AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE CoMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NoRTH 15TH STREET, PHILADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: Jean Fairfax Date: May ll, 1964 From: Constance Curry REPORT NO. l Subject: REPORT ON TRIP TO NORTH CAROLINA, April 23 - 30, 1964 ~·~ .. ··· (Y Thursday, April 23

I arrived in the High Point Office of AFSC around 3:00 in the afternoon. Tartt Bell suggated that I sit in on the High School Committee Meeting, after which Tartt and I talked for a short time on plans for my week's stay in No. Car. The School Desegre­ gation Committee was having a supper meeting that evening, and I stayed for that to meet the members and to learn a little about the regional program on school desegre­ gation. I was interetPto hear Charles Davis and Bill Bagwell report on Greenville, South Carolina and say'that progress made in public accommodations and the general atmosphere made the city almost comparable to Greensboro, North Carolina.

Dick Ramsay, who is in very close contact with the CORE group and the NAACP in Greensboro, had invited me to a planning meeting that night, so Charles Davis and I went over to Greensboro about 9:00 that night. There have been no demonstrations in Greensboro for about a year, and I understand that the Mayor's Human Relations Committee has not been very active since its creation during the crisis last spring. Bill Thomas, CORE Chairman, George Simkins, NAACP President, Tony Stanley, A. and T. Chaplain and the few others there all felt the time had come to resume activities aimed toward desegregating the remaining restaurant~nd toward equal employment in numerous businesses. The plan was to start a major campaign by having a small picket line at Wachovia Bank, directed toward equal employment, and to release a full state­ ment to the papers saying that this was just the beginning of an effort that would soon reach all the other "holdouts" in the city. They planned to contact all the Negro ministers and to spread the word generally that a mass meeting would be held on Sunday, May 3rd and that plans for mobilizing the Negro community would be made then. The Tuesday and Wednesday of the next week I saw the pickets at the Bank, but I'm not sure what the impact or support was, since all the newspaper reports indicated that this Bank does supposedly have fair employment practices and had been trying to find Negroes to hire. This question had been raised at the planning meet­ ing I attended and some people suggested that the pickets should go back to the Mayfair Cafeteria, the main "holdout" of the down town area. In any case, I don't know what the results of the picketing were or what transpired at the mass meeting on Sunday.

Friday, April 24

Friday morning Tartt and I talked again about plans and we decided that our plans for a state-wide conference involving groups to work for compliance with the Civil Rights Bill should be discussed with these various groups - that we should sound them out and get their advice on ideas on such a conference or on other possible programs. We also decided that we should find out exactly how much support or interest we might exp·eot from Governor Sanford or forces in the state administration. We felt that the best way of carrying out the first plancwas to get a group together in Greensboro and in Raleigh, and Tartt called Reverend William Finlater in Raleigh, who Constance Curry- Report No. l -May ll, 1964

said he would organize a luncheon meeting for key individuals from that city for the following Thursday. Tartt also called Joel Fleischman and made an appointment for us to meet with him on the following Monday. Joel is the Legal Assistant to Governor Sanford and we knew he could give us the picture as far as what to expect from the state. We also drew up a list of names of people in Greensboro who should be contacted for a consultation on plans, and l spent Friday afternoon contacting these people and setting up a luncheon meeting in Greensboro for Wednesday of the following week.

Saturday, April 25

The Executive Committee of the Southeast Region met at 12:30 for lunch and l met with them for a while in the afternoon. Tartt and l presented our ideas and the back­ ground on why I was in North Carolina. Several of the Committee members expressed the feeling that much education and interpretation of the Civil Rights Bill was needed in the state, and the Committee expressed approval of the very general plans that we had outlined.

Monday, April 27

After a Staff meeting on Monday morning, at which an outline of our plans were pre­ sented, Tartt and I left for Raleigh for a 1:30 appointment with Joel Fleischman. We were received cordially and we outlined generally our concern for having North Carolina make a good showing in compliance with the Bill. We mentioned that this was part of a larger plan in the South to start preparing for a ready acceptance of the Bill, pointing out the dangers in allowing forces of resistance and defiance to rally after the passage of the bill. We presented the idea of a state-wide con­ ference bringing together all possible groups with large memberships or constituen­ cies to ask their help in creating an atmosphere of compliance within the state. Joel's reaction to our presentation was completely in terms of the gubernatorial campaign that is now underway in North Carolina. Dr. I. Beverly Lake is one candi­ date, who ran in the last election on a very strong segregationist platform and who made a good showing against Sanford. In a way, he is more dangerous in this campaign because he has changed his emphasis somewhat and is describing himself as the candi­ date for constitutional government- the candidate for good conservative government. The week before my visit he ran a full page ad in the Greensboro paper which really blasted the Civil Rights Bill on the basis of infringement of the rights of individuals the coming socialist dicatorship of the Federal Government, etc. ln just talking to people in Greensboro, l realized that he was rally~ng a lot of support with this line and from people who had previously been repelled by his strong racist and overt segregationist stand. Another candidate is Dan Moore, who is presenting himself as the "middle of the road" candidate, and who may get a lot of support, because so many North Carolinians love to think of themselves as moderates. The third important candidate is Judge Richardson Preyer, who is the most liberal and who will undoubtedly carry on most of the progressive programs that have been pushed under the Sanford administration.

While all of the candidates have come out against the Bill, most of the liberals feel that Preyer is "right" on Civil Rights, and as Joel expressed it, the most im­ portant thing in the state right now is to see that Preyer becomes the next governor. He mentioned that one thing that would really hurt Preyer would be to have the Civil Rights issue become a major issue in the campaign and he was most worried that some of the efforts that we mentioned would lead to this. He said that these last few weeks remaining before the May 30th primary were crucial, and he reruly practically Constance Cu~ry -Report No. 1 - May 11, 1964 page three

asked us to not raise the issue of the Bill or compliance with it until the primary is over. One of the most relevant things that he mentioned concerning our program was that the people we would be trying to contact to work with us would be the Preyer forces, and he felt sure that practically none of them would be willing to work publicly or privately on anything to do with Civil Rights at this time. He pointed out to us that he felt sure that North Carolina would comply with the Bill if Preyer is elected and he didn't seem too worried about " massive resistance" or organized opposition in the state at this point. He had made his position, and obviously the position of Sanford and the administration, very clear, and we told him that we would stay in touch. Tuesday, April 28

I attended a luncheon meeting of the Greensboro Community Fellowship, a rather informal, interracial group that meets once a month and has been carrying on various programs in the schools and other areas. At the meeting, I just talked briefly with a few women to get their thoughts on our plans in North Carolina, and this seemed to confirm some of the things that Joel had said. All of them were working in Preyer's campaign and they didn't really seem to have anything else on their minds.

Tartt was attending a meeting of the North Carolina Good Neighbor Council at A and T College, so I joined him there after the luncheon. The main accomplishment here was to meet General Capus Waynick, the Governor's advisor on race relations, David Coltrane, the Chairman of the Good Neighbor Council, and several other people whom we thought might be helpful for future contacts in our program.

Wednesday, April 29

This was the day of our luncheon meeting for consultation with some key individuals in the Greensboro community. The following were present at the meeting: Rev. Otis Hairston, Negro minister; Mr. John R. Taylor, President of Greensboro Community Fellowship and owner of Holiday Inns; Dr. Warren Ashby, Philosophy Professor, UNC; Mrs. Peggy Headen, YWCA Branch Director; Mrs. Martha Rowan, YWCA Branch Director; Father Hugh Dolan, St. Pius Church; Mrs. Chase Benson, League of Women Voters; Mr. Victor Nussbaum, local businessman and active in manyhuman relations activities; Mr. Carson Bain, local businessman and also active ih many groups; Tartt Bell and Constance Curry. Tartt pre­ sented our concern and ideas along the same lines as described in our conversation with Joel Fleischman and then opened the floor for suggestions and discussion, particularly in relations to a state-wide conference. The group seemed very sympathic to our concern and several of them emphasized the great need for basic education on and interpretation of the Civil Rights Bill. Very early in the discussion, however, the question of what could be expected from Sanford and his forces was raised and Tartt and I felt that our conversation with Joel should be passed along to this group. Several people expressed their concern over the strength that Beverly Lake was showing in some areas, and by the end of the discussion I felt that the group agreed that any public drive right now con-­ cerning Civil Rights Bill would be first of all most difficult to get under way and secondly that it really might be harmful for Preyer's campaign. We then discussed possible alternatives to a large, state-wide conference. One suggestion was that some­ one should contact the leaders of influential groups such as the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the State Bar Association, the N. C. Federation of Women's Clubs, etc. and see if they might be willing to issue a strong statement in support of the Bill and urging compliance, immediately after its passage. Another suggestion was that someone could go ahead now and start contacting hotel, motel and restaurant owners to see what their reaction to the Bill is and how they plan to cope with it W5n it is passed. Constance Curry - Report No. l - May ll, l964 page four

Thursday, April 30

Tartt and I drove to Raleigh for the l2:30 luncheon that Rev. Finlater had arranged for us. Present at this meeting were: Dr. Eloise Cofer, No. Car. Extension Service; Miss Fran Jordan, No. Car. Extension Service; Hon. David Coltrane, Chairman, No. Car. Good Neighbor Council; Hon. Jim Reid, Mayor of Raleigh; Dr. John Caldwell, Chancellor of North Carolina State College, UNC, Raleigh; Bishop Richard Baker of the Episcopal Church; Rev. Paul Carruth, Pastor, Hayes Barton Methodist Church and President of Rale~ Ministerial Association; W. C. Harris, local attorney and chairman of Mayor's Human Relations Committee; Rev. J. C. Herrin, American Baptist Convention, Chapel Hill, No.Car.; Lloyd Tyler, local member of Friends Society and connected with Streams and Sanitation Commission; Rev. William Finlater, Baptist minister; Tartt Bell; Constance Curry. The reception to Tartt's presentation at this meeting was much less sympathetic than that of the Greensboro group. Mr. Harris almost immediately began pointing out that it was'''not the white people alone who had to be taught about law and order - that present events showed that Negro groups needed some education on how to obey the law. We then got rather sidetracked into a discussion of where and how Negro groups were failing. (It was here that I wished that some Negroes had been present at the meeting). Then the Chancellor and Mr. Harris started pointing out how 90% of the white people in North Carolina were opposed to the Bill and they wondered just how we planned to talk to people about complying with something that they hoped wouldn't even become a reality. Also, I must admit I was amazed to hear Mr. Harris, as Chairman of the Mayor's Human Relations Committee, say that he himself was opposed to the Bill - something about it being a "poor piece of legislation." When the question of the conference or a campaign for compliance was related to the gubernatorial campaign, and again we passed on the results of our conversation with Joel, the group expressed even more strongly that this was just not the right time for any such program. They felt that we should wait until after May 30th, if Preyer wins the primary, and, if there is a run-off on June 27th, that we would have to wait until after that date. I should say that the response was not totally negative, since several individuals emphasized the need for education right now on the Bill and for preparation of some kind, prior to its passage. I should also mention that there are plans being made by the State Council of Churches for a rally in May to show the support of the clergy for the speedy passage of the Bill.

Conclusions

When Tartt and I were driving home we both concluded that this was not the opportune time for me to spend three weeks or so in the state, trying to organize a broad-based conference. There is no question as to the need for education among both white and Negro groups on what the Bill really contains, and this ~g~d certainly be going on right now. Also, the two suggestions from the Greensbo~ojo~ getting commitments for support of the Bill from leaders and of talking to actual owners of public accommodations should be carried out as soon as the primary is, over. I am sure that Tartt will be following developments in the state and that other plans of action can be drawn up within the next few weeks.

CC;mt cc: 1arbara Moffett Tartt Bell Louis Schneider Louis Mitchell Constance Curry AMERICAN FRIENDs SERVICE CoMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NoRTH 15TH STREET, PHILADELPIDA 2, PA.

To: Jean Fairfax , Date:May 12, 1964 From:

Subject: ~ REPORT NO. 2 ~

The week of May 4 - 8 was spent in Atlanta, and I had conversations with various agency people.

Louis Mitchell, temporary coordinator for "Operation Opportunity," Southern Regional Council. I reported to Lou on my trip to North Carolina the previous week and inter­ preted the decision that I would not be returning to North Carolina to organize a state-wide conference aimed toward compliance with the Civil Rights Bill. He was very concerned that this might mean that nothing was going to be done with groups in North Carolina, and I assured him that this was not the case - that it was merely a question of timing. I suggested that he might stop in High Point on one of his trips and talk to Tartt Bell on possible programs for these next few weeks and for programing after the primary on May 30.

Paul Anthony, Southern Regional Council, Paul and I talked generally on the school situation in Jackson and what my possible roles might be, He feels that it might be beneficial just to have a person in Jackson to give support to any save the schools movement. This might be as a full-time staff person, or just someone to be a contact with groups and individuals who can advise them in steps along the way, He also suggested that I go to Mobile and meet with the women's group there, both to learn from their experiences and to see if there is a helpful role that the AFSC might play in that community. It seems that Mobile County is now under court order to desegregate and that this is a place where there could be real opposition and trouble,

Mary King, Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). I went over to the SNCC office and Mary gave me a complete file on all the materials pertinent to the Mississippi Summer Project. SNCC is planning to move practically all of its staff to Mississippi for the summer, probably with part of it in Jackson and part in Greenwood. I asked about other SNCC projects for the summer and the only other plan is in South­ west Georgia. At present they have a staff of around eight people in the Albany area, and they are hoping to increase that with summer recruits up to 30 workers and to expand into 22 counties in Southwest Georgia.

Andy Young, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). I had lunch with Andy at the Hungry Club where Wyatt Walker was speaking. There was some discussion there on the fact that Attorney Don Hollowell, a very outstanding Negro lawyer has filed to run against Judge Durwood Pye. Judge Pye has handled most of the cases involving vdemonstrations in Atlanta and has been grossly unjust in all of his decisions, It seems that the Negro community is very divided over Hollowell's candidacy, since there is a third person, Paul Webb, who is running as a much more liberal candidate than Pye. Many of the influential Negro leaders have already committed themselves to Webb and are very upset about Hollowell's running without "consulting" anyone.

I asked Andy about SCLC's program for the next few months and he said that they would be concentrating on St. Augustine, Florida in about ten days. He hopes for mass non-violent demonstrations down there and several staff people have already gone there to start workshops. The main concentration for the summer, however, is the state of Alabama. They are planning a Freedom Army (see pamphlet), and Andy Constance Curry - Report No. 2 - May 12, 1964 mentioned the number of 10,000 people prepared for nonviolent direct action and jail without bail. They have already sent some of their staff members to several Alabama communities to start training people for the campaign. The cities that have been discussed so far for action are Mobile, Huntsville, Gadsden, Tuscaloosa, Selma, Anniston, Dothan, Birmingham and Montgomery. Andy said they were not, at this point, relying on outside recruits, but rather hoped to have trained leadenhip in all of these communities with large groups ready to follow up in demonstrations and voter registra­ tion as the first groups are arrested and jailed. They really do plan to "fill the jails" and are hoping that the Civil Rights Bill will be passed soon so that the burden of dealing with the arrests will rest with the Federal Government. He did not mention a specific date for the beginning of the campaign, but said it would probably be early or middle June. They are not planning much involvement in the Mississippi program this summer, but they are cooperating in a plan for joint action on the party conventions. Andy was going to New York on Friday to meet with SNCC, CORE, etc. to discuss what this joint action should be at the conventions.

When I asked him of any possible roles for AFSC he mentioned the following. A mailing of SCLC material on their summer plans to any contacts that we might have in Alabama: publication of more (he said 50,000) copies of "Letter from a Birmingham Jail;" the possibility of sending a mission to Alabama at some point in the summer if it looks as if an interpretation or explanation of their drive would be helpful to some seg­ ments of the white community. Ruby Hurley, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Ruby said that they did not have any plans for a concerted drive in any one area this summer. She feels that there will probably be all kinds of action in various places as soon as students are out of school. She mentioned Jacksonville, Florida as one area where there will be continued action unless some positive steps are taken by the white com­ munity and she is very afraid that Mr. Burns, now Mayor of Jacksonville, may be the Governor of Florida. The NAACP is not recruiting for the Mississippi Summer Project and are not planning too much involvement there. Ruby was most interested in our plans for working with white groups on the school situations in Mississippi and she expressed the hope that some of the private agencies would continue working with white Southerners on what she called a basic educational level. She thinks that white people in Mississippi and Alabama are still in dire need of just plain facts on the Negro from the biological, social, psychological and other standpoints. She feels that agencies are doing much less than they used to on this and mentioned that the Friends were one group that could perform this role.

CC:mt cct Barbara Moffett Tartt Bell Louis Schneider Louis Mitchell Constance Curry AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE CoMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NoRTH 15m STREET, PHILADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: Jean Fairfax Date: May 26, 1964 From; Cons~ Report No. 3 Date4May 24, l964LA,~ Subject: q11 0"~­·y During my first week in Jackson I was in touch with the women's school group at two meet­ ings. The first meeting was a general discussion of the situation here and a time for the women to ask some of the questions they had had on their minds. The second meeting was held to present to the group a statement of purpose that had been prepared by a smaller committee. After several additions and corrections the statement was accepted,

During the second week I got to know several of the women in the group through being at the hearings on the school case with them and through visiting them in their homes, Out of the various formal and informal discussions during this second week, I would list the following as some of the immediate steps that the group plans to take:

(l) An approach will be made to a lady in Jackson whom the group feels will be most suitable for the head of the Jackson movement, and she will be asked to be one of the people to charter or incorporate the group.

(2) There had been some previous discussion of having five or six "behind the scenes" advisors for the group, and one of the ladies was asked to make contacts to set up this smaller group. However, it seems that several of these people who were possibilities have moved, and since the group already has a lawyer and a clergyman with whom they can work closely, it will probably not be necessary to have a formally structured advisory group. One of the women is working this next week to find a public relations man who will be able to work with the group in an in­ formal advisory capacity.

(3) An approach will be made to several people in different parts of the state to gauge their interest in the school situation. A few of them are possibilities for a state-wide president, and others will be asked to be members of the board. All of them will be asked if their names can be used to incorporate the organization.

(4) It is hoped that all of this can be done within the next week or so, and after that the group will attempt to obtain a charter. As soon as the group is chartered, there will be an effort to reach the 150 or so women who have shown interest in the past and to branch out to reach new contacts.

(5) There will be a meeting of the group next Thursday at which time the individuals involved in the various plans above will report on their findings and plans for next steps will be made.

Throughout the discussion the past week, there were many expressions of the need to have a person here in Jackson who can devote full time to the many programs that the group would like to carry out. Almost all of the women involved have children and family responsibilities which limits the amount of time that they can spend working with the school movement. I would list the following as some of the things that they felt such a full-time person could do:

(l) Act as a coordinator of activities here in Jackson - telephoning about meetings, setting up a work schedule and directing volunteers for mailings, seeing that brochures are printed, that letters are answered, etc. Constance Curry- Report No. 3 -May 24, 1964

(2) Be available to travel to other communities where initial contacts have already been made and to communicate between various groups on what is happening in other cities, what their needs are, etc.

(3) Spend time doing research and writing to provide the educational materials that the group will need to answer the many different questions that will be raised.

(4) Act as liaison and contact with groups and individuals outside the state who can be of help to the group--this would be the Southern Regional Council, perhaps the Justice Department or other Washington contacts.

My own feeling is that the group here in Jackson is a very good group with a strong com­ mitment and with the ability to carry on a worthwhile program aimed toward keeping the public schools open and maintaining law and oraer. I have established a good rapport with several of the women involved and all of the five or six who are the most active expressed the hope that I would be able to come to Jackson to carry out the responsibil­ ities litted above. They feel that this full-time person should plan to stay through September 15th. Their one concern in terms of my being this person is that I would be willing to have the same restrictions, and take the same precautions that they feel will be necessary to achieve the purpose of the group. I personally feel that I could do this and I think that I might have some contribution to make to the efforts and programs of this group.

The women who were present at the meeting last Thursday night have asked that the AFSC consider my coming to Jackson in light of the above needs. If at all possible, they would like to know by Thursday of this week, so that my role can be discussed with the larger group at the meeting.

CC:mt cc: Barbara W. Moffett Louis Schneider Constance Curry AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NoRTH 15TH STREET, PHILADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: Date: Jean Fairfax June 1, 1964 From: Constan·" 1 Subject: MISSISSIPPI sTATE LEGISLATURE AND SCHOOL SITUATION; Report No. 4 COFO's Mississippi Summer Project Dated May 29, 1964 '

Legislature

Thursday, May 14 was the deadline for bills to be presented for consideration by this session of the State Legislature. On the evening of that date, several bills were slipped through which could directly effect the scHool situation in Mississippi. These bills make provisions for private schools and tuitio~grants. It seems that these various resolutions have been sent to committees of both the House and the Senate, and several sources feel that the resolutions will just not get back out of the committees. One of these sources connected with the press feels that some of the legislators don't want the bills considered for purely financial reasons - the whole monetary situation in the state is pretty terrible - there was a big fight in the legislature last week over teacher pay raises - and the idea of state tuition grants is just completely un­ realistic under their present budget. Another piece of information from this same source is that Governor Johnson does not want these school bills considered by the legislature and that he wants them adjourned and home as soon as possible. Whether his motivations in this are based again on the financial picture or on other grounds, it may be that he can exert pressures to see that the bills are not presented on the floor. All of this is conjecture at this point, however, and it may be that the bills will be presented and passed, particularly if the legislature is still in session when Judge Mize hands down his ruling which will probably say that schools must be integrated this September. Approximately 150 individuals sent wires or wrote their legislators when the bills were first introduced, expressing their deep concern and urging them to take positions against the bill. I think that this group and probably numerous other people will start a campaign against the bills, if it looks as if they are going to be discussed in either House. I was going to attach copies of these bills but I just have one copy of each and I will probably need them in Jackson.

Summer Pro.ject

I don't have very much information at this point to add to the printed brochures and descriptions that COFO has distributed on the Mississippi Summer Project. A contact at the COFO office says that there will probably be not more than 800 people involved in the Project, and this includes the lawyers group, the Chaplains, doctors, etc. The orientation period for all of the various groups of workers will b~n on June 15th, in Oxford, Ohio. Some will have one week of training, others will have two, but everyone will be assigned to a certain area at this time, and it is planned that everyone will be in their places by June 29th. I have copies of brochures and other materials that describe the various programs in detail, but I am assuming that the AFSC has most of this material.

CC:mt

cc: Barbara W. Moffett Louis Sc:hneider Constance Curry AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NoRm 15nf STREET, PmLADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: Jean Fairfax Date: June 4·, l964

From: Constance Curry Report No. 5 Subject: WHITE STUDENT PROJECT Dated: :May 29, 1964 i I

The paragraph below is taken directly from COFO's (Council of Federated Organizations)~)@) description of the Mississippi Summer Project, and as you can see briefly describes what they have in mind for work in white communities. Last Saturday, in Jackson I talked with Ed Hamlett, who works for SNCC and who is the coordinator for the White Student Project. He brought me up-to-date with the following information.

(l) There are approximately 20 white Southern students who have applied in the general application procedure for the Mississippi Summer Project and whom Ed feels are uniquely qualified to work in white communities. Since some of them may have speci­ fied a desire to work in voter registration, freedom schools, etc., he is trying to contact them all beforehand to get their reactions to working in the white com­ munity. (2) It is not yet clear just exactly what this work will be or which communities will be chosen. Hedding Carter has asked Ed to come to Greenville to discuss the possibility of doing voter registration work in the poor white communities, in and around Green­ ville. Ed also has some contacts in Biloxi and in other places around the state where there might be possibilities of setting up day camps for children, having tutorials, or just planning recreation formildren in the white community. In any case, Ed will be in Mississippi from now until the Orientation period starts on June 15th, and by that time, he hopes to have several definite programs lined up. I feel, and Ed agrees, I think, that there just may not be anything that can be done in the white community right now, particularly if any of the white people felt that these students were involved in any way with the COFO Project. But it is certainly worth investigating, and we should know the possibilities for any success by the middle of June. (3) If there are definite programs planned for the white community, the students who will be involved in them will be at the Orientation session for two weeks rather than for one week, as other student workers. Ed feels that this group will need a longer training period and more knowledge of the kinds of communities where they will be working. (4) He wants to stay in touch with us, particularly if he runs across any contacts in his traveling that might be helpful to any AFSC efforts in the state. He also men­ tioned that several white students might be placed in Jackson to do any volunteer work for the save-the-schools group. Pat, Winnifred and Mary Anne were there when Ed was talking and they seemed to think that this might be a possibility.

:X 'I 1 White Communities - Until now there has been no systematic attempt by people interested in the elimination of hate and bigotry to work within the white communities of the Deep South. It is the intention of the Mississippi Summer Project to do just that. In the past year, a significant number of Southern white students have been dravn1 to the movement. Using students from upper Southern states such as Tennessee, and occasionally native Mississippians, SNCC hopes to develop programs within Mississippi's white community. These programs will deal directly with the problems of the white people. While almost all Negroes in Mississippi are denied the right to vote, statistics clearly indicate that a majority of whites are ~eluded as well. In addition, poverty and illiteracy is found in abundance among Mississippi whites. There is in fact a clear area for Southern white stu­ dents to work in, for in many ways Mississippi has imprisoned her white people along with her blacks. This project will be pilot and experimental and the results are unpredictable. Jean Fairfax from Constance Curry Report No. 5 June 4, 1964 page two

But the effort to organize and educate whites in the direction of democracy and decency can no longer be delayed. •r

CCtmt cc: Barbara W. Moffett Louis Schneider Constance Curry AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NORTH 15TH STREET, PHILADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: J e a n F a i r f a x Date: June 16, 1961} From: Constance Curry

Subject: c:;;1jj:§ Eeport No. Dated June 1/}, 1964 I arrived back in Mississippi on Monday, June 1. I met with several of the women in the Jackson group and they brought me up-to-date on their plans. They had decided to try and make the school group a state-wide one and were in the process of making con­ tacts in different cities to find one person who would head a local school group and another one who would serve on a state-wide board. They had tentatively set June 23rd as the day for the first board meeting and had planned to travel to places and search out new contacts in the meantime.

On Wednesday, Jean, Mrs. Falls, from the Jackson group, and I drove down to Biloxi. Mrs. Falls and I went to see Mrs. Marge Curet. (See Jean's Report No. l) She was very interested in what the group had been doing in Jackson and was definitely interested in starting something in Biloxi. She also agreed to be a state board member. We asked her what she felt might happen in the Biloxi situation, and she was somewhat pessimistic, particularly if the school in her own neighborhood is chosen for desegregation. This school and several others have a very rough element in them and she said there would definitely be bloodshed.

Mrs. Curet gave us several other people to contact along the coast, and one of them, Mr. Jo Arrington, an attorney in Gulfport, was able to see us that afternoon. He was very cordial to us, but was really not too much help, since he couldn't think of a single woman in Gulfport who might be interested in working with a school group.

While we were in Biloxi we got word on the telephone that the bills on the tuition grant program were going to come up for a vote in the legislature on Thursday or Friday. Several of the women from the Jackson group went down to the legislature on Thursday and talked to their representatives and we were all very much afraid that the bills would be pushed through at the last minute with our being unable to do anything in that short a time to prevent their passage. In any case on Friday, the legislature decided to ffit up a 15-man study commission to study the bills and Governor Johnson announced that he would call the legislature back into session on June 17th to consider the report of the commission. The commission is composed of the Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Lt. Governor, the State Superintendent of Schools, the Attorney General, five Senators and five Representatives,

This move really set the inner group of the Jackson women into action. There was a general panic that a ten-day period was all the time available to try and get informa­ tion around on what private schools and tuition grants would actually mean for public education in Mississippi. Beginning on Sunday night and for the next six days we had a meeting "marathon" that practically meant three meetings a day, I would say that the thrust of all the meetings was in two directions - to try to get to as many influen­ tial people as possible to give them factual information on what private schools and tuition grants will actually mean for Mississippi and to get a Jackson group organized immediately to work "feverishly" during the ten days before the legislature reconvened.

In the first direction, several of the women contacted and visited Robert Ezell, Presi­ dent of the Chamber of Commerce, Jack Tubb, State School Superintendent and member of the study commission, Mr. Suazy, Executive Secretary of the Mississippi Economic Council, and several other influential business leaders. They gave them all materials and reports on what had happened in other communities and states that had tried tuition grants and expressed their concern over what a similar plan would do in Mississippi. From their reports on these visits, one thing was evident - that a lot of these people are really uninformed on the whole situation - these men had no idea what they might be facing and Jean Fairfax- Report No. 6 - June 16, 196~- page two

seemed genuinely glad to receive the information. One very helpful factor in the work of last week was the visit of Dr. Kenneth Morland, Professor of Sociology, from Eandolph-Macon. He has done a great deal of research on school desegregation and has been very close to the Prince Edward situation.

He met with the women several times and was able to answer many of their specific ques­ tions on the application and use of tuition grants, Then they were also able to make arrangements for him to meet with Mr. Tubb, Mr. Ezell and Kirby Walker, Superinten­ dent of Jackson schools. Again, they were very interested and anxious to know what had happened in other situations. After his talk with Dr. Walker, Dr. Morland felt that nothing can be done to keep tuition grant bills from passing the legislature. As we all know, public education, economic growth, and anything else you might mention can go straight out the window when the Mississippi legislature is faced with a question that has to do with race, Dr. Walker himself is very much in favor of public education but he seemed very discouraged about preserving it in the light of the pressures against even the slightest bit of desegregation.

This feeling was borne out by a conversation that I had with Bill Minor, correspondent for the Times-Picayune, here in Jackson. He also feels that bills for tuition grants will be passed, but he also felt that it was important to get influential businessmen to talk to the Governor and other powers in the legislature. He feels that the economic question is one that Johnson will respond to, and he suggested Mr. Robert Herrin, Mr. Clarence Lott, Officers of Jackson banks should be asked to contact Johnson. The women are now working on this. Mr. Minor also said he doubted if the legislature would meet on the 17th, and he was right, since an announcement was made last week that the reconvening was postponed until June 23rd.

The Commission itself met Wednesday morning for the first time and then again on Thurs­ day afternoon. Mr. Semmes Luckett, attorney for the school board in Clarksdale, was one of the speakers and he pointed out the weaknesses in the present bills - some of the things that just would not work, such as the use of public transportation, teacher re­ tirement and land or buildings in a private school system. This seemed to cause great consternation, since I think most people, including legislators and the general public had the feeling that the bills would simply mean that a public school would just close for a day and then open up the next day as a private school with all of its normal pro­ grams and benefits. So, while in one way it was good that he pointed out these weak­ nesses, what he actually did was close a few loopholes and lead the way toward possible legislation that will be more foolproof and harder to knock down. The commission meets again on Tuesday of this week, and we are now trying to find out if any of the meetings will be open and whether or not we can send delegations down to speak with the group.

The second direction of last week's work was the organization of a Jackson group, and on Thursday afternoon approximately 30 women met. These 30 were contacts that had been culled out of the larger school group from last year and who were supposedly ready to move ahead. It was a very good meeting and the four or five women who have been doing most of the work here did an excellent job of giving background and presenting facts on the tuition grant plan and what it might mean for public education, Most of the women there were really surprised by all of this, since they had believed what the papers were saying and what I indicated in the paragraph above. They were very respon­ sive to the need to get organized and work during the time before the legislature re­ turns - their feeling is that an educational job must be undertaken and that protests must be made, even if we all know that the bills are going to pass. A ten-man execu­ tive committee was selected and all the women signed up for various working committees. I would say at this point, that the group sees itself as very flexible in its goals. For Jean Fairfax - Report No. 6 - June 16, 1964 - page three the next few weeks they will try to educate and inform people on the tuition grant plan, and they will work for the defeat of legislation. When we see the actual legislation that is passed, we will know more about the direction of the group, but at the meeting itself, the idea kept recurring that the groups ultimate thrust might have to be toward getting white parents to send their children to the schools that are desegregated - to just refuse to use whatever private schools that are set up. I'm not sure exactly what can or will be done, but several of them kept saying, well they can pass the bills, but that doesn't mean that Jackson has to do what they say. I hope this doesn't sound too optimistic, since so many things can happen and I'm sure will happen between now and September that will scare people away from even the school group.

The Executive Committee met on Friday and is meeting again on Monday. They are working on preparation of materials for use during the next ten days. They hope to set up neighborhood coffees in order to reach a larger group. By the way, I forgot to mention that two members of the Executive Committee are from South and West Jackson, which will be very helpful, since the group has been previously composed of women from North Jackson. They hope to really become a city-wide group and are hoping for a larger turnout at the next meeting which is scheduled for this Thursday morning. As far as I know, they have not given up the plan for a state-wide group, and they hope to go ahead with their con­ tacting in other cities and with a state board meeting soon. (I doubt if they will be able to hold it on June 23rd, as planned earlier).

I'm not certain as to exactly what my role has been in relation to the school group. I have been to every meeting that they have held, and I mainly just listen and express an opinion from time to time. I have tried to offer suggestions on materials, proce­ dures, etc. The relationship with the group has been very satisfactory, and I do think that the selection of an Executive Committee was a real help toward getting decisions made. I don't think tnat it will be necessary for me to meet constantly with the group from now on, unless there is another crisis. They have asked me to do some travel­ ling to other communities this week and I shall see how this will work out with some of the other things that I need to do in Jackson. CC:mt cc: Barbara W. Moffett Louis Schneider Constance Curry AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE CoMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NORTH 15m STREET, PHILADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: Jean Fairfax ,!i.. - Dat"' July 7, 1964 From: Constance Curry Report No. 7 Subject: Dated July 5, 1964

Legislation Pertaining to Civil Rights Passed by the 1964 Session of the Mississippi State Legislature

Several weeks ago, Jean Fairfax asked me to try to obtain copies of laws pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement that had actually been passed at this session of the Mississippi State Legislature. The reason for this is because there is so much confusion on what bills have been introduced and maybe passed in one house and what has actually been signed into law. The newspapers here do not help, since they will give broad coverage to some of the bills and the general impression that they are laws, and then further study will show that the bill has died in a committee or somewhere else along the line.

I was not sure exactly how I was going to get these bills, since I take it not too many citizens request information on any bills, and since the Senate Secretary's Office was beginning to recognize me from my asking for copies of so many school bills. In any case, I just asked the Senate Secretary's Office where I could obtain a list or docket of all of the bills that had been passed and signed into law at this session. Th~ suggested that I go to the Secretary of State's Office and ask for the "Advance Sheets" of the 1964 Session. When I did this, the man there asked me who I was with and I replied that I was doing a research paper on the •64 session. He said that they did not give the sheets out from his office -­ that they were sent to local officials, county court houses, the law library, etc. When I asked if this meant that the information was not available to the general public, he said--oh, no, but that I would have to go to one of the places that he had mentioned. I then went to the law library and asked for the same thing. They also wanted to know who I was with and I gave the same answer, and the lady there vaguely said something about them not having them in the library--that they weren't finished yet. A telephone call to the County Court House produced the same vague answers, so I finally asked one of our newspaper contacts to see what he could do. He was able to obtain the first six "Advance Sheets" which covers the laws passed up until around the end of May. There should be several more, but they are not yet printed. I went through these booklets and checked all of the bills that pertain to the Civil Rights Movement.

About the same time, COFO drew up a list of all of the bills that were pertinent to their activities, including those that had just been introduced, or perhaps passed in one house. This list was published in the ~ Press, and so with a copy of this and with the "Advance Sheets" we now have a pretty good idea of what the existing laws actually are. I have given all of the above lists and sheets to Jean Fairfax. Actually, most of the bills that were introduced were not passed into law.

Progress of Mississippians for Education

At the time of my last report (June 14), we had just found that the special session of the Legislature had been postponed until June 2Jrd. Since the women's school group had been advised by several people close to the Legislature to not campaign too actively for the defeat of the bills on private schools until we had a better idea of what the study commission was going to decide, the group decided to con­ centrate again on state and local organization. Jean Fairfax- Report No. 7 - July 7, 1964- Page Two

In line with this, they asked Mrs. Falls and I to make a trip to Clarksdale and Greenville to try to start a local group and to find a State Board member. On Tuesday, June 15th, we drove to Clarksdale with the hope of seeing some of the people that Aaron Henry had recommended as possible white leadership. Since we had no idea as to the first person to see, we went to see Reverend Charles Chambers, the Episcopal Minister, who had been suggested by Mrs. Jane Schutt here in Jackson. Mr. Chambers was very nice and agreed that people certainly did need to be informed on what was happening on tuition grants, etc. He said, however, that most of the white people in Clarksdale were not terribly concerned since they thought the suit in their town would be postponed in the courts for a good long time and since rumors were saying that officials had an excellent districting plan in mind that would keep Negroes out of any white schools. He didn't seem to be too disturbed himself, possibly since we were right then all sitting in his brand new Episcopal Day School, but he had drawn up a list of women who might be possible contacts. He said the list ranged from conservatives to liberals and pointed out the ones that he thought were "really liberal." We got to talk to most of those in the latter category, and as I said later, I would have hated to have tangled with the conservatives.

It happened that we couldn't see any of these women until later in the afternoon, so we decided to call Mr. George Maynard, an attorney, who had been recommended by Aaron Henry. When we got Mr. Maynard and mentioned schools, he said that we must want his brother Billie Maynard, and told us to come on up to see his brother at the office. It turns out that William Maynard is the attorney for the Coahoma County School Board, so when we found out that we were not exactly in the right place, we just curried on a rather vague conversation about the school situation and that having come up from Jackson we were just interested in knowing what other communities were planning to do. He was not at all hostile to our expressed interest in maintaining the public school system, but he obviously could not say much in his position as attorney for the defendant in the pending suit. He again mentioned the districting plan but agreed that this would not work if the plans for desegregation were to come on the high school level, since they only have one. He could not think of any women leaders in the community who would be interested in talking about maintaining the public school system.

The first lady that we did see was Mrs. Farley J. Salmon, Mr. Chamber's "most liberal lady in his church." She was very nice, but was somewhat uncomfortable about having us in her home, since her mother and aunt were nearby. She was sympathetic to the need for maintaining the schools and for working for law and order, but she said that she had just been elected President of the Women's Group at the Episcopal Church and felt a strong obligation to work to "bring them along slowly." She said that many of them were already suspicious of her and that any attempts to work with the Mississippians for Education would really jeopardize other ways in which she planned to work with her group. She also felt that people were apathetic and not really worried about the Clarksdale situation--that they were counting on their local and state officials to take care of everything. She could not think of any community leader who might be interested and asked that we not tell anyone else that we saw that we had talked with her.

Our next appointment was with Mrs. R.E. Bobo, Jr., also recommended by Mr. Chambers. She had invited us to her home in Bobo ( 7 miles from Clarksdale) and mentioned that she had invited Mr. and Mrs. Graham Bramlett over as well. Mr. Bramlett had been mentioned earlier to us as the President of the Coahoma County School Board, and Mrs. Bramlett was also on Mr. Chambers list. I had grave doubts as we drove up to the Bobo's home, which was a beautiful brick plantation-type house in a Jean Fairfax - Report No. 7 - July 7, 1964 - Page Three little settlement of a cotton gin, extensive cotton fields and numerous shacks where Negroes were living. Mrs. Falls briefly explained the concern in Jackson over the private school and tuition grant plans, but it was obvious from the beginning that we were on different wave lengths. Mr. Bramlett had met with a man who had come over from Prince Edward County, and he said the big problem was what to do about the poorer white people who couldn't afford to send their children to private schools. He feels a big obligation to these poor whites and suggested that richer ones subsidize them or else they would have to stay in public schools where they would soon be pulled down to the level of the "Nigras." Mrs. Bobo interjected that this was true--that you let one in and soon it would be 40%, then 60%, and so on. Mr. Bramlett replied that this was natural since an inherent characteristic of the colored people is that they are never satisfied. In any case, we lived through about 45 minutes of this and left as gracefully as possible. These people certainly see the pitfalls and problems of private schools, I think, but are so upset over the aspect of desegregation that they are unwilling to think about it, much less do anything concerning the school situation.

Neither of the two other women, Mrs. George Maynard and Mrs. Oscar Carr, were at home when we called them, so after leaving the Bobo's we drove on to Greenville. We both felt that the key to Clarksdale was somewhere other than where we had been that day.

Our contact in Greenville was Mrs. Jesse Brent, who is active in the United Church Women, very active in the Methodist Church and whom I had met at an Executive Committee Meeting of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations. We went out to her house the following morning to meet with her and Mrs. Josephine Haxton. Mrs. Brent knew that Mrs. Haxton would be interested in the school group and wanted to draw someone else in, since her real interest at this point is the Human Relations Council and related activities. I discussed this latter interest with Mrs. Brent and I think she really wants to form a local council in Greenville. She has many contacts in the Negro community and is financially and socially secure in the community. I have passed this information on to Duncan Gray and he is going to work with Mrs. Brent and encourage her activities pertaining to the Council.

Mrs. Haxtan was an absolutely beautiful change from our Clarksdale ladies. She understood immediately exactly what the Mississippians for Public Education were trying to do, consented to be the State Board Member and after several phone calls had ten women willing to come to lunch that day at her house.

Mrs. Falls and I met with this group most of the afternoon and found them very responsive to the problems facing the schools. As we had found in other conver­ sations, most of them were very much in the dark as to the real meaning of the private school system and tuition grants and they seemed anxious to become informed and to form a group, even though Greenville is not under any court order at present. They were a little suspicious of my connection with the group, since so many people have an obsession with this "outside influence" business, but it did not seem to affect their interest. They commented on the fact that they were lucky to have Hedding Carter and a good newspaper and that their school officials were all vitally interested in the public school system. They asked for materials on the Jackson group and said they would meet again to consider the formation of a Greenville chapter. Jean Fairfax- Report No. 7 - July 7, 1964- Page Four

In the meantime, some other women from the Jackson group had made visits to Meridian and Vicksburg, and the following week, a group went to Tupelo. Response was good in all of these places, and it was decided that enough contacts had been made to call the State Board Meeting for June 27th. Fifteen women representing six communities were at this meeting, and I felt that it was a very encouraging development. All of us in the Jackson group were surprised at the fact that none of the 15 hesitated to sign their name to the incorporating papers that will allow the group to be a state chartered organization. They discussed the statement of purpose (see enclosed) the bvoad aims, immediate goals, and fund-raising, and elected officers, as follows: Mrs. Lawrence Rabb, Meridian, State Board President; Mrs. Gordon Henderson, Jackson, 1st Vice-President; Mrs. Jack Reed, Tupelo, 2nd Vice-President; Mrs. Marge Curet, Biloxi, 3rd Vice-President; Mrs. Josephine Haxton, Greenville, Secretary; Mrs. Thomas Ward, Meridian, Treaaurer. (Since the Board Meeting, Mrs. Rabb has resigned as President so she can run the local Merilldian group, and Mrs. Henderson has moved up to the Presidency.) They agreed to work hard on organizing their local groups and plans were made to "become public" as soon as the group is chartered. Becoming public means publishing a full-page ad in the Clarion Ledger (Sunday edition) and hopefully in other newspapers, and issuing press releases in all communities on the goals and purposes of the Mississippians for Public Education.

Since the Board Meeting the Jackson group has been working to get the chartering and incorporation procedures carried out--there have been several hold-ups because of misunderstandings of some legal procedures, but we hope to have the charter by the middle of next week. It will certainly be a relief to all when this is finished since the big fear has been that news about the Mississippians for Public Education would leak out and that the Secretary of State and other officials who have to sign the charter would find some reason to refuse. Thus there was general panic last Thursday when the Memphis Commercial Appeal carried a story about the Tupelo chapter being formed--the news had been released by their over-eager public relations chair­ man by mistake. Thus far, there has been no feed-back in Jackson, so we are just hoping that the people who could do some damage here did not see the article and that the charter will go through without any problem.

This Monday, the Jackson group will start to work on the full-page ad, aiming toward next Sunday, (July 12) as publication date. This may develop into a problem, however, since the Legislature is still in session and no one is sure when they will be leaving. We have had some strong advice to not publish the ad until the Legislature is gone, but the women are finding the waiting really frustrating and we will just have to make a decision this week.

In the meantime, the group here has also been working on developing materials for groups to use. Thus far, they have had copies of some editorials from the Tupelo paper reprinted, made reprints of some notes on Prince Edward County by Dr. Kenneth Moreland, and done some outlines for coffee discussion. (See enclosures).

They have also begun fund-raising in Jackson and have had some excellent response from several business contacts and ministers.

In summary, I would say that the group is progressing very well, particuarly in light of the many things that are pending that can affect the direction of the group-­ how long will the Legislature meet and what will the final school bill say? When will Judge Mize hand down his final decision? What will the plan from the school boards or courts say? When will the Charter be definite and when can they become a public organization? Concerning my own work with the group here in Jackson, the Jean Fairfax- Report No. 7, July 7, 1964- Page Five relationship has been very satisfactory and I feel a strong responsibility to remain in close contact with them in the days before and right after they become a "public" organization. JUthough I think it will be a relief torost of them, their fear of being "under fire" from all directions is certainly a valid one, and this period will be the first real test of the Mississippians for Public Education.

CC:lw cc: Barbara W. Moffett Louis Schniaider Constance Curry AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NoRTH 15TH STREET, PHILADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: Date: J1D;y 28, 1964 f Jean Fairfax .. .~/ ceMFUHJffU\l 1 From: Constance Cut,:J,'l/C,yc yf).' IV'-"'>"' Pr Report No. 8 flr ------CAt-4 ' u If"'" Dated July 21, 196l.j: 1 Subject: REPORT ON TRIP TO GULF COAST, July 8-15 ~ ~~~ The week of July 8-15, I spent on the Mississippi Gulf Coast making contact with ~ns who might be interested in forming a Human Relations Council on the Coast or who might have information on the school situation in Biloxi. Rev. John H. Marion of the United Presbyterian Church was also on the Coast at this time. He contacted several people himself and the rest of the visit we made together.

Our first morning in Biloxi, Rev. Marion went to see Rev. Gus Schmidt, First Presbyterian Church, whom he had spoken with on an earlier visit, and I went to see Mrs. Marge Curet. Mrs. Curet is a State Board member of Mississippians for Public Education and the Jackson women had asked me to show her a copy of the incorporating papers and other materials. We discussed the school situation in Biloxi and she seemed much more encouraged than during our previous talk. She feels that the passage of the Civil Rights Bill was help­ ing to create a better climate of acceptance and most of the people with whom she has talked seem to think that law and order will be observed during school desegregation. She has not started a chapter of Mississippians for Public Education in Biloxi - she feels it is not needed at present. She planned to see what the reaction was to the pre­ sentation of the school board plans for desegregation on July 15th and that she could "organize 100 women over a week end if necessary." Knowing Mrs. Curet, I don't doubt this.

Jack Marion and I then went to Dr. Gilbert Mason's house. Dr. Mason is President of the Biloxi NAACP and is also a plaintiff in the school case. He had just returned from a 3 or 4 week vacation, so could not say much about the general community situation. We asked him if the NAACP had any plans to work in the Negro community to encourage students to apply for transfer. He said they had not done very mucJJ. yet, because they were wait­ ing to see if the plans were for the 12th grade or lst grade. He feels the transition will be much easier if it starts with the lst grade and said one encouraging thing was that a comparatively small number of Negro parents had pre-registered their first graders in the Negro schools last spring. He thinks this may indicate that many parents are planning to apply to white schools and said the NAACP would start working on this after the plans came out on July 15th. We also asked him how he felt about a Gulf Coast Human Relations Council and he thought it was an excellent idea. It seems that a Bi-racial Committee appointed by the Mayor in Biloxi is an absolute farce and he feels very strongly the need for communication with the white community.

That afternoon we had a talk with Mr. Sid Sicott, director of the Biloxi USO. He, too, seemed to feel that school desegregation was going to be ~rried out peacefully, even though no public officials have come out with statements calling for law and order. He seemed to base his opinion on the fact that there had been no trouble in the places along the coast that had complied with the Civil Rights Bill. Mr. Sicott was the first to tell of the antagonism that was developing in the community toward the 18 white students who are with the COFO summer project. They were all staying in a hotel in Biloxi at that time and had been visiting people in the white community. They had been to see him, and while he doesn't feel hostile toward them himself, he mentioned that others didn't understand what their purpose was and were highly critical of their appearance, etc. (See later section on White Student Project). Constance Curry Report No. 8 - 2 - July 28, 1964

We then asked Mr. Sicott for ideas on a Gulf Coast Human Relations Council. He feels that it is a good idea, but had many reservations on whether we would find any white people who would be interested. He didn't think we would find any white person who would be a signer of a letter of invitation. When we asked about people in the Negro community who might sign such a letter he strongly advised against the use of Dr. Mason's name, because he feels that Dr. Mason does not have the strong backing of the Negro community and that he is certainly feared in the white community. He suggested Mr. John Pettus who works at Keesler Air Force Base. We told him we had many people to see about the Council -he felt that it was certainly·worth the effort and offered the facilities of the USO for the meeting.

We then saw Mr. and Mrs, Harold Boglin and Mr. Rehofus Esters - both families are plaintiffs in the school suit. They were both anxious to work on having a large number of children apply for transfer and said they planned to raise this question at an NAACP meeting that night. On the question of a local Human Relations Council, they were really enthused at the prospects and talked at length about the need for some honest communication with the white community. Mr. Esters promised to start drawing up a list of people in the Negro community who might be invited to the initial meeting of the Council. We also talked about the COFO workers (not the 18 in the White Student Project), and they said the stu­ dents in Biloxi were working in a Freedom School being held in the AME Church (Rev. Oscar Harris, pastor). They are also working to get people to register to vote- the problem in Biloxi, in fact all along the Coast, is one of apathy - there is no trouble or intimi­ dation in this area, in fact Mr. Boglin said that people would even come and pick you up to take you to the polls to vote,

That evening we drove to Pass Christian to the home of Dr. J.O. Tate, who is a dentist with offices in Gulfport. Dr. Tate is a really interesting person and seems to be highly respected in the white and Negro community. He has many white patients and told us many interesting stories of his work with patients who are practically members of the Klan. He was most interested in the Human Relations Council and while we did not go ahead and ask him to be one signer of a letter of invitation, I have a feeling that he would probably be willing to do this. He said that the situation with the Gulfport Bi-racial Committee was the same as in Biloxi - that they rarely met and that the Negro members were chosen for their lack of aggressiveness. I went by Dr. Tate's office the next day and it happened that one of these members, Mr. J. R. Davis, was in the chair. Dr. Tate introduced me and suggested that I tell Mr. Davis about the Council. Having a captive audience of a man whose teeth are being worked on, I explained our plans and Mr. Davis said to let him know when and where and he would be at the first meeting.

Friday morning I drove to Gulfport to see Mr. J. Louis Henderson who runs an Army Surplus Store there. Mr. Henderson is a member of the Unitarian Fellowship in Gulfport, and evidently has been involved in liberal causes for a very long time. He had to leave the state some years ago because of his leadership in the Progressive Party in Mississippi. He has tried to work quietly since then. He is acquainted with the Mississippi Human Relations Council and said that the time might be right to try and start a Gulf Coast Chapter. He said that almost all the people involved in the Unitarian Fellowship were somewhat liberal on this issue and he said he would bring some other people to the meeting. He is one of the leaders in sponsoring a dinner sometime in August, to be held at Camp Landon, near Gulfport. It is to be an integrated meeting and P. D. East is to be the speaker. Constance Curry Report No. 8 - 3 - July 28, 1964

In the ~eantime, Jack Marion had been to see Attorney Tom Wallace and Mr. Wilson Rhotan. From his talks with them and with Rev. Schmidt, he felt that people in the white community in Biloxi were more afraid than had been indicated during his previous visits. Rev. Schmidt is having a great deal of internal dissensions in his church and he said that he and several other white ministers really just felt like going some place else. Jack Marion said that neither Mr. Wallace nor Mr. Rhotan felt they could become involved in a Human Relations Council because they feared economic reprisals.

Friday afternoon, we went to the Back Bay Mission to talk with Reverend Aregood. We asked how things had been going at the Mission, and he said that they were still the target for the hostilities of Borne people in the white community. It seems that whenever anything concerning the racial issue flares up in the whole state, someone will come by and throw rocks through their windows. He did say that things had improved recently, since several other white ministers had complained to the Chief of Police about the vandalism around the Mission. Since most of the harassment had stopped after this, Rev. Aregood felt that this indicated a direct line from the Police to the people engaged in harrassing activi­ ties. Rev. Aregood is a member of the Mississippi Human Relations Council and was certainly in favor of attempts to start a local chapter. He felt that he could not take much leader­ ship in it, because he is so labelled in the community. He will definitely come to the first meeting and promised to bring along the few people involved in the Mission who are interested in this kind of group.

That evening I had dinner with Dr. George Powers, who is a young dentist in Gulfport and a member of the State Advisory Committee of the Civil Rights Commission. Dr. Powers is very well-informed on what is happening all over the state concerning Civil Rights Activities. He does not seem to be afraid of harassment or economic reprisals and was very enthusiastic about a Human Relations Council. He can certainly be counted on to come to the meeting and to contact others in the Gulfport-Pass Christian area.

Saturday, we drove out to Camp Landon, about 7 miles north of Gulfport. Camp Landon is the site of a mission project of the Mennonite Church. This mission project has been in existence for some twenty-odd years and its purpose has been mainly to work in the more deprived Negro communities in Gulfport. They have Sunday School and Bible School for Negro children and try to work with parents through educational and recreation programs. They do not consiger themselves engaged in Civil Rights activities, although in the past few years they hav~r£ooked upon with a great deal of suspicion by the white community. The director of the project, Rev. Orlo Kaufman, and his assistant are both members of the Mississippi Human Relations Council and were very responsive to the idea of a local chapter. I am sure that they will both come to the initial meeting and will be staunch supporters of any ensuing programs.

On the seventh day I rested.

Monday, we went to see Mr. Gerald O'Keefe, funeral home director, insurance business and past member of the state legislature. Mr. O'Keefe has a reputation for fairness and was known as a liberal during his term in the legislature. He did not run for a second term because he needs to devote time to his businesses and to his family of ten children. He must have several direct lines into inner workings of the Biloxi community, since he showed us a confidential report on a Klan meeting nearby, which had been done just for him by a patrol officer. We did not raise the question of a Human Relations Council with him, since his concerns are certainly not on this level. We talked mostly about the school situation and what might be done to prepare the community. One interesting comment he made was that Constance Curry Report No, 8 - 4 - July 28, 1964

there was no real't>ower structure" in Biloxi. He said the Mayor was weak and almost just a figurehead - this was in response to our question of who could be pressured to come out in public and call for a peaceful transition in the fall and for law and order. He finally said that the one person who might call the shots was the local sheriff, Mr. Eddie McDonald and that he was probably the person best able to see order maintained in the community. We didn't feel that Mr. O'Keefe was willing to exert much leadership along these lines, and several people mentioned to us that he was considering running again for the legisla­ ture. He was quite willing to show his disgust for the antics of the Mississippi legisla­ tors and is quite aware of the anti-Catholicism in the state - one manifestation being the attempt to prohibit sectarian schools from receiving money under the tuition grant plan before the legislature at that time.

Later that day we talked with Father Herbert Mullin, rector of St. Michael's parish. He was very cordial and most interested in the formation of a Human Relations Council. We told him of our plans to have a Protestant clergyman, perhaps one Catholic clergyman, and several leaders in the Negro community to sign a letter of invitation to the first meeting. We asked for suggestions on the Catholic clergy, thinking he might volunteer, but he felt that this type of thing should come from laymen. He said he had made his position clear to his congregation, but he felt it would be a mistake for him to issue a call to people to become involved in the Council. He recommended that we see Dr. Peter Pavlov and get him involved. He said that he would definitely come to the meeting and would encourage several of his parishioners to become involved.

We also saw Colonel Lewis Walker on Monday afternoon. Colonel Walker is Air Base Commander at Keesler (runs maintenance of all facilities on base), and Rev. Schmidt had recommended him as a good member of his congregation and as a person who had often been a liaison between the base and the Biloxi community. Colonel Walker seemed very suspicious of our being there and talked at the very beginning of his disapproval of the white students in the community and of "outsiders" trying to do anything. When I asked him if the Base could play any role in seeing that law and order were observed during school desegregation, con­ sidering the amount of money that the Federal Government gives to the school system, he seemed very irritated and said absolutely not - that they had strict orders not to inter­ fere in community affairs. He said that if there was violence or any trouble that they had made plans to open up schools on the base. He also said that the Base would have nothing to say about the number of grades desegregated. He emphasized the complete inte­ gration that existed on the Base, and I had a feeling that he sees the Base as an isolated unit that should stay out of any community problems.

Tuesday morning, we went to see Col, Karl Prestin, an attorney on the Judge Advocate General's staff at Keesler. His responses were very similar to those of Colonel Walker. We asked him if officials from the Base had talked to community officials on what violence in the community might mean for their economy and for their school system. He just said, "They know this," and then told of their plans to set up schools on the base if there was trouble. He mentioned that he had heard that the HEW Department had sent some top officials to a meeting in New Orleans with school officials from along the coast. He didn't have too many details, but said he understood that the people from Washington had not really "laid it on the line" by any means. He also talked about how nicely things were integrated on the Base, and I again had the feeling that he wanted the Base to mind its own business and not exert any leadership or influence in the community. I did raise the question of a Human Relations Council with him and whether or not some people on the Base might be interested. He said he wouldn't know about this - that he certainly didn't see what it would accomplish and was not interested himself. Constance Curry Report No. 8 -5- July 28, 1964

Our next visit was with Father William Vollor at Nativity Rectory - he is in charge of the Parish while Msgr. O'Connell is in Ireland. We talked first about the school situa­ tion, and he verified what others had felt - that community acceptance would be much better because of the initial breakthrough with the Civil Rights Bill. We spent most of the time talking about the Human Relations Council, and he is personally very interested in this. As Father Mullin had indicated, it would be better for leadership to come from Catholic laymen, but he would certainly be there himself and he would speak to several people in the Church that he knows would be interested. He is very concerned about anti­ Catholicism in the area and mentioned that literature had been distributed trying to stir up feelings about this. He said this would certainly be a deterrent to members of the Catholic community as far as their sticking their necks out on the desegregation issue.

I spent almost all of that afternoon in the waiting room of Dr. Peter Pavlov, a young dentist, member of St. Michael's Church and highly recommended by all the Catholid clergy­ men in the community. He is a member of the school board and has a reputation for taking stands on issues when he makes up his mind about something. I had talked to him several times on the phone and he was very hostile and suspicious, so I was determined to see him. When I finally saw him after 2~ hours during which he had a stream of patients, we talked about 20 minutes. He said he was there to listen and most of his part of the conversa­ tion consisted of a thorough quizzing on the AFSC, my office address, my Atlanta phone number, my own background, etc. I told him about the Human Relations Council and how he had been so highly recommended by Catholic ministers as a possible leader. He did not respond to this, nor would he say anything at all about what was going to happen over the schools. His final comment was that he would talk the whole thing over with Father Mullin - and he wished me good luck - that I would need it in my work. I liked him in spite of his detachment, and I have a feeling that he might attend the Human Relations Council meeting and give it some leadership and support.

Wednesday morning we went to see Rev. Shiler Batson, First Baptist Church. He was very cordial and willing to talk with us about the situation in Biloxi. He says he is not an integrationist or a segregationist - that he tries to be a Christian. He said he has always tried to put himself in the shoes of the Negro but he really doesn't have any under­ standing of the "revolution." He talked of how ten years ago, he would preach in a Negro church and the Negro choir might come and sing in his services - and how none of this was possible now. We tried to point out that this old relationship was really not a valid one, but he just doesn't understand and feels that he must not alienate his congre­ gation in any way. He did see the virtue in a Human Relations Council, and while he would not commit himself to attending any meeting, I think he should be invited. He is really a very solid and concerned person in terms of trying to understand the meaning of the gospel in this whole issue and contact with a group like the council would be very enlightening to him.

0~ last meeting was with Rev. Douglass Carroll, Assembly of God Church in Biloxi. His name had been given to us by Father Mullin as someone who had attempted to start an inter­ racial group some time ago. I never did figure out what this attempt might have been since he seemed a little afraid to talk with us and spent most of the time reassuring us on all the things that he had done for the Negro - baskets at Christmas, continuing to buy gas from a station bought by a Negro, etc. At the same time, he told us how prices fell when Negroes moved into a neighborhood, how school standards fell after integration, how Negroes had more illegitimate children and were filling up the welfare roles. I asked him if all these things weren't irrelevant in terms of the Christian faith, and he said that yes they were, but that he just couldn't do anything. He seemed very agitated and almost apologetic about his position, and I felt that we should leave Constance Curry Report No, 8 - 6 - July 28, 1964 without bothering him further. He seems to be going through a very fearful period, and while we mentioned the Human Relations Council, I doubt seriously if he will become involved.

As far as exact details on the first meeting of a Gulf Coast Council, this will be depen­ dent on the follow-up done by Reverend Jim Waits, a Methodist Minister in Biloxi. Rev. Duncan ~ray, head of the Mississippi Council had suggested that Rev. Waits might be the person to do the actual organizing of the meeting based on the contacts made by Jack Marion and myself. Rev. Waits was out of the city when we were there and was not expected back until July 26th. I plan to talk with him by phone after that and he will probably take care of setting the time and place and seeing that invitations are issued to interested people.

WHITE STUDENT PROJECT

As described in an earlier report in the late spring, it was decided that some of the white students who applied for the Mississippi Summer Project would attempt to work in the white community in the state. This turned into a group of approximately 25 white students, mostly southerners, under the leadership of Ed Hamlett. Because of the lateness of any planning on this, Ed did not have much time to visit communities and set up any specific projects or programs, and after the orientation in Ohio, 18 of the students went to Biloxi, with four or ~.five remaining in Jackson. As mentioned earlier in this report, the 18 had found two large apartments in a biloxi Hotel, and when I talked with them during my stay on the Coast, the group was still somewhat unclear as to their exact role. They said that they had been going around talking to white people in the community and had mentioned a Human Relations Council to some of them. I expressed the hope that this would not cause confusion, since Rev. Duncan Gray had authorized Jack Marion and I to work on this and they said they would certainly want to cooperate in any efforts that we made, Part of the problem with the group is that some of them just don't feel that they should have to adjust to the demands of society and try to look neat, well-dressed and clean-shaven, and as I mentioned before many of the white people we spoke with were really critical of this group of "unkempt beatniks." This is certainly not a valid label for the whole group, but unfortunately, one person's looking undesirable does give a convenient means for dismissing a whole group.

At present I'm noJsure as to what this group will do, When I left Jackson last week, I heard that Sam Sh1rah, head of the White Student Project before Ed Hamlett took the leader­ ship, had taken his following and had gone to Northeast Mississippi to try and find some "poor whites" to work with, and that Ed had returned to the coast with his group to continue working with the middle class white community.

CC:mt cc: Barbara W. Moffett Louis Schneider Constance Curry (Jean Fairfax- Miss.) AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 NoRm 15TH STREET, PHILADELPHIA 2, PA.

To: Jean Fairfax Date: August 26, 1964 From: Constance Curry -"~ Report No. 9 Dated August 22, 1964 Subject: TEAM MINISTRY TO SOUTHERN CITIES c0 N F I D £

On July 29 - 30, I attended a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia where representatives from various official and unofficial church groups discussed sending teams to Southern cities this fall. I have forwarded the list of those in attendance and the minutes of this meeting to Barbara Moffett so that a decision can be made as to whether AFSC will select a person to participate in the team ministries. I have nothing to add to the minutes except that there was some question in my mind as to what the differences would be between this group and the many other grou~ of ministers that have gone to Southern cities. It was also never clear to me whether they would be approaching the "white liberal" element that has been "visited" time and time again or whether they hoped to try and minister to the white segregationist element in the churches. However, as shown in the minutes, I am assuming that they will leave the program somewhat flexible and wait until they get to the cities to decide exactly what the approach should be. Macon County, Alabama

When I was in Atlanta, I also talked to Paul Anthony about the situation in Macon County. He told me about the various attempts to find a qualified person in the field of education who could go in and get actual facts about Macon Academy. All of the people who were approached indicated that it was impossible to obtain the kinds of records and information necessary for a thorough study of curriculum, budget, teaching methods, etc. - that all of this information was in the files of the academy itself and that none of the officials were willing to release it. Dr. Kenneth Morland from Randolph-Macon was the last one to make some inquiries into the situation and he also decided that it was not worthwhile for him to go to the County to try and do a study. Paul did say that there was an excellent group of white citizens who were in touch with Dean Gomillion at Tuskegee and who were watching developments very closely. He says that he has been going over there about once a month to work with this group.

Gulf Coast Human Relations Council

As indicated in a previous report, further organization of a Gulf Coast Council was awaiting the return of Rev. Jim Waits, a Methodist minister in Biloxi, who is now being considered for the directorship of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations. Before leaving Atlanta I contacted Rev. Waits and we set up a meeting for Monday, August 3, in Biloxi. Winifred Falls and I drove down and met Monday afternoon with Rev. Waits, Father Voller and Rev. John Aregood. Rev. Waits felt that the two latter would be helpful in making any future plans. I told them of my previous visit to the coast and how the people that I had contacted had been very responsive to the idea of setting up a Coast Human Relations Council. We then discussed the pros and cons and it was at this point that Father Voller began to express some doubts and reservations. He first raised the question of whether it was wise to start a group like this before school desegregation had been settled. Then, he was wondering if such a group could ever be effective when the leadership had so little to offer in terms of power , prestige or influence. He felt that maybe we should wait until some more influential people could be drawn in. In any case, we finally decided to go ahead and call a meet­ ing the following week, on Tuesday, August llth. We called the USO and found that a meeting place was available there for 7:30 p.m. We then decided to make this an organizational and planning meeting rather than a program meeting and that the persons Constance Curry - August 26, 1964 - Page two invited should be limited to a very specific group. We went over all the people that I had visited and added several other names and then divided the list, giving each person the responsibility of contacting and inviting personally those whom he chose from the list. I noticed that Father Voller ended up with all of the Catholic contacts and was a little worried about the amount of work he would put into contacting them, since he still did not seem very enthusiastic. The question was then raised as to the relation of the White Student Project of COFO to the organization of the Council, since several of the students in Biloxi had been mentioning the Council to white people that they visited. We decided that it would be detrimental to this first meeting to have any COFO workers there and agreed that they would not be included in the group. The final discussion centered on the content of the meeting and it was decided that Father Law and Mrs. Jane Schutt from Jackson would come down to present a picture of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations and to help direct the Biloxi group in organizing their own chapter.

I contacted those persons whose names I had taken and then returned to Jackson. The following Tuesday, Winifred Falls and I returned to Biloxi to attend the meeting. We gave a ride to one of the white COFO workers and the first indication I had on pos­ sible problems with the meeting was when he mentioned that Ed Hamlett and someone else from the White Student Project were planning to come that night. He also said that Mrs. Schutt, who was unable to attend the meeting, was sending Mrs. Harvey from Jackson, in her place, and that she was bringing some "observers" from the National Council of Churches and two other from the North. I was also dubious about this, since one of our main concerns was to have the Council organized by local people, without strong indication of outside influences. In any case, I tried to reach Jim Waits to discuss the questions I had about people attending, and in the meantime, Ed Hamlett came by and told me that Jim Waits had agreed that two people from the White Student Project would be able to come to the meeting as observers.

When I finally reached Jim Watts,' he said he was having dinner with Father Law and Father Voller and that they were both very upset about the white COFO group's relation to the meeting. It seems that Ed Hamlett had.talked to two people on Tuesday morning, both of whom were to be invited to the meeting by Father Voller. Neither of them knew about the meeting and Ed had then called Father Voller and supposedly had questioned him rather arrogantly about why they hadn't been contacted. This, plus the fact that two of them were coming to the meeting, had really upset Father Voller. I told Jim Waits that I would call Ed and tell them that it would just be better if they didn't come, and he said he would convey this to Father Law and Father Voller at dinner.

When we arrived at the meeting, Jim Waits told me that neither Father Law nor Father Voller were coming - that they just had too many questions about the nature and organiza­ tion of this group. Jim Waits went ahead and chaired the meeting, and when we began, there were approximately 25 people present, seven of whom were observers. I noticed immediately that none of the people on Father Voller's list were present, but I still don't know whether he just didn't invite them, or whether he did and then contacted them at the last minute and suggested that they not attend. In any case, it meant that there were no Catholic clergymen present and none of the several outstanding Catholic laymen that had been on his list. Considering all the last-minute confusion, the meeting went very well. The group discussed the needs for a Human Relations Couneil, and the Negroes present really outlined their problems and the changes that they would like to see in the community. The question was again raised of how could a group like Constance Curry - August 26, 1964 - Page three this do anything when they wield absolutely no influence in the community and are not close to the power structure. When someone mentioned that perhaps just the fact of having an interracial group to talk about things would be helpful, the Negro partici­ pants looked rather dubious. In spite of all the questions raised and the disagreement on what the group could accomplish, the discussion was open and honest, and they finally decided to set up a steering committee that would meet and make further plans. The rest of the discussion was centered on school desegregation in Biloxi and how this group might possibly be of help in the period before school opening. Jim Waits, as temporary chairman of the steering committee, said that they would discuss this at their meeting and report back to the larger group.

This past week, a member of the steering committee called US"and said that the com­ mittee had met once and would like to have information on how the Jackson group of the Mississippi Council had gone about organizing. We asked Mrs. Schutt to be in touch with the steering committee and understand as of now that they will meet again next week and then call a meeting of the larger group.

It is difficult to predict the future of the Gulf Coast Council at this point, since its success is dependent on so many factors. It is certainly vital to have the large Catholic population represented in any Human Relations Council, and Jim Waits was plan­ ning to urge Father Voller and the other clergymen to begin taking part. It may also be a big loss to the group if Jim Waits becomes Director of the Mississippi Council and moves from Biloxi, since he is giving the main leadership at this point. Also, I don't feel that the Negroes who have shown interest in the Council will continue to participate for very long if they get the impression that the group is interested only in talking together.

Executive Committee Meeting of the Mississippi Human Relations Council

On Thursday, August 13, there was an Executive Committee Meeting of the state Human Relations Council and I attended to report on the activities with the Gulf Coast group. Paul Anthony from SRC was present and the group first discuEsed the proposal for a grant from the Field Foundation. Paul indicated that the Foundation would probably be interested in giving money to support a full-time director and his programing and the group approved the written prospectus that was read to the group. Duncan Gray, the chairman, then reviewed the personnel situation and announced that Jim Waits was still waiting to get the approval of the new Methodist Bishop in Jackson before he could accept the position as director.

Duncan Gray then asked Father Law and I to give a report on the Coast situation. Father Law outlined some of the events as I have described above and said that he just hadn't felt at that last minute on Tuesday evening that he should go to such a confusing meet­ ing as an official representative of the Mississippi Human Relations Council. He expressed a need for clarifying just exactly what is required for the formation of local councils and raised the question of whether local groups should carry on activi­ ties that the state group was not engaged in. I then reported and gave no personal comments on anything other than to say that the meeting had gone very well, but that we did hope that the Catholic community would become more involved in the future. Mrs. Jesse Brent from Greenville, Mississippi also reported on progress toward the formation of a Council and said they hoped to have a group by this fall.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to discussing plans and programing for a conference and for their annual meeting in November. The conference will be a statewide meeting Constance Curry - August 26, 1964 - Page four

on October 2-3 to be held at Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi. They hope to have speakers and other programs, but will also be dealing with organizational aspects of the state council.

Mississippians for Public Education

Since I last reported on the progress of the women's group, thcore have been several phases of their activities. The plan for holding neighborhood coffees in Jackson has been most successful and they have held approximately 75 of them with 10-15 women at each coffee. Each coffee is provided with a discussion leader and with materials to hand out. The response to the advertisement in the paper has been very good from throughout the state and the coupons requesting more information are still coming in. All of those responding plus various mailing list contacts then received copies of the pamphlet "A Time to Speak •• " (I have enclosed several copies, in case you wish to include them with copies of this report). Response to the pamphlet has also been good and in Jackson alone, around 500 people have actually paid dues to the organization.

Press releases have been issued every week except one, since the ad appeared and the news coverage in the Jackson papers and elsewhere in Mississippi has been full and unbiased. A weekly newsletter has been sent to contacts on the mailing list and in­ cluded in last week's newsletter was a copy of a reprint from the Tupelo newspaper. (Copies attached.)

Mrs. Henderson, the State President, has attempted on numerous occasions to meet with Governor Johnson to ask why the charter for the group had not been signed, but she has had no luck and we have pretty much given up hope of receiving one. Mrs. Henderson also went to see Kirby Walker, Jackson School Superintendent, to make certain requests and to ask how the group might be of help to him. They hope to see the Jackson Mayor in the next few weeks to express the hope that the actual opening of school will be handled as well as registration procedures.

All of the women feel that a strong effort must be made between now and September 14th, to see that white parents send their children to the public schools. One plan that has been carried out is to have 14 billboards go up in Jackson next week, with pictures of school children, and in writing, "Their tomorrow depends on you today. Send your children to Public Schools." This will pretty well deplete the small treasury that the group has had, and will probably be the last attempt to reach a large audience through any mass communications. The group will meet this Monday to plan what specifically can be done with white parents at the eight schools where we know that Negro children have registered.

I am still utterly amazed at the fact that this women's group has not been harassed and has been treated so fairly in news coverage. Mrs. Henderson did receive one letter, which was really not mean - it was just an attempt to point out to her the horrors of school integration, and the one classic statement was, "Don't you know that in every place where integration has occurred, the standards has fell." The interest from out­ of-state news media has been overwhelming, and actually no one, other than the Governor, in failing to sign the charter, has given the group any trouble.

Visits to Leake County On Friday, August 14, Winifred Falls and I drove to Leake County in hopes of talking to some of the white contacts that we had on a list. Mr. George Keith, Editor of the Constance Curry - August 26, 1964 - Page five

Carthage paper, was out of town, but we left him some materials and a note that we might call back again. Mr. Smith, the school board attorney, was in a conference, and we spent most of the rest of the afternoon looking for a Mrs. Nora Langston - her address being Walnut Grove, Route 2. We finally tracked down Mrs. Langston's residence but she was not at home and we drove back to Jackson. Mrs. Langston was the only person in Leake County to respond to the ad of the MPE's and we were very anxious to talk with her. We called her again from Jackson and made an appointment to see her the follow- ing Wednesday. She had to call us back from a pay phone to make the final arrangements - she said we couldn't meet at her house or in Carthage and that she would meet us at a roadside park leading into Carthage.

On Wednesday, we drove up again and had a truly amazing discussion with Mrs. Langston for around two hours in this beautiful roadside park. Mrs. Langston is from Kansas originally, but she has lived in Mississippi since she graduated from college. She married into Ross Barnett's family, lived in Jackson for about 20 years and has been in Leake County for the past 12. It was really amazing to hear her feelings about being considered an outsider and how she really couldn't say much of anything on racial or even political issues. She talked most of the time and it was really just an out­ pouring of all the things she has felt from Medgar Evers' death to Barry Goldwater as a presidential candidate, and from the Baptist minister in Jackson to the removal of Camera Three from the television programing. As we started to leave, she apologized for keeping us so long, but that she hadn't had anyone to talk to in ten years. Because she has felt so alone in her thoughts she has kept herself someone isolated from the community, so she really didn't have too much knowledge concerning the school situation. She did not know any other people who might be interested in seeing that law and order are preserved, and she had no idea as to whether or not tuition grants would be widely used. She did say that she was going to try to see the school superintendent and some other people and that she would let us know if she obtained any information.

We then went into Carthage and called Mr. Keith. He was very distant and unenthuasi­ astic and said that he might be able to see us in two or three hours. The school board attorney was out of town this time, so we decided to drive back to Jackson. If possible, I hope to make another trip to Leake County this week, although we have no way of know­ ing how smme of the other people on this list feel about the school situation.

Visit to Keesler Air Force Base I forgot to mention in connection with my visits to the coast, my discussion with Mr Tom Hill, a Negro Airman at Keesler. We were trying to establish if the Base had taken any steps to inform Negroes on the Base as to what their rights are. Mr. Hill has been at Keesler since January of 1962 and said that no attempt had been made, to his knowledge to call the Negroes together to give them any kind of information on school desegregation or any other changes that might affect them.

CC:mt cc: Barbara W. Moffett Louis Schneider Constance Curry (Jean Fairfax - Miss.) MEMORANDUM AMERICAN FRIEND[.. ..,ERVICE COMMITTEE, Incorporated, 160 North 15th Street, Philadelphia, Pa.l9102

.; '" To, Jean Fairfax ,.; Date, November 2, 1964 Report #10 From: Constance Curry

Subject, Mississippians for Public Education c;JJ~

I will try to summarize the activities of the MPE from the time of my last report in August through the opening day of school on September 14, and then comment on their recent board meeting and future plans.

By the end of August, the women in Jackson realized that the holding of coffees to spread the word about the MPE was no longer a priority, and they devoted their energies to several other activities.

l, Fund-raising and help from businesses, The women who had been used as coffee discussion leaders were called together and asked to visit various places in the community to ask for funds. In the space of about a week, they were highly successful and raised over $1000 from different business establish­ ments. When some of the businessmen felt they could not make a contribution, the women asked if they would be interested in putting little slips into pay envelopes, urging their employees to send their children to public schools. Some of the men did do this, while others allowed posters, made by the women, to be put up on bulletin boards in factories, offices, etc,

2, Contact with the AFL-CIO. Since we knew that Claude Ramsay, director of the Mississippi AFL-CIO would be sympathetic to the MPE, Winifred Falls and I went to visit him. He was most interested in the group and was really anxious to help, since he felt that the loss or weakening of public education would really hit the people in the ranks of workers and union members. We dis­ cussed the possibility of their doing a mailing to all of their members in the Jackson area, but this question would have to be raised with the local Jackson Executive Committee, By the time this committee met, it turned out that it was really too late to do a mailing, but I do know that Mr. Ramsay and his associate secretary did talk to many of their contacts and urged them to spread the word about sending their children to public schools.

3. Billboards. Around the lst of September, 14 billboards went up in Jackson 12 of these were rented and 2 of them were public service, (It was really funny to see the women telling these advertising men that of course the MPE's efforts were a public service.) (See enclosed reprint of picture of billboards that appeared in the NORTHSIDE REPORTER,) (The three enclosed color prints of the boards are for AFSC office files.) I think that the billboards were an excellent idea and really believe that the message reached a lot of people. They seemed to catch the eye very easily and because they were so public and so clear in their message, I think people in Jackson thought that sending your children to public school just must be "the thing to do." We were wondering if there would be an attempt to deface or mar the boards, and at one point, three of them did have pieces of burlap pasted on them so as to read, "Mississippians for Integration." The advertising company remedied this the next day, however, and there was no further problem, Jean Fairfax November 2, 1964 page two

4. Spot Surveys in School Districts. As soon as we found which schools were to be affected, we did a run-down on MPE membership and support in each of the eight districts. We found that there would probably be a certain amount of acceptance in five of the districts and discovered that in three of them we had no MPE members and no contacts at all. These were also districts where lower income white people lived and where the largest number of Negroes had enrolled. We were extremely worried that these would be the districts where white boycotts might develop, particularly since the White Citizens Council was starting a publicity campaign urging people not to send their children to public schools. The Jackson newspapers ran front page stories on the Council's statement that it was better not to send your children to school at all than to send them to integrated schools. We decided that the only way to gauge the effectiveness of the Council's campaign was to do some door-to-door canvassing in these school districts. For several days before school opened Mrs. Falls and I talked to mothers who had children in public schools and left with them an MPE pamphlet. I think that we were surprised to find that only about two of the many homes we visited had children that were transferring to private schools. This later fit in with the report given on school enrollment which showed that total enrollment was down only about 100 in the whole city. Also, the school started by the Citizens' Council at last report, had only 17 children enrolled.

5. TV Spot Announcements. During the last seven days before school opening, the MPE's had spot announcements on both television stations. They were three different ten second announcements, with a picture similar to the bill­ boards in the background and the copy read by the announcer stated the ex­ cellent record of the Jackson public school system, don't deprive your children, hastily-organized private schools are inadequate, etc. These announcements were on each station 7-10 times, scattered through each day. From the comments that we heard, these announcements again helped to create the general idea that sending children to public school had the endorsement and support of the community at-large.

A good example of the progress and public posture of the MPE's as well as of their relation with the Citizens Council can be found in the three articles carried in the COMMERCIAL APPEAL in early October. (See attached reprints.) I think it is still very significant that the MPE's are the first voices of moderation from the white community in Mississippi that the Citizens Council has not been able to silence. As far as I know, a few women in Meridian are the only ones who have received any bad phone calls, but this has not caused any serious problems in their chapter.

On September 20, Mrs. Marge Curet, lst Vice-President of the MPE, was in a debate with Senator Pittman, before the Mississippi Women's Cabinet of Public Affairs. Senator Pittman was one of the initiators of the private school legislation and spoke in support of this, while Mrs. Curet spoke on the necessity of high quality public education and also told about the MPE. I was not there, but from all reports, Mrs. Curet was excellent and she has been invited to debate with Senator Pittman again before PTA and other groups in the state.

On October 15, the MPE held a state board meeting in Meridian. During the morning session, there were around 25 women present, representing the chapters in Greenville, Tupelo, Oxford, Meridian, Biloxi and Jackson. Mrs. Gordon Henderson, state president, reported that Governor Johnson had still not signed Jean Fairfax November 2, 1964 page three

the MPE Charter and that various sources indicated that he probably wouldn't do so of his own accord. The group discussed the need for someone with in­ fluence to get to the governor and put pressure on him, and several names were recommended for people to contact. Women from the Jackson group then gave a report on fund-raising efforts and suggested activities for other chapters, and they also reported on how they had set up the coffee discussions in Jackson. Mrs. Curet gave a complete report on what the women in Biloxi had done, and Mrs. Derian from Jackson gave an excellent talk on what the group might be facing in the future, One new phase of their program will be in­ vestigating what must be done to have compulsory school attendance laws re­ instated in Mississippi, They also discussed the fact that their work in the state has just begun and that they must stay in existence and expand to meet the needs as school desegregation occurs in the rest of the state. They dis­ cussed the possible communities where suits might be filed or where people had expressed an interest in MPE and decided to assign various communities to already existing groups. They emphasized the necessity of going to places like Greenwood and Clarksdale and finding women who would work in these com­ munities and then staying in close touch to give every kind of help and encouragement. In general, I was very impressed with the group that was there and very pleased with the meeting iri general. They seemed to have a ~" very strong enthusiasm, a beginning recognition of their identity as a group, and an almost elated feeling of triumph over the Citizens Council and other groups that have held the white community in their grips for the past ten years.

It is hard to predict what will happen in the future, but at this point, I do feel that the group will move ahead. The one thing that I do feel strongly about is the necessity for suits to be filed in communities where the MPE are well organized, particularly, Greenville, Tupelo and Meridian. These women indicated that their chapters could easily begin to feel a sense of frustration and might "run out of steam" if something didn't happen in their communities toward which they could direct their energies and efforts. I recommend strongly that AFSC or someone make contacts with Negro leadership in these places and see what the possibilities are for school desegregation efforts.

The Delta Ministry

On September 18, I had dinner with Rev. Warren McKenna, who is now with the National Council of Churches and working specifically with the Delta Ministry. I asked him to bring me up-to-date on plans and progress for the Ministry, and he explained that their plans were still in the formative stages. It seems that they are now planning their operations on a state-wide basis rather than just in the Delta. He mentioned community centers, voter registration, literacy projects, freedom schools, mobile medical units, health education, and a few other things that made it sound like a really mammoth plan. They are at present trying to recruit people to come on the staff. When I left Jackson last week, the NCC office in Jackson had been closed, and I understand the base of operation will now be in Greenville. Art Thomas will be the director of the Ministry, and the other staff at present are Mrs. Billie Rowland, Rev. Larry Walker, Rev. McKenna and Rev. Robert Beach, who is located in Hattiesburg. Rev. McKenna has rented a house in Greenville at 479 N. DeLessepes St., or they may be reached at the Delta Ministry, Box 457 in Greenville. Jean Fairfax November 2, 1964 page four

The Mississippi Council on Human Relations

On September 30-0ctober l, the Mississippi Council held their first overnight, state-wide meeting at Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi. There were approximately 50 people present. The most important part of the meeting was the workshops that were devoted to an evaluation of the Mississippi Council and its direction in the future. It seemed to be the feeling of the group that it is now time for them to become a public group and to try and be a moving force within the state. Some of the specific suggestions for future plans included:

l. Efforts to increase individual memberships in the state and also to set up local chapters of the Council. The beginnings of local groups now exist in Jackson, Greenville and along the Gulf Coast.

2. Sending out information on what was happening throughout the state and perhaps publication of a newsletter.

3· Speaking out on issues and urging publicly that public officials re­ spond to situations that are occurring.

4. Involving more young people and trying to reach business, public edu­ cation and labor people.

5. Holding of meetings, educational programs and debates, all to be publicly announced.

I felt that they definitely want to continue in fulfilling the need for a group where Negroes and whites can just even be in touch, but that they also want to become more of a catalyst to help create change within the state. It was interesting that the success of the MPE and lack of harassment of these women were of great encouragement to the Mississippi Council. They even mentioned the publication of a full-page ad of their own, giving names and purposes of the Council. Of course, the progress of the Council at this point depends entirely on the finding of a full-time executive director, since volunteer efforts just cannot accomplish the plans outlined above. The Council is just beginning to grow and the possibilities for its success in the state right now are so good that they must have a full-time operation. When I left Jackson last week, they had not found anyone, but were in the process of con­ tacting a Unitarian minister that one of the Board members considered a good possibility. He is not from Mississippi, but I understand he has worked some in the South.

The Jackson Movement

Rev. Charles Jones, Dr. Beittel and I talked together right before I left Jackson on future work of the Jackson Movement with the families of the children who had desegregated Jackson's schools. Rev. Jones' analysis was not too encouraging, since it seems that the internal problems of the Movement Jean Fairfax November 2, 1964 page five are a continual hindrance to good planning and organization. He says that right now one of the big problems is lack of funds and that this is true on the national level, as well as locally. He hopes that things might be better when people can stop contributions to political campaigns, and he did say that Jackson will be having a fund-raising campaign soon. He mentioned that the Jackson Movement was committed to working with the families until Christmas-time, but indicated that things would be unclear after that. It seems that the Jackson Movement will probably be disbanded in December and that they will go back to having a regular local NAACP with their own officers and hopefully an office that is separate from the state NAACP office. Rev. J®hes will be leaving Jackson himself around Christmas and of course could not predict what a new local NAACP group might wish to do in terms of the families. In the meantime, the proposals suggested by Jean in her various memos to Jackson contacts were to be discussed that night by the Strategy Committee. I assume that Dr. Beittel will be keeping in touch with Rev. Jones and with Rev. R.L.T. Smith on the needs of the families and possible ways of helping them. Rev. Jones did mention that the state-wide NAACP meeting was to be held in Jackson on November 5-8 and that he hoped some of the problems of the whole state group could be thrashed out at that time.

CC:bs cc: Barbara Moffett Louis Schneider Daniel Beittel Garnet Guild Constance Curry