NEWS RELEASE STUDENT NONVIOLENT C««RDINATING COMMITTEE 197| AUBURN AVENCB ATEMTA, GEORGIA 688-§331 <2 ATLANTA, Ga,, March 22 - A series of nation-wide demonstrations was held this week, protesting the arrests of three members of the Stu- dent Nonviilent Coordinating Committee in Baton Rouge, LgufiiFITIa• -^ The three, SNCC Field Secretaries Dion Diamond: and Robert Zell- :d SNCC Chairman Charles McDew, have all been fiminal anarchy." Diamond was arrested on February 1 when he went to the campus of Southern University to fullfill a speaking engage- ment, and Zellner and McDew were arrested when they visited Diamond on February 16 in the Baton Rouge jail* The nation-wide demonstrations began in Viaehington, D. C, on February 28, when members of the Nonviiolent Action Group (NAG) picketed the home of Senator Allen J* Ellander (D-La*) protesting "cruel and inhuman treatment of Negro students" in Senator Ellender's home state. Later the NAG group presented a petition bearing 1,154 names to the Justice Department, asking tham to investigate the Baton Rouge arrests. On March 13, members of SNCC and NAG staged a sit-in in the office of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy* After conferring with Justice Department officials, the group waited in the Attorney General's office until it closed* On March 16, another group of demonstrators was bodily removed in wheelchairs from the Attorney General's office* That same day in Nov; York's Foley Square, an integrated group of 100 persons picketed the Federal Court House in protest of the Louis­ iana anarchy charges. The New York demonstrations were sponsored "by CORE, SNCC, and Students For a Democratic Society. Other demonstartior were scheduled for Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles* -30- NEWS RELEASE STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE for release 135. AUBURN AVENUE, ATLANTA 3, GEORGIA 488-0331 Monday, June 18, 1962 ATLANTA, GEORGIA - RepregjfgraSiyes "oTSttie Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) have charged that Mississippi state officials are "framing" Negroes who try to enroll in "white" schools in th>^tate, In a letter to Representative Adam Clayton Powell (D-N.Y.), SNCC Chairman Charles McDew cited the cases of Clyde Kennard and James Merideth as examples of Negroes "suffering intimidation and failings from state officials because they tried to enter white schools." The student anti-segregation group asked Powell "to investigate the circum­ stances surrounding Kennard's conviction in I960 and Merideth's arrest in Jackson last week." FQWKII is Chairman of the powerful House Committee on Education and Labor, Kennard, a chicken farmer in Hattiesburg, Mississippi., applied to Mississippi Southern University in I960. Immediately after his application was filed, local mer­ chants refused to givehim credit. Policemen filed charges of possessing illegal liquor after searching his car and producing a bottle, but when these charges failed to stick, they charged him with possessing stolen property. Kennard's neighbors, afraid of reprisals, told SNCC representatives in secret ..that the Army veteran had been framed. He could have escaped being convicted on the charge, they said, by revealing that several friendj had purchased food and grain for him, but he did not wish to expose them to further intimidation. He was sentenced to seven years in jail, and remained in the Forrest County jail until November, 1961, when he was transferred to Parchman Penitentary, He be­ came seriously ill this spring and was taken to the University Hospital in Jackson, where he has reftgived 14 blood transfusions. SNCC representatives in Mississippi have learned that none of the time he is spending in the hospital will be counted against his ssntenos. Both Kennard and Merideth are veterans. Kennard has written to his mother, tellingher not to visit him but to think of him as if he were still in the army. On June 13, Merideth was scheduled to be tried on charges of swearing falsely that he was a legal resident of Hinds County, In his suit against the University of Mississippi, he stated that he was a resident of Attala County, state officials say. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has ordered state officials not to hear the case until his desegregation suit is settled. He is currently a student at Jackson State College for Negroes, -30- NEwS RELhrtSE STUD JIT NOJVIQLJMT COORDINATING COIlilTTEE 135 AUBURN nVJJUE, ASUBTJ* 3, GEORGIA July 4, 1962 688-0331 SAVANNAH, GEORGIA - A ;-ember of the Savannah Youth Strategy Connittce has complained to the Interstate Connerco Commission that he received "verbal and physical" abuse fron an attendant at the Rcidsvillc, Georgia Southern Trailways Bus Station* Janes Alexander, Special Projects Director of the Youth Strategy Committee - the Savannah student anti-sogregation organization - said that he was called a "nig- gor" and "other names I cannot mention" and was forcibly ejected from the front or "white" waitin^ room. In a letter to Everett Hutchinson, ICC Chairman, Alexander said that he entered the station, purchased a ticket to Savannah, and took a seat to wait for his bus to arrive. Although the station displayed an ICC poster prohibiting discrimination as is required by law, the station attendant told the youth that he could not remain in the main waiting room because he was a "nigger." When Alexander refused to leave, the attendant shoved him outside. Alaxander asked the ICC to act promptly on the natter, for he "intends to return to this station soon." The Youth Startegy Committee is an independent student group, affiliated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta. SNCC Chairman Charles McDew said that his organization received noti«e from the ICC two weeks ago that an Atlanta bus station restuarant was now serving all customers without regard to race. "It is deplorable that American citizens must resort to Freedom Rides, letters, and personal appeals to Washington to enjoy Constitutionally guaranteed rights" McDew said. He cited a trip Albany, Georgia Negroes made to seek relief from Government officials in Washington last week as an example of the difficulty American Negroes face in enjoying civil rights. -30- 2 of 2. On July 2, Cairo *e Mayor refused to let SNCC Field Secretary McCollum enter a meeting of church and civic leaders gathered to discuss integration of the city. Miss McCollum said that the CNFC had proposed that Cairo become an "open city," but when city officials saw her, they refused to let her enter the meeting, Cairo stu­ dents refused to hold the meeting without her. Peyton Burgess, former State's Attor­ ney in Cairo, said "The quicker we get rid of her (Miss McCollum) the better of we'll be." The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is an independent student anti- segregation organization headquartered at 135 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, SNCC Field Secretaries work in hard core areas of the deep South with local citizens and groups in an attempt "to bring true democracy to America", the Atlanta SNCC office said, -30- NEWS RELEASE STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE 135 AUBURN AVENUE, ATLANTA 3, GEORGIA ^uly 4, 1962 688-0331 CAIRO, ILLINOIS - An exchange of telegrams and telephone calls between Illinois Gov­ ernor Otto F. Kerner, the militant Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta, Cairo's Chief of Police, and the head of the Illinpis Commission en Hu­ man Relations highlighted a week of anti-segregation demonstrations in this Southern Illinois town. On Juno 26, SNCC officials in Atlanta had asked tovernor Kerner to protect stu­ dents from nearby Southern Illinois University and the city of Cairo who were being "pushed and shoved" as they demonstrated before a segregated restuarant here. Later that evening, SNCC Field Secretary Mary McCollum was slashed by a member of a mob of whites who gathered at a later demonstration, SNCC officials in Atlanta tried to call Governor Kerner at the Executive Mansion in Springfield, but were told by an unidentified State Trooper that the Governor could not be disturbed, SNCC Chairman Charles McDew then wired the Governor and asked that he "call out the Na­ tional Guard to hold down mob violence in your state," On the following day, Roger N, Nathan, Director of the Illinois Commission On Hunan Relations called the Atlanta SNCC office and "pledged his full coopora.txnu in investigating and following through on complaints of discrimination," according to SNCC Executive Secretary James Forman, Illinois law prohibits restuarant from re­ fusing to sorve customers on the basis of race* but on June 27> a Cairo rostuarant owner turned a water hose on a group of Negro high school students who tried to en­ ter his restuarant. On Juno 28, members of the newly formed Cairo Nonviolent Freedom Committee wcro turned away from a swimming pool open to whites, and were refused admission to /a restuarant that displayed a large "closed" sign, although white persons were ser­ ved. On June 29, six CNFC members wor~ arrested by local policemen for "tresspass­ ing" - one while the manager of a restuarant under fire bold him until police arri­ ved. To date, Miss McCollum's assailant has not been apprehended, nor have the men who roughed up students in Tuesday's demonstrations or those who showered them with water-filled baloons. Following the arrests, the Atlanta SNCC office announced that it has dispat­ ched two more Field Secretaries into the area, and warned Cairo Police Chief Elnoe Jones that "you •annot end segregation by arresting students. If you continue to arrest innocent students," SNCC Chairman McDew told hin, "the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee will try to fill the jails," (more) NEWS RELEASE ST'JDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE July 11, 1962 135 AUBURN AVENUE, ATLANTA J>, GEORGIA 688-0331 JACKSONl MISSISSIPPI -Jxwo veteran sit-inners were able to celebrate Independence Day here by really being freed.