THE Who Decides? Within the past four years the Negroes'( I APRIL mass protest movement in fhe South 1965 has exploded many times -- in areas all Vol. I over the black belt. The names Danville NO.4 MOVEMENT Virginia, Gadsden Alabama, S a van n a h Published by Georgia, St. Augustine Florida are known The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of Ca lifornia at least to people who' 9re close to the movement as places where some kind of mass action has taken place. And Albany Georgia, Cambridge Maryland, Birming­ ham Alabama, and very lately Selma Alabama are known at least to the gen­ QUESTIONS RAISED BY MOSES eral public in America and in some cases (Transcript of the talk gil/ e 71 by Bob Moses at the 5th Q/111iversary of SNCC) to the entire world. In these places, thousands of people What you should suppose about SNCC got up and then murdered, that jury is participated in protests and in one year, people is that they are not fearless. like them. That's a hard thing to under­ 1963, 20,000 went to jail delTIonstrating. You'd have a better idea about them if stand in this country. An outgrowth of these protests has been you would suppose that they were very The only place where they can be tried an omnibus Civil Rights Act in 1964 and afraid and suppose that they were very for murder is by a jury, a local jury, a pending Voting Rights Bill. But what afraid of the people in the South that called together in Neshobe County. They­ has happened to all those people? Where they have to figf1t and struggle against. 're being tried now, not for murder, but are the people who marched IS,OOO strong And suppose also that they are very afraid for depriving people of their civil rights in Birmingham? Where is the Albany of this country. But suppose, then, that in the act of murdering them. That's the Movement? Where are all those people they had no choice, that is they can, through actual charge. People don't understand (also thousands) who protested and went many different ways, see that their backs, that. to jail in Mississippi since 1::I61? so to speak, were against the wall and That jury, that local jury, if you called In Mississippi, there is an active Free­ they had to move within that fear. And it together, would presumably be the dom Democratic Party wh;ch meets in then suppose that what they are trying murderers' jury because the juries in country areas usually once a week. Thou­ to do is explore how to move within the the counties in the South are called to­ .sands of people participate. The FDP is boundaries of fear and that what they've gether under the auspices of the sheriffs challenging the seating of five Mississippi got to learn about fear is that it paralyzes and the sheriff is pres mably one of the congressmen. There is an active Council you so that you don't move -- you don't persons indicted for t Ie conspiracy to of Federated Organization::, (COT,'O) which do what you think you should, be it ask murder. 1 am fascina'ed with that. It's grew out 'of national civil J/ght ::, groups. a question or take a person down to reg- a very, very clear kinJ of thing. Suppose COFO is now many local groups working ister. And suppose also about the Mis- the sheriff killed som~body; then to have to attack local problems. The Missis­ sissippi people that they're not heroes his trial, he calls the jury together. So sippi Student Union, growing out of t':le and that we're not heroes, that we're you have the murder(,lr's jury. And the Freedom Schools, is one of the most trying very hard to be people and that problem seems to me to be, how can a active student protest groups in the coun­ is very hard, If anything what'we're try- society condemn itself? try. In some counties of the Mississippi ing to do, or have to do, is to see how I think that that question is a question Delta area, they have suc:::eeded in set­ you can move even though you are fOr the country in this sense. The coun­ ting up their own school syste'l1. The afraid. try refuses to look at Mississippi, and movement in Mi t,sissippi h2,s contiI"led 1 have just one thing that 1 would like at the white people down there, as like since 1961. It is constantly crea.':ing, re­ to share with you, It's a question, it's a them. So, therefore, they miss the main evaluating, and growing.' problem, that our country faces tangled point, it seems to me, about the deep The Negro communities of Birmingham up with thousands of other problems. We South and about the people there and, also, and Albany are two o~ the most well suppose that the people who murdered, about ourselves. armed in the U.S. Spor~dic poL-e riots Micky and Andrew and James were not Life magazine had a picture of the break out, particularly in Albany. They like us, not like most people in the coun- people who did the murder and they pic­ only serve to tear the lives of the people try. And 1 think that that's a deep mis- tured them eating and laughing and joking who are involved in them. There are no take, that we don't understand the im- and talking as though they were morally active civil rights movements, though plication of that. People keep asking me, idiots, And 1 think most people in the most of the problems still exist that .. Do you think that they will get con- country reading that got that impression. gave rise to the. mass demonstrations, victed?" and I keep saying, "No." But But you don't put yourself in that classi­ In 1962 and 1963 tne eye:;:. of the Deople I also wonder why they keep asking be- fication so they're other people -- they're were wide and alive. The! marched and cause if you think about that, it seems not like you or like us. The Saturday went to jail and continued to march. that our experience will tell us that they Evening Post had a picture of a Klu Kll'.c Today one can set the E'ame emptiness cannot be convicted, that they will not be Klan on the front page just recently and and hopelessness which exists in Harlem convicted, that the chance of their being at the end of the article talked about them and South Chicago. convicted is almost zero. For them to as outcasts, as people who are in no way There are no great differences between be convicted would be for society to con- like m'ost Americans, as rejects from the problem which{affected Danville, St. demn itself and that's very hard for the society. 1 think that's a false inter­ Augustine, Albany, Birmingham and Mis­ society to do, any society. Condemna- pretation which people are getting and, sissippi. It is on0 of people simply trying tion seems to have to come from outside therefore, the y analyze the problem to live as human beings. But the approach or from the ranks within that are not a wrongly and, therefore, they look for to the solution of the problem was radi­ part of it. wrong solutions. cally different. It centered around leader­ So the jury that votes together to de- The problem is so c..:ep, all you can ship and decision making. cide whether or not the people, the 18 do is raise these questions. We feel that In Birmingham, the people invited lead­ or 21 people who eVidently got together if we're going to get to the bottom, if ers in through the church. The ministers and sat down and then planned and then CONTINUEO ON LAST PAGE CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 " ...-I .... J=; ...- (,l III FRttDoH JIH~£A.s BAY- ANO " ~~~1t~R~ P£~SOA(I)L WITH $~C( ft'~o.NT. FIELl> 'E(~erAR~rVAHHO£ DO~SLD5ON Jf D~:CWE~~sWOyl( NOW, tAJORI<IN& IN AL~BAJV1A *" I~"A MANNHEI,Af 'NfE~NATlON&L. FI~}( F~71~ : DoNATioN6: 6OLO .M EDAL $ 2;5"0 b£Nf£AL T~. 5 T V1 nA 4 -77 # 1, °5Tltol;J'Ir I"nE ,~ •}h~" Sl'lCL. 0 FFIC~ 01.. IVI A6- j Berkeley !Preo Press \~., 6 ~_ SUNDAY, JUNE g, 1963 THE SELMA TIMES-JOURNAL THREE This suppleme'nt to The Movement is published by The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 584 Page ASK YOURSELF THIS Street, San Francisco, California The Movement is the mon'thly newsletter of Colifornio Friends of SNCC IMPORTANT QUESTION: Reprints of the supplement are available from this office. single copies 5¢ What have I personally done to 2 - 10 copies 4¢ 10 - 100 copies 3¢ 100 .. 1000 2¢ Maintain Segregation? Individuals willing to send'packages of food and clothing to the residents If the answer disturbs yau, prabe deeper and decide what yau are of Selma should mail their packages . willing to do to preserve racial harmony in Selmo and Dallas County. to S Nee Is it worth four dollars to prevent a "Birmingham" here? That's what it costs to be a member of your Citizens Council, whose efforts are 31).-2 Franklin Street not thwarted by caurts which give sit.in demonstrators legal immun.