The Southern Courier, September 2-3, 1967
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
VOL. III, NO. 36 WEEKEND EDITION: SEPTEMBER 2-3, 1967 TEN CENTS To Oppose SEASHA? • CAP Heads Go II n idate 0 , To Washin illi BY MARY ELLEN GALE BY MBRTIS RUBIN MONTGOMERY. Ala. BY MER TIS RUBIN JACKSON, Miss.-,.Almostevery Ne FA YE TTE. Miss. --Why did half a dozen gro leader has been asked atone time Community Action· Pro or another» "Where did the Negro vote The night before last gram (CAP) directors go in the· state-wide. .races.?"· Ther.e Tuesday~s DemooratiC from Alabama go to have been no saUd answers. '. primary run-off, Will T. Washington last week.? The Mississippi Voters League.was Turner told about 600 Ne formed last. June, with representatives groes here, "Make up Members of the group said theywent. from most of the countielil, for the pur to ask the federal Office of Economic ':Pose of screening state-wide oondldates your minds if you want to Opportunity for local control over anti and deciding whom to support, be black or white.~' Evi poverty programs. In the Aug. 8 primary,the voters dently. a lot of them de But a leader of the South East Alaba league supported Wmlam L. Wl1,Uerfor cided to be White. rna Self Help Association (SEASHA) said governor. as a favor to the NAACP's Turner. a Negro running for sheriff the CAP directors were trying to block Charles Evers, a member of the of Jefferson County. went down to de~ SEASHA before it has a chance to get league's executive committee. Waller feat. So did all the other Negro candi started. twice prosecuted Byron de laBeckwith dates in this predominantly-Negro "This: is their primary motive," for the 1963 slaying of Evers'~rother. char~it'Rufus C. Huffman. treasurer Medgar. area. And so did Negro candidates ev of SEASHA--a new, mostly-Negro or But last MOllday night in Fayette, erywhere else in the state. RUFUS C. HUFFMAN ganization "form ed to fight poverty in 12 EVers endorsed WilUam Winter tor Meanwhile, Congressman John Bell Alabama counties. Miss Grice charged. g9vernor in the run-off. Wi11iams, a conservative and a segre "SEASHA is meant to touch the peo She said the CAP directors oppose The Negro vote was probably more of gationist, won the nomination for gov ple the CAP programs do not touch--the single-purpose agencies in counties a factor in the lieutenant governor's ernor by a wide margin over State very poorest," said Huffman. If SEA. where community action programs are race. The voters league supported Roy Treasurer W1l1iam Winter. Somepeo SHA has to check every program it plans under way. Black in the first primary. and without pIe considered Winter to beamoderate to sponsor with CAP directors in the 12 "SEASHA, for example, overlaps at Negro votes Blackmight have lost his --though he denied it again and again counties, Huffman said, "the programs least seven on-going CAP programs," place in the run-off to Paul Johnson. during the campaign. she observed. that would be most beneficial wouldn't ' After the Aug. Selection, however, But some of the seven CAP directors "1 always felt .confident I would Win," be allowed to come in." the. voters. league found out that Black said R, T. Pritchard, who defeated .But Miss Mary Grlce, president of the in SEASHA counties said they don'tob had moved into Johnson1s campaign ject to SEASHA--1fitavoidsdupll.cating Turner in Jefferson County, When Alabama CAP directors association, headquarters. The league felt that local CAP programs and checks with asked about hiring Negro deputies, he said th~ group wants all "single-pur Johnson must have been supporting local officials, said, "I've got one now," pose agencies"--including SEASHA- Black, and woul.d influence him if he got JOHN BELL WILLiAMS Charles Evers of the NAACP said "Our main concern 1s toknowwhat1s to follow a "checkpoint procedure" for elected, So the voters leaguuuppotfed later that there is no Negrodeputy,and going on in our counties," said Mont another reason: to maintain "rac1al Charles Sullivan in the run-off. gomery CAP director CharlesR. Shel , that the man Prttchardreferred to is a' harmony and equal opportunity at the But there may well have been some school-crossing guard. don, a member. of the group that visit local level." j dispute about this a.mong Negro leaders. ed Washington. "The SEASHA people Evers and others chl'rged that the "The South has many problems which Evers, at the rally 1n Fayette,wasstm Life elections were stolen by white officials. stopped in at my office once and invited must be worked out at the local level by supporting Black. "We sent a telegram.to President John me to a meeting, But they never told local people," Miss Grice Said. «It is The Mississippi Freedom Democrat.;. son, te1l1ng. him about the election," me where it was--andtheyhaven'tbeen the local people of all races who carry ic Party, which Is stronginHolmes said Evers, the burden of solving our problems, and back since/' elon' County and some others, urged black ttl think he should take time out and Two CAP directors who didn't go to I am tired of seeIng local people treat voters to stay awaytrom thepollsuntn sendsorneone, or come ~eeforh1ltlse1f. Washington --Charles L. Weston of BY. ALAN BO.LES of their skins is as black as midnight, ed as if they were the enemy." thegiilneral elecUl;>nNov.'1..Butob- wr(!~geleeUonsarefor Barbour.Daie-Henry .:a,ndGene Schrge.", and one. of .their skins .is as white as how Negroes "Some people. • • are stmply'con" servers.feelthatsomeNegl'6es< in WE;DOWEE,Ala.--"Whatthls case ali1y.Rdoesn·tmake a bit of differ- in. MissiSSippi, Insfead(j£ftghUngfor cerned with creating 'poverty war derofBullock-Pike-Coffee--said they HolmeSCoUIltyml.lsthave<voted~be$ r.eally boils down to is or nota are ready toapproye any worthwhile free tn Vl~t ~al'P.Jje.seould lords'·· and turning. over to them large causeMrs~'HazelBrllnnonSmith~ a . Ufe Isworthmore fight electJ.ons:'inM:lss1ssip- $ums:ofmoney tousjil as theYPlease/' (CONTINUED ON Col, 3) in the.l'\l;U.i.~. ,.L~wls, pi." ,:,"?'!;'.'Y'i.'.(.:.J'"~~~~\i 1i?~~I~~f'~(l.B~tr~¢~~i.·'jt':15f>t" . ", .... '.' ',,' / Circuit Court. '.. Ot.·.iw.. at... .s.'r.m. .' '... $..... !.~Il... ·. a:ga..•. i.n. s. till.. '.dida,te;fQrs .:Wl~n.C .Too.ld.J.W.oul;th~reworking said there·' was a lot ~sallner was one ofthelawyerspros tarm,hls:wa,termelon patch was en s ecuUng J. W. Watkins.aolle .. eyed~63- a,s dear as your ear might be to of Negl;'o voters•. "A week befol;'ethe year-old Negro, on charges of second~ YOUeu! In your front yard. electibnl'. he.$al.d,"achUl'chwas •• degree murder. Watkins was charged burned in· Perrytown, and the Kianwent with fatally shooting James Burks, a UHe did just exactly what youor lor around in the Negro .Boreas andpttt 19-year-old white man, last July 1. anyone else would have .done." ~KKK' on all. the (campaign) slgus/' ecognltlon Unzon The jury returned a verdidof guilty According to the testimony, Burks ~."not of second-degree murder, but of In Jefferson County's district 2-" BY BETH WILCOX and a companion were carrying off Wat second-degree manslaughter, which where a Negro was killed after the SELMA, Ala.--"! went on strike to kins' watermelons at the time of the usually applies to accidental deaths. Aug. 8 primary--poll watcher Percy get a union in here, because I felt it shooting. Ninety~elght shotgun pellets Watkins' one-year sentence was sus Turner said white men sat around the would help out a whole lot," said Robert were found in. Burks' torso and head. pended. polling places with guns. and knives Nunn. "There were a lot of unfair things this time, while the ballots were being go1ng on." Watkins testified that he· meant to counted. scare Burks, not kmhim. He said he Although there were several federal Nunn is one of the people on strike 01 losed thought he was aiming above the vic~ observers' in southwest Mississippi, against the Laura Industries raincoat tim's head. many people said the observers just plant in Selma. The goal of the strike- Watkins safdhe still suftered from a In Roa e sat around, observed the wrong-doing, now in its fourth week-~is to force the and did nothing. company to rElcognize the International stroke he had two years ago. He said BY ALAN BOLES Ladies Garment Workers Union at the he sold watermelons to get money for ROANOKE, Ala. -- Last summer, In Simpson County. where no Negroes plant. medicine. Roanoke' s swim ming pool was integrat were on the ballot, people said the ed. This year. it is closed. voting in Oll.e precinct was done out The major point of dispute in the trIal Why are the workers striking for rec Mayor J, P, Philips said the pool 1s in the open, on a table in a white man's was how much warning Watkins gave be~ ognition, instead of going through regu chsed because oia broken-down filter dining room. And, they sald, Negro fore :firing. Burks' companion testified larchannelsand appealing to the Na. system. "At the beginning of last sea voters were not allowed to use sample that Watkins merely said. "Wow!" But tional Labor Relations Board? son, we patched (the filter) up, and ballots. Frank Goss, Watkins' grandson, said A union organizer said it might take thought we might be able to go through When they complained to a federal ob the defendant shouted "Halt!" and then from nine months to three years to get the season wIthout spending too much on server.