Activism
Although more famous for his fiction, Endore was a committed activist, attempting to protect with words those who were mistreated by the American culture and legal system. He supported non-governmental drug rehab programs, tried to use literature to illuminate what he considered to be historical oversights, and wrote pamphlets for many anti-racist causes, including The Crime at Scottsboro about the Scottsboro boys and their subsequent trial.
In 1940 Endore involved himself deeply in the defense of those arrested in the "Sleepy Lagoon" case (also known as the “Chicano Scottsboro”), when 17 Mexican teenagers were incarcerated for a murder. Although there was scant evidence, a complete lack of eye witnesses, and no murder weapon to be found, they were put away in a wave of hysteria spread through the newspapers of LA. Endore became involved when he looked into the case and was startled by the lack of evidence. He proceeded to write a pamphlet entitled the Sleepy Lagoon Mystery which went over in detail the mistakes and oversights involved in the case. Giving a speech on the Al Jarvis radio show, Endore referred to Sleepy Lagoon as “the name of a disgrace which should be on the conscience of every decent American – and especially every decent person who lives in Los Angeles – because we allowed it to happen here.” To bring his readers over to his way of thinking Endore used scare tactics, threatening his readers that, should they allow this to happen, they could, in essence, be next. For the next year he corresponded often with the defense, gave interviews, and spoke on radio shows in an attempt to help the teens. At the end his attempts were a success and, with the information exposed in his pamphlet and a change in common opinion, the verdict was reversed.
Endore became a devoted proponent of the Synanon Foundation, a controversial southern California commune dedicated to reforming and rehabilitating drug addicts and alcoholics. (Later, as the Church of Synanon, it started its own utopian social movement.) He composed pamphlets and a published history of the commune, Synanon. He also taught fiction writing at the Los Angeles People’s Education Center.
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