Jonestown Massacre: Michael Prokes - Nation of Islam meetings. April 12, 1976

FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Tracs 90/ “Cecil Williams interviews JJ 4/12/76” 

Date cues on tape: 12 April 1976 (notation on tape box, confirmed in context) Part 7: 

Conversation between Mike Prokes and writer named Dick Prokes: 

Well, it uh, went really well. 

Dick: Good. 

Prokes: Uh, you weren’t uh– We had so many people here that it was unbelievable. And I– I think there was 4000 people. And uh, it uh, it was, it was really a, a moving service. 

 Dick: Oh. Prokes: It uh– We had uh, so many different people represented. I guess there was about 12 different ministers of various faiths, and uh, Dennis Banks came with uh, William Kunstler. 

Dick: Oh, good. 

Prokes: Nation of Islam was here. Willie Brown and uh, uh, oh gosh, I– Cecil Williams came, and (laughs) lot of people just dropped in unexpectedly. 

[EDIT] 

Prokes: ...it was just a, a really, a real feeling of uh, brotherhood with uh– 

Dick: Uh– We came by, but we were late. We got there by about– about one o’clock. 

Prokes: Oh, you did. Dick: Yeah. I had to get to another uh, thing, you know. 

Prokes: Oh, we were on the way over, I think, to the uh– 

Dick: Right. Right. 

Prokes: Oh, we were on the way over, I think, to the uh– 

Dick: Right. Right.  

Prokes: To the Nation of Islam. That’s really been a breakthrough, you know, Dick, uh– 

Dick: Well, that sounds good, really, I’m really, you know, happy about that. 

Prokes: It’s– It’s almost uh, unbelievable how they’ve– they’ve turned around with uh, slow cultivation and just, you know, working together and offering our services. It’s– It’s– They’re– They’re as uh, friendly as can be, I mean, we’re just uh, we’re really uh, on close terms now. And uh, I mean they– they don’t have any sort of uh, you know uh, rhetoric that’s hate-filled like you once heard it to be. And uh, they’re generally concerned with uh, you know, working within the system for, for change. 

 Dick: Are there going to be more meetings like that? 

Prokes: Yes. Yes, there will. We’ve done it quite a few times now. In fact, uh, Jim has been uh– I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but uh, their chief minister in Chicago, Wallace D. Muhammed, who uh, was a friend of uh, a close friend with Malcolm X, uh, he is going to be uh, having a joint meeting with us, and they want, you know, Jim to have equal billing. It’s really sort of a, a breakthrough, but uh, it’ll be taking place in May in uh, Los Angeles. And then, depending on how that works out, they may have one here too. But uh, they– they usually have it uh, run closed-circuit throughout the country, and uh, it’s uh, I don’t know– a lot– lot of good could come out of it, if it works. Dick: Sounds good. Prokes: Yeah. 

SOURCE: Q683 Transcript https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27537 

 Ex‐Aide to Tim Tones Kills Himself at News Briefing: https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/14/archives/exaide-to-jim-jones-kills-himself-at-news-briefing.html