THE STUDENT vOle VOL. 5 NO. 1 The Student Voice, Inc. 6 Raymond Street, N.W., Atlanta 14, Ga. January 14, 1964 McCOMB, MISSISSIPPI - Armed night riders shot into six Negro businesses, fired on two Negro homes, and wounded a young Negro boy January 9. Two civil rights groups asked the Federal Government to send troops and marshals, to Mississippi "to protect Negroes who want to exercise their constitutional rights." In Atlanta, John Lewis, Chair­ at South West Junior College man of the Student Nonviolent in Summit, were arrested in Coordinating Committee (SNCC), connection with the shooting. a sked A ttorney General Robert Guy sa id the shots did not F. Kennedy to "take all steps seriously hurt the Negro youth ) poss ible to insure that future and only "blistered his tail a acts of violence aimed at in­ little bit." timidating MiSSissippi Negroe s Guy said the shootings Wed­ are halted before they begin. If nesday and Thursday nights had this means Federal marshals no connection with the SNCC­ and Federal tr oops in Missis sip­ sponsored vote drive. pi, then you must be prepared to McComb was the site of the send them there before others first SN CC vote project in Mis­ ar e shot." SiSSippi in August 1961. -SN CC In Jackson, the Council of Fed­ worker Moses and four other erated Organizations (COFO) workers set up workshops here asked President Lyndon B. John­ and encouraged local Negroes son to immediately "dispatch to register to vote. Federal troops to the McComb CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 area to protect Negro constitu- tfI----==-=c=======, tional r ights." In a telegram to 13 A RRES TED J ohnson, Robert Moses, hea d of SNCC's Mississ ippi vote drive and program director for COFO 1N ATLANTA said "white violence has again ANTI -SEGREGATION DEMONSTRATOR QUINTON BAK ER, vice­ erupted in McComb, in a re­ ATLANTA, GEORGIA - Thir­ chairman of the Chapel Hill Freedom Committee , is comforted ne wed attempt to stifle Negroes teen people - including SNCC by a white youth after the owner of a segregated eating place in their drive to register to Chairman John Lewis, a top of­ forced him to swallow ammonia. vote." ficial in the Georgia NAACP, MCArthur Cotton, SNCC work­ and Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, ad­ er who directs voting activity m inistrative assistant to Dr. in McComb, said four young white Martin Luther King, Jr., were ar­ men in a white car fired shots rested in Atlanta Satur day night OVER 200 JAILED into a Negro cafe, two grocery (January 11) during a s it - in stores, a shoe repair shop, and a t a segrega ted hotel. two Negro homes. Cotton said The night before, eight girls a young Negro boy in Summit, were arrested at a Krystal's a suburb of McComb, was wound­ re sta urant here. IN CHAPEL HILL ed by gunfire in his leg. One T hose iailed Saturday night CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAR­ spent Christmas in jail, after of the same homes had been fir­ were demonstrating at the Heart OLINA - More than 200 anti­ they were sentenced to 3D-day ed into the previous night. of A tlanta Motel. The sit-in segregation demonstrators have terms. Cotton said voter registration there was followed by a sit-in been arrested since protest de­ While police treatment of de­ workshops had begun here in attempt at a Holiday Inn nearby. monstrations began December 3. monstrators has generally been early January. The vote work­ One demonstrator at the Heart Members of the Chapel Hill orderly, several demonstrators er said more than 50 Negroes of A'tlanta was hospitalized brief­ Freedom Committee - a coali­ have been subjected to rough had tried to register since early ly when hotel employees dragged tion of civil rights groups here­ treatment by restaurant opera­ November 1963. her for 50 feet over concrete. are press ing for a public ac­ tors here. Quinton Baker, state McComb police chief Geor­ The demonstrators ' had come commodations law and eQualp.m­ NAACP youth chapter president, ge Guy - who arrested SNCC from a meeting of the Atlanta ployment for Negroes. workers here in the past - said Three of the demonstrators CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 four young white men. students • _____________CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 .. JanUHY H ,I964 STUDENT VOICE -----~---- , '1'nroll Negro Applicantsi Federa l judge William Cox fail­ (ourt Tells Miss. Registrar ed to issue one. The Supreme WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Court denied Lynd's appeal on United States Supreme Court r e­ November 5, 196 2. fused this week to review lower On April 30, 1963, the Depart­ court orders compelling a Mis­ ment instituted contempt pro­ siss ippi registrar to enroll 43 ce edings on the ground that he Negroes as voters and to cease did not obey the Court of Appeal's discrimination against prospec­ order. He was found in civil tive Negro applicants. contempt, ordered to register 43 The court let stand a Fifth Cir­ specific Negroes and to stop re­ c uit Court of A ppeals decision quiring Negroes to interpet sec­ against Forrest County registrar tions of the state constitution Theron Lynd, charged with civil more difficult than those assigned and criminal contempt. to whites, and rejecting Negro­ e s for errors of their vote a p­ The United States Department Negroes attempting to register in Mississippi. Note police of justice contends Lynd defied plications if they had met cer­ court orders prohibiting racial tain other requiremcnts. Lynd's taking pidlire 01 them going into the courthouse. discrimination against Negro vo­ appeal of this latest order wa s ters. The registrar's attorneys denied january 6, 1964. have asked a three-judge panel of A justice Department spokes­ SHERI FF WON'T HALT the Court of Appeals to hold off man said further action against judgment in the case until the Lynd will be taken when the high­ U.S. Supreme Court rules on whe­ er court decides whether he will NEGRO VOTE TRIES intimidation of pote ntial Negro ther a defendant in such cases is ha ve a jury trial or not. If he JAC KSON, MISSISSIPPI - De­ voters in 1I 01m es County. The entitled to jury trial. The test goes to jail on the contempt char­ puty Sheriff Andrew P . Smith of s uit was filed last s ummer ;.titer case is that of Mississippi Gover­ ges, it will mark the first time Holmes County told a Federal Sm ith arrested four field secre­ nor Ross Barnett, charged with a registrar ha s gone to prison in judge Janua ry 4, he wo uld put wries from the Studcnt Nonvio­ criminal contempt for his part in a civil rights case. up no " stumbling blocks" to Ne­ lent Coordinating Committee trying to block admission of The Student Nonviolent Coor­ gro voting. (SNCC) a nd a Neg ro farmer on James Meredith to the Univer­ dinating Committee (SNCC) ha s Smith said he had refused to char gcs they fire-bombed the sity of Mississippi. been conducting a voter registra­ let Negroes pay their poll taxes farmer's home to stir up sym­ If the appellate panel decides tion drive in Forrest County. in his county s ince 1956 because pathy for a vo ter registration to go ahead without waltrng On ly .2% of the .voting age Ne­ of a "mis understanding." He drive. The char ges were later for the higher court's decision groes are registered voters said he un derstood that no Ne­ dropped when a justice of the and if they sustain the charges, there, according to the United groes were regis tered voters in peace ruled there was nQtenough Stlltes Civil Rights Commission. the county and therefore none evidence to charge the five with should pay poll tax. "Take the c ase of (SNCC arson. ,\ white Mississippi newspaper field secretary) john Hardy, a When a SNCC field secretary Nashville Negro, who bounced McComb Terror editor testified Smith had told took 17 Negroes to the I folmes into (Walthall County registrar) the Holmes County Board of Su­ CONTINUf"D FROM P .-\ GI ', 1 County Courthouse to register to Wood's office in berm ud a shorts pervisol's in 1956 Negroes would vote on :\prillO, 1963, they were with tw o other Negroes who want­ The ir early efforts werc met not be allowed to register as met by sL~ armed white men who ed to vote. with violence and intimidation. long as he was sheriff. :\ Negro kcpt all but two from entering "Perhaps Wood was quick when Moses was arl'ested on ,\ugust vocational teacher testifiedSmith the building. he hit Hardy on the head with a 15, 1961 in nearby Liberty in ,\mi­ told him to " get the hell out of te CO llnty, while taking threcNe­ pistol, but he may have found here" when the teacher tried to ion);,s o i the Sout hern l' J'ce<iol1l ~1() \'el11c, Hardy offensive in his demands." groes to register. On ,\ ugust pay his poll tax. • • • • Mississippi Assistant 29, 1961, the son of a local law The testimony came at ~ hear­ i\ ttorney General William Wells, enforcement officer beat him on ing on a Justice l)epartment r e­ WE SHALL OVERCOMf before United States District a McComb s treet while he tried quest for an injunction against ('ompiiL·t! hv (;uv anel Candie ('ara,,;.\1\ for to take two more Negroes to the rhe ~tuclcnt N(;n 4 Vi~,It:nl Cl)()11tinaling l "JIll mitt judge Harold Cox. OAK 1'1 ."~ I.Il·:\TIO~:-; registrar's office.