Kenneth G. ‘Red’ McIntyre: Witness to history

I always hated bullies, cheats, bigots and persons without any measure of empathy for others.”

Kenneth G. “Red” McIntyre

When Kenneth G. McIntyre entered Michigan State University in 1956, he had his heart set on being a sports writer. After working two summers for a local newspaper, though, he took a constitutional law class — and decided on a career path that would place him front and center in some of the monumental historical events of the 1960s and ‘70s, including the civil rights movement, the Detroit race riots, the Algiers Motel incident and Kent State. McIntyre, 84, was born in Detroit in 1938, the second son of hard-working parents who raised four boys, who shared a bedroom, in Livonia. His father was a door-to-door salesman for Home Tea and later sold butter, eggs and chickens that the family raised on their property. McIntyre graduated from Bentley High School in 1956, where he played football, basketball and track and was named the outstanding athlete of his class. McIntyre and his second wife, Eileen, live in Okemos.  

City Pulse: Tell me about your childhood. 

As a kid I was a skinny redhead with a zillion freckles. I won one of those “most freckles” contests. I was always shy as a kid. I caddied at local private golf courses and I was lucky enough to win an Evans caddie scholarship, which paid for most of my costs at Michigan State University. I once was accused of being the “resident dissident” by the faculty adviser. It has been accepted that Grandma Gert on my mother’s side had red hair and she was the genetic source of my bright red hair. Eileen years later asked what I looked like in high school and I answered Howdy Doody, an early TV dummy with freckles, red hair and big ears. I filled the bill on all of those. It was in high school I got the nickname “Red.” 

Why did you abandon a sports writing career and what did you think you’d be doing next? 

I followed sports religiously and I always saw myself as the guy up in the press box. I got a job with a Livonia weekly paper and was assigned covering kids’ sports. It was the same thing over and over; take a picture, talk to the coach. It was boring. I took a class in constitutional law (at MSU) and it piqued my interest in law, especially civil rights law. I had a professor who made constitutional law interesting.  

How did you become interested in  civil rights? 

I always hated bullies, cheats, bigots and persons without any measure of empathy for others. My father, who was Canadian, was kind of a strange guy. He was opinionated and had an over-developed sense of fairness. He quite often talked about how it was so unfair how whites treated Blacks. That and the Freedom Riders were in the news all the time. 

What did you do after graduating from MSU?  

I looked for the cheapest law school that would give me a scholarship, so I enrolled at Kansas University Law School and graduated in 1963.  

Did you marry while at Kansas?  

Yes, while back home on break I met Sandy at a party, and in the winter of 1962, I asked her to marry me in a letter. She said she cried when she got that letter and said yes. We raised four boys. 

My wife died (after suffering an aneurism on Christmas Day 1992) on Dec. 30, 1992. I never got to say goodbye or thank her for 30 years of putting up with my compulsive work habits. 

What did you do after law school? 

The U.S. Department of Justice was looking for lawyers at the time, so I interviewed and got the job. I got good grades in law school and had won the moot court competition. I was assigned to the Civil Rights Division.  

What was that like? 

It was my dream job. It was my best and most fulfilling job I’ve ever had. I’m not sure why but ever since I was a young man, both in college and law school, I developed an interest in constitutional law and the civil rights struggles. I made a substantial number of trips to the Deep South, and the trips would usually last for two-three weeks. I recall being in Mississippi (in 1964) for 100 days with only a couple quick trips back to Washington. I was paid the princely sum of $5,000 a year plus whatever green stamps I could save from car rentals. 

Describe the types of cases you were involved with? 

Most of the cases involved voting registration rights in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. I photographed voting records and rolls and the applications to show they (county officials) were discriminating against Blacks wanting to vote. The work was tedious and boring. On voter applications, white applicants were asked about easy constitutional matters like “no person shall be imprisoned for debt” while Black applicants got much longer and far more complex sections of the Constitution to interpret. My first impression of Mississippi was when I got off the plane in Laurel, Mississippi, and saw their drinking fountains and restrooms in the airport. The drinking fountains were marked “white” and “colored.” The “white” one was bright and shiny and the “colored” one was a simple unpainted gray pipe. I had never seen anything like that nor had I been told to expect that. Welcome to Mississippi. 

What were the Southern federal courts like? 

Nearly all of the federal judges who presided over such cases either flatly refused to rule on them or agreed to register a few of the Black witnesses rather than find a pattern of discrimination. They would pick four or five teachers, doctors and leaders in the Black community and allow them to register. We really didn’t make any progress until the murder of a Detroit woman, Viola Liuzzo, when Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  

You were in Mississippi when the civil rights workers from the North, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were kidnapped, tortured and killed and were later discovered buried in a levee. 

We were in Meridian, Mississippi, and got the call that there was a complaint from SNCCers (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) that three civil rights workers didn’t come back last night (June 21, 1964). We heard they had been arrested and released. I was in the first car with department lawyers who went to Philadelphia (Mississippi) the next day to interview the sheriff and deputy sheriff about the kids’ being released from jail and not returning to where they were staying. Later, the deputy sheriff would be convicted of murder in the case. 

Since I was the junior lawyer, I didn’t conduct the interview but sat in the town square watching pickup trucks circle the square. They appeared to be celebrating. There was a lot of honking and yelling and my cynical reaction was they knew what happened. 

What was your role in the case? 

Minimal. I did some investigative work following up on tips about where the bodies might be buried. All I discovered was the burial site of a dead horse.  

Were you ever afraid? 

Yes, it was right after the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, we were checking on public accommodations like bathrooms and restaurants. Basically just driving around and stopping and observing. Someone got a little edgy and called the police. We were coming back from Vidalia, Louisiana, and were crossing the Natchez bridge when we were stopped by the cops. A group of guys who had driven up with the cops started yelling (racial epithets). We were trained to not engage. So I just turned away. I was just leaning on the car. That’s when I got sucker punched. Coldcocked me and broke my sunglasses yelling, “Why don’t you go back up North and take care of your own (N-word).” A cop said leave them alone — they’re feds. We called Washington and they told us to trade the car in and get out of there. 

Another time we were in Carthage, Mississippi, where a Black family had plans to enroll their child in school. We were scouting for locations we could place federal marshals if need be. We stopped at a restaurant and when we were in there a group of men came and sat across from us and tried to intimidate us. We got up and left and they followed us out of town showing us their weapons. 

Once when were overnight in Prentiss, Mississippi. I had a bad back so I was sleeping on a mattress, which I put on the floor next to the door. When I woke, I found a card that had been slipped under the door. It said something like “the Klan is watching you.” 

Did you participate or observe any of the big civil rights marches?  

Yes, I was assigned to the Selma to Montgomery march, which began on March 25, 1965, as an observer to help monitor the situation.  I was in a suit and tie and one job I had is to make sure anyone who took a potty break got back in the march quickly so they still had state police protection. (A previous attempt called Bloody Sunday on March 7 had resulted in brutal beating, canceling that march.) After seven years of college, here I was telling people to hurry up with their personal business. The march itself was in hindsight truly amazing. We went through small towns, lots of white folks, many with children present shouted obscenities and insults at the marchers. The hatred was palpable. I walked the entire way, about 50 miles. It was a long way, but I got to go back to air-conditioned motels. 

Did you ever meet John Lewis while on the march?  

Yes. I got to speak and walk with John Lewis, who was with the civil rights group in Selma and who had been badly beaten on Bloody Sunday.  

He still had bruises and bumps on him. I talked with him about the general civil rights atmosphere for about 10-15 minutes. I was the quintessential civil rights lawyer. I’m sure he was happy to hear friendly voices. We were dressed in suits even though it was a $30 wash and dry. 

How did you end up back in Michigan? 

We had one child and another on the way so, in 1967, my wife convinced me to move back to Detroit, and in the spring I took a job as an assistant United States attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan.  

What kind of cases did you handle? 

Virtually all of the cases of police brutality. When I first got there, I got some of the rinky-dink cases —some bank robberies, postal cases and counterfeiting. Because of my prior job with the Department of Justice I was also assigned to handle any federal civil rights cases which arose in the Eastern District. 

(Editor’s note: On July 25, 1967, the Detroit Riots broke out and what would become known as the Algiers Motel incident would make its way to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. During the riot on the night of July 25 and the morning of July 26, three black teenage boys were killed and nine others were physically abused by members of a combined task force of Detroit Police, State Police and the National Guard at the Algiers Motel annex on Woodward Avenue. All in all, three separate trials and one hearing were conducted with none of the police officers or the private security guard found guilty. One trial was held in Mason, where the jury returned with a verdict of not guilty.)

How did you get involved in the Algiers Motel case? 

Three white police officers and a Black private security were charged in a state conspiracy which was thrown out by a judge because he didn’t believe any of the witnesses. He did a hometown job — a hometown white job on the case. Kind of like the ones I worked on in Mississippi. I was so angry. It was a clear violation of the law. I asked if I could take the case for federal prosecution. 

It was duck soup for the defense lawyers to cause the witnesses to have different stories, especially since there were various police agencies involved. I knew it would be a tough case, but my theory was if we don’t bring it we lose ground in the Black community. 

What was the process in bringing the federal case in the Algier Motel incident? Did you go to a grand jury?  

Yes, the grand jury moved to indict in May 1968. It didn’t go to trial for a long time (January-February 1970). 

Federal District Judge Stephen Roth was assigned the federal conspiracy case for Algiers. He was the former state attorney general. In a pretrial motion he was pretty good. He ruled that the police officers’ false exculpatory statement could be used as evidence since the officers voluntarily told their stories about the killings, admitting to them to fellow officers and they were not coerced. Their lies were my best evidence. When the police officers were first interviewed, they told the FBI they didn’t even go into the motel.  

The trial was moved to Flint for prejudicial reasons. Did you agree to that?  

I was opposed to it. My response was most of the jurors would be from counties other than Wayne County. Another argument by the defense was Hersey’s book (“The Algiers Motel Incident,” by John Hersey) was believed to be prejudicial to the case and was being read by the people of Detroit. The judge took almost a year to decide the change of venue. 

Was the jury all white?  

Yes, three or four Blacks were drawn but were all bounced. Not something you could do today. 

It was clear to me that Roth did not like the federal case since the state conspiracy case had already been decided. The real problem was Roth changed his mind about the use of exculpatory evidence. He totally changed his mind about using the false statements.  

The trial lasted more than a month and the police officer’s defense was basically how bad it was for these rookie cops. The defendants did not have to testify because of Roth’s ruling. The defense argued that the witnesses were lying. 

What was the result?  

Not guilty. Deliberations lasted nine hours and an all-white jury brought back not guilty of conspiracy. 

What did you do after the Algiers case?  

Nixon had been elected in 1968 so turnover in the office was expected. I was able to finish the (Algiers) case. I wanted to go into private practice. I had just joined the law firm of Sinas Dramis Brake and Boughton in Lansing when I was approached to be the co-director of the Kent State investigation for the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest. 

At first, my partners were anxious for me to develop the practice, but the incident was so important they agreed to a leave of absence. 

The commission was headed by former Gov. Scranton of Pennsylvania. Our job was to interview those involved and feed questions to the commission. I mainly wrote the final report. It was long and boring. Then some journalist came in and rewrote it. Later I was asked to represent the case in front of the grand jury, but my firm gave me an irrevocable no.  It was no big deal since the Ohio grand jury refused to indict anyone. 

What was your next big case? 

I was mostly handling criminal cases, but in 1974 I was out cutting grass at my Okemos home and my next-door neighbor, who was a risk manager for Farm Bureau, asked me if I had ever done any product liability cases. I told him yeah but nothing big. Little did I know the decision to take the PBB case would consume my legal work for nearly 12 years. 

Can you summarize the case? 

The Farm Bureau Services had mistakenly added PBB, a fire retardant, to feed for cattle. The product had originated from Michigan Chemical Co. in St. Louis, Michigan, which used stencils to identify the various products. In 1973 a worker at Farm Bureau Services accidentally mixed up two products, substituting FireMaster (containing PBB) in place of a bag of magnesium oxide which was labeled NutriMaster. The products were identical in appearance. 

(Editor’s note: By the time the mix-up was discovered in April 1974, PBB had entered the food chain through milk, dairy and beef products. All types of farm animals were also contaminated. As a result of this incident, more than 500 contaminated Michigan farms were quarantined and tens of thousands of farm animals were destroyed.) 

We had 1,000 claims. Ultimately, I won three lengthy trials, which allowed us to settle the vast majority of cases. One trial lasted more than a year and a half. We even went out and bought a herd of cows which had been exposed to PBB and raised them to show they could be raised with no problems. We ended up settling almost all of the cases, but it cost Farm Bureau Services, the feed company, so much money it went bankrupt. 

Reflecting on your life, do you have advice for your children? 

Don’t let time slip away without honestly assessing your parents and family members and telling them how you feel. That’s one thing I regret not doing.  

(Thinking about his afterlife, McIntyre told historian Judith Christie, who recorded an oral history of him for the United States District Court: “I want my headstone when I die, I want it to say, ‘He gave a damn.’”)

(The article was compiled from two lengthy interviews conducted and edited by Bill Castanier, the president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and a longtime contributor to City Pulse, and from a personal biography written by McIntyre for his family, along with the review of an oral history conducted for the Eastern District Court.)