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

Jonestown Massacre: Nation of Islam - Peoples Temple. Ukiah Daily Journal. April 9, 1976

Ukiah Daily Journal, Ukiah, Calif. Friday, April 9th, 1976. Page 12

Joint worship service for Temple and Islam SAN FRANCISCO - 

A large number of civic and religious leaders gathered at Peoples Temple in San Francisco last weekend and participated in a joint worship service between the leadership of the Nation of Islam and Pastor Jim Jones’ congregation. 

The service represented a breakthrough in relations with the Nation of Islam. They recently became inclusive in their membership and accepting of all races, and now frequently worship with the Peoples Temple. 

San Francisco District Attorney Joseph Freitas, legislators from both State Senate and Assembly, as well as 15 pastors of all different faiths, including the bishop of the nationwide Christian Church denomination, participated in the worship service. 

The Los Angeles extension of Peoples Temple,which Jim Jones also pastors, is participating in joint services with the Nation of Islam mosque in Southern California, where Temple officers met recently with the movement’s national leader and chief minister, Wallace D. Muhammad. 

News of the meeting was kept private until released in the Temple’s newspaper, the Peoples Forum. which is circulated to 600,000 people throughout they bay region and Northern California. 

The paper is designed to report good news that is taking place in America, as well as being a “defense for the defenseless.” 

In recent issues the Forum has had wide ranging articles, including appeals for support in opposing the continued killing of baby seals in Canada. 

The paper also encouraged readers to write the Soviet Union, urging a liberalization of ‘emigration policies to allow free movement of its citizens, including Soviet Jews, to any country they would choose. 

 

 

Also mentioned in the Forum was a call for support of the family of a policeman who died just two and a half months before his retirement, causing the forfeit of a pension that woo;d have gone to his wife and children. 

The Peoples Temple congregation voted in one of its recent services to accept a visit from the consul general of the present Chilean regime. 

The officials request was made in response to a letter from the Peoples Temple thanking the new regime for releasing political prisoners in Chile. 

Rev. Jones told the members and visitors in service, “Though we do not approve of militant regimes, we do believe in freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas, and thus want to allow the opportunity of hearing both sides of the Chilean issue.”