THE STUDENT VOICE VOL. 5, NO. 23 STUDENT VOICE. INC 6 R .. ymond Strut. N . W. AILlnt •. Ceorgia JOJl4 December, 1964 DEMS TO TRY TOI IOUST DEFECTORS MFDP CONTESTS WASHINGTON, D. C.-- r\ group of Democratic Con­ gressman are attempting, MISS. SEATING to throw out two members of their party. Liberal Democratic con­ Freedom Party Calls Elections Void gressmen are trying to WAS HI NG TON , D.C. -- Mississippi is illegally a pu r ge Mississippi Can ~ member of the Union. So says the MissiSSippi Free ­ gressman John Bell Wil­ dom Ue mocratic Party (MfDP). The state-wide party liams and South Carolina il; challenging recent el~ctians in MissiSSippi. Congressman Albert Wat­ The MFUP contends that son, two Democrats who primary e lections held in e leC tions, contending they supported Republican pre­ MJsslosippi June 2 and t he are null and void since sidential candidate Barn g e n era 1 election held they excluded Negroes Goldwater. . :'\ovember 3 are void, from the electoral oro­ Members of the Liberal Thl.' F re..:Llulll Parry is cess. They are also "con­ Study Group are asking the ~ll::;o contesting the beating testing" the seating of Democratic caucus in the of three Misl;isoippi Con­ three Mississippi con­ House of Reoresentati ves gressmen. !/,ressmen on the grounds to deprive Williams and Mrs. Finnie Lou Hamer the three were not elected Watson of theiJ.--status as of RuleVille, Mrs. Annie in a free and open elec­ Democrats , to remove De vine of Canton and Mrs. tion. Mrs. Hamer, Mrs. them from Committee Victoria Gray of Hatties­ Devine and Mrs. Gray posts and deprive them of burg have asked the House charge that they are the seniority. of Representatives to r e­ on ly true representatives Williams is the second fuse to seat their oppo­ since their election was the ranking member of th e nents, Jamie Whitten of the only one "open to all citi­ Ho use Interstate and FOr­ 2nd District, Prentiss zens" • eign Commerce Commit­ Walker of the 4th, and Wil­ The notice of contest was tee and serves on the House liam Colmer of the 5th. formally served on the District of Columbia Com­ The election of Thomas t h r e e congressmen. De­ mittee. Watson is a mem­ Ahernethy of the i st Dis­ MRS. F Al\'"IE LUL" liAh-I E H. (center) and athel' members cembel' 5, ill a(.;co nJance ber of the Post Office and of the MFDP dele.\1,ation at Atlantic City. A 68-man­ trict and John Bell Wil­ with Title 2 of the United Civil Service Committees. strong MFDP delegation challenged the right of the liams of the 3rd is also States Code, Section 201. The Democl-atic Caucus all-white party to represent MISSISSIPPI at tile National being challenged. Walker Under the statute, the for­ is composed of all House Convention. Is a Republ1can; the others mal notice of contest must Democrats. are Democrats. be filed within 30 days af­ The three women can­ ter certification of the re­ didates and the MFDP have sults of an election. Congressman to Object Charged that the election The contested members Grass Roots Party "violates the Constitution then have thiny days to To Miss. Reps. Seating and laws of the Un ited reply which would be on S tat e s because Negroes o r about January 2, 1965. Swells Membership WASHINGTON, D.C. -­ th rouJ;Z:ho ut the state ar The l aw then provides Mississippi .•• were sys­ JACKSON, MISS. -- From its founding convention here A New York Congressman for fony days in which the tematically and a 1 m 0 s t last April. the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party has announced here that he MFDP can gather testi­ would object to the swear­ totally excluded from the mony to support its case. (MFD?) has grown to become the state's largest grass­ electoral process •... " roots organi zation. ing in of five so-called The Freedom Party may Technically, the MFDP At a state-wide convention here April 26, 1964, o~er congressmen-elect fr om use federal subpoena power Mississippi on January 4, is " c hallenging" [he elec­ to take testimony in public 200 people representing nearly every part of Mississippi tion and "contesting" the agreed to establish the MFDP. They elected a tem­ 1964 when Congress con­ hearings throughout the venes. seating of three repre­ state. These hearings could porary state executive committee of 15 people (3 from sentatives. That is, the each congressional district) a nd named Dr. Aaron Democratic Congress­ run until about February Freedom Party is "chal­ Henry, a Clarksdale dentist and P resident of the State man William F. Ryan stated 20, 1965. The contested lenging" the state-run Conference of NAACP Branches, President. that he would propose to the (continued on page 2) A s tate-wide "Freedom Vote" in November, 1963 House that nocongressman had laid the broad base the MFDP now operates from. be sworn in to occupy the In that "Freedom Vote", over 80,000 people cast state's seats "until a full ...- - ballots for Dr. Henry, Freedom Vo te Candidate for and exhaustive invesCiga­ Governor, and the Reverend Edwin King, Freedom Vote tion of the evidence has Candidate for Lt. Governor. been completed by Con­ From that meeting last April came the decision to gress." challenge the regular white Democratic delegation from The New York Congress­ Mississippi at the National Democratic Convention at man. who visited Missis­ Atlantic City. and run four Negro candidates in the June Sippi this summer.. stated 2 De mocratic Primarv. that he would move to have The four - Mrs: Victoria Gray and the Reverend the Mississippi "repre­ John Earle Cameron, both of Hattiesburg; Mrs. Fannie sentatives" remain seated Lou Hamer of Ruleville and J ames M Houston of during the swearing-in Vicksburg - ran against white candidates i~ the primary ceremony. This would be and were defeated. followed by a resolution The Atlantic City challenge by the MFDP received asking fo r [h e unseating world-wide attention. as a 60-man-strong MFDP dele­ until all the evidence is in. gation, pledged to suppo rt the national Democratic As provided by the Con­ party, fought for seats with the rebel all-white state stitution, the House alone Democratic Party .~roup. Although the MFDP pledged "shall be the Judge of the (c ontinued on paj2;e 4J (continued on pa)l;e 2) The Freedom Vote PAGE 2 present it to the House COitested EI,ctlon of Representatives In the (continued from page 1) form of a resolution, The representatives then have· entire process should be completed by July, 1965, an equal amount of time for testimony under the The MFDP is also chal­ same conditions. They lenging' the elections of June 2 and November 3 on may take testimony until about March 20. the grounds they violated the 1870 Compact between The MFDP then has ten Mississippi and the Con­ days to take rebuttal testi­ gress of the United States, many. On or about April The Freedom Democrats I, all the evidence must contend that in the. Act of be formally mailed to the F£bruary 23, 1870, Miss­ Clerk of the House of Re­ issippi was allowed to re­ presentatives. The panies enter the Union on the con­ concerned are personally dition that it would never called before the clerk to change its Constitution, decide how much of the which at that time pro­ testimony will become a vided for universal male part of the official record. suffrage with simple re­ The printed record is sidence and age require­ distributed to the House ments. Subcomminee on Elections Under the compact the and P riviledges of the State of Mississippi was H a use Administration to abide by the conditions CommiCtee. The Freedom of the Act "in gootl faith Democrats have thirty days (as) a condition ... to the to file their brief before representation of the state the subcommittee and the in Congress," contested parties ha ve The MFDP char~es that thirty days to answer. s ince 1890 the state of At this point the Sub­ Mississippi has " arro­ committee on Elections and gantly reputliatetl its Priviledges has full juris­ solemn compact with the diction over the matter. congress of the United THE STATE-WIDE MFDP Convention in April. 1964. Over 200 people from acraS. the The subcommittee may States ... " by the al most state met to offiCially form the party, an outgrowth of the November, 1963 Freedom hold public hearings, The totally disenfranchisin~ Vote, The MFDP Is now the largest grass roots organization in Mississippi. subcommittee will then the Negro citizen.,; of the vote on its position and state, , "We are not asking Con­ the procedure in which a gress to punish Mississip­ member of the House may Congressman Objects pi," said Lawrence Guyot, object to the oath being Scenes of the South ~':\ cJ~' ('-'~" C h air man of the Miss­ administered to a contest­ (continued from page 1) issippi Freedom Demo­ ed Congressman. The elections, Returns and cratic Party. speaker can then instruct Qualifications of its own "We are merely asking the contested person to re­ Members," Under House in our challenges that the main seated while the precedent, any Congress­ House recognize the simple ochers are sworn in. man can rise and object to fact that the rigidly segre­ A resolution may next be the oath of office being ga ted and undemocratic introduced which provides, given to another Congress­ political system in that in all fairness, no one man-elect. state which disenfranchis­ should sit in the contested es 428,600 Negroes has by seats until the final de­ In most cases, the con­ that fact disqualified itself cision by the House sub­ tested member is allowed committee. from participation in the to retain his seat pending U,S. Congress," he stated. The three ladies were the outcome of the investi­ The Freedom p;roup is elected 1n a "Freedom gation. However, in one also contesting the election Vote" held Oct. 31 through recent case in 1961 the under Anicle I, Section 2 Nov. 2 by the MFDP. At House voted that neither of the Constitution, and the that time Mrs, Hamer de­ contestant be seated until Thirteenth, fuurteenth and feated Rep. Whitten 33,009 the dispute was settled, Flfteenth Amendments. to 59; Mrs. Devine defeat­ Article I, Section 2 states ed Rep. Winstead 6,001 to If Rep. Ryan's move is that the "House of Repre­ 4; and Mrs, Gray's 10,138 successful, Mississippi sentati ves shall be com­ votes defeated itep. Col­ would be without a Con­ posed of Members chosen Oler. gressman for approxi­ every second year BY The ballot for the mately four months. THE PEOPLE of the "Freedom Vote" included several states,. ," Mrs. the candidates for presi­ The Mississippi Free­ Hamer stated [hat Jamie dent from both major par­ dom Democratic Party Whitten was "not 'chosen ties, as weD as the MFDP (MFDP) is attempting to .. , by the people' as re­ candidates and their oppo­ gather strong support in quired by the Constitution. nents. Ballots were cast the House before the Jan­ More than 50% of this dis­ in 53 of the 82 counties. uary 4, opening, tric t's (the 2nd) adult The three women we .... €' population have been sy­ refused a place on the offi­ 5ena-'ro~ stematically excluded from Cial ballot in the state­ these purported elec­ run election. FACTS AVAILABLE e,,, Iy tions. " SmUll The MFDP is also call­ ing for a "Fairness Re-' R)R FACTS AND FIGURES THE STUDENT VO ICE is ON LIFE in MiSSissippi, solution" to be presented published by the Student on the first day of Con­ write for "The General Voice, Inc" 6 Raymond Condition of the Mississip­ gress in the House of Re­ Street, N.W., Atlanta, pi Negro", SNCC, 6 Ray­ presentatives. The Free­ Georgia 30314, S'ubscrip­ mond Street, Atlanta, dom Party is calling for tions are $3.00 for twelve Georgia 30314. months. December, 1964 PAGE 3 Challenge Gains orthern Support 3 WOMEN CHALLENGE HOUSE SEATING WASHI:\,GTO:-':, D. c.-­ Community leaders from MRS. FANNIE LOU HAMER MRS. ANNIE DEVINE eight cities in ~onhern TIlL' FreL'dolll Uemo- states met here with lead­ Mrs. Annie DeVine was cratic P a rry candidate fo r born in Mobile, Ala., and ers of the Mississippi the 2nd. Distri..:t seat is Freedom Democratic moved to Canton, Miss, t-.t rs, Fannie Luu I! am~r when s he was two years Pany (MFDP) to lay plans of Rul eville, l'.!is"l"sippi. for support of the Party's old. She has two years of Mrs. Hame r, delo:>~atc" tu challenge of the Mississip­ university credit from the ~at i on al Uel1loc rati..: Tougaloo, She has also pi congressional delega­ Convention in Atlantic C\t\", tion. worked as debit manager is .,16 rears of a~e and ii\"~,ti for the Security Life In­ with hel" hus ba nd and adopt­ surance Company, In June, The meetlng heard ( 'I. MFDP candidates Mrs. ed children in SunflOWel" 1964, Mrs. Devine, long a Fannie Lou Hamer, Mrs. County, site of Senatol" leader in her community. Annie Devine and Mrs . Vic­ James O. Eastland's plan­ joined the s taff of the Con­ toria Gray discuss the tation . gress of Racial Equality. growth and development of Mrs. Hamer filed an / Mrti, Devine believed in the the MFDP and the reasons application to register to need for "vigorous local for the challenge. MFUP vote on August 31,"1962 and participat ion in politics if Chairman Lawrence Guyot was dismissed that same 0.:egroes are to receive and MFDP legal counsel day from the job she had their full rights in Miss­ Attorney Arthur Kinoyout­ held for i8 years as time- iSSippi." lined the legal and techni­ keeper on a cotton planta- cal steps for the challenge tion, and forced to leave the home in which ShL" had lived In the :--' ovember third eiection, Mrs, Devine opposed and offe red suggestions for for that period. Ten days l ater l b shots were fin:::d Into lJemuc rat Arthur Win s te ad. In the Freedom Vote organizaing Nonhern sup­ the house in "which she was s t ayin~ . t::tll~ ~hL" rt."cL'I\"ed b,Oll Freedom Votes. She also port. Mrs. Hamer has wo rked full ti me for the Stul.h:"nt sel"veLi ;lS Sl"ccetary of the MFDP delegation which Nonviolent Coordinating Co mmittee. Whil e rt:'t urnin ~ wellt to t hL" j\,'Michigan. oQ!"::tI1ILe d. It IS ti me tha t the forces of Justice and Mississippi'G Second CongrcssionalUis t rict lies in the e II I::t!lcip he even voted a~a i nst the 5;1111(.. ' time he has led th e at largc" and regular Democrats from MissiSSippi Their voting records re­ Area Redevdopment bills fight against prog-rams walked out of the cO I 1Venti0;~ . flect their lack of alle­ which were aimed dt eco­ which would iwndit the At Atlantic City, MFDP had pledgcs of support from giance to the national party. nomically depressed a reas farm worker such as a I)cmocratic groups in California, Michigan, Wi sconSin, On partisan roll calls in such as parts of t..l1ssissi­ t ractor driver u'aining Minnesota. Oregon, New York and the District of the 87th Congress, Colmer ppi. He also votell a~alns t program. Other programs Columbia, as well as from Democratic party members voted with the national a tax cut, against accel­ he has voted against include and office ho lders in other states. Pressure from top pany 19 percent; and Whit­ erated public wurk , J­ food s tamp legis lation and Democratic leadel' s, including Presi.dent Lyndon B. ten, 31 per cent. That is an galnst college aid, anu so th e war on poveny. Johnson, kept the group from achieving recognition average of 26 per cent on , despite its strong legal and moral stand. while the average for all Rep. Wiillam Colmer is It ep. PrentISS Walke r is One feature of the MFDP's growth leading to th e House Democrates were 71 now in Congress ror his rhe only Republican repre­ Atlantic City Convention was "Freedom Registration" Der cent. 17th term. Among his ultra­ sentative. With the help of and the formation of a duplicate structure to the Rep. John Bell Williams conservative p I a t for m the Goldwater sweep, he regular all-white Democratic group. "Freedom Regis­ s upported the Republican pledges wa s one "bringing ddcated incumbent Demo­ tration" involved registering on "Freedom Registra­ presidential can did ate, an end to the foreign aid crat Arthur Winstead. But tion" forms native Mississippians as members of th e Barry Goldwater, during program." With House Rep. Walker hasn't been a MFDP. Over 60.000 people were "Freedom Register­ last faU' s election. But this Rul es Committee Chair­ Republican for long. As a ed". wasn't the first time he had man Howard Smith of Vir­ Democrat he had served as The building of the duplicate structure involved at­ defel,;ted. For example 1n ginia, he control~ tlJat com­ pan of the Barnett admin­ tempts by MFDP members to Join the regular party 1956, when even the other mittee. The Rul es Com­ istration on the Fish and s tructure. Negroes tried to attend orecinct and countv Mississippi representa­ mittee must approve all Game Commission. In 1960, meetings throughout the state, and after being refused, tives were least vocally lE')lislation t l.) come before Walker was chairman orthe held their own meetings and elected delegates to a supporting the national De­ tile House, Last February unpledged elector move­ mocratic tic ket, Rep. Wil­ he receiveu ::I le tter from ment for the 4th District. liams supported a States' the [en members of the After his election as a Rights ticket. Williams, House' s Southern Group Republican, his first pub­ with Sen, Eastland and praising him for his fight lic speech was made in Mississippi Supreme Court against the civil rights bill. Brandon, Miss., before the Justice Tom Brady. worked " As a result of your con­ extremist Americans for out the philosophy of "in­ stant daily effl.)rts ... the bill the Preservation of the terposition." This was th e wa s s talled for nearly a White Race. Membe rs of "law" the former Gov. yea r," the lettc r read ... We the AP W R were those im­ Barnett used when he defied regard this as quite an ac­ plicated in the McComb race-hate bombings. the federal government at complishment in the House,

Hev. J. E. Cameron J ames M. Houston ATLANT A, GA. -- THE STUUENT VUICE, the only newspaper devoted entirely to the cIvil rights struggle in the Deep South, brings you up-to-date news and analysis of current events in the freedom movement. state convention, which in tum elected the MFDP Atlantic Any contribution of $3.00 or more to the programs of the Student Nonviolent City delegation. Coordinating Committee (SNCC) entitles you to a twelve-month subSCription to the In October, MFDP Candidates tried and failed to get STUDENT VOICE, their names placed on the general election ballot. The If you want to stay informed about the progress and problems of the civil rights state election commission - composed of Governor "!!0'.. ement. use the coupon below (and give a subscription to a frip-nd) . Paul J ohnson, Attorney General Joe Patterson and NAME ______Secretary of State Heber Ladner - refused to place Mrs. Hamer, Dr. Henry and Mrs, Annie Devine on the STREET______CITY ______November 3 ticket, In addition, the MFDP has been enjOined against ST ATE ______ZIP NO, ______using the name "democratic" in its title. I enclose $ as a contribution to the Swdent Nonviolent Coordlnating Lawrence Guyot, a SNCC worker from Pass Christian, Committee (SNCC), I understand [hat $3.00 of my contribution goes toward a twelve­ Mississippi, formerly 5th District Project Director and month subscription to the STUDENT VOICE. Political Programs Coordinator for COFO, is now (mail to STUDENT VOICE, 6 RAYMOND STREET, ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314) MFDP State Chairman,

Guyot said the January. 1965 c hallen¥es bytheMFDP "will once again bring to America s attention the repression and ' intimidation under which Mississippi Negroes live and die,"