tO ::;J. I -)- } STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COllMITTEE 36o Nelson St. S.W. Atlanta, Georgia Jn313 . ~· . ·. ~· .~ . ...... ' " .. ::SNOO <-.FIELD REPORTS . (~~ptemhez:- 20-0ctober f\, .1966) September 26,. 1966 ALABA}ffis Atty. Jellirtek reported that :Charlie Shutes had a hear~n g in Opelika, Ala.· for f ailure t o rep·..)rt for · draft~ His trial:is set for Oet~ Uth, ·bail is ~ 1,~00. He ... • has been returned to .Atlanta ·to fWsh his sentence for participating in anti-Craft. · dem :) nstrati ~· ns here. • . " Gloria House reported that there have been numerous sho?tings in Alabama, - pro bab~ as a result of effort geared t oward c oming November elections. Candi dates are being contested as to their qualifications, and both black candidates f er state re present ~­ tive have been disqualified. There are nine other black candidates f or county offices .. There is an anti-panther party-movement within the black·middle-class community; this fact.:f,cn wants ·wilson Baker for sheriff, and ·is being-·led by Rev. Reese. Generally, Selma l~~gro es are f or Bcl.ker and the rural black people are pushing the BUick Panther. Jim Clark is running as a .write-in candidate. · · - ··LCDC seems t o be semi-outlaweo in Dallas County. Juuge refuses t o see them, tf1e~ ~ · are out-of-state lawyers with rio license to practice.· . I : . v I , I Sept eJ'!1 be r · 30; '1966 ~ .. .· i: .. ... - I .. I PINE. BllJFF, ARKANSASt :v1nee O'Connor rep8rted the f oliowillg: T .E •. Patterls.on (fanner l Exe cutive· Director· of Arkansas Teachers Assn.-Negro group)_: gained a seat o~ . Little I' Rock Schc('.l Board. He is extremely competent, moderate, of center wing in Civil Ril?t ~ . ( movement. The fact that he was elected in Little Rock 'with 23% Negro population) is a good indication of the work <:!nd effort that was put iilto his campaign; h owever, the white v ote was split over 3 candidates. It was a landslide victory in Negro c~unit~. ann whites were generally unaware of Negro activity to elect him. · · In Piil·a BlUff .krea-. ·S··NeE_{rO cRndidates,· were elec-ted to school board positions, 3 were · from· _Jeffer_sQTI ·County. 0' Cannon had met twice with el~tion c ommisioner, and Negro pnllwatcher s were ·at all p?lls to wateh· the c ountil}g .of ballots, a~th uu gh none were employed as clerks or juclges. In ··oases where Neero candi dates l ost, it seemed . to be a problem of not ~o rking hard ·\:mnu~ and no.t being orfani~ed.. .. .·; · On Sept. ·24; · 1966 there- were shocrtings m. Wabbase}ta.-as .a r esult o.f the .N~gro CCllllllUnity beginnin'g· t cJ or ganize around the is~UeS that affect .them • 1 ln the Week .. preceedi.hg shooting, ··there· w~re 3 commuhl. ty meetings, our . ot•t which . carne decisi on to ,j run Necr 9 ·candidates ·f or City C-:>uncil. The .. nomes G>f .3 of the people. inyolvetl in meet­ ings w~re shot into, no one hurt.· There seems to be gocd potentia l f or this group t o · devel0p into strong community orp.anization which will engage in pol~tic a l actinn. In the ~uture, Vince would like to see all of community groups -in c ~unty tie up. In Eudora, ·Ark., Mrs. Habel·Allen (Negro can0idate) defeated white man (Charles Hall) f or Eudora School Board positi ont · t own is So% Negro·· with small margin of Negro childr .. en in maj•Jrity-. Her electi':'n was result· 'Of concerted campaign by Negro_es of Eudora. ·• NESBIT, MISs. Ransome .Moore · reported the following& : On. Sunday, Sept. 24, 1966 while he was in MemJ:Xlis, - Tenn. ~ Gr e ytl.)und Bu-s Station, he was arrested f er "Disturbing the Peace." Incident evolved out of him simply having a ·Black Power button on, which · attracted the a~tenti on of s ome bL~ck y0uths who questioned him about meanillg of but­ ton. Ransome began· talking.. a1x'ut concept of Black Power while groups. of .· boys li stene~ . intently; at this time,· a" worker at bus station dashed insid~, 15 ~inutes l _ater 2 cop.:;_;_· carne up, arrested Ransome, ; ·jailed him ··f or 1 hour_. He was ba;tled out, 4au court hear-. ing in l1emphis on Wed~ · Sept. 21.1 ! found .guilty· of "Disturbing· Peace" and fined ~16 .00 • . .. In Nesbit (Bisota County) Miss. he is beginning t o work on A~CS elections, a Rev. c Dalford is running for School Board there. 2 Sept. 30, 1966 (continued) r PHILf, DELPHI A ~ PENN. SNCC Johnny Wilson r eported the f ollowine : Atty. Cecil B.. Hoore ( (NAACP Pres.) has t aken the case of Billy Paul Williams (see Sepecial Phila. Report). SNCC held a r ally Wed. nieht, Sept. 28, 1966, attempted t o mobilize support and ge ·~ f orce t o a ttend hearing f or Billy Paul on Thurs de~ y morning, bept. 29. On Thurs. m ~::rn. the c ourt-room was full, Cecil Hoore made mockery of police, judge, a nd whole juciicia l system. All charges were dropped except interfering with officer, bail was l owered to ~300.00. Philly SNCC is n(•W in process of f orming Legal Defense Fund f or Poor People, and first meeting has been held • . Also f orming core of black lawyers t o work with Le gal Defense Fund, want to develop programs whert:l these lawyers can be militant, defend militant blacks, a~d still ·survive. October 3, 1966 GREEN COUNTY, ALABAMA Ral[.h Brown reported the f ollowing: There have been t-ent burnings there, the first· cme occurred about three or f our weeks ago. The second t ent. was burned Friday; Sept. 30, it belonge<.l . t o Z.1r~ Manse Bell and f amily, no one was hurt~ but the ~ll family l ost all cf their possessions. A young· 18 year ol d boy (Willie Jame Cooper) wa s killed: last Monday (Sept~ · 26)' in FoJ.kland, Greene County. It is be- : lieved that he was killed becau~e some Ne groes had run a few white men out of there · about a week before that,~ ~d this was probably a retaliatory ~ct. His body had been c. laid on road and was s o badly mutilated that cause of deatq coutd 1_1 nt be determined. Tents are n r>w pitched at Falkland, Ala. on highway: there are 4.families, t otaling 23 people (16 children) !bn 2 tents. There is no well, nor inside t oilets, etc. The · ·· · Green County Freedom Organization is runping candidates for sheriff, tax assesor, and the school board of Green County• ( October 6, 1966 NESBIT, "HISS. Rvnsome l-1oore rtported the f ollowing: On Monday, Oct. 3, Mr. Charles Murdock (Negr o) pulled in car up in front of J c-n.es Store, and as he went l.n, Mrs. J cne. called him a black M•. .f~ Hurdock then spoke to Hr.- J ones about incident, telling him to instruct his wife not to hurl r acial epithets at him. An arBUJ!lent deve l oped bet Hee: Murdock and J ones, mecmwJlile l1rs. J ones called cops. Murdock returned t o his homA, · and · cops went there, beean to argue with Hurdock and proceeded t o beat him. After t he cops put Murdock into police car, l-1rs. l-lurdock questioned them as t o why they were t aking him, ~at charg~ s were. etc. One of cops hit Mrs. Murdock, she hit him back, and both Mr. and }1rs. Murdock were ..t aken t o jail, arrested ·and ch~ g ed_ - ~with the f ollo;.li.ng : "disturbing p~a ce, 11 11 disor deT,·ly \:'6ndu:;t n ·ttresisting arr~ st 'n•; and' H~triking office:r-. 11 Bond was set 1£t ~BOO.OQ ! of Mrs. i-lurd c;> ck · arid . ~1200.()(} rdr· ~. }iurdock; the··commun.i+.y raised bai~ money ann ·kcJt them out; ·" r · -.._ · . · Bob Lewell · (~hite "FDP .worker) ·was arrested in Bisota City, as he was standing in fr ~mt . of store talking ·t .o group of Negroes. _The .cops carne . by, arre::>tf:d him f or "disturbi!l pE:ace, 11 and "inciting t o riot," since they se~iu 3 or more people were . gathe:req, he is no~·· ou~ q! ·jail. .· · . · · Rans~e l-loore is 'only SNCC worker in ·Nesbit area, working nnder difficult condi.:. tions • . Former SNCC workers are going ~hr pugh community (Nesbit, Bisota Cty., and . Marshall Cty!l') making ~1 isparagine r E?marks ·about SNcc: · · JACKSON FDP: GPester Taylor .. r eporlecl ,the followings There will be public protest meeting Sat·.; Oct. ~ .. 1966 for CDGH ·(see fo~lowing report) ; there is a N~w York Corp­ porati'on sti-ll supporting CDCM, . so· \her~ .is ·: a chanc'e it may still be able to survivG, without federPl support. ··i FDP is without. funds ancl .unable. to function properly. • . 1.·· ' . •. L.. .;. • - L . •.. r ·.... i. ·. ..._,, I . I • 3 SITU.ATtON IN MISSISSIPPT CONC F.miiNG CDGH .At-m NEw "MJ;SS . ACTION FOR PP.OGRES~ .. ... .. October 8, 1966 ,. Ther• i s a current drive on to kill the CDGM, and t o r epluce it with. t.lt ~:: ·newly · f nnned }_li ssi s ;:; i!n i Actit•n f 0r Prr-rr e ss,. This move has D.l.J}'r t:ntly beE:: n r·r wmized by Sen st·ennis of ltiss~-j the: · whit £~ }!iss.