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THE STORY OF COFO (PART ONE)

When the staff and volunteers of COFO, in February 1962, under the signature of fatal machinegunning of SNCC Field Sec- the Council of Federated Organizations, Dr. Henry, then, as now, state NAACP retary Jimmy Travis. A food and cloth- met in December to chart the future of ' head and head of COFO (press rumors ing drive launched in the winter of 1962-63 the Mississippi movement, it was the that he has writhdrawn from COFO are sustained many of the Delta families largest single collection of civil rights false). VEP had announced that it would victimized because of their participation workers ever gathered together (350) in finance voter registration drives in the in the vote -drive. Support by Northern Mississippi. Not only that, but they were South, but it did not support COFO's college campuses began to solidify. working on the largest group of programs plan until after the August meeting in • any civil rights drive in history has ever Clarksdale. THE FREEDOM VOTE undertaken. THE FOUNDING GROUP After Greenwood, workers moved into THE NAME IS OLDER THAN THE Holmes and Madison Counties and made PRESENT GROUP All of the full-time civil rights workers inroads into other Delta areas. A state- in Mississippi at that time were present wide Freedom Vote in the Fall of 1963, COFO as it is today began in a Clarks- at the Clarksdaie meeting, except Evers, organized by regular COFO workers to- dale, Mississippi Methodist Church in whose busy schedule kept him away. gether with volunteers from Yale and August, 1962, but the name COFO goes CORE'S David Dennis (who replaced Stanford put permanent .civil rights back nearly two years before that meet- Thomas Gaither); SCLC's Reverend James workers in the city of Jackson and in ing. Bevel; Moses and Foreman from SNCC, numerous other counties. , - COFO was the name chosen by a group and the ten -other SNCC workers then of Negro Mississippians who sought, in scattered throughout the Mississippi THE WAR MAP OF MISSISSIPPI 1961, an audience with the then Missis- Delta. sippi Governor, Ross Barnett. Thinking The meeting renominated and elected Following the Freedom Vote the Mis- that Barnett would turn down a meeting Aaron Henry president and Carsie Hall, sissippi staff, then numbering about 50 with representatives of the older, es- secretary. The Reverend R.L.T. Smith full-time workers, met in the SNCC of- tablished civil rights organizations, they of Jackson was named treasurer and fice in November to make future plans. used the name COFO to negotiate the CORE'S Dennis elected to the Executive The state was divided along congressional release of arrested Freedom Riders. Committee. Bob Moses became project district lines and a project head elected Among the organizers of the 'first' director. for each district. SNCC's Lawrence Buyot, COFO were Medgar Evers, slain NAACP The following month a VEP grant en- now state chairman of the Freedom Dem- field secretary; Dr. Aaron Henry, State abled COFO to begin work in Bolivar, ocratic Party, was project head in the President of the Mississippi NAACP Coahoma, Leflore, and Sunflower counties 5th District, based in Hattiesburg. SNCC Branches; and Carsie Hall one of Missis- where SNCC staff members already had worker Frank Smith operated in the 1st sippi's four Negro lawyers. done crucial ground work. District from Holly Springs, CORE staff member Matteo Suarez directed activities COFO BORN AGAIN INTO THE DELTA in the 4th District from Canton. SNCC's McArthur Cotton reactivated voter reg- The group became inactive after that COFO moved next into Washington istration in McComb - the site of SNCC's meeting. In January, 1962 Robert Moses, County. The entire staff came together first Mississippi project in 1961 - and head of voter registration in Mississippi again in February, 1963 for a concerted became 3rd District project director. for SNCC, and Thomas Gaither, Missis- push in Leflore County after the near- Continued in next issue sippi CORE representative, wrote a memo proposing that the civil rights groups working in the state band together to register the state's Negroes. Moses has been working on voter registration in help'help*help'help rural Mississippi since August, 1961. LAST MONTH WE ASKED FOR OFFICE EQUIPMENT - AND ARE STILL ASKING. His experience told him that discrimina- WE ALSO NEED OFFICE VOLUNTEERS. IF YOU CAN REGULARLY COME INTO tion in Mississippi would only yield to an THE OFFICE, AT 584 PAGE STREET, PLEASE LET US KNOW. all-out unified attack by as strong a WE NEED JOBS AND/OR ROOM & BOARD FOR RETURNED MISSISSIPPI VOLUNTEERS force as possible. COFO was revitalized. A COFO proposal was submitted to the AND FOR LOCAL STUDENTS HELPING FULL-TIME IN SNCC WORK HERE newly formed Voter Education Project CONTACT SNCC: 584 PAGE STREET, SAN FRANCISCO MA 6-4577 (VEP) of the Southern Regional Council MISSISSIPPI STUDENT UNION CONVENES iillliiilli^ Negro Highschoolers Organize Themselves . LOCAL AFFAIRS "All the principals and almost all the teachers. That's why you just can't learn teachers tell us we got to get an educa- about the truth in the schools down here. IN THE EAST BAY the scheduled eve- tion and that means listening to Mr. There's just about no one to tell it to ning of concert music are underway. Each Charley. They been talking to him for a you." concert is devoted to different aspects of lot of years and they been braimvashing During the lunch break, a youngster the chamber music repertoire. Guests are us with that talk." from Starkville, who had been expelled invited to arrive at 8:00 p.m. Refresh- in November for passing around an MSU ments will be served and the program This was Roscoe Rones, the 17-year begins at 8:15 promptly. old president of the newly formed Mis- petition in his school, talked about some sissippi Student Union (MSU), speaking of the problems he had experienced: For information and reservations, call to some 50 delegates at the December the East Bay Friends of SNCC, 655-9545 "My teacher told me that it would be or Phyllis Luckman, 652-9821. convention in Jackson. Delegates came good if I left town because of my work for from ten cities all over the state. Only the MSU. If I moved to a toivn 150 miles TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE for the last event a year old, the group was holding its away from Starkville, the whites wouldn't in the San Francisco Concert Series - . fourth state-wide meeting. go that far to burn it down, but my Budapest String Quartet, Sunday March 14, mother's house is right in town ... and 3:00 p.m. Masonic Auditorium. $4.50 HOW MSU STARTED she hasn't paid for it yet. I wouldn't want for orchestra seats. Care Mrs. Stanley Wiener The MSU was founded last January by my family to get hurt. I don't care about MO 1-5829 for tickets. ten high-school students in Hattiesburg me." who wanted to participate in the Freedom Anybody in San Francisco want to lend their Day Voter Registration drive sponsored In the convention discussion delegates house for a SNCC house-party? If "yes", by the Council of Federated Organiza- told what happened when they tried to call Mrs. Anselm Strauss OR 3-1085. tions (COFO). They did, joining in the register at white schools -- they were Freedom Day picket and declaring a one- either ordered away or never received a day boycott of classes in protest against reply. In the schools they're attending, "the system." Three months later, in when they asked for permission to pub- SCRIPTO'S $500,000 CONTRACTS licize MSU meetings, they were almost April, over 200 students met at Tougaloo UNDER INVESTIGATION College (near Jackson) to organize the always turned down. state organization. ATLANTA - Scripto, Inc., presently The second convention was called in THE BOYCOTT QUESTION under fire from Negro strikers and civil August in Meridian. There delegates ham- The main item on the agenda was the rights groups may lose 1/2 million dollars mered out resolutions touching on every- question of declaring a public school in federal contracts. thing from integrated schools, housing boycott against Mississippi education. A John Lewis reports that the General and jobs to the paving of streets and Jackson delegate posed the first objection Services Administration (GSA), which sidewalks. COFO fathered the MSU, help- to the proposal, noting that the schools in handles purchasing for the federal govern- ing the students with meetings and other Jackson were much better than those in ment, was reviewing "all of the details'* organizational work in the beginning. But the rest of the state. Besides, she added, connected with two one-year contracts by last summer MSU was on its own. "We might los what we already have if held by the large pencil company. we join the boycott. And our principal Ward McCreedy, Director of Contract BARRIERS TO PROTESTS told us that if any of us walk out of school Compliance, told Lewis in a letter that At the Jackson convention a shy, un- we should just keep on walking and he'll "a special review of the firm's com- employed high-school graduate from that give us some walking papers to carry pliance with its contract obligations for city talked about the "system". ! along." equal employment opportunity" is under- \r delegate against the boycott "We wanted to protest against the bad way. teaching at our school — the overcrowded I argued that parents would also be opposed NEGROES ON STRIKE classes, the old books, the lousy food. I to it. To that the Starkville delegate an- More than 700 Negro workers at the About 300 or 350 of us were involved in a swered: company have been striking for more than demonstration and the principal told us (< We got to talk to parents because a month. Union leaders vowed this month that those who took part wouldn't be able they don't understand. Some are like to continue the strike "until all Scripto to graduate. A feiv of us got arrested but Uncle Toms and all they do is listen to employees are offered a wage rate which the principal backed down. the white man." "What's really bad is that I can only will bring them up to the maximum 'pov- The Jackson delegate's strongest ar- erty level' ($3,000 a year)." The 700 think of two teachers who really would gument against the boycott was that most discuss civil rights with its ... but never striking workers represent almost 100% students in Mississippi didn't care. Most of the firm's Negro employment. at school. They have to sign a paper about of the convention agreed and decided what organizations they go to and they that at least 85 percent of the students got to be careful or they lose their jobs. in a school should be willing to sign a have been set up. Members teach in Us students even have to sign a pledge boycott petition before a call was issued. Freedom schools, community centers and when we register that we're not involved The state-wide boycott was voted down, help register people to vote in the MFDP in no civil rights stuff." leaving the issue to local affiliates to elections. In Meridian students protested decide when they thought a boycott would against the expulsion of two pupils who FEAR BLOCKS LEARNING be effective in their areas. had worn LBJ buttons to class and were Another former high-school student successful. described the fear that permeates the , :'•• MSU'S WORK After the convention Roscoe Jones said whole school system. He told how his This student convention reflected the of the one-year old organization "... if sister was expelled for a month for sing- everyday difficulties of getting an educa- we ever do get on our feet, we're going to ing a Freedom song and how the' principal tion in Mississippi. In some schools show Mississippi that they've got a fight threatened him with expulsion when he MSU members are regularly asking their on their hands. Already some kids have wore a civil rights shirt to class. In teachers to discuss Negro history, civil been asking what is the best way for us to these situations, he said, "parents are rights and "what we're doing in South get our freedom and what should we do if afraid of their kids standing up to their Vietnam.'* In some places MSU libraries we could be in the Governor's chair." BEHIND HEADLINES1 W ATS R E P O R TS ?DECEMBER/J^IJARY TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1964 no one got in to register. During the day, IN SELMA, ALABAMA NATCHEZ: Staff workers Eugene Rouse up to 350 .people may have taken part in and George Bess were doing exploratory picketing the courthouse.'.. This is the Dallas County £ Selma is its county work in Fayette, Jefferson Co., 23 miles first time there has ever been a picket seat J has long had a plantation economy from Natchez. Due to unforseen circum- line in this cotton-plantation county. and even today the county is 49.9 percent stances, they were forced to walk from TALLAHATCHIE CO.: Fred went down rural. Two-thirds of the rural population Fayette back to Natchez. While on the to the Sumner Courthouse to see about is Negro. Though some industry has come road, they were continually harrassedand a traffic fine he owed. Since he couldn't to the area, population growth is almost followed by white cars and the Highway pay it, he was put in jail. About an hour static. In fact, the Negro population of Patrol, and near Selma, Mississippi, they later Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Lee Newton the county is declining - in 1950, Negroes were shot at (but not hit). came by, and Fred asked him three times comprised 65 percent of the population, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1964 if he could make a phone call. During the today only 57 percent. LAUREL: The phone in Laurel has conversation, Fred said 'Yeah* and 'No' Median family income in Dallas County been continually interferred with. For to the Deputy, who said he was accustomed is $2,846 (compared to $3,937 for the example after the recent arrests, the to being called 'Yessir' and 'No sir'. state), but median family income for project director was unable to make calls He then accused Fred of jumping on him, Negroes is only $1,393. Median school for two hours. When she finally succeed- and beat him on the head, arms, and years completed in the county is 8.8 ed in reaching Foster's father, he was legs with his billy club. Fred got out (compared to 9.1 for the state), but me- dian school years completed for Negroes A project worker can call in WHAT IS WATS' A TThe, whATS is 5.8. (Wide Area Telephone news of any incident, threat or Only 1.7 percent of 14,500 voting-age Service) line is the heart of all major activity to the Jackson of- Negroes (242 Negroes) were registered SNCC security and communications. fice. The WATS operator there takes in the county as of September 1963 ac- For a flat monthly rate, an un- down the details and relays it to cording to the U.S. Commission on Civil limited number of calls can be Atlanta if the event is of national Rights. (Fewer Dallas County Negroes dialed directly to any place in the importance. In the case of a threat could vote in 1963 than in 1956, when country - or the state - depending or incident involving Federal laws, 275 Negroes were registered!) But 63 on what line one uses. The Jackson Jackson will notify the FBI and the percent of the 14,400 voting-age white office has a state-wide line, the Justice Department. Atlanta uses (or 8,953 whites) were registered. (In Atlanta office has the national WATS its national WrATS line to notify the two adjoining Black Belt counties, line. Both run on a 24-hour basis. SNCC groups around the country. Wilcox and Lowndes, none of the 11,207 voting-age Negroes were registered in so angered by the delay that he sent later that day when a worker from Green- 1962 according to the Civil Rights Com- nasty telegrams to the President of the wood paid his fine mission.) American Telephone and Telegraph Co. MAYERSVILLE, ISSAQUENA CO. The The first voting suit filed by the Kennedy in NYC and the head of Southern Bell in j minister and three deacons of the Moon- Administration, in April 1961, was filed Atlanta. As a result ... COFO is now j lake Church here voted not to allow any against the Dallas County registrar. "It obtaining a phone in its office, which the more civil rights meetings at the church. sought an injunction against systematic local phone company had previously re- j This decision was made by the four of- discrimination against Negro registration fused to install. ficers without consulting the congrega- applicants," according to Burke Marshall SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1964 tion, which is very angry about it. of the Justice Department. MERIDIAN: The trials of Freeman TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1965 Corroft and Luke Kabat for contributing WESTPOINT: Negro farmers from to the delinquency of minors (after they Mississippi's First Congressional Dis- attempted to integrate the Toddle House trict have received letters from their Selma is the birthplace and stronghold (WATS 12/3) were held in County Court Congressman, Thomas Abernathy, for the of the Citizens' Councils of Alabama. under Judge Harwell on Dec. 14. The first time The Dallas County council was organized two COFO workers pled guilty and were MONDAY, JANUARY II, (965 in 1954 by Attorney General Patterson fined $200 each, and the kids got off with SELMA, ALABAMA: SCLC and SNCC of Mississippi and is partly subsidized a lecture by the judge not; to be led around workers are organizing Selma Negro by the state and large industries nearby. by COFO anymore. voters. They have divided the town into ... In a full-page ad in the Selma Times- Also the precinct boundaries in Meri- 5 wards, are having ward meetings, find- Journal, June of last year, the council dian have just been changed, so it is ing volunteer block captains, doing can- said its 'efforts are not thwarted by necessary to re-register voters — that vassing, etc courts which give sit-in demonstrators is, to tell them to go down and sign their GULFPORT (VIA JACKSON): On Sun- legal. immunity, prevent school boards names again. COFO is planning to run a day, a civil rights sermon was given in from expelling students, who participate candidate for the City Council election one of the Negro churches here. After in mob activities and would place federal in May. The white community is appar- the sermon, twenty people went to All- referees at the board of voter registrars.' ently scared of the competition, because bright and Wood drugstore, and were The ad asked, Ts it worth four dollars to they are dismissing their high school served After that they went to Triblett you to prevent sit-ins, mob marches and students early and having them to out and Day Drugstore, where they were wholesale Negro voter registration ef- to tell white voters they have to re- refused service. This is the largest num- forts in Selma?' In October 1963, the register, calling it a 'social studies ber of people ever to take part in civil Dallas County Citizens' Council was the project.' rights activity here. largest in the state with 3,000 members. MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1965 WEST POINT: 11 sets of parents were A lot of citizens must have thought the IND1ANOLA: Residents of Indianola, pressured by their employers to sign four dollars worthwhile. Sunflower, and RuleVille, about 40-50 of complaints saying that COFO led their them, attempted to register today. As kids into delinquency, but only one man, (reprinted from "Black Belt, Alabama,'' soon as the first carload arrived, the who works for the city, gave In. The by Jerry Demuth, in The Commonweal, courthouse was shut down, and remained rest are Btanding firm with the Move- Aug. 7, 2964) closed for the remainder of the day, so ment ..... v , ON THE SPOT IN MISSISSIPPI WE MOVE The following is part of a letter from kitchen, two indoor toilets, and sleeping Ned Op ton, written in Palmer's Crossing, quarters for 2-4 staff. IN ARKANSAS Mississippi. Ned is a Bav Area volunteer The big question is whether the Com- LITTLE ROCK - SNCC's activities in for SNCC. munity Center will be completed. A vol- Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia grab "The Mississippi Delta, the northwest unteer's car was burned a hundred yards most of the headlines and news stories. section of the state, is absolutely flat, from here early in the summer there The state of Arkansas is also the scene incredibly fertile, hot, damp plantation was an attempt to dynamite the building, of integration and voter registration country. There is no bare ground here: but the local citizens' patrol spotted the work. whatever is not planted to cotton i s attempt and scared the men into drop- January 3 a new state-wide office was covered by dense woods or high weeds. ping the dynamite sticks in the road in opened in Little Rock to coordinate ac- Negroes are in a majority throughout front of the Center, where the explosion tivities throughout Eastern Arkansas. this area, and perhaps half of them live was harmless. Tension has increased Under the direction of James O. Jones, or work on the plantations under condi- markedly with the departure of most of 21 year old native of Arkansas, SNCC tions which are said to be as bad now, the workers. The people here feel that now has offices and projects in Helena, and probably worse, than during the De- it is only a matter of time, probably a Pine Bluff, and Little Rock. Jones at- pression. The prevailing wage scle for short time, before the next attempt. The tended Arkansas A. M. and N. College day workers is $2.00 to $2.50 per 10-12 police in nearby Belzoni are a particular in Pine Bluff until he was expelled in hour day, minus 50C for bus fare, and a danger. Belzoni is the town where Rev. February 1963 for participating in a man is lucky to get as many as 190 days Less, one of Medgar Evers' predeces- SNCC sit-in demonstration. Since then, of work per year. Those who live on the sors, was lynched in 1955. 1 say the he has been working for SNCC. plantations under "employee" tenant- police because the local residents be- The Reverend Benjamin Grinnage is farmer, or sharecropping, arrangements, lieve that it is the police, not the other directing SNCC activities in the Pine are just as poor. The economic situation whites, who constitute the real danger. Bluff area. He is a Methodist minister, is rapidly becoming worse, since ma- I For instance, last year when Hartman who studied at Philander Smith College chinery and chemicals have already re- '• Turnbow, the local Negro leader, had in Little Rock before joining the SNCC duced by about 80% the amount of hand i his house fire-bombed and shot into, staff. The activities in Pine Bluff over labor needed to produce cotton, and more the thugs bounced over a ditch in making ; the past two years have included integra- automation is on the way. Yet the whites ' their escape from Turnbow and his 22 ; tion of lunch counters, increased job still seem to be thinking exclusively in ; cal. pistol. The next morning the Sheriff's opportunities for Negroes, and nearly terms of preserving an unlimited supply ; license plate xvas found in the ditch and ; doubling the number of registered Negro of cheap labor. For example, a Jackson ' returned to him. voters in Lincoln and Jefferson Counties. paper reported on August 14, 1964 that j Aside from the COFO project, the j "Outside of Pine Bluff and Little Rock State Senator S.B. Wise pf Jonestown ; question in Mileston is whether the Negro ! there has not been much progress," told the 17th Annual Farm-Labor con- i farmers will be able to hang on. About : Grinnage reports. "The pattern hasn't, ference in Greenville: ten years ago the whites instituted a ' changed. Negroes still feel that they "In addition, Negro labor tended to ; policy of no longer permitting land to haven't any recourse because most of it leave Mississippi as soon as a ! be sold to Negroes. Any Negro land lost has to depend on local law enforcement. certain level of education was ; to the whites through taxes or sale is | The picture is comparable to Mississippi, achieved." Wise said he thought ; lost forever. The Negroes guard their except we can vote." white labor on the cotton farm might ; community with armed men and a road ; be the answer. 'We got to entice , patrol all night every night. The sputter- j Did You Know That these people on our farm.' ing two-way radio linking our bedroom SXCC has more than 200 full-time staff Aside from seeing to it that Negroes ; with Greenwood and Belzoni was a com- i members working in Alabama, Arkansas. do not achieve the 'certain level of edu- fort, not a nuisance. How long will people | ^Georgia and Mississippi. cation' at which they tend to flee the live in such a state? 1 don't know. Judging state, two other principal methods are from the Delta's past, which for thirty SNCC has been used to keep the people down on the years has been very like its present, it conducting a voter reg- farm. One is to keep them there by threats may be a long time." istration drive in and physical force on the theory that Selma, Alabama, since people cannot run off without paying their j February, 1963 debts (in a county where nobody works I "They that would give up essential man more than six months in a year, everyone j Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, '"is perpetually in debt.) The other method j deserve neither liberty nor safety." M«J!«|one vote is to keep out information about the out- Benjam in FrankI in side world. The people do not know what the outside world is like, or what they would do there, but they do know that I they have no saleable skill except chop- EAST BAY 655-9545 ping and picking cotton. FRIENDS OF SNCC SAN FRANCISCO 626-4577 Because Mileston seat of a Federal IN YOUR AREA SAN FRANCISCO STATE COLLEGE JU 4-5215, Extension 6 experiment in rural Co-ops during the RICHMOND BE 4-1015 depression is relatively independent of the wjiite economy and pressures, it has MARIN COUNTY 388-1770 been chosen for one of the more unusual SANTA CLARA VALLEY 292-6161 efforts A Los Angeles group, prin- Bay Area SNCC STANFORD .- ' 326-6730 cipally Abe Osheroff, is building a Com- Newsletter is published MID-PENINSULA 322-5521 munity Center with $10,000 that Osheroff monthly by Bay Area LAFAYETTE - Don Sanford, 1658 Foothill YE 5-3061 raised among his friends The Center, Friends ofSNCC, when and if completed will be 32 by 84 584 Page Street, SAN JOSE STATE 293-9684 feet, will seat 200, and will contain a San Francisco BAY AREA REGIONAL OFFICE, 584 Page Street, S.F. 626-4577