S Volume ].. , . - SEPTEMBER 1961 · .No. 3 CONVENTION ISSUE ·· SCLC ~onv#mtion In .j(unstler of the American Civil Liber ties Union will address the Lawyer's Nashville; September 27~29 Foruni and Seminar on Friday. Dr. The Annual Convention of SCLC is King will speak at the city-wide Free- scheduled to open in Nashville Ten- dom Raiiy at th~ War Memorial Audi- nessee with a scintillating bene-fit con- torium Wednesday evening. ce rt bille'd as a 'Tribute to the Freedom The Nashville' Christian.Leadership Riders' starring Harry Belafonte and ·c ouncil serves as host affiliate with its the Belafonte Folk Singers. The show president, Kelly Miller Smith as· Co- will be augmented by Miriam Makeba ordinator.··Ail sessions .(day) will. be and the Chad Mitchell Trio. The in- held at the Clark Memorial Methodist terJ!lission of the benefit will provide Church with the exception of the Law- one of the high moments of the three- yer's Foruin aiid · Semin;u on Friday day meeting when ten young collegians that will meet. at First Baptist Church. Martin .Luther King, Jr., Pre ·=--"'\I J Spottswood Ro bin son, Ill, Dean Howard Univer Will iam Kunstler, ACLU lawyer and author James Farmer, NatiOn al Director CORE r sity Low Schoo l, Mem ber Civil Rig hts Co!"mission .-·- Publisher, SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE 208 Auburn Avenue Allanla, Geo~g i a Phon,e: JAckson 5- I 763 MARTIN LUTHER KiNG, JR., President F . L. SHUITLEswO.~tTH, Secretary RAl.PH D. ABERNATHY., Treasurer WvArr 'TEE WALK~ R . Executive Director l ·.· D, R EDDICK, Acting Editor Citi~enship Schools in Action SCLC is moving fornard in its Lead ·ership Training Program . .In ~e July workshop thirteen were trained from three d,ifferent states: Louisiana,''Geqr gia and South Carohria. Four of the persons are now able to operate c~nte rs training others to teach. O,thers m the class are setting up local classes. In August fifteen persons attended from Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. The Seotember class has oarticipants com ing in from Prince ·Edward County, Dinwiddie, and Petersburg, Virginia and from Atlanta, Georgia. ·-Mrs. Dorothy Gotten, Mrs. Septima Clark and the Reverend Andrew Young_ will tour key are}_ Louisiana and South Carolina during the· month of October explaining the Citizenship Program and recruiting persons to take the five-day intensive training course at Dorchester Center, Mcintosh, Georgia. All chuq:hes. and ·'Elrganiza ~ tions affiliated with SCLC are partici- . pa{ing in th is effort to help all of o'ur people become fully participating citi ~ens . Other groups which share our basic aims and philosophy are invited to ioin hands with . us. Our staff and .. program are at your service. ·- Recent' statistics ·have .. shown that in HARRY BELAFONTE AND MARIAM MAKEBA ten or twelve southe·m states there are / ·. over two million ill iterates. Your help is n·eeded if we are to effectively erase STAR IN BENEFI T CONCERT the cause of much of our suffering. 'I Not only must we have basic reading Harry Belafonte has become one of The Belafonte repertoire knows . no and writing skills, but we must know the world's best known artists through bounds of locale or geographic limita something about Social Security, health ~ his individuahty as a singer of folk tions. His songs are the songs of people I benefits available, how equal job op songs and distinctiveness in choice of all over the globe, of all fields of en portunities and better housing facili material and method of presentation. deavor and every area of ex'pression. ties are acquired, how government is He has emerged not only as a name Miriam Makeba, a favorite perform- · run and those who control it. There of stature among the few "real stars", · er in her native Union of South· Africa, are not enough governmental jobs to but as a unique c·ombination of crea is a unique blending of singer, ac; tress · go around, but one way in which we tive artist and commercial success - and visual historian of a greai- culrure can all participate in government is to a man who has discovered the formula who has stirred ·music enthusiasts of register and vote. for maintaining a great mass appeal the United States to extreme heights For detailed information on the Citi without compromising hi art. of praise within tl e short period that zenship School contact Mrs. Dorothy He has been called the "true musical she has been in this country. Miss F. Cotton, Educational Director at historian of our times" and "the man Makeba, an Xosa tribeswoman, lived ·sccc. Join - o r ~ Martin Luther King, who has . brought folk singing into its most of her li fe in Prospect Township, J r., in his noble efforts to reach all of own with other musical form s such as Johannesburg, South Africa before J our people-wherever they .are. jazz, oper.a, and the classics". coming to this country. ·- l I· ._ v I G .N E T ~ . OF Shuttlesworth of, llirmingham ·Mob Wins Again The nationally televised 'CBS RE . PORT',cWho"Speaks for Birmingham, In Alabama described the . Reverend :Fred L. Shut Eleven freedom fighters,ten clergy- . tle_sworth of Birmingham, " .- .. the men and one graduate law student, suc ·man most feared by southern racists cumbed to Alabama's brand of 'justice and the voice of the new militancy before the law' on September 15. Judge among Birmingham Negroes . . . " Alex Marks of the Montgomery Coun Friend and foe alike, with understand- ty Court found all eleven guilty of two . ab.le :respect, agree that this Alabama charges .pf 'breach of the peace'· arid .· b9.rn-!!nd-bred Baptist minister is prob 'unlawful assembly'. with single excep abfy the most courageous -man on the tion of SCLC director, Wyatt Tee civil-rights scene in' the Deep South. W~Iker, who was acquitted of the first · · · · Fred Shuttlesworth h!ls been . pastor charge. of the Bethel ~aptjst pmrclffor the . · Evidently OJ'l!rating under the logic past eight years. It has been the fa<;al of 'jailing the ba:nk· president inste_ad center ·of the fight for freedom in Birm- of arresting ,the bank robber',· Judge .. ingham ··ever since · 195_6 when · the· Marks imposed fines and/ or jan terms NAACP was enjoined from'·operatfng on each. Counsel for the defendants in Alabama. In May of the sall}e year, argued brilliantly on every point of the Alabama Christian Movement for law producing the incontrovertible evi Human Rights was born with Fred dence from the Federal Court that ~huttlesworth as president. ACMHR General Graham testified under oath bridged a gap . that · was desperately that the eleven were arrested because needed in the wake of-the NAACP's he was 'disgusted'. Despite the intro forced exit from Alabama:: . duction of several Federal questions Shuttleworth's civil rights biography that established violations of the 1st reads like something akin to an Horatio and 14th amendment and the presen Alger star;: Christmas 1956, Shuttles tation of the .Federal Judee Johnson ,.; .·- worth home liotflbed and completely (Middle District of Alabama) ruling · · · · demolished; -winti:r 1957, Bethel Bap- that the arrests were made 'solely to .----mt-dynamued by racim; Jate. 1957, enforce segregation', all were convicted . Shuttlesworth'· ·and ···wife, mobbed, The group included the Reverend bea!en, and stabbed; jailed eight times Ralph D. Aberi1athy, SCLC treasurer -four times during the Freedom · and Montgomery Improvement Asso- Rides; sued for thre·e million dollars by ciation President, Fred L. Shuttles.. state officials of Alabama; automobile worth of Birmingham and SCLC Sec and personal property sold . at public retary, and Bernard Lee, Special As auction; drivers license revoked for sistant to Mr. Walker. In addition to a whole year; the three Shuttlesworth SCLC personnel, . four New England children illegally arrestM and beaten professors tasted Alabama ju.stice; Wil at Gadsden (Alabama). - • · liam Coffin and Gaylord Noyce :of the Yale University Faculty and John Dixie's most fearless freedom fighter David Maguire and David Swift of · is currently involved in twenty-'seven Wesleyan University in Middletown, criminal and civil actions. He has re Connecticut. The other three are grad ceived sentences· totaling three and a uate students; George Bundy Smith of half years in time · and $5,000 in fines. the Yale Law School and Clyde Carter Fred Shuttlesworth is without a doubt. and Joseph Charles Jones of the Divin the most abused and arrested minis'ter ity School of Johnson C. Smith Uni in the nation. versity at Charlotie, N. C. Dr. Aber Birmingham has been described as nathy and · Bernard Lee we~· fined $100 and sentenced to ten days in the the 'worst city this side of Johannes county jail: the others were meted the burg, South Africa.' Despite the likes same fine and sentenced to fifteen days of Eugene (Bull) Connor and deeply in ~he county jail with the exception entrenched habits . of segregation in of SCLC Director Wy_att Tee . Walker both the Negro and white community, who was not fined bu.t · sente.flced to Fred Shuttlesworth and the ACMHR ninety days in jail. All of the cases . have had an impact that Birmingham were appealed to the Circuit Court.. will long remember. The desegregation of the city buses, delayed through The defendants were represented by seemingly endless litigation and police Fred Gray, Charles Conley, and S. S. __ ]l~rassment, is now a reality. Visitors Seay, Jr of Montgomery, Louis Pol ·to Biiirilngham· rooay are shown ·street . Jack of flle Yale Law facult}:', and Jac~ lights, paved streets, Negro policemen Gree-nberg and Norman Amaker of the . - all credited to Shuttlesworth and Legal l)efense and Education F~nd . ·-- . ____ .,: ____.:______---:-----' __ _ Members of Kenya Legislative Council, Kodu Party, visit SCLC. Left to right, Daniel . T. Moi, Secretory of Education; Wyatt Tee Walker, Executive Director of SCLC; CONTRIBUTIONS Wafulo Wabuge, Deputy. General Secretory; J. K. Oletipis, Secretory of Agriculture; I wish to co ntribut~ to the work of. and Fred Van Cart, State Deportment. They conferred with Dr. King for two· hours I "discussing the problems of Kenya and the Deep_ _South. I SCL.C and the social struggle in ·the I South. the newsstands- in ~a · "paperback edition ·- ·~~ ~ . . . The dismissal of the Reverend NAME ... ~-- · .. Virgil Wocid (Lynchburg, Virginia) "Good luck and best wishes to Ed from· the faculty of Virginia Seminary ADDRESS .. _King who has .Iesigned as Executive has caused _a stir in civil rights circles_ ·, ··\street) Secretary of SNCC (Student Nonvio all over the ~outh; it is alleged by ad lent Coordinating Committe.e) to con ministration qfficials that he is· 'too in tinue work toward a law degree at volved' : . . Best wishes to Sammy fc;ity & state) Wilberforce· University in- Ohio ... Davises and Harry Belafontes on their . Welcome to SCLC staff: Andrew new arrivals; ·both are ardent SCLC Amount of Contribution .. Young, a minister of the CongregatiQll supporters ... Freedom Ride Scholar al Church who comes to us with high ships are available through home of Send to: S C L C recommendations from the National fice of SCLC; applications must be in 208 Ailburn Ave., N. E. Council . of Churches; Andy will- be writing including need, academic stand- . working with the Field Foundation ing, involvement struggle. and the Atlanta 3, Georgia" m Project, namely the Citizenship Schools . college or university in which you are ·.;. · ... Stride Towarct' Freedom is no'.V on (or 'NiH be) enro!!ed. · / Non Profit Or g. :-:-"' I 208 Auburn Ave., N. E. U. S. POSTAGE I Atlanta 3, Go. PAID ' Atlanta, Ga. Permit 663 ---·-----.-