10
segregation.” When Negroes who’d fled Cuba began to tell their stories, Castro’s reputation as a “liberator” came crashing down. Even his earliest black supporter in the U.S. Congress, Adam Clayton Powell, had soured on the Cuban rebel leader before long. As far as political prisoners, torture and executions without trial went, Castro proved to be an equal-opportunity tyrant.
Q: How have your impressions of Castro and Cuba evolved over the years?
SB: I think my impression of Castro changed very quickly once I started hearing from blacks who had fled the island about how he had manipulated his message to appeal to oppressed people in his own country as well as here and abroad, while actually
replacing Batista’s with another repressive regime where freedom of ideas, speech, etc., would be brutally suppressed – albeit, perhaps, regardless of race!
Q: Have you ever returned to Cuba?
SB: I did, about 25 years later, with a group of Washington Press Club members, including reporters from The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among others. We were invited to see Cuba’s tourism facilities, and except for government officials involved in that, were not permitted access to any others. Nor were any political questions entertained at news conferences, most of which were preceded by cartloads of free alcoholic drinks, even at 11a.m. But one thing we were able to see, even if unintended, was that Cuba was not ready for tourism such as we knew it. Our tour bus, for example, broke down several times in rural areas, leaving us sitting by the hot roadside for hours waiting for a mechanic. Elevators in hotels often didn’t work, and one mountain resort the government took us to see was uncomfortably cold at night.
Q: Do you have a lasting memory of that visit?
SB: A totally unexpected incident occurred on the last day of our visit, while you and I were sitting in a sidewalk cafe in Havana. A young black American man approached us and introduced himself as a
to barracks, was Negro. There were even families that appeared to be half-white and half-Negro. Still, it was reported (and denied) that big U.S. companies in Cuba refused to hire Negroes in upgraded positions despite the fact that half the population was black. It was said that Batista supported this policy, leaving to blacks only jobs in the army, government service and unskilled labor. An estimated four-fifths of Cuba’s 500,000 unemployed were Negroes and there was widespread poverty. So rather than race, Castro’s focus seemed to be on haves versus have-nots, although for the benefit of black Americans, he played the race card very well.
Q: What were some other things that raised questions about Castro’s intentions?
SB: In the beginning, there was talk of Castro bringing “democracy” to Cuba, but one became suspicious when the constitution was almost immediately amended to lower the minimum age for the presidency from 35 to 30, making the 32-year-old Castro eligible for this position himself. He had already appointed an interim president, who in turn had appointed Castro prime minister. It was beginning to look like another dictatorship. Still, Castro made speeches about economic reforms and racial equality….Within a year of the revolution, I reported in TickerTape (my weekly column in Jet): “Many of the early Negro supporters of Castro have been jailed for their insistence on integration and the others are silenced. Like leaders in the Dominican Republic, Castro supporters have found that by offering free junkets to U.S. Negroes, little mention is made by the trip guests about discrimination and
Simeon Booker