A New Freedom Party MILITANT Published in the Interest of the Working People -Report from Alabama Vol. 30 - No. 18 Monday, May 2, 1966 Price 10c By John Benson HAYNEVILLE, Ala., April 25 — For the first time since Re­ construction, large numbers of Alabama Negroes will be voting this year. A struggle is already Will U.S. Prevent beginning for their votes. Some Negro leaders in the state are do­ ing all they can to corral the Ne­ gro vote for the Democratic Party. But in at least one county, Vietnam Elections? Lowndes, the Negro people have decided they are going to organize By Dick Roberts their own party, and run their APRIL 26 — Washington may own candidates. be preparing to block the proposed In February, 1965, four SNCC Vietnamese elections just as it pre­ workers entered Lowndes County, vented elections in that country and started working with local in 1956. This ominous possibility people who had begun registering must be considered in light of U.S. Negroes. In the course of strug­ Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge’s gling to register, and protesting arrogant criticisms of the planned inadequate schools, unpaved roads, and police brutality, the people of elections in an interview with SYMBOL OF FREEDOM. Black panther is symbol for Lowndes CBS correspondent Peter Kal- Lowndes County decided that they ischer, April 22. Such interviews needed their own political party. County Freedom Organization and other independent parties being are rarely given by Lodge, and They wanted to elect their own organized in counties of Alabama. must be viewed as reflecting sheriff, and to control the court­ Washington’s thinking. house and the local government. gro women employed were domes­ After the meeting, Mr. Hullet U.S. preparations to sabotage the So they decided to build their own tic workers. met a woman from another part of elections would also explain the political organization, independent While 86 white families owned the county and told her what they behind-the-scenes political man­ of the Republican and Democratic 90 percent of the land, the median had discussed. She said she knew euvering in Saigon reported by parties, to put their candidates Negro income was $935. Roads a few other people who wanted New York Times correspondent in office. were paved only in front of houses to register. Thursday night, a sim­ Charles Mohr April 21. According owned by whites. Most of the of­ ilar meeting was held with eight Black Panther to Mohr, U.S. officials have been ficials who controlled the taxing more people. pressuring Premier Ky to get Gen. The name of the new party is and spending of the county were Plans were made to go down on Nguyen Chanh Thi back into the the Lowndes County Freedom Or­ members of the 86 landowning the next registration day, March Saigon government. It was Thi’s ganization. It uses a black panther families. Negro children could not 2. By talking to their friends, they ouster March 10 which precipitat­ as its symbol and has become expect to get a decent education were able to get 38 people to go ed the wave of anti-government known as the Black Panther party. for lack of school funds. to the county courthouse in Hayne- and anti-U.S. demonstrations to Before the movement began The movement in Lowndes ville. They were told to come back begin with. here, Lowndes County Negroes County began in January, 1965, the next registration day, two “These officials,” Mohr ex­ suffered under one of the most when a couple of people began weeks later. When they returned, plained, “ hoped that through a suggested by New York Times blatantly racist administrations in to discuss registering to vote. One the office had been moved from reconciliation, Premier Ky and the country. Negroes comprise 81 reporter Neil Sheehan, April 22: Sunday night in the middle of the courthouse to the old jail. That General Thi could prevent Bud­ “Mr. Lodge and other senior Amer­ percent of the population, yet not February, they got together a day, after the first 14 applications dhist elements led by the monk ican officials,” Sheehan wrote, a single Negro was registered to group of 14 people to go over the were processed, only two — Mr. Thich Tri Quang from gaining vote. White registration stood at “ are known to suspect that Thich registration application and dis­ Hullet, who had been registered control of south Vietnam.” Tri Quang . might try to nego­ 118 percent — 2,240 whites regis­ cuss what would come up on the several years earlier in Birming­ Racist View tiate with the Vietcong.” tered out of an eligible 1,900! literacy test. Two of these people, ham and then in Georgia, and a About 60 percent of all Negro men John Hullet and Frank Miles, Jr., schoolteacher — passed. In the CBS interview, Lodge ex­ Meanwhile in this country, the employed were farmers or farm are now officers in the Freedom During the week preceding the pressed the racist attitude which Democratic administration has laborers. Fifty percent of the Ne- Organization. pervades the American ruling been busily drumming up a hard (Continued on Page 3) class. “ If you have an honest line attitude towards the future count,” Lodge told Kalischer, prospects for the war. Testifying MANY JOIN LIST OF SPONSORS “ then we Americans, who’ve had before the Senate Foreign Rela­ lots of experience with elections, tions Committee April 20, De­ know that it can be a good thing fense Secretary McNamara pro­ and settle many questions. claimed that there would be tough­ “But if there is intimidation,” er fighting for Americans in the New York Women’s March May 7 Lodge continued, “if people as so next weeks regardless of the Viet­ often happens in this part of the namese political situation. He con­ NEW YORK — More than 150 presentation by the Bread and Manus of the National Guardian; world, are threatened with as­ ceded that the “ political stability” women from a wide range of anti­ Puppet Theater. Charlotte Pomerantz of District sassination, with kidnapping, with would probably grow worse. war and other organizations are 65, RWDSU; Wendy Reissner of torture, with maiming, which is a This line of propaganda is clear­ The extent of support being sponsoring the women’s march the City College Committee to very common thing in Southeast ly designed to make an artificial gathered for the action is indi­ against the war in Vietnam to be End the War in Vietnam; Barbara Asia — if the count is not honest, separation between the predom­ cated by the wide range of spon­ held here on Saturday, May 7, Roemer of Women Strike for if there is interference with the inantly peasant-based revolution of sors. In addition to those speaking the day before Mother’s Day. Peace; Mary Alice Styron of the ballot boxes, then of course it the National Liberation Front and at the rally, the sponsors list in­ Young Socialist Alliance; Eliza­ won’t be a success.” the revolution that is now spread­ The march, which will demand cludes: Millie Auerbach of Wom­ beth Sutherland of the Student One reason why Lodge may not ing to the city students, workers “Bring Our Men Home Now,” will en Strike for Peace; Rebecca Ber­ Nonviolent Coordinating Commit­ want Vietnamese elections was (Continued on Page 2) be preceded by a rally at the U.S. man of the Teachers Committee Armory at 33rd St. and Lexing­ for Peace in Vietnam; Leslie Cagan tee; Nancy Wakeman of the Tomp­ ton Avenue. The rally will begin of the New York University Com­ kins Square Neighbors for Peace at 12:30 in the afternoon. mittee to End the War in Vietnam; action; and Edith - Weiss of the After brief addresses by women Linda Dannenberg of the Fifth West Side Committee to Bring the active in various fields, the par­ Avenue Parade Committee; Dor­ Troops Home Now. ticipants will march across 34th othy Day of the Catholic Worker; Need Funds St. through Herald Square and Deirdre Griswold of Youth Against War and Fascism; Beatrice Han­ The sponsors have announced then to the Port Authority Ter­ that they are in urgent need of minal. The marchers plan to leaf­ sen of the Socialist Workers Par­ ty; Alice Jaffe of the W.E.B. funds to publicize the march. let and discuss with people along Their plans include a mailing, leaf­ the way and with soldiers and Du Bois Clubs; Mary Kochiyama; Sharon Krebs of the Free Uni­ let distributions, a telephone cam­ their families at the bus terminal. paign and, if possible, a prominent Among the speakers at the rally versity; Julie Lockard of the Work­ ers Defense League; Jane Me- advertisement in the New York will be: Ruth Gage Colby, an Times. officer of Women’s International Those who wish to contribute League for Peace and Freedom; immimiiiiiiiiiimiinmiiiiiiiiiiiiHimiiiiiiimiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiHi should send checks or money or­ Betty Dellinger; Barbara Deming, ders to: Committee for the Wom­ who was just expelled from Viet­ “ WASHINGTON, April en’s Peace March, 5 Beekman St., nam with A. J. Muste and other 10th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10038. 21 (AP) — The num­ pacifists; Frances Goldin of the A leaflet being distributed by Metropolitan Committee on Hous­ ber of Americans killed the committee declares in part: ing and Lower East Side Mobiliza­ in combat in the Viet­ “Join the Women’s March — tion for Peace Action; Esther Bring Our Men Home from Viet­ Newill of Women Strike for Peace; namese war has passed nam Now — More than 3,000 Dixie Bayo of the Movement for American men have already died Puerto Rican Independence; Caro­ 3 ,0 0 0 .