[Gloria Richardson]]. In July 1967 Brown spoke in the city, saying "It's time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don't come around, we're going to burn America down."<ref name="firestone"/> Gunfire reportedly broke out later, and both Brown and a police officer were wounded. A fire started that night and by the next day, 17 buildings were destroyed by an expanding fire "in a two-block area of Pine Street, the center of African-American commerce, culture and community."<ref name="holt"/> Brown was charged with inciting a riot, due to his speech.<ref>{{cite web |title=Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Actions 1960–1970 |url=http://depts.washington.edu/moves/SNCC_map-events.shtml |website=Mapping American Social Movements}}</ref><ref name="holt"/>

Brown was also charged with carrying a gun across state lines. A secret 1967 [[FBI]] memo had called for "neutralizing" Brown. He became a target of the agency's [[COINTELPRO]] program, which was intended to disrupt and disqualify civil rights leaders. The federal charges against him were never proven.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urZDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA113 |title=The Great Uprising |author=Peter B. Levy |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108422406 |page=113}}</ref>

He was defended in the gun violation case by civil rights advocates [[Murphy Bell]] of [[Baton Rouge]], the self-described "radical lawyer" [[William Kunstler]], and Howard Moore Jr., general counsel for SNCC. Feminist attorney [[Florynce Kennedy|Flo Kennedy]] also assisted Brown and led his defense committee, winning support for him from some chapters of the [[National Organization for Women]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BWNbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |title=Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical |chapter=Defending Black Liberation Leader H. Rap Brown |author=Sherie M. Randolph |date=2015 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=9781469647524 |pages=140–143}}</ref>

The Cambridge fire was among incidents investigated by the 1967 [[Kerner Commission]]. But their investigative documents were not published with their 1968 report. Historian Dr. Peter Levy studied these papers in researching his book ''Civil War on Race Street: The Civil Rights Movement in Cambridge, Maryland'' (2003). He argues there was no riot in Cambridge. Brown was documented as completing his speech in Cambridge at 10 pm July 24, then walking a woman home. He was shot by a deputy sheriff allegedly without provocation. Brown was hastily treated for his injuries and secretly taken by supporters out of Cambridge.<ref name="holt"/>

Later that night a small fire broke out, but the police chief and fire company did not respond for two hours. In discussing his book, Levy has said that the fire's spread and ultimate destructive cost appeared to be due not to a riot, but to the deliberate inaction of the Cambridge police and fire departments, which had hostile relations with the black community.<ref name="holt">{{Cite news |url=https://www.myeasternshoremd.com/dorchester_star/news/author-debunks-riot-myth/article_b8f59345-50ec-5beb-b9c6-eeb3090602d6.html |title=Author debunks riot myth |last=HOLT |first=DUSTIN |work=Dorchester Star |date=Jul 23, 2017 |language=en}}</ref> In a later book, Levy notes that Brice Kinnamon, head of the Cambridge police department, said that the city had no racial problems, and that Brown was the "sole" cause of the disorder, and it was "a well-planned Communist attempt to overthrow the government."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urZDDwAAQBAJ&q=Brown+began+to+rise+in+the+ranks |title=The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America during the 1960s |last=Levy |first=Peter B. |date=January 25, 2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108422406 |pages=70–89 |language=en}}</ref>

While being held for trial, Brown continued his high-profile activism. He accepted a request from the Student Afro-American Society of [[Columbia University]] to help represent and co-organize the April [[Columbia University protests of 1968|1968 Columbia protests]] against university expansion into [[Harlem]] [[Morningside Heights, Manhattan|park land]] in order to build a gymnasium.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://theconversation.com/1968-protests-at-columbia-university-called-attention-to-gym-crow-and-got-worldwide-attention-102093 |title=1968 protests at Columbia University called attention to 'Gym Crow' and got worldwide attention |last=Bradley |first=Stefan M. |website=The Conversation|date=August 27, 2018 |language=en |access-date=December 7, 2018}}</ref>

He also contributed writing from jail to the radical magazine ''Black Mask'', which was edited and published by the New York activist group [[Up Against the Wall Motherfucker]]. In his 1968 article titled "H. Rap Brown From Prison: Lasima Tushinde Mbilashika", Brown writes of going on a hunger strike and his willingness to give up his life in order to achieve change.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Black Mask & Up Against the Wall Motherfucker : The Incomplete Works of Ron Hahne, Ben Morea and the Black Mask Group. |last=Hahne, Morea |first=Ron, Ben |publisher=Unpopular Books & Sabotage Editions |year=1993 |location=London |pages=74–75}}</ref>

Brown's trial was originally to take place in Cambridge, but there was a change of venue and the trial was moved to [[Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland|Bel Air, Maryland]], to start in March 1970. On March 9, 1970, two SNCC officials, [[Ralph Featherstone]] and William ("Che") Payne, died on [[U.S. Route 1 in Maryland|U.S. Route 1]] south of Bel Air, when a bomb on the front floorboard of their car exploded, killing both occupants. The bomb's origin is disputed: some say the bomb was planted in an assassination attempt, and others say Payne was carrying it to the courthouse where Brown was to be tried. The next night, the Cambridge courthouse was bombed.<ref>{{cite news |author=Todd Holden |title=Bombing: A Way of Protest and Death |magazine=Time |date=1970-03-23 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943178-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604114354/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943178-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |access-date=2010-02-14}}</ref>