My Ithaca roommate Herbet Lee Pitts was convicted for bank robbery
which occurred in December, 1968 in Tuskegee, Alabama, when he
was a student at Tuskegee Institute. [...] Dr. Price characterized Pitts
as a paranoid schizophrenic who had periods of exacerbation and
remission. [...] Pitts' paranoic tendencies displayed
themselves most clearly in his delusion that he would be the savior of
his race.
Here is www.supremecourt.gov/pdfs/journals/scannedjournals/1970_journal.pdf
, November 9, 1970 p.99; Certiorari Denied No. 5654. Herbert
Lee Pitts, petitioner, v. United States. Petition for writ of certiorari
to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied.
In 1971 he is listed as imprisoned in Petersburg, Va, apparently as a conscientious objector. He had a number of his poems published in 1970's.
Here is Black View November 29, 1973 editorial by Herbet Lee Pitt.
In 1973 he returned to his pre-Cornell ways, with a loaded rifle and a bandolier of ammunition: casetext.com/case/people-v-pitts-54 .
