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NEWS RELEASE
Voter Education Project
5 Forsyth Street, N. w.
Atlanta, Georgia
Ja. 5-0595 or Ja. 2-8764
FOR RELEASE:
All Papers
Sunday
March 31, 1963
The Voter Education Project released today a chronological listing of 64 acts of violence and intimidation against
Negroes in Mississippi since January 1961.
Almost all of
the incidents are directly related to efforts by Negroes
to register to vote.
The last item on the list is the March 27 dispersal
by Greenwood policemen and their dogs of Negro registration
applicants, and the jailing of registration workers.
"We are sure this is not a complete list," said Wiley
A. Branton, Director of the Voter Education Project.
"It
does demonstrate conclusively, however, the pattern of
discrimination and violence which exists in Mississippi, and
makes Constitutional rights virtually inoperative in that
state."
The listing, he pointed out, does not include the riot
at the University of Mississippi last fall, nor subsequent
harassment of James Meredith.
"All the world knows that
story, as it does the earlier stories of Emmett Till and
Mack Parker.
This listing, nearly all of which has been
compiled from the daily press, shows that what happened at
the University should have been expected by anyone familiar
with the Mississippi record."
News Release - 2.
Because of the near-fatal gun attack of February 28,
1963 against three voter registration workers, a concerted,
saturation registration campaign was announced on March 1,
1963 in LeFlore County, Mississippi, of which Greenwood is
the county seat.
The LeFlore campaign represents the combined efforts of
the Mississippi Council of Federated Organizations, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial
E~uality, and the local NAACP Youth council.
The announced objective of the campaign is to get every
qualified Negro in LeFlore County registered to vote, if he
or she has any desire to do so.
This unprecedented concentration of resources in LeFlore
County has led, said Branton, to unprecedented results.
"For
the first time in a Mississippi county, there has been a
breakthrough of the fear which has held Negroes back.
Since
March 1, over 500 have waited determinedly at the Greenwood
court house, trying to register.
Because of the long drawn-
out process in Mississippi, how many will be passed by the
registrars is not yet known.
Weekly mass meetings are
thronged, and LeFlore Negroes are saying emphatically and
courageously that they will not wait any longer to be treated
as American citizens.
them.
0
And police suppression will not stop
~s_Release - 3.
Branton also noted that the
u. s.
Department of
Agriculture had made a welcome contribution to Negro morale
by successfully pressuring the county to resume, on April 1,
distribution of federal surplus food, which had been cut
off by the county last fall •
.. This was interpreted by the local people," he said, "as
an act of support and encouragement by the federal government."
"However,
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he continued, 'the federal government has
1
done little to protect the peace in LeFlore, or elsewhere in
Mississippi.
Sixty-eight years ago, in the case of In re Debs,
the Supreme court said that the •entire strength of the nation
may be used to enforce in any part of the land the full and
free ·exercise of all national powers and the security of
all rights entrusted by the Constitution to its care.•
The
peace of the United States is broken and shattered by the
lawlessness in Mississippi.
The federal government has an
obligation, which it is not fulfilling, to restore it."
The Voter Education Project is a program of the Southern
Regional Council, with offices in Atlanta.
-END'""'
CHRONOLOGY OF VIOJ&~CE JUID INTIMIDATION IN MISSISSIPPI SINCE 1961
1.2§.!
Januarx 1, Greenville, Washingt-20 .. court'ty: /?Wo y9ung _white ~men\ rode
a motorbike through a residential area and, according to the
local police chief, fired a volley of shots into a group of
Negroes. George Mayfield, 18, was seriously wounded in both
legs: Percy Lee Simmons, 19, was shot in the right leg.
March 30, Jackson, Hinds County: Club-swinging police and two
police dogs chased more than 100 Negroes from a courthouse
where nine Negro students were convicted for staging a sit-in
demonstration. several were struck by the clubs and at least
one person was bitten by the dogs.
May 7, Jackson, ijinds County: Several white youths, riding in
an open convertible, lassoed nine-year-old Negro Gloria Laverne
Floyd with a wire and dragged her along the street. The girl
suffered a deep gash in her head that required three stitches,
cheek bruises, a laceration of her right shoulder, and burn
marks on her neck. Police made arrests.
August 15, Amite County: Robert Moses, Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) registration worker, and three
Negroes who had tried unsuccessfully to register in Liberty,
were driving toward McComb when a county officer stopped them.
He asked if Moses was the man " ••• who's been tring to register
our niggers." All were taken to court and Moses was arrested
for "impeding an officer in the discharge of his duties," fined
$50 and spent two days in jail.
Auqust 22, Amite County: Robert Moses went to Liberty with three
Negroes, who made an unsuccessful attempt to register. A block
from the courthouse, Moses was attacked and beaten by Billy Jack
Caston, the sheriff's first cousin. Eight stitches were required to close a wound in Moses' head. Caston was acquitted of
assault charges by an all-white jury before a justice of the
peace.
August 26, McComb, Pike County: Hollis Watkins, 20, and Elmer
Hayes, 20, SNCC workers, were arrested while staging a sit-in
at the F. w. Woolworth store and charged with breach of the peace.
They spent 36 days in jail.
August 27 and 29 1 McComb, Pi.ke County: Five Negro students from
a local high school were convicted of breach of the peace following a sit-in at a variety store and bus terminal. They were
sentenced to a $400 fine each and eight months in jail. One of
these students, a girl of 15, was turned over to juvenile
authorities, released, subsequently rearrested, and sentenced to
12 months in a state_school for delinquents.
August 29, McComb, Pike Co~qu: Two Negro leaders were arrested
in McComb as an aftermath of the sit-in protest march on city
hall, charged with contributing to the delinquenc.y of minors.
They were Curtis c. Bryant of McComb, an official of the NAACP,
and Cordelle Reagan, of SNCC. Each arrest was made on an
affidavit signed by Police Chief George Guy, who said he had
information that the two " ••• were behind some of this racial
trouble."
August 30, McComb, Pike County: SNCC workers Brenda Travis, 16,
Robert Talbert, 19, and Isaac Lewis, 20, staged a sit-in in the
McComb terminal of the Greyhound bus lines. They were arrested
on cha~ges of breach of tbe peace and failure to obey a policeman's order to move on. '!'hey spent 30 days in jail.
Septexru:>er 5, L:ll?erty, Am=J:i:....£!?.!-mty: Travis Britt, SNCC registration worker, was attacked and beaten by whites on the courthouse
lawn. Britt was accompanied at the time by Robert Moses. Britt
said one man hit him more than 20 times. The attackers drove
away in a truck.
Septem~er 7, Tylertown, Walthall County: John Hardy, SNCC
registration worker, took two Negroes to the county courthouse
to register. The registrar told them he " ••. wasn't registering
voters" that day. When the three turned to leave, Registrar
John Q. Wood took a pistol from his desk and struck Hardy over
the head from behind. Hardy was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace.
September 13, Jackson, Hinds County: Fifteen Episcopal ministers
(among them three Negroes) were arrested for asking to be served
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at the lunch counter of the Greyhound bus terminal. They were
charged with inviting a breach of tm peace. They were found
not guilty of the charge on May 21, 1962, by County Judge Russell
Moore •
.§!!ptember 25, Liberty, Amite £g_un~: Herbert Lee, a Negro who
had been active in voter registration, was shot and killed by
white state representative E. H. Hurst in downtown Liberty. No
prosecution was undertaken, the authorities explaining that the
representative had shot in self-defense.
October 4, McComb, Pike c9unty: The five students who were
arrested as a result of the August 29 sit-in in McComb returned
to school, but were refused admittance. At that, 116 students
walked out and paraded downtown to the city hall in protest.
Police arrested the entire crowd, but later released all but
19, all of whom were 18 years old or older. They were charged
with breach of the peace and contributing to the delinquency of
minors and allowed to go free on bail totalling $3,700. At the
trial on October 31, Judge Brumfield, finding the students guilty,
and sentencing each to a $500 fine and six months in jail, said:
"Some of you are local residents, some of you are outsiders.
Those of you who are local residents are like sheep being led
to the slaughter. If you continue to follow the advice of out
side agitators, you will be like sheep and be slaughtered."
October 5, McComb, Pike County: Charles Sherrod was arrested on
the street, thrown into a police car, and charged with resisting
arrest. Cordelle Reagan was a~so arrested and charged with
contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Both were field
workers for SNCC.
October 11, McComb, Pike County: Paul Potter of Philadelphia,
a vice president of the National Student Association and Tom
Hayden of Atlanta, both white, were dragged from their car and
beaten as they drove alongside a group of Negroes making an
anti-segregation march. When the two slowed their car for a
traffic light, a heavy-set white man opened the door and dragged
the driver out and hit him several times. He then walked around
to the other side of the car, opened the door and knocked the
second man to the street. The incident occurred in the business
I
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3 -
section of the city.
Octc,ber l1..&.. McCorg}?.,1., ..F_ils;e County: Police Officer B. F. Elmore
shot and killed a Negro motorist. Police Chief George Guy said
that Elmore said he had stopped Eli Brumfield at 4 a.m. for
speeding. Brumfield allegedly jumped from his car with a pocket
knife in his hand and attacked Elmore. A coroner's jury ruled
Elmore fired in self-defense.
October 22 1 Jackson, Hinds County: Dion Diamond, a SNCC worker,
was arrested for "running a stop sign" after being followed all
day. In court the next day, the arresting officer told the
judge, "He is a Freedom Rider. Throw the book at him." Diamond
was refused legal counsel and fined $168.
November 9, McComb, Pike County: Jerome smith, 22, Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) field man, and four companions, Dorothy
Smith, 18, Alice Thompson, 22, Thomas Valentine, 23, and George
Raymond, 18, were attacked by a mob of 30 to 40 whites when they
sought service at the lunch counter of the Greyhound bus terminal
in McComb. Smith, who suffered head injuries when he was slugged
with brass knuckles during the attack, said FBI agents were
present at the time of the attack, but did "nothing but take
notes" while the mob kicked and beat his companions. The victims
were rescued from the mob by a Negro truck driver and Negro cab
drivers.
November 10. Jackson, Hinds County: Jessie Divens, twelve-yearold, was arrested for refusing to move to the rear of a city bus.
Judge Carl Guernsey released the girl to the custody of the Rev.
G. R. Horton, chaplain at Campbell College where she attended
classes. Judge Guernsey continued the case until November 17,
"with the understanding that the Rev. Mr. Horton and the child
come back with a workable plan which would cause the child's
mind to be concerned with education rather than social reformation."
November 18, McComb, Pike County: Persons unknown fired a
shotgun blast into the bedroom of Dion Diamond and John Hardy
at 702 Wall Street. Investigating officer Frank Williams found
shotgun pellets embedded in the window frame.
December 1, McComb, Pike County: Four white men attacked three
- 4 -
newsmen on the street, sending one crashing into a plate glass
window of a store. The newsmen were Torn Uhrborck and Don
Underwood, Life Magazine, and Simmons Fentress, Time Magazine.
December
2, McComb, Pike County: Police broke up an attempt by
;
white attackers to drag three Freedom Riders from an automobile
at the Greyhound bus terminal. Four men kicked at the locked
car and beat upon the windows in an attempt to reach the young
Negroes and their driver, Thomas Gaither, field secretary of
CORE. The police, who were standing by when the riders arrived
aboard a bus from Jackson, pulled the men away from the car, but
made no arrests.
December 26, Jackson, Hinds County: Rafford Johnson, Negro,
was severely beaten by two law officers after being involved
in a minor collision with a car driven by a white woman. Johnson
underwent surgery for skull injuries.
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1962
February 6, 1962, Clarksdale, Coahoma County: Miss Bessie Turner,
19, a Negro, was walking with a young man down a Clarksdale street
when Clarksdale police officers stopped them and accused Miss Turner
of having been involved in a theft.
Miss Turner said the officers
took her to the jail, forced her to unclothe and to lie on her back.
She said one of the policemen then beat her between the legs with
his belt.
A few minutes later, Miss Turner said, the other offi-
cer beat her across her naked breasts.
Miss Turner filed federal
charges against the officers.
March 15,
1952. Sh~lby, Bolivar county: Aaron Henry, state president
of the RAACP, was convicted in Justice of Peace Court on charges of
makir~g ,!-)2:rvsrse advances on a white teen-age hitchhiker.
Henry
sta"'.:eC: ·::l1at the charges were a complete fabrication! 2.rd pr8sented
an alibi st~pported by sworn witnesses.
pealed.
The con~Jiction has bee:1 ap-
When he later stated in a press conferer.ce that the prose-
cutor and the police chief, who figured in the trial, had conspired
to fiu'lmehim, Henry was sued by the two for defamation.
A Mississip-
pi white jury awarded the prosecutor $25,000 and the police chief,
$15,000.
April 12, 1962, Taylorsville, Smith County: Corporal Roman Ducksworth, Jr.,
u. s.
Army, a Negro, was shot and killed
by
policeman
Bill Kelly when, according to an NAACP news release, Duckworth
"insisted on his right to sit where he chose on an interstate bus."
Policeman Kelly claimed that Ducksworth was drunk and started
-6-
fighting.
No charges were brought against Kelly.
Ducksworth was
enroute from Camp Ritchie, Maryland, to see his wife who was ill
in a Laurel, Mississippi, hospital.
April, 19~2, Lucedale, George Countv: Mrs. Ernestine Denham Talbert,•
who lives in George County but teaches in Green County, was notified by the Green County School Board that her teaching contract
would not be renewed.
Mrs. Talbert had tried in January to regis-
ter to vote but had been refused.
May
17,
~
1962, Bankin County: The Negro editor of the Mississippi
Pres§ said he and a companion were beaten by Rankin County
officers and a highway patrolman.
Lawrence Hudson, Jr., of Jackson,
said the beating occurred after he was stopped enroute from Jackson
to Forest to check on a rumor that a Negro man had been killed by
a white man.
He was jailed, refused permission to phone a lawyer,
tried the next day on several charges and fined $151.
cr.une 21, 1962 1 Clarksdale~ Coahoma County: A white lawyer from Jackson and four college students were jailed in Clarksdale for 20 hours
without outside communication.
One of the students was a Negro.
William Higgs, the lawyer, and the students were jailed on a Sunday
night by county officers and were released the following day, without charges being filed against them.
Julys, 1962, Jackson, Hinds County:
Jesse Harris, 20, and Luvaghn
Brown, 17, SNCC workers, charged that they were beaten and threatmed with death while serving a 30-day sentence in the county jail
for contempt of court.
The young Negroes had refused to move from
-7-
•
a court bench customarily occupied by whites while they were attending the trial of Mrs. Diane Nash Bevel.
The young men said that,
in the courthouse elevator, a deputy sheriff called Harris "a damned nigger" and beat him about the head with his fist.
At the county
farm, they were singled out as Freedom Riders and wore striped uniforms.
Both were beaten by guards.
Harris was beaten by a guard
named "Keith" while other prisoners held him.
"Keith" beat him
across the back with a length of hose threatening, "Nigger, I'll
kill you~"
August 16, 1962, Greenwood, Leflore county: Sanuel Block, 23, SNCC
field secretary, said three white men accosted him in a parking lot
and "started beating me with their fists."
He said they threatened
him and then beat him for about five minutes •.
"There is no use re-
p:>rting it to local authoritie~" he said.
August
17,
1962, Greenwoog, t,eflore County: SNCC workers Samuel
I
•
Block, Luvaghn Brown, and Lawrence Guyot were forced to flee from
the second story window of their voter registration office.
They
said armed white men invaded the premises intent upon doing them
harm.
August 17, 1962, Ruleyille. Sunflower County: Mayor Charles Durrough
asked Mr. Lenard Davis, a Negro employed by the city, what he knew
about the registration school being conducted at a Negro church.
Mr. Davis replied that he didn't know anything at all about the
school, and did not attend any of the classes.
The mayor then told
him that he, the mayor, knew what kind of school they were having.
-a-
•
The ma~or said he knew it 6resumably civil rights for the Negr9/
was coming, but he wasn't aoing to allow it to be forced on them.
The mayor said that anyone attending the school would be given a
one~way ticket out of town, and if that wouldn't do it, they would
use whatever they had available. (See entry below for September
3, 1962.)
August,
1962,
Greenwood,
L~flore
COWJty: Welton McSwine, Jr., 14-
year-old Negro, was arrested by police after a white woman's house
had been broken into.
an officer said:
When police got the youth to the station,
"All right, nigger, you know why you are here,
and we want to know who broke into that white woman's house."
McSwine told :'them he knew nothing of the incident, saying that he
spent all his time in the cotton field, and suggesting that his
mother could co~roborate this.
McSwine said officers then took
him to a cell and beat him, first hitting him in the head with a
blackjack: then one of the policemen beat him in the face with his
fist while another hit him in the stomach with his club; then the
officers made him lie naked on the floor on his side while they beat
him with a whip. McSwine was released after intercession of his
father's white employer.
August 21, 19§2, Liberty, Amite County: s·am Wells and Tommy Wea- •
thersby went to the courthouse to register.
While they were waiting
to get into the registrar's office, they stood on the front porch
of the courthouse.
your -
Deputy Sheriff Daniel Jones told them, "Get
off the front porch, and don't come back on." Weathers-
by and Wells got off the porch.
A few moments later, rain began,
-9• ·
and the two wanted to take shelter in the courthouse, but Deputy
Sheriff Jones would not permit it.
August 21, Lil)e,;ty., . Amite county::
~
Dewey Greene, Jr .. , Mississippi
Press reporter, was taking pictures of Negroes waiting to
register at the courthouse ..
An unidentified young man working in
the office down the hall from the registrar's office snatched
Greene's camera away, and refused to return it.
Greene was told
to leave town by three white men, one of whom was flourishing a
length of lead pipe.
He left.
August 29 1 1962, Clarksdale, Coahoma county: Seven Negroes were
arrested after attending a voter registration meeting.
David Dennis,
CORE field secretary, was charged with "failure to yield right-ofway" after a police officer had forced him to submit to a long
harangue of threats and abuse.
Samuel Block, John Hodges, J. L.
Harris, Richard T. Gray, and Albert Garrer, SNCC field workers, and
Dewey Greene, Jr., reporter for the Mississippi~ Press, were
forced by Clarksdale police to alight from their car, and were
charged with loitering in violation of the city curfew.
August 30 1 1962, Indianq_~a, Sunflower County: SNCC workers C.R.
McLauren, Albert Garner, J.
o. Hodges, Samuel Block, and Robert
Moses were arrested by Indianola police on a charge of distributing
literature without a permit.
The registration workers had been tak-
ing leaflets announcing a registration mass meeting door-to-door in
the Negro community.
Lafayette Surney, 17, another SNCC worker, was
arrested and then released to Rev. James Bevel, of the Southern
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Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
August 31, Indianola, Sunflowe ~t.:·. County:
During the trial of Samuel
Block on ~harges of distributing literature without a permit, the
Municipal Judge informed Block that he could cross-examine the arresting officer.
Block asked the officer, "Did you actually see me
hand out a leaflet?"
The judge turned to the officer and said, "He
can ask you anything he wants to, but you don't have to anS11er."
The judge told Lafayette Sumey if he was caught in Indianola "agitating" again, he would be sent to the penal farm.
September 3, 1962, Ruleville, sunflower County: Because of registration activity, two Negro-owned dry cleanin9 establishments were
closed (allegedly for violating city ordinances).
September 3, 1962 1 Ruleville, Sunflower County: Lenard Davis, 49,
sanitation department worker, was told by Mayor Charles M. Durrough,
"We're going to let you go.
school."
Your wife's been attending that
(He referred to a registration school conducted by SNCC
workers in Ruleville.)
September 3, 1962, Ruleville, Sunflower County:
Fred Hicks, 40, who
drove field workers to the plantations, was told he could no longer
use a bus without a commercial license.
Hicks said the bus owner
told him that, because Hicks' mother had registered to vote: "We
gonna see how tight we can make it - gonna make it just as tight as
we can.
Gonna be rougher and rougher than you think it is."
September 3, 1962 1 Ruleville, Sunflower County: Moses and Arnzie
Moore, a local Negro leader, were walking down the street.
A white
man in a pickup truck drew up alongside and asked if they were the
-11-
"folks getting the people to register."
answered, yes, they were.
The man asked if they could come out
to his plantation to reg is tel~ people.
they could come.
Moses and Moore
The two answered, yes,
The man said then, "I'-ve got a shotgun waiting
for you, double barrel."
September 3, Ruleville, Sunflower county:
A letter from Mayor
Durrough notified the Williams Chapel Missionary Baptist Church
that tax exemption and free water were being cut off because
the property was being used for "purposes other than worship
services."
The church was a meeting place for voter registration
workers.
September 10, Ruleville, Sunflower County:
Marylene Burkes,20,
and Vivian Hillet, 19, were severely wounded when an unidentified assailant fired through the window of Miss Hillet's
grandparents• home.
The grandparents had been active in voter
registration work.
October 3, Biloxi, Harrison county:
A
Negro frame residence and
a gasoline station were ·targets for two "Molotov cocktails" which
caused more than $4,000 damage.
One of the bombs struck the
home of Dr. Gilbert Mason, a Negro physician, who is active in
integration efforts.
The other crashed through the window of
a service station operated by Emmett Clark, a Negro.
Octobers. Harmony, Leake County:
4
Night riders fired shotguns
into eight Negro homes and a Negro store.
An elderly Negro
said he was struck in the knee by a squirrel shot while he and
his 9-year-old grandson were sleeping.
seriously hurt.
He said he was not
Harmony Negroes had recently petitioned authori-
ties for school desegregation.
October 10, Columbus, Lowndes County: A"M~lotov c_o cktail" was
tossed from a speeding car into the home of Dr. James L. Allen
of Columbus, vice chairman of the Mis~issippi Advisory Committee
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to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
October 29, ClarkSd~-~ t Co~11oma Coun~:
Charles McLaurin, SNCC
registration worker, was stopped by police as he was taking a
group home from the courthouse.
to vote.
~he group had tried to register
The officer asked to see McLaurin's driver's license.
McLaurin showed it.
doing there.
The officer asked McLaurin what he was
McLaurin told him he worked in voter registration.
Then, accompanied by obscene remarks, the officer said, "Nigger,
do you know the way out of town?
McLaurin replied, "Yes."
The officer said, with more obscenity, ''Nigger!
can't you say
•yes, sir? 111 The officer's partner asked the officer what charge
r·hould be put on the tickets.
The officer said, "Charge the
- - - - $26 on both charges."
"Nigger, you got $52?"
replied, "No."
McLaurin
The officer said, "Then you• re going to jail."
At the jail, McLaurin learned that the officer was Clarksdale
Police Chief Ben Collins.
McLaurin was in jail a few minutes
when his companions posted bond for him in the amount of $103.
They decided to forf~it bond rather than run the risk of a higher fine or incur the legal expense of an appeal.
October 31, Jackson, Hinds county:
minister,
Thomas E. Johnson, a white
and a member of the Mississippi Advisory Committee
to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights1 saw a group of neighbors
dumping garbage on his lawn.
Johnson had just returned from
taking his car to a safe place because of threats by neighbors
to damage it.
Johnson sought a peace bond against
the man whom he had observed leading the garbage-dumping
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operations of his neighbors.
The man presented eleven witnesses
who swore that he had been in their presence at all times on the
evening in question.
The Justice of the Peace accepted their
testimony and refused the bond.
Then the Hinds County Grand Jury
indicted Johnson and his wife on perjury charges, because of their
testimony at the peace bond hearing.
November 6, 1962, Greenville, Washington County: Two WAF's and two
airmen (all white) from the Greenville Air Force Base were fined $55
and given 30-day suspended sentences on charges of creating a disturbance by entering a restaurant and seeking service with two Negro
voter registration workers.
December 26, 1962 1 Clarksdale, Coahoma County: Ivanhoe Donaldson
and Benjamin Taylor, students from Detroit, brought a truckload of
food, clothing and medicines for distribution to the Delta's needy
families who had been cut off from federal surplus commodities.
(The medicines had been donated by a physician in Louisville, and
were consigned to Aaron Henry, a licensed pharmacist.)
They were
arrested by Clarksdale police and held for "investigation.
0
After
police searched the truck on December 27, and found what they de~
s·<i?ri'bed as "a drug used to ease the pain of middle-aged women, "
Donaldson and Taylor were charged with possession of narcotics and
bond was set at $15,000.
Bond was later reduced to $1,500.
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1963
January 17, Canton, Madison County:
The castrated and mutilated
body of Sylvester M~xwell, 24-year-old Negro, was found by his
brother-in-law less than 500 yards from the home of a white
family.
Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medger Evers termed
the slaying a "probable lynching."
February 2, Greenwood, Leflore County:
Willie Peacock, SNCC
reg'stration worker, complained to the Justice Department tha'i.
officials had refused to register him on two occasions, and had
rejected his poll tax payment for this year.
February 20, Greenwood, Leflore County~
Four Negro businesses
on the same street as the SNCC voter registration office were
burned to the ground.
Mrs. Nancy Brand, a worker in the SNCC
office, reported an anonymous telephone call in which a man's
voice asked her if she ever came to the office.
When she said
yes, the voice said, "You won't be going down there anymore,
that's been taken care of."
The burned businesses were Jackson's
Garage, George's Cafe, Porter's Pressing Shop, and the Esquire
Club.
The pressing shop is next door to the SNCC office, and SNCC
workers believed the businesses were burned by mistake.
Sam
Block, SNCC Field Secretary, was arrested two days later for
suggesting there was some connection between the burnings and
the registration efforts of SNCC.
He was charged with circulating
statements calculated to create a breach of the peace.
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February 28~. Greenwood, Leflore county:
were attacked with gunfire on
wood.
u.s.
Three registration worker s
·Highway 82 just outside Green-
The shots were fired from a 1962 white Buick.
The car in
which the workers were riding was p~nctured by eleven bullets.
One worker;. James Travis of SNCC, was wounded in the neck and
shoulder.
March 4, Clarksdale, Coahoma County:
'the show windows in the
Fourth Street Drug store were smashed, as they have been several
times in the past.
The proprietor of the store, Aaron Henry,
found the damage when he returned from speaking at a mass
meeting in Leflore County in connectiQn with the voter registration
drive there.
March 6, Greenwood, Leflore County: Samuel Block and three
others were fired on from a station wagon which pulled up beside their car as they were parked in front of the SNCC voter
registration office.
Both front windows were shattered.
Police
later found the wadding from a shotgun shell buried in the
head-liner of Block's car, and several pellets in the wall
of the building in front of which the car had been parked.
March 12, Greenwood, Leflore county:
A twelve-year-old Negro
girl was atta~ed by an egg-throwing truckload of white teenaged boys.
The girl suffered facial bruises.
March 20 1 1963 1 Jackson, Hinds County:
#
Three shots were fired
through the windshield of a car belonging to Mrs. Mattie Dennis
while it was parked in front of the home of Mrs. Dennis• cousin ,
whom she was visiting.
Mrs. Dennis is the wife of David Dennis,
CORE Pield Secretary for Mississippi.
Both have been active in
voter registration.
March 24, 1963, Greenwood, Leflore county:
Fire destroyed
partially the interior of the voter registration office at 115 E.
McLaurin St., making the office unusable and necessitating a
search for new headquarters.
Witnesses said they saw two white
men fleeing the scene shortly before the fire was discovered.
March 26, 1963, Greenwood, _Leflore County:
A shotgun blast
ripped into the home of Dewey Greene, Sr., father of the latest
Negro applicant to the University of Mississippi.
Another of
Mr. Greene's sons and a daughter have been active in .the Leflore
County registration project.
Greenwood police said they were
investigating.
March 27, 1963, Greenwood, Leflore county:
James Forman,
Executive Secretary of SNCC, Bob Moses, and about ten other
registration workers were arrested and taken from a group en
route to the courthouse to register after the police dispersed
a group of more than 100 ~egroes with the use of police dogs.
(30)
-17-
Voter Education Project
5 Forsyth Street, N. w.
Atlanta, Georgia
Ja. 5-0595 or Ja. 2-8764
FOR RELEASE:
All Papers
Sunday
March 31, 1963
The Voter Education Project released today a chronological listing of 64 acts of violence and intimidation against
Negroes in Mississippi since January 1961.
Almost all of
the incidents are directly related to efforts by Negroes
to register to vote.
The last item on the list is the March 27 dispersal
by Greenwood policemen and their dogs of Negro registration
applicants, and the jailing of registration workers.
"We are sure this is not a complete list," said Wiley
A. Branton, Director of the Voter Education Project.
"It
does demonstrate conclusively, however, the pattern of
discrimination and violence which exists in Mississippi, and
makes Constitutional rights virtually inoperative in that
state."
The listing, he pointed out, does not include the riot
at the University of Mississippi last fall, nor subsequent
harassment of James Meredith.
"All the world knows that
story, as it does the earlier stories of Emmett Till and
Mack Parker.
This listing, nearly all of which has been
compiled from the daily press, shows that what happened at
the University should have been expected by anyone familiar
with the Mississippi record."
News Release - 2.
Because of the near-fatal gun attack of February 28,
1963 against three voter registration workers, a concerted,
saturation registration campaign was announced on March 1,
1963 in LeFlore County, Mississippi, of which Greenwood is
the county seat.
The LeFlore campaign represents the combined efforts of
the Mississippi Council of Federated Organizations, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial
E~uality, and the local NAACP Youth council.
The announced objective of the campaign is to get every
qualified Negro in LeFlore County registered to vote, if he
or she has any desire to do so.
This unprecedented concentration of resources in LeFlore
County has led, said Branton, to unprecedented results.
"For
the first time in a Mississippi county, there has been a
breakthrough of the fear which has held Negroes back.
Since
March 1, over 500 have waited determinedly at the Greenwood
court house, trying to register.
Because of the long drawn-
out process in Mississippi, how many will be passed by the
registrars is not yet known.
Weekly mass meetings are
thronged, and LeFlore Negroes are saying emphatically and
courageously that they will not wait any longer to be treated
as American citizens.
them.
0
And police suppression will not stop
~s_Release - 3.
Branton also noted that the
u. s.
Department of
Agriculture had made a welcome contribution to Negro morale
by successfully pressuring the county to resume, on April 1,
distribution of federal surplus food, which had been cut
off by the county last fall •
.. This was interpreted by the local people," he said, "as
an act of support and encouragement by the federal government."
"However,
11
he continued, 'the federal government has
1
done little to protect the peace in LeFlore, or elsewhere in
Mississippi.
Sixty-eight years ago, in the case of In re Debs,
the Supreme court said that the •entire strength of the nation
may be used to enforce in any part of the land the full and
free ·exercise of all national powers and the security of
all rights entrusted by the Constitution to its care.•
The
peace of the United States is broken and shattered by the
lawlessness in Mississippi.
The federal government has an
obligation, which it is not fulfilling, to restore it."
The Voter Education Project is a program of the Southern
Regional Council, with offices in Atlanta.
-END'""'
CHRONOLOGY OF VIOJ&~CE JUID INTIMIDATION IN MISSISSIPPI SINCE 1961
1.2§.!
Januarx 1, Greenville, Washingt-20 .. court'ty: /?Wo y9ung _white ~men\ rode
a motorbike through a residential area and, according to the
local police chief, fired a volley of shots into a group of
Negroes. George Mayfield, 18, was seriously wounded in both
legs: Percy Lee Simmons, 19, was shot in the right leg.
March 30, Jackson, Hinds County: Club-swinging police and two
police dogs chased more than 100 Negroes from a courthouse
where nine Negro students were convicted for staging a sit-in
demonstration. several were struck by the clubs and at least
one person was bitten by the dogs.
May 7, Jackson, ijinds County: Several white youths, riding in
an open convertible, lassoed nine-year-old Negro Gloria Laverne
Floyd with a wire and dragged her along the street. The girl
suffered a deep gash in her head that required three stitches,
cheek bruises, a laceration of her right shoulder, and burn
marks on her neck. Police made arrests.
August 15, Amite County: Robert Moses, Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) registration worker, and three
Negroes who had tried unsuccessfully to register in Liberty,
were driving toward McComb when a county officer stopped them.
He asked if Moses was the man " ••• who's been tring to register
our niggers." All were taken to court and Moses was arrested
for "impeding an officer in the discharge of his duties," fined
$50 and spent two days in jail.
Auqust 22, Amite County: Robert Moses went to Liberty with three
Negroes, who made an unsuccessful attempt to register. A block
from the courthouse, Moses was attacked and beaten by Billy Jack
Caston, the sheriff's first cousin. Eight stitches were required to close a wound in Moses' head. Caston was acquitted of
assault charges by an all-white jury before a justice of the
peace.
August 26, McComb, Pike County: Hollis Watkins, 20, and Elmer
Hayes, 20, SNCC workers, were arrested while staging a sit-in
at the F. w. Woolworth store and charged with breach of the peace.
They spent 36 days in jail.
August 27 and 29 1 McComb, Pi.ke County: Five Negro students from
a local high school were convicted of breach of the peace following a sit-in at a variety store and bus terminal. They were
sentenced to a $400 fine each and eight months in jail. One of
these students, a girl of 15, was turned over to juvenile
authorities, released, subsequently rearrested, and sentenced to
12 months in a state_school for delinquents.
August 29, McComb, Pike Co~qu: Two Negro leaders were arrested
in McComb as an aftermath of the sit-in protest march on city
hall, charged with contributing to the delinquenc.y of minors.
They were Curtis c. Bryant of McComb, an official of the NAACP,
and Cordelle Reagan, of SNCC. Each arrest was made on an
affidavit signed by Police Chief George Guy, who said he had
information that the two " ••• were behind some of this racial
trouble."
August 30, McComb, Pike County: SNCC workers Brenda Travis, 16,
Robert Talbert, 19, and Isaac Lewis, 20, staged a sit-in in the
McComb terminal of the Greyhound bus lines. They were arrested
on cha~ges of breach of tbe peace and failure to obey a policeman's order to move on. '!'hey spent 30 days in jail.
Septexru:>er 5, L:ll?erty, Am=J:i:....£!?.!-mty: Travis Britt, SNCC registration worker, was attacked and beaten by whites on the courthouse
lawn. Britt was accompanied at the time by Robert Moses. Britt
said one man hit him more than 20 times. The attackers drove
away in a truck.
Septem~er 7, Tylertown, Walthall County: John Hardy, SNCC
registration worker, took two Negroes to the county courthouse
to register. The registrar told them he " ••. wasn't registering
voters" that day. When the three turned to leave, Registrar
John Q. Wood took a pistol from his desk and struck Hardy over
the head from behind. Hardy was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace.
September 13, Jackson, Hinds County: Fifteen Episcopal ministers
(among them three Negroes) were arrested for asking to be served
-
2 -
at the lunch counter of the Greyhound bus terminal. They were
charged with inviting a breach of tm peace. They were found
not guilty of the charge on May 21, 1962, by County Judge Russell
Moore •
.§!!ptember 25, Liberty, Amite £g_un~: Herbert Lee, a Negro who
had been active in voter registration, was shot and killed by
white state representative E. H. Hurst in downtown Liberty. No
prosecution was undertaken, the authorities explaining that the
representative had shot in self-defense.
October 4, McComb, Pike c9unty: The five students who were
arrested as a result of the August 29 sit-in in McComb returned
to school, but were refused admittance. At that, 116 students
walked out and paraded downtown to the city hall in protest.
Police arrested the entire crowd, but later released all but
19, all of whom were 18 years old or older. They were charged
with breach of the peace and contributing to the delinquency of
minors and allowed to go free on bail totalling $3,700. At the
trial on October 31, Judge Brumfield, finding the students guilty,
and sentencing each to a $500 fine and six months in jail, said:
"Some of you are local residents, some of you are outsiders.
Those of you who are local residents are like sheep being led
to the slaughter. If you continue to follow the advice of out
side agitators, you will be like sheep and be slaughtered."
October 5, McComb, Pike County: Charles Sherrod was arrested on
the street, thrown into a police car, and charged with resisting
arrest. Cordelle Reagan was a~so arrested and charged with
contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Both were field
workers for SNCC.
October 11, McComb, Pike County: Paul Potter of Philadelphia,
a vice president of the National Student Association and Tom
Hayden of Atlanta, both white, were dragged from their car and
beaten as they drove alongside a group of Negroes making an
anti-segregation march. When the two slowed their car for a
traffic light, a heavy-set white man opened the door and dragged
the driver out and hit him several times. He then walked around
to the other side of the car, opened the door and knocked the
second man to the street. The incident occurred in the business
I
-
3 -
section of the city.
Octc,ber l1..&.. McCorg}?.,1., ..F_ils;e County: Police Officer B. F. Elmore
shot and killed a Negro motorist. Police Chief George Guy said
that Elmore said he had stopped Eli Brumfield at 4 a.m. for
speeding. Brumfield allegedly jumped from his car with a pocket
knife in his hand and attacked Elmore. A coroner's jury ruled
Elmore fired in self-defense.
October 22 1 Jackson, Hinds County: Dion Diamond, a SNCC worker,
was arrested for "running a stop sign" after being followed all
day. In court the next day, the arresting officer told the
judge, "He is a Freedom Rider. Throw the book at him." Diamond
was refused legal counsel and fined $168.
November 9, McComb, Pike County: Jerome smith, 22, Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) field man, and four companions, Dorothy
Smith, 18, Alice Thompson, 22, Thomas Valentine, 23, and George
Raymond, 18, were attacked by a mob of 30 to 40 whites when they
sought service at the lunch counter of the Greyhound bus terminal
in McComb. Smith, who suffered head injuries when he was slugged
with brass knuckles during the attack, said FBI agents were
present at the time of the attack, but did "nothing but take
notes" while the mob kicked and beat his companions. The victims
were rescued from the mob by a Negro truck driver and Negro cab
drivers.
November 10. Jackson, Hinds County: Jessie Divens, twelve-yearold, was arrested for refusing to move to the rear of a city bus.
Judge Carl Guernsey released the girl to the custody of the Rev.
G. R. Horton, chaplain at Campbell College where she attended
classes. Judge Guernsey continued the case until November 17,
"with the understanding that the Rev. Mr. Horton and the child
come back with a workable plan which would cause the child's
mind to be concerned with education rather than social reformation."
November 18, McComb, Pike County: Persons unknown fired a
shotgun blast into the bedroom of Dion Diamond and John Hardy
at 702 Wall Street. Investigating officer Frank Williams found
shotgun pellets embedded in the window frame.
December 1, McComb, Pike County: Four white men attacked three
- 4 -
newsmen on the street, sending one crashing into a plate glass
window of a store. The newsmen were Torn Uhrborck and Don
Underwood, Life Magazine, and Simmons Fentress, Time Magazine.
December
2, McComb, Pike County: Police broke up an attempt by
;
white attackers to drag three Freedom Riders from an automobile
at the Greyhound bus terminal. Four men kicked at the locked
car and beat upon the windows in an attempt to reach the young
Negroes and their driver, Thomas Gaither, field secretary of
CORE. The police, who were standing by when the riders arrived
aboard a bus from Jackson, pulled the men away from the car, but
made no arrests.
December 26, Jackson, Hinds County: Rafford Johnson, Negro,
was severely beaten by two law officers after being involved
in a minor collision with a car driven by a white woman. Johnson
underwent surgery for skull injuries.
-
5 -
1962
February 6, 1962, Clarksdale, Coahoma County: Miss Bessie Turner,
19, a Negro, was walking with a young man down a Clarksdale street
when Clarksdale police officers stopped them and accused Miss Turner
of having been involved in a theft.
Miss Turner said the officers
took her to the jail, forced her to unclothe and to lie on her back.
She said one of the policemen then beat her between the legs with
his belt.
A few minutes later, Miss Turner said, the other offi-
cer beat her across her naked breasts.
Miss Turner filed federal
charges against the officers.
March 15,
1952. Sh~lby, Bolivar county: Aaron Henry, state president
of the RAACP, was convicted in Justice of Peace Court on charges of
makir~g ,!-)2:rvsrse advances on a white teen-age hitchhiker.
Henry
sta"'.:eC: ·::l1at the charges were a complete fabrication! 2.rd pr8sented
an alibi st~pported by sworn witnesses.
pealed.
The con~Jiction has bee:1 ap-
When he later stated in a press conferer.ce that the prose-
cutor and the police chief, who figured in the trial, had conspired
to fiu'lmehim, Henry was sued by the two for defamation.
A Mississip-
pi white jury awarded the prosecutor $25,000 and the police chief,
$15,000.
April 12, 1962, Taylorsville, Smith County: Corporal Roman Ducksworth, Jr.,
u. s.
Army, a Negro, was shot and killed
by
policeman
Bill Kelly when, according to an NAACP news release, Duckworth
"insisted on his right to sit where he chose on an interstate bus."
Policeman Kelly claimed that Ducksworth was drunk and started
-6-
fighting.
No charges were brought against Kelly.
Ducksworth was
enroute from Camp Ritchie, Maryland, to see his wife who was ill
in a Laurel, Mississippi, hospital.
April, 19~2, Lucedale, George Countv: Mrs. Ernestine Denham Talbert,•
who lives in George County but teaches in Green County, was notified by the Green County School Board that her teaching contract
would not be renewed.
Mrs. Talbert had tried in January to regis-
ter to vote but had been refused.
May
17,
~
1962, Bankin County: The Negro editor of the Mississippi
Pres§ said he and a companion were beaten by Rankin County
officers and a highway patrolman.
Lawrence Hudson, Jr., of Jackson,
said the beating occurred after he was stopped enroute from Jackson
to Forest to check on a rumor that a Negro man had been killed by
a white man.
He was jailed, refused permission to phone a lawyer,
tried the next day on several charges and fined $151.
cr.une 21, 1962 1 Clarksdale~ Coahoma County: A white lawyer from Jackson and four college students were jailed in Clarksdale for 20 hours
without outside communication.
One of the students was a Negro.
William Higgs, the lawyer, and the students were jailed on a Sunday
night by county officers and were released the following day, without charges being filed against them.
Julys, 1962, Jackson, Hinds County:
Jesse Harris, 20, and Luvaghn
Brown, 17, SNCC workers, charged that they were beaten and threatmed with death while serving a 30-day sentence in the county jail
for contempt of court.
The young Negroes had refused to move from
-7-
•
a court bench customarily occupied by whites while they were attending the trial of Mrs. Diane Nash Bevel.
The young men said that,
in the courthouse elevator, a deputy sheriff called Harris "a damned nigger" and beat him about the head with his fist.
At the county
farm, they were singled out as Freedom Riders and wore striped uniforms.
Both were beaten by guards.
Harris was beaten by a guard
named "Keith" while other prisoners held him.
"Keith" beat him
across the back with a length of hose threatening, "Nigger, I'll
kill you~"
August 16, 1962, Greenwood, Leflore county: Sanuel Block, 23, SNCC
field secretary, said three white men accosted him in a parking lot
and "started beating me with their fists."
He said they threatened
him and then beat him for about five minutes •.
"There is no use re-
p:>rting it to local authoritie~" he said.
August
17,
1962, Greenwoog, t,eflore County: SNCC workers Samuel
I
•
Block, Luvaghn Brown, and Lawrence Guyot were forced to flee from
the second story window of their voter registration office.
They
said armed white men invaded the premises intent upon doing them
harm.
August 17, 1962, Ruleyille. Sunflower County: Mayor Charles Durrough
asked Mr. Lenard Davis, a Negro employed by the city, what he knew
about the registration school being conducted at a Negro church.
Mr. Davis replied that he didn't know anything at all about the
school, and did not attend any of the classes.
The mayor then told
him that he, the mayor, knew what kind of school they were having.
-a-
•
The ma~or said he knew it 6resumably civil rights for the Negr9/
was coming, but he wasn't aoing to allow it to be forced on them.
The mayor said that anyone attending the school would be given a
one~way ticket out of town, and if that wouldn't do it, they would
use whatever they had available. (See entry below for September
3, 1962.)
August,
1962,
Greenwood,
L~flore
COWJty: Welton McSwine, Jr., 14-
year-old Negro, was arrested by police after a white woman's house
had been broken into.
an officer said:
When police got the youth to the station,
"All right, nigger, you know why you are here,
and we want to know who broke into that white woman's house."
McSwine told :'them he knew nothing of the incident, saying that he
spent all his time in the cotton field, and suggesting that his
mother could co~roborate this.
McSwine said officers then took
him to a cell and beat him, first hitting him in the head with a
blackjack: then one of the policemen beat him in the face with his
fist while another hit him in the stomach with his club; then the
officers made him lie naked on the floor on his side while they beat
him with a whip. McSwine was released after intercession of his
father's white employer.
August 21, 19§2, Liberty, Amite County: s·am Wells and Tommy Wea- •
thersby went to the courthouse to register.
While they were waiting
to get into the registrar's office, they stood on the front porch
of the courthouse.
your -
Deputy Sheriff Daniel Jones told them, "Get
off the front porch, and don't come back on." Weathers-
by and Wells got off the porch.
A few moments later, rain began,
-9• ·
and the two wanted to take shelter in the courthouse, but Deputy
Sheriff Jones would not permit it.
August 21, Lil)e,;ty., . Amite county::
~
Dewey Greene, Jr .. , Mississippi
Press reporter, was taking pictures of Negroes waiting to
register at the courthouse ..
An unidentified young man working in
the office down the hall from the registrar's office snatched
Greene's camera away, and refused to return it.
Greene was told
to leave town by three white men, one of whom was flourishing a
length of lead pipe.
He left.
August 29 1 1962, Clarksdale, Coahoma county: Seven Negroes were
arrested after attending a voter registration meeting.
David Dennis,
CORE field secretary, was charged with "failure to yield right-ofway" after a police officer had forced him to submit to a long
harangue of threats and abuse.
Samuel Block, John Hodges, J. L.
Harris, Richard T. Gray, and Albert Garrer, SNCC field workers, and
Dewey Greene, Jr., reporter for the Mississippi~ Press, were
forced by Clarksdale police to alight from their car, and were
charged with loitering in violation of the city curfew.
August 30 1 1962, Indianq_~a, Sunflower County: SNCC workers C.R.
McLauren, Albert Garner, J.
o. Hodges, Samuel Block, and Robert
Moses were arrested by Indianola police on a charge of distributing
literature without a permit.
The registration workers had been tak-
ing leaflets announcing a registration mass meeting door-to-door in
the Negro community.
Lafayette Surney, 17, another SNCC worker, was
arrested and then released to Rev. James Bevel, of the Southern
-10-
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
August 31, Indianola, Sunflowe ~t.:·. County:
During the trial of Samuel
Block on ~harges of distributing literature without a permit, the
Municipal Judge informed Block that he could cross-examine the arresting officer.
Block asked the officer, "Did you actually see me
hand out a leaflet?"
The judge turned to the officer and said, "He
can ask you anything he wants to, but you don't have to anS11er."
The judge told Lafayette Sumey if he was caught in Indianola "agitating" again, he would be sent to the penal farm.
September 3, 1962, Ruleville, sunflower County: Because of registration activity, two Negro-owned dry cleanin9 establishments were
closed (allegedly for violating city ordinances).
September 3, 1962 1 Ruleville, Sunflower County: Lenard Davis, 49,
sanitation department worker, was told by Mayor Charles M. Durrough,
"We're going to let you go.
school."
Your wife's been attending that
(He referred to a registration school conducted by SNCC
workers in Ruleville.)
September 3, 1962, Ruleville, Sunflower County:
Fred Hicks, 40, who
drove field workers to the plantations, was told he could no longer
use a bus without a commercial license.
Hicks said the bus owner
told him that, because Hicks' mother had registered to vote: "We
gonna see how tight we can make it - gonna make it just as tight as
we can.
Gonna be rougher and rougher than you think it is."
September 3, 1962 1 Ruleville, Sunflower County: Moses and Arnzie
Moore, a local Negro leader, were walking down the street.
A white
man in a pickup truck drew up alongside and asked if they were the
-11-
"folks getting the people to register."
answered, yes, they were.
The man asked if they could come out
to his plantation to reg is tel~ people.
they could come.
Moses and Moore
The two answered, yes,
The man said then, "I'-ve got a shotgun waiting
for you, double barrel."
September 3, Ruleville, Sunflower county:
A letter from Mayor
Durrough notified the Williams Chapel Missionary Baptist Church
that tax exemption and free water were being cut off because
the property was being used for "purposes other than worship
services."
The church was a meeting place for voter registration
workers.
September 10, Ruleville, Sunflower County:
Marylene Burkes,20,
and Vivian Hillet, 19, were severely wounded when an unidentified assailant fired through the window of Miss Hillet's
grandparents• home.
The grandparents had been active in voter
registration work.
October 3, Biloxi, Harrison county:
A
Negro frame residence and
a gasoline station were ·targets for two "Molotov cocktails" which
caused more than $4,000 damage.
One of the bombs struck the
home of Dr. Gilbert Mason, a Negro physician, who is active in
integration efforts.
The other crashed through the window of
a service station operated by Emmett Clark, a Negro.
Octobers. Harmony, Leake County:
4
Night riders fired shotguns
into eight Negro homes and a Negro store.
An elderly Negro
said he was struck in the knee by a squirrel shot while he and
his 9-year-old grandson were sleeping.
seriously hurt.
He said he was not
Harmony Negroes had recently petitioned authori-
ties for school desegregation.
October 10, Columbus, Lowndes County: A"M~lotov c_o cktail" was
tossed from a speeding car into the home of Dr. James L. Allen
of Columbus, vice chairman of the Mis~issippi Advisory Committee
-12-
to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
October 29, ClarkSd~-~ t Co~11oma Coun~:
Charles McLaurin, SNCC
registration worker, was stopped by police as he was taking a
group home from the courthouse.
to vote.
~he group had tried to register
The officer asked to see McLaurin's driver's license.
McLaurin showed it.
doing there.
The officer asked McLaurin what he was
McLaurin told him he worked in voter registration.
Then, accompanied by obscene remarks, the officer said, "Nigger,
do you know the way out of town?
McLaurin replied, "Yes."
The officer said, with more obscenity, ''Nigger!
can't you say
•yes, sir? 111 The officer's partner asked the officer what charge
r·hould be put on the tickets.
The officer said, "Charge the
- - - - $26 on both charges."
"Nigger, you got $52?"
replied, "No."
McLaurin
The officer said, "Then you• re going to jail."
At the jail, McLaurin learned that the officer was Clarksdale
Police Chief Ben Collins.
McLaurin was in jail a few minutes
when his companions posted bond for him in the amount of $103.
They decided to forf~it bond rather than run the risk of a higher fine or incur the legal expense of an appeal.
October 31, Jackson, Hinds county:
minister,
Thomas E. Johnson, a white
and a member of the Mississippi Advisory Committee
to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights1 saw a group of neighbors
dumping garbage on his lawn.
Johnson had just returned from
taking his car to a safe place because of threats by neighbors
to damage it.
Johnson sought a peace bond against
the man whom he had observed leading the garbage-dumping
-13-
operations of his neighbors.
The man presented eleven witnesses
who swore that he had been in their presence at all times on the
evening in question.
The Justice of the Peace accepted their
testimony and refused the bond.
Then the Hinds County Grand Jury
indicted Johnson and his wife on perjury charges, because of their
testimony at the peace bond hearing.
November 6, 1962, Greenville, Washington County: Two WAF's and two
airmen (all white) from the Greenville Air Force Base were fined $55
and given 30-day suspended sentences on charges of creating a disturbance by entering a restaurant and seeking service with two Negro
voter registration workers.
December 26, 1962 1 Clarksdale, Coahoma County: Ivanhoe Donaldson
and Benjamin Taylor, students from Detroit, brought a truckload of
food, clothing and medicines for distribution to the Delta's needy
families who had been cut off from federal surplus commodities.
(The medicines had been donated by a physician in Louisville, and
were consigned to Aaron Henry, a licensed pharmacist.)
They were
arrested by Clarksdale police and held for "investigation.
0
After
police searched the truck on December 27, and found what they de~
s·<i?ri'bed as "a drug used to ease the pain of middle-aged women, "
Donaldson and Taylor were charged with possession of narcotics and
bond was set at $15,000.
Bond was later reduced to $1,500.
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1963
January 17, Canton, Madison County:
The castrated and mutilated
body of Sylvester M~xwell, 24-year-old Negro, was found by his
brother-in-law less than 500 yards from the home of a white
family.
Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medger Evers termed
the slaying a "probable lynching."
February 2, Greenwood, Leflore County:
Willie Peacock, SNCC
reg'stration worker, complained to the Justice Department tha'i.
officials had refused to register him on two occasions, and had
rejected his poll tax payment for this year.
February 20, Greenwood, Leflore County~
Four Negro businesses
on the same street as the SNCC voter registration office were
burned to the ground.
Mrs. Nancy Brand, a worker in the SNCC
office, reported an anonymous telephone call in which a man's
voice asked her if she ever came to the office.
When she said
yes, the voice said, "You won't be going down there anymore,
that's been taken care of."
The burned businesses were Jackson's
Garage, George's Cafe, Porter's Pressing Shop, and the Esquire
Club.
The pressing shop is next door to the SNCC office, and SNCC
workers believed the businesses were burned by mistake.
Sam
Block, SNCC Field Secretary, was arrested two days later for
suggesting there was some connection between the burnings and
the registration efforts of SNCC.
He was charged with circulating
statements calculated to create a breach of the peace.
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February 28~. Greenwood, Leflore county:
were attacked with gunfire on
wood.
u.s.
Three registration worker s
·Highway 82 just outside Green-
The shots were fired from a 1962 white Buick.
The car in
which the workers were riding was p~nctured by eleven bullets.
One worker;. James Travis of SNCC, was wounded in the neck and
shoulder.
March 4, Clarksdale, Coahoma County:
'the show windows in the
Fourth Street Drug store were smashed, as they have been several
times in the past.
The proprietor of the store, Aaron Henry,
found the damage when he returned from speaking at a mass
meeting in Leflore County in connectiQn with the voter registration
drive there.
March 6, Greenwood, Leflore County: Samuel Block and three
others were fired on from a station wagon which pulled up beside their car as they were parked in front of the SNCC voter
registration office.
Both front windows were shattered.
Police
later found the wadding from a shotgun shell buried in the
head-liner of Block's car, and several pellets in the wall
of the building in front of which the car had been parked.
March 12, Greenwood, Leflore county:
A twelve-year-old Negro
girl was atta~ed by an egg-throwing truckload of white teenaged boys.
The girl suffered facial bruises.
March 20 1 1963 1 Jackson, Hinds County:
#
Three shots were fired
through the windshield of a car belonging to Mrs. Mattie Dennis
while it was parked in front of the home of Mrs. Dennis• cousin ,
whom she was visiting.
Mrs. Dennis is the wife of David Dennis,
CORE Pield Secretary for Mississippi.
Both have been active in
voter registration.
March 24, 1963, Greenwood, Leflore county:
Fire destroyed
partially the interior of the voter registration office at 115 E.
McLaurin St., making the office unusable and necessitating a
search for new headquarters.
Witnesses said they saw two white
men fleeing the scene shortly before the fire was discovered.
March 26, 1963, Greenwood, _Leflore County:
A shotgun blast
ripped into the home of Dewey Greene, Sr., father of the latest
Negro applicant to the University of Mississippi.
Another of
Mr. Greene's sons and a daughter have been active in .the Leflore
County registration project.
Greenwood police said they were
investigating.
March 27, 1963, Greenwood, Leflore county:
James Forman,
Executive Secretary of SNCC, Bob Moses, and about ten other
registration workers were arrested and taken from a group en
route to the courthouse to register after the police dispersed
a group of more than 100 ~egroes with the use of police dogs.
(30)
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