MISSISSIPPI CHALLENGE OCT 1965 VOL 1 KILLED 228 -143 NO. 10 MOVEMENT Published by On September 17, 1965 the challenge to unseat the white The Student Nonviolent Coord inating ,Committee of Ca Iifornia Congressmen from Mississippi was dismissed from the House' of Representatives, by a vote of 228 to 143. The motion for dismissal, coming from the Chairman of the House Elections Subcommittee, did not mention any of the real issues of the Challenge. Instead the motion called for dismissal on "technical" grounds. The Mississippi Coqgressmen had valid certificates ofelec­ tion on file in the office of the Clerk of STRIKE IN THE GRAPES! 'the House; they had taken the oath of DELANO, CALIFORNIA - The cry in the office administered by the Speaker of the San Joaquin Valley north of Bakersfield, in House. the grape fiels now at the peak of harvest Moreover, as the official report for dis­ time, is Huelgal Huelgal It means Strikel missal complained, "The fact is that the in Spanish and is the cry of the roving contestants did not avail themselves of the picket lines of the independent National proper legal steps to challenge their al­ Farm Workers Association (FWA) and the leged exclusions from the registration books Agricultural Workers Organizing Com­ and ballots prior to election, nor did they mittee, AFL-CIO (AWOC). even attempt to challenge the issuance of According to one source it is the largest the Governor's certificate of election, in strike of agricultural workers in the Valley Federal District Court, after the election since the Modesto cotton strike of 1938. was held." For the growers it is a foreboding display of unity between the two organizations, Dodged the Issue which have not cooperated in this way before. The Minority Report of the Elections On Sunday, September 26, nearly 1000 subcommittee recommended that the Chal­ farm workers marched in Delano. Gather­ lenge be sent back to the subcommittee ing in a park before the march, the child­ for more open hearings. As Congressman ren ran races and broke pinatas filled with Hawkins from California said, "Mr. Speak­ candy; Then the farm workers and their er, the committee majority found that the families marched through the residential primary question for them to consider section of Delano, carrying signs announc­ was, "Was there an election?" and it ing the strike and shouting Huelgal and found out that there was......Of course Viva la Causal there was. No one has denied that. But Workers are asking $1.40 an hour plus the iss u e raised by this challenge is 25¢ a box. Before the strike began, the whether there was a valid, constitutional growers were paying $I.l5 and $I.l0 plus election and whether qualified citizens could 1O¢ a box. As more and more localworkers avail themselves of the electoral and poli­ have left thefields, thegrowers have boosted tical processes of the' state in which they wages slightly in an attempt to recruite live......that is the question which the com­ strikebreakers from outside the area. mittee should more thoroughly consider:' The growers have also moved into the Lawrence Guyot, Chairman of the Miss­ courts to obtain temporary res t r a i n i n g issippi Freedom Democratic Party, com­ orders against "mass" picketing. One ord­ mented, "It was shocking to us that the er, issued at the Lucas ranch, limits pickets vote taken...had little to do with the major to five and prohibits shouting. It is imposs­ issue we raised - did the state-endorsed ibe for picketers to talk to scabs in the disenfranchisement of more than 90% of the field without shouting. Negroes in Mississippi render the Con­ In 'the face of severe pressures (for the gressional elections illegal? Was the Con­ story about harassment by police and grow­ gress of the United States going to allow ers see page 5), the strikers have stood to sit among them men elected by a system firm. Each morning at 4 a.m. crews of of murder, terror and economic slavery? pickets move out to find which fields Rather than face those questions, Congress CONTINUED PAGE 4 A PROUD STRIKER waits as grower's tractor driver comes around to lay down another boiling cloud of dust. Note thick layer of dust on back of car. Huelga means strike. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Carroll County, Mississippi niT HAS AKLU KLUX KLAN, ASHERIFF, AND AMFDP" Carroll County, Mississippi is a bleak the boycott had failed, someone suggested rights workers around as they canvass, and FBI was snotty and did nothing. When 60 district in ~he South. It has: that the only way to close down the schools has been getting bolder and bolder. His of us marched to end the split session, the No industry was to stop the buses, to block them with intimidation has kept many potential Ne­ FBI man was there for 5 minutes and then No libraries their bodies. The idea spread quickly: the gro ,voters from the polls. took off. They were completely worthless:' No movie theaters buses would not run on Monday. The night before Larry Gamble left to No hospitals. Monday morning attempts were made to return to California the FDP office was The Challenge It is the 14th poorest county in the block the school buses. At Black Hawk burned to the ground. All the registration nation. None of its schools, white or black, school, Mrs. Blackmon's 8 year old sonwas rolls, the records, were lost. Larry feels that state-wide coordination are accredited. What does it have? In the among them. As the Sheriff and his deputies "Most of the rednecks are cowards," of the FDP is very weak. Where there are words of one SNCC volunteer, Larry Gam­ began to clear them away, one of the says Larry, "but there are some - like two offices, one for COFO 'and one for the ble of Stockton, "it has cotton, a sheriff, deputies slapped the child. Mrs. Blackmon the ex-sheriff - who if they decide to MFDP, decision-making gets mixed up a Klan, and a FreedomDemocratic Party:' grappled with the deputy and was thrown kill you will do it in broad daylight and and there is considerable confusion. SNCC , Out of this has come one of the best to the ground by tWo men and choked. She looking straight at you. And they'll know has taken steps to remedy this. Seven or organized MFDP counties in Mississippi. was arrested and released on $1000 bond. they're doing it for Christ and Chris­ . eight of the old SNCC staff members, jesse The local people, tired of a split school The doctor's examination showed her dan Civilization." Harris, among them, have formed what is sessibn, split so that their children could shoulder had been damaged. called "The Team:' They travel from go pick the white man's cotton, took to the But children at the Black Hawk school No Luck With Poor Whites project to project in the state trying to co­ streets and endecht. were walking out again. Monday afternoon a ordinate and carry information from one The drive was begun by Mrs. Leola county-wide meeting was held and a march Some attempts were made to organize to the other. Blackmon', whose 8 year old son attends on the Negro school in Carrolton planned. in the poor white community. It was almost The challenge of the MFDP failed to the Black Hawk school in Carroll County. They decided to try to block the buses impossible for an integrated group to do capture the active attention of the FDP She raised the question in an MFDP meet­ again on Tuesday morning. this. Though the ythites are making the members in. Carroll County, who were ing. The local people decided to take ac­ There was no need to block the buses the same wages as the Negroes - in some more interested in such local issues as the tion, at first with a petition. They got next day. The Superintendent had closedthe places as low now as $1.75 a day - they split session ai'd integrating the schools. 230 sigpatures on the petition, but the schools. The split session was ended. just won't work with Negroes. They believe Before the office burned down, about 20 school superintendant refused to halt the everything they have been taught. local people were planning to travel to split session. The Gees A typical poor white community in Car­ Washington to lobby, but funds were then roll County is "Little Texas:' DUring the diverted to pay for a new office. School Boycott The whole county used to be owned by the Depression, the whites lynched, burned, . The staff felt it was necessary to develop Gee family, who still own most of the and ran out the Negroes who owned the consciousness in the local people of state The parents then decided' to boycott the sharecroppers land and the banking in­ land in this section. They wanted their and federal laws that affected them, as schools at the beginning of the Summer terests. The Sheriff is the owner power own territory and they got it. Larry was well as working on local issues. One such session. The first week of the boycott figure, with large landholdings in nearby run out of Little Texas when he was law, passed at the same time the Miss­ most of the children stayed out of school, Leflore County. recognized as an MFDP worker. issippi legislature was "liberalizing" their but the schools remained open. Parents The son, Clint Gee, dropped out of col­ Was the FBI of any help to the civil voting laws, reqUired children not living with were afraid their children would be flunked, lege recently and leased a service sta­ rights worke~s? None.