THE STUDENT VOICE VOL. 5, NO. 23 STUDENT VOICE. INC 6 R .. ymond Strut. N . W. AILlnt •. Ceorgia JOJl4 December, 1964 DEMS TO TRY TOI IOUST DEFECTORS MFDP CONTESTS WASHINGTON, D. C.-- r\ group of Democratic Con­ gressman are attempting, MISS. SEATING to throw out two members of their party. Liberal Democratic con­ Freedom Party Calls Elections Void gressmen are trying to WAS HI NG TON , D.C. -- Mississippi is illegally a pu r ge Mississippi Can ~ member of the Union. So says the MissiSSippi Free ­ gressman John Bell Wil­ dom Ue mocratic Party (MfDP). The state-wide party liams and South Carolina il; challenging recent el~ctians in MissiSSippi. Congressman Albert Wat­ The MFUP contends that son, two Democrats who primary e lections held in e leC tions, contending they supported Republican pre­ MJsslosippi June 2 and t he are null and void since sidential candidate Barn g e n era 1 election held they excluded Negroes Goldwater. :'\ovember 3 are void, from the electoral oro­ Members of the Liberal Thl.' F re..:Llulll Parry is cess. They are also "con­ Study Group are asking the ~ll::;o contesting the beating testing" the seating of Democratic caucus in the of three Misl;isoippi Con­ three Mississippi con­ House of Reoresentati ves gressmen. !/,ressmen on the grounds to deprive Williams and Mrs. Finnie Lou Hamer the three were not elected Watson of theiJ.--status as of RuleVille, Mrs. Annie in a free and open elec­ Democrats , to remove De vine of Canton and Mrs. tion. Mrs. Hamer, Mrs. them from Committee Victoria Gray of Hatties­ Devine and Mrs. Gray posts and deprive them of burg have asked the House charge that they are the seniority. of Representatives to r e­ on ly true representatives Williams is the second fuse to seat their oppo­ since their election was the ranking member of th e nents, Jamie Whitten of the only one "open to all citi­ Ho use Interstate and FOr­ 2nd District, Prentiss zens" • eign Commerce Commit­ Walker of the 4th, and Wil­ The notice of contest was tee and serves on the House liam Colmer of the 5th. formally served on the District of Columbia Com­ The election of Thomas t h r e e congressmen. De­ mittee. Watson is a mem­ Ahernethy of the i st Dis­ MRS. F Al\'"IE LUL" liAh-I E H. (center) and athel' members cembel' 5, ill a(.;co nJance ber of the Post Office and of the MFDP dele.\1,ation at Atlantic City. A 68-man­ trict and John Bell Wil­ with Title 2 of the United Civil Service Committees. strong MFDP delegation challenged the right of the liams of the 3rd is also States Code, Section 201. The Democl-atic Caucus all-white party to represent MISSISSIPPI at tile National being challenged. Walker Under the statute, the for­ is composed of all House Convention. Is a Republ1can; the others mal notice of contest must Democrats. are Democrats. be filed within 30 days af­ The three women can­ ter certification of the re­ didates and the MFDP have sults of an election. Congressman to Object Charged that the election The contested members Grass Roots Party "violates the Constitution then have thiny days to To Miss. Reps. Seating and laws of the Un ited reply which would be on S tat e s because Negroes o r about January 2, 1965. Swells Membership WASHINGTON, D.C. -­ th rouJ;Z:ho ut the state ar The l aw then provides Mississippi .•• were sys­ JACKSON, MISS. -- From its founding convention here A New York Congressman for fony days in which the tematically and a 1 m 0 s t last April. the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party has announced here that he MFDP can gather testi­ would object to the swear­ totally excluded from the mony to support its case. (MFD?) has grown to become the state's largest grass­ electoral process •... " roots organi zation. ing in of five so-called The Freedom Party may Technically, the MFDP At a state-wide convention here April 26, 1964, o~er congressmen-elect fr om use federal subpoena power Mississippi on January 4, is " c hallenging" [he elec­ to take testimony in public 200 people representing nearly every part of Mississippi tion and "contesting" the agreed to establish the MFDP. They elected a tem­ 1964 when Congress con­ hearings throughout the venes. seating of three repre­ state. These hearings could porary state executive committee of 15 people (3 from sentatives. That is, the each congressional district) a nd named Dr. Aaron Democratic Congress­ run until about February Freedom Party is "chal­ Henry, a Clarksdale dentist and P resident of the State man William F. Ryan stated 20, 1965. The contested lenging" the state-run Conference of NAACP Branches, President. that he would propose to the (continued on page 2) A s tate-wide "Freedom Vote" in November, 1963 House that nocongressman had laid the broad base the MFDP now operates from. be sworn in to occupy the In that "Freedom Vote", over 80,000 people cast state's seats "until a full ...- - ballots for Dr. Henry, Freedom Vo te Candidate for and exhaustive invesCiga­ Governor, and the Reverend Edwin King, Freedom Vote tion of the evidence has Candidate for Lt. Governor. been completed by Con­ From that meeting last April came the decision to gress." challenge the regular white Democratic delegation from The New York Congress­ Mississippi at the National Democratic Convention at man. who visited Missis­ Atlantic City. and run four Negro candidates in the June Sippi this summer.. stated 2 De mocratic Primarv. that he would move to have The four - Mrs: Victoria Gray and the Reverend the Mississippi "repre­ John Earle Cameron, both of Hattiesburg; Mrs. Fannie sentatives" remain seated Lou Hamer of Ruleville and J ames M Houston of during the swearing-in Vicksburg - ran against white candidates i~ the primary ceremony. This would be and were defeated. followed by a resolution The Atlantic City challenge by the MFDP received asking fo r [h e unseating world-wide attention. as a 60-man-strong MFDP dele­ until all the evidence is in. gation, pledged to suppo rt the national Democratic As provided by the Con­ party, fought for seats with the rebel all-white state stitution, the House alone Democratic Party .~roup. Although the MFDP pledged "shall be the Judge of the (c ontinued on paj2;e 4J (continued on pa)l;e 2) The Freedom Vote PAGE 2 present it to the House COitested EI,ctlon of Representatives In the (continued from page 1) form of a resolution, The representatives then have· entire process should be completed by July, 1965, an equal amount of time for testimony under the The MFDP is also chal­ same conditions. They lenging' the elections of June 2 and November 3 on may take testimony until about March 20. the grounds they violated the 1870 Compact between The MFDP then has ten Mississippi and the Con­ days to take rebuttal testi­ gress of the United States, many. On or about April The Freedom Democrats I, all the evidence must contend that in the. Act of be formally mailed to the F£bruary 23, 1870, Miss­ Clerk of the House of Re­ issippi was allowed to re­ presentatives. The panies enter the Union on the con­ concerned are personally dition that it would never called before the clerk to change its Constitution, decide how much of the which at that time pro­ testimony will become a vided for universal male part of the official record. suffrage with simple re­ The printed record is sidence and age require­ distributed to the House ments. Subcomminee on Elections Under the compact the and P riviledges of the State of Mississippi was H a use Administration to abide by the conditions CommiCtee. The Freedom of the Act "in gootl faith Democrats have thirty days (as) a condition ... to the to file their brief before representation of the state the subcommittee and the in Congress," contested parties ha ve The MFDP char~es that thirty days to answer. s ince 1890 the state of At this point the Sub­ Mississippi has " arro­ committee on Elections and gantly reputliatetl its Priviledges has full juris­ solemn compact with the diction over the matter. congress of the United THE STATE-WIDE MFDP Convention in April. 1964. Over 200 people from acraS. the The subcommittee may States ... " by the al most state met to offiCially form the party, an outgrowth of the November, 1963 Freedom hold public hearings, The totally disenfranchisin~ Vote, The MFDP Is now the largest grass roots organization in Mississippi. subcommittee will then the Negro citizen.,; of the vote on its position and state, , "We are not asking Con­ the procedure in which a gress to punish Mississip­ member of the House may Congressman Objects pi," said Lawrence Guyot, object to the oath being Scenes of the South ~':\ cJ~' ('-'~" C h air man of the Miss­ administered to a contest­ (continued from page 1) issippi Freedom Demo­ ed Congressman. The elections, Returns and cratic Party. speaker can then instruct Qualifications of its own "We are merely asking the contested person to re­ Members," Under House in our challenges that the main seated while the precedent, any Congress­ House recognize the simple ochers are sworn in. man can rise and object to fact that the rigidly segre­ A resolution may next be the oath of office being ga ted and undemocratic introduced which provides, given to another Congress­ political system in that in all fairness, no one man-elect.