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©ftEMILlUg, WMMA OFFICIAL RECORD OF HOSPITALIZED DEMONSTRATORS,

JUNE 10th, 1963 — Danville, Virginia

Albert Chambers Lacerations of head, fractured wrist, possible injury to back. Juanita White Multiple abrasions on legs and lacerations on knee. Barbara Graves Lacerations of scalp. Richard Coleman Lacerations of scalp. Hubert Graves Possible fracture or sprain of left wrist. Mary Graham Laceration of scalp. Eddie Bethel Lacerations of scalp. Floyd J. Stone Possible back injury. Frank Davis Laceration of scalp. Jessie Warren Lacerated scalp and possible dislocated shoulder. Charles Russell Multiple lacerations of scalp. Joe Wilson Injury to left knee. Ronald Walton Injury to left shoulder, scarum and coccyx. Frank Adams Swollen area right shoulder and complaints of hands hurting. Paul Price Laceration on right side head. Complains of dizziness and vomiting.

An unknown number of persons were treated as outpatienTs by the staff of Winslow Hospital and discharged without a record being made of their injuries or injury.

"Danville, Virginia Invites You to see motion pictures at the downtown Make Our City Your City — A Fine theatres unless they sit in the balcony; Place to Live and Work." (Chamber of they cannot sleep at the city's motels; Commerce Report, April, 1963)* their streets, for the most part, are A young Negro woman who will bear unpaved and poorly lighted; their gar­ the scars of a police billy stick on her bage is not collected regularly; and if face for the rest of her life — she ques­ they are ill — or beaten by white tions Danville as a "fine place to live police — they go to an ill-staffed and and work." A Negro man who was ill-equipped segregated hospital. beaten so savagely by police that he They can be unemployed, or work almost lost an eye, and was refused as maids, doormen and janitors; they medical attention in jail for three can be discriminated against, whipped, days — he has questions also. beaten, threatened, and jailed. This "fine place" erupted into racial turmoil in late May, 1963 and for its "The Library has nearly 70,000 vol­ size is running a close race with Bir­ umes, over 900 records for children, mingham for top honors in police other audio-visual material and a brutality. Genealogical Collection. There is a branch library for Negroes and a book­ "Danville's population was 46,577 in mobile which serves the outlying the official U.S. census count...Ninety- areas..." nine per cent are American-born..." Danville was affected with sit-ins The almost 15,000 Negro citizens of when the movement spread rapidly Danville, Virginia are all American- through the South in 1960, but the born. But: only 6.2% of them (in the central battle in this "enlightened, county) are registered voters; the liberal" upper South state came over schools are integrated only in a token the desegregation of the main Library. manner; they cannot have white collar Negroes and a few, very few, sym­ positions or key jobs in municipal pathetic whites waged a furious battle government; they cannot eat at most for several months to desegregate the restaurants in the city; they cannot Library. Not so ironically, the Library itself is a Confederate Memorial, where * All quotes in italics are taken from the last full cabinet meeting of the this report published by the Danville Confederacy took place before General Chamber of Commerce in April, 1963. Lee announced his surrender. After bitter wrangling, the library officials, facing a court order to deseg­ regate, closed the building altogether from September to November, 1960. The building was then reopened — on an integrated basis — but without chairs. For some months afterward, the Danville Library was one of the few free public libraries in the United States where a one-year card cost $2.50.

"Often called the 'city of churches,' Danville has over 100 sanctuaries of various denominations The city maintains a high moral and spiritual Rev. Lawrence Campbell tone..." One June 22, several police officers kicked in a door in the main sanctuary of the High Street (Negro) Baptist Church and arrested three workers for the Student Nonviolent Coor­ dinating Committee. The lock on the front door had been jimmied open the night before. The three SNCC workers were charged with grand jury indict­ ments of "inciting the colored popula­ tion to acts of violence and war against the white population" and were taken to jail. This event, conducted with such "high moral and spiritual" tones, was Rev. L. W. Chase perhaps one of the most outrageous skirmishes in the battle between the "inciting or encouraging a minor to Negro community and the Danville commit a misdemeanor." Bond was city fathers. set at $5,500 each. The battle began, properly, on a hot The next day, Campbell requested shining last day of May, when two that the Student Nonviolent Coor­ ministers, who had long agitated in dinating Committee send field secre­ their parishes for equality, led a pro­ taries into the city to aid the leadership, test march to city hall. Rev. Lawrence now being picked off and under heavy Campbell and Rev. A. I. Dunlap walked bond. The first SNCC field secretary almost every day from May 31 to June arrived on Sunday, June 8. At one 5 to the city hall, demanding equality time or another, 15 SNCC workers in municipal employment. They aided the local movement in Danville. wanted, as Negroes, to be employed Three— Avon Rollins, a SNCC exec­ as firemen, policemen, city clerks, utive committee member, Robert meter readers and typists. Zellner, a field secretary, and Daniel On June 5 the two clergymen, along Foss, a summer volunteer for SNCC — with several students, tried to see hardly ever left. Mayor Julian Stinson. Mayor Stinson Monday afternoon, June 10, 38 per­ was not available. The students and sons — including Rollins and Foss — ministers demanded to be heard, how­ were arrested as they marched to the ever, and when Mayor Stinson was not city hall, still pressing publicly for forthcoming, they replied calmly that their demands. Police turned fire hoses they would wait, and sat down on the on them, and beat them with clubs. floor. That evening, the following scene Police rushed them, pushed Dunlap took place: down a flight of stairs, and choked a A group of 65 Negroes (and one young Negro girl, who, not properly white woman, a SNCC office worker) schooled in non-violence, responded walked five abreast from Rev. Camp­ abruptly and swung at a policeman bell's church to the city jail. SNCCer with her pocketbook. She and the two Zellner was along, photographing the ministers were jailed. march. Mrs. Campbell was at the head Campbell and Dunlap, both leaders of the line. The group, led by Rev. H. G. of the Danville Christian Progressive McGhee, sang hymns and circled the Association, were indicted by the jail once, passing several policemen grand jury for "inciting to riot" and who stood there watching. As they began the second trip around, hall to protest the police brutality of police halted them. Chief of Police E. G. the night before and to again assert McCain snatched a camera from Zell- the need for equal employment. Many ner's hands, smashed it on the ground, of those who paced slowly up and down and had him hauled into jail. McCain in front of the city hall wore bandages told Rev. McGhee to stop singing and on their heads and arms, and one young disperse the group. Instead, Rev. man walked with a crutch. Mayor McGhee broke into a loud prayer and Stinson was not available to see them. asked forgiveness for the police "who Three days later, June 13, Rev. Chase know not what they do." again led about 250 Negroes to the city Chief McCain bellowed, "Let 'em hall to speak to the Mayor. The crowd have it" and firemen turned hoses on waited on the steps as Rev. Chase and the people, many of them women and five others — all victims of the attack teen-agers. Nightstick-wielding police June 10 — tried vainly to get into the and deputized garbage collectors city hall. The doors were locked, and smashed into the group, clubbing sullen white faces peered at them Negroes who were bunched for safety unblinking as Chase called, "We want against parked cars. Some were washed to see the Mayor." under the cars; others were clubbed Rejected, Chase and his group re­ after the water knocked them down. joined the crowd on the steps and Bodies lay on the street, drenched everyone decided to stay all night, if and bloody. Police and garbage col­ necessary, to see the Mayor. lectors chased those demonstrators They stayed nine hours. who were able to walk for two blocks. Women from the High Street church At the Bible Way Church, pastored and other ladies from the community by Rev. Campbell, bloody men and brought several hundred sandwiches women came in by twos and threes and and several hundred cokes for the were shuttled to the hospital. demonstrators. The young and old Of 65 demonstrators, 40 were hurt. people sang Freedom songs, talked, The next day, the two Danville news­ occasionally danced, heard a lecture papers, the Register and the Bee, on Negro history by James Forman, mentioned casually that "demonstra­ SNCC executive secretary, and waited. tors were dispersed with the use of At 11 p.m., when some of the dem­ hoses and nightsticks." onstrators had stretched out on the The next day, Rev. L. W. Chase, narrow stairs prepared to sleep, if pastor of the High Street Baptist possible, a sudden huddle took place Church and President of the DCPA, among the police, who had previously led a group of 200 Negroes to the city blocked off the area for four blocks around. Then the fire trucks appeared. And police suddenly appeared in back of the demonstrators, on the top steps, after they had come from inside the city hall. They had clubs in hand. An old lady, trembling, cried, "Are they going to hurt us again? Are they going to beat us?" Dr. Milton Reid, Virginia represent­ ative of the Southern Christian Leader­ ship Conference, Chase, and Forman conferred. The demonstrators huddled One of several fruitless marches to the City Hall. SNCC workers show a Danville youngster how to protect himself from a policeman's club. AP photo Monday afternoon, June 10: a prelude to what came later that evening.

And so the people reluctantly left the steps of the City Hall. Left: at a non-violent workshop. Bottom: waiting in vain to be admitted to a Danville restaurant. On the steps of the City Hall. together, one hand protecting their ians, 75.2 per cent white. They are faces, the other clenched tightly around loyal and intelligent workers...They the railing which ran down the steps believe in the old fashioned way of of the building. producing an honest day's work for Some in the back, closest to the an honest day's pay..." police, began to flee, but about 50 Dan River Mills, Inc., is described persons were prepared to brave three by the Chamber of Commerce as "the high-pressure fire hoses not more than largest single-unit textile mill in the 15 feet from their faces. world." It employs some 12,000 persons Forman jumped up and said to Chief and, in 1962, sold over $173-million McCain, "What are you doing?" worth of cloth and yarn. Reid and Chase spoke together as Of the 12,000 employed at the mill, Forman confronted the Chief. It was about 1100 are Negro. Although it is this confrontation, many people be­ alleged that there are Negroes in key lieve, which gave the demonstrators jobs, the highest position held by a time to get out of the way of the hoses. Negro is as machinist. The maximum High pressure hoses could have, at that wage paid a Negro man is $75-80 small distance, blown eyes out and per week. broken bones. So the group got up and Robert N. Gardiner, the public re­ descended the stairs. Police followed lations director of the mill, is now them, brandishing nightsticks, to the public relations assistant to Mayor Negro neighborhood. Stinson, who, with other city council- After that night's mass meeting at men, refused to negotiate with Rev. Campbell's church, police, armed "criminals and outside agitators." with submachine guns, set up road­ Many Negroes in Danville believe that blocks near the church and searched Gardiner was taken on to smoothe over several cars. Standing near the four police brutality and the refusal to patrol cars loomed a riot tank with negotiate; they say the mill could, four machine guns mounted on top. single-handedly, change the racial This was Danville, Virginia, June, 1963 situation in Danville. and its "high moral and spiritual Since the protest began, Negroes tone..." have picketed the employment office of the mill, and have even been arrested "LABOR — Danville people are on mill property. On July 9 leaders largely native Virginians and Carolin- of the DCPA announced a "world-wide" boycott against all Dan River products. Demonstrations occurred simulta­ neously in New York City and in Dan­ ville on July 17 against the mill. The New York demonstrators were spon­ sored by several locals of the Inter­ national Ladies Garment Workers Union, and the New York Friends of SNCC.

"The City maintains a police court, civil court, juvenile and domestic rela­ SNCC workers: (left to right) Cordell Reagon, tions court, traffic court, and jointly Dorothy Miller, Bernice Johnson, Avon Rollins, with the state, the corporation court." and Robert Zellner. Reagon and Miss Johnson The City of Danville also maintains are two of SNCC's Freedom Singers. a corporation court Grand Jury which, on June 21, handed down indictments against 14 persons charging them with an ancient Virginia statute: "inciting the colored population to acts of violence and war against the white population." This statute, passed in the 1830's after a slave uprising, was used to hang John Brown after his Harper's Ferry raid. All the fourteen were placed on $5000 bond each. All were either local leaders or associated with SNCC, SCLC, or the Danville Christian Progressive Association. When the Grand Jury held its hear­ ings the week prior to June 21, no person subpoenaed was allowed to bring his lawyer. Attorney Len Holt of Norfolk, Virginia had handled most Observers of the cases. He, too, was indicted and spent three days in jail after he was bi-racial committee was publicly served with the indictment in the reprimanded. courtroom. Holt and other lawyers asked that So this, then, is the "progressive all pending cases be placed in the spirit" of Danville. jurisdiction of the Federal court. They It will be up to the Negro community complained that Judge A. M. Aiken, and the largely mute white community who had tried two cases, walked into to see which direction Danville takes. the courtroom wearing a gun, and There are only a few alternatives, and refused attorneys the opportunity of only a few roads on which to travel. obtaining witnesses. The hardest of all is the road on which the city administration has embarked, for the bitterness always "Danville's civic and social organiza­ latent in this tight mill community is tions have shown a consistently pro­ now deeply embedded. Too many beat­ gressive spirit, adding much to the ings, too many arrests, too many civic development as well as to the indignities have already been suffered cultural and social life of the city." by the Negroes of Danville, Virginia Since demonstrations began in Dan­ for them to forget. ville on a large, concentrated and The end of this story cannot be consistent scale, the only voice from written now, and will only be written the white community has been a state­ by the Negro community in Danville, ment from 13 ministers, speaking as the heroes who were beaten but were individuals, asking for increased com­ not afraid to go back and continue munication between the races. But not saying to the city: "We will continue. one "civic or social" organization You can work with us to make this a issued any official statement urging truly 'fine place to live and work' or the city fathers to create a bi-racial you can, as you have already done, committee or to give the Negro com­ try to thwart us in every way you munity any of the rights it so stridently devise. But no matter which way you demanded. In fact, the sole city council­ choose, the outcome will eventually man who spoke up for an official be the same. We will win." Published by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 6 Raymond Street, N.W. Atlanta 14, Georgia

Text Dorothy Miller

Photography and layout Danny Lyon

THE STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE grew out of the student sit-in movement in 1960. It is composed of local protest groups across the South, a staff of 190 young people, and Friends of SNCC groups in the North. SNCC staff and local affiliate group members work on voter registration and direct action in the hard core areas of the South. They daily face the violence portrayed in this pamphlet. SNCC looks toward a day when all men shall walk with their heads high, each with equal opportunities, unafraid.

The costs of this pamphlet have been borne by SNCC in order that the Danville story could be told. Your contribution will help cover printing costs and further the struggle for human dignity in the South. Make checks payable to SNCC.

August, 1963 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee j-f Raymond st« NW Atlanta Uj., Gas DECISIONS MADEAT MEETING OP SNCC EXECUTIVE CC

1. ?rlcritias for Winter a) Mississippi Project b) Recruitment of staff c) Creating campus protest groups which will move out into the community in their action programs Other programs will be continued. 2. Guidelines for making decisions on expansion and priorities in the next few months0 a) Do we have competent people to handle the project? b) There should be a clear Idea of our reason for going into an ares and for a follow-up program: Guiding questions should be: What places will make for basic changes In the South? Where are the strategic points wherethe structure can be broken and how will we do it? c) SNCC must be responsive to requests for help from local areaso When staff is sent In at the request of local groups the emphasis must be on leadership training and development. For this task SNCC must develop a mobile project (a short term task force), 3= Mississippi Projects A proposal for Mississippi programming and goals presented by Bob Moses was accepted, a) SNCC will launch a One Man One Vote campaign in Mississippi immediately,, b) Sufficient personnel will be moved to Mississippi to implement this deeisIon0 d) A committee composed of Bob Moses, John Lewis., Jim Forman, ^nd Ella Baker will deal with the implementation of these decisions •':.: I will report at the Coordinating Committee meeting, L Organizing in the South on Campuses The Southern Campus Coordinator's report was accepted: a) Pour field secretaries wl 11 be hired as soon as possible to trave1 to campu3es« b,) Their work will bo coordinated through the Atlanta office,, c) They will work on local organizing for civil rights and will also work with campus civil liberties issuesa

Concentration of recruitment and concentration on organizing will be In the Carolina's and Virginia, since that is where the bulk of the Negrc colleges are located., Attention will be given to the creat ion of Work-Study programs on campuses after the pattern of the Miles and Tougaloo projects. Campus Coordinator will secure a copy of the proposal and see that it is circulated to the Coordinating Committee, staff, and campus travellers.

Details will be sent to you In a mailing soon. Decisions of Executive Committee page 2

Specific assignments for work on recruitment and campus organizing were made to be followed up by Campus Coordinator. 5. March on Washington a) SNCC will continue to support the March Committee and March demands., b) Eleanor Holmes will be SNCC representative to the March Committee,, c) SNCC will support People's Congress plan and 100 cities d em on strati onsa The representative was instructed tot a) Press for connecting local demonstrations to march demands and getting March Committee support for local protests• b) Send a memc to the 'Executive Committee reporting on decisions made at each March Coznaitfcee meeting, c) Attempt to secure buses for transportation to the Congress which could bo used In the South after the Congress. 6. Jobs Project A proposal presented by Bill Mahonay for a project on economic problems was accepted. a) A Washington office will be established. b) TNis office will deal with employment and economic programs for areas where SNCC 1^ worlingo c) The office will also deal with SNCC news and other llason needs in Washington. d) The personnel committee will fill the post. 'lbany and Americas, Ga„ Protest Campaigns A plan for a protest inarch in or around Amerlcus, Georgia was accepted. The March will bake place on October $0 A committee composed of JQhn Lewis. Jim Forman, Julian Bond, Michael S&^er, Eleanor Holmes., Charles S lerrod, and Bill Mahoney will map details for the March from the plan accepted by the Executive Committee. 8. New Projects a) A plan for a voter registration project in Southeast Atlanta was acceptsd0 b) The Executive Secretary was Instructed to plan for and attempt to secure funds for a votar registration project in North Carolina, c) The Executive Secretary was Instructed to begin work on developing a voter registration project in East Texas. 9. Northern Contacts a) Someone will be hired as soon as possible to travel in the North with the specific pupose of working with and helping set up Friends of SNCC groups 0 b) Work should begin with the Chicago Friends of SNCC toward setting up a conference or meeting for Northern SNCC supporters. Decisions of Executive Committee page 3

c) Policy for Friends of SNCC groups: Friends groups should concentrate on support for the South I. we do not have resources to coordinate or direot Northern action programs. The Executive Secretary will have discretion in recognizing groups supporting SNCC as official Friends of SNCC groups. 10. Danville, Virginia The D nville project will be continued with particular emphasis on economic situation (discrimination in employment, labor organizing, boycotts of Dan River Mill, etc.). II. Southern Conference Education Fund Grant A grant from SCEE was accepted to provide funds for the firing of one staff parson to work with white students. 12. Scholarship Aid Applications were reviewed for scholarship help and scholarships were grantee to the applicants, to be followed up by the Staff Coordinator, 13* Personnel Decisions The personnel committee report was accepted and additions made. See attached sheet for personnel policies as accepted by the Executive Committee, lii. Executive Secretary's Report on fund raising was accepted, (see attached outline of report) 15« Financial Report Accepted, Jan, 1-July 31,, 1963 Financial statement; Total Receipts 1/12.208.03 Cash payments 116,518-73 Cash balance 26^,333*00 Recommendations of the financial department regarding field personnel, were accepted and the financial department was instructed to relay decisions to the field staff,

•• - - o ' " ..• t i ' ... '' ' - 16, . ,-J ' • There will'be a Fall Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., Thanksgiving weekend and the theme of the Conference will be Pood and Jobs. (Pull minutes of the Executive Committee meeting are available in the Atlanta office for the Coordinating Committee if they wish to see t!'em ,) Current balance (September 22) around $5000,00. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 8|- Raymond St. NW Atlanta, Georgia • SNCC PERSONNEL POLICY The Executive Secretary is responsible for the functioning of t JO personnel. He is assisted by a Staff Coordinator who will carry out the administrative work related to the personnel, II. Hiring: 1. The Personnel Committee of SNCC will hold regular meetings. Staff may be hired on a temporary basis by the Executive Secretary and will be reviewed and hired on a permanent basis b;y the Personnel Committee* In the absence of the full committee, the Executive Secretary, the Chairman, the Staff Coordinator, Miss Ella Baker and Mr. Willie Paul Berrien are responsible for hiring, subject to review when the full committee meets. 2~ The Staff Coordinator will be responsible for the dispersal of application forms for work with SNCC. None will be hired without returning this form to the SNCC office. When bhe form is received, the applicant will be interviewed by a member of the SNCC staff or Coordinating Committee and an evaluation given to the Staff Coordinator 3* The Staff Coordinator, in consultat ion with the Executive Secretary, will be responsible for the placing of office staff. Project Directors will be consulted before staff are placed with cheir projects. li, There will be two categories of field staff: a. Field Secretary--- a seasoned worker capable of running a project or doing independent work in a crisis area^ b. Field worker—a probationary ivori er„. His work shall be reviewed at the end of one mofith, again after two more months, i, 1 again after three more months time. The personnel committee will t decide if this worker should be made a field secretary. The o if Coordinator shall handle the administrative ivork of securing evaluation of the field staff from the Field Secretaries or Project Directors. 5. Volunteer workers who are residents of local areas may be recruited by Field Secretaries or Project Directors and their names sent to the Atlanta Office. 6. Hiring of summer workers: All applications for summer work with SNCC must be in the Atlanta office two weeks before the annual spring conference. All applicants must be present at the conference for interviews. The Personnel Committee will meet following the conference to decide on applicants and their placement. III. Pay for SNCC Staff: 1. Pay will be on the basis of need, 2. The maximum pay for any staff person will be $1J5.00 per week. 3* Married staff shall receive a maximum of 3)65,00 per week and $10.00 per child, l^r, Every staff person shall be paid a minimum of $10,00 per week. If he has independent Income he shall return the pay to SNCC us a donation, If payroll is not met, records will be kept and back ay returned when funds are available. 2207 West Kentucky Street Louisville, Kentucky January 2c, 1904

Dear Friend, Would you help us feed some hungry people in Mississippi? For some people there the situation is hooeless and desperate. Starvation faces these people unless you can help, and you can help in ta?$ ways: join the 3tudent jionviaient Coardinating Committee Food For Mississippi campaign, and write your Congressman protesting the conditions of dire poverty and deprivation of civil rights these people suffer from at the hands of their white rulers. Of the 24,031 people living in Tallahatchie County, MLss- issipoi, 15,501 are Negroes. None of these Ifegroes are registered to vote. Cf the 6,872 homes in the county, 4,Q45 have no flush toilets; 4,935 have no bathtub or shower; 4,051 do not even have water piped into them. Cver 3S7. of the Negro babies die less than a year after their birth. Forty oer cent of the farm land is controlled by less than four percent of the farmers. Sharecropoing is a way of life here and has keot count­ less families in destitution for generations. Now the plant­ ations are acquiring machinery for mass production and evict­ ing the sharecroppers. Most of them knov; no other means of livelihood. Some Federal surplus commodities have been provided but it is insufficient for continued support of these people where they are. In addition, existing official relief programs are administered by white segregationists who are not interested in the plight of the sharecroppers. The median income of $451 per person per year in Tallahatchie County indicates the low level of living existing there. Many of these people have been unemployed since the crops were brought in last fall. "Members of the student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Louisville are organising a Food For Mississippi campaign to start next Sunday, February 2, 1964, and ending on Sunday, March I, 1964. We are being supported and assisted in this campaign by the Louisville Chapter of the Congress of Kacial Scuality. We hope other civil tights groups will join us in this campaign and forgive us for not sending out official in­ vitations to join us in this campaign since the situation is urgent and our funds are short. Any assistance from anyone will be gratefully received. Please read this letter to your congregation and have them bring any food they can spare to your church. When the accumulated food begins to get in your way, call the Louisville Defender, 587-6061. They will relay the information to us and we will come and get it. As we bring it together we will re-ship it to Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, for the re­ lief of hungry people there. As a starter for this campaign, CU1E and LUSA (Louisville Unitarians for Social Action) have each donated a 100-pound bag of race. We want any kind of food you can spare: canned goods, flour or fruit. Any manner of packing is acceptable. We will keep you informed of the orogress of our campaign and extend our grateful thanks to all who help. Yours truly, Hiss Nancy Penick, member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee NEWS RELEASE STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE 6 RAYMOND STREET, N. W. For Immediate Release ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 Pebruary 2, 1964 SISSIPPI NEGRO WITNESSED SLAY- SHOTGUNNED TO DEATH LIBERTY, MISSISSIPPI -/A Negro who saw a state representative kill a- nother N&gro active in voter registration here almost three years a- go was shotgunned to death Friday night, January 31. Louis Allen, of Route 5, Liberty, was found dead in his front yard. He had been shot with a shotgun three times. In Atlanta, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) asked the Justice Department for "a complete investigation of Allen's murder." A week ago, Allen's son's car and a Liberty grocery that em­ ployed Negroes had been fired upon. Allen had witnessed the slaying of Herbert Lee, a 52-year- old farmer, at a Liberty cotton gin on September 25, 1961. Lee, who worked with SNCC vote workers in Amite County, was shot by E. H. Hurst, then a member of the state legislature. Hurst was acquitted by a cor­ oner's jury before Lee's lifeless body was removed from the street out­ side the cotton gin. Allen, a witness to the slaying, testified at the coroner's jury that freed Hurst, but later said he lied because he feared for his own safety. SNCC workers told officials of the United States Depart­ ment of Justice Allen would change his testimony if they would protect him but they refused. In February, 196 3, Allen told a worker from the Student Non­ violent Coordinating Committee he saw Hurst shoot Lee without provoca­ tion. Allen said a Liberty white man picked him up minutes after the shooting, drove him to the coroner's jury, and told him what to say on the stand. Allen was told to say Lee had threatened Hurst with a metal car tool and that Hurst had killed the Negro in self defense. Allen bad been warned that local whites were out to "get him". In August, 1962, he was arrested and beaten by a Liberty deputy sheriff who hit him with a flashlight, breaking his jaw. Morris Allen of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the dead man's brother, said Louis Allen had planned to leave Mississippi less that 12 hours after he was murdered. Morris Allen said their mother had died a week before, and that Louis Allen was to leave Liberty for Milwaukee on Sat­ urday morning, February 1. The dead man told a SNCC worker on February 12, 1963 that he had testified falsely that Herbert Lee had threatened Hurst with a "tire iron." "The morning it (Lee's death) happened," Allen said then, "I came to the gin. I came on the highway where Hurst and this colored fellow was arguing. Hurst looked at me a quieted down, but I could still hear him. I walked up the highway past the truck, behind, where I could still hear and see. Lee hopped out on the passenger side. Hurst ran around the front. Hurst lowered the gun at him..." "At the coroner's jury, they asked me about the piece of iron. I said I hadn't seen no iron. "Is this the piece of iron?' I said "'yes'1 Allen said. He said he had been forced to lie at the grand jury in­ vestigation also. "If you'll give me protection, I'll let the hide fall with the hair," Allen said in 196 3. No protection came. NEWS RELEASE # 8 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 RAYMOND STREET, NW February 20, 1964 ATLANTA, GEjJ^^^^NlIiaiA KKK\JHIP NEGRO MAN

NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI - An/elderly Negro man who was stripped and beat­ en by\hooded members oy the Ku KIux Klan late Saturday night, February

15, has Ts^ceived £KTther threats on his life.

Archie Curtis, 60, a Natchez undertaker, said he was lured

to a deserted section of the city by an unidentified caller who told him a woman was dying of a heart attack.

Curtis was given directions to a deserted road and was

told a man "with a lantern" would guide him to the stricken women's home .

When the undertaker - who also operates an ambulance ser­ vice - arrived at the road, he and his companion were ordered at pistol point to leave their car.

They were blindfolded and taken to Duck Pond Road where

they were asked to show their NAACP membership cards and NAACP member­

ship lists. They had neither. The Klan members told Curtis he was "a

NAACP nigger."

Both Negroes were forced to strip and were beaten with a

strap.

Robert Moses, head of Mississippi voter registration for

the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Director of

the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), protested the beatings

in a telegram to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

"We demand immediate action by the Federal government to

protect Negro citizens," Moses told Kennedy. Moses said Curtis' beating was the fourt in the past ten days. A Negro was forced to strip and was soaked in motor oil before being beaten in nearby Amite Crunty, scene of the fatal shooting of Louis Allen on February 1, Moses said. Another Negro was shot and kill*c in Tallatchie County by policemen on February 13. -30- REPRINTED FROM: /T3 Newsweek February 24, 1964

MISSISSIPPI: Allen's Army The second summer of the Negro revolt was still months off. But ever since the first, Allen Thompson, the graying, satin-smooth mayor of unrecon­ structed Jackson, Miss., has been acting as though Armageddon were just around the corner. Girding for a new wave of civil-rights demonstrations this summer, Thompson is massing an impressive—and expensive —deterrent force of men and military hardware. To defend the capital city of 144,422, he is building up his young, tough, riot-trained police force from 390 to 450, plus two horses and six dogs. The force is "twice as big as any city our size," Thompson boasted last week— and it will be backed by a reserve pool of deputies, state troopers, civilian city employes, and even neighborhood citi­ zen patrols. With a hefty $2.2 million budget to spend, the department recently bought 200 new shotguns, stockpiled tear gas, and issued gas masks to every man. Its motor fleet includes three canvas- canopied troop lorries, two half-ton searchlight trucks, and three giant trailer trucks to haul demonstration POW's off to two big detention compounds. "I think we can take care of 25,000," the mayor said. Weepers: But the pride of Allen's Army is Thompson's Tank—the already popular nickname for a 13,000-pound armored battlewagon built to the ma­ yor's specifications at roughly $1 a pound. The twelve-man tank, abristle with shotguns, tear-gas guns, and a sub­ HRflHHMHHHIHI machine gun, flopped on its first mission Thompson, troops—and armor —putting down a demonstration at all- Negro Jackson State College two weeks ago. As it rolled up, a tear-gas shell went off inside, and all twelve men stumbled out crying. Nevertheless, "freedom schools," community centers, and peaceful picketing," he vowed. "We Thompson says reverently: "It's a won­ and voter-registration drives. "The sum­ are not going to let them come into derful thing." mer of 1964," SNCC chairman John the downtown area." Would a collision come? Thompson Lewis said, "could really be the year The mayor insists his army is only a thought so—and so did the young war- for Mississippi. Before the Negro people second-strike force designed to preserve hawks of the Student Nonviolent Co­ get the right to vote, there will have to law and order. "We have to wait," he ordinating Committee, already mapping be a massive confrontation, and it proba­ told NEWSWEEK'S Karl Fleming, "until a massive summer campaign in Missis­ bly will come this summer . . . We are they start trouble." But Thompson is sippi. SNCC was dispatching question­ going to Mississippi full force." certain trouble will come. "This is it," he naires last week to prospective recruits And when they come, Thompson feels said. "They are not bluffing and we are for its own nonviolent army of 500 to he has the means to contain them. not bluffing. We're going to be ready 1,000—mostly college students—to staff "There will be no unlawful marching for them . . . Thev won't have a chance." AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM: CU-^-9-7 8u

Dear Friend:

As you are reading this letter, the young men and women shown above are in Mississippi performing an act of faith and courage that is so extraordinary that I find myself struggling for words to describe my feelings toward them.

They are some of the more than 1000 volunteers who have come from all over our country to spend this summer in the most terror-stricken area of the south -- Mississippi where 900, 000 Negroes live in feudal conditions unimaginable to the outsider.

The gravest of dangers await these courageous workers. Some details of what they face are given in the enclosed article reprinted from Newsweek. The first of the summer volunteers have already been arrested; project offices have been attacked and even bombed. God knows what may happen between now, as I write this letter, and when you receive it.

All of us are waiting anxiously and still praying for the safety of the three young people who have disappeared.

And yet, they are coming; teachers, nurses, technicians, college students, legal advisors - - both Negro and white.

They are coming: on a unique mission, an unofficial peace corps for the south, bringing their skills and courage to communities which have been almost completely shut off from the American mainland.

(over please) These courageous young people will staff a wide range of programs whose goal is nothing less than to help bring the Mississippi Negro into the 20th century. Their undertakings will include: 1) the establishment of Freedom Schools teaching every­ thing from the techniques of non-violent protest to technical skills and remedial reading; 2) expanded voter registration drives; 3) supporting Negro candidates for public office; 4) the creation of community centers across the state. The director of the Mississippi Summer Project is Robert Moses, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. SNCC will be the driving force in carrying out the entire project. Bob Moses is a brilliant, 29-year old Negro who was educated at Hamilton and Harvard, then gave up an excellent teaching appointment to work in the civil rights movement.

Not many of us can leave jobs and families to spend a whole summer in Mississippi. But all of us can help see to it that these courageous young people have enough food to eat - sorely needed books and teaching materials - medicines for illness and injury- legal aid to keep them (or get them) out of jail.

These young people belong to us -- they are our sons and daughters. But just being proud of them won't help. Mayor Thompson of Jackson Miss. , says "They won't have a chance. " I ask you to help give them a chance by sending a generous contribution for the Mississippi Summer Project and to send it NOW. Please send as much as you can -- every dollar you can spare will be put to direct and immediate use.

Sincerely yours,

James Baldwin

P. S. Time is so short - the need so immediate'. Please send your contribution now to me at SNCC - 100 Fifth Ave., New York 11, N. Y. Make all checks payable to SNCC. MEMORANDUM: ON THE SNCC MISSISSIPPI SUMtiER PROJECT .. • • . *

In August of 1961, SNCC launched its first voter registration project in Amite, Pike and Walthall counties of Mississippi, hany hardships were met and overcome in the difficult time that followed, and eventually SNCC workers were able to spread their activity to the Delta and then the entire state. By the fall of 1963 SNCC had expanded into all five of Mississippi's congressional districts and had joined with CORE, SCLC and the NAACP in forming a statewide organization called the Council of Federated Organiza­ tions (COFO). Voting Leagues and civic groups from all over the state are now brought together to form the real base of COFO.

In the two and a half years that SNCC has been working in Mississippi there has been a growing recognition of the need to develop programs to supplement the voter registration work. It was realized that in order to prepare Mississippi for real Democracy, not only literacy programs were needed, but also programs of social and political education. In addition, retaliation by count-' authorities forced SNCC to organize food and clothing drives for near-starving families. Suspension of commodity distribution and the desperate economic state of Mississippi's Negroes have led to expanded food and clothing drives and the establishment of three distribution cen­ ters. It is realized that much more comprehensive programs are now necessary to tackle the terrible poverty and deprivation to which the Negro communi­ ties of Mississippi are subject.

As a result, this summer SNCC is planning to launch a massive, peace- corps operation in Mississippi. Plans have been made to recruit scores of students, teachers, technicians, nurses, artists, and legal advisors to come to Mississippi this summer to staff a wide range of programs. These programs can be divided generally into four main areas: freedom schools, communit - centers, voter registration and special projects*

1;;> Freedom Schools: Plans are being made to set up as many Freedom Schools as can be realistically made to work. The number x*ill ultimately vary ac­ cording to the amount of housing that can be found in a locale, the presence of facilities, and the recruitment of qualified staff personnel. Recent pro­ jections call for roughly ten day Freedom Schools and two or three away from home schools. The day Freedom Schools will for the most part draw 10th, 11th and 12th grade students from the locale and operate five days a week from roughly 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. A high student-teacher ratio will be established, perhaps one teacher for every four students, so that instruction can be high­ ly individualized. It can be estimated that day Freedom Schools will have approximately fifty students and fifteen teachers each. Curriculum for these schools will cover a wide area: remedial work in reading, math, and basic grammar; seminars in political science and the humanities, journalism and creative writing. A school newspaper might be developed. Whenever possible, studies will be related to the society in which the students live. Away from home schools would follow essentially the same program with special empha­ sis on political studies. They would be attended by the more advanced stu­ dents from across the state.

The Freedom Schools stand as an integral part of SNCC's voter-registra­ tion activities. They will provide politically emerging communities with new "oung leadership, and constitute a real attack on the presently stif­ ling system of education existing in the state. If this program succeeds, the basis will have been laid for a cadre of student leadership around the state of Mississippi committed to critical .thinking and social action. - 2 -

II Community Centers: Community Centers, like Freedom Schools, will be set up in as many places as facilites, funds, housing, and qualified staff per­ sonnel xriJ.1 i ermit. These centers will bwgin to provide the services which have been denied the Negro Community of Mississippi for so long. Efforts must be made to recruit experienced teachers, social workers, nurses, etc. to staff the centers. The centers would provide instruction in pre-natal care, infant care and general hygiene. They would provide a cultural program for the com­ munity - movies, dramatics, dancing and music. They would offer programs in literacy, adult education and vocational training and would serve as centers for political education and organization. The almost thirty thousand books now in storage in Greenwood would be dispersed to these centers around the state. In short, the centers would provide a structure for funneling a bat- terv of programs into the Negro Community.

III VOTER REGISTRATION: The struggle for freedom in Mississippi can only be won by a combination of action within the state and a heightened awareness throughout the rest of the country of the need for massive federal inter­ vention to ensure the voting rights of Negroes. This summer's program xri.ll work toward both these objectives. Our appeal for voter registration workers will be extended to students and workers throughout this country who see their responsibility to the struggle for political and social justice.

These workers, xvhose numbers will depend on the funds which can be raised and how much housing that can be found within the state, will be involved in a summer long drive to mobilize the Negro communities of Mississippi and to assist in developing local leadership and organization. They will be involved in an effort to encourage as many Negroes as possible to attempt to register. They will assist in a campaign, launched in February, to re­ gister over IiOO,000 Negroes on Freedom registration books. The Freedom re­ gistration campaign will involve establishing local registrars in every precinct in Mississippi with registration books resembling as much as pos­ sible the official books of the state. The Freedom registration books will serve as the basis for challenging the official books of the state and the validity of "official" federal elections this fall. Finally, voter regis­ tration workers will assist in the summer campaigns of/ candidates who will be running for congress, (Freedom candidates).

There are a number of ways in which voter registration x-joikers probably will be dispersed around the state: 1) every rural county will have a four man team. Wherever possible, attempts will be made to find housing in the county, but if housing cannot be found, the four man team could work the county while based in a nearby urban areaj 2)there will be x^orkers for general urban people in each fair-sized city; 3) saturation areas: there will be two, or possibly three, cities where a massive number of students, roughly 100 will be concentrated. Three possible areas would be Jackson, Meridian and Greenville.

3# • SPECIAL PROJECTS: a. Research Project: If we would eliminate racial oppression, we must alter fundamentally the structure of political and economic power in Mississippi. In order to do this it is necessary to collect information on various as­ pects of the state. We must have a realistic picture of its economic life, discover which Northern Business interests sustain oppression there, reveal the extent of foreign ownership of plantations, and generally find the true structure of Mississippi's suppressive political and economic life. - 3 - Much of the necessary research can be done outside of Mississippi. However, some of it will have to be done within the state. Skilled personnel are needed to aarry out this program of action research. b. White Communities: Until now there has been no systematic attempt by people interested in the elimination of hate and bigotry to work within the white communities of the deep South. It is the intention of the Mississippi Summer Project to do just that. In the past year, a significant number of Southern white students have been drawn to the Movement. Using students from upper Southern states like Tennes­ see, and occasionally native Mississippians. SNCC hopes fo develop programs within Mississippi's white communities. These programs will will deal directly with the problems of white people. While almost all Negroes in Mississippi are denied the right to vote, statistics clearly indicate that a majority of waiter are excluded as well. In addition,poverty and illiteracy can be found in abundance among Mis­ sissippi whites. There is in fact a clear area for Southern white students to work in, for In many ways Mississippi has imprisoned her wa Ite people along with her blacks. This project will be pilot and experimental and the results are unpredictable. But the effort to organize and educate whites in the direction of democracy and decency can no longer be delayed.

c. Law Student Project: At least 100 law students will be coming to Mississippi to launch a massive legal offensive against the official tyranny of the state of Mississippi. Law students will be dispersed to projects around the state to serve as legal advisors to voter re­ gistration workers and to local people. Others will be concentrated In key areas where they will engage in legal research and begin to prepare suits against the state and local officials and to challenge every law that deprives Negroes of their freedom as American citizens.

HOW YOU CAN PARTIG IPATE Enclosed you will find an application for the SNCC Mississippi Sum­ mer Project. If you are interested in joining us this summer in Mis­ sissippi, fill out the application and return it to 1017 Lynch St., Jackson, Mississippi. The deadline for applications is April- 15.

1, Qualifications: We hope to get as many skilled people as possible for? the projects described In the attached memo. If you feel that you1 arOffei qualifiefinal l fipHd fofr^r>r anQmyr onff thest.lnPQfei programnr'ncrT'Oinsa wWf~e> hophnneo yoirnun wilml "1 l1 applyonnlv. There is an age limit of 18, and all those under 21 must have the con­ sent of their parents. 2, While SNCC will assure housing facilities for all those accepted, we will bo unable to finance these projects out of our limited bud­ get. We are therefore asking that all students "pay their own waj. It will be necessary for all those accepted to bring $150 to cover the cost of the program. We realize that this will impose a hardship on many who wish to apply. One of the reasons we have made this de­ cision is that wo are trying to recruit as many Southern Negro stu­ dents as possible. Many of these students will not be able to work with us If they cannot be provided with money for the fall semester. We have therefore committed ourselves to trying to provide scholar- - 4 - ship money for these students. With this added budget for the summer program in Mississippi, we will not be able to meet these demands without asking support from Northern particlpants. 3. In addition It is important to realize that civil rights work in Mississippi presents certain risks. Those who apply must be aware that they man face physical danger and jail. We expect that those who join us this summer will be prepared to abide by the decisions of the group even if it means staying in jail without bail. The project directors will make every effort to see that a 11.summer workers can leave the state by September 1, but we must apprise you of the reali­ ties of life in Mississippi. It Is suggested that all students check out in advance, their sources of bail money, in the event it might bo needed. 4. Procedure: Please fill out the application and send it to our of- flce in Jackson, Mississippi (1017 Lynch St.). We will assign you to an Interviewer, sfi.ther someone who lives in your area, or a tra­ velling persons. You will receive the name and address of the Inter­ viewer and the date for the interview as soon after we get your appli­ cation as possible. By May 15 you will be informed of your acceptance or rejection. At that time you will also be informed of where you have been assigned, with whom you will live, what you will be doing and under whom you are working.

Fund Raising The Mississippi Summer Project provides an excellent theme around which to conduct fund raising campaigns. We have a few ideas to offer in connection with this, and hope you will give us others to share with all our campus contacts. 1. In addition of the materials we have on hand (SNCC handclasp pins, We Shall Overcome buttons, Freedom Songbooks, Freedom Singers record, etc.) we will shortly have One Man-One Vote buttons and bum­ per stickers. We hope to have the bumper stickers on 100,000 cars by the time of the presidential election this summer. These items can be sold to help provide funds for the summer program and for the ongoing programs of SNCC. We arc also getting out a brochure to describe the summer program - you will receive copies of this by March 1,

2. Each campus could set a goal for the support of one or more summer field staff. We estimate this at $150 per person.

3. Scholarship money for Southern Negro students to enable them to continue their education next year could be another goal. We esti­ mate that the average would bo $400 per student for one"semester.

We hope to hoar from you soon. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions please let us know. Also, please advise us as to how many of the Mississippi Project brochure you wo'ild like and if we can sup-' ply you with any other materials.

SNCC 1017 Lynch St. Jackson, Miss. NEWS RELEASE # 3 8 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 RAYMOND STREET, N.W. April 10, 196M- ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 FREE SOUTHERN THEATRE STARTS JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI— A "Free Southern Theatre" -- a theatre project to encourage' "thought and awareness among Negroes" — was begun here this week. The first appearance of the theatre group will be here, beginning June 13 with a ten-week season. A mobile company will take stage productions into the rest of the state. Sponsors for the Free Southern Theatre include folk singers Harry

Belafonte ard Theodore Eikel; authors James Baldwin and Langston Hughesi actors Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Robert Ryan, and Lincoln Kirstein, general director of the New York City Ballet. The theatre will work toward "the establishment of permanent stock and repertory companies, with touring units, in major population centers of the South, staging plays that reflect the struggles of the American Negro." The idea was initiated by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and is supported by the Council of Federated Organi­ zations (COFO). It will be assisted by Tougaloo Southern Christian College, near here. The theatre will seek to combat "the degrading effect of inferior education, the deliberate exclusion of the Negro community from all but the most meager cultural resources and the emmissions and distortions of loon J pre Bo;, radio and t :-u. Professional and amateur talent will be used in staging plays. Scripts under consideration include "Purlie Victorius" by Ossie Davis. ''Do You Want To Be Free?''' by Langston Hughe? iTer Than The Angels'1 by John 0. Killens and a m adoption cf '' >ne" . For further information, wrile; Fr~e Scut] aire 1017 L -i Jackson, Mississippi. -30- NEWS RELEASE # 3g STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 RAYMOND STREET, N. W. April 10, 19 64 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 3 0 314 NEGRO WOMAN QUALIFIES FOR MISSISSIPPI SENATE SEAT HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI - The first Negro woman to run for the Un­ ited States Senate from Mississippi has qualified to challenge Sena­ tor John C. Stennis (D-Miss.) of Dekalb in the June 2 Democratic pri­ mary.

Mrs. Victoria Jackson Gray, 37, of Hattiesburg, filed her notice of candidacy at the Secretary of State's office in Jackson April 3.

According to Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worker Sandford Leigh, who accompanied Mrs. Gray, Mississippi Secre­ tary of State Herbert Ladner accepted her papers, saying "Well, things are in order so I guess I'll have to accept." Mrs. Gray, 37, has instructed voter registration and citizen­ ship classes in the Hattiesburg area for over three years. She has been active in SNCC's 5th Congressional District drive since SNCC wor­ kers first entered the area. Her campaign will center on issues of education in Mississippi, Leigh said. Mrs. Gray is the mother of three children. Her husband, a plum­ ber, has not been licensed by the city, allegedly because of his race.

In opposing Stennis, Mrs. Gray will challenge "the whole sen­ iority system," SNCC workers said, Stennis was elected to the Senate in 1947. He was reelected In 1962 and 1?52, and in IS53 was reelected without opposition. He is a member of The Senate Appropriations Committee, Armed Services Committee, Aeronautics and Space Sciences Committee, and chairman of the Preparedness Investigating Committee of the Senate. If she is not nominated, Mrs Gray plans to chal] :rge Stennis' right to nomination. Mrs Gray claims that Stennic; aces not represent the "people" of the state, and that his record does not show alleg­ iance to the U.S. Constitution. According to Government figures, there are 4 0 0,000 Negroes eli­ gible to register to vote in Mississippi, but only 20,000 are act­ ually registered. -30- ^You Have Adopted the Racist Practices..."

TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES:

On August 9, 1963, a Federal Grand Jury in Macon, Georgia, indicted Joni Rabinowitz, Slater King, Rev. Samuel B. Wells, Thomas C. Chatmon, Robert Thomas and Elza L. Jackson for perjury and Dr. William G. Anderson for obstruc­ tion of justice. Mr. King is President of the Albany Movement, a civil rights organization in Albany, Georgia, and Dr. Anderson is the Movement's former President. Rev. Wells, Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Chatmon and Mr. Thomas are officers and members of the Movement. Miss Rabinowitz, a student at Antioch College, was then a Field Representative of the Stu­ dent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. All of the defendants are Negro except Miss Rabinowitz.

The defendants moved to transfer the trial to the North. Miss Rabinowitz also moved to waive a jury. The United States Attorney opposed the motions and they were denied by the court. Five defendants have been convicted by local juries and Mrs. Jackson will be tried in February. Dr. Anderson, whose trial ended in a mistrial, will be tried again in April.

Many southern state courts have long systematically excluded Negroes from jury service, and the United States Supreme Court has set aside state court convictions on that ground. Until the indictments in these cases, however, it was not com­ monly known that the same illegal practices were followed in federal courts. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has stated that jury lists in the federal courts must represent a true cross-section of the population. The jury list from which both grand and trial juries were drawn in Macon was composed of less than 6% Negroes and not a single one of the 72 jurors who have sat on the trial juries in these cases was a Negro. Yet over 34% of the adult population of the area are Negroes!

Testimony in the cases established that the jury lists were chosen by court officers from among their acquaintances. In Macon the court officers are white and admitted that they did not have many Negro friends.

Your office should have consented to the dismissal of these indictments once the racial imbalance of the jury lists became known to you; at the very least, you should have consented to a transfer of the trial or to waiver of a jury. Your failure to take these steps forced the defendants to trial by all white juries drawn from an improper jury list in a hostile com­ munity. Thus, instead of guaranteeing equal administration of justice in the federal courts, you have adopted the racist practices of the southern states.

All of the convictions are being appealed. It is not too late to correct a gross injustice in these cases.. We therefore peti­ tion you:

1. To confess error before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to join in appellants' motions to reverse the convictions and dismiss the indictments.

2. To direct the United States Attorneys in the South to examine the jury lists in their jurisdictions and to apply to the District Courts for the immediate compilation of lists representing a true racial cross-section of the population.

Names Addresses

Return Before May 1, 1964 to: STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE, NEW YORK OFFICE, 156 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 RAYMOND STREET, N.W. May 16, 19 64 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 STENNIS' OPPONENT TERMS RIGHTS BILL "UNSATISFACTORY" CANTON, MISSISSIPPI The civil rights bill before the U.S.Senate is "unsatisfactory and extremely vague," according to Mississippi's first Negro woman candidate for the Senate. Mrs. Victoria Jackson Gray, 37, of Hattiesburg, seeks the Democratic primary nomination for the seat held by Senator John C. Stennis. "How can we expect new legislation will bring needed change when, despite laws on the books since 1866, 1870 and 1948, there were only 55 Negroes registered to vote in Forrest County as of January 1964, and 7,400 are eligible," she asked a campaign audience here May 9. "Since August 1961, a Justice Department-initiated suit against registrar Theron Lynd has been in litigation. And although 850 Negroes have sought to register since the intensified vote drive began in Hat­ tiesburg on January 22, 1964, only 145 mora Negroes have been register­ ed," she said. She stated that 43 of the 55 registered prior to January 22 were ordered registered by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals after several delays . Mrs. Gray charged the good moral character provision of Mississip­ pi's voting requirements had facilitated "no end of reprisals - economic or physical" for Negroes attempting to vote. The 1962 requirement that names of prospective voters be published in local newspapers for two weeks often resulted in "suddenly-raised rent, eviction, bills for non­ existent repairs on rented property, reassessed property taxes, or newly discovered violations of building codes," she stated. Mrs. Gray's politicking has consisted of speeches and door to door campaigning with the aid of workers for the Student Nonviolent Coordina­ ting Committee (SNCC.) SNCC has conducted vote drives in Mississippi since August 1961 and has encouraged Negroes to run for public office, -30- "ONE MAN - ONE VOTE" (pictures of the candidate are available on request from SNCC) NEWS RELEASE # ofi STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 RAYMOND STREET, N. W. ATLANTA, GEORGIA 3 0 31*4 GOVERNMENT, TEACHERS, CANCEL SEGREGATED MISSISSIPPI ENGAGEMENTS WASHINGTON, D. C. - The United States Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration withdrew sponsorship of an April 8 For­ eign Trade Seminar in Hattiesburg, Mississippi after the Student Non­ violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) protested to United States Sec­ retary of Commerce Luther Hodges. In an April 2 letter to SNCC Chairman John Lewis, Jack N. Behr- man, of the Department of Domestic and International Business, said the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration had withdrawn their sponsorship of the segregated meeting. The gathering was set for the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. The school - all white - has refused admittance to one Negro, John Frazier, five times. An official of the Hattiesburg Chamber of Commerce, planned co-sponsors of the seminar, told SNCC workers Negroes would not be permitted to attend the meeting. SNCC Chairman Lewis has also asked Joey Adams, President of the American Guild of Variety Artists, to cancel an April 14 - 18 appear­ ance of Holiday on Ice in the Jackson, Mississippi city coliseum. "The coliseum is a segregated facility and the audience will be segregated," Lewis told Adams. Lewis said Walter Allen, a visiting professor at Vassar College, and Stephen Spender of Northwestern University, had informed him they would not appear at the segregated Southern Literary Festival at Miss­ issippi State College For Women at Columbus, Mississippi on April 23 - 25. "You have my full sympathy in your fight for civil rights" Allen told Lewis. "I admire greatly the work of your committee" Spender told Lewis. The SNCC head said he had received no reply from John Gassner, head of the Yale University drama department, who is also slated to appear at the literary festival.

SNCC officials in Atlanta said the group had also asked Anthony J. Celebreeze, United States Secretary of Health, Education and Wel­ fare, to refuse to allow government officials to participate in an Ap­ ril 10 meeting of the Mississippi Dietetic Association in Biloxi, Miss­ issippi. "The association is a segregated organization as Is the hotel where the meeting is to be held," Lewis said.

The student anti-segregation group has been waging a successful campaign to halt segregated speeches and performances in Mississippi. -3 0- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 6 Raymond Street Atlanta,, Georgia September 21, I9c4 A Response to the 13th and 14th Bombings in Mo Comb, Mississippi

The first bombing cones at I0f50fl Most of the Negroes of KcConb are in bed—but only some are sleepinge These days most Negro adults in McComb don't fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning, Then the blast. That sickening, s-yuishau so and that has been heard twelve previous times over the last three months--that sound that Negroes in HoCoimb have come to know so wellr. And everyone in Mo Comb hears the acuri of the blast--— MoComb is a small twon ana vary, very quiet., At nighty the sound of the blast can bo hoard, for miles,.- And. so tonight the blast is heard, for the 13th time—and, shortly later for the 14th time. Tonight the sound is more anguishing •---"•for the pain grown worse with each bombing, Every Negro in McComb instantly knows what that scund meanst And them the moments of torment that follow~-whose house, who is dead? ltJs not mine* Then who? My neighbor, my friend—iay mothers raj brother, my eon, or maybe CCFO again * h'hol And one ?a stomach aches with pain and the pain seeps up into the cheat and the head and comes out of every pore, Uhc? Is someone dead"? The fear and the suspense grows-—the anguish becomes unbearable*, People grab whatever clothing they can find and run cut into the streets* The pain increases with each bombing.. The 13th takes place at lOg^O. The bombers know no restraint—they don*t even t-.~a.it until the Negro community Is all in bed, It doesn't matter to them that the cafes are still open and that there are Negress in the street* They come anyway---the police are their friends and they certainly need not fear apprehension0 This is the 13th bombing, not to speak of 4 church burnings, and no one arrested9 And this in a town of 15.COO where everyone knows everyone's business„ People quickly learn the news**«3t f,a Mama Auinn fs house „ It couldn't be worse- Everyone loves Mama Quinna 8he owns a popular cafec She is kind and good to everyone« But more than fchatj she is a towering figure of strength., She can-1t be intim» Mated;, Three years ago she was one of the first to.welcome Moses and lend him and the SHOO workers her support,., llsr oafe has always been open.*—despite the threats,. And this summerj again she leads the communitye Che serves black and white/night after night.-, Jjnd the pressures increase„ Threats- The police raid her piano twice— -the first time they plant a bottle of whiskey and it costs her §15G„ She holds meetings of the Oit.t&ens- league, a newly formed group of Negro business people^ .banded together, meeting secretly to £end aid and comfort to"the COPO effort«. They meet-twice a month to plan buying land for a comimuaity center 0 Mrs.* Qtfinn- wants- to offer the land .she has-

rrionxhs of _the .Student, nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the back of her house««ard this despite the increased hazards that would be brought into her life.-, Finally, they succeed %n making Mama Quiun close her cafe—she gets the final warning* She would rather close than be forced to stop serving the OGFO peoplec I And so it was Mama Quinn—»and it couldn't be worsea It comes at 10s50o And two little children are-hurt. Oh my god, they could have easily boon killed—-if they had not been in the rear of the house. The house is almost demolished,, They verenH out to frighten tonight a. Mama tjuinn was to be killed- How much can a human being take? And hero come the police* They knew who did it—they might have- planned it themselves <• They have been after Mama Qninn for a '.long time, Hon- white land«» lord, when he told nor she must close down if she didn't stop serving the COFO people, replied when Mama C&iinn chose-to close down0 BG-ood, now I can go bell the Sheriff and Police Chief and you*.wouldn't be bombed,,'"1 Here co&e-th© police,:. ..The same police who have beaten out fathers and raped our daughters—and put our children in jall3 Right now two little boys sit behind bars In ths county jail, sentenced to a year for making, "threatening and obscene phone calls to a white woman,/' And tho phone rings in ths Negro com­ munity night and da;/ with threats not to associate with those COFO workers© Some come from the police themselves* And now, the police stride into the Negro community0 They wear helmets_, carry clubs and shotguns., They will pretend to investigate 3. Actually they come to intimidate the victims and gather up what­ ever evidence lies around before the FBI can get to It. They come to arrest the people whose houses have been bombed« They've done it before. The pattern repeats itself, A house is bombed, the victims thrown in jail. Mr0 Dillon is in jail—his house was bomtsd on August 26th. The highway patrolman told Dillon33 wife that she had better stop cooperating with COFO or the next time the dynamite will be dropped in the middle of her house0 The: Sheriff makes a similar threat0 Wow the police are coming.;. They will probably arrest Kama Quinn0 (Actually they arrested her daughter, a teacher in the Freedom School this summer, and the

baby sittr- i How much can a human being take? And in the midst of the pain and anguish, comes the second thud. It t!s on the other side of town,, "Who now? My mother, father, sister, brother. God damn, how much blood do they want.-, They got" the churciT --'Society Hill - the movement church,, Its doors were closed this summer, but it has always boon the center of the movement in South KcComb. All the Freedom School kids belong to Society Hill. It J's Bryant ''a church. The KAACP holds its meetins there. I. spoke there this summerr COFO workers were there this past Sunday and the Sunday before.. Next door lives Alma Jackson, the mother of eight childern, who lived in Amite County and who, three months ago, was dragged out of her home by 10 armed men and taken to a field where she was beaten and cut up and left half dead. Her children don't like McComb-- they wish they were back home where their friends are. Bat mother has told them they can't go back. Mother lies in bed awake at night. She lives next doer to the church. It was the only place she could find that she could afford. Bat she knows that one night they are going to bomb her place. Her life is never-ending fear. Is this America? The Church Is demolished. It was a terrible blast. The police are here, certain again to see that all clues are removed and destroyed, And where is the federal government? But no, the local police must handle the situation: tnoy are ths upholders of the law. The federal government has no authority,., And so tb stride in. The Negroes crowd in the street., brooding, angu: To the police this is e mob- £o they fell the pressi 3S000 gather in the streets,, Yet the entire 1 egro population of McComb is just over1 3,000. This doesn't matter. Cover up the real story. Paint a picture of rioting Negroes, ?*"?y on northern fears. This is what the prase will pick up, And so Miko v.allace calmly and objectively explains to moaning T.V. viewers that last night the Negroes of McComb reacted with violence - the rest - to two bombings follows, but is not hoard. Ana so the atcry of the murder of a community goes untold. By SgETK field secretary who worked in McComb this summer. 2.2 midnight—Tension continued to mo-ant today (Monday, September 21, 1964) and helmeted county police, poured into McComb, XThe state police -had. oome into McComb in the early hours of the morning and were still visible. A. rally was held at the sight Of the bombed church and was attended by about 150 peoplea During the rally Dennis Sweeney, 21, from Portland, Oregon, told of his conversation earlier in the day with Mrs. Quinn, He asked her if she had a place to stay and she said yes. But a, moment later she broke down and cried saying she didn't know if they would want her to stay there because they might-get their house bombed, too* Shortly after .Dennis was finished speaking and encouraging people to support the voter registra­ tion drive, he was arrested by police (state) and taken to be booked for inciting to riot„ He was interrogated by plain- clothesmen who appeared to be state Investigators. They warned him that he wasn't wanted in turn and said he: d. better leave. One investigator told Sweeney that McComb was-"a powderkeg 1 that could blow up at any minute '0 They also questioned Sweeney about his father, where he workedJ they took out all the con­ tents of his wallet and ripped the pages out of his address book,. He was then released. Five others were arrested Monday night but later released,. They wares Jesse Harris, project director: Cephas Hughes, Negro SNCC worker from Washington, D.C.; Ursula Junk from Germany? Bill Powell from Britain; and Roy Lee, a local resident*, Ursula Junk was the first to be -questioned. She was inter­ rogated by plainclothesmen who were surrounded by police who came in with intimidating remarks throughout. She asked what was she arrested for and was told "inciting to riot". Ursula then said riI have a right to call my embassy and have them orovide a lawyer for me. The investigator answered! ''WHEN YOU ENTER MISSISSIPPI, YOU AIN!T OCT NO MORE RIGHTS. DIDK*T YOU KNOW THAT?" Ursula answered, ''I heard about that but didn't know it could be true," And the investigator responded5 "Unless you leave Mississippi voluntarily we are going to help you-leafce faster," The questioning continued—was she engaged? No. Did she date niggers? The answers :iI go out with people J' "You mean white people- or niggers?" The answers I mean peopleri. Then there followed a long period of time when Ursula's inves­ tigators tried to Insinuate that she was a prostitute. For example they said they would have to give her a mod leal chock up and asked did she have any venereal diseases. They asked where she lived, etc, After establishing that she was a Catholic one said<„"Oh those riggers climb on CaaholScs. toca'1. Other policemen-chimed in with similar tauntsj Then followed a lengthy interrogation about communism, After the hour and a half of questioning from police she was taken into the Mayor?s office where she was Questioned by Fdl agent Murphy for an hour. After Murphy established that Ursula was Catholic he said? irBut you didn't go to church last Sunday",. ttYes,B she said, ''.I.went to church with one of the Negro workers„" "You offended the wnola community.... It was the feeling of the-community that you came to church in order to demons trate„ ...and you still wonder what the reasons for the bombings were? The reason was you offended the communityo. Don't you see the connection? Church bombings and Mrs. Quinn's house?" (Ursula had been staying at Mrs. Quran's), Questions for Jesse Harris followed. He was told that they would ''get him" for contributing to the delinquency of minors and for "inciting to riot"'., And then, wwe are going to lock you up for good," said the police. Bill Powell form Britain was next. When he asked Murphy, the FBI agent, If he complained to his embassy would anything be denej Murphy replied by trying to convince him not to complain to his embassy tut to give^him (Murphy) his complaints. Finally all five were released, Jesse Harris and Cephas Hughes were released separately, though and had to pass through a crowd of whites to get their car. They were followed to the Freedom House. This is Mississippi in ths year 1^64. The only way these people will be safe is through federal protectionc..The only reason the federal government will act is if you put pressure on them. The election campaign has taken the eyes of the nation off the South. This has allowed the racists to step up their attacks —to be more brave in their bombings, Terror and intimidation threaten in some areas to destroy the movement, WRITE TODAY. PLEASES GET FIVE FRIENDS TO WRITE. We must show the Justice Department and the White House that we are concerned and outraged—-our protest must be massive,. NEWS RELEASE #78 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ^S^rlSI*,!;,!' October 18, 1964 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 ' STAFFERS HELD ON "SYNDICALISM" CHARGES BELZONIJ MISSISSIPPI -/Four men - including two field secretaries from the Atlanta-based Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) - are being he*T3~ilri.der $1,000 bail each on charges of "criminal syndical­ ism" here. The four were jailed October 15 as they were ivalking down a street in Belzoni's Negro neighborhood. They are William Ware, from Minneapolis, Minnesota; Robert Bass, Ellis Jackson and Joe Louis Stigler. The "criminal syndicalism" statute was passed by the state legis­ lature last spring shortly before a state-wide Mississippi Summer Pro­ ject began. The law prohibits anyone teaching or advocating "the com­ y mission of crime, violence or force as a means of accomplishing or in affecting a change in agriculture or industrial ownership or control or in affecting an§* political or social change." The new law has been used only twice, in Belzoni and in McComb, where 15 Negroes are still behind bars following their arrest Septem­ ber 21. Witnesses said the four youths were approached by a Belzoni po­ liceman who told them they were wanted at police headquarters. When they refused to enter the police car, they were placed under arrest. -30- SNCC WORKS IN DEEP SOUTH AREAS ATLANTA, GEORGIA - The Atlanta-based Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) has voter registration and community organization cam­ paigns in rural Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The organization's interracial staff is paid subsistence wages for the often dangerous work they do. -30- NEWS RELEASE ' ^ ^ (P#85 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 RAYMOND STREET, NW November 27, 1964 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 '

McCOMB, MISSISSIPPI - The Atlanta-based Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) said there had been more than 20 bombing or arson at­ tacks aimed at local Negroes or civil rights i^orkers in this Southwest Mississippi town since last April. SNCC said nine white men, among them the self-confessed bombers of Negro homes, churches and businesses, were still at liberty following the last bombing three weeks ago despite a judge's learning they would be arrested in bombings continued. The nine men were arrested and tried October 23. They entered guilty pleas, and were freed on probation after being sentenced to five years in jail each. The judge, W. H. Catkins, said the nine had been "unduly provoked" in the bombing attacks that included bombing a home where Negro sleeping and the bombing attack on the McComb SNCC Freedom House where 10 civil rights workers were asleep. Judge Watkins - appointed to the bench by former Governor Ross Barnett-<- said he fceed the nine because they "come from good families and deserve a second chance." He did indicate, hoi^ever, that they would be required to serve their five year terms if further bombings occurred. Three weeks after the latest bombing in Tylertown, 20 miles from here, all nine whites were still at large. 650 white residents of McComb issued a- statement November 17 calling for an end to racial violence and for equal treatment under the law for all citizens. The statement followed the recent bombing by a few days and - according to local citizens - was rushed into publication to beat by one day testing of public facilities under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. SNCC began its first deep South voter registration project here in 1961. The 25 bombing and burning attacks included seven attacks on Negro churches, 13 attempts to burn or bomb private homes, the bombing of the Freedom House, the bombing of three Negro businesses and the November 7 bombing of a Negro home in Tylertown. -30- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

8| RAYMOND STREET, N.W., ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 • 404-688-0331

100 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10011 • YUKON 9-1313

Dear Friend:

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the credentials r>f the regular Mississippi delegates to the Democratic convention in August, is pre­ paring to challenge the seating of the Mississippi congressional delegation at the opening of the new session of Congress. This challenge -will focus national attention on the voting laws of Mississippi and the discriminatory way in which they are administered. The attempts of Mrs Earner, Mrs Gray, and Mrs Devine to take their seats in the House of Representatives will provide the opportunity for a dramatic exposure o of the way in which people of that state are denied the ballot.

The MFDP will need national support for the challenge itself and for a "fairness resolution" which will prevent the seating of any representatives from Mississippi •until the challenge has been decided. Enclosed is literature describing the challenge, the means through which it will be implemented, and suggestions that you and others in your community can undertake to assure the MFDP the support that it will require.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Northern Student Movement, and the Students for a Democratic Society feel that it is essential that the student community become aware of the existance of the challenge and the ways in which they can participate. We have therefore, gathered the names of individuals in cities throughout the country who we feel can be Instrumental in mobilizing their respective communities and coordinating their activities around this issue. Please read the enclosed list of names. If your name has been Included you should be prepared to call the other key people in your area a&d decide the best way to amass public pressure in support of the challenge. With them, you should Initiate contact with the MFDP office in Washington (1353 U St NW, 332-7732) for further suggestions on what you can do. If your name Is not one of those on the list, you should contact someone who is so that you can be advised of what steps are being undertaken In your community and so that activities earn be coordinated as much as possible.

The nation must be mobilized to pressure not only congressmen who will ultimately decide the wuestion but also, to let Mississippi know that people across the country are vitally concerned about the outcome of the challenge.

Carol Rogoff Sam Leiken Helen Garvy SNCC NSM SDS

P.S. 5or those of you who wdilvbe it^JPfew Yorlrpn De* fil, an institute on the FDP, the congressional challenge aW*!!rgat»**«b8a d^Wbeipgkill be held at Duane Hall, Metropolitan Duane Methodist Church, 13th St. and 7th Ave., New York at 7 pm. WHEREAS, the traditional Democratic Party of Mississippi is un- democratically constituted because it discriminates against large numbers of citizens; and WHEREAS, the traditional democratic party of Mississippi does not support the platform and policies of the national Democratic Party; and WHEREAS, the traditional Democratic Party of Mississippi in I960 did not support the nominees of the Democratic National conven­ tion despite a pledge made at the convention by leaders of the Mississippi Democratic Party; and WHEREAS, a Freedom Democratic Party is being established in the state of Mississippi which is ooen to all citizens regardless of race, which will support the national platform and candidates and which is being soonsored by a •••*' coalition of civil rights and liberal organizations; and WHEREAS, the Freedom Democratic Party olans to seek to be seated in place of th^ delegation from the traditional dem­ ocratic party of Mississippi at the 1964 Democratic National Convention; Now therefore be it resolved that the 1964 California Democratic Council convention urge the California delegation at the forth­ coming national convention to take all appropriate action to seat the delegates from the Freedom Democratic Party of Mississippi if they should petition for credentials and to deny credentials to the delegates from the traditional democrati party of Mississippi.

This resolution was adooted unanimously by the 2,6@© delegates to the California Democratic Council meeting in Long Beach, Feb. 21-23. Introduced to the resolutions committee by Ge©rge Ballis of Fresno and carried there by Claude Hurst of Fresno & Beverly Axelrod of San Francisco.

For Further Information Contact George Ballis, Valley Labor Citi 479 N. Fresno St., Fresno 1, California, or Research Dent., SNCC 6 Raymond St. N.W., Atlanta, Ga. 30314. ADCPT A FIG 'DDK ,'CPKER

The summer of 196k marked the beginning of 0 tremendous effort,' by civil rights workers, college students and sympathetic people from all over the United States to break down the barriers of discrimination in the deep South. A land cf legal segregation^ of violence in everyday speech and life, of sub-standard edu­ cational and vocational opportunities for nearly all its citizens-- black or white-- the deep Scuth. has remained a backwater of Axer- • ican society.

Put this summer something ne" happened. Nine—hundred civil rights workers^ mostly students, went to Mississippi tc conduct voter regi. i trstien drive 3 3 to teach xr freedom schools, to plan and build community centers, rnc to establish a. close and lasting contact with the Negro people of the st?te«

Led by project director 'lobar z I-Iosas " a i. the field_ staff of the

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Coa^ittae (SNNC)-, the civil rights workers established an integrated political party in

Mississippi, 3oao 63,000 Mississippians, mostly Negroes, join­ ed the now Freedom Dempcrtaic Party (FDP), laying the basis for legal challenges of state voter registration qualifications and of regular Democratic Party politics in Mississippi, The

FDP provided actual political experience to people previously excluded from political adtivity. Across the st~te, thousands of oecple attended prccint and county meetings for the first time. They came to literacy end voter registration classes, to health clinics, one to freedom school classes. Now the summer has ended, yet several hundred students have remained in the south. The fight is not O'JCT, it has just begun. The advances made this summer hrve meaning only if they "re sustained. The nig'-, hopes raised nay be erroacd into disappointment and. bitterness unless the work continues in

Mississippi end elsewhere. Above all, toe Negro people wbo mode their discontent; public this summer, who &~r~e:': to face the vengeance of a aicinforned, uowerful CTnd violent white com­ munity, must not be permitted to feel isolated once ~g"ins whore contact was established it must bo maintained. The success of the summer project, and indeed of The southern civil rights movement for years to come, da-cads on our con­ tinuing and extending the bonds forged between black and white this summer.

The great need of the moment is te destroy completely the feel­ ings of helplessness and isolation which still plague black people in the South. Many young men enc women are in the South today, teaching, persuading, and oncoureging. They are engaged in a 2k—hour a d?y, seven-day a week work. They need our help.

If a civil rights worker is to rear-in alive in Mississippi, he must h-ve some source of outside income, for he ahs neither time nor opportunity to earn money where he is. A SNUG field sec­ retary receives $9.£k- per week ($10 lass thirty-six cents tax and social security deducetions). That money is all the work­ er has to live on. This winter several hundred new people are serving as volunteer

01 income outslc n c i r j when that money is smeni

they will have to return to the North to make c living. To keen

a a c r u a"

• :< -. o" a men Jorkc;

Jxvxe groups, scores, onv.rc.i groups oorav

clubs and individuals ucross the ui freedom

wo r A. LiC ssum

per weeK needed tc supper /-» r, p r South,

r r For example, j?4 members o O r- 1i n i7crr:.bT T c~tin " coomorotive pledged twenty cents a week ecch to raise the mono;

ti. C UU( University of Uxscoosir., one floor of a dormitory has

>a o sore ^)xt -*- .- ;uart awan, a voter registration

worker in Tuyclc, Miss issim i. In return Ewan will write to

his s ^nsors at regular intervals to keen them vested on the freedom movement in gen is own activities especially,

Swan we a formerly a student Fnivcrsity of Wisconsin

Ho will remain in Mississippi as lone no can

The Mississippi Summer Project 19-e"--- r:' chad and affected

thousands of people. But let us remember thrt the summer vol­

unteers did not work -miracles, they only got a toehold. The

idea of freedom will flourish only if it gets the necessary out­

side sup ort. And if wo won't support it, who will? Testimony of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee before the House Judiciary Subcommittee #5 onH.R. 6U00

Mr, Chairman and members of the subcommittee,my name is Ralph Featherstone, and I am representing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Sommittee(SNCC). SNCC is well known as the front-line cavils rights organization in the Soi;h. We have more thatn 200 full-time staff workers in the hard core of the south—-~-considerably more than all the other civil rights organizat­ ions combined.To say that we have a great interest in this legislation is something of an understatement.At my left is William Higgs,who is legal ad*» yiser to SNCC,

This subcommittee yesterday morning heard Mr. Roy Wilkins testify for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, We agree with Mr. Wilkins that there a.need for the amendments which outlined .However,we do not agree that those four amendments are the most important ones. We strongly feel tbat the most important——the most necessary—--— v amendment to this bill is one re­ quiring new election in all the areas affected within a short period after the b;ll has taken effect.Such as no sooner than 6months,nor later than 9 months after placing of federal examiners.

There are a number of reason why such a provision is absolutely necessary in this bill, Firist,it should be pointed out that many of the states most affected by the bill will not hold state or local elections for the next two or more years. This means that democracy—in its true meaning of government by the people as distinct from the bill»s present thrust of only the right to vote -—is years away in many of these states.

The states coveres by the bill and the dates of their elections are listed in the accompanying supplement, See end,it has historically been true in the south that the Negro has been der 2d the right to vote either through violence or intimidation or through restrictive voting qualifications and frequently through, both. For cxeii;ole,in the state of Mississippi until 1868 Negroes were by law totally excluded from voting.In the reconstruction Constitution of 1868 , provision was made for universal male suffnage.However,with the adoption ©f this constitution,the Ku Klux Klan and its lynching,murder,mutilation and terror came into being to prevent the then qualified Negroes from voting. These conditions continued until tha adoption of the Constitution of 1890 the instrument of the"legal disfranchizement of the Negro",

This constitution institued a literacy test, a poll tax, a constitutional interpretation test,selective use of crime disqualifications ,and unlimited discretion by the voting registrar. Almost every Southern State then follow- wd tie lead of Mississippi.Mass violence and terror on such a large scale were no longer necessary to prevent Negroes from voting. .> We believe that passage of the bill without requiring new Sections will lead dicectly to degree of terror and intimidation yet unseen in the civil rights movement. This bill in effect leaves violence and intimidation as the pnly out for those who would prevent Negro voting, ;'"- Third,, nrachhof!elhe national revulsion and disgust with racial events in the South concern law enforcement and police brutality.Who can forget the murder of the three civil rights workers in Neshoba County,Mississippi,the Murder of James Reeb,and in thes same spirt the refusal of Governor Wallace to do his duty to prevent a poten tial mass murder on the march from Selma to Montgomery,

Though Governor Wallace's term expires in January of 1967, Sheriff Rainey's in Neshoba County extends to January 1968, and that of Jackson,Mississippi, law enforcement officals until July,1969. Unless the subcommittee takes forthright action to requite new elections in the areas affacted by this bill,the problemof Civil fcightd intimidation,violence and terror w 11 increasingly occupy the Congress and the President for the next sev­ eral years.

Fourth,as so eloquently stated the subcommittee on Tuesday by the distinguished Chairman of the committee on Education and Labor,the poor black people of the South,who are in the greatest need of the program and benfits of the war on Pro- verty,who need most to be brought into the Great Society,will be waiting on the outside for years after passage of this bill unless a provision for new elections be included. Our experiences with the refusals of tae state and local authorit­ ies to prcvide the benefits of federal programs to all——much less under gross­ ly discriminatory conditions to the Negro citizens of the South could fill vo­ lumes of testimony.In Mississippi the poorest state in the nation, whose negro population is the poorest of the poor only 1/2 of the State's 82 counties allow surplus government commodities of any kind to be distributed to any part of the population at any time of the year. The state of Mississippi's own figures for i960 show that racial discrimination in the use of local school funds reached a point of more than $100 being spent for each white child to.$1. for each negro child.Public housing and urban renewal are virtually non-existent in Mississippi because the state and local governments concluded that these programs would pri­ marily help Negroes. New Education legislation to help proverty striken child­ ren will be worse than useless in the hand of a racist city school board in Miss­ issippi which is not subject to the will of the voters until 1969. The community action programs of their on Poverty will be unavailable for years to the poorest of the nation.In short,maybe there os no need to pass the"Great Society"liegisf lation until 1968.0r perhaps,it might be as well to attach a provision on it saying," the benefits of this legislation shall become available only after Jan­ uary 1,1968", Failure to provide for new election in this bill accomplishes exactly tae same result—ans worse.

All of the above reasons etch out the absolute necessary for language in the bill requiring new elections in the affected areas. We believe that the precedents and the contitutional authority for such a pro­ vision are clear and remyle. The 15th Amendment's language is certainly broad enough to empower the Congress to enact legislation correcting the future effects of past deftials of the right to vote on account of race or c64or.In the reapport­ ionment cases,federal courts in such states as New York,Connecticut,and Virginia, arerecuir'ng new elections and shortening existing legislative terms——current precedent for this proposed amendment .Moreover, the 15th amendment, wliich is the basis for this bill,contain much more explict language than the equal protect­ ion phraseology of the lirth Amendment: and the power of Congress as disting­ uished from tfee federal courts to enforce the amendment is explictly stated in section 2, Though we believe new elections to be by far the most important amendment to the bill,there are others that should be made. We have already indicated our support for the four amendemts proposed by the Leadership Conference's statement. We are submitting a quickly perpared supplement of proposed amendments. W^e feel an amendment is necessary to strengthen the very weak enforcement provis­ ions of the bill found in section 9, We believe that a provision similar to the power given int the resnick bill to viod the election and to conduct it un­ der Federal direction should be included. Paragraph 2 of the supplement con­ tains suggestes language.

We feel that the problems of intimidation are simply not met by the provision of the hi 11.Paragraph 3 of our supplement suggests proposed langaage to deal with economic intimidation by denying the bebefits of Federal programs toper- ebns impeding others in regard to their right to vote. The proposal is similar to Title 6 of the Civil lights Act of 196U and would be particularly effect­ ive through,for exemple,the Soimuunity Credit Coropafcation and other such agricul­ tural programs 4n the South. As Congressman Lindsay pointed out Tuesday morning,protections of the bill expl- ictly do not extend to persons registered under state law. This oramission must be corrected. We suggest language in paragraph 7 of our supplement.

On March 19 Congressman Correan called attention to the fact that the bill does nothing to guarnatee the newly registered negro voters will be able to vote for candidates of their choice,since the affected states and political sub­ divisions will be left free to circumscribe those persons who may offer them- sejxres for political services.Paragraph 6 contains suggested language to fcemedy this defect.

Finally,we suggest that the coverage of this bill increased through the use of of a provision somewhat related to thaa proposed by Congressman Mathias and Lindsay. We point out that the provision we recommend in paragraph $ of our supplement would meet all cases of pockets of discrimination,whereas the Douglas Hart-type 25$ formula would still exclude all pockets of discrimination in which 26/? or more Negro voting age population was refistwredjand it would be imposs­ ible to implement. To be specific, Congressman Cramer's example of Columbia Coutny5 Arkansas,with '$2% registration of eligible Negroes would be cowered by our suggestion,.hut not by the Douglas-Hart proposal. The exact figures are even more start!ing.,whcih we hereby submit.Onlu 20$ of the voting discrimanat- ion in Arkansas xrould be reached by the Bouglas -Hart proposal.

In closing, we must empharically state that we feel that this woting legislate ion- however strong it may seen—can only be complementary to a proven demon­ stration by Congress in the sthat Challenge of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. WE believe that the Congress must deny seats to those persons who have been sent through white-only elections. This voting legislatives diminishes by not the slightest particle the duty of the House to right these specific wrongs thathave been carefully laid before it. Moreover, the members of Congress must know that it was precisely the refusal of the Congress to readmit the delegations of the Southern states after the Civil War that largely achievedfree and open elections in these states regardless of race or color. Justice in the ease of the Mississippi Challenge will ensure that this legisl­ ation will be enforce throughout the Sotuh from top down by state and local authorities. While this bill hare almost insurmountable difficulty in combating intimidation and violence against the Negro voter,the Challenge deals directly and effectively Tirith this blight on otjr not yet democratic society.

This Concludes our Testimony, STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE 6 RAYMOND STREET ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 SNCC PROGRAMS FOR 1965

Since December of 1963, there has been a debate within SNCC over the structure of the Coordinating Committee, which is the ultimate decision- making body. The staff felt that it should be totally represented within the Coordinating Committee. Prior to this time the Coordinating Committee was composed of representatives of local protest groups. The staff was entitled to voice but not vote at all Coordinating Committee and Executive Committee meetings. At the spring conference of 1964 a constitutional amendment was passed xtfhich gave the staff six votes on the Executive Committee. In June of 1964 we recognized that this procedure was inadequate because the student nrotest groups were not really functioning and our staff was becoming larger. We postponed any decision on re­ vision of structure until after the summer because of the impending summer project. Since October we have been grappling with many problems in our or­ ganization and within the society at large. We have been struggling t to find better ways to effect our concept of allowing people in the communities to participate more in making decisions affecting their lives. We have also strugg1ed with the re-examination of our or­ ganization with the spirit of giving more visibility and responsi­ bility to lesser-known staff people. In addition, the efforts of last summer in building the Freedom Democratic Party, the resulting challenge at the convention in Atlantic City, the Congressional challenge on January 4,1965, and the Statutory Challenge have led us to believe that the Mississippi Challenge the unseating of the five Congressmen from Mississinoi --is the most important political event of 1965, not with standing efforts to get new voting legislation. Consequently, we have decided on several things. 1. We will try to recruit upwards of 2,000 students who will come to Washington, D.C. , around June 15,1965, and spend from two to three weeks constantly lobbying for the unseating of the Mississippi delegation. We will try to recruit these students from all over the United States, but especially from northern areas where the Congress­ men will be politically responive to pressure , 2. We itfill ask these students to engage in nonviolent direct act­ ion in order to dramatize the need for the unseating of the Mississ­ ippi delegation, to dramatize the need for the enactment of legis­ lation based on the concept of one man, one vote, requiring one to give only age and residence as a qualification to register, and to dramatize the need for home rule in Washington, D.C. Hence the mobilization of these students will have three objectives: a) to lobby and engage in direct action in behalf of the -2-

challenge. b) to lobby and engage in direct action dn behalf of a voting bill based on age and residence. c) to lobby and engage in direct action for l?ome rule in Washington. We know that all people in this nation are seriously affected by the Congressmen from Mississippi. They must be unseated and we have Free Election in Mississippi. 3. We have also decided to hold people's conference in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi , Georgia, and Alabama. At these conferences we expect people from local communites to decide on certain programs, and we will help them to implement these pro­ grams . 4. We are shooting for a conference sometime in July perhaps, when people from across the south, especially from the Black Belt counties of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas will meet in a Southwide People's conference. 5. The internal composition of the Student Nonviolent Coordi­ nating Committee has been radically altered. The entire staff is now a part of the Coordinating Committee. We have established a Call Committee which invites as voting delegates members of student and community groups acroos the south, including re­ presentatives of the Friends of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. 6. The election of a new Executive Committee is based on the spirit that people who have less visibility in the organization must be given more responsibility, ''embers at large, already elected, include Mrs. Lee Bankhead, 28, of Cleveland,Mississippi; Stokely Carmicheal, 24, a Howard University graduate and New York native; William Hansen, 24, a former student at Ohio's Xaiver University and a native of Cincinnati; Jesse Harris, 22, a former student at Jackson State College and a native of Jackson,Mississ­ ippi; Dorie Ladner, 21, a former student at Tougaloo College and a native of Hattiesburg,Mississippi; Silas McGhee, 19, former student at Coahoma Junior College and a native of Greenwood,Miss­ issippi; Lafayette Surney, 20, of Ruleville,MississippiJ Hollis Watkins, 24, a studen at Tougaloo College and a native of Summit, Mississippi; and Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, 46 , a native of Ruleville, Mississippi. Dr. Howard Zinn of Boston University, and Miss Ella Baker were elected advisors. Eleven other Executive Committee members will be elected. Four will be state project directors; one at large from. Georgia, Arkansas, and Alabama and one from every Congressional District in Mississippi. In essence, the interim governing body and the supervision of SNCC's admininstrative structure is controlled by field staff. To assist in the day -to-day tunning of the organization,the con­ cept of the secretaiat was introduced. The SNCC secretarian, con­ sists of John Lev/is ,Chairman; James Forman, Executive Secretary; and Cleveland SEllars, Program Secretary. Notwithstanding these changes in the Organization,many past programs are still going forward,but with greater accent on education for organization and agitation. For instance, we maintain our belief in the validity of Freedom Schools, Community Centers, Federal Programs and non-violent direct action against segregation by members of crimination. The Freedom Democratic Party, organized by members of our staff and local people,is organizing in new Mississippi count­ ies. Other communities outside Mississippi have expressed an in­ terest in this kind of political organization. Special situation such as the Moultrie, Georgia school boycott and direct action against the Indianola,Mississippi public library will continue to demand our focus. In Selma, Alabama, our two years of work since February,1965 has been suplemented by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference since January 1965. We began organizing in Marion, Alabama and hope t( to spread into Wilcox, Lot/ndes and surrounding Black Belt Counties. We have accellerated our Campus Traveler's program. We now have seven full-time campus travelers going to Negro and White campuses trying to develop student movements. Our greatest success has been in Virginia, where a SNCC-sponsored December 3-5 statewide conference motivated Virginia students ot organize a summer project in that state's 4th Congressional District. In Alabama, Campus Travelers have encouraged as many as w8 students from Tuskegee Institute tov; work on week-ends and for longer period in Selma and Marion. We expect to hold a student conference there in March. building on three years work done by two white Southerners Robert Zellner ans Sam Shirah, Ed Hamlet, a white Southerner, has worked almost excusively with white southern college students,and helped to organize the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC). He is an integral member of this Soutlwide interracial student group which started its work on white campuses and is now working with "moderate" white and negro college students. The educational pro gram of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee consists of efforts to obtain scholarships for people who have been in the movement and wish to return to college for further academic train­ ing. Also there have been a series of workshops in local commun­ ities designed to encourage people to formulate programs on which they want to work. Moreover, the v/ork-study program started at Tougaloo and Miles Colleges has provided opportunities for Southern Negroes in college to work in the movement while pursuing their academic careers. The SNCC Research DEpartment was begun about a year and a half ago. It began with one person clipping newspapers for civil rights and political information about areas in which SNCC was operating, and -4- filing the clips for future reference. SNCC research presently reads and clips 16 daily newspapers for a wide variety of pol­ itic! and economic information which is used to service field requests for information . In the past year and a half a con­ siderable reference library has been built, and the staf^ has in­ creased to six, SNCC research does not undertake projects which are not, directly or indirectly, related to field requests, or staff training and education. We have consistently expanded our support operation in the north because the people in the south with whom we work are without the vote and unable to exert the kind of political pressure necessary to bring basic changes in the political and economic system in this country. Our fund rasing operation has also been based in the north but plans are new underway to expand southern fund efforts as well . At present there are ful3 time SNCC staff people work- ingin Friends of SNCC groups manned by volunteers. Nearly 166 college groups are also active on fund raising and. political sup­ port. In the next few months these groups will spend a good portion of their tine working on political support for the Con­ gressional Challenge. In addition we are expanding our information base;* There are now c complete printing facilities in Jackson and Atlanta. The Atlanta operation is being enlarged, and an Arkansas print shop is being set up. These printing operations are able to produce literature for use in the field and explanatory materials for gathering sup­ port,. The Atlanta photography operation and darkroom havo cx-mn-'cd. A force of seven full-time nhotogtaphers not only supplies news media, support groups and movement publications with photographs bu; but is beginning to develop visual materials for use in organ­ izing and educating local communities. One of SNCC programs is to bring resources into local communities ans to experiment with new programs. For example, the Free Southern Theater was developed through tbis concept by a SNCC worker and was financed at frist by SNCC. Groups like the Council of Federal Organizations, the Albany Movement, and even the Freedom Democratic Party are aided and developed by SNCC. SNCC people worked closely last summer with the emerging Medical Committee for Human Rights which is becoming a national organization. Security is one of the main concerns of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The creation of the Sojourner Motor Fleet a corporation possessing now more than 60 cars*--and the establishment of SNCC Radio, a state-wide Citizen's Band radio system n Mississippi, has aided our work and made field workers more se :ure.Field workers have said that such a radio system at the beginning of the summer might have prevented the musders of the three workers lilled in Philadelphia. •4-

The meeting at Gammon Theological Seminary closed \\rith the singing of " We Shall Overcome" and the dedication of the SNCC people there assembled that the resources of the organ­ ization and the skills of its field secretaries must be put to a constant struggle in behalf of poor people. For despite the gains that the student movement has assisted in making people are still poor, voteless, without jobs, suffering from police brutality, inadequate housing and denial of dignity.

February 23, 1965 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE 6 RAYMOND STREET ATLANTA, GEORGIA 3 0314

SNCC PROGRAMS FOR 1965

Since December of 1963, there has been a debate within SNCC over the structure of the Coordinating Committee, which is the ultimate decision-making body. The staff felt that it should be totally represented within the Coordinating Committee. Prior to this time the Coordinating Committee was composed of representatives of local protest groups. The staff was entitled to voice but not vote at all Coordinating Committee and Executive Committee meetings.

At-the spring conference of 1964 a constitutional amend­ ment was passed which gave the staff six votes on the Executive Committee. In June of 1964 we recognized that this procedure was inadequate because the student protest groups were not really functioning and our staff was becoming larger. We postponed any decision on revision of structure until after the summer because of the impending summer project.

Since October we have been grappling with many problems in our organization and within the society at large. We have been struggling to find better ways to * ffeet our concept of allowing people in the communities to participate more in making decisions affecting their lives. We have also struggled with the re-examination of our organization with the spirit of giving more visibility and responsibility to lesser-known staff people.

In addition, the efforts of last summer in building the Freedom Democratic Party, the resulting challenge at the convention in Atlantic City, the Congressional challenge on January 4, 1965, and the Statutory Challenge have led us to believe that the Mississippi Challenge—the unseating of the five Congressmen from Mississippi—is the most important political event of 196 5, notwithstanding efforts to get new voting legislation.

Consequently, we have decided on several things. 1. We will try to recruit upwards of 2,000 students who will come to Washington, D. C.,around June 15, 196 5, and spend from two to three weeks constantly lobbying for the unseating of the Mississippi delegation. We will try to recruit these students from all over the United States, but especially from northern areas where the Congressmen will be politically responsive to pressure. -2-

2. We will ask these students to engage in nonviolent direct action in order to dramatize the need for the unseating of the Mississippi delegation, to dramatize the need for the enactment of legislation based on the concept of one man, one vote, requiring one to give only age and residence as a qualification to register, and to dramatize the need for home rule in Washington, D. C. Hence the mobilization of these students will have three objectives: a) to lobby and engage in direct action in behalf of the challenge b) to lobby and engage in direct action on behalf of a voting bill based on age and residence. 3) to lobby and engage in direct action for home rule in Washington. Wejcnow that all people in this nation are seriously . affected by the Congressmen from Mississippi. They must Nbe unseated and we must have Free Elections in Mississippi. 3. We have also decided to hold people's conferences in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. At these ccnferences we expect people from local communities to decide on certain programs, and we will help them to implement these programs. 4. We are shooting for a conference sometime in July, perhaps, when people from across the South, especially from the Black Belt counties of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas will meet in a Southwide People's Conference. Future programs will emerge from this conference. 5. The internal composition of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee has been radically altered. The entire staff is now a part of the Coordinating Committee. We have established a Call Committee which invites as voting delegates members of student and community groups across the south, including representatives of the Friends of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. 6. The election of a new Executive Committee is based on he spirit that people who have less visibility in the ..ganization must be given more responsibility. Members at large, already elected, include Mrs. Lee Bankhead, 28, of Cleveland, Mississippi; Stokely Carmichael, 24, a Howard University graduate and New York native; William Hansen, 24, a former student at Ohio's Xaiver University and a native of Cincinnati; Jesse Harris, 22, a former student at Jackson State College and a native of Jackson, Mississippi; Dorie Ladner, 21, a former student at Tougaloo College and a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi; - 3 - Silas McGhee, 19, former student at Coahoma Junion College and a native of Greenwood, Mississippi; Lafayette Surney, 20, of Rule- ville, Mississippi; "oll^s Watkins, 2h, a student at Tougaloo College and a native of ^ummit, Mississippi; aid Mrs, Fannie Lou Hamer, ii6, a native of R-leville, Mississippi. Dr. "oward Zinn of Boston University, and Miss Flla Baker were elected a dvisors. Eleven other Executive Committee members will be elected. Four will be state project directors; one at larpe from Georgia, Arkansas, and Alabama and one each from every Congressional District in Mississippi. In essence, the interim gove ning body and the supervision of SNCC's administrative structure is con­ trolled by field staff.

To asrist in the day-to-day running of the organization, the con­ cept of the secreta iat was introduced. The SNCC secretarian con­ sists of John Lewis, Chairman; James *orman, Executive Secretary; and Ceveland Sellars, Program Secretary.

Notwithstanding these changes in the organization, many o^st programs are still going forward, but with greater accent on education for organization and agitation. For instance, we maintain our belief in the validity of Freedom Schools, Community Centers, Federal Pro­ grams and non -violent direct action against segregation and dis­ crimination. The Freedom Democratic Party, organized by members of our staff and local people, is organizing in new Mississippi counties. Other communities outside Mississippi have expressed an interest in this kind of political organization.

Special situations such as the Moultrie, Georgia school boycott and direct action against she Tndianola, Mississippi public library will continue to demand our focus.

In Selma, Alabama, our two years of work since February, 1963 has been suplemented by the Southern Christian Leadership Con­ ference since January 1965. We began organizing in Marion, Ala­ bama and hope to spread into Wilcox, Lowdnes and surrounding Black Belt counties.

We have accellerated our Campus Traveler's program. We now have seven full-time ca pus travelers going to Negro anci white campuses trying to develop student movements. Our greatest success has been in Virginia, wher- a SNHC-sponsored December 3-5 statewide conference motivated Virginia students to organize a summer project in that state's iith Congressional District.

In Alabama, Campus Travelers have encouraged as manv as 20 students from Tuskeeeee Institute to work on weekends and for longer periods in Selma and Marion. We expect to -4- hold a student' eonrerence cnere in March.

Building on three years work done by two white Southerners, Robert Zellner and Sam Shirah, Ed Hamlet, a white Southerner, has worked almost exclusively with white Southern college students, and helped to organize the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC). He is an integral member of this Southwide, interracial student group which started its work on white campuses and is now working with "moderate" white and Negro college students. The education­ al program of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee consists of efforts to obtain scholarships for people who have been in the movement and wish to return to college for further academic training. Also there have been a series of workshops in local communities designed to encourage people to formulate programs on which they want to work. Moreover, the work-study program started at Tougaloo and Miles Colleges has provided opportunities for southern Negroes in college to work in the movement while pursuing their academic careers.

The SNCC Research Department was begun about a year and a half ago. It began with one person clipping newspapers for civil rights and political information about areas in which SNCC was operating, and filing the clips for future reference. SNCC research presently reads and clips 16 daily newspapers for a wide variety of political and economic information which is used to service field requests for information. In the past year and a half a considerable reference library has been built, and the staff has increased to six. SNCC research does not undertake projects which are not, directly or indirectly, related to field requests, or staff training and education.

We have consistently expanded our support operation in the north because the people in the south with whom we work are without the vote and unable to exert the kind of political pressure necessary to bring basic changes in the poli-;al and economic system in this country. Our fund raising operation has also been based in the north but plans are now underway to expand southern fund efforts as well. At present there are full time SNCC staff people working in 10 northern offices as well as some 6 0 community-based Friends of SNCC groups manned by volunteers. Nearly 100 college groups are also active on fund raising and political support. In the next few months these groups will spend a good portion of their time working on political support for the Congressional Challenge.

In addition, we are expanding our information base. Tiwfere are now complete printing facilities in Jackson and Atlfcita.. The Atlanta operation is being enlarged.-, and an Arkagyyjls

~*t; -5- print shop is being set up. These printing operations are able to produce literature for use in the field and explanatory materials for gathering support. The Atlanta photography operation and darkroom have expanded. A force of seven full-time photographers not only supp'|ies news media, support groups and movement publications with photographs but is beginning to develop visual materials for use in organizing and educating local communities. One of SNCC's programs is to bring resources into local communities and to experiment with new programs. For example, the Free Southern Theater was developed through this concept by a SNCC worker and was financed at first by SNCC. Groups like the Council of Federated Organizations, the Albany Movement, and even the Freedom Democratic Party are-aided and developed by SNCC. SNCC people worked xclosely last summer with the emerging Medical Committee for Human Rights which is becoming a national organization. Security is orie of the main concerns of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The creation of the Sojourner Motor Fleet—a corporation possessing now more than 60 cars--and the establishment of SNCC Radio, a state-wide Citizen's Band radio system in Mississippi, has aided our work and made field workers more secure. Field workers have said that such a radio system at the beginning of the summer might have prevented the murders of the three workers killed in Philadelphia. The meeting at Gammon Theological Seminary closed with the singing of "We Shall Overcome" and the dedication of the SNCC people there assembled that the resources of the organization and the skills of its field secretaries must be put to a constant struggle in behalf of poor people. For despite the gains that the student movement has assisted in making, people are still poor, voteless, without jobs, suffering from police brutality, inadequate housing and a denial of dignity.

February 23, 19 6 5 SPECIAL REPORT FROM STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE 6 RAYMOND STREET, NW ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314 February 25, 19 6 5

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ACTIVITY In Dallas County, Alabama

The Justice Department has been active in litigation and investigation in the state of Alabama since passage of civil rights legislation in 19 57 and 1960 and has brought some action under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A culmination of this activity occurred on January 15, 196 5, when the U.S. brought suit against the state of Alabama (defendants being the state and its Secretary of State) to prevent use of a difficult literacy test instituted in September, 1964, as one of the state's voter registration requirements. The government contends that the new test v iolates the educational requirements for voting of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This suit is similar to statewide suits pending against Louisiana (two such suits) and Mississippi. Previously, individual suits have been lodged against boards of registrars in various Alabama counties, contend­ ing discrimination of one variety or another. The govern­ ment's current suit is seen to be applicable to all of Alabama's 6 7 counties, and, if ever ruled on favorably, would enjoin the state from engaging in any act which would deprive Alabama citizens of their right to register and vote. Whatever the promise of this new suit, it might be instructive to view the last few years of Justice Department activity in strife-torn Dallas County, where voter registration activities had been conducted by SNCC since 1962, to determine the Department's actual accomplishments in comxmr to the relief of Alabama's citizens. A brief tabulation follows: U.S. v Victor 3. Atkins, et al: Suit was filed against Dallas County Board of Registrars on April 13, 1961. The Justice Department had first to get a court order to examine records of registrars after delaying tactics by the Board. An injunction was sought to prevent further discrimination in voter registration by the registrars. Meanwhile, new registrars were appointed so the U.S. District Court denied granting the injunc­ tion on grounds that the new board had not engaged in discriminatory acts. The Court did enjoin against the board's not allowing persons to reapply after failing the registration test. -2- The Justice Department appealed the case-and the District Court was instructed by the Appellate Court tu issue an injunction against the registrars*.rejecting applicants for minor errors when otherwise qualified, against using tests without first submitting to the court the answers by which the test was to be graded, to stop using oral tests, and to give persons the reason for their rejection. This relief was granted on November 2, 196 3, thirty months after litigation was started. Judge Cameron, federal judge who sat on the panel which heard the appeal, concurred with Judge Thomas's earlier remark that "The whole country should be proud of the job now being done by the present Board of. Registrars of Dallas County."

U.S. v Dallas County, et al: Complaint was filed by > the Justice Department on June 26, 1963,••against' the • County, Sheriff Clark, the State District Solicitor Blanchard McLeod, and Dallas County Solicitor Henry Reese. This was an attempt to get federal district Court to enjoin conduct of these officials from intimida­ ting potential Negro registration applicants. Judge Thomas refused-to grant relief, which would have, among other things,- prevented Sheriff Clark and his agents from attending voter registration meetings. Appeal of this decision by the Justice Department on June 27, 1963, failed. This injunction was to have been preliminary to a hear­ ing, which was then postponed by the District Court to an unspecified date, because of unrest in Selma. The Justice Department succeeded «-in getting a hearing, but only after first requesting a .writ of mandamus from the appeals- court. The threat of this writ possibly forced the District Court to set a date for the hearing, and the Appellate Court then had no necessity to issue the writ.' On October 15, 1963, before Judge Thomas, the hearing was held. Judge Thomas then denied the request for an injunction on March 19, 1964. The Justice Department has the .case on appeal.

U.S. v McLeod, et al; Filed by the Justice Department November 12, 196 3, naming as defendants Blanchard McLeod, the state District Solicitor; Sheriff Jim Clark; State Circuit Judge James'Hare; M.H.- Houston, Clerk of the Circuit Court; the Foreman of the Circuit Court Grand Jury; and the Dallas County Citizens Council's officers. The Justice Department sought to enjoin these persons from conduct intiiriidating persons attempting to register and asked that the County -3- Grand?Jury be temporarily restrained from requiring Justice Department personnel to appear until a court hearing could be conducted about this procedure'. ' This was 'shortly after the "Justice Department had become embroiled in controversy with the state, having to, do with voter registration demonstrations and an ?incident whereby Martin Luther King was transported in-'a-Justice Department rented car from Birmingham to. Selmai It was; a clear attempt to investigate and em­ barrass the Justice Department • ''•- Federal Circuit Judge Thomas refused to issue an order restraining .the defendants' harassment techniques. On November 13, 1963, the Court of Appeals reversed Judge Thomas's decision, and thereby prevented the Grand Jury of Dallas County from' calling up such persons as Burke Marshall and John Doar, who were busily engaged in doing the business of their office. Incidentally., a letter of Burke Marshall's (see Congres­ sional Record, Feb. 7, 1964, page 242 5) reveals that such Justice Department activity hardly warranted harrassment by Alabamans. Marshall explained the function of the Justice Department's man-on-the- scene Henderson, who was later sacked for the King car incident: .'."",' . •-- "Mr. Henderson has been particularly val­ uable to the U.S. in keeping this Department advised as to the scope and nature of planned demonstrations. On each of such assignments, the local FBI agents were aware of Mr. Henderson's presence and, I, believe, the local sheriff and the Chief of Police are also aware of his presence. To date I have received-no complaint about Mr. Henderson's'handling of his assign­ ments. On the contrary, it has happened that local law enforcement officers have sought and obtained information from Mr. Henderson in their preparation for handling tense situations." Judge Thomas issued the court order as directed by the Appellate Court on November 14, 1963. From december 5 - 18 hearings were held before Thomas's court to resolve the matter of U.S. v McLeod, et al. On March 19, 1964, Judge Thomas ruled against the Justice Department, dissolving the previous injunction. The Justice Department,asked Jodge Thomas ithat a temporary injunction be granted pending appe'ai. This was denied on March 30, 1964. The case Is 'now on appeal. - -4- State Circuit Judge James Hare issued an injunction during July, 1964 against demonstrations by all groups in Selma. The Justice Department asked Judge Thomas to overrule Hare. This move was combined with the following two suits. U.S. v. Clark, et al: On September 2, 19 64, former Attorney General Kennedy filed suit against Sheriff Clark, his deputies and posse, State Solicitor McLeod, State Judge James Hare, County Judge Reynolds, and the City of Selma. The Justice Department asked for a three Judge panel to hear the arguments and issue an injunction against the defendants on the grounds that "the defendants have used their official posts to maintain and enforce racial segregation in public facilities and accomodations to preserve white supremacy." and that "throughout their respective tenures in office the defendants have engaged in a pattern of conduct with the purpose of preventing desegre­ gation of public accomodations and of inter­ fering with the exercise by Negroes of their right to vote." U.S. v Warren County et al: Also filed by the Justice Department on September 2, 1964, was this suit against five Selma restaurants for violation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act dealing with discrimination in public accomodations. On December 7, 1964, hearing on U.S. v Warren Co., et al was conducted in Selma before a three judge panel which included Judge Thomas. On December 8, 1964, hearing was begun on U.S. v Clarke, et al. On December 24, 1964, the hearings x«jere completed. Briefs must be filed by both sides by mid-February, and the court is expected to rule within the next few months.

This history of Justice Department activity spotlights the legal state of affairs in Selma and Dallas County: the impotency of the courts to relieve an inevitable situation produced by cases not yet ruled on or that remain.tied up in the federal court system on appeal. Congressman Resnick's (NY) recent remarks in the Congressional Record seem well founded: "As early as 1961, soon after the passage of the 1960 Civil Rights Act, the Justice Depart­ ment filed suit against the Board of Registrars of Dallas County. Four years and five more Federal suits later effective relief is yet to be forth­ coming, and the first voting referee is yet to be appointed. The extraordinary concentration of the legal resources of the Justice Department has been to no avail." -5- Sheriff James Clark, with three federal suits pending against his brutal actions, continues to outrage the nation. And the lines of applicants continue to queue up so that Negro citizens may have their brief, futile encounter with the Dallas County Board of Registrars. The Justice Department has broken their activities down to a fine science, as displayed by this statement in­ cluded by the Department in January, 1964, during a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee: "During the fiscal year over 30,000 records were photographed in 11 Alabama counties. Some 31,000 applications in 12 Alabama counties were processed of which 23,000 were analyzed to determine whether cases should be filed. Some 10,000 were processed in cases where the Division has received favorable judgements or concluded successful negotiations. In six Alabama counties, voter registration records are photographed at regular intervals and must be processed on a continuing basis. Since the close of the fiscal year, records have been photographed in an additional 14 Alabama counties." Perhaps we need to charge the Justice Department with something more than a mindless mechanical approach to a vital problem. On January 21, 1965, Judge Thorns was_petitioned by NAACP lawyers_to „xs.sue__an_ jJi^unctf^on against b>tTJrxff-"Clark7T :ssjjte__^cts. Thomas granted this relief on January 23, saying: "Under the guise of enforcement there shall be no intimidation, harrassment, or the like, of the citizens of Dallas County legitimately attempting to register to vote, nor of those legally attempting to aid others in registering to vote, or encouraging them1.' On the scene was U.S Dejajrt^ Marshall Fountain, policing the Federal JoidgeJ_s__jmj]jjQj :or Th'e~Tustice Department. He chose to enrorce the 'ruling to its strictest letter, even denying~~regi5tratiori"^rive leaders the~rlght to" 'gpeaK to applicants in line~~or~ water. Inspection of the statement of Judge Thomas's rule given~a75bve indicates .this JUSTi'f^r^Depj.rmeiTrr man-'r s sudden zeal--fe^--en.forcejaent exceeded tTrePfrPGnds of the court orderr. ~ Thene were no cuutplelliits fn5W~ Sheriff Clark-r~at whom the -Jn4ungtion was aimed. And there have been no complaints from him since then. 6

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%#« 4 / • ; On Sunday, March 7 > '1965, between 2,000 -and' 3,000 people began to march from'-'Selma, Alabamato M0htgomery to dramatize their fight for the fight to-'vote in Alabama. The report Below tells what happened, as thie information came into the Atlanta, SNCC office over the WATS line, and the; act ions taken by SNCC people in Atlanta and Jackson, Mississippi as these events occurred. .',„'.

At approximately 3:00 p.m. Willie Emma Scott, Negro, a member of the SICC staff worMng'in-Selaia: reported that the march from Selma to ' Montgomery-'"-was about to begin. People Were in the process of organizing into-companies and squads, With company commanders and squad leaders. John Lewis, Chairman:of SNCC, Robert Hants, a member of the SNCC staff,i and Hosea Williams 6i the staff of SCLC were leading the march.

A short while later Larry Fox,' ambther-member of the SNCC staff, reported that the demonstrators were now at the bridge over the Ala­ bama .Riverj walking double'file./6'n.the other side, of the bridge, awaiting the marchers, stood a group of state troopers, a large number of local white citizens;"Sheriff Clark and his possemen, and Al Lingo, head of the State highway patrol. Leading the march were Lewis, Mants and' WjHiams. SNCC staff members Wilson Brown, Jerry Harrisbn, Frank Soracco,'.."John Luitkys and Chris Wylie, and SCLC member Eugene, Pritchett -Were:interspersedI among ttee demonstra­ tors-- one for every 50 peoplev Three other SNCC Staff members, Larry Fox, Willie Emma Scott and Annie Peaal Avery were stationed at Brown's-Chapel, the Negro church which has-served as headquarters for civil rights activities in Selma in recent weeks. At 3ih5 p.m. Fox called back and reported that SCLC members Andy Young, James . Bevel, i Ben Clark and Harry Boyd were also on hand >-

At this point SNCC staff people.- in Atlanta became more #fcj more concerned about the possibilities of what might happen to the people participating in the. march,.; especially^given the fact that Martin Luther King was.not present,, and .any restraining influence on local police authp'rit-s Jwhich King's presence might have provided, was thereby eliminated*^ The SNCC.stiff working in Selma had been basically opposed to the idea of the march, primarily because they thought the danger to the people involved was greater than the objectives and ahy'possible achievments of the march warranted. The SNCC staff working In Selma had expressed their opposition at a meeting held between 'SNCC staff--and'' SCLC staff in Selma on Friday,. March 5. At that time, the SNCC staff had agreed to provide radios, the use of the WATS line, and "the services of the Medical Committee on Human Rights for this march. At a meeting of the^NCC Executive Committee held on Friday,' March 5 and Saturday, March .6 in, Atlanta, the question of the march was the subject' of six or seven hours of intensive discussion. Many members of the Executive Committee expressed their opposition to the mal'Ch, but decided, that, in view of their concern for and committment to the local people, SNCC would provide the assistance previously agreed to by the Selma - 2 -

SNCC staff, and that, further, individual members of SNCC who chose to would support the march by-participating in it. The Executive Committee voted to send a letter to..Dr. King expressing; certain disagreements over the relationship between. SCLC and SNCC, and! requesting, a meeting with him. In light of these decisions, and in view of the.fact that the situation in Selma appeared to be heading toward a crisis, four SNX staff members - Ivarhoe Donaldson, Courtland Cox, Roy Shields, and ...Ralph Featherstone — made arrangements for a chartered flight out of Atlanta which would get them to Selma as quickly as possible.

At UtOO p.m. Lafayette Surney,- SNCC staff member reported from a phone booth on a corner-near where the march was taking place, that, between 2,000 and 3,000 .people were marching. Mr. Albert Burner, a Negro,-:-head of the Perry County Voters' League, had joined Lewis, Mantsyj and Willi are in. leading the march. The decision had. been reached flhat if the police stopped the people, they would remain at the bridge until tear gas was used to force them to leave.

Lafayette reported that John Lewis and Andy Y0ung had borh made brief statements, to the press at that point. Lewis's statement ex­ plained why the demonstrators were marching. Young stated that Dr. King would not be present because he had decided, after hearing that Gov,, Wallace of Alabama had empowered the state troopers to use every necessary measure to stop the' march, that he should work on getting as much Northern support for the Selma demonstrators as possible. O^e SCLC minister vowed that SCLC would bring ministers from all over thu- country into Selma to support the Selma demonstrators. Meanwhile a considerable number of'SNCC staff members, including Program Director-Cleveland Seller's, were in Jackson, "Mississsippi attending a meeting of \CCF0V Seeing that the COFO meeting was operating Well,- and-feeling that it was not imperative that SNCC staff people stay at that meeting, some members of the SNCC staff made plans to gd to-Selma; four carloads of staff began to head over to Selma.' --••':;•' -v"' At U:06''p.m. 'Lafayette Surney again called the Atlanta S'KCC office and reported that two carloads of possemen had just gone to, the bridge where the people were gathered. Police officials were ordering all local white citizens to go indoors. A SNCC staff member, Annie Pearl Avery had been arrested; no one knew at that point what the charges were. (It was later reported that Annie Pearl,had been walking down the street and hadI..been stopped ,by-, a policeman who told-her she couldn't walk. She replied that the street was a public street and she had a right* to walk there if she wanted to. She was the n arrested.) Two local white'people had also been arrested. Three doctors and six or seven nurses from the Medical Committee on Human Rights', as well as three ambulances were reported do be on hand in anticipation of possible violence. '.,'' , ... - . •>• .•

A few moments later all Hell broke loose :in Selma. Lafayette Surney's reports to Atlanta at-the time capture that scene: - 3 -

Us 15 p.m. State troopers are throwing tear gas at the people. A few are running back. A few are being blinded by tear gas. Somebody :has been hurt ~ I don't know who.... They're beating them ^and throwing tear gas at them. U:l6 p.a. Police are beating people'on the streets. Oh, man, they're just picking them up and putting them in ambulances. People are getting hurt pretty bad. There were two people on the ground in pretty bad shape.... I'm going to leave in a few minutes,,.. People are running back this way. U:17 p.m.Ambulances are going by with their sirens going. People are running, crying, telling what's happening. Iul8 p.m.Police are pushing, people into alleys, I don't know why. People are screaming, hollering. They're'bringing on more ambulances. People are running, hollering, cry ing.... U:20 p.m.Here come the white hoodlums. I'm on the corner of one of • the main streets. One lady screamed "They're trying to kill me," -. k:-26 p.m.They're going back to the church. I'm going too,.,.

- In the face of all of the mobilized force of the state — . troopers, possemen, the Sheriff, and mobs- of local white people — •r:.the Tfegro demonstraotrs decided to return to Brown's Chapel and - decide what they would do from that point on.

From inside the church John Lewis gives his account of what had taken place: . "People marched — 1500 to 2000 of them; they marched down Highway 80, .across the bridge. At the other side of the bridge were 200 state troopers, 200 possemen, and about 1,000 white people. Mie Major of the State Troopers announced-that they should turn'around; the people refused. They knelt to the ground in a prayerful manner. Then the' state troopers fired tear gas at them and began to beat them. I was hit in the head. '].. "People went back to the church. There are about 2,000 - 3,000 people in the.church. The posse is coming down to thee church. People on horseback are beating the people with whips and ropes. They are shooting tear gas. "I've never seen anything like it in my life. They are shooting gas, acid. One very old lady I know has a broken arm."

In. response to these reports from Selma, the Atlanta communica­ tions" department was beginning to'move. Julian Bond, who heads communications arid-who was spend ing Sunday afternoon at home, reported'to the office and began drafting press' releases on the Selma situation. His brother James had begun to tape the WATS re- ports-ras they aame into ' Atlanta from Selma. Julian began making contact with various radio stations, asking them if they wished to use the tapes. One network/ CBS informed Julian that their ;•"• men were on the scene in Selaa 'and already had live tapes; they requested that-Julian go over %i the Atlanta SCLC office and tape - k -

a. statement By Martin Luther King for them.

At the same time, Jim Forman, SNCC's Executive Secretary, was on the phone arranging flights for six more SNCC staff people to go to Selma,. and arranging for Hertz rent-a-car service to pick up SNCC -staff as they arrived and carry them into Selma. Meanwhile, about '.12' SNCC staff people and volunteers began taping up, mimeographing and mailing out special statements, to Freinds of SNCC groups across the country and to the press. The statement to the Friends of SMX groups urged them toj

- publicize the situation in Selma on their campuses and in their communities - plan demonstrations and other forms of protest against police , brutality arid denial of constitutional rights - demand federal action — including the arrest of Sheriff Jim Clark for violation of Civil Rights Codes — immediately - ask local papers to carry complete stories on Selma now and in the future.

..,,. 1%, Meanwhile, reports continued to cpme in from Selma. At 5L30 p.m. /tarry Fox called, to.report that Brown's Chapel was now surrounded by possemen, state troopers, and Sheriff Clark, The entire street on which the Church was located was being blocked off, so that no one could .enter or-leave the church. People were being forced back into their homes with billy clubs. .

At 6:J5 a rumor, originating from a funeral home in the area, circulates that if people don't leave the church, it will be raided by state troopers. Tear gas is being shot into a private home on .the same street as the church. At 6:20 a SNCC worker reports that John Lewis is now in the '.hospital, possibly with a fractured skull. "At 6:21 p.m.. the people at Brown's Chapel report that they have been to the airport to check on the arrival of the SNCC staff . people, but had found no one there. (The SNCC staff people arrived later.) The people from the Chapel report that it was difficult getting out of the church and back in again. At 6:30 it is reported that state troopers and possemen have left the scene.

In the Atlanta office people working on.getting out mailings by that evening, run into an unanticipated, problem. Only $80 worth of stamps remain in the postage machine, hardly enough to meet the emergency needs. The post office.is called; they have on hand 15 air mail special, stamps, and.300 eight cent stamps, whihh are quickly purchased, so that the mailings can be completed.

At approximately 6th0 p.m.- Forman's secretary placed a call to the Atlanta SCLC office and asked; to speak with Dr. King. The person answereing explains that Dr. King is busy* preparing a statement and cannot be disturbed. Forman's secretary leaves word that Dr. Kind. -5- should call him when he is free. At 7:20 p.m.. John Lewis, SNCC Chairman, is reported to be in the emergency room of the hospital, with the possibility of a concussion. At 8:30 p.m. the people at the church are beginning a mass meeting. Following the mass meeting people dispersed to their homes for the night. It .was announced that the march would be continued on Tuesday, and that' Dr. King would be present. In the meantime, the Atlanta SNCC office began .•cheeking, with the Jackson and Meridian, Miss.'COFO offices as to the where­ abouts of the four carloads of SNCC people who had headed oyer from Jackson to Selma. It was learned that two of. the cars had been turned around 10 miles west of Meridian, by state highway patrolmen. Upon further checking it was learned that the drivers had been charged with improper passing and reckless driving and fined a total of $150. The money was put up and the drivers released. Since three of the four cars which had left Jackson were wquipped with car radios, Forman advised that they continue on to Selma; the fourth car, which had no radio, remained in Meridian for reasons of safety. Finally, SNCC'a Executive Secretary, Jim Forman took action in response to the appearance of Sheriff Jim Clark of Selma on ABC's "Issues and' Answers" program today, March .7. In this program Sheriff Clark stated that there had been no problem insofar as Negroes were concerned in Selma until outside agitators came in to stir up trouble. He said that prior to the coming of the civil rights movement to Selma Negroes had simply gone down to the courthouse in an attempt to register, and had either passed or failed, with no commotion being created over the matter. Clark accused Dr. King of engaging in a perso­ nal vendetta against him. With regard to Clark's use of possemen and cattle prods to control demonstrators, Clark explained that the posse had not been created for the purpose of dealing with civil rights incidents, but that it has, since the time of its creation, received very extensive training in riot control. Cattle orods, he stated were the most humane form of controlling demonstrations, because they did no harm to the people. Clark remarked also that he felt the press had dealt with him very unfairly, and had misrepresented his actions. In response to this program, Forman wrote the following telegram to the American Broadcasting Company: "On your Issues and Answers program today, Sheriff James Clark of Dallas County, Alabama grossly misrepresented conditions in Dallas County with respect to the constitutional rights of Negroes, the motivation, character and purpose of civil rights workers stationed there, and the desires and aspirations of the Negro people of Selma and Dallas County, Alabama. stati*ned there, ancl the desires and aspirations of the Negro people of Selma and Dallas County, Alabama, This is not only our claim, but the claim of the U.S. Department of Justice in its suit seeking a Federal injunction restrining Clark from continuing precisely those practices he denies exist in '• Dallas County. We feel the most elementary fairness, as out­ lined in the FCC's "Edi totalization by Broadcast Licenses" (13 FCC Reports 12U6, 125*, June 1, Xfh9), requires that ynu -prrvide us with equal time on y»ur next Issues and Answers program so that we may correct the misstatements and distor­ tions which Clark disseminated tody$r through the nationwide facilities of yoln TV network. We shall expect- to hear from you without delay. James Forman Executive Secretary .Student N0nvinlent Oordinadting Committee

Last notes: Word was recieved at the Atlanta office that the SNCC staff members going from Mississippi t« Selma had arrived safely in Selma. Signing off at 3:00 a.m., all is quiet,

Atlanta SNCC Office STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE Special Report #l\. 6 RAYMOND STREET NW March 1965 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30311+ phone 688-0331 SELMA AND DALLAS COUNTY, ALABAMA: A STATISTICAL ROUNDUP Selma, Alabama is a town located fifty miles west of the state capitol, Montgomery. It has a population of 28,385, of which 1|9.2$ — or 13*969 persons — are Negro. Its Chamber of Com­ merce likes to inflate figures a little, and so makes the claim that 3l.|.,000 people live "within its police jurisdiction." They chose the wording. The population of the town has grown 21+$ since 1950. Part of the reason for this growth lies in the rela­ tive prosperity that exists in Selma; half of the people make over $3*555 per year and half make less than this. It takes no imagination to guess at the racial composition of these two groups. Selma also boasts of sound housing for people living In about 56$ of its homes, and unemployment is only 1.2%, And there is an upper crust in Selma, 559 families (out of a total of 6,650 families) who have incomes over $10,000 a year.

The town is attracting industry and has good growth potential. In I960 it was able to spend 20$ of its city expenditures on its police department. Growth is so spectacular -- especially with the new multi-million dollar Hammermill Paper Co. plant going in — that nearly everyone has forgotten about the eleven record­ ed lynchings of Negroes that have taken place there since 1882.

Dallas County forms the pastoral setting for Selma. 50$ of the county's 56,667 inhabitants live in rural regions, the rest re­ side mainly in Selma. No other town has more than 1,000 souls. It has the ninth largest county population in the state, and its Negro population of 32,687 (57.7$) is among the highest in the state. People do not fare so well in the county as they do in Selma, and 5>l+l8 (or l5«l+$) left for other counties or for cities in the period 1950-60. There are good economic reasons for this migration. Annual family income for 38$ of the black people in the county was less than $1,000, and 8k$ of the black people made under $35 000 per year. Only 3$ of the whites made less than $1,000, a nd 19$ made under $3,000. 53.6$ of employed Negroes find w ork as laborers, as domeBtics in private households, or in other service capacities. About 10$ of employed whites are in a similar situation with regard to these low paying jobs.

On the other hand, an elite of 6$ of the county's 12,1+57 families thrive on an income in excess of $10,000 yearly. These are the folks who do not migrate from Dallas County; they stay and bear witness to all that happens there -- and incidentally grow wealthier. - 2 - There are other reasons why people, especially black people, move out of the county. Take education, for instance: 55% of the Negro population over twenty-five years old has only com­ pleted six years of elementary school; 7$ of whites have been so affected. The number of Negroes with this extremely low level of education is ten times the number of Negroes who finish high school. Nearly k,500 whites have completed high school, while only 700 Negroes have been so lucky. The schools are, of course, segregated — separate but equal education in Dallas County. ! \ Or take housing, where 79$ of the Negroes rent the places in which they live. Only 1+6$ of the housing in the county is classed as sound, and 25$ is dilapidated. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, this means the kind of housing that "does not provide safe and adequate shelter and in its present condi­ tion endangers the health, safety, or well-being of the occupants."

When we remember-that 6$ of the county's families, 71+7 families, holds/the wealth of the county; and'when we keep in mind the great distance which separates these wealthy from the mass of the poor who are mainly black, we begin to see the meaning of why black people want the right to vote. And the small voice that Negroes would like to raise in this wilderness is suppressed, Negroes are 51.2$ of the county's voting population. In 1§62 only about 1.7$ of this group of 15,115 people were voters. On the other hand, 63$ of the Ik,1+00 whites of voting age were on the books of the voting registrars.

We need to consider one more statistic, the number of "happy and satisfied" Negroes in Dallas County. According to the testi­ mony of Sheriff Jim Clark, this group is so numerous you can't throw a stone in any direction — or swing a billy club — with­ out hitting at least one. WHO RUNS SOUTHWEST GEORGIA?

One of the most important thins in a man's life is his job, the nature of which determines his standard of living, the sort ±kK ofj£ education he aspired to when he was young, and ulti­ mately how much he has to say about the issues which ©oncern him. The man he works for not only hires and fires him, but al«* so, as we shall see, decides who will pay the tax bill and what it will be spent for, whether he will be allowed to vote, where he can eat a hamburger, and just what he can expect from a police- Businessmen themselves occupy many of the most critical positions in state and local government, from president to mayor, and repre­ sentatives of business interests occupy a large part of the remainder of the political seats in this country. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was president of Ford Motor Co., with a salary in six figures, before he came to the Pentagon, Secretary of Commerce John Connor came to Washington from the president's seat at Merck & Co., a chemical manufacturer. The family of Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon, who recently resigned, holds controlling interests in investment companies which channel funds to South Africa. President Johnson himself owns radio and TV stations, land near Selma, Alabama, and bank stock in Austin, Texas. Look at southwest Georgia. The mayor of Americus, a town of 15,000 known for mass arrests and brutality in August, 1963, owns a nail" factory in the town. When representatives of the local movement there went to talk with the mayor, however, he sat in a corner behind a more powerful businessman, Charles Wheatley, who did the talking for him. Wheatley is a true monopolist. He owns the land and buildings to the city hospital, bus station^the town's largest factory, four of the town's five supermarkets, one of three banks and 25 or 30 dilapidated housed which he rents to Negroes. He also owns one of the town's two construction companies. His role in politics? He is the City Engineer, who decides what company will get city construction contracts] The local state prosecute*), who tried to "solve the race problem" in the town by charging four SNCC workers with the capital crime of insurrection, is an aristocrat of sorts, whose wife's family owns a dairy concern in the area and whose father is a former Congressman. The foreman of the grand jury convened at that time to draw up additional indictments against civil rights workers—the foreman is an insurance man well-known for his rabid statements on civil rights. The judge in the court where the indictments were prosecuted is parrt owner of a local bank, of which his brother-in-law is president. Perhaps a third of the county offices are occupied by members of one family, which owns several thousand acres of land worked by Negroes who, to put it mildly, have trouble registering to vote. Members of thi3 family hold the offices of voting registrar, sheriff, postmaster, agricultural agent, county commissioner, state public service (utilities) commissioner, and three state patrolmen,aall stationed in Americus. Two of the county1? three members in the state legislature are businessmen. The Congressman from that area, Third District Congressman Howard "Bo" Callaway, is a textile manufacturer. His family owns Callaway Mills, which emnloys over 3000 in LaGrange, a town of 23,000. Callaway also sits, with two members of the Morehouse College Board of '••• #; Trustees, on the controlling board of directors of the Trust Co. of Georgia, third largest bank operation in the state, and of Georgia Power Co., the state's utilities monopoly. Callaway's political attitudes? He is a director of the Freedoms Foundation, a well-known right-wing group, and his campaign for Congress was a virulent attack on the citil rights movement, complete with promises to get the Civil Rights Bill of 196U repealed. His town LaGrange recently got War on Poverty money to train "home-making aides" (maids), who could, according to a supported of the project, earn as much as $20 a week when they finished their training. Now, who are the men who control the jobs of people living in southwest Georgia? About one-fourth to one-third of the jobs (U600-6600 out of 20,000) in manufacturing are controlled by companies owned out of the state. Many of the remaining companies are partially controlled by absentee owners. One of these absentee parent companies ':> v:. is the Minerals and Chemicals Philipp Corporation, the Chairman of which is C.W. Engelhard, who has sizeable holdings in South Africa. Engelhard seems to like the sort of operation you can conduct in a racist >- area. Many big companies are controlled by families. Lykes Brothers, a meat packing concern, for example, has 12 people on its board of directors, eight of whom are members of the Lykes family. This firm, based in Tampa, is almost identical with the Lykes Brothers Steamship Co. and it has large holdings in two Tampa banks and one New Orleans bank. Members of the board of directors also have holdings in rail­ roads, utilities companies and marketing firms. With this type of setup, the Lykes group can pack meat in Albany, ship it to Tampa, provide electricity for their offices and warehouses, ship it over­ seas, and finance the whole process—all conceivably without letting it get outside the family. Some firms in southwest Georgia, of course, are home-grown and hoae-owned. Some are family-controlled. In Moultrie, for instance, a town of 15,000, the Vereen family controls two companies which together employ 550-600 workers—the Riverside Manufacturing Co. and Moultrie Cotton Mills. In Pelham, population U600, the Hand family controls two companies employing 200 people—the Pelham Phosphate Co. apd Pelham Oil and Fertilizer. They also have holdings in several other smaller companies. We could go on endlessly with examples of business control in politics and with, family control of business, but the examples here should at least support the idea that if you want to change thins, you have to look at who owns what, for businessmen are the ones who really swing the blllyclubs.

SNCC Research , April 17, 1965 sila„s: *n Montogomery at ^igb^mq state, police Came to arrest willie vecbs, but they couldn t get him, so they began shooting into^the ground, ^hey finally put~him in jo 11 with about 12 others. ow 500 students going into the same building looking for the president. ^ourtland • "ow do you organize aroun^ soeciflc things—e«g-» free elections7 Bill q,ll: To break the ground In * county, vou make initial contact with influential person such as a store owner, someoneowho people havt to go to, Lots of people gather *t n store to talk. °tore owner takes a paper, ^qlk to them about a current issue, and t*ey '"'il Ml refer you to someone In the community who has power. ust say lss (, * sent us over to you to t«*lk about tbe movement coming to the county. From the first f^u^ or -five contacts move out into t>e same community, families b«*n«cn out from community to community an* the wor* spreads from one town to the next through these families, talking «it church, gras stations, etc. ^sk ^.t the store who are tbe deacons and mention passages in tbe bible. he people will respond an* often mention that such and such a deacon said .same tMngs about freedom in terms of the bible, ^ou contact tvese deacons and a"1 ways use strong method Xpn said ; -*- beard from x—-. Go around to the plantations at nltt A he people will always ask if you need something to eat. ^eoole t will talk at nite, expecially at dinner when they ^on t think they re being watched, ^lve out buttons and leaflets when schbol gets out to the ^tu^ents who,will take them home, 1^ then wh«n you contact the families you won t be a stranger since you ve contacted the students already. ^Vie ^asons should be contacted because o^ their work and respect in the community, ^eople in town write to relatives in ^elma about what is going on and vice-versa, ^nd the wo^ spreads.

Bill* Bqr-^or 0r store keeper, any businessman, is middle-class and living off other* "egroes, and will not want to participate. Gerald: when you go into a community first f\nr> place to stay. 5pen whole day talking to hosts* ind ou*t from them who would be interested in the movement. hos<=> wbo are hesitant can. be approached best th^-u mass meetings, ^cotty* ^Ind out from store-owner who feels strongly on issue, ^ust stopping and talking with people randonlv T,Ton t eret vou anywhere. •^arris* ow do 3?-ou ^etemine just from talking to people T*'Mcb are good people' f ^erqld* Lj_sten rora stong talk, ^ben vou get to meeting start dis­ cus isl.ng Issues and leaders will come forward* ^ave ^mifeh: Contact people at bars, pool halls, etc*

Scotty* M0onshlner Will let you know where people congregate, but don t bother him aurln*; his business hours, "e Wight incite vou alon^ with him on his rounds so you can meet the nitty-gritty, *ou I... find the bootlegecers in tbe church because they go to make contacts for their business, *ou also wn-t the mother s with the mustangs the Foxes,,.„ he mother is always scheming about bow to protect the mustang. ry to sret invited to dinners after conferences and meeting ^inkle2 I m against living in ^reedom House. *ou should live in t^e community. he freedom "ouse cuts vou off. ^cotty. -^ou tell nerson where vou live and that your bouse is open to them as theirs is to you, but if you live in por-son s bouse, you put tbem in •,'=n?e^, ^Iso you limit voursfeif, by living with a mem^o*- of the community, to their circle. be ^reodnm" House 'iwiv-ss tbe xW; community. stokleyJ *ou need office space and tst would be an inconvenience to person you are staying with. sbould stay with people also, but move around. freedom ^«use gives vou a central location. -1- d like to hear discussion in detail -»bout finding the strong people in a com^uM ^ery often you must organize tbe people against tbe existing leaders., ^ona said that wh* t s "morip; with tbe* nation is that t^ere is no cheek on people once they y^e in office. how en you cbeck them within the movement Isself 2 ^pril 23, $5 Mqnts' ''art of the problem involves how to avoid in groups. i ^inkle* Strong people don t need strong leaders—weak people ^o. The people have to pressure or move out bad leaders. •*- point out how vx&k peonle are bin*? abused and usedj -,nd then they look at the situation differently and act Harris* *t looks to me like we have three di-pferert levels of relat­ ions amounsr the people;

* X( X * * - .O « 0 ra \ «_ I. \ \ i

^11 peonle have talked to h^m and be is their reference point. Dlffent groups will form like hiph schools students, college, genera] etc. and you get something libe this*

2. ~ X - A. x, X \ \ ^ x — ° ' cj A Y1' *•€ * *Thesf yoe u differenwant: t TOUOS are not related. VQ look to o^p-anizer. X y 3. 1 *

^ore hookup between peopl he organizer needn t be the focal point of meetings. ow can s brins- this about Silq.swhat do we think qre the strengths of the peopi e,ie., what makes a. strong person? w K^ve Si we make people st^onpr, hey know what s the score. e Just feive them the possibility of organisation, ^toncr person is a person who knows wbere he is going. stokley: ^eople get strenth from each otber. They s-ain strenth from seeing their neighbors take a step forward. Scotty: y dressing like crackers—goon hats and zoot suit—ma kins: Joke of the crackers* n Mants esrro farmer^ see x.kx*'«*5X?v*x himself talking to hlmslef* silas: ^ut what do we thin^ tbe inner strengths of o^onle are that we work with"

^ourtland* ^eoole know hbw thinsrs are, but they dGn t know what to do qbo-ut it. -*-t is imoortant tb«t peonle understand that they can do. hev should

•-vnthia* Tnose who do major work find us, we dor t find them. ^ilas* ^ow do oeoole livinfl* in these circumstances ever s-ain the strength to do' ^ourtlond* They must first overcome their fear.

^ona' TQ h^ln them overcome their fear vou must oreat an atmosobere more fqmlliqr to them th«*n a meeting. win1rle: he ten^qnccv in our society is to "Tork through leaders ratbei thqn through oeoole . akes time to condition oeoole. ^onq' There is 5 ^ynthiq: o do we show thqt everyone has a rihout leaders1

sult qnd tie leaders denim clad y«Mj*l<£SreCS t civil riq-hts workers corn drinkers, etc.'t- ^jdouble^ suited-chest orotester tyoes we must change the structure from vertlole to horizontal. ^ourtland: we re becoming; professional ^ree ^lp-hters. we should tqlk of work and energy rather than production.

Dq.ve S« oge whct you have and wV>»»t vou are, ^*on t try to break your language down if you re a college s-raduate. Scotty: -^lant ideas in oeoole s minds T-hen vou tqlk with them, these ideas will be brought forth by t^em at meetins-s. Gynthiq.: rte have one set of information, the folks another, "ow can we creat an atmosobere where a s-ive and taVe between us will be possible?

D : T onq ^oeing corn " lth them qn.d dres-ing in denims d0esn t really solve the oroblem, since Just beine a civil rights worker grives you q. soeciql stqtus qmoung: the oeoole. Wants: he people must choose leaders from their own rqnks. Bill: vVhen you g*ot to meeting's an-* don t •f'eel thev re ^oing" right, whqt do you do? Pqrris' All t^eee problems should be thought qbout in terms of q two y-^ar time table. * different time table gives vou q different content* ^B viH be re-elected in 68, so we should aim ^c the national elections of 72. LBJ will kill the ^eoublican ^arty, so the arena will be the democrqtic Party, and in the fight for control between °ob Kennedy ^,nd "umpbrey, the Rowth will plqy a critical role between now and 17- we should orp-arize ooor>le across t^e country in q network independent o^ the ^emoc^ts, ^ennedy and Humphrey will be force to go to this network. *s ^DP inside or outside the democratic party—inside or outside of the system. ^e must offer them a network to tie in T"ith so they can remain outside. The timetable will also g-et us out of the rqce with King', SCOPE> etc. ^onq: *t seem like the threat of SCLC taking over organizing: done by us still remains despite different timetables. ^arrls* ^e need a people conference. f ^P is to survle, they must either hook up with the rest o^ the south, qnd the s-uth in turn with the rest of the country or be qbsorbed into the emocr^tic Party. he only oeoole willing and able to help them qire SNCC „ndSDS# ^onq: •''he democrats are eroitwTto try to qbsorb the neg-roes in their pqrtv this summer. f thev suceed, will ^jour suggestion be hopeless? Stokely* ^be problem is one of two groups, differently oriented, work* ing in virgin territory. Scotty: we must try to take of advqnt-g-e of the others after they null out. ^e must Just keen banking' on. Coilrf end* *n raising Issue o^ new elections, we must teach people about nollctical oaticipation in this new netwar.vc# Ihe nroblem with Bob s time table is t^et It concentretes on ^BJ instead o** on the - h - April 23, 1965 Stokley: HAACP has national organisation, but no one organised. Jith lunch- counter sit-in's have series of victories. In long-range political struggle, no victories, Silas: Take Bevel's plan to inarch on the Alabama legislature, and criticize it. instead Cortland: March on the courthouse ±HS±KC1K of the legislature. Group: Unclear about when next elections held in Alabama. Scott: Demonstrate at legislature for proper representation.

Buddy: Could we EEHJSE cope with free ESE± elections if we got them in 6 to 0 month? Harder to fight black power structure. Parris: ife're working in last half of twentifch century on one of the problems of this century, how people can participate in decisions and meaningful release their energy. Before our century, these concepts impossible. At Atlantic City release of new kind of people in motion. It is important to them keep moving forward, l"ou become Qualified as you do. ,/e are in motion* hoar can we get the other pcopl in notion? in the student movement what was important was that students got int o notion and stayed in motion, that they carved out a space lor thoi selves and u ere not run by the power structure. To get people in notion, first call them together and t";n regardless of -what they .aire to begin working on, they begin to novo, Host political movomeints&jpen d on a few. people who work very hard-, we want maximum participation seperate campaigns. n ox the people, ^ing ooosn't put people in notion. He boj vS^^^S^/^Z b°S ?* S°me "•" studonts tod^« *« I •* mtb if^sclZI ^^^^ ?*??!*» Said that « V***** ™™ <*£ the board Resident L\^i '?' f/^ d° a bcttcr ^ob« As it stands, the of si^ci^r; ass^r* ***** m ^ion to ******* 1 d 0S tion f aoi2lee tSo nart^iStparticipatef i^?-?^m politicail process ° *"*. ***The* vot ^^tionse alone? isPcgroe meaninglesss haven'. t Ibeef n only a few iiegroes EXJSEtetete in office, they will be isolated individuals who can be bought off and forced to moderate their demands. Congressional challenge calls for the Mississippi Congressmen to be thrown out and for Congress to call for new elections. Bevil: Can win Congressional challegne only if you have international sentiment opposing racist governments, Stadegically important to have 1000's in street and in Jail, How many people can you mobilize to make the issue clear? Parris? Challenge challenges the Establishment, Challegcge could have been tied in with the March, but the March need iaa the cooperation of the Establishment, Result: March implied total problem was Negroes registering and voting. March could only succeed in a vacuum. Dona: King is tool for mass civil disobedience. Bevel calling for mass confron­ tation. But King won-t let it be a real confrontation. Cortland: The leaders call for demonstrations and that's what you have. Dona: Even -with Bevel*s reasoning, you don't end up with a confrontation. Estab­ lishment K tightly controls ±H£mm information that goes to other nations. Bevel: Have to sell idea to enough people and organ!Rations. Stokley: When you been organizing a county, yotoc arc admitted into homes cause you're a civil righto worker. Parris: Have to get out of bind that Metes ire make the plans and the people wait for our decisions, that we make time-tables and then sell them to the people. Create context in which people can discuss meaning of free elections. SNCC still only calls staff together, rast but doesn't call people together. m®sx Bevil: Staff's Job is to coordinate ira&ividual movements. Momentum, pres­ sure, power created when all civil rights groups move together. Bill: How can we Kbriau deal with our own frustrations so wo can last for a long- range fight? Parris: Can't expect people to last in isolation. SNCC and F.D.P. creates its own world which has different kinds of pressures than in the country as in general, - 5 - April 23, 196$ and pfmrinhne where workers can get renewed oncrgyl This country tries to push SHCC into position - into a space - which curbs its energies. SliCC tries to create atmosphere that is. is best for the workers. Is it best for the people? SNCC is organised around work. P.D.P, provides ordered program; If staff here set date for people's conference and brough 3 or 1; people to it, tfosna those people xrould dcvelopc at least one programs which the organisers could work on.

Bevel: Breaking large task into scries of smaller tasks fights frustration.

Sxxk Stokley: But you already have your goal. - you don't have to build and pick your objectives.

Bill: Become frustrated because ±KJSXX there is no structured program, in Alabama. All we can do now is go into the counties,

Silas: Some people need structure, and can't work without HK it. Others just don't work. I find myself in the position of having to create a structured pro­ gram in order to evaluate staff.

Bill: A program cuts down on this frustration.

Parrisj I've suggested a simple program. It will cut doxm our frustrations. Remember the people don't have our frustrations.

Bevel: Larger context is our general goals. Everyone worlss within this context. Job of Program Director and/or staff to create structure in which both people and staff can create relationship to these goals.

Bill: Set up structure to deal with things we don't understand* Annie Pearl went to Washington. Some people think -she should do whatever rfc she wants* others arc concerned about her,

Cynthia: Annie Pearl feels isolated from the group,

Silas: Let's take some stand on Bob Parris' proposal,

Stokley: SNCC has never been an sgx organisation. Don't talk± about firing and not firing staff, My frustrations cone from staff meetings*

General concensus to hold a People's Conference,

Stu: Hold it Sunday afternoon. Most people work 6 days a week,

Parris1 People could miss Church one Sunday, and come for an all-day People's Conference, What about holding it on the second Sunday in May? MINUTES OF ALABAMA STATE STAFF MEETING APRIL 21-23.1965

The minutes of the Alabamai staff meeting were mimeographed because people in attendance at the meeting felt that it was very good and valuable for them. The minutes are full of statements out of context, misquotes and the like, as are all of the minutes I have seen mimeographed(by SNCC)$ it is Impossible for the best of secretaries to keep up with our meetings. No attempt was made to censor or edit the minutes; read them and you will see,.,.. Taken as a whole, the minutes should give you some Insight into the state of the Alabama; Project,

5/12/65

^ Silas ALABAMA STAFF rWORKSHOP April 21-33y '65 Arm, at.-» 4;nn

: Silas N0rma,n A lot of people were, supposed to show up for this o conference. A_ guy from F.CP. in Washington /*• missed getting his ng.me),'Judy W.1 from the staff education department, of-the Atlanta office, g,nd others from Atlanta were coming flown, People from the research and-photo department of the' Atlanta office are A here now. At this meeting, it is most crucial to discuss programs. Yesterday in Atlanta-, when-we met with S.CU.C^ we. discussed SCOPE. SCOPE .... plans to.be in all the black belt »:counties. we _SNCC_ qiso plan , : to be in these counties. . SCOPE s nlan,- college students on each cam­ pus organize their own group and- plan their own program; then they pick a county from the one s.S.C.L.C nqS decided upon; they come down on their own and go straight to their county." There is no cen­ w tralized program. ill.be same shit a.s in Selma with, a, thousand individuals each with their own private prosrffa.ni. £eaflfet8?*. g or Pamphlets for eveffyone by'SNCC.

s : w cott B. Smit^i ha.t Is our relationship to S.C.L.C? Silas: Report from the last executive meeting. On the 2nd day it was decided that too many in SNCC floating around and nobody knew where they were. suby had list of all staff - evaluated staff person by person. Ruby is going to write to all floaters on what they are doing, and suspend their checks till return equipment of SNCC's that they have. Also a.6 the executive meeting, discussed posi-' tions on HUAC „nd j_ts investigations of the ^lan, red baiting, Viet Nam, SCOPE. It was decided that~Hl,AC shouldn t investigate. - any one, even the ^i^n; that red baiting - we have a oro

: B Stokley evel is right. N0t

p p H Annie . ? eople in' ale O0unty have their own organization. - 2 -

We have been helping them. 19lklhg to people about going down to register. Transporting people around. >cott How many people anfl projects do we have7 L Sila s ls"ts counties. Scott Complains' about people on staff who difln t work. : 1 Silas Trivial things TruCk was fcXHR tnrnefl over and car wrecked. The car was wrecked by a Tuskeegee, student, and the truck by the regular driver. Going to make a list of people who are auth­ w F orized to flrivex the oars owned by the S0j0rner ^otor leet. °nly authorized persons can drive the SNCC cars. No car can iasxa leave the state without permission. T00 many people floating around. Money: Spent' f 1^,000 in last six weeks. Atlanta, can t afford to xsi send us money, ^e a.re operating the project on contributions given c to the project. T0o much money spent on gprte. ars going to peaces they shouldn t go. People on subsistence are going to be aflopted. N by people in the orth. If people tell SiiqS they~a.ren t getting money from the North, a.nfl they are, they will be obliged: to pay SNCC subsistehbe" money back. Programs anfl what each staff member floes shoulfl be discussed. Stokley: Belefonte callefl meeting between SNC ^nfl S.CLco. W,a s a goofl meeting. SNCC saifl how^they difln t like Abernathy say­ ing here comes our leader, etc. SCOPE „ Be7ex opposes project; pro. ri H ject is osea s baby.f ave to sit down rl work out' what students, will do in county you re working in, s J.oO'a solSaid thfitheyv rpe willinwlll-'gw to back free elections, like the F.D.Pc Lections. Discussed S.C L.C s and SNCC s different philosoph es of working,from the top. flownversu s from the bottom up. Don" ; Vast start attaching-S.C.L.C, Do a project and sxaxxx- if- you do it WeIi, they 11 have to come' to you. In terms of,overall goals, S.C.L, ?• was very .radical. King saifl economic problems were the real is sues of the country, but flifln"' know how to get to them. silas:- S.C.L.C not momollthio, just as SNCC_i ot mono*,- B i8 S n llthic. evel, for example, is dea•a< d set against SCOPE qnd the v6i insr bill. Doug Harrls: . .What makes us believe that' if a few. people in S.C.L.C believe in certain kinds of programs, that is the kind of program that'will k come out'? Stokley: King sees civil rights ir-n t re**l issue, but money i D,'oug. ' No consensus la f wo work from bottom up, : Stokley I m not* ;;.t-,yirg we all workTTfor socialism, °nly con- sensus is that we work from the bottom, How we move bevonfl the voting bill. Annie p, S.C.L.C says things in meetings." that,.aren t sal.fl in public. • ' Stokley: I think the cats are honest. Bevel anfl.^elefonte want the boycott, ^irig floesn t. But he agreed to put free elections on the flemanfls of the boycott. • Sii : W have askefl 2000 stuflents to come to Washington, D»C« J gS e in uly to lobby for free elections anfl the F.D.P. challenge. Some counties in Miss. have tasked, 'fxasis for summer volunteers. -™e .will screen them for these counties,. Then, after lobbing in Washington, the students go back to their own communities and continue lobbying M for the F.D.PI challenge. Worksh6ps held surlng the a,rch on Wash­ ington program to orientate stuflents to Jctes this SNCC.program.

1 Cynthia Washington Campus travelers - southern ^egro college stuflents are willing to work in the summer. Shouldn t you use them f irst? ' :'; / * : 7 - Siigs Cqn y0U orientate Northern college., students-sty anyway Spenfl all your energy orientating them. St6k'ley:' Get everyone here to know what he should be working - 3 - on. If we are workingflhere, the n SCOPE has to come to us. Let's talk about SNCC first. Fairly sure we can keep them out of Alabama. If you have a program, then you ca.n fit them into your program. We're not responsible for the stuflents, S.C.L.C iS,

: a H Scott ev. arris turned a way from L0wndes county by the people Will only come back on invitation. I would, like to see Negro college stuflents come flown. why can t we get more stuflents like that* Silas: There's going to be a SCOPE orojefit - that is the real­ ity of the situation," Tod^y w& we were supposed to discuss politics aan d F.D.P. because Thevoll P' was supposed to be here. Thurs. we were going tofliscuss SCOPE ^ onfl Fri, programs anfl what each person is floing. D0es Aiq. neefl or want F.Do?,?" Buo-fly Tiger from Atlanta, research going to give us some information. Annie P.: Gettlng F*D.P« started in Via. will put more pressure on regular Senators anfl Congressmen, $lzx They will want to get more H Negroes into the regular Democratice P*rty. People in ale County are being incouragefl to go to the courthouse anfl try to register and then being flunked. Cynthia- Problem in Alabama* it is not that people can t regis.. B ter and vote. They can do this0 ut people can ^participate in" making flecisions. Main problem is that people don t have jobs. Would have to start from different basis to make it appeal to the people. evolved to Bob M^nts* People in Miss, tnxs&xsnbcis the F.D.P, N0 people here have gotten shot at or lost Jobs cause tried to register. Doesn't create same climate a,s was i'-u **les. Annie P.: Three letters co'/it '..• ya^f people who tflefl to regis­ ter to get out of town, Mxg:;,,: be ] >...',•-, taxx a sfiare thing, or might be serious.

ScottL Once we hit open tterge "-., -'-'owndes County, we are going to have same type of clash as i-i- '''-•. ^o reaction around Lowndes- boro. Powder keg is around i-i-.ayiA"''i''* •-'& Fort Deposit. get Silas: In Aig. people aro r.-.l ig to register to vote anfl kKfc into the Democratic party " ' / ' :' xglnatefl in Miss, can't be : transplanted to Aiae <-,,-, Kr. •'• -- -'- J evolve out of circumstances cf Ala. Annie P»: People .v*:* p-olr-g 6 ova t-: register anfl still are f flunked. Test too ':•.. ,r J. LVI '/. • 10 <-A,/ _J \. ".1 voting bill .- shcuLifl bring out issue of /•'•„•• ..:-:,a - .,*:•- •/•.•••-..;<;/ t ^otSfl tine to put ore'-avrj on Congressmen and ^.v;-,:. ', - a ':\ 'a :'h.V:%t-ou, ••' cap if some llabaffiana were there.

s : ilas Position «. tMe v^'uii^j bir«l is not imnortant. ^hru sDc U '. otherflramatlc mean u ask for other representatives anfl free eieotionc. R w eality - bill is being watered down every flay, 0n t Include free elections.

: Annie P. Wy^t do we flo after we get the vote.. If Negores are afraid enough of the white man, they will vote as the H white man tells them to. Mants: People thereflecide thei r own voting laws since is a democratice country and 5000 Negroes and 1000 whites in Lowndes County.

1 Martha ^redod Ala. is 50/» black. Free elections represent programatic challege. Otherwise we can use a more Northern approach. Tina Hqrris: unless you exnlain to people why the voting bill is ineffective,fcfcBH yo u cannot talk of free elections. °ne follows the other.

: E Annie P. Ven if they don't chop out part about fefleral regis­ trars, still have the problem of Negroes living on the white ma.n s land anfl being afraid of the white man.

: Mants F00<3 anfl clothing jazz - becomes a. welfare state. - k - sUa.s: What flo we think of getting Involved with distributing food and clothing' Dlscuss techniques of organizing. S ott5 F fl clothing that's coming from tbe U rsity of C ooa qn D L nive «lsconson Is going to allas COUnty V0ters eqtruet People stanfl around the trucks a.s they re unloading. If we don t get it as it comes in on the trucks, we aren t going to get it. Mants: I m against the whole food anfl clothing Jazz, even for staff people. we shoulfl live off the community. WE^e tryine to tell people they have nothing to flepenfl st upon but themselves.

s : tokley There is already foofl in Lowndes County. Peoole are going to run to where the food is. People who control the foofl anfl clothing are lookefl to as leaflers.

p : 'Vnnie . We only gave food to one lady who hafl been Participat­ ing in the movement - anfl to her klfls too. Martha* £# *s there a. way for local people to rtiaLi'ivuvo mw food themselves7 How to * store the foofl. : Annie P. Don't want the food-clothing to be used as a bribe to get into the movement. : Mants Foikg in LOWncles County have cows, mules, etc* Cqn feed themselves. N g equate the L d anfl the white ma,n c«use the e roes b or white man gives them food, qo p*»jr«^-»i ^air».al effect. Wqnt people to rely on themselves* c Stokley* If S.C.L.C is going to go to L0>Tndes o»i-n*y %«it,n foofl, then ^NCC shoulfl srlve itwout. If it s coming in any way, or­ ganizers shoulfl brine it in. If people can find an easy way to do the same thin*, then~wlll do it - I.e. take the foofl. *hlte minis­ ters get power by living out foofl. SNCC shoulfl bring It in} bW^ glves^lt to local movement - their executive movement; they - the exec committee - gives It out. Doug: Shouldn't the executive committee of the local movement R ? deal directly with ev HHrrlson HXxia!XxM not N H Stokley* 0« «m be obligated to ev Harrison then* C?n/be more sophisticated with hungry People. : G Fay Beilqmy People are going to send foofl* ot to be realist! about what to do with It. R Eugene Prlcha.rd- ev H0wwells took truck load *»x of foofl to Lownfles^Countyx tofl^y. Tlna: Foofl comes down. we get it. we'll share It with you Just as you share your food with us.

Fay: We can't tell people two NegroR organizations have a pl^y of power. Martha: People are sending food. How best to distribute It so floes the least harm. w N k Silas- e have § box car loafl of food anfl $1000 for foofl. ow people to^B have to fill out forms anfl stanfl In lines. If you cut out all that nonesense, oeoole will Just take what they need, ine forms they have to fill out «nfl the lines they have to st^nd in make the people greedy.

APRILL 22 - THURSDAY m Mornlng Se8slon Silas* In summary of yesterday, siiqs made clearer that one of 1 the conditions fro calling off the boycott was free elections. \ Bevel• what happened to S.C.L.C staff «ifter the March. Thosr 1 who'fl worked In Alabama in the field saw the M^rch as the beginning % of the nroject. part of the scheme was calling the boycott - reafly K v \ to fl^ht. inNort>•-••*•* *>**.*.*, King stopped organization from workii r" — j — on 3ax boycott , Split botuoen S.C.L.C, staff who wanted boycott versus King who didn>t. Selma project took a lot of energy out of S.C.L.C, staff. King wanted to rest. Bevel feels should split up decisioiwaa!ring; between ell action groups - S1ICC, Coi-c, etc. So long corrmittcd himself to SCOPE so could keep from fighting. King will back up free elections, but he doesn't work out the stadogy. S.C.L.C. coriffiiittcd to free elections. So far S.C.L.C. hasn't done anything in terras of the boycott, Koxt problem: VJorking out broad xtac stadegy where everyone can SEX work out, all toward common goal. Planning goal and stadegy that allows everyone to become sommittcd to it, Stadegy - F.D.P. in Kew Jersey - 1) convention ox 3 days doesn't 3E give you time to build up momentum*. 2) also need people protesting in street at same time as representatives trying to get seated. How in Alabama we need 1) mass demonstrations and 2) elected representatives to sit in government, .That is best way to make iraitejcfcx point? 'With state and federal governments. "Want clear-cut picture of blades {$!%) wanting in government versus white-racist government. Also need business men to be putting pressure on Johnson to let }a3bndc blacks in government so boycott called off. Time clement: honor this boycott* F,D,P. challenge, when schools i&zsm turn out - kids -vrill join movement if movement is in progress. Whenever demonstrations start in iiontgoracry it xri.ll take h to 6 weeks to build to a peal:. Organise co can continue to developc. Also went to sak. make protest to world - example: if Wallace makes sxasxx- arrests of 1000's of Hog- rocs, African nations will join in boycott. Also strength in towns to disrupt business.

Cynthia: Sight weeks not time to educate people and build grass roots organisa­ tion so can participate in decisions once negroes in government,

Devel: Process of learning XE£ accelerated I£H during demonstrations in the street

jfcoBc Austin: leople leading themselves? i.e. docideing that they want to do this

Bevel: People in local communities will become educated via demonstrations. Those that learn xssrfasx fastest will be leaders, lihat does he mean by free elec­ tions? Whito people going to have to chose between eating and fucking around with Hegroes. "Jant federal government to come in here, register Hegroes, ikrnE throw out present govcrnmnct as un-Constitutional, What question is this going to pose to the world? Show that this govcornmnct in Alabama and Hiss, isn't a democratic government, Alabama is the ninth Kxpa biggest state in exporting in the country. Everything they make is sent to the colored nations. Host foreign chips that service Alabama fly the Algerian flag. Why do wc beat blacks xxn for wanting to participate in the HX government? LBJ can't say he's passing a voting bill, because we're talking about participating in government.

Doug: How are the rightost foces going to dcoal with nafa our fight?

Bevil: Can not firght violently cause wc go on promise that we value human life. International opinion on our side by armed men bitting unarmed,

Cortland: Plan to have people in individual counties picket courthouse to say these elections shouldn't be held, elections should bo held in 6 to 0 months. Wo emphasise the people working in their counties rather than mass king of thing.

Bevel: To get U.S. to give us real democracy, going; to need other nations on LBJ's back to do something. Don't have the staff to cover all the counties at the same time. land Dona Richardson: Bevel's talk of "motion" misleading, xxxg of motion he's talk­ ing about will have people going to certain point and stopping. What is more laeaningfulx is having fewer people willing to go all the way.

Bevel: Hy concept of education. Kind of climate that xri.ll enable people to go deeper. Some teachers can do in 2 days What others can't do in a year.

Cortland: Question of free clctions secondary to question of political particApar.

Stu House: How do you orientate people XXKHHI about values? If people learn to participate, then they will be watching their representatives to sec if they arc being sold out. Hhcrc's the schoolroom?

Silas: How we're in 6 counties (Perry county not included), hlao campus traveler program.

Bill Hall: report on campus traveler program. Conference held at Tuskeegee in Harch. Students decided would set up student union. Heed communication with one another. Will go back and continue to work in their respective communities and counties. Will send aasgasxxk reports to central office and it will send reports to all students in the state. 7$ to SO students in jail during the conference. - 6 -

The reports will bo sent to the following: Tuskeegeo - April; Hiles - Hay* Tala- dega -Juno, Tuskeegce: Since Harch loth have received a lot of money. Now they have opcnned up an office. In Hagin, Lowndes, and lEss. they are working. At Alabama State, 10 students xrant to work in Sumpter during summer, I plan to ±E go to Birmingham area and get the h Negro colleges together. Draw them into Hale, Sumpter, and Greene Counties, At Taladcga need someone to help them, more direction. Taladcga students want to work in that county. If possible send some­ one up there to work with them. . Southern Regional Conference: To attrack Negro and African students. Especially since from certain areas. Will work coun­ ties much better. Students from Texas to Virginia to conference. Want enough staff people to . ' - attrack them to work in certain counties. African students to teach in "Freedom" Schools - African history in their heads. Confer­ ence in June, probably in Hiss, or Ala, Talked to . Hosea - if ho brings in SCOPE, will crush a lot of students. Will say don't bring in SCOPE people to certain counties where Negro college students will be working. Ilosca agreed to this, Hope regional conference will attrack additional students to wrok in the counties, VISTA program at Tuskocgoo. Community recreation, tutorial program. How docs VISTA tic in with 3N0C? VISTA as such (it's part of the War on Poverty program) doesn't work with us. But students in it are free to work with us after finish their eight hour work day, (VISTA - part of the domestic peace corps.) 5 counties in the 3rd Congressional district - Tuskeegce area. Lot of students from Tuskeegeo wouldn't just xrant to work there. 2nd Tuskeegeo group called TAL (Tuskecgee Action League). TAL is ' . affiliated with SNCC, Lot of students who have spent their weekends and vacations in ' field and getting orientated to xnat work in counties means,

Scott: Problems with students*who have their oxm program. Should have students responsive to what people xrant, not visa versa, i.e. telling people what they should xrant.

Doug: Are students coming in going to work in right xray - find out what people xrant and then do it.

Silas: Will have more problems with SCOIE than xd.ll Negro college students, SCOPE: De-centralised. Each, campus sponsors oxm group which choses its cum county gets its oxm project director, and. devises its oxm program*

Stokley: People in community don't see the workers as from clifferont groups but just as "civil rights workers" or "freedom fighters". Don't want to create split in community, Hou have to sit down and discuss different approaches. If other group is going to call demonstrations, there will be demonstrations. Should use the momentum from the demonstrations.

Silas: Discuss projects in various counties. Perry County: George Bess and Terry Shaw. Hale: Annie Pearl, St. Clare Jotter, and Hank. In Hale County they've worked In Akron and Greensboro, Haven't been outside these 2 areas. Is no real project there. Annie Pearl wants the F.D.P. Heed some viable program so all this nonsense can't happen again as in Selma.

Stu: Surmptema County: Cynthia Washington, Chris Wylie, Avery, Stu House, Had a Freedom Day, Working in Horningstar, ' Tip Top, and (I missed this mame) districts. And have been to Livingston (the county seat). Been going to church, each person to a different church. Passed out some loafletts for Freedom Day. Hostly came out of talking to people, they decided to go to courthouse.

Cynthia: White folks have been saying people can go to register. 3 industries moving in and hiring from 50 to a' ' .. 300 poaplo each. Can organise people around jobs,

Claris: Write folks are scared,

Cynthia: Ho organized groups now or ever before in Sumpter County, In Greene County organization headed by O.B. Harris, business man xrho passed himself off as SiiCC worker, 10 Tuskeegeo students xrho are natives of Sumpter County want to work with us tlxis summer,

Stu: Livingston: lir. Spears and. (I missed this name) had been going down with people and vouching for them when they went doxm to register. Ho mass meetings yet.

Hants: People in Loxmdes before mass meetings etc. thought Loxmdcs County was xrorst county (that is what the local people thought). Heeds county network so can say in mass meetings "People in Lowndes County are getting freedom".

Austin: Wilcox County, S.C.L.C. has been conducting marchs for last 3 weeks. Local people have been coming to SNCC saying they don't xrant to march, S.C.L.C. won't have a joint meeting with the local organisation and/or SNCC,

George: If you can't get together with S.C.L.C., then it's your obligation as a SNCC worker to organize the people and find out what they xrant. Wc should stick to our jobs. Ask the Civic League, "What do you want to do?"

Eric: How do you approach people about organisation?

Silas: S.C.L.C. doesn't know what to do with Rev (I missed his name). They have left him in Wilcox county on his oxm.

Austin: We're working in Gee's Bend, Low Piece Street, and Sloe Hill. People have been going to Camden from Gee's Bend and Coy to take part in the demonstra­ tions; there are almost no Negroes in Camden.

Stokley: Report on Lowndes County, 'Workers! Stokley, Bob liants, Scott B, Smith, Willie Vaugh, Judy Richardson, Before SNCC went to Lowndes County, Bevel, Andy Young and 3 other S.C.L.C. people called a meeting at Croby's store. 20 local people came to the meeting. S.C.L.C. said the movement is cariiing. At the meeting they elected officers, who now form the executive committee of the local organiza­ tion in Lowndes County. SNCC came to Lowndes County the day after Hrs, Luiso was shot, SNCC decided to work the whole county to get around the organization that xras already set up. Luckily the people in the executive committee turned out to & be strong people. What SNCC has accomplished so far: 1) Have set up a library which the students asked for. The principal at the high school leverages high fees for the use of the school library and on text books, 2) 300 people have tried to register. On the 1st day the registrars only took 10 people, 3) Tbe executive committee decided not to accept free food and clothing from Selma because they should take care of themselves, k) Hass meetings every Sunday night with about 500 rkTOG±m£ people between the 2 meetings. People from Lowndes xrent to the Democratic Conference in xlontgomery. They asked "Wallace is in the Democratic Party - how do plan to XHEE force him out?" The Democratic Conference, which is going to be held in Birmignhara in the near future, invited all registered voters from Lowndes to attend. Since only 6 people are registered, the executive commit­ tee decided to send anyone xrho wanted to go. We have a Freedom house in frickcm and in Hayneville, Two people will live in each house* We are working the whole county. The real trouble is going to come out of Hayneville and Fort Deposit. Fort Deposit is the biggest town in the county.

Scott: We need radio contact with Selma, So that people xron't be scared to try to register, wc told them that if their welfare checks were cut off, the local x-relfare people would lose their jobs and the federal government would pull out of the state. Fort Deposit is the raw nerve,

April 22 - Thursday - Afternoon Session

Silas: Alabama project operating solely off of contributions. Too much money spent for gas. Don't charge any more gas if possible. Staff on subsistence adopted from the Worth. Get communities you're working in to support you.

Annie P,: Report on Hale County project, I talk to people about F.D.P. and voter registration fecxso^fextecsba-soii I don't talk about things that would conflict with what S.C.L.C. is doing. In Akron the local people arc canvasing, transporting people to the polls, and teaching people to help them pass the tests. Yesterday 17 passed. The registrar is giveing hard and different tests, opens the courtroom for registration for only 1 or 2 days, makes people stand for hours waiting and ±k then rushes them thru the tests, S.C.L.C. called a mass meeting in HcCalls Church. S.C,L,C. holding 1st demonstration next week in Grocrnsburg, Rev, HcCallum agrees xrith me that local people -not leaders- should talk at their oxm mass meetings,

Stokley: S.C.L.C. has openned churches in Hale County xrhcre SNCC couldn't. 3.C.L. C. will have demonstrations whenever they call for them,

Annie P.: I x-rouldn't participate in S.C.L.C.-called demonstrations, I'll trans­ port people to them and xrouldn't talk against rJdiEKis their demonstrating,

Silas: Annie P, operates xrhole program in Hale, If the Hale" County Project de­ cides to operate a program such as js an F.D.P. in Kale County, it kax has to c:qr>laln it to SHCC staff.

St, Clair: I'm usually with Annie P, because of one car etc. To organize county do you first run around thru xrhole county county or concentrate in Akron, a town of 5000, Should you stick xrith voter registration or also talk about F.D.P. I agree xrith Annie P. about F.D.P. - Q -

Annie Pearl and St, Clair: Talk to people about using same techniques F.B.I, used and how F.D.P. operates. If Ala. people in Washington talking to Congress­ men about "One man - One vote", more pressure on voting bill.

Dona: Importance of F.D.P, is that creates context in which people have control of their representatives once they get into office. If xre don't create this con­ text, xrill have same thing as in Worth once xre get Hegroes in office,

Annie P,: I have to react to xrhat the people are reacting to, xrhich right now is the issue of demonstrating, S.C.L.C. xrill come in after 3ITCC does groxind work. All S.C.L.C. has is King and Reverends,

Stokley: S.C.L.C.: Hajor decisions xrhould be made at the top. They also are dedicated and xrork hard, VJhen they create atmosphere, xre can't do everything xre want to do. When they go into county, find local loaders that they can xrork thru.. Dishonest - local minister lets them xfheel and. deal.

Dona. SHCC operates like S.C.L.C.* decisions made at top. But our politics differ­ ent. King and Andy Young confer xrith LBJ. Bevel and SHCC doesn't.

Annie P.: Everyone in S.C.L.C. has to agree xrith King, Cur biggest mistake: SHCC people, xrho xreron't xrorldng in Ala,, meet xrith S.C.L.C. and committed SHCC to things which Ala. staff had to then carry out,

Cortland: King's use - to speak to whites*

Stokley: To Hegroes in Alabama it xras their march. Unfortunate that they didn't control it and that it xras called a victory,

Annie P.: People in Hale County saying, "King is leading them a good riiarch1'.^ Thinking same thing xre're thinking,

Chris: Can't fuck xrith. King - he can do no wrong.

Bill Hall: We should exploit King. Should talk to S.C.L.C* SCOPE result of lack of communication,

Annie P.: Our mistake last time xras wc weren't together. King knows SHCC xrill break ground and then S.C.L.C. can go in. King wants to keep position xrhore he can talk to LBJ.

Dona: You don't have to xrork on or respond to a march or demonstration just cause peoj;ile get excited about them as they're happening. Hhat happens to the people after. We get into a fight xrhenevor xre try to xrork xrith S.C.L.C, on a march,

Chris: We're split down the middle. On the one hand, wo say xre're not joining - the iiarch, while John Lewis and half the staff goes on the Harch. On other hand, xrhen xre say we're against the march and King's in Selma, xre're en the side of the devil.

Doug: What did the SHCC workers d.022 in Lowndes County so that they don't have to worry about S.C.L.C. coming in?

Chris: S.C.L.C, got people riallod up thru the march and the IdLllings. Then SHCC xrent in and organised.

Scott: We got the people to realise the;'- could organize themselves and run their own movement. In working xrith the pajEhx people, xre tell the truth, for if you lie to them they'll catch you in the lie. People in community know xrho they can talk to if something JragiEba happens - both among civil rights 'workers and local people,

Hants: If King comes to Lowndes, he'll have to deal xrith local organization,

Scott: iie live in the county. People know xre're there. People from Sumpter county coming to our mass meeting.

Mamfesx Bob Parris: Workships for people in different counties to get together. Their problems are not county-problems, but are more gencralm more xride-spcead. If the direction really comics from the bottom, the people have to get together and hash out xrhat they think are their problems,

Hants: People not conscious enough of their oxm problems in their oxm county to be ready to talk to people of other counties. For example, a lot of people don't realize xrhat board of registers arc doing to them. - 9 -

Cynthia: Local people knox-r what their problems are, just don't know xrhat to do about them.

Parris: People conferences could let people discuss their problems over a long- range period. Since their problems, their needs are rteg bigger than county-xri.de, they xrill want to call people's conferences. Organizers raise certain questionsj people develope ansxrers. Organizers have different problomsthan people.

Silas: Report on Hontgomery office. Workers: Larry Fox, Fred Mealy, Will Ricks Randy. Working with Alabama State students. Report on Dallas County, Only have contact in Selma, none in the county. Prior to Jan 2, 3 people here. Ho program. Around Jan. 2, 2 people xrent to Ferry County, How this office supposed to be resource center for xrhole state. Staff: Willie Emma Scott, Susan and Elmo Holder, Only Holder's and Silas not local. Keep all workers in Dallas County local. Try to xrork in the county, 15,000 KxtgxkXK Hegroes elligible to vote in Dallas County, Lack of communication and information between staff. 4 Gerald: Folks in Wilcox sk asked me to find people xrho've been discriminated against for the annual Civil Rights Commission Hearings in Hontgomery on Hay 19 thru 21.

Scott: Heed radios fea for communication, information on civil rights issues and the law. People, not knowing about the boycott, ratal are goring to Selma to shop.

Cynthia: Could xrrito to each other to comimunicate. Hail or ship by bus supplies.

Chris: Law students in Selma? Short-wave radios?

Silas: The deal xrith the laxr students feel through,

Hants: Have staff meetings xrith lawyers and other professionals to get rjaiftrm information, x What Is our relationship to and xrhat exactly are the Alabama Democratic Conference and the Alabama Coordinating (I missed the rest of the name)':

Scott: I need to see an outside newspaper.

Hartha: Staff newsletter including: what x Ala. staff is doing• general news* educational material such as information on civil rights laws*

Silas: Horty Shiff coming may 1 to install radios, xrith, Will Rogers helping. Parris xranrfes: What arc the basic tools of organising?

Gerald: Through talking to foltts, get a feel for the community. Secure a church, or a home for meetings. The leaders xrill be ahead of the other people.

Silas: Dallas County Voters' League made up of a fexr people in Selma, none from the counties. This is a local organization that doesn't represent the local people. Any comments?

Dona: Can't build organisation by getting xra small number of people to gether and immedicately forming an executive committee. 1st have iarst lots of meetings. When achieved broad base, then can elect officers.

Silas: Let's think about and xrork toward people's conferences. Don't know when .;.->th. e people are going to say they're ready.

Parris: Either you made initial decision about people's conference, and let it snowball from there* or you HH±S£ x

Dona: If you have 30 people at the 1st conference, they'll want to meet again. There's your snowball,

Doug: How do you organise the meeting itself.

Dona: 3f In past people have tried to offer information, and still not overly strut ture the meeting,

Doug: 1st deal with local problems, then international issues.

Dona: At a conference in Cleveland, from discussion of national and international politics, people began to deal with their oxm problems,

Scott: I xrould put ±k into person's mind idea of calling People's donference by talking about similarities of issues in all the counties. Get him into mainstream by relating national and international issues to rktsrxrx±fasrx±± his life. - 10 -

Dona: Be honest. The local people you know are friends of yoxirs. Ask them to do things as you would ask a friend. For example: "We have an office in Heridian. Do you xrant to go and take a look at it?"

Cynthia: Communities don't stop at county lines,

Doug: Can we get in position so xre're not racing against other organizations?

Parris: The top people in this country operate in 1000«s of organizations simul­ taneously; but the jjpa poor have no voice, no organization, .SHCC field xrorkors can fcroW help people set up their oxm organisations (not set up affliates of SHCC in all the counties), 1st you x have to call people together.

Dona: SCOPE has no program. Shouldn't get scared of plans on paper.

Cynthia: At executive meeting, many people scared and upset mm about SCOPE. Powers in country trying to create split between CORE, SHCC, S.C.L.C.

Parris: Once people XK have idea of people's conferences, they xrill xrant to make provisions for carrying this through.

Dona: We can't make a program, rrasi because unable to relate to idea of people deciding for themselves. Fear of other programs.

Parris: We're in position of selling to people idea of people deciding for them­ selves. People in USA build organizations to make space in which they can xrork. You x-rant to xrork yourself out of the organization and xrork the people in. Practical steps: Instead of jowr calling »*» the meetings, and your talking to the people yourself, take a local person along xrith you as you canvas, and have a local person call and chair the 1st meeting. Keep yourself rk from being chairman of first meet­ ing.

Hants: 1st county mass meetings. Afterwards inter-county meetings.

Parris: Bevel and King could make F.D.P. challenge confrontation with LBJ. King always gets credit, XXE Hiss, and New Jersey were exception* King can in after F.D.P. already there, and he was sure it'd be a success. For K next staff meeting, staff members prepare information on specific issues other staff interested in. Hany kids out of school. Freedom schools: run freedom Schools all over county one day to get idea off the ground. Some kids xri.ll be interested in SHtax teaching. Could discuss: should they stay out of school?; xrhat can they do if they are out or in school? SHCC staff call students together to find out xrhat they xrant.

Hants: One of our problesms is xre don't listen to the people,

Stu: Horn-violent philosophies. Can't fight the white man, cause it's his free­ dom! too xre're talking about,

Chris: Ridiculous to talk of nonviolence to man xrho's been beaten by a white man.

Elmo: It's true that there are big bastards on top, but there»re little bastards on the bottom! I can see non-violence as a tactic, but not as a principle.

Hants: If a man comes into ray houso,xmdc I'll let him kill me. I don't xrant to kill anyone.

Parris: S.C.L.C.«s idea of nonviolence is to have people talk about it. If, on other hand, organize people into organisations where they can express themselves and' make decisions, channell off frustrations and tensions that make people act violently, SHCC accussed of acting violently. But we are doing grass-roots com­ munity organising, American Hedical Society reports XXZBB violence in Negro community decreases went movement in progress. If the North, they don't ± xrant to hear nonviolent philosophy. Respond to Huslims etc. These two alternatives aren't necessary. Hew York riots can be viexred as the failure of civil rights workers to organize the Hegroes into anx± effective organization. Hegroes in Harlem find themselves in a vacuum. REPORTS BY THE STAFF OF THE CHICAGOlsNCC\FREEDOM CENTER

MAY 1965

Position paper. 1 Summer 1965 Project 3 The War on Poverty in Chicago 5 Housing in Chicago 7 Direct Action Projects in Chicago 9 SNCC Youth Council and Problems of Police Brutality 10 Christmas at the SNCC Freedom Center 13 Poems by Eloise Clark 1-U

SNCC Freedom Center 4212 S. Cottage Grove Chicago, Illinois 60653 Monroe Sharp, Director Position paper 1 Summer 1965 Project 3 The War on Poverty in Chicago 5 Housing in Chicago 7 Direct Action Projects in Chicago 9 SNCC Youth Council and Problems of Police Brutality 10 Christmas at the SNCC Freedom Center 13 Poems bv Eloise Clark 14

SNCC Freedom Center 4212 S. Cottage Grove Chicago, Illinois 60653 Monroe Sharp, Director POSITION PAPER by the Staff of the CHICAGO SNCC FREEDOM CENTER:

The Staff of the Chicago SNCC Freedom Center has come to the conclusion over the past few months, that band-aid programs will only lead to SNCC acquiring the reputation of being a new small-time NAACP in Chicagr . The SNCC philosophy demands that we come to grips with the total problem of ghetto life, xrith the broadest possible frontal attack, at once. The unexamined fact that there are more Negroes in Chicago than in the entire state of Mississippi, coupled with the data brought out by the Chicago School Boycotts, that over 50% of all grade school children enrolled in the public schools are Negroes, shows clearly the immensity and scope of the problem. In a few short years, Negroes will be in the majority in this and other Northern cities and yet have as little control over their lives as the exploited Mississippi share­ cropper. The Negro child in Mississippi at least has fresh air and enjoys a loving, close family or community relation­ ship. Not so the ghetto child in Chicago.

The Mississippi Summer Project led to the MFDP, in which local leadership evolved in that state. The pitfalls that lie ahead for the soon to be enfranchised Mississippi Negro have not as yet been examined. They are here in full force in Chicago. They must be considered in the light of their importance to the vrhole national problem. Getting the vote means nothing if by devious means the power structure contains an almost majority population, sets up a few Toms to make things look good and then exploits even further the masses of people who are never allowed to become dignified human beings. Several dozen jobs disappear hourly in the Chicago metropolitan area due to automation. The birth rate in the ghetto is astronomical since the politicians and church people are still argueing about giving women and girls free access to birth control measures. As the noose of segregated housing - schools - and jobs increases day by day, the only out offered by the government (outside the phony War on Poverty - the latest political pork barrel) is to have a few hot wars going to increase jobs in the military- machine field, kill off some of the excess population, and of course focus attention away from "internal problems." Position Paper by the Staff of the Chicago Freedom Center continued:

As yet, no Negro mother in Chicago can guarantee that her daughter will not grow up to scrub Miss Ann's toilet boxvl despite savings accounts, homes bought in a just-turned- Negro, ghetto-to-be, middle-class neighborhood, or status of some bourgoise job. The various attacks upon the separate bricks in the wall of segregation have not even dented it, as it is held together by the mortar of the political machine, and padded by tokenism, put-off committees, and garbage can-lid human relations groups. It is time to reappraise what SNCC is and what SNCC is doing. The time is now, waiting will only strengthen the hand of the enemy:entrenched, sugar-coated segregation. Have we been lulled into thinking that x^e are not involved in an all out war? The enemy is not wasting time, but is spending his money on a wide-spread campaign to insure the status quo remains just that. SNCC alone has the people vrith guts and the know-how to attack the whole problem. SNCC alone has the answer if there is ever to be one.

The March from Selma to Montgomery was the modern counter­ part of that historic opiate of the people of Roman times, the Circus, complete with Christian martyrs. A "B" movie script with the good guys, the bad guys, and right triumph­ ing in the end - at least this is hoxv it was scheduled to appear and be swallowed whole-hog by the worlds watching millions. With all this olanned propaganda it is time we did some counter propaganda of our own and made America look into the mirror and see that it really isn't the fairest of them all, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Millions are trapped in a living death as we meet and have discussions. A very real effort is now being made to splinter SNCC and destroy it. Do we dare stop, while the real problem lies untouched, the crying need of our people to be free men? SNCC can take its small begining in Chicago, and build now, as we did in Mississippi but we cannot afford to loose time. The establishment is nervous, red-baiting, and busy putting on ritual performances. Lets push now for a total confrontation, for the truth. Let those who are not already committed to a project in the South this summer come to Chicago, where the problem must ultimately be solved, and help do the job we set out to do: win uncompromised total freedom-now for all our people.

?. SUMMER 196-5 PROGRAM - CHICAGO SNCC FREEDOM CENTER

During the past year, the Chicago SNCC Freedom Center has been de veloping a natural follow-up to the Mississippi Summer Project in which the seeds of democracy could be further• transplanted from the minds of men into meaning- ful existance. Now thai t we are firmly established in this Northern ghetto communi ty, and the staff has acquired a thorough understand- ing of how to deal with local problems and conditions, we can proceed with four basic points of orientation: 1. The War on Poverty excludes local participation in planning and administration. It is the plan of the Center to develop its own "peoples" committee to plan a program for this area, xvith liason between other community groups who will proceed in the same manner in their respective areas. When these plans are completed, they will be sent direct to Washington, with as much pub­ licity as possible for a pnblic debate between the "official" WOP group and the real "peoples'' 'HOP group. 2. The present Housing Program of the Center is to be expanded and teams will be assigned designated areas to work during the summer. Emphasis is on building close personal relationships beginning with a stepped~up door-to-door leafleting campaign. It is intended that a variety of proposed new means of putting pressure on land­ lords and official agencies to correct conditions will be fully explored leaving final decisions for action u to the specific tenar't group in each area. 3- Community Issues (which are broken doxvn into two sub-groups): A. Direct-action projects xvill be handled by a team of persons who specifically xvish to vrork in this area, closely aided. by our legal advisors. They xvill develop action in three areas: a. Action in connection with Freedom Center projects. b. Action coordinated with other local civil-rights groups with joint aims c. Action coordinated with SNCC In other areas on antional or general civil-rights issues. Summer 1965 Program - Chicago SNCC Freedom Center continued

B. The quasi-social activities of the Center have naturally evolved in this Impoverished area. When people come to us with needs we will first try to educate them to the real causes of their specific problems and how this relates to SNCC. Second we will promote self- help rather than forms of charity and refer people to ether agencies when this is indicated by their needs. The SNCC Youth Council, which is still in formation will seek to enlarge this summer and. develop programs of their own as well as working with ongoing SNCC Center projects. The Youth Council Is made up primarily of young people aged 16 to 21 who are school drop-outs or have been unable to adjust to the ''system" and are seeking their own answers to the problems in their lives, i.e. police brutality.

4. THE WAR 0:, POVERTY IN CE

Since the grass-root Negro hard-core Ghetto community in Chicago is excluded from participation in the planning and administration of War On Poverty programs both through direct participation and through having planners and administrators who are sensitive and responsive to the needs of these people, the SNCC program could help fill this void. For example the workshop could train a group of people to become a committee to plan a WOP program for their area. Mass meetings, canvassing, etc. could be used as a dialog between the community and the committee (drawn from the community plus others who are sensitive and responsive in cases where extreme technical skills are needed) in the development of the WOP Proposal. The idea being that only through participation of the community (meaning common every day poor folks) in the development of the program and its execution and in having sensitive, responsive planners and administrators can any war win over poverty. The SNCC Freedom Center would serve both as a meeting and office space for the committee but also as a locus of dialogue with the community in the development of the proposal. With the opening of Alderman Metcalfe's WOP Opportunity Center in the area, the SNCC Center would serve as a PEOPLES Center for WOP Planning (as the first stage.) This bears some analogy to the Freedom Vote in Mississippi ...although in the initial stage the Center would be what those offices in the Loop are...planning and research centers ...but in SNCC the people have a voice. This campaign should get city-wide publicity, although the SNCC Center must concentrate on working in the immediate community. Possibly other groups in the city would be interested in doing grass root WOP planning and mobilizing in their areas. Perhaps a debate between WOP administrators in Chicago and members of the SNCC Center WOP Planning Committee could be held. Certainly we can do a PR job on it, especially when we submit our proposal to Washington. The discussions which the preparing of the Proposal would cause to take place in the community might- be a step towards mass understanding of the real problems which poor people face and what their causes and cures are...even beyond the scope of the present WOP. The War On Poverty in Chicago continued:

The concept of people working out the solution to their own problems would be injected Into the community and brought before the WOP and the Country. The development of sensitive and responsive Negro planners and administrators to deal with problems of poor Negroes, rather than having machine hacks and people from downtown and middle-class Negroes of the type who have escaped from poverty and look down on the poor, running programs to help people like those living near the Center is also a crucial concept to be brought foreward. Qualified planners and administrators of the type described above exist but they have been stifled by the machine and they must be found and brought into a program where dialog with the community is in the forefront. HOUSING IN CHICAGO

In the neighborhood of the SNCC Freedom Center in Chicago the census figures show 2,200 housing units dilapidated and 7,500 more deteriating. Ten thousand famailies are living in squalor. The City of Chicago Housing Authority program consists of tearing down old housing, pushing the tenants into another already overcrowded area, and putting up project buildings at a cost of $17,000 per new apartme-t. The fact is CHA has the right to buy and rehlbilitate existing housing but has never done so. At a cost of $2500 to buy and $5000 to bring to code standards this totals $7500 per apartment. The people in the community would much prefer rehibilitated housing to the stigma of project living, but the taxpayers money is thrown away to the tune of $9500 per apartment because community people have no voice in making these decisions.

Another interesting fact about existing housing is the average rental is $75 per month (average for the entire city) while family income is a mere $3000 a year (half the city average) so our families pay twice as much out of their inadequate incomes for the xvorst housing in the city. No pressure is put on landlords by the city to make necessary repairs, or even provide basic needs like heat and hot water. Court proceedings drag out for years with no results. The conspiracy of the real estate board and political machine to maintain segregated housing allowing absentee landlords high profits is well known. Segregated schools producing high school graduates who cannot read or write evolve as a natural part of this system. Despite the mass turnout for school boycotts and intense public outcry over the years, nothing has ever been improved. There Is a direct relation between the deplorable housing conditions and health problems. The density of the populat­ ion Is only equalled in Harlem it must be remembered. A higher percent of Negro children die in their first year In Chicago than in Mississippi, and the mortality rate for Negro adults is from 50 - 400% higher than for whites from strokes, heart desease, and cancer. The city of New York for example, spends six times as much per resident on health as Chicago. Negro life expectancy is still 7 years shorter and the hospital shortage is scandeless. Housing in Chicago continued

As for parks, recreational facilities, libraries, etc., again the Negro ghetto dweller is shortchanged leaving the only place for children to play in the streets and empty lots filled with tons of broken bottles, garbage and of course rats. The lake front has not been developed as in nearby white areas, and a walk across the sole access bridge over the outer drive is like making a trip to the city dump. Although one of the local Negro aldermen is the Chairman of the permanant City Council Committee on Building and Zoning, his ward is the most flagrant in violations in the city. The sidewalks are a maze of po-holes , and patches. Repairs must by laxv be done voluntarily at a cost to city and owner of 38

In short, there is no segment of the lives of the residents of this community in which they are not made to suffer day in and day out for the crime of being born with a black skin. DIRECT ACTION PROJECTS IN CHICAGO

When the SNCC Freedom Center opened in Chicago one of its first acts was to relieve the office of any responsibility for direct action projects. During August 1965- the 'Center provided some guidance, and a program for the residents of the area of the Dixmore-Harvey riots,.' The Center staff furnished the logistics for a prolonged school boycott at the Robert Taylor Homes. Freedom schools were set up, teachers provided, books, food, picket signs and manpower were dispatched to the area. This action was done in cooperation with ACT and the tenants group. On Jan. 4,5,and 6th several hundred neighborhood residents picketed the local police station, marched throughout the entire area and attended a large rally arranged by the center in connection with the death of Richard Gardner. Several dozen picket lines were held at the local Federal building as well as marches through the crowded loop area once with a coffin protesting the Selma situation. Silent vigils were held, protest meetings, ana the tatcic of sitting in in the elevators of the Federal building was very successful. Local landlords and real estate offices have been often picketed, and large groups turned out to cooperate with picketing against the war in Viet Nam and the Good Friday march about school conditions in connection with other groups.

SNCC staff was asked to arrange details for the Wilson, Jr. college and Chicago Teachers college picket about Selma. This was a very large group that had never been in any direct action before. This was done again for another group In Harvey about conditions in the schools. At least 25 persons participated in the sit-in in front of the White House in Washington from Chicago SNCC and many others marched from Selma to Montgomery. Action projects are continuous with SNCC here in Chicago and we are fortunate to have expert legal advisors, vrho spend great lengths of time aiding our efforts. PRC3LEMS OF POLK

It is an actual fact that the residents of the community in which the SNCC Freedom Center is located as a whole feel that they reside in a "police state" where the police operate like a conquering army occupying defeated enemy territory. Montgomery is not the only city that uses dogs to "protect" its citizens. The Mayors Human Relations Commission here as xvell as the Police Dept. Human Relations unit act only in the capacity of garbage can lids to help keep the stink down. Currently the local police districts are holding community conferences as a part of a public relations drive to improve their image. They have not and will not reach a single merabei of the community outside of a blue-ribbon panel of citizens from a business, social or economic level far above the average citizen of the community. They meet and discuss -ow to improve relations when their relationship Is already working in perfect accord. The day to day problems of the man in the street are totally ignored. The only "protection' provided by the police is to insure the merchant (who lives outside the community) that his money gets safely to the bank at night when he licks up. If"paying off" so you can continue to sell dope, run a policy wheel, sell stolen goods, or peddle human flesh is "protection" we still do have pleanty of that.

The fact is, it is doubtful if with diligent searching of months you could find even one member of this community who has not personally experienced police brutality or at the very least observed his family, friends, and neigh­ bors being injustly treated upon numerous occasions. Even at the tender age of three, a ghetto child has learned to run when "the cops are comming." Of a group of young teens, that consisted of 30 last year in our area, only 16 remain. These 16 formed the SNCC Youth Council this year. One drowned accidentally, one was shot in the back and killed by a policeman in an alley and 12 more are in various jails and reform schools for the crime of having no where to go and nothing to do. The case of the youth shot in the alley, Richard Gardner, is a good one to elaborate on. A group of about 12 youths aged 17 to 2 4 were on a back porch early last Jan. 4 dancing; to records. Three of them left to go to a friends house a couple of buildings to the east to borrow some new records, Just prior to this, a vroman two doors west phoned the police to complain about noise. The cops ran into the

10 SNCC Youth Council and Police Brutalitv continued alley with their guns out and the youths ran. The first cop shot at one of the youths and missed. The second shot at Richard and killed him with a bullet through his heart. At the inquest (blasted by a TV comentator here as a complete farce) the cop claimed he was investigating a burglary in process report at a location 4 houses vrest of the alley and said he had to shoot Richard because he attacked him with what he thought was a gun. In actual fact a screw­ driver was planted in Richards hand after his death and this was offered in evidence. If we are to believe the police version (which was changed three times) Richard would have traveled over 300 feet with a hole completely through his chest and heart from a magnum bullet. The youths on the porch were all eye-witnesses but are afraid of police retaliation if they talk. They ones that did go to the inquest have been as well as Richards younger brother. The killer cop spent the night bragging to all and sundry "I just killed a punk." Richard was no punk. He was employed, had money on his person (vrhich was never found) and came from a close family. Teh store front church the police claimed he was trying to rob contains only a couple of dozen fold-up chairs. There are over 30 such churchs in the area surrounding the site of the killing. Richards crime was that of being poor and black and living in a ghetto The finding of the coroners rubber-stamp jury was "justi­ fiable homicide."

What future lies ahead, for the friends of Richard? No jobs or education, maybe join the army and get sent to Viet Nam like another community youth who xvent because this vras the only "job" available to him and he xvanted to help his sick father and crippled sister. He was killed a few short weeks after arrival. Maybe these youths can join the Job- Corps and learn how to put out forest fires. That will help them a lot back on 43rd Street. Society as it is now structured offers no solution to these problems. At present what we have is a sort of balance of fear.

Three Chicago high-school principals have called the police over minor incidents in the past txvo months and the cops ran through the schools in the best esprit de corps of the Nazi S.S. troops. "Better put on your head-rag, boy, or your mops going to get messed up," one student was told.

A visit to our local 48th Street police station fudal courtroom is a revelation. The friends and cohorts of

11 SNCC Youth Council and Police Brutality continue

the reigning Alderman pass in and out as through a revolving door smiling and joking while the more lowely ordinary citizens get sent up for long terms for the most minor infractions. Dignity and human rights are unheard of commodities. O.W.Wilson has improved the police department by modernizing equipment and communications. He has done nothing to weed out the high percentage of mentally perverted men he send into the streets with loaded guns to play with each day. No psychological testing is done, nor are there any educational standards to get on the force. For a small- fee, anyone can be coached to answer the test correctly to qualify and this is the very job the sadist will take to satisfy his perversion. We cannot stand by and see this evil continue to perpetuate itself daily with no recourse available. Picketing the police is covered by a news blackout of course, and Wilson denies brutality exists. The community must be allowed to make the decision for Itself concerning who they want to protect them and how they want to be protected and then their decision must be put into practice. CHRISTMAS AT THE CHICAGO SHCC FREEDOM CENTER

Early Christmas morning, at least one bitter and man decided he could not face his little ones emptyhanded when they awoke. The fact that there was not going to be a Christmas dinner either, because he had no money, was preying on his mind. Sleepless, he hit the streets. He had borrowed from all his friends, his unemployment compen­ sation had long ago run out, the job at the Post Office lasted only three days and of course the 'Welfare was holding an investigation. He had nowhere to turn. The laughing celebrating people he passed along his lonely way did not give him a second glance. He was just another guy with a twisted ugly look on his face. Near 42nd Street he paused at the SNCC Freedom Center window where gayly decorated trees and a few presents stared back at him. "Why can't my kids have a tree, some toys, and a decent meal for Christmas," he thought. "What kind of a world is this anyhow?" It was then the compulsion struck him. Straight to the rear of the center he marched; not caring at this point wat the consequences might be. With a demented determination he tore off two heavy wire grills and broke through the rear windovr. Inside he found some popcorn, candy, apples and home-baked cookies unbelievably left behind by the 77 children who celebrated with a party and a movie on the life of Frederic Douglas several hours before. Some of this he ate in his hunger and the rest, along with a few gifts set aside for the children who had not been able to attend he placed in a bag. Again he paused. He had broken Into the center and stolen some small items for which he could be caught and sent to jail and yet his kids would not even have a decent meal. In a blind rage he turned over the nearest desk, spilling papers, phones, supplies all over the floor. He then discovered an electric typewriter Inside and another small portable on another desk where popcorn had been made earlier. These he could, sell for cash. Passing through the broken window, he disappeared nameless into the night with his heavy burden and heavier conscience . The Center needed those typewriters very much, but let him remain nameless, we know he was hungry. What kind of a world Is this anyhow? POEMS BY ELOISE CLARK:

THE BOTTOM If you were on the bottom, and I was on the top Then all this evil mess would soon have to stop If half our government was run by colored folks Then all the niggers In the South could go to town and vote. We wouldn't have to live in fear of jealousy and hate Because we'd have our civil rights In cur country and our state There wouldn't be no ADC or charity or relief Then someday we' d have a chance to live our lives in peace. They hate us more than all the people that are on the earth They never spare no mercy and count us for our worth When will they ever get down to the bottom of this mess Because we're getting tired, and I think we need a rest.

IT COULD'DA BEEN YOU If you were black and I was white Then you'd see what it was like Because my skin is dark and my hair is nappy And some of your folks could'da been my pappy Now we all know that this is true Who mixed us up, it could'da been you They call us nigger, is that our name With half white babies, well, ain't that a shame Some of us are black, and so near white You gettin outa your race now that ain't right If you hate us so bad then let me tell you brother You wouldn't get no where if a nigger was your mother,

WHO DID - YOU DID You drug us through the street and hung us by the neck You beat us with your clubs and made our life a xvreck There is a little group down South they call the Ku Klux Klan They tell me that they are the baddest people in all the land They bombed a church in Birmingham somewhere you know And took the lives of little kids, its time for them to blow I tell you of another thing way down in Mississippi About a boy named Emmett Till now isn't it a pity Those civil rights workers were killed and hid away Nobody knows who did it but we'll find out someday The land of the free and the home of the brave Set us niggers free or dig your own grave You did it, You did it, You did this to me And God is going to fix you, just you wait and see.

14 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING CoWHITTEB 36O Nelson St. S.W. „„„„, lt ,Q/,, Atlanta, Georgia 30313 March 15, 1967 Phone; 688 0331

Statement by Stokely Garmichael, SNCC Chairrman

CHURCH BOMBINGS: THE AMERICAN WAY OF RACISM

The bombing and burning of black churches in the American south has become one of the traditional methods used by white racists to show their contempt and hatred of blank people who dare to protest the inhuman degradation and humiliation to which we have been constantly subjected for the past U00 years. That this method has the approval of white America and it's power structure is best exemplified by the continued refusal of the federal government, F.B.I., and state and local police authorities to deal with this situation and make even minimal efforts to apprehend the perpetrators of such atrocities and bring them to justice, white America's approval and attitude is best summed up in the recent Saturday Evening Post editorial of September 10, 1966 which concluded with the following statement: "We are all, let's face it, Mississippians." The voice of White Power, "American white Power," spoke then and is still speaking.

This past week-end saw a new outbreak of church bombings which occurred in Lowndes County, Alabama, the same "Bloody Lowndes" county where Viola Liuzzo and Rev. Jonathan Daniels were murdered. On Sunday morning, a renovated church which had been rented to the Lowndes County Christian Movement for the Anti-Poverty program, burned to the ground—destroying the building, equipment, and materials. As usual, the FBI made a routine investigation and "took notes." The Macedonian Baptist Church in Fort Deposit, Alabama was burned early Monday morning following a mass meeting held on Sunday night by the Lowndes County Christian Movement. Whites had warned black residents in that area for some time that they would burn the church if it was used for such meetings—-and they did. Again, the FBI is making a routine investigation and is "taking notes." White Power is addressing itself to the situation the same way it has done for the past U00 years.

We in SNCC recognize that what is now taking place in this nation is a repeat performance of Reconstruction, and this, coupled with the ouster of Adam Clayton Poxrell from the White American Congress proves to us that White America is tightening it's noose around the necks of black people here just as she is doing in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This fact is also becoming clear and evident to black people across the nation, as proven by the rebellions breaking out in all American cities, and the unifying surge of support which black people from all walks of life are giving to Congressman Powell.

Our black brothers and sisters are now saying the only way they can "We have had enough, we will take no more. We have not forgotten U00 years of genocide murders, lynchings, bombings and burnings, and we know that white America has no intention or desire to change the American way of racism." Black people are now serving notice that we will fight back. The bombing of our churches and homes will only unify us more, and make us more determined than ever to fight back. .: STUDBNTNONyiOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE : -.j. .:, '.; • >360';Ne,lson Street, "'•" • •'-'•• , • ' .--•Atlanta, Georgia ..... ? • UOU 688-0331 ' -MacLaurin vs. The State Of Mississippi

The Supreme Court of the United States, as though to further its recent decline from the mid-Twentieth Century image as a "protector of civil liberties," appeared much like the racist Supreme Court of the post- Reconstruction era in its action of January, 196?, in the case of MacLaurin vs. The State of Mississippi.

In July, 1963, in Greenville, Mississippi after witnessing the trial in which several black defendents were tried and convicted by the Greenville Municipal Court for "Breach of the Peace," after being arrested for playing ball in a "for white only" public park, Charles MacLaurin,,a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, performed the followingj

'MacLaurin told a group of some $0 black persons, gathered in front of the courthouse, that the charge of "Breach of Peace," as used' in this case, was used to attack ^te'grjeftttiJJ^Sfcfe'^.. He further stated that the conviction of the Greenville Court was unwarranted, and suggested that black people should register to vote in order to deal with such injustice.

A Greenville police officer, a Negro, told MacLaurin to move on, or he would be arrested. Believing in his right to speak freely, MacLaurin pro­ ceeded talking to the people, and when the police officers arrested him, he went limp and subsequently was dragged to and placed in the police paddy wagon. MacLaurin was charged wlth^"Disturbing the Peace" and "Resisting Arrest".

Charles MacLaurin, without legal representation, was tried in Greenville Municipal Court and found "guilty". Subsequent to the conviction, Mac­ Laurin, represented by Atty. R. Jest Brown, entered an appeal in the Washington County Court. In peculiar fashion, the Washington County Court held separate trials, including the taking of testimony, for each of the two charges. The court entered not one, but two convictions, and sentenced MacLaurin to 90 days and #$0 fine on each count (or a total of 180 days and $100).

Under the contention that the conviction of "Disturbing the Peace" was rendered in defiance of the defendents right to "Freedom of Speech", as upheld by ihhe First Amendment to the 6onstitution of the United States, an^-appeal was then filed in the Washington County Circuit Court, The Appeal stated, also, that the charge of "resisliing arrest" was unlawful, due to the absence of ©vert resistance, and, moreover, because there was nor resistance, and because the charge of "disturbing the peace" was in this instance based on an unconstitutional state statue, the arrest itself was of unlawful nature.

The State of Mississippi lacked evidence sufficient to support either charge, however, the Washington County CiECuit Court upheld and affirmed the decision of the County Court.

•.-•'•>.• -.: • n •- ••••-'! t.-« *.',-t 1 '-.ix i-a,:: i 1. ;•;.*. >\! •• n There followed an appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court, obtaining thea same cdntenti-ons, -and, including also as precedent a similar case, that of Cox vs. the State of Louisiana, wherein the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulfd ih favor of Cox, the defendent, overnling the conviction^ of ;a'lower court. The precedent notwithstanding,, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the Washington County Circuit Court and further, also overuled,a„"Suggestion of Error" filed by counsel for defendent MacLaurin.' ->•'.'•.. .-a .--a-aa •.--••• - This procedure was followed by the filing of a Petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for Certiary,;.requesting that a "Writ oil the State of ' Mississippi" be- issued, that the cade be reviewed. The Supreme Court of the United States, with three justices desenting, refused to review the case. The addition of one more desension xvbuld have provided for the reviewing of the case, in which the conviction could have been Upheld.or reversed. But the .defendent's facing a prison sentence on charges that, inalieu of the factual evidence, have been upheld by racist courts in, clear violation gf the defendent's civil and human liberties. • •< - , The prosecuting attorney for t*°e City of Greenville ordered MacLaurin to surrender by February 1. 1967, .and on that date MacLaurin surren­ dered to the Chief of. Police of Greenville to begin serving a sent­ ence of 180 days and ,1*200- fine. His attorney, R. Jest Brown filed a Trit of Habeaus Gorpus. No date has been set for this hearing. • We in SNCC feel that this case is still another example of the fact . that .the courts and the governmental officials across this country are engaged in a conscious Conspiracy to "frame up"' and deny justice to black nen who dare to fight for their human rights and seek justice, ' ,'. •

!>:it- March 17, 1967

PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE FROM THE STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE Published by The Student Voice and SNCC

PACKET OF SNCC LITERATURE Contains leaflets, press releases, articles by Stokcly Carrichacl & booklets descriptive of SNCC's philosophy and activities * • • • «#2.00

FREEDOM PRIMER: NEGROES IN AMERICAN HISTORY 63 pg» book, Afro-American history from the 1600' s to Malcolm X, Appropriate for ages 10 on up $1-50

FREEDOM SCHOOL POETRY BOOK "* Poems by students in Mississippi*• • • • • • • fL«50

PERSPECTIVE ON THE ATLANTA REBELLION Photographs and commentary by SNCC photographers and writers giving in-depth study of Atlanta rebellion of September, 1966* ...... ••* •. $0« 50

BLACK BODIES, WHITE MINDS Study of Negro colleges, their educational philosophy and the impact of such education on Negro college students '• ••• *...... 4.. .i. »* i.... i *.. * $1. Jo

AFRAMERICAN Monthly publication consisting of articles, poetry, national and international news, and Congressional action of interest to Afro-Americans i ...... t..$1.2$ Half Year Subscription-$7-00 Yearly Subscription-•••$12*00

AFRAMERICAN RETORT Vol* 1, No- 1 "Toward Black Liberation" by Stokely Carolchad • $0-50 Vol- 2, No. 2 "Why Liberation?" by Charles Cobb of SNCC $0.50

NEW ACTION ARMY, Comic book, spoof on poverty program* -• $0-25

MALCOLM X POSTERS .$2.00

SET OF 3 SNCC POSTERS •..'/." $1.00

BLACK WOMEN ENRAGED 16 pg. pamphlet by Owen Robinson of SNCC $0* 25

BLACK FIST STATUETTE Man-sized sculptured, wooden, black clinched fist mounted on wood base, with inscription, "It's Now Baby." « $3*50

PORTFOLIO OF 15 DRAWINGS pertinent to Afro-American stru glo by Herman Bailey, world ronowned' artist, just returned from h year stay in Ghana $10"00

SURPLUS OF HISTORICAL "MOVEMENT" RECORDS "Wc Shall Overcome" March on Washington Documentary .$2-00

All proceeds from the sale of these publications xvill benefit the work of Sncc and help us to spread the message in all black communities across the country. Please send chock or money order for total of all items ordered to :

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Comnittoo 360 Nelson Street S»W- Atlanta, Georgia 30313

Phono: 688-0331 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE 360 NELSON STREET S.W. ATLANTA, GEOPGIA 30313 683-0331 March 7, 1?67 •F,T~.V SEVEN SNCC T70RKERS INDICTED

On August 17, 1966 about thirty young black people picketed the 12th

Army headquarters in Atlanta which houses the local induction center. They

were protesting the Far in Vietnam plus the disproportionately high percent­

age of Black men drafted to fight what thsy considered to be a racist war.

These young men and women had peacefully picketed the induction center the

two previous mornings where chemicals were poured on them and they were spat

upon from the second floor of the Induction building. Nothing was done to

stop this harrassment.

On the morning of the seventeenth police arrested twelve of the demon­

strators, charging them with disorderly conduct, refusing to ohey an officer

and resisting arrest. Four of the ten young menfcffere Shagged wiirL assaulting

r officers. One of them, Johnny ilsonr was charged with Insurrection, a state

charge which carries the death penalty. The Supreme Court ^as twice ruled

this Georgia laxv unconstitutional but Georgia racists thought that they would

try one more time. After Johnny's lawyer bo pari in protest the charge, ±t

was dropped by the state,. Ten of the ycutfis received three month sentences

from Judge T.C, Little on chaages of cl ^orderly conduct, resisting arrest and

refusing t» obey an officer.

Thile in the city prison,, they suffered continued harrassment by the white prison guards who forced them to spend long periods of time in the isolation boxes. Isolation boxes are concrete boxed which are seven feet long,, four

feet wide and seven feet from tcp to ho-vlcm. While in these boxes, prisoners

are given only bread and water to eat. No toilet facilities were available

and waste had to be passed in a gallon can.

All prison facilities were operated under a strict polity of racial

segregation. There were separate sleeping and eating facilities for blacks

and whites, both men and women. Black women were made3to work in the kit­

chen for as long as twelve hours while the white women prisoners leisurely

strolled around the prison grounds. On male work details, whites Arove the tractors while the blacks cut grass with a sicftle or the whites rode in the front oab of the trucks xd.th t*« guards while the blacks hacbto ride on the back After they had served two of their three month sentences, an appeal bond for their release was issued. Judge Little, however, refused to free them. Following this action the black prisoners filed a suit against the city of Atlanta charging them with using Federal funds to maintain segregated facilitees along with subjecting blacks to cruel and unjust punishment. Both suits were thrown out of court when the prison made preparations to desegregate its facilities and began to place beds in the isolation box,. This was an obvious move by the city to preserve its quickly vanishing liberal image,

Johnny Wilson who is one of the ones charged with assaulting an officor was sentenced on February third to three years on a Georgia chain gang.

The three other young Black men who were charged with assaulting an officer were fined &U00 a piece, and they have until the fifteenth of March to raisf- the money. All the young people arrested have worked tn the civil rights movement in the deep South for several years. They have been on the front lines having been jailed and beaten before, but they continue to struggle.

Now seven of these young Black men have been indicted by the federal government on charges of injuring government property and with interfering with the Universal Military Training and Service Act, These charges stem .fiSRb from the August seveenteenth demonstration. They were simply protesting the genocide of the Vietnamese people and the genocide of their -own people in this country.

The police, the army and the courts think that these young men are traitors and have tried to give them the maximum sentence on whatever charges they could trump up against them. They now face a maximum of six years and eleven thousand dollars on the two charges listed.

These young people need your help. They.need bail money along with funds to pay for legal costs. Will you please help] Send funds to the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, marked BAIL FUND. In the furrows

of the world

the paths

of planting

the hoe-trails

of our people

WE

can only be

do What's happening? Watts' happenin' and you ain't into it yet from what we are . . . Things denied are taken if desired and forbidden Things by are smashed if they hurt and your whiteness is a thing cliarlie that hurts and Must be Destroyed for it can never be taken. cobb from L.A. - the order of things ^ N co n rt z; D> rt 3 S! to fD > There is no title S3 (D fD 3 O fD CAT) for this book. rt to O rt W rt to fD n • Cfll H It is not finished. CD iO o ,n> to VS OS It begins < rt) in struggle fD to rt o 4 and ends in struggle a HI n 3 H- o with interludes en 1-+1 o-& H i-i n> to of peace o a M o Q. CO In woven through 3* to fD 31 O the fabric of words H and photographs. 1 O

O H> t-1 to a* H rt M 3" T) When Black America's struggle is finished to o H- fD fD to c children o H CO When Black Q.T3 in o O *1 w will look in a mirror (D to H' X ft) to a f 2! and see n t-»0 to S3 C Hi > 3 a symbol of resistance; TO O F-T) O f M a symbol of beauty, < c o fD CT"U o w I-1 M ft) O O TJ VI H-H to to - X blessed by the color rt 3 rt w o O H- H- of their skin HiOQ fD a 3X1 o w and the strength fD h-1 of their heritage, 3 H- fD 03 M)3 ff O C rt M 3 Then to OQ H H o fD rt a4 this book will H< o crj s! to c be finished. to to fD 4> LL NO

Vol.1 No.2 SNCC DRAFT PROGRAM JANUARY 1968

SOUTH VIETNAMESE HERO'S BAILEY SAID N01 WIDOW HAILS STRUGGLE Statement by Jan Bailey on his position Phan Thi Quyen, widow of South Vietnam­ Against the draft. 18 January 1968 ese hero Nguyen Van Troi, who has attempt­ ed to assassinate Defense Secretary Mc- I am historically, politically, Namara in I964, has sent a letter express­ psychologically, and morally unfit to ing affectionate feelings to the U.S. serve in the armed forces. I have no youth who demonstrated during the "Stop anticipations nor expectations of fl­ the Draft Week" held in N.Y. December uting flags or officers, wearing uni­ 4-8. The letter said: forms, singing a national anthem or obeying orders from a supposedly super­ "I avail myself of this occasion—your ior beast. Frankly speaking, I see no •stop the draft—end the war' week—to place in Uncle Sam's army for this an­ tell you of the feelings of a South Viet­ gry black man. Let me be plain. I will namese woman who has lost her beloved not support in any way such a brutal, husband in the current struggle against oppressive, arrogant, hypocritical, the loathsome war provoked in our coun­ beastly white imperialist and racist try by the U.S. Government. country. I am not for imperialism but against it; my allegiance with this "Three years ago, on October 15,1964, country is to build it through change the so-called administration in Saigon, and self-determination for and by black rigged up and wire-pulled by the White people. We are related by blood, cul­ House, murdered my husband, Nguyen Van ture, and common experiences of hardship Troi, whose only crime was to be a patri­ suffered by this racist system. On the ot and to have resisted the warmongers. international scene there are two groups of people: the have and the have-nots; "Now, the more bitter I feel about his the whites and the non-whites. The same death and the death of many of my com­ is true for this country. Blacks have patriots, the more I am moved by the fact been disillusioned, frustrated, humil­ that an increasing number of American iated, alienated and brutalized by white youths are refusing to go to South Viet­ people and this is the issue I speak nam to massacre people who have done to. Following the dictates of my black them no harm. Many of these youths have consciousness, I have no other alterna­ burned their draft cards or returned tive but to refuse to be inducted. I them to the authorities. Many of them think it fooLjjjBh to embrace a system have gone on hunger strikes for a whole cont.on p.2 week. Not a few have immolated them­ selves out of indignation. I know per­ BOSTON HAS IT'S FIRST1 fectly well how you felt before you took your energetic acts. Richard Wallcott, a young Black man from Boston, Massachusetts, refused "The goals of your struggle, an end to the man and said HELL N01 All messages the U.S. war in Vietnam and peace and of support and money should be sent to: freedom for the whole of mankind, are Richard Wallcott Fund the very goals which my husband fought Boston Braft Resistance and died for. That is why I wish to 102 Columbia Street send to all the youth in the United Cambridge, Massachusetts States the affectionate feelings from 02138 -2- S.VIETNAM HERO... (cont.from page l) BAILEY... (cont, from page 1) a friend in South Vietnam, and wish you that destroys laws, customs, and people many more successes in your struggle to of color for capitalistic ends. There­ keep the happiness of the youth in South fore it is inconceivable that I go out Vietnam and in the U.S. from being shat­ like a fool and fight my non-white bro­ tered as in my case by this ruthless war. thers in China, Vietnam, Africa, Latin America and South America for white de­ "Especially I would like to send my res­ vils . Your enemies are my friends.... pect and love to those ftiends of mine If support everything you oppose and op­ now being detained in various prisons in pose everything you support. the U.S. for having refused to serve in At this juncture I would like to make the U.S. army in South Vietnam, They a plea for our brothers in Vietnam to remind me of my husband and my prison come on home,,... mates, and all those South Vietnamese AMERICA IS THE BLACK MAN'S BATTLE­ youths imprisoned in South Vietnam who, GROUND though deprived of their freedom, are Our mothers, fathers, sisters and bro­ not shaken in their optimism, their love thers are being shot down like dogs and for life and their faith in the bright we earnestly need their protection and future of their homeland." their skills. The white man has built tanks that will roll in our communities. After recalling that the youth of South The mission of those tanks is to DESTROY Vietnam and in the United States are al­ BLACK HUMANITY. Those tanks must be ways in the van of their patriotic strug­ stopped and they will, be stopped by any gle, the letter said: means necessary. Jan Bailey "The U.S. warmongers have killed my hus­ Age:25 band. No force on earth can defeat truth. Occupation:SNCC Community Organizer Young people who cherish freedom and dem­ Address:1234 U Street,N.W. ocracy are rising up in ever greater num­ Phone:387-7445 bers to fight for genuine independence and freedom of their respective countries, FIVE SAY NOi I am very glad and proud, because right in the United States I have friends who January witnessed the arrest of Dr.Spooky are struggling unflinchingly against in­ Rev.Coffin, Mr.Ferber, Mr.Goodman, and justice and oppression in South Vietnam, _J$r. Raskin for aiding and abetting nen and strongly demanding the withdrawal of to refuse the draft. SNCC and Bis

The widespread popular opposition Without the multi-universities, U.S. to the war in Vietnam is manifested in military technology would not be at part by the increasing number of young sl^an "advanced" state. Cornell and people of draft age who are, in various the Universities of Pennsylvania and ways, contesting military service. The Pittsburgh join dozens of other insti­ National Lawyers Guild Committee on the tutes in developing increasingly modern draft has been formed in ordered to stu­ means of killing. dy Selective Service Law and to dissem­ In the January issue of ffiet-Report. inate legal information about it. information classified "secret" by Gov- We have learned that many persons erment officials, was revealed in "Dir­ challenging the draft laws are being vi­ ectory of Chemical and Biological (CBW) sited by F.B.I, agents and have been Research Projects". Fifty-five Ameri­ subjected to interrogation. No valid le­ can universities and medical schools gal basis for such intrusion by the FBI were named as involved in military wea­ is apparent to us. It is our judgement ponry research. Included in the univer­ that F.B.I, agents, police officers or sities' activities is the creation of prosecutors have no right to question lethal, inhumane chemicals used against such persons under such circumstances, the Vietnamese people. nor any right or power to compel them Other articles in the January issue toh answer. include:"The Science of Control," "The Whether you are or are not one who is Public-Interest University," "IDA:The chahlenging the draft law, whether you Academic Conscripts" (institute for De­ have been arrested, or are otherwise in fense Analysis), "Universities in Viet­ the custody of the F.B.I, or any other nam," "U.S.PolicyMhird World," "The law enforcement officer, or have mere­ Stanford Complex," "Mace:Weapon for the ly been visited by them, you have the Home Front," "The Michigan Complex," and right to refuse to be interrogated. "Campus Reconnaissance." Only valid subpoenas properly served, which call for appearance for example before a Grand Jury or Court, require FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: response, and if you are served with a subpoena, it is advisable that you con­ John ./ilson sult your attorney for advice as to what SNCC, Room 803 response you are legally required or per­ 100 Fifth Avenue mitted to make and whether you have the New York, N.Y. 10011 right to remain silent even before such body. Phone: YU9-1313 National lawyers Guild Committee on the Draft HELL NOI WE WON'T GOi J . 3N--r' gULEVILLE, MISS,, w *-/+, m HISTORY The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com­ mittee was born out of the history-making 'e, the .... students who sit-in movement that erupted across the vu South in the spring of 1960. At Easter of that make up the staff of the Student year, the first southwide meeting of sit-in Nonviolent Coordinating Com­ leaders was held in Raleigh, North Carolina. Here a temporary committee to promote mittee, and the thousands that communication and coordination of activi­ ties among protest groups was set up. This make up its base, have staked Committee met monthly during the summer, our lives on the principle that opened an office in Atlanta, and at a second SAVANNAH, GA ATLANTA, GA. conference held in Atlanta, October, 1960, an interracial democracy can the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com­ be made to work in this coun­ mittee was formally organized. One repre­ sentative from each Southern state and the PROGRAM try, even in the fields, bayous, District of Columbia made up the Coordinat­ SNCC's grass-roots approach is designed to ... . build indigenous, trained leadership ... on ing Committee. and deltas of our deep South. college and high school campuses, and in local communities . . . Participation in the Freedom Rides in 1961 and a growing sense of the depth of * * * In recruiting potential student leaders from college campuses and sending them to We have not spared our­ fear that shackled most Negroes of the South work in rural communities, SNCC hopes to bridge the gap between centers of learning and convinced SNCC leaders that some one the work-a-day communities. selves in attempting to make would have to TAKE the freedom move­ that faith good. We call on the ment to the millions of exploited, disfran­ * * * SNCC workers have organized and guided local protest movements which are never chised and degraded Negroes of the Black identified as SNCC projects. This is part of its program of developing, building, and strength­ federal government to do like­ Belt ening indigenous leadership. wise. We would have it under­ SNCC DID JUST THAT. This program has captured the imagination of students all over the country, and today more stood that we are not calling on ...August, 1961—SNCC launched its first than 150 SNCC field secretaries are symbols of courage and dedication as they undertake the voter-registration project . . . choosing often tedious and tiring, and always dangerous work, in the most difficult areas of the South. . . . the country for what she might Walthall, Pike and Amite Counties of Mis­ Mississippi—Southwest Georgia—Central Alabama—Eastern Arkansas—Southern Virginia do for us, but rather to inform sissippi.—This sparked nonviolent direct action by hundreds of high-school stu­ These students work for subsistence salaries when funds are available, but at times they have her of what she must be pre­ dents in McComb, Miss., and led to the chopped cotton and picked squash to secure food. They live in the community, often in the homes development of a statewide voter registra­ pared to do for herself. of local residents, for the weeks and months that are required to break through generations of fear tion program, recently dramatized by the and intimidation. The students' courage helps emerging leaders achieve a new self image and the use of snarling police dogs to stop Ne­ strength to act. Sustained personal contact, discussion and persuasion and his determination to stay groes from registering in Greenwood, Mis­ with them and their problems, give the local people confidence in the SNCC worker and the program sissippi. he advocates. The people then begin to gain enough confidence in themselves to seek and assert . . . October, 1961—SNCC workers went their rights. . from SNCC testimony, before to Albany, Georgia, and became the cata­ In the community SNCC workers organize for voter registration and direct action. SNCC voter the House Judiciary Committee, lytic fuse for the massive protests of the registration efforts give disenfranchised Negroes the right to vote in areas where they have been May, 1963 Albany Movement. denied this right since Reconstruction. And, fully as important, the program deepens an awareness ... By November, 1961, some sixteen stu­ of the meaning of first class citizenship, develops a community of action, and creates mutual trust dents had volunteered to take out a year and support among people who too often have been suspicious and divided by fear. or more from school to work in the hard­ As of summer, 1963, SNCC had initiated and participated in ... . direct action campaigns in core rural areas for subsistence only. 49 cities in 13 states. . . .

STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE THE FUTURE... SNCC The future means redoubled efforts to continue . . . —introducing educated and deter­ mined young workers into hard core areas; SNCC: Structure and —maintaining a college contact that leads to militant action in cities and Leadership provides new recruits for full time work.

The future means . . . The Student Nonviolent Coordinating —expanding our pilot voter registration Committee is not a membership organization, projects in cities to provide workers but rather an agency attempting to stimulate in surrounding counties. and foster the growth of local protest move­ ments. —finding more funds to support stu­ dents willing to work at subsistence The Coordinating Committee itself con­ wages and share the life of the South­ sists of representatives of protest groups ern rural Negro while trying to con­ which meet regularly to formulate strategy. vince him of his rights. The Committee elects an executive commit­ tee, which is responsible for employing staff —providing more and better workshops and overseeing the general program. and conferences on the meaning and techniques of nonviolent community Chairman: JOHN LEWIS action and political involvement. Executive Secretary: JAMES FORMAN Staff Coordinator: WORTH LONG Change will be slow, but change must take Communications place. SNCC will need three times our cur­ rent staff to do the job we have only begun. Director: JULIAN BOND We will also need three times our current Project Directors: budget. Mississippi: ROBERT MOSES Southwest Georgia: CHARLES SHERROD The future means your support... Central Alabama: BERNARD LAFAYETTE —in contributions and in stimulating Arkansas: WILLIAM HANSEN your local community to break down Eastern Shore: REGINALD ROBINSON every form of racial discrimination now. —in letting us know how we can help you and how you can help us. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Wz Raymond Street, N. W., Atlanta 14, Georgia DANVILLE, VA. Telephone: 688-0331

Photos: Danny Lyon August, 1963 WE BELIEVE AND WE ASK YOU TO BELIEVE WITH US: WE SHALL OVERCOME! FREEDOM RALLY

DICK GREGORY

SNCC FREEDOM SINGERS Songs of the Southern Freedom Movement

Like the civil rights workers themselves the song? of the movement bring news of freedom and justice to the South. They protest white-only restaurants and hotels, vote discrimination, economic pressures and de­ privation, and intimidation and brutality by white citizens and police . . . fcnd they strengthen the spirit and drive that is changing all this. They ring out from . . .

the farmers' shacks and dusty roads of the South . . . the county churches

the picket lines . . MS LI the southern stockades and prisons . . .

••MM

the freedom rallies . .

the voter registration drives . . .

. . . Without them the movement would lack a vital and enriching force which brings depth and meaning to the cry for FREEDOM NOW. They are the songs that will not be stilled until the struggle for freedom and dignity- is won. DICK GREGORY

Dick Gregory's activities in the civil rights struggle dates back to his high school days. As a track star at Sumner High School in St. Louis he led a march on the Board of Education because the athletic records at the segregated Negro meets were not included in official record books. This demonstration helped to contribute to eventual desegregation in St. Louis public schools. While at Southern Illinois University he helped lead successful protests against restricted seating of Negroes; in the balcony of the Varsity Theatre. After gaining national prominence as a comedian, Gregory continued in the freedom struggle, giving numerous benefits and speaking tours for various civil rights groups. At a mass rally in Jackson, Mississippi, a voter registration worker whose wife had died while he was in jail, told Gregory of his experiences. The comedian decided then to become more directly involved in the struggle. This decision led him into direct action in cities in which he has been arrested at least eight times, posted bonds totalling $2,000.00, served a total of two months in jail and lost more than $100,000.00 in canceled engagements. In one week alone he canceled $42,000.00 in performances to participate in demonstrations. Despite the risk to his career, his family, his earnings and his life Gregory has vowed to remain in the fight for human rights. He has already spent more than one-half of his earnings as a professional enter­ tainer in the cause. His wife, Lillian, who has participated in drives beside her husband and has gone to jail in Alabama and Georgia (sometimes while pregnant), supports Gregory's conviction and action with her own. Dick Gregory appears today as part of a 30-day fund-raising tour for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. SNCC FREEDOM SINGERS

THE FREEDOM SINGERS appear today representing hundreds of freedom fighters who are struggling to bring a new hope of democracy to the South. Theirs is the story of voter registration drives met by snarl­ ing police dogs, of picket lines turned back by fire hoses and of sit-ins ended with electric cattle prods. Theirs is also the story of a determination and commitment which has given Americans everywhere a vision of freedom.

MARSHALL JONES. 26, is from Knoxville, Tennessee. He is a graduate of Florida A. & M. University and became involved in the civil rights movement while studying for his Master's degree at the University of Tennessee. He has been arrested twice for civil rights activity. He was a prize winner at last year's University of Tennessee Folk Festival and has sung with the Knoxville Civic Opera. EMORY HARRIS, is 20 years old and from Albany, Georgia. He first came into the movement while still a high school student during the time c< massive demonstrations in that city. He has worked in SNCC vote drives in Terrell and Lee Counties in southwest Georgia, and has been arrested seven times in connection with that work. JAMES PEACOCK. 28, is a native Mississippian who first became active in voter resistration work in South Carolina. He returned to Mississippi and has worked for SNCC in Greenwood, Vicksburg and Jackson. His civil rights work has led to three arrests. CHARLES "Chuck" NEBLETT toured with the first Freedom Singers group, appearing at Carnegie Hall, on television and on campuses through­ out the country. Twenty-two year old Neblett left Southern Illinois Uni­ versity to work with SNCC in Cairo, Illinois and Missouri in the summer of 1962 and has since worked in Mississippi. MATTHEW JONES. 27, is from Knoxville, Tennessee. He has been arrested 20 times for civil rights participation and was active in SNCC's Danville, Virginia, drive in the summer of 1963. A former school teacher, Jones has lost work in Macon, Georgia and Tennessee because of his civil rights work. He has composed many freedom songs, some of which the Freedom Singers will present tonight. RECORD S SONGBOOK AVAILABLE FROM SNCC

WE SHALL OVERCOME A record of Southern Freedom Songs by the original Freedom Singers.

WESHALLOVERCOME!

WE SHALL OVERCOME A book of Southern Freedom Songs, with guitar chords. Plus documentary of movement with testimonies of civil rights workers. Compiled by Guy and Candie Carawan.

-:- ORDER FORM -:-

SNCC — 6 RAYMOND STREET. N. W. — ATLANTA 14. GEORGIA

Please send:

copy (ies) of Freedom Songbook, We Shall Overcome, at $1.95 each.

copy (ies) of Freedom Singers Record, at $4.00 each.

Total amount enclosed $

Name

Address

City State SNCC

On February 1, 1960 four Negro college students sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro, N. C. and asked that they be served. These four students have today been joined by hundreds of young people who work for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. They form the front lines of the freedom movement which has shaken the conscience and social structure of the South and of the entire country. Today over 130 SNCC workers man voter registration and direct action projects throughout the South. Now located in some 60 counties from Texas to Maryland, SNCC field secretaries will also be based in all 82 Mississippi counties by mid-summer. SNCC workers, most of them college students taking time out from studies or recent graduates delaying professional careers, receive subsis­ tence wages. They live in homes of the people with whom they work and take part in the rural life of the Black Belt South. Food, clothing and their $10.00 weekly pay is shared among all, for their constituents are among the most impoverished in the land. As a part of their daily work, SNCC staff members conduct classes in freedom schools which augment inferior state education, organize the distribution of food and clothing sent for emergency relief and, above all, inspire in the community a sense of hope for a future of dignity and freedom. SNCC workers daily risk their lives in the face of police suppression and local terrorism. They are convinced, however, that democracy will hrve its test in the most resistant areas of the hard core Black Belt South. They cannot continue without your help.

-:- PLEDGE CARD -:-

In response to the appeal of the Freedom Singers enclosed is my contri­ bution of $ I pledge to contribute $ per month. Contributors to SNCC receive "The Student Voice". Please send more information

Name

Address

City State __J

Mail to: SNCC. 6 Raymond St.. N. W„ Atlanta 14, Georgia MISSISSIPPI • SUBVERSION OF* THE RIGHT TO VOTE The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 6 Raymond Street, N. W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314 li-aar "All political power is vested In, and derived from, the people; all government of right originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole." Article 3, Bill of Rights, Section 5 Mississippi Constitution, Adopted 1890

"Federal District Judge Harold Cox is expected to rule ... on a Justice Department suit to speed up the processing of Negro voter applicants at Canton (Mississippi) . . . At yesterday's hearing Judge Cox, the first judge appointed by President Kennedy under the 1961 expansion of the Federal Judiciary, repeatedly referred to Negro applicants as a 'bunch of niggers'." New York Times, March 9, 1964

"I assert that the Negro race is an inferior race. The doctrine of white supremacy is one widely if adhered to, will save America." United States Senator James O. Eastland (from Ruleville, Mississippi) June 29, 1945 in the United States Senate during debate on proposed FEPC law. Text rln the Congressional Record. "We've got a larger than usual police force " Mayor Allen Thompson of Jackson explains. "It's twice as big as any city our size." The force was built up to control voter registration and other civil rights workers. "We're going to be ready for them," he explains. "They won't have a chance." F,o r the first time in United States history Negroes are organizing across an entire state to overthrow white supremacy. In Mississippi national and local civil rights, civic and church organizations, through the Council of Federated organizations, are pulling together for the right to demand changes in the Mississippi Way of Life. At the same time there are whites throughout the state organizing to crush the movement for change. The dominant white supremacy group is known as the White Citizens' Councils, organized by Mississippi's "leading" citizens in 1954 to combat Negro voting rights and resist the Supreme Court school decision that same year. The Citizens' Councils now maintain a firm stranglehold on the governorship, the state legislature and the federal and state courts. They control local and state education throughout most of the state, and dominate the economic base and activity in the state. Ten years ago Mississippi Senator James Eastland called for state- organized defiance of any federal efforts to ensure equal rights for Ne­ groes. (The speech, titled "We've Reached Era of Judicial Tyranny," was delivered at the first state-wide convention of the Association of Citizens' Councils of Mississippi, held in Jackson on Dec. 1, 1955). "As I view the matter," Eastland said, "it is fundamental that each Southern State must adopt a State policy or State program to retain segregation, and that all the power and resources of the State be dedicat­ ed to that end." Eastland, a cotton-rich plantation owner who controls the Senate Judiciary Committee, attacked "gradualism" as one of the great dangers to the Mississippi Way of Life. "The present condition In which the South finds itself is more dan­ gerous than Reconstruction. It is more insidious than Reconstruction. It is more dangerous in that the present Court decisions are built on gradualism. To induce us to agree or to force us to comply step by step. In Reconstruction there was the attempt to force the hideous monster upon us all at once. Our ancestors rallied and stopped it. Its weakness then was that they attempted to enforce it all at once. It will take special precautions to guard against the gradual acceptance, and the erosion of our rights through the deadly doctrine of gradualism. There is only one course open to us and that is stern resistance. There is no other alternative . . . ." In the standard packet of literature distributed by Citizens' Council headquarters in Greenwood, Miss., several quotations are reprinted from a speech in 1907 byformerMississippiGovernor James K. Varda- man. Although given in 1907, Vardaman's speech pinpoints the State's present position on Negro voting. "The Negro should never have been trusted with the ballot. He is different from the white man. He is congenitally unqualified to exercise the most responsible duty of citizenship. He is physically, mentally, morally, racially and eternally the white man's inferior. There is nothing in the history of his race, nothing in his individual character, nothing in his achievements of the past nor his promise for the future which entitles him to stand side by side with the white man at the ballot-box .... "We must repeal the Fifteenth and modify the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Then we shall be able in our legislation to recognize the negro'sraclalpeculiaritiesandmake laws to fit them. This would leave the matter precisely as was intended by the fathers of the Republic." In 1955, Lamar Smith, a Negro, was killed after urging other Negroes to vote in a gubernatorial election. He was shot to death on the Brook- haven, Miss., courthouse lawn. A grand jury refused to indict the three, men who were charged with the slaying. In 1961, Herbert Lee, a Negro active in voter registration activities in Liberty, Miss., was shot to death by a member of the Mississippi State Legislature. Rep. E.E. Hurst, a Citizens' Council member, was "vindicated by the coroner's jury, which ruled the murder a "justifiable homicide." In 1964, a witness to the Lee killing, Louis Allen, was shot to death near his home. Allen had been harassed by local police officials several times since the Lee killing. Local authorities there say they have not come up with any clues in the Allen killing. In 1962, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville, Miss., was fired from her plantation job, where she had worked for 18 years, the same day she had gone to the county courthouse to attempt to register. The plantation owner had informed her that she had to leave if she didn't withdraw her application for registration. Leonard Davis of Ruleville was a sanitation worker for the city until 1962, when he was told by Ruleville Mayor Charles M. Dorrough, "We've goring to let you go. Your wife's been attending that school." Dorrough was referring to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee re­ gistration school in Ruleville. Marylene Burkes and Vivian Hilletof Ruleville were severely wounded when an unidentified assailant fired a rifle through the window of Miss Hillet's grandparents' home. The grandparents had been active in voter registration work. In Rankin County in 1963, the sheriff and two deputies assaulted three Negroes in the courthouse who were applying to register, driving the three out before they could finish the forms. The recording of reprisals against Negroes who attempt to exercise their Constitutional rights is the subject of another SNCC pamphlet, "Chronology of Violence and Intimidation in Mississippi Since 1961." In this pamphlet we will cut out and focus upon one chink in the vast race-walls which guard the Mississippi Way of Life: the web of voter registration requirements which ensnares any Mississippi Negro who would attempt to vote. The White Citizens' Councils control most important state institutions. Without the right to vote Negroes inMississippi have no institutionalized means of challenging the oppression by white supremacists. I t should be emphasized that the legal artillery of the State is by no means its mainline force against "uppity" Negroes trying to vote. The killings, beatings, shootings, jailings,andnumerous forms of econo­ mic repression are important elements in the every-day "private" means of deterring Negroes from making it to the courthouse. The voting laws are the "public" face. Hattiesburg police prevent Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee executive secretary,James Forman, from bringing Negroes to the courthouse to attempt to register to vote. A Republic, or republican form of government, is one in which the citizens vote in order to elect representatives to make and execute decisions about how to run the government. The United States Con­ stitution (Article 4, Section 4) guarantees to every state a republican form of government. Because the right to vote is vital to a republican form of government, the Constitution guarantees the right to vote in Article One (Section 2 and 4), and in the 14th, 15th and 19th amendments. But since 1890 the State of Mississippi has maneuvered to "deny Negroes the right to vote. Before 1890 the Constitution and laws of Mississipp i provided that all male citizens could register to vote who were 21 years of age and over, and had lived in the state six months and in the county one month. The exceptions were those who were Insane or who had committed crimes which disqualified them. In 1890 there were many more Negro citizens than white citizens who were eligible to become qualified electors in Mississippi. There­ fore, In that year a Mississippi Constitutional Convention was held to adopt a new State Constitution . Section 244 of the new Constitution required a new registration of voters starting January 1, 1892. This section also established a new requirement for qualification as a re­ gister voter; a person had to be able to read any section of the Mississ­ ippi Constitution, or understand any section when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation of any section. Under the new registration the balance of voting power shifted. By 1899 approximately 122,000 (82 percent) of the white males of voting age were registered. But only 18,000 (9 percent) of the Negro males qualified. Since 1899 a substantial majority of whites of voting age have become registered voters. But the percentage of Negro registered voters declined. Between 1899 and 1952 several "public" methods were used to keep Negroes off the voter lists or out of the political process to ensure white supremacy. Many Negroes simply were not allowed to register. Literate Negroes were required to interpret sections of the Con­ stitution to the satisfaction of a white registrar. All Negroes were excluded from the Democratic primary elections. Victory in the De­ mocratic primary In Mississippi during this period meant victory in the general election. In June, 1951 , a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a person could register to vote if he could read OR, if unable to read, he could understand or interpret a provision of the State Constitution. A much higher percentage of voting-age Negroes were literate in 1951 than in 1890. The Mississippi Legislators, all white, felt the Court's decision would enable many more Negroes to register to vote. Therefore, in 1952 the State Legislature passed a joint resolution proposing an amendment to Section 244 of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution. The proposed amendment would require a registration applicant to be able to read and interpret any section of the State Constitution. The proposed amendment was placed on the general election ballot, but fail­ ure to vote on the proposed amendment was counted as a negative vote and the amendment was not adopted. On April 22, 1954, the State Legislature again passed a resolution to amend Section 244. This time however, several new qualifications were included in the proposal. First, that a person must be able to read and write any section of the Mississippi Constitution; and give a reasonable interpretation of the Constitution to the county registrar. Second, a person must be able to demonstrate to the county registrar a reasonable understanding of the duties and obligations of citizenship under a constitutional form of government. Third, that a person make a sworn written application for registration on a form which would be prescribed by the State Board of Election

10 Commissioners. Fourth, that all persons who were registered before January 1, 1954, were expressly exempted from the new requirements. In October, 1954, Robert B. Patterson, executive secretary of the Mississippi Citizens' Councils, was reported to have said at a Citizens' Council meeting, "The amendment is intended solely to limit Negro registration," according to University of Mississippi professor Russell H. Barrett. The burden of the new requirements had .-> fall on Negroes because a substantial majority of whites were already registered and therefore exempted from the amendment. Most Negroes would still have to apply for registration and therefore have to fulfill the new requirements. In 1954 at least 450,000 (63 percent) of the voting-age whites were registered. Approximately 22,000 (five percent) of the voting - age Negroes were registered. With 95 percent of the 472,000 eligible voters white, the proposed amendment to Section 244 was adopted on November 2, 1954. Thus, adoption of the amendment ensured that at least 95 percent of the electorate would be white. "Although this same amendment failed to pass in 1952," the As­ sociation of Citizens' Councils of Mississippi reported, "it passed by a tremendous majority when the people of Mississippi, through the Citizens' Councils, were informed of the necessity and reason for the passage of this amendment." The new requirements were to be administered by the county re­ gistrars. But, since at least 1892 all voter registrars in Mississippi have been white. (Indeed, It should be noted that since 1892 all state officials have been white.) In January, 1955, an extraordinary session of the Mississippi Le­ gislature was called in order that the adopted amendment to Section 244 could be inserted in the Constitution of 1890. At this session th^ State Legislature also passed legislation which implemented the amend­ ment. The legislation required the interpretation test; the duties and obligations test; exempted persons registered prior to January 1,1954; and directed the State Board of Election Commissioners to prepare a sworn written application form which the county registrars would be required to use in examining the qualifications of each applicant. In addition, the application forms were to be kept as permanent public records. The amendment and its implementing legislation gave unlimited discretion to the county registrars in determining whether a voter registration applicant was qualified. Neither the constitutional nor the statutory provisions set any standards by which registrars should ad­ minister the tests. Thus, Negroes in Mississippi must face a white registrar who has no legal guidelines for determining the manner in which these tests

11 are to be administered; the length and complexity of the sections of the Constitution to be read, written and interpreted by the applicants; the standard for a reasonable interpretation of any section of the Miss­ issippi Constitution; the standard for a reasonable understanding of the duties and obligations of citizenship; nor a standard of performance by the applicant In completing the application form. The registrar has 285 sections of the 1890 Constitution from which to choose, some of which are as complicated as the question of the leases dealing with land purchases from the Choctaw Indians. A 1963 Omnibus Suit challenging Mississippi's voting laws, filed In Federal Court by the Justice Department, maintains, "There is no rational or reasonable basis for requiring, as a prerequisite to voting, that a prospective elector, otherwise qualified, be able to interpret cer­ tain of the sections of the Mississippi Constitution." The suit further states, "... Registrars ... have used, are using, and will continue to use the interpretation test and the duties and obligations test to deprive otherwise qualified Negro citizens of the right to register to vote without distinction of race or color. The existence of the interpreta­ tion test and the duties and obligations test as voter qualifica­ tions in Mississippi, their enforcement, and the threat of their en­ forcement have deterred, are deterring and will continued to deter otherwise qualified Negroes in Mississippi from applying for re­ gistration to vote." But the suit does not stop at the voting qualifications themselves in attacking the efforts to keep Negroes from voting. The suit argues that since Negroes have been denied an equal public education, the state does not have the right to turn around and demand interpretation and understanding tests which reflect the quality of public education. "In a state where public education facilities are and have been racial­ ly segregated and where those provided for Negroes are and have been inferior to those provided for white persons, an interpretation or understanding test as a prerequisite to voting, which bears a direct relationship to the quality of public education afforded the applicant violates the Fifteenth Amendment." But the state of Mississippi was not through erecting barriers to Ne­ gro suffrage. In 1960, the Mississippi Legislature passed a joint re­ solution to amend Article XII of the Constitution of 1890 to include a new qualification, good moral character, to the list of qualifications to vote. On November 8, 1960, the new section (241-A) was adopted by the Mississippi electorate. Of the approximately 525,000 registered voters in Mississippi who were eligible to vote on this proposed amend­ ment, about 95 percent were white, fewer than five percent were Negro. As in the cases of the other qualifications, the new amendment exempts most of the voting age whites from the requirement and in-

12 Negro citizens attempt to cast ballots in Greenwood, August 1963. Note helmeted policeman and local citizen photographing each of them as they enter the courthouse. The photographs can later be used to intimidate them, and perhaps to force them from their jobs or homes because they tried to vote. eludes most voting age Negroes. Ole Miss professor Russell Barrett stated in 1964 that during the campaign on the moral character amendment in 1960 the Jackson, Miss., State-Times editorialized, "This proposed amendment is not aimed at keeping white people from voting, no matter how morally corrupt they may be. It is an ill-disguised attempt to keep qualified Negroes from voting; and as such, it should not have the support of the people of Mississippi." During the 1960 legislative session another bill was passed, amend­ ing the Mississippi Code (Section 3209.6) to permit the destruction of registration records 30 days after the filing of the application form. In 1955 the legislature had passed a law which included a requirement that all registration applications be kept as a permanent public record. Mississippi legislators changed their attitudes after the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 were passed. In 1957 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which provided that the Attorney General of the United States may bring civil actions to protect the right to vote without distinction of race or color. In 1960 Congress passed another Civil Rights Act which required that all records and papers related to registration, poll tax payments, and any other matters pertaining to voting in federal elections be preserved for a certain period. The Act also provides that the United States Attorney General may gain access to county voting records by seeking a federal court order directing that the records be made available to him. (In May, 1964, the Justice Department secured such an order in Bolivar County, Mississippi, after four years of litigation). However, the Mississippi statute now permitted registrars to de­ stroy evidence of discrimination against Negro applicants should Justice Department officials want to photograph the records. The law was deliberately aimed at undermining Title III (1960 Civil Rights Act), a procedure which the Supreme Court has ruled violates Article VI of the Constitution of the United States. In the spring of 1962 the State Legislature adopted another package of brills designed to thwart growing efforts by Negroes to register and vote. Prior to this new legislation, the Mississippi Code (Section 3213) required that an applicant fill out the application form without assistance or suggestion from any person. The new legislation (House B111900) amended that section, making the requirements of the statute manda­ tory; requiring that no application can be approved or the applicant registered If any blank on the application form is not "properly and responsively" filled out by the applicant; and required that both the oath In the application and the application must be signed separately by the applicant* The purpose of House Bill 900 was to prevent anyone, including the

14 registrar, from giving the slightest suggestion about what was re­ quired on the application form. Thus, the applicant could be rejected because of the most inconsequential omission on the application form. Another bill in the package (House Bill 901) amended the Mississippi Code so that designation of race could be eliminated from the county poll books. The purpose was to hinder Justice Department efforts to docu­ ment the inability of Negroes to get on the registration rolls. House Bill 905 amended the Mississippi Code to require the State Board of Election Commissioners to provide space on the application form where the applicant must put information which established his good moral character. It also required the registrar to use the good moral character requirement in registering voters. The bill imple­ mented the State Constitutional amendment adopted by the electorate in 1960. House Bill 905 also retained the provision permitting destruc­ tion of application forms thirty days after they have been filed. The 1963 Omnibus Suit attacks both the 1960 Constitution amend­ ment and its 1962 statutory complement as "vague and indefinite," giving registrars "unlimited discretion ... to determine the good moral character of applicants for registration ... (but) neither sug­ gests nor imposes standards for the registrar's use in determining good moral character." Therefore, the Suit states, the registrar can determine: "What acts, practice, habits, customs, beliefs, relationships, moral standards, ideas, associations, attitudes and demeanor (indicate) bad moral character and what weight should be given to each. "What is evidence of good moral character and what weight should be given to affirmative evidence of it, such as school record, church membership, military service, club memberships, personal, social and family relationships, civic interest, absence of criminal record, "What periods of the applicants' life are to be examined for evidence relating to his character — whether the applicants' conduct during a remote period of his life is to be considered. "What sources, if any, such as public records , public officials, private individuals — Negro and white — will be consulted in de­ termining the character of the applicant; or whether the deter­ mination will be made on the basis of personal knowledge, impres­ sion, newspaper accounts, rumor or otherwise." But the all-white State Legislature did not Intend to leave character investigation and Judgment to the white registrar alone. House Bills 822 and 904 required disclosure of every applicant to public scrutiny so that any citizen might come forward to challenge the applicant's qualifications. The two statutes required that within 10 days after application for registration, the registrar must publish the name and address of each

15 Officials in Canton interrogate Negroes attempting to register to vote. In a two day period in February 1904, over two hundred Negroes stood in line but only seven were permitted to take the registration test. Can­ ton's mayor, sheriff, police chief and other leading white citizens are executives in the white supremist Citizens' Council. applicant once each week for two consecutive weeks, in a newspaper having general circulation In the county where the applicant applies. The statutes also provided that within 30 days after application any already - qualified elector in the county may challenge in an arffadavit the good moral character of any applicant, or any other qualification of the candidate for registration. Then, within seven days after such an affidavit is filed by a 'concerned' citizen, the registrar must notify the applicant of the time and place for a hearing to determine the validity of the challenge. The registrar retains the discretion to change the date of the hearing. The registrar is authorized to issue subpoenas to compel the at­ tendance and testimony of witnesses. The testimony is recorded and then the registrar may either decide the validity of the challenge or take the challenge under consideration. Courtroom rules of testi­ mony are not enforced at these hearings and both the applicant and the challenger may question witnesses. Either the challenger or the ap­ plicant may appeal to the county board of election commissioners, if the registrar decides against him in the hearing. The cost of the hearings are taxed in the same way that costs are taxed in the State chancery courts: the all-white county board can decide whether the contestants must share the costs, or the one who is de­ cided against must pay all of it. The statutes further provide that if no challenge to the applicant's qualifications is filed, the registrar shall determine the nature of the applicant's moral character and other qualifications "within a rea­ sonable time." Thus, If there is no challenge by a private citizen, there is nothing in the statutes which forces the registrar to come to a decision about the application. If the registrar should find the applicant qualified, House Bill 903 requires that the registrar write the word "passed" on the applicatio form. However, the applicant is still not registered unless he comes back in person to the registrar and asks the result of his application. The bill places the burden of responsibility on the applicant to return to the registrar's office. This requirement must be seen in the light of the murders and beatings of Negroes which have taken place In the courthouse or on its steps in connection with voter registration efforts. If the applicant was ruled to have good moral character, but the reg­ istrar decided the applicant has not fulfilled one or more of the other requirements, the statute requires that the registrar write "failed" on the application. The registrar, however, must not specify the reasons for failure , because to do so "may constitute assistance to the ap­ plicant on another application." The statute also provided that if the registrar decides the applicant has fulfilled all requirements except that of good moral character,

17 the registrar writes that on the application form and the reasons why he finds the applicant not to be of good moral character. If the registrar decides the applicant has not fulfilled one or more of the other requirements, and is not of good moral character, the registrar writes "failed" on the application and has the discretion to write on the application, "not of good moral character." This is the "public" mask worn for the outside world to explain why Negroes are not registered in large numbers in Mississippi. The 1963 Omnibus Suit asks the Federal Court to declare all of these registration requirements unconstitutional except those which were largely provided prior to 1890. Those requirements are that the ap­ plicant: be a citizen of the United States; 21 years of age or over; a re­ sident of Mississippi, the county and election district for the period outlined in the Constitution of 1890; be able to read; that the applicant not have been convicted of any of the disqualifying crimes described in the Constitution and Code of Mississippi; and that the applicant not be insane. Negroes are now trying to tear away this legal mask to expose the real basis of white supremacy. Without the right to register and vote Negroes cannot take part In any phases of Mississippi's form of republican government. What recourse do the white supre­ macists leave Mississippi Negroes, if Negroes cannot voice their opinions at the polls? Above: Registrar's office, Forrest County courthouse in Hattiesburg. Back cover: Elderly lady enters Leflore County courthouse in Greenwood • to attempt to register to vote.

STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE - /' 8'A RAYMOND STREET, N.Wi ATLANTA 14, SEORGIA

come let us build anew world together

STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE , RAYMOND STREET, N.W. ATLANTA 14, GEORGIA

posters of the southern freedom movement five posters from photographs by Danny Lyon

posters sell for $1.00 each complete set for $4.00

Student 6 Raymond St. KW Nonviolent Atlanta, Ga* Coordinating 30314 ] Committee STUDENfNONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE Enclosed Is $ 1.00 for each poster and/or . .-^- SVa RAYMOND STREET. N.W. ATLANTATLANTA 1414,, GEORGIGEORGIA I $ 4.00 for each set of the following: (write quantity) _ Food For Freedom __ One Man, One Vote!

How ! Is He Protecting You? The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee _ Come Let Us Build A _ Complete Set New World Together 6 Raymond Street, N. W. Name Atlanta, Georgia 30314 i Address

City State Zip Code FEDERAL PROSECUTION & CIVIL RIGHTS in ALBANY, GEORGIA

"... The only instance in which the government has moved with vigor has been against Negro leaders who have been working to remove the evils of the segregation system. "

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made this statement after nine leaders of the Albany, Georgia Movement were indicted and convicted by a Federal jury at the request of a Federal Attorney General.

Dr. King's statement is tragic but true. A look at Southwest Georgia's history of oppression and brutality aimed at keeping Negroes "like they have been for the past 100 years, " according to one sheriff, reveals the Federal government has always moved with caution and hesitation until the civil rights of white persons were allegedly under attack.

IN JUNE, 1958, James Brazier was arrested by police in Dawson, Geor­ gia after he complained they were beating his elderly father to death. He too was beaten and died. The government convened a Grand Jury which returned no indictments.

IN JULY, 1962, Mrs. Marion King was carrying food and clothing to de­ monstrators jailed in Camilla, Georgia. Although she was in her seventh month of pregnancy and carrying an infant child, a police officer kicked her and punched her in the face until she fell to the ground and lost con­ sciousness. A month later she gave birth to a premature, dead child.

IN JULY, 1962, Sheriff D. C. "Cull" Campbell of Dougherty County broke a walking stick over Attorney C. B. King's head. Campbell said later, "I'm a white man and he's a nigger.- Yeh, I knocked hell out of him and I'd do it again. "

IN AUGUST, 1963, during anti-segregation demonstrations in Americus, Georgia, children were hit with billy clubs and beaten with electric cat­ tle prods. One man, not a participant in demonstrations, had his leg broken by state police with a baseball bat. Another youth had twenty stitches taken in his head, as a result of a police bating. A U. S. Justice Department spokesman was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "There is no evidence of police brutality in Americus. " The power of the Federal governmentto prosecute in these and many other instances of brutality and violations of civil and human rights is amply covered by the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights acts. Cover­ ed so well, in fact, that Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy denied the need for additional legislation in this area.

The cases of Mrs. Marion King, brutalized before witnesses so badly that she lost her child; of Attorney C. B. King, beaten by a man who admitted he did it because King was a "nigger"; of James Brazier, whose killing was brought before a Grand Jury when no jury was neces­ sary for prosecution; and in the cases of the Americus beatings, were no Federal action has resulted, illustrate the hazards southwest Geor­ gia Negroes must face, and face alone.

But the actions taken against nine Albany Leaders indicate that the Federal government is ready to prosecute when it wants to, when it feels it can get a conviction, and when it is politically expedient to do so.

IN JULY 1950, a Negro was arrested and shot three times by the Sheriff of Baker County. The Negro, Charlie Ware, brought a damage suit against the sheriff, and the case was heard by an all-white jury which decided for the sheriff. One of the jurors who decided against Charlie Ware was Carl Smith, the white owner of a store catering exclusively to Albany Negroes.

Leaders of the Albany Movement approached Smith, as they had approach­ ed other Albany businessmen, and tried to get him to upgrade his Negro employees. He refused and on April 20, 1963, four Negroes picketed his store for one-half hour. Two days later, he closed down, claiming the half-hour picket line and a boycott called by the Albany Movement had forced him out of business. He complained to the Justice Depart­ ment, as civil rights leaders had complained of James Brazier, Attor­ ney C. B. King, Mrs. Marion King, and the Americus beatings.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RESPONDED THIS TIME, However, with a force of "at least 35" FBI agents, (according to U. S. Attorney Floyd Buford in his prosecution of the Albany leaders) a Grand Jury investi­ gation, and indictments charging conspiracy and/or perjury against nine people. These nine are the leading forces behind the direct action and voter re­ gistration campaigns in Albany that made the world wonder in 1961 why the most powerful nation in the world could let its citizens be jailed and beaten without taking action.

They are: DR. W. G. ANDERSON, President of the Albany Movement MR. SLATER KING, Acting President of the Albany Movement who succeeded Dr. Anderson and whose.wife had been beaten in Camilla; MRS. ELIZA JACKSON, Secretary of the Albany Movement, who lost her job at an all-Negro State College after she began working with the movement; REV. SAMUEL WELLS, perhaps the single most active local worker in Albany, and a Board Member of the Albany Movement; MR. THOMAS CHATMON, a local barber and Movement Board Mem­ ber, ran for City Council in 1962; MSSRS. ROBERT COLBERT and LUTHER WOODALL, two young, frequently arrested Albanians notorious with police for their participation in demonstrations; MISS JONI RABINOWITZ, a white field worker for the Student Non­ violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); MR. ROBERT THOMAS, a Negro active in the Albany Movement

Dr. Anderson, Colbert and Woodall were charged with "conspiring to injure a juror. " The others were charged with perjuring themselves during the Grand Jury investigation.

THAT EIGHT NEGROES, all active in trying to destroy a system that is at the very least embarrassing to the Federal Government should be singled out for attack by that government is surprising in itself. Miss Rabinowitz' indictment is even more so.

She is accused of falsely telling the Grand Jury she was not at the seene of the half-hour picket. Her defense presented thirteen witnesses— including one girl who looks like her, and admitted that she but not Miss Rabinowitz had been there—to back their case that the indictment was based on mis­ taken identity. The prosecution—-the Federal Government—put three wit­ nesses on the stand who declared she was there. SNCC has had many white students active in southwest Georgia since work began there in 1961. Their presence has been an embarrassment for local and Federal officials, for a southwest Georgia sheriff never knows if he is beating just another crazy northerner or a Congressman's niece when one of SNCC's white workers is maligned; with Negroes, he is sure he's beating no one who counts, or so it would seem.

Miss Rabinowitz' indictment was clearly an attack on all the white youngsters who come South to embarrass the rural policemen and the Federal govern­ ment. If this Federal action goes unprotested, other Federal Grand Juries— and county juries also —may use this same tactic to halt any rights drive which grows too impressive.

THE ALBANY INDICTMENTS CAN BE REVERSED, but only if the United States Department of Justice takes the necessary legal steps. This will be done only if the American community which believes in civil rights makes their protests known.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT THE ALBANY CASUALTIES?

Write to Attorney General Robert Kennedy demanding that his office:

1. confess error before the U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and join in appellants motion to reverse the convictions and dismiss the indictments.

2. direct the U. S. Attorneys in the South to examine their jury lists and to apply to District Courts for the immediate compilation of lists representing a true racial cross-section of the population. (In the Division in which the court that heard the Albany cases is located, 34% of the population is Negro. The jury box selected to hear these cases contained 1, 985 names; only 177 —or 5%— were Negroes.) Contribute to the cost of defense and the expense of appeals. Send your contributions to: ' SNCC, 156 Fifth Avenue, Room 902, New York, N. Y. 10010 (make checks payable to The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

labor donated * WE WANT 1 LnCn POWER "*•*£.

BLACK MEN IN AMERICA ARE A CAPTrVB PEOPLE

The black man in America is in a ptrpotml state of slavery_no matter what the white nans propaganda telle us. The black nan in America is expr6T£eoHenar oppressed the sane as his black brothers are all over the face of the earth by the sane white asn. We will never be free until we are all free and that means all black oppressed people all over the earth. We are not alone in this fight, we are « part of the struggle for aelf-determination of all black sen everywhere We here in America oust unite ourselves to be ready to help our brother* elsewhere. We must first gain BLACK POWER here in America. Living inside the camp of ths leaders of ths enemy forces, it le our duty to our Brothers to revolt against the system mod create our own system so that we can live as MK. We must take over the political and economic systems where we are in the majority in the heart of every major city in this country as well as many of the rural areas. We must create our own black culture to erase the lies the white man has fed our minds from ths day we were born.

THE BLACK MAN IN THE GHETTO WILL LEAD THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT

The black Brother in the ghetto will lead the Black Power Movement and make the changes that are necessary for its success. The black man iri the ghetto has one big advantage that the bourgeois Negro does not ....have despite his^^^^ He is already livingout- side^oJMthe value system'"wlOTtejsocist|r imposes on all black Americans. He has to look at things from another direction in order to survive. He is ready. He received hia training in the streets, in the jails, from the ADC check his mother did not receive on time and the head- beatings he got from the cop on the corner. Once he makes that first important discovery about the great pride you feel inside as a SLACK MAN and the great heritage of the mother country, Africa, there is no stopping him from dedicating himself tp_JPight~*tiie~HBFnirSe mans system. \ This 1a why the Black Power Movement ia a true revoXuTrrona?y~*^oTe«^it with the power to change mens minds and unmask the tricks the white man has used to keep black men enslaved in modern society.

THE BOURGEOIS NEGRO CANNOT BE A PART OP THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT

d The bourgeois Negro has been force-fed the white mans propaganda and has lived too long in the half-world between white and phony black m. bourgeois_spciety. He cannot think for himself because he is~rifiell of a man full of contradictions he cannot resolve. He is not to be trusted under sny circumstances until he has proved himself to be 'cured.1 There mr^ a minute handfull of theae 'cured' bourgeois Negroes in the Black Power Movement and they are most valuable but they ciust not be allowed to take control. They are aware intellectu­ ally but under mtrm*B H|11 rj^ct ejnptlpna^ly to the pressures of J^,.t,t^*^'atX.,.t!!!.,i.tl>iy. Immrn., .HIT, _ * tf„ijlg U.ibsral L. wj 11,;.,expose' an un- consjr^«ua__J>xejudice that he did not even realize he possessed '..HAT BROTHER MALCOLM X TAUGHT US ADOUT OURSELVES

Malcolm X waa the first black man from the ghetto in America to make a real attempt to get the white mans fist off the black mans balls. He recognized the true dignity of man - without the white society prejudices about status, education and background that we all must purge from our minds. Even today, in the Black Power Movement itself we find Brothers who look down on another Brother because of the conditions that life has imposed upon him. The most beautiful thing that Malcolm I taught us is that ones a black man discovers for him­ self a pride in his blackness, he can throw off the shackles of mental slavery and become a MAM in the truest sense of the word. We must move on from the point our Great Black Prince had reached.

WE MUST BECOME LEADERS FOR OURSELVES

We must not get hung-up in the bag of having one great leader who we depend upon to make decisions. This makes the Movement too vunerable to those forces ths white man uses to keep us enslaved, such as the draft, murder, prison or character assassination. We have to all learn to become lesders for ourselves sod remove all white values from our minds. When we see a Brother using a white Value through error tt is our duty to the Movement to point it out to him. We must thank our Brothers who show us our own errors! We must discipline ourselves so that if necessary, we can leave family and friends on a moments notice, maybe forever, and know our Brothers have pledged themselves to protect the family we have left behind. As a part of our education, we must travel to other citlea and make contacts with the Brothers in* all the ghettos of America so that when the time is right we can unite as one under the banner of BLACK POWER.

LEARNING TO THINK BLACK AND REMOVE WHITE THINGS PROM OUR MINOS.

We have got to begin bo aay and understand with complete assuredness what black is. Black is an inner pride that the white mans language hampers ua from expressing. Black is being a complete fanatic, who whit** society considers insane- We have to learn that black xa so much better than belonging to the white race with the blood of millions dripping from their hands that it goes far beyond sny pre­ judice or resentment. We must fill ourselves with hate for ail white things. This is not vengence or trying to take the white oppressors place to become new black oppressors but is a oneness with a world­ wide blask brotherhood. We must regain respect for the tost religion of our fathers, the spirits of the black earth of Africa Ihe white man has so poisoned our minds that if a Brother told you he practiced Voodo >ou would roll around on the floor laughing at ho* stupid and superstitious he was. We have to learn to roll around on the floor laughing at the black men who says he worships the white Jesus. He istruly sick. We must create our own language for these things 3- V7

that the white man will not understand because a Black Culture exists and it is not wood-carvings or native dancing it is the black strength inside of true men.

IDEAS ON PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE OF BLACK POWER

We_must infiltrate all government agencies. This will not be hard because black clerks work in all agencies in poor paying jobs and hsv« a natural resentment of the white men who run these jobs. People must be assigned to seek out these dissatisfied black men and women and put pressure on them to givs us the information we need. Any man in over­ alls., carrying a tool boat, can enter a building if he looks like he w"" //knows what he ia doing. Modern America depends on many complex I systems such as electricity, water, gas, sewerage and transportation and all are vunerable. Much of the government is run by computers that must operate in airconditioning. Cut off the airconditioning and they cannot function. We must begin to investigate and learn all of these things so that we can use them if it becomes necessary. We can­ not train an army in the local park but we can be ready for the final confrontation wathhthe white mans syatemr- RememBeryour Brothers in South Africa and do not delude yourselves that it could not happen here. We oust copy the white mans biggest trick, diversion (Hitler taught them that) ^tui infiltrate all civil rights groups, keep them in confusion so they will be nutralized *nd cannot be used as a tool of the white power structure. The civil rights. Integrationiat movement says to the white man, "If you please, Sir, let us, the 10% minority of America have pur righta. See how nice and nonviolent we are:* This is why SNCC calls itself a Human Rights Organization. We believe that we belong to the 90? majority of the people on earth that the white aan oppresses and that we should not beg the white man for anything. We want what belongs to us as human beings and we intend to get it through BLACK POWER.

HOW TO DEAL WITH BLACK TRAITORS

Uncle To© is too kind of a word What we have &r^ black traitors, quislings, collaborators, sell-outs, white Negroes. We hava to expos* these people for once and for all for what they are and place them on the aide of the oppressor where they belong. Their black skin is a lie and their guilt the shame of all black men. We must ostracize them and if necessary exterminate them. We .aua.tj^ fight nj a 'fair- gamp.' We must do whatever is neceaaary t o ^wxnWC^fi' v> -T V ' have to hate and disrupt and destroy and blackmail and lie and steal .md become blood-brothers like the Mau-Mau. We must eliminate or render inetei'-t ive all traitors. We must make them fomr to stand up like puppets for the white men, and we must make the world understand that these so-called men do not represent us or even belong to th<- Harae black race because they sold out their birthright for a mess of white society pottage. Let them choke on it. 4. -. m - PITFALLS TO AVOID ON THE PATH TO SLACK POWER

We ctust learn how close America and Russia mrm politically. The big­ gest lie in the world is the cold mar. Money runs this world and it is controlled „co^ RusslA~and"*America run the two biggest money systems in the world and they intend to keep it under their control under any circumstances. Thus, we cannot expect any help from Communism or any other 'ism.' We must seek out poor peoples movements in South America, Africa and Asia and make our alliances with them. We must not be fooled into thinking that there is a ready-made doctrine that will aolve all our problems. There are only white mans doctrines and they will never work for us. We have to work, out our own systems end doctrines and culture.

WHY PROPAGANDA IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT TOOL

The one thing that the white mans system cannot stand is the TRUTH because his system is ail based upon lies. There is no such thing as 'justice' floS^^ir black man in America. The white man controls everything that is ssid in every book, newspaper, magazine, TV and radio.....broadcast. Even the textbooks used in the schools and the biTTi* that is read An the churche are designed to maintain the system tot the white nan. Each and every one of us is forced to listen to the white mans propaganda every day of our lives.J The political system, economic system, military system, educational system, religious system and anything else you name ia used to preserve the status quo of white America getting fatter and fatter while the black aan gets snore and sore hungry."/ We must spend our tirae telling our Brothers the truth. We must Sell them that any black woman who wears a diamond in her finger ia wearing the blood of her Brother*) and Maters in slavery in South Africa where one out of every three black babies div before the age of one, from starvation, to make the white auin rich. We must stop wearing the symbols of slavery on our fingers. We must stop going to other countries to exterminate our Brothers and Sisters for the white mans greed. We must ask our Brothers which side are they on? Once you know the truth for yourself it is your duty to dedicate your life to recruiting your Brothers and to counteract the white oans propaganda. We must disrupt the white mans system +<> create our own. We must publish newspapers »nd get radio stations. irracle Unity is strength - leta use it now to get 0LACK POWER.

SNCC 416S S. Ellis Ave. Chicago, 111. 60t>53 v24-o7Bl INTRODUCTION

TOTAL CONTROL AS THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF BLACK PEOPLE

Brothers and Sisters: We have come from all over the country, burning with anger and despair not only with the miserable economic plight of our people, but fully aware that the racism on which the Western World was build dominates our lives. There can be no separation of the problems of racism from the problems of our economic, political, and cultural degradation. To any black man, this is clear. But there are still some of our people who are clinging to the rhetoric of the Negro and we must separate ourselves from those Negroes who go around the country promoting all types of schemes for Black Capitalism. Ironically, some of the most militant Black nationalists, as they call themselves, have been the first to jump on the bandwagon of black capitalism. They are pimps; Black Power Pimps and fraudulent leaders and the people must be educated to understand that any black man or Negro who is advocating a perpet­ uation of capitalism inside the United States is in fact seeking not only his ultimate destruction and death, but is contributing to the continous exploitation of black people all around the world. For it is the power of the United States Government, this racist, imperialist government that is choking the life of all people around the world. We are an African people. We sit back and watch the Jews in this country make Israel a powerful conservative state in the Middle East, but we are not concerned actively about the plight of our brothers In Africa. We are the most advanced technological group of black people in the world, and there are many skills that could be offered to Africa. At the same time, it must be publicly stated that many African leaders are in disarray themselves, having been duped into following the lies as laid out by the Western Imperialist governments. Africans themselves succumbed to and are victims of the power of the United States. For instance, during the summer of 1967, as the representatives of SNCC, Howard Moore and I traveled extensively in Tanzania and Zambia. We talked to high, very high, governmental officials. We told them there were many black people in the United States who were willing to come and work in Africa. All these government officials who were part of the leadership in their respective govern­ ments, said they wanted us to send as many skilled people that we could contact. But this program never came into fruition and we do not know the exact reasons, for I assure you that we talked and were committed to making this a successful -2-

program. It is our guess that the United States put the squeeze on these countries, for such a program directed by SNCC would have been too dangerous to the inter­ national prestige of the U.S. It is also possible that some of the wild state­ ments by some black leaders frightened the Africans. In Africa today, there is a great suspicion of black people in this country. This is a correct suspicion since most of the Negroes who have left the States for work in Africa usually work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the State Department. But the respect for us as a people continues to mount and the day will come when we can return to our homeland as brothers and sisters. But we should not think of going back to Africa today, for we are located in a strategic position. We live inside the U.S. which is the most barbaric country in the world and we have a chance to help bring this government down. Time is short and we do not have much time and it is time we stop mincing words. Caution is fine, but no oppressed people ever gained their liberation until they were ready to fight, to use whatever means necessary, including the use of force and power of the gun to bring down the colonizer. We have heard the rhetoric, but we have not heard the rhetoric which says that black people in this country must understand that we are the Vanguard Force. We shall liberate all the people in the U.S. and we will be instrumental in the liberation of colored people the world around. We must understand this point very clearly so that we are not trapped into diversionary and reactionary movements. Any class analysis of the U.S. shows very clearly that black people are the most oppressed group of people inside the United States. We have suffered the most from racism and exploitation, cultural degradation and lack of political power. It follows from the laws of revolution that the most oppressed will make the revolution, but we are not talking about just making the revolution. All the parties on the left who consider themselves revolutionary will say that blacks are the Vanguard, but we are saying that not only are we the Vanguard, but we must assume leadership, total control and we must exercise the humanity which is inherent in us. We are the most humane people within the U.S. We have suffered and we understand suffering. Our hearts go out to the Vietnamese for we know what it is to suffer under the domination of racist America. Our hearts, our souls and all the compassion we can mount goes out to our brothers in Africa, Santa Domingo, Latin America and Asia who are being tricked by the power structure of the U.S. which is dominating the world today. These ruthless, barbaric men have systematically tried to kill all people and organizations opposed to its imperialism. We no longer can just get by with the use of the word capitalism to describe the U.S., for it is an imperial power, sending money, missionaries -3- and the army throughout the world to protect this government and the few rich whites who control it. General Motors and all the major auto industries are operating in South Africa, yet the white dominated leadership of the United Auto Workers sees no relationship to the exploitation of black people in South Africa and the exploitation of black people in the U.S. If they understand it, they certainly do not put it into practice which is the actual test. We as black people must be concerned with the total conditions of all black people in the world. But while we talk of revolution which will be an armed confrontation and long years of sustained guerilla warfare inside this country, we must also talk of the type of world we want to live in. We must commit ourselves to a society where the total means of production are taken from the rich people and placed into the hands of the state for the welfare of all the people. This is what we mean when we say total control. And we mean that black people who have suffered the most from exploitation and racism must move to protect their black interest by assuming leadership inside of the United States of everything that exists. The time has passed when we are second in command and the white boy stands on top. This is especially true of the Welfare Agencies in this country, but it is not enough to say that a black man is on top. We must be committed to building the new society, to taking the wealth away from the rich people such as General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, the DuPonts, the Rockefellers, the Mellons, and all the other rich white exploiters and racists who run this world. Where do we begin? We have already started. We started the moment we were brought to this country. In fact, we started on the shores of Africa, for we have always resisted attempts to make us slaves and now we must resist the attempts to make us capitalists. It is in the financial interest of the U.S. to make us capitalists, for this will be the same line as that of integration into the main­ stream of American life. Therefore, brothers and sisters, there is no need to fall into the trap that we have to get an ideology. We HAVE an ideology. Our fight is against racism, capitalism and imperialism and we are dedicated to building a socialist society inside the United States where the total means of production and distribution are in the hands of the State and that must be led by black people, by revolutionary blacks who are concerned about the total humanity of this world. And, therefore, we obviously are different from some of those who seek a black nation in the United States, for there is no way for that nation to be viable if in fact the United States remains in the hands of white racists. Then too, let us deal with some arguments that we should share power with whites. -4-

We say that there must be a revolutionary black Vanguard and that white people in this country must be willing to accept black leadership, for that is the only protection that black people have to protect Ourselves from racism rising again in this country. Racism in the U.S. is so pervasive in the mentality of whites that only an armed, well-diciplined, black-controlled government can insure the stamping out of racism in this country. And that is why we plead with black people not to be talking about a few crumbs, a few thousand dollars for this cooperative, or a thou­ sand dollars which splits black people into fighting over the dollar. That is the intention of the government. We say...think in terms of total control of the U.S. Prepare ourselves to seize state power. Do not hedge, for time is short and all around the world the forces of liberation are directing their attacks against the U.S. It is a powerful country, but that- power is not greater than that of black people. We work the chief industries in this country and we could cripple the economy while the brothers fought guerrilla warfare in the streets. This will take some long range planning, but whether it happens in a thousand years is of no consequence. It cannot happen unless we start. How then is all of this related to this conference? First of all, this conference is called by a set of religious people, Christians, who have been involved in the exploitation and rape of black people since the country was founded. The missionary goes hand in hand with the power of the states. We must begin seizing power wherever we are and we must say to the planners of this conference that you are no longer in charge. We the people who have assembled here thank you for getting us here, but we are going to assume power over the conference and determine from this moment on the direction in which we want it to go. We are not saying that the conference was planned badly. The staff of the conference has worked hard and have done a magnificent job in bringing all of us together and we must include them in the new leadership which must surface from this point on. The Conference is now the property of the people who are assembled here. This we proclaim as fact and not rhetoric and there are demands that we are going to make and we insist that the planners of this conference help us implement them. We maintain we have the revolutionary right to do this. We have the same rights, if you will, as the Christians had in going into Africa and raping our Motherland and bringing us away from our continent of peace and into this hostile and alien environment where we have been living in perpetual warfare since 1619. Our seizure of power at this conference is based on a program and our program is contained in the following MANIFESTO: For the past few years I and many others have been attracted to SNCC because of its courage, the honesty of its anger, its unwillingness to compromise, its refusal to be distracted by irrelevant ideological warfare, and its roman­ ticism. Some whites have committed an irrevocable part of themselves to its work - and both SDS and SSOC have emerged much under its influence. This very strength, however, has meant that many militant whites have allowed the black members of SNCC to define their role within the movement - particularly within the Negro community. While whites have had to depend upon others to introduce them into the Negro community and many of us naturally chose SNCC - whites in the movement must learn to make their own judgments about the dark community just as they are already making their own judgments about the business community, the university community, the war machine, and the sexual revolution. Our friends and lovers can be our worst enemies, and revolutions are a particularly self- destructive form of behavior generally consuming their most principled members. There are no guarantees against such dangers, one just has to be aware that they exist and deal with them as best he can when they happen. It is in this spirit that I wish to talk about "black nationalism" - at times with special.reference to SNCC ideas and attitudes, but more basically concerned simply with developing a perspective that is functional for a white radical. One of the essentials of revolutionary activity is that a person must know something about who he or she is, -2- whence he came and whither he would go, the forces that surround him - or as some of us put it, "where you are at"• In a revolutionary situation the premium for this type of self-knowledge is high, often outweighing other considerations i that are just as important morally. Thus Trotsky helped pave his own downfall before a ruthless, rather unexciting tyrant i because he was blind to the destructive potential of his situation. More concretely, this means for us that whites can never be totally committed to an exclusively Negro or "black" revolution, or that Northern radicals generally aren't as committed to the creation of a New .South as the Southern radicals who will continue to live there. That is to say that while altruism may be possible, pure altruism or an altruism without reference to the needs of the self is hypocritical and transparently self-deceptive. Now if whites do not have some sort of workable dis­ tinction between their necessarily limited commitment to an exclusively "Negro" cause and a commitment to the freedom of the total human community, they face certain difficulties. What happens is something as follows. Since dark people are themselves divided about what to do "for" Negroes—the white finds some dark mentor who directs the white in his or her struggle to help the mentor's people. The white person chooses,of course, the person who gives him the most psycho­ logical and spiritual compensation for his commitment. Whether this compensation takes the form of praise and appreciation, long sympathetic conversations, a few bitter remarks about race which can be forgiven as due to "the problem", or a good -3- screwing - it does not create enough mutual respect to last and after a while such whites may be discarded by their dark mentors. On a personal level such relationships may involve pain and concern as well as manipulation, but on the political level it all tends to degenerate into the assumption that "The Movement" belongs to Negroes. As if, say, the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights belonged only to whites. In either such a "black" revolution ,or an "American" revolution, there results a useful alteration of power, but not a real revolution on behalf of all men. Before dealing directly with a.ny more of the concrete issues of whites in the movement, however, it might be helpful to try to shift the terms of the ideological battles now in process. Particularly the polemics about "black nationalism v^s. integration" tend to obscure as well as clarify the issues. I would like to indicate some of the realities which I see behind these phrases. If we are going to be angry, and some of us are very angry, we ought to at least clear the self-righteous smog of battle so that our anger is focused on the right object. The word "integration" has sometimes been used to- indicate the fact that Negroes and whites in this country share an allegiance to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, they share some common religious traditions,

i they both watch television, they have common ancestors, and they should share the land and its produce. Furthermore, the majority of people in this country are white - and any -4-

attempt to gain justice for American Negroes must deal with that fact. / On the other hand "black nationalism" tends to emphasise that most of the people in the world are poor and colored, and that it makes no sense to integrate into white society unless the United States is willing to integrate into the rest of the world. So far white America has shown little inclination for such integration, pursuing an intransigent course of exploitation and murder in Latin America, South Africa, and South Vietnam. Furthermore, integration in this country has been reserved for only a few Negroes - often at the expense of natural appearance and speech, manhood, and their ghettoe brothers. The nationalists emphasize the neglected African i roots of their song and dance and cunning, seeing themselves as a transplanted colony rather than as a people with an in­ vestment in this society. —j The danger in pursuing "Integration" is that one compromises his demands and vision by an over-accomodation to the power of white America. Thus Roy Wilkins refuses to criticize the War in Vietnam because he doesn't want to jeopardize his standing with the White House. Of course, Negroes are overrepresented in Vietnam and there will be no War on Poverty as long as the War in Vietnam continues so his standing with Johnson, is politically as well as ethically foolish. The danger in pursuing "black nationalism" is an ethical i despair which substitutes the coming revolution of the colored masses for any serious grappling with present injustice. Another phenomena which tends to accompany "black nationalism" is an increasingly articulate and voluble -5-

rejection of non-violence as an answer to the Negroes' problems. Which really sort of begs the question since non-violence is not so much a way of getting rid of your own problems as it is a way of making other peoples' problems your own. Since freedom is a constant struggle, good men are crucified, and revolution^ are always being-betrayed - a few hundred gentle souls who are willing to sit-in and be arrested several times are not going to alter overnight or in five years the injustice and tragedy of human existence, and particularly since we face in the United States one of the most entrenched and unconsciously arrogant nations of history, there are several sound reasons for tempering our hopes. q Part of the confusion about non-violence is rooted in the person and image of Martin Luther King. Without denying ex the genuineness of his charisma and the relevance of his message, it is misleading to equate all his deeds and activities with true non-violence. Like Gandhi in India and even Trotsky during the Russion Revolution, King has discovered that there are times when non-violence can have an immediate and pragmatic significance, but he projects this discovery beyond the point of honest expectation. Just as many white Americans / think that the Kingdon of Heaven is already here in the United States, King generates in the hearts of his followers the hope that it may be only a generation away for black Americans. In both cases the very powerful hope or "dream" of America has been confused with its reality. I# Furthermore, King is not always honest. He deceived

his followers at Selma by turning around according to a -6-

prearranged plan after telling the marchers "We will go as far as our feet will carry us!" His attempts to mediate between the mayors and rioters of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles involve him in an even deeper deceit. The rioters have not asked King to represent them - have in fact by their deeds repudiated him. King at these meetings has been so anxious to prevent Negroes from being violent that he has supported the use of the national guard to restore "law and order". This i posture of non-violence for Negroes only may help some Negroes i to a sense of moral superiority, but it certainly does not \ prevent riots. It would be better to remain silent than to be in a position so much like supporting King George after the Boston Tea Party. j | Nor does King do any service to his white allies and brothers by mollifying and shielding them from the frustration and anger of his black brothers. The white liberal has been helped to feel that if he does something (say, support another civil rights bill, donate money to SCLC or SNCC, join a demonstration) , then everything will be all right. As if there were no irrevocable deeds, that the average Negro does not harbor deepseated hatred or resentment, that our black \ br'others are waiting for us with open arms - while we of course have a job opening for him,and our grandchildren may even intermarry. But there is no way to make "all right" a situation that has festered for centuries, v } U A distinction needs to be made between a general historical trend and our individual responsibility within the

context of that trend. Whites have robbed and raped and -7-

murdered Negroes for years - and they cannot escape the consequences of their deeds. Not that whites were the c^nly wrongdoers - slavery was established with the active assistance of African slavetraders and Negro overseers. But the record is clear enough - and the victims and their descendants have not forgotten it. A few Negroes perhaps can and will forgive whites for their crimes - but as the opportunity begins to present itself most of them will be Interested in obtaining power for themselves. And if they need to commit a few crimes themselves to obtain that power, many are quite prepared to commit them,^nd it is better that some white people die than that the hatred which has always hidden behind those yielding eyes and springing smiles and soft, assuaging Negro voices should remain there forever. One should not overestimate the violence. Much of it 1? Is psychological rather than physical. Just as there is more violence in the word "boy" or "nigger" than in a policeman's billy, from the pranks of the Uncle Toms to the "horror stories for white liberals" of Leroi Jones, American Negroes have become masters of psychological sabotage. J^ The issue, however, is not whether whites will be killed or whether Negroes should be non-violent or whether there will be a race war. The reality is that people will be killed whether they be brown or black or white. And murder is still murder whatever the justification or frustration. The role of the revolutionary is not so much to bring about change - change will come and President Johnson and Governor Wallace -8-

cannot .prevent it any more than a sniper's bullet will force it. The role of a revolutionary is to midwive the change so that the birth of the new society doesn't generate all the diseases of the old. \i~ If this ideological backdrop has any validity then perhaps we can be a little more clear about.some of the real issues involved for whites working within Negro communities. I am not going to argue whether whites should or should not work in Negro communities any more than I would argue whether whites or Negroes should work in poor white communities, in the universities, or,overseas. That sort of question is too abstract. The movement tends to become a ghettoe of isolated revolutionaries - and particularly within SNCC where everything is personal - the political ideologies tend to guise very personal and even petty conflicts which have very little to do with race or economics. What such people as Stokely Carmichael or Malcomb X say is important - whites should understand it \ and learn from it, and make their own decisions about it. But I for most of the whites in the movement the problem has not been their political sophistication^ but their difficulties in living and working with the particular Negroes they are supposed to be assisting. And it is these problems that I wish to speak of. j (, The only criteria which I recognize for evaluating the work of anyone in any community is that the work be a creative use of one's talents, that it meets a recognized need within the community, and that there is no other'job and community which better meets these criteria. Such decisions are basically between a person and the people he would

work with - and I can only put forward a few scattered remarks

of varying validity.

One reason which should not move whites to work I 7 within Negro communities is their alienation from white

society. The fact that one is critical of white society does

not imply that you are necessarily for Negroes. Whites have

been working out their frustrations on dark people for a

long time, and doing it in the name of civil rights doesn't

make it any better. Likewise it is not enough to work out

of a sense of guilt. Whites have atresponsibility for

what other whites have done, but no single white can atone for

all the wrongs of 300 years. Which is to say that it is not

enough to feel guilt or anger or alienation about the mis­

treatment of Negroes in white America, but that you must

be clear about the relevance of those emotions to your specific

tasks.

. g One of the results of the changing mood within,

the Negro community is that dark men and women are trying

to recover their dignity and independence and manhood and

womanness and they have reached out to assert themselves.

So that quite apart from the fact that most whites know

very little about Negro communities, a white person has to

eschew the sort of leadership which reinforces patterns of

Negroes following the white man. One negro girl told of how

an old negro woman asked her "when are those white civil

rights workers coming so that we can do something?" At the -10-

same time, however, everyone needs to do a work that allows personal initiative - and if some people call that "leadership" you just have to let the chips fall where they may. , One attitude often asserted, and more generally simply assumed, is that no white person can every understand what it is to be a Negro. Which is in many ways rather obvious - none of us really understands his own father or lover. But some of the inferences drawn from this are questionable. Often there is a strong feeling that Negroes constitute a private club of values and experience which must be fiercely defended against intruding whites who are seen as inherently incapable of understanding these values. Whites cannot - It is said - understand jazz or spirituals or teach Negro history. Much of this is rooted in bitter experience - Negroes who sang "Let my people go.'" were "happy," whites "dig" blues or spirituals without understanding the pain and protest of such music, etc. Nevertheless there is often an implicit view of whites as useful maids and servants of the black man's revolution, nice and maybe even necessary to have around, but obviously incapable of assessing the real situation. 3-0 • There is a reason why whites can't "organize"

Negro communities in the sense that black organizers do. What the white must do is open channels of communication between black and white communities. Whereas a black organizer tends to build the internal strength of the dark community. 11

. At this point, SNCC's notion of independent organizing in the black and white communities veers toward abstraction. Sinee there have never been totally separate black and white communities, the problem is not so much to create an independent base and identity for black people as to change the terms of the deep cultural and physical interdependence which will continue to exist. Thus if SNCC is serious about a coalition of poor whites and blacks, then tangible as well as Ideological evidence of this concern must be forthcoming. As loiig as Stokely - that brilliant and daring actor - continues to distract attention by his power to shock and intimidate whites, his own and others quieter concerns for a coalition of the poor will remain unconvincing.

« a It is not just that dark people cannot get jobs or are hit by overswung billies. These are direct and can often be dealt with. But within the various stereotypes of Negroes is a deeper violence whereby white people do not really see, they unsee, dark people. People who live in shanties are "happy", faces beaten down by travail and harrassment are "patient", financially dependent maids are "spokesmen" for their race, etc. Of course the refusal to face their dark brothers means that such whites do not see themselves either.. The bland, sympathetic looks of those who do not "understand" why Negroes are angry is but symptomatic of a civilization which has lost hold on reality whether in Harlem or Cuba or Vietnam or in its gonads. 12 ft. 5 White people do not realize, in general, that it can be more dangerous to be unable to sing or touch than to be unable to read or vote. Just as the fears of "black power" indicate the guilt and fears of whites rather than any objective understanding of what black people actually want, the myths of Negro sexuality express in more symbolic form the repressed prowess and hopes and fears of white people. Men who profit from children picking cotton or the blandishments of Madison Avenue by day cannot make love by night. Our atomic bombs could be viewed as monuments to the Impotence of frustrated men. Oppression not only forebodes evil for the future, it destroys the present center of our living. There is not much that any single white can do to save a civilization so bent upon its own destruction and inauthen,ticity. Some of its genuine achievements can be salvaged and shared with the rest of the world. Some perhaps of the stolen goods can be returned. But these cannot be done within the context of "white" civilization. Only if white civilization opens itself to the poor and colored of the earth will Its own achievements have validity, and once white civilization does that it will no longer be "white".

Jy 4, There is a certain lucidity that belongs to those who live under the shoe of oppression - partly because those who suffer learn that there is no need to Inflict more suffering, partly because simply to survive they must understand the mechanisms of the cruelty Inflicted upon them. Thus Negroes have developed an uncanny insight into the hidden sides of white people. So that any white person who lives with black people can learn a tremendous amount not just about Negroes but also about himself and "his" race.' 2^ Nevertheless, any white who works within a Negro community eventually discovers that many Negroes have an image of him that can be as destructive of his humanity as the "images whites have fabricated of themselves. There is a story about a group of South African servants who by their implacable reserve - a reserve that the whites can't penetrate without admitting their own position as exploiters - and countermanipulations slowly drive their masters mad. Likewise, whites can find themselves put to test to prove their integrity - much of the suspicion can be overcome with gentleness, humor, and time - but integrity is not something finally that can be proven by ded.ds, it is there or it is not and none of us have enough of it. + *j It is not hard to forgive the wary and fearful eyes

of strangers riveted to your skin, you can understand why people lie to you and even why dark friends and acquaintances 14

misunderstand you - after all, we do live in a historical context, and even committed whites have made their share of mistakes and wrongs. Still there are limits to how much white peoples' culpability exonerates Negroes of responsibility, and here I am going to be more personal and try to describe my own frustrations. 0-% For me it can be terribly frustrating to listen to some dark people talk on and on about "the white man" - as if there had never been cruelty by Romans or Arabs or Chinese or down the street. Trying desperately to break through, to the point where it is understood that yes, my face is white, and that does mean something, but I do know that white men are cruel, that too many dark babies die, that men and even women were lynched, that the rent is_ too high, and I have seen the inside of jails and I know that strangers rivet their eyes to your skin and the storekeeper called your child "nigger" and a white man asked where he could get some black pussy and yes I think Dr. King is a great man and Malcomb too, I even know Stokely (slightly), and while I am not sure how I feel about the slogan of black power surely dark people need more power over their own lives and to stop the police and I see the garbage and also I know the man upstairs who beats his children and also I know and even love some of those white people who hate you and reject me and are beating the shit out of their own humanity. But I don't know them all - you can probably get along with some 15

of them better than I. Still the question I'm asking (though I don't know how to verbalize it with you dark people whose wise minds distrust words especially when spoken by whites) is "Do we have anything to share besides our pain?" and sometimes there is a real break through, and more often a small one, and many times just nothing....