Jerry DeMuth 2937 Delmar Lane, NW Atlanta, Georgia 303H MH

Holly Springs, Miss.— Helping Mississippi Negroes express themselves has been one of the main activities of Pamela Parker of Solebury who is teaching in a freedom school in Holly Springs, only 30 miles from the Tennessee border. It is one of over thirty such schools established throughout the state by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "There's too much creativity that's been stifled and it's bursting out of them," Miss Parker explains. "There's one woman who was married when she was 17? she's 25 now and has five children. Before she had no future* Now she writes and writes and she does have a future. She can't spell well, but I haven't been concerned with grammar. I've been grading papers for ideas." Another teacher has been covering grammar, Pamela points out. "The first few days, I had them write about whatever they did. lijlany wrote on what had been said in class, but some were completely original. One girl, who's a Roman Catholic, wrote a paragraph saying that whites were working in Mississippi as a form of penance. We hadn't discussed anything like that in class. After they were Parker — add one able to express themselves in writing, I encouraged more class discussion." Another teacher outlined the ideas of a play on the life of Medgar Evers. "Students improvised upon these ideas to produce a play with characters they feel a part of. Every time it's been produced it's been done a little bit differently, so everyone has to keep on their toes." Pamela explains the results of the freedom school. "They're being confronted with different things to do, with different possibilities not faced before." She teaches a class of about twenty 15 to 25 year old girls. she teaches Besides writing, the courses/include history and religion. The latter is Pam's major at Carleton College where she will be a junior this fall. "As a part of Negro history I talked on the Haitian slave revolt and told them how the slaves took over the island country. Their faces lit up. But then they dimmed again when I mentioned that England sent ships. I told them that England failed and they began to feel proud again. Then I explained how Napoleon came to re-establish slavery. The kids knew that the Negroes didn't have a chance, espcially after their leader was captured. But the Negroes won and I told the kids so and they grinned. Next we discussed why this couldn't work in our country which led to a discussion on United States slave revolts." "Five students came dm the first day the freedom school was held," Pam explains. "But the next day those five brought several more, and the classes have been expanding that way." Parker — add two

In her religion class, she explains, "We were to discuss the different views of God and man. But soon they were off on a tangent discussing evolution and discussing and interpreting the Bible. "We also discussed racism and I tried to show that it isn't only whites against Negroes. I pointed out the situation of the Jews in Germany, the aristocrats hating the peasants in France, and all the nationality prejudices." The Holly Springs Freedom School did have about 70 students. But after the first three weeks the Negro public school opened again for classes so that it could close in thefall and the students i would be free to pick cotton. The school now meets every day at 4-:30, after the public school closes. Classes end around seven. Still, about kO students attend regularly. "They're also still rehearsing the play which is to be produced in Meridian in the middle of August," Pamela explains. "And this Sunday, five girls are coming to discuss: Lord of the Flies. This was a spontaneous decision on their part. And more things are starting all the time."

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Jerry DeMuth 2937 Delmar Lane, N.W. approx. $500 words Atlanta, Georgia 30311 %'i

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A Guide to Mississippi

"The only real and truly white state left in this nation is ours,"

Mississippi Governor Paul B. Johnson exclaimed last December, one month after his election.

And indeed it is. Every bit of energy in the state—except for an alliance of civil rights groups in Jackson called COFO (Council of Federated

Organizations)—is devoted to not only keeping Mississippi a "white state", but to strengthening the forces of segregation and white supremacy.

Because of this Mississippi is a unique entity, a "sovereign state" which tries to ignore the rest of the country, but does not refuse benefits from Washington. An area which has the same phases of life as the other hS states, but which has twisted them into something that Mississippians in power may relish, but would make others reel back in abhorrence, one idea weaves through everything: white-only.

Other states have churches, maybe even a few with odd philosophies. But only one philosophy is prevalent in Mississippi churches: segregation. Early last year, John Satterfield, a Yazoo City attorney who was lay leader of the Mississippi delegation to the General Conference of the Methodist Church in Pittsburgh, declared, "We can support the church as long as the segregated system is maintained." Speaking before the same group, Dr. Medford Evans warned, "The Methodist Church has drifted into an extremely dangerous devotion to racial integration and nuclear disarmament, pntegrationists are victims of an emotional disorder and live in a world of fantasy." in his world, Evans serves as co-ordinator of the John Birch Society, secretary of the States' Rights Party of Louisiana, consultant to the White Citizens' Council, and a member of the Citizens' Council in at least seven states, and father of M. Stanton Evans, editor of the Indianapolis Pews,

The group Satterfield and Evans were appearing before was the Mississippi Association of Methodist Ministers and Laymen. MAMML was "organized in 1951 as an unofficial group of Methodists," it says of itself, "whose aim is to rid the churches of socialistic-Marxist material in its literature and publications and to maintain segregation."

The president of MAMML is Garner M. Lester who also keeps busy ss a watchdog over Mississippi's way of life as chairman of the public affairs committee of the Jackson Citizens' Council and as a mamber of the advisory board of Mississippi's largest bang:. Secretary-treasurer of the Methodist group is John H, Wright who is also chairman of the membership and finance committee of the Jackson Citizens' Council and a colonel for Gov. Paul Johnson.

When 28 Methodist ministers, all native Mississippians, said they were opposed to segregation teecause "Jesus Christ teaches that all men are brothers," MAMML, ever watchful for such unchristian moves, said their statement does not accurately reflect the wishes of the majority of Mississippi's Methodists. MAMML also declared that integration was "a crime against God." More recently, KAMML attacked a religious group for "giving aid and comfort to race-mixers in the Methodist Church." Since MAML's conception close to a hundred seminary-trained Methodist ministers have been driven from the state because of their views. But the Baptists aren't pure either. Last April, Rev. Paul Jackson, speaking before the American Council of Churches convening in Jackson, explained, "The Southern Baptist Convention is past the point of no return on its drift toward liberalism." Mississippi Baptists will obviously have no part of such liberalism. In fact, last year in annual session, the Mississippi Baptist Convention refused to endorse a resolution which reaffirmed "our intelligent good will toward all men" and which called upon Christians to pray "th3t we may live consistent with Christian citizenship."

The non-recognition by Mississippi of churches outside the state was further exemplified when, last spring, an interracial group of seven ministers from out of the state were arrested when they tried to worship at a Methodist Church in Jackson. The ministers were charged with disturbing public worship and trespassing on church property.

When all hope is lost, as happened last spring with a group of ppiscopalians, Mississippians can always start their own church. Paul J. Brannan, senior warden of the group said they would have "no affiliation with the National or World Council of Churches, will use the King James translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, and will repudiate current trends of the Episcopal clergy toward socialism and integration of the races."

Besides being spiritually committed to segregation, Mississippians must also be mentally committed to it—which means they must have the right education; and no education is better than the wrong education. The "wrong education" is what the United States Supreme Court demanded in 1954 and Mississippi reacted by abolishing its compulsory school attendance law and making it mandatory that schools be closed rather than integrated. The state also passed a law providing for a fine or a jail sentence for any white person attending a school also attended by Negroes and passed another law calling on all elected officials to preserve segregation.

James Meredith is the only real stain on the state's lilly-white schools.

But Mississippi officials certainly tried to keep him out of Ole Miss. A month before the bloody riot, state senator E. K. Collins stood in the upper house and proclaimed, "We must win this fight regardless of the cost in time, effort, money and in human lives."

And the cost even included human lives but only in Mississippi will

Americans learn that it was the federal marshalls who shot and killed that

French newsman so that Europe wouldn't find out the truth about what was going on in Mississippi.

But if one knew about Negroes what Mississippians know, one might not want to go to school with them either.

According to Gov. Paul Johnson African Negroes "sit around sharpening their teeth on rocks to tear human flesh."

And a Mississippi newspaper recently told its readers that Africans "have just quit eating one another and have just started wearing clothes."

Early this year state senator Corbett Patridge explained, "It is not necessary to prejudge a Negro or for him to prejudge a white man. We both know that each exists and that we each have a line of thought. Mine is to work and build for the future. His is to work and enjoy the fruits of his labor and to make every Saturday night Christmas eve."

This is why former Gov. Ross Barnett said that seg'ergation is needed "to avoid mongrelization and to maintain the purity and the integrity of both races." So that no one disrupts the stability of this segregated society, the state carefully selects textbooks to use in public schools. But still these don't tell the right story—outsider's just don't seem to be able to do anything right— so the Citizens' Council prepared its own readers. The reader for third and fourth grades explained: God wanted the white people to live alone. And he wanted colored people to live alone. The white men built America for you. White people built America so they could make thEjrules. George Washington was a brave and honest white man. The white men cut away big forests. The white man has always been kind to the Negro. We do not believe that God wants us to live together. Negro people like to live by themselves. Negroes use their own bathrooms. They do not use white people's bathrooms. The Negro has his own part of town to live in. Ibis is called our Southern Way of Life. Do you know that some people want the Negroes to live with white people? These people want us to be unhappy. They say we must go to school together. They say we must swim together and use the bathroom together. God had made us different. And God knows best. Did you know that our country will grow weak if we mix the races? White men worked hard to build our country. We want to keep it strong and free.

And from the fifth and sixth grade reader; The Southern white man has always helped the Negro whenever he could. Southerners x-jere always their best friends. The South went to war to prevent the races from race-mixing. If God had wanted all men to be one color and to be alike, He would not have made the different races, one of the main lessons in the Old Testament of the Bible is that your race should be kept pure. God i^ade different races and put them in different lands. He was satisfied with pure racesjso man should keep the races pure and be satisfied. BIRDS DO NOT MIX. CHICKENS DO NOT MIX. A" friend had 100 white chickens and 100 reds. All the white chickens got to one side of the house, and all the red chickens got on the ±other side of the house. You probably feel the same way these chickens did whenever you are with people of a different race. God meant it to be that way.

But some Mississippians do not even want segregated Negroes. Last January, Earnest Watson wrote in an editorial in the Jackson Times, "If the Negro wants to leave the South, that would be the best thing the South could have; then it would become a white man's paradise." The Negroes that the state has the greatest desire to see leave are the "uppity" ones, if there's one thing the state doesn't wantx it's "upoity" Negroes, or "uppity" whites for that matter. "Over 98 percent of Mississippi's population are native born Americans with less than 2 percent being foreign born," the Area Development Department of Mississippi Power and Light Co. proudly explains. "These people are free thinkers and not easily steered to the 'left'. You will find no radical or 'ism' groups in the state."

The management of a new factory in Natchez observed: "They all seem to have the right attitude and are willing to learn and work with management 100 percent. They are 'All American' and this, I think, helps a lot."

However, some workers still get "un-American" ideas and try to form unions. But true Mississippians know how to handle them. For example, in August of last year, four days before an NLRB election, a plant put up posters showing a Negro woman saying to a white woman: "Mr. Kennedy and the union man says we'uns must work with you'uns," The union lost the election.

Thus the Mississippi Agriculture and industrial Board could report, "In the few elections held during the 1950-58 period, the union xron relatively fewer « elections and got relatively fewer votes than in elections held in other areas." The state and local communities will go to any steps to bring industry to the state, even give them tax-free land, with a structure already built upon it. Bonds are then floated for the land and building. In one instance, a company bought the bonds themselves and made a profit,

A section of land along the gulf coast had been given to Mississippi by the federal government for the purpose of building schools on the property. But Mississippi is never one to be told what to do by the federal government so in 1961 the Mississippi legislature and then Mississippi Voters approved two constitutional amendments. The first changed the status of the land, the second exempted oil refineries from taxation. Standard Oil then built a refinery on the land. Mississippi taxes its citizens, not its industries. Still, the Mississippi

Agriculture and Industrial Board believes, "Mississippi has an enviable record for maintaining good government and paying for it through a fair and equitable tax system ably administered,"

Mississippi gets over fifty percent of its revenue from the state sales tax of 3 percent. Towns levy an additional 0.5 to 1 percent. A driven* license costs $2 a year and may be raised. Car owners have to pay an annual motor vehicle inspection charge plus ad valorem taxes, privilege taxes and municipal taxes in addition to the cost of car tags which is figured on the basis of the car's value and engine size. Car tags for a new, medium-priced car cost about

$80. And each time the driver purchases a gallon of gas he pays *^ state tax and 10 sales tax in addition to kfi federal tax.

The state is also considering more unique ways of taxing its citizens.

Last Aoril, Rep, John Hough of Sunflower County introduced a bill to place a 10 percent tax on soft drinks and a 20 percent tax on soft drink syrup sales.

Another source of income for the state is a black market liquor tax which

is collected by a governmental department. Sen. Ellis Bodron of Vicksburg

explains, "The legislature has refused to legalize whiskey and the people have refused to permit enforcement of the prohibition laws."

As a result, liquor is more common than beer which Is only legal in some counties. Along the gulf coast beer is illegal, but stores, bars, restaurants all sell liquor openly.

An attempt to legalize liquor last spring failed. And the chance for legalization in the future is slim. When the wets can have their whiskey and the drys can have their prohibition laws, why should anyone want to change things.

A large percentage of additional funds comes from the federal government.

For example in the first nine months of 1963, Mississippi received from the federal government close to $200 million for military and defense purposes alone. 8

Nevertheless, Mississippi feels it could live independent of the rest of the country, or live as part of an independent South. As Earnest Watson wrote in the Jackson Times last January: "If the remainder of the Nation wants to secede from the South, that also would be a windfall whereby the South would rise to the occasion, put in its own factories, spend its money in the South, and become an economic paradise,"

One federal program the state still oarticipates in to some extent is urban renewal, but there's a reason. Early In the year there was a discussion in the house on the pros and cons of urban renewal. Those opposed, claimed the program would further integration. Those supporting it, claimed it could be used to maintain segregation.

"As freakish as it may sound," Mayor George Howell of Aberdeen explained, "we are using urban renewal to maintain segregation."

Senator J. p. Dean said his town, Corinth, would use urban renewal funds to relocate 82 Negro families "xAo live within a block of our whits high school. We can move them near the Negro school and solve a potentially serious situation."

Enough said. Though the house passed a bill outlawing participation in urban renewal programs, It exempted Aberdeen, Corinth and two other towns who knew how to do things the Mississippi way.

Meanwhile in McComb, officials were devising their own "urban renewal" program. They began an attempt to de-annex a Negro section of the city. If this and other political debates sound one sided, it must be remembered that there is no opposition party in Mississippi. Senator Eastland has admitted that he is "proud of the one-party system, because that one-party system x-ras used to defeat the carpetbaggers and scalawags one hundred years ago and it still serves its purpose perfectly,"

The Mississippi House of Reoresentatives made this opinion formal in August, 1963, when they passed a resolution declaring: "We are unalterably opposed to the formation of a two-party system in Mississippi because of the division of the white qualified electors and the inherent danger of the minority block becoming the balance of power," More honestly, a policeman in Ruleville told a campaign worker for a Negro candidate in early 196k, "We don't have no nigger politics in Ruleville." Paul B. Johnson clearly explained the dangers. "The birth of a two-party system in the state," he x^arned, "x-orould divide the conservative white vote. Then Mississippi would have to reap the x«ihirlwind harvest of racial discord, more socialism, more taxes, more Negro participation in government and more integration." Johnson and Carroll Gartin, candidate for lieutenant governor, issued a joint statement in October, 1963, detailing the situation Mississippi found itself it*

"Mississippi stands tofiay as the only state in the American union whose public institutions are totally and completely segregated. The backbone of white control and constitutional, conservative government in our state has been and is the one party system. Under this system Mississippi has been able thus far to preserve our customs, traditions, and particular way of life here in the South.

"The creation and maintainence of a so-called two party system in Mississippi is the most deadly peril facing our people since reconstruction. The end of the one party system in our state would foretell the abandonment of Mississippi's noble fight for the rights of the states, the integrity of its races, and constitutional government." Mississippi Democrats go all out to destroy Republicans, and the means may be verbal...or legal...or illegal. Last March someone broke into the office of Stanford E. Morse, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in the 1963 general election. Only one thing was stolen from the office: a drawer containing records of persons who contributed to his campaign. 10

Official Paul Johnson campaign literature further explains the Mississippi political picture.

"To have Mississippi Democratic nominees and Republican nominees running for every public office every four years would constitute an unnecessary nuisance and would bring to Mississippi the same political evils and dangers that now beset such states as Illinois, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania and California .-sHHfMississippi has no need for a two party system that would divide our people and stretch our political campaigning over many additional months and resulting expense, confusion and disunity, *»*Both the National Republican Party and the National Democratic Party are the dedicated enemies of the people of Mississippi.«#*Both parties threaten our Mississippi traditions, institutions and segregated x%ray of life.*** The Mississippi Democratic party is not subservient to any national party. It has its own statement of principles-senc-and these are in direct conflict with the position of both national parties,***We do not have to belong to and participate in an integrated national party, which tolerates in its ranks radical leftists like Governor Belson Rockefeller and Senator Jacob Javits of New York and 'Black Monday' Earl Warren, in order to cast Mississippi's electoral votes for a true conservative."

In I960, all 8 unpledged Mississippi Democratic electors cast their votes for Sen. Harry F. Byrd of Virginia.

In 1962 a resolution was entered in the senate titled; A concurrent resolution declaring and recording the contempt of the Mississippi legislature for the Kennedy administration and its puppet courts; calling upon Its sister states to join in ridding this once great nation of the Kennedy family dynasty and accompanying evils; and for related purposes.

More simply in 1963 the Magnolia State Quartet sang Paul Johnson's campaign song:

"Up there on the wide Potomac,

Kennedy Democrats done gone mad,

But so help me, I believe,

The GOP is just as bad."

The one party system continues to exist because Mississippi carefully controls those who vote.

Since 195U voter applicants have been required by law to read, write and interpret any section of the state constitution. 11

"The amendment is intended solely to limit Negro registration," admitted Robert B. Patterson, executive secretary of the Association of citizens' Councils.

Since I960 applicants have been required to be of good moral character and to have their names and addresses published in a local paper for two weeks. "This is not aimed at keeping white people from voting no matter how morally corrupt they may be," explained the Jackson State-Times. "It is an ill-disguised attempt to keep qualified Negroes from voting."

The Association of Citizens' Councils reported how these laws came about- "Although this same amendment failed to pass in 1952, it passed by a tremendous majority (in 195U) when the people of Mississippi, through the Citizens' Councils, were informed of the necessity and reason for the passage of this amendment."

The legislature thought of other voting restrictions too. Dr. James Silver, professor of history at the University of Mississippi, has written: "The T-rouse unanimously called for a constitutional amendment barring from voting persons guilty of vagrancy, perjury, and child desertion, and concurred in the addition of adultery, fornication, larceny, gambling, and crimes committed with a deadly weapon, A still further addition of habitual drunkenness was defeated When a member suggested that it 'might even get some of us.' There was some objection, also, to the inclusion of adultery."

Last February in Madison County over three hundred Negroes stood in line at the court house over a two day period to take the registration test. Registrar L. F. Campbell only processed seven of them, although he has registered as many as \\9 whites in one day. In the county, 97 percent of the whites are registered but only slightly more than 1 percent of the Negroes. Besides registrar Campbell and the state's laws acting as deterrents, there also is a red, blue and grey sticker on Campbell's office door. It bears the Confederate flag and the message, "Support Your Citizens' Council". Other times the deterrent hasn't been as sophisticated. 12

Three years ago, Herbert Lee, a Negro active in voter registration activities, was shot to death by a member of the state legislature—also a member of the Citizens' Council. "Justifiable homicide" a coroners jury called it.

Early this year, a Negro witness to the killing was also murdered.

Back in 1955, a Negro, lamar Smith, was urging other Negroes to vote in a gubernatorial election. He was shot to death ofi the Brookhaven courthouse lawn.

A grand jury refused to indict the three men who were charged with the slaying.

In Rankin County, February of last year, the sheriff and two deputies assaulted in the court house three Negroes who were applying to register, driving the three out before they could even finish the form.

As Mississippi political leaders explain, Mississippi Negroes aren't interested in voting.

The Citizens' Council is but one organization in Mississippi, a highly organized state, but it is the one that controls the state. The council was started in Indianola, July, 195 U, when 1)4 citizens met, organized by Robert B.

Patterson, a plantation manager in Greenwood. Within six weeks, the council was operating in 17 counties. By the end of the year, there were councils in over

100 cities in the state. Today, most leading businessmen are leading council members and about one-third of the counties have at lesst one representative who is a council member.

It is no wonder then that Hodding Carter, Pulitzer Prize winning editor of the Greenville, Miss., Delta Democrat-Times, could -write that the "legislature represents probably the lowest common denominator of any political assembly in the United States."

Working closely with the council is the official State Sovereignty Commission, established to "do and perform any and all acts and things deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi and her sister states from encroachment thereon by the federal government or any branch, department, or agency thereof." 13

The commission x-ras voted £250,000 to start its work. Among the acts it deems necessary is to support the Citizens' Council. By last spring it had given $17U,000 to the Citizens' Council Forum, a weekly program carried by some U00 radio and television stations.

NEvle SMBf'johnston, director of the commission, has said that the commission has sent one million letters to citizens "about the dangers of the civil rights bill." The commission has also given some $300,000 to the Coordinating Committee for Fundamental American Freedoms, the anti-civil rights bill lobby, and pays the §25,000 a year salary of the lobby's legal advisor, John Satterfield. The State Sovereignty Commission has also mailed a manual to all law enforcement officers in the state, outlining laws under which civil rights workers can be arrested. The size and strength of the Citizens' Council has eclipsed other racist groups within the state, but other groups still exist. Last spring, the Ku Klux Klan claimed 91,003 members in the state. The Klan's greatest strength is in the southwest corner of the state xdiere it operates openly as the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan—"Dedicated to maintain and extend the dignity, heritage and rights of the White Race of America." Here in the early months of the year eight Negroes were killed, numerous others were beaten, Negro businesses x^ere bombed, and dozens of crosses were burned. But cross-burnings recently became standard fare throughout the state. "A regular Friday night affair," according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Also powerful in southwest Mississippi is the Association for the Preservation of the White Race. Founded in Natchez in 1961, the association now has several chapters in southwest Mississippi counties, it holds weekly meetings which are attended by, to quote a newsman, "mighty important people." Last March the group held a fair-sized meeting in Jackson at the Hinds County Courthouse, the courrthouse where Byron De La Beckwith had been tried. Ik

Jackson is home of the Women for Constitutional Government, sort of a women's auxiliary of the Citizens' Council; Patriotic American Youth, a Citizens' Council dominated organization for high school and college students; and the United Front. The front organizes boycotts of any stores who give in to the demands of the "race-mixers"—a Mississippi term for anti-segregationists, or anyone who opposes discrimination. Early in the year the front urged citizens to write to"borderline" senators, stressing opposition to the civil rights bill—among those senators it considered on the "borderline" were both Alabama senator's,

The northern part of the state is home for the patriotic Network and the Association of Tenth Amendment Conservatives. AIRC, an organization of college students, was formed only last April.

The control of these racist organizations even extends to the courts. Mississippi of course does not recognize the U.S. Supreme Court. Last March, in Ruleville, when a voter registration worker protested his arrest as being unconstitutional, Mayor Dourrough told him, "That law has not reached here yet."

Mississippi, however, does have its oxm supreme court and its most famous justice is Tom Brady, a Barnett appointee. Brady was a leading spirit and vigorous organizer for the Citizens' Council and made over 600 speeches for the group during its first years. In his book, Black Monday, he wrote* "The Negro proposes to breed up his inferior intellect and wtiltven his skin and 'blow out the light' in the white man's brain and muddy his skin," Brady further explained, "You can dress a chimpanzee, housebreak him, and teach him to use a knife and a fork, but it will take countless generations of evolutionary development, if ever, before you can convince him that a caterpillar or a cockroach is not a delicacy. Likewise the social, political, economic and religious preferences of the Negro remain close to the caterpillar and the cockroach." 15 a Brady's ideal; "The loveliest and purest of God's creatures, the nearest thing to an angelic being that treads this terrestial ball, is a well-bred, cultured Southern white woman or her blue-eyed, golden-haired little girl." Brady's words so impressed people that Black Monday became the Citizens' Council's handbook. Brady himself became the Democratic National Committeeman from Mississippi. But not only Mississippians appoint such, judges in Mississippi, president Eisenhower appointed judge Ben Cameron of Meridian to the Fifth Circuit Court. It was Cameron x^ho issued four consecutive stays to block Meredith from entering the University of Mississippi. In one opinon Cameron wrote that he didn't believe the ikth Amendment's prohibition of racial discrimination should be enforced in the South.

President Kennedy appointed Harold Cox as a Mississippi district judge. Cox, who was Sen. Eastland's college room mate, early in the year referred to a group of Negro vote applicants as "a bunch of niggers on a voter drive." He explained, "I'm never going to be irm sympathy with a bunch of people who act like chimpanzees." Then added, "But I'll oppose with every ounce of my energy any discrimination."

In mid-March an attorney filed a motion to have Judge Cox disqualified from acting in civil rights cases.

in April, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said, "I'm very proud of the judges that have been appointed. We looked into all of them for questions of integrity and whether they would uphold the law of the land." In Mississippi, justice is one-sided, as politics are one party. Early in the year the legislature passed an anti-boycott bill aimed at Negro campaigns against stores that discriminate. But Jackson Mayor Allen Thompson and others had proposed a boycott of "Bonanza" and the show's sponsor because the stars had cancelled a white-only Jackson appearance. 16

"We might bring some of our friends' in court when we are trying to get rid of our enemies," Rep. Frank Shanahan of Vicksburg warned.

However, Thompson McClellan of West Point, the House Judiciary Chairman, pointed out that if any "local" people were accused under the bill they would be "tried in a Mississippi court before a Mississippi jury" and he would have no "apprehension" as to the outcome.

While on the subject of law, it should be mentioned that Mississippi has legal holidays no northern schoolboy would have even dreamed of. They include

General Robert E. Lee's Birthday (January 19) and Jefferson Davis' Birthday

(June 3). Also, October 26, was declared "Race and Reason Day" by Gov. Barnett back in 1961, in honor of Carleton Putnam. This day could, according to "Ole

Ross", "mark the turning point in the South's struggle to preserve the integrity of the white race."

Putnam's white supremacy tract, Race and Reason, had just been published and the author was being honored at a Citizens' Council sponsored banquet, attended by the state's highest dignitaries,

Barnett urged "the people of Mississippi to observe this occasion by reading and discussing Race and Reason, calling the book to the attention of friends and relatives in the North, and by participating in appropriate public functions, thereby expressing the appreciation of the people in our state for Mr. Carleton

Putnam and for his splendid book Race and Reason."

The book was soon to replace Judge Brady's Black Monday as the Citizens'

Council's handbook.

Mississippi has other heroes from outside the state besides Putnam, a northerner. The first of them is, of course, Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas, who became a hero xvhen he defied the federal government at Little Rock.

"If the governors of Southern states had gone to Little Rock," Barnett explained, "and congratulated Gov. Orval Faubus when he called out the National

Guard to prevent school integration, federal troops would never have been sent to that city." 17

Barnett also has praised Leander Perez of Louisiana as, "A truly great American—a man who thinks like you and I do in Mississippi."

Then there is also Alabama Governor George Wallace, " a man of deep convictions and deciation," according to Barnett, "with the courage to back up his convictions." Last April 7, the Mississippi House of Representatives adjourned in his honor. Mississippians also viex-r themselves as heroes, as Barnett explained last March, "Thinking people throughout America admire Mississippians for standing upon the strong foundation of constitutional government."

But of all Mississippians, former Gov. Barnett is the greatest folk hero, though somewhat expensive as when he had $10,000 gold-plated bathroom fixtures installed in the Governor's Mansion. In June of last year, C. F. Hornsby, president of the Alabama Citizens' Council, presented Barnett a plaque for "courage and patriotism" at the University of Mississippi, In February of this year, Charles M. Hills wrote in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, "Former Gov, Ross Barnett continues to be this state's ambassador for constitutional government and the Southern way of life."

But a new hero within the state is Byron De La Beckwith, accused assassin of Medgar Evers and a gun-collector who wrote in a letter: "For the next 15 years we here in Mississippi are going to have to do a lot of shooting to protect our wives and our children from bad Negroes and sorry white folks and federal interference." When Beckwith's second trial also ended in a mistrial, he was released on bond and headed north, home to Greenxvood. "When we arrived at Tchula," Beckwith said, "there was a sign saying 'Welcome Home Delay' and when I got to the outskirts of Greenwood, there was another one. It brought tears to my eyes." Dozens of whites greeted him at the county courthouse and. that night he was treated by officials to a steak dinner at one of Greenwood's finest restaurants. Then he moved in with his wife at the Hotel LeFlore. 18

An up and coming hero is Mayor Allen Thompson of Jackson. Hodding Carter has written; "Jackson is a town obsessed with a determination to maintain existing relationships between the races. Its politics and social order are monolithic. One can count on two hands those Jacksonians who are willing to speak out against any status quo.-wwAlmost the sole source of the city's newspaper information comes from a morning and afternoon combination owned by a family whose animation can only be described as an admixture of fundamentalism, furious racism and greed. Rare is the Jackson citizen of any prominence, or even of no consequence, who does not belong to the Citizens' Council."

Even, or naturally, the chairman of a "Keep Jackson Beautiful" campaign is a member of the board of directors of the Jackson Citizens' Council. Thompson's police force is the object of attention, and, under a new state law, its men and equipment are available to any Mississippi city that requests them. The leading piece of equipment is a 015,000 specially built armored car with a mounted machine gun and two sets of ten poet holes—one set fcfcr shooting, tear gas the other for tossing/grenades. Other equipment includes two troop carriers with search lights, three-wire-enclosed flat-bed trailer trucks for hauling off prisoners, and a compound which can hold 10,000 prisoners. The police force cocnsists of k35 men each equipped with a riot helmet, gas mask and shot gun. All this for a town with a population of about 150,000. "We have a larger than usual police force," Thompson modestly explains. Thompson even has a color slide presentation on his force which he proudly shows before civic and police groups throughout the South, "This is the only city in the world where you can guarantee that there won't be any pickets," Thompson says, and. his police force sees to that.

The police force in Indianola is also somewhat unique, but unique only for

Mississippi, as the department has one Negro on its force. 19

"We've got that guy down there," an Indianola alderman told the editor of I the Greenwood Commonx^ealth. "If he has to shoot a Negro, or he shoots one,

you've got an unfortunate shooting, but you don't have a racial incident," "That is the basis on which Indianola hired its Negro officer," the editor commented. "He has since proved valuable in many more ways." When the editor suggested that Greenwood police hire a Negro, the sheriff refused, seeing it as the first step to Negroes getting in everywhere. But thanks to a new law, communities won't have to depend solely on their own police to handle "uppity Negroes" and "outside agitators". The state police have been given additional powers so that the governor, at his oxen discretion, can send them anyplace he wishes to "handle disturbances", eenator MbDonnel charged that the law created Pa traveling Gestapo, smacking of Nazi Germany and Russia,"

Sen, George farbrough said, "I think senators do a disservice to the state when they utter things up here about Hitler and other things that should be left unsaid,"

Governor Johnson pointed out, "Actually we are seeking to legalize what we have been doing in the past. You sheriffs have always been able to call on the Highway patrol. This plan will give us swift action." The law also increased the number of police by 70 percent. "If we don't pass this bill, it will be fatal to our way of life," admitted Rep. Thompson McClellan.

Rep, Ralph Herrin, hoxeever, had a minor criticism, He felt it "should provide 1,000 police dogs to go with the patrolmen." This then is Mississippi, a unique state, determined to stand apart from the progress of humanity. If the reader takes a trip through the state, he too can discover—to quote from an official state travel ad—"The magic of Mississippi becomes more apparent with every mile you travel through the state," Jerry Def-luth 2537 Delmar Lane, SW Atlanta, Georgia 3: 3*1 in'/

"At the llcero school hare in lulavillo \-;a.olo classes go out and pick cotton though they* re never riven any aceouu'inc where the money goes* A f ashmen algebra class has ?2 students, they sit two to Ifcf and have only one teacher. Sometimes three and four cla-ere. at at the same time In the ggN and the entire library is a couple of incomplete sets of er.cycle .a," These are some of the conditions discovered by a kansas City area youth who has boon -working as part of the Mississippi I -r Project, Gary De Hess, son of Mr, and Mrs, ". . I e^inbotham of kichardsWGeebaur air force base, has baen teaching In a freedom school in Ciuiflower County, the heart of the delta, Gary, a hist ory major at Ohimor Col age In lit, CameS, Illinois, Is one of six freedom school tend-or s in Ruleville -yho are attempting to supplement the poor education rural Mississippi Neproos receive. Gary De Koss — add one

"The liegro school has been open sine© July," he explains, "It's closed In June, then open in July and August, then is closed again in Sept - and October, This is to accomodate the cotton crop so the Kegro kids can wdik in -he fltlda shopping end picking* The public school ends at 1 and the fro "-dee school begins at 2*" The fraaclem school, coraunity center an.d voter registration activities aro all headeuortared In a small frame house en the edge of Ruleville# Cardboard from cartons forms the ceiling. The wood walls are unpainted and covered with asps end picture;'. -ok shelves line tho bottom of the wells. They hold about a thousand books, most of them sent down from the north by Friends of the Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( "0,)t A small electric fan hangs from the wall near the ceiling. It barely stirs the still, hot air* August temperaturs In Missisttppi hover around 100 during the day, drop to the mid 70s at night. Rain, even dark clouds, is seldom seen, Yet it can't be any hotter here than in th® overcrowded, non-air conditioned Hegro school. Classes at the freedom school Include history, reeding, drama,

art, writing, geography, nathf African culture, health, French and typing, Surprisingly, th© latter Is not taught at the local public Negro school* Gary teaches reading, geography and hlstoa . "There are four cf five different teachers helping with the reading classes," he cexplains* "I have three students in my class, about 13-11* years old* The main t ing is to encourage them to read more and ask questions* ae*ve been showing them books to get them interested* Also very few ever finish reading a book so we try to get thee to finish a book*" Gary DaMesa — add two

A pick-Up two' ,ve fey slowly. "There geet cur friend again," Gary picked, A policeman sat behind the wheel, a police dog sat In the back. "There1? nine In ray history class," he continued. "Me had a discussion today on African history end about slaves being transported to this continent. Me also talked about white slaves faring the colonial period aad of how they could escape and get away because they couldn't be identified. Ae also talked a little about plant and ar.inal pigments* "Mow I'm starting to taach geography too. Ac anally it's kind of a travelogue geography on people of different Panda." The youngsters attend classes In the sft~rreon. la ";ho morning*, there are classes fcr adults. They meet en the lawn in back, sitting on benches in the Shade of a few paean trees* About thirty women and a few men attend regularly. "They're taught health and first aid and occasionally some -;e history* they're also t I reading and writing.*5 Gary eld hot come to Mississippi with the main group of er volunteers* "I vc:ot to the >ort Folk Festival in Rhode Island in July. SNCC hod a booth there aski&f for support and i ore volunteers for the summer project. A friend and I Bald ae acre interested and the FFCC people there told US te go to their Mew York office. We were interviewed there, then went to the Washington office for orientation, then drove down here. Ms arrived the first Sunday In August. That Bight a e-op fired his gem right in front of the house I ices Staying in. I fleu?:ed it was some sort of a welcoming." Gary, Like 11 other workers in Ruloville, lives with local Negro families* Some seven other workers who were also in Huleville j DoMoss — add three are now working in Indianola, 22 miles to the south, uhere a project was started in late July, "I've really fallen in love with the place here," OtTf explains* "1 WSJ lo work in 1 rural area ana this Is a real nice place. The Segro community Is awful nice, They'r- all united around Mrs* Hamer, Some of the Volugteari ere thinking of staying, I might stay here too**1 Mrs, r, the local 1 , went with a group to register some two years ago and was one of four Negroes in the state ftp run for Congress and the Senate in the primary last June, £he has been a long time resident of this town of 2,000* "A white man came by hero the other night* He was a segregationist but he seemed intelligent about It* Me talked for a couple of hours aboui why Hi came here and about the general idea of segregation and integration* lie was the second local white to come by s£j the project started. It must take a lot of nerve for thee to :rop by," Gary lo- ked out the window as the cop in the pick-up truck drove by again, "Mhy has he been going around so much?" ho asked another summer volunteer. The volunteer shrugged his shoulders* "There hasn't been much trouble here with the cops," Gary sold, "But then this is Senator Eastland's homo county and 1 Imagine h© wants to keep things quiet," Ae both looked at the truck as it drove dcwti the narrow, dirt road and disappeared leaving nothing but settling dust behind,

- 30 - Jerry DeMuth Box 9036 — Station B • approx, QOO words Atlanta Georgia 3C31M-

Bringing the rtrupgle Home

Students' Work in the South will Continue in the Eorth

This past summer, like the previous summer, hundreds of college students came South for their first tine to work with various civil rights groups. Most of them have now gone back north. Put back north to do what? For iheir southern experiences have wrought great changes on most of them, "You can't get as Involved down here as we are and not do more when you get back. You can't be the sane person any more," explained Cathy Deppe, a University of Illinois student who worked with SCOPE in Eutaw, Alabama, "There'll be a world of difference between what I did in the past and what I'll be doing in the future," commented Doug Forberg, a senior at "hittier College majoring in sociology and political science, Horberg, whose home is Oakland, California, was working in Greenwood, Mississippi, as a volunteer with the Freedom Democratic Party (FDP). 2

Besides affecting what he planned on doing back home, Doug Forberg's experiences gave him some second thoughts about the interests and values of the white middle-class. "I wonder whether the movement can be made relevant to the white middle-class," he questioned, "Their values are so superficial. And they live up to them without any questioning. People have been taught not to feel; I want them to be able to feel. "They should know more about themselves. My experience has made me much more aware of myself. It's aided my perception, I've been able to pick out things faster," But this is the world to which Doug and others have returned— to uninvolved people and, as Bill Simons realied, a dead Intellectual community, "I'm going to have the problem that many people have coming back from an active and real environment in which you always get some satisfaction to an arrid environment of books and libraries, the abstraction of college life," Bill Simons said. Bill, a junior in history at the University of Wisconsin who comes from Larchmont, Few York, was working in Batesville, Mississippi, with the FDP, "Just what kind of activity is important in life?" he asked, "In Mississippi you at least work toward important change. Then you get back and everything seems so frivolous. How can I relate to people who haven't been involved and are Interested In such trivial things*5" Margaret Klbbee reflected his feelings, A sophomore from Mill Valley, California, at the College of Marin, she admitted, "Living a meaningful life in Mississippi makes it much harder to go back and live among regular people, I know I won't be able to sit still for a regular life like I would have before," How will these students get Involved back in their home and campus communities? One way is through politics. As Tim Janke of Lebanon, Oregon, explained, "My activities -which were academic will be more political now," Tim, a junior in American studies at Reed College, was working on voter registration in Gould, Arkansas, with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SFCC). "Our work here really is to get people politicized," said Mike Mailer in Indianola, Mississippi. Fike, who had just received his degree in math from Columbia University, continued, "If you succeed in your work, you can't help but be politicized yourself." Sometimes this may be a shock, "My real experience has been between the theory and practice of political science," commented Colin Mlnert, a University of trisconsin student from Milwaukee, majoring in political science, "I've seen the abuse of political power in Arkansas," How much one can be pushed along by these and other experiences was explained by Bill Simons, "I came out of a Republican, suburban, middle-class background. I went to the University of kisconsin as a Republican, then worked with the Young Democrats and was elected vice chairman. Few I got a situation where I'm going back to school as head of an organization I no longer fully endorse, I'm in charge of speakers and I want to get Guyot, Malcolm Boyd and others there to speak," Lawrence is chairman of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Rev, Boyd Is the Episcopal priest who has been upsetting older church leaders on the social level through his pastoring in bars and coffee houses, on the political level through his civil rights activities and on the theological level through his remark that Christ had a penus. k "I want to be getting different speakers and set up work shops," Bill continued, "going into greater depth than the normal political picture allows, I find it most frustrating that the Democratic Party has set definite limits for itself, I want to be Involved in things on a wider scale and sort of radicalize things," An experience in the north at the beginning of the summer affected Fill's views as much as did his experience In Mississippi. He had worked lobbying for the FDP before coming to Batesville. "I was in Washington for 12 days to two weeks which was a reinforcement of my whole feelings about the people who run the government," he commented. Terry Garr, like Eill Simons, is a leader In a campus Democratic group, at ast Los Angeles College, Garr, whose home is Fort Wayne, Indiana, was working with SNCC in Gould, Arkansas, "Kext year," he explained, "I'll be president of the campus Democratic Club, I want to use this position as a wedge to get some organizations like CORE and SNCC on the campus, Right now students don't follow CORE or anyt ing like that on the campus." Terry, like many other students, will try worring closely with campus civil rights groups, helping to increase support for the work in the south. Various students explained: "I'll be raising money for the South," "When I get back to Brown, I'm going to organize like he'l. There's a lot of wealthy people there," "I did a little work before with San Jose gtate Friends of SFCC and I'll increase my work with them," "I helped start Stanford Friends of SFCC, I hope to get It 5 more active, I'd like the Stanford campus to get more invo ved in what's going on in the South," In this manner, the struggle in the south won't be forgotten. And also, many are planning on returning...next summer for two or three months or after graduation for a year or two. But many of the students eon't be ignoring the problems of race and poverty in their own communities* "I want to get back to San Francisco," Vince O'Connor explained in Arkansas where he was working with SFCC, "There's a lot to do there," the University of San Francisco senior continued, "There's a lot that's wrong," "I want to become more informed on what's going on in my area," said Nancy Davis, a sophomore at Stanford from WInnetka, Illinois* Nancy, who was working in Moorhead, Mississippi, said, "I may fcdrk in tutoring in East Palo Alto*" MMRag is one way students plan on involving themselves, "I'll probably do some tutorial stuff with kids," Colin Mlnert explained. "I like the relationship you can develop between people*" And the freedom schools had a strong effect on this Interest. This southern-born and bread program will also be carried to the north. "I'd rather work with freedom schools in Berkeley than fund raise," said Gene Turltz in Batesville, Mississippi, «i think that the freedom schools can be one of the most Important things in the community. It can be a good place for the raising of important questions." Terry Garr admitted, "The way freedom schools are run makes me think the name thing could be done in Fast Los Anigles In the Mexican V com:unity. I want to set up classes right in the homes. I hope to get college students involved in this," 6 But many want to go beaond tutoring and into deeper involvement, "There's a Negro ghetto in Fast Palo Alto," explained Dave Quattrone of Stanford University, "and though I'm not familiar with all the problems there, I know there's a big school problem, I think that's where my primary interest would go," The worker In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, added, "But I want to get beyond the position of tutoring," "I think I'll probably look Into working in northern Fegro ghettos but it won't be easy," said Lea Glasgow, an anthropology major at Berkeley who was working in Batesville, "I don't want to just piddle around, I've be^n able to work here with nothing in my way," "I plan on moving into Boston's north end, an Italian community, and organize to overcome this race thing," explained Harvard student Carl Pope who was working In West Helena, Arkansas, "I'd be worIcing with people experienced in community organizing." "I'd like to get into the slums of Providence and help cl an them up," commented Dick Sugarman of West Port, Conn., a sophomore at Brown University, "There's a lot to be done there, I'll definitely try to get other people involved in this, SFCC really got my feet moving and I think I can get other jjbple moving, What I want to do is essentially what we're doing here in Forrest City (Arkansas), Get in with th© people and get to know them and get them moving. And the people there know a lot they can teach me. Like her© I'm learning a tremendous amount. You have people who have a lot of legitimate gripes and they can get moving, I want to get them to organize themselves* I don't want to organize them, I want to bring the SNCC process in," 7 Community organizing is one of the most important things students helped with in the South and clearly they will be taking this experience back with them, "I feel already I'm more capable to do organizing than most people," Colin Mlnert commented at the end of his more than two months in rural Arkansas, "You organize to replace yourself." Community organizing brought the students in close contact with people and that too had its effects, "I'd fallen badly Into the economist's habit of thinking of people as statistics," explained Kathy Kahn who worked in Greenwood, Mississippi* "athy is a senior majoring In economics at Berkeley, "This was a type of organizing I hadn't seen before. This is th© first time I've gone out and talked to people without any preconceived notions but just to find out what--they want to do, "I want to become much more active in community organizing* It seems like SDS Is doing more of this. Campus politics are just reaching the organizing stage," Others want to work in community organizing full time. It has opened up a new profession to them, Velma Parness worked in Indianola, Mississippi, A 1963 graduate in sociology from pan Francisco state, she was working at the college in research when she left to come to Mississippi, "I quit graduate school," Velma said, "because it seemed ridiculous. At San Francisco State we had a grant to study welfare dependency and evaluate the San Francisco Youth Opportunity Center, "Here I've had more experience working with people rather than with administration and working with people Is what I prefer to be doing. I prefer to get a job now in community organizing or the 8 anti-poverty program. After my experience her©, I won't be as willing to compromise myself," "Ever since I left Rochester," explained Dave Farley, a drop out from the University of Rochester who worked in Indianola, "I've been wanting to do something but there wasn't much going on. One of the reasons I came here was to learn how to build from the bottom. "I'm going to go to New York from here. I'd like to get a job in some kind of community action program*" Students also came away from the South with chajged ideas and plans about their future work after college, "I was thinking of the Peace Corps before," remarked Tim Morrison, a senior at San Jose state majoring in social science, Tim, who is from San Francisco, was working In Arkansas, "But now I'm thinking of the Peac© Corps much more seriously after my experience down here." "I'm thinking about going to law school," Colin Mlnert ambitiously plans, "because I think lawyers are greatly needed down here. They could use a full-time lawyer right here In West Helena." The freedom schools have also brought new meaning to teaching for some, undy Smith of East Lansing came down to Holly Springs, Miss,, with some fellow students from Michigan Skate, At Negro Rust College there she taught communication skills to kO youngsters who were to enter college in the fall. When that project ended, she worked with SNCC as a volunteer for the rest of the summer, teaching at a freedom school in nearby Benton County, "My experience," she admitted, "has made me think about going into teaching which T never thought about before*" 9 Dan Hudson is already a teacher in Hartford, Conn., where he teaches history to classes in the 10, 11 and 12 grades. After his summer experience in Belzonl, Mississippi, It is doubtful whether those classes will be the same. "The SNCC or FDP approach will have some influence on my teaching," he was quick to explain. "I'll be getting away from an authoritarian lecture posture to some kind of attempt to create an atmosphere conduslve to freer discussion. It would be sort of the group working out problems and having discussions instead of my spoon-feeding them. "I'll certainly make a much greater attempt to incorporate Negro history into American history. But I don't e;ant to spend a week on it. Instead I want to work It in so it becomes clear and natural that Negroes played a part In building this country," The students who came South this past summer won't be neglecting problems In the north. Their southern experiences demand that they act there too. And for some, going Houth was going for experience to use in the north, or to see racial and economic problems where they are more easly recognized and analyzed. As Bill Simons explained, "I wanted to see the situation in Mississippi and how It relates to other problems. The techniques that are used here could be used elsewhere," And Cal Atwood, a junior at San Jose I tate, explained, "A lot of things I've seen here have helped me to see things that are wrong elsewhere, Mississippi is like the rest of the nation. It's just more concentrated, I can go back to California now and see better the conditions with Mexicans and migrant labor," 10

"One of the first things people say," Dan Hudson pointed out, "Is, 'Why don't you stay here and do something.' But the situation in Mississippi is much more clear cut. It will help prepare and train me for Hartford," Terry Garr was frank when he explained the new view his experience gave him* "Now I'll look at what was going on back home," he said, "from a new point of view, not the white man's view," "I didn't feel a eoncrn about he Negro community where I was living," Dave Quattrone confessed, "Now I»m more equipped, more concerned about what's going on. It's sort of a shame I had to come down here to find that out," Southerners can no longer honestly state that the student volunteers should tend to their own backyards for they are beginning to do just that. And those backyards, the college campuses and Negro ghettos of the north, will be in ever more ferment in the months to come. A lot more will be heard from these students from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Trouble in Illinois Race in the Land of Lincoln

JERRY DeMUTH

TO REACH the depressed southern region of Illinois, Negroes working for the post office now, except as you travel down U.S. highway 51, a narrow, twisting janitors. Yet these barriers of segregation and discrim­ concrete band with jagged black lines filling its many ination are being assaulted as many Negroes from the cracks. The towns—Cobden, Anna, Jonesboro, Mill- area, assisted by others and, with an education which creek, Elco, Tamms, Sandusky, Unity, Cache, Beech surpasses the mayor's fifth-grade schooling, work for Ridge—were once prosperous coal mining centers. But their full human rights. now most of the mines are closed—and no industry is coming into the area. The people leave, go north to St. "MARY was stabbed last night." These were the first Louis, Chicago, Detroit and other big cities, or stay, words I heard when I went to see a college friend and occasionally working at odd jobs, mostly collecting SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) relief. field worker, Jim Peake, while I was passing through Along the highway is Future City, which shows its Carbondale, site of Southern Illinois University and the face to the traveler as a row of strip clubs. Late in the only growing, town in southern Illinois. fall, when the geese are flying south, the birds stop "It was in front of Mack's," my friend continued. nearby and hunters flock to the area to bring down the Mack's Bar B-Q was the only restaurant that had not game as fast as they can fire their guns, until their quota integrated since the sit-ins began one week before. is filled. At night, their pockets bulging with big city "I'm not prejudiced," said Mack's manager James Cox, money, the hunters fill the strip clubs to gamble in the who once turned a fire hose on demonstrators. "I got back rooms and to watch the girls, many of whom come forty-seven Negroes working for me in my laundry. But down for the season from Calumet City outside Chicago. they're not like you." (A couple of weeks later, how­ At this time the area, or at least the area's syndicate ever, those forty-seven were no longer working in the boys, finds a brief prosperity. But the prosperity never laundry; they were on strike. And though Cox was reaches back of the highway—to the Negro Community, without Negroes in his laundry, there were Negroes in to those who call Future City rather '"The City Without his restaurant. Mack's had finally integrated.) a Future." "There was a mob outside and when we left they Three miles further down the road, set between the followed us to our cars," I was told. "Mary was in the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, is Cairo, pro­ rear seeing to it that everyone was getting in the cars nounced as in Karo of syrup fame. Now a town of 9,300, when this guy who was at the head of the mob ran up some 3,500 Negroes, Cairo's former prosperity and from behind and stabbed her." Jim turned on the greater size are evident in its large business district, radio. A singing station break had just ended. We which is now mostly empty stores fronted by vacant listened during the newscast for any mention of Cairo parking lots. A luggage factory was going to open a and so did everyone else in the room. Even though not plant here in fall of 1961, but the town leaders wanted all were directly connected with the movement, they a dual wage scale—one for whites, a lower one for Ne­ were still very much concerned. It was a part of their groes. The plant didn't come. lives, their lives in the Land of Lincoln, their lives in Life for a Negro here is little different from life in the Land of the Free. Future City. The women can get jobs as maids; the Then the phone rang. It was the Associated Press. men—"All we can get is boys' jobs at boys' wages," a "Yes, a girl was stabbed last night," Jim explained. man explains. Most jobs are closed to Negroes, even "Mary McCullom. She's a field representative for SNCC. jobs for the city and county: "No nigger will ever work . . . Well, if you don't believe me, I can show you the for the post office as long as I'm postmaster," the Cairo wound myself. Ill be at the AME Church in Cairo at postmaster stated shortly after he took over. Though 12:30. You have a reporter there and I'll show him the Negroes had been mail carriers, one cannot find any wound." Jim had left his car in Cairo and I drove him those JERRY DeMUTH is a writer and editor now working for the American Friends Service Committee. This is his first appearance fifty-five miles through the "Little Egypt" section of in The Commonweal. the state, a section that tried to secede from the Union

44 THE COMMONWEAL and join the South in the Civil War. "Up ahead on becoming deeply involved in it. And the teenagers in the right is the Roller Bowl," Jim said. "We're starting the movement had more enthusiasm and determination. to work on that now. Thistlewood wants ten dollars All the restaurants were now integrated and they admission from us." William Thistlewood, the skating were not going to stop at this point. The Roller Bowl rink owner had claimed that because of his insurance and swimming pool were going to be next. "Freedom. policy he had to charge "inexperienced" skaters ten dol­ Give us freedom." The words, sung to the tune of lars. He said that once a person proved his ability, he Day-O, penetrated the neighborhood: "Freedom's com­ would refund the extra nine-fifty. ing and it won't be long." In the outskirts of Cairo itself small restaurants and About twenty youths were gathered in the church drive-ins dotted the sides of the highway, and soon basement, discussing plans for the evening demonstra­ small homes filled the empty areas between the cafes. tion. After a lull over the weekend, a period of relax­ We passed Mack's and the swimming pool and entered ation from the pressures of the preceding week's activ­ the main section of the town. We turned right on 17th ities, the movement was again displaying its energy street—a block of small homes, many with siding, and as it began a new week—morning and evening meetings then blocks of old, weathered, frame houses, some one and nonviolent workshops, afternoon and night demon­ story, others two or three, but all browned from decades strations at the swimming pool and Roller Bowl. of exposure. They looked as though they had never been More persons drifted into the building as leaders painted. tried to find enough cars. Almost an hour after the I parked the car on 17th street, half a block from the first persons had arrived at the church, a line of six main street. We were at Ward's Chapel, the AME cars pulled away, slowly drove to highway 51 and then Church which was headquarters for the Cairo Nonvio­ carefully made its way northward to the Roller Bowl, lent Freedom Committee. Reverend Blaine Ramsey, Jr., some four miles away. the pastor and Cairo NAACP president, was part of the Three state police cars, one of them unmarked, were backbone of the integration movement. parked at the intersection about a thousand feet south "People in the North are dissatisfied with hypocrisy of the rink. Would they be needed? And if needed, and pseudo-democracy," Reverend Ramsey has claimed. would they help? I looked toward the left, to the other "The demonstrations have pushed the problems into side of the road. Three rows of cars completely filled the open. Negroes here have learned the techniques and the parking lot in front of T-Wood's Roller Bowl and gained the courage to carry through." Pushing into the another two rows filled the side lot. More cars filled open the problems Negroes have to face in Cairo dis­ the lot at a nearby restaurant. Following the car in rupts the exploitive and degrading white rule. And the front, we went into the drive. Suddenly people were all whites don't like to be nudged out of their comfortable around, yelling, screaming, making faces, waving arms, position. shaking fists. "Racial intolerance is not needed in Cairo," Peyton "We don't want no niggers here." "Get outa here." Berbling, the president of the Cairo Chamber of Com­ "Keep going"—seventy-five angry whites and more in­ merce, said in reference to the movement. "The ill- side. The car in front rolled onto the drive of the theater advised and militant activities of this small integration- next door and we followed. The drive led back to the ist group . . . and the ill-will and racial intolerance they highway and we turned back south, to find a place to have fomented and encouraged will be with us a long park and discuss plans. The state police were no longer time." there. All three cars had disappeared. After meeting at a nearby train station, we decided to park our cars at AFTER A FEW hours at the old, dark red brick church, the restaurant at the intersection. From there we walked I left Jim and Cairo for other commitments. When I in single file to the Roller Bowl. returned, four weeks later, the town may have looked The mob was inside now, meeting with the others, the same, but the feeling was different. The Negro and a "Closed" sign was on the door. Thistlewood and community was not only supporting the movement, but the sheriff were there to explain that the Roller Bowl was closed for a private meeting. The rink frequently was used for private meetings and closed to the public. At other times it was closed without explanation or ad­ vance warning. If word did go out via some grapevine, it was an all-white grapevine. We left in low spirits, but the next morning spirits were higher than ever. Illinois Attorney General William G. Clark had said the swimming pool was public: The pool had been built with WPA funds and its charter declared it was "for the physical, mental and moral im-

APRIL 5, 1963 45 provement of the citizens of Cairo and vicinity." At­ proached the entrance, Charles Koen, the sixteen-year- torney General Clark had cited the charter as the basis old leader of the Cairo Nonviolent Freedom Committee for his opinion. who was at the head of the line, was clubbed by one "That's just the Attorney General's opinion," Cairo of the twenty-five whites who stood outside. With this Police Chief Jones, falling back on his fifth-grade edu­ signal, whites poured from the rink and joined the cation, commented. "He's entitled to his opinion just as others outside. About thirty whites attacked with fists, I'm entitled to mine and you're entided to yours." clubs and tire chains. Ten Negroes were chased on foot The integration of the restaurants had started to up the highway, gunshots ringing out behind them. change the structure of Cairo. The whites had lost After being prodded by Reverend Ramsey and other ground. This decision could result in the beginning of movement members, police dispersed the crowd and a retreat. They had been on the defensive and now arrested four whites. The four were released on five would have to take the offensive if they hoped to pre­ hundred dollars bond, posted by the rink owner and serve their exploitive rule. And they certainly were White Citizens Committee host, William Thistlewood. going to take the offensive. Earlier in the afternoon of that same day, eight Negro youths were tried in court, convicted and fined thirty- SHORTLY after hearing about the pool that Wednesday five dollars each for demonstrating at the swimming morning, we heard about the meeting at the Roller pool, where their legal right of admission was denied. Bowl. It had been a meeting to reorganize the Cairo While the trial was in progress, Willie Taylor, ten-year- White Citizens Committee. I remembered the door of old son of one of the women in court, drowned in the the Roller Bowl. The sign, boldly proclaiming "Closed," Ohio River where he was swimming. had been stuck to the door with an ice pick. The Roller Bowl and swimming pool closed, the The president of the Committee and operator of a swimming pool for "filter trouble," an early end to the Cairo pool room, Fred Sullivan, said the group's pur­ season. The Roller Bowl reopened and on September 6, pose was to "see that the rights of white persons in almost three weeks later, admitted two Negro couples. Cairo are protected." Sullivan didn't explain what he Roller skating rinks are specifically mentioned in the considered those rights to be. He did, however, note, Illinois public accommodations statute and Thistlewood "Some of my friends are Negroes." was in the middle of fighting a case through the courts, At noon, thirty of us held a prayer vigil in front of on Fourteenth Amendment grounds. But now, without City Hall to register protest against the situation in awaiting the outcome of the case, Thistlewood had Albany, Georgia as well as that in Cairo. After lunch finally integrated his skating rink. and a brief meeting we went to the swimming pool, Then on Wednesday, September 26, a twenty-day-old hoping this time to be able to gain admittance. By the ordinance regulating "parades," which left interpreta­ time we arrived, the Cairo Evening Citizen was out with tion up to the police, was used for the first time and the story of the Attorney General's opinion on page one. twenty-eight demonstrators who had marched in down­ An ever-growing crowd of whites was waiting for town Cairo were arrested. When a number gathered us when we arrived. The Cairo police were there direct­ in front of the City Hall the next night to protest the ing the heavy traffic caused by the influx, and the swim­ arrests, police used tear gas to disperse the group and ming pool manager stood behind a table in the pool's arrested some more demonstrators. The NAACP then entranceway holding up the sign which had previously sought an injunction against the ordinance and further lain flat on the table: "Private Pool, Members Only." demonstrations were canceled temporarily. "I say let them go swimming," a white yelled. "Them But all that is being done now by whites is only niggers got feathers just like ducks. The ducks swim hedging, only temporary stop-gap action made on the in the river so let them niggers swim in the river too." run to slow down the movement toward freedom and He meant the Ohio River, the only place where Negroes dignity that is advancing in Cairo, Illinois. And as that could go to swim, but the place where youths also movement advances there, in the "city where southern drowned every summer. hospitality meets northern industry," freedom and dig­ We went to the Roller Bowl again that night but nity will assert itself in both the North and South. it was closed, as it was also the next night. It was open on Friday night, except that the entrance was guarded by forty defiant whites. After a brief witness, everyone returned to Ward's Chapel. (The swimming pool re­ mained closed to Negroes.) Two weeks later, with no change in the situation hav­ ing taken place, two hundred and fifty whites were wait­ ing at the Roller Bowl. Some of these were going to hurl more than words. As the line of demonstrators ap­

46 THE COMMONWEAL : ....

1 "Under the circumstances, I determined that VA per­ sonnel should not participate in the meeting and ap­ A performers' boycott of segregated concerts in Mis- propriate instructions were issued." James M. Qui [ off by the arrest last November assistant secretary of the Department of Health, la ede- ..'hen they attempted to attend Education and Welfare, declared, "It is the a white-only concert of the Royal Philharmonic Sym- of this department not to participate in segregated my of London in Jackson, Miss. Literary figures meetings." and government officials have now joined this protest The mayor of Jackson is undoubtedly right that the against inequality. President of the United States knows what is going Stephen Spend Iter Allen and John Gassner on, but Mr. Johnson should make that statement him­ canceled appearances at a white-only Southern Liter­ self. He should affirm that it is indeed the policy of ary Festival, April 23-25, at Mississippi State College the federal government not to participate in segregated Women at Columbus, after being approached by affairs. The Administration's stand on civil rights John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Co­ demands no less. ordinate littee (SNCC). The boycott began to include gov, . icials when, on February 28, to nes Webb, i rator of the National Aero­ Shui nautics and Space Administration, was scheduled to Since the death of Rep. Francis E. Walter, the House speak in Jackson at a Legislative Welcome Dinner. Committee on Un-American Activities has done prac­ Mendcll Davis, executive secretary of the sponsoring tically nothing except eat its fat appropriation. But Chamber of Commerce, told SNCC that Negroes could since it must at least give an occasional appearance not attend the meeting or hear Webb speak. Lewis of being awake, it decided to put the show on the road protested to Webb in a telegram and Webb canceled once more. But where? New York? Impossible to com­ on the day of his speech. pete with the fair. San Francisco? God forbid — look Jackson Mayor Allen Thompson exclaimed in anger what happened last time. So why not Buffalo, where .. it was "disgraceful" that the space chief "of the in 1957, HUAC had a good run and was generally well world" should cancel because "some little group was received. Nothing could go wrong in Buffalo, regarded alter him not to come." "Let me tell you something,!" as an apolitical town, and conservative insofar as it is Thompson shouted. "Anyone in such a high official political at all. position certainly cleared his decision with the Presi­ But ad A;ey run into a nest of scorpions! A har­ dent of the United States. ... So we can put the blame binger pvas the action of the Common Council on ecdy on the President, who in effect says — Don't April 2 3. Democratic Councilman James D. Griffin go to Mississippi. We do not want to offend the sponsored a resolution which would have extended a NAACP and other agitator groups — we don't mind "cordial welcome" to the HUAC contingent. "Someone insulting the members of the Mississippi Legislature has to stick up for American rights," Air. Griffin pro­ and the people c. Ah issippi.'" tested. But views on Americanism and un-American- A Foreign Trac e Seminar, under multiple sponsor­ ism differ. Councilman Delmar L. Mitchell, likewise a ship, was set ril 8 at the University of Southern Democrat, asserted that FIUAC went into a community Mississippi, a college whose president was to chair a only to "convict people without due process." The Up­ big white Citizens' Council affair featuring General state New York Division of the American Civil Liber­ Walker on May 2. In a letter to Secretary of Com- ties Union said many "respectable" individuals and rce Luther es, Lewis pointed out: "This school organizations were publicly questioning the "real" pur­ is segregated . a admission to one quali­ pose of the committee's visit. The Council of Churches fied Negro, John Frazier, five times, the last time as of Buffalo and Erie County attacked HUAC for hav­ etly as three weeks ago." On April 2, both the ing drawn "unjust conclusions of guilt" in 1957. And, Department :e and the Small Business perhaps the unkindest cut of all, -the Buffalo Diocesan Administration withdrew their sponsorship from the Counci; en Civil Liberties accused KUAC of having seminar. done little in its quarter century of existence except Two days after the seminar, the Mississippi Dietetic "stifle dissent and an open political dialogue." Whether Association e...-. to Biloxi. Two Veterans Ad­ influenced by all "this protest or by considerations of ministration personnel from the VA center in Biloxi its own, the Common Council tabled the resolution of and a con : Department of Health, Edu­ welcome, 11-4. cation and Welfare were set to participate. Protests Came the great opening, with the usual FBI under­ by Lewis led to all three canceling their appearances cover agent and the sixteen accused. The Buffalo at the white-only affair. Evening News, which approves of HUAC, carried a Veterans Administrator J. S. Gieason, Jr., explained, box decrying that abbreviation as "a subtle attempt to .Terry DeMuth 6 Raymond St., 1 approx. TOO words Atlanta, G-orpia 3031*+ AK a.W\cfacJ Ve*s\mw

A Southern Hero Returns Heme

Greenwood, Mississippi—Ihe large banner outside Greenwood that proclaimed "Welcome BMW Delay" and brought tears to the eyes of Byron De La Beckwith is down now, after having regained up for several days after the return of the accussed assassin of Hedgar ..vers. But the royal welcome is still continuing. When Beckwith returned he was greeted by dozens of whites e at the county courthouse and that night he was t^feted by officials to a steak dinner at one of the finest restaurants in this Delta city, ^hen he moved in with his wife at the Hotel LeFIore, where they still live. Alter his second trial ended In a mistrial, Beckwith co.eeeentecl, "I ha'/e to work for a living." And his wife explained, "This thing has about wiped us out." Beckwith replied, "I think I can get over our financial problems when 1 get back to work." A; Beckwith still has not returned to work some two weeks after his release and still does not appear to have any financial problems. (Delta residents raised over Al5,000 for his defense.) He has all his laundry done at a laundry owned by a prominent Greenwood ci4;:' nd none of the many legVOfJi who have seen him take it and pick it up have aver seen him pay for It. Dari&g the day end during the evening, he frequently rides through the city's Negro section with police in a police car. eomst linos he even sits v.-p front td.Hi the police. vsral Eegro cab drivers have seen him on these trips as well as dozers cf other Negroes. "It's him all right, I know Beckwith) there's no mistaking him," a Negro woman told me. "He otakae these trips reostly at right: ?'ve seen him a couple times." a Negro vater registration worker told me. en Negroes see him with the police they are reminded of the only witnesses who testified that Beckwith was in Greenwood B&d act in Jaeksen the right of the avers slaying. Two Greenwood police testified that they had lean him in Greenwood at 1:05 that night. A Greenwood auxiliary policeman testified that he saw ith in Grseraaee at llt**5« Ttel shooting occurred about 12:30 in Jackson, 95 riles iM*?* Greenwood is the home of the founder of the white "Itizens* Council of wleich Beckwith Is a reenter and the original home of that white suareiaey, segregationist organization. Today, three of the five officers of the Association of Citizens' Councils of Missis I, including the executive secretary, are Greenwood residents. The Greenwood city attorney, Hardy Lett, was Beckwith1* chief attorney. Greenwaod has been tin center ef a voter registration drive organized by the Student nonviolent Coordinating Committee In -st 1962. cince that time, one FHTCC worker, Jasaes Travis, has bean sbot (the bullet lodged In his spine but he recovered), five other* have been shot at, and four were forced to ,1nmp from the seeend floor rear window of the office to escape from a mob carrying ens and pipes. Three Negro businesses near the SNCC office urnod dear, and a ronth later the office was burned. rhet gun blasts were fired into a vote workers heme. Greenwood police have mad-- ever 70 arrests of persons active In the vote drive end the County Board of supervisors has dropned the surplus food pre-ram. Violence zr& harassment have become almost an official aart of Crerrew-od life. But the return of Bosrkwltb has filled the 1 ~ -ro cc inanity with a feeling of disgust which it novo* had before in srite of eyrything else that has happened. It's not just the fact that Beckwith has been freed but the treatment that he has received, that the? hat* seen him receive. I Regro wOMflfli told me how whites shook Beckwith's hand in the poet o"~"icc. "Glad to s-1" yov. "back, Dainty," they told him. Many Negroes feel that Beckwith should be shot. Several told rae they expect him to be shot* Many don't like to see him riding around in the Negro community, a suspected murderer who wrote in a letter: "For the next 15 years we here in Mississippi aro going to have to do a lot of shooting to protect our wives and our children from bad Negroes and sorry white folks end federal Interference." As a Negro man told BO, "Beckwith proves that Negroes aren't safe."

# # # MAY 23, 196^

occuoancy legislation have grown more voce, TDese ?l ...i's the Hurry? rumors continue to circulate about there being Com­ ets in the civil rights leadership. WAh antagonism mounting on both sides, .. Daley seems to have adopted an apres moi le deluge Gitlow Will Show attitude that almost guarantees violence this summer. . Just before taking off for a 21-day holiday in Europe, Yen. Hew TO Shuffle the Mayor reappointed Mrs. Wendell Green to an­ other five-year term on the school board. Mrs. G is a Negro, but she was opposed by every civil rights Chicago organization - militant and "responsible"-in the city Civil rights leaders here are headed into the dangerous for her unswerving record of support for Superintend­ summer months despairing of peaceful progress and ent Willis. One liberal Negro alderman says that the anxiously awaiting some indication from City Hall that Mayor "has given in to the white segregationist vote in the power structure shares their forebodings and is pre­ Chicago." pared to ,.d off the violence they fear. A Negro militant says: "We are going to mess up The men who run the city have tried to pretend that this town until they treat us right. You have to disrupt the Negro revolution will pass. Mayor Richard J. Daley, this system. Peace if possible, but justice at any cost." a ur.iquely powerful big-city boss, welcomed the ALFRED FRIENDLY JR. NAACP's annual convention to his fief last July with the astonishing proclamation that "there are no MR. FRIENDLY is on the staff of Newsweek magazine ghettoes in Chicago." Four days later he stalked away and has contributed articles to various periodicals. red-faced from a booing NAACP crowd he had tried to address, and told Senator Douglas, "Paul, there are a bunch of Reoublicaris out there." After militant and often unruly picketing, Schools 'he Ked Career Superintendent "Benjamin C. Willis — the bete blanche of the protest groups - abruptly resigned. Negroes pre­ maturely celebrated victory: under pressure from the business community and white property owners, Daley restored Willis ;o Ais uncomfortable eminence. The Greenwood, Mississippi Negro community thereupon staged a one-day boycott Byron De La Beckwith, the accused assassin of M of the public schooA that produced nearly 225,000 Evers, was greeted with a big banner of welcome when absentees out of an enrollment of 470,000. he returned here. On the night he arrived he was treated At the Mayor's instruction, six of the seven Negro to a steak dinner at one of the finest restaurants in this aldermen — loyal apparatchiks in the formidable political delta city. Then he moved in with his wife at the Hotel machine . jy 78-year-old, 11-term Congressman LeFlore, where they still live, and the red carpet treat­ William L. Dawson - aeclared open war on the young ment continues. sponsors of the boycott. But the aldermen were greeted Beckwith's second trial was declared a mistrial. by the irreverent Negro tabloid, the Daily Defender,. Delta residents raised over $15,000 for his defense. with a cartoon showing Mayor Daley introducing the During the day and during the evening, he frequently six aldermen to a ragged, dumpy, smiling caricature of rides through the city's Negro section with police in Uncle Tom and saying, "Boys, this is Gitlow. Ke will a police car. Sometimes he sits up front with the police. show you how to shuffle." When Negroes see him with the police they are re­ Gitlow's instructions aid not filter down to 172,350 minded of the only witnesses who testified that Beck­ school children (out of an estimated enrollment of with was in Greenwood and not in Jackson the night 236,471 Negroes) who joined a second massive demon­ of the Evers slaying. Two Greenwood police testified stration. The school board subsequently approved "in that they had seen him in Greenwood at 1:05 a.m. A general principle" 13 recommendations to improve and Greenwood auxiliary policeman testified that he saw integrate inferior ghetto schools, but shows no sense Beckwith in Greenwood at 11:45 p-1^- The shooting gency in implementing them. occurred about 12:30 a.m. in Jackson, 95 miles away. So far, the militants' tactics have brought them no Greenwood is the home of the founder of the White satisfying conquests, but have produced an ugly white Citizens' Council, of which Beckwith is a member, and reaction which appears to trouble Mayor Daley more is the original home of that white supremacy, segrega­ than the Negro protest. White groups opposing tionist organization. Today, three of the five officers THE NEW REPUBLIC

Citizens' Councils of Mississr mon elsewhere in the South, but are evident in its archi­ executive secretary, are Greenwood resi- tecture, highway system, new public library and the its. The Greenwood city attorney, Hardy Lott, was federal buildings under construction. e. chief attorney. But what is the status of desegregation? All the way Greei ... . the center of a voter registra- into the city from the modern new airport there are the Student Nonviolent Coordinating dozen 9 of glittering, expensive new motels, almost all Con. . eegan in August, 1962. Since then, one of them segregated. There are only about 200 Negro SNCC worker, James Travis, has been shot (the bullet children in previously all-white public schools. Not a . in his spin. . ne recovered), five others have single Negro teacher has been integrated, and the )t at, and four were forced to jump from the education of the overwhelming majority of Negro secc. l rear window of the office to escape from children is as segregated and inferior as it was 30 years a mob carrying chains and pipes. Three Negro busi­ ago. Outside New Orleans, there is not an iota of nesses near the SNCC office were burned down; a tokenism. In New Orleans, many years' campaigning month later, the SNCC office was burned. Shotgun to secura municipal jobs for qualified Negroes above blasts were fired into a vote worker's home. Greenwood the mop-and-bucket level has resulted in a handful of police have made more than 70 arrests of persons active Negro policemen, some librarians, but no firemen. in the vote drive, and the county board of supervisors The "colored" and "white" signs have at long last has dropped the surplus food program. come down from the drinking fountains of the depart­ JERRY DEMUTH ment stores, and the lunch counters are desegregated. But all of New Orleans' fine restaurants are still closed MR. DEMUTH is a freelance writer currently working to Negroes, because of a city ordinance that prohi in the South. whites and Negroes being together where alcoholic beverages are served. Since New Orleans is co: "wet," 24 hours a day, seven cays a week, with no restrictions on drinking hours, this means that not Way Down Yond ar< even an integrated breakfast is possible. Bob Collins acidly observed: "Just like with the Indians, they can't in New Orleans" trust us with firewater." The result is that all of the meals (and beverages) that we had together were taken at Negro establishments. This was still in violation of New Orleans the ordinance, which however is relatively unenforced I spent a week in New Orleans working with the local in the Negro facilities. attorneys for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The New Orleans Public Library is officially desegre­ I stayed at a Negro-owned motel and spent all my gated; but Negroes and whites do not sit at the same time with three Negro attorneys who represent CORE: tables in the reading-rooms, and, while Negro borrow­ Robert Collins, Nils Douglas and Lolis Elie. All in their ers may charge out books through white librarians, early thirties, they are of the first generation of grad­ white borrowers are served only by white librarians. uates of the previously all-white law schools. There The only law firm in Louisiana which has an inte­ are only a handful of Negro attorneys in the entire grated secretarial force was obliged to move to a less state of Louisiana, whose Negro population is estimat­ desirable location when the management refused to ed at close to 40 percent of the 3.25 million population. renew their lease, ostensibly because of the complaints Until the law school break-through in the early i95o's, of other tenants. When we had to work late one night there was only one Negro attorney in Louisiana: Mr. and we needed a temporary legal stenographer, we A. P. Tureaud, the distinguished leader of the NAACP arranged to work there because of the obvious impossi­ in New Orleans. Nils Douglas was a candidate for the bility of getting a white stenographer to come into the state legislature, and Lolis Elie is chairman of the Negro Negro section of town at night. community's negotiating committee attempting to make There are segregated white and colored.washrooms progress in desegregation in the city of New Orleans. for lawyers at the imposing new building which houses I was with those men in law offices, homes', courts, the Supreme Court of Louisiana. Can any lawyer or eating places, and hotels, and I collected some vivid judge seriously claim that the segregation of restrooms impressions of the state of race relations in New Or­ in a courthouse, indeed in the Supreme Court of. the leans, which with its population of 650,000 is the sec­ state, is not state action and therefore unconstitutional? ond city of the South. Because of French and Spanish Of course not, I was assured by my hosts. But the state influence and Latin American proximity, the city affects will never do anything about it until a lawsuit is ex­ a cosmopolitanism and sophistication that are uncom­ pressly instituted for that purpose. And the lawsuit

10 THE MEW REPUBLIC Notes on the 'Revolution outside lights, including powerful floodlights. A guard was stationed at one end, in the garage, and I took a position at the other end, in my darkened office, both of us armed with 12-gauge, automatic shot­ guns loaded with buckshot. Both of us can kill two ,A_ ....AAA Goes North quail on a covey-rise. My nightmare was not that anyone would damage my home or hurt my wife or parents, but that one Har. or more of the encirciers would get hurt. I got the I live in the town where I was born, near Hunts- police to break up the nightly demonstrations, and ville and the Marshall Space Flight Center. My Scot­ through newspapers and the radio I tried to com­ tish family goes back eight generations in this area, municate with my neighbors who don't like me. I which voted heavily against George C. Wallace for have tried to tell them that they are welcome to write Governor of Alabama. me obscene letters and to shout at me from the street, I went to Wisconsin for a magazine, to study the but that after dark they must keep out of my yard character and extent of Wallace's Wisconsin support. and driveway. Wallace has only one claim to public attention: he While Wallace pursues his holy war to save the denied the right of a qualified citizen of Alabama to nation from "encroaching federal power," I'll modestly attend the state university because that citizen was try to save Alabama from his encroaching power. I born a Negro. only hope we can fight it out without more people I told people in Wisconsin that Wallace did not have getting dynamited or shotgun'ned. the announced support of a single Southern Gov­ WILLIAM BRADFORD KUIE ernor or Senator; that the Ku Klux Klan, encouraged by Wallace's racism and defiance of law, is mush­ rooming in Alabama; that Wallace, by entering the Wisconsin primary, was trying to escalate himself to where he can fasten a police state on Alabama. p p brit~ y boycoAA Last year, in his first legislature, Wallace supported bills which would change the state constitution to Jackson, Mississippi allow him to succeed himself directly, would allow him to appoint the trustees of the University of Ala­ Last November 1, in Jackson, Mississippi, Nicholas bama, and would allow him to appoint all three mem­ Bosanquet, an English exchange student at Yale, and bers of the Board of Registrars (to control voter Robert E. Honeysucker, a Negro student at Tougaloo registration). He was beaten on those proposals but College, were standing together in line with tickets for was allowed to create a Sovereignty Commission and a a concert by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Commission to Keep the Peace. These two commis­ London when police arrested them. They were accused sions can now spend public money investigating of a breach of the peace for protesting, kept in jail over­ "enemies of the state." In his next legislature, night, but all charges were dropped on representations strengthened by "great Northern victories," Wallace from the British Consul's office in New Orleans. expects to get ail that was denied him by his first Two weeks later, The Original Hootenanny USA legislature, if he can get the power to subpoena "any was to perform at the Jackson city auditorium. When person who threatens the peace and dignity of the the troupe arrived, their spokesman said they were stat. an so harass his enemies that he can drive "amazed" to find "there were some students who would us out. Se I urged the free people of Wisconsin to not be able to see us." The singers canceled and said vote . V / ce and thereby help the people of they "never would have signed to come here if we had known the auditorium was segregated." They not only Television pictures of me making some of these forfeited a $2,500 guarantee but gave a free concert points were shown in Alabama. When I arrived home, before an integrated audience at Tougaloo. my parents could no longer answer their telephone That was followed by cancellation of an appearance because of obscene abuse. About 9:30 pm on a Sun­ by the stars of the television show Bonanza, at the two- day, a procession of eight cars approached my house day Mississippi Commerce and Industry Exposition and began circling it, the occupants shouting "nigger at the coliseum in Jackson, February 1 and 2. The three lover" and "we're gonna get you." This became a stars of Jackson's most popular television show were nightly occurrence. to give five performances, sponsored by local radio My home is L-shaped, and there are three types of station WJQS, at the trade show depicting "100 years

8 APRIL 25, 1964

/.'-- C * 1 T ' of progress in :ommerce and industry in Mississippi." w One of rs, Dan Blocker, telegrap. ~ — ee since been in sympathy with the Louisville, Kentucky gro strug total citizenship, therefore I would mce of any sort before a segregated Hosannas have greeted the way in which Kentucky, house co y incompatible with my moral concepts and Louisville in particular, have met the racial crisis. — indeed, nt." They have been held up as enlightened examples of Two \ ..son Mayor Allen Thompson what a state and a city with a Southern exposure can went on TV to suggest a boycott of the television: do in shaking off the shackles of discrimination. "Bonanza will never come through the air into my house The cheering is premature: Kentucky is not yet again," he cried, and asked: "Who buys these auto­ Beulah Land. Indeed, a case can be made that tec: fight mobiles i issippi?" {Bonanza is sponsored by a for racial justice has lost ground here recently. car n : turer.) "You know, the South is where cars The desegregation of the schools has not been a will b n tremendous numbers," serious issue in Kentucky, and the civil rig .... st .., columnist for the Jackson Clarion- long ago moved on to a different level. Fcr at least Ledger, s supported Thompson's appeal, citing three years now the primary objective has been the le as :.. : South's power, the discontinuance abolition of racial discrimination in businesses licensed of East Side, West Side, "after 26 CBS Southern affili­ to serve the public —or what has come to be known ates canceled the program." Ethridge said the show, as public accommodations. Most of the gains in this produced by "alien-minded" David Susskind, "has dealt field, largely in Louisville, have come in the wake of with integration, housing, social 'injustice' and other sit-in and stand-in demonstrations. leftist 3 da themes." By 1963, it was obvious that persuasion had ac­ On . y night, February 25, 4,000 whites complished as much as it could and that official action crowded ... auditorium to hear a concert was essential to complete the job. The city adminis­ by trumpeter . iirt, a benefit show for the March of tration then enacted a strong ordinance forbidding Dimes. . . before the curtain was to rise, the racial discrimination in public accommodations. This audience was told that Hirt had canceled. brought Louisville reams of national publicity that left ee days later James Webb, administrator of the the general impression that the problem had been National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was solved in the city. Meanwhile, Bert Combs, then the scheduled to speak before the Legislative Welcome Governor, issued an executive order that, in effect, Dinner sponsored by the Jackson Chamber of Com­ extended the principle of the Louisville ordinance to merce, the city of Jackson, and Hinds County officials. the entire state. The cause of Negro rights seemed Webb canceled on the day of his speech, saying, "The triumphant. This, however, proved to be the grand issue has become whether I endorse segregation. I do illusion of 1963. not." The Louisville ordinance has never been enforced, On February 24, Stan Musial was scheduled to ap­ because it has been tied uo in the courts. Its future pear at the Mississippi Hall of Fame dinner at Jackson. I John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Co­ is in doubt. The Governor's executive order was de­ ordinating Committee (SNCC), asked Musial to can­ signed as a stopgap to serve until the legislature met cel. "The Jackson Touchdown Club, sponsor of the and took up civil rights legislation; the executive Mississippi .. Fame, is an all-white body which order was challenged in the courts and has never been enforced either. Nevertheless, in the gubernatorial restricts its membership to white persons," Lewis ex­ campaign last fall, the Republican candidate, Louie B. plained. Musial aid cancel. Nunn, damned the order as a "dictatorial" infringe­ Mississippi was also denied seeing two other sports ment on the rights of private property. On that note stars — Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston. The champion­ he conducted the first outright segregationist campaign ship fight v. . . .vn anywhere in Mississippi, in Kentucky in this century. Although he was a singu­ though previous bouts had been shown in Jackson via larly unattractive candidate, and was conceded no closed circuit television. chance of winning at the outset of the campaign, he A scheduled concert by pianist Gary Grafman at the came within 13,000 votes of the prize. This was the municipal auditorium in jackson on February 27 was signal for politicians to run for cover. called off. Columbia Artists tried to get other artists to During the campaign, Edward Breathitt, the success- - pinch hit for Grafman. All refused. Finally it got David ful Democratic candidate, promised to rescind the Alan, an Israeli pianist, to agree to substitute. Then executive order, after the legislature had a chance to he too changed his mind. enact a public accommodations law. JERRY DE MUTH On a raw, wet March day some 10,000 Kentuckians,

9 . . . .avcs. su- from an annexation of territory equipped with nuclear weapons and .. ..-.. based on military conquest is not U-2 aircraft, , ;ressive wea i- .... bank clear, particularly since even the ons in terms of the present balance oil, water and United States admits the validity of of military technology in Southeast deity monopolies, and disposes Japan's claim to the island. Presi- Asia. Removal of all these, or at ie considera . i o ts thereof, inedy, in the statement least of all nuclear weapons, would en used, liec , Executive permit reintegration of Okinawa ainor., acquire by 1010 on the rule of Oki­ and Japan without necessitating the force, ... e lands of nawa, said, "I recognize [Okinawa] withdrawal of U.S. troops and bases 250,000 members ant house­ to be a part of the Japanese home­ and with no change in the present holds (a quarter of the population). land." The U.S. positice. is that mil­ Sino-American Mutual Security Withholding Japanese sovereignty itary considerations must override Treaty. More than this is not needed in 0: secondary all others, and that the day of re­ for a reasonable policy of defense, effect of restrict! an's possi- union, promised for the indefinite and the establishment of democratic relations with future, must be postponed while the government in Okinawa would cer­ China an. Japan's "free­ free world is ... danger. But we may tainly contribute more in the long ask, together with 1 million Jap­ run -to the attainment of any sane dom to negotiate a peace treaty with 1 Aer Socialist neighbors has been anese who are now ruled by the American objectives in the area compro] by U.S. hints that if Pentagon, whether freedom can be than will the presence of an un- the Kuril e islands .. led to the defended by dictators needed nuclear strike force. Soviet Union (in accordance with This question is particularly im­ If our policy planner^ do not take the Yalta and Potsdam agreements), portant since the military programs some such action, it will become in­ the U.S. will not return Okinawa. for which continued U.S. rule of creasingly difficult to avoid the con­ Similarly, Japan's . vise suc- Okinawa is deemed essential would clusion that they are using Okinawa . biting nuclear seem to be more provocative than as a wedge between the USSR and has been frus- useful. A current example is the in­ China. Fashioning a detente with e on Okinawa, stallation of nuclear missiles cf a the one, while engaging in provoca­ 350 .... linese coast, of range that could he used only tive containment of the other, is a Asia's mil . a ...jar base. against targets in nonnuciear coun­ policy calculated to split the Social­ tries (Rus beyond its reach). ist bloc. If it is true that, during his basi U.S. rule in Quite obviously, then, it is deployed visit to the U.S. in 1959, Khrush­ Okinawa comes as an astonishment. against China, North Korea - or chev communicated his refusal to In the Treaty of Peace with Japan, North Vietnam, all within range. help China acquire nuclear weap­ the United States e its right The only purpose which these ons (as New China News Agency to propose a UN trusteeship for weapons can be serving is to asserted last August), then the sub­ n's Okinawa prefecture and threaten a first strike. This pre­ sequent U.S. decision to base Mace "pending the making of such a pro­ cludes any hope that China will ICBM missiles in Okinawa, which posal" to exercise "all and any pow­ agree to give up attempts to de­ was reported by Defense Secretary ers of administra . egislation, velop her own nuclear deterrent. Gates to a House appropriations and jurisdiction over the territory Surely, if the U.S. is con­ subcommittee in early 1960, before and inhal e islands." cerned to step the spread of nu­ the "spirit of Camp David" had dis­ The making of sue al has clear weapons, it must refrain from appeared, could hardly have been now been "pen< eleven using its nuclear might to threaten taken without regard to "the reac­ el will ne ie for nations which do not yet possess tion of 'the Chinese. These specula­ the simple reaso the UN the bomb. tions are admittedly, based on too Char.. hips over In other respects, too, the mili­ little evidence, but they point to the the territory . tary programs cf Okinawa obstruct fact that our colony in the South How our continued presence on the road to peace. Okinawa's atomic China Sea is a logical focus for con­ Okinawa might he distinguished artillery, Mach-2 fighter bombers sideration of our policies in Asia.

Tift eing SSCK ano .:/ . . . _,v

About 2C om a narrow of Ruleville, a town of less than man of the House Appropriations dirt road state highway 2,000 located in Sunflower County, Subcommittee on Agriculture, who that :. leville, Miss., 30 miles from the Mississippi River. is now seeking his thirteenth term. white frame Sunflower County, heme of Senator From the house on the dirt road house e porch. A Eastland and 66 per cent Negro, is there now comes a person to chal­ large pee ree g-. i the front one of twenty-four counties in the lenge Jamie Whitten: Mrs. Fannie yarc a . smaller ones grow out northwestern quarter of the state— Lou Hamer. Mrs. Hamer is a Negro bade bean arid okra plants the Delta—that make up the Second are filling ; in the gardens on the Congressional District. Since 1941, Jerry DeMuth is a free-lance magazine lots on ei side of the house. La­ this district has been represented in writer, now covering stories in the fayette Si is as quiet as the rest Congress by Jamie Whitten, chair­ South.

54S The. NATION •JOwe I \S(St s (or 4.14 age Negroes) I to % in the Second . in 1960. But en was elected . only 31,345 Ihough in 1960 an 300,000 per- l the district, of e :gro. Mrs. is ..sored by the . Organizations, l of local and nation . organizations. Urn stops its dis- ro eeictices, Mrs. ce of election is slight, citizens of "I'm showing people that ; can run for office," eep, powerful as she sits on r 1. side, talking to friend: ... neighbors who drop by e lay each week when nol campaigning. Whal ig about soon oned plea for a change in the system that ex­ ploits the Delta Negroes. "All my life I've been sick and tired," she / I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." Mrs. om October 6,. 1917, in Montgomery County, the twentii Id in a family of six girls and fourteen boys. When she was 2 her f; moved to Sun­ flower Coi es to the west. The far .. . d pick fifty-sixty hales of cotton a year, so my father decided to rent some land. He bought soma mules and a cultivator. -.-.•5. raranie Lou Hamer We were ... well. He even She's a large and heavy woman, tient, but how much more patience started, to fix up the i.ouse real nice but large and heavy with a power can we have? and . . tght u car. Then our to back up her determination. stock go, 'e knowed this Fannie Lou and Perry Hamer have xvhite U. He stirred We went bach to sharecroppin', two daughters, 10 and 19, both of up a. . of PaOis green with the halvin, it's called. You split the cot­ whom they adopted. The Hamers ton half and half with the planta­ ut there, one adopted the older girl when she was tion oivner. But the seed, fertilizer, muic . dead. T'other two born to give her a home, her mother cost of hired hands, everything is mul::. .id their stom- paid out of the cropper's half. being unmarried. "I've always been aclii, . was too late Later, I dropped out of school. I concerned with any human being," lo sa~< onin knocked cut corn stalks to help the family. Airs. Hamer'explains. The younger us .- . :al. We never My parents tuerc getlbi up in age girl was given to her at the age of did. up t gain. That xvhite : — they weren't young when I ivas 5 months. She had been burned ma:: just because zue were bom, I xuas the twentieth child —- a :'. White people badly when a tub of boiling water and my mother had a bad eye. She see Negroes get a lit­ spilled, and her large, impoverished was cleanin up the owner's yard for tle s lis stuff is no family was not able to care for her. u quarter when somethin' flew up secret ;. . Mississippi. "We had a little money so we took and. hit her in the eye. care of her and raised her. She was Mrs. led her feet under So many times for dinner we sickly too when I got her, suffered the v .ited chair she 'would have greens with no season- from malnutrition. Then she got was s: noleum under in . . . and flour gravy. My mother run over by a car and her leg was erough to an­ would mix flour with a little grease and try to make gravy out of it. broken. So she's only in fourth other o linoleum. Floor Sometimes she'd cook a little meal grade now." spots. She folded and we'd have bread. aids on her lap and No one can honestly say Negroes The older girl left school after „i the chair. are satisfied. We've only been pa- the tenth grade to begin working. . e she tried have to pay poll tax for state elec­ Greenwood SNCC office to investi­ nployer com- tions. I have two receipts now." gate the arrests. . like After being forced to leave the They xvhipped Annelle Ponder irl replied, plantation, Airs. H: tayed with and I heard her screamin'. After a i was denied various frier. relatives. On while she passed by xvhere J was in the cell and her mouth was now, but September 10, night riders fired six­ bleedin and her hair xvas standin , "They don't teen times into the home.of one of up on her head and you know it ." these persons, Mrs. Turner. Mrs. 'was horrifyin. " ' :.. Hamer was away at the time. In Over in the night I even heard Paces is what December, 1962, the Hamers moved screamin'. I said. "Oh, Lord, some­ .. . since j into their . home which they body else geiliu' it, loo." It -was 31, 1962. On j and sev- rent from a Negro woman. later that xve heard that Lawrence down to the Mrs. Hamer had by then begun Guyot xuas there. I got to see him. I could -walk as far as the cell door iianola to active work in the civil rights move­ and I asked them to release leave . . .'. m the mo- ment. She gathered names for a that door open so I could get a nenl a ice wandered petition to obtain federal commodi­ breath of fresh air every once in eping an eye ties for needy Negro families and a -while. That's how I got to see .der what attended various Southern Christian Guyot. He looked as if he was in sr said to Leadership Conference (SCLC) and pretty bad shape. And it xvas on a-c to R-ule- Student Nonviolent Coordinating ray nerves, too, becaxise. that xvas te bus and Committee (SNCC) workshops the first time 1 had seen him and not smilin. dianola. There throughout the South. Since then After I got out of jail, half dead, I. The bus was she has been active as a SNCC field secretary in voter registra­ I found out that Medgar Evers had wrong color, the police been shot down in his own yard. tion and welfare programs and has taught classes for SCLC. At present, . ed out, Mrs. Mrs. Hamer paused for a -mo­ most of her time is spent campaign­ led to the plantation ment, saddened by the recollection. ing. famers had lived for I glanced around the dim room. eighteen years. In June of last year, Mrs. Plamer Faded wallpaper covered the walls My oldest girl met me and told was returning from a workshop in and a vase, some framed photos, me t'l rlowe, the planta- Charleston, S.C. She was arrested in and a large doll were placed neatly was mad and raisin' Winona, in Montgomery County, 60 on a chest and on a small table. Cain. He had . hat I had tried miles east of Indianola, the county Three stuffed clowns and a small to register. Th . . he called on in which she-was born. Along with doll lay on the worn spread on the . . ready for others, she was taken from the bus double bed in the corner. Both the in Mississippi now. If you don't to the jail. .-, I'll let you go." I left that small doll and the larger one had night but "Pap" — that's what I call They carried, me into a room and white complexions, a reminder of my husband. — had to stay on till there xuas two Negro boys in this the world outside. room. The state highway patrolman xuork on the plantation was We're tired of all this beatin, "• gave them a long, wide blackjack thr(>: xve're tired of takin' this. It's been In the last year, and'he told one of the boys, "Take a hundred, years and we're still this," and the Negro, he said, "This Hamer got a job . ileville cot- being beaten and shot at, crosses what you want me to use'?" The . ;in. But this year, though others are still being burned, because xve state patrolman said, "That's right, want to vote. But I'm gain to stay are working then already, they and if you don't use it on her you haven't taken him ba in Mississippi and if they shoot me know what I'll use on you." down, I'll be buried here. I had to get over on a bed flat But I don't want equal rights with Accordin; tc Mississippi law on my stomach and that man beat the white man; if I did, I'd be a the name sons who take me . . . that man beat me till he thief and a murderer. But the xvhite the regis e . must be in the give out. And by me screamin, it man is the scardest person on earth. local pap: . eks. This sub­ made a plain-clothes man •— he Out in the daylight he don't do didn't have on nothin like a uni­ jects . Delta Ne­ nothin. But at night he'll toss a form — he got so hot and worked bomb or pay someone to kill. The groes, to all sor .e.ttory ac­ up he just run there and started . xvhite man's afraid he'll be treated tions. "Most Nee the Delta hittin me on the back of my head. like he's been treatin' Negroes, but arc s tot like in And I was tryin to guard some of I couldn't carry that much hate. It the hills , own land. the licks with my hands and they wouldn't solve any problem for me before my just beat my hands till they turned to hate whites just because tliey name had e paper," Mrs. blue. This Negro just beat me till hate me. Oh, there's so much hate. Hamer adds. I know he was give out. Then this Only God has kept the Negro sane. She didn't pass the test the first state patrolman told the other Ne­ A^s part of her voter-registration time, so .-. . on December gro to take me so he take over from work, Mrs. Hamer has been teach­ there and he just keep beatin' me. "You'll see me ing citizenship classes, working to The police carried Mrs. Hamer to ," she told her cell when they were through overcome the -bad schooling Delta the registrar. On January 10, she re- beating her. They also beat Annelle Negroes have received, when they . thai she had Ponder, a SCLC worker who was receive any at all. "We just have passed. "But I still wasn't allowed returning on the bus with her, and nice school buildings," she says. In to vote last fall because I didn't Lawrence Guyot, a SNCC field sec­ Sunflower County there are three have two poll-tax ts. We still retary who had traveled from the buildings for 11,000 Negroes 6f<

550 The NATION ings for "A couple weeks ago more cratic Party is also being fc 4,000 white high school stue clothes arrived," she relat i , "the which will ho tings on every In 1960-6 ty spent $150 mayor said that people could go and level within the state, from precinct' >0 per Negro get clothing, and that if they didn't on up, finally choosing a dele; pupil. When ape e register, get any they should just go and take to the National Democratic Conven­ persons as pert test must them. I wen. and talked to the tion that will challenge the seat­ interpret the E . lstitution but, mayor. I told him not to boss us ing of the regular all-white Missis­ Hamer says, ' .. don't around. 'We don't try to boss you sippi delegation. teach it in sc. around,' I told him." In addition to Mrs. Hamer, three The Negro schools close in May, other Mississippi Negroes are run­ so that the children can help with Obviously, Fannie Lou Ha­ ning for national office in the 1964 the planting and chopping; they mer will not be easily stopped. "We elections. James Monroe Houston open again in July and August, only mean to use every means to try and will challenge Robert Bell Williams to close in September and. October win. If I lose we have this freedom in the Third Congressional District, so that the children can pick cotton. registration and freedom vote to see the Rev. John E. Cameron faces Some stay out of school completely how many would have voted if there William Meyers Colmer in the Fifth, to work in the fields. Mississippi has wasn't all this red tape and dis­ and Mrs. Victoria Jackson Gray is no compulsory school-attendance crimination." If Mrs. Hamer is de­ campaigning for the Senate seat law; it was abolished after the 1954 feated by Jamie Whitten in the pri­ now held by John S tennis. Supreme Court school-desegregation mary, she will also file as an inde­ This extensive program provides decision. Many Negro children pendent in the general election. a basis for Negroes organizing do not attend school simply because Last fall, SNCC voter-registration throughout the state, and gives a they have no clothes to wear. workers attempted to register in strong democratic base for the Mrs. Hamer has helped distribute freedom-registration books all those Freedom Democratic Party. The clothing sent down from the North. not officially registered. These wide range of Negro participation "We owe a lot to people in the Negroes the voted in an unofficial will show that the problem in Mis­ North," she admits. "A lot of people Freedom Vote campaign, choosing sissippi is not Negro apathy, but are wearing nice clothes for the first 'between Democrat Paul Johnson, discrimination and fear of physical time. A lot of kids couldn't go to now Governor, Republican Rubel and economic reprisals for attempt­ school otherwise." Phillips, and independent Aaron ing to register. One time when a shipment ar­ Henry, state NAACP chairman. The Freedom Democratic candi­ rived for distributi : Pmleville Henry received 70,000 votes. dates will also give Mississippians, mayor took it upon himself to an­ The same thing will be done this white as well as Negro, a chance to nounce that a lo. ehes were summer, and if Mrs. Hamer loses, vote for candidates who do not being given out. More than 400 Ne­ the Freedom Vote total will be used stand for political, social and eco­ groes showed up tend stood in line to challenge Whitten's election. nomic exploitation and discrimina­ to receive clothes. Mrs. Hamer, Backing up the discrimination tion, and a chance to vote for the combining human compassion and charges are nine suits the federal National Democratic ticket rather politicking, told tee. that die government has pending in seven than the Mississippi slate of un­ mayor hae had nothing to do with Second Congressional District coun­ pledged electors. the clothing distribution and that if ties, including a suit in Sunflower "We been waitin' all our lives," they went and registered they County where, in 1960, only 1.2 per Mrs. Hamer exclaims, "and still get- wouldn't have to stand in line as cent of voting-age Negroes were tin' killed, still gettin' hung, still they were doing.-Many went down registered. gettin' heat to death. Now we're and took the registration test. A Mississippi Freedom Demo­ tired waitin'!"

Codes of Ethics

All Honorable Men . . , Louis W. Koenig

While there .. . uguries yet to port from the Special Committee on legal fetters that Laporte was driven indicate a. great new surge of public Ethics, appointed by the state legis­ to declare that "the bill that was morality, it is clear that legislatures lature and headed by Cloyd Laporte," adopted does almost nothing to these day: ling with their who is also chairman of the New strengthen existing law." consciences. The Senate Rules Com­ York City Board of Ethics. The La­ In Virginia, a discussion of con­ mittee, stung by the revelations of porte committee made tough-minded flict-of-interest regulations was the Bobby Baker y, is now recommendations to shut down sev­ touched off by disclosures that four- circulating among its members a eral lucrative but dubious preserves ethics prepared under frequented by New York legislators. Unfortunately for the people of New Louis W. Koenig, professor of govern­ the supervision of its chief counsel, ment at New York University, has Maj. Lennox P. McLendon. New York, but fortunately for legislators' served on federal agencies. He is the York . s given the nation an -pocketbooks, a new 1964 state law author of The Invisible Presidency example to follow in this years re- so bound 'the recommendations in (RineharO. lune 1, i 551 REPRINTED FROM:

NATIOJune 1, 196N4

Tired of Being Sick and Tired'. . . Jerry DeMuth

About 20 feet back from a narrow dirt road just off the state highway that cuts through Ruleville, Miss., is a small, three-room, white frame house with a screened porch. A large pecan tree grows in the front yard and two smaller ones grow out back. Butter bean and okra plants are filling out in the gardens on the lots on either side of the house. La­ fayette Street is as quiet as the rest of Ruleville, a town of less than 2,000 located in Sunflower County, 30 miles from the Mississippi River. Sunflower County, home of Senator Eastland and 68 per cent Negro, is one of twenty-four counties in the northwestern quarter of the state— the Delta—that make up the Second Congressional District. Since 1941, this district has been represented in Congress by Jamie Whitten, chair- man~of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, who is now seeking his thirteenth term. From the house on the dirt road there now comes a person to chal­ lenge Jamie Whitten: Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer. Mrs. Hamer is a Negro and only 6,616 Negroes (or 4.14 per cent of voting-age Negroes) were registered to vote in the Second Congressional District in 1960. But in 1962, when Whitten was elected for the twelfth time, only 31,345 persons cast votes, although in 1960 there were more than 300,000 per­ sons of voting age in the district, 59 per cent of them Negro. Mrs. Hauler's bid is sponsored by the Council of Federated Organizations, a Mississippi coalition of local and national civil rights organizations. Until Mississippi stops its dis­ Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer criminatory voting practices, Mrs. Hamer's chance of election is slight, other layer of linoleum. Floor broken. So she's only in fourth but she is waking up the citizens of boards showed in spots. She folded grade now." her district. "I'm showing people her large hands on her lap and that a Negro can run for office," shifted her weight in the chair. The older girl .left school after she explains. Her deep, powerful She's a large and heavy woman, the tenth grade to begin working. voice shakes the air as she sits on but large and heavy with a power Several months ago when she tried the porch or inside, talking to to back up her determination. to get a job, the employer com­ friends, relatives and neighbors who We went back to sharecroppln , mented, "You certainly talk like drop by on the one day each week halvin, it's called. You split the cot­ Fannie Lou." When the girl replied, when she is not out campaigning. ton half and half with the planta­ "She raised me," she was denied tion owner. But the seed, fertilizer, Whatever she is talking about soon the job. She has a job now, but cost of hired hands, everything is Mrs. Hamer explains, "They don't becomes an impassioned plea for paid out of the cropper's half. a change in the system that ex­ know she's my child." ploits the Delta Negroes. "All my Later, 1 dropped out of school. 1 The intimidation that Mrs. life I've been sick and tired," she cut corn stalks to help the family. Hamer's older girl faces is what shakes her head. "Now I'm sick and My parents xvere gettin up in age Mrs. Hamer has faced since August tired of being sick and tired." — they weren't young when I was 31, 1962. On that day she and sev­ born, I was the twentieth child — enteen others went down to the and my mmother had a bad aye. She county courthouse in Indianola to Mrs. Hamer was born October 6, was cleaning up the owner's yard for try to register to vote. From the mo­ 1917, in Montgomery County, the a quarter when somethiu' flew up and hit her in the eye. ment they arrived, police wandered twentieth child in a family of six So many times for dinner we around their bus, keeping an eye girls and fourteen boys. When would have greens with no season- on the eighteen. "I wonder what she was 2 her family moved to Sun­ in . . . and flour gravy. My mother -they'll do," the bus driver said to flower County, 60 miles to the west. would mix flour with a little grease Mrs. Hamer. Halfway back to Rul - The family would pick fifty-sixty and try to make gravy out of it. ville, the police stopped the bus and bales of cotton a year, so my father Sometimes she'd cook a little meal ordered it back to Indianola. There decided to rent some land. He and we'd have bread. they were all arrested. The bus was bought some mules and a cultivator. No one can honestly say Negroes painted the wrong color, the police We were doiii pretty well. He even are satisfied. We've only been pa­ told them. started to fix up the house real nice tient, but how much more patience can we have1? After being bonded out, Mrs. and had bought a car. Then our Hamer returned to the plantation stock got poisoned. We knowed this Fannie Lou and Perry Hamer have where the 'Hamers had lived for white man had done it. He stirred two daughters, 10 and 19, both of up* a' gallon of Paris green with the whom they adopted. The Hamers eighteen years. feed. When xve got out there, one adopted the older girl when she was My oldest girl met me and told me that Mr. Marlowe, the planta­ mule was already dead. T'other two born to give her a home, her mother tion owner, was mad and raisin' mules and the cow had their stom­ being unmarried. "I've always been Cain. He had heard that I had tried achs all sivelled up. It was too late concerned with any human being," to register. That night he called on to save 'em. That poisonin knocked Mrs. Hamer explains. The younger us and said, "We're not ready for us right back down flat. We never girl was given to her at the age of that in Mississippi now. If you don't did get back up again. That while 5 months. She had been burned withdraw, I'll let you go." I left that man did it just because we were badly when a tub of boiling water night but "Pap" — that's what I call gettin somewhere. White people spilled, and her large, impoverished my husband — had to stay on till never like to see Negroes get a lit­ work on the plantation was family was not able to care for her. through. tle success. All of this stuff is no "We had a little money so we took secret in the slate of Mississippi. care of her and raised her. She was In the spring of last year, Mr. Mrs. Hamer pulled her feet under sickly too when I got her, suffered Hamer got a job at a Ruleville cot­ the worn, straight-backed chair she from malnutrition. Then she got ton gin. But this year, though others was sitting in. The linoleum under run over by a car and her leg was are working there already, they her feet was worn through to an- haven't taken him back. According to Mississippi law Over in the night I even heard combining human compassion and the names of all persons who take screamin'. I said, "Oh, Lord, some­ politicking, told them that the the registration test must be in the body else gettin it, too." It was mayor had had nothing to do with later that we heard that. Lawrence the clothing distribution and that if local paper for two weeks. This sub­ Guyot was there. I got to see him. jects Negroes, especially Delta Ne­ I could walk as far as the cell door they went and registered they groes, to all sorts of retaliatory ac­ and I asked them to please leave wouldn't have to stand in line as tions. "Most Negroes in the Delta that door open so I could get a they were doing. Many went down are sharecroppers. It's not like in breath of fresh air every once in and took the registration test. the hills where Negroes own land. a while. That's how I got to see "A couple weeks ago when more But everything happened before my Guyot. He looked as if he was in clothes arrived," she relates, "the name had been in the paper," Mrs. pretty bad shape. And it was on mayor said that people could go and Hamer adds. my nerves, too, because that was the first time I had seen him and get clothing, and that if they didn't She didn't pass the test the first not smilin'. get any they should just go and take time, so she returned on December After I got out of jail, half dead, them'. I went and talked to the 4, and took it again. "You'll see me I found out that Medgar Evers had mayor. I told him not to boss us every 30 days till I pass," she told been shot down in his own yard. around. 'We don't try to boss you the registrar. On January 10, she re­ around,' I told him." turned and found out that she had Mrs. Hamer paused for a mo­ Obviously, Fannie Lou Ha­ passed. "But I still wasn't allowed ment, saddened by the recollection. mer will not be easily stopped. "We to vote last fall because I didn't I glanced around the dim room. mean to use every means to try and have two poll-tax receipts. We still Faded wallpaper covered the walls win. If I lose we have this freedom have to pay poll tax for state elec­ and a vase, some framed photos, registration and freedom vote to see tions. I have two receipts now." and a large doll were placed neatly how many would have voted if there After being forced to leave the on a chest and on a small table. wasn't all this red tape and dis­ plantation, Mrs. Hamer stayed with Three stuffed clowns and a small crimination." If Mrs. Hamer is de­ various friends and relatives. On doll lay on the worn spread on the feated by Jamie Whitten in the pri­ September 10, night riders fired six­ double bed in the corner. Both the mary, she will also file as an inde­ teen times into the home of one of small doll and the larger one had pendent in the general election. these persons, Mrs. Turner. Mrs. white complexions, a reminder of Last fall, SNCC voter-registration Hamer was away at the time. In the world outside. workers attempted to register in December, 1962, the Hamers moved We're tired of all this beatin', freedom-registration books all those into their present home which they we're tired of takin' this. It's been not officially registered. These rent from a Negro woman. a hundred years and we're still Negroes then voted in an unofficial Mrs. Hamer had by then begun being beaten and shot at, crosses Freedom Vote campaign, choosing active work in the civil rights move­ are still being burned, because we between Democrat Paul Johnson, ment. She gathered names for a want to vote. But I'm gain to stay now Governor, Republican Rubel petition to obtain federal commodi­ in Mississippi and if they shoot me Phillips, and independent Aaron ties for needy Negro families and down, I'll be buried here. Henry, state NAACP chairman. attended various Southern Christian But 1 don't want equal rights with Henry received 70,000 votes. the white man; if I did, I'd be a Leadership Conference (SCLC) and The same thing will be done this Student Nonviolent Coordinating thief and a murderer. But the white man is the scardest person on earth. summer, and if Mrs. Hamer loses, Committee (SNCC) * workshops the Freedom Vote total will be used throughout the South. Since then Out in the daylight he don't do nothin'. But at night he'll toss a to challenge Whitten's election. she has been active as a SNCC Backing up the discrimination field secretary in voter registra­ bomb or pay someone to kill. The white man's afraid he'll be treated charges are nine suits the federal tion and welfare programs and has government has pending in seven taught classes for SCLC. At present, like he's been treatin Negroes, but I couldn't carry that much hate. It Second Congressional District coun­ most of her time is spent campaign­ wouldn't solve any problem for me ties, including a suit in Sunflower ing. to hate whites just because they County where, in 1960, only 1.2 per In June of last year, Mrs. Hamer hate me. Oh, there's so much hate. cent of voting-age Negroes were was returning from a workshop in Only God has kept the Negro sane. registered. Charleston, S.C. She was arrested in As part of her voter-registration A Mississippi Freedom Demo­ Winona, in Montgomery County, 60 work, Mrs. Hamer has been teach­ cratic Party is also being formed miles east of Indianola, the county ing citizenship classes, working to which will hold meetings on every in which she was born. Along with overcome the bad schooling Delta level within the state, from precinct others, she was taken from the bus Negroes have received, when they on up, finally choosing a delegation to the jail. receive any at all. "We just have nice school buildings," she says. In to the National Democratic Conven­ They carried me into a room and Sunflower County there are three tion that will challenge the seat­ there was two Negro boys in this buildings for 11,000 Negroes of ing of the regular all-white Missis­ room. The state highway patrolman high school age, six buildings for sippi delegation. gave them a long, wide blackjack 4,000 white high school students. In addition to Mrs. Hamer, three and he told one of the boys, "Take other Mississippi Negroes are run­ this," and the Negro, he said, "This In 1960-61, the county spent $150 per white pupil, $60 per Negro ning for national office in the 1964 what you want me to use?" The elections. James Monroe Houston state patrolman said, "That's right, pupil. When applying to register, and if you don't use it on her you persons as part of the test must will challenge Robert Bell Williams know what I'll use on you." interpret the state constitution but, in the Third Congressional District, I had to get over on a bed flat Mrs. Hamer says, "Mississippi don't the Rev. John E. Cameron faces on my stomach and that man beat teach it in school." William Meyers Colmer in the Fifth, me . . . that man beat me till he The Negro schools close in May, and Mrs. Victoria Jackson Gray is give out. And by me screamin, it so that the children can help with campaigning for the Senate seat made a plain-clothes man — he the planting and chopping; they now held by John Stennis. didn't have on nothin like a uni­ open again in July and August, only This extensive program provides form — he got so hot and worked to close in September and October a basis for Negroes organizing up he just run there and started so that the children can pick cotton. throughout the state, and gives a hittin me on the back of my head. Some stay out of school completely strong democratic base for the And I was tryin' to guard some of to work in the fields. Mississippi has the licks with my hands and they Freedom Democratic Party. The no compulsory school-attendance wide range of Negro participation just beat my hands till they turned law; it was abolished after the 1954 blue. This Negro just beat me till will show that the problem in Mis­ Supreme Court school-desegregation sissippi is not Negro apathy, but I know he was give out. Then this decision. Many Negro children state patrolman told the other Ne­ do not attend school simply because discrimination and fear of physical gro to take me so he take over from they have no clothes to wear. and economic reprisals for attempt­ there and he just keep beatin' me. ing to register. The police carried Mrs. Hamer to Mrs. Hamer has helped distribute The Freedom Democratic candi­ her cell when they were through clothing sent down from the North. dates will also give Mississippians, beating her. They also beat Annelle "We owe a lot to people in the white as well as Negro, a chance to Ponder, a SCLC worker who was North," she admits. "A lot of people vote for candidates who do not returning on the bus with her, and are wearing nice clothes for the first Lawrence Guyot, a SNCC field sec­ stand for political, social and eco­ time. A lot of kids couldn't go to nomic exploitation and discrimina­ retary whq had traveled from the school otherwise." TTreehwoocrSNCC office to investi­ tion, and a chance to vote for the gate the arrests. One time when a shipment ar­ National Democratic ticket rather They whipped Annelle Ponder rived for distribution, the Ruleville than the Mississippi slate of un­ and I heard her screamin. After a mayor took it upon himself to an­ pledged electors. while she passed by where I was nounce that a lot of clothes were "We been waitin' all our lives," in the cell and her mouth was^ being given out. More than 400 Ne­ Mrs. Hamer exclaims, "and still get­ bleedin and her hair was standin' groes showed up and stood in line tin' killed, still gettin' hung, still up on her head and you know it to receive clothes. Mrs. Hamer,. gettin' beat to death. Now we're was horrifyin. tired waitin'!"

I pledge $ to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,

NAME SUPPORT SNCC NOW ADDRESS CITY STATE Contributors to SNCC receive a subscription to the Student Voice. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Send to: SNCC, 6 Raymond Street, N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30314 o 6 Raymond Street, N.W. Atlanta 14, Georgia £-•**- Labor Donated Notes on conversation with Aaron Henry at his Clarksdale home, Monday, August 3, 196^ |h+e^eiJtj . JI^TZLM^I,

1

I was born in rural Coahoma County, July 2, '22 and joined the NAACP in 19^-1 vrhen I was a senior in high school. We had an instructor from Dillard University. He talked the entire senior class into joining the NAACP youth group.- At Xavier I v;as active in the formative days of the NSA and the National Federation of Catholic College Students.

On our ship we had segregated movie showings. One night there movies would be movies for whites, the next night/for Negroes. So the Negroes boycotted the movies. I recall one day we had a very bad situation with the chaplain in Honolulu. He was preaching away, talking febout the rain, and said it was raining pitch forks and nigger babies* Most of us got up and walked out and we didn't go back to this particular church. We went to church in town. The officers understood why and we got free use of cars into town.

In 1950 I got my B.S'. in pharmacy from Xavier and came back to Clarksdalei Ny wife had been a student at Jackson State and had conducted Bible classes—that's how I met her. We got married then. I went into partnership with William Walker in a drugstore. Walker is white but a large part of his business is Negro. We were partners from 1950 to 195^- when he got an opportunity to buy Walgreens. So he could buy it he offered to sefcl me his share in the drugstore. (Henry bought it and today owns Fourth Street Drugs across the street " ' from the old location.) Henry—add one m,

Walker had heard about me through a regro doctor he knew, 0 G Smith.

Walker has supported me in my activities. He tells me to go to it, but be careful, you have a wife and child. Walker is from Goodman, Miss.

In 1952 we organized the local branch of the NAACP. It was the culmination of several activities and frustrations with the white community—rape of Negro women with no convictions, police murders of Negroes with no investigations. The NAACP at our request sent in a couple of workers and within a week we got organized. WE8 e been raisin1 hell ever since.

I've been involved in voter registration activities, a boycott of the downtown community, and pressure against whites for illegal activities. In 195^ I filed a petition askin the schoolsto desegregate. It was never answered. In September of 1963 I filed another petition. As defendents, we got 17 children so there would be at least one from each grade. The federal district court ordered the school board to issaasx submit a plan by July 30. I was also involved with the Coahoma County Negro Citizens Education League and the Coahoma County Voters League. It was a crazy thing to join the SAACP then (1952). Everybody was notwilling to take on this kind of activity in 1952. It was highly unpopular. Peoples houses were shot into. In the first ten Negro years, till 1962 there were 600-to 800/voters, there are 1,000 now. I've been arrested k or 5 times on traffic charges, one restraint of trade charge, once for pardaing without a permit and on a morals charge. The boycott worked out swell. We really squeezed them. Ever since I can remember Negroes participated in the nativity parade. We got a new mayor, Kincaid, in 1961. He said that Negroes were not to participate. We considered it an affront to Negroes, especially to the children. Henry — add two

We said if we can't parade downtown, we won't trade downtown. The police arrested several persons they felt were leaders to break the back of the movement. I was sentenced to six months and appealed. I went to the mayor to talk to him and was arrested in his office. We felt the Chamber of Commerce which had sent the mayor's letter was responsible. The chamber met with us. We asked that Negroes be employed above the menial level and that courtesy titles be used. The boycott was lifted July 2, 196!+. WE're observing and studying particular practices and have become involved with separate stores. We hate serious grievances. No Negroes are employed in the city government above the menial level; complete segregtaion in the courtroom; and segregated drinking fountains and toilets. (Still seg toilets— Negros toilets unlocked, white toilets locked, whites have to get a key.) We wrote to the mayor to present our grievances but were ignored. So we sat in at City Hall—we were going to sit there till he heard us. Two weeks later, he still had granted us nothing so we decided to let the world know conditions here so we picketed. We could hear voices on the police two-way radios: look at all them niggers coming from down the block. I was arrested and served a week. I worked on the work gang and even hauled garbage. They arrested a lot of us. Sometimes there were somany in the cell, no one could lie down. We were really packed in. But the women had it worse. They i£± didn't haveno privacy. The police would lock in on them when they were in the showers. We made out point—conditions in Clarksdale were so bad we were wil ing to go on the chain gang. We've been involved as a branch unit with the freedom summer program. We made quarters available—we rented space for the freedom house which was the NAACP office and for the community center. We also found freedom school locations. Henry — add three

The greatest result of the freedom vote was the statewide organization that grew out of it—COFO. There are organizations now in k-5 communities—before there were organizations in only 20 to 25. It almost doubled the numberof communities. And we have a contact in most counties which is a springboard to organizing an area. The freedom vote came about as the result of a survey. In a *f year period almost 70,000 had gone to their courthouse to register but only 6,000 lvegroes got registered. The State Sovereignty &H Commission had always said that Negroes don't vote because they're too apathetic. We showed that Negroes would vote if they had the opportunity and the person to vote for. There were alot of arrests during that campaign. Mibst every person saw the inside of a jail. In some places, police came and took the poll boxes and the ballots. The day we met to look for a candidate all four civil rights groups could support, I was chosen. I was proud and honored to be able to accept. The idea for the campaign came when Bob Moses, Dave Dennis and myself kicked around thoughts and got the idea. Our home was bomfred. That happened on Good Friday in 1962. The right front was blown out and burned. It did about $1500-$1600 damage. On Easter Sunday I put a sign in our window— Father Forgive Them. I've had a shot gun guard since then and there hasn't been any more violence. My store windows were regularly smashed around that time too.

Then in August ±±XMSX my store was bombed. (Insurance on both home and store cancelled—not able to get aew policies, considered a bad risk.) We have to make faster strides and will make them. Mississippi will have to make a greater deviation. Pressure on the state will keep up till the state finally heels. Henry — add four

If white people vote for Goldwater because I try to get my freedom, they're going to have to vote for Goldwater. I'm sadly coming to the opinion there will have to be a confrontation between federal government and the state's power before there can be freedom In Mississippi. As there are more violations of court orders, the federal government will become more involved in civil rights. You can't ask Negroes to be quiet while whites are still kicking us down. There's no reason for calling off demonstrations. I'm not letting up on any pressure on the federal government. The summer volunteers came to work in programs already here. These programs will continue after they leave, only on a smaller scale. - 30 - Atlanta, Go. A voter registration rally in Seima, Ala­ hrry DeMuth I REMEMBER when we had bama, attended by 150 Negroes ended arrived in town. After phoning in to the around 9:30 on a Sunday night last me back to the front of the building. They local FBX, we dropped by the sheriff's of­ month in the AME Zion meeting hail. Five pushed trie to the ground and said, "Sit fice. His men had been following us ever whites in street clothes had also attended there and don't move." I sat there, blood since we came to town, ana we decided to the meeting—whites regularly do so, tak­ running down my face and neck, dripping make our identity known to him. When we ing notes and also often taking photos. Out­ onto my suit. asked the chief deputy, X.,, C, Crocker, and side, more than 70 police waited. "I'm bleeding," I groaned. the county solicitor, Bianchard McLeod, When I left the hall with David Prince, questions about what had happened on "You're lucky that's all/' a deputy re­ Saturday, the latter replied, "I won't tell a photographer I was working with on as­ plied. signment from Blackstar agency, I counted you nothin'," The chief deputy then began a row of 63 special deputies in brown uni­ Dave was dragged near me and forced to berate newsmen and said that, the forms and white crash helmets, wearing to the ground. A deputy ran to ray side, "niggers" only demonstrated for publicity sidearms and clutching two-foot long night his night: stick in front of htm, and smashed and if we weren't there nothing would sticks, lined up elbow to elbow along the the flood lights X had been carrying. He happen. street across from the meeting hall. About then turned to Dave, grabbed his camera, On the scene near the church the minor ten others stood near several blue-domed and began smashing it. Another deputy official continued his shouting. "You' get. police cars that contained additional offi­ struck me across the side of ray face, the hell out of here. Get in your car, get cers. knocking off my glasses. your stuff out of the hotel, and leave this I watched Dave as lie tried to take pho­ A man to whom we had been pointed out state, and don't you ever come back." tos and the poiiee as they shone flashlights in a restaurant at dinner ran up claiming As we approached the ear X told Dave at his camera lens. Suddenly there were Dave had a gun and Dave was brutally to drive, and as we climbed into the car, screams and. yells from the right behind searched. His pockets were emptied and a a deputy shouted after us, "X should have me, and as I turned 1 saw brown-uniformed wallet: containing over 170 in cash was killed you." It • was one. of the men who deputies swinging their night sticks, charg­ taken, and he says he never got it back. had beaten him with night sticks. ing through a crowd of Negroes who had gathered in front of the house next door. The deputies of course found no gun and : We parked in front of the hotel and went Three of the deputies passed the crowd someone shouted.that it must be in our ear. inside. The desk clerk, who did not show any surprise at our condition, gave us our and approached the house's porch, night I had been looking for ray glasses with­ sticks in air. A woman sat on the porch, key and we went up to our room, grabbed out, success. "I lost my glasses," X told our luggage, and came back down. I tossed holding a young girl in her lap, "Quick,. them. "They're here on the ground some get the child inside!" a man's voice rang two fives on the desk—-more than enough place." A deputy on my left shouted, "For­ to pay our bill—-and we left, watched by a out from the porch. Before X could see what get your glasses, you son of a bitch." happened next, a night stick crashed across police car. the top of my head and I fell toward the We were forced over to my car. Three A dark station. wagon was parked two ground as brown - uniformed deputies men searched the inside and the trunk, cars from ours, the driver standing out­ swarmed past me. dumping everything all over the place and side watching us. As we drove off, he got in pulling up the rear seat. As I stood there the car which held three other men, started waiting for them to finish, X became dizzy the engine, then backed up, and pulled in 1 PUSHED MYSELF UP, hold­ and almost passed out from the head wound three cars behind us. As we drove out of ing the top of my head, and stumbled to­ ana the tear gas that: filled the air. Still sown he followed us for about ten minutes, ward Dave, who was at the other side of X managed to stand there, afraid of what then stopped. the hall. I felt, wetness on my hand and the deputies would do to me if I fell over. saw that my hand was dripping with We didn't stop till we had gotten to blood. "I've been hit, I've been hit," I Minutes later we.were pushed to a-police Montgomery, 45 miles away, where we shouted to Dave, who grabbed my arm. and car arid forced to stand there, our arms finally received hospital treatment, X ended led me between the buildings. resting on the roof. Then we were pushed up with my left arm in a sling and seven But within moments we were again sepa­ over to another car that was parked across stitches in my head. Q rated, and as I struggled toward the rear the road. The jabbing with the night sticks ' of the building, I. saw a deputy shine a continued. Again a deputy grabbed Dave's August 21, 1964 1 * flashlight oh Dave and heard a pistol shot camera and, holding it in his hand, clubbed ring out. The bullet whistled past him, go­ at the lens with his night stick. An officer ing through a clump of bushes. "Don't finally took it from the deputy and gave move or you're dead," a voice shouted. Both it back to Dave. of: us stopped. Since I860 More deputies surrounded us and two Several deputies grabbed my arms and wearing gas masks and holding rifles ie Place in A jabbed me with their night sticks, forcing stepped in front of me. "I should shoot Jerry EeMuth, who majored in journal­ you," one shouted, his voice muffled by the", ism at Nortfiriaesierri and Southern Illinois mask. "I ought to fill you full of lead," the universities, has written, for ills Nation, other yelled as he shoved his masked face Neyi Republic, Commonweal, Frontier, Vil­ in front of me. His angry, squinting eyes told me he might well do that. lage Voice, the Realist, Outsider's Newslet­ 1607 San Jaslnto ter, Independent, and other periodicals. He A minor county official ran up to us, has related events he here reviews in a llf- yelling and swearing. "You started this, GR 7-4111 •page affidavit to the FBI, you sons of bitches." .

2 TkxQ.f' Ob ^^ are timid ' about iprofanity. "I was put in jail at 11:30 and released at 12 the next HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss.- The^ roads in ^ rural grease Iputtmputting; their names on a form, a first thing that happens to you I , day on S500 bond," he related, , After five weeks in Mississippi, |nnmlw>r are IOmDitcrnbl y y alralQafraid, Ba e in one. of these Mississippi com- u has become a famiIiar tt£n. ™;!,^.nd ' ' | * * Powerfully bu.lt Dayton r- <• muni ties is ,,,,. , . , . 0: , , . ..youth has a narrow escape the an "the'Wn eth e exchangpeople egenerall pleasantries,y invite : tha"Negrt we o arpeople here,e her" eBerr arey happsaidy ; prececlinc, nl-„ht c onfrontation i you inside. I introduce myself j "Theit yti^t- ifee rai-d o ushor, ntak " e Porrcarev ocaif usH , I " A.. precinc-. t* * meeting was being help at a Negro church. Cars of with the law," and tell them I'm with the sum-; protect us. When Hardy Frye, a v from Sacramento, was whites blocked the intersections explained El? mer project which- I explain to'volunteer at each end of the road. The peo­ woodBerry of|them_ r a,k tilem i£ thev know: arrested, he wasn't permitted to I of the Freedom Democratic make a phone call but we knew ple at the meeting decided to Dayton w h o j leave'in a procession, led by three- has beeni Party and tell them it wasjwhaf had happened in minutes. working with formed and is supported by:A Negro man saw him get ar- cars of voter registration work­ the ^S t udent Negroes. I tell them that three!rested and jumped into his truck Nonviolent Co-1;\[egroes ran for Congress 'and and came right to our office and : o r d mating one Negro ran for the Senate: told .us." Berry'. C o rr ittee's under the Freedom Democratic i Berry has been arrested and (SNCC) ' voter registration pro­ Party. Then I ask them- to fill; jailed once since being in Mis- gram • in: north central Missis­ out a form to register with the sissippi. He was at the county sippi. party." courthouse in Holly- Springs on Berry, son of John and Ann Negroes often hesitate. ' Friday, July 24, watching activ- Parsons of IS. Pease. Street, Day­ ton, has been working out of the Office in' Holly Springs, t w o email, white frame buildings (tcross the' street from Negro Rust College. "It's happened in Ripley, Sen- -r.:.rJ etobia, Oxford, New Albany," he continues. "We go in and get picked up right away and get lectured by the police. When we don't leave, they follow and t-^-n •<• chase us around. The police tell us to go, the white people see that we go." Berry had been chased out.. of towns twice that week. The last time the town was Oxford. "I had been canvassing to get Ii »*£&&* Negroes to register. Two whites had spoken before classes at Ole Miss; We were getting ready to leave town when three cars ' -. k ''.'--. • ae-. - of police stopped us. The sheriff ; gaid, ''Give me your license.' He didn't even give a reason; he doesn't have to give a reason to a Negro down here. 'You pv.rp - 03 Q from Dayton', Ohio,' he asked me. 'W;hat's your-business here?' I told him 1 was a voter regis­ tration worker."' Mmrsinleeu Here the police weren't the Lai only form of harassment Berry explained as he-shook his head in disbelief, "Three whites paraded back and forth past us, stopping once and a while to talk to the police, j it Dries in After a lecture, the sheriffSsug-1 * gested we leave. As we drove off, the three whites, now in a green 30 Minutes panel truck, came after us. They ch'ased'us till we got a good way back to Holly Springs." V - i Berry explained what he docs c overs any color in just lers. Berry was in the first car but: the road and stopped a car of I roared around him and past us. [getting more and more scared. he couldn't see all the cars be-, Negroes and "ot inside They It pulled in front of us. So there So I jumped out and ran back hind him, so he jumped out andj drove me down the road but sudJ^ jere-them in frontP the con- from the road. Then I ran even I watched them pass. The proces-j , , _ , , , T , e stable m back. Then thev started with the road till I came to a sion was near an end when a! denly I was back where ,I had siowing dowll. We must have been 'gas station. I called the SNCC of- j driver told him there was" one entered those woods. The cen-! gojnr. on]y about 10 miles an hour fice and thev sent a car after me. stable was still there, so was the and tne people I was with were ii got'back all right." imore car. Berry waited and other car, only it was empty. They: - —^— ; waited, finally a car came. were probably looking for me in; "I jumped out toward the road, the woods." y waving my arms," he said. "Sud­ Berry paused, finding it difficult denly I saw it was the local con- to convey the seriousness of what • stable with a car of red necks had happened to him. right behind him. So I ran off into "Tiie constable saw me and fol­ the woods, I soon was back at lowed us.,Suddenly the other car, RIBErnzBUS

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Total Segregation Black Belt, Alabama

JERRY DeMUTH

DALLAS COUNTY, Alabama. A Black Belt county, sheriff's office, we saw crowds of whites in front of with Negroes in the majority though only a few reg­ some stores, waiting, staring at us with hostility. istered to vote, and with no integrated facilities except About 25 possemen—deputized local citizens—milled the Trailways bus station. Birthplace of Alabama's around outside the county building. Others filled the White Citizens' Council and home of a unit of the offices and hallway inside. A few talked of "beating National States' Rights Party. Target of four Justice niggers." After emptying their office of possemen, Chief Department civil suits against county and city officials Deputy Sheriff L. C. Crocker and Circuit Solicitor and Citizens' Council leaders. Base of operations for Blanchard McLeod—both of whom have a number of a posse organized by the county sheriff which not only Justice Department suits pending against them—con­ quells local demonstrations but ranges throughout the ducted us inside. We introduced ourselves, and they state in its activities. refused to give us information of any land. McLeod Dallas County, Alabama, one of the most "Southern" brought in a magazine with an article of mine which of' Southern counties. Circuit Judge James A. Hare mentioned Selma and read and reread it, getting more summed up its creed last fall: "Any form of social or upset each time. Crocker took down descriptive infor­ educational integration is not possible within the con­ mation on us. "So we can identify you, when we pull text of our society." And Chris Heinz, mayor of the you out of the river in the morning." He had made the county seat, Selma, said, "Selma does not intend to same comment to SNCC workers last spring when he change its customs or way of life." asked them to fill out identification forms. In fall of 1962, an organized attack on the county's Crocker and McLeod said they knew nothing about customs of total segregation and discrimination began Freedom Day and the voter registration drive. Two when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee flyers announcing the drive were posted on their bul­ (SNCC) went into Selma to assist and encourage local letin board and they had already begun a campaign of leadership. The SNCC project itself began in February arresting all SNCC staff persons in town. 1963 and continues this summer, though success is as slow coming as in the worst parts of Mississippi. ON FRIDAY, July 3, Eric Farnum of SNCC spoke at In June, the resumption of intensive voter registra­ the Catholic Mission about the literacy program. Head tion activities immediately brought on increased ar­ of the mission is Father Maurice Ouellet of the Society rests and intimidation. SNCC planned a Freedom Day of St. Edmund. A friend of the movement, he often has —a period of heightened effort at registering Negro visited civil rights workers in jail. Last fall, Sheriff voters—for the week beginning July 6. Registration Clark banned him from the county jail. The priest was books would be open all that week, instead of the usual also threatened with arrest and a warrant was made first and third Monday of each month. Then, with out but never served. Officials have asked the arch­ President Johnson's signing of the civil rights bill, came bishop to remove him. tests of its public accommodations section. Violence Farnum left the mission but before he could walk and arrests, and the resulting tension, climbed to new to the corner was picked up by police and arrested on heights. charges of disturbing the peace. When an attorney Accompanied by a photographer, I went to Selma the and SNCC project director John Love went to the jail, first weekend in July. We were followed and watched the jailer tried to attack Love. On Saturday, four mem­ by police as we entered the town and went to the bers of the literacy project were arrested on trespassing main hotel. We called the local FBI agent, so he would charges when they tried to eat in a downtown res­ know we were in town. When asked, he said he knew taurant. A girl who carried a-broken chain medallion in nothing about recent arrests and violence growing out her purse was charged with carrying a concealed of theater integration. Then as we wandered to the weapon. Clark described it as a weighted chain. The car they had driven downtown was towed off by police. JEBBY DEMUTH is a free-lance writer currently working in the Later a sixth SNCC staff person, Alvery Williams, was South. He has contributed articles to various publications includ­ ing the Village Voice and The New Republic. arrested too.

536 THE COMMONWEAL i w. r I _. Saturday afternoon, local Negroes went to the two Negroes, while only twenty-five to fifty were outside. theaters in Selma, the Walton and the Wilby. At the Shordy after the meeting ended and the hall emptied Wilby, where the balcony was filled, Negroes asked I heard yelling and screaming from a crowd of Negroes manager Roger Butler if they could sit downstairs. He to my right. Turning, I saw possemen charging through said they could; the owner of the chain had told Butler the crowd, night sticks swinging. Among the possemen's to seat persons regardless of race. Despite the angry first targets were my photographer-companion and my­ departure and verbal objections of some whites the self. He was beaten and shot at. I was clubbed over the group of thirteen sat on the main floor, but not for head—seven stitches were required to close the gash— long. Sheriff Jim Clark and his possemen soon invaded and struck and shoved with night sticks. Three separate the theater, chasing the Negroes out. Meanwhile a mob times possemen smashed the photographer's camera. of whites assisted by Clark's posse attacked Negroes After threatening us, McLeod ordered us out of the in line outside. At 6:40 Clark ordered the theater man­ state. Later, Crocker and a state investigator told news­ ager to close both box offices and not admit anyone, men and Justice Department officials that we had re­ white or Negro. ported being grabbed and beaten by Negroes. Clark That night two crosses were burned on the edge of informed the local newspaper he was proud of his town, and the Dallas County unit of the National possemen and of how they conducted themselves. States' Rights Party held another evening meeting. Fifty to 150 persons had been meeting nightly since civil THEN CAME Freedom Day. Over 75 Negroes lined rights activities increased. up at the courthouse to take the registration test. Each On Sunday, police arrested Rev. Ben Tucker who was given a number and made to wait in the alley had just returned from Memphis with a station wagon behind the courthouse which would thus be entered donated to the Selma project. That night, as a prelude through the back door. Possemen posted at the alley to the next day's Freedom Day, a mass meeting was entrance kept away newsmen and anyone else not held at the AME Zion Hall. attempting to register. Even one Selma resident, James Five local officials in street clothes—one identified by Austin, formerly on SNCC's staff, was not permitted a local Negro as a Klan leader—attended the meeting. to join the line. They watched the last thirty minutes from outside a Fifty-five Negroes, including SNCC chairman John window. Charles Robertson told of SNCC's plans: Lewis, were arrested on orders from Clark. Newsmen "We're not going to sit-in. We're going to go and eat at were chased away from the arrested group, and two a public place. We're going to tell the police what we're photographers were roughed up by officers. Six whites going to do and ask them to protect us." One of the were also arrested for carrying an assortment of clubs officials, leaning on the window sill, chewed a cigar, and in their car. The local paper printed their names and smiled cynically. residences the next day; four were identified as resi­ Outside, these five were backed by over sixty men in dents of Selma, the other two from nearby Suttle. A brown uniforms and white helmets, who lined up elbow newsman confirmed the fact that they were local to elbow across the streets, night sticks in hand, pistols youths. But an AP report in the Montgomery Adver­ at their sides. This was the posse of deputized local tiser stated: "The sheriff exhibited the clubs to news­ citizens that Sheriff Clark had organized several years men and said the weapons were examples of what ago when racial demonstrations began in Montgomery, 'outside agitators' bring into the city. He said their fifty miles away. Since that time, it has traveled with car had an Alabama license tag fastened over a Vir­ Clark to Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Gadsden, helping ginia tag. Their identity was not released." quell racial demonstrations. The posse has often as­ Only five Negroes were allowed to take the test sisted Col. Al Lingo and his state troopers—Lingo is an that day. The remainder of the week, twelve persons old friend of Clark's—and Lingo in turn has frequently were permitted to take the registration test each day, come to Selma to help Clark. Last February, Clark some of them, however, whites. joined Lingo 100 miles away in Macon County where That night, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy spoke at the free-lance photographer Vernon Merritt III was beaten mass meeting. "I come to pledge the full support, full near the Notasulga High School. In Selma and Dallas resources of Martin Luther King and the Southern County, the posse has been used not only against Christian Leadership Conference," he told the 250 racial demonstrations but also to hinder union activity. Negroes attending the meeting. "We are behind you, Chief Deputy Crocker told the local paper that he with you and even in front of you every step of the had forty possemen there, that there were 200 Negroes way." outside the hall, 300 Negroes in the hall and that John Three officials sat inside, listening to his speech. Lewis, SNCC chairman, "had them pretty worked up." Outside two school buses and ten cars deposited 150 But Lewis wasn't even there, let alone spoke; and the city police, county deputies, possemen and state small hall (which was filled) held no more than 160 troopers. (Col. Al Lingo, in town Saturday and Sun-

AUGUST 7, 1964 537 j I day nights conferring with Clark, had brought his Negroes) were registered in the county as of Septem­ men into Selma on Monday.) Nonetheless, the meet­ ber 1963 according to the U. S. Commission on Civil ing ended peacefully. But Clark told James Gilder- Rights. (Fewer Dallas County Negroes could vote sleeve of the Dallas County Voters League that he in 1963 than in 1956, when 275 Negroes were regis­ would break up all mass meetings from then on. tered! ) But 63 percent of the 14,400 voting age whites Although leaders of the registration drive deter­ (or 8,953 whites) were registered. (In the two ad­ mined to hold more meetings, no location could be joining Black Belt counties, Wilcox and Lowndes, none found because of threats. Even a meeting already set of the 11,207 voting age Negroes were registered in for Wednesday night had to be cancelled. Finally on 1962 according to the Civil Rights Commission.) Thursday a mass rally attended by almost 300 was The first voting suit filed by the Kennedy Adminis­ held. In the meantime, more than twenty-seven addi­ tration, in April 1961, was filed against the Dallas tional arrests had been made, including the president County registrar. "It sought an injunction against sys­ of the Voters League, Rev. F. D. Reese, arrested while tematic discrimination against Negro registration ap­ taking photos of demonstrators; white youths attacked plicants," according to Burke Marshall of the Justice Negro employees leaving work at the Plantation Inn Department. The district court denied the injunction, restaurant; three SNCC workers were reportedly but did order the registrar to reduce from one year beaten in jail; police towed away another SNCC to sixty days the period an applicant who fails the worker's car leaving the project earless; and ten fresei registration test must wait before he can take the test carloads of state troopers arrived in town. again. Eventually, by direction from the Fifth Circuit The next day, Friday, the county got an injunction Court of Appeals an injunction was issued. But it has prohibiting assemblies of three or more persons in had little effect on registration. An enforcement pro­ any public place. Named in the injunction were four­ ceeding has now been filed and a hearing on that has teen organizations, including SNCC and the Southern been set for October 5. Christian Leadership Conference, and forty-one in­ On June 26, 1963, the Justice Department filed the dividuals. suit, U.S. vs. Dallas County, et al., including Sheriff The combination of arrests, intimidation, violence, Clark. According to the Civil Rights Commission the and the injunction brought civil rights activities to a charge was "intimidation of voter registration workers temporary halt in mid-July. But it did not bring to a by sheriff and county prosecuting attorney by means halt the determination to create change in this old of baseless arrests." Southern city, although the past as well as the present Then on November 12, the Justice Department filed in Selma has not created a situation in which change two more suits—U.S. vs. McLeod, et al. (again in­ is easy. cluding Sheriff Clark) and U.S. vs. Dallas County Citizens Council. At this time the department pointed SELMA was founded 40 years before the Civil War out that from June 1954 to 1960 the Dallas County and became an important military depot during the Board of Registrars registered more than 2,000 whites war. Industries that manufactured arms and' other and only 14 Negroes. It said the board rejected many war equipment were established then. The four noted qualified Negroes, including school teachers with gunboats—Tennessee, Selma, Morgan and Gaines—that college and advanced degrees, and accused county formed Buchanan's fleet at Fort Morgan were built in officials of threatening, intimidating and coercing Selma. And the county furnished the Confederate Negro citizens of voting age "for the purpose of inter­ army with ten infantry, six cavalry and four artillery fering with the right to register and vote." companies. The Citizens' Council was accused of preventing Dallas County has long had a plantation economy Negroes from registering and attending voter regis­ and even today the county is 49.9 percent rural. Two- tration meetings, of using economic sanctions against thirds of the rural population is Negro. Though some Negroes and of resisting federal attempts to enforce industry has come to the area, population growth is the civil rights acts of 1957 and 1960. Last March 19, almost static. In fact, the Negro population of the the district judge ruled against the federal government county is declining—in 1950, Negroes comprised 65 in the second and third suits; they are now in the percent of the population, today only 57 percent. appeals court. The suit against the Citizens' Council Median family income in Dallas County is $2846 has not gone to trial yet. (compared to $3937 for the state), but median family Selma is the birthplace and stronghold of the Citi­ income for Negroes is only $1393. Median school zens' Councils of Alabama. The Dallas County council years completed in the county is 8.8 (compared to was organized in 1954 by Attorney General Patterson 9.1 for the state), but median school years completed of Mississippi and is partly subsidized by the state and for Negroes is 5.8. large industries nearby. In April, 1960, Birmingham Only 1.7 percent of 14,509 voting-age Negroes (242 Police Commissioner Eugene Connor, who hails from

538 THE COMMONWEAL I t*. Selma, told a Citizens' Council rally in Selma: "We In October 1963, the Dallas County Citizens' Council are on the one yard line. Our backs are to the wall. was the largest in the state with 3,000 members. A lot Do we let Negroes go over for a touchdown, or do of citizens must have thought the four dollars worth­ we raise the Confederate flag as did our forefathers while. and tell them, Tou shall not pass'?" Last summer, like this summer, there were increased This last cry has been the attitude of the council voter registration and integration activities in Selma and of county officials. In a full-page ad in the Selma and Dallas County, leading a Citizens' Council spokes­ Times-Journal, June of last year, the council said its man to comment in October, "I never thought it would "efforts are not thwarted by courts which give sit-in happen in Selma. But I tell you this. We are not going demonstrators legal immunity, prevent school boards to give in. If we let them have an inch, they would from expelling students who participate in mob activi­ want to go all the way." ties and would place federal referees at the board of Nine months have passed since that statement—nine voter registrars." The ad asked, "Is it worth four months of determined and hard work -by hundreds dollars to you to prevent sit-ins, mob marches and of Negroes in the face of threats, beatings and arrests wholesale Negro voter registration efforts in Selma?" —and Selma still has not yielded that inch.

Arab Repression of Negroes Genocide in Sudan

GARY MacEOIN

ON JULY 20, the Vatican and the Sudanese Govern­ the South where the tribal Negroes wage a hopeless ment reached an agreement whereby a hundred priests guerrilla warfare against the modern equipment of Khar­ would be allowed back into the Sudan, and four closed toum's armies. seminaries would be reopened for the training of a na­ Before the Westerner can begin to understand the tive clergy. The background of the Government's cam­ doubletalk by which Khartoum seeks to justify what it paign against Christian missionaries is discussed in this is doing, he must realize that the Moslem does not be­ article. THE EDITOKS lieve in objective right and wrong in the sense in which, for example, the first article of the United States Con­ In the nine Moslem states of Asia and Africa which I stitution assumes them. His traditional interpretation have visited since the beginning of this year, I have of the Koran is that there is only one kind of law, divine observed a mentality whose existence one must appreci­ positive law, and that Allah has given the true believer ate in order to understand what is happening to the the authority and obligation to do what is necessary to Negroes of Equatoria and the neighboring provinces of impose his holy rule on the unbeliever. Sudan. It is a sense of strength and destiny, combined This does not mean that the Sudan dictators are a with a firm belief that whatever means are necessary group of dedicated Moslems living the strict Koranic must be used to gain one's end. It expressed itself in precepts and pledged to the work of the Prophet, any Nasser's seizure of the Suez Canal in 1956 when the more than are Nasser and his associates. But they are United States blocked the proposed World Bank loan to fully and hopelessly committed by the ambiental pres­ finance the Aswan Dam. It expresses itself in the calcu­ sures, their constricting philosophy and their power- lated elimination of whatever stands in the way of hunger to act as if they were. From the moment that Khartoum's policy for the arabization of Southern Sudan. Britain made the unforgivable mistake of delivering the The arbitrary military dictatorship which has con­ four million Negroes of the South to the mercy of the trolled the Sudan since 1958 is the modern expression of eight million arabized Northerners, from whom they the rule of force traditional in the Arab world. There are separated by race, color, culture, religion, language, is no life or voice anywhere in the country today except history and geography, the rest followed as inevitably within its steel framework, and this is doubly true for as the seizure of Suez. The intentions of the North were perfectly clear long GABY MacEOIN is an editor, author and critic. He has contributed before the declaration of independence in 1956 and the numerous articles and columns to newspapers and magazines here and abroad. evacuation of British and Egyptian troops. They were in

AUGUST 7, 1964 539 v In The South Newsmen Are War Correspondents * s, -.^- vc-JV- -Tlc.SS'-'ij ye-w » cA Cv b.^4 U.S. Police Terror: The Brownshirts Of Selma By JERRY DEMUTH and I fell toward the ground as brown-uni­ found no gun and someone shouted that it When we asked the chief deputy, L. C. formed deputies swarmed past me. must be in our car. Crocker, and the circuit solicitor questions A voter registration rally in Selma, Ala­ about what had happened on Saturday, the I pushed myself up, holding the top of my bama attended by 150 Negroes ended around I had been looking for my glasses without latter replied, "I won't tell you nothin'." The head and stumbled toward Prince who was at success. "I lost my glasses," I told thenh, chief deputy then began to verbally attack 9:30 Sunday night, July 5. Five whites in the other side of the hall. I felt wetness on "They're here on the ground some place, "rS^ newsmen and said that the "niggers" only street clothes had also attended the meeting my hand and as I lowered and looked at it, deputy on my left shouted. demonstrated for publicity and if we weren't —whites regularly do so, taking notes and I saw that my hand was dripping with blood. there nothing would happen. "I've. been hit," I shouted to Prince who We were forced over to my car, which I. also often taking photos.. grabbed my arm and led me between the unlocked, and three men searched the insides The solicitor continued his shouting. "You Outside, more than 70 police waited. At buildings. and trunk, dumping everything all over the get the hell out of here. Get in your car, get place and pulling up the rear seat. As I your stuff out of the hotel, and leave this 7:30 when the meeting began there was only But within moments we were again sepa­ stood there waiting for them to finish search­ state, and don't ever come back." one police car with about five officers parked rated and as I struggled toward the rear of ing, I became dizzy and almost passed out the building, I saw a deputy shine a flash­ As we approached the car I told Prince in front of the AME Zion Hall. But as the from my head wound and the tear-gas that light on Prince and heard a pistol shot ring filled the air. But still I managed to stand to drive and as we climbed into the car, a rally progressed, they were joined by the out. The bullet whistled past him, going there, afraid of -what the deputies would do deputy shouted after us, "I should have killed others. through a clump of bushes. to me if I fell over. you." It was the man from the restaurant- one of the men who had beaten Prince with When I left the hall at the end of the rally Blood Running Down Face Minutes later we were pushed to a police a night stick. with David Prince, a photographer I was car and forced to stand there, our arms rest­ working with on assignment from Black Star ing on the roof. Then we were pushed over Followed By Car agency, I counted a row of 63 special depu­ "Don't move or you're dead," a voice shouted. Both of us stopped. to another car that was parked across the ties in brown uniforms and white crash hel­ road. The jabbing with the night sticks con­ We parked in front of the hotel and went mets, wearing sidearms and clutching two- Several deputies grabbed my arms and tinued. Again a deputy grabbed Prince's cam­ inside. The desk clerk, who did not show foot long night sticks, lined up elbow to elbow jabbed me with their night sticks, forcing era and, holding it in his hand, clubbed at any surprise at our conditions, gave us our along the street across from the meeting me back to the front of the building. They the lens with his night stick. Sheriff Jim key and we went up to our room, grabbed hall. About ten others stood near several pushed me to the ground and said, "Sit there Clark finally took it from the deputy and gave our luggage, and came back down. blue-domed police cars parked in front, which and don't move." I sat there, blood running it back to the photographer. A dark station wagon was parked two cars contained additional officers. down my face and neck, dripping onto my from ours, the driver standing outside watch­ suit. More deputies surrounded us and two wear­ ing us. As we drove off, he got in the car, I watched Prince as he tried to take photos ing gas masks and holding rifles stepped in and watched the police as they shone flash­ "I'm bleeding," I said. which held three other men, started the en­ front of me. "I should shoot you," one shout­ gine, then backed up, and pulled in three lights at his camera lens. Suddenly, there "You're lucky that's all," a deputy replied. ed, his voice muffled by the mask. "I ought were screams and yells from the right be­ Prince was dragged near me and forced to cars behind us. As we drove out of town, he to fill you full of lead," the other yelled as followed us for about ten minutes. hind me and as I turned I saw brown-uni­ the ground. A deputy ran to my side, his he shoved his masked face. in front of me. formed deputies, swinging their night sticks, night stick in front of him, and smashed the His angry, squinting eyes told me he might We didn't stop till we had gotten to Mont- ' charging through a crowd of Negroes who flood lights I had been carrying. He then well do that. gomery, 45 miles away, where we finally had gathered in front of the house next door. turned to Prince, grabbed his camera, and received hospital treatment. I ended up with began smashing it. Another deputy struck Circuit solicitor Blanchard McLeod ran up my left arm in a sling and seven stitches in Three of the deputies were past the crowd, me across the side of my face, knocking off .to us, yelling and swearing. "You started my head.- We got back home to Atlanta on approaching the house's porch, night sticks my glasses. this, you sons of bitches." Monday afternoon. in the air. A woman sat on the porch, hold­ A man to whom we had been pointed out I remember when we arrived in town. After That day Sheriff Jim Clark was quoted in ing a young girl in her lap. "Quick, get the in a restaurant at dinner ran up claiming phoning in to the local FBI, we dropped by the Selma Times Journal as saying, "I'm child inside!" a man's voice rang out from Prince had a gun and he was then brutally the sheriff's office. His men had been fol­ extremely proud of both my deputies and •the porch. searched. His pockets were emptied and a lowing us ever since we came to town and members of my posse during the rioting. Before I could see what happened next, a wallet containing over $70 in cash was never we decided to make our identity known to They conducted themselves beautifully and night stick crashed across the top of my head returned to him. The deputies of course him. performed like seasoned officers."

•0£'^z-err^- /f/vj> P/ULY, Y*m^P4. TT/UM. .$J§,^ '/ft? SNCC: COLLEGIANS VS THE KLAN It's a strange country: the people, the police, the courts, and even the F.B.I, con­ spire to punish you for believing all men are created equal / article by Jerry DeMuth

IT'S A SOCIOLOGICAL David and Goliath. On the abhor violence but bleed just as easily as you and I one hand you have the massed might of the South, when shot, stabbed, kicked, slugged or bitten. (The­ represented by ready-for-violence rednecks, club-tote- oretically, there should be a giant in David's corner ing police and their dogs, and a prejudiced court labeled Federal Government. Lots of people think system, all marshalled under the streaming banners there is, but then they're the kind who'd believe any of "white supremacy." On the other hand is a tiny sort of fairy tale.) band of dedicated collegians and ex-collegians who David, in this case, is a tough little group titled

Bob Moses, (below, left) SNCC's Mississippi Project director, speaks to a mass meeting in Jackson, Miss. Klan members (below, right) counter-picket against SNCC members and students protesting the segregation policies of several Atlanta restaurants. the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC worker was clubbed, carted off to jail, or liter­ (SNCC, pronounced "snick") which has as its goal ally carried out of town. such pie-in-the-sky notions as equality in voting, eat­ On the surface of it, it's an unequal struggle—par­ ing, and going to the John. It should surprise nobody ticularly since Federal help exists more in the abstract who reads the daily newspapers that in some parts than in the concrete (and frequently on the wrong of this country such equal rights are just a little diffi­ side). Much to everybody's surprise, SNCC is win­ cult to come by. ning, though it's a hard fight and a slow one. This Though SNCC is seldom mentioned, you read year, for the first time, Southern whites have almost about them every day. Every time there's a boycott abandoned obvious, outward, daylight violence. down South, or open voter's registration is forced (There are still midnight bombings, telephone upon a reluctant community, chances are there were threats, and that sort of thing.) And SNCC workers SNCC workers present. Chances are also that a estimate that, Despite It All, something like 25,000

A White Citizens Council sign (below, left) near Selma, Alabama. One of Dallas County Alabama's deputy sheriffs (below, center). Taylor Washington, (below, right) a SNCC worker, is arrested while demonstrating. Registration workers (bottom, left) in Selma. Negroes are now registered voters in the state of open to the "public"). Only 40 miles of concrete Mississippi, by far the largest number since the early highway, plus a few miles of county road, separated days of Reconstruction. us. Students working for SNCC, as well as high My first contact with SNCC was somewhat dra­ school students from Cairo, had visited us twice, to matic. I was a counselor at a high school camp in relax and to hash over their activities. This particular southeast Missouri, the "Bootheel" area. While our day we were looking forward to another visit from camp was working to clear a drainage canal in this two of the SNCC workers—James Peake, a white once swampy area near the Mississippi River, a small paraplegic who was majoring in English at Southern band of SNCC workers was trying to help integrate Illinois University in Carbondale (where I had first the public facilities in Cairo, Illinois ("public facili­ met him), some 50 miles north of Cairo, and Charles ties" means swimming pools, restrooms, restaurants, Dunlap, a large, stockily-built Negro who was a theaters, and other establishments usually considered SNCC field worker.

A free-lance writer (below, left) being beaten in McComb, Miss. Rev. Ed King and Dr. Aaron Henry (below, right) at a Freedom rally in Jackson, Miss. SNCC workers (bottom, left) singing at the rally. A student (bottom, right) after an Alabama beating. Not much had happened during their The black DeSoto shot past us and began four years ago, an out-growth of first two visits, but now there had been in the rear view mirror I could see the the sit-in movement. rumors of impending violence from reason why the SNCC workers had The sit-ins had erupted across the whites in the community. We decided looked grim a moment before. A light South early in I960, and that Easter a to phone the SNCC people and tell blue pick-up truck was following us, the meeting of the leaders was held in Ra­ them to call off their pleasure trip. same truck I had seen a number of leigh, North Carolina. A temporary I lifted the phone receiver and gave times around our camp. Usually there committee to serve as liaison between the operator the number. Then I heard had been only the driver in it; now four different protest groups was set up with a series of tiny clicks as other receivers or five men were crammed in the cab. an office in Atlanta. A second conference on the line were raised, and the tight, Beatings, of course, are one thing. A was held in Atlanta in October, and the faint breathing of people listening, wait­ shotgun blast in your car window is an­ Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com­ ing to hear what we were going to do. other. mittee was formally organized. One rep­ I started to sweat but there was nothing A Negro community suddenly was no resentative from each Southern state for them to hear—there was no answer longer a place where we could simply and the District of Columbia made up in Cairo. have coffee together—it was an island SNCC. I called every hour all morning. Still of safety. I remember one time when I Among the original members of no answer. Afternoon came and I placed was in Fayette County, Tenessee. Whites SNCC was 2 5-year-old Charles McDew my call more often. Then I started phon­ were stopping Negroes on the highway who was majoring in sociology at South ing other numbers in Cairo—the church and shooting into their homes — ex­ Carolina State College at the time. Mc­ where SNCC met, the minister's home, cept on the back roads where small Dew, a short, heavily muscled, rapid- the hoftie of the local SNCC leader. No Negro communities were located. Rac­ talker type is still working for his BS in answer anywhere. The other campers ists wouldn't venture there; they would sociology—now at Roosevelt University and I thought of as many local people be deep in "enemy" territory. in Chicago. His account of the early as possible who were active in the move­ We came to one small town and days of SNCC emphasizes the practical. ment and tried to call them. Most of circled through it. No Negroes—only "At the start," he explains, "we only them didn't have telephones. whites shuffling along the dirt roads or had one man, Ed King, in Atlanta. But It was getting late. I was afraid that sitting on front porches. we knew what we wanted to do. We Peake and Dunlap had already left and We left the town and raced further wanted to build community movements were driving along US 60 toward our north. The truck was still chasing us, to attack problems by having guys go camp—and toward certain violence. I easily visible on the straight, flat road into the community to live and work. hung up the phone and told Steve, one which cut through fields of corn and We also wanted to get more white stu­ of the campers, to wait in his car up beans and cotton. I had to admit it was dents from southern colleges involved. at the highway, that Debby, another a picturesque chase. White puffs of cot­ We wanted to have a Negro and a white camper, and I would try to catch them. ton bolls scattered along the road would travel together—the Negro would talk We pulled out of the small community be caught in the wind from our passing to Negro students and the white would we were staying in and drove down the cars and tossed about in the air. Every talk to white students who were con­ dusty, dirt road to the narrow, black- half mile or so we passed tenant farmer cerned. White participation was good. topped county road, and then to the shacks, unpainted one and two-room There was Bob Zellner from Hunting­ smooth concrete of the highway, shim­ frame buildings, holes and cracks cov­ don College in Montgomery, Alabama, mering in the sun. Steve parked his car ered with fragments of siding and rusty and he brought some friends. Then there at the intersection and waited. Debby tin signs, the command to drink this or were sorne from the University of Ala­ and I drove east, toward the Mississippi. drink that cola still faintly visible. We bama and a few from Loyola in New Fifteen minutes out, we saw a huge, roared past an old, beat-up truck parked Orleans. black DeSoto driving toward us. It was by the road, the paint long worn off its "Bob was a typical Southern white Peake and Dunlap in the car that racists square body. Negroes were sitting along student. He was doing a paper on Ne­ near our camp had dubbed the "nigger the ditch, caps and handkerchiefs on groes for a sociology course. He read a car." I hit my brakes and horn and their heads to protect them from the lot in books and then went into the Ne­ stuck my arm out the window to wave at hot sun, empty cloth sacks (the badge gro community. He went to some meet­ them. They pulled off the road and we of the cotton picker) laying on the ings of the Montgomery movement— turned around and parked behind them. ground next to them. the authorities found out and he was I ran over and explained what had hap­ Another truck of day workers was threatened with expulsion. After this, pened and how we tried to reach them bouncing along in front of us and we he had to consider that he wasn't free, by phone. Peake and Dunlap suddenly zoomed around them, swerved around either—and he got concerned. He spent looked very sober and a little later we a curve, and then turned off on a dirt two years with SNCC and now he's at found out why. cross road. We followed it a way, then Brandeis University." We decided that all four of us would found ourselves back on the highway McDew grew thoughtful now and the head back east, stopping somewhere just outside a fair-sized town. words slowed down. "We also wanted to along the way to have coffee and talk. A The truck was gone. get people more actively involved in simple enough idea—but not a simple We parked on a side street and talked politics—get them to register to vote. thing to do. You can travel 275 miles briefly, then Peake and Dunlap headed But there was a lot of fear. A man along US 60 between Cairo and Spring­ on to Cairo and we turned around and would explain to us: 'I don't want my field, Missouri, and not run across a sin­ went back to camp. I felt like I had been daughter whipped. I don't want my son gle restaurant that will serve Negroes. playing the lead in "Perils of Pauline" castrated. I don't want to die.' We finally turned off onto a county road and had just managed to make it over to "No one who came down from the which led through small towns, hoping the start of the next installment. Noth­ North was going to be able to get them to find a Negro community and a res­ ing had happened, after all. to register. Some one was going to have taurant where we could all sit down for to go and live with them first. It was a cup of coffee. BUT IT DOESN'T always end so fortu­ then we realized we had to give our Suddenly Dunlap honked his horn nately. The chase sequence—only with a bodies to SNCC." and the DeSoto pulled up alongside us. beating or a shooting as the climax—has McDew shrugged. "Intellectual com- 18 Peake leaned out. "Follow us!" been played again and again since SNCC (Continued on page 26) When they left the station and drove I'd never seen a blade like that before, Collegians vs The Klan toward the main highway, they were fol­ it was huge. She threatened to slit any CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 lowed by the unmarked car. When traf­ 'nigger or nigger-lovers' throat.' And fic thinned out, the car behind them she meant it, too. She would've used mitment is fine, but your body's got to suddenly shot forward and pulled along­ that knife." be on the line. So we dropped out of side. One of the whites shoved a gun Larry Rubin, like Jack Heyman, also school. The five of us were getting forty out an open window. Seven shots rang came face to face with violence while dollars a week. We needed more staff out and the car sped away. hitch-hiking. Rubin, a student from An- so we cut the salary in half and doubled The bullets smashed all the front win­ tioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the staff. We did that again to get more dows and the rear window of the car. spent some time in southwest Georgia, staff till we were getting $10 a week One of the bullets hit Travis in the working with SNCC in the four-county each. I figure as long as you can survive, neck, near the spine. He recovered, but area around Albany. He had meant to you don't need anything else. the SNCC office itself was later burned work for only one quarter, then got a "I worked out of the Atlanta office, down. special extension from the college and traveling around as sort of a general "At night," claims McDew, "you have stayed for two. field supervisor, and also raising funds to stop and think where's the best place "I was hitchhiking into town," he and spreading the word." to sleep—someplace where a bullet or said, smiling (he can smile about it McDew did a fairly good job of a bomb won't hit you." now), "and got a lift from some guy spreading the word. From the original in a pick-up truck. All the while we twenty students, SNCC has grown till VIOLENCE sometimes sneaks up on you, were riding along he kept telling me it now has 150 former students working as harrassment. The friendly cop who how he hated these racial agitators who full-time all year round, all of them re­ cheerfully gives directions to motorists were stirring up all this trouble. He ceiving only subsistence pay, when they and helps little old ladies across the •said if he ever caught one he'd slash get paid at all. (The present Executive street is usually neither cheerful nor 'im up and showed me this large knife Secretary of SNCC is a former Chicago friendly with SNCC workers. If a SNCC he carried in his pocket. 'I'm ready for grade school teacher named Jim Forman. worker owns a car, he'll be ticketed a 'im if I ever meet one,' he told me. I In Chicago, Forman and his wife had a dozen times a day—-for speeding, loud just kept nodding my head and waiting combined income of a thousand dollars mufflers, faulty headlights, you name it. for that ride to end. a month. As Executive Secretary of Or he may be taken to jail, finger­ "Finally we got into town and I saw SNCC, he's paid $60 a week.) Last sum­ printed, questioned, and eventually turn­ two of the other SNCC workers in the mer, when vacationing students tempo­ ed loose. No charges. If he's actually area walking down the street. He saw rarily joined the ranks, there were 200 thrown in the lockup overnight, then them, too. There's two of 'em now,' he working with SNCC in 13 Southern it might get a little rugged. Other pris­ told me, and started playing with that and border states. This summer several oners may be prodded by their keepers knife in his hand. 'Let's you and I get times that number are expected. Most to beat up on the workers, a variation 'em.' of them will work in voter registration of the situation where the local peace­ "I told him to do what he wanted, programs, community centers, and "Free­ keepers do not lay a finger on SNCC but to count me out. I kept hoping that dom Schools" in Mississippi. They will workers themselves but will pay a quick those two wouldn't see me and wave or be assisted by hundreds of adults in the visit to a nearby bar and sic some something. That would've been it. So professions — doctors, nurses, teachers, easily-inflamed redneck onto the "niggah I looked around the inside of that truck and so on. lovah." for some way to hide my face. Finally One thing is for certain: working for In SNCC's work, violence is not a I pulled out a road map, unfolded it, SNCC will be exhausting—and danger­ sometime thing but almost a way of life. and held it up so they couldn't see me. ous. SNCC has dozens of small offices Jack Heyman, a thin, black-haired I got out of that one okay." scattered across the South. It may be a student from Penn State tells of taking room in a Negro family's home where off a quarter to work with SNCC and WHEN THE SIT-IN movement began in a lone SNCC field worker lives, or a hitch-hiking to Atlanta from his home the South, the violence that SNCC small house which several SNCC in New Jersey. He stopped off in North workers had to face came from the workers share and where local leaders Carolina where sit-ins were going on white mobs. But now, since voter reg­ can always be found, sitting and talking in Chapel Hill, home of the state uni­ istration has become a major goal of the and planning in the front room or man­ versity. "In one place the waitress lifted movement and the basic Southern politi­ ning an old, dilapidated mimeograph her skirt and urinated on the demon­ cal structure is threatened, the police machine. strators. Another time in North Caro­ themselves frequently take a hand in the But while on the inside, there may lina, I got picked up by two guys in violence—often while Justice Depart­ be talk, on the outside, there will be a car. They looked at me and said, 'If ment and FBI officials watch (only trouble. there's one thing we hate more than when police use mass brutality, as in At 1 P.M. on February 28th of last niggers, it's integrationists.' And there Birmingham, does it get publicity). year, Randolph T. Blackwell, Director we were—driving over back country Last fall, in Selma, Alabama, SNCC of the Voter Education Project, drove roads. I was really scared." Nothing hap­ held a "Freedom Day," a day of inten­ up to the SNCC office in Greenwood, pened—only because they never found sive voter registration activity. When Mississippi. He noticed three whites sit­ out who he was. SNCC workers "Chico" Neblett and ting in a car without plates parked I met and talked to Jack the day Alvery Williams tried to bring sand­ nearby. When Blackwell left at 9:15, after a demonstration. "I was scared wiches to a line of Negroes at the court­ they were still there. Blackwell noted as hell last night," he told me. "I was house who were trying to register, state this with dismay. As he drove away, part of the first wave in a sit-in. We troopers attacked them with clubs and the car pulled out behind him. Black- were supposed to see to it that the other cattle prods and then arrested them. The well thought better of it and returned group got in. But they locked the door FBI watched. Justice Department offi­ to the office for reinforcements, picking and wouldn't let them in. Then the wait­ cials stood by, largely indifferent. up SNCC workers James Travis and ress pulled out a knife"—he held out Howard Zinn, former Chairman of Bob Moses. They stopped to eat sand- his hands in front of him, about 15 the History Department at Spelman Col- 26 wiches and get gas at a gas station. inches apart—"this big, a butcher knife. (Concluded on page 58) Collegians vs The Klan J. Edgar Hoover termed the FBI's most New Orleans. It's part of an area where, serious case—the Jacksonville, Florida, the first months of this year, half a CONCLl DED FROM PAGE 26 railroad bombings). It's also interesting dozen Negro stores and homes were shot to note that one of the judges in the up, several Negroes killed, and dozens lege in Atlanta, commented: "Through case, Judge Robert Elliott, was among of crosses burned. My first visit there all that happened on that Monday, the first judges appointed by the late didn't last more than an hour. The police while Federal law was broken again and President Kennedy. All judges, inci­ chief "suggested" I leave and saw to it again, these law enforcement officials of dentally, are nominated by the Senate that I did. the Federal Government stood by and Judiciary Committee, chairmanned by "In McComb, two Negroes were watched. By the time 'Freedom Day' was Mississippi's Eastland. registered in 1892 and one was sup­ over in Selma, the Constitution had been In another case, a Southern Federal posed to have been registered in 1950," violated in a number of its provisions, judge, hearing a case against a white McDew remarks. several statutes of the U. S. Congress voting registrar, referred to the com­ "We took one Negro down to the had been ignored, the Civil Rights Acts plaining Negroes as a "bunch of nig­ registrar's office to register. The reg­ of 1957 and I960 had been turned face gers," "a dark cloud on the horizon" istrar refused to register him and told down on the sidewalk. For all the good and said they were "acting like a bunch him to leave. When he turned to go, the Federal officials did, George Wallace of chimpanzees." the registrar clubbed him several times might as well have been President of Did President Kennedy play politics over the head with the butt of a gun. So the United States." with integration? "Of course he did," the guy went down to the sheriff's office SNCC itself takes a pretty gloomy retorts Julian Bond. "In my opinion to file a complaint. But the sheriff met view of the FBI in general. Julian Bond, this action was brought by the Kennedy him halfway there and arrested him, Communications Director of SNCC, people to convince the people of the charging him with a breach of the peace smiles somewhat wryly when he dis­ South that they weren't as bad as they and inciting to riot. The sheriff's ar­ cusses the FBI man in Greenwood, Mis­ appeared to be." And what does he ex­ gument was that if the guy had never sissippi, who resigned from the FBI to pect of the Johnson Administration? taken his black body into the office, he run for county prosecutor—and won. "Hopefully, the Johnson Administration wouldn't have incited the registrar's "Now, to get elected in Greenwood, might be better. He's a Southerner, but passions. what kind of political views do you an educated and enlightened one. So "This was one of the first cases where think he had?" FBI men down South, far, he's been neither better nor worse." the Justice Department moved in and for the most part, are Southerners, since Always short on funds (SNCC lives filed an injunction. That was in 1962." they usually have to cooperate with local on donations and the fund raising ac­ Unfortunately, it didn't change things. law enforcement agencies. Under such tivities of performers such as Dick McComb, however, was the most sat­ circumstances will the FBI men involved Gregory, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and isfying experience McDew had. put the law above local loyalties? It's others) and workers, SNCC is neverthe­ "When the administration wouldn't a good question. less winning its war on more fronts than let Brenda Travis back in high school The Feds not only stand by and watch one. Not only has it helped open up because of her civil rights activities, over (the FBI maintains it's an information lunch counters, restaurants, and other 100 students walked out in protest. Out gathering agency only and not able to facilities to Negroes, and gotten tens of of these students, we got ten to fifteen make arrests—which should surprise thousands of Negroes registered and who became really active in voter reg­ some of the inmates of Leavenworth and trying to vote, the committee has also istration. The people who led the Jack­ other such spas), in SNCC's eyes some­ created local leadership. "It's not like it son, Mississippi, project before Medgar times they're even on the other side. used to be," McDew explains confi­ Evers was murdered, were from Mc­ Recently, a Federal grand jury returned dently. "Before, the racists could kill a Comb. So were those who helped in an indictment against eight Negroes and leader and that would end the civil Gadsden, Alabama, and Albany, Ga." one white girl charged with conspiring rights movement in a community. But It's obvious, by now, that it takes a to injure a Federal juror. The juror was now, no matter what happens, there's pretty durable and strong personality a white man who had been on a jury always someone to take over." to become a worker for SNCC. Just which failed to convict another white The committee has encouraged, edu­ what types become interested in SNCC? man accused of shooting a Negro. Sub­ cated, and trained Negroes within the McDew has a ready answer. sequently the juror's grocery store was community. As a result, local community "All these students are generally out­ picketed during a general boycott service and civil rights organizations side of society's value structure. They're against all stores in the area which had have sprung up and qualified Negroes not concerned with making lots of discriminatory policies. A short time are beginning to run for political office money, building a big home, and living later the juror closed down his grocery —an occurrence that would have been in Winnetka or Westchester. They're and complained to the Justice Depart­ unthinkable two years ago and is still concerned with human dignity. Many are ment that Negro leaders in the com­ hard to believe. Negroes are currently of the type who have been going with munity had held a meeting and decided running for Federal Representative from the Peace Corps—but they feel there's to boycott his store because of his previ­ all five of Mississippi's congressional a job to do here first. ous jury activity. Eight of the accused districts and a sixth Negro is running "These students know you can't just were convicted (a mistrial was declared for senator against John Stennis. In espouse a liberal line and pay your dues in the case of the ninth) and sentenced Selma, Alabama, home of Alabama's that way. It takes more than lip service. to jail terms running as high as five White Citizen's Council, a Negro woman "Too many students have been living years. The case is now under appeal. is running for representative. Their in Plato's cave. They've only been seeing (The accused thoughtfully sought a chances for victory are slim, but the shadows and think that's the world. change of venue to Westchester County, candidacies will strengthen and encour­ Once they get out and find out what the New York, but they were turned down). age Negro communities and may lead world is like, they can never return to It's interesting to note that 35 FBI to new activities. This was what hap­ the world of shadows." men were assigned to this case to smoke pened in McComb, the first city in Mis­ And because of these students' work out the possible injustice done to one sissippi in which SNCC worked. with SNCC, ten million Negroes in the white man's civil rights (at the same McComb is about 60 miles northeast South can never return to their old e~0~7i 58 time, only 30 FBI were assigned to what of Baton Rouge and 90 miles north of world of shadows, either. l^J_J Jerry DeMuth 2937 Delmar Lane, er I Atlanta, Georgia 3O3II \9^

Greenwood, Miss.— "In my math class, my trigonometry student continually is asking for more homework," explains Carolyn Bgan of Portland, who is teaching in a freedom school here. "He's never missed a day of class and is always there on time. He's really eager to learn. And we have a number of other students who are like that." Carolyn, 21 year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Egan of 1385 SW 8^-th Street, is one of close to 1,000 volunteers—students, teachers, doctors, lawyers and clergymen—participating in the Mississippi Summer Project. "This boy gets up at 5*30 to help us canvasafor voter registration before people go out to work in the cotton fields. Then he comes to the freedom school. They don't teach trigonometry at the Negro school here, only geometry and algebra. A lot of the kids havw Carolyn Egan—add one commented on how they're able to take subjects not available at their public school." This youngster is one of about 50 who regularly attend the freedom school here which meets daily at the Friendship Baptist Church. They are taught by about five other volunteers like Carolyn. "His parents are very proud of him," Carolyn continued. "They let him go to a planning committee meeting in Jackson a couple weeks ago and last week they let him go to the freedom school convention in Meridian." Carolyn explains that because of fear, many parents don't openly support their children going to the freedom school. "About half the students said their parents don't want them to come but they come anyway. Some said their parents were afraid at the beginning but let them come the first day anyway. Then after the students talked things over with their parents, they could come all the time. More students would come if the parents said it was alright." Greenwood, county seat of LeFlore County, is the national home of the White Citizens' Councils and the council controls much of the town. It is also home of Byron Dg La Beckwith, accused killer of Medgar Evers, who received a royal welcome from city officials when he was released. Despite a two year old voter registration drive organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, less than two percent of the eligible Negroes were registered in the county as of July. Pear and violence fill this delta town of SI,000 situated halfway between the state capital Jackson and the Tennessee border. "Getting back to my favorite student," Carolyn said, "he plans on going to college and we're trying to gather all the information we Carolyn Egan—add two can on scholarships for Negroes in-the South. He talks about majoring in math but he's doing well in political science too. He's more than competant in a number of things. He's just not certain what he wants to major in so he would like to go to a liberal arts college." The Greenwood freedom school is one of 39 in the state. "We didn't start the school right away," Carolyn said. "We took a week to discuss what we would teach and to prepare ourselves to teach Negro history. We also canvassed the neighborhoods, introducing ourselves, trying to get people interested, and making announcements in churches. "We met in the church here for the first week but then the minister told us not to come back. The police circled the building all that week probably to make sure we didn't use it. But afteijk meeting with the minister, he let us come back." The courses taught include citizenship, American and Negro history, the U.S. and Mississippi Constitutions and non-violence. Electives available include French, German, Spanish, trigonometry, algebra, geometry and political science. In the afternoon the students work on a newspaper they write and print themselves and have a drama class in which they have been writing their own plays. "It's more of a chance for them to discuss their own situation," Carolyn explains. A baseball team haqalso been organized which plays teams organized by other freedom schools. "I've been teaching German, trigonometry, geometry, citizenship and Negro history. There are about five in my German class, one in each of my math classes and about ten in citizenship. In Negro Carolyn Egan—add three

history each of us gives a lecture to the whole group and then we break down into smaller discussion groups." The Greenwood Negro public school is closed now, but the one for the county is open so that it can close in September and October, freeing Negro children to work picking cotton in the fields. For this reason, night classes are held in the rural areas. Also a literacy class is held at the Greenwood community center. "The kids are great," Carolyn admits. "They just throw out and pick up an idea right away. And they help the SNCC workers canvas for voter registration too. It's been a tremendous experience for those of us who plan on going into teaching." Carolyn is an American history major at Stanford University where she first heard about the summer project. "Fourteen students came to Mississippi last fall to help in the freedom vote campaign when NAACP state president Aaron Henry was running for governor. A good friend of mine was one of them. Because of this activity a Friends of SNCC group got going and the national SNCC office sent us all their information. I found out about the project that way.

"You get so tired of seeing people sit around so self-satisfied. But for those people who have been given a lot, a lot should be expected. I was able to work while going to school spring quarter to pay for most of my expenses so I could come down. I have one more quarter to go before I graduate. I'll go back in the fall and finish up. Then I plan on working a bit and coming down again in the dpring to help get another freedom school going next summer."

- 30 - FRONTIER

Reports from the South by two correspondents: CE IN MI qe 3-3»-

By JERRY DeMUTH

11 IUIISSISSIPPI applauds violence," Bayard Rustin cause of the announced summer project. From February IVI told 400 civil rights volunteers, the second of to May, inclusively, there were more than 350 arrests two groups to be trained for the Mississippi Summer in Mississippi, most of them for peaceably picketing. Project, at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. Many of the arrests came after the state passed a law Rustin, organizer of the civil rights march on Washing­ ton last August, was only spelling out what civil rights workers have long known and what summer volunteers The Author Is Beaten in Alabama were discovering for themselves. Atlanta, Ga., July 7 At the orientation sessions, there were repeated brief­ "I am sorry I'm a day or two late [with the article]. ings on official and unofficial violence and intimidation. I went to Selma, Ala., over the weekend as a writer Staff personnel explained the specifics and how to deal accompanying photographer David Prince. We were with them. The extent and intensity of consistent to cover integrauwu attempts under the new civil violence has an effect on all civil rights workers in the rights bill and voter registration activities. Sunday South as they learn to live in the face of dangers. night [July 5] after a voter registration rally, we Everyone at the orientation session, June 28, felt the were brutally beaten by sheriff's deputies and threat­ keen edge of danger at the news that three civil rights ened with death. Prince was shot at by a deputy once workers were missing in Mississippi. Two of them had and beaten with night sticks. Also, at three different been trained at Oxford. One was a summer volunteer, times his camera was taken and smashed. "I was clubbed on the head, suffering a two-inch the second an experienced worker, the third a Mis­ laceration which required seven stitches to close. I sissippi Negro active in the movement. When the car have club marks on my back and a badly bruised of the missing youths was found gutted by flames in a left elbow which at first doctors thought was frac­ swamp near a seldom-traveled logging road, violence tured. It is now in a sling, and I am typing with my became a reality for the summer volunteers. They be­ right hand. came a part of what has been a way of life in Mis­ "We were told to leave town or be killed and drove sissippi—a way that is becoming more and more common. forty-five miles to Montgomery before receiving hos­ The next night it was learned that the Citizens Coun­ pital treatment. Police and deputies now claim that cil had distributed a descriptive listing of all the cars we told them Negroes beat us and are giving this connected with civil rights activities in the Fourth Con­ false story to the wire services. gressional District. The burned car was on that list. "A state investigator also claims .nat Prince told Violence again had been openly encouraged. him that he was first grabbed by a iNegro. But I heard a man in a brown uniform, wearing a white helmet Violence has been continually used against civil rights and gas mask, and holding a rifle, say to Prince, "I'm activities, and as these activities have increased so has a state investigator. Tell me the niggers started it." the violence and intimidation. This past spring the When Prince said, "I don't know who started it," increase was the greatest it has ever been, probably be- the man jabbed him in the stomach with his rifle. "Thus my work has been delayed." Jerry DeMuth has contributed to a variety of publica­ JERRY DeMUTH tions, including Commonweal and The Nation.

August 1964 against picketing of all public buildings, streets and the vandalism included slashed tires and placing sugar sidewalks, and other places belonging to the city, county in the gas tanks. One of these cars had been impounded and state. There also were twenty-seven traffic arrests. by police in Hattiesburg. When the owner got it back Almost all were on dubious or false charges, aimed only from the police, the car had syrup in the gas tank. at harassing drivers and occupants. These are occurring A series of arrests and other acts of intimidation that with increasing frequency, a new tactic the state has occurred in Greenwood in late March are fairly repre­ discovered and one which would never come under the sentative of the barriers that officials direct against jurisdiction of a federal court. civil rights work. Since 1962, Greenwood has been the A number of the detentions are not officially arrests. site of a voter-registration drive organized by the Student Police often hold a civil rights worker without placing Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. SNCC intensi­ a charge against him. They take him to the station fied its activities in March to get more Negroes regis­ where he is fingerprinted and photographed — which tered, and a Freedom Day for this purpose was organized. according to Mississippi law is only supposed to occur after one has been charged with a felony—and then Harassment by Police Officials release him. Violence consistently occurred during the same four- On March 21, Dick Frey, director of SNCC's Green­ month period. One person was killed, and there were wood project, and Anna Lee Glage, a student volunteer four beatings by police (three of them in jail) and seven from Iowa State University, were picked up by police other beatings. Bullets were fired into two homes, while for distributing leaflets. A city ordinance, of dubious four other buildings were bombed—these four included constitutionality, prohibits distributing leaflets in public a Negro home and three Negro business establishments: places. Police released the two without charges. The a cafe, a motel, and a barber shop owned by an NAACP same day police arrested a Greenwood Negro returning president. Doors and windows were smashed in three from a mass meeting, charged him with reckless driv­ additional buildings, including a store owned by an ing, and fined him $50. NAACP leader and the civil rights organizations' Jack­ Two days later, police again arrested persons for dis­ son office. tributing leaflets. The three civil rights workers and a Concurrent with the revival of the Klan in Mississippi, minister also were released without being charged. nearly 100-reported cross burnings occurred across the On March 25, Freedom Day, 200 Negroes tried to state. The Jackson Clarion-Ledger described these burn­ register to vote, but officials permitted fewer than sixty ings as "a regular Friday night affair" because they to take the test. In the courthouse a chemical which became so common. turned to gas from the heat was placed on radiators and Six cars owned by civil rights workers were damaged— caused eyes to smart. On March 26, police stopped two civil rights workers in a car and charged them with running a red light. Mississippi, U.S.A., 1964 The same clay a Greenwood Negro who was active in the vote drive was fired from his job. His boss told him Mickey Schwerner, a full-time worker with CORE, James Chaney of Meridian, Miss., active in civil that the Citizens Council showed pictures of the pre­ rights, and Andrew Goodman, a summer volunteer vious night's picketing at the courthouse and he ap­ from Queens College, Flushing, N.Y., began an in­ peared five times. Another employer told the discharged vestigation on Sunday, June 21, of the burning of a employee's father that his son would never be able to Negro church near Philadelphia, Miss. get another job in Greenwood. When they did not report back, as prearranged, to The next day, police detained five students from Iowa their Meridian office, by 4:30 p.m., their fellow work­ State University who were picketing at the courthouse, ers telephoned jails in the area but obtained no in­ fingerprinted, photographed and questioned them. They formation. Later, the jailer's wife at the Philadelphia were released without charge. A civil rights worker was jail admitted the three had been arrested on a traffic stopped and charged with running a stop sign. A woman charge about 4 p.m. The Philadelphia sheriff said who had been taking people to the courthouse to register they were released that night and escorted out of town. was stopped and charged with speeding. While the A white man who fled the state in fear said he policeman was giving her a ticket, a white man slashed talked to the jailer's daughter the next morning and the tires of her car. Two more persons lost their jobs. was told the three were still in jail. Another inform­ A Leflore County sharecropper and mother of nine ant said they had been beaten in the jail Sunday children was evicted because she had tried to register on night. March 4. A man who had been picketing the county Monday afternoon, their burned station wagon courthouse on March 25 and 26 was fired because of was found in a swamp near Philadelphia. That night his activities. A Greenwood policeman had earlier asked the FBI was ordered to investigate. Four hundred him where he worked, then said, "Well, we'll sec what sailors from the naval base at Meridian were dis­ we can do about that," and walked into the cafe where patched to help state and local police officers in the the man had worked. search. A white civil rights worker was arrested and then After two weeks, no trace of the youths was re­ ported. released on March 30, and the next day police took -JERRY DEMUTH another white man off the picket line and to the sta­ tion. They tried to photograph and fingerprint him but

FRONTIER he refused, protesting that he was not under arrest. windows. Later someone called the Freedom House "You're under arrest as a suspicious person," Chief and asked, "How many did we get?" Neither of the two Lary then told him, and he was fingerprinted and photo­ occupants was injured. graphed and released. Police also picked up fourteen Early in the morning on June 16, the recreation hall other persons for picketing and charged them with at the Negro Catholic church in Hattiesburg was burned. disorderly conduct. It was one of several Negro churches used for mass On April 2, police stopped SNCC workers Mendy meetings in the voter registration drive. Samstein and Lois Chaffee and asked them to come to The next night a Negro church outside Philadelphia the police station to be photographed and fingerprinted. was burned to the ground. This church also had been When they refused, they were arrested, and then taken used for meetings. On June 21, Mickey Schwerner, to the station. Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were going from One week later, police ordered forty-six persons picket­ Meridian to investigate this burning when they dis­ ing at the courthouse to leave. When they stayed, they appeared and only their station wagon, also burned, were arrested and charged with refusing to obey a police had been found at this writing, ten days later. order and with unlawful picketing. Incidents like these continue in most Mississippi com­ Fatal Date for Them was June 21 munities where there are civil rights activities. Often there is obvious cooperation between cities, so that as National Guardsmen returning to the National Guard civil rights workers travel through the state, they can armory in Collins on June 20, discovered the theft from be stopped frequently. the armory of forty-one M-i rifles and 1,000 rounds of This is what happened in early May. Six civil rights ammunition. workers were taking a trailer load of books donated On June 23, the home of the Pike County NAACP in the north to Rust College, a Negro college in Holly president in McComb was bombed, and attempts were Springs. They left Greenwood around 10 p.m. on Mon­ made to bomb the homes of two other Negroes. Also, in day, May 4. About four hours later they pulled into a Moss Point the meeting hall was burned. Two nights gas station in Oxford for fuel; a police car rolled up later, the Williams Chapel Church in Ruleville and the behind them. The officer told them to stop and checked Holy Ghost Church outside Clinton were set on fire. their identities as two more police cars appeared. Police Arrests, beatings and shootings aimed at civil rights opened the trailer, and one of them looked through the workers began to occur daily. Newspaper and magazine books. "They look like stolen property," he commented. reporters who went into the state soon discovered they He pointed out that the six had no bill of lading. were considered no'different than the civil rights workers The group was taken to jail and the next morning pre­ and were accorded the same treatment. sented with a search warrant obtained on the basis that Newsmen were ordered to leave Philadelphia and at the six were engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow the least half a dozen times whites tried to attack them but government of Mississippi. After their possessions were they managed to get away. Karl Fleming of Newsweek thoroughly searched, they were released that afternoon and Claude Sitton of The New York Times were chased and they continued toward Holly Springs. Several police all the way to Meridian, thirty-six miles away. They re­ cars waited for them on the outskirts of Holly Springs, turned to Philadelphia the next day. A carload of whites and they were taken before a magistrate and charged also chased two carloads of magazine writers out of with various offenses, including reckless driving. They Ruleville. were fined a total of $356.72, and removed to the local Just as Mississippi wants no "federal interference" jail where they were fingerprinted, photographed, ques­ with its power to deny Negroes full citizenship, the state tioned and not released until 5 p.m. the next day. wants no publicity to center the nation's attention on One week later, one of the six, along with six other what is happening. The white supremacists were sup­ civil rights workers, was held overnight in jail at Belzoni ported this spring by the state legislature, which passed for "suspicion of burglary." During questioning, it was a series of laws to hamper civil rights activities. apparent that Oxford and Holly Springs officials had As the freedom movement in Mississippi continues to given information to Belzoni officials, just as Oxford grow, the state and its citizens will be tempted to take police earlier had passed on information to Holly Springs even more desperate action unless law is finally used police. to uphold justice. So far there are no signs of this in Mississippi. Steady Increase in Tension Allen Dulles, after investigating the situation, pointed out that state authorities should be responsible for sup­ In this atmosphere created by political and police pressing terroristic acts, but as The New York Times powers of the state and helped by the White Citizens said in an editorial: "Each day's newspaper brings fresh Councils, private vigilante activities flourish. As the reports of police maltreatment of other young volunteers summer project began, violent acts on the part of un­ in the voter registration drive. How much hope, then, identified persons reached new heights. can they put in Mr. Dulles' advice that they let the Early in the morning of June 1, a bomb was thrown Mississippi police know where they are at all times so at the Freedom House in Canton where civil rights they can be adequately protected?" workers live. It bounced off the side of the building, The answer can come only from the federal govern­ rolled twenty feet away and exploded, shattering the ment.

August 1964 Cep- .--e:.e;-; ••• -'O'o^ e ! I I a— I •—• - i ~_> <±J -

: 2,000. Cardboard from cartons ..' .\.a,k.,w/;. :Lzi^ .:. 7: S^;./ forms the ceiling. The unpainted walls are covered with maps and .00_ ... ..:..:..^::o. pictures. Shelves holding about a thousand books.line the walls. "Miss. Summer Project to End Aug. with other communities in their In the morning, young children/ 24, 700 Students to Abandon This counties -they began to move per­ play inside while their mothers State," the Jackson Clarion-Ledger manently into these areas, and new meet on the lawn in back, sitting on. headlined on August 8. Eut there projects were born. In Marshall benches in the -shade of a few pecan ' were no signs of it at the more than County, for example, the project trees. These women are taught twenty project locations. About has headquarters in Holly Springs. health, first aid, reading, writing, 200 volunteers have elected to stay Its workers -began reaching into and Negro history. In the after­ for at least six months and three adjoining counties as they went noon, after the Negro public school aspects of the summer project— canvassing outside that town. Vol­ lets out, teen-agers meet for classes. the Freedom Schools, the commu­ unteers from Holly Springs were The Negro schools in the delta are nity centers and the voter-registra­ soon working, hi -six counties, with open in July and August so they can tion activities—will be continued. plans to move into two more. In close in September and October, Panola County, seventeen volun­ freeing the youngsters to work in By late August there were forty- the cotton fields. seven Freedom Schools, with 2,500 teers lived and eekee in the county pupils, in more than two dozen seat of Batesville. Four teams had communities. Plans before the- moved from Batesville to Crowder, In mid-July, Ruleville organ­ summer began were for fourteen Crenshaw, Como an-d.Sardis. ized a mass rally at Indianola, a such schools. "We're going to con­ A particularly interesting ex­ town some 22 miles away. James tinue into the winter," explains Dr. ample of such expansion occurred Forman, executive secretary of the Staughton L}. ale University, in Sunflower Ccunty where the proj­ Student Nonviolent Coordinating em -School director. The ect has its headquarters in Rule­ Committee, gave the main address, schools will re .. . ly at night • ville, -home of Mrs. Fannie Lou but perhaps the most important because youths are attending public Harner (see The Nation, June 1). speaker was Oscar Giles, an In­ schools during the day. And new A Freedom School, community cen­ dianola Negro. Giles rose from the schools are being planned. Two ter and voter-registration activities audience -and announced he was panel trucks, for c. being are all operated in a small frame with the move aent 100 per cent staffed and equipped to serve as house -on the edge of this town of and would give it all the support he schools in Neshoba County, where the three civil rights workers were 7ekk killed last Je. .

The thirteen cor ty centers t. • will continue with the help of local adults and volunteers who axe stay­ ing on; new buildings for such cen­ ters are be constructed in two Clark rural settlements, Mileston and New Harmony, and one is planned for the large town of Greenville. z,.... "••;-• Voter-registration activities will o Grcs,?//$jd be renewed. In te 3 just be­ 'nvUkl* indianola fore the Democratic National Con­ -','.'..il:. vention, emphasis was shifted from regular registration to gaining sup­ port for the Freedom Democratic Canton » kSeakhPPke: Party. Vi iteration workers 1 . O jS spent most of tie explaining /..,/ ;,:.,'„,i... the party to s and getting those who si por it, and were -... out fear. . register." IS S I S S I P p j By early • more of the three program: e in about twenty ten :ers from these projects me. _-r contact

Jerry DeMuth, a -lance -writer working in ontributed to The Nal on the

e a. The NATION L-S st involve- sides by fields ef cotton. Materials great deal to avoid federal interven­ hts move- began 'to arrive from the Seattle tion. The authorities of Indianola . eg for the Friends of SNCC nip—art posted a notice urging all citizens o . dianola, •supplies, books, prints. A library to exercise restraint toward "the so- • since spring was started and ..:e walls became called Freedom Workers." In Green­ ... a trip to covered—with maps and photos of ville, a police officer was heard to .. had to do •the non-whhc world, ancient and give the order, "If it's a local guy, ..... e ir ..dern—and with prints by Miro, throw him out; if it's one of those an ... Daumier, Feininger, Gauguin, Kan- agitators, take it easy." And in Gulf­ workers and dinsky and others. Even the walls port, on the southern coast, the in the washroom were covered. A police sent a ear to stand guard from Rule- Citizens Band radio was installed near the project office for some two a ject in Indian- and the ta : -eted. It hours when the workers- there re­ ... ..- found -and would be used to keep in touch with ported that a midnight bombing had e it up. A Ruleville and with -the project's been threatened by telephone. In­ e donated radio-equipped cars. On August 6, side the office, no one except me was even watching the clock. iroject, a the finishing touch was added; a d on three (Continued on page 108) Some of this "protection" has been indistinguishable from harassment: who can say with certainty whether the police car driving pasto a proj­ di id Mouse Game ect office late at night is looking e for would-be attackers outside or Elizabeth Si eland aiming to jangle the nerves of those inside? One never knows; and that is the quality of fear1 in a cat-and- Jackson, Miss. for what they called "deflarnmatory literature.'" mouse game. Inescapable, amor­ To so . ler just past phous, unpredictable—"the worst sippi, less bloody than Last July, in Hattiesburg, I was land of fear I have ever felt," said it co i. ight sound too waiting for the -police to release a Californian who had fought in much ent who came project director Robert Moses, who the Spanish Civil War and organized to invest! ting of a had been stopped for speeding. An miners in a tough West Virginia o in Jackson and was heard to FBI poster in the station carried town. Considerations of Mississip^ say, "His heao lawn off? Oh, photos of James Chaney, Andrew pi's relative bloodlessness last sum­ then . .... s we thought." Goodman and Michael Sehwerner, mer have little bearing on that emo­ It might also seem highly ques- then still missing, and I felt that in tion. ible to Silas McGhee, the young their presence the police wouldn't e who was shot in Greenwood do anything really terrible to us that Still, one can say that by mid- :/ night after day. It was irrational but not al­ July the white civil rights worker his seven attem.:- itegrate a together untrue, for the furore had less to fear generally from the movie . .... e Stokeley which followed the disappearance of authorities than from the rednecks, Carmichael, a SIN . 3 secretary those three so serly in hie summer whereas before they seemed equally who lost one au. .. to a fire —the hordes or FBI agents and dangerous. This does not mean that •bomb and v. 1 .sent car has sailers, newsmen and federal of­ these two -groups are the only sources of violence; there are also more ,i bullet holes. ficials who descended on the state —made a strong, distasteful im­ the "respectables," like the sales­ The Summer Pro arters men who machine-gunned SNCC .a list pression on local authorities. The hordes caeee, it is true, only be­ worker James Travis last year. Nor LgS Of does it mean that the groups oper­ this type tc ehe 3 and cause two of the missing youths were whites: indirectly, the major ate independently. The authorities traffic-vie lg the reason fcr the limited bloodshed have created a climate of permis­ period of 14. It last summer was the presence of siveness hi which others do the covers th .... ,st of so many white volunteers, particu­ them legal size . 2-spaoed. larly girls. Yet much oi ie curious mo- notony of . ca eouse game; The degree of violence varied over and c • i the same ar­ from one ccunty to another, partly rests on phony charges, followed by because the county sheriffs, elected early release on .: of bail; officials \ . ower would be hard, the same bombs which for a Northern city-dweller to imag­ some! r,... elow up ine, rang. hen Collins, spray­ windows but not e same ing volunteers with obscenities and, obscene threats -... : p short of en one occasion, a real deodor­ fatality.'. :.' eerges ant, to somewhat rational fellows is more eorrifying, anxious to keep a trouble-free rec­ and it's a of the cops ord. The more sophisticated, or using some imagination now and those receptive to more sophisti­ then—making an arrest for "reck­ cated influence from higher-ups like less , ding an office Senator John Stennis, would do a Septeml 105 pped by miliar Southern fantasy, but the newspapers and wire services which mean first contained some truth. Publicity had reporters stationed in Missis­ ips a beating, has playe, . ey role in the COFO sippi. Several of them helped pro­ by- a gang of security system, which begins with tect workers by calling jails when country road certain grc eles as outlined in that was beyond the line of journal­ rent ques- a notice on one wall of the Jackson istic duty. Meanwhile, Greenwood . how fast can headquarters office: was notifying the FBI and Justice (1) Anyone leaving town should Department (John Doar, of the these va .. and check with our WATS operator. Civil Rights Division, lost a lot of :o local Ne- (2) Call collect for the person you sleep last summer) and telephoning iey applied checked out with as soon as you ar­ out-of-state newspapers and a vol­ ed degree to rive at your destina..' unteer's parents if the situation (3) If you are driving a ear other .. .toject had than your own, get authorization called for that. Greenwood also used its earlier hope, slip from legal dept. its national line to notify Friends of SNCC groups around the coun­ a high ratio of The WATS line (Wide Area Tele­ try; sometimes Atlanta did that job summer might phone Service;-, to which considera­ rent. ble mystiqee attaches, was the for those groups and the press east heart of all security and communi­ of Chicago. As further information action to the dis- cations. In che delta town of Green­ came in, new rounds of calls were . ney, Goodman wood, wthere SNCC moved its na­ made. On a bad night, the hectic only improved tional headquarters for the sum­ Jackson office at 1017 Lynch Street, .1 officials; it mer, there were two WATS lines: and the smaller office in Green­ i to COFO, tee one covering the entire nation, the wood looked and sounded as though enizations other state-wide. For a flat monthly che stock-market had crashed. eject's of- rate, an unlimited number of calls On the other end of the line, the ough actually can be dialed directly to any place FBI seems to have gone through a SNCC staffed four of the state's five in the country—or the scete, de­ sort of cycle of attitudes: indif- ets, with CORE working the pending on which line you use. The _erence 'and reluctance to act, fol­ other one. Betty Carman of SNCC Jackson office also had a state-wide lowed by a period of concern and tells how . FBI over local WATS line, and at SNCC's perma­ quick response, and then recently heads gut. . safety of some nent headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., a return to the first attitude. But workers driving through a small there was yet another which ex­ individual agents varied and some­ town nea ... . .1 after a Free­ tended as far west as Chicago. All times their attitudes changed. On dom Dee x atic Party meeting. three were maintained on a twenty- a bloody August night in Jackson, They . y \ /ere being four-hour basis. when the shootings and cross-burn­ game warden and an ings came in such -rapid succession A project worker would telephone that one agent told all the witnesses unide. tailed the FBI, news of any "incident" or threat then told the county sheriff she had who -were streaming in, "The line to the Greenwood : , if It oc­ forms to the left," I heard James done so and was about to notify the curred in ;t it: northwestern quarter of Justice. A few min- Travis of SNCC plead with another of the state c en as the delta; to agent for the FBI to come more ...: the order: Jackson if elsewhere. When the call "Let tl . . ough." often, merely as observers. "What's came to Greenwood, the WATS line •the matter—have you got a chip on Some volunteers followed a similar operator there took down the de­ your shoulder?" the agent asked. tactic • it cCoenb, when tails and notified Jacks. re an­ Later he apologized. At Itta Bena, a sympe fegro was other WATS operator recorded the on June 26, the FBI broke with jailed . .M. . ... bail set too story too. When the story was news­ policy by arresting whites for at­ high ($Leei-.o7) tc ae raised until worthy, Jackson would notify the tacking voter-registration workers. the next day. Knowing that local Only one thing seemed sure about peoph alnerable, and the FBI: if an endangered volun­ remeee . elphia, the teer had a parent of power or in­ work; , ed :. lis to fluence, quick action could be frien.. . : . contacts counted on. There was no question from California tc ., who then of "coming by tomorrow" when Len telephone. mb jail to in­ Edwards, son of the California quire . ler's condition. Congressman, was among those in When la ed the next the bomb-threatened Shaw office. morning, -they not only found the od condition but also There were a few projects in were able s bail sharply rural areas which had no telephone; reduced ; held over to for them, the two-way radios in­ permit removal to a federal court stalled at the end of July had spe­ •—a courtesy the police need not cial importance. COFO's radios have ere d. An officer was operated on the Citizen's Band, heard to mutter, "All they want which has twenty-fthree frequencies is publicity. They'll even burn down available on a sort of party-line their own piece to get It." basis. A license was obtained from His . ce was a fa- •the FCC within 24 hours of applica- loe The NATION gave up, and went lo bed. Four only one full-time staff member in lion d six weeks. Jackson but helped establish the At the end there were pie in Clarksdale alone had stayed up until past one in the morning, LCDC and coordinated with that e.s—twee - group. five in automobiles, twenty-five on and it wasn't much fun to run home ground—plus twenty walk e- down dark alleys after curfew pray­ There was also an unofficial . This was made possible by ing that the barking dogs wouldn't COFO Legal Advisory Committee, one of the pa committee^ bring the police onto the scene. including attorneys William Kunst- formed last i :• committee But -no one would have suggested ler and Mel Wolf, which initiated' ,.-. n in July not waiting to make sure the group several broad suits such as the one •to propose . i security was safe. against the poll tax. A few dis­ measi re: ... : • ramblers, tinguished lawyers came to the ilephone-tap- COFO's other main form of state on an individual basis. And per, ae s, infra-red protection and deterrence was legal. finally, there was a group of law cqui which light up Four groups c attorneys, totaling students who worked with the at­ the , . outdone, some about 150, came to the state, with torneys and who were supplied by the White Citizens a ' remarkable white SNCC field yet another organization, the Law Coun locked up on walkie- •secretary named Hunter Morey co­ Students Civil Rights Research talkies . e seen practic­ ordinating their work from Jack­ Council. ing wii -. Greenwood. A son. To some of the lawyers, Mr. If the picture seems confusing, • more sini: .: was the pro- Morey was a brash young man with it was—at least to this observer. life , radio antennas only half a year of law school be­ The actual work of the attorneys is on .. . icks around the state. hind him. (He does, in fact, look easier to describe, since they—like Civil >rkers dread the pick­ more like that nice boy who delivers the fifty-seven doctors who came up more than the police -the morning paper than a 24-year- down—were allowed to practice car: ii i ymbol of the redneck, old veteran of several civil rights very little in the state. It consisted and 10 license plate, battlefields.) They might have, mainly of bailing or bonding out a tolera reflecting the thought twice if they had realized •arrested volunteers, as well as lo­ link icials and poor what he had to contend with: cal Negroes; getting cases removed whi: from a state to federal court (un­ Nor Is radio installa­ (1) The National Lawyers Guild, fortunately, many of these are with an office in Jackson and bases being remanded to the state court); tions oi e was destroyed in Meridian, Greenwood and Hat- by whites, a one irate police-' and acting as observers or advisers. tiesburg. The Guild lawyers were Despite the limitations, the presence man in Na the antenna generally acknowledged to .^ the there. (This most gutsy and the most experi- of the attorneys definitely had its hay. y after the 1 enced in civil rights cases. Represen­ effects. As Mike Starr, one of the boe xt door to the tatives of the National Council of law students, said in Hattlesburg: project. The officer in question is Churches, CORE and the NAACP's "The amount of actual legal work rep< .ed on the legal branch . r< lorted to have - we've done could be engraved on refused to work with the Guild in the head of a pin. But our mere scene, i Idamn, they Mississippi because cf its left-wing bombed the wr ousel") But presence is a real deterrent. With reputation. Peace was eventually the lawyers here, the Chances of a thee r kinks and established and everyone calmed problems .; radio system, person's being beaten are much less down except the Red-baiting Missis­ and the chances of getting a person most . loom its lim­ sippi press, which tends to call all ited range and ite construc­ civil rights workers Communists released in his own recognizance in­ tion. ' C ht 'ksd-ade, sev­ anyway. stead of by putting up a lot of bail eral wo) . . ..radio-equipped (2) The Lawyers' Constitutional are much better." . away. There Defense Committee, established this He went on the discuss Mississip­ was no . .. one there. When they summer by a group of lawyers from various sources including the Amer- pi's white attorneys, none of whom didn't radio wo heir arrival, can Civil Liberties Union. In gen­ had been cooperative on :any sort of ant, . adio departed eral, the LCDC handled cases in regular basis except a short, slender from i .. /ille to search areas of the state where the Guild Jacksonian named Leonard Rosen­ for them. For e. ., the Clarks­ was not operating but there was thal. "His landlord kicked him out dale those ex- occasional overlapping both ways. of his office, his brother-in-law citin it airplanes, It maintained a Jackson office and chased him with a shotgun," Starr as tee. i ed over the additional attorneys were channeled said. "E Rosenthal doesn't be­ .agical code into the state when the need arose, lieve so much in civil rights as in names . . Some of the from Memphis, Tenn., and New civil liberties." Clarksc :c it home be- Orleans, La. - (3) The Lawyers' Committee for The Mississippi Negro himself cau: .-, midnight cur­ Civil Rights Under Law, known as played a role—or rather, several few , . aed through "the President's Committee" because roles—in making the summer rela­ o car repeat­ it was set up under a Kennedy pro­ tively unbloody. When volunteers ed.' ..: ,. Finally the gram. It acted as counsel for the first arrived in the northern town of nev o .Issing group National Council of Churches, Batesville, a group of local Negroes w which sent about 325 ministers into was . e e learned the state during the summer. with guns stood guard at night— en time and (4) The NAACP Legal Defense unasked—for the first few weeks. tried .. ho rmation but and Educational Fund, Inc., known As nothing developed, they stayed eoe . ; equipment, as "the Inc. Fund." It maintained home. Guns have stood ready in igh'l little part of the program c. hi ndwhen . ... stop it occurred under local leadership .: time to it was not . . cessful. In (Con^ J from page 205) . . ..on. Local Greenwood, Negro youths would a . eieir lives •stand outside a store urging poten­ huge black-and-white sign ever the word of tial customers 'to pass it by. But doorway with the words "indianola one small when they left, their eiders went in. Freedom School," illustrated by ...er's life was This does not mean that 'the clasped Negro and white bar.. local boys movement failed to move forward Seventy-five Negro youngsters be­ told him e lout a convert last summer. Instead, it took solid * gan attending classes in the after­ up a murder root at last. The Freedom Schools, noon and about thirty adults in ng man came and the Mississippi Student Union the evening. A number of the nd i '.orted that he which has largely developed out children returned in the evening had be tv .. . ffers by whites of them, will be the youthful base to help the adults with literacy •—one . .... anting out the of the movement; -the new Freedom training. One of those who come to Democratic Party its adult struc­ the Freedom School at night is a -, and :. ... of $400 for woman whose legs are paralyzed; blo\ ture. These, said Bob Moses in late August, were the project's two great she also cannot move her arms On the other side of the coin, freely. Sitting on her bed at home, ant local Negroes have prac­ achievements. And behind them ticed self-restraint to make things both is perhaps -the most extraordi­ easier foe the summer workers. nary phenomenon of the summer: Group . several towns the kids of 8 or 9 who go out to have said that .they refrained from canvass, who practice demonstrat­ .3 Civil Rights ing 'and being a . every­ Act dune raner because thing else the future holds. such teste art of COFO's Set against eh thas is a mood of ^ad to blood­ white rebelliousness whose bounds shed. In one of them are unpredictable. Bet there wore .: late in the signs, as August ended, that a new even!. ere and said cycle in 'the o ouse game with a grin, ople are okay had begun. One of these was the but I hay . o cm-nonviolent. bombing wh sstroyed tee Jack­ We're goir wing again son offices ..? Ncrlhside Re­ this fall and no white man is going porter, a ... :kly published fey a to push me around." For these noted white older teen-agers, vt ... of course Let no one .. e.at only bhe the project crazy redneck is a die4iard segre­ is admira: j; they have gationist, that most of the authori­ small interest in jm School ties now reluctantly but rationally she tells volunteer Fred Winn of es in hh .. accept Negro equality es inevitable. how she has heard about the Free­ they want to make history .. They are even more oily op­ dom Democratic Party, and proudly -.;, and now. anger and posed because they have more to explains why she fully understands Impatience are understandable. The lose: power. These men will evolve it. "I went as far as tenth grade," little testing whicl done last new barriers, refortify others, step she smiles. This, in Mississippi, summer had ale. e.o effect; up economic pressures. My most where the average number of years whites prevc. . ration by frightening -hour hi Mississippi was completed by Negroes is six. oal force, eie own, turn­ not on a dark road with a police "I got polio when I was 6 months ing rest-aura: hos. The spotlight suddenly turned on my old. I worked in the fields for eight- "White" and "Colo-red" signs are still ear, or watching the pick-up truck teen years—from when I was 13 up in courtihc. e they in my rear-view mirror. It was in to when I was 31, I chopped and are gone, as in Jackson's Trailways office of a county attorney who picked cotton." Fred expresses bus terminal rsity Hos­ chatted politely -about the lack cf amazement since she has never pital, white and I . . till sit in rain. Somev. . the room, in­ walked a step in her life. "I chop­ separate wait i , still go to visible, a tire; clock loudly clicked ped and picked cotton on my knees." off each minute. The attorney didn't The local students have partici­ If the projc. to; been pro­ bluster against intermarriage or re­ pated in voter-registration canvass­ vocative enou isfy some affirm God's desire to keep 'the races ing and have begun to take action J a sense in separate; in fact, I didn't even ask to improve their local school. They which it ve ve enough him his racial views. 11 n unex­ may join the Ruleville Student to drive v o r violence. pectedly he stopped smiling and Action Group which was formed The project rose d no direct said, in a calm voice, "You know, during the summer, one of many economic tho at. t if COFO everything I have is in this town— such local organizations which the bad oi-ga. ion strike my work, my family, my farm. I summer project has; encouraged. for the mom temfoer-Oc- intend to protect them." It was a Gary DeMoss of Kansas City, a tober, who . is picked? simple little statement, delivered volunteer, speaks with amazement It could not, < co everal with unmistakable portent and about the Ruleville Negro school: lg wasn't maximum hostility. Whole classes go out and pick 1 Oo The NATION ver given. of the re. . >n test calling for fields; then he comes to the Free­ . he money an interpretat i of .... i .' the 285 dom Sclwol. They don't teach trig­ class has sections of the state ooestitution, onometry 'at One Negro scSiool here. •;' sit two he -plans on going to college and and a del of the Les of a to a i , one teach- we're trying to gather all the in­ d four classes citizen, be dropped for one year. formation we can on scholarships ... me in the gym Many still are failed for other ques- for Negroes in the South. ble reasons, but the injunction and is a couple In Hattiesburg a Negro woman of incomplete sets of encyclopedias. is the biggest breakthrough in returning home from work got on No typing is taught there and al- Mississippi, and rights workers are the -bus. A white woman removed every .-..- here at the determined to take advantage of it Freedom School ivants to take it. her package from the seat next to for they are still a long way from her to make room. When a white e Student in Group has getting the county's 7,000 voting- woman later got on the bus, the age Negroes registered. ssed out end sent letters ' driver asked the Negro woman to to teacl r.ool officials or­ And elsewhere, the young people give up her seat. The woman didn't ange in .these condi­ keep on pushing. A former care do or say anything and the driver tions. T. er student groups has been fixed up—the floor re­ called a policeman who arrested may stage a state-wide school boy­ paired, grease washed off the walls, 'her. She was charged with breach cott this fall. everything given two coats of paint of the peace and interfering with "Tie take over —to serve as a community center. an officer. All the Negroes left the after . y.ained Don "A young Negro in his twenties bus in protest. heard about our literacy program Madiso, ... Ohio. "The At a city precinct meeting organ­ and drove 14 miles to our center," students h on very quick ized with the help of the summer explains Margie Hazelton, a short, o do something. workers, the occurrence was- dis- slim redhead from Detroit. "He said They u. .-. going on." • cussed. Several mentioned a limited he had gone as far as the third Tho re more eas­ boycott of buses. A mass meeting grade but then had to drop out be­ ily >lly Springs, •had been scheduled for the next cause 1 to work for his fam­ Dave Ke in, Inch, tells night and it was decided to go fur­ ily. I've been teaching him reading in trying to can­ ther into the situation then. vass in neai County: and writing through the Laubach method." The sin:. '. uty, and the These people, these situa­ constable with a police dog kept In Greenwood, -the Friendship tions, cannot be left behind, most following us wherever we went. We Baptist Church is home for the of the summer workers feel. Some -would talk to pcoph . nit regis­ Freedom School. One of the teach-, give the workers'new hope; others tering and -when we left the sheriff ers, Carolyn Egan, a pretty, short-, make them more determined. In •would call them over and tell them haired blonde from Portland, smiles to ignore us . . . and back up his either ease, they point to the need with hope as she tells of one of her for continuing the work of the order with all kinds of threats. We students: kept calling on people and talking summer. About one-fourth of the hem. But they wouldn't even In my math class, my trigonom­ volunteers plan to stay. At least as . at us. They would just look etry student continually is asking many more plan to return, some right past us at these cops. Other for more homework. He's never next -summer, others as soon as times they'd see those police sitting missed a clay of class and is always early next year. To some an even there in their cars, taking notes, there on time. He's really eager to stronger reason for staying is that and they'd slam the door right in learn. He gets up at 5:30 to help our faces. canvass for voter registration be­ the community has become a part fore people go out to work in the of their hfe, has become their Four people agreed to go to the home. And they expect new groups Tate County courthouse to take the of volunteers to join them. registration test, but because of As Woody Berry explained in threats none went. The barn belong­ Holly Springs: ing to one of the four was burned. Two youths who help have and Negro people here are happy that zue're here. They feed us, take care his co-worker, Woody Berry of Day­ of us, protect us. When Hardy Frye, ton, Ohio, fled e els to avoid a volunteer from Sacramento, was a threatened lynching. There are arrested he wasn't permitted to 4,326 voting-age Negroes in Tate make a phone call, but xve knew County; none of them are regis- xuhat had happened in minutes. A od. Negro man saw him get arrested But in Panola County, more than and jumped into his truck and came 600 Negroes have gistered right to our office and told us. since the sumne Mississippi, with a total popu­ October, 1961, . .. e Justice lation of slightly more than 2 mil­ Department filed a suit against the lion, is extremely rural, and almost istrar, only o ;ro was reg­ everywhere strong community feel­ istered; thirty-one more were reg- ings exist. It is easy to become a ered while the suit was going' part of the Negro community within through the courts. Then last May a few days of active work with its a one-year injunction was handed people. down. It ordered that the sections Twenty-five workers found this September 14, 19i 109 to be especially true in Mileston. Evanston, 111., "that you can easily another Negro's home. They saw forget about the rest of the world. where it had landed on his young not shewn on You can even forget about the rest daughter's bed, failing to go off. maps; down U.S. of the county you're working in."' Two of them had been beaten by mwood to Down a couple of miles is a local whites. Another, when can­ Jackson, all you see is a sign, a road with two houses at its end. vassing, listened to a Negro min­ short-order cafe and store, and a One serves as a community center, ister who told how two deputy po­ small train station along two tracks the other as the Freedom House licemen in plain clothes forced he Illinois' Central hasn't where several volunteers live. Be­ him into their car at gun point and A few miles south yond the houses is a field of cotton. threatened to kill him. The volun­ iles-ton is a community On the other three sides are thin teers know that one of the two had, of 120 to 150 Negro s who woods. without appaivrt reason, killed a have owned their own land since This area of Mileston is home for Negro boy the previous summer. At . That was when the planta­ the volunteers and headquarters the new community center they tions went bankrupt and the fed­ for Holmes County activities. The can still see the hole in the ground eral government gave the workers a voter-registration workers leave it where there was a bombing in mid- oe to homestead the land. Few to canvass during the day, but the July. And every time they drive of the Negro homes . mining others stay here to -teach at the down the road they can see the • and in some the cone' Freedom School which meets at a burnedout hulk of a SNCC project are shocking. A se: , voter-reg- church along the road, to help build car that was fire-bombed a week tion work massing a new community center which is later. They know too that out of one day, found a f; :; in a going up next to the church, or to more than 8,000 voting-age Negroes in the county only forty-one are windowless shack. .. it and help children in arts and crafts and registered. a lot .ed in the winter recreation at the temporary com­ ably a lot o —came in munity center. The phone they use At night, it is too dangerous to throe .alls. Both is in one of the homes, as is their venture far from their little com­ ill, could main Citizens Band radio transmit­ munity. They work at the Freedom seldom work, an. were no ter. Occasionally they may go out House and temporary center, or sit welfare payments. e shadows to the highway store for a ham­ talking to people on darkened hudciled three ch their eyes burger or a bottle of pop. But they porches along the road. They sit and puffy and runnin . is. The live and eat with the families here, talk while their hosts keep a shot­ boy's stomach w. hen from and sit and talk with them as mem­ gun nearby, waiting for those who rod lay a bers of the family. "They're like my may toss the next bomb or fire the aby crying. He had been own children," one of the hosts next shots into their homes. Occa­ born blind. said to me. sionally a car comes down the road, Across the tracks is a narrow dirt and the crunching of tires on gravel and gravel road nail, iden­ The fears of the Negro fam­ fills the air. Voices quiet, hands tical homes, run-down barns built ilies have become the fears of the reach for shotguns; in the tense for mules and re r needed, volunteers. All share in the tension. stillness everyone Is joined more and fields of cote soy beans, They know veil local leader Hart- .closely together. Then the car sig­ re seldom a this man Turnbcv ., story of how in the nals, and all relax and begin to road in Mileston except for the civil spring of last year he tried to reg- talk again. Volunteers cannot s workers who stay with some of how -his home was b. desert this community; if there is of the 'Negro familie - along, two weeks later, and of how any change in Mileston it will be the road. himself, was arrested and charged one of increased activity. And this "You're so isolated here," • ex­ with arson. They were there when seems to be the pattern throughout plained volunteer Gene Nelson of a dynamite bomb was tossed into the state.

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Soon the select commission probing self seems destined to compound would carry the utmost authority, e F. Ken­ the irony, even though its purpose responsibility and credibility, the nedy will .. ngs to the is high and its memt. ..table. Chief Justice of the United States One inevitable A week after John F. Kennedy was made head of the group and it result when tee Warren Commis­ v/as shot dead in the Dallas motor­ was rounded out by six other dis­ sion's report comes in will be to cade, his successor named the spe­ tinguished men from public life. ....- heavy flavor of cial commission, to study the assas­ There was no mystery about what irony whic I ed the tragedy sination and report back its con- the new President meant or wanted from the . o. that is to be elusions. The Ley instruction from when he charged the commission expected. habit of ter- President Johnson was that the to bring back "the truth." The shots one bitter commission "satisfy itself that the that killed Kennedy had ricocheted twist aftej eir details truth is known so far as it can be around the world, raising deep fears unfold. U quest for discovered." To assure the whole and doubts. A public-opinion poll "truth," mission it- world that the commissic::;'s report taken at about the time the com- lio The NATION 1NTATIOTV September 14, 1964 Summer in Mississippi Freedom Moves In To Stay Jerry DeMuth

"Miss. Summer Project to End Aug. Seventy-five Negro youngsters be­ 24, 700 Students to Abandon This TENN. gan attending classes in the after­ State," the Jackson Clarion-Ledger noon and about thirty adults in headlined on August 8. But there the evening. A number of the were no signs of it at the more than children returned in the evening twenty project locations. About PANOLA to 'help the adults with literacy 200 volunteers have elected to stay training. One of those who come to for at least six months and three ikrkiitlt • the Freedom School at night is a aspects of the summer project— woman whose legs are paralyzed; the Freedom Schools, the commu­ / SUNFLOWER she also cannot move her arms nity centers and the voter-registra­ C, • Grttiweod freely. Sitting on her bed _at home, tion activities—will be continued. she tells volunteer Fred Winn of By late August there were forty- Grttnviilt)* * Indianola how she has heard about the Free­ seven Freedom Schools, with 2,500 •Jchula dom Democratic Party, and proudly pupils, in more than two dozen tetw" NESH0BAI explains why she fully understands communities. • Plans before the it. "I went as far as tenth grade," . • Philadelphia summer began were for fourteen r she smiles. This, in Mississippi, suoh schools. "We're going to con­ Canton • , \> where the average number of years tinue into the winter," explains Dr. New Harmony completed bv Negroes is six. Staughton Lynd of Yale University, ALA. Freedom School director. The "I got polio when I was 6 months schools will meet primarily at night MISSISSIPPI old. I worked in the fields for eight- because youths are attending public teen years—from when I was 13 schools during the day. And new to when I was 31, I chopped and • Hittinbura schools are being planned. Two picked cotton." Fred expresses panel trucks, for example, are being amazement since she has never staffed and equipped to serve as walked a step in her life. "I chop­ ped and picked cotton on my knees." schools in Neshoba County, where Gulfport the three civil rights workers were The local students have partici­ killed last June. pated in voter-registration canvass­ The 'thirteen community centers ing and have begun to take action will continue with the help of local and Negro history. In the after­ to improve their local school. They adults and volunteers who are stay­ noon, after the Negro public school may join the Ruleville Student ing on; new buildings for such cen­ lets out, teen-agers meet for classes. Action Group which was formed ters are being constructed in two The Negro schools in the delta are during the summer, one of many rural settlements, Mileston and open in July and August so they can such local organizations which the New Harmony, and one is planned close in September and October, summer project has encouraged. for the large town of Greenville. freeing the youngsters to work in Gary DeMoss of Kansas City, a Voter-registration activities will the cotton fields. volunteer, speaks with amazement be renewed. In the weeks just be­ about the Ruleville Negro school: fore the Democratic National Con­ In mid-July, Ruleville organ­ Whole classes go out and pick vention, emphasis was shifted from ized a mass rally at Indianola, a cotton, though they're never given regular registration to gaining sup­ town some 22 miles away. James any accounting where the money port for the Freedom Democratic Forman, executive secretary of the goes. A freshman algebra class has Party. Voter-registration workers seventy-two students, they sit two Student Nonviolent Coordinating to a desk, and have only one teach­ spent most of their time explaining Committee, gave the main address, er. Sometimes three and four classes the party to Negroes and getting but perhaps the most important meet at the same time in the gym those who supported it, and were speaker was Oscar Giles, an In­ and the entire library is a couple without fear, to "freedom register." dianola Negro. Giles rose from the of incomplete sets of encyclopedias. By early August one or more of audience and announced he was No typing is taught there and al­ the three programs existed in about with the movement 100 -per cent most every student here at the twenty towns. As workers from and would give it all the support-he Freedom School wants to take it. these projects made closer contact could. This was his first involve­ The Student Action Group has with other communities in their ment with the civil rights move­ passed out leaflets and sent letters counties ithey began to move per­ ment. Giles had been waiting for the to teachers and school officials de­ manently into these areas, and new rights workers to come to Indianola, manding a change in these condi­ projects were born. In Marshall had been waiting ever since spring tions. They and other student groups County, for example, the project when he returned from a trip to may stage a state-wide school boy­ has headquarters in Holly Springs. Chicago and decided he had to do cott this fall. Its workers began reaching into something about his people in Mis­ "The teen-agers can take over adjoining counties as they went sissippi. Now he began moving after we're gone," explained Don canvassing outside that town. Vol­ with the civil rights workers and Madison of Columbus, Ohio. "The unteers from Holly Springs were would keep on moving. students here catch on very quick soon working in six counties; with Three workers came from Rule­ and really want to do something. plans to move into two more. In ville to set up a project in Indian­ They understand what's going on." Panola County, seventeen volun­ ola. An old house was found and The older people are more eas­ teers lived and worked in the county the workers began to fix it up. A ily frightened. In Holly Springs, seat of Batesville. Four teams had group of Baptist ministers donated Dave Kendall of Sheridan, Ind., tells moved from Batesville to Crowder, their old school to the project, a of his experiences in trying to can­ Crenshaw, Como and Sardis. brick building, surrounded .on three vass in nearby Tate County: A particularly interesting ex­ sides by fields of cotton. Materials The sheriff, a deputy, and the ample of such expansion occurred began to arrive from the Seattle constable with a police dog kept in Sunflower County where the proj­ Friends of the SNCC group—art following us wherever we went. We ect has its headquarters in Rule­ supplies, books, prints. A library would talk to people about regis­ ville, home of Mrs. Fannie Lou was started and the walls became tering and when we left the sheriff Hamer (see The Nation, June 1). covered—with maps and photos of would call them over and tell them A Freedom School, community cen­ the non-white world, ancient and to ignore us . . . and back up his ter and voter-registration activities modern—and with prints by Miro, order with all kinds of threats. We kept calling on people and talking are all operated in a small frame Daumier, Feininger, Gauguin, Kan- to them. But they wouldn't even house on (he edge of this town of dinsky and others. Even the walls look at us. They would just look 2,UUU, Cardboard from cartons in the washroom were covered. A right past us at those cops. Other forms the celling. The unpainted Citizens Band radio was installed times they'd see those police sitting walls are covered with maps and and the tall antenna erected. It there in their cars, taking notes, pictures. Shelves holding about a would be used to keep in touch with and they'd slam the door right in thousand books line the walls. Ruleville and with the project's our faces. In the morning, young children radio-equipped cars. On August 6, Four people agreed to go to the play inside while their mothers the finishing touch was.ad,ded; a Tate County courthouse to take the meet on the lawn in back, sitting on huge black-and-white sign over the' registration test, but because of benches in the shade of a few pecan doorway with the words "Indianola threats none went. The barn belong­ trees. These women are taught Freedom School," illustrated by ing to one of the four was burned. health, first aid, reading, writing, clasped Negro and white hands. Two youths who helped Dave and his co-worker, Woody Berry of Day­ ther into the situation then. Down a couple of miles is a side ton, Ohio, fled to Memphis to avoid road with two houses at its end. a threatened lynching. There are These people, these situa­ One serves as a community center, 4,326 voting-age Negroes in Tate tions, cannot be left behind, most the other as the Freedom House County; none of them are regis­ of the summer workers feel. Some - where several volunteers live. Be­ tered. give the workers new hope; others yond the houses is a field of cotton. make them more determined. In On the other three sides are thin But in Panola County, more than either case, they point to the need woods. 600 Negroes have been registered for continuing the work of the This area of Mileston is home for since the summer project began. In summer. About one-fourth of the the volunteers and headquarters October, 1961, when the Justice volunteers plan to stay. At least as for Holmes County activities. The Department filed a suit against the many more plan to return, some voter-registration workers leave it registrar, only one Negro was reg­ next summer, others as soon as to canvass during the day, but the istered; thirty-one more were reg­ early next year. To some an even others stay here to teach at the istered while the suit was going stronger reason for staying is that Freedom School which meets at a through the courts. Then last May the community -has become a part church along the road, to help build a one-year injunction was handed- of their life, has become their a new community center which is down. It ordered that the sections home. And they expect new groups going up next to the church, or to ot me registration test calling for of volunteers to join them. help children in arts and crafts and an interpretation of any of the 285 As Woody Berry explained in recreation at the temporary com­ sections of the state constitution, Holly Springs: munity center. The phone they use and a definition of the duties of a Negro people here are happy that is in one of the homes, as is their citizen, be dropped for one year. we're here. They feed us, take care main Citizens Band radio transmit­ Many still are failed for other ques­ of us, protect us. When Hardy Frye, ter. Occasionally they may go out tionable reasons, but the injunction a volunteer from Sacramento, was to the highway store for a ham­ is the biggest breakthrough in arrested he wasn't permitted to burger or a bottle of pop. But they 'Mississippi, and rights workers are make a phone call, but we knew what had happened in minutes. A live and eat with the families here, determined to take advantage of it and sit and talk with them as mem­ for they are still a long way from Negro man saw him get arrested and jumped into his truck and came bers of the family. "They're like my getting the county's 7,000 voting- right to our office and told us. own children," one of the hosts age Negroes registered. said to me. And elsewhere, the young people Mississippi, with a total papu­ lation of slightly more than 2 mil­ "keep on pushing. A former cafe The fears of the Negro fam­ has been fixed up—the floor re­ lion, is extremely rural, and almost everywhere strong community feel­ ilies have become the fears of the paired, grease washed off the walls, volunteers. All share in the tension. everything given two coats of paint ings exist. It is easy to become a part of the Negro community within They know well local leader Hart- —to serve as a community center. man Turnbow's story of how in the "A young Negro in his twenties a few days of active work with its people. spring of last year he tried to reg­ •heard about our literacy program ister, of how his home was burned and drove 14 miles to our center," Twentv-five workers found this to ne especially true in Mileston, two weeks later, and of how he, explains Margie Hazelton, a short, himself, was arrested and charged slim redhead from Detroit. "He said project headquarters for Holmes County. Mileston is not shown on with arson. They were there when he had gone as far as the third a dynamite bomb was tossed into grade but then had to drop out be­ most maps; driving down U.S. Highway 49E from Greenwood to another Negro's home. They saw cause he had to work for his fam­ where it had landed on his young ily. I've been teaching him reading Jackson, all you see is a sign, a short-order cafe and store, and a daughter's bed, failing to go off. and writing through the Laubach Two of them had been beaten by method." • small train station along two tracks where the Illinois Central hasn't local whites. Another, when can­ In Greenwood, title Friendship stopped in years. A few miles south vassing, listened to a Negro min­ Baptist Church is home for the of Tchula, Mileston is a community ister who told how two deputy po­ Freedom School. One of the teach­ of 120 to 150 Negro families who licemen in plain clothes forced ers, Carolyn Egan, a pretty, short- have owned their own land since him into their car at gun point and haired blonde from Portland, smiles 1939. That was when the planta­ threatened to kill him. The volun­ with hope as she tells of one of her tions went bankrupt and the fed­ teers know that one of the two had, students: eral government gave the workers a without apparent reason, killed a In my math class, my trigonom­ chance to homestead the land. Few Negro boy the previous summer. At etry student continually is asking of the Negro homes have running the -new community center they for more homework. He's never water and in some the conditions can still see the hole in the ground missed a day of class and is always are shocking. A seasoned voter-reg­ where there was a bombing in mid- there on time. He's really eager to istration worker, out canvassing July. And every time they drive learn. He gets up at 5:30 to help down the road they can see the canvass for voter registration be­ one day, found a family living in a windowless shack. A little light and burned-out hulk of a SNCC project fore people go out to work in the car that was fire-bombed a week fields; then he comes to the Free­ a lot of flies—and in the winter dom School. They don't teach trig­ probably a lot of cold—came in later. They know too that out of onometry at the Negro school here. through chinks in the walls. Both more than 8,000 voting-age Negroes He plans on going to college and husband and wife, often ill, could in the county only forty-one are we're trying to gather all the in­ registered. formation we can on scholarships seldom work, land there were no for Negroes in the South. welfare payments. In the shadows At night, it is too dangerous to huddled three children, their eyes venture far from their little com­ In Hattiesburg a Negro woman puffy and running with pus. The munity. They work at the Freedom returning home from work got on boy's stomach was swollen from House and temporary center, or sit the bus. A white woman removed malnutrition. On the bed lay a talking to people on darkened her package from the seat next to young baby crying. He had been porches along the road. They sit and her to make room. When a white born blind. talk while their hosts keep a shot­ woman later got on the bus, the Across the tracks is a narrow dirt gun nearby, waiting for those who driver asked the Negro woman to and gravel road wish small, iden­ may toss the next bomb or fire the .give up her seat. The woman didn't tical homes, run-down barns built next shots into their homes. Occa­ do or say anything and the driver for mules and no longer needed, sionally a car comes down the road, called a policeman who arrested and fields of cotton and soy beans. and the crunching of tires on gravel her. She was charged with breach Whites are seldom seen down this fills the air. Voices quiet, hands of the peace and interfering with road in Mileston except for the civil reach for shotguns; in the tense an officer. All the Negroes left the rights workers who stay with some stillness everyone is joined more bus in protest. of the Negro families living along closely together. Then the car sig­ At a city precinct meeting organ­ the road. nals, and all relax and begin to ized with the help of the summer "You're so isolated here," ex­ talk again. Volunteers cannot workers, the occurrence was dis­ plained volunteer Gene Nelson of desert this community; if there is cussed. Several mentioned a limited Evanston, 111., "that you can easily my change in Mileston it will be boycott of buses. A mass meeting forget about the rest of the World. one of increased activity. And this had been scheduled for the next You can even forget about the rest seems to be the pattern throughout night and it was decided to go fur­ of the county you're working in." the state.

'I didn't know colored people could vote.' Enclosed is my contribution of $ . "I came up on a porch and an ancient man says "Yes, sir 1 pledge $ per month to the Student Nonviolent and offers me his chair. An enraged white face shouts curses Coordinating Committee (SNCC). out of a car window. We are greeted with fear at the door: "I didn't know colored people could vote." And people ask why we are NAME . down here . ..." ADDRESS CITY . . - from a white SNCC worker's field report. STATE Contributors to SNCC receive a subscription to the Student Voice. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Send to: SNCC, 6 Raymond Street. N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30314 6 Raymond Street, N.W. Atlanta 14, Georgia >-wr- from lacking responsibility for the use ings. So far he has evaded his part of the (and the treatment) of slave laborers . . . bargain — a fact that irks John J. on August 8, 1942, Alfried appealed per­ McCloy. . . ." sonally to Hitler and secured the neces­ William Manchester's series on the sary order for Auschwitz Jews. The next Krupp family and its empire will continue year he proclaimed that his workers were in Holiday's November issue. active adherents of the Nazi ideology and (Continued on Page 3) Notes From Mississippi By Jerry DeMuth

In Philadelphia, Miss., the white Citizens' Council had distributed a descriptive list of cars associated with civil rights activities. Mickey Sehwerner's car was on.that list. Also local, county and state police had broadcast descriptions of the car, and taken photos of it. And in the heart of the town a Klan recruiting poster proclaimed:

"Khristian Principles "Konstitutional Government and In Clarksdale, where schools are under "Korreetional Action Against Usurpers court order to integrate, officials this sum­ "Klandishness means fraternal brother­ mer established new school zone boun­ hood, protection against forced integra­ daries. In one section of the city where a tion, outside control, and the return of small Negro community merged with a sovereignty to our state." white neighborhood, Negroes were leaving * * * their homes. Several buildings were va­ In Batesville, local leader Robert Miles cant, other Negroes told of how they were tells of what has happened to his house supposed to move by the end of August. where four summer workers have lived "I dunno why. I jest heerd it. But we's with his family. "In July my house was don't know where we's gonna go." In Mis­ tear-gassed about one o'clock. A car in the* sissippi, whites never explain why to Ne­ road woke me and I got up and went to groes, they just tell them what to do. the door. I heard a noise on the roof but I went with a lawyer and two SNCC thought it was a brick or a rock. The car workers to the courthouse to find out the went off in a hurry and I went back in the reason. It took the lawyer an hour of de­ house. I smelled tear gas and grabbed my termined questioning of hostile "public" children and ran out. We couldn't get back officials to get any answers. Meanwhile, I in the house till 4:30 and the smell hung examined a posted list of poll tax payers. around for a couple days." The six columns were headed date, name, The tear gas bomb had landed in the residence, age, sex, and receipt number. back yard and the wind blew the gas in­ But under age there were no numbers, side the house. The local police came and only one of two letters, C or W. The law­ took the empty shell but not before the yer finally found out that the city was rights workers got a good look at it and condemning that Negro community for a made a note of the manufacturer's name proposed park. painted on the metal. Later when the po­ • • * lice showed the shell to FBI agents and In Ruleville, Freedom School teachers others it was a different shell without the discovered that students at the Negro printing. school are forced to go out and pick cotton Two weeks later, Miles' house was again in the fall. They are never given any ac­ a target. "Around 11 a car stopped in counting of the money and if they don't about the same place and someone shot at go they are fined ?2—$2 in an area where our house three times. The first shot woke Negroes are payed an average of $3 a day me up, then I heard two more shots." for working 10 to 14 hours in the fields. None of them hit the house. (Continued on Page 7)

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Atlanta, Ga. were prepared. Even parents were not per­ With a recent wave of arrests under a jerry DeMuth mitted to see those in jail. new state law outlawing "criminal syn­ That day, John C. Gibson, writing in the dicalism," Mississippi has again shown rushed through the legislature in the county seat newspaper, the Magnolia that politically and legally it continues to spring, it was not used by the state, per­ Gazette, said that Dennis Sweeney, white side with racists. haps because there was no shortage of S.N.C.C. worker who was also arrested, "in Last May 11, during what was the long­ other laws under which civil rights work­ our book of extremism should draw a pen­ est legislative session in the state's history ers could be arrested. alty equal to that for treason, because —23 weeks, Senator E. K. Collins of Laurel When the law was passed, racial violence what he and others like him are doing is introduced the criminal syndicalism bill to was the most common in southwest Missis­ treason." In the McComb newspaper, outlaw advocating, teaching, aiding, or sippi. This area, centered around McComb, Charles Gordon reported, "Sheriff R. R. abetting the commission of crime or un­ is where the Klan is the strongest in Warren said today he believes increasingly lawful acts of force and violence or of Mississippi and is the home of the militant the explosions—four of which have oc­ "terrorism" to effect a change in owner­ Americans for the Preservation of the curred since Sunday—are being staged in ship or political or social change, 'or for White Race (A.P.W.R.). an effort to induce the federal government profit. The outlawed acts include written to declare martial law here." Even Gov. or spoken words, publications, organiza­ In McComb on April 28, the barbershop Paul Johnson concurred: On September 30 tional efforts, and such. Punishment of an NAACP leader, Curtis Bryant, was he said, "Some of the bombs were 'plants,' ranges from fines of from $200 to $1,000 bombed. On June 22, three houses were and we can say that they were the out­ and sentences of one to ten years for bombed. Two weeks later the office of the growth of COFO activities." ("COFO" is violating or encouraging others to violate Student Non-Violent Coordinating Com­ the Council of Federated Organizations the law. Owners of property or those who mittee was bombed. A Negro church was that coordinates civil rights work in Mis' control it and permit an assembly for such burned to the ground on July 17, and the sissippi.) purposes face fines of from $100 to $500 next day there was an attempt to burn and up to a year in jail. another such church; three days later But the next day three whites" were another one burned to the ground; the next Kenneth Toler, writing in the Atlanta arrested and charged with two of the day there was again an attempt to burn bombings. Membership . cards in the Constitution, commented on the bill: still another one. On July 26 dynamite "Taking cognizance of the [racist] move­ A.P.W.R. and K.K.K. were found in the car was thrown at the home of Charles Bryant,, of one of them. The three and eight others ments, the state senate this week passed a brother of Curtis Bryant. In August there bill sources said was primarily aimed at subsequently arrested were not charged were attempts to burn a church and a with criminal syndicalism, although the suppressing militant white supremacists home and another home was bombed, as from forming in the state." A UPI dispatch bill was supposedly aimed at white terror­ well as a supermarket in a Negro neighbor­ ists. They were charged under a law from Jackson, the state capital, • repeated hood. In September dynamite rocked and this belief: "A bill designed to cripple the against the illegal possession of dynamite ' damaged six homes and two churches- that was originally passed to enable the growth of white supremacy groups that one of the churches was totally demolished. advocate violence won Mississippi Senate approval Monday . . . Sources said an or­ On September 22, for the first time in November 13,196b 13 ganization drive by the Ku Klux Klan and the state, the now four-month-old criminal other new, militantly-segregationist groups syndicalism law was used. Seven Negroes were the spark-plug for the proposal." And were arrested during brief rioting that Robert Gordon, newsman for the Jackson flared after two simultaneous bombings. Hrljfflz' Justice of the Peace Charles Herring Clarion-Ledger, also reported that the bill Since I860 "was primarily aimed at surpressing [sic] ordered them charged under the criminal groups of militant white supremists who syndicalism law. County Sheriff R. R. The Place in Austin advocate violence." Warren, at the site of one of the bombings, told newsmen, "In my opinion both this However, Sen. Collins, who at the Demo­ and the blast at the church were 'plants' GOOD FOOD cratic National Convention argued before and you can quote me on it." the credentials committee for the seating GOOD BEER of the regular Mississippi delegation, said The next day there was another bomb­ ing, and the following day 19 mere Negroes the bill could be used as well against inte- 1607 San Jacinto grationist groups. It was passed without were arrested for criminal syndicalism. A discussion. McComb policeman told newsmen he had GR 1-1,171. a list of 24 Negroes for whom warrants A companion bill, also introduced by Sen. Collins, was aimed at persons outside the state who advocate or aid "criminal syndicalism." This law would punish such persons if they were found in Mississippi. Texas Society To Abolish Capita] Punishment Collins said it might make civil rights groups "think twice" about, sending work­ P. 0. BOX 8134 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712 ers into the state. He also commented that the bill may be unconstitutional, but "it Most of the states of the United States and many foreign can't do us any harm." countries have stopped using death penalties, and NONE - The criminal syndicalism law was for­ have suffered increased crime as a result. (Nine states of gotten during the summer by civil rights the United States have legally abolished it.) workers, who at first had been concerned about it. Like a few of the other bills REGULAR MEMBERSHIP S2 CONTRIBUTING MEMBERSHIP $3 SUSTAINING MEMBERSHIP $10 Jerry DeMuth writes for New Republic and a number of other magazines.

7evA< AUuv^r A/*>/:\'\. l^&y state to get strong convictions from arrests grand jury on $1,000 bond each arid re­ growing out of a labor strike. mained in jail. Nine of the eleven white men were tried Then on October 15 four S.N.C.C. field in late October, all pleading guilty to the secretaries were arrested for criminal charges. Though each could have received syndicalism while they were walking down as a maximum the.death penalty, the nine a street in the downtown Negro section." •were given - suspended sentences. Pike They had not been passing out leaflets, but: County Circuit Judge W. K. Watkins, Jr., each had a Freedom Democratic Party New Orleans, La. remarked that the men were unduly pro­ leaflet with him. The four have remained The last time a white man was executed voked by outsiders of "low morality, some in jaii. for the crime of rape in Louisiana was in of them unhygienic." Judge Watkins also Lawyers began legal actios-! against this 1907;' in its entire history,'the state has pointed out that they were "mostly young; law. A petition for an injunction to enjoin executed only two whites for rape—both, all came from good families, who were its enforcement has been filed in relation interestingly enough, were aliens. Negroes, shocked at their involvement; and deserved to the McComb arrests. A three-judge over forty of1 whom have been hanged or another chance." Four of the rime'were panel is to hear the petition ai: some future electrocuted for rape in this century, have aged 44, 38, 36 and 35. > date. Attorney Carsie Hall, who asked for fared less well, though in recent years an injunction preventing further arrests. some determined legal efforts have pro­ In the meantime another wave of crimin­ longed the lives of several. al syndicalism arrests had.occurred in the The Segal challenge will be based largely On recent rulings in Georgia und Pennsyl­ Such efforts have succeeded in making Delta in Belzoni, 140 miles straight north vania where similar, though not identical . of McComb. . Edgar Labat heir to Caryl Chessman's state statutes were declared unconstitution­ role; Labat's is the oldest pending capital On October 3 seven Negroes were pass­ al by federal courts. case in the country. A Negro, he was an ing out leaflets' announcing a community attendant at a Catholic hospital in New meeting. Police picked them up, all but A different - tack is ' being taken in Belzoni, where petitions have been filed to Orleans when in November oi 1950 he and one a high school student, and charged Clifton Poret were arrested for the rape them with criminal syndicalism. Two were have the eases moved to federal court. A subsequent suit will, challenge the law's of a white woman. In March of 1953 the eventually released in .care of an attorney, two. men were sentenced to death; their but the other five were bound over to a constitutionality. . Meanwhile, pver twenty civil rights continued existence, after -,unsuccessful The Texan Observer workers wait in Mississippi jails. appeals to the highest courts of both state and nation, is o source of frustration to those charged with the administration of Louisiana justice. There are ironies here: since federal courts have balked at the state's wilful failure to observe due process in the im­ ' '• r " ^^ $ - 'Hill I partial selection of juries, it has been sev­ eral years since the state has been able to execute a Negro. Confederate justice is all but abolishing capital punishment for : a;ye_aay •; eee« Louisiana Negroes. Of the two defendants, Labat is the more articulate. Ke lias been allowed to write and has hee-n doing so. Five chapters of an autobiography are already finished and are being' edited by a Massachusetts woman, and several of his poems have appeared in the Vineyard Gazette. But an increasing . flow of letters from here and abroad— where he has received more press coverage than at home—testifies to his emerging legal rather than literary prominence. He has had eight stays of execution. Describing one occasion when his reprieve came three hours before he was to die, he recounts that his sister had arrived to claim the body, his head had been shaved, and he could hear the stepped-up humming of the prison generators. To read his own ; Oi".. letters is to wonder at his reasonableness. Now in an eight-by-ten-foot ceil in. After you've bowled a game or two, or when you're winding up Louisiana state penitentiary at: Angola, the evening at the neighborhood bowling center, it's good to relax Edgar Labat faces his fourteenth summer with friends and compare scores. What better way to add to the of imprisonment; he has been on one death sport si\d the soclabieness than with a refreshing glass of beer? row or another since his conviction. His However you take your fun—skiing, skating, or at your ease in the ease is now being handled by Washington's game room—beer always makes a welcome addition to the party. Edward Bennett Williams and, for the ' Your familiar glass of beer is also a pieasutable reminder that Louisiana Civil Liberties Union', by Benja­ we live in a land of personal freedom—and that our right to enjoy min E. Smith in New Orleans, beer and ale, if we so desire, is just one, but an important one, of "Over its lifetime of operations," the those personal freedoms. Steven II. Rubin is a member of' the Is Texas... beer goes with fun, with relaxation board of directors of the Louisiana Civil UNITED STATES BREWERS ASSOCIATION, INC. Liberties Union and a member of the execu­ 90S iutenusioiia! Life Bidg* Austin 1, Texas tive committee of the Nev) Orleans branch of the NAACP. By profession he is a col­ lege teacher. NOTES FftoM PA iss vssiP?) liy Jerry DeMuth As soon as Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and Deputy Sheriff Cecile Price got back to Philadelphia, after being indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for beating Negroes in jail, they resumed harassing civil rights workers. That first night back they continually patrolled past the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) office and once stopped in front of the community center, cut their lights and sat and stared at rights worker Alan Schiffman. "If looks could kill I'd be dead right now," Seh iff man commented later. In a county grand jury Circuit Judge The Freedom Democratic Party held a O. H. Barnett (cousin of former Governor rally on picnic grounds in Canton on the Ross Barnett) called Rainey "the most afternoon of October 3. After it ended courageous sheriff in all America" and and people began driving home, state po­ said that Rainey would assist in the in­ lice set up road blocks on routes 43 and vestigation. 16 leading from Canton to Jackson. All Normally a county grand jury waits cars were stopped and -licenses checked. until results are in from a federal grand jury, but Barnett's jury did not. Before Where does the FBI stand is an often it convened on Monday, September 28, asked question in the South. When vio­ Judge Barnett criticized the "irresponsi­ lence is threatened and the FBI is called, ble press and news media" and "irrespon­ they reply that they cannot protect ""per- sible organizations" including "both the ons. But when Martin Luther King toured Democratic and Republican Parties." Mississippi this past summer carloads of Three days later Judge Barnett dismissed agents kept close watch over him. When a the jury saying: "You have not tried to racist has violated a federal law and whitewash or cover this thing up—but workers ask for an arrest, the FBI' re­ have done your best to uncover the facts." plies that it cannot make arrests. But Needless to say, nothing came of this many criminals in penitentiaries know the grand jury hearing. FBI can make arrests, and the FBI ar­ Judge Barnett, in mid-September, sign­ rested three whites in Itta Bena early in ed an ordeV^ that the county voter regis­ the summer for denying vote workers tration office be closed for two weeks be­ rights guaranteed them under U.S. laws. cause circuit court was to be in session. What is the FBI then? An investiga­ This closing coincided with the first Negn) tory agency, it explains. But sometimes vote drive in Neshoba County's history. even this purpose is not lived up to. The order stated that "tfiere is no deputy Late in September, four SNCC workers clerk" but a woman who identified herself and a local Negro were arrested in Mc­ ns deputy clerk was at the courthouse. She Comb as they were returning to their pointed out though that she was not the office after attending a vote registration deputy clerk for purposes of registration. rally. They were taken to the police sta­ Mississippi statutes require that the tion, fingerprinted, photographed and then clerk or his deputy must be in the office questioned. at all times from 8 till 5 except Mondays The first to be questioned was Ursula when he is required to go out into the Junk who is from Germany. "I have a circuit and register people. right to call my embassy and have them * * * provide a lawyer for me," she explained. In Batesville, Sam Echols, a local Negro The plainclothesman replied, "When you active in the vote drive, was picked up by enter Mississippi you ain't got no more police on September 29. When he filled out rights. Didn't you know that." Then he a voter registration form he had written asked her, "Do you date niggers?" in "No" when asked if he had ever com­ She said she went out with people. mitted a crime. He had once been picked He pointed to two of the arrested work­ up on a' liquor charge. As the form is "A ers. "What about those two niggers?" Sworn Application" he was charged with "They're my friends, don't call them perjury, tried immediately, and sentenced that." to five years. The sentence was later re­ "What friends. They're niggers." duced to three years and then to 18 The police went on to imply that she months. (Continued on Page 5) ~Tk, IK< r net ent

* v~' •' \ ' The Gazette and Daily, York, Pa., WT)|'Tf)RlAT Tuesday Morning, December 8, 1964

The Whole Legal System h Faulty outh Ai -Rights: By JERRY DeMUTH Last November 1, three white girls working October 7, 1963. in Selma, Alabama, a Justice evasive concerning allegations of police bru­ in Mississippi were shocked after asking pro­ Department attorney told author-historian tality: 'There is no evidence,' 'investigations Atlanta—As the role of J. Edgar Hoover tection from the FBI agent in Boonville. He Howard Zinn: "I've become jaded. A young are under way'—after three months!, or 'we and the FBI is being debated in the press, told them that they shouldn't be worried but Negro fellow comes up to me with his face have no authority to deal with this issue.' the FBI's image on civil rights is being paint­ said their companion might have trouble be­ cut and tells me a policeman did it, and I But SNCC has submitted hundreds of sworn cause he was "just a nigger." •• shrug my shoulders. Sure, I think these local affidavits specifying cases of police brutality, ed) as if all were as well as could be ex­ officials are breaking the law. But someone . and the FBI is in possession of photographs pected. But those working in civil rights in Frank Morse, a Stanford University stu­ up there in Washington doesn't think so." showing bruises and welts which we suffered the South know otherwise. • dent who was in Mississippi for the election' as a result of. official violence." . campaign, expressed dismay over the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover, as his now famous press John Perdew, who works for the Student "They paid no attention to accusations that interview demonstrated, certainly can't be Civil rights attorney William M. Kuntsler' our telephones were tapped," he remarked. thought of as being dedicated to civil rights. has pointed out that there are many laws- Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Sees. 332 and 333 of Tide 10, Sec. 241 of Title in southwest Georgia, explained, "My contact (Last summer, a rights worker also had com­ Not only did he call Rev. King a "notorious plained to the FBI that the office phone was liar," but he has also declared himself a 13 and Sees. 1S37 and 1SS9 of Tide 42—which with the most active local representatives of tapped, only to be scoffed at. That was im7 "states righter," criticized the Justice De­ can be used to arrest and prosecute persons the federal government, namely, agents of possible he was told; wire-tapping is illegal). partment for a "harsh approach" toward who deprive other persons of their federal the FBI, has been less than enchanting. While Mississippi, said "the closest and most cor­ rights and used even to protect these persons. perhaps one-third of the local agents I have ' _ Needs Local Police dial relationship" exists between Mississippi state police and FBI agents, and praised Mis­ Judges Aro Racisis met have been fairly impartial Northerners, Morse also felt that the FBI's attitude was sissippi's governor. If eases can't be won in federal courts in the others, natives of the South, have taken the same as that of the local sheriff and the South, it is only because of the racist statements from me • with poorly disguised pointed out that the agents absolutely refused "I couldn't speak too highly of Gov. John­ son," he said. "He is a thorough gentleman attitudes of the judges appointed by the presi­ skepticism and sometimes antagonism." to even shake hands with any Negroes at the dent. And here John F. Kennedy was the office. (This reminds one of ex-agent Jack and is mature and sound in every respect." most guilty because he appointed half a A former Justice Department civil rights Levine's comment that many agents protested tWheu campaigning in 1SG3, Paul Johnson dozen racists to federal benches. (Sen. East­ having to shake hands with "niggers.") repeatedly described the NAACP as standing attorney himself has said, "The whites from for "Niggers, Alligators, Apes, Coons and land as chairman of the Senate Judiciary the FBI are Southerners for the most part. Possums.") Committee normally makes the recommenda­ They're local FBI men. They 'have no real Besides their own attitudes, local FBI agents tions.) also don't want to upset their working rela­ interest in civil rights." Hoover also has a tendency to identify the These men have spoken of preserving "our tionship with local police. Congressional Quar­ entire civil rights movement with the "com­ Just how really local some of these FBI terly stated: "The FBI needs the cooperation segregationist laws," have denounced the 1354 munist conspiracy." Fred J. Cook, author of Supreme Court decision, and one said fliat agents are is demonstrated by George Everett of local police for their other investigations, "The FBI Nobody Knows," feels this is one who was the agent in Greenwood, Miss. He and therefore police brutality cases put it in Negroes attempting to register were "a bunch reason for the FBI's reluctant handling of of niggers on a vote drive" who. "act like resigned from the FBI and ran for district a delicate position. 'These are. not their favor­ civil rights cases. attorney—and won. When campaigning he said, ite cases,' says Burke Marshall." Marshall is chimpanzees." head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights "The South has no friends in the legal staff Close Friend Of Eastland But the federal government hasn't only been' of the Justice Department." Divisioa . ;...-• inactive, or appointed racist judges, it has This belief of Hoover's may come from his also acted on the wrong side. In the summer Pro Forma Display But as Marshall also explained, sometimes their work with local police goes even fur­ close personal friendship with Mississippi of 1963, 35 FBI men conducted an investiga­ Rev. John B. Morris, executive director of ther. In a letter to Alabama Representative ' Senator James Eastland. As chairman of the tion in Albany, Georgia, for the Justice De­ the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Kenneth Roberts on Justice Department at­ Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, East­ partment. When they were through, nine Unity, was shocked by the FBI agents he torney Thelton Henderson (who resigned after land sees civil rights and "communism" as civil rights leaders were indicted, and the found in McComb, Miss, last fall. "The FBI he lent a Department-rented car for Martin being synonymous. X Attorney General himself announced the in- agents I met," he declared, "seemed singu­ Luther King's use), Marshall wrote, ". . . But Sen. Eastland is also chairman of the diebnents at a special news conference in larly disinterested in anything more than a it has happened that local law enforcement Senate Finance Committee. And this com­ Washington. pro forma display of investigation, and at officers have sought and obtained informa­ mittee allocates funds to the Department ~-f least one agent's conduct in his interrogation It is clear that more Is wrong than just tion from Mr. Henderson in their preparation Justice. J. Edgar Hoover or even the FBI. The trou­ of a voter registration worker was reprehen­ for handling tense situations." sible and indistinguishable from the attitude This may be one reason why John Perdew ble lies within the legal system operating in of local police who attribute the guilt for the If the local agents are not dedicated to civil sees this reaction in the Department: "Offi­ the United States, or at least as it operates crisis (the bombings) to such workers." rights, neither are officials in Washington. On cial statements from Washington are usually In the South. ADVERTISEMENT ADVEHTISEMENT Arjjgn, leans, who •e time -of 3 knocked LIU GAUf -i. .s steelrail- 01 the pier 'HI •••' ien moored iS the wharf 'superstruc- S4 the force of AL HEADQUARTERS— j he had no ; nled the ex- '53 RIVERDALE ROAD, COLLEGE PARK : "Who elsd' * s would want OH ;Card served P.O. BOX 4846, FEUERAL AHMEX, ATLANTA, GEORGIA is an escort iONE 7684943, Area 6®de Atlanta 404 ; planes that ! convoys. Unless the Christian citizens resist confiscation of their God-given liberties end ia:'!er to the iort Service, private property rights, they will be enslaved by the government they created. all-civilian if Congress is allowed to carry out its communist bondage under the guise of Civil Rights, our Constitutional Republic will die. Until 1932 this Republic was a government of the people, by the people and for the people, it is how a Bureaucrat-Socialist government under which every piece of legislation is geared to special privilege for the Negroes. When legislation exists to confer special privileges on one segment or class of society, it destroys the co- exisfing rights of the remainder. This Nationwide Holy Crusade of One Million Caucasians is to confront and demand a full redress of our grievances, as is our right. Our demands are many and they arc lust. They ate legal because they are in strict conformity with the Constitution of our forefathers.

LIST OF THE DEMANDS 0M CONGRESS, ACCEPTABLE TO I k'TEE OF OME MILLION CAUCASUS

AS THE ILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: )—We demand the defect or immediate tions, and in the representation in both repeal, it passed by congress before' Federal and State legislatures, all of July 4th, 1964, of all 7 parts of the '•• which rightfully belong to the sovereign Civil'Rights Bill. If it is passed we will . sfate, of dereor overy membfcf as congress who i for any part of it. 3—We'' demond immediate removal of the United Nations from the territory of -We demand that Congress immediately, • the United States and of American with­ remove all appellate jurisdiction of the; Supreme Court, as is its prerogative drawal from that body. It is a subter­ under the Constitution, in matters per­ fuge to call the infamous charter a taining to education and religion, and treaty, when it supersedes our Constitu­ permit the Christian God of our fathers tion as our supreme law of the land. to return to our schools, with return It has promoted wars, unrest, tension, of the Holy Bible and prayers to be fighting ond killing through the world said by our children. We demand the ' and costing numberless American lives same in all matters of voter qualifica- on foreign soil.

i MR. AMERICAN, large and small, it's your battle to save your freedom, your Sill of Rights and 5 business. t ALL CITiES, towns and states of our great- nation arc organizing for this march on Congress. j; Caravans ore beir.g formed by many states. 5 THE COMMITTEE of one million Caucasians is not sponsored, managed or promoted by any indi- * vidual or group, but every white patriotic group will be urged to join. J YOU ENLIST with your money, your presence in Washington and your'work to mobilize your 5 community, when you sign the coupon below and enclose your check. 1 ALL MONIES will go for advertising this movement, no one receives any salary.

$ COMMITTEE OF ONE MILLION CAUCASIANS TO MARCH ON CONGRESS | P.O. BOX 4846 — FEDERAL ANNEX, ATLANTA, GEORGIA I OR | 4553 RIVERDALE ROAD, COLLEGE PARK, GEORGIA I "I MAY DIE UNDER DICTATORSHIP IN THESE UNITED STATES, BUT BY ALL THE LOVE FOR J MY CHRISTIAN GOD AND MY COUNTRY, I WILL NEVER LIVE UNDERGONE."

NAME _ STREET CITY _ STATE i I HERSEY PLEDGE MY PATRIOTISM THAT I WILL % l ( (RAISE FUNDS ( )8E THERE I | (.)DONATE, WITH CHECK ENCLOSED | i THIS AD PAID FOR BY PERSONS INTERESTED IN ONE MILLION CAUCASIANS MARCH ON J CONGRESS—JAMES S. CRUSE, CHAIRMAN FINANCE COMMITTEE , J

»c. of Atlanta for having com-! Other officers elected were 3d an almost perfect set of R. *" "^hnson. firs* «W - '.. : for compii-ync?. with1'*'' e.-ip. **•' Interview with Mrs. Aaron Henry-Sunday, August 2, 196U- at Vth Street Drug Store . —rv A »,

Married IM- years, has 12 year old daughter, Rebecca (Becky) Taught school—five years in Jackson Taught school—11 years in rural Coahoma County (I got fired) In 195k Aaron filed a petition against segregated schools. A citizens council officer asked the school superintendent if any wives of the signers were teaching. As a result some removed their names, but Aaron didn't. The school principle and supervisor recommended me, I requested an appearance before the board but they wouldn't acknowledge it. The board didn't sign my contract or tell the superintendent why it did so. It just said their action was final. In Oct 1962 I filed for a hearing and received one the follTawing July, The reasons they gave for not renewing my contract were the morals charge against my. husband, the libel charge brought aginst my husband by the police chief and county solicitor, and that Aaron's property was is my name and I was to be sued. On 26 of December, 1963, they ruled against me and it's being appealed. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the morals charge conviction but then later reversed their own decision. (Belongs to Progressive Voters League, active in-works with-COFO) About two days before Mr Evers was killed they shot three times into our house. Three white men admitted bombing our house. A white filling station attendant testified that he had pleaded with them not to throw the bomb. One of the three was tried and acquited and the others were never brought to trial, A woman use to call us every night at the same time for 3 months. She would threaten and swear at us and I used to recite the scriptures to her. That's when Meredith entered Ole Miss, Mrs Henry — add one

Someone used to make collect calls to us from Hattiesburg, SHegr would say it was from Medgar Evers for Dr Aaron Henry. I accepted

the first call and the person said, "You tell aaron Henry he'd better get his bullet proof vest ready," We've also gotten collect calls from "Dick uregory." I'm housing some of the summer volunteers and I arrange entertainment for them one night a week. And I do whatever I can to make them feel at ease here in the store, - 30 -

1 story red brick building—Neon sign: Fourth Street Drugs and a Bordens Ice Cream sign. Juke box stands in door way and a rack of civil rights literature in front of door inside. A fountain runs half way to the back on the left and it is almost always filled with civil rights workers, esp during the heat of the afternoon. Eat ice cream, drink cokes, sometimes just have a glass of ice water. Display cases fill,the rest of left side and all of right side. Behind them are shelves to the celling, stacked with goods. A prescription section is in the back. One the counter are a pile of the latest issue of the Student Voice in which "Doc" wraps the drugs and pills he sells—getting the word to even more people. A rack of post cards contains post cards with pictures and descriptions of Fred Shuttlesworth and M L King as well as standard scenic cards of Mississippi.

At Coahoma County Court House—List of Poll Tax Payers posted. Coahoma County precinct, Clarksdale Miss Columns for Date, Name, Residence, Age Sex, Poll Tax Receipt Number Under age there are no numbers—only the letter C or ¥, mostly W, uiv* c*V)c*^- «^>.

Jerry DeMuth 2937 Delmar Lane, KW ~ \ \ » t A approx. 2600 words Atlanta, Georgia 303II l\tf/ £>^&)\ 5\\<2.

"The Regular and Lawful Democratic Party of Mississippi"

"...we, acknowledging with humility the divine power of Almighty God, and standing fearless in our belief in constitutional government, the rights of the states, segregation of the races and preservation of our traditional Southern American way of life, do hereby affirm and declare:

"That we reject and oppose the platforms of both National Parties and their candidates." This was the resolution of the Platform and Principles of the Mississippi State Democratic Party, passed at its convention in Jackson, June 30, I960. Mississippi Law #3107-07 refers to "the so-called National Democratic Party" and "the regular and lawful Democratic Party of Mississippi." This is the attitude of the Mississippi State Democratic Party toward the National Democratic Party. However in Washington, Mississippi's Democratic Congressmen are very much a part of the national party. Under the seniority system in a party to which they 2 claim non-allegiance, they hold key committee positions. Senator James Eastland is chairman of the Judiciary Committee and fourth on Agriculture and Forestry. Senator John Stennis is second on Armed Services, fifth on Aeronautical and Space Scienes, ninth on Appropriations and chairman of the Preparedness Investigating Committee. Representative William Colmer is second on the Rules Committee. Rep. Abernethy is sixth on Agriculture and second on the District of Columbia Committee. Rep. John Bell Williams is second in Inter­ state and Foreign Commerce and fifth of the District of Columbia Committees Rep. Arthur Winstead, fifth on Armed Services; and Rep. Hamie Whitten, sixth on Appropriations. However, on partisan r»411 calls in the 87th Congress in the Senate, Eastland voted with the national party only 30 percent of the time, Stennis **8 percent of the time. The average Senate Democrat voted with the national party 67 percent of the time. In the House, the representatives and their vote percentages are: Abernethy: 37 percent, Colmer: 19 percent, Whitten: 31 percent, Williams: 18 percent and Winstead:23 percentg The average House Democrat voted with the party 71 percent of the time. This best of both worlds will be challenged in August at the Democratic National Convention when delegates representing the Freedom Democratic Party of Mississippi, which supports the national party, will try to be seated in place of the regular delegation. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party has its roots in last year's gubernatorial campaign when Aaron Henry, state NAACP chairman, ran for governor and Rev. Edwin King, white pastor at Tougaloo College, ran for lieutenant governor on a Freedom Vote campaign. 3 The issues for them became not maintaining segregation but the problems of unemployment, poor education, illiteracy, low wages, and so on. Then four Negroes ran for Congress in the June 2 primary. These were the first steps into the realm of politic s taken by progressive, forces within the state. The Freedom Democratic Party is the natural outgrowth of these steps. In mid-June statewide preeinfct'meetings of the Freedom Democratic Party were held, open to all perople, white and Negro, who believed in a party that would concern itself with real issues and would be a part of the national party. Because of discriminatory voting registration practices—only seven percent of eligible Negroes are registered—anyone attending need not be registered. Those not officially registered must be registered by freedom registrants, meeting requirements similar to those in northern states. At the precinct meetings delegates were chosen to the county conventions where delegates to the district conventions will be chosen. Here, in turn, delegates to the state convention will be chosen. And finally national conveepiron delegates will be picked. Many Democratic stasfce parties, councils and organizations which are currently meeting have passed or will consider resolutions urging seating the Freedom delegation. The Michigan State Democratic Party, the California Democratic Council, the Virginia and Michigan Young Democrats, and others, have already passed such resolutions. The request to be seated will raise the question of how long the Mississippi Democratic Party can act independently of the national party and of over kO percent of the state's citizens. It will bring to light a situation—a state party in opposition to the national party—which has long existed, but the extent of which has been little known. The rupture between the state and national Democratic Parties has been forming since the 1930s and reached its first climax in 191+8. After that the situation was only patched together and another climax may be reached this year. Mississippi Democrats first became hostile to the national party during the New Deal periodo However they remained in the Roosevelt column until 19^ because of still strong traditional loyalties, federal subsidies, and patriotism generated by the war. In 19!+lf, the split in the all-white party began between the states' rights majority and a national party sympathizing minority, when the Mississippi delegation voted for Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia on the nominating ballot at the national convention. In 19^7 Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright touched off the state party bolt with an attack on President Truman's report on civil rights. Then in 19^8, the Mississippi Democratic Convention instructed its delegates to withdraw from the national convention "unless they secure an unbroken and complete assurance that the Party and its nominees for President and Vice President will fight against the wilful invasion of States' rights as urged by President Truman in his Civil Rights message to Congress." Mississippi political leaders, headed by Governor Wright, also called a conference of southern leaders on May 10, 19^-8. Here the States' Rights Democratic Party was formed. On May 25 they began plans to withdraw their delegation to Montgomery, Alabama, if it was not seated, for a states' rights convention. The Mississippi delegation was seated but when Andrew J. Biemiller of Wisconsin offered a resolution commending President Truman for "his courageous stand on the issue of civil rights" and calling on Congress to support a strong civil rights program and this resolution was adopted, the Mississippi delegation walked out. Among those who stormed out were all of Mississippi's national representatives; all seven had been delegates, a record unmatched by any other state. After the revolt, the Mississippi national committee members were deposed by the national committee. At the States' Rights convention, J. Strom Thurmond, then governor of South Carolina, was nominated for President, and Governor Wright was nominated for vice-president. These candidates and their program were supported by most state officials and Congressmen and practically all members of the Mississippi Democratic organization. The Democratic candidates had always been placed first on the Mississippi ballot on grounds that, in the preceding election, they received the largest number of votes. This practice was ended in 19^ to distinguish between the Mississippi Democratic Party and the National Democratic Party. The national party also did not appear under the rooster, the Democratic Party symbol in the South. The candidates nominated by the state Democratic organization appeared there instead. The National Democratic Party was given its own heading as if it was a third party. Strom Thurmond received all of the electoral votes of Mississippi, as well as of Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina, and one from Tennessee—thirty-nine electoral votes in all. In 1951, Hugh L. White, a participant in the 19MU walkout and an ardent states' rights leader, was elected governor of Mississippi. In early 1952, the Democratic state executive committee strengthened the states' rights position, condemned the proposed civil rights legislation in Congress and endorsed the candi^cy of Sen. Richard B. Russell for President. Russell had entered the race to block Truman and Trumanites. The Mississippi Democratic Convention passed a "Good Faith Pledge" which asserted the autonomy of the state party and the right to disavow majority decisions of the national convention while at the same time claiming convention seats. The Mississippi Democratic Party would not be bound to the national convention unless or until those actions were approved by the state convention. The state convention also passed a resolution, giving itself new functions. In the past, it selected delegates to the national convention, nominated presidential electors and selected the state committee that would serve in the next four years. Now the state convention could also nominate candidates for President and nice-president, adopt a platform, promulgate principles, withdraw from the national party following the national convention and "take such further action deemed proper by the convention." The state convention was now also authorized to recess and hold a later meeting at which it could hear a report from delegates to the national convention and then instruct the slate of presidential electors as to how to vote. This was a real threat to the National Democratic Party and the state convention used it by voting to recess until August 5, at which time presidential electors would be chosen and any other appropriate action deemed necessary would be taken. However in June, 1952, a loyalist Democratic group opened an xe office in Jackson and organic, albeit weakly, statewide. This 7 somewhat restrained the regular Mississippi Democratic delegation to the national convention and the delegation even gave limited assurances of good behavior. After hearing arguments, the convention's credentials committee voted 33 to 17 to seat the states' rights Democrats and the next day, this delegation was seated. The delegation included both Senators Eastland and Stynis, but unlike other years, none of the representatives were included. They probably did not want to attend should they be faced with the question of a walkout—to walkout might jeopardize their committee seniority, not to walkout might jeopardize their chances for re-election. There was no debate or sef.parate votes on platform issues, nonetheless the Mississippi and Georgia delegations requested to be recorded as voting against the platform. On all three nominating ballots in 1952, the Mississippi delegation cast all of its 18 delegate votes for Senator Russell. However, aster the general election all of Mississippi's eight electof.1 votes were cast for Stevenson. But former Governor Wright, leader of the 19^8 bolt, took no stand, an obvious rebuff to Stevenson. These events of 19*+8 and 1952 led to the work of the Mitchell committee. The committee's purpose was to reach some sort of an agreement on the minimum obligations of the state parties and their delegations toward the national party. One of its adopted recommenda­ tions was a specific provision for the ouster of any national committee member who failed to cooperate in the election campaign for the national convention's nominees. At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, the Mississippi delegation cast all of its 22 votes for Lyndon B. Johnson, who the South looked to as the only person who could save their cause. Most 8 Mississippi newspapers continued to oppose the National Democratic Party and Mississippi Democratic leaders charged that the "Democratic Party aims to destroy the white race." But Mississippi again cast all eight of its electoral votes for Stevenson. However this was due largely to heavy votes in the northeastern and southern parts of the state. In the northeast active volunteers for Stevenson and the True Democrats were influential while in the south the labor vote is strong. At the I960 Democratic National Convention the Mississippi delegation cast all 23 votes for Governor Ross Barnett, and didn't switch them. Still it pledged to support the nominees of the Democratic National Convention. But after the national convention ended, the Mississippi Democratic Party reconvened and voted to support unpledged electors in an effort to defeat the national party nominees. On December 19, the unpledged slate of eight electors cast all of its votes for Sen. Harry F. Byrd. The Mississippi Democratic Party—despite the Mitchell committee provisions and other rules— went unpunished. On January 31 of this year, the Democratic National Committee unanimously adopted a resolution requiring that "a State Democratic Party, in selecting and certifying delegates to the Democratic National Convention, thereby undertakes to assure that voters in the State will have the opportunity to cast their election ballots for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees selected by said convention, and for electors pledged formally or in good conscience to the election of these Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees, under the Democratic Party label and designation" and that the delegates be "bona fide Democrats". However, indications are strong that Mississippi will again violate both of these provisions. 9

Leading the delegation to the 196^ national convention will be Governor Paul B. Johnson who told the Mississippi electorate during his campaign last year that he was no longer a member of the National Democratic Party. In October, 1963, Johnson and Lt. Gov. Gartin said in a joint statement: "Paul Johnson and Carroll Gartin owe no allegiance to either national party. We are committed to no one and no group outside of the borders of our beloved state." One of Johnson's official campaign ads said: "Paul Johnson stands before you and before the nation symbolizing Mississippi's official policy of resistance to unconstitutional federal authority." Gov. Jibhnson has been cited for civil contempt for defying a federal court order at the University of Mississippi. Johnson's campaign song, sung by the Magnolia State Quartet, went: "Up there on the wide Potomac,/Kennedy Democrats done gone mad,/ But so help me, I believe,/The GOP is just as bad." In his campaign, he pointed out his support of the 1962 Senate Resolution 106 titled: "A concurrent resolution declaring and recording the contempt of the Mississippi legislature for the Kennedy administration and its puppet courts; calling upon its sister states to join in ridding this once great nation of the Kennedy family dynasty and accompanying evils; and for related purposes." And his campaign literature explained: "The best way to blfit the Kennedys...is to elect Paul Johnson Governor..." In Johnson's official campaign brochure, titled "Danger, Two- Party System in Mississippi Would End Our Way of Life", the Mississippi Democratic Party's attitude toward and lack of support of the National Democratic Party was explained: "Our Mississippi Democratic Party is entirely independent and is free of the influence or domination of any national political 10 Party party...Eoth the National Republican/and the National Democratic Party are the dedicated enemies of the people of Mississippi... Neither national party as constituted today offers any hope to free men and women who value their independence and their honor. Both parties—if their platforms and their past action are any guide— threaten our Mississippi traditions-, institutions and segregated way of life. "The Mississippi Democratic Party—which long ago separated itself from the National Democratic Party, and which h# fought consistently everything both national parties stand for—offers to the citizens of Mississippi, and to the troubled white conservative S& majority throughout America, their only chance to rai* a conservative voice in the land. "The Mississippi Democratic Party is not subservient to any national party. It has its own statement of principles adopted in convention in Jackson, and these are in direct conflict with the position of both national parties." After Johnson won the Democratic primary, his official campaign newspaper, The Johnson Journal, declared: "By the greatest vote in our State's history, Mississippians have repudiated the influence of the National Democratic Party in Mississippi." On August 30, 1963, 95 members of the Mississippi House of Representatives passed a resolution which declared: "The Mississippi Democratic Party has no alliance with the National Democratic Party." And the Mississippi Association of (County) Supervisors, during its September 8-10 convention, noted that the Mississippi Democratic Party "is a State party, that it is an instrument solely of Mississippi eitizens, and that it is independent of both the National Democratc Party and the National lepublican Party." 11

The chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party is Bidwell Adam. He has been chairman for eight years and was chairman of the Harrison County Democratic Party for 28 years. From 1928 to 1931 he served as lieutenant governor under Governor Theodore Bilbo and a framed photo of Bilbo still sits on his desk. In an interview last June, Adam declared, "The Mississippi Democratic Party is dedicated first, last and always to segregation. We've always been that way, and I don't see any changes in the foreseeable future." This attitude toward segregation is stated at great/ length in the party's platform and is practiced by all means, legal and illegal. For example, during the 1955 gubernatorial primary, no Negro votes were counted. T. J. Tubb, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Executive Committee, instructed his election managers to challenge any Negro voters. "We don't intend to have any Negroes voting in this primary," he said, "but we also intend to have it carried out in an orderly, sensible manner." The state party's platform states, "We believe in the separation of the races in the universities and colleges, in the public schools, in public transportation, in public parks, in public playgrounds, and in all spheres of activity where experience has shown that it is for the best interest of both races that such separation be observed." This then is the party that controls the state legislative, executive and judicial branches in Mississippi. All k-9 state senators and all but one of the 122 state representatives are Democrats.T.All state executive officials such as governor, secretary of state and attorney general are Democrats. All county registrars, who have refused to register a significant number of qualified Negroes, are Democrats. 12

According to the Mississippi Democratic Party's I960 platform a person must support the party's racist platform in order to vote in the primary or participate in the party's affairs. Also, quoting the platform, "He should declare unequivocally against the legislative executive and judicial branches of the Federal government usurping the powers reserved to the states." This means that anyone who supports the national Democratic Party cannot participate in the Mississippi Democratic Party. When seating of the Mississippi delegation at the national convention is considered, an important decision will be made as to whether the national Democratic Party will continue to keep attached to it a state party that is neither Democratic or democratic.

# # # # fe [

Keport on the Committee of One Million Caucasians

This group was set up early in 1961* by James Venable and Wal3y Butterwtrth. Venable, an attorney, is head of the National Knights of the KU Klux Klan. He also serves as a lawyer for the Black Muslims and has received $25,000 in fees from this group. Butterworth has worked closely with '/enable in the Kan and is head of the Christian voters and Buyers League, He was formerly an announcer for NBC in Atlanta but was fired for drunkeness. He is at present in Montgomery, Alabama, working for the Committee there and working with Shelton *4io is involved with the Committee. When a person visited Venable at his pffoce in the Walter Brown Building, one of his associates mentioned that he had just returned from Montgomery, and mentioned how much interest there there was in the Committee and its Marc) , Butterworth's drinking has led him into conflicts with Venable (who is almost a teetotaler) and this is the reason he has left Atlanta and Is in Montgomery. Butterworth, under his 8h anti-^egro and anti-Semitic Chxristian Voters and Buyers League, has issued many hate records, These include an interview with Charlie Lebedin, owmier of Leb's restaurant. Butterworth interviewed "Leb" using a fictitious name of Henderson, taping the interview. The interview was made shortly after demonstrations at the restaurant and was a fairly "moderate" one having to do with property rights, etc., in other words it had no racist overtones. However, when % Butterworth issued it on record fee preceded and followed it with an inflammatory, hate-filled talk of his own, which turned it all into a recruitment record for the Klan, Commitee of One Million Caucasians— page two

The Committee first exposed Itself publicly with a full-page advertisement in the Decab New Era, for either Thucs April 23, or Tues, April 28, An abridged and less hate-filled version of this ad appeared in the May 2, I96I1 issue of the Atlanta Constitution, The full-page ad was also run in acfcB a Glendale, California, newspaper. However the Committee itself did not place this ad, A group xmgteif. In the Los f-ngM.es area which is roughly affiliated with Venable's Klan group ran the ad without variable's prior knowledge. When Venable found out about this, he was "delighted".

The Committee has been following Wallace across the country, flooding areas with literature after Wallace has left, trying to get support and local groups to sponsor the March, It has been quite successful to date. Much of its support has come in the form of letters, with "I'm all with you" type notes and small contributions enclosed, in this lanner, the Committee has become quite a financial success.

Because of this financial success, the Committee has been de-emphasizing its original vicioaaness, Venable himself has been playing it very cool and not tryinsp to show that he heads to Committee. A four-page mimeographed sheet in the Frredom Boekstore in Jackson, Mississippi »eeked with vicious, venomous hate and white-supremacy. The address at the end wasj National Committee of March on Congress, Visiter R, Erown Building, Pryor and Hunter Streets, Atlanta, Georgia, "on. James R. Venable, President, When the aforementioned person called on Venable and IdBntifliedx him with the Committee, Venable was somewhat defensive and would not admit that he was behind it. He tried to five a more moderate picture of the group. This sheet then must have been an early piece of literature distributed by the group, before it took on its "moderate-tinged" facade.

/ Committee of One Million Caucasians—page three

The Committee's national headquarters are at U553 Riverdale Road, College Park, Georgia. This is a vanant lot next to a supermarket. On it i8 a small frame structure, just large enough ia for the desk and two card table chairs it contains, A sign on the outside readsj Register here for March on C ngress, July ii, 1961*, There is no other information on the building, nor is there any information posted on the walls jnside, IShen a person ©ailed at this office a middle-aged woman xaxxtx, heavy-set, was inside and she registered persons. She left shortly after three in the afternoon presumably to go home and meet her school-age children as shortly after she left, a nearby school was dismissed and children filled the area.

Across the street from the structure is an A&W Root Beer stand. Painted (in red and blue on a white background, as on the headquarters building) is

Committee of One Million Caucasians to March on Congress, July U, 196U eagister across street (white,,.) This AW stand is owned and operated by Janes 8. Cruse, whe> is chairman of the ComrdLttee's finance committee. It is not known who owns the lot on which the headquarters structure is located. On Sunday, May 17, the Committee held a strategy meeting at the Henry Grady Hotel in "tlanta.

Venable is doing some touring, to increase interest in .he ^ornmittee, Saturday night, May 23, he is scheduled to speak1 before a meeting of the National A Association for the Advancement of White People—a Cincinnati-based group.

Jerry D34uth May 19, 1961; Jerry DeMuth u^rUW^ 2937 Deimar Lane, NW \ 0/ *a approx. 15>00 words Atlanta, Georgia 30311 Saw^tA ^<*1 AfY po\o M^\JZ.J ,

Closed Politics in Mississippi

Statewide meetings of the Mississippi Democratic Party held in June and July were faced with situations not faced before in the Magnolia State. For the first time there was an organized effort on the part of Negroes to attend precinct, county and district meetings. At the same time, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was being organized and planning its own precinct, county and district meetings. Pledging loyalty to the national Democratic Party, the Freedom Democratic Party will ask to be seated at the national convention. However, this has not made the regular state party act more carefully. Anti-national party feeling is as strong as ever. Negroes attempted to attend at least 27 regular party precinct meetings in Batesville, Canton, Clarksdale, Columbus, Greenville, Greenwood, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Meredian, Ruleville, Tchula, Thornton, and Vicksburg. There were also plans to attend the Philadelphia precinct meeting but, out of fear, these were abandoned the last minufte. According to law, precinct meetings were to be held at 10 a.m. at the regular polling place on June 16. At Tchula, Negroes were not permitted to enter. At eight other precincts--in Batesville, Canton, Greenwood, Meridian, Ruleville and Thornton—Negroes could not find any precinct meetings. The polling places were either locked or empty. In several places, Negroes asked about the meetings only to be told that th ere weren't any. In these cases, the Negroes then held their own precinct meetings. In Canton Negroes found the Old Veterans home, regular polling place, locked. They waited till after ten, then went to the Old Courthouse. No one was there either and they returned to the veterans home where they held their own meeting. While they had been on their trip to the courthouse, a reporter saw five whites, including state senator Earl Evans, Jr., arrive at the veterans home in a black Cadillac sedan. The five went inside. About five minutes later they came out and drove off. At the other 18 meetings, Negroes were admitted but their participation varied. Two of the meetings were stalled till the chairman was able to get more whites to attend. At one of these seven of eight Negroes were not permitted In because they had not payed their poll tax for the last two years. At only eight of these 18 meetings were Negroes allowed to participate freely. At the precinct meetings, slates of unpledged delegates to the 82 county conventions x^ere overwhelmingly elected. Three precincts in Hinds County (Jackson) adopted resolutions opposing national party policies. State Democratic chairman Bidwell Adam said he was in agreement with these and other similar resolutions that called on the party "to retain and adhere to the traditional principles of the Mississippi Democratic Party." 3 The Hinds County resolutions asked that national convention delegates "be instructed to support only such candidates and platform statements as are consistent with the principles of the Mississippi Democratic Party." They said state Democrats should stand for the principles of the party "as embodied by such gallant statesmen as Govs. Ross Barnett and Fielding Wright, Rep. John Bell Williams (who oh partisan roll calls in the 87th Congress voted, with the national party only 18 percent of the time) and, more recently, fighting Gov. George Wallace of Alabama." These principles, the resolutions said, are of far greater importance to Mississippi * Democrats than the temporary success or failure of any national political party. On June 23* Negroes attempted to attend at least seven of the county conventions. In Madison County, Negroes went to the announced meeting place at the announced time. There they were told that there would not be any county convention * The meeting they were witnessing which was choosing delegates was a meeting of the county executive committee. Thd chairman told them to leave which they did. Nor were Negroes allowed to participate at the Lauderdale and Leflore County conventions. At the Leflore convention, the 16 delegates chosen to the state convention included Robert Patterson, executive secretary of the National Association of White Citizens' Councils, and Hardy Lott who is executive secretary of the county Democratic Party, Greenwood city attorney and one of Byron Beckwith1s defense attorneys and a local leader in the Citizens' Council. In Washington County Negroes were allowed to attend the convention which was not even announced in the local naper as required by law. However, none of the delegates from the 3rd precinct in Greenville, which had approved the loyalty resolution, attended and thus this k resolution could not be presented. ' Negroes were also allowed to participate in Sunflower and Warren County conventions. At the Warren convention a resolution was passed which condemned the civil rights bill and the supreme court for the school desegregation and subsequent decisions. The convention also voted not to support national Democratic candidates but to support instead a slate of unpledged electors. The two Negro delegates cast the only dissenting votes on each. Alderman 0. J, Bori accused the Johnson administration of "leading this nation to the inroads of socialism and toward the path of communism." At the Hinds County convention everyone was seated by precinct except for a Negro delegate and alternate who were seated in the back. Two white women, the other delegate and alternate from their precinct, sat up front. The keynote soeaker, state treasurer Bill Winters, urged that Mississippi's seven electoral votes not be cast for the nominee of the National Democratic Party. And longstanding chairman Will Wells and secretary C. Arthur Sullivan were linseated in favor of strong advocates of unpledged electors: John R. Wright, an outspoken Jackson segregationist and a colonel on Gov. Johnson's staff, and Dr. M. Ney Williams, a member of the board of directors of the Jackson Citizens' Council. At the other county conventions, resolutions urging an unpledged elector slate and criticizing the national party were passed. "Free electors" were urged to bargain with the national party for platform planks calling for segregation, states' rights and constitutional government. In Wayne County the convention went so far as to adopt a resolution instructing district and state convention delegates to vote for and support only persons who were pledged to bring about the complete defeat of Lyndon Johnson. Only in Jackson County did a convention adopt a resolution urging the state to stay in the national party and seek to resolve differences. At the five district meetings in June and July, electors were nominated who are strong supporters of the unpledged elector movement. Circuit Judge Walter M, O'Barr, whose grand jury indicted the federal marshalls at Oxford, was nominated from the first district; state senator George Yarbrough, an active member of the Citizens' Council and of the Wallace presidency campaign, from the second district; Circuit Judge Russel Moore, a leader of the unpledged elector movement, from the third district; and John McLauren, former state senator who was active in the blocking of Meredith at Ole Miss, from the fourth district. There is no sign of change in the anti-national party feelings and actions of the state party, even when it is being challenged by a new party which supports the national party. Martin Luther King spent the third week in July touring Mississippi for the freedom Democratic Party, to gain increased support and raise funds. At the same time a 68-member Freedom Democratic Party national convention delegation was being chosen. Still, according to state Democratic Chairman Bidwell Adam, Mississippi Democrats are not worried about the challenge, although the state Democratic organizations in New York, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon and Wisconsin are all supporting to some degree the Freedom Democratic Party in its bid for convention seating. The national convention will be forced to choose between a delegation openly proud of Its disloyalty but which controls the state administration and is supported by most Mississippians permitted to vote, and a loyal delegation with almost no power but with the 6 support of liberal Democrats in the. north and west. This puts President Johnson in a real dilemma. He may feel he will have to make a conservative shift because of the GOP nomination of Barry Goldwater, but then there are also the many northern Democratic groups who do not favor seating the regular Mississippi delegation. And whether Johnson, who's a counterfeit Confederate according to conservative southern leaders, could win states' rights Democrats ax^ay from Goldwater is questionable. Since Wallace has withdrawn, there are many signs that Mississippi Democrats will throw their support to Goldwater. They could threaten to do so at the convention unless they are seated. But this would imply that if seated they would pledge to support the national party. In I960 they did so, but then went back on their word and the state cast its electoral votes for Harry Byrd. Even if seated, chances are that Mississippi Democrats would support Goldwater anyway. Statep ^RepT. Fred Jones, a member of the Mississippi Democratic Party executive committee for the past eight years and an elector in the 1956 election, wrote in mid-July to a Jackson political columnist that Mississippi Democrats could no longer hope to "work out our differences with the national party within the framework of the party." "Goldwater is a man southern Democrats can vote for," he pointed out. "I urge that Mississippi Democrats begin at the top and work down to the grassroots with Democratic organizations for the lection of Barry Goldwater." The choice thus becomes one of Goldxirater Democrats or national party Democrats.

# # # # : .. ' i : .... . V» iU- count that is to follow) Americans 5tiH may cause rather than curb disorder). .-,-•:.:. ily ft :\ •„,: l>ec|>iii|j; Floyd Gibbons; .Major have more freedom to protest our govern­ • (no uiiH Chock Full 0' Nuts Howes; the Mid-Week Pictorial; Raisin' Police Attention piiir K'i<>j><' drink. So too was the 2<* daily Junior; Indian gum; Our Gal Sunday; Big: ment's barbarity than the Russians have to protest theirs. It was not until we reached 2nd Avenue newspaper. Sister; Chick Webb; Russ Columbo; the that we drew police attention. One loile • New York City, which at the turn of Boswell Sisters; Just Plain Bill—???? With the aim of bringing these views policeman pointed us to the south side the century, had more than twenty-five Then you're older than you think! to public attention I set out to join a of Hammarskjold Plaza, on 47th Street daily newspapers, now has six. Of these, (Continued on Page 3) peaceful demonstration in the Times between 1st and 2nd Avenues. But at the Square area, Saturday August 15. I ar­ southeast corner of 2nd Avenue we were rived late, sometime after 4:00 p.m.; met by six to ten policemen. They sud­ there was no sign of a demonstration. I denly tore the signs and leaflets from met some acquaintances, also latecomers. our hands, without warning or provoca­ Notes From Mississip Speculating that the others might have tion, and with hardly a word on either marched to the UN, we drifted east along side: they were silent and we were speech­ By Jerry DeMuth 47th Street towards Dag Hammarskjold less. I myself was just stunned. Plaza, the usual site of demonstrations It seems there are three possible re­ Racism dies hard.- at the UN. sponses in such a situation. The prin­ Hattiesburg had been a fairly calm city in southeast Mississippi At 6th Avenue we picked up a trail of cipled pacifist approach would be to per­ since early last summer when a rabbi from Cleveland, Ohio, was beaten torn posters and leaflets. Apparently there sist in exercising the constitutional right bloody on the public streets/Then last December 28, police beat a civil had been clashes with the police, and we to peaceably assemble, thus courting ar­ rights volunteer from Berkeley, Joseph Schwartz. plater heard there had been many arrests. rest, and to submit to, or at least not Two cops had stopped him for an alleged traffic violation. "Are you By 3rd Avenue our number had reached resist that arrest, letting oneself be led fifteen to twenty-five. We caused no dis­ off or dragged off to the paddy wagon. one of them who think white and Negra should mix?" one cop asked. orders, provoked no complaints. Traffic The principled non-pacifist approach When Schwartz didn't answer, the cop beat him. police at the various corners we passed would be to persist in the demonstration But most of the new violence has fo- left and the man ran outside. He kicked apparently found no cause to pay us any and resist the illegal arrest. This would cused around one segregated cafe, Lea's. one of the group and then slugged the heed. have meant ultimately to be arrested any­ Despite all the glowing reports about SNCC project director, Sandy Leigh, who (I find it remarkable that at 4:00 a way and charged with both disorderly compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights was just leaving the post office next door. group can march along 47th Street es­ conduct and with resisting arrest, and Act's public accomodations section, there Later, a Negro busboy who worked at corted by police, and there are alterca­ probably to be beaten up in the process. are many places in even medium size the cafe went inside and^was beaten by tions and arrests, while at 4:30 another The unprincipled pragmatic response cities which have yet to comply. a white man. The cafe's Negro employees group of like-minded people with the is to retreat before superior force, tail then quit. same purpose, the same politics, and even Negro and integrated groups had gone (Continued on Page 5) to Lea's Cafe a number of times, each Two days later, the white man charged time without being served. When they with these beatings, M. W. Hamilton, was went on January 20, police, armed with tried. As he left City Hall after his trial, tear gas, entered the cafe. After the he and two companions beat four SNCC ow To Save Face Runyon Cancer Fund police had distributed gas masks to the workers on the steps of the city hall. Breaks its Pledge four whites seated inside, the Negroes One of the worker's clothes were torn By Carleton Beals The Damon Runyon Cancer Fund has quickly left. and another had his glasses broken. always claimed that all money contributed * * * How to save face. How not to lose to* it would be used for research. Some Refused Service Again On January 14, thirty Negroes went prestige. Simple. If you have been years ago The Independent exposed some A group returned the next day. Again (Continued on Page 6) ridiculous, be more ridiculous. If of the phony dealings of the Fund. they were refused service. A customer you have created hate among the The "overhead" costs which were sup­ tossed coffee in one girl's face and a car Requiem Mass To Be peoples of the earth, create more posed to be separately contributed are sideswiped her when she went outside. actually now taken from contributions That night three SNCC workers and a Offered For Mussolini hate—and terror. If you have been and interest on contributions. The latest Members of the extreme right wing National Council of Churches minister, brutal, be more brutal. If you have available report shows that $9,649 of con­ Italian Social Movement made plans this been too big for your britches, just tributions and $43,889 of interest on con­ all white, were beaten at a public White month for another requiem mass for for­ Citizens'. Council meeting they were at­ split them right down to the bare tributions were used in 1963 for "admin­ mer dictator Benito Mussolini. The mass istration." tending in the Forrest County courthouse. will be held on April 29, the 20th anniver­ ass. If you have flouted interna­ tional law, flout it still more arro­ In 1964, the National Information Bu­ On January 23, 15 Negroes returned sary of his death at the hands of Italian reau asked the Damon Runyon Cancer to Lea's Cafe and again were not served. partisans. gantly. If you have made a fearful Fund to discontinue the false claim that While waiting, a white customer slugged Last year, a similar mass was held at mistake, make more and bigger mis­ "not one dollar of contributed money ever three members of the group, knocking the Church of St. Mary Sopra Minerva in takes. If you have failed, try failing goes for overhead or administrative costs, one of the three off his stool. The group Rome. (Continued on Page 4) etc." The Fund has refused. n\eivA mi»»i»ai8|j|ii —mnntty be engulfed in an ever denser e cloud of tobacco fumes. Today school children smoke on their (Continued From Page 1) way to and from school. Why not, when school authorities tolerate their unhealthy and illegal habit-forming activity right to the county courthouse in Laurel to in the school halls and yards? take the voter registration test. As they If there is ever a place where smoking lined-up in the hallway inside, the heat should not be allowed it is in hospitals and was turned off, chairs were removed, and yet visitors stomping into sickrooms usu­ the floor was mopped. When one woman ally fill the aseptic air with dense tobacco complained about these conditions, the fumes—even in the delicate areas where deputy sheriff arrested her, dragging her serious respiratory cases are located! out of the courthouse by her leg. Then, Some doctors have given up warning pa­ with her arm twisted behind her back, tients to stop smoking as they have found the deputy, sheriff pushed her down the out it was of no use. street and to the jail. ' Particularly noxious to the all too sensi­ i The Test I tive nostrils of the non-smoker are con­ I ditions at congested and badly ventilated After one Negro took the test, the t public places such as many stores, res­ registrar left. He had "to attend a fun­ I taurants, theaters, doctors waiting rooms, eral," he explained. The next day, the J elevators, busses and small offices of any Negroes returned and eight were per­ {I kind. mitted to take the test which few Negroes I Smokers are notoriously a self-centered are permitted to pass. Thirty days after lot. Rarely if ever do they inquire wheth­ taking it, and after their names have u er their hosts or immediates mind if they been printed in the local paper according Q light a cigarette, a request that can J to state law, they must return to the hardly be denied even if it goes against courthouse to find out whether they passed II one's wishes. » ii or failed. Does a lady smoke on the street? The * « * t 1 time has long past when only the prosti­ * tutes smoked in public—now mothers dan­ One of the recurring problems civil nt gle cigarettes from their lips while they rights workers face in the South is diffi­ I culties with the phone companies and the operators. Operators frequently are hos­ m make changes that threaten their prop­ tile and uncooperative; calls often are JB erty and entrenched privileges, and that t» not put through. I9< consequently, force will be necessary to Late last December when six persons •a win meaningful change. were arrested in Laurel after seeking i» Police Conduct service at the Travel Inn coffee shop, the 7P, SNCC project director there attempted The conduct of the NY police and to make phone calls to the parents of those courts in the next few years will be cru­ arrested, informing them of what had cial in determining how widely such coun­ 'j happened. But it was two hours before sel is heeded, and perhaps how widely it she could get one call through. The phone Jn deserves to be heeded. used wasn't a SNCC office phone. The If the police and the courts administer Laurel office had never had a phone. The 31 "justice" as they did in our case they will prove incapable of protecting the phone company had continually refused people of New York from the violence to put one in. which will erupt inevitably and increas­ * * * ingly if peaceful protest is squelched. When seven Negroes were elected to They will be able to punish, perhaps— Agricultural Stabilization Committees in but they will be powerless to prevent. elections last December, despite violence Good decisions by appellate courts are and intimidation directed against those no substitute for good decisions by lower who pushed Negro participation, it was courts. Comparatively few defendants a significant sign of progress. (See The have the resources for appeals. But be­ Independent, Issue #150.) But the intim­ sides correcting specific injustices, deci­ idation has continued, directed at the sions by appellate courts play a part in Negroes who won in the election. shaping future lower court decisions, and In Holmes County, Lanier Smith was therein lies a good part of their value. elected chairman and two other Negroes Because my sentence was suspended, were elected as alternates. Within a week conviction did not cause me much suffer­ after the election, the rent on his land ing or inconvenience. But I hope to win was doubled and the owner demanded a reversal on appeal, partly for myself— that he pay it all at once, instead of in better a clean record than not; partly installments. Fortunately Smith was able out of anger and indignation that the to pay. police should resort to such tactics and He wasn't so lucky with his truck. He that the courts should treat their testi­ owed money on the truck and went to his mony with such undeserved respect; and creditors to discuss payments. He met partly out of determination to at least with no success. The truck was repos­ try to make it harder for both police and sessed. courts to engage in similar malpractice in * * * the future. (Continued on Page 8) Mississippi

(Continued From Page 6) A number of Mississippi Negroes visited ready to rule on the constitutionality Washington in early January to support the state's voting laws. But during ae the challenge of the seating of the five ments before the Supreme Court, Solie: Mississippi representatives. Intimidation General Archibald Cox, who was argu began against a number of them as soon for the U.S., unexpectedly told the jud; as they returned home. In Holly Springs, he was not "pressing" for immedi; a woman was forced to Vacate her house. relief. Instead he asked that the Supre In Jackson, a man was fired from his Court remand the case to a three-juo* job as a truck driver for a national com­ U.S. District Court for trial. pany. Others in Natchez and HaUtesburg j lost jobs. The Three Judge Court The basis of the challenge is that be­ The three-judge court would inclcl cause of denial of the right to vote to two Mississippi justices and would c 42 percent of the voting-age population, tainly rule against the government. 1 the five were not legally elected. The case would then have to be appealed ? chairenge has sought to show that Mis­ the Supreme Court for a second tir: sissippi officially excludes Negroes from delaying a decision for another two yea s voting. It would also again delay the beginni:; This is also the charge in a Justice De­ of justice for Mississippi Negroes fj partment suit, U.S. v. Mississippi, which another two years and would weaken t was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court case for the unseating of the five Miss: in late January. A Justice Department sippi representatives. victory has been expected in the case, One of the five, John Bell Williar; which would also be a victory for the was stripped of some of his eommita challenge, which referred to the case in seniority because of his support of Bar:> its documents, because it would declare Goldwater. But this was done without tl Mississippi's voting laws unconstitutional. ,approval of President Johnson. Johnsc Justice Harlan, Stewart, White, Black seems to support the representatives rt and Goldberg, had indicated they were taining their seats.

For forty days beginning in late January, lawyers for the Freedo; Democratic Party gathered depositions for the challenge of the seatinj of the five representatives from Mississippi. These depositions have giver a vivid and frightening picture of the extent of racism in Mississippi ant the extent to which white officials and citizens go in denying the right t: vote to Negroes. In Holly Springs, a Negro bus driver nesses also told of beatings from polk explained that he did not have his con­ and citizens when they went to the cour. tract renewed after he became a registered house to try to register. voter. A window was smashed in the home In Indianola, a woman, who was evicU of another man. A man and wife, each from her job and home on a plantatior with an eighth grade education, told how told of how the plantation owner—also they had attempted to register 14 times constable in the Ruleville police force- in two years, each time "failing" the test. told Negroes on his plantation, "If any c In Natchez, the registrar, A. B. Davis, you go down to that courthouse to regi.- admitted to being a member of the White ter, I will shoot you down like a rabbit. Citizens' Council and supporting its doc­ And lawyers showed a completed applies trine of white supremacy. Negroes were tion to the county registrar who, after ex deterred from registering through intimi­ amining it, said he wouldn't pass the ap dation, he said. When asked the meaning plicant. But the application, filled out b;- of certain words in the state constitution a white woman, had already been passe- which voter applicants must interpret, he by him. said he did not know what the words In Batesville, a Negro farmer told o: meant. repeated bombings of his house whie In Clarksdale, two Negroes told of how SNCC workers were staying there. An their names were stricken from the voter other man who attempted to register to!- registration books by the Commissioners how his 12-year-old daughter was beater. I of the State Board of Elections. No ex­ and a cross was burned in front of hisl planation was given them. house. The local registrar said he hacl In Cleveland, five Negroes told of losing closed one of the two county registration their -jobs w-hen their employers found out offices when a decision favorable to the about their civil rights work and a Negro Justice Department was handed down in woman with a high school education told a vote suit against the county and against of failing the registration test five times himself. in the last seven months. In Liberty, lawyers produced copies of In Magnolia, Negro residents from Pike voter registration tests and showed them County told of two killings. One, a Negro to the registrar for his comments. He re­ active in the vote drive, was killed by a fused to comment. One of them was mark­ state senator. A woman told of a man who ed "passed." Where an interpretation of burned to death in his home after he tried a section of the state constitution was to register. A man told of how when he asked for, there appeared the words: and a friend went to the courthouse to "This sectuon means what it syas." (sic) attempt to register, they were shot at. He In Tallahatchie County a man told of hadn't tried to register since then. His how he went to the sheriff to press charge- companion was shotgunned to death two against a white store owner who had years later. beaten his two brothers. "Those two niff- The FVoorl^rv, n„~, -•- n—^- vote LU negtuco. In Holly Springs, a Negro bus driver nesses also told of beatings from pole. explained that he did not have his con­ and citizens when they went to the court­ tract renewed after he became a registered house to try to register. voter. A window was smashed in the home In Indianola, a woman, who was evictee of another man. A mail and wife, each from her job and home on a plantation with an eighth grade education, told how told of how the plantation owner—also a they had attempted to register 14 times constable in the Ruleville police force- in two years,-each time "failing" the test. told Negroes on his plantation, "If any o: In Natchez, the registrar, A. B. Davis, you go down to that courthouse to regis­ admitted to being a member of the White ter, I will shoot you down like a rabbit.'' Citizens' Council and supporting its doc­ And lawyers showed a completed applica­ trine of white supremacy. Negroes were tion to the county registrar who, after ex­ deterred from registering through intimi­ amining it, said he wouldn't pass the ap­ dation, he said. When asked the meaning plicant. But the application, filled out by of certain words in the state constitution a white woman, .had .already been passed which voter applicants must interpret, 'he by him. said he did not know what the words In Batesville, a Negro farmer told of meant. repeated bombings of his house while In Clarksdale, two Negroes told of how SNCC workers were staying there. An­ their names were stricken from the voter other man who attempted to register told registration books by the Commissioners how his 12-year-old daughter was beaten of the State Board of Elections. No ex­ and a cross was burned in front of his planation was given them. house. The local registrar said he had In Cleveland, five Negroes told of losing closed one of the two county registration their jobs when their employers found out offices when a decision favorable to the about their civil rights work and a Negro Justice Department was handed down in woman with a high school education told a vote suit against the county and against of failing the registration test five times himself. in the last seven months. In Liberty, lawyers produced copies of In Magnolia, Negro residents from Pike voter registration tests and showed them County told of two killings. One, a Negro to the registrar for his comments. He re­ active in the vote drive, was killed by a fused to comment. One of them was mark­ state senator. A woman told of a man who ed "passed." Where an interpretation of burned to death in his home after he tried a i section of the state constitution was to register. A man told of how when he asked for, there appeared the words: and a friend went to the courthouse to "This sectuon means what it syas." (sic) attempt to register, they were shot at. He In Tallahatchie County a man told of hadn't tried to register since then. His how he went to the sheriff to press charges companion was shotgunned to death two against a white store owner who had years later. beaten his two brothers. "Those two nig­ The Freedom Democratic Party county gers ought to be dead," the sheriff told chairman told of how the sheriff entered him. And lawyers brought out that the an NAACP meeting without a warrant registrar wouldn't enter in the books the and confiscated their record book contain­ names of Negroes who he told had passed. ing the names of all the members. Wit­ In Laurel, a Negro man told of being H U". >n ssess Swell y the Selma's Violence that Rooted 5 as- spe- ;oun- leace . spe- in Old Families, Old Ideas ioun- By JERRY DeMUTH, Journal Special Correspondence chased them out of town. The next day ive a to insure that they did not return, he ELMA, Ala.—Racial'violence here has aroused the nation. But the casual led a band of 100 deputized farmers, irt of S visitor, when there are no civil rights demonstrations, would not asso- mounted on horses and carrying shot- ;ed a C»V» Selma with violence, Selma is a pretty ,fov:e fin old, town unt! therein. gusti, into town. Today, - there io stih fiity only one unionized plant in town. ssem- grows one of the rpots of the violence.' The community is devoted to the old buildings, the: old families and the old traditions. And it is determined not to When the "freedom rides" came to i the Selma, Sheriff Clark used his posse. change. And when the voter registration drive is de- Old buildings line the streets with gr -, ,,. began here over two years ago, the ) and iron grill balconies, porticos and brick posse was frequently present, gathered arches. These streets look much the |y. at the courthouse or lined up in front ! put same as they did 30 years ago when f. of meeting halls. Last summer, Sheriff t just Walker Evans photographed the town p Clark offered use of his posse to Mis­ e UN , for the farm security administration. sissippi. ' l day Townspeople treasure these buildings The sheriff's actions have, been criti­ ?e fi- because they are old. When a new post lye . cized by a number of law officials in ft by office was built and the old one was I Alabama, but to no avail. He is also in of to be torn down, townspeople protested | named in three of the six suits the jus­ and the old building still stands. tice department has filed in Dallas coun­ The same attitude exists toward Sel­ ty in the last four years. ma's families. "Persons have no posi­ The Black Belt of Alabama has long i tion here unless they're from an old been the political stronghold in the family," one resident explained. state. It has dominated the state legis­ Members of these old families control • soeo, . ,0.,....' .- lature and has sent many a senator to ipril the economic life of Selma, both the Sheriff Clark Col. Al Lingo Washington. Reapportionment is slowly ;?" is businesses and the banks. They also changing this situation. iveral make up the executive committee of tion comes from its history and its lo­ Political careers have begun in this h an- the Dallas County White Citizens' coun­ cation. Located in south central Ala­ section and Sheriff Clark has attempted | the cil. Political leaders also are active in bama, it's in the heart of the Black to use his position and actions as a ! Apr. the council. Its chairman is Chris Heinz Belt, so-called because of the dark rich springboard to state office. But many ' -Mil- who was Selma's mayor until last fall. soil and the large number of Negroes Selma moderates feel that he is riding who were brought to work it. Tear Whites More' The county's first Negroes came as the slaves of the planters who migrated The writer, Jerry DeMuth, is a The Dallas county chapter was the native of Milwaukee, educated in first one formed in Alabama, back in here from Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. The agricultural advantages journalism at Northwestern univer­ 1954, and is the largest in the state. sity and Southern-Illinois State. He Yet Dallas county with "a population of soon made^DallM county ^one j of Jhe less than 60,000 is only the ninth largest most heavily settled in Alabama. has covered the civil rights move­ county in the state. Because of the Rough, independent farm life and fear ment closely in various parts of economic power of the council, other of the potential power of the Negro the south, and his articles have ap­ whites are afraid to speak out,; just as majority increases the militancy of the peared in the Nation, Commonweal many Negroes are afraid to register. segregationists. and other magazines. A white storeowner explained, "The Selma was 40 years old when the trouble is, too many of our people fear Civil war began and played an impor­ the white man more than they do the tant part in the war. toward a political dead end and has Negro." Today US Highway 80 which passes gone too far to change course. Most of Dallas county's devotion to segrega- through Selma is known as the Jeffer­ his support and his posse comes from son Davjs highway. There's a Rebel the rural population. Sheriff Clark's restaurant on one side of town and a term expires next year. Rebel gas station on the other side. Selma has not yet been able to shake And though the Ku Klux Klan welcome off this rural control, though the new signs have been missing from the high­ city administration is struggling to way's edge since last fall, the White create a new image and preserve seg­ Citizens' council signs proclaiming regation through moderate behavior. "States' Rights" and "Racial Integrity" But Sheriff Clark still runs things in are still there. Front bumper plates Selma, still does what he wishes. show either a Confederate flag or a Proposed federal voting legislation, cartoon drawing of a Confederate sol­ especially the appointment of federal dier and the words. "Hell no! We won't registrars, could alter the situation in forget." Dallas county. At present only 335 of more than 15,000 voting age Negroes are registered. r Belt Dominates State Industry has been coming to Selma. As the Dallas county of a hundred In recent years the Alabama Metallur­ years ago contributed companies to the gical Corp. and the Vitalic Battery Co. 1 Confederate battle, today it has con­ have built plants. Dan River Mills is tributed a company to the segregation­ presently building and Hammermill ist struggle: County Sheriff James Paper Co. recently. announced plans to Clark's posse of 200 deputized citizens. build. The atmosphere has not kept in­ The uniforms are khaki although some dustry away as has been the case in wear only street clothes. But all wear Mississippi. One of the enticements to white or pastel helmets and sidearm's, industry is that with the completion of carry two foot long billy clubs and often a lock and dam in 1969 the Alabama also carry cattle prods or rifles. river will be open to barge traffic from When not putting down racial demon­ Selma down to Mobile. strations in Dallas county, the posse has Some civil rights leaders have criti­ traveled to such distant cities as Bir­ cized firms-which invest in Selma. But mingham, Tuscaloosa and Gadsden, new industry hopefully may give em­ working with Sheriff Clark's close ployment to Negroes whose work :is Oi' ,;. friend, Col. Al Lingo, and his state presently limited to agriculture or, in troopers. Often when the posse hasn't Selma, to maid, janitorial and yard ' traveled, Sheriff Clark has. work. But more important, the plants The posse was negun in 1958. Organ­ may create a new atmosphere and a nt tree shaded street in Selma, a mounted izers from the United Packinghouse new leadership which will break up the ifdewalk, followed by other club swinging Workers of America had come to Sel­ current economic control of the old ... demonstrators, —AP ma from Tuscaloosa. Sheriff Clark segregationists. TV\e 3 The Cabbage Patch Is Guarded By Goafs i VJ Selma's Future*. The Unsolved Police Problem By JERRY DE MUTH Yet this is what happened. Further, At­ ing more should be done than to vote him out simply arrested anyone who attempted to torney General Nicholas Katzenbach has of office. march or picket. Atlanta—The question of. local police author­ made clear that the Department continues The proposed voting bill will not be as ef­ His arrests, without violence, were praised. ity has been one of the main problems in to have this same approach. fective as persons assume until the federal But they prevented a strong movement from Selma, Alabama. Thus the Justice Department is In the con­ government finally comes to grips with the developing. The mass arrests also kept down* tradictory position of supporting the person problem of the Sheriff Clarks and the count­ pressure to integrate the town. No demon­ Police and possemen under Dallas County it is opposing. Both justice for Negroes in less forms of intimidation aimed at Negroes strations could occur. Albany didn't take the Sheriff James Clark and State Troopers Dallas County and a court victory for the who wish to register. At present, the pro­ first steps toward integration until after the under Col. Al Lingo obviously have not been Department are delayed by this action. posed bill deals only with intimidation of 1961 Civil Righls Act. protecting the rights of Negroes and civil voters (those already registered) and not The brutality of March 7 didn't change the with intimidation of those seeking to register. Many Selma white citizens have realized rights workers in Selma. And it has been this Justice Department's attitude. Three days that brutal actions bring headlines and head­ way for years, long before (he march was later Katzenbach still declared, "The primary But Intimidation, through Sheriff Clark, his lines bring demands for federal action. A beaten back last March 7. job of maintaining order in Alabama does posse and the economic power of the White white man in a bar commented, "Hell, there's rest, and should rest, on local authorities, Citizens' Council and KKK, has been one of no headlines when Baker's in charge. He The Justice Department has named Sheriff even though order has not been satisfactorily the mam deterrents preventing Negroes from knows how to keep things calm." Clark as one of the defendants.in three sepa­ restored by local authorities there." seeking to register in Dallas County. It can rate suits, charging him with intimidation and be done perhaps even more effectively, be­ Into Protective Custody harassment of Negroes and civil rights work­ Attorney General Disagreed cause with fewer headlines, by use of the ers. Yet at the same time, the Justice De­ Katzenbach even opposes legislation which tactics employed by Selma's Public Safety On March 19, a group of white ministers partment has relied on him to protect Ne­ would prohibit local authorities from intimi­ Commissioner Wilson Baker. and other civil rights supporters attempted to groes and civil rights workers. dating Negroes. Rep. John Conyers of De­ picket the home of the mayor. Baker and troit declared, "We must stop all this vio­ When Sheriff Clark stopped getting the the city police prevented the picketing from At the hearing on one of these suits, Sher­ lence by law enforcement officers in the South headlines on Selma, Baker began getting even getting started. iff Clark was asked why he had officers at and by members of groups such as the Ku them. But they were of a different kind, and voter registration meetings. He testified, "I Klux Klan." He proposed "either more laws they were smaller and buried on the inside "I'm going to take you into protective cus­ was informed by the FBI and also by leaflets or the enforcement of the laws we have" and pages, almost unseen, For while Sheriff Clark tody," Baker told one of them, Father Prateri . that there would be a mass meeting of Ne­ added, "It's as simple as that. Don't you has stopped marches with mass arrests and "You poor sick father," he commented. "I'm groes for the purpose of urging voter regis­ think so, Mr. Katzenbach?' night sticks, Baker had used pleadings and going lo take you to a mental institution. tration at the church." only occasional arrests, orderly arrests. You're sick." - But the Attorney General disagreed, still Doesn't Quite Make Sense supporting Sheriff Claik and other police of­ Aim Is The Same This feeling is little different from Sheriff ficials in their offices. "My theory," he ex­ Clark's. But Clark would have driven the Sheriff Clark continued, "I have been ad­ plained, "is that we should enact the bill for News stories have been quick to praise the group of 300 off with club-swinging posse­ vised by the FBI on each one of these meet­ voting registrars first. Then you can vote actions of Baker. And these actions have men. Baker arrested the group, promptly ings and asked to have protection." guys like Sheriff Clark out of office." been an improvement over the actions of and efficiently. Thus the group still was pre­ This unusual situation was noted and com­ Clark. But the stories have forgotten one vented from picketing. mented upon by Alabama's attorney general However, voting registrars ean't remove thing: that the aim of both men is the same So with Baker in charge and the repression and assistant attorney general in their appeal the- fear of registering instilled in Negroes —to stop Negro progress. As Baker recently of the freedom drive quieter, few will know, brief. It does not quite make sense that when by Sheriff Clark and other police. All the boasted. "I'm a segregationist." few will care. And the Negroes of Selma Negro leaders asked the FBI through the Jus­ voting registrars that can possibly be ap­ There is worry among civil rights workers may soon be cut off from the rest of the tice Department for protection, the FBI would pointed won't be able to register Negroes if that the situation in Selma may become simi­ country, forgotten and left to wage a struggle communicate this request to Sheriff Clark intimidation and harassment continue to keep lar to the situation in Albany some two years by themselves with little outside support whom the department was suing for intimi­ many away from the registrar's office. ago. In that southwest Georgia town, Police against a powerful political and economic dating Negroes by his presence at voter reg­ Katzenbach's attitude also assumes that if Chief Pritchett—when other police officials structure still determined to preserve the seg­ istration meetings. a sheriff violates a person's civil rights noth­ were using cattle prods, dogs and hoses— regationist status quo. FRONTIER

rp nn np n UQ AJ vLsLa Li U\J ia/*hl U U Li tJ*J

The murders of lirs. Viola Liuzzo and the Rev. James Reeb were psurt ©fl a pattern that stiSS persists in the

By JERRY DeMUTH

V "" /HEN Mrs. Viola Liuzzo was slain by a gunman "dastardly." Two years earlier, on April 24, 1963, Wil­ V V while traveling along Highway 80, the Jefferson liam L. Moore, on a civil rights walk from Chattanooga, Davis Highway in Alabama, Gov. George Wallace were Tenn., tc Jackson, Miss., was gunned down on an on television and told fellow Alabamans that he "fell Alabama ! ighway. Wallace called the murder "a das­ badly" about the slaying. But he added that "people tardly act'* and offered a $1,000 reward. State trooper are assaulted in every state in this Union. ItPs still safer head Al Lingo offered help. The local sheriff within on Highway 80 than it is riding a subway in New York." a few days arrested a suspect and asked that a charge Later when he issued a statement to the press, his of first degree murder be placed against him. Ballistic choice of words was a little more careful. "It was a tests showed the suspect's weapon had fired the fatal cowardly act," he said. "Such acts of cowardice will shots. But a grand jury did not meet to consider an not be tolerated. I have ordered all appropriate state indictment for five months. Then on Sept. 13, the jury agencies to continue around-the-clock investigations of refused even to indict the suspect. the death of Mrs. Liuzzo and if necessary I will employ Two v... later, a bomb tore through the Sixteenth additional investigators to sec that the guilty party or Street Br. :ist Church in Birmingham, killing four girls parties are brought to justice." aged eleven through sixteen. Governor Wallace called Exactly one week after this slaying, dynamite de­ this and other bombings (the total was now forty- stroyed the garage, two cars and a boat belonging tc three) "dastardly acts" and Col. Al Lingo took charge of a Negro family in Birmingham. Shortly afterward, the investigation. Two weeks later, the Governor's office bombs were found at the homes of the nayor and a announced that "arrests are imminent" and the Gov­ city councilwoman. Eleven days previously eleven bombs ernor himself went on television to say that "the crime had been found in the city. This brought the total will be solved." number of bombings in Birmingham to o arly fifty in Lingo arrested three men with Klan records. The the last twenty years. charge: illegal possession of explosives. There was no "We're not used to this sort of thing here," Governor mention of evidence connecting them with the church Wallace was able to say when he visited the home of bombing. The next month the three were convicted in the Negro family, evidently forgetting the other bomb­ recorder's court, fined $100 each and sentenced to ings. ninety days. The three appealed and in June, 1964, the "We're going to try to get those who did it," he state circuit court overturned the conviction and the added. He began a reward fund to find the bomber or men were set free. bombers who had done this "infamous and dastardlv The State of Alabama was through with this case, act." but what of the FBI's investigation? Last November the Perhaps the Governor has forgotten—and the Amer­ FBI announced that it knew the identities of a "small ican people too—other acts which he has also called group of Klansmen" who had committed the crime. But the bureau said there was not enough evidence to Jerry DeMuth, now living in Atlanta, contributes to make arrests and commented: "This investigation was many periodicals. prejudiced by premature arrests made by the Alabama

June 1965 Highway Patrol. Consequently it has not yet been pos­ during rioting there when state troopers beat Negroes sible to obtain evidence or confessions to assure suc­ outside a church and mobs beat newsmen and photog­ cessful prosecution." raphers while police watched. Commenting on these events, the Alabama Journal, the staunchest segrega­ A Strange Sense of Justice tionist large paper in the state, called them "a night­ mare of state police stupidity and brutality." But in While the investigation into the church bombing the state Senate a resolution was introduced support­ was proceeding the State Board of Pardons met and ing the action of the troopers in Marion. decided to parole a Klansman convicted for the castra­ tion of a Negro, Judge Aaron, though the Klansman After state troopers and Dallas County Sheriff Jim had served less than one-fourth of a twenty-year sentence. Clark's posse beat back marchers with tear gas, smoke Four Klansmen had participated in the crime on bombs, clubs and whips on March 7, the state House of September 2, 1957, vyhen they staked out the Negro Representatives passed a resolution commending Gov­ spread-eagled on the floor of the Klan den. He was ernor Wallace and law enforcement agencies for their mutilated and turpentine was poured on the wounds. action in Selma on that Sunday. The Klansmen then dumped the bleeding Negro on Two days after that Sunday, Rev. James Reeb and the side of a highway. two other ministers were beaten by whites in front of Three of the men were sentenced on May 22, 1958, the white-only Silver Moon Cafe while the patrons but were freed on bond and didn't begin serving their inside watched. Mr. Reeb died on Thursday. In the sentence until November, 1959. In i960 the Board of state House a representative introduced a sympathy Pardons voted that none of the three should be con­ resolution for the Reeb family. The House adjourned sidered for parole before a third of the sentence had before the resolution could even be discussed. been served. This is customary in Alabama. But in July, 1963, the board reversed itself and the following Murder Makes Little Impression October granted one of the men a pardon, a month after the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Not even the slayings of Mrs. Liuzzo and Mr. Reeb Several months later he was released. Last Jan. 19, the —Jimmy Jackson, being a Negro, was quickly forgotten second of the three, Bart Floyd, who had been serving —could touch the consciences of Alabama's hard-core as a prison trustee, was paroled after serving little more racists. Both were, after all, outsiders, who had no busi­ than a fourth of his sentence. ness there. "My wife was at home that night," Sheriff Almost one month later on Feb. 18 a state trooper Clark commented, "where she belongs." shot and killed a Negro, Jimmy Lee Jackson, in Marion It did not matter that Mr. Reeb was a minister. "He got what was coming to him," some persons commented. This, then, is the atmosphere in Alabama in which violence occurs and is almost openly encouraged. Every­ one, from citizens to state officials, participates in it. There is little or no penalty. Often there are words of praise. In this atmosphere a lot occurs other than the killings which the press reports, though not all murders are reported. What are some of the things which have happened in Alabama in the last year? In February, 1964, a Negro family bought a home in a white neighborhood in Mobile. While the family was moving into it, the home was burned. In Tuskegee in April, 1964, two persons were hanged in effigy in the town square—the county sheriff and a Negro. The sheriff had recently appointed a Negro deputy. The daughter of the Negro was one of eleven pupils who had desegregated the local school. In May in Tuskegee a $350,000 Negro shopping center was burned. It had been built in 1957 when Negroes were boycotting white businesses to protest gerrymandering of the city limits. City officials had redrawn city lines so all but ten to twenty Negroes lived outside the city limits. In Montgomery that same month a cross was burned, and in Camden two white Presbyterian ministers were beaten. Rev. Alexander M. Stuart, Jr., and Rev. Geddes Orman had come from Tennessee to inspect the con­ dition of a Negro mission. They checked into a hotel Renault, Frontier "How'* everything under the hood?" for the night. The hotel clerk who had registered them

FRONTIER broke into their room. Armed with a shotgun and a arrest. Mrs. McCann, mother of seven children and a pistol, he beat them and chased them away, suspecting maid, was fined $125 and given two weeks to pay. they were civil rights workers. The two ministers tried Then bombings began to resume. to prosecute the man but received no cooperation from On Sept. 8 in Birmingham, dynamite was found in local officials. They were even unable to retain a lawyer the garbage can at a white home. Bricks had been for any length of time and had several lawyers work­ placed on the lid to create a shrapnel effect. "The work ing on the case at different times. Last March 15, the of a professional," the fire chief said. The owner had case finally went before a jury, which did not even supposedly been too "buddy-buddy" with a Negro porter. indict the man. On Sept. 25 a bomb exploded in a Negro neighbor­ Shortly after the beating, Mr. Stuart received this hood. The shrapnel blast damaged half a dozen homes letter from a woman: "You deserved exactly what you and one car. got. You ministers ought to stick with preaching the On Oct. 1, 153 sticks of dynamite were discovered gospel. That is what your congregations pay you to do. hidden under bushes outside of the Birmingham city We have no problem in the South [bear in mind she limits. was addressing a Tennesseean] that good white Christian In suburban Bessemer on October 17 a Negro wit­ people cannot solve. If you want to associate with the ness saw police drive up to a home down the block. An dirty syphilitic Negroes, you do it. But don't involve unarmed Negro man stood on the porch. Shots rang the good white Christian people in your action, and out and bullets ripped through his body. Three days don't force us to stoop to your level." later he died in the hospital. As police shot him, sev­ eral white men came running across fields from dif­ A Consistent Pattern of Violence ferent directions, carrying guns, bats and sticks. Unlike Birmingham, Montgomery hadn't had a bomb­ In June Negroes marched in Tuscaloosa. Whites ing since 1956. Then on Nov. 29 a bomb damaged a squirted some of them with mustard oil. Police stopped Negro home. And on Dec. 13, a bomb exploded out­ a second march and the Negroes returned to the church. side the First Baptist Church. Police shot tear gas through the windows. As Negroes A court injunction has now prevented Sheriff Clark ran out, police beat them. from using his posse at civil rights demonstrations. But On July 7, men with baseball bats roamed the streets there are other posses in other counties, though not as of Birmingham, waiting for sit-in attempts. That after­ widely used as his, nor as widely traveled. Clark's posse noon Negroes went into McClellan's dime store seek­ has done duty in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Tuskegee ing service at the lunch counter. A group of men and Gadsden. And Clark has traveled on his own. In pulled bats from bags they were carrying and attacked Notasulga he pulled photographer Vernon Merritt III them. One Negro, Edward Plarris, received two cuts from a bus, beat him and smashed his camera. (Birming­ on his head, one over his eye and two on his hand. ham school official L. Kennedy England commented More than twenty-two stitches were required to close on the beating: "What's so unusual about it? . . . The the cuts. Harris' left shoulder was dislocated. scalawag had no business on the bus in the first place." On July 14 in Sheffield, three shots were fired from Merritt's father was executive secretary for Alabama a car at a cafe where white and Negro customers were Gov. Gordon Persons.) And Sheriff Clark was in eating. One shot smashed the plate-glass window, the Marion, out of uniform but with his nightstick, the other two lodged in the door frame. night Jimmy Jackson was killed. On Sunday morning, July 19, eight-year-old Dennis Holmes, a Negro, was walking home with his nine-year- old brother in Brighton. A car with two white men inside Flying the Confederate Symbol drove past them and one man hurled a rock at the boys. A posse beat civil rights demonstrators in Montgomery It hit Dennis and knocked him unconscious. He did nor last March. Deputized civilians were among those who regain consciousness until Thursday. beat Negroes in Birmingham in 1963. The same month the Negro school in Docena was Governor Wallace, upon assuming office, changed the burned and shotgun blasts ripped through the windows name of the state patrol to state troopers, mounted Con­ of a Negro-owned typewriter shop in Tuskegee. The federate battle-flag plates on the front bumpers of their previous month the shop had moved from a Negro cars, put the same flag on their helmets and made Col. section to downtown. Al Lingo their head. In Mobile a Negro boy was riding down the street Last winter state troopers and local police in Autauga- on his bike on a warm August day. A car sped past ville continually harassed union supporters at the Crystal him, a gun was raised, a shot fired, and a bullet struck Lake Broom Works where a union election was sched­ the youngster. uled. (Previous elections had been voided because of On Sept. 4 in Birmingham a Negro woman, Catherine the company's anti-union activities.) Police stopped McCann, was leaving a store when police drove up workers in their cars, issued warnings, toured the plant and grabbed two Negro men from the store porch. She with one of the owners and on one occasion blocked continued on her way and police shouted, "Catch that workers from attending a union meeting at a worker's nigger." Police grabbed her and dragged her into the home. police car. She was charged with loitering and resisting But usually state trooper activities are aimed at civil

June 1965 rights, not unions. Wherever there is racial violence, miles away, or some larger city where Negroes could be they arc usually present. That night in Marion and that "assimilated." He questioned whether the camp might Sunday in Selma state troopers were using their night­ not pose a threat to the morals of Carson City girls. sticks. Mayor James Robertson of Carson City joined in the protest. "Carson City is real short of recreational and "It Was Brutal as Hell" medical facilities now," he said. "This project has gained momentum awfully fast. The federal government should In Gadsden on June 19, 1963, they clubbed Negroes have done a better job of selling." so viciously that a Gadsden policeman commented, "It Gov. Grant Sawyer was sold, and he replied: "It is no was brutal as hell. There was no need to club those crime to be poor, and I am not interested in discussing people." He told how local police had intervened when any complaints which are based on bigotry. This con­ one trooper began beating a Negro woman who had servation camp is going to give poor youngsters a new fallen to the ground near him. chance to build a successful life. They are not criminals, In Birmingham the previous months Lingo and Clark addicts or psychological misfits," had walked together, carrying automatic shotguns. At one point Chief A. B. Moore of the Birmingham police Right Cause, Wrong Argument and Chief Inspector W. J. Haley stopped the two and urged them to withdraw. "Will you please leave?" For a week Sawyer held out against the opposition Chief Moore asked them. "We don't need any guns and refused to grant a sixty-day delay. Laxalt and Rob­ down here. You all might get somebody killed." ertson wanted to organize opposition. Sawyer's deter­ To this Col. Lingo snapped back, "You're damn right mination didn't last long. He announced that he would it'll kill somebody." ask Sargent Shriver, Director of the Job Corps, for a Lingo, Clark and Wallace are all friends. The three sixty-day delay in construction of the camp. With finger- came up during the administration of Gov. "Big Jim" waving emphasis, Sawyer warned of possible loss in Folsom who, oddly enough, was a moderate on the race economic benefits: "If the camp is abandoned, $400,000 issue. Wallace has sent Lingo into areas and Lingo has to $650,000 in initial construction and expenditure of brought Clark with him. And Lingo has often gone to $15,000 to $30,000 a month in payrolls will be lost. Selma to consult with Clark at the time of civil rights From now on, I'll refuse to do anything relating to such demonstrations. Clark's presence will undoubtedly still camps until the people of the community express their be felt. mind." And there are still the state troopers to touch off vio­ The economic issue was never an important one. The lence on their own and to add to community violence. Ormsby County Democratic Committee approached the The troopers and the posse idea make the police in real issue, stating, "Anytime the presence of members Alabama more feared at rhe present time than the of minority groups among the Job Corpsmen would seri­ police anywhere else in the South and make Alabama ously disturb the tranquility or social climate of the currently the most volatile state in the old Confederacy. capitol of Nevada, then it would be time for us to secede from the Union as not being worthy of the ideas of our country." Laxalt contended there is no civil rights problem in cs^-sozi City incident Carson City and that it was untrue that protests were -LEAR CREEK, Nev., eight miles south of Carson based on bigotry. "It seems," he said, "we're at the point W> City, is the site of a Job Corps camp which will now where to object to programs of the Great Society house 200 young men determined to take advantage of means you're either a bigot or a John Bircher." Under the federal government's offer of a better life. But that the circumstances, that appeared to be accurate self- opportunity was almost lost when citizens learned that criticism. thirty of the young men probably would be Negroes. A public meeting held by the city council and the Lt. Gov. Paul Laxalt, a Goldwater Republican, jumped county commissioners was revealing. Ted Stokes, attor­ into the fray. ney for the county officials, wondered if any of the corps- "This is forced integration," Laxalt told Job Corps men would leave the camp, settle in Carson City, and representative Mike O'Callaghan at a hastily called go on welfare; or if they had wives who might settle in meeting to protest Gov. Grant Sawyer's approval of the Carson City and live off the city. A federal official re­ camp early in March. "Would you want your daughter plied that any corpsman, as a free American, had a right to date a Negro?" he asked O'Callaghan. Laxalt is a to live anywhere. Sentiment at the meeting was heavily big name in northern Nevada. He lost the U.S. Senate in favor of the camp, and the request for a sixty-day race against Sen. Howard W. Cannon by only a few delay was dropped. votes, and this makes Laxalt the Republican to watch Construction of the camp started April 21 under the in Nevada. supervision of Charles Hendricks, the camp director, a Laxalt asked, "What are thirty or even ten colored thirty-two-year-old engineer. kids going to do walking in the streets?" He said the Meanwhile, the morals of Carson City are intact. camp should have been located nearer Reno, thirty —TOM BRIEX

10 FRONTIER a__'

Atlanta, Ga. cheered and 1 ... nee Lab t, former gov- .rry DeMuth ey and Depi y Cecil Price. The Circuit Clerks Association of v.s' Coun- kill off this political monstrosity ' [the sre are a sissippi — the clerks function as Freedom Democratic Party'. - ther," registrars — adopted a res... e.-.g about the Tupelo Joi .. . "- id if ge of Missis- "to cond . 'oi people here . . . white leaders can so hi te affairs ity and not to act in ,-rong with Mississippi's that the Freedom Party is provided no a they went on to say that cr. swered, "No. ... If some of issue . . . there is a good chance that it will . from "ign< le who are tal! ut Missis- wither away completely," the paper said. and " ence to lav/ and facts." i a little Lt. Gov. Coo. fact: Negro registration in - 'fuzzy' thinking ville Industrial Foundation of an Ohio in­ .nan 7%. The clerks c ..-ted then maybe they could see as dustrialist who refused to consider expan­ se groups who ly as you and I coo." sion of two Mississippi plants until Id concentrate their efforts upon im­ state "decides to become a part of toe proving cultu.. noral standards of ississippi's leaders union again." Gartin commented, "I am to adjust the " 'fuzzy' those who cry discrimination." Ano deeply concerned about the impression we fact: The Justice Department has iking" of others who have thought that make on the people in other parts of this ;enship are part more than 20 voter registration suits in nation. We cannot build a fence around Mississippi. revenues have ourselves." But if Mississippi is joining perating on a up with the other 49 states, it is doing so . hand to mouth basis. aast November • a on its own terms. Edward P. Moore, OMMENTING on voter regis­ state sales tax . oeed less reve­ covering the Greenville meeting for the tration before the Mississippi Sot'. of nue than a 3% levy brought the same Memphis Commercial Appeal, reported: . .-.al Engineers, Gov. John: oing year. After the "Mr. Gartin, maintaining his personal "It doesn't make much sense to turn down Neshoba Ceo. tourist trade belief in segregation, urged businessmen, a person with an MA degree wher ...50%, and by civic leaders and industrialists 'to speak up attempts to register to vote, and ' . mber it was still low. Hotel and motel and speak out' about conditions in the register one who has not been to school. occup 3iloxi area was state." Gov. Paul Johnson pleaded tc We don't have a leg to stand on." only 8% • Froi c December the rest of the nation at U.S. Civil Ri In Panola County whites were registered s forced . w S3 million, Commission hearings in Jackson last spring, without being given a section of ert Gordon in a UPI dispatch "Get off-our back and get on our side." constitution to interpret. Now, as a o. Febr . .. feared a The new "image" is thus speaking "in of a suit, Negroes seeking to register boycott c; . Mississippi in- a positive manner about conditions" rather not being given a section, either, and s cts and noted the state's than doing much to change the Condi May, 1964, some 800 Negroes have been slow industrialization. Oxhers pointed to Mississippi Manufacturers Ass ociation registered. the chall. .he Mississippi congres­ president Ed Palmer told a Jackson civic Mississippi leaders and organizations also sional delegation." club that the MMA is "convinced, as are are becoming more sophisticated: they are This latter eve.it is perhaps the most im- you, that much of the radical thin] realizing now that they at least have to tant cause of the : ttempt at towards Mississippi is not based on fact but give the impression of complying with window dressi leaders have on rumor ana supposition." He then re­ integration orders. 1 no longer con­ taken the challenge seriously and are vealed that the MMA was going to mount tinue to openly defy them, because if they worried about the eventual outcome. The "a massive public relations campaign" do, strict orders to integrate may follow. ./n an inordinate amount based on the approach that "with the good The Itawamba County Times commented, of publicity and has whipped up even more and the bad, Mississippi's net picture is one "Our opinion is that all of the districts of anti-Mississippi " William L. favorable to investments and ecom the s;ate of Mississippi will be forced to Chase wrote in the jingoistic Jackson growth." comply whether they like it or not. ... So daily. "An type sentiment Mississippi wants to be considered part why not submit a plan of our own choosing we don't need," he concluded. After the of the union for yet another reason: so instead of having to submit by court o delegation challenge, Mrs. F. A. Parker, that it will continue getting federal aid to a plan which might not be quite so Prentiss Head- in an amount that, according to Drew palatable." t, wrote, "There is no place for re­ Pearson, totaled more than §1 billion in Since all these words of "complying with joicing over the it seated the 1964. "L» ate level ajj the law" and "ending terrorism" were sissippi delegation in Washington Mon­ that we cannot afford to lose federal aid," :on and written during January and day, but rather di it in Erie Johnston, Jr., told a civic club n •uary, police harassment has contin it august be .- were 148 members ing. Johnston heads the segregationist there have been hundreds of arr t the seating of the duly State Sovereignty Commission. almost daily beatings, shootings have not •esentatives against A few leaders and . lizations stopped, and in Shaw in April an ordinance 276 who v , .- seating them. There is have .spoken about obeying and respecting was passed prohibiting marc. cause to be alarmed when we find that the law, ending terrorism, and ending un­ .speeches. The state's infamous e many jackasses in . est deliberative fair voter registration practi Gov. ings continue. The SNCC office in Laurel body in the -. slative branch Johnson and Atty. Gen. Joe Patterson was fire-bombed, and so were a st; of our three pai . government." spoke before the Mississippi Sheriffs As­ wagon in Shaw, a cafe in Vicksburg, homes sociation with pleas for obedience to fed­ in Canton and Greenwood, and churches in ..DERS don't eral laws. The association itself passed a Canton and Holly Springs. In Indianola want another such dispute and feel that a resolution calling for compliance with on two nights tv/o months apart six fire­ new "im; help. ". . . with a little federal laws and an end to terrorism. But- bombs damaged or destroyed the Freedom intelligent planning we should be able to members have harassed and continue to School and SNCC office, a staff car, two harass civil rights workers, and at its homes, a store, and the Freedom Hoe. Texas Observer previous meeting the lawmen's Little has changed in Mississippi. \0 ' ~Bve Gazette and ~!Dcx./^ York^Ta..^ Tu^day Mox-«a<^To

Actually, Frc-i's chief worry is over the im­ petus that all tin's would be likely to give k.V '0/:\":-: I '„i communism in bis part of the world. Big Corporations now, Chile's Reds are pro-Castro and pro- Peking, while those in all the ether countries By JERKY DeMUTH The U.S. Steel division is the county's the conflict "repugnant," today it does not named, except Peru, are oriented toward largest employer and thus, as she late John find "repugnant" the idea of helping the po­ Moscow. Montgomery, Ala. — Gov. Wallace's recent F. Kennedy described them at Hie time, "a litical career of Gov. Wallace or helping to But the chief executive, a sophisticated stu­ tour of Alabama fcr newspaper editors was very influential company in Birmingham." say that the state is better now without doing But U.S. Stee! bitterly resented the president anything to really make it any belter. dent of international politics, knows that noth­ not only planned by officials of the state. The and hated his economic as well as his racial ing could bring tiiese rivals together so surely tour, which was to give the editors the im­ policies. This then is U.S. Sicel's "best efforts," as resurgence of do facto military regimes giving Gov. Waliaee the services of its best over two-thirds ef South America. pression of Alabama as a progressive, peace­ Mr. Wiebel explained then that city officials public relations men. ful state where there are few problems, was not businessmen should handle the racial prob­ Nor did U.S. Steel refuse to get involved Help From Europe also worked out by public relations repre­ lems because the protests were "focused at i city hall'' not at "our front doors' this He e althoi'gh Alabama's bad image Chat :.i because notlwijg.Xavord toe ewiiiiiU- sentatives of Southern Bell Telephone Co., conies from its repressive policies toward nist cause like suppression of democratic the Petroleum Council, the Luckie-Forney Ad­ Mr. Blough said that he doubted "very Negroes and not from any policies of U.S. freedoms, and its followers are amply trained vertising Agency of Birmingham and United much" that a corporation's effort to enforce Steel's. and organized to operate outside the law. its views upon a community vvas, in principle, States Steel. The newspaper editors' lour, however, was Therefore, under rightist dictatorships the "a good tiling for any corporation to follow." not even a modest success. No editors ap­ Reds nearly always end up as the nucleus The last time U.S. Steel was involved in He explained that it was "repugnant to me peared to be swayed by the governor's prop­ and guiding force of the opposition. This is personally" and "repugnant to my fellow offi­ racial affairs in Alabama was two years ago aganda, instead several were repelled by it what happened in Venezuela during the 10- cers" at U.S. Steel. - year terrorist rule of Marcos Perez Jimenez. during the crisis in Birmingham. During that and one editor even walked cut of a press In a letter lo the New York Times, Mr. conference in disgust. Today that republic is paying for its misfor­ summer and fall of fire hoses, police dogs Blough added, "We shall, however, cc tune by having io fight bands of resourceful, and a church bombing which claimed the to use our best efforts to be as helpful s.s U.S. Steel's involvement with Gov. Wallace's fanatic guerrillas. of four young Negro girls, the steel com- possible." public relations activities should give second So Frei, alarmed by the chance of success 0's to many moderates who are looking under great pressures, refused to do Unfortunately, Mr. Blough did not explain for exlremisms of both right and left, wants to increased industrialization of the South. his ' inal - ;. U.S. Steel chairman Roger Blough how U.S. Steel would be helpful, or who it Industries, they feeh will help improve the would be helpful lo. Today, Negroes in Birm­ Italy 0 G< hristian I) I to point out that Arthur Wiebel, conditions of Negro 5 and help put an end to ingham are little better off than they were the careers of such racist political leaders as cial I nd Labor Party of Tennessee Coal and Iron, (lie two years ago. Gov. Wallace, however, is Gov. Wallace. U.S. Steel, however, obviously get worried enough to do something about it. steel mpany's Birmingham division, had much better off. feels that it is important to keep the racist What he will urge is that they give finan­ :ar.d in improving the plant's separate Though, during Birmingham's racial crisis, status quo. Other industries may feel the cial and other aid to affiliated or compatible U.S. Steel found the idea of helping to solve same way. parties hi the countries affected, to make facilities twelve years earlier. these instead of the communists a rallying point for democratic elements, if constitutional governments are overthrown. : Above all, Chile's president thinks the for­ A , kkyk , ; p ; i , L.kV/ mula that worked for his Christian Demo­ crats, bringing them from obscurity to their By ARTHUR FLETCHER The missions have prepared exploration pro­ which have known or indicated underground present dominant position in less than eight grams for three of these countries—El Salva­ steam and hot water resources roughly define years, can be equally potent elsewhere. United Nations (Worldwide Press Service)— dor, Chile and Turkey. The first two have the world's volcanic belts. They also include The core of that formula is concentration In talking with energy specialists here one already been promised pre-investment help those areas where volcanic activities have in student and labor groups, both of which have become sorely disillusioned in most of invariably detects a sense of enthusiasm from the U.N. Special Fund, and the Turkish occurred in geologically recent times. (To a project is likely to clear the Fund's Govern­ geologist, "geologically recent" may span a Latin America with the leadership of Reds when they get onto the potential of geothermal ing Council at its January, 1966 session. million years.) and fellow travelers. resources—subterranean steam and hot water. Between 1958 and 1964, Frei's party wooed Most intriguing technically, and promising The 333 countries include such industrial 84 percent of the Chilean National Student Asked the reason, one of them told this the biggest economic wallop, in the expert nations as Italy, the United States, Japan and Federation membership away from leftist con­ correspondent: "Geothermal energy is non- view, is the project for the northern provinces the Soviet Union exotic peripheral spots such political. The only problems to be solved are trol. of Chile. Though this is one of the world's as Fiji, New Britain and the Solomons; and And his whopping, 250,000-plus ballot win technical." This is in considerable contrast most richly mineralized regions, there are no many countries not endowed with the fossil to other forms of energy. On oil matters, for over his communist-backed rival for the presi­ conventional sources of energy; transportation fuels, coal and oil. dency. Salvador Allende, is attributed largely example, he noted that "the minute you touch is primitive; and much cf the region, between oil, governmental ears all over the world The 33 are spotted along the great north- to a 61 percent shift in the allegiance of the Andes mountains and the sea, is desert. unionized workers. begin io twitch." That places a premium on successful exploi­ south Rift in Africa, the north-south Rockies- Andes line in the Americas, the Pacific rim Much cf the world interest in geothermal tation of geothermal resources since exploit- : 1 >r. Ralph J. ry ic/ sp< . ' ' is summer that he ex- to he-id that it: is up to each se from the 1 o ed ':•• • This caused some to feai n that i: China to lie in the United down its own is formidable indeed. Nations in two years. China was admitted it might, with Times Have Changed -he try io start a rival organization If walking is the best exercise, as we aro If a vote were taken tomorrow on a reso­ rta-Peking axis. constantly assured it is, there can be no lution favoring Red China's admittance, it The two-thirds rule proved superfluous in Still another consideration is the fighting in doubt that Khrushchev's promise to bury us would probably be 52 to 50 or 54 to 53, de­ 3963 when the resolution to seat the Chinese Vietnam and the emergence of Communist will be fulfilled. Americans have fori pending upon how wavering delegations final­ Communists was defeated, 57 to 41. Times China as a nuclear power. Mo effective con­ how to walk. The Russians seem to do noth­ ly voted. As many as nine delegations may have changed, however, and this year the trol of nuclear weapons can be established ing else They do so looking neither lo the abstain. United States and its supporters will seek without China, it is felt. The United Nations right nor the left, bearing down all opt These figures are based on a count taken reaffirmation of the rule. This was imposd is considered by many lo be hampered in its before them, intent only on reaching by several delegations favoring the U.S. by a simple majority in 1961. efforts to end the fighting in Vietnam by the destination, which is usually a shop or a stand. It was recalled that in 1961 all the coun­ fact that neither Communist China nor North museum. Tiie outcome of the battle in the assembly tries backing Communist China voted against Vietnam is a member. In spite of crop failures, war losses and bureaucratic miscalculations, the shortages of consumer goods in the Soviet Union will be Federal Spending tn Poverty War Will Stifle Civil Rights Movement remedied in time. Although Western reports about the extent of the changes seem to be exaggerated, there is certainly serious discus­ sion of and some experimentation with the tal Customs relaxation of centralized economic controls. ISSI s ppi .. aim : .:> In time, shopping in Russia should cease to By JERRY DeMUTH former civil rights leaders, his assistant is But the Delta Ministry center, located mid­ lie an extra-hazardous occupation. Aaron Henry, state NAACP chairman and a point between Jackson and the Mississippi Jackson, Miss—The biggest threat to the former leader in the Freedom Democratic River, is in the heart of the GDGM project The passion for learning, on the other hand, area. The college is located away from every­ seems unlikely to diminish. Perhaps it may civil lights movement in Mississippi now is no Party. be modified or re-directed. One iias the im­ longer the violent bands of night riders, it is thing, only 20 miles from the Alabama bor­ Over $2 million went lo local communities der." A mi ve to this location would kill the pression of 200 million people grimly lei the federal government itself through the pro­ this past summer for Operation Head Sunt project. Some staff members were willing forced draft. They fill seem to be pre­ grams and money it is putting into the state. schools. Classes were strictly segregated, to go along with the move. They argued that paring for some examination that will get ides being conservative in. con tent, these even a weak program with many of the ori­ them a belter job. Everything is Already some $20 million in funds from the programs can also be used as a lever to halt ginal aims forsaken was better than no pro­ with a better job; the way to rise in the Office of Economic Opportunity has been ap­ or slow down civil rights actions. In O gram at all. Others—those- with civil society, and the only way, is to learn. proved by the federal office and okayed by where over 5200,000 wei Hear! Start ad. They won and the . on, local Head Sfc 0; put pres­ ted. Gov. Paul Johnson. Last winter when the sure on Negro ministers. adult education projei . in which the "War on Poverty" program was beginning, However, after this displa.y of democracy Russian, instead oi .-. ast.ing his time in a pleasant stroll on a Sunday afternoon, can Gov. Johnson stated, "We will use such funds During the demonstrations there in early and action by the people for what they think summer, places were needed for meetings. learn all about how to operate mai I as long as this program does not interfere is best, not what the government tells them, Head Start officials warned Negro ministers it is doubtful whether CDGM will be able to and grow crops. The same solemnity charac­ with cur traditional customs and particular that Head Start classes would not meet at get any more money to continue its programs terizes Russian television. way of life." their churches and they would not get Head into the fail. They, unlike oilier federally Still the Soviet Union is the first learning Start money if they pej-milted civil rights financed programs in the state, did not work society of modern times. It may be learning Same Power Sfrucfurs meetings. Ministers complied. to preserve the status quo. some wrong things, in the wrong way for the wrong purposes. But the learning habit is Activities financed through this money range An additional $1.6 million in Head Start John Fear from the Head Start programs for pre-school funds went to the Child Development Group a good one, and the Russians are forming it children of this past summer, to programs to of Mississippi (CWGM) through a grant to The CDGM program led the Jackson Daily on a scale never before attempted; --The educate illiterate adults and retrain share­ all-Negro Mary Holmes Junior College in News, one of the state's two leading news­ learning society is the society of the future." croppers whose jobs have been displaced by West Point. Using an approach similar to last papers, to, on July 28, quote an earlier edi­ machines. These programs are being run by year's freedom school programs', CDGM oper­ torial: "However, as all federal programs are Here too the administration wants some­ the same power structure which has kept the ated 83 centers for over 5,000 children. now designed here is one of the most subtle thing it can control. With rules against an all- state's Negroes down in a segregated society. mediums for instilling the acceptance of ra­ white state party stemming from last year's And the basic changes which are needed will Former Rights Workers cial integration and ultimate mcngrelization party convention, Pres. Johnson fears that the not be permitted, as Gov. Johnson pointed ever perpetrated in this country." FDP will gain even more support in the fu­ out. About half the staff was former civil rights workers, many of whom had had freedom The paper then quickly pointed out that the ture and wants to stop it now. Almost 57 million is going to the Catholic school experience the previous year. CDGM CDGM stated it was "aggressively complying" Federal programs can cut off political sup­ diocese of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi—55.3 rented space for its headquarters from the with integration. This of course has no port for the civil rights movement, can million from OEO, $1.6 million from the De­ Delta Ministry headquarters ef the National true of other federal programs in the state. strengthen the existing power structure, can partment of Labor—to educate illiterate adults. Council of Churches. lure away civil rights participants and can Local officials dominate th staff. On the political front, President Johnson is e The presence of many civil rights activities also pushing the new Democratic Council establish conservative programs for s In the delta, $5 million is going into a pro- and the sharing of quarter? NCC— i de up of moderate white an cial change to undercut civil rights pros which attack basic problems. gram to retrain sharecroppers. The chairman hated as much as civil rights workers—led ae Negro loaders. This is an a of the board is an c/ficial in the State Sover­ Sen. Senilis to campaign against SDGM. To lercut the support for the civil rights Un'o. hts groups in 'die state • eignty Commission, the official state segrega­ end tl- . oar President Johnson ted Freedom with this new problem, Mis- ted to show how well- himself ordered ' that CDGM move lo Party which is challenging the all-white re­ tain the worst of the . programs can lead away Holmes Junior College campus. actionary state Democratic party. as w : of the south.

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•- By JERRY DEMUTH . Atlanta, Ga.— Willi the recent slaving of ministerial student Jonathan Daniels and the J STANLEY KARNOW and ca ne . - quitting the United N shotgun wounding of Father Richard Morris- I • , a new organization :- - Tw? Providence Journal) Fee co - as well, Burma has since 0 : July IS by found an ae: >n to Communist China roe by Deputy Sheriff Thomas Coleman, it zed li ', I ial As- Washington—-In a petulant mood one day more advantageous. is perhaps an appropriate time to recall -• the Advancement of Colored last week-, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Financed by U.S. funds and equipment, a ether civil rights slayings which southern team of South Vietnamese operatives People and a handful of white moderates. ore unfolded an intriguing glimpse of police have been involved in. h'sooy. Late in 1960, he disclosed, a Central Cambodia Is in aftempting to ovei • chief promoters were Hodding and replace him with Dap Daniels' death is the most recent slaying r of the Delta Democratic Intelligence Agency operative had offered him Chuon, then the Cambodian Minister of Se­ Ie; Ciaudc Ramsay, pre a 83,000,000 bribe to conceal a bungled Ameri­ curity. The piot fell apart when loyal Cam­ of the four that have occurred so far this Labor Council of the Ameri­ can espionage attempt. The shadowy affair bodian troops invaded the rebel headquarters, year in Alabama. The first tool; place on can Federation of Labor and Congress of involved girls, too—or, as Prime Minister Lee killed Dap Chuon and discovered among Hie February 18 in Marion during rioting there Industricd Organizations; Aaron E. Henry, put it, "Like'James Bond, only not so good." insurgents a U.S. Information Agency em­ when state troopers beat Negroes outside a president of ihe Mississippi branches of the ploye. But what happened in Singapore, though church and mobs beat newsmen and photog­ N.A.A.C.P.; Charles Evers, secretary of the American Aid Suspect o- Mississippi N.A.A.C.P., and Robert Oswald, rather embarrassing, was relatively innocuous raphers while police watched. That night o.goula lawyer who heads the Jackson compared to a clumsier assortment of other After the plot against him, he promptly rec­ a Negro, Jimmy Lee Jackson, was shot and Democratic Executive Committee. ognized Red China and rejected a new offer killed by a State Trooper. The trooper ad­ 00. Oswald is chairman of the Conference. covert American efforts in Southeast Asia of American assistance, terming it "suspi­ over the years. cious." mitted the slaying but there was never even One immediate aim of the Democratic Con­ any formal investigation. ference is to squeeze out the Freedom Demo- The first of these earnest efforts, back in About the same time, U.S. operatives began Party, which is virtually all-Negro. the 1950s, was focused on the tangled jungles to-.cast an eye toward Indonesia, where local The triple killing in Philadelphia, Miss., Since if sprang into prominence with its chal- of northwest Burma. Defeated by the Com­ army commanders scattered across the far- last year involved a number of policemen af the Mississippi delegates to the 1961 munists in China, bands of Chinese National­ flung archipelago were rumbling against Pres­ The FBI charged that Deputy Sheriff Cecil atic National Convention, there has ist troops had retreated into t'ois area, where ident Sukarno's government. Some objected Price stopped and arrested the three rights j growing fear among Democratic loy- they became brisk opium traders. It was to growing Communist strength, others had workers as part of a Klan plot and aiists Oiat the radical group might end up considered, however, that they might per­ regional grievances. after the three were released ,was pari of 0. Democratic party credentials. form a nobler purpose. As rebellions spread through Sumatra, East the mob that killed them. However, tb Java and other outlying areas. Secretary of never mentioned the two state patrolme optional party decreed at its last con­ As it does now, Burma in those days ad­ State Dulles intruded with the opinion that the helped Price make the arrest and who I "3 vention that future delegations from Missis­ hered, to a neutralist line. But neutralism, United States wished for Indonesia a regime lake die three to jail. (/I sippi v.: cially integrated. insisted the (hen Secretary of Slate John that "reflects the real interests and desires In McComb, Miss., a series of bombings The eoeosoence natabl; I include oil Foster Dulles, was not only "immoral" but cf the Against the opposition of - "shortsighted." Thus a clev -? was last year narrowly missed killing the occu­ its in Jakarta, covert U.S. pants of the bombed homes. One of. thi and leaders of the Free­ elaborated to help the Burmese see the light. support for - the rebels started to flow sooth dom Democri rty'on the left. vicled bombers was an auxiliary policeman. The remnant Chinese Nationalists wo from bases in Formosa and the Philippines. Reportedly after bombing one home, he £ vonoe bases its main hope for the inspired to provoke Communist China into One American pilot, Allan Lawrence Pope, was went to his own home, changed into his a large Negro vote; registration, attacking Burma, thereby forcing the Bur­ shot down while on a bombing mission over uniform, grabbed his rifle, and returned to istrars are here to start register­ mese to seek salvation in the Western camp. Indonesia. (he scene of the bombing with other police. ing N-reoos in certain Mississippi counties. Ingenious as it was, the plan worked poorly. Undercover U.S. help to the Indonesian The state government, under the leadership rebels was never extensive, it seems. It was When Byron De La Beckwith was tried for ^ of Gov. Paul B. Johnson. Jr., and a reluct- For one tiling, the Americans assigned to enough, however, io reinforce Sukarno's dis­ the murder of Medgar Evers, two Green­ islature, has abolished a tough literacy supply the Nationalists with weapons and gold trust of the United States. Some analysts be­ wood policemen testified that they had seen tost and made it possible for Negroes to begin enlisted the aid of Gen. Phao Sriyanod, the lieve it was a turning point, after which Indo­ "Delay" in Greenwood close to the lime of registering in numbers for the first time in police chief of neighboring Thailand. But chief nesian-American relations have steadily, slid the slaying. Greenwood is a two hour drive 75 years. Phao, a leading narcotics dealer, cared little from Jackson, scene of the slaying. But ac­ about international politics. He simply wanted downhill. d At the end of 1964, about .28,500 Negroes cording to a southern writer who investigated to latch on to the Nationalists' opium. By contrast, CIA operatives fanned out (he case, one of these policemen helped Beck­ were registered in Mississippi. -Some sources through primitive Laos with the authority of believe the figure was not that high. At least: with plan tile killing. Clean Up The Mess game wardens in a national park. They se­ 394,000 were not registered. More than 70 per lected and subsidized local political leaders Of course, beatings and harassments by st 0 the eligible whites were registered — And under his aegis, an operation originally and actuated uprisings! They so rigged the police ore too common to enumerate here. 505,000 out of 748,266 cf voting age. dedicated to saving Burmese souls soon de­ April, 1960, elections that all the contested They occur regularly and are well known. 3 In an interview this week, Ramsay said: generated into a lucrative narcotics traffic. seats were won by right-wingers. But the killings are sometimes forgotten. "Tire President apparently gave the green Aircraft mobilized to supply the Nationalists In one constituency their chosen candidate Despite these incidents, the Justice Depart­ go to work in the five southern states were employed mostly to transport opium, received 1S.000 voles, while his pro-Communist ment and the FBI still refer civil rights • O ' . i< d." and several American agents, unable to re­ opponent polled only four. workers to local police to investigate incidents and offer protection. N He so id a meeting was arranged in Wash- sist temptation, eagerly joined in the smug­ Later"' in 1350, while a State Department i after the election. The partici- gling. Finally, in 1553, Gen. "Wild Bill" Dono­ man warned that civil war would only This situation led one civil rights worker d primarily labor officials and rep- van went out to Bangkok, ostensibly as U.S. help the Communists, a team of covert Ameri­ to joke with this writer, creating a not so of the national Democratic Party, ambassador, effectively to clean up the mess. can advisers engineered General Piieumi Nos- ary incident. His office has just beer. dd. The whole maneuver, dubiously conceived avan's drive against Vientiane, trie seat ef the shot irto and he calls the Justice I articipants ' ' issippi and artlessly executed, had inevitable reper­ ilist government headed by Prim ment. Tell the sheriff, they advise him. "The e i- James P. Col cussions. Blaming the United Stales for sup- i. One • sheriff already knows about it," he .

• o Nationals to open the wa; , jntion in as he gives his answer. "He's outsidi " ' .'. '-. J lory, the B: ounc a An TTv£T5S*^£~cwuat^^7yJ~VorW, Vo.^ ^1, Oct ZZ[ TQ£5 /iksy Spy Tftey're Going To Po Something . . . 1/ i Never 0o Atlanta's 'Shining' Anti-Poverty Program

By JERRY DeMUTH grant thus number will be expanded to twelve. is 40 percent Negro. Also there is a political and she stayed in her apartment. One of the four in existence in the Nash- power struggle going on in the upper eche­ Atlanta, Ga.—With the recent grant of §6.3 lons of the program. "At meetings they keep saying they're Washington Center. According to recent U.S. going to do something about housing, but million to-. Atlanta for its poverty program, Census Bureau figures, of all the major met­ Persons from another program in the Nash they never do," one community leader com­ Sargent Shriver,' national director of the Of­ ropolitan areas, Atlanta has" the poorest Ne­ area .surveyed the community asking people mented. gro population. Many of them live in this whether they had heard of the Economic Op­ fice of Economic Opportunity, called the city's area. What effect will the $6.3 million have? program "one of the shining examples in the portunity Act, Uie poverty program or the Probably the same as the other $6 i But the area covered by (he center includes Nash-Washington Center. The few that did nation fighting poverty." This latest grant plus: more of the same. As one Nash not only slums, but also a middle-class area respond in a non-negative manner said, in explained, "That $8.3 million will just g brings the total anti -poverty funds given to of small to medium sized homes. And the effect, I heard of that center,.what are they more big salaries." the city more than $13 million. center refused to locate in the heart of the ed to do? slum. It originally chose a building on the Challenge Status Quo The y m fa other cities have Tiie center recently opened a branch office o area but then decided rot the shim, area, but it was located right not bee.: .Mo h*\ lo set cos there. Thirteen million dollars can create a big So.apparently the federal government iscling- --ju the looeral housing projei t. program and a lot of political power. De­ Instead it located in a large home v ' A,; one woman in th d, "In pending upon who controls it, it might also n in a midi low root, the upset the moderate status quo fa Atlanta. But iple, and cl - of a mile from the c .. e shim. houses are kept up to standard, and in some those in power want to keep things for are that it will not be. Local program officials claimed that it was little or no gas or light bills. If the selves. And there are no strong, militant the only building available with adequate r wants to work there are low cost day community organizations to existence in At­ The program in Atlanta has ignored the space. Later they claimed that it would have care centers for the children. However these lanta's slums which can act effectively for main purposes behind the pi tressing been too expensive to remodel a building to people are the ones who get help from the themselves and challenge the status quo. I finding employment. There has also their requirements in the slum area, EOA and other government agencies." been a failure to involve people from the ever, officials from Washington said they If the poor could become actively involved poverty stricken areas in the program. would have approved money for this. This poverty program center still is not in the poverty program and this program had getting into the slums. more than token projects, such organizations In the white communities, the program has Power Struggle lr\ Program The center- has been called upon to help might develop. But right now in Atlanta— emphasized finding jobs at the minimum wage with housing problems. Recently one woman where voters just elected as the first Negro of $1.25 an hour. But in the Negro communi­ Only two persons from the area serve on with ten children received an eviction notice. alderman a slum landlord—all signs point to ties most of what few jobs have been found the staff. Both of them own their own homes The warrant had been served and the eleven success and growing power for the status quo have been at less than $1.25 an hour. And of them were lo be set out in 36 hours. She through the poverty program. these jobs have gone to the more skilled and are far from representative of the com­ munity as a whole. At a higher level there went to the poverty center for help. They If Sargent Shriver can call this a "shining applicants. Moo ver, there is not even any got her some government surplus food that program for training persons for specific jobs. are only white businessmen and members of example" then his dedication is not to the the Negro middle-class on the committee same day. But they were not p.ble to do any­ poor of the slums. It is instead to the pro­ There are four neighborhood centers in which controls the entire program. And those thing to deal with her eviction. A purely- fessional politicians and welfare leaders who existence at present. With the additional Negroes number two although Atlanta proper community effort, finally loaned her money have always had tilings their way.

Scientist Recommends Systematic Study To Discover Levers To Alter The 'System'

•0.t ,:-. O...:- JJ domestic .. i I e - T ETZIONI by the antipoverty drive are Negroes. What pert advice, consultants or advisory 1 same personnel over long periods. ic ln.cc rtfton ctrocc^vl in Hint llio nilicv rrvqini* 'Hi,,-, r,,-~Kl,„^ O- Hvat IMc tW*ifrht Ivmnf il-c^lf and she had five children back in Detroit. The man who wasn't convicted for killing ting them into Episcopal church services The man accused of killing her was de­ Mrs. Liuzzo showed up, along with Ala­ there. fended by the Klan lawyer, with Bobby bama's top KKK dragons, for another trial Coleman's lawyer told the jury: "I think Shelton sitting at the table beside him in at September's end. That was the trial you all outta thank God that you have a the courtroom. The man got off. - Bobby where 12 white men didn't convict Tom man like Tom Coleman in our country." Shelton said Mrs. Liuzzo should have Coleman for killing the young seminarian, So Tom Coleman's still part of Alabama. stayed home and taken care of her chil­ Jon Daniels, who'd worked with Selma Ne­ And Bobby Shelton's now trying to tell dren. groes and halfway succeeded in finally get­ Texans what to think. Q

Two Southern Reports hy Jerry DeMuth Mississippi: A War on Poverty or Civil Rights?

Atlanta, Ga. The paper then quickly pointed out. that The biggest threat to the civil rights MN ADDITIONAL $1.6 million in the C.D.G.M. stated it was "aggressively movement in Mississippi now is no longer Head Start funds went to the Child Devel­ complying" with racial integration. This the violent bands of night riders, it is the opment Group of Mississippi (C.D.G.M.) of course, has not been true of other fed­ federal government itself. through a grant to all-Negro Mary Holmes eral programs in the state. Already some $20 million in funds from Junior College in West Point, Miss. Using The presence of many civil rights activ­ the Office of Economic Opportunity has an /approach similar to last year's freedom ists in the C.D.G.M. program and its shar­ been approved by the federal office and school programs, C.D.G.M. operated 83 ing of quarters with the N.C.C. led Sen. okayed by Gov. Paul Johnson. Last winter, centers for over 5,000 children. About half John Stennis (D.-Miss.) to make charges when the "War on Poverty" program was the staff were former civil rights workers, against C.D.G.M. To end the resulting up­ beginning, Gov. Johnson stated, "We will many of whom had had freedom school roar, President Johnson ordered that use such funds as long as this program does experience. C.D.G.M. rented space for its C.D.G.M. move to Mary Holmes Junior not interfere with our traditional customs headquarters from the Delta Ministry College. The Delta Ministry center, mid­ and particular way of life." Activities fi­ headquarters of the National Council of way between Jackson and the Mississippi nanced through this money range from the Churches. River, is in the heart of the C.D.G.M. pro-, Head Start programs for pre-school chil­ The C.D.GPM. program led the Jackson ject area, and the college is located away dren this past summer to programs to edu­ Daily News, one of the state's two leading from everything, 20 miles from the Ala­ cate illiterate adults and retrain sharecrop­ newspapers, to quote an earlier editorial: bama border. Some staff members were pers whose jobs have been displaced by "However, as all federal programs are now willing to go along with the move, argu­ machines. These-programs are being run designed, here is one of the most subtle ing that even a weak program was better by the same power structure which has mediums for instilling the acceptance of than no program at all. Others—those with kept the state's Negroes down in a segre­ racial integration and ultimate mongreli-- civil rights experience—refused and won gated society. zation ever perpetrated in this country." out, and the strong program continued. Almost $7 million is going to the Cath­ olic diocese of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi P£lSlSiSl5l5!5lSlS!582SiFS!5S51SlS!SSS£i5i5l5l5!5cSiSlSlS° However, after this display of local de­ —$5.3 million from the Office of Economic mocracy resulting in a decision contrary Opportunity, $1.6 million from the Depart­ ON ORGANIZING to orders from Washington, it is doubtful ment of Labor—to educate illiterate adults. To sing so others hear whether C.D.G.M. will be able to get any Local officials dominate the staff. In the and join the song more money to continue its programs into delta, $5 million is going into a program requires a silence far inside the fall. Unlike other federally financed to retrain sharecroppers. The chairman of secured by suffering programs in the state, C.D.G.M. did not the board is an official in the State Sov­ and work to preserve the status quo. ereignty Commission, the official state in ease with solitude. segregation watchdog group; his assistant On the political front, President John­ is Aaron Henry, state NAACP chairman Perhaps son is pushing the new Democratic Coun­ and a former leader in the Freedom Demo­ the bugle call's cil, which is made up of moderate white and conservative Negro leaders. This is cratic Party. Over $2 million went to local a whisper passed along v communities this past summer for Opera­ a sigh swiftly shared. an attempt to undercut the support for the tion Head Start schools. The classes were Perhaps civil rights-oriented, integrated Freedom strictly segregated, with one exception. the song Democratic Party which is challenging the all-white reactionary state Democratic Classes at the Unitarian Church in Jackson is Party. Here too the administration wants were integrated. The pastor there is the sad. . Rev. Donald Thompson, who was recently something it can control. With rules against shot while entering his apartment building. TO M-ENDY—ON ORGANIZING II an all-white state party stemming from last year's party convention, the President Besides being conservative in content, to enter softly must fear that the F.D.P. will gain even these programs can also be used as a lever speak silently more support in the future and want to to halt or slow down civil rights activities. smile a freedom song stop it now. In Jackson, where over $200,000 went into the Head Start program/local Head Start to live revolt officials put pressure on Negro ministers. without the god of should FEDERAL PROGRAMS can cut During the demonstrations there early in off political support for the civil rights the summer, places were needed for meet- to transform pain . ings. Head Start officials warned Negro to a caress movement, strengthen the existing power ministers that if they permitted civil rights untying structure, lure away civil rights partici­ meetings, Head Start classes would not uniting .- unspokenly saying pants, and establish conservative programs meet at their churches and they would not for superficial change to undercut civil get Head Start money. Ministers complied. "I, too" CASEY HAYDEN j rights programs which attack basic situa­ • The Texas Observer tions. • &*%i 5J Fi f< a% as t ;: .: g»/Ma he •a 1 yus s L;VJ> (

x. i ' Little Kocfc «; Arkansas, but the main push was for voter picions. Poll watchers for Green were per­ Arkansas was the home for a civil rights registration. Arkansas is unique in this area mitted at only two of the 18 polling places project last summer different only in size ' of voting. Questionable voting procedures in the county. Though each person had from the one last year in Mississippi. It was .and political infighting have created havoc. written permission from Green to act as an outgrowth of two and a half years' work For three and a half months last spring his poll watcher, all that is needed under in the state by the Student Nonviolent Co­ the state did not have one registered voter. Arkansas law, they were turned away at ordinating Committee, the main force be­ • The situation has its roots in an amend­ 16 places with either no explanation or the hind the Mississippi project, but because ment to the state constitution that banned explanation that 'the permits were not the Arkansas movement did not involve the poll tax and made registration perma­ notarized. Notarization is- not required under state law. .'•'..•.' large numbers of volunteers or dramatic nent rather than yearly. (Adopted by the violence, it has been ignored. voters last November with the verbal sup­ The independent Election Research Coun­ port of Gov. Orval Faubus, this amend­ cil investigated the 1964 election and found Forty volunteers, roughly one-fourth of ment was actually opposed by the governor that over 30,000 of the votes cast, 8%, the applicants, helped the seven regular behind the scenes, according to some were, absentee votes. Many of those who S.N.C.C. staff members working from six sources here.) • The new registration voted absentee hadn't applied for absentee offices in 14 counties in the southeast sec­ was supposed to take place during the first ballots, which they must do according to tion of the state. This is the area where two months of the year, but those months state law. almost all of the state's Negroes are con: ended with a hassle over what information, centrated, an agricultural, primarily a cot­ In Poinsett County, according to the should be on the registration forms still > Election Research Council, 184 absentee ton-growing area similar to the Mississippi continuing. Without any registered voters, Delta on the other side of the river. ballots were sent to the same post office elections had to be postponed. box number. Patients at nursing homes The closeness to Mississippi leads Arkan­ and other institutions were voted absentee sas Negroes to make comparisons. They Age and residency are the only voting through the operators. In the Old River don't find themselves as badly off as requirements, but there are still problems Township in Pine Bluff, where S.N.C.C. Negroes in the Magnolia state, and they in registering Negroes. In the past county has been working for over two years, there are not much worse off than Arkansas sheriffs did the registering; under the new are only 39 registered voters; 53 persons whites, who make much less than Missis­ law this work is done by the county clerks. voted. sippi whites, so the Negroes in Arkansas Perspective voters must go to the county courthouse, which is difficult for Negroes County clerks blocked the G.O.P. from are often apathetic; but they have little to attempts to examine the voting records. be proud of. Despite its name, Arkansas is who normally lack the means of transpor­ tation or the time to make such a trip. In Faubus' home county, Madison, while not "The Land of Opportunity." The medi­ the G.O.P. was trying to examine the vot­ an yearly income for Negro families in The county clerk can go out into the coun­ ty, but this has been done only seldom, and ing records, the records were stolen from Arkansas in 1960 was $1,636: in Mississippi the courthouse. Someone had conveniently it was $1,444. At those levels the question then mainly in the predominantly white counties. In Lincoln County, which is 48% left the back door to the courthouse un­ is how much one starves. The income for locked that night. Madison County had. the Negro families in the cities of Arkansas Negro, the clerk let it be known that he highest percentage of absentee votes cast was $2,044, less than in Mississippi, where was going to two towns for a week each of all the counties, 11%. it was $2,100. to register people. The first week he Went to Gould, site of a S.N.C.C. project and 25 In Phillips County, where S.N.C.C. has a The atmosphere changes in Arkansas as miles west of Mississippi, and set up his one gets farther from Little Rock and project, only 301 applications for absentee office in the local Moose lodge. During the ballots were mailed out, but 835 persons closer to Mississippi. Middle-class Negroes first two days 300 Negroes and only 16 voted absentee. The Election - Research become"~*rarer, and whites become more whites showed up to register, whereupon Council studied 500 of the absentee voters; hostile. Reports of threats and beatings Moose officials ordered the clerk to leave 326 of the 500 were Negro, and of those v increase. Persons have lost jobs for enroll­ the building. He left the town and returned 326, 195 resided in Ward 4 in Helena. The ing their children in white schools or sup­ - to the county seat, never, to venture forth absentee ballots of many of these Negroes porting the civil rights movement. Police again. S.N.C.C. workers picketed and de­ were filled out by Jack and Amanda harass rights workers, following them,' manded he return to Gould, to no avail— Bryant, a Negro couple, in their home, stopping them, making false arrests, oc-. police raided the homes and businesses of which was not an official polling place. casionally beating them. As in Mississippi, five of the picketers. Mrs. Bryant signed the ballots and the police sometimes arrest the beaten and county sheriff was present at least part not the beater. . ,' Still, a large number of Negroes are of the time. Half of the Negroes who voted • The movement that has formed lacks registering. The next problem will be to at the Bryants were questioned by the the drive and militancy of the movement see that their votes are counted and fairly. Election Research Council and affidavits in Mississippi. Mass meetings don't reach A year ago a Negro was elected to the taken and 40 stated that they did not vote the emotional intensities of meetings across Dollarway school board in Pine Bluff. absentee of their own accord. Last winter the big river, and the background of some Other Negroes who ran with S.N.C.C.'s Jack Bryant became local head of the N.A.A.C.P. of the participants in Arkansas is middle- help lost, one of them under questionable class. I attended a meeting in Stuttgart, circumstances. William Green ran for the Arkansas, the "Rice Capital of the World." State House of Representatives in Lincoln WiHA T LIES AHEAD of the A smartly-dressed young woman made a County, home of Gould. There were then movement in Arkansas is hard but quiet strong plea for support of, the S.N.C.C. 1,800 registered Negroes in the county and work, political education, and the close workers; after the meeting broke up she 3,100 registered whites. Green got only watching of elections. This work in Arkan­ drove off with her husband in a new Bar­ about 1,000 votes. Persons who helped take sas lacks the drama to capture the interest racuda. Negroes to the polls, including Bill Hansen, and concern of the rest of the nation, but former S.N.C.C. project director for Ar­ for Negroes here it is no less important COMMUNITY CENTERS and kansas, believe that he should have gotten than the battle in Mississippi. J.D. freedom schools similar to those in Missis­ more votes than he did in many precincts, sippi were part of most of the projects in but they were not able to check these sus­ October 29, 29S5 • • 7 . The Gazette and Daily, York, Pa T Saturday Morning, December 8, 1962 -Hi a

Mechanization Of Agriculture Helps Anti-Vote Drive

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By JERRY DEMUTH it to be administered by local whites. many use, which eliminates the need for not discriminated at other plants and it is Many Negroes are denied houses. "We'll chopping, stunts the cotton plant's growth. hoped it will not discriminate here. The Somerville, Tenn.—Two years ago when be in this tent . . . it'll be two yeans in The important thing is that the need for wages will be S8-S10 a day, a lot for those 345 Negro families .were given eviction March," a housewife explained. "We can't Negro field labor is being diminished. So who have been working in fields for $2-$3 notices in Fayette County, Tenn. because find any house here. A family is looking m'amy families are receiving eviction notices •a day when they can find work. for a house for us in Henderson. My as a maneuver to drive them out of the they tried to register to vote, the attention counties. Three hundred families are ex­ Of the three small factories in Somer­ of a whole country was focussed on this husband wants Do stay here with the move­ ment, but I want to better my conditions." pected to be evicted in Haywood alone. ville, only one hires Negroes, though little- county in southwest Tennessee and another does have two Negro janitors. A Those who are not evicted outright are many organizations gave them -aid. Whites had '.openly stated that 'they factory in the southern part of the county evicted the Negroes because they had being told that they may remain on the hires no one but white women and once registered. But now the whites are using land. But: they are also told that there i.s when they needed more employes, rather Tent Cities were established in Somer­ no work for them. Without work how can ville and Moscow for some of the evicted other, safer reasons and are evicting all than hire Negroes, they hired white women the Negroes they can. whether the Negroes they stay, how cam they pay rent, how can from Mississippi. families. And one year later, when families gistered or not. they live? in Haywood County to the o were Some families have moved off the farms Negroes can seldom get local loans and evicted, another Tent. City was estat Negroes In Majority already and the owners have lorn down though they can get Small Business loans from Washington, these are seldom suffi­ in Brownsville. the houses so that no other Negro family These two counties are the only counties can replace them. The whites intend the cient However Negroes have started But now Fayette and Haywood counties in Tennessee in which Negroes are in the moves 'to be permanent. cleaning establishments in both counties. aoe almost forgotten. When they are rel majority. Fayette County is 78 percent •reel, people think of them in terms Negro and Haywood is 62 percent Negro. Some Negroes have had to go 40 miles Has To Go To Memphis of a victory for democratic lights. But it The whites want to drive out enough to Memphis to find work. Others have left Negroes to give them the white majority •their county to find employment. But And in Fayette, John McFerren, Civic isn't a vice:.!.'-'. The battle may have been league president, is constructing a new won, but the war may be lost they need to continue the control they have moving means losing one's voting rights always had of the counties. until new residence is established. building for his grocery and cafe. He still Many of the families may have managed has to. go to Memphis to stock his store to stay in their home county but the work It is feared that they may succeed. The If driving out Negroes by ending the and get gas for his pumps—a major oil by and for the Negroes has only managed secret of success is mechanization. need for a large number of farm workers company had pulled up its tanks—but he is '. i •• -•;) the situation in check while the is successful, the action will spread expanding rather than holding his own. v"h: 5, elded by their lawyers, have learn­ Cotton-picking machines are in the early throughout the South. And these means His new building will also include an office, ed r x tactics. stages of development. They do not pick could be use'el with more ease in a state store room, service garage with car racks, thoroughly and what they do pick brings a such -as Mississippi. and a laundromat. M y of the Negroes are denied jobs. lower price. They also need flat land to Factories can bring employment and "MO lustoand cen only work for Negro operate best and the land in the two members of the movement are trying to • In Haywood and Fayette counties, far: rs," one woman told me. counties is hilly. If machines are going to bring some industry to the two counties. Negroes are not only trying to register to Many of them are denied food. "We be used extensively the land must be bull­ But there is no guarantee that they will vote. They are also trying to create em­ i••• getting government food," another dozed flat or some areas cannot: be planted. have non-discriminatory hiring policies. ployment and income for themselves. They n said. "But that suddenly stopped •are fighting to bring progressive indus­ a month ago." This does not matter to the whites who The Civic and Welfare League in depres­ trialization to the South. And they are already own proportionately more machin­ sed Fayette County is working toward fighting against mechanization , painful A man from the federal government set ery than do farmers in. any other county. bringing in a plating factory under a when it normally develops, here destructive up the sin plus food program and then left Nor does it matter that the weed-killer government program. The company has as it its used viciously by the whites. ^eGrai-eiU CLKA^^rYo*\£P^ Wed "Dec.IS^i&feS. ' . ''-"•.'•:' a'.- '.-' £:* k.ay"' ."k'kk ' '"•" • - ""'-'0" '**"_.- .',-,"' k>. • ,"-' ,- -.' Existing U.S. Law Prohibits Exclusion From Jury Service ly Mesiss Clsesl Is Ssaffr " e-

By JESSY PEMI/nf .' P "y would permit a civil suit rather than a crim­ Michael 'Schwcrner in Philadelphia. Missy But preme Court in January with Solicitor Gen­ inal suit as the 1ST5 law provides. Again the be is responsible for the existing weak indict- eral Arduimld Cos arguing the case for tiie Because of the recent freeing of accused department was hesitating te act under nieiits on only misdemeanor charges. Justice Depar'tnent. Five' members of the , strong existing laws, -wishing instead for a £ free speech) liad been vio­ two year delay. . But thare already is a federal law which ter in the slaying of. seminarian Jonathan lated. Miss Carter dismissed the affidavits. forbids exdusion of Negroes Irons jury duty. Dsacels, Alabama Attorney Gtsjeral Bich- Reluctant Justice Department Has law has been in exisicisee since 1875 and mond Flowers issued a blistering, critical The department then attempted to indict statement, saying that racists foil they had the 17 persons inipUoated in the aiayings un­ However the Justice Department oor.sidere<3 provides for a $5,000 Site to be Imposed on a license to kill, that license had just been der Sections 241 a:od 242 before a grand jtrey ftis a victtsy; When (juostioned afesit the any- stale or fedora! official who does any­ given to them, and now that license mist be called by Judge Karold Cox. However t'uis doportmeirt's stolid by 3 lawyer tor 'She Mis­ thing to exclude Negroes from juries,... retrieved. However the Justice Department tiroe the doKirtrnont did not include tiie fact sissippi Freedom Democratic Party, Cox re­ didn't oven have observers at this trial and thai a federally oroated rigiit had been vio­ plied. "We won, didn't we? What more do we Since 1S50, the Justice Department has is­ •Atty. Gen. Katzenbach, speaking ten Wash­ lated. Because of this defense attorneys made want?" . sued irsirudions to U.S. Attorneys on at least ington, said that such decisions would happen a melion that the charges be dismissed since A fiiriiug of consiituticsnality wc'Ui-a 'also three separate occasions, asking them to re­ "awn time to lime." (They happen ail tho no federally created right had been violated. have eliminated the stow approach of proving port instances of the exclusion of Negroes Judge Cox did not dismiss the charges under the lows unconstitutional on a cuuniy by from juries. The U.S. Civil Rights Commis­ time a.s he should know.) Ke added Bat it sion had also suggested that iise 1875 law be was "the price you have ' to pay the Section 212 fa rnisdemeanor) but he «ns have very small farms, most of them The co-op owes its success thus far held out and they won. James, besides association. >m- bought from the federal government mainly to the persistence' of Rohert his work for the co-op, also got a part The success of this co-op would do which had possessed the land during the James, its secretary and assistant man­ time job in the local FHA office. He soon more than help its own members. It cal depression. Co-ops may be able to save ager. James majored in business ad­ helped a local sharecropper obtain an would show other Negroes with land a the some of these small farmers. ministration at; Mississippi vocational FHA loan to buy land and build a way out and it would give antagonistic has Negro farmers in Batesville have been college but had to drop out because of house. He thought of other ways in whites some second thoughts.

m UJOsU k&< Joartaal The Gazette and Daily, York, Pa., TJ] DITTO RIAL Tuesday Morning- March 1966 17

Letters From The People A Confirmed Segregationist Judge By JERKY DeMUTH held a Louisiana law requiring the race of own firm belief in segregation and discrimina­ WORLD OF DOUBLE THINK all candidates to be printed on ballots. tion and to invite others to hold and act out When U. S. District Court Judge E. Gordon such beliefs. Editor, The Gazette and Daily: In March 1963, he ordered East Baton Rouge West tossed out the Justice Department's first In September of the same year, West, at the Listening several days to the so-called Viet­ to produce a school desegregation plan. But voter intimidation suit on February 4, it then he went out of his way to state in his behest of Piaquemine authorities, issued an nam debate on T.V. left me in the same de­ should have come as no surprise to people opinion: "I personally regard the 1954 holding injunction to prevent CORE from continuing pressed mood I experienced when I read who know Judge West's background, or the of the Supreme Court in the now famous demonstrations in that eastern Louisiana town. George Orwell's '1984.' It was depressing to background of most federal judges in the Brown (school segregation) case as one of the He took this adion although only four months truly regrettable decisions of all time. earlier the Court of Appeals for the Fifth see how far we have already progressed South. . . Circuit, which is his judidal superior, had re­ toward the world of double think whose slog­ Tne suit, which had been tried last Decem­ "Its substitution of the so-called 'sociolog­ versed a similar injunction against CORE in ans are! War Is Peace; Freedom Is Slavery; ber, charged seven men and one corporation ical principles' for sound legal reasoning was McComb, Mississippi. That injunction had Ignorance Is Strength. of using economic reprisals against Negroes almost unbelievable. As far as I can see, its been issued by Judge Harold Cox, Kennedy's only real accomplishment to date has been to most notoriously racist judicial appointment. The debate was noteworthy for its evasions who registered to vote. Their actions included firing Negroes from jobs, terminating share­ bring discontent and chaos to many previous­ Cox, one time from the bench, went so far rather than its uncovered truths, Except for a ly peaceful communities, without bringing any as to refer to Negro voting applicants as' few brief intervals of honesty it was like a cropper agreements, imposing rent on houses for which ho rent had previously been charged real attendant benefits to anyone. "chimpanzees who ought to be in the movies trial in which only the prosecutor's side is rather than being registered to vote." heard. The durable, bland, imperturable and evicting Negroes from tenant houses. "And even more regrettable to me is the Rusk could easily parry all questions be­ fact that almost without exception the trouble (Cox was recommended to Kennedy by West didn't just rule against the government that has directly resulted from this decision cause he had the problem all wrapped up in in this particular case, he also went so far Senator James Eastland of Mississippi. East­ one simple little package of having to do in other communities has been brought about land also recommended President Johnson's as to state that the 1S65 Voting Rights Act was- not by the community involved but by^ the whatever is necessary to stop the enemy from a flagrant violation of the Constitution. most recent appointment, Dan Monroe Russell, doing what he is now doing, or we'll have to agitation of outsiders, from far distant states, another segregationist who recently shocked stop him later at a much greater cost. He West, who is from Baton Rouge, is a law who after having created turmoil and strife people by telling anecdotes about "colored kept returning to this theme with boresome partner of Sen. Russell Long. The late Presi­ in one locality are ready to move on to meddle persons" who appeared in his court.) monotony. Most of his questioners obviously dent Kennedy appointed him U. S. District in the affairs of others elsewhere." conscious of their political image studiously Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana on As long as presidents continue to talk of contrived their questions to bring out this Two months later, West was a member of civil rights from one side of their mouths and September 2, 1961. He wasted no time show­ a three-judge federal court sitting in New then name segregationists to the federal bench thesis also. Some of them in partial disagree­ ing what a confirmed segregationist he is. ment carefully hedged and skirted around the Orleans which struck down a Louisiana statute from the other side of their mouths, progress truth in fear of political reprisal. In 1962, with Judge Frank B. Ellis of New enforcing, segregation in hotels. Again West in achieving civil rights will be small and Orleans, another Kennedy appointee, West up­ went out of his way to state in his opinion his slow. One senator could not contain his exuber­ ance when expressing his deep humiliation that we should allow a small primitive nation like Vietnam to challenge our might. His man­ ner and speech implied that there is no ques­ The Creation Of A Railroad Octopus tion in his mind about the purpose of our nu­ clear arsenal. Lord help us, if our fate rests By DESMOND SMITH petitive Eastern railroad structure. conspired to finesse the railroads at every with his type! (From The Nation) The proposed Penn-Central merger pro­ turn. "The railroads can no longer consider vokes three important questions. They concern any traffic captive. One form or other of It was sad to watch several senators quake Over the past decade a series of seemingly the adequacy of Congressional measures in transportation offers competition • for sub­ at this fellow's suggestion that opposition to unrelated mergers have, in effect, created a dealing with the railroads; the current fi­ stantially all traffic which the railroads are continued escalation was equivalent to desert­ handling with long and short haul." ing our boys fighting over there. To me it is new entity in the market place, a group of nancial status of the Penn-Central companies, a stupid perversion of the meaning of patri­ giant regional railroad monopolies. Some ra­ and the public usefulness of the Interstate During the hearings, the eleven ICC com- otism to favor a course that would send a half tionalization nf the snrflwlinc TT ^ I-QIWO^ Commerce Commission as it nresentlv fnnc- Railroad Profit FioureS Existence Of Law Does Not Mafee Compliance Automatic In Alabama Disclaim Merger Reason Justice Department Ignores Vote Law By EDWARD P. CORWIN By JERRY DEMUTH up the number, although the total remained congressional subcommittee to drop its pro­ (From tabor) inadequate. posals for strengthening the injunctive powers' The bright financial picture of the nation's The Justice Department, in the recent elec­ Southern counties showed that they could of the Justice Department. railroads was highlighted recently by an ex­ tions in Alabama, has again created a diffi­ not be trusted to freely register Negroes just Howard N. Meyer, a former assistant to the traordinarily optimistic statement made by cult situation for itself by its own lack of as Alabama comities showed that they could U. S. Attorney General, strongly critidzed action under existing laws. not be trusted to conduct fair elections. Negro this attitude of the department's in a review President E. Perlman of the New York Cen­ poll watchers reported white officials wrong­ of a book by Burker Marshall,. Doar's pre­ tral at the annual meeting of the road's stock­ In Dallas County, the" seat of which is ly marking the ballot of an illiterate Negro decessor as assistant attorney general. holders in Detroit. Selma, racist Sheriff Jim Clark, who was up and told of delaying tadics so one could not Writing in Commonweal of December 11, for re-election, is challenging six ballot boxes immediately assume her duties, but instead Making a significant shift from "gloom and had to wait over two hours. But in three 1964, Meyer, with obvious irritation, stated, doom" pronouncements of the past, Perlman from Negro wards which gave him less than counties even federal examiners were pre­ ". . . Mr. Marshall's basic assumption . . . declared the railroad is in such good shape 100 votes. His opponent, Wilson Baker, re­ vented from watching polling officials mark seems to be that our federal system requires financially that "we are now depression- ceived almost 1500 votes. ballots for illiterate voters. tolerance of the denial of federal rights, per­ proof." He pointed out that the income of $27 petrated or permitted by state officials, for million a year from hotels and office build­ The Dallas County Democratic Executive The Justice Department has assumed that unspecified periods of grace." ings on NYC property in the heart of New Committee, backing up Clark, has ruled that just the mere existence of a law will make York city nearly pays all the system's fixed the ballots are not to be counted because the southern counties stop discriminating and act It is time for the Justice Department to charges, such as interest on debt. boxes were not watched by poll watchers all honestly. This attitude is not only wrong but stop playing patsy with southern racist of­ of the time. Willi these six boxes counted, it makes the department purely an agency ficials and to begin really acting like the en­ "On top of that, we have our cash flow- Baker would win. Without these votes, a run­ which tries to persuade officials to change, forcement agency it' is supposed to be. earnings plus depredation," he went on. "We off between the two would be necessary. or which tries to mediate the situation. But could go $41 million in the red in our net by its nature the Justice Department is an income and be even on our cash." The Justice Department has filed suit to enfordng agency, not an instrument of per­ have Baker declared the winner. However, suasion and mediation. Auto Exhaust Is Net NYC income after payment of taxes, the department did not have federal examin­ .interest and ail charges in April was 30 per ers watch any of these six boxes on election The department has continua1Iy taken this cent higher than the $2.7 million figure for day although it could have done so under the go slow approach, hoping that local dtizens A Political 'Hot-Potato' the same month last year, he said. More­ 1965 Civil Rights Act. and officials will suddenly, without pressure, over, he expects such gains to "go on in­ dedde to comply fully with federal laws. It (From The New York Times) definitely." The department sent federal examiners into also has preferred minimum enforcement of only seven Black Belt Counties in Alabama. Los Angeles—The hard realities of politics For the first quarter of the year, NYC net recent weak dvil rights laws to enforcement But even in these counties at least one-third threaten to delay for at least 10 years the income was $7.6 million, up 398 per cent over of the ballot boxes were not watched by fed­ of order and stronger laws, rooted in the post the 1965 period. eral examiners. Civil War Reconstrudion Period and written presently possible amelioration of an import­ to deal specifically with intimidation of and ant portion of the growing air pollution prob­ As one stockholder remarked after the Assistant attorney general John Doar, who discrimination against Negroes as still exists meeting, as reported by the New York Times: heads the department's rivil rights division, today. lem in the United States. "Merger probably is no longer needed, with explained that few examiners were sent to The Justice Department has even halted This is the firm opinion of some of the everything coming up roses." The stockholder Alabama because the department wanted to moves toward improving civil rights in the ranking experts who have been coping with was referring to the merger with the Penn­ give local officials a chance to, of their own South. the problem here. sylvania which now has the approval of the accord, condud fair eledions. Interstate Commerce commission, but re­ Robert Kennedy, while attorney general, Their reasoning is simple. A major source quires final stockholder approval before it can This is the same attitude the department again and again stopped the Civil Rights Com­ of smoa is automobiles. Starting late next be put into effect. That will be sought at a took last summer when it sent few federal mission from holding hearings in Mississippi. year, federal law will require fume-suppress­ special stockholders' meeting later. registrars to southern counties under the 1965 The commission wasn't able to hold hearings ing equipment on all new cars. But around Civil Rights Act. It eventually had to step until just a year ago. Kennedy also forced a 90 per cent of the 90 million vehicles on the Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania, after win­ nation's highways are used cars. ning approval of a merger with the Central, Jerry DeMuth Box 9036 - Station 3 Atlanta, Georgia 30314 \9

Selma: Changing Taotica

Selma— hen Sheriff James Clark stopped getting the headlines on Selma, Public Safety Commissioner Wilson 3aker began getting them. But they were of a different kind, and they were smaller and buried on the inside pages, almost unseen. For while Sheriff Clark has stopped marches with mass arrests and night sticks, Baker had used pleadings and only occasional arrests, orderly arrests. News stories have been quick to pra*se the actions of Baker. And these actions have been an improvement over the actions of Clark. But the stories have forgotten one thing: that the aims of both ran is the same—to stop Negro progress. As Baker recently boasted, "I'm a segregat"onist." There is worry among civil ri hts workers that the situation in Selma may become similar to the situation in Albany some two years ago. In that southwest Georgia town, Police Chief Pritchett —«h»n other police officials were using cattle prods, dogs and hoses—simply arrested anyone who attempted to march or picket. His arrests, without violence, were praised. But they prevented a strong movement from developing. The mass arrests also kept down 2 pressure to integrate the town. No demonstrations could occur. Albany didn't take the ^irst steps to ard integration until after the 196U Civil Rights Act. Many Selma white citizens have realized that brutal actions bring headlines and headlines bring demands for federal action. Thus: no headlines; no demand for federal action; no federal action; little change in the way of life. A white man in a bar commentei, "Hell, there's no headlines when Baker's in charge. He knows how to kedp things calm." On March 19» a group of white ministers and other civil rights supporters attempted to picket the home of the mayor. Baker and the city police prevented the picketing from even getting started. "I'm going to take you into protective custody," Baker told one of them, Father Prater. "You poor sick father," he commented. "I'm going to take you to a mental institution. You're sick." This feeling is little different from Sheriff Clark's. But Clark would have driven the group of 300 off with club-swinging possemen. Baker arrested the group, promptly and efficiently. Thus the group still was prevented from picketing. If Clark had been there with his posse, there would have been headlines and the country would have known that injustice existed. But without headlines no one knows of this incident and no one cares. This is one of the sad aspects of modern life. It takes headlines and brutality to make people aware of injustices. And only brutality brings headlines. So with Baker in charge and the repression of the freedom r1Hv« mil**. no nn« will lmow. no on« will nnne. And the Nflsroes of Selma will soon be cut off from the rest of the country— forgotten—and left to wage a struggle by there elves with no outside support against a powerful political and economic structure still determined to preserve the segregationist status quo.

# # # FREEDOM INFORMATION SERVICE

MAILING AOWESS: Box 120 Teagaloo, Miss. 39174 PHONE: 6013535575 or 691 362-7989

July 26, 1966 Mr. Jerry DeMuth 3223 Ernst Street Franklin Park, Illinois 60131 Dear Mr. DeMuth: Charlie Horwitz of Delta Ministry called me today about your request for information on gerrymandering of Mississippi Congressional districts. He had just gotten the letter, somehow not given to him in the three weeks since it was sent. His apologies for * the delay. There's not all that much in the way of proof, mostly some interesting reports of legislative dialogue on the subject. This of course in addition to the actual content of the suit itself, which I assume you have seen. Legal info available from ICDC, 601 North Parish Street, Jackson, Miss. Hope these will be some help, and not too late. Memphis Commercial Ippeal, January 31, 1966, by Kenneth Toler: "Opponents of the House bill sponsored by Representative Kenneth Williams of Clarksdale charged on the floor it was drawn to devalue the Negro vote in counties along the Mississippi River. However, Representative Williams said it was drafted in line with the United States Supreme Court's •one man-one vote' guideline." Jackson Daily News, March 8, 1966, by James Bonney, AP: "Rep. Thompson McClellan, Clay, urged defeat of the House plan by saying, 'the Senate bill is in much better shape to present to the courts. You're just walking in the face of defeat if you pass the House version.' .Rep. Clyde Burns, Alcorn, said the House plan "had a little too much discrimination to be ignored.1 ...The House came under fire w$en it passed its plan originally. There were charges it was an effort to gerrymander the districts to set up white majorities in each. This, some charged, would not stand up in federal courts." DeMuth - 7/26/66 - page two

Jackson Clarion ledger, April 1, 1966: "Most senators agree that unless one heavily-Negro majority district is established, the government will knock the redistricting plan out through the federal courts." Jackson Clarion-Ledger, January 14, 1966, by Charles M. Hills: "Rep. Odie Trenor of Chickasaw, an opponent whose county is in the first district that not now include Delta counties, asked backers 'did the Negro situation enter into this redistricting plan?' He got no answer and said, 'We all know the Negro situation was the main factor.' He said civil rights forces in Washington had already drawn papers to present to the U.S. Supreme Court to attack it if it is signed into law." Delta Democrat-Times, Februaru 15, 1966, UPI: "The bill placed the Senate at odds with the House of Representatives, which earlier passed a redistricting plan that would set up five new districts with white majorities. Race was a key factor in most of the amendments, and one attempt to amend the measure was called an effort to gerry­ mander the rising Negro vote. Alexander's bill would leave the chopped-up 2nd District with a Negro population majority. The first amendment considered was one by Sen. Walter V. Moore of Oakland which would almost duplicate a measure passed earlier by the House, setting up five districts with white population majorities. Sen. William Burgin of Columbus called this a plan to gerrymander the Negro vote and predicted it would never stand up in court and would possibly result in the unseating of Mississippi's congressional delegation. 'While this amendment would successfully gerrymander the Negro vote, it would, in my opinion, result in the loss of all our congressmen,• Burgin said. He warned that the Freedom Democratic party, unsuccessful in a 1964 attempt to unseat the delegation, 'can take this same contest back to the House of Representatives and this time they will have a constitutional basis for it.' Please send us copies of any articles you write on Mississippi. Freedom,

(VQP&) Jan Hillegas LAWYERS CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION SOUTHERN OFFICE 603 NORTH FARI8H STREET, JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 30202 (SOI) 948-4191 ALVIN J. BHONSTEIN, STAFF COUNSEL

August k, 1966

Mr. Jerry DeMuth 3223 Ernst Street Franklin Park, ILlinois

Dear Mr. Demuth:

In answer to your letter of August 1, a compromise bill similar to the Senate bill was passed on April 8. Our attack on this new redistricting has been heard by the court but no decision has come yet.

I am enclosing a copy of the court's order declaring the legislative apportionment to be unconstitutional.

Since

ronstein

AJB:jb

NATIONAL OFFICE: 156 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK 10010 • (212)YU 9-7530 • CONTRIBUTIONS TO LCDC ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE FREEDOM INFORMATION SERVICE Box 120 Tougaloo, Mississippi 39174 August 4, 1966

Mr. Jerry DeMuth 3223 Ernst Street Franklin Park, Illinois 60131

Dear Mr. DeMuth,

Charlie implied that you already had info on the reapportionment suit filed by FDP and the legislative stuff. That's why I just covered the one angle before. A reapportionment bill was passed which left one district with a Negro majority. The Second Congressional District covers the northernmost counties. The First District is the next layer (from east to west border) under that, and the First has the Negro majority. Assuming you have a map, I enclose figures from the recent primary, arranged by the new districts. We don't have any particularly "regular" anything, but the materials enclosed were sent to one person from each county a few days ago. I'll put you on the list for other things that might be of interest, too. FIS Resume is in case you know any people with money who would like to contribute to our general well-being, which is rather up and down as a rule. If you have occasion to write for further info, could you let us know just what you do and for whom or what? Didn't get that too clear from what Cfaarlie said.

Sincerely,

fan Hillegas

7 Enc. LAWYERS CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION SOUTHERN OFFICE 603 NORTH FARISH STREET, JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 30202 (eOl) 948-4191 ALVIN J. BHONSTKIN, STAFF COUNSEL August 11, 1966

Mr. Jerry DeMuth 3223 Ernst Street Franklin Park, Illinois 60131 Dear Mr. DeMuth:

In answer to your questions in your letter of August 7: 1. The bill as passed contained one district with a slight Negro population majority. , However, the population over 21 is^white.^t \o*k-\ 2. The Senate nesrer passed a bill that contained five white-majority districts. 3. At least one of the old districts had a Negro majority. I do not know off hand if more than one did.

h. Argument was heard July lk or 15. Yours truly,

Michael Krinskty MK/em

NATIONAL OFFICE: 156 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK 10010 • (212)YU 9-7530 • CONTRIBUTIONS TO LCDC ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE The Gazett< >aily York, Pa. . rnuay Miviorning , uctooe-,; r i •

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' ( -o oo C% I* 11r a f% "• \ ':': ,-. file I si I *. I By JERRY BeMfc'TH and whose votes he undoubtedly picked up is It Treason" and lies own "American However, early in 1935 Maddox closed trie James Gray, editor and publisher of the hys­ Patriots." cafeteria and opened a furniture store. Lester Maddox's win in the Democratic terically racist Albany Herald and chairman He also sold Confederate flag auto tags In attacking the 1964 Civil Rights act, Mad­ gubernatorial run-off in Georgia should not of the Georgia Democratic Parly. Exactly emblazoned "I Stand with Pickrick" and dox always referred to President Johnson's have come as a surprise. Simply adding up two years ago, when Maddox closed his Pick- "Pickrick Drumsticks." The latter were ax opposition to the bill when he was a senator. the votes that went to racist candidates in rick Restaurant rather than integrate, James handles in three sizes, daddy, mamma and But new the president was considered a Gray joined Maddox at a special program "renegade." the primary showed that Ellis Arnall would junior, to be used against Negroes who came which Maddox described as "the last rites of to the restaurant. have had to capture part of the segregra- freedom, liberty and independence." Maddox said that the act "is unGodly, un- On one occasion this writer saw Maddox's American and unconstitutional, plus being in­ tionist vote to beat Maddox. spired, initiated, financed and directed by the His Friends young son dragging one of these ax handles, The support that Arnall did gain surprised as big as himself, while running after several Communists." this writer, a one-time Georgia resident. • On July 4, 1964, the day the Civil Rights Negroes Maddox had chased away at gun­ Civil rights workers, according to Maddox, Arnall had not recently been in politics; Mad­ act was signed into law, Maddox was one of point. "I'm going to get me a nigger," the are "Commun st-inspircd, directed and sup­ dox had — not in formal politics, although he the speakers at- a Patriots Rally in Atlanta. boy proclaimed. ported racial agitators." had run for Atlanta mayor and Georgia lieu­ Speakers proclaimed that it was to be a new tenant governor and lost. Lester Maddox was independence day — a day when the South Maddox closed the Pickrick, smashed the His Comment On Killing a political figure because of his restaurant declared its independence from the federal sign on a main thoroughfare which announ­ policy, his weekly ads in the Atlanta Con­ ced its presence to travelers, and reopened After the four girls were killed in the Birm­ government. Maddox was joined by Gov. ingham church bombing, he asked, "Did the stitution, his appearance before civic groups, George Wallace of Alabama, former - as the Lester Maddox Cafeteria. Even his southern variety, and has appearance with ads, in which he attacked "unGodly, Com­ race mixers bomb the church?" He saw the sippi Gov. Ross Bawiett, Georgia Citizens bembir. act to gain sympathy for the i leaders. Hie civic groups included Council leader Roy Harris, and others, who munistic civil -rights," were headed "Lester the Cbar'eston, S. C, chapter of th National Maddox says" instead of "Pickrick says." cause (of integration) and further the Com- e whipped the CWH a racist fury im of racial amalgamation for Association for the Preservation of White that they attaeke In an attempt to bypass the 1964 Civil People of which he was an honorary mem­ several Negroes come to the rally Act, Maddox sold the cafeteria does ber. and threatened the lives of whites who they not "want any integrationists, regard! "Dark led men were seen in the vicin­ suspected o£ not being racists, including This race, creed or color; and we do not offer ity of the i 1 . dh bombing," Maddox ox:' Maddox will face Republican Rep. Howard "Shame on you," Maddox proclaimed, "Bo" Callaway in November. Progress will writer. to serve interstate travelers because the gov­ ernment denies your right to eat here, by "high public officials in the City of Atlanta, be the loser no matter who wins for Callaway At the rites presided over by Maddox and State of Georgia, Federal Government; other is a southern Republican, that is, a strong Gray, M iddox established a "private prop­ refusing to let us operate our business-segre­ gated if we offer to serve you." major city and state officials; local and na­ conservative and segregationist who won be­ erty rights monument" where he buried a tional newspaper and magazine publishers and cause of the racist appeal of Barry Gold- casket containing copies of the Declaration Of course, any Negro who went there to leading radio and television stations who have water in 1984. of Independence and U.S. Constitution. Mad­ eat would automatically be an integrationist. championed the communist cause of racial Even if Maddox loses, the former restaur­ dox prayed to God that "Thou would lead us integration for America that has resulted in to victory over the Civil Rights Act of 1964." .. "When you buy a meal at the Lester Mad- ant owner will still be a top man in the state ' dox Cafeteria," he explained, "in addition to the violence and death in Birmingham and Democratic Parly and will control the many other cities across the U.S.-"•; ._ . At Maddox's restaurant, the Pickrick, the wonderful food at reasonable prices, you get Georgia delegation to the Democratic Na­ specialty was fried chicken, but the racist a dose of freedom, liberty, constitutional gov­ This is what the people of Georgia have tional Convention in 1968. also sold right wing literature — including ernment and American Free Enterprise Sys­ voted against, and the man they have voted One racist who Maddox beat in the primary "A Texan Looks at Lyndon," "None Dare Call tem at no extra charge." for.

Can Britain Help 'De-Escalafe' Vietnam War?

Ask ef Infests World Polif -:.: - V By ANDREW ROTH reputation he desperately wants to make as Vietnam situation has now reached a new President Johnson would probably like a a world-shaking Foreign Secretary: Britain's -.situation in which a feasible solution is closer preliminary peace move cf substance to London — Britain's new Foreign Secretary entry into the Common Market and the settle­ tlian anything before. But if the opportunity "sweeten" this November's elections and cer- George Brown was showing considerable signs ment of the Vietnam conflict. Britain's entry is missed it seems clear that further escala­ wants to be able to-withdraw before he of strain on the eve of his trip to the United into the Common Market is, by common tion is not excluded. himself conies up for reelection in 1568. But, if he cannot move toward peace there is the States. During his nine-day visit he is ex- nent among even such pro-E.E.C. en- ts as Brown, impossible for the time 'Qualitative Change' danger that lie will listen to the many, now to see President Johnson and Secre­ being. Therefore (here is only Vietnam. The new situation began on September 28 including ex-President Eisenhower, who tary of State Rusk as well as address the when Nguyen Huu Tho, political chief of the ugh a number of U.S. •' al Assembly of the U.N. and ed The tempestuous new Foreign Secretary is beration Front, had broadcast over gists aro willing to gamble en Chii well aware : ing" in lee 0] v -••;'-; and the Economic Club Hanoi radio an interview with Australian :t is very dai '• particular- a : Wilfred Bu I Com- redt. : - i The Ga Da IIV. k, Pa. Monday Morning, October 24, 1965 ' iL ..- x_e:-,'.:...

KKK U, orgs, Thoccits, Beekeejs £$:d . ' : Almost Daily Ft asive rear By JERRY DeMUTH there was the reason why only four Negroes Only a month earlier both Mr. and Mrs. In Hardeman to the southeast a Negro was ran as candidates, while 21 Negroes ran in Jackson had been fired from their jobs be­ shot and kil ed while handcuffed. Ihe right to vote, after seven years of Fayette County. cause of their voter registration work. Twice struggle, is still a battle for Negrcc in Hay­ in past years the family had been evicted be­ In Collierville, a town just outside the west­ wood County, Tennessee. Last May 16, the home of one of Haywood cause of their vote drive activities. ern edge of Fayette County, which is south County's Negro leaders, Odell Sanders, was of Haywood County, a Negro was shot at by Negroes first attempted to register in 1959 bombed. Two other homes were shot at that Other families were afraid to give them a white cafe owner and then charged with but were denied the right to do so. Teen •night and several crosses were burned. shelter. disturbing the peace. Negroes had been boy­ in 1960 when they began to gat registered an cotting white-owned stores in Collierville, economic boycott was established and many "They say they don't want their house Forced Out Of Business burned down too," Mrs. Jackson commented. were lacked off the land. Late in 1960 a Government Action? Tent City was established in neighboring Sanders had been driven out of the grocery Two days after the Jackson home was Fayette Cously and in 1962 a second Tent City business six years ago because of his voter burned, the car of a civil rights worker was shot at frcm a pick-up truck. The Justice Department has received com­ was established" in Haywood County. The registration activities. After the bombing, his plaints from Haywood County Negro leaders tents were home for dozens of evicted Negro insurance company cancelled the policy on his That same week a white man was caught and has investigated some of the burnings. families, enabling them to remain in the home. attempting to pour gasoline on a Negro-owned But no other action has been taken. counties and use their votes. One woman whose home was shot into that store. Several Negroes chased him but the In 1951 with Negro majorities on the voting night said that she stayed away from the man escaped over a barbed wire fence, leav­ Although Hie violence has brought Negroes rolls in Fayette County, whites resorted to next meeting of the county Civic and Welfare ing the seat ex his pants and his false teeth to, according to one witness, "a state cf per­ official Negro poll watchers and League. behind. vasive fear," the struggle has not been lot boxes. The Justice Department "I didn't want anything to happen to my The next week two new homes, one almost abandoned. In the long run, the barrier to ithing and gave the run around to a children while we were away from home," finished, the other just finished but unoccu­ Negro advancement and representaitton is r of people including a college professor Mrs. Maud Mabon, explained. "Where these pied, were burned. They were "too good for : . lie, not physical violence. in Tennessee lo help wilh tee el K.K.K. are running up and down the road, • " according to the.Klan. Violence won't stop Negro progress, a. we don't have our mind on nothing but trying id con- In Augusl there was an attempt lo burn economic factor that may is the one I . ave cur lives." another home. '. throughout the South—incre : in both counties finally Since that night almost a dozen other homes mechanization coupled with cotton allotment elected their own candidates. In August seven ywood County have been bombed or Also, since file August' election, ever half cut-backs which reduce the number and length «tte County and two Negroes burned. a dozen Negro families have been evicted. of jobs so that Negroes who cheese to remain pwood County were elected count; On July 20 flames destroyed the home of There has also been violence in neighboring have even less of a future. id County winner, Dan the Buck Jackson family. Mrs. Jackson "counties. Economics is already having its effect In Nixon, had had the Tent City on his fc happened to be awake when she saw flames In Tipton County to the west, a Negro man Haywood County. By 1908, the next election However violence — bombings, siioo'hye, outside and so the family was able to safely was beaten so badly after enrolling his year, it may have ended the Negro voting beatings—have reached a new high, mainly escape. The house however was burned to the daughter in an integrated school that he lost majority with the Negroes never having be­ in Haywood County. A resurgence of the Klan ground. the sight of one eye. come part of the county's political structure.

A Chance To Be A Little Mouse Under LBJ's Desk For / "hi te I *se / ointment By J. THEODORE HEFLEY a number from one to ten. double it and know. Dean, you're looking pretty preoc­ and get this—"not to escalate the war, but (From The Christian Century) add a million." cupied lately. rather to bring it to a conclusion." Editor's Note: Dr. Hefley is asso­ R: Say, I remember that song! Catchy lines. R: I guess you're right. Mr. President. Some­ R: Masterful! ciate professor of history at Eastern Maybe we could do something with it. times I look at myself and wonder if I J: At least! really want this iob. Michigai I Ity in Yvsilanti. J: Yen think so? We're sure pull'ng out all R: Say. maybe I can say that. too. I must the stops. We'll si s if it'll just stop J: Weil, the day of creative secrete adroit those app-esse-rs and pinkos have J: Come in, Dean; I need your sec; 1 this i coarse you noticed Hu- state is over. At least during my adminis­ really nailed me on escalation. Ft paint of view. Tell me this: How's the and I did a lot of justifying—I mean tration. I haven't had an answer to it. But now the c war? explaining—just before the Foua Hi cf July. R: I can understand fiat. A secretary of stale I'm going to blame North Vietnam , not b"d at nil. I R: And- Kxr's Canferaice. i calatii :--, Our oil strikes are mere­ cation : : e ' the polls? Is my • the fellows over in the Pentagon. ly responsive . . . le are bee . 3e we J: Cca Pentagon's the 1 ' J: To mov< I : L • .o is now. ' let ftie tell you som< 11 w. And I'll tell :• • • sties. As a n 1: ' '

nn i.-ie:i fjmt *eer.-e or»r to pri s-.-.r..;.-; 7, 1966

-'OOf

By .JE38Y DeMUTH made up cf FDP leaders. CDGavs applica­ for the thousands of children who p CBGM's original grant was $12 million for The office of Economic Opportunity on Oc­ tion ton its original grant wees endorsed by paled was what die program did for , seven s in summer of Fl tober 3 terminated the Child Development the Delia Ministry of the National Council CDGM beiieved in "maximum feasible par- ran out in September but CDGM was not re­ of Churches, which is opposed by racist Mis­ Son of the poor." Community people- funded until Febraary when it received $5.8 Croup of Mississippi (CDGM), the state's not middle-class community "leaders" — ran largest Head Start project sissippians even meae hysterically than SNCC million for six months. CDGM's grant was and other civil rights groups are opposed, the program, teaching, planning programs, never renewed at the end of that six month In so doing the OEO said "no" to those .ifrrs for CDGM was Jit, e e •"•''•'; -leiieuiir-ee "vsorSi a .d so on. It period. The program received additional who attempt to radically involve the poor Bculalt. a center owned by the Delia Ministry helped them develop skills and abilities so money fcr a few weeks and then ail support and said "yes" to the southern politicians and used as a httse for many civil rights that they could not just escape poverty, but was dropped. who have fought Sits type of. involvement and activities. also be able to bring about a more just so­ ciety. A Year In Tha Making who have fought CDGM since its inception a CDGM was in a way part of the civil rights year and a half ago. movement. But it was part: ci the more recent Because CDGM was run by the commu­ But OEO has been preparing tor IradUiaml CDGM is being replaced by a new, bi- aspect of the movement, the part which saw nity poor who lacked experience in paper­ Head Start schools to take over since a year racial group which President Lyndon Johnson poverty related to discrimination, racial in­ work, and because money was given io tits ago. It feen recognized a poverty program helped establish. This is'obviously part of the justice, and second-class attitudes and treat­ eonmuuuties to spend as they saw fit, and zation in Bolivar County and gave it president's attempt to keep Mississippi in ment. Thus the problems > " > 3 and account for later, finaoe-ei records were not Eunds CDGM never received any rnoym funds moderate hands (Gov. Paul Johnson meeting poverty cannot be separated as OEO 5s try­ of the kind that GEO, with its traditional to operate in that county. The program the president's definition of a " ing to do, and cs soma poHUcal columnists views, said they must have. It was on these was new in lite hands of the white est: out al the control cf liberal elei have tried to do. is feat GEO publicly slated it had based - [is decision io stay financing CDGM, OEO of the FJ >euom Dc Outgrowft Of Freedom Movemonl' claimed there were irregularities wlriio at the Last spring the OEO fended another esiab- same time praising CuGM for its work. B::i: lishment-run program hi Sunflower County. i. eafJ/ President Johnson helped es- CDGM was an outgrowth of the freedom in reaching its decision, the latter was of no Btyce Alexander wets appointed di tcib'i'tt Ikft "' issippi Democratic Cong schools which formed such a Is eye and im- concern lo OEO. • Alexand poBce in Indianola, Mia «,iwipi summer proj­ of Mis: issippi' •jTjjp etc only alternative to ect of 1S64. "It was a radically conceived pr­ ith the police part of that atmosphere. (Sen. S. .cist see: Democratic organization. In "CDGM did a wonderful thing for the S'?00 offered lis participants, most of whom Eastland is from Sunflower County.) efforts the president is working with •ho attended c iters (in • >)," ex­ are civil rights activities, new tools for com­ CDGM had ova- 6,000 students enrolled in I'griKjr Paul Johnson. plained Dr. Gerald Rosenfield of Be munity organization," explained Miss Joan its Head Start schools in some 84 commu­ Opposition to CDGM began in summer of Calit, who worked with die program. "The Bowman, a whits Misaissipp'tan who worked nities in 1965. This year the cumber je i ' • '. 1965 when the program began. Sen. Join intention of the program was not merely to with CDGM. "It offered both parents and to over 9,000 in 125 comrom Sierras (D., Miss.}, who sits on the appro­ give them a head start in technical seaming teachers a direction away from a state edu­ priations committee which bandies OEO re­ skills. If was to give them a senso rf cation system unworthy of tiee name. It: en- CDGM cannot continue on litis scale with­ quests, and Rep. John Bell Williams (D., own individuality and. worth. cod the exciting notion of community out government funds so now thousands rf Miss.) led Site attack. Sett, Biennis twice made participation in education rather than turn­ children will be left with nothing but Head his own investigations of CDGM. This past "'.Lie year will hie the best year o! school­ ing education over to the professionals," Start schools which merely mold them for • summer Sen, James Eastland joined in the ing that most of them will ever have, and fee 'inferior schools they will soon bo enter­ CDGM produced its own educational ma­ ing. attack. And the OEO itself got college stu­ perhaps the spark it plants in them will ea- terials because. of the lack of adequate ma­ dents to pose as civil rights workers and able them to do something about their lives terials. Its health program gave children not OEO may want to end poverty. But it spy on CDGM, when they come of age." just physical examinations, but also treat­ wants to do it without upsetting the sysem Many of CDGM's local leadership was But more important than what CDGM did ment. that creates that poverty. r% srs Of led Force;

& leratksevaeesee . poetry newspaper •ca;-c dee iding to leave 10 b p-ad lease from tita : was dedicated i Gcvi delpMa tha possible r» " without es One issue •ge Loude Pennsylvania, "to Jesus Christ aa 1 other sulrversives" . He long • V pert fully oa tl enc ..'"": v er 1,9 . - • ers •; of :itt-.t in lis; cid'tsiy who are- sveeeweii!: Mt Camp Lejeune o rsarficiip; i aa a«ti- igb he re; 1 en Gitucsira- IV were >rti face five year war rally in Mow Y rk City, an et was axresc-tr ;chaj -, Louden i lad to- cs ixO of themselves conscientiously imatile to contiw .) shortly after annou ft; ation. Sometimes, a CO a tenoes !f c. rsces a? fee :ii g iiai he was rev Ft. .ca siockad \ .... i iviiias o tho Marine 0 i charges have virtually ceased i» be grants Ft. Hood th to an automatic ;e io face 1si s punisamei , ' ii e:e. v y after two review and eaice to a higher "X will effuse to wear the i he veor any rail iaj / fee 0 Pvt. H. 'A In -he- :- vo L-t. Co; the to S.C at e:n~ The Gazette and Daily, York, Pa., Saturday Morning, April 1, 1967 17

Southern Die-Hards Maintain The Pace .)::)°::] \/; ^bm;3 By JERKY DeMUTH school and the home of a white CDGM em­ to say he beat another man info making a Grenada for a meeting of civil rights leaders. ployee in Covington. confession that led to the indictment. The One was a NAACP lawyer, the second a New Chicago—The recent publicized violence in In Humphries county a shotgun blast fired prosecutor, Travis Buckley, is defense attor­ York University law student, and the third an Mississippi and Alabama—the bombing death from a passing car destroyed the left eye of ney for the indicted man, Bi'vvay R. Pitts. official with the Federal Community Relations of Wharlest Jackson in Natchez, Miss.; the a 13-year-old Negro girl whose mother is Pitts, with 11 others, is charged with fee fire Sendee. This was the Bell Flower Church bombing of a Head Start office in Liberty, active in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic bomb slaying of NAACP leader Vernon which was recently fire bombed. Party and in CDGM. Dahmer in Hattiesburg in January 1966. Also in Grenada in July, Constable Grady Miss.; the fire bombing of a Negro church in In Grenada, a blaze destroyed the Bell j during January 1966 fire destroyed a Carroll struck a lawyer who was trying to Fort Deposit, Ala.; and the fire bombing of a Flower Church which housed the office and supermarket in Natchez owned by the mayor, serve him with a federal court subpc KU former church now used by an anti-poverty records of the local freedom movement. target of the Ku Klux Klan and Americans Other incidents that occured in Grenada that group in Hayneville, Ala.—do not form a new Police wouldn't lot church officials enter the for the Preservation of the White Race who summer received wide publicity. ruins for two days, apparently until they considered him a moderate. wave of violence in the South. Police Club Negroes finished examining the remnants of tha And on the night of January 3, more than These incidents are merely more in a con­ records. 100 Klan crosses blazed across fee state. They include the clubbing of Negroes by tinuing series that has been going on for Teachers Threatened In early February 1966, the Freedom House state police at the county courthouse July 10; years. Only the glare of publicity is gone now in Kosciusko was shot into and two weeks the tear gassing by state police cf a voter that ii white volunteers are no longer Two knife wielding white men burst into the try 19, d, : stroyed a registration rally August 8; and fee Septem­ ippi. That these four incidents have ' sippi Action for Progress 1' small ber 13 attack on Negro pupils who were trying : them appear to be c in Wa; I and tine- The church had recently been rebuilt after nd newly integrated schools. / wave. kill ie lii'e 15 children looked on. having been burned in 1934. In August in Shubuta, state and local police tin in Wayne County, nightruJers shot In June a community center in Bolton, and civilians clubbed and chased Negro After the murder of" Jackson, NAACP state : of 60 year o'd Mrs. Chester home , until they all had fled the town. field secretary Charles Evi -1 in - her who ' i ] in this atmosphere feat candidates for . slop? for the local Head ids. : office presently include: 1 ready progi Oil June 10 in Natchez, three white men For Neshoba Ccunty Sheriff, Cecil Price, and Alabama. In Jackson," the state capital, racists bombed kidnapped e'en Chester White, ' a 65-year old presently under indictment for the 1964 triple In the last tew months these are some cf the home of Mrs. Jane Schutt, a Head Start Negro who had never been invo'ved in civil murders. hat have occured in Mississippi: worker who was chairman of the state Civil rights or even registered to vote. But he For Grenada County Sheriff, Constable Rights Advisory Committee in 1964. a black man and that was enough for these Grady Carroll, who was convicted of com­ re fired at buildings and staff mem­ In Pascagoula, The Jasper County prose­ three who shot him, according to a mi plicity in beating school children and who, as bers of the Delta Ministry at their head­ cutor and a man under federal indictment for examiner, 17 times with a high powered rifle. already mentioned, struck a lawyer when er's near a civil rights slaying were charged with kid­ A shotgun b'ast blew off part of White's head. being served a subpoena. troyed a church used for a Child napping and using terror tactics against a On July 9, two white men fired a submachine For governor, former governor Ross Bar­ • nt Group of Mississippi Head Start man. The two were atte npting to force him gun at three persons entering a church in nett, who, as they say, needs no introduction. Jerry DeMuth 19^3 West Chase Ave. Chicago, 111. 60626

Former Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace proudly proclaims he is for the "little man"—the blue collar worker who is afraid of increasin - taxes and wasteful government spending. The appeal Wallace generates in his quest for the presidency is the same appeal he used in his campaign for governor. But it's a false appeal. Wallace's programs and actions have hurt the most those who he promises to help. Wallace said he stood against the sales tax. After he became governor, instead of working to abolish the 3 Pe*" cent state sales tax, he helped raise it to k per cent, with municipalities adding another 2 per cent. The Total sales tax of 6 per cent is the highest of any state in the nation and it covers virtually everything including groceries and medicines. At the same time, the state has the lowest real estate, corporate and income taxes of any state, Alabama collects twica as much from the state sales tax as it does from income tax. Further, in violation of the state constitution, Wallace blocked all attempts to equalize property-tax assessments so that wealthy industrialists and landowners would continue to receive a tax break. 2 Also working against the "little man" in Alabama is the lack of a minimum wage law, lack of an adequate workmen's compensation law, and the existence of an anti-union, right-to-work law. Wallace had promised to change all this while campaigning for governor but, once elected, neglected those promises. It is no wonder then that while campaigning for his wife to succeed him as governor in 1966, Wallace could comment, "I haven't talked to a single industrialist from New York to California who didn't say, 'I agree with the effort being made in your state.'" While increasing Alabama's sales tax, Wallace was also increasing its bonded indebtedness. In I960, the flgurt stood at 5121,830,000. In 1967, after five years of the Wallaces, it had jumped to |501,^91,000. the V/allace while governor claimed that state needed $60,000,000 for highways 1 then put through a bond issue of $100,000,000. He amortized the bonds so that the first interest payment would not be due until four years after he left the governorship (or the year his wife would have left the post). It meant that the state wouldn't pay out anything while the Wallaces were governor, but also meant that Alabama would pay out extra amounts later. Interest, in fact, will total more than half of the principal. While talking of thrift, Wallace also bought a $250,000 Lockheed Lodestar with state funds to carry him on out-of-state speaking engagement—and then, at state expense, always took with him three state troopers, a public relations staff, and a number of appointed officials. Gov. Wallace also required road contractorsto hire as "agents" friends of his administration, including Klan leader Robert Shelton, according to the IT. S. Bureau of Roads. 3 Contracts for asphalt for the state's road building did not go to the lowest bid Pars. Bne such contract went to a firm, American Materials and Supply, which had been formed only one week earlier. A suit, filed by one of the losing low bidding firms, charged that contracts were awarded to firms who made kickbacks to the Wallace administration. The suit was settled out of court and one defendant in the suit, Seymore Trammell, quit his post as state finance director. Trammel now serves as Wallace's national campaign chairman and finance directou. The state-operated liquor stores also have been charged with graft. One company, Montgomery Wine, sold the state $2,000,000 worth of whiskey although it had no employes and no telephone. Capitol watchbirds charged that during his administration Wallace's friends made small fortunes selling road gravel to the state highway department and office equipment to the state. This financial record prompted State Pen. Bob Gilchrist to comment after two years of Wallace as governor; "He has borrowedj taxed and spent more money in his term than in any other two-year period &£ Alabama history." Wallace tried to spend even more money. Fcr example, he unsuccessfully fought to get a bill passed which would have given him the power to hire as many attorneys as he wanted, at any salary, for any purpose, for the state highway department. The money would have come from the state's education and highway funds* Bills such as this one prompted State Sen. Vaughan Hill Robison to ask: "On what meat does this little Ceasar feed?" Wallace also established two spy networks. One, with a card file of at least 33,000 names, kept tracksof newsmen, civil rights workers and others. The other network consisted of 30 political informers who kept an eye out for anyone opposing Wallace. k Although residents of Tuskegee accepted school integration, Wallace tried to block integration by closing their schools. "Some of us didn't want our schools closed," commented Tuskegee bank president J. Allen Parker. "We questioned Wallace's right to close them. Our Alabama constitution guarantees local control of schools, not state control." Wallace appointed as president of T»oy State College, Ralph Adams. Adams lacked a Ph.D, but he did have one qualification in Wallace's eyes. He had driven a sound truck for one of the governor's campaigns. A $1,000,000 (form for athletes, with color tvs in rooms, was built at the college and Adams appointed his wife to the faculty—after firing the department head who opposed the move. kallace also tried to get the power to appoint trustees to the University of Alabama in order to control that institution but failed. Counterbalancing the extravagance in building the athletic dorm at iJ-roy State is teachers' pay in Alabama—the second lowest of any state in the nation. To quote author Robert Sherrill, Wallace's reputation is really one of "debt and taxation, favoritism, hypocrisy and ruthlessness,"

# # # /TV* 7 °-* ia te^J

Jerry DeMuth 19^3 West Chase Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60626

The U.S. Supreme Court's approval of Mississippi's reapportionment of congressional districts March 27 shows that

"smart racism" pays.

Last year Mississippi, knowing that violence or discriminatory voter registration tests could no "longer be used to prevent Negroes from voting, redrew the boundaries of the state's five congressional districts. Population was not equal in the districts and the state was under federal court order to reapportion under the Supreme Court's "dme man one vote" dpcislon.

So that state not only made the five equal in population. It also used the reapportion order to spread the Negro population over more districts.

One district had a 60 percent majority. Under the n^w plan, the first congressional district has a Negro ma'ority of 50.6 per cent,

However, whites are the majority in the population over 21. Three other districts conta'n hi**?, k$A and *+3»l per cent

Negroes respectively. The fifth, along the Gulf coast, has only

23,7 per cent Negroes,

AfteJ? this move was made, less than two months before the spate's primary, Mrs, Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader in the

Freedom Democratic Party, commented, "I went to bed in the second district and woke up in the same bed in the first. The white folks

'round here can mess you up without you even knowing about it,"

Mississippi assemblymen did a good ,1ob of messing up the

Negroes by acting with restraint so that their actions would have

some legal respectability. This is what saved them from a negative Supreme Court decision.

The new redistricting had been approved on April 8 when a

compromise bill was passed after three months of discussion in the

state senate and house.

In the house a redistricting plan had been passed which established five new districts, each with a white majority. The old

second congressional district, in which Mrs. Hamer resided, and which had a Negro majority, was chopped up. This bill met some

opposition. Rep. Clyde Burns, of Alcorn, said the bill "had a little too much discrimination."

He and other state representatives feared such a bill would be thrown out in the courts, I

"The Senate bill is in much better shape to present to the courts," Rep, Thomas McClellan, of Clay, successfully predicted, "You're just walking in the face of defeat If you pass the House version,"

Sen. William Burgin, of Columbus, said of one amendment:

"While this amendment would successfully gerrymander the s i' ' \ -i Negro vote, it would, in my opinion, result in the loas of all our congressmen," e

According to the Delta Democrat Times of February 15, 1966,

Sen. Burgin "warned that the Freedom Democratic Party, unsuccessful in a 196*f attempt to unseat the delegation, 'can take this same contest back to the House of Representatives and this time they will have a constitutional basis for it,'"

So the bill that was finally passed created five congressional districts with a Negro population majority in onlv one and white voting age majoirities in all five. Before redistricting, Negroes had had a voting-age majoirity in one district.

The new plan was immediately challenged in the courts by the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC) of the

American Civil Liberties Union. On Sept. 30, LCDC lost when a three-judge federal panel apprdved the plan. The group had charged that the legislature had "chosen the-, racial gerrymander as the best means of preserving white supremacy in the future."

-~ow the eupreme Court has upheld that decision and Negro I e voting efforts have been partly nullified.

e

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1 I ' I Fred Walters, a woodcutter for 35 years pw. &^?Pc -e*®^ "*'l° ^**** 'l^h . "A lot of people say that slavery is over. Here's what I say: All that was done was that people were taken out of the field and put in the factory. "We're trying to organize white and colored where we can get a better price for what we do. You hear a lot (about white and colored getting together) but this is the real thing. We get a better understanding between the white man and the colored man. There's a lot of bosh in everything you hear that's going- on but this is not bosh. Shey're (mill owners) coming up/ The reason they're coming up is that we're getting strong. The wood dealers know we're having these meetings. What they're doing now now is giving us a litlle bait. But at the same time he can take it away from us with his scales or standards. "The unit system varies from place to place. It's 7180 pounds at MOSE Then at Columbus you've got to get 7600 pounds for a unit and at Port Gibson 8800 pounds. When you're talking about the unit, you're talking about anything they want to make it. "When it all started, a colored man couldn't get a wood truck. They had big contractors. nuKxm$immUbq^wuauama3tAxmmMtlD^mMxMmxM^ They would supply him with all the trucks he needed. Then these colored people wofild work for these big contractors for whatever they could get. "Back in '67, when they had the strike at the Masonite factory, they would let a few of the colored men have the trucks. There was a little bit of frcition between the white and colored men. "In '71* when we had the woodcutters strike, they gave the colored man the truck to run over the picket line to break the strike. But he was as smart as they and that didn't work either. "So they had to give us $2 and $3 more. So that was colored and white on the picket line then and this is colored and white now. "There are one million workers from Texas through yo Virginia but only in Mississippi and Alabama are they organized. We have 2I4. locals in the two states. "Some colored believe this contaactor who give them the old truck anc saw is still their friend. Some of them you're not going to get (in the union). "What we're trying to do is give parties, bar-b-qs, chicken and fish fries to get these white and colored families together. This is getting people together beautifully. "In Mississippi this thing between the white and colored man is not over\$Lth but we're trying to do our best to get this over with. We have to get together to get this thing done where they'll both be the same. This is what we're working on." "They're still putting up these paper mills. In Jackson, Ala., they're building the world's biggest." Jerry De Muth 194-3 West Chase Ave. Chicago, 111, 60626

.EASTA3UC1IIE, Miss. — Civil rights groups, including the NAACP and SCLC, are rallying to support a group based her© that is headed by a white Mississippian. The NAACP and SCLC recently sponsored rallies and marches in Mississippi and Alabama to strengthen a strike called in early September by tha Gulfcoast Pulpwood Assn. whose president is 58-year-old Fred Walter. The union, which has some 6,000 members in the two states, 6£ per cent of them black, has struck wood dealers and pulp mills in an effort to gain pay raises, accident insurance, uniform cord measurements for the wood they sell and other benefits. "We're trying to organize white and colored where we cm get a better price for what we do,'" commented Walters whose weathered face reflects warmth and confidence. :fYou hear a lot about white and colored getting together but this is the real thing. This is not bo3h." When the union began in 1968 it was predominantly white. It's small successes have brought more blacks into the work and the support for an earlier strike from Charles Evers, black mayor of Fayette, Miss., brought more blacks into the union. The men cut wood from private lands for a fee and then ^all it to dealers or mills who lease or sell them their trucks, saws and other equipment. Until a few years ago, few blacks were able to get this needed equipment. Walters said that after equipment costs are deducted fro; at a man is paid for the wood, he is lucky to make $15 a day, when weather permits him to work.

Although the GPA began in 1968, it really got going when Lldcat strike began in September, 1971» after mills increased the size

a unit of wood without any increase in price. The strike spreac .ickly

and within weeks I4.3 woodyards were shut down. After more than t 3 months the paper companies granted the cutters raises of from $1 $3 per unit.

There were few blacks in the business then. Walters seee large number of black members and the black as well as white su for the GPA as a sign of progress—and also a sign that the use race baiting to divide and conquer workers Is failing.

"It used to be more whites because when it all started a jred man couldn't get a wood truck," Walters related while sitting i:>:

remodeled storage building here that serves as GPA headquarters, Jack in '67, when they had the strike at Masonite, they let a few of

colored men have the trucks. That caused a little bit of frict:. aetween the white and colored man.

"vp-en in the '71 strike they again gave the colored man P. ruck

"to haul pasb the picket line and break the strike. But the col man

was smart and It didn't work this time. So they had to give us nd $3 more and now a colored man can get a truck as quick as a white man.'1

Walters said that not only is wood cutting low paying work with the equipment expensive and easily broken, but also is "one of the most dangerous tilings that a man ever done in his life."

"Just one little mistake,"' he explained, "and that's it. He can lose a leg or an arm, or even his head." But Walters and others still stay with the work, "A guy's been in the woods all his life and it's hard to get out of," he explained. "You're not under a bossman, with the bossman looking down your shirt collar all day." As wall as trying to present a strong front against the paper and pulp industry in its strike, the GPA still works among cutters and their families to improve relations between whites and blacks. "What we're trying to do is give parties, barbecues, fish fries, to get these white and colored families together, ' Walter's said. "This is getting people together beautifully.'' One story signifies -chis new racial solidarity. Two years ago six women, three -white and three black, all wives of wood cutters, traveled together from Laurel to northern Mississippi. Cafe after cafe refused to serve the black women lunch inside. Although the black somen asked the white women to carry food out to them under these circumstances, the white women refused to agree to such an indignity. After traveling about 100 miles, they finally all were able to sit down together for lunch. ''We're going to move together and it doesn't matter if it's the Ku Klux Klan or the damn law or who in hell tries to get In our way, we're going to move,!: halters declared, his voice rising, but still with a soft edge to it. "The reason they have been able to control the poor people," he stressed, Tis because they've always had the white man and the colored man at one another, to keep tnem separated. But when we got on that first picket line and stayed and won the $2 and $3 raise, we saw what people could really do by grouping up."

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/ Jerry De Muth 19^3 West Chase Ave, approx. 2,800 words Chicago, Illinois 60626 A -oL-ft

Ciiil Rights Killers and the Courts

Exactly two months after James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the slaying of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was sentenced to 99 years in prison, an all-white federal court jury in Meridian, Mississippi, acquited three Ku Klux Klansmen accused of murdering a black civil rights leader and could not agree on verdicts for seven other Klansmen also implicated in the crime. The ten were being tried for the first time on federal charges in connection with the January 1966 slaying of Vernon Dahmer whose store and home in Hattiesburg was firebombed. Three times 16 persons had been indicted on federal charges of conspiring to "intimidate, coerce and threaten" Dahmer but the first two times the indictments were dismissed and it was not until early this past May, *f0 months after the crime and 16 months after the third set of indictments, that any of the 16 were tried. And then none were convicted. U. S. District Court Judge Dan Russell, an outspoken segregationist and a political ally of Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi, was instrumental in the delay between indictments and trial. 2 For one of those indicted, Klan Imperial Wizard Sam Holloway Bowers, Jr., it was the second time this year that he had won a mistrial. In January Bowers had won a mistrial after being tried for the murder of Dahmer in a county court. That January trial was the second time Bowers had been tried in county court in connection with the slaying and the second time a county court jury was unable to reach a decision. Last year a jury was deadlocked for 22 hours while attempting to reach a decision on a charge of arson against the Klan wizard. However, Bowers remains held in jail without bond on the state charge of murder. Another of the seven who won a mistrial in federal court x^as Charles Clifford Wilson. Wilson also had been indicted by the county grand jury on a murder charge but has not yet been brought to trial. Two days before the county jury indicted him, Wilson received the distinguished service award from the Laurel Junior Chamber of Commerce. Laurel is a small town, and a Klan stronghold, about 30 miles northeast of Hattiesburg, One of the three found innooent by the federal jury was James Frank Lyons who had earlier won a mistrial when tried on murder charges before the county jury. Besides Lyons and Bowers only three persons, of 13 indicted, were tried in county court. One was found guilty of arson and sentenced to 10 years in prison, the other two received life sentences on murder charges. Of six trials then, including the two times Bowers was tried, only three convictions were obtained and eight persons have never been brought to trial at all. Last November a federal court jury returned a $1,022,500 judgement against three Klansmen and the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for the June 1966 slaying of Ben Chester White, a 65-year-old black man. The damage suit was filed by White's relatives after county action came to nothing and the federal government did not even bother to do anything. A county grand jury did indict the three although the federal government never attempted to obtain indictments. However, one Klansman was eventually acquitted, another won a mistrial and the third has never even been brought to trial. The federal jury did not find the Klan guilty in the damage suit trial. The jury only decided the amounts to be awarded in damages after the verdict was ordered by Judge Harold Cox. White's murder was one of the most vicious slayings to be committed in modern day Mississippi, White had not even been involved in civil rights. The 65-year-old White was lured from his home by the three white men who asked him to help them search for a lost dog. Once they got White to a secluded area, they shot him 17 times with a rifle, blew the top of his head off with a shotgun, and then dumped his body in a creek. But these details did not move a jury enough to produce any convictions. Nor did strong joint efforts by law enforcement officers, local officials and civic leaders, all pushing for a conviction, have any effect on the two juries in the Dahmer case who could not agree to return a conviction for Bowers. Juries then, even integrated juries as in the Bowers case, are still not inclined to convict those who murder blacks or persons active in civil rights. But not only have juries failed in dealing with such killers, ,.. so have county, state and even federal officials. Since early 1963 at least 33 persons have been killed in the South—all except mm of them in Mississippi—because they were black or because they were involved in civil rights. At least 7^ persons were involved in those killings, perhaps five to 30 more because surely more than one person was involved in the dynamitings and fire bombings that caused the deaths of six persons for which there were no arrests. But only k6 persons were indicted on federal charges and only 37 persons were indicted on state charges. In federal courts only 52 per cent of those indicted, 38 men, were ever brought to trial, and only 12 of those 38 men were ever convicted. In state or county courts only 23 of the 37 persons indicted on state charges were ever brought to trial and a mere seven were convicted, (These figures do not count repeat indictments. They count only the set of indictments involving the largest number of persons when more than one set of indictments were handed down for the same crime which has occurred in the cases of two separate killing incidents.) The states were able to obtain the seven convictions out of 37 indictments because in all but two cases the killings were not related to civil rights, (Although convictions were not obtained in all non-civil rights cases.) The one civil rights killing conviction wa s the King case in which, of course, Ray pleaded guilty. The other was the Dahmer case, in which only three of 13 men indicted were convicted. An examination of the other convictions reveals that the crimes were especially reprehensible and did not involve persons active in civil rights. Nor did any of them occur in Mississippi where even the accused killers of White were not convicted. On September 15, 1963, 13-year-old Virgil Ware was riding on the handle bars of his brother's bike. Two white youths sped past on a motor scooter plastered with Confederate stickers. One of the white boys pointed a .22 pistol, fired twice, and Ware fell dead, one of six killings that day in Birmingham. Both white youths were caught and signed confessions. The two, both Eagle Scouts, were charged with first degree murder. When they were brought to trial, they were convicted, but on reduced charges of second degree manslaughter, and senteneed to seven months imprisonment. However, the youth who had fired the shots was placed on two years probation and sent home free. Another state conviction occurred almost as long ago. Mrs, Johnnie Mae Chappel was shot on March 23, 196*f, while walking along a street in Jacksonville, Florida. A young white man was sentenced to ten years for the killing. Three persons were indicted for the July 15, 1965» slaying of Willie Brewster in Anniston, Alabama. Two were tried. One, charged with being an accomplice to the murder, was acquited. Herbert Damon Strange, after the jury deliberated for a day and a half, was convicted on a reduced charge of second degree murder and sentenced to ten years in prison but was freed on bond. Brewster.was a dependable factory worker and father of four and Anniston is a town with a moderate racial atmosphere. Only two days earlier in a nearby town, a black man charged with assaulting a white woman was sentenced to ifO years in prison after only minutes of deliberation by the jury. But the problem in bringing action against alleged killers has not rested .only with juries. The state never took any action against the persons who killed 16 blacks or civil rights workers. In the Philadelphia, Mississippi, triple slayings, for example, a county grand jury refused to issue any indictments. Instead it issued praise for the conduct of law enforcement officers, including Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price who was later convicted in federal court, for their behavior in the face of "drastic provocation by outside agitators," When the FBI arrested 21 men in connection with the killings

on December h9 196*f, the state said it would not file any charges of its own. The next month Governor Paul Johnson said that the state would prosecute the killers only if the evidence warranted it. Evidently it didn't. After the Birmingham church bombing in which four young girls were killed, Al Lingo of the Alabama State Troopers arrested three men with Klan backgrounds. They were simply charged with illegal possession of explosives. The three were convicted in Recorder's Court, sentenced to 90 days and fined $100 each. They appealed and the state circuit court overturned the convictions. That was the end of the state's role in the case. The FBI, which was conducting a fruitless investigation, commented, "This investigation was prejudiced by premature arrests made by the Alabama Highway Patrol. Consequently it has not yet been possible to obtain evidence or confessions to assure successful prosecution." The FBI was never able to obtain the necessary evidence or confessions. But not only Southern states have been guilty of inaction. The federal government has also been guilty of inaction and poor action. No federal action was ever taken in such killings as: William Moore, the postman who was walking from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to appeal to the governor to grant blacks their constitutional rights. Medgar Evers, Mississippi NAACP leader who was working to enable blacks to gain their voting and other rights. Jonathan Daniels, who went to Alabama to aid a voter registration drive. Willie B. Tucker, who was in interstate travel when slain. Federal action could have been taken in all of these cases. For example, the killers of Lemuel Perm, who was involved in interstate travel when shot, were brought to trial by the Justice Department, but not the alleged killers of Moore and Tucker. In the case of Rev. James Reeb, who was murdered while aiding a voter registration drive in Selma, Alabama, federal charges were lodged against the four accused killers but the government never carried the case any further. In the Philadelphia, Mississippi, killings, the federal government's performance is questionable. In spring of 1967, for example, when Judge Harold Cox postponed the trial on his own motion, Justice Department attorney Robert Owen said the government did not plan to do anything to speed up the trial. 8

Earlier, the Justice Department assured its own defeat in one round of this case. In the Williams case of 1953 Justice Felix Frankfurter ruled for the U. S. Supreme Court that in order to try someone under Section 24l of the U. S. Code (the violation of which is a felony) it had to be charged that both a federally protected right such as due process and a federally created right, such as the right to vote, had been violated. When the Justice Department filed "information affidavits" on the 21 arrested^ persons before U, S, Commissioner Esther Carter it brought charges under both Section 24-1 and Section 24-2 and included the fact that both a federally protected right (due process) and a federally created right (the right to vote and encourage others to vote, and the right of free speech) had been violated. Miss Carter dismissed the affidavits. The department then attempted to indict 17 persons implicated in the slayings under Sections 24l and 242 before a grand jury called by Judge Cox. However, this time the department did not include the fact that a federally created right had been violated. Because of this, defense attorneys made a motion that the charges be dismissed since no federally created right had been violated. Judge Cox did not dismiss the misdemeanor charges under Section 242 but he did dismiss the felony charges under Section 241. The Justice Department finally obtained a new set of indictments under which the trial was held and seven convictions obtained. Thispoor record concerning these 33 civil rights slayings has not only played a roll in encouraging lawlessness on the part of others, but it has also permitted persons to become involved in more than one crime. After the Philadelphia killings, for example, Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and Deputy Sheriff Price were indicted for depriving blacks of their civil rights because of their roles in beating seven black prisoners on three separate occasions. Sam Holloway Bowers, Jr., had been indicted by the federal government for both the June 1964 Philadelphia slayings and the January 1966 firebombing which took the life of Dahmer. He was finally one of the seven convicted for the Philadelphia slayings but, as already mentioned, has yet to be convicted in either federal or county court for his role in the Dahmer slaying. Also indicted by the federal government for the Dahmer slaying was Mordaunt Hamilton, Sr., a Hattlesburg hardware dealer. Before the Dahmer slaying, Hamilton had been freed five times on charges of beating civil rights workers. After one of those acquitals, Hamilton even attacked the civil rights worker a second time on his way out of the court building. Herbert Damon Strange, while free on bond in the July 1965 slaying of Willie Brewster, was again arrested in May 1966. This time the charges were for beating and kidnapping a white man who was riding in a car with a black man. Strange was again freed on bond. But on November 5? 1966, his violent activities came to a violent end—he was shot to death in a honky-tonk brawl. 10

Deputy Sheriff Price, indicted three times and finally convicted for the Philadelphia slayings, toured the South, appearing at Klan rallies following the first set of indictments. The three accused slayers of Lemuel Penn were to do the same. Sheriff Rainey hired as a deputy a former Philadelphia patrolman, Richard Willis, who was also indicted. (Willis, like Rainey, was acquited by the federal jury.) And Sheriff Rainey appeared in Meridian newspaper advertisements for a chiropractic clinic. The ads were headlined "Civil Rights Got Him Down In The Back." On August 4, 1965? Cecil William Meyers and Joseph Howard Sims were acquited by a county jury in the slaying of Penn. In October the pair showed up in Crawfordville, Georgia, where the tried to attack a Southern Christian Leadership Conference photographer and where they were later arrested for attempting to beat a black farmer. As did Meyers, Sims and Deputy Sheriff Price, the accused killers of Mrs. Viola Gregg Liuzzo also appeared at Klan rallies following their indictments. County and federal grand juries indicted Collie Leroy Wilkins, Eugene Thomas and William Orville Eaton for first degree murder and conspiracy to violate federal civil rights statutes, respectively. The three then went off to march in Klan parades in North Carolina and Atlanta. In North Carolina, where they also attended a Klan rally, they were given a standing ovation. But unlike the other killers, a strange justice followed these three men., 11

The three were convicted on the federal charges but then were freed on appeal. Following this Eugene Thomas was convicted in federal court of illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun, Collie Leroy Wilkins went to jail for parole violation in a federal firearms case, and William Orville Eaton died of a heart attack. But that this can be seen as a victory of sorts only sytmbolizes the low state of justice in the South.

# Jerry De Muth I943 West Chase Ave. Chicago, Illinois 6C626

That white Mississippians would still rather have poor or no education than integrated education remains clear. After the 1951* U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation ruling the state threw out its compulsory school attendance law, thus becoming the only state In the union where school attendance Is not required. Georgia Governor Lester Maddox, however, recently proposed that his state do the same thing. Now faced with a massive school integration order, whites have turned almost totally toward all-white private schools, no matter how inferior the facilities may be. In the 30 districts ordered Integrated, 100 new private schools have opened since the order. More than 175 private schools had already been in operation throughout the state before then. The schools are meeting In private homes, church basements, temporary buildings, factories and in some instances public school bullrings, with little or no library, laboratory or other facilities, Mississippi, like other Southern states, has no educational standards that private schools must meet in order to operate. In Yazoo City, 500 whites now attend Manchester Academjry with classes spread between the town's Methodist and Presbyterian churches. 2 In Hattiesburg, 1,000 whites are enrolled In one private school and In Amite County nearly all of the 900 JM^I white students from one school have registered at either of two nearby private schools. In Holmes County, where there are three private schools, a fourth is being planned and In Wilkinson County virtually all of the county's 800 white students stayed away from the public Kone . schools, staying home or attending^of the three new private schools instead. In the state capital of Jackson, even though the city's schools were not included in the court order, enrollment in private schools operated by the White Citizens' Council jumped from 500 to more than 3,000 ill the past month. By the end of the last school year the Jackson-based Citizens' Council was operating more than 150 all-white private schools for more than 9,000 students in four Southern states, including 52 in Mississippi. Last fall the council started 15 moro in Missipplppi alone. "What we're going to wind up with eventually," said one state legislator, "is private schools for the white kids and a state subsidized system for the niggers." Some whites who can't afford private schools -although some private schools are free to those who can't afford to pay txxV-Ion- are simply keeping their children home. "I'll put them out of school," said Will T, Franklin, a Yazoo

City upholsterer5 "before I'd send them to a nigger school." Similarly a Durant resident declared, "I ain't sending my kids to that nigger school. I'll keep them home." 3

Governor John Bell Williams has pledged himself $o establishing a private school system as a "workable alternative" to public schools although the state can hardly afford this form of dual school system—that private schools will only be more inferior than most of the state's public schools. Public school bond campaigns have been halted in the face of the court order and in Jackson citizens soundly defeated a $'7j000,000 bond Issue. State aid to public schools will also decrease with the decline in enrollment. Nevertheless Governor Williams has suggested that public schools let private schools use their facilities and that the state provide aid to private schools or provide tax credit to persons who donate to private schools. A state law passed last September which provides ?200 annual payments to students in private schools has been challenged in federal court and a temporary restraining order has been Issued halting the law's use until its constitutionality can be determined. The federal government however is aiding such private all-white schools. Individuals contributing to these schoolsmay deduct their contributions from their federal income tax, even though the schools discriminate. Under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 195^ a private school may receive tax benefits merely If It presents a valid educational program and Is open to a "substantial" part of the community. But more direct federal aid was given to one all-white private school in Holmes Count;/. The school is housed in a new building constructed In part by persons hired under a federally financed Office of Economic Opportunity training program.

# L fulloy, cardie- -• i fceot '' • ••• • '.':-•' he had trout

"H i".stain work ere on ocal .ng aeees '•-'- findings ar ased ' ov numl til - 25 t &rs* •p :e • I - - ers, ie says, : t ay '11 Win OVer te a ' aeeee ,"

eceivec ;hi ' "- " '. e. nt !s e - .- o bh€ is e ; 2? 3 ' anlth Assn for his ! - - I ae . - -

Mite Trbovich, 50 years old, 2^ ; In ! • ''; '< • *+ yrs in the serve "I'm act ~oing to quit the e until union . -a settle ae 1 ould be giving up mp .-ship* "1 was Jock's campaign manager and after he wis racy was-forme "The union s to discon • 1 ng here, "Ra ien hasput a lot of pr- - on the rtidi toi on eck lung and he's put pressure on the Social Seeurit! ' m. "A"1 he >: rs in the .If the union tri • I , ike shutting hire oat of i It&l, ht« • - would close up . en.es • "The UMW origin posed s satlon in th •. lune law. Why would our 0 i lershlp be ai :k le-nr to 1 don't know, "You have a few representative in the coal miners. "The :' pile, like a machine when It's were out." •issen her' irded by •;. . -orman Shepardsij ear ly c Yablonski was murdered, "The coal companies* I lies are just i They can eple but younger people won't buckle n ler. Te ': stand for it." Black Lung Blues, by Mike Paxton, c, Fayette Music Co. I went to see my doctor •cause'I couldn't get ,re hi said, boy, yon got so eg could well mean ; ;th Pneumoconiosis,, Black I Bli es the one, get the other, elthei 1 j y 0 e always been a miner, fere , i coal lust a] %] Too c* w trade, 1 hat b n t a [ (chorus) I I tl note j . 1*11 ep working e kids e«d all their sehoclin la. .oii f'l " one. • ee-er- -5 o-*con-i-osis, black ] 3 k\ lay down my pick and shovel, lose those black ' ' " get ee to I a et Peter goil i to .cry - • : i te-ii him the • aeon this poor boy hen to die.

I- !,,V- Ml -,-. . cold Miller,' directpa , Black Lung i. "Dr. Rasmussen is one of the foremost men e . i field ai one of the best ram I know. Not many in the me -.nt to tackle him, "The miners will smppori him : -thing he i to do. If he wants to run for any political office, the mine: i vote for him, "I have to five Dr. Buff credit for his early work, It's hard getting factual evidence to miners. "The doctors got started by holding small rallies. Some people- would come and then go out and tell the world. When the doctors" esme back for another rally if there had been 100 b - i , there would now be 500 In the audience. Miners always have had a lot of respect for professional people. "The first rally I went to about 200 ate ad. Dr. Buff was the first to speak. He started by saying, 'All of you have black lung and all of you are going to die from it,1 Then he r e and wait '""or the miners tc react. Most of the miners there had working in the mines at least 20 years so they had to have black lung. uff was-good at inciting the crowds,

Dr. I.E. Buff "Twenty years ago we were doing a study of ' 3. In coal miners we found hectors in 90jfl of those who-had worked mors than one year in the mines, meaning that they had some lung damage. We followed these people and in 10 years they had developed full blown cases of black lung. Prom this we wondered why so many lung cases in the Charleston hospital among coal miners. Then .we found out that 40 to 50$ of the coal miners who enetered the hospital, we could detect ..black lung which meant we had many more cases. "In the last 10 years due to mechanization the situation got worse. These people were getting'disabled at kO to 50 v ' of age, some of them with young children were being thrown on the relief roles. They could get no pension until they were ^^ and by that-time they may be dead* Families most need money when the man is 35 to r • ars old, "A review of compensation boards of coal ml states showed that no one paid black lung benefits except Pennsylvania whicl" started in 1966, The bad thing was that industry didn't pay this compensation, "In West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee the sbi p isation laws are worthless." id that when miners do get benefits all too often lawyers get a big chunk of it. One widow got Sk $30 a month compensation and lawyer got |7 of that each month, he said, "The first meeting on black lung was held in h?) ' firgi la Approximately'a hundred miners were there,- Then se.e Lsabledminers invited me to come to Clifftop, W Va. I got aformal Invitation from the union this was in 1968 before the Partington walk-out, I've been speaking every weekend since then, attendin- est two meetings a week." Estimates he's spoken to I • wi res, "Tennessee, Kentucky, e eirginia, P« - i, Ohio, Illinois: I've spoken in all those st: . "1 don't have any trouble gettin ations but I've had trouble speaking. Schools \ e all kin t'nkngs , turn on the heat in the summer, turn off the - in winter, lock the bathrooms. We've had to meet outside. e.-d shot guns at us S g Stone Gap, Va, Police with shot guns dispersed the crowd, That \ .sly 6-month, but it was the same as the company cops in th eke: 2oal operators have gotten the schools to keep us 8rat. "In Flat Fork, *y*» the gym was locked si%4-*-fe®ff«-opf^®^f*^*-^»» The superintendent eaid he - - nothing of the meeting but it had been in the paper and on *ed£o. I told a store proprietor that television was eomljsg from.Lexinetor i"b;r bv the i-esie I got back the. doors were open. 310 Atlas Building, Charleaton V Va Dr* I. E. Buff b©rn& raised in Chariestolh, medical school in Morgantown "In Neon, ~R?*, the school sent us to the gym on a mountain top -which no one could get to. They finally let us have a downstairs room. "The coal operators act like little children.11 Buff travels in Datsun station wagon, lounded with his own . system plus slideprojector, slides, charts, p! ;raphs, and lungs with the disease. "I have x-rays and I show how dust shows up and why you can't find black lung through x-rays. And I demonstrate the breathing test and show why its worthless, !iI tell miners that there's no treatment for black lung, they can't stop it. They can only get their benefits and try to enjoy the rest of their' life. I tell them If they "nave any children working in the mines they should get them out or they'll die too. "I first thought it would be difficult to do this but it works pretty well," "They would never give us a school in Whitesburg or Jenkins, Ky,, or Wise, Big Stone Gap amd Lebanon In Virginia, In Hyden, Ky.,,they re us a school and then locked us out, T neville, Ky., they gave us a school and then locked us out. Kentucky is terrible, "The coal operators said 3 per- cent of the miners have black lung, 7,000 miners at most. Congress believed them and p 1 the law, But 300,000 miners have black lung and It would cost $650 million a year to give everyone the benfits they're entitled to. "There's only one way to handle the problem. And that's to tax coal $1 a ton and give the money to Social Security for blank lung .-fits. But then questions would be raised about the 40 cents a ton that goes into the union's welfare fund. That's why the union hates me. :; "Benefits don't make the miners "any better but it makes them feel better." Said miners have offered him money from their benefits which he has refused. "Miners are used to being taken advantage of. They have no faith in anything. They believe you have to pay"someone off to get anything done.? "In Ashers Fork, Ky., when three men were < to death in a mine accident, I went and talked to the widow of the only one of the three who was married. 1 said don't sign your name to anything the state givesyou. She said, 'I won't because I can't read nor write.' She was only 24 but she never went to school. "In Clay County, Ky.. many miners' children don't go to school because they don't enforce the school attendance law* I checked and f~at* true. They do it to keep the people fodder for the ines, "I have many people who come into my office who can't even write their names, "Steal miners have no faith in their doctors. This is a very serious situation. Doctors are not individuals they are vessels of the coal companies. They do the comparijfc-s'bidding or they§re not there, I had one doctor who doesn't accurately diagnos black lung tell i •Hell5 I'm no crusader,,!i Said one miner x-rayed for black lung, x-ray showed Stage I. Buff had voltage doubled, new x-ray showed stage 3 which meant more benefits for the miner* Three weeks later the miner died of black lung, "The SSA is like an insurance company. They won't give you anything if they don't have to. THe Ilk isprobably not to be trusted in view of. what's been happening* l "Unless Congress extends it until 197 5-? or makes, it permanent, responsibility will pass to the states and that will kill our whole progra The state wokrman's compensation board will call yon in and say that Cod cured you or that what you really have is emphysema or something." ack'li ' - mxSmsm Marlowe, 9 N 14 St., Lalfollette Injured in a cave-In In whicfi his co-worker \ t "lied the day Pres John F Kennedy was assassinated, le didn't want to work in the mines but his wife charged him with dee i and Judge ordered him, "They said the mines or jail, not much of a choice," said Louise • Adams, Clairfield postmistress, Tom was left paralyzed from waist down, •e've had two or three miners smoother to dei I n the past yearf" Mrs Adams said. "They just couldn't breath a i I - *e," j P arlov, Clairfield, Tenn. Stafted in mines when l8,.,£pent 17 years in big mines, injured paralyzed in lc?5f when he was le^years old. w. "I done everything I could do in a coal mine except boss," Dec 13, 1970, turned down for black lung, Apr 3, 1971, request his case be reconsidered, July 13 doctor exam diagnos \ black lung. Paid $65 for the doctors exam. Given form by community wo- ': out for social security to get money back,. "I knowed 1 could get he none/ back but I . w how. You can't find out nothing from social Security," "Two boys reopened a little trunk nine and then hey quia. : Another boy and I took it over. One day I was in tl 1 .ne4 1 had the - flu and was" hunched over the track,, ca eng* This flat rock came down and hit me on the back. It was only about hall an inch thick and about two feet across. It ihoved I sk bone over andpinehed my spine. It took in stitches, "1 took mining up when I was a bop/- and e " ed r: t with it. lmfciiteSmiibxpxa.t%m^i^m That*s pretty much all there was aroul ne, I liked it pretty I worked on a few I didn't ':•-. i but they paid so good I just stayed right with it," Short cropped black hair, mixed with gray, - Ln 'eel his face. Rolls own cigarettes from small tin of Prince Albert,. ! and dropping nuts Into ee I 3 pot next to bed. 111 iterate', a' can do, except watch old tv set in corner.- Gun rack stove bed with 3 guns, and a pistol on bed at his side. Coal trucks, coming 1 • nip mines rumble past house every few minutes, drowing out c on. "When they go by I can't even here lothin' en the phone," Lee Peterson: "I was about 16 when I started in .the mines. The company hired me to nle.y baseball for them. Then I left for a few years and played professional ball, 1 belonged to the Cubs at that time, I i if gibing Into baseball professionally,' Then I hurt my arm in the mine* "You take this bottom here. They \ LO.OC for that little bit of property there. But yet when theep want to come to tear up your property 10£ a ton is all they'll give you. That property isn't fit to"raise hogs one "Kothing can stand in the way of their mining coal. That's the story of it all. All they're interested In is that block of coal. They don't care what happens to the houses or anything else, "These hollows have all been flood- 1 they're g to get it again. In a couple bf years from now, they*'re going to be completely washed out, "When they're told they nave silicosis, It hs.s a moral effect on them and then they go down real fast. Trouble is when yc 1 e< thing test you can't trust 'em. You. may be bad off and not know it. "Minors should be taken out of t] men sfte- fears, It jr've been in the mines 20 years regardless of their age, they should be te'- et of coal,"' Miners Black Lung » ph Martin, Bick^nson County, southwestern Virginia, in mines 32 years Loves the mines. "I don ov why. I never thought about it. Maybe it's because of the temperature*, It's cool in the mines in the summer and warm in the winter. Maybe it's because It's the work iSm good at. I don't know," Then he began to feel symptoms of blacklung. "1 had an esy job .and I hatedto quit,. 1 was making pretty good -y ($350 a' month), so 1 kept battling on with it. But I reached a poir where I couldn't get"out of bed, I couldn't put my clothes on in the morning. It took me three or four times to get a shirt over my he and then I had to stop and rest, "1 remember times in the mine when yon couldn't see a man that as three feet away from-yo$ for the dust. "I was lucky. I never had anything happen to me other than broken ribs, I had seven of them broken on one aide one time^ Then I broke two of them on the other side. And I«broke my left arm once, And I had a few holes knocked in. ny head, but they didn't amount to much." ^foreman John Tiller, Virginian miner/who was beaten up by si i "f ss deputies on an Isolated mountain road and told to shut up about black bang, "They used to tell us that coal dust couldn't hurt you and I meed to turn around and mouth It to the workers,, And the worst part of it is that the doctors in the area, are still involved in a conspiracy. Tomorrow. If I'm in trouble, there isnlt a doctor in the state who'll tell me the truth. I'd have to go clear over to West Virginia." ; lung >ei ef its "I got reports from eight of the best doctors in tr -try and" they all say I got silicosis and pneumoconiosis and it bad. But 1 Security' tunned me down," "I actually got holes in ay lungs from coal dust and rock dust in the mines. I can't hardly breathe. But they won't give me no benefits." "They sent me 400 miles for x-rays and give -..-. . kinds of breathing tests. My doctors I seen all says I got it but- I ain't getting a Denny." —various miners last Kay at Letcher County •-. ing with Keller Whitaker of Ky Wrokman's Compensation Board. "Last weak we buried two men at my funeral home. Both had applied r black lung before they died and were turned down. Well, they performed autopsies on them and they had the worst case of black lung, I just •nt miners to have to die before you can prove they got it,"" —Ky State Rep. Hay Collins, on state ben "It's not just the SSA you're up against. It's the law. " laws ikers are the ones who filled it with loopholes, / You're all wali around dying but you can't get anything done about it. That's the position you're in and It's the position you'll stay In until you organize. By -the time you net the changes you need, it might 'be 3 years or more and some of you will be dead. That's how it is."-Everett Tharp,37yrsinmines at same meeting. Under Ky law, person has to have worked in mine during the last 5 years to be eligible for state aid. 6 Of of Ky's applicants for fedl benefits are turned down. Federal payment based on graduated need so if miner getting state aid his fedl payments will be reduced and remain at same lower rate even after state benefits run out, >. Carl D. Perkins (D-Ky) (wonts to extend fedl law2vs, no xrays rqd) "Contray to the Intent of the 1969 law, tha (SS) Administration has reduced social security benefits of those disabled persons who have been awarded black lung benefits. This Is not right, !iIf we don't extend the Social Security's administration of the black Iflng statute, It will be taken over by the state and the coal Companies and you people will keep being kicked around," (f '.Belfry KY51 Said SSA had "ignored the provision of the act" in their'refusal to accept the disease as a total disability or a cause of death, ! "Thousands of claims are denied because of a negative x-ray, while there areother tests which do show evidence of black lung," Title IV black 3 benefits 1969 Federal Act denies benefits to anyone who could do light wnrk" although no such Work is available in central Appalachla. •SSA requires that- miner work in mines 10 years before his claim cari be accepted although act doesnot require this', does not stategrounds for rejection, 3-5 year backlog in fed| court in Eastern Kentucky of rejection anneals to be heard. President Nixon when signing bill: "I want to emphasize very . Strongly that Title IV is temporary,-limited and unique and in no w should it be considered a.precedent." C(W Arnold Miller, director., Black Lung Assn. !A,uWitJ^ «^u*» "**«« *«*^ "The Social Security people•have made a shambles of the program. y have failed to provide adequate examinations*' \'-S

Mississippi's Lonely Black Legislator

by Jerry De Muth

Robert Clark has been a lonely figure. For the past six yeae^s he has been the only black representative in the state* fighting to gain acceptance and support from his white colleagues and from white constituents. This battle also has been a lonely one. While such southern black politicians as Fayette, Miss., Mayor Charles Evers and Georgia State Rep. Julian Bond receive reach attention and national support, Clark has gotten no such attention. As a result he has gotten few volunteers and little money from outside the 3tate. Yet he is paid only a small amount for daily expenses when the legislature is in session. Clark, however, is an Important black figure in the state. And representing whites as well as blacks, he can help foster change. In fact he now finds that both white constituents and white fellow legislators have begun to accept him. "I now have as many white calls for help as black calls," explained Clark in a rare personal interview. "It was not this way at the start. There was just a few brave whites at the start. 2 "The first whites to call were the wealthy whites," he noted. "Now a poor class of whites as well as wealthy whites call on me. "Whites realize I've been elected and there's nothing they can do about it," he added. "Rather than to have ray followers and me fighting thera, they just joined up with me. Then if there are any dividends, they'll reap them too," Clark also feels that many poor whites contact him because the sophistication of their white representatives embarrasses thera. Some representatives are also coming around to the point where they support some of Clark's efforts. "At first there was total rejection of Bob for being black," commented an associate, Ed Cole, who has worked with Clark and Evers. "Now there are four or five representatives who will support and work with him on bills. But no major bills Bob has supported have passed." Clark, however, thinks that next year some bills he has introduced will be approved. They include a measure that would allow a city judge to live outside the city limits and a provision that would permit family members to help an illiterate vote, replacing the whites who are usually at their sides in the polling booths. Clark also hopes that school attendance will become compulsory. He introduced such a measure his first year in office but got no support. "I was able toget publicity though," he explained. "I would explain that we had many white kids as well as black kids out of school. "After I talked about a compulsory school attendance bill, the Gulf Coast representatives were the first group in the legislature to support me. They were followed by the Greenville representatives and then northeastern Mississippi. 3 "But I never have had a co-sponsor," he emphasized. "They'd rather support it than co-sponsor it with me. "Another representative introduced a similar bill my second year. Now it's reached a point where there are eight or ten other bills. Last year even the governor supported compulsory school attendance." Mississippi did have a compulsory school attendance law but it was abolished in the belief that no education is better than integrated education after the 191514- U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation decision. "Bob Clark works up to the limits of what can be done," commented Rev. Ed King, a white Mississlppian long active in the civil rights movement, "He is seraetiraesable to keep up with what's going on. Whites have to sit down with him and deal with him as a person," Clark, a forwer teacher who now owns a furniture store in Lexington, said the greatest change toward him occurred last year when he began being Invited to evening social gatherings at which legislative matters are informally discussed. "Those meetings are where you really find out what's happening," he explained. "That's how you know what is and what isn't coming up on the floor the next day, "I used to hear other representatives talking about them at first but I didn't start getting invited to them until last year. The meetings are at their apartments in Jackeon. "Once you start getting invited, you don't have to attend all of them. You can ask someone what was talked about. "They're significant not Just because you find out what's going on," Clark noted. "They're significant because now when you take the floor of the house you're not going to have people opposing you just for the sake of opposing you. k "That used to happen to me a lot. But now no one is going to oppose me unless he really opposes the legislation." Clark doesn't want to sacrifice too much in odder to gain some strength and support. He doesn't want to be too beholden to others, "There's a certain amount you can give up to achieve your goals," he said, "but you can't give up any of your basic principles of dignity. You have to stand vsp for them. In the long run you gain more respect from your people and from your colleagues." With a chuckle Clark told of the one time he did defer to his white colleagues, but only after he had tricked one of thera. After Lyndon Balnea Johnson's death, Clark introduced a resolution commending the former president and got someone to co-sponsor it with hira. "He couldn't have read it all the way through because it was commending Johnson for his civil rights activities," Clark smiled. "Then he asked me if I minded referring it to committee. I knew what he wanted to do but I said I didn't mind. This gave him a chance to delete the civil rights reference," The resolution was finally approved—without the praise for LBJ's civil rights actions. As the state's only black representative, Clark has been going beyond What other representatives are doing for their constituents. And he has been doing this for whites as well as blacks, sometimes even helping people outside his district. He said he has helped whites as well as blacks with disability, welfare, state taxes, highway enerjMaohraei encroachment, state jobs and other matters, "A black person has to go far beyond what the law says is his duty in oi*der to eerve the needs of the black community," Clark explained. 5 "I've encouraged blacks throughout the state to take advantage of their elected officials and call on thera. And I've encouraged white representatives to make themselves available to the black community. But lines between whites and blacks have not yet opened up,® Still all has not gotten better for Clark. Before he ran for a second term in 1971, his district was changed in what he feels was an obvious attempt "to destroy rae." Federal action extended from one raonth to two the time in which his supporters had to register new voters in the oounty that was added to his district. He won re-election by only a slim margin. This redistricting is one of many attempts throughout Mississippi to weaken black political strength and weaken the power of elected black officials. Clark feels that the black community—which has been strongly oriented toward civil rights organizations—must look toward individuals more often if it is to gain political strength. If blacks don't, he said, they will be satisfied with whatever white officials do and never see a need for black politicians, "Blacks have to face up to whether they want to move from the civil rights organization stage to the political stage, shifting their means and methods of achieving change,• he said. Clark is moving in a political direction. Significantly his district baee of Holmes County on the edge of the Delta has had one of the best, longest lasting, grass roots oriented civil rights organizations in the state. It was well organized by the civil rights movement in 196^ and 196$. 6 The transition from civil rights organization to political organization worked in Holmes County and 14.2-year-old Robert Clark wants to see it work elsewhere.

# RELIGIOUS HEWS SERVICE -13- TUESDAY, N0V3MB2R 3, 1979 CHURCHES STILL LAGGING ON RACE, SYMPOSIUM TOLD IN MISSISSIPPI By Jerry Demuth Religious News Service Correspondent (11-3-79) JACKSON, Miss. (RMS) — Mississippi churches failed to lead during the violence-filled struggles of 1934's freedom summer and, so firmly a part of Mississippi culture, they still are laggards in the fight for racial equality. That was the portrait painted by a group of the state's reli­ gious leaders at a four-day symposium on freedom summer and the changes made since then. The problem, according to Mississippi Episcopal Bishop Duncan Gray, is rooted in the fact that Mississippi has so many churches, with people selecting a church with which they agree. "Churches are so much a part of the culture that they have no independent base from which to speak to that culture," Bishop Gray declared at a session on race relations and religions in Mississippi held on the Millsaps College campus. The symposium, which attracted hundreds of students, educators, officials, and former civil rights workers, rotated between predominantly white Millsaps and predominantly black Touglaoo College. When the Mississippi church finally did begin to set on racial issues in late 1934, it was not an action it decided to take on its own, said Father Harry Bowie, a black Episcopal priest in Mccomb, Miss. "It was cajoled and coerced into a position of leadership only when something forced it to take stand," he observed. That included the murder of three civil rights workers and the fire- bombing of 42 black churches in 1934, Father Bowie observed. "A distinction must be made," he continued, "between the power of the church as an institution and the power of the Gospel to motivate individuals, to make them stand up and take positions of leadership. But," he lamented, "as the individual stood up, the church as an institution lagged behind." Father Bowie's superior agreed, stating, "Federal pressure, economic expediency and legal action, rather than the moral leader­ ship of the church, brought change." Rabbi Perry Mussbaum, who was the rabbi at Beth Israel congregation in Jackson from 1954 until his retirement in 1973, added more gloom to the assessment of passive church behavior. "I want to emphasize a point that's been igonored by many people here," he said of those who were the first to move on racial justice issues, "We were the leaders of minority religious groups. We had no power base community-wide, no social and economic prestige." But some signs of hope and progress were cited. (more) PAGE -13- RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE -17- TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1979 After the 24-aember Committee of Concerned came together and oversaw the rebuilding of the 42 fire-bombed churches, "an Improve­ ment in race relations became noticeable," explained the Rev. William P. Davis who chaired that group while serving as head of the Mississippi Baptist Seminary. And the Mississippi Religious Leaders Conference, which is still functioning, has brought a "new spirit of trust, understanding and cooperating," he said. The 73-year-old Mr. Davis, who is now retired, held up a copy of a recent publication of the Southern Baptist Convention's home mission board. The color cover photograph showed a black minister and a white minister co-serving communion at an inter-racial service. Placing past church behavior in the context of a strictly segregated society, Bishop Gray maintained that the state's churches "did play a more important role in Mississippi than the evidence would Indicate. The only relation I had with blacks," he said "was through the church." White Mississippians, he remembered, did meet blacks on an equal basis at church services and conferences. Still he had to admit, "these cases were rare." But even meetings between clergy of the same denomination could be strictly unequal, destroying the spirit as much as did any indignity or violence faced by a civil rights worker or a black seeking to register to vote, according to a recollection by Father Bowie, who told of how important it has been for him to become an Episcopal priest, a dream that began when he was seven. In January. 1935, while in Natchez, Miss., he went to the local Episcopal church for communion, he remembered. "I bowed my head and waited. As the priest approached me I could tell he was trembling but he finally placed them after in my hands and put the c up to my lips." When leaving the church he was called into the priest's study. "My face glowed" Father Bowie related. "I thought here he was wanting to meet a priest from another parish." But the Natchez priest ignored the hand Father Bowie offered him, bluntly stating, "I gave you communion only because you are a priest. But I don't want to see you in my church ever again." White clergy often fear their own congregations when having contacts with blacks, even black clergy, the Rev. James F. Mcree, a black United Methodist clergyman from Brookhaven, complained. Some of his white clergy friends, he said, will talk to him privately. "But not talk to me publicly when members of their congregations will see them." Although the two black clergymen on the panel had more pessimistic views of what the church has done, or not done, and where it is today, than did the five whites, Bishop Joseph Brunini of the Jackson Roman Catholic Diocese, admitted, "even today many blacks still look upon the church as a white man's church." However, ending the final presentation of the panel, Father 3owie reminded his fellow clergy: "*Never overlook the power of the church." -0- PAGE -17- - *»,.*•:. "•-•-- ^.^...-^hi.d=«^.^.^.. rr.„T..ri- nff------i'-jjjMnun_uii"

By Jerry DeMuth Newsday Special Correspondent

Jackson, Miss.—For some, it was a homecom­ ing. For others, it was a disappointing reminder of an unfinished revolution. For all, it was a celebra­ w w '..^y' LJ iuJ £*? tion of an idealistic moment 15 years ago when civ­ il rights activism was still on the streets and not yet in the textbooks. Several dozen veterans of one of this country's When veterans of the civil rights movement most important battles for social change, the 1964 Mississippi Summer project, gathered here recently returned to Mississippi recently, they found for four days to evaluate what they had wrought. Hundreds of northern student volunteers—most of that there were still obstacles to be overcome. them white—came to Mississippi that summer to work on voter registration, teach in freedom

schools, organize health clinics and provide legal ipwyjWBiWWffwp I.,MI I 1t,.uUJ)jWW

"We have come back to celebrate the successes - '*v:'l.'.r.tm:fSM,*./< *.-. of the summer project," said Joyce Ladner, who joined the civil rights movement in her hometown of Hattiesburg and today is a Hunter College soci­ ology professor. And, she added, people returned to underline the failures. "We worked with the poor, and they're still poor. I think it's good that people here are acknowledging that things haven't changed that much, refreshing that they're saying the changes are mainly cosmetic."

backseat," Miss Ladner said. K During the conference, people stayed and social­ ized at motels that once were closed to them. "I get fee up in my bed at the Holiday Inn," said ex-SNCC worker William Strickland, now a University of Massachusetts history professor, "and see a black woman [a newscaster] on television." And one night at the same motel, Matt Jones, a SNCC worker who had sung to raise the spirits at voter registration rallies and to raise funds at col­ lege concerts, got up on a platform in the bar with the room's regular singer and sang black tradition­ al songs identified with the civil rights movement. ——.....»,„ .-.«..jiari..m«tni)iWiTi While the symposium went on, dozens of blacks Aaron Henry joins Martin Luther King Jr., inset, during a 1964 fight over were campaigning for state, county and local of­ fices. Many of them were up for re-election in areas state delegates to the Democratic convention. Above, Henry, now president where few, if any, blacks had even been able to reg­ of the Mississippi NAACP, welcomes an old friend to the reunion civil ister to vote before that tense and violent but excit­ rights workers in Jackson. ing summer. Yet, despite all these changes, there still was an awareness that many important economic reforms an SNCC workers had been trying to build strong Miss., when Freedom Summer came to his city. "Up had not come about. Poor rural blacks, who had local organizations. until a course here at Millsaps and this sympo­ added to their sufferings and had risked what little "Freedom Summer halted this movement in in­ sium," he said, "I hadn't heard anything about they had by joining the movement "still suffer from dividual communities, and it was hard to pick up Freedom Summer or SNCC or CORE. high rates of unemployment, malnutrition and dis­ again in the fall after the white students left," said "The house belonging to friends of my parents ease, inadequate housing and clothing, and quasi- Willie Peacock, who still makes his home in Missis­ was bombed that year," said Miller, who is now a integrated, inferior education," Miss Ladner sippi. As a result, he said, the movement couldn't sophomore at Millsaps. "So they said nothing in our declared. continue building local organizations and take full house about movement activities. And at the school The push to improve the lot of the poor was no advantage of the Voting Rights Act when it was I went to in McComb, nothing was ever said on civil longer there, as it had been in the 1960s, some of adopted in 1965. rights." the more than 70 panelists said. "We've lost the In that summer of 1964, the students now at­ White students too were learning. "My parents momentum for economic and social services," said tending Millsaps and Tougaloo were 4 and 5 years often had spoken about the civil rights movement," Greenville, Miss., Youth Court Judge Joseph Wro- old. Few had memories of the time, and partici­ said one young woman. But another said, "When I ten. pants found few—black or white—who had much told my mother I was looking up something about ! - "We no longer have support in the courts to interest. Freedom Summer, she said, 'What do you want to break new ground," complained attorney Melvyn Many students avoided the symposium. At Tou­ read about that for?'" Leventhal who had defended many of the civil galoo, most students now avoid all social issues, Denise Bershon, of Jackson, 'a white senior at rights workers and the disenfranchised blacks in and many others resent Millsaps and blacks who Millsaps who served on the symposium's planning 1964. attend it. And some white students carry on the old committee, said she had become interested in Free­ Some civil rights workers again raised ques­ hostilities and hatreds. "I'm not interested in the dom Summer and the civil rights movement tions of tactics that had been heatedly debated in nigger movement," one white student bluntly told through college reading. "We learned at the sympo­ the early and mid '60s. Some still questioned the another. Those-who did attend felt that they had sium the importance of working together," she said. "O idea of bringing hundreds of northern white youths learned what that movement was about. Thomas "We saw the animosity that still exists, but we've 0) into hostile communities, where black Mississippi- Miller was a 3-year-old black child in McComb, also seen that people wurked for goals together." /H 3.

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.**^.-*..... «*...... RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE -C- MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1979 ACTIVISTS WHO JOINED MISSISSIPPI SUMMER 15 YEARS LATER CALL IT A 'TURNING POINT' By Jerry Derauth Religious News Service Correspondent (lk~5-79) JACIISON, Miss. (RNS) — The Mississippi freedom summer of 1934 was "a turning point in this country and in the lives of everyone who participated,"'Allard Lowenstein, a former special ambassador to the United Nations, and one of the planners of that project, told a four- day symposium at Tougaloo and Millsaps Colleges here. What was done to achieve that turning point, and how far Mississippi has traveled since reaching it, were questions that received frequently conflicting answers from the more than 75 students, students, educators, government officials and office holders and ex-civil rights workers who served as panelists. Former SNCC activist and ex-Mississippian Joyce Ladner called the event a "homecoming" for those who had participated in 1964's "major assault on bigotry." Among her fellow panelists was the Rev. Clay F. Lee, a United Methodist minister whose past churches include one in Jackson at which Ms. Ladner was arrested and one in Philadelphia where, on a Sunday afternoon, three civil rights workers were arrested by police who participated in their murder later thatdday. "Many wanted to do right," Mr. Lee said, "but they didn't know twhat was right." "We still," he declared, "have to come to the ultimate point, which is something more than co-existence. It is reconciliation as defined in the Bible." But some, such as MS. Ladner, a Hunter College sociology professor, saw the "ultimate point" as more than reconciliation. "Northern leaders say, 'I marched with Dr. Zing,'" she said. "But in the towns they marched through, blacks are still as poor today as they were then. People at the bottom then are still at the bottom today. But they may be less hopeful today." Such disillusionment marked many of the comments, but it was a disillusionment that grew out of the strong hope-filled religious feelings of many of the black Mississippians, young and old, who were engaged in the struggle. "We felt that a strong moral force prevailed in the world and that it would eventually cause us to win," Hi, Ladner declared in her presentation which opened the symposium. "We had, after all, grown up in deeply religious homes where we were taught that segregation and discrimination were morally wrong." (more) PAGE -C- RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE -9- MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1979 But people, she noted, were far more hostile and intractable than the civil rights activists had imagined. And when change did come about "it didn't come about because of any prior commitment to Christianity but because of outside pressures and economic losses," said John R. Salter, Jr., who was a sociology instructor at black Tougaloo College from 1931 to 1933 and a leader in the fight to integrate lunch counters then. What happened to many, said white southerner Sue Thrasher who joined blacks in the struggle in the '39s, was "the end of our belief in the institutional church. We came," she stressed, "smacka • up against what the church meant." It was hundreds of white northerners who came down to work door-to-door on voter registration, to teach in freedom schools and to challenge the legitimacy of the all-white state Democratic Party, and not the struggling black Mississippians, who attracted attention that summer 15 years ago. Today, only a faint picture of that summer, if any at all, is held by many, especially the young. The symposium was an attempt to make young blacks and whites aware of what had been attempted and achieved then and since as well as provide a historical record of those times. "We want to acquaint students with what occurred during the struggle as well as remind all of us of the progress that did and did not occur," explained Leslie McLemore, chairman of the department of political science at predominantly black Jackson State University. Most of the more than 200 white and black students from Tougaloo and Millsaps who attended the symposium knew little of those days of civil rights struggles — a subject ignored by public school text­ books and often avoided by parents. "I hadn't realized all the animosity that had existed,," Commented one white student/ "but they were all striving for the same goals." The different ways of organizing a community, of ending discrimination, of involving northern white youths were again discussed. So were Justice Department policies that left voter registration workers unprotected and Democratic Party decisions that restricted grass roots participation. Whatever the differences, it was clear that those were exciting times marked by deep camaraderie that still, in many instances, continues. It also was clear that although concerns for economic and political justice remain, programs and activities have fizzled. "We no longer have support in the courts to break new ground," stated Greenville, Miss., Youth Court Judge Joseph V/roten.

(more) PAGE -9- RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE -10- MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1979 Still, others pointed out how activities in Mississippi had led to benefits elsewhere — United Farm Workers' organizers were rooted in the idea of Mississippi volunteers, the concept of free legal aid for the poor had been expanded, Head Start benefited whites as well as blacks as did special job training programs. There ware occasional traces of bitterness among '30s civil rights workers, but it was never all-consuming or self-destructive. Even a sometieios slightly bitter William Strickland, a one-time SNCC worker who now is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, expressed hope when he concluded: "The significance of Mississippi for the world is that people here did what was said to be the impossible. People can do almost anything if they believe." -0- '^ng

• *-> M 553 Si "ner

By Jerry De Muth Jackson, Miss. blacks as Hartman Turnbow, the first S!*ck to take the voter registrati in Holmes County wen too .MM coveralls had given way to suits, skirts and appear wl liticians were too involved in the 'blouses had replaced the jeans and shirts, but the campaign or other political activities to ajtend. struggles they spoke of. the hopes they expressed, the defeats thev deplored and the love and admiration they But most apparent was the absence ef Bob M -.a; other was much the . i the main force behind Freedom Suu i iei -.-••• deep during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. dedication and gentle yet strong personality eorvirvee: y to become supporters of th< The veterans of that drive to open up the c e extent because of the attention be, ra society of Mississippi, along with numerous clergymen, Mississippi blacks, received that surnmt r, Moses retreat­ attorneys, educators, politicians and businessmen, gath­ ed as much as possible from lead ies. He was ered her? for four days Feeestly to put on the record, for invited W attend but dec lined, the enlightenment of students who were only a few years old then, the meaning and impact of that project. Yet his spirit hovered over the entire - : >ium as questions and points raised by panelists and audience Hundreds of young white northerners had eome to members could be only partially answered without him. Mississippi that summer to work on voter registration. Ailard Lowenstein, who helped plan Freedom teach in freedom schools, organize health clinics and Summer but whose establishment ires, including a provide legal help. But there is no full record of those ial ambassadorship position to the rented Nations, times and public school students have been prevented have since made some suspicious (if his involvement, frcm learning of those struggles just as much as older d iiiose hot months "a turnir in this country blacks were once prevented from participating in and hi the lives of everyone who participated." state's economic and political life. Seeing this, students left the symposium knowing "For many this is a homecoming," explained Joyce that not only would there be an increase in campus Ladner, who had joined the civil i ivement in her hometown of Hattlesburg and today is a Hunter Coll sociology professor. "We have come back to celebrate the successes of the summer project." Ms. Ladner was a student at Tougaloo College whore she addressed more than 200 students and others at symposium that alternated between the black school and predominantly white Millsaps College. Only two hours earlier she and other former Student Nonviolent Coo tg Committee wor black and white, had arrivcc in J son, grabbing other's hands and wrapping see-- around each other's shoulders next to signs proclaiming, "Ai xC in pson Airport" npson was Jackson's mayor in 1954 and his obstinacy — as we!! as an I vehicle and other armaments with which he declared he could handle "10,000 niggers and reds" — had attracted national, if not worldwide, attention. Tr !>se returning to Mississippi saw the great changes that bad been made in the intervening 15 years. Ms. ter rode side-by-side with Joan Tru r her le, southern, white roommate at io, back to the campus where she remembered what it was like for the two in the early li . :;n Joan and I rode some place, I'd wrap a ; scarf around her head and sometimes she'd U floor of the back seat." People stayed, and socialized, at motels that ALLARD LOWENSTEIN were closed to a local Holidaj inn. Matt e: worker e the spirits at voter registn • es and to ra toncerts, sang civil rights-oriented traditional in a • ivil rights movement, but that - black songs with th; regular singer in the bar. parked here wouid aiso prompt family dj c -. tee vi K'sh m ' ens oi ion will be opened up in fame were • sa-ei O: • . .... the u . y -ae. m were u] 0 areis wl ore few, is a;: . i Summer at i i - ister to vote 1 it tense and \ I t to .<-' -. their mn er. : I so i the 1 pit - - : e e ' an tin >f many pi lent sought tc ligh then the mood of this event with rates of unemployment, malnutrition and die. homecoming and celebration, sp irl a soon inadequate housing and clothing, and quasi integrated the occasionally bitter William Strickland, an ex-SNCC inferior education," as Ms. Ladner declared. worker who is now a Universityof Massa professor, ended his speech with hope. The push to improve the lot of the poor, according to some of the more th m 70 panelists, was no longer thi re "The significance of Mississippi for the world," he as it had been in the c "We've lost the turn," lhat people here did what was said to be stated Greenville, Miss., Youth Court Judge Joseph impossible. People can do almost anything if they Wroteo. Seme scheduled panelists did not appear. Symbolic "You have no future in Ihis country,' Strickland of the successes and failures of the 1960s, such poor stressed, "except for the future you make tor yourself. SucWola* /VlW l$l?7? Sf. Examiner & Cer; Jerry DeMuth approx. 2,000 words Box 9036 - Station B Atlanta, Georgia 3031^

Mississippi's Unknown Murder by PI. Julian Bond and Harry DeMuth

The country well knows of the slaying of Mississippi Negro James Chaney. He was killed with two white New Yorkers, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, and thus his death could not be ignored. The previous year, the nation could not ignore the slaying of Medgar Evers outside his Jackson, Mississippi, home, Evers, as state head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was automatically a public figure. But the shotgun slaying of another Mississippi Negro, one v/ho never "sat-in" or led a protest march or even tried to register to vote, has remained unknoww The quiet man was Louis Allen, l|i|, of Liberty, in the southwest corner of the state. He was a logger and father of four children and had lived and worked near his home all of his life. That life came to an end on January 31, 1961|. ! 2 In southwest Mississippi a Negro doesn't have to "sit-in" to irritate white folks. Just the fact of his blackness is enough of an irritant.for this section of the state is Mississippi's most violent and repressive. Beatings and killings of Negroes occur regularly as do bombings and cross burning. The area is the active home of Americans for the Preservation of the Ihite Race, the White Knights of the Ku Klux K-j_an, an independent branch of" the Klu Klux Klan, and chapters of the White Citizens' Council. When in October three white men in a car ¥/ere arrested in connection with bombings membership cards in the APWR and Klan, as well as an arsenal of explosives, were found in their possession, Klan members even belonged to the state highway patrol and two such persons were eventually fired. Others are being asked to renounce their membership. Last April, the Klan held a mass rally at the Pike County Fairgrounds in McComb. Secrecy isn't required for hate groups here.

All of these groups work to see that Negroes, and whites too, "stay in line." Plain citizens and local officials help them. Liberty is certainly a misnomer for the southwest Mississippi town in which Louis Allen was killed, as is the name of the county, Amite, derived from the French word for friendship. So terror ridden is the area that Negroes are even afraid to leave. That last night in January, twelve hours before he was to leave Mississippi to join his brother in Milwaukee, Louis Allen was found dead in a pool of blood under the truck he used to haul logs. His head had heen torn through by two shot gun blasts. "Louis had been crying all day," Mrs. Allen said later. "He had worked for Mr. Jerry Spillman for seven years and couldn't 3 get a recommendation for a job. Mr. Spillman said he might be helping a communist or anything so he couldn't recommend him." That night Allen went to see Lloyd King. Tommy Allen, a son, explained, "He went up there to get a recommendation for driving a bulldozer for use in Milwaukee construction work." About 8:10 that night, Allen left Lloyd King's house. Two cars, a creamy-tan 1961 Ford with two men in it and a black I960 Ford with one man in it, followed him. After an hour after the killing, the same two cars were spotted coming from the road above Allen's home. They drove into Liberty and parked in front of the court house. Some 20-25 minutes after Allen left King's home, he pulled his truck into his driveway, put on the emergency brake, and got out with., the engine still running. In the bright light from the truck's headlights, he began lifting the top loop of a barbed wire fence gap so he could drive his trnck into the gravel driveway, Suddenly some person or persons either rose from the deep ditch south of the highway or came over the crest of a hill a few yards east. Allen saw him and knew he didn't have time to flee. A shot was fired at him but it went wild and Allen, hurled himself under the front end of the truck, landing with his head under the driver's seat and his feet under the front bumper. Ihen a load of buckshot hit him. "It hit him at the hairline at the left top corner of the forehead and tore a widening hole to come out through his right cheekbone," the McComb, Miss., Enterprise-Journal reported. "The second load of deer shot struck slightly lower on the left side of his face and emerged through the right side of the o

k neck, some of the shot entering his chest. "One or the other of the strong shotgun loads ripped through and blew out the left front tire of the log truck." Allen's wife was watching television when she heard the three shots. Her favorite program had just come on and she fixed the time at about 8:35. Mrs. Allen went to the front window. She saw the headlights burning some 125 yards away but thought nothing of it and went back to watch television. Several times she returned to the window, each time the lights were dimmer. Finally she went to bed. Shortly after midnight Allen's son, Henry, 18, and a nephew, John Westley Horton, also 13, returned home. They discovered the truck in the thirty foot driveway from highway 2l\, The lights were out and the engine off—the battery and gas had ?ivan out. As the two moved the truck, they found Louis Allen's shot-torn body underneath. Henry Allen and Horton went to the home of Amite County Sheriff Daniel Jones, woke him up, and told him "something was wrong." Jones went to the Allen home, then with Coroner E. D. (Genie) Bellue empaneled an inquest jury at the scene. This jury ruled that Allen died at the hands of an unknown assailant. Sheriff Jones is an important figure in what Louis Allen faced since September 3

# # # REPQe T ON JAMES VENABIE and

WALLY BUTE WORTH heads of the Committee of One Million Caucasians to March on Congress (information taken from KKK by Ben Haas, Regency Books, RB319)

The revival of the Klan of the 1920s began on Thanksgiving niseht in 1915. William Joseph Simmons and 15 adherents drove from Atlanta to Stone Mountain and climbed to the top of the mountain. This land, now state property, was then ewned by the Veable family, "one of impeccable Southern lineage as those things are reckoned in the South." There they constructed a rude stone xtxx altar, and placed upon it an American flag, an open Bible, an unsheathed sword, and a canteen of water. Ihey erected and burned a cross and then took the sacred oath of allegiance to the invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, ("Wild Bill") In I960, upon the death of Eldon Edwards, Robert Lee/Davidson, of Macon, became Imperial Wizard of the U.S. Klans, Kini \hts of the K.K.K., Inc. Davidson had been The Grand Dragon of Georgia, a post Calvin Craig now filled. At a US K*~ans meeting late in November I960 in Atlanta, Davidson yelled, "If it takes buckshot to keep the black race down, Klansmen will use it J" The book reports: "His sentiments were echoed by James Venable, Klan legal adviser, who, according to newspaper stories, called on Klansmen to burn the schools if necessary to prevent integration.

In Alabama, Robert Shelton, of Tuscaloosa, formed the Alabama Knip-hts of the Ku Klux Klan, Wally Butterworth helped Shelton formed this Klan group, handled its public relations functions, and edited its newspaper, The Fiery Cross,

One issue—written in Butterworth's style—"justified Eichmani's slaughter of Butterworth and ¥enable— page two the Jews, denied in the next breath that any Jews had been killed, and called for the Ranging of Sir Anthony Eden, Charles De Gaulle, Golda Meier, David Ben Gurion, and Harry S. Truman for various reasons, describing them as 'criminals'." late in 1961, car early in 1962, Davidson, for some reason,resigned as Imperial Wizard of the U.S. Klans, Knights of the K.K.K., Inc. James Venable, Calvin Craig and E. E. George at this point then sent an invitation to Shelton to merge his Klan with theirs. From this was born the united Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. In the summer of ito 1962, NAACP held their national convention In Atlanta. A rallying call went out tin to Klan members. »i^e tlan met in a nearby pasture (nearby to Stone Mountain) owned by attorney James Venable, who had once been mayor of the town of Stone Mountain, and whose family had originally owned the mountain." In attempting to get to the tope of the mountain— a formal request to meet there had been denied—the Klan clashed with police before finally getting to th© top where hundreds of them held their cross-burning. James Venable also formed the "Defense Legion of Registered Americans." Venable was listed as its president, Wally Butterworth was listed as Its secretary, A subsidiary of this group was foztaed, called the "Christian voters' and Buyers' League." Butterworth cut a nu ber of phonograph records for them. The titles include^ "Negro Crime and Disease in the United States": "United Nations 'Uneseo' Sex in Our ^blic Schools"} "How to Deliver the Knock-out Punch to Federal Judges"§ "Kosher Food Blackmail of American Housewives" and "James Meredith—Taxpayers' 2$ Million Dollar Negro (Forced oh Mississippi by New York Jews)", Ben Haas commented on the latter» "As the disc turned on the record player, Butterworth*s smooth, professional, and persuasive voice ntebly traveled the range from indignation to anger to contempt to reassurance. He was explicit about what his organization was fighting. He said they despised what he termed the Communist Butterworth and Venable—page three united Nations, supposedly a product of world Jewism and bankers Intent on mongreHzing America into a one-world government with the object of controlling and strangulating world trade. He proclaimed a fight to the death against what he called tyrant courts and tyrant presidents whom he accused of what he termed mmgrelizing their blood with Negroes, "Whereupon followed a vicious attack upon several persons and organizations. Included were the entire Kennedy family, Federal Marshal James P, McShane, Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, James Meredith, Hugo Black,

Earl Warren, Barry S. Truman, Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Newton Minow, and James Hagerty. Also, in to addition/the united Nations, he attacked the 'Jewish* NAACP, the 'Jewish' Americans fir Democratic Actionj th© 'treasonous* Council on Foreign Relations, and th© 'weak-spined, yellow-striped skunks' in Congress, He lumped Rockefeller, Kennedy, and Eisenhower together as Itraitors' and maintained that all the people and organizations he had attacked were tools of Jews and Communism, He gave a rabble-rousing recitation of occurrences at oxford, promised that the Defensive Legion would organize attorneys all over the country to meet the threat of another Little Rock or Oxford with legal action, got down to the nub of his tirade by hnploring his listeners to send a 'big, fat check' to the Christian Voters' and Buyers' league, and then signed off cheerfully until next month's record. It was an amazing performance, reeking of irrationality and paranoia, 3fln5Hx*Ja»## "The flip side of the record was ann attack against smutty and pornographic literature, ait here agin, instead of directing reasoned ire against a perfectly legitimSte objective, Butterworth slid completely off the subject, using it merely as a springboard for anti-Semitism," James Venable is also associated with two men active in the National States Rights Party, whose newspaper once described Adolph Eichmann as a "Christian Patriotic German soldier." Venable and Butterworth—page four

Venable, in 1958, had defended the five men accused of the bombing of a synagogue in Atlanta. All five were members of the NSRP. In January,

1963, one of these five defendants (all five were acquited), Kenneth Chester

Griffin, was living at Venable's home in Stone Mountain. Quoting Ben Haas: "Meanwhile, sharing Venable»s suite of offices was Jesse B* Stoner, who had been ass&ciated with the NSRP's head, Edward Reed Fields, in an organization called the "Christian Anti-Jewish Party," an outgrowth itself of a party organized by Stoner called the "Stoner Anti-Jewish Party,"

"StonerS1-1 name was already familiar to me j he had been one of th© youngest Kleagles in the Ku Klux Klan. In 19l*6, according to an Anti-

Defamation League press telease, Stoner had told a reporter that he thoueht

Hitler was too moderate and that the party he would organize would make beihe a Jew punishable by death. Recently, Stoner had served, on occasion, as legal advisor to the National States' Rights Party."

Venable had once served as an attorney for the Black Muslims when he defended a group from Louisiana. They were all found guilty.

"The Muslims want the same thing we do. They don't want integration, either," Venable pointed. But at this $irae, Jan 1963, he hadn't been attorney for them since that time.