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Aerial view Ellis Island
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MV PAN buildings (2 shots)
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MV Negroes feeding chickens
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MV Dr. Thomas Mathew
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TRANSCRIPT: SEQ. 4: THOMAS MATHEW: "We're on this island in order to build a rehabilitation community. We'll be a total civic community with its own police force, its own sanitation department its own post office, with all the things that you have in a community, this is part of rehabilitation, developing citizens. Remember, this if Ellis Island it's an immigrant station. These are the new immigrants to America, those coming from the ghetto, from underprivileged communities. This is what we call a friendly seizure in taking this island. We're anxious to show that yes we can be lawful, but being constructive and productive for our people is exceedingly important at this time.




Initials CP/MB/BJ



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A group of 40 American negroes has seized a New York island and set up a collective commune to protest against the United States government's racial policies.

This latest in the current series of group "sit-ins" in the U.S. has been organised by the militant National Economic Growth the Reconstruction Organisation - or abbreviated, NEGRO.

Ironically, the site the negroes have chosen is Ellis Island, once the major immigration centre for the United States.

During the past 62 years, 16 million immigrants, seeking a better way of life have passed through Ellis Island.

The immigration authorities abandoned the island in 1954 and since then it has fallen into disrepair.

The negro occupation is a peaceful one. They're asking that the island be converted into a rehabilitation centre and have agreed to leave by next Wednesday.

So far the authorities have turned a blind eye to the squatters.