ON PAGE TWO

jUL y 22. 1964VOL. 5 NO.17 Ji-~3- 6 Raymond Street. N. W. Atlanta. Georgia 30314STUDENT VOICE. INC.

IN GREENWOOD

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RUINS OF JERUSALEM BAPTIST AND BETHEL METHODISTCHURCHES in Kingston. near Natchez. The tWo churches are among10 burned or bombed in Mississippi since the Mississippi SummerProject began.

.FLASHI At press timeSTUDENT

VOICE learned that three morechurches have been bombed inMississippi. Details and pic-tures next week.

GREENWOOD POLICE drag pregnant rights worker during aFreedom Day to increase Negro voter registration.

GREENWOOD. MISS -Anotherchurch burning in Mississippi onJuly 17 raises the total burnedor -bombed to 10, t SNCC re-

FEDERAL PROTECTION

GREENWOOD. ML5S. -In whatSNCC Executive Secretary JamesForman described as "flagrantviolations of the 1960 and 1964Civil Rightf! Acts and the FirstAmendment." III local Negroes.SNCC workers, and MississippiSummer Project volunteers werearrested here after a FreedomDay on July 16.

Greenwood since 1962. Green-wood's first "Freedom Day" washeld March 25, and resulted inthe arrests of 14 workers andlo-cal residents. A second "Free-dom Day" was held April 9;46 persons were arrested.

The jailings were made as in-tegrated groups picketed the Le-flore County Courthouse, carry-ing signs urging Negroes to reg-CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

ported this week.The most recent burning oc-

cured in McComb. July 17 whenthe Zion Hill Baptist Churchburned to the ground. The chur-ch. located west of McComb onRoute 44. had not been used forcivil rights activity.

Two other burnings occurredCONTINUED ON PAGE 3

An injunction prohibiting as-sembltes of three or more per-sons in any public place; morethan 90 arrests in one week;continuing official and unofficialintimidation and brutality; thesehave temporarily slowed theSNCC project inSelma.Alabama.but such obstacles are not newin Selma.

The first large voter registra-tion drive in this Black Beltcommunity began last SeptemberIt involved regularly held massmeetings a~ night. and marcheson the courthouse during the day.Local officials regularly attend-ed the mass meetings and tooknotes and photos. (At a rallyearlier in the year. one officialcame with a walkie-talkie overwhich he reported events to Coun-ty Sheriff James Clark.) AroundlOO deputies and possemen--Clark's brown-shirted army ofdeputized local citizens -alsowere regularly massed outsidethe meeting halls.

On Sept. 23. 21 carloadEof state troopers. close to 75men. and one van-type emer-gency unit arriyed in Selma a::Sheriff Clark's request. Thehead of the state troopers. Col.Al Lingo, is an old friend ofSheriff Clark's and the tWo haveassisted one another throughoutAlabama. That night as Negroesleft the mass meeting and filedby some 100 possemen. 19 statetrooper cars passed them., tWotroopers in each car. carbinesprotruding from the front windowof each car.

During the day. Sheriff Clarkhad arrested close to iOOdemon-strators and others who werehelping in the vote drive. "Weare going to put them in jailtill it fills up..' Clark explained.

Demonstrator is arrested by police in front of Dallas County Courthouse.

A line during Fret

"Then we will put them in CampSelma till that fills up. Then wewill put them in Camp Camden."Clark was referring to two stateprison road camps.

On Oct. 7. the vote driveculminated in a Freedom Day.

In the morning. Sheriff Clarkand two possemen arrested onthe Federal courthouse steps two5NCC workers who were carry... ~

ing signs urging people to re-gister.

By noon more than 300 Ne-groes stood in line, waiting totake the registration test. Statetroopers would not perm it them toleave the line for food. water, orto go to the e toilet.

in the afternoon. two SNCCworkers attempted to bring foodto the Negroes in the line. Asthey approached the line. statetroopers attacked and beat them.knocking the two to the ground.and shocking them with electriccattle prods. Then they weredragged off under arrest. Twophotographers who attempted to

r

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~dom Day in October.

photograph the arrests were at-tacked with nightsticks by police.

By 4:30. when the registrar'soffice was closed, less than 40applications were processed.

In December. Sheriff Clark andother county officials tried to geta court subpoena to seize all ofSNCC's records from theirSelmaoffice. A Federal court deniedtheir request. But on Dec. 16Clark, Circuit Solicitor Blan~chard McLeod. , and five otherpersons raided the SNCC officeanyway, seizing records and af-fidavits from their files and alsoarresting nine persons. Thenthey broke into the FreedomHouse where SNCC workers live,and wrecked the place.

Selma is an old Southern citythat was founded 40 years beforethe Civil War and became an im~portant military depot during thewar. War industries were es-tablished an9 the county furnishedthe Confederate army with 10infantry. six cavalry and fourartillery companies.

Dallas County has long had aplantation economy and even to-day the county Is 49.9% rural.Two-thirds of the rural popula..tion Is Negro.

Median family income Is only$1393. 35% of that for whItes.Median school years completedfor Negroes Is 5.8 .50 %of that for whItes.

In Sept. .1963. only 242 of14.509 voting age Negroes in thecounty were registered. or 1.7%In 1956. 275 Negroes:' Ne, wereregIstered. According to aJustice Department suIt. in thesix years from 1954 to 1960the Dallas County Board of Reg-Istrars regIstered more than.2.000 whItes but only 14Negroes.

The JustIce Department hasfour cIvil suIts pending in DallasCounty. The first. filed in April1961. Is against the regIstrarNho was charged wIth II systema-

,Ic discrImInation against Negro:-egIstration applicants," ac-:ording to Burke Marshall.Though the 5th Circuit Court ofAppeals dIrected the dIstrIctcourt to Issue an injunction. thisinjunctIon has not had an effecton regIstratIon practices. Thedepartment has now filed for anenforcement proceeding and ahearing is set for Oct. 5.

In June 26. 1963. the depart-ment filed a suit against DallasCounty, charging its officIalswith l'intimIdation of voter reg-Istration workers by the sheriffand county prosecuting attorneyby means of baseless arrests."

Then last Nov. 12 the JusticeDepartment filed suits againstthe Circuit SolIcItor Blan-chard McLeod and againstthe Dallas County Citizens Coun..cil. It saId the regIstration boardrejected many qualifIed NegroesCONTINUED ON PAGE 3

STUDENT VOICE JUL y 22. 1963 PAGE 3

Young Mississippian is shown at one of the

Coo.

***II ShaW. July 11 -A Negro manI wasOFered $400 to blow up theCOFO office here.SNCC workers

report.

***

Canton. July 11 -A small:e bomb was thrown on thewn of the Freedom House here.

~-ctarksdale. July, 11. -JackPratt. attorney for the NationalCouncil of Churches. was ar-rested here on two traffic charg-es.

SNCC worker Cordell Reagon talks to pro..S'"pective Mississ.ippi voter.

I pledge $- to tbe Studen~ Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

NAME. ADDRESS I CITY. I STATE. Contributors to SNCC receive a subscription to tbe Student Voice.

Send to: SNCC, 6 Raymond Street. N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30314 o

By mid-summer more than 900 full time workerswill be engaged in the Mississippi SummerProject. There will be 31 Freedom Schools withan enrollment of over 2,000 students.

YOu CAN HELP. SUPPORT SNCC.

Freedom Schools in the state.I --S E L M A T E R R O R voter registration meetings, of

I using economic sanctions againsti CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 Negroes, and of resisting Federaland said county officials threa- attempts to enforce the Civiltened. intimidated and coerced Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960.Negroes ..for the purpose of in- These last three suits are alsoterfering with the right to reg- still in the courts.ister and vote.'. The Dallas County Citizens

The Citizens' Council was Council is the largest in tie state.charged with preventing Negroes Last October it had 3,000 mem-from registering and attending bers.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

near Natchez. in Kingston. onJuly 13. completely destroyingthe Jerusalem Baptist Church andthe Bethel Methodist Church.Adams CountySheriffO'DellSan-ders said the blazes were de-finitely arson.

Only two days before the Nat-chez fires. the Pleasant PlanMissionary Baptist Church wasburned in Browning. nearGreen-wood. SNCC workers said localpolicemen and firemen watchedwhile the building burned to theground. They said local whiteshad tried to buy the concretebuilding from BrowningNegroes.but had been told the church wasnot for sale.

The other attacks were:June IS. the recreation hall of

the Rosary Catholic Mission inHattiesburg was burned. SNCChas been conducting a voter reg-istration drive in Hattiesburgfor more than a year.

June 16. in Philadelphia. theMount Zion Methodist Churchwas razed to the gFound. A weekbefore the burning. whites hadattacked Negroes leaving even-ing services at the church. It'Has the ruins of the buildingthat three missing rights workershad come to inspect the day theyvanished.

June 21. the Sweet RestChurchof Christ (Holiness) in Brandonwas damaged by a fire bomb.

ed by fire that same day.June 26, a church in Clinton,

near Jackson, was set on fire.SNCC workers said the arso-

nists probably believed the chur-ch's whitepastor, a Rev. Yonkerswas connected with civil rightsactivity. On that same day, ar-sonists attempted to burn the Mc-Craven Hill Missionary BaptistChurch in Jackson.

The Knights of Pythias Hallin Moss Point was firebombedon June 23. The building hadbeen used for civil rights activity.On July 6, whites fired into a:nass meeting held there, injur-ing a Negro girl.

Elsewhere, police in Elm City,N .C., arrested two white men theycaught trying to burn the FirstPresbyterian Church of Elm City.The Negro church is being re-novated by an integrated groupdespite warnings from JamesP. Jones, Grand Dragon of theNorth Carolina Ku Klux Klansagainst integrated projects at thechurch.

In Southwest Georgia, threeNegro churches werere-dedicat-ed bySNCCworkersandDr.Mar-tin Luther King, Jr. two weeksago. They had been destroyedby fire two years ago afterSNCCused them for voter registration

***Laurel July 11 -While police

and! members of the

NAACP youth chapter. testing the1964 Civil Rights Act here.

***Tal1ulah. La.. July 11 -

Two bodies -one headless. oneapparently cut in half -werefished from the Mississippi RiverBoth were later identified as

Mississippi youths not connected ,

with the civil rights movement.

I...

Natchez. July 12 -Two chur-

ches burned (see separate story)....

Hattiesburg, July 13 -A young~egro, active with the movement. !/{as released here after spendingfour months in jail on a rapecharge. A grand jury refusedto indict him. His lawyers i,n-dicated that this may be the firstinstance a Negro has ever beenacquitted of a charge of raping'a Mississippi white woman. :

..*8iloxi. July 14 -The drivers

of~ carloads of civil righ.sworkers were arrested on traf-fic charges here.

...Meridian, July 14 -Nine Ne-

groes convicted of blocking as;dewalk have asked the FifthCircuit Court of Appeals to re-"nove their cases to Federalcourt.

S'IUDENT VOICEPAGE 4

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WORKER Monroe Sharp is dragged to a Greenwood police

DAY

WASHINGTON. D.C.-TheJus-tice Department was asked to"confess error.. in its prose-cution of nine civil rights lead-ers in a petition bearing 7.000names. presented to Burke Mar-shall here this week.

The petition charges Negroesare systematically excluded fromFederal juries in the South.

The nine were indicted by aFederal grand jury in Albany.Ga. last year on perjury andconspiracy charges. The gov-vernment 'I1 alleged that they hadconspired to injure the businessof a white man who had servedon a jury that returned a favor-able verdict for a south Georgiasheriff accused of shooting a Ne-gro.

All the defendants have beenconvicted. and are appealing theircases.

One defendant is Joni Rabino-witz. a SNCC worker.

ances in Mississippi.

reet. ,Perlman received a large gash

II his forehead from a chain.~d ran to the office of Philadel-~~a Sheriff Rainey for help. The~riff sent a deputy. who failedmake any arrests.'

"if

Federal agencies and depart-ments to refrain fromspeeches before racially segre-gated audiences.

The Atlanta-basedgroup had previously beencessful in getting National Aero~nautic and Space AgencyJames Webb; baseball to those who want them."Musial; musicians Gary Graff~ Among those jailed wereSNCCman, David Bar ll1an and Elea~ program director CourtlandCox,nor Steber; CONTINUED FROM PAGE Second Congressional Districtth " B II d " B 1e on~,nza an ever y ister to vote. project director StokeleyCarmi~Hillbillies show~; jazz trum- On July 17. 35 Negroes stood chael, SNCC workers Frank

MOBILE. ALA. -A JusticeDe- :ter AI Hirt, Congress- in line all day outside the court-" Smith. Iris Gteenberg .Gwenpartment attempt to enjoin 28 an .Robert McClory (R. house. No one picketed. but those Gillon. Eli Zaretsky. and Char-white Wilcox County. Alabama III.) , I in line wory signs urging in- les Neblett.landowners from banning from Gassner (Ya e). registration attempts. In June. 1963. the U.S. De-their property Negroes who par= ~r) and are no longer satisfied partment of Justice filed suits in

ticipated in a Student Nonviolent verbal support... Forman Federal court to restrainGreen-Coordinating Committee (SNCC) said. "We want a visible de~ wood and Leflore County offi~registration drive was dismissed monstration by the Government cials from using their arrest po-by a Federal judge here on July 9. PHILADELPHIA. MISS. -Two o the United States that peace- wers to interfere with voter re-

U.s. District Judge Daniel Tho- white men -one a summer VOI- 1 fl voter registration activities gistration activity. The suit ismas gave the government until unteer -were beaten with ~ 11 be protected and assured still pending.July 30 to amend its original chains a block from the city hall Greenwood and Leflore Countypetition. July 17. have a history of anti--civil rights

The complaint said the 28 white The two -Daniel Perlman. 23. activity. Aug. 26, 1962 the SNCCmen had prohibited a Negro in- of New York City. and David 01 office here was attacked bysurance agent. Lonnie Brown. Welsh. 28. of Detroit -had left al white men carrying ropes andfrom collecting insurance pre- the office of a white Philadelphia pi chains. In Feb.. 1963. SNCCmiums from Negroes liying on attorney when two middle-aged SI worker Jimmy Travis was ma-their property. white men attacked them on the to, chine -gunned by three white

, men. In March. 19631 three

SNCC workers were shotatwhilethey were sitting in a car. Thatsame month. the SNCC officehere was set on fire.

There are 10.274 whites and13.567 Negroes of voting age inLenore County. Ninety-five andone-half percent of the whitesare registered voters. but only1.9% of the eligible Negrfes havebeen permitted to pass Mississ-ippi's voting test.

In nearby Drew, at least 20other civil rights supporterswere still being held behind bars.in lieu of bail totaling $3.500.They were arrested on July 15after police ordered them froma church and a vacant lot. Sum-mer worker Len Edwards re-ported that the White Citizens.Council had held a meeting inDrew shortly before the rightsworkers had been arrested.

D!5JDa~ 'tL D~UDI~V

.MoN '~aaJ~S pUOWJ.D~ 9

WASHINGTON. D.C. -A s1x-month campa1gn by the StudentNonv1olent Coordinating Com-m1ttee (SNCC) topreventgovern~ment off1c1als and others fromappearing before segregatedlud1ences inM1ss1ss1ppi appears

to have scored a majorcess.

Wh1te House SpecialLee White circulated