Johnsons JAHRESTAGE - Der Kommentar

Seite/Zeile(n)	Datum/Text
	09. März 1968

841, 27f	Tag der South Ferry - s.K. 90, 25.
842, 3- 847, 3	Unsere Slums sind ... kommenden Aufstände bestellt - Vgl. Johnson, Ein Teil von New York, S. 41-45; Mecklenburg (2004), S. 79-87.
842, 7f.	ein Bidonville - (frz.) Elendsviertel; wörtl.: Kanisterstadt.
842, 12	brownstones - (engl.) hier: New Yorker Häuser aus einem rötlichen Sandstein, zwischen 1847 und 1870 oft im »Italianate style« errichtet, heute vor allem in Harlem und Brooklyn noch zu finden; s. 851, 25; 1426, 15.
842, 14	Bürgerkrieg - s.K. 548, 19.
842, 15	Abzeichen für bürgerlichen Wohlstand - s.K. 26, 32.
842, 18-20	innen reichlich ausgestattet ... Türen, gedrechselten Treppenspindeln - »I [Lyford] made a sideline of collecting the wooden knobs off the tops of banister posts [in zum Abriß bestimmten brownstones] [...] Where once had been a parquet floor with diagonal stripes of polished hardwood inlaid with mahagony was now piece of soggy linoleum. The marble fireplaces, sealed up to prevent the escape of heat, had been painted over as had the cherry and oak woodwork«; Lyford (1966), S. 33f.
842, 30- 843, 2	Gebaut wurden sie ... Wellen der Puertorikaner - »During the latter part of the nineteenth century the WASPs [s.K. 52, 23] built the brownstones and mansions, some of which became the rooming houses and slums of the 1950s and which are now disappearing by the scores in the face of the urban renewal. [...] In the 1870's the Irish began moving into the Area in large numbers. They were people of modest means and attainments. [...] As time went on and they prospered, some of them bought brownstones and rented out rooms if there were rooms to spare. The Irish controlled the Area's Democratic organization on Tammany's behalf and sustained the large Holy Name, St. Gregory's and Ascension parishes. [...] Since World War II, particularly in the past decade, American Negroes, Latin Americans, and West Indians have diversified and increased the population. The Negro, moving vainly to get out from under a cloud that follows him wherever he goes, usually comes to the Area from somewhere else in the city, mainly Harlem or its Brooklyn version, Bedford-Stuyvesant [...] The Puerto Rican migration was the first and biggest of the post war period«; Lyford (1966), S. 4-6; s.K. 52, 23-30.
842, 30f.	Weiße, Protestanten, Angelsachsen - s.K. 52, 23.
842, 34	Columbus und Amsterdam Avenue - Columbus Ave.: s.K. 386, 13f.; Amsterdam Ave.: s.K. 97, 2.
843, 4-14	Aus einem solchen ... nicht fähig sind - »No landlords had ever cultivated land more intensely for rent purposes. I could see the grooves and marks of old partitions taken out and replaced by even more constricting ones, walls that bisected closets and even fireplaces and foyers turned into kitchenettes. In the beginning there was a spacious one-family home, then the floor through apartments broke this unity. The single room came next and, finally, even these solitary cells were subdivided. [...] the result was the modern rent explosion, in which one rent became two, two became four, and four became eight. The human victims of this explosion apparently offered little resistance«; Lyford (1966), S. 33.
843, 11	Brownsville - s.K. 56, 12.
843, 14-16	ist es dem ... Hauswart zu verzichten - »'When the whites moved out, the landlords just cut off the services,' said the Rev. James Regan of the Good Shepard Center. 'Brownsville became a place to make as much money as fast as possible.'« Vgl. den Artikel »Brownsville Sinks In Decay and Fear«der NYT vom 7.3.1968. »The owner of a side-street brownstone thinks nothing of turning off the heat and hot water for a week in January to cut down the fuel bill, but when a boiler has to be shut off for a few hours and be fixed on West End Avenue, the superindentent posts an apologetic note in the elevator several days in advance of the repair job«; Lyford (1966), S. 104, vgl. auch S. 53, 57, 59.
843, 23	Erwerb und Eigentum ... erst einmal her - »[...] the slum itself is the product of an economic conspiracy«; Lyford (1966), S. 300.
843, 28-30	durch die Ratten ... krumm lachen wollten - s.K. 90, 8-10.
843, 30-33	Mrs. Daphne Davis ... Katz. Katz, komm - Der längere Artikel »Brownsville Sinks In Decay And Fear« in der NYT vom 7.3.1968 beschreibt die Mißstände in dem Stadtgebiet am Nordostrand von Brooklyn, u.a.: »There is a constant battle against rats. Mr. [sic] Daphne Davis of 118 Amboy Street found her daughter playing with a rat last summer that was so big the child was calling ›Here, kitty, here kitty.‹«
843, 39	denen die Leviten gelesen werden - Redewendung: jemandem eine Lektion erteilen, die Meinung sagen. Nach einer Anordnung eines Metzer Bischofs aus dem 8. Jh. sollten sich Kleriker täglich eine Lesung aus dem 3. Buch Mose (Leviticus) anhören, das Regeln für Priester und die aus dem Stamme Levi kommenden Hilfsgeistlichen enthält; s.K. 187, 26-29; s. 1599, 35.
844, 6-8	daß diese Schwarzen ... der Natur aus - »[...] that the inhabitants of the slum are generally not fit to live anywhere else«, Harry Ashmores Einleitung zu Lyford (1966), S. XXVI.
844, 20f.	Rennen der Ratten - (engl. wörtl. übersetzt) rat race: ›Hetzjagd‹ des Lebens, harter Konkurrenzkampf.
844, 35- 845, 1	»Das Negerkind hat ... Arbeit zu sein.« - Harris Wofford, der für die Civil Rights Commission gearbeitet hatte, lieferte Kennedy dieses statistische Material, das er sowohl in der ersten Fernsehdebatte mit Nixon am 1.9.1960 (s.K. 1128, 17-21) als auch in seiner Civil Rights Message im Februar 1963 und in der Ansprache an die Nation vom Juni 1963 verwendete. An zwei Stellen weicht Johnson von der Vorlage ab, vermutlich Lesefehler, da sie in der amerik. Übersetzung korrigiert sind. »The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third [sic] as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice [sic] as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is seven years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much.« Vgl. Sorensen (1966), S. 530. In der amerik. Übersetzung wird der Originaltext verwendet; vgl. Johnson, Anniversaries, Bd. II, S. 51; Ensberg (1995), S. 116.
845, 2	einer Wahlreise - In der amerik. Übersetzung korrigiert in »in a TV address in 1963«; vgl. Johnson, Anniversaries, Bd. II, S. 51; Ensberg (1995), S. 116.
845, 3-8	die Gruppe der ... in den Slum - »The 1960 Census reveals that 11 percent of Negro males and 13.7 percent of Negro females living in the 125 blocks were unemployed, more than twice the national average for all racial and ethnic categories. In one census tract for the area, the unemployment rate for Negro men exceeded 23 percent. [...] they [die offiziellen Arbeitslosenzahlen] do not include those drifting adults and teen-agers - many of them Negroes - who have never had a job and who are considered in some cases as being unemployable or not part of the labor force«; Lyford (1966) S. 7.
845, 9f.	Der Slum ist ... selbst verstümmelt hat - »The airtight cage of poverty, frustrastion, and fear in which the people of the city are imprisoned can be broken open«; Lyford (1966), S. 341; s.K. 188, 27.
845, 22	sie »fallen heraus« - (amerik. Engl. wörtl. übersetzt) to fall out: vor dem Abschlußexamen (mit 18) die Schule verlassen.
845, 24-26	Wenn auf der ... einzelne Männer sind - »The relatively small percentage of Negro families with more than two persons in the family unit (38 percent) is partly accounted for by the fact that a very high percentage of the Negro respondents were single persons. The Kraft study [soziologische Untersuchung in Stryckers Bay, November 1963-Februar 1964 der John Kraft Inc.] found that 67 percent of the Negroes responding were male«; Lyford (1966), S. 7.
845, 29-31	Die Neger in ... eher Langweile hervor - »[...] some of the side-street slums in the renewal area attract the criminal, the disorderly, and the sick. [...] There is a general conviction that the police [...] are indifferent to the situation, or that they are taking 'pay offs.' Most of the slum buildings are unprotected«; Lyford (1966), S. 9. »[...] the patrolmen don't go into the side streets enough. They are on Central Park West looking out at the traffic and the trees. [...] indifference rather than brutality is the major police problem«; Lyford (1966), S. 283f.; vgl. auch S. 295 und XXII.
845, 36	Kommunistische Partei Amerikas - Am 15.5.1921 vereinigten sich die 1919 gegr. Communist Labor Party und Communist Party zur Workers Party, 1929 in Communist Party of America umbenannt (1944-45 Communist Political Association). Die von der KPdSU abhängige Partei hatte von 1924-40 Präsidentschaftskandidaten aufgestellt, seit 1956 für kein nationales Amt mehr kandidiert. Restriktive Gesetzgebung (Gesetz zur Gewährleistung der nationalen Sicherheit, 1947; McCarran-Gesetz zur Gewährleistung der inneren Sicherheit, 1950) schränkte den Einfluß der Partei ein. Der Communist Control Act vom 24.8.1954 nahm ihr Rechte, Privilegien und Immunitäten einer legalen Körperschaft. Bereits 1961/62 war ein Prozeß gegen die Partei angestrengt worden, der erst im Juli 1967 eingestellt wurde. Mitgliederzahlen wurden nicht veröffentlicht, für 1968 werden nicht mehr als 10.000 geschätzt.
845, 36f.	Die Kommunistische Partei ... findet nicht statt - In Johnsons Text zu Szene 9 des Fernsehfilms »Summer in the City« (gesendet vom SFB am 6.2.1969) findet sich der gleiche Satz als Kommentar zu einem Straßenfest eines Wohnblocks in einer Slumgegend der Upper West Side von Manhattan: »Veranstalter dieses Festes ist eine Partei für Frieden und Freiheit, nicht etwa die Kommunistische Partei. Die Kommunistische Partei findet nicht statt«; vgl. Typoskript im Johnson-Archiv; s.K. 1618, 23-1619, 2.
845, 38- 846, 9	Versuchen die Bewohner ... Öffentliches errichten wird - »›We pulled a rent strike about a year ago,‹ said Mrs. Ella Thomas, who moved to Brownsville four years ago from Alabama. ›But as soon as the landlord saw he couldn’t get anymore money out of us he disappeared. We all had to move out, and now the building is abandoned.‹ Many of the buildings are still owned by the original landlords, who pay enough taxes to forestall foreclosure and hope the city will eventually condemn the property to public use«; vgl. den Artikel »Brownsville Sinks In Decay And Fear«, NYT 7.3.1968.
846, 4	Zeughäuser - (engl. frei übersetzt) armories: Waffenlager. Zeitweise wurden Obdachlose in die »armories« der National Guard eingewiesen. Die NYT vom 21.2.1968 berichtete über etwa 100 Personen, die während der Wintermonate im »armory« der 369. Infantry National Guard an der 5. Ave./West 142. Street lebten.
846, 9-13	Sind hartnäckige Mieter ... die Leitungen abmontieren - »There is a constant battle against vandals. [...] 'You can wake up in the morning drowning if someone steals the pipes,' said Mrs. Shirley White, a cheerful woman who lives at 142 Amboy. 'The thieves on our block are nice, though - they turn the water off first before they strip the building.'« Vgl. den Artikel »Brownsville Sinks In Decay and Fear«, NYT 7.3.1968.
846, 16-21	Wo es auf ... eine Flasche zerplatzt - Joseph P. Lyford war in den 60er Jahren Besitzer eines »brownstones« und beobachtete seine Nachbarn in 36 und 38, West 93. Street (Kapitel »Alarums and �Airmail’«): »My first introduction was a bag of rotten food that landed in my back yard a week after I bought the house. [...] The airmail I disliked most was the bottles; they went off like mortar shells when they hit the concrete and a batch of fifty going off like a string of huge firecrackers would be enough to wake everyone on the block. [...] the bottle throwing was obviously for amusement; people who enjoyed inflicting hell on society in general could toss out a bottle every half minute for an hour, as often happened«; Lyford (1966), S. 24-26; s.K. 217, 23-31.
846, 24-26	warum nicht dem ... Wohnung Hilfsmittel entnehmen - Anspielung auf ein Gedicht von LeRoi Jones; s.K. 552, 23-554, 24.
846, 36f.	warum eine Adresse ... wenn man weggeht - »Many of the other departures [der von nicht-weißen Bewohnern] from the Area take place without any such notification [der neuen Anschrift an Schule und Post] because the people concerned are not used to having a personal mailbox, or anything else permanent that might anchor or identify them, including wives, husbands, children, jobs or religion. They do not have a clear connection with organized society«; Lyford (1966), S. 2.
846, 37	Bowery - s.K. 152, 32.
847, 3	die kommenden Aufstände - s.K. 9, 6f.
847, 4-7	Seine Ehren der ... nennt er Bombsville - »There are signs that Brownsville is no longer completely ignored. Mayor Lindsay, who calls the area Bombsville, recently held a cabinet meeting on the subject and often mentions it in speeches«; vgl. den Artikel »Brownsville Sinks In Decay And Fear«, NYT 7.3.1968; Lindsay: s.K. 24, 33.
847, 8f.	Mrs. Cresspahl and ... slumming this afternoon - (engl.) Frau Cresspahl und ihre Tochter gingen heute nachmittag in den Slums spazieren.
847, 11-15	die ein Badezimmer ... von Lehrern wagen - »'My boy dropped out,' said Mrs. Ella Thomas, 'he said he was too embarrassed to go to school in the clothes I could afford to buy him.' '[...] they [...] have to fight to get into the bathroom that usually doesn't work’. Mrs White said. 'Then they get to school and the teachers start fussing at them [...]'«; vgl. den Artikel »Brownsville Sinks In Decay and Fear«, NYT 7.3.1968. Vgl. auch Lyford (1966), S. 53 über einen Wohnblock in den 80er Straßen in der Nähe des Riverside Drive: »[...] the bathroom faucets, which have produced not water at all for two years«.
847, 20-23	Alle hatten sie ... Nachbarschaft zu erwarten - »[...] a child will have learned how to identify an alcoholic before he hears him speak and spot any one of a variety of homosexuals. [...] He knows that a red welt on the inside of a forearm is the entry point of a hypodermic needle and he understands at least a few words of the language of the junkie and the hustler«; Lyford (1966), S. 9.
847, 27f.	Mediterranian Swimming Pool - s.K. 487, 20; Druckfehler in der gebundenen Ausgabe von 1983 und allen Taschenbuchausgaben, richtig: Mediterranean.
847, 33	Crisspaw - Annähernd engl. Aussprache der dt. Schreibweise, wobei der Name auch ›Knusperpfote‹ bedeuten könnte; s.K. 631, 6f.; s. 848, 2.
848, 25-33	Seit die neue ... eine Blutrache sein - Vgl. den Artikel »Czech Television Tries to Slow Campaign Against Novotny« der NYT vom 9.3.1968: »A Czechoslovak television commentator tried tonight to slow the growing public campaign to oust Antonin Novotny from his ceremonial post as President of the republic and warned against ›settling old accounts on the basis of emotions.‹ It was not immediately clear whether the plea for moderation was dictated by the new Communist leadership or by television officials. [...] Mr. Dubcek is said to be against any vendetta against members of the old guard he recently removed on the ground that Czechoslovak Communism is sufficiently mature not to indulge in the kind of purges that have marked leadership changes in other Communist countries«; s.K. 827, 21-27.