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Vol. 1, Me. 1 6 Raymond St. NW, .Atlanta Ga. 30314 July 7,1964 ***UNOFFICIAL REPORT***STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL***NOT FOR PUBLIC USE*** ATLANTA, GA. - PRESSES RUN ON SNCC STAFF NEWSLETTER - A staff newsletter, for staff use only will be published by the Atlanta office. The newsletter, with its modern design and format will carry WATS line information. The newsletter will come out as needed, most probably every ether day. The first edition will attempt to compile the news of the last week. Future newsletters will be more current. SASSER, GA. - CHURCHS REDEDICATED -June 28, Mt. Olive Babtist Church, burned to the ground in 1961, was re- dedicated. On hand was SNCC ' s Julian Bond, Jackie Robinson, HL Kinn;, Wyatt Walker and the whole SCLC crew. JACKSON, MISS. - NEW VOLUNTEER BEATEN -June 28, Steven L. Smith, 19, Marion, Iowa, was kicked down on the street and hit on the head by local residents as he prepared to join the sum mer project. He was knocked to the ground after leaving the Oxford, . Ohio - Jackson, Miss, train. HATTIESBURG, MISS. - CARS SHOT INTO - June 29, Two cars belonging to volunteers John Catlin and Barry Clemson were shot into last ni^ht. The attackers were in a red car and shot at the radiators. ïhey also shot at a teenage witness. No one injured. HATTIESBURG, MISS. - PETE STONER ARRESTED - June 29, Pete Stoner picked up in Hattiesbur- at 3:00 PM by Constable Hum phrey. Taken to Forrest County Jail. Charged with reckless driving and failing to signal. COLUMBUS, MISS. - CARLOADS OF WHITES AT FREEDOM HOUSE - June 29, Six carloads of whites at the Freedom House. Police called, and they arrived and dispersed the whites. HOLLY SPRINGS, MISS. - WORKER ROUGHED - June 30, Larry Rubin and six others were accosted by whites. The white start ed at the group with a coke bottle, grabbed rubin, and cursed at the group. The i-roup left succèssfuly. SELMA, ALA. - SHERIFF AND MEN INTIMIDATE MEETING - June 30, Sheriff Jim Clark came to the Selma Freedom House and just asked questions to the workers. Later a posse of 2 5 men came to the mass meeting. Two plainclothesmon were inside taking pictures. CHICAGO,ILL. - RIGHTS LEADERS ARRESTED - June 30, A rally to pressure the Federal Gov. in the Phila. Miss, case was held here. The crowd numbered 100. Arrested: Larry Landry, Stanley Branch, Marion Barry. NEW YORK CITY AND WASHINGTON*, DC - FORMAN ATTENDS RIGHTS LAW SIGNING - July 2 , .... Forman left Jackson in the morning to attend Coucil of United Civil Rights Leadership in N.Y.C. The Council recieved an invitation to attend the signing of the bill. They all flew to D.C. Present at the s signing were : Randolph, King, Young, Wilkins, Dorthy Height (NCC), Burke Marshall, Katzenbach, Bobby Kennedy, Lee White, Louis Martin and Forman. After the ceramony the croup met with the President- topic-general discussion of the bill. ALBANY, GA. - NINE ESTABLISHMENT INTEGRATED - July 2, Restaurants in Albany, Americus, and Thomasville, all in S.W. Georgia served integrated groups within an hour of the bills signing. GULFPORT, MISS. - WORKERS INTIMIDATED - July 3- were George Johnson, 17, COFO and Gibbs Von Kinderman/stopped while can vassing. A man grabbed the boys by the shirt and cursed them. He chased then for a short distance. John Dear called in D.C.-said he would (over) s investigate. New Orleans FBI was called (Agent Walker). Jackson Office asked for arrests under the new rights lav/. MERIDIAN,MISS.- CAR RAMMED - July 3, Walton Hackman, 26, Lansdale, Pa. (Eastern Mennonite College) was driving with Ronnie de Sousa, 24, from Switzerland, (grad student at ' Princeton), Larry Martin, 11, local, and Ben Chaney, 11, brother of James Chaney. They pulled up at an intersection and stopped for a red light. When it turned green they started to go, a car facing them accross the road started up despite the red light. It rammed them and cause Hackman to ram a third car. Ben Chaney's arm was broken as a result, others scrated. At first witness said it was the other cars fault. After the witnesses found out the were VR workers they changed their story to the opposite. Hickman was arrested for running a red light and reckless driving. He has been bonded out. SELMA, ALA. - WORKER ARRESTED - July 3, Eric Farnum, 19, white student from Raleigh, N.C., SNCC worker, was arrested for disturbing the peace. Farnum had been talking to Mary Varela (Selma Literacy Project Director) . He left her and was picked up while walking down the street. When Julian Bond called the sheriffs office he was told that the bail was $500 and that a white women had allegedly sworn out a warrant against him for making a pass at her. AMERICUS, GA. - SNCC WORKER JOHN PERDEW BEATEN AFTER INTEGRATING RESTAURANT - July4, An integrated group ate at the Hasty House (Americus). When they left the restaurant a mob of about 2 5-30 who had been slowly gathering as they were eating started to attack the car the SNCC workers were climbing into. Everyone got into the car but Perdew. The driver pan' icked after a white broke a window and started reaching in to hit them. The car drove of leaving Perdew to face the mob. As he can out of the door he was met by a white who slugged him and knocked him to the ground and comensed to kick him in the head. Others joined. He started wlking away and stopped when the police called. Perdew asked for protection and a ride to saftey. The cop said,"Well, we can't give you a ride in the police car." Both police cars then drove away. He started walking into to town when a black compact car drove up and two whites got out and started beating him. He was knocked to the ground and kicked and hit« After that car left, the white 6 3 Plymouth or Chrysler (license Ga. 31-1450) which played an important part in gathering the thugs together in the first place and circled while he was being beaten, pulled up and started beating him all over again. The people in the black Comet accosted him again across from the bus staion. The police finally arrived and allowed Perdew to get into the car and drove him to the police station. Cops would not allow him to press charges until the morning. Some of his assailants stopped at the station to see the damage they had done. Perdew was finally picked up by Willey Ricks. Ke notified FBI. GREENWOOD, MISS. - CONGRESSMAN VISIT - July 3, United States Congressman William Fitts Ryan (D.-N.Y.C), Augustus f. Hawkins (D.- Cal. -LA), Phillip Burton (D- Cal.- San Fran.) and Don Edwars (D- Cal.-San Jose) visited Mississippi. They visited the regitrar in Greenwood to see the voter registration process first hand They saw Miss Mary Lane attempt to register for the tenth time. She returned to the Registrar to find out the results of the ninth test. She failed the ninth test and took it again. Congressman asked to see the ninth test to see what was wrong. They all agreed that procedure was discriminatory. Later they visited the SNCC national office. They also went to a mass meeting. Cong. Edwards son is on the project named Len Edwards. SELMA, ALA. - ERIC FARNUM STILL HELD - July 4, John Love (Selma project director) contacted Attorney Chestnut to try to get Eric Farnum out of jail. When the two went to the jail the jailor attempted to hit Love, but missed. Chestnut was unable to get Farnum out. Later in the evening Attny Bruce Boynton drew up a writ of habeas corpus but the two judges he called would not speak to him. When Farnum was arrested he was not allowed to see anybody, but later he saw a lawyer. He is a cell with Negroes. NEW YORK CIT, N.Y., - NINE ARRESTED - July 4, Ten people were arrested outside the subway station. The group incl eluded Julia Prettyman (SNCC Administrative Director of N.Y.Office). They were distributing leaflets calling for a boycott of the Greenwood Miss, band playing at the Miss, pavillion of the worlds fair. Albany. Two white SNCC workers had gone to the pool first, entered, and reported back by telephone that there were white men armed with ball peen hammers, sticks and clubs and that the life guards had base ball bats. An integrated group of 2 5 went (including those arrested) and tried to get in. The ticket seller, after alot of discussion, admitted that the pool was private for white people and that Negroes were not admitted. The group left, half went home, and the thirteen were arrested for loitering and held on $102 bail. SELMA, ALA - REPORTERS BEATEN - July 5, David Prince and Jerry Demuth, reporters on assignment from Black Star News Agency were injured by presumed members of Sherriff Jim Clark's posse. The reporters were attacked following a mass meeting at the AME Zion Church. As they left the church were law enforcement personel had been pre sent part of the time, they saw about 60 helmeted policeman. Some had brown shirts, some plainclothes, all were in helmets. Prince took some pictures and then tear gas exploded. Prince called Demuth to get between the buildings, but when he turn ed Demuth was missing. A spotlight was shone in Prince's eyes and then a shot rang out and a bullet lodged in the building next to him. Prince's camera was thrown against the building and later smashed. He fell to the ground and rolled up into a ball and was hit on the neck and back and legs. The two reporters left Selma to the hospital in Montgomery. Demuth was pretty badly injured with a gash across his neck which was bleeding badly. He also had a gash across his forehead and a bad cut on the top of his head. His glasses had been smashed. Prince had injuries of the back. When the reporters arrived in Selma the same aftermoon they notif ied the FBI of their presence. Theywere told that he wasn't sure what kind of protection they could recieve from the Sheriff. They introduc ed themselved at the sheriff's office shortly after noon. They were on a Black Star assignment. Demuth also had an Esquire card, Prince a Macmillian Publishing Co. Both had City of Atlanta Police Press cards, Three local Negroes were also hospitalized as a result ofbaetings. - John Lewis, Chairman of SNCC and Francis Mitchell,SNCC publicity director for the Miss. Summer Project arrived saf41y in Selma. AMERICUS, GA. - BOMB SCARE IN MOVIE- July 5, Several Negroes were in the Martin theater when it was emptied be cause of a bomb threat at about 9:00 PM. A mob of about 200-300 whites had gatered outside the theater. About a 100 Negroes gatehered in the same area.SNCC worker Robert Mants called the Americus police and FBI agent Cheek.... in Albany. Mants, Willie Ricks and Sammy Malone saw people minning and heard shots. The police had fired shots into the air. There was a fire truck on the scene with a hose in postion to be used. A riot seemed impending. At this time the SNCC workers got the Negroes to come to an improm- tu mass meeting. During the mass meeting the white mob was still throw ing stones at passing cars driven by Negroes. LAUREL, MISS. - TWO SUMMER VOLUNTEERS PICKED UP BY POLICE - July5, Two white summer volunteers, Thomas Watts, 35, Berkely, Calf, and Marcia Ann Moore, 21, Fort Dodge, Iowa were picked up and quest ioned by police. SNCC worker Gwen Robinson, 19, Negro, Memphis, Tenn., went to the jail to bring Moore's identification and was held for a short time. Charles Spinks, 14, Negro, Laurel, was detained for an hour in connection with the two volunteers. Watts was released. Moore was charged with vagrancy and will be arraigned tomorrow.. AMERICUS, GA. - WHITES.'SHOOTING INTO NEGRO SECTION r- July.6.,.. White mobs formed at the Martin Theater, site of a near riot last night. Negroes who group to oppose the whites are being dispersed by the police. Carloads of whites have been going through Seaboard Side (the Negro section) shooting at Negro residences. No one was reported injured. SELMA, ALA. - MASS MEETING HELD - July 6, Ralph Abernathy spoke to a crow- of 350 people at a mass meeting at Shiloh Babtist Church. At least 150 policemen were on the scene. A 10:00 PM curfew was announce after the rally. Police and posse went on to the peoples porches and clubbed them into the house. They also beat the doors with their sticks to make the people lock them. Chairs were thrown through the door and windows of the house next to the church were the mass meeting was held. Under the curfew the p people must turn of their lights at L0:00 PM also. After the rally tear gas was sprayed inside the church building...... - ^"*f,-.. HATTIESBURG, MISS. - OVER 500 SIGN UP FOR FREEDOM SCHOOLS - July 4, SNCC office in Hattiesburg reports that by Thursday, July 2, 575 prospective students registered for the five Freedom Schools in the area. Their ages range from 8-82. The first to register was a man 82 who has taught himself to read and write and now wants to pass the voter registration test. The Freedom Schools will be staffed by 3 3 volunteer teachers. Local teachers will help out. SELMA, ALA. - LITERACY PROJECT WORKERS ARRESTED - July 4, Four workers on the Selma Literacy Project were arrested here today. They were all arrested near the Thirsty Boy restaurant. Names, charges, etc: Karen House- Tresspassing and earring a concealed weapon-$1000 bond; She is 21, Washington D.C, graduate of Howard U. Jim Wiley - Tresspassing and resisting arrest - $1600; 21, born Selma, lives Gary, Indiana, Harvard U. Carol Lawson - Tresspassing - $500; 19, Bronx, Howard U. Silas Norman - Tresspassing - $"500; 23, Augusta Ga., grad stud ent at Wisconsin. All are Negroes. ATLANTA, GA. - WORKERS PUMMELED AT WHITE RALLY - July 4, Four SNCC workers, Matthew Jones, Charles Neblett, Wilson Brown, all Negro and Karen Haberman, white went to a rally sponsored by the Ameridan Patriots at Atlanta's Lakewood Park. Featured speakers were local small time racists and Wallace and Barmett. The four entered the stadium and took seats. They were met with a birrage of heavy steel folding chairs, thrown and swung. Haberman was escourted away from the scene by a friendly white man. The three were severly beaten, and treated at the hospital. Four whites were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. LAUREL, MISS. - ACCOMADATIONS TESTED IN MISS. - July4, About 7:30 a group of well dressed Negro teenagers decided to test public accomadations by attempting to get service at the Burger-Chef a drive in, in a borderline area. They were met outside by a group of whites who asked, "Where are you going?" The youths answered, "Inside to get a hamburger." The whites asked "Do you want to fight", the youths left. They came back a second time at about 8:00PM. Twelve whites met them at the entrance and a similar exchange occurred.They were again barred from entering. The drive-in has one side marked color the other unmarked. The youths headed for the unmarked side. They were on foot. There was apparently no managment involved. After being blocked again the Negroes left. A group of about 20 other Negroes had formed in the area and threatened to start throwing bottles in the others were not let in. The oric-"nal group of seven returnedat about 8:30 and were surrounded by about 25 - 30 whites when they tried to enter again. The whites said, "Go home Yankee." A general melee ensued in which Willie Roy Gilliam was cut across the chest with a razor blade, while his brother Terry was cut on the face. By that time there were about 40-50 whites and 20 Negroes. The police appeared, closed off the section to traffic and kept the two groups apart. The Gillum brothers were taken to Southeatern Benevolent Hospital. SELMA, ALA.- VIOLENCE REIGNS IN ALA. TOWN - July 5, -10:30 am Negro students travelling in the downtown area were beaten. People in the commercial section of the city were also beaten. One man com ing out of a Negro restaurant was beaten by 6-12 policemen. At 11:00 PM a rally of whites was held at the downtown ASP. During the evening a cross was burnt on Highway 41 about one mile from the heart of town. SELMA, ALA. - SNCC WORKER ARRESTED - July 5, Benny Tucker, SNCC field sec. was arrested in downtown Selma. He was driving a SNCC car. He and John Love had been going downtown to pick up leaflets for a mass meetin.. and voter registration. The pol ice took the car when they arrested Tucker. The car had a Calf, license on the front, and a Ga. on the back. The registration was in the glove compartment. ALBANY, GA. - SNCC WORKERS, NINE OTHERS ARRESTED - July 5, Donald Harris (S.W. Ga. Project Director), Randy Battle, Roy Sheilds and Dale Smith and nine others were arrested for loitering after they tried entering all white Tift Park PooKformerly a public pool) im (Over) m~
Vol. I, 2, 6 Eayvond St. Atlanta, Ga. 30314 July 29,, 1964 ***UI!0FFICIAL PEPPP.T***STPICTLY COET,Ir>E:TTIAL***rOT FOU PUBLIC USE*** M0SS POINTi 'ISS. - !?0»!Aî! SECT AFTPn "ASS •»ESTXSG - July 7 Jessie â« Stalwcrth, a 15 yczt eld reeident of "esc Point, uas wounded when a carload of whites drove by and fired 12 shots as she was leaving a nass meeting. She was shot in the back and the side and was taken to a hospital in Pascagoula where a nurse coldly inquirer' if she had been shot by her father. Lanar Turnipseed pursued the unidentified car fron which the shots wore fired. "e was able to follow then to a gas station but was then arrested, along with two other local ;:e»roes, Earnest I'udson and n.J. Virgins, by the "oss Point police.
ITT.\ BERA, ,fISS - LOC/L UORKBR ARRESTIS - July 7 James Thrown was arrested for not appearing at his trial for two speeding tickets and was held incennunicado for nearly 12 hours. The sheriff was unable to be reached as his phone was off the hook and the •Jails said . he was not their prisoner. Pe was thus listed as missing for an entire night•
P. EL EH A, ARK - ATTEMPTED IPTEOPATIOP 0! USLIC S'nViriG PCCL - July 7 "His Ford, local "'egro resident of Eelena, and Thomas Allen, StfCC worker fron Pine 31uff, were arrested while waiting for a pool to open so they could attempt to enter. They were taken to the police station and beaten. Eoth have Veen released and are in satisfactory condition.
PIPE BLUFF, ARK« - IdTEGEATIOP ATTEMPTS AT TRUCK STOPS - July 7 Larry Segal of Tew York City, a nenber of a group trying to inte grate the E'onderlan.l Truckstop, was seized and pushed several tines by a white nan working behind the counter. At the sane establishment, a white professor fron Yale University was thrown bodily out the door.
^t Play's Truchstop, Larry Segal "as hit in the nouth and had to be carried out by his companions. SELTIA, ALA. - EE" AP.EESTS PU'IPC VOTES PECISTP.ATICP, DRIVE - July 7 Mine people, all local Pegroes, were arrested outside the court house in Selna.
LAUPEL, MISS. - SPCC '70R1CZP. APPESTEE A?TD "ÜSTPEATED - July 7 Lester "ci'.enney was arrested and taken to the work house at the county farn. '..e was held there for two days with nininal protection and no food.
"CCO 'B, HlSS. - F".EED0" HOUSE BOHffEÄ - July 8,9 The Freedom House of the local project was bombed in the early nom- in" hours while ten SPCC "orkers were sleeping within. The entire front of the house T'as smashed. Curtis Hayes and "ennis Sweeney w&re slightly injured ty the force of the explosion and flying glass. At a nass neeting the next day, at which 15 pEI agents were stationed, SECC leaders told the crowd of 175 that the bonbing attenpt to r*eter then would not work. The crowd was reassured that the ^PCC "orhers were not to be frightened away and that the project would continue.
STL"A, ALA. - PRSEDO i HCUSE APPP.O/C3EÎJ BY THIITE "A! - July 8 \ white nan approached the Preedon P.ouse at 1:P0 an and tried to break in. He kicked the door and did other slight property danage, threatening that he was "going to get the Preedon Fighters."
SEL 'A, ALA. - SIXTEEN A-.PESTED "EIL.. PICHETIIG - July Z Piftean local people and one nenber of SPCC staff, Ernest "ac"illan. 19 year old resident of .'.alias County, were arrested while picketing th federal building. Later in the afternoon ""ev. eese 'resident of Dal- las County Voters' League was also arrested. ASÜLAHD, "13 S. - SüCjC STAPF FORIiS*. ARRESTES - July 8 Cleve Cellers, "egro S'.'C ! staff "or':er and a student fron "".card University, was arrested for reckless driving. Pond vas set at $25°. COLUMBUS, HISS. - THREE VOLUNTEERS ARRESTED - July 8 Joel Bernard, 10, from NYC, a junior at Cornell; Steven Fraser, 18, of Great Week, New York, a sophonore at the Univ. of Wisconsin; and Warren Galloway, 21, from Detroit, a Negro student at Virginia Union, were arrested after stopping for a coke while canvassing for voter registration.
RULEVILLE, HISS. - VR ATTEMPTS BLOCKED - July 3 Janes Dann, 23, of Venice, Calif., attempted to take Mrs. Maybell Campbell to register at the Sunflower. County courthouse. Four tfhite men, including the Deputy Registrar, stopped the pair and forcefully threw Dann out of the office. Mrs. Campbell was told she could cone in to register, but not "with these scalawags." There have been several threats by employers in this area to fire any Negroes who participate in vr work. "
HATTIESBURG, MISS. - NCC WORKER ARRESTED - July 8 Rev. Robert Beach, NCC affiliated, was arrested on charges of false pretenses stemming from the refusal of a Hattiesburg bank to honor his check. Cash bond was set at $2,500,
SELT'A, ALA. - "ORE ARPESTS; TWO .BEATEN - July 9 Three Negro residents of Selma were arrested while picketing on the steps of the federal building. Willie James' Reynolds, 13, was beaten in jail as was Alvery Williams, SPCC staff. TTilliams required stitches in his head. j . GULFPORT, MISS. - THREE VOLUPTEERS ARRESTED - July 9 When volunteers attempted to take ten Pegroes to register at the county courthouse, a group of hostile whites had gathered. Police told the volunteers to leave. Steve Wilier, 18, San Francisco, Barry Gold stein, 21, "Tew York, and David Cleverdon, 22, Chicago, asked why they had to leave and the police immediately arrested them.
GREENWOOD, MISS. - BEATING - July 9 Phil ''core was accosted on the street by Prewitt, a white who works for the Interstate Insurance Co. Prewitt hit "oore in the head, told him to get out of town, and threatened him with a club. Moore was finally able to escape. He filed a complaint with the local police. ALBANY, GA. - WHITE RESTAURANT OWNER POSTS BOND FOR NEGRO PASTOR-JulylO Rev. 'Tells and five girls, while testing the civil rights bill, were served at the Victory Club. As they were driving away, they were stopped by a policeman who searched the car, found a jar of moonshine, and arrested Rev, Wells. The owner of the Victory Club appeared the same night at the Jail and posted the $1,250 for Rev. Wells, saying he had discovered that a white patron had planted the liquor. GREENWOOD, MISS. - SNCC WORKER ARRESTED - July 10 Fred Hangrun, a Pegro from Pew York City, was arrested for public profanity after police had stopped him and searched him. Pond was set at $15. BESSEMER, ALA* - TWO NEGROES BADLY BEATEN OUTSIDE RESTAURANT - July 10 Two unidentified Negroes tried to integrate a restaurant and were beaten by a large number of local white men with baseball bats. One of the Negroes was hit around the head and chest and was admitted to the hospital in serious condition. SELMA, ALA. - INJUNCTION ISSUED AGAINST CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS - July 10 An injunction has been Issued which prohibits any assembly of three or more persons in a public place. It was served against all civil rights leaders and groups in the area as well as against the seg regationist groups. "hen police served Terry Shaw, SNCC worker, with the injunction, they arrested him and placed him in solitary confine ment. Another SNCC worker, TTillie C. Robertson, was beaten in Jail the same night. BROWHING, MISS. - ANOTHER CHURCH BURNING - July 10 The Pleasant Plan Missionary Baptist church, located in a pre dominantly white community, burned to the ground while a fire truck was parked within 100 feet of the building but not attempting to con trol the fire. The church has no record of civil rights meetings. A member of the white community had tried to buy the church but the pas tor would not sell. CANTON, MISS. - ATTEMPTED BOMBING - July 11 2 A snail fire bomb was thrown on the lawn of the Freedom House, ignited briefly, and was extinguished.
LAUREL, MISS. - NEGROES BEATEN DURING ATTEMPTED INTEGRATION - July 11 An NAACP Youth Group attempting to integrate Kresses dimestore were attacked by whites while police were onlooking. Baseball bats and knives were used as weapons and two Negroes sustained injuries. A complaint is being filed on the nonaction of the police at the scene of the beatings.
HATTIESBURG, MISS. - THREE WORKERS BEATEN - July 10 Rabbi Lelyveld, an NCC worker from Cleveland, Ohio, David Owen, 19 year old student at Obcrlin College from Pasadena, Calif., and Lawrence Spears, a student at Stanford U. from Palo Alto, Calif., x*ere valking along the street with two local Negro girls when they were ac costed and beaten with iron bars by two white men who had been riding in an unlicensed truck. The three were admitted to the hospital with contusions, abrasions, and lacerations.
GREENWOOD, MISS. - WORKERS ATTACKED - July 11 Two Negroes in separate incidences were attacked while walking down the street. Floyd McGlaughan was accosted by whites driving by in a car, but he escaped injury. Maeola Anderson, walking with two other people, was shoved and hit in the chest. Though contacted, the ",ocal police took no action. DOUGHERTY COUNTY, GA. - TWO WHITES ARRESTED IN NEGRO CLUB - July 12 Two SNCC workers, John Perdew, of Denver, Colorado, and Pete De- ^ssivoy, were singled out by police and arrested at a Negro club, -abin in the Pines, as they sat in an integrated group. The two were harged with public drunkeness, disorderly conduct, and trespassing.
ANDERSON,NORTH CAROLINA - RACE RIOT - July 12 A group of Negroes attempting to be served at a truck stop were attacked by whites with bottles and tire irons. In the melee that en sued, 300 people were involved. Two Negroes were hospitalized, one in serious condition. Thirteen Negroes and four whites were arrested.
NATCHEZ & ADAMS COUNTY, HISS. - TWO CHURCHES BURNED - July 13 The Jerusalem Baptist Church and the Bethel Methodist Church were both burned to the ground in the early morning hours. Neither minister has a record of civil rights activity.
DREW, HISS. - TWENTY-TWO PEOPLE ARRESTED - July 15 Twenty-two people, including SNCC staff workers, summer volunteers, and children, were arrested at an outdoor mass meeting. They were tried and found guilty of blocking a public street. Total bond was set at $3980.
JACKSON, MISS - TWO VOLUNTEERS ARRESTED - July IG Eric Morton, Steve Smith, both summer volunteers, and Robert Ellis and Melvin McDavia, both Jackson residents, were driving to Greenwood when they were stopped by the Highway Patrol. The Hegro youth were ordered to walk back to Jackson which they did. The two white summer volunteers were arrested on charges of interfering with an officer and resisting arrest
GREENWOOD, MISS. - 111 PEOPLE ARRESTED ON FREEDOM DAY - July 16 Seventy-seven local residents and 34 SNCC staffers and volunt-peis were arrested while picketing the courthouse on Freedom Day. The cases were removed to federal court. Bond was set at $100 for "insiders" and $200 for"outsiders."
SELMA, ALA. - SHERIFF KICKS WORKER - July 16 Charles Johnson, 17, of Selma, was kicked by Sheriff Jim Clark be cause he drank from a water fountain at the jail. There is only one fountain but Hegroes are expected to use paper cups to drink.
GREENWOOD, MISS. - NEGRO BADLY BEATEN BY THREE WHITES - July 16 As Silas McGee was walking to the SNCC Office he was accosted by three white men who forced him into a car at gunpoint and beat him with a 2x4 board. He was badly bruised and bloodied and his condition 13 satisfactory. SELMA, ALA. - WHITE SNCC FIELD SECRETARY BEATEN - July 16 Eric Farnum, white SNCC field secretary from North Carolina, was beaten by two whites as he walked down the street alone. He was not seriously injured but was badly shaken up.
MCCOMB, MISS. - ANOTHER UNSOLVED CHURCH BURNING - July 17 The Zion Hill Baptist Church was burned to the ground in the early morning hours. The church has no record of civil rights activity. Ob servers reported that a chemical smell of explosives pervaded the air. The police reported that they have no indication of who is responsible.
PHILADELPHIA, MISS. - TWO ATTACKED BY CHAIN-SWINGING WHITES - July 17 Daniel Perlman, 23 year old Columbia Lav; student, and David Welsh, of Detroit, a freelance reporter for JET, were attacked by four white men as they left the office of a local white attorney. Perlman was hit with a chain several times and both were repeatedly struck about the face and head and kicked. Local authorities who were aware of the incident while it was taking place took no action.
ITTA 3ENA, MISS. - LOCAL YOUTH ARRESTED - July 10 Clinton Loggins, 16 year old local resident, was arrested after a white boy on a motor scooter bearing a Confederate flag had tried to run Loggins down. Loggin's mother asked the deputy sheriff why the white boy was not arrested. She received no answer and the deputy re fused to state to her the charges under which her son had been arrested,
CANTON, MISS. - NAACP ACCUSED OF CHURCH BURNING - July 19 The Christian Union Baptist Church was burned to the ground in the early norning hours. After the burning, a COFO photographer was told by the sheriff at the church site that he thought the NAACP burned the church, otherwise how would the photographer have received the news so quickly.
BILOXI, MISS. - WHITE COMMUNITY PROJECT WORKER ARRESTED - July 20 Palmer Bruce Maxwell of Corsicana, Texas was arrested on a tres passing charge in a white restaurant. Maxwell is a worker in the white community project. He had been hired and had worked in the res taurant for one day. The owner discovered he was a civil rights worker and turned him over to the police when he reported for work the second day.
ASHLAND, MISS. - VOLUNTEER ARRESTED ON TRAFFIC CHARGE - July 20 Peter Cummins of New York was arrested for not having a traffic inspection sticker on his car. There were two local Negroes in the car with Cummins at the time of his arrest.
HERNANDO, MISS. - WORKER ARRESTED AND CAR IMPOUNDED - July 20 Dave Kendall of Sheridan, Indiana was arrested while driving with two summer volunteers and two local Negroes. His car was impounded and he was placed in DeSoto County Jail, outside of which a crowd of hos tile whites immediately began to gather. GREENWOOD ., MISS. - STAFF IfORKIR JAILED ON TRAFFIC CHARGES - July 20 Jesse Harrison, SNCC staff worker, was arrested on charges of run ning a stop sign and not having a drivers license. Harrison was stop ped by police and given one minute to produce the car registration and his driver's license. When he exceeded one minute, he was arrested and jailed.
CLARKSDALE, MISS. - CALIFORNIA!! ARRESTED - July 21 Les Johnson, 20, was arrested on the charge of running a traffic light. Johnson denies the charge.
HATTIESBURG, MISS. - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN STUDENT BEATEN - July 21 Peter Werner, 24, a student at the Univ. of Michigan and a teacher at a Freedom School, was accosted by a local white man in the downtown area, Werner's assailant, Huston Hartfield, hit him from behind and kicked and pummeled him. Both Werner and Hartfield were arrested and charged with assault and battery. •'• - . ' . . , • • • •• :• - : - 3 HCCOM*« MISSISSIPPI •- CHURÇH BURNED TO ,THE GROUND - July 22 a Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist Church was bombed and.totally de stroyed by fire. The church is located four blocks from the Mt« Bap tist Church which was burned a week earlier. GREENWOOD, MISS. - FOUR GIRLS ARRESTED - July 22 Dorothy Wathers, Arance Brooks and Bernice Cole were arrested on charges of assualt and battery against police officers. The fourth, Berty Barnes,was arrested on charges of public profanity. All four had participated in demonstrations.
LELAND, MISS. - FIRST SNCC WORK IN LELAND REBUFFED - July 22 A group of SNCC workers entered Leland for the first time and were distributing leaflets. Willie Rollins, one of the group, was arrested on charges of forging a check. He was taken to the police station and released after being questioned about COFO. The group moved from the cafe where they were living as the manager feared that he would lose his business. ....„.,
JACKSON, MISS. - NEW YORK VOLUNTEER BEATEN - July 22 Robert Osman, 19, of Brooklyn, NY was beaten by two white men with billy sticks while walking with another volunteer,
LEXINGTON, MISS. - CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEER BEATEN - July 22 Robert Garofolo, 19, East P.aven, Connecticut, was beaten in front of the courthouse by a white man. ...._,
NATCHEZ, MISS.,- MAYOR PORTRAYS HIMSELF AS 'LIBERAL' - July 22 George Greene and Chuck McDew met with Mayor Norssey of Matchez. They d-stiissed the program of voter registration and freedom schools in Natchez. The mayor admitted that large numbers of whites in the county have guns and that Natchez police had been guilty of harrassment and in timidation; he further stated that he would speak with the chief of ool-ce about it. Norssey added that he recognized the difficulty of the voter registration test for ilegroes and whites and thought citizen ship schools a good thing. He also mentioned that the Negro vote may yve put him into office.
P.REENWOOD, MISS. - WHITES ARRESTED BY FEDS UNDER CIVIL RIGHTS BILL July 23 Thej federall governmengovernmentt arrestearrestedd WilliWilliee BelkBelk,, 5757,, Jimmyy BelkBelk,, 19ly,, and Sam 'Shaffer" •" '" , Jr.' , 40" ," all " o*f Greenwood" " , under Titl" e II of the CR Bill of 1964 for interfering with the rights of Silas McGee of Green- wood who> attempting to enter a theatre. This is the first arrest of this kind. GREENWOOD, MISS. - STAFF WORKER ARRESTED - July 23 Willie Blue was arrested for speeding and bonded out for $29. Blue states that he was only going 30 mph.
JACKSON, MISS. - FP.EEDO" DEMOCRATIC PARTY - July 23 The Secretary of State of Mississippi has denied certification to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
INDIANOLA, MISS. - NEGRO POLICEMAN DRAWS GUN AT VR RALLY - July 23 During a voter registration rally attended by more than 200 people, Nathaniel Jack, a local policeman, drew a pistol on Rabbi Levine of Rochester, New York. The leaders of the rally had been told that no police would attend the rally. Charles McLaurin, SNCC director of the Ruleville project, asked the crowd if they wanted the police there and then asked Jack to leave. Jack was waving his pistol and shouting, "I'll kill someone." Later he returned with more policemen but there was no further trouble. ,.',
AMITE COUNTY, MISS. - THREE CHURCHES WITHIN FIVE MILES F.URNEO-July 24 The Rose Hill Church was burned to the ground. This church is no more than five miles from the two other churches which were burned within the last week. MCCOMB, MISS. - NEGRO CLUB OWNER 3EATEN - July 24 Mr. Brock, owner of the.Mocombo Club, was beaten by the police in his club and then taken to jail. The police made a statement to Brock to the effect that he was "getting uppity" since he now had white cus tomers. The police were referring to white civil rights workers who had patronized the Mocombo Club. HOLLY SPRINGS, MISS. - OHIOAN VOLUNTEER ARRESTED - July 24 Elwood Berry of Dayton, Ohio was arrested for public profanity. The police told Berry to "move on, goddamn it." Berry repeated the phrase over the citizens band radio in his car and was immediately arrested. MAYERSVILLE, MISS. - VIOLENCE THREATENED BY LOCAL WHITE - July 24 Local Negroes told Charlie Cobb, SNCC staffer, that their employer, A.E. Scott, had threatened to burn the Moon Lake Baptist Church if more civil rights meetings were held there. He also threatened to murder any of his Negro employees who tried to register to vote. AMERICUS, GA. - WORKER BEATEN ITEM ATTEMPTING TO REGISTER - July 24 John Perdew, SNCC field secretary, was beaten when he went to take m VSS.ES, m • •- • — j w his literacy test to register to vote as a resident of Sumter County. After he had passed his test, he was beaten by a man with brass knuckl es in the hallway of the Sumter County Courthouse. CLARKSDALE, MISS. - HARASSMENT AT FREEDOM HOUSE - July 25 A beer bottle was thrown through a front window of the Freedom HOUSP. The bottle was recovered and is being examined by the FBI for f injerprints.
GRTEI4W00D, MISS. - NEGRO PURSUED BY GANG OF WHITE BOYS - July 25 Tom Harris, 32, of Greenwood, was returning from the hospital and tas chased five blocks by a gang of white boys. He escaped injury. ^ULEVILLE, MISS. - HARASSMENT CONTINUES - July 25 A rock was thrown through the window of a car owned by Mr. Joe Townsend, a local Negro housing summer workers and the brother of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer.
DUJSON, GA. - WORKER ARRESTED - July 25 Herman Kitchen of Dawson was arrested after being in a group .rhich tested the Town & Kitchen Restaurant.
P.ATESVILLE, MISS. - HOUSE TEARGASSED - July 26 A tear gas bomb was thrown onto the house of Mr« Robert Miles. Sleeping in the house were summer volunteers Kathy Amatnick and Tim Morrison, Claude Weaver, SNCC staff, Mr. Miles and his wife and three children. All escaped unharmed. The sheriff and deputy investigated the bombing.
MC-OMB, MISS. - HOUSE TWICE BOMBED - July 26 The house of Charles Bryant, scene of voter registration meetings, ras twice bombed in the early morning hours. A car passed the house one ;ime, returned and threw a small dynamite bomb which did no damage. >Prs . Bryant defended her home by returning the attack with a shotgun blast. The car returned a third time and threw a larger dynamite bomb vhich did damage the house. Leaflets announcing a freedom registration picnic had been passed out indicating the la\*n of Mr. Bryant's house as the location of the picnic.
PINE BLUFF, ARK. - FIVE WORKERS ARRESTED - July 26 Jim Jones, SNCC staffer, and four other workers, three of whom were local high students, were arrested while canvassing and selling poll tax. When the sheriff who stopped the car questioned the group and was told what they were doing, he placed the entire group under arrest. Af ter a lecture, he released the students but held the two older workers.
GREENWOOD, MISS, - MOB ATTACKS NBGROES OUTSIDE THEATRE - July 27 While two local Negroes, Silas and Jake McGee,were in the Leflore Theatre, a nob of whites formed outside the theatre. The SNCC office sent two cars to the theatre. The police escorted the MCr;ees out of the theatre but left them unprotected on the sidewalk. The mob surged forward, throwing bottles and danaging the car. Al the car was en route to the hospitaltaking the injured people, it uas fired upon. Whites again gathered outside the hospital. The FSI agents on the scene re fused protection to the workers. Sheriff Smith of Leflore County es corted them from the hospital. G 3 31H 1 196 H ="»tefa~&cc..^kJ_^,e^^ A,"^f-> *• ° Aug. » ***UNOFFICIAL REPORT***STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL***MOT FOR PUBLIC USE***
HELENA,ffi&O. - HARASSMENT IN ARKANSAS - July 28 Large numbers of cairn,sometimes as many an 20, repeatedly circle a house where SNCC workers are staying. Such harassment continues some nights for as long an H hours at a time, in addition to constant threats by telephone. The Lome of a local Negro girl who has been participating in testing was shot into five times. WASHINGTON;, D,C. - FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC TARTY GAINS SUPPORT In recent weeks, several state Democratic conventions have passed resolutions urging their delegates to support the seating of the Mis sissippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates in preference to the dele gates of the traditional Mississippi Democratic Party at the national Democratic convention in Atlantic City« Democratic conventions in the following states passed such a resolution: Massachusetts, Califor nia, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Oregon, Colorado, Dis trict of Columbia,f North Dakota. GREENWOOD, MISS. - NEGROES AND WHITES CLASH - July 28 Twnety-five local Negress were deterred by five car-loads of whites, local police, and the Highway Patrol, from entering an eating place. Shot-, were fired at the Negroes and they were pursued for several blocks. There were no reported injuries and no reported arrests. ITTA ÉENA, MISS. - VOTER REGISTRATION CENTER WRECKED - July 28 The Voter Registration Center was Wrecked around midnight. Inves tigation proved the damage to ha extensive. Supporting posts on the porch were broken, t.iu front door was torn off, windows were smashed, and posters tern down. In the past two weeks, the Center has received many threats by téléphone, KCCOMB, HISS. - TURNOUT TOR FREEDOM SCHOOL - July 28 Approximately 7b students are enrolled in the McGomb Freedom Schoo A second Freedom School may be opened to accommodate at least thirty additional applicants. HOLLY SPRINGS, MISS. - NEW YORK CITY VOLUNTEER ARRESTED - July 29 Peter Cummins, volunteer from New York City, was involved in a one car accident. The ear he was driving went cut of control and flipped over. Cummins was uninjured. Charlie Scales, Negro from Holly Spring received only cuts and bruises. Cummins was arrested on charges of reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and obstructing justice. All charges but the reckless driving were dropped. Bond was set at $500, HELENA, ARK. - LOCAL POLICEMAN PREACHES RACISM - July 29 A local policeman told Prince Shannon, a Negro from Helena, that, as whites did not allow Negroes in their neighborhood, the Negroes should not allow whites in the Negro neighborhood; He was referring to the white civil rights workers in Helena. The policeman said the local Negroes could run the SNCC worxers out of town with no fear of interference by the police. He added that if SNCC workers tried to phone for help*he would see that the calls didn't get through. DREW, MISS. - TWO ARRESTED FOR DISTRIBUTING LEAFLETS - July 30 Fred Miller, a Negro volunteer from Prichard, Alabama,, and Eddie Williams of Ruleville were arrested for distributing leaflets on pub lic property without a permit. Bond was set for Miller, who has been previously arrested on a similar charge, at $500 and for Williams at $100. BRANDON, MISS. - CHURCH BURNINGS CONTINUE - July 31 The Pleasant Grove Baptist Missionary Church was discovered burn ing around midnight. The pastor is Rev. Robison of Yazoo, Miss. The church has no record of civil rights activities and had received no threats. The wooden frame building was burned to the ground. - 2 - GREENWOOD, MISS. - THREE WORKERS ARRESTED - July 31 Two cars being driven by Silas HcGee, Negro resident of Greenwood, and John Paul, 21, of Ossing, New York, were stopped and the drivers were arrested on a charge of improper license tags. Bond for WcGee and Paul xtfas set at $50 each. Monroe Sharp, a Negro resident of Chicago, Illinois, who was notifying the office by means of the citizen's band radio in HcGees car, was arrested on the charge of resisting arrest. Bond for Sharp was set at $100. GREENWOOD, MISS. - NEW YORK WORKER ARRESTED - July 31 George Alberts, 29, of Jackson Heights, Hew York, was arrested while walking down a Greenwood street alone. He was charged with pa rading without a permit and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Bond was set at $500. BATESVILLE, MISS. - SHOTS FIRED AT LOCAL HOHE - August 1 Three shots were fired past the home of Robert Miles where two summer volunteers, Kathy Amatnick, 20, of Hastings-on-the Hudson,N.Y., and Claire O'Connor, 25, of St. Paul, Minnesota, are living. This same house was teargassed on July 25. Less than two weeks earlier, Mrs. Miles had received a threat from an unidentified caller who said, "You'd better not go to sleep tonight if you know what's good for you."
GREENWOOD, MISS. - VOTER REGISTRATION WORKER BEATEN BY POLICE - Aug. 1 William Hodes, ,19, white summer volunteer from Hew York City and a student at Harvard, was arrested while walking down a Greenwood street on charges of disorderly conduct. Hodes \tfas beaten itfith a nightstick while en route to the police station in a police car. He suffered slight injuries and was released under a bond of $100. GREENWOOD, HISS. - LOCAL NEGRO YOUTH BEATEN BY POLICE - August 1 John nandy, a local Negro youth, was arrested on a charge of dis orderly conduct while participating in a locally initiated demonstra tion. Handy was kicked and hit in the head and other narts of the body. His beard was pulled out by one of the local police at the city jail.Muscles in his left shoulder were severely wrenched and he is suffering from cuts of the face and mouth. He was released under a bond of $50. On his first visit to the jail to attemot to bond out Hodes and Handy, George Johnson, a law student at Yale, was bodily thrown out of the police station by four nolicemen. MADDEN, HISS. - MINISTER AMD VOLUNTEER BEATEN IN DOCTOR'S OFFICE-Aug.l Rev. Edward K. Heininger, of Pes Moines, Iowa, and John Polacheck, a summer volunteer and student at Harvard, were severely beaten in the office of a local doctor by a group of men numbering between 5 and 10. The tttfo had gone to the doctor's office for medical treatment. They i^ere attacked in the presence of the doctor \-;ho pushed Heininger into the mob of men. Heininger t\ras unconscious at the end of the beat ing and had to be dragged to the car by Polacheck. At that point, a deputy sheriff arrived on the scene and carried the two away in an un marked pickup truck. He then transferred then to an unmarked car Which was driven by an administrator of the clinic where they had been beaten. Heininger and Polcaheck were then taken to the police station and charged with disturbing the peace. ~They were bonded out at $100 each. Heininger suffered severe injuries to the left eye with possible inter nal injuries to the eye, severe lacerations to the scalp and face, con tusions on the back of the neck, bad cut on the left ear and swelling on the mouth and lips with possible injury to the gums. Polacheck re ceived cuts and bruises on the head and body. GREENWOOD, MISS. - SHOTS FI^ED AT SHCC OFFICE - August 1 Five shots were fired in the direction of the Greenwood SNCC Office from a 1960 light green Galaxie Ford about 11:45 pm. There is no recor^ of threats predicting any incident of this sort. A scant investigation by the local FBI agents, in conjunction with the SHCC staff, revealed no trace of the bullets. A local Negro woman whose house borders on SNCC office property claims that bullets ricocheted on her house. GREENWOOD, HISS. - WORKER CHARCFD TTITH ASSAULT WITH DEADLY WEAPON-Aug,l Carol Kornfield, 21, of Bayside, New York was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and held under $1,000 bail in the Leflore County Jail. She allegedly threw a brick through the window of a store owned by Greenwood Policeman "Slim" Henderson who pulled a pregnant woman along the street during a Freedom Day on July 16. WEST HELENA, ARKANSAS - SNCC HOUSE FIREBOMBED - August 1 A house in the community where the SNCC workers live was the scene of a bombing at about 9:00 pm. Two fire trucks leading about 50 cars of whites drove into the neighborhood and two whites auproached the house and threw the fire bomb, a bottle filled with inflammable liquid. The bomb fell in front of the house, burning the. grass but not damaging the house. No one was in the house at the time of the bombing. BATESVILLE, MISS, - TWO VOTER REGISTRATION WORKERS ARRESTED - August 2 Claude Weaver, SNCC staff member from Atlanta, Georgia, and Ben Graham, summer volunteer from Beverly Hills, Calif., were arrested on the steps of the Panola County courthouse where they had gone to make a count of the number of people that were in line waiting to register. The charge was interference with an officer. Bond was set at $100 for Weaver and $300 for Graham. JACKSON, MISS. - FREEDOM SCHOOLS OPENED - August 3 Six freedom schools opened today in Jackson where there had pre viously been none. Twenty-five nevj freedom school teachers arrived in the state today. The number of volunteers is now at about 650, not including staff, clergy, lawyers, entertainers, etc. GREENWOOD, MISS. - WORKER ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED ASSAULT - August 3 Bob "'asters, 20, white summer volunteer,'-'was arrested today x*/hile relaxing in a local Negro recreation area on the charge of assault. The arrest arose from an incident a day earlier when a xdiite man stepped on Master's foot and asked Masters if he wanted to hit him. The same man was in the police car when Masters was arrested. Bond was $100. AHERICUS,GEORGIA - WORKER BEATEN BY STOREOWNER - August 4 Willie Ricks, a worker for SNCC, was beaten by Cleveland Hancock, the owner of Hancock's Grocery. Hancock hit Ricks in the jaw, breaking his glasses and almost knocking him out, and then kicked him. Hancock attacked Ricks when Ricks did not "sir" him. The same storeowner threw a SHCC worker out of the store about two months ago. COLUMBUS, HISS. - TWO WORKERS ARRESTED - August 4 Don White and Bob Lavelle, summer volunteer from Pittsburgh, Penn., were stopped for a traffic check and taken to jail in Columbus. White was charged with permitting an unauthorized person to drive the car. Lavelle was charged xvith improper license tags and no inspection stick er. They were bonded out for $53 each. MOSS POINT, MISS. - 45 ARRESTED AT VOTER REGISTRATION MEETING-August 5 Forty-five local people and civil rights workers were arrested at a voter registration meeting on the front lawn of the SNCC office. The meeting had been in session for five minutes when the assistant deputy sheriff told them they had five minutes to break up the meeting. A prison bus, ten police cars, txro motorcycles, in addition to 18 hel- meted policemen carrying guns, bayonettes, and clubs, arrived on the scene, making a total of 40 police officers. The forty-five were ar rested on the charge of breach of the peace. Bond was set at *300 cash and $600 nronerty. Among those arrested were summer volunteers George Tessaro,20, of Park Ridge, 111.(University of Illinois); Roger Barn- hill, 23, St. Louis, Wo. (Michigan State); Rev. Charles Tliller,31, an Episcopal minister from Flushing, Michigan; and staff workers Eddie Stevenson and Billy MacOonald. PHILADELPHIA, MISS, - FBI DISCOVERS BODIES OF HISSING CR WORKERS-Aug. 4 Three bodies, positively identified after autopsy as those of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Cheney, civil rights work ers missing since June 21, xvere found by the FBI buried in a dam six miles southwest of Philadelphia. The autopsy revealed that Cheney, Negro from Meridian, Miss., was beaten to death and Goodman and Schwer ner, x;hite workers from Hew York City, died from bullet xrounds. Mem orial services for the three are being held in Mississippi and through out the nation. The FBI is continuing investigation in the Neshoba County area. No arrests have been made. WEST HELENA, ARK. - WORKERS ARRESTED ON VAGRANCY CHARGES - August 7 Police entered the home where SNCC workers Bill Hansen, Larry Sie- gal, and Joe Wright were staying and arrested them without a warrant and without stating the charges. Hansen was held for investigation and then released. The others were held under $500 bond each and the charges when finally stated were vagrancy. • - 4 -
MILESTON, HISS. - BOMB THROWN NEAR COMHUNITY CENTER - August 9 At 12:15 am a bomb was thrown in the road in front of the community center by one of txvo xvhite occupants of a '64 red and xvhite Pontiac. The bomb xvas thrown ten yards from the home of Mrs. Ethel Smith, a lo cal Negro who has been active in civil rights work. No one was in jured. The bomb left a hole in the road a foot deep and six feet wide. Txvo xveeks earlier a SNCC car had been burned out a fexv yards from the location of the bombing. I MERIGOLD, MISS. - LOCAL NEGRO SHOT AND KILLED BY POLICEMAN - August 9 A local Negro man, 55 or 60 and knoxvn to be mentally deficient, was shot and killed by a Merigold policeman. The sentiment among the xvit- nesses is that the man could easily have been subdued by means less than lethal.. He xvas not knoxvn to have any connection with the civil rights movement. The policeman involved is unidentified and xvas not arrested. TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY, MISS. - HARASSMENT OF LOCAL NEGROES - August 8 Since five local Negroes attempted to register at the county court house they have been subjected to constant harassment and fear for their lives. Local xvhites carrying guns have entered Negro homes several times searching for those who went to the courthouse. GREENWOOD, MISS. - LOCAL NEGRO YOUTH BEATEN FOR SECOND TIME IN WEEK- John Handy, local Negro youth, who xras severely beaten on Aug. 1 xvhile in jail, xvas arrested on the charge of inciting to riot while he xvas demonstrating xvith local youth group „at "Slim" Henderson's Gro cery. Handy's shotttd^r xvhich had been badly injured in the first beat ing xvas again xvrenched and he was beaten with a billy club*". Bcjid xvas set at $5-00. --*—^ .-
CANTON, HISS. - MISSISSIPPI FREE THEATRE TOURING STATE - Aug. 10 The Mississippi Free Theatre has been touring the state xvith the play, "In White-1 America." During the past xveek the group performed at the folloxving projects: McComb, Tougaloo, Biloxi, Gulfport, Hatties- burg, and Meridian. Traveling in the troup are Gil and Denise Moses, Eric Weinberger, Susan Wahman, Les Galp, Erica Monk, Roger Johnson, Stu House, Cynthia Washington, Jackie Washington, and John O'Neal.
JACKSON, MISS. - SUMMARY ON FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC PARTY ACTIVITY The Freedom Democratic Party State Convention xvas held in the Ma* sonic Hall in Jackson on August 6. Several hundred delegates, repre senting more than half of the counties in Mississippi, were present. The keynote address xvas given by Hiss Ella Baker, xvho is working xvith the Party in its Washington office. In addition to sixty-eight other delegates, the five delegates e- lected at large to go to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J. xvere: Laxvrence Guyot, Hattiesburg; Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruleville; Dr. Aaron Henry, Clarksdale; Mrs. Yvonne McGoxvan, Summit; and Dr. Miles, Panola County. Lawrence Guyot xvas elected Chairman of the State Executive Committee of the Freedom Democratic Party. P^M-HVIS 0T f IMaft JBtetojsIetttr | ^
We would like to send out a Staff The Song of the Baby-Sitter Newsletter at least twice a month. Hopefully this will be a way for Atlanta, dreaded womb, the staff to talk to each other, your childres escape you share ideas and information. If to the Hellfield you have something you would like seeking freedom. to go in the Newsletter send it But secretly depenûent, to Communications, c/o Ruth Howard tied to you by the umbilical 36O Nelson Street, S.W., Atl., Ga. WATS line, We'll be watching the Mail. they cry give me food, give me care, give me love, Prom: Walter Tillow, Bob Parris, Francis Mitchell, Courtland Cox, They are far away. Dona Richards and others. You hear them crying only faintly. The glitter of the City blinds Re: An idea for a project based your eyes to them, in Wash., D.C. this summer. and you cover up the last bit- of sound by naming them undeserving The following description was prepared to help explain to people But you know they are there. what some of us have been trying to develop. It is the results of So you find a foster-mother many exploratory meetings involv to suckle them for you. ing people from peace groups, ci Her voice in place of your warmth, vil rights groups, community her calls in place of your care. groups, the churches, and just in But she never sees or caresses them terested individuals. H er substitute children, To a large degree the idea came even her love for them about because of our concern about is a substitute love. (1) the need to muster mass sup- ; port for the congressional chal- - Night after night, the silent lenge and (2) the need for us to agony of the baby-sitter begin to address ourselves to the absolves your guilt. broader implications of our work in the south, such as its relatioi. Barbara Brandt to foriegn policy (South Africa, The Dominican Republic, South >•%-->£ J'.Jî .'•'__'• LJCJUd *'„ ft **__*^»' M £'- H M *'„" ii M t£ M *r M J^i' Il M M *' »>•..!>* w Vietnam,-., etc.). A large amount /» *S ** t\ /i t\ /V V» /\ /% ii j\ 4\"f\ 4% j\ 4\ 4\ 4* 'I *\ 4\ *\ tV /W» 4" 4C 4\ 4\ SCWTHI 4\ %i~ of activity this summer will be Jackson, Mississippi concerned with protesting the war in Vietnam. We need in someway t< We have been recording tapes tap that energy to support the with people frcm Miss, about events challenge. On the other hand, which have seriously effected not those active in peace activities only their state but states through will be much more willing to give out the nation. Some of these tape their active support to the chal have been edited and produced for lenge if they are convinced that general distribution: it will foster a growing concern among civil rights people about The Congressional Challenge - the question of peace. People from McComb, Hattiesburg, The idea is very new and very Jackson, Meridian, Canton, and Aber difficult to get into working or deen describe what the hearings xver der. People need to talk together like, what Implications the chal about it and (if you have time) lenge has on the state and the na to sit down and write out their :• tion, and what they actually testi critisms and suggestions and send fied to at depositions held in over them to any one of the people ;:.i+ 20 counties in Miss. Parts of one listed above at the Washington deposition is recorded direct from SNCC office. We are trying to Klan dominated Amite County, arrange a meeting for people pri (approx. 25 minutes) marily in SNCC, CORE and SCLC who are based in the South to help The Miss. Freedom Labor Union - develop the project. Mary King The story of why and how the first and Dennis Sweeney will be help- Delta day laborers union was found in to set up such a meeting and ed since the 1930»s. Eight people everyone on staff will be con tell about the changed relations tacted. between the races and between union continued on page 2 /*» .-iri-l--î miAi-l r\r\ Piaffa 7 continued from page 1 Page 2*""" Introduction: Some theory behind the Washington Summer Action Project People active invarious protest movements In the country have always talked from time to time about the need for communication between move ments. They have talked in terms of sharing ideas, sharing manpower, and generally strengthening each other. But in the past, very little work has been done actually to get people talking together. Some of us see this summer as an opportunity to begin the long-waited dialogue between activists in various political struggles. This summer in Wash, there will be many different groups coming in to D.C. in order to lobby and to take other forms of action. Peace groups will be active around the question of the xvar in Vietnam, some civil rights groups will be active concerning the challenge of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, others will be lobbying for the new voting bill, perhaps some labor .groups. w.ill_he-.lobbying for li|B? and for repeal of the right-to- work law? What xve would like to do is to provide a forum for discussion between these different "interest groups" by setting up workshops in the D. C. area that would run continuously all jsummer. When the question of "working together" rears its head, the objection is alxvays raised that it would simply "diffuse people's energies," that without a particular concentrated effort by a smaller roup of "special ized people" all of the movements xvould suffer. But the reality is that now the political climate of this country is such that all independent political action is under fire, Johnson seems intent on co-opting at least the visible movements in the country as he has done so success fully with a great portion of the civil rights movement. HUAC's target is any progressive movement including the civil rights movement. We are becoming more and more convinced that the only hope xve have of checking Johnson's increasingly "independent" and dangerous foreign policy is xvith the development of a deeply based "critique" of his actions — one that he would be forced to heed. The only chance there is for the conservative forces In the country (which are now in power) to kill the currently existent Independent voices of protest is If these voices remain isolated from one another. The only place such movements have to draw strenght from is each other. In the past movements have died, have grown sta0nant and have left only the bureaucratic skeletons of their former strength. If we are to take hold of the activity which is existent today and build it Into something strong, broadly based, that reaches deeply to the people who most need the changes it seeks, then we must begin our xvork now. The Washington Summer Action Project would be such a meeting. Idea: organization of workshops in Wash., D.C. and project areas around the country. Purpose: to begin numerous discussions wherever possible" between or ganizers in the various independent political movements that are now part of the country's radical politics. Projected goal: that out of such discussion and exchange of opinions we could begin to see our way to developing common programs as part of a new and broad social movement. In order for such a dialogue to be meaningful it will have to take place on a least three different levels: a.) the people in communities around the country who have begun to organize in order to confront the country with their problems will come together in meetings, workshops and conventions to dis cover their own sources of strength. b.) We will have to_provida_some mechanism for the -uleaders"or visible figures in various movements to talk xvith each other about the possibility of common action. King's speaking eut strongly about Vietnam is a very heartening proof that such a mechanism is feasit c.) What we are specifically concerned with here is the "organizer"; the people in various movements in organizations who are respon sible for the work that keeps it alive. These workshops will mostly involve this set of people. The method xve are using is to reach those areas of the country which xve see as loci of activity: the south, the West Coast, urban ghetto areas, Universities, etc. Page 3 In Washington, P.C. People involved: a) SPU, CNVA, Women Strike for Peace, etc- will be In and out of Washington all summer lobbying and participating in various activities in an attempt to end the war in Vietnam. b) MFDP- There will be a number of people rotating into Washington all summer lobbying for the unseating of the regular Miss. Congressmen in connection with the congressional challenge of the FDP. c) NCC- and other religious figures: will be in the area lobbying for th- voting bill and for the unseating of the Mississippi "congressmen" as xve. as Vietnam. Our program would involve reaching all of these groups of people and bringing them together in workshops to discuss: poverty- —-...... campus. organizing...... Problems of labor peace HUAC foreign policy in general community organizing MFDP challenge South Africa, etc. With the hope thgt the discussions would clarify the connections which thread these many problems together. Hopefully they would result in the creation of common programs in which people could work together so as to strengthen a general movement toward the integrity of individuals and th further promotion of independent thought and action-r while at the same time allowing individuals to feel that they would not be taking their energies away from what they conceive as "the most crucial problem" face by the country or the world today. Workshops around the country: Here the same principle would be involved and we would be interested in reaching all those people (mostly students and staff of various organizations like SNCC and CORE and SDS) who are organizing during the summer in whatever area. Dennis Seeney, Mary King and Ed Hamlett are at present trying to raise money and make the necesse contacts so that there could be a series of workshops in the south this summer at which all the people who had primarily come together to work in the general area of civil rights could participate. They will be re sponsible for getting people to the workshops to discuss the war, labor problems and all the other various action programs that are being con-^ ceived of and are already in motion. The same thing needs to be done ir. the North and on the West Coast. Mechanics: There will be an office set up in Washington to coordinate^ the workshops there and to provide all kinds of materials and informatic for people who come.into Washington this summer to participate in actioi and/or lobbying. Both the resource people and the participants for these workshops will be recruited from the various groups that will be in the area. vr*i***>\~>c™.*r'". Fellow members of the Staff: PROBLEM - cont. from page 3 This Is a little note to in So how about sending the Commu nications Department each week a form you that times are hard. The brief report which includes such things as incident summaries, pro funds of the organization are at ject plans, methods you are using to carry out these plans, and atti- the present time completely ex .tudes of the people in the communit (a few quotes would be helpful here hausted. We would appreciate it Lets help one another, Can we if you would be conscious of this count on you? fact in your use of materials land Jean Wiley, C ommuni c a t i ons resources. We hope that the situation will From: Betty Garman improve in the near future. But In the past few months there ha been alot of reports in major maga at present economy Is the theme of zines (Jet, Life, etc.) about large '•fund raising events for SNCC, and the day. how much money they made. In most cases these reports are gross exag Yours in the Struggle gerations. Reports like these rais questions about where money gets John Lewis spent. People should also remember our payroll is $30,000 a month. "4 \ "4 es fi »•"> \ ~i »" ~t \ < ÏCWK*3M5 TCWW We are now broke and in debt. VIETNAM: A POEM Our bills outstanding are more than $10,000 and we have nothing: at all We say we love our country in the bank here in Atlanta. Each We say other people -love their day dribbles of money come in—may country be'$300; maybe $75; maybe $3,000. We said that all men are brothers. But this money gets spent almost What would we call the war immediately on back bills, car re in Vietnam pairs, rent, telephone bills, paper Would we call that brotherly love for the printing press and postage. Does the word freedom have a meaning We are asking Friends of SNCC Why do the history books say and Northern Offices to send us a America is the report on planned fund raising acti vities for the summer. Field staff Land of Liberty a Free Country, interested in receiving a copy shcul Then why do all mens Negro and White write me in Atlanta. Also, please fight ask if you are confused about funds the Vietnam and Korea why cant we be coming in to SNCC or reports about' Americans thousands of dollars raissd. It doe£ as North and South regardless of no good to have no information and color it can be supplied if you will ask. What does we have again . ...._;.." i the Vietnams? Why are we fighting them? ABOUT the Voice: Who are really the enemy? Many staff members have very Are Vietnam the enemy or -we good ideas, about what the VOICE Americans enemies to ourselves, should be, what should be in it, and If we are the same as Vietnams what it should say. But very few Why should we fight them? ever write anything for it, or even They are poor too. offer to write anything for it. They wants freedom. We want articles and writings tha They wants to redster to vote. tell other people what is going one Maybe the people in the Vietnam where you are now. 'We also want arti can't redster to vote cles and writings by the people with Just like us. whom you work, so they have a chance ... i to tell readers of -the VOICE -£0,000 Mrs. Ida Mae Lawrence .. people- what they are doing, how,why A Thought - Ask not what your coun We need your help. Try to keep try can do for .you, but what you canyou r writing under 7 pages hand do for your country. MEDGAR EVERS IS writen and 3 pages typewritten. DEAD. The F.D.P. is challenging the Arid send to : the VOICE, 360 Nelson country. There is nothing xvrong with Street, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia killing the enemy. In fact, to (defencbg£?ggf:"7Ç£^ one way of life, be capitalism, socialism, racism,' communism,' godi'sm, or just plain old ism, is considered good.' If a government can determine who and why it should kill, why cant I? Goldwater said "Extremeism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Johnson is now conducting the war in Vietnam to rJFifftnri mir» 1 ITie-r-i-.-q- n.nH freeHnTP 9 n v.'h -ai±J i _ _, •f-r- .-• • • ^- Page $ g,'V£ p^gcpfd' THOtiCHTS 'M' THE POLE ^v T^A.VE IWTM'TSTS 7'' T-'T CI"1L VIC'TZ > 1. Tfee majoK vKobt 2. Thz attitude of the civil Kight6 movement toward oKganizzd tfibor ranges f.Kom deep interest and conceKn to indi' 'ercn.ee and ho6tiJ.i.t". As the union6 {.ail to •-'eat with the nrzS6UKZs 'or »obs for f'eoKoe6, those in the civil Kight6 movement who see an imvnKtairt alt.'! In oKaoniz> labor 'ind themselves in an ide^ensibte position.. The" arc e.6k.zd, with jv.6ti{ication, whet i6 there to alia with? "hat ^o thz union do betide ^a" ti '-service to our dem end 6 and then heen us out or thz !ob6 the* control? 3. Look at this gap in interest and -erection in the light o' what KZcenttv happened in l<.V.State, K-n fILVp. decision upheld and employer who had hired plumbzK6 o'r the StKzet when he could not 'ind. them thKnur thz PlumbcK6' Union hirina halt. The union ticketed. The zmntoift* sai that he was under pKZ66uKz from civil rights oKganizationA to hire NzgKo vtumbzK6. The civil rights movement provided him with plumbzK6 who could peK/oKm the work to his satisfaction, even though t'^e" had been unrhtc to pet66 tie union's adnission test. The Strikino ?tumbeKA vjere ordered, to go hack to work and the union was ordered to take the llegroes in as members. 4. There is a di6tinct po66ibilit" that the following new alliance against tue unions mo't form. [And I 6arj against the unions KetheK than against specific unions because people in the civil Kight6 movement pac\ the experience with oraanized tabor to know ma;or diffeKences among the unions and how to work with those di'< •' erence6.) This nzw alliance would be made u-' o' *he militant uouno WegKo civil rights movement, the conservative civil riohts organizat'rons [tihe the Urban Lzeeuz which receives a v\a' 5. ThK Kole o* militant, pro-civil Kights tKa.de unionists in thi6 situation can be an extremel" imnoKtant one. The pKimo.KH roQe would be to argue that the inteKesi o' organized rabor are not met b" keepina Negroes out. o* union6, ^lacing barriers to a-cr^renticeshi^ nKoqKems or Page 6 by otheKwise KestKicting entKu into the lab OK maKb.et. ÏÏatheK, oKoanizec woKkeKS and theiK unions aKc best »Kotected b" a bKoad. campaign toK the cKdation of lobs OK income now, by the oKganization of the unoKgani- ed, by the elimination g' KcstKictions in union memhcKShi" based on r.ac( age or an1! other arbiträr." cl assi fi cation, b" the joining of these de mands with the demandé of the civil righ.t6 movement for 'utt freedom now, and with the demands o' a variety of new com-nunit't oKga.nizat.ions developing target < out o'-the community work o' student, activists '-'ho have left the cam-us to work in urban and KuKa9 vovcKt" aKeas, both in the noKth and. South. Han." o' the demands of these organizations are de mands for community services and ' acilities that would create new Jobs which could, provide work for the unemployed and undcKem^to'fed. 6. The foKm of or.oaniza.tion suggested heKe foK these tKode unionists is something that might be call 'edia loboK committee foK human Kights. This committee would, not seek to be a baKgaining agent foK any specific gKoup o{ woKkcK6--unemr)loyed OK employed:. It could not be cha.Kged with being a "dual union." Anyone chaKging it ..with dual unioni6m could r^ro- pcKly be counteK cha.Kged withonno6ing civil Kight.6 activity on the paKt of trade unionists. Mcr vwul.d thi6 oKganization be an official pàKt of the organized leb OK movement [though it might seek endoKsement of official taboK bodies of some &f its activitie6). It wouldthu6 have the advantage of being able to move fKeeltf without the limitetion6 of membeKS who have anti-WegKo attitudes. Such an oKoanizetion would pKobabl'f off CK an evpoKtunity foK woKk in the civil Kights a.Kea to bKoai Kange o' unionists--Kanging from the rank and file militant to, in some case6, the Pre6ident, of a. union whose membership was strona on the question o' equal rights. The organization would be o^en to any work ing person, whether in a union or not. "orkers from unorganized sko">s would, be welcome, hxti-union workers would not *oin becau6e of the nro-union and cuo-civil riohts nuKnose of the oKQcnizcfion. S. S'JCC is pKima.Kil'! inteKested in the oKganization of the di6enf.Kan- chi6ed Negroes o' the Vee^ South. OVCK two hundKed fulltime staff oKgar oKganizeKS work in SHCC organizing dKive6. Thee oKganize shaKe-cKop^eKS tenant faKmeKS, dae laboKCK6, dome6tic6, small fa.KmeKS and otheK 'IcgKocs in the Deep "outh. The basic foKm of oKganization, until Ke- cently, was the votcKs' league OK local fKeedom movement. SHCC Held secKetoKies now WOK'C in A.Kkansas, M iss., Alabama. goe6 on to talk about SHCC and what .we do. Hike 'UtleK 1316 Hasanic StKeet. San TKcncisco, CalifoKnia These are some notes 1 WKote on a tKade unioni6t6 oKganization idea foK around heKe, This .is a d.Kctt and tentative statement and is not for release. ''ike L* ^H-KT{5 W taft Betogletter { ^g «en =*H. ? HV 4K==&N±£adMfcàs=A8àêz j£C< Tfclsnn Strcotji S.W., Atlanta. Ga. MOTES ON RESIDENTIAL FREEDOM SCHOOL taken from paper written by Judy Richardson There are many things, positive and nega tive, which won't find their way into reports on the Rcscidcntial Freedom Schools. 'They arc the friendships which xvere formed, the growing up that a lot of the kids'did while there, the fights that took place, and the H/ 5 rojyii private little conversations xvhich xvere learning experiences, but will never get recorded. /V/vî^ ?Ai However, let me begin by explaining some of the things that went on - first in Chicago and then in Cordclo, Ga. The first session began on July 2nd in Chicago. John Love, Fannie Rushing, Wl ^Mlf Sharon Jackson Jackson and Judy Rich ardson composed the staff for that first session. The first few days were ones of getting settled in the homos which had been found for tho v-ido on the so-uthside, and of getting to A large number of the Freedom rriiucrs know each other, particularly the Chi have been printed. Three copies were cago kids, and the neighborhood they mailed to each project; and office. Since xvere to live in for 3 weeks. Host of then quite a few request have boon made the food for this session had been for copies to be used in Freedom Schools, raised through the Chicago office. ' The rest of it was bought with whatever Hopefully, these request xvill be met little money xvas at hand - which meant in a few weeks. Right new Ivanhoc and that many meals xvere meatless and many Clevo aro working on setting up some breakfasts cold. Food was prepared by efficient way of mailing out'the primers. the staff with the help of the kids. talking to people to try to Dish-washing and general clean-up xvas find xvays it can be used outside of our also done this xvay. use. Wc had a cook-out on July Uth at the Please send future request to "Freedom School Primer" c/ô Ivanhoc DonaldsonÎ Indiana sand-dxines. The next day wo T began a somewhat structured program of 360 Nelson Street, SA ., Atlanta, Ga. workshops in the morning and Negro his tory (taught by the Amistad Society) in FREDI'l the afternoon, along with movies, other workshops or general sessions. For the Somebody xvrote first txvo of Negro history we had a white member of the Society teaching What he hardly the class. There was much grumbling Knew how to write, about this: one of the girls from - But xvhat he knew, Amcricus told me - "There arc white workers all over Amcricus and I come to With a piece of chalk Chicago and I see it hero too. We can't On a brick wall even teach our own history; we have to And it was: get a xvhite woman to do it for us." Since most of the staff was equally FREDÏ! dissatisfied with this arrangement, it And no literacy tests was agreed that only Negro members of can disqualify him the Society xvould teach the class. Some of the kids found little interest »Caxise he knows in the ancient history of Africa - they It's-FREDM felt too far removed from it. But when And the knowing they began to cover the slave trade and Reconstruction they became much And the telling • more interested. At one point txvo Not the spelling. African chiefs from Sicrrc Leone came by Rob Wood '-' continued on page 2 Sugust, 1963.' ' Page 2 Freedom School Notes continued from page for dinner and had a short question and answer period following it. The kids asked them about teenagers in Africa, the food, and hoxv Afi-ioona felt about Negroes, and why Africans didn't call themselves Negroes (to which one chici" lupuod that he felt that all black people wore Africans whereever they were—greeted by applause from the kids— but that he might be referred to as a Negro in American and an African in Africa. I think it was a good experience for everyone since most had never had a chance to talk to or.even to see their African brothers (except through the mythical image they'd been given on the screed). In African history class the xvholc imago of the African was discussed and the kids talked about the false impression their school books and movies had given them about Africans. When it xvas as ked why it xvas so important that American Negroes believe the myth about Africans, one of the group said; "Cause if we ever knew that we xvere alike and stopped being ashamed of them, then we'd try and get together and we could really do something." They talked about the shame that they had formerly felt about Africans and that this was part of the tech nique of keeping them separated from their African brothers . ...The second week we showed "Animal Farm" in this great animated cartoon form (which I'd recommend showing to any age-group), follwcd by small group discussions. The picture really got to the group and some really good things xvere brought up as a result. In my group we started off on the question of what the kids had seen in the film. Allan (ill.) said he saxv the animals as Americans and the pigs as communists trying to take over. I asked if he knew what communism was and he said, sure 'cause he'd read about it in school. We then talked about xvhat he'd read about Negroes and Africans in his school books, The group went on to discuss how much students are able to question the image they're taught about their African brothers, or in fact, how much they can question anything. It xvas generally agreed that education "taught" us not to question and that therefore, we couldn't just accept xvhat schoolbooks said about communism cither. Then another gay said he saw the animals as Negroes and the humans as whites. We talked about that for awhile and then someone said she saw the pigs as "toms" and the animals as the rest of the Negro people. We then discussed the way the pigs acted in the film after the revolution and that brought on a whole discussion of "toms" and the role of leader ship. Kids began comparing pigs in the picture — that their "leaders" lived apart from the poorer people, that they had formal education, which they used against other people — and that they felt they were better than the rest of the Negroes in town. The northern kids talked about"toms" in elected office and the difficulty of removing them. I asked if they felt you could get good people into elective office by running them yourself, instead of letting the city pick the ones it wants to run. Allah said a Negro couldnit get elected since most Negroes In Cambridge xvon't vote. He said, that the didn't care. I asked if it x-iasn't just that they didn't have anything to vote for. Then "he said that even if this xvere the case, they'd have no one brave enough to run. Lost people, ho thought, would be too afraid of losing their jobs. Then Kathleen (Somcrville, Tenn.) mentioned, that even if someone did run, Cambridge might have the same problem Fayette County had, which xvas that the whites simply never counted the Negro votes in the election. ...The third week xve again had a general meeting to discuss some of the problems of the school. The night before, I had. asked Profit (Ala.) what he was'going to do after graduation. He replied that he had been intending to go north, but now he realized it xvas going to do after graduation. He replied that he had been intending to go north, but now he realized it was just as bad there so he xvas gonna stay in Alabama and fight it there. This led to a discussion of Chicago and the Chicago kids. Profit was living with the leader of the Chicago gang and said he'd been talking to the Chicago kids and.having been In a gang himself in Selma, he understood some of the things that xvere happening. lie talked bou about the problems that exist in a home where the mother and father arc both out of the house most of the time and. of the fights that go on between the parents when they are home. ITc said the reason the gang was so tight was that they did n't have anyone else so they had to make sure they kept each other. Ho tailed about some of the "better-than-you" attitudes of the other kids in the school. I suggested he call a meeting the next morning to discuss some of these things with the other kids. He wasn't sure at first whether the Chicago kids should be in cluded in the meeting since it might shut some of the kids up. Later he talked to one of the other kids and they decided that it wculd be unfair to exclude the Chicago guys since the meeting could «;ive the guys a chance to express their feelings about the xvholc thing and the meeting could be a learning experience for all concerned The next morning, Profit chaired the meeting and it ended up xvith people walking out or being put out by Profit because they were upsetting the meeting. But some things did become clearer through the meeting (such as the fear that page 3 Freedom School Notes most of the kids had of the Chicago guys). The group talked again about whether colored people could over expect to stick together if this small group couldn't oven do it. Some kids felt that you just don't talk to people you don't like; you stay away from them and then there xvon't be any fights. But others felt this was'the easy way out. At one-point, somebody said, "If you don't like somebody, don't associate xvith him," to which Profit answered, "Then hou'do you learn from them if you don't associate with them?" The girl replied, "What ever they know will be written down in history, anyway." Profit got hot and answered , "Oh, girl, you know history ain't never told nothin right, yctl" The meeting eventually degenerated into a yelling match but it showed how little the Chicago guys felt a part of the freedom school and it showed, too, that unless something could bo done to make them feel a part, they would com pletely destroy it. charlie cobb was introduced just before the meeting broke up and happily turned it in a positive direction again by talking about a workshop he'd just been to for the Freedom Corp in Mississippi. He said that there, too, the kids xvere fighting among themselves and that in the workshop they finally de cided 3 things, and he xvrote them on the board: "Niggers "can't get together" 2) Niggers can't stick together," 3) "Niggers ain't shit." He then asked the lads how they felt about the s tatements. T hey started talking abotxt their opinions of what he'd written and began describing some of their experiences in their hometowns to prove or disprove the statements. Talking about home and common experiences served to bring them back together a little and wo broke for lunch. That third week wo also had Casey Naydcn over to talk about the poor whites she'd been working xvith in conjunction with the JOIN project on Chicago's north- side. She related very well to the kids and got over some of the hangups bhey had in listening to a white person with a southern accent talking about poor whites in Chicago. She talked about some of the problems of organizing poor whites — the main one being that they had no movement to relate to and be part of the way Negroes did. The kids understood this and understood, too, when she spoke of the difficulty of getting poor whites and Negroes together. The kids talked about some of their own feelings towards whites and particularly poor whites. They said poor whites were always the ones who gave the most trouble, and that it XJould be difficult to get over the bad feelings each side had for the other. ...The day before xve loft Chicago, there xvas a major blow-up in the evening xvith the members of the "gang." The interesting thing about it was that we wore warned of its coming when Sherman (Chicago) xvrote a poem on the board that afternoon. Sherman xvas a kid in the "gang" who never seemed to be around when the fights broke out. It xvas as if he didn't want to'be put in a position of fighting with the gang against the rest of the school, but yet he also couldn't afford, to be against them either so ho just wasn't around when things started happening. That afternoon, he started writing doxvn 10 times in a line: "Niggers are Then he'(and later Butch) filled in the blanks with the adjectives: Hateful,'loveablej destructive} PCHEBFUL, greedy, masterful, GREAT, COOL, cunning, brainy, Choicey, and finally, "Nigers pre where it's at'. But then a little later, ho wrote: Tombstone time Graveyard mind Were the French Counts And don't mind dying All for one and One for all Divided we stand Together we fall Some of us talked about the ominous tone of the poem but thought nothing more about it. That night the- blowup came. That night the blow up came. The next night, after a picnic on tho grounds of the Luscum of Science, xve left for Cordcle, having spent three weeks in Chicago. Page h FOR FIELD FOLKS IT! TARTIIOTIAT] frori Cynthia Washington As most of you know, most of us who work-with Northern Offices, have little or no field experience. It is very important, however for the people who work xvith Porthern groups to gain some typo of first hand experience in the field, because xve spend most of our time writing to people xvho are interested in the field work that is done across the south. We arc trying to work arrangements xvith projects for us to come to work for a day or a week or two, if there is a s pecific job that needs to be done. So...:, if you need an extra person for a short period of time to do a specific job, let me know. T.Tc would also like to hear more about the work that is being done in project areas. The WATS report gives an overview (of sorts) of the field situation, but we need to know a lot more aboxxt the work that is being done. Of course the idea is to promote the work xve do, but more than that it is very difficult for people who have never seen a project to understand what is involved xvith the day to day operation of a project. We usually hear about the problems, especially no money, but never hear about the xvork and the programs that people xvork so hard on. Example, the quilting project in Loxvdncs County, and the work that is being done on the ASCS elections. Program is the best way to raise money. So pleas e write us some time. The third thing is what people arc interested in speaking in the North. As long as I have been in SNCC, Northern staff has always said that the field'staff won't come"North and the field staff says that they don't get asked. Well, I'm asking. At the moment, there isn't much, but when schools open in the fall people will be needed. Send me a note If you think you might be available and want to go. One last thing, if there is anything that you think xve can help you xvith, let us know. TO: Ncmbors of the Freedom Force FROM: Shirley Wright SEGAPJuING: Northern Subsistence. '.''"'> Some members"'of tjhesErecdomlFofco arc---from the north but most are local people who work full time on a project and have no other moans of support. The Freedom Force was started in the fall of 196$ when many of the volunteers xvho came doxvn to work in the south for the summer decided not to return to school or return home. The Coordinating Committee foxind that the organization was not finacially abie to add more people to the payroll and began to enlist the help from groups and individuals in the north who agreed to take the re sponsibility of sending subsistence to volunteers. Honey orders, usually $10.00 each, xvere sent every week directly to the volunteers and they, in turn were responsible for writing to their sponsors . This wasan excellent way for people who live in the north to become directly involved xvith the work in the south and to find out what xvas going on. We arc now in the process of straightening out our subsistence files to determine xvho is still working in xvhat areas. It Is increasingly difficult to provide subsistence for workers when people leave projects without informing us and. when there is no communication on the part of the xjorkcr xvith the group xvho Is supporting him in the north. In an effort to eliminate this problem, and provide a better relationship between the /tlanta office, the worker, and the support group, here arc some guide lines for persons receiving northern subsistence. All requests for subsis tence should be made in writing and must be accom panied by a S1CC Freedom Foren Application form. Such requests should come from the District or State project directors or from one person in an area designated by the staff for that purpose. Request should be directed to the personnel Gomm. Each individual xvho desires to leave the state to which he has been assigned for personal reasons should leave only after informing his project director, and me, of the length of time expected to be gone, and where heccan be contacted by mail and/or phone. All personnel changes (movement from one project to another) should be reported immediately to the Personnel Committee (c/o Rxiby D. Robinson) or Shirley Wright, so that checks can be forwarded and. the group supporting you xvill be adequately informed as to the areas in which they are supporting the workers. I will be xvorking with the northern support groups out of Atlanta, After each assignment is made, I will send a letter stating the group that is supporting you and what you arc expected to do in terms of communication xvith that group. Garbled Notes on Organising Poor Southern Whites in Chicago - Casey Haydon^ Aug. J6^ A summer's work with white migrants in Chicago left me with numerous questions and some tentative conclusions about the extent to which the S'TCC pattern of organizing and analysis can be'used to organize this group of people: It's important to ask this, I think, since SNCC has been my experience in the movement and has certainly had a big influence on others. Assumptions of work xvith SNCC: Patterns of xvork and idcaology grexv out of work in the Deep South in rural areas with Negroes. SNCC staff assumes- —The power structure cannot and will not yield to even the most elemental political demands. —The enemy is clearly perceptible: He is the white man, the man downtown, the boss man almost always identified in terms of race and thus always felt and seen. —Given the oppressor is clearly felt and even the simplest demands arc radi cal ones, the task of the organizer is simply to get people together to voice" their feelings and demands and to support whatever action people want to take. —Deepening and broadening political awareness is not difficult as people learn from the actions in which they become involved and can gegin to see and ixnderstand "the poxver structure" rapidly. —The poxver structure's reaction is nearly always one of oppression? programs can be developed indefinitely simply in response to this clear oppression. Increased political awareness Will happen"more rapidly than concessions will come, so that people will reject tokenism. —There are no allies to be trusted finally. Often organizing will involve overturning established leadership in the community so that masses can be mobilized. Allies in any national sense are people who will support organizing SPCC does. There is enough support in the North to provide adequate funds and political pressure around given programs if the support can be mobilized. SPCC's task is to organize, not to build coalitions. Some of these assumptions have proven wrong in specific situations, but they arc the working basis of day to day activity in coammnity organizing. 1. In applying these assumptions to xvork in Chicago the major oroblea,-X_ think, is that of identifying an enemy and finding a basis for solidarity. For instance, instead of identifying an oppressor, people identify problems: "Teenagers drink, The neighborhood is dirty. Cops don't .give protection." Then people blame each other: "Anyone can make it who really tries. Hill billies (or spicks or Indians or niggers) arc to blame." What is a basis for identity with each other around which people can bo organized: class, ethnic group, neighborhood, people xvith similar problems? Because this seems to me the crucial question in community Srganinzing and because no one seemed to have any answers, I confined my work to one group I felt I could understand best women, mostly on welfare, mostly southern. In this particular group I think there is real potential although we need to meet particular problems they have'by searching for Ways to pull them out of their homes and. away from the kids, sotting up centers of operation in their neighborhoods which they seldom leave, building a group based, initially on their immediate felt need for help. Nearly all of them have one other x-.\;man to whom they turn "for help when some guy beats them up, the kids are sick, the check'is late. They can understand the need to enlarge that group, pool resources; stand together. And because they really are on the bottom in this community, and know they arc perceived that way, they arc not so reach/ to blame others for the condition of people who arc down. They arc tied to the state through the welfare system, and thus their gripes arc easily politicized. I don't have any real knowledge of any other group, but.my general impressions from scattered, conversations xvith adult men and with teenagers is that their needs, activities, and perceptions of causes for their condition differ enough from each other and from the women's that work xvith different groups will have to be somewhat specialized. A community union framework may be adequate, if the basis for the building of the union is clearly problems that adhere to different groups rather than problems cf the neighborhood as a community area, I found, I think, that it xvas only as I organised around the problems of women and welfare people and really got involved in people's lives through those pro blems that I could begin to even think of talking with people on any broader basis in any way that made sense to them. Another problem in the general area of identity and organising basis is that the people xve've been working xvith'don't have any reference point for organizing: no movement that can be pointed to, no group experience of working together on problems. Thus people initially consider Join a charity group—their only reference point for dealing with problems. !y feeling is that starting with people where they are will allow us to build on their Initial perception. That is, service actions can create strong tics? getting food for someone whose husband just left her, getting someone on welfare, will bring someone to a meet ing perhaps and will certainly open her up to continued conversation and intro duction to friends xvith similar problems. Key to one xdiole area xvas servicing one person in this way this summer. Given this, however, the problem of build ing and organization rather than a staff xvho service people remains. The need is to find reference points for helping people understand organising themselves. The instance above of xjclfarc women's relationship xvith each other is one way existing ties in the community can be used. Another is to talk in terms of backing each other up, a term used to refer to fist fights when one guy will step in if his buddy starts getting beaten. The Dorothy Perez arrests can be explained that way: PcovxLc xvent to jail xvith her and went down and picketed xvith her and backing her up in this way got her demands. (This is a very" different use of arrests than is often made of them in the South, xvhero a commun ity can sometimes be.mobilizcd around unjxxst arrests. That can happen, I think, only when there is already a sense of identity xvith each other). Given that people have no sense of identify or oppression clearly focused and that they don't have experience with organized effort of any kind, there is a real need to find patterns in the community through which people already relate to each other and to bxxild on those. For instance, one xvoman's husband xvorks at a charity store. There arc lots of these little second hand stores around which give things away and sell enough on the side to make an income for several people. This woman is interested in having Join start such a"store, as they are widely used by really down and out people in the neighborhood. This notion ' grows from her viewing us as trying to help people on a very elementary level, but the store could well bo used to Introduce us to people, provide some income for the project, involve community people in working xvith it. It is at least seriously worth considering xvhethcr xve can utilize this way people try to solve immediate problems for what we want to do. Another instance is that people continually ask for membership cards. The idea that people xvho do work'arc- members certainly fits our valxxcs, but id doesn't ansxver people's needs.' People In this area don't belong to anything and nothing belongs to them, but one xva^r they can understand being a part of something is a card or something that sa3>-s' they're "in." If this helps them sec the organisation as theirs rather than ours, then it should be seriously considered. Another instance: the leadership question. The SNCC position ön leadership grew from pragmatic con sideration about how to build a movement. One of the things that had to be done to build a movement was to free people from tincle torn leaders. Another was to create a sense among people that they could do and act, to battle in feriority feelings. Iragmatically, poor Southern whites need one of themselves who can be seen as heading up the organisation, as a leader. That is, there are plenty of white leaders, but none who express their class and ethnic group in any positive way. It may be that instead of titular heads and spokesmen, potential loaders in the community can become organisers. At any rate, the "we have no loaders" position docs not seem to me helpful in organizing with Southern whites . I am less sure what to do about that. The above is to say that forms of xvork among this groxxp may be different than those forms that xjcro useful in the Negro community and people xvho arc organ!«- have to spend a great deal of time figuring out what will work to build the kind of movement we want, that will take the lid off imposing ideas from somewhere else is the surest usy to stifle movement. II. The second major problem in applying Southern pssix^ptions to TTorthcrn work with whites is probably the reaction of the power strxicturc, I don't really doubt'that the intent here is to stifle radical nolitics anymore than in the South, but we arc handled differently: Accomodation: There are numerous organisations providing'"help" - Null Hoixse, the War on Poverty, officials who will give audiences, precinct captains, etc. This differs from the South largely in that in areas where SHCC has the meet experience there arc literally no institutions to provide relief to Negroes. That means"that numerous institxrtions in the North must be learned about and coped xvith. We should at least understand the politics of the area—-xvho arc the potential allies (if any), who are the real enemies to be avoided, who has power (ic, who do people go to for help), what institutions arc operative. While tye system is attempting to accomodate poor people more in the Forth than in the South, I don't think the poxver structure can yield any more readily to radical demands here than in the South. As in the South, radical demands are those xvhich ask poxjer for a dispossescd group real poxver over their lives. It seems fairly clear to me that the xvclfarc bxxreaucracy is to screwed up and anti-democratic to meet demands for fair treatment to recipients, the hospitals are to overcrowded to provide decent emergency care to the poor, the police are to corrupt to provide protection without payoffs or decent treatment to people arrested. I don't think the issue is which demands arc radical, but how we organize people to make demands. Suppression: Nigh fines, false arrests can suppress activity rather than providing a mobilizing issue as they do in the South where there is alrcachy a group organized. Besides the fact that the community doubts us more than in the South in a Negro community, here is the fact that xve have no source of funds and. moral support "up North". Besides oppresivc fines in the Peres case and. the false ' arrests, organizers in Chicago are already having to deal with red baiting for S]TCC, and now that it is coming it is coming from outside communities' being worked. In Chicago, questions arc already being raised in the community, probably indi cating among other things that people can't xxndcrstancl xvho xve arc and what we're doing and have no other xvay to identify us. In addition, there is the question of harrassment of community people who identify xvith Join (evictions, questioning by welfare offices), xvithout the initial support in the community for the newly re cruited community people anymore than for the organizers. I don't knew what the implications of all this arc, but probably the most positive attitude to take is simply that we have to organize faster than they can get us. III. The role of the organizer requires more real writing than has been done on it. Somebody should try to do a long essay on community organizing that goes beyond slogans about letting people decide for themselves. I feci fairly certain that the organizer working xvith poor whites must be much more active and directing, at least initially, and probably more persuasive thatn the organizer in rural Southern Negro areas. This is the result of the problems of identity outline above.. Another difference in the shite poor neighborhood is that students there are not v viexved, as In the Negro community, as an elite- educated group who should be expected to provide leadership and are thus accepted. Traditionally mountain people arc suspicious of outsiders, although this breaks down somewhat when they enter the urban environment, I think. But that factor, combined with the fact that it's very hard for the people to understand what we arc doing there causes me to qxxestion whethor students can organize on a large scale in poor white areas on the pattern of Southern movement xvork. Certainly I don't think anything like a summer project should be considered again for Chicago unless full time staff is willing to spend a great deal of time planning for how to use students and training them when they arrive. Middle class college educated non -Southern people have a hard enough time understanding and relating to Southern poor without the additional complication of youth, I think. However, even if students arc to be used, it is crucial to find and train community people to come on staff. That seems to me a very high priority activity in the initial stages of organising, certainly higher priority than training additional non-conmiunity people have to be subsidised in some way'if they're going to xvork full time. One other problem occurs in organising with Southern poor whites that is not thus far a question in the- Negro areas of the South. Violence is much a part of life for those people, and the organiser has to be ready to receive it and deal with it. Nonviolence as a tactiw is oven further from these people than from the Negro and the violence in the community is directed against or ganizers as well as anyone else around. Based on my experience xvith the women, I think Southern poor whites can be or ganized, but it will require much more openness to organizing forms"and much more xvork to build leadership from within that group than I had expected. Sure ain't eas; •JHBHHS-H-JHBBHBWHBHttHBHBHBH*-;;-;i-î( :; « « M « ;: x ;< x ;< a « ü x x M « « :< ;: x M » !< ;; ;: :; >; x x ;< x x i; « H H :< x ;; ;; M ;: x » M « x x Î: X :; y. x ;;«»- If 3roxx have something you would to go to the staff please send, it to: Staff Newsletter C ommunic ations 360 Nelson Street, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia Hm jaetDjsletttr ^g Nogreos in the southern districts of Payette County are getting ready to act to get jobs at the Troxel Plant, the biggest factory in the county. It is located on route 57 near Moscow. The Troxel Plant, which makes bicyclesj.seats, employs from 1;00 to 500 men and women. Of these, only eight are Negroes. The jobs are almost all unskilled; any one can do the work. For years qualified Negroes have been applying for jobs. The plant manager lets them fill out applications but almost never calls them back. He says they are not hiring, which means they're not hiring Negroes. In stead they hire whites from Mississippi. More than half of the worker at the plant are from Mississippi. They all make .)1.33 an hour, which is aferout $50 a week. The people in Districts 9,10 11, 12 and 13 are now holding mass meetings to decide what t ey should do to force the plant to give them jobs. There is a lot of talk in West Tenn, now about jobs and people are "very interested in following the trend started by MFLU ; 'Mo just like the people in Mississippi. They human just like us. They all stuck together started early. They started jxost like we're starting now. Got tired of working for nothing, no rights. They got together, had lots of meetings, decided to strike. They went around to other places before they strike said don't come in here, don't scab, strike your own self. Its time to do it when the man need you, when the grass is high. They xvas making 05-7 driving tractors, 03-3.50 chopping and they went on strike. We can do the same thing least I think vre can, ADULT LITS ACY MARY VAR1LA On August 17th the State of Mississippi did away with its literacy test. In July of this year the Federal Government announced a 7 million dollar poverty program grant to the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson for the purpose of doing adoult literacy work. Adults will be paid to go to school. This year I xvould like to emphasize an entire adult education pro gram with the creation of tools to as ist people in developing their own system of communication across the blackbclt. If a part icular community is really interested in developing an adult lits- eracy program I will assist them, ^t in view of the new develop-- ments in the voting tests, federal registrars and literacy pro- verty programs, I see no sense in my killing myself to get to every county to see if they want to teach literacy when the proverty program may get there and offer people )35 a week to go to school. I am interested in contacting the people who have done things - -for example the Batesville Co-op— and talk to them about how p people in other counties and across the blackbelt would like to know —step by step— how Batesville built its co-op, the mistakes made, the successes. Instead of having people xvrite the book -they would talk it (one technique is to bring up other people who want to start a co-op and have these people ask questions). 1he sesseion would be taped and then transcribed and edited. Its my feeling that a booklet (with picturs and large type) made out of people's conversations about how they did something is much more readable and informational than the material dug out of government publications. Such booklets also need to be done on the Poor People's Co-op, the Freedom Labor Unions, the Quilt Co-op, the Issaquenna °ounty School Bycott, the ASCS Elections* etc, Theese booklets are not the only or even the main tool in an adult educat on program. They are only a supporting tool as personal contact through workshops and speakers at the meetings are a much better means of communication^, Filmstrips are also another tool. Bob Fletcher and I intend to try to develop a library of filmstrips. ASCS Workshop - Alabama On Friday, 19 farmers attended the workshop. After Mr. Wasserman (National Share croppers Fund) talked about the history of organizing farmers in the south, they went on to discuss the ASCS, FHA, and other related subjects. Each county was represented, all of the farmers owned anywhere from 10-50 acres of land. They had come to take back to farmers in their counties any informantion that we could supply. On Saturday, Mr. James Mays held a very informal meeting with those present. They talked about their crops and the specific farm problems they had. For example, one of the brother's non-profit okra crop was beginning to plague him since he could only get 2| $ per lb. Mays told him about a cooperative in Mississippi composed of black farmers who get $0 perlb. A suggestion was made that he plant corn instead; since this is a cash crop and especially with the introduction of large scale cattle ranches. Needless to say, that cotton is still their best crop and especially since Negroes own land. They apparently had all voted in ASCS elections before, and had not been too interested in them. This time they planned to rxin candidates from their communities and will continue to have weekly meetings of farmers. Mays volunteered.to attend meetings in each county to answer further questions and if need be go down to the ASCS offices with thr folk. Whether win, lose or draw, the important tning is that folks are really interested in the elections and see ways of attempting to get their own people elected, HARLEM ACTION PROJECT IILL HALL I think that we (SNCC) are in a new phase of the movement, which means a recognition of national and global problems. It appears as though some are in the vanguard of this new phase, while others of us learn from our predecessors. There has been some talk about trying to hook-up the problems of the South with the problems ofthe North, which means broadening our base of operations. Until recently we have treated, the North as a separate entity used, only for political and economical support, while steering from the social evils in the Northern cities. I plan to return to New York this fall and work in Harlem on what I hope will be a SNCC pilot project. My ultimate objective is grass roots political action. I don't knoxv how detailed I can be in the absence of certain experiences (Northern organizing, fundraising in Negro communities, etc.) Let me try and devlope exactly how I see my time table working: Firstly, educat 1 onaland fundrasing are closely tied-up to one another. I feel that the type of fundraising in the Negno ghetto will be a lot smaller but more permanent, when our other resources dry out. This type of fundraising may also help to relieve sont of the guilt feelings that some members of the Northern staff are experiencing. The picture of suppression is more relevant to people with similar problems, which means that you don't have^to looljr for ghastly stories to tell In order to get money. The 3ä c cents a day or dollar a month idea can be gotten over to people in Harlem. Now what I am doing is using fundraising as a tool to educate people around their own needs. It's what I call the "ex panded freedom school concept", you talk about the conditions of others until someone stands" up and says let's talk about the con ditions of our own community. What should follow is a community organzation that can bridge the gap between the North and the South and see similarities in their problems. Now we are ready for some, political education which will lead finally to. political action. EUFAULA, ALABAMA SCOTT 3. SMITH Eufaula is in Barbour County, a typical Black Belt County in many ways. The median schooling of the Negroes in the county (52$ of the population) is lj.,7 years; the white median is 7.5 years. But these statistics fail to tell the whole story. There are txvo highschools in Eufaula: Eufaula High and McCoo High. In the past, the schools have been segregated, but this year in« order to quailify for Où,l5,000 in federal funds, Eufaula High will be integrated!. The school board has picked four Negroes to attend, These four Negroes will be very fortunate, at least in terms of physical facilities: they will have a full library available for their use instead of 500 books for 2000•students; they will have a typewriter for each student in their typing class instead of ten (10) typewriters for a class of fifty (50) to sixty (60); their ience lab will have equipment instead of one fishbowl; their sewing class will have a sewing machine for each student instead of one for a class of thirty-five (35); they will be able to ta] courses in Latin and. trigonometry if they wish, and in all their classes they will be assured of getting a desk. Another be Lief it which the new students from McCoo will have at Eu faula is a football stadium and if they play football, new uniforms, The students of McCoo were concerned with the poor uniforms and stadium for their team, as well as their poor library, and they began to raise money to do something about it. In a toxvn xvhere the median income for Negro families in C'H55 per year (the white median is 04^4-00) raising money isn't easy, but the students began holding dances, selling candy, running raffles, etc. In the past three years they have raised, well over 0l5»OOO (Maybe as much as Olf-5,000), But conditions at the school still remain unchanged. The students at McCoo think that there share of the new federal money xvill disappear in the same way, Scott B. has no reason to disagree with them. One might ask, "Why can't the people of Barbour County vote in officials who will better conditions and provide better schooling?" Scott B. put a similar question to President Johnson on August 12th: After an extensive surve?;- of the potential voters of Barbour County, Ala., xve now re nest federal registrars. This county xvas not specified as a county to which a f federal registrar x-rould be sent . We would like to know from your office if this is clue to the fact that this is Gov, Wallace's home county end the registrars office is in his home town (Clayton). The people here believe this because of the lack of federal support and the fear of intimidation. No replay was ever received. Perhaps the federal government is still looking into the facts to see if the county is as bad as SNCC claims. It Is clear that the federal government already has some information, however. On April 21, 1961|, Rep. Frank T. 3ow (R.-0hio) of the House Appropriations Subcommittee asked Bnr-ke Marshall, then head, of the Justice Department's Cicl Rights Division, for a list of counties in the south "where the right to vote is denied to thousands of Negroes", On Marshall's list was Barbour County, According to the last statistics available to the Civil Rights Commission, white registration in the county xvas 9b% of those eligible while Negro registration is 7.8$. The Negroes of Barbour County have marched for the right to regis ter, and suffered for their courage. MADISON COUNTY There has been a lot of activity In Madison County (Valley View and Canton) around the school desegregation issue. Some parents who have sent their children to the white schools, have complained of continuous harassment, intimidation and violence, but the say the y will still send their children tb. the all white schools«, Complaints are being filed in Washington, On September 15, 1965 people from all across the county gathered for the dedication of the new Madison County Community Center. The Center will service the County in any number of way (recreation^ freedom schools, meetings, etc.) The people thought that this was a good time to talk about ASCS elections, schools, and other program areas. They all left the meeting prepared to go back to their areas to dessiminate information and work hard, for the coming elections. JACKSON COUNTY -- POLCST COUNTY 9MIS5.) GEORGIA MARTIN Our work has mainly been centered around voter registration, school desegregation and testing public accommodations. The MFDP is strongly pushing voter registration. We have organized a community action group on school desegregation, and a group that is dealii with job problems in the county. In Jackson County they have been testing public accommodations. so far they have closed, down three city swimming pools and integrated a movie theatre in Moss Point. People in the counties are now vigorously talking about running for public office in the coming elections. T;.,;i..fl7 ; J- x. Vi FOR AL/} • jf i?i 3NCC 3TAP. ' . TU SA ÜO GL" , -.L''.oAiiii OCTOBER 7, 6, 9, 10 ^'riUR^vy, October 7 Arrive 12H Lunch 1—5- •-dialogue with ,-tlante based staff Report f.--om Project Director Dinner 7— Dialogue until we _,et tired Friday, Octcbere 8 9 Begin promptly— attempt to crystallize our positj in Alabama af. airs. Talk about program possibilities -i-1'- ÎE • ,;".L3, 01 COURS;*. S.M'U iDAY, October 9 (SCuC and other local organize tiorjs and representatives present) 9-12 l.irmis' research OIAiAJJ-Na 3__JVJ1> October 10 End me ting with S.. CO stall (only) attempting to ccme to some conclusions *-i>.M0 1 • ' Âiji\ >'f Ai . if • TING ... be have made several attempt to hold such a me tintJ in Alabama, but have not succedod. The meeting has been called off because ox i.eck oi' funds ana because of lack of sufficient plans tc make it a success. ... .e in Alabama realize that thore arc many tilings thet xve must discuss and resolve to some e lent ii xve uve to continue to be of any ,e. cfit to tho people with whom i-rc work, . e have talker cad we know ta; t we n at get together. Some-cf us h.av-6 d a -eVesire -te—-share idoap. wit people other than 3NCC staff xvho work in the field, that is, xvith SCiiC and any other organizations prosontly in Alabama. In sucn instances we have been carefxil to realize that we can have much more meaningful dialogue witnout the executive stafjs of these organisations being present. '••• c nave also expressed a desire to share program ideas xvith the local people xvith whom xve "ork. because xve feel that we must meet these txvo groups of people In an atmosphere suited to dialogue, xve are providing spa-e in the meeting for then to be present.... t. (with love from Silas) Parts of tais . exvslctter xvere typed at two different tines The first part by Share-on Jackson. The second part^by J o hn S tei nb e r g— PiOiRA <. D ib-.KT.J :T ST" ?F REPORTS PACE 2, BEg TJg „C OU N TÏ, NORH T C ARO LIN \ , A1 mn P,n r. 1 ny I am living in the town of Colrain, about u.-Rniy miles from the county seat of Eindsor, v/hich has a population of about 2600» The Negro voting age population intthe county outnumbers the white by about two to one. The second largest town is Ahoskie, which has about 1000 people. Thei-o are eight fe rge plants and companies that employ more than 100 poopTLo* They appear to be discrimating against Negroes. They are all covered by the minimum wage law and the Pair Employment A6t. Most Negroes in the county own their own land. Those that do not work for xh ite far mers 11+ hours a day for $l+.00. The Negro farmers pay their hired help $6-8 a day. Our actions will be centered around these things along with soem fedral programs such as co-ops and credit unions, and school desegregation and voter registration. People here have told SCOPE that they don't want them to work here any longer because of a mess they nue de before, but instead of leaving they have been spreading rumors that King is coming to town. C A7 E3RIDGE , MARYLAND 3 Fa IL, 19 o5 Employment- Various programs have been brought into Cambridge and the county to deal with the problems of unemployment ( Negro unemployment -29.5/1. white-15%) such as ARA (Area Redevelopment Act), MDTA ( Manpower Devel opment and Training A6t) and OJT ( On the Job Training); however, these programs have proved inadequate to meet the needs of the community. Kid furthermore there has been discrimination in the selection of candidates for the programs offered. Members of the Cambridge Human Relatione Council, the Maryland Commission on Interracial Problems and Relations met with CNAC rppresentativp s, and they are meeting with officials in the Department of Labor in two weeks, to present their grievances a J demand that this si tuation be rectified* JUNE, 1965 ;?-.räeetlng was held in the CNAC office xvith representatives from thé Maryland Medical Committee for Human Rights, members of SNCC and CI.'.-., end Dr. Fassett, x-/ho is the only Negro doctor in 75 mile area. E-,-j mar y reason for such a meeting was to uncover facts"~fbr ax inve 'if. Ac. of the Cambridge Hospital's discriminatory practices in patient place ment, eating and toilet facilities. The MMCHR will conduct an ixE-e g&tion, CNAC is planning a court suit to force the hospital J;o • ceë gats, rather than filing'a suit under Title VI of the 1961+ Civil FU ;hta Act. ïhis is bedause the Cambridge Hospital serves a very .fesrge area end we want to avoid placing hardship on needy patients, which would V, the case if federal funds were withheld* According to the hospital records, 90% of the State Aid patients are Negroes.n The MMCHR was askscE if they cou Id aid needy patients in and around the county (migrant Wor te rs, the physically handicapped, small farmers and all those nrE co vered by public health services. Tney said they xrould look into the possibility of a medical mobile unit, to serve outlying areas in the Eastern Shore*. Several attmöpts have been made to have a meeting with Airpax f,Ie.c~ tronics. Although the have defense contracts Airpax has only three Negro employees out of a total work forc° of 250» Two of them have ja nitorial positions and the third is a blue collar worker. Our main concern is that Airpax is not on the list of Plans for Progress Com panies, working vl th the President's Committee on Equal employment Op— pori. dty. Or j day we tcck clothing to a migrant camp* The people were S Ely ! ! Page 2 Cambridge, Md. cont. » * in dire need of clothing, se many had no shoes or sweaters, despite_ the cold rain. Ee spoke to the oanp contractor, Tally Mcneill, who had brought the gro p up from Florida, about meeting with the workers,^ IBully was very recptive to the idea, and we held a meeting. There had been'no organisation of the people before,, and they we only baroly aw are of their rights. Each family has one room and they pay up to fl+.OO a week for it, even thought the walls are far from airtight and there is no running water. Four spigots serve the whole camp. They have been here for two weeks and there has been only two days work per person, at less than a dollar a day. The grocery stroe where the migrant famil ies muct purchase their food charges three times as much as we pay in (Cambridge for the same goods. Tney must also purchase their kerosene for the stoves. Because of their poor diet many children have chronic digestive trouble and low resistance to infection. There was no medi cal care for the workers, despite the fact that one girl was pregnant* seVeral of the children hawere very ill, man y of the adults and chil dren had running sores and nearly everyone had a cold. Ee discussed governemräüi programs, employment, housing, recreation and educäatfon with them, as xvell as possible ways for gettingbetter wages. The mi- rant workers xvere amazed to hear how Mississippi workers had dealt with their situation* They began to see howthey ecu Id bring about change by acting as a unit. They named themselves # Poor for Progress and formed committees for employment, housing, recreation and education* The men were far more interested in improving their educational level than in bringing in recreation. Many of them1 were barely able to write their own names, Tully agreed to contact other migrant groups in the County. These people are anxious to better their lives and äeem willing to make sacrifices if necesarry in order to do this* PENT NARROWS, MARYLAND Kent Narrows is just outside Greenville, Maryland, and is a Negro commun ity of"about 2000 people. It is five miles from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.. Last fall the AFL-CIO . Packinghouse Workers Union went into Ken u Narrows to organize the workers for unions in the seafoo d pack!, g-» houses, the only industry in the community* The CIG of Bal td. more b ~ i been working to develop simultaneous civic prognmas around the ism*«? of housing, recreation, unemployment and wlfare* Vernon Thomas c •' t /VEL-CIO aked SNCC to cope in to work with CIG on community "interest pi'ograms, and to give support and manpov/er to the community* Txvo- of th3 Cambridge staff spent a good deal of time there, working to tny tl. , groundwork for community programs, along with local people and CIG. John Battiste was requested to attend a meeting of counnty,estate, and federal officials to discuss available to Kent Narrows thrcu gh± the Off ice of Economic Opportunity and the Ear on Poverty. The results of ;E e meeting were a public housing project, a Food Stamp Program and MDTA training programs* The programs were fully sanctioned by Governor Taxe.3. Ee have supported demonstrations in the Narrows, and have done seme work there, but have made no commitment to the community as SNCC, but e only as concerned individuals. At present John is xro kring with com- murjity leaders to initiate action for federal programs similar to those that have been brought into Cambridge and have been effective in the community* SHAY/, MISSISSIPPI, BOR -EIL .*•* It was not cloar at overy moment what my relations should be tc Shaw and tho MFLU. E'e did not just walk out of Shaw, Ee tried to go through a transition that xo> Id leave the toxvn without the need for etaff« Necessarily, nuch a transition means that staff will have üb ss to do as time gees on, and so there is s me wasted tine while this is happening» I spent tho week before ïennesseee trying to show people more about how to xx.ee files, Atlant«, the mimeograph,, etc., but I did hove some time on my hands* At this point I did not consider myself working with ; haw. I arc not acting as staff here. I am working with George Sheiten and! othera *.u ?oms problems with tho union as regards coordination between union areas, communication with the North, legal problems, financial records, etc. Voter- registration and FDP seem to be going very well in Shaw under Mr.. Hawkinf leadership, and witho;. t my doing mor? than help chaifour, etc. By the way, at all Eûmes during the travieling I've done,, I have b;een with union people and working Ei th them, including lobbying in Washington—there were about 25 people there from Sh«w. R0SrE)ALE, MiasJ.(Bolirar CoOLISA VOGEL ...This is arural area, with a lot of plantations and a few small Inde pendent farmers. Ee've had tvo meetings so far. At the h st on9 about; thirty people and assorted children cams» Some people from the rm-»l cont. O I ". - - J- ill • .-'IV l-O ,-;_v' !J R iSjESjDA'LE, MISS, con I lC> area' a'round Merigold came over or the iaar' meeting; ihey are Inte: L- • also„ but don't get to mai y of the Cleveland or Rosedale meetings. you see it seemsthat there might be a base for a totally rural opera tion. The focus of activity here hasn't yet really gotten fixed. There is a lot of interest in the union; quite a few of us are going to try to go over to Shaw to the state ide workshpp tomorrow, and. one carload vi sited Shaw for the union meeting last week. Because the plantation owners are "taking out" for social security ($1.00 on a weeks wages) aome people are going to write to the social security administration tc check whether anything is being sent in; this is a first step, before decidèmg what to do about it. Ee are about to start a voter registra tion cpmpaign, COAHOMA CO., JAMES EILSON JONES On April 29th at a mass meeting in Clarksdale , it was announced that the state executive committee of the Freedom Democratic party did not recognize the executive committee of Coahoma Co., that the executive committee of Coahoma Co. was not set up correctly, and that all member,; on the committe did not and do not represent the five supervisory dis tricts, and that this committee does not function. Thâs statement xvas made by Mrs. Oddessa Brooke. Since making this statement there has been a lot of opposition toward me, Mrs. ERookes, Rev. Coleman and IE ;«, Johnson on the grounds that we are trying to dived the community- My position In any community where there is so-called leadership is to xvork with that particular community. Eeehave been successful in kill ing "bigwig leadership" and set up a tentative committee in the cox nty to divide up FDP activities. The past activities in Cirksdale have "E.e 1. centered around public accomadations, testing all places open to the public. These activités xvere carried out by the Mississippi Student Union, ""e were able to get eight restaurants to open their doors to Negroes. Tentaive execxttive committee Is trying to repister Negroes in all the Coahoma towns. Ee are also working the plantations. There Is a team of five persons which picks a plantation, goes there on the labor but as if they are going to chop cotton and, xh en they get their» each r-»**- son takes a house and encourages the residents to go down to ti«^ court house and register. The next day it is m§t job to go ov\"ki the Pian'-e- tion and pick up the people that agreed to go. ^/f MACP is t*}: send ms about working theplaiiitations. They plan «•- letters like oil to the owners:"Dear Mr. X,. Ee know that *wti have heard offor about the NAACP» s Summer Voter Re.-si tration Project. Ee are concerned only e.elth voèèr registration. Ee can assure yeu that we are not connected with any activities of ( then " fol to« s a list of several organizations),. Ee are awaiting you*> *-oy0ty*" The tentavie committee is also soliciting membership for the MELU. eo now a rumor is being spread through the community that their so-called leaders «re now "tomming" to the xvhite folks, ""e are noxv able to move more freely tboughout the community. Th MARKS, MISS. JULY t$ th The FDP of Quitman Co. called a public meeting to discuss policy and to xvork on new programs in the communities. The fo&lowing programs xvere adopted* stop split-session schools; desegregation of all public fadilities, get materials on the tooor rp^pis's corporation; set up e county MFLU board and h-> -' ~> Ji «Jf membership. At the meeting were dele gates fy<->™ t^nuorC, Falcon, Vance, Sledge,, and HincbclifE Totrll r tt- e- dans-.e xvas 150* MADISON COUNTY, MISS. Hi'. Madiso Co. sewing firm began in a precinct meeting last; wiu^ar xvhen some Negro women brought up the question of jobe .ind the move ment—first,, what can people do who have lost tb.0i.1- Joi-.s bou.au a e of participation in the movement and second, what csn people do to rodu< j the dependence of the Negro women on trie power structure, apecifiaally Eêr "job" as maid in a white home at $30 or |l5 a wuek. This dépendance as the xvomen pointed out, has been at least partly responsible for the failure of urban movement in the South, even in a city as small as Can ton» Soaei of the xvomen involved in the meeting had had some .sewing esper- innce both at home and at the factories operated mostly by the county's worst rascists. In the face of considerable derision and minimal sup-' port from most of the community, eight women and one man met rggularly with civil rights workers. The women ran record hops and canvassed the Negro communtiy for capital to get started, and made sample shirts to show postential buyers. Meamflaile, a gro'-n of Northen supporters raised £.1500 for operating capital,- The women worked out a contract with the Child Development Oroxirp in Sdwareîsr, Miss, to manufacture cont. S TA EE REPORTS PANE 11, smocks end other clothes for the Mississippi Heads tart Program. Nee*'' ' firm went into partnership, arranged a two-year lease wmth a sympathetic Negro businessman on a building just outside the city limits to avoid zoning and licensing problems, cleaned up the building, installed bath rooms, lighting fixtures, fans and some machinery donated by the Head- start Program. There are noxv sixteen people on the payroll, and if mar te ts can be opened, the firm plans to expand and Incorporate Into a di rect attack on the maid system. The firm xvas plagxxed by many problems from getting a sexvcr installed to tho fact that the machines they are ixsing are inadequate. Capital is scarce and managing experience is li mited. The gorup also has marketing problems, and at present must find some replacement for the Heads tart contract once that is fulfilled* In ppite of Mttese aid other problems, the Madison Co* Sewing Firm has managed to retain the original purpose of the group. Four of the first six people hired the morning the factory opened were on their way to work in xfeite hones. Today (June 21st) eight more people arre bring hired from the waiting list of 53 who had lost t^eir jobs because of workein the movement; five were working in kitchens/ The 2\\ members of the Firm need the support of grcu ps throughout the nation to find markets ALABAMA At the state-wide staff meeting the state agreed that the local peo ple throughout the state should become familiar with all aspects of the ASCS elections. The importance of local people confronting the county ASCS officials was discussed. However, the staff realized that another, eoually important aspect of the elections was being carried out from the state office here in Selma--that being the researching of technical and legal matters connected xvith the elections. To insure that local people have a first hand knowledge of all aspects of the election, it xvas de cided by the staff, that local local people from each of the counties in Which SNCC kxsr is working shouU come to Selma for a trainee-ship workshop type program. Questions xvere a-aised at the staff meeting like xvha't a sharecropper? Can all memxbers of the fauly over tx-enty-one vote if they TO rk the land? to whom or to w at office to we complain xvhen local officials cheat dur ing at election? where and hoxv do xve get information abo1 t these and other problems, and about the elections In general? The program wax Id hopefully aid local people in learning how to re search these problems and to get this and ap$r other Information neces sary to carry out the elections. Local people x© Id get an opportunity to find out how the Infawmation that xve already have xvas obtained, ana to have contact via mail and if necessary personal visits to ASCS office* abouve the conty level. . People who attend the xvorkshop m 11 then re turn to the coi.nties and disseminate thés knowledge, and share those skills learned by settin up and leading meetings and other workshops. Other possibilités for this type of program vou Id be the establishment of a state-xvide orgammatton designed todesl wt *h the political and ec- ,-i- onmic problems of rurd people, la discussions, workshops, the setting up of cooperatives, cliedit unions and the possibl u se oi aiioot action on a state-xvide basis. îhepossiblllties are aTlmosst limitless,, and will develop as people begin to work toe-ether. A SHORT NOIE FROM ATLANTA AS YOU CAN "SE FROM THE ABOVE REPORTS, EHAT EE ART MOST INTERESTED IN IS NOT CHECKING UP ON YOU, TUT IN 'NIAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR PROJECT ATF.Hi FEES INFORMATION CAN BE VALUABLE TO OTHER FROJECTS, BY GIVING THEM NEE IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND 'HAT HAS EORKED AND EHAT HASN'T, AIE) ALSO VAEJtf ABLE FOR YOU ., BY GIVING US A BETTER IDEA OF THE GENERAL NEEDS OF YOUR PHOA^CTo JUST IN CASE ANYONE THOUGHT THEY '".-ER"1 UNIQUE, EVERY PKOJEC ASKS ITS FOR MONEY: THE ONLY WAY EE CAN ARRANGE PRIORI TAS FOE FUNDS 5 I'd-' "E EVER HAVE ANY, ~IS BY YOUR BACKGROUND REPORTS. PLEASE SEND IN IF YOU HAVEN'T YETL AND IF YOU HAVE, PLEASE CONTINUE TO DO SO „ ET" K YOU. ATLANTA, Oct. I, 1965 Çpc-yK. ^ÜLZ^XJ^J^SA EON STEINBERG