New York City officials indicated today that George Rockwell would not be permitted to stage a rally in Manhattan’s Union Square Park despite a second request by the Nazi for the site.
Rockwell informed Parks Commissioner Newbold Morris in a letter that he would forego his proposed rally on April 20–Hitler’s birthday–if the Parks Department would change the rally site from a small park at the foot of Manhattan Island to Union Square. The Nazi said he had to “insist on my right to speak for America in the same place regularly desecrated by Communist traitors–Union Square.”
Rockwell’s initial request for the Union Square site had been turned down on grounds that a rally on April 20, a working day, might “interfere with business” there. In his renewed request, Rockwell said he would shift the date to another day, a Sunday, “when there can be no disruption of business” in the area. A Parks Department spokesman indicated a feeling that a Nazi rally on Uniom Square would cause interference on any day of the week.
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