OUTHER CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE Volume 1 August, 1963 Number 11 Birmingham Moves To End Segregation As Voter Drive Mounts The last vestiges of segregation be­ gan crumbling in Birmingham, Ala., on July 30 as lunch counters in the down­ town shopping area and outlying sub­ urban communities began desegregat­ ing their facilities and serving Negroes without incident. The move was part of a four-point settlement plan agreed to on May 10 following a crucial five weeks of non-violent demonstrations, mass jailings and the use of fire hoses and vicious K-9 corps police dogs. The integration of Birmingham's lunch counters in 14 stores within a two-day period Artist's sketch (above) of new churches being erected on site of ruins of bombed and burned out churches in Southwest Georgia is imposing structure. Below, Jackie Robinson (foreground) and Rev. followed closely earlier "good faith" efforts Wyatt Tee Walker examine ruins of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Terrell County, Georgia. on the part of Birmingham authorities to live up to the agreement. Within a few days after . •, ;. :::~ /' the settlement was reached, the following were accomplished: 1.) Fitting rooms were desegregated (within three days). 2.) White-Negro signs were removed from drinking fountains and public rest rooms (with­ in 30 days) . 3.) Public golf courses, closed by the city following a court order last year that they be desegregated, were re-opened voluntarily with four of the city's seven links thrown open on an integrated basis. Moved Swiftly While the city had 90 days within which to (Continued on Page 3) File Biggest Vote Suit Washington, D. C.-The Justice Dept. filed its largest voting registration suit to date on July 31, urging a Federal court Begin Rebqilding Bombed Churches to order the immediate registration of more than 2,000 Birmingham, Ala., Negroes. Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy said the Rebuilding of three Negro churches which were destroyed by bombings and suit, filed in U. S. District Court in Birming­ fire nearly a year ago in Southwest Ga. areas entered construction stages last ham, demanded that local registration of­ month as building materials were hauled to the site of the leveled churches by ficials be ordered to stop discriminating the Blaylock McKinnon Construction firm of Albany, Ga. and Jacksonville, Fla. against Negro applicants. Birmingham is the largest city in which the department has The three churches -the Shady Grove Baptist Church in Lee County, Ga., sought through court action to obtain equal and the Mount Olive and Mount Mary Baptist Churches in Terrell County, Ga. voting rights for Negroes. were the targets of racists' bombs and arson The Birmingham suit was the 43rd such after their facilities were used as voter regis­ determined that the will of a free society voting suit filed and the eighth in Alabama. tration headquarters in mid-summer, 1962. would overcome race hatred and utter dis­ Discrepancies in Birmingham Negro­ In contrast to the hate-inspired destruction regard for God's Houses Of Worship. white registration totals show only 14,000 of the religious sanctuaries, their restoration Spearheading the drive to re-build the Negroes on the voter rolls out of 116,000 churches was one-time Brooklyn Dodger base­ eligible, while about 120,000 whites are is a tribute to the hand-in-hand working of registered out of 256,300 eligible. Americans, both white and black, who were (Continued on Page 6) Record 125,000 DETROIT REPORTS CASH-Making the first financial report following Detroit's huge fund-raising civil rights rally on June 23 in Convention Hall, Walk In Detroit Rev. William Carleton Ardrey (left), a representative of the sponsoring What very well could have been group, turns over checks amounting to a dress rehearsal for the upcoming $27,604.45 to officials of Southern planned March on Washington on Au­ Christian Leadership Conference, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President gust 28 took place in downtown De­ (center) and Rev. Rolph D. Abernathy, troit on June 23 when a teeming, but Treasurer (right). Amount reported orderly, mass of some estimated 125,­ was first of several to be mode by the ooo persons joined together in a mighty rally sponsors. "Freedom Walk" which ended at Coho Hall where a jam-packed audience gathered to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak. It was the biggest demonstration in the "Motor City" since 1936 when a rally was moved to devote bold, banner headlines and moth parade ended, Dr. King addressed a held for the late U. S. President Franklin pages of pictures and stories on the historical standing-room-only audience that spilled out Delano Roosevelt. "walk," which was led by SCLC President into adjacent, smaller halls, while many in The record-shattering turnout, which broke Martin Luther King, Jr., and had in its front the multitude listened to his message over loud­ all previous marks in terms of crowd size, was lines such dignitaries as UAW President speakers installed outside the rally hall. sponsored by the Detroit Council For Human Walter Reuther, Mayor Jerome P. Cava­ The gigantic assembly was staged without Relations, which had as its chairman Rev. naugh and former Governor John B. Swain­ incident, and police later commented that it C. L. Franklin. son of Michigan. was "the most orderly, peaceful crowd" that Banner Headlines At Convention Hall where the super-mam- Detroit bad ever experienced. So impressive was the great swarm of hu­ manity that the Detroit daily newspapers were Expect 100~000 To Participate In March On Washington Aug. 28 Machinery was set in motion early this month for what will probably be the largest gathering of human beings ever assembled in history in the nation's Capital in a demonstrative demand for an end to discrimination and segregation as it affects minority groups. The expected gathering of more than 100,000, scheduled for August 28 in Washington, D. C., is being jointly sponsored by The Southern Christian Leader­ ship Conference, Martin Luther King, Jr., president; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Roy Wilkins, executive secretary; The Na­ tional Urban League, Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director; the Negro American Labor Council, A. Phillip Randolph, president; the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer, national director; and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Com­ Act to bar job discrimination by Federal, State mittee, John Lewis, chairman. and Municipal Governments, and by private employers, contractors, employment agencies Purpose Given and trade unions. The purpose of the march, officially titled, 3.) Broadening of the Federal Fair Labor "March On Washington for Jobs and Free­ Standards Act to include the uncovered areas dom," and called for on July 12 by the above of employment where Negroes and other mi­ mentioned national leaders is all-inclusive in norities work at slave wages; and the estab­ its aims. It intends to show by a massive, lishment of a national minimum wage of not peaceful and democratic demonstration in the less than $2.00 per hour. nation's Capital that there is evidence of the need for the Federal Government to take President Backs March effective and immediate action to deal with While there have been some members of the national crisis of jobs and civil rights that Congress who have spoken against the March, Negroes as well as whites are presently facing. President Kennedy .. bas expressed the view that In the area of civil rights, Negro leaders it should take place and that he feels certain have agreed that these demands be met: that it will be an orderly and peaceful demon­ 1.) Passage by Congress of effective and stration. This feeling was also shared by Police meaningful civil rights legislation in the present Chief Robert V. Murray of Washington, D. C. session, without filibuster. who has offered the full cooperation of the 2.) An end to police brutality directed District force with Negro leaders and par­ against citizens using their constitutional right ticipants. of peaceful demonstration. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of SCLC Make Job Demands summed it up succinctly by stating that this Where jobs are concerned, the group of "is not a march to intimidate congressmen Negro leaders are asking for the following: considering President Kennedy's civil right's 1.) A massive Federal Public Works Pro­ bill." gram to provide jobs for all the unemployed, "This will be," he said, "a dignified, disci­ plined march followed by creative lobbying, Mighty moss of humanity spills all over down­ and Federal legislation to promote an expand­ ing economy. and it will have a positive effect on civil town Woodward Ave., in Detroit as thousands rights." joined parade, singing hymns and spirituals. 2.) A Federal Fair Employment Practices 2 Miss. Negroes Denied Vote TEACHING TEACHERS-Demonstrat­ ing at the blackboard the elementary techniques that teachers should know Protest On Election Day in carrying back the Citizenship Edu­ cation program to their communities, By Annell Ponder Mrs. Eliza Seymore of South Carolina Thousands of Negroes who have been shows a fellow teacher the proper art denied the right to vote throughout the of writing during class at Dorchester Mississippi Delta area staged a mass pro­ Center in Mcintosh, Georgia. School test in spotted sections over the state on will conduct five-day workshop be­ August 6, the state's Primary Election day. ginning Aug. 18 (see story below) . Their protests were made under a Missis­ sippi law which provides that any person who feels he has been illegally denied the right to register to vote may present an affidavit indicating that belief to the man­ 'Citizenship School' Schedules Five-Day ager of elections on election day and seek permission to vote.