Fifteen Jewish demonstrators picketed New York University yesterday demanding the removal of John E. Hatchett, recently appointed director of the university’s new Martin Luther King Jr. Afro-American Student Center. Mr. Hatchett, a former Harlem public school teacher, has been the subject of controversy since he wrote an article in the periodical “African-American Teachers Forum” which contended that Jews control the New York City public school system and accused them of “mentally poisoning” black students.
The picketing was organized by a group that called itself the “Jewish Defense League.” Handbills circulated by the pickets denounced Mr. Hatchett as a “Nazi” and a ‘vicious anti-Semite and white-hater.” The Hatchett appointment was widely denounced by Jewish groups here. However. 15 of the 16 members of the NYU Student Presidents’ Conference urged that he be retained in his post “to forestall a destructive breakdown” in relations between Jewish and Negro students on the NYU campus.
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