REC'O MAR o A True Tole Of Tollohassee by Rich{;rd Haley (Editor's Note: The write·r of this st01··y in 1960 was teaching at Fl01·ida A <.e; 11! University in Ta.llahassee. H l-' T took a leadership role in the local I R CORE grmop's ca·rnpaign to desegre­ BJJJl gate lunch counters. As a result, he was named "Teacher of the Y ear" by Published bimonthly by the CONGRESS OF RACIAL EQUALITY the university's S tudent Congress. 38 Park Row, New Yot·k 38, N.Y Subscription $2.00 a yeat· Also, as a Tesult, he was dismissed A National Organization with affiliated loca-l g1·vups work·ing to abol.:sh j1·om his position, without explana­ racial discrimination by direct nonviolent methods tion. Now, he is assistant to CORE'8 James Farmer, nationa.l di-rector Jim Peck, ed-itor national director.) On January 8, two Negro students ...... a BROTHERHOOD MONTH-FEBRUARY, 1963 No. 99 walked into Woolworth's in Tallahas­ see. They sat down at the lunch coun­ ter, ordered and were served without incident. This scene was repeated, NEW FREEDOM TASK FORCE IN SOUTH vtith minor variations at Walgreen'o;. N eisner's, McCrory's and Sears Roe­ buck. A 3-year CORE campaign in th ~ only Florida city still maintaining lunch counter segr egation , had ended successfully. The campaign's first sit-in occurred at Woolworth's on February 13, 1960. A seccnd sit-in a week later resulted in arrests. Five of those arrested­ Patricia and Priscilla Stephens, J ohn and Barbara Broxton and William Larkins, Jr.-set a precedent by be­ coming the first jail-ins of the nation­ wide student movement. Rather than bail-out, they served 46 days. Patricia w r ote from Leon County Jail: "'We could be out on appeal but we all strongly believe that Martin Luther King was right when he said: 'We've go to fill the jails in order to win our equal rights.'" The five students were r ecompensed by receiving the first an­ nual CORE Gandhi Award. But tho lunch counters remained segregated. CORE suspended its picketing f or several months at the request of sev­ eral local leaders, but no change took place. So, picketing and sit-ins were by Gordon R. Carey resumed. In March 1961, Patricia Stephens and Ben Gowins were ar­ This photo shews mass picketing of the S & lvv Cafeteria in Greensboro, r ested at Neisner's after they were North Carolina. CORE's campa ign to desegregate the S & W and Mayfair attacked by several white men. Pat's cafeterias, which has beccme a major issue in Greensboro, is just one of the sentence was later r eversed, but Ben projects in which CORE's newly-established Freedom Task Force is "involved. chose to be jailed-in. During November, 111 Negroes a nd whites wen; arrested for s itt ing-in at First break in Tallahassee's segT2- the two cafeterias. First to be tried was Isaac Reynolds, one of the initial gated eating pattern occurred as a re­ volunteers for the Freedom Task Force. Both he and Richard Ramsey, who s ult of the F reedom Rides in the sum­ was tried with him, received 30-day jail sentences after rejecting suspended mer of 1961. Complyi:Rg with the new sentences wit h the proviso that t hey not be convicted of a s imilar offense for ICC regulations which resulted from a year. Their attorney, Floyd McKissick, announced that the cases will oe the Rides, the Greyhound and Trail­ appealed. Trials of the 109 othe;·s are scheduled to start a'S this issue goes ways lunch counters desegregated. to press. Following the arrest of 10 ministers The Greensboro campaign is but one example of the type of project being and rabbis on CORE's Interf aith aided by members of t he Freedom Task Force, who in effect are f ull-time Freedom Ride, the airport restaurant, volunteers. The Freedom Task Force, which went into action December 1 fol­ operated by Union News Co., closed lowing a final 2-day t raining period, is a ccntinuaticn cf last summer's' s uc­ for several months but finaliy reop­ cessful Freedom Highways proj ect. Although it is stiil smail and in the ened on an integrated basis. In the experimental stage, its participants have been active in a number of com­ spring of 1962, shortly after an- munities. (Continned on page 2) (Continued on page 2) TALLAHASSEE TASK FORCE (Continued from page l ) (Continued from page 1) nouncement of CORE's Freedom In Lebanon, Tennessee, Winston Locket and Jon Schafer have been work­ Highways preject, all Howard John­ ing with our new CORE group there in a situation where violence has son restaurants in Florida-including threatened. Early in January, while Winston was picketing a food store where TallnhasRee-dese_:::regnted . CORE is seeking a fair employment policy, a stick of dynamite was planted This past fall, a full-scale sit-in on the roof. It was only after protests to the governor and the U.S. Depart­ campaign was started and I returned ment of Justice that local police began providing adequate protection and to Tallahassee to help coordinate it. taking steps to prevent violence. Police seemed grudgingly committed In Durham, North Carolina, the Royal Ice Cream Co. operates an ice to maintaining peace inside the stores, cream parlor with a front room for whites and a back room for Negroes. As despite threats and profane language far back as 1958 a young Negro minister, Rev. Douglas Moore, organized sit­ from white onlookers and exhrbition ins by high school students, who constitute most of the establishment's cus­ of some lethal-looking knives. The lone tomers. The action was renewed with vigor in November when members of white CORE member, chief target of CORE and the NAACP youth group began picketing and boycotting. the threats, was escorted to safety in During a Task Force training session, which I was leading, a minister the centm· of a hollow square of Ne­ reported that some of the Negro schools which used Royal Ice Cream. in gro CORE members. One of our cars their school lunches were willing to join the boycott. Within two days, Task was damaged. But police made no ar­ Force members mobilized leaflet distributions at every Negro school. The rests nor even issued any warnings L) students supported the boycott. One teacher reported that only 3 students those molesting us. The sit-ins con­ out of 900 had eaten ice cream at her school.1 tinued. The company agreed to negotiate and has !already offered to serve Negroes Finally, for the first time, a promi­ in both the front and back rooms. Realizing that mere maintenance of the nent downtown minister succeeded in two rooms would perpetuate segregation, we rejected this offer and the boy­ arranging a meeting between a CORE cott continues. committee and a representative of one of the stores. Ironically, this manager Statesville and Hicko -y are two other North Carolina communities where hastily informed us not only that he Task Force volunteers have been working. They are able to work in com­ was not authorized to represent the munities for prolonged periods of time. The cost of having paid staff in such other stores, but that he could not situations would be prohibitive. Most of the volunteers are college students even represent his own. Eventually, with previous experience in nonviolence. As this program develops, CORE however, negotiations with the man­ hopes to organize a much-needed source of trained manpower to pursue non­ agements got under way and an agree­ violent action on the community level in the south. ment was reached to desegregate the lunch counters early in January. A long-overdue change, which had been successfully delayed by the segrega­ REGiSTER. A PROTEST WiTH YOuR S & W MANAGER tionist City Commission, finally be­ came a reality. If you live in a community where there is an S & W Cafeteria, write or speak to the local manager, protest the chain's policy of refusing ·FORT SMITH'S LUNCH to serve Negroes (except in Washington, D. C.), express support of COUNTERS DESEGREGATE CORE's present campaign to desegregate the company's Greensboro First project of the CORE group branch. This appeal to CORElator readers comes from William Thomas, formed in Furt Smith, Arkansas last Jr., chairman of Greensboro CORE. 'september was to desegregate the lo­ Communities where S & W operates cafeterias, in addition to Greens­ cal lunch counters. By mid-January boro and Washington are: Asheville, Ch~rlotte (location of company the lunch counters of Woolworth's, · headquarters), Durham and Raleigh-N]orth Carolina; Lynchburg, Kress's and McC1·ory's were serving Richmond and Roanoke-Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee and Atlanta, everybody, regardless of color. Georgia . .Th e change was accomplished thr.ough a series of negotiations ses­ sions with a committee appointed by lOUISIANA REGISTRAR QUITS ON ACCOUNT OF "ILL HEALTH" the mayor, who took the initiative after receiving CORE's request for Miiton Dardenne, the registrar of ticipated because, to replace Dar­ his intercession. Reginald Watson, Iberville, Louisiana, named in 17 re­ denne, the police jury has named chairman of F ort Smith CORE, head­ cent voter-bias complaints filed with Mrs. Ella Billings, a member of the ed the group's negotiating team. the U.S. Department of Justice, has White Citizens Council. Mrs. Billings CORE National Chairman Charles resigned because of "ill-health." reportedly told one of the 17 plain­ Oldham and CORE Field Secretary In reporting his resignation TV tiffs to the Justice Department: "If Mary Hamilton participated at vari­ Station WDSU in New Orleans stat­ I would have checked the other ous stages. ed that friends of Dardenne had at­ (Negro's) application card, she According to the agreement reach­ tributed his "ill-health" to the Negro wouldn't have passed either." ed two-man test teams ate at the lunch registration drive in this area which counters during the week preceding is headed by Ronnie Moore, CORE Nevertheless, CORE is pursuing desegregation. The Sunday prior to field secreta ry. The complaints to the its voter education campaign. Since the change, annbuncements were made Department of Justice were an out­ Dardenne's resignation, 10 Negroes in the city's churches. Under terms of come of this campaign. have I been registered and 24 rejected. the agreement, desegregation will Of the latter, some plan to file. com­ shortly be extended to other eating However, no immediate era of vot­ piaints w:ith the Justice Department. places in Fort Smith. ing justice in ' Iberviile parish is an- HOWARD JOHNSON'S REV. COX SPENDS IN BRIEF STATEMENT SECOND CHRISTMAS IN JAIL In his initial speaking tour on behalf of CORE, James Baldwin, popular Last CORElator featured an account Rev. D. l•:lton Cox, author, lectured , during October at of Desegregate-Howard-Johnson's Day CORE ildd secre­ Harvard, MIT, Brandeis and Cornell. (October 6), on which CORE groups tary! 8111 qtt his ~ec­ He started on a CORE speaking tour ncross the country picketed for serv­ o nd i c •>i!C\ecutJve through the south, as this issue went ice without discrimination at all the Christnt:H1 holiday to press. He is scheduled to do a west company's southern restaurants. Just -and il!c•n some­ coast tour in May. before the demonstration, Howard in the t•:n:->t Baton Johnson, himself, agreed for the first Rouge l'nl"ish jail. * I " " Following the unprovoked police beat­ time to negotiate (previous negotia­ Nine d:t.vs before ing on December 3 of Jackie Wash­ tions had been with the company's at­ Chrisf. 1!1118, 1961, on the ,,,.,•ning of a ington, a Negro student at Emerson torney). Two subsequent sessions College, Boston CORE mounted a ma­ were held- with representatives of stu den 1 tnass dem­ onstrafi•llt protest- jor protest campaign in an attempt the NAACP as well as CORE present. to avert a repeat performance. As a result, the company on December ing the arrest of twenty-Ll!ree CORE 12 issued a public statement which pickets, Rev. Cox was jniled o~ a I -K· ' * * was carried widely by the press. "conspiracy" charge. This past Chnst­ The S9uth Carolina Supreme Court on mas, he was jailed on a eharge of November 28 unanimously reversed Asserting that "only 18 of the 297 "defaming" a judge and 11 district at­ the conviction qf 42 Morris College company-operated restaurants" are torney at an NAACP maOctober 1960 and Febru- the operation of our company-oper­ in jail and $3,000 fine on c•nch of two ary 19ln. · I ated restaurants in the south to con­ counts with the prison I.<•I"IDS to be form to our national policy of service served consecutively, rath•"" than con­ Two d ajor boy~ot;s a:e presently be­ without discrimination, this has been currently. Rev. Cox is still in jail as ing cohducted by CORE on the fair done. In Florida, for example, our 66 this issue goes to presrt, !Jut it is employhient issue: one against Seal­ restaurants are open to all who desire hoped that he may soon b•• bonded-out test M ~ lk in New York City, the other service. on appeal. against Kroger's grocery stores in St. Louis dnd in Columbus, Ohio. "This review of Howard Johnson's Ronnie Moore, former ··lutirman of record in regard to desegregation was Baton Rouge CORE and Patricia * * * Tate, the group's present. chair~an, An International Forum dinner spon­ undertaken with the cooperation of sored by the National Broadcasting officials of CORE and the NAACP, accused of "defaming" a 1n·and JUry by offering to testify on ltev. Cox's Co. at the Hotel Roosevelt in I'.Y evv both of which organizations have led Orleans Jan. 11 was picketed by the the battle against segregation and behalf, were also convict•·cl by Judge LeBlanc. local CORE group after its chairman discriminatory practices." and vice-chairman found that their Attempts to desegregatn the parish Regarding the arrests which oc­ reservations were not honored. courtroom and coffee shop during the curred at a number of franchised trial, resulted in six arrefd :-L The four Howard Johnson restaurants in North arrested in the courtymlm were BEQUESTS Carolina last summer during CORE's charged with contempt and sentenced Freedom Highways campaign, the CORE recently has received two sub­ by Judge LeBlanc to a m:tndatory 10 stantial bequests from the estates of .'ltatement said: "CORE and NAACP days in jail and $100 fin<'. The two both recognize that the Howard John­ Blanche Harriet Meyer of Portland, arrested in the coffee sh••P were ac­ Oregon and Barbara Blumenthal Mc­ son Co. was not a party to this action cused of "disturbing the JH'ace." Clure of New York City. directly or indirectly, that the com­ pany caused no arrests and was pow­ CORE regards such bequests with erless to have the charges dismissed special obligation and pride. Contribu­ against those arrested." SEATTLE'S fiRST NEGRO tors wishing to insure continuance of STORE MANAGER CORE's work after their death, Commenting on the statement, should contact Marvin Rich at the CORE National Director James Far­ Through the efforts of Seattle CORE, national office. mer said: "It is commendable that a Negro has been hired ""'" the first Howard Johnson's has put itself on time in Seattle as a ston ~ manager­ record publicly regarding desegrega­ at the main store of J . C. l'enney Co. "NEITHER ' NEGROES tion. However, it is regrettable that He went to work upon completion of NOR ANIMALS .. . the company remains uncooperative in t he company's management t raine2s cour se. . .. may use benches, rest rooms, applying pressure to its franchised or restaurant facilities at the zoo restaurants in the south which, after A second Negro trainefJ will be em­ in state-owned Audubon Park, all, bear the Howard Johnson name ployed as manager of one <>f the com­ New Orleans." This is the way and to t he public are undistinguish­ pany's stores in San F rancisco. In Oretha Castle, chairman of N 2w a ble from the company-operated res­ addition, Penney's has hi red several Orleans CORE expressed it after taurants. CORE intends to pursue its N eo-ro clerks in one of its local branch Jean Thompson and Carlean action program until all Howard sto;es. The company started taking­ Smith were arrested and charg­ Johnson southern restaurants, fran­ on Negroes at its main store several with "criminal trespass" for chised as well as company-operated, months ago, following a threatened ing. the park's facilities. became desegregated." boycott by CORE. ,_r \\:o '\"1 , HOUSING SIT -INS EAST AND WEST In Edgewater, N.J. ... In Wilmington, Calif . ...

. . . Mrs. David and her three children sit-in at un . . . a Lcs Angeles CORE member looks out of the win­ apartment which the Vesta Corp. refuses to rent them. dow of a Sun-Ray Estates home during a 6-day "dwell­ F orced to move after their home had be en destroyed by {ii" which ended with arrest of the 7 participants. The fit·e, the Negro family presently is cramped into mak9- shift quarters 1chere the ceiling has collapsed and leaks protest action then became a "dwell-out" in the front . have sprung. Spons01·ing the ste-m is Bergeu County yard and within two weeks the at-rests totaled 1,.2 . The COR E . Three of the sit-inners have received cout·t dwell-out ended after the JlrlcLennan's obtained a court summonses but were acquitted. order securing th e home. And in New York City in connection with a Brooklyn CORE housing protest, there took place on December 19 the first sit-in inside a bank. The bank- the West Side F ederal Savings & Loan Co.-insisted on prohibiting the MoJo Construction Co. from r enting one of its Brooklyn homes to a Negro couple. The bank sit-in lasted two hours after which the five participants were a rrested. The sit-in at the home continued. In Syracuse,. N .Y., a sit-in, which res ulted in the arrest of 7 CO RE members, won f or two African students, the 3-r oof apartment which they originall y had been refused because of their color. Lloyd Clifford, the owner , also agreed not to press trespass charges against the 7 arrested sit-inners amon g whom were E vart MaKinnen, cha ir­ man of Syracuse CORE and Rudolph Lombard. vice-chairma n of national CORE. The two Africans, Skeva Soko from Northern Rhodesia and Antonio Boustcha from Mozawbiquc, a re graduate students at the Maxweil School of Public Administration. In San Francisco what was s'haping-up as an impending housing struggle had a happy-ending. "The owner who was in Europe when I . applied for t he apartment was most distressed when she learned that her managers had denied occupancy to a Negro," reports Doris Thomas of San Francisco CORE. "She agreed to r egister all futurs vacancies w ith CORE, to permit CORE to screen applicants and to pay me reasonable damages f or my inconveni­ ence and delay."

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