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MISSISSIPPI
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH I960—PAGE 7
State’s Civil Rights Advisory Committee
Sets Investigation of Voting Situation
JACKSON, Miss.
MISSISSIPPI’S CIVIL RIGHTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Seated, James L. Allen, Secretary; The Rev. Murray Cox, Chairman; Mrs. Wallis
I. Schutt. Standing, Dr. A. Benjamin Britton, Retired Adm. Robert Briscoe
M ississippi’s biracial advis
ory committee to the Federal
Civil Rights Commission will in
vestigate alleged voter discrimi
nation against Negroes in the
state. The committee chairman
also disclosed his efforts to inte
grate the Gulf Coast Ministerial
Assn, “for discussions of racial
problems.” (See “Under Sur
vey.”)
Atty. Gen. Joe T. Patterson
said federal supervision of voting
registration would lead to a “mas
sive and all-powerful, single state”
in testimony before the U.S. Sen
ate Rules Committee. (See “What
They Say.”)
Church rights bills in the Mississippi
Legislature would permit congrega
tions of local Protestant churches to
withdraw from “parent” jurisdictional
bodies over differences on “social
policies” and retain title to property.
Thus far that is the only racial legis
lation before the current biennial ses
sion of the Legislature, which con
vened Jan. 5. (See “Legislative Ac
tion.”)
Gov. Ross Barnett, at a statewide
Citizens Council banquet in Columbia,
S. C., called on the South “to wage a
life or death fight” for preservation of
segregation and warned “we must start
with a total mobilization.” (See “What
They Say.”)
Dean Robert Farley of the Univer
sity of Mississippi law school, in a
speech at Greenville, asserted that
“any disregard or mockery of the fed
eral judiciary endangers the three-part
basis of American democracy.” (See
“What They Say”)
The state chapter of the National
Assn, for the Advancement of Colored
People protested alleged “dual stand
ards of justice” in a telegram to Pres
ident Eisenhower. (See “What They
Say”)
The state advisory committee to the
Federal Civil Rights Commission, com
posed of three whites and two Negroes,
announced at a meeting in Jackson
Feb. 17 that its first project will be an
investigation of alleged voter discrim
ination in Mississippi.
The announcement followed a closed
session and was made by the Rev.
Murray Cox, retired white Methodist
minister of Gulfport and chairman of
the state group.
“The committee feels that voting is
probably the most important matter
for us to take up at the present time,”
Cox said. “We will give our greatest
emphasis to the voting situation.”
The chairman said that despite a
committee statement in December that
it would welcome complaints concem-
in civil rights violations, none were
received. The state NAACP also had
sent letters to all branches urging the
members to file complaints with the
committee.
Asserting that the committee hopes
to receive complaints, Cox said, “We
will begin our investigations whether
or not complaints are received.”
SAYS COAST SEGREGATED
The decision to enter the voting
rights field was reached after David
Koonce, Washington information officer
of the federal commission, said hear
ings of the latter group had indicated
there was “just as much segregation on
the West Coast as there is in Missis
sippi.”
Koonce told the state group that
commission hearings and investigations
elsewhere “indicate discrimination is
not a sectional problem ... It exists
all over the country where there is a
minority.”
“However,” he said, “the southern
racial situation creates problems for of
ficials in other parts of the country
because Negroes who move from the
South take with them the attitude they
developed in the South.”
“As a result, they still have a suspi
cion and fear of police and settle their
disputes among themselves,” Koonce
said.
Although the state committee mem
bers were branded “traitors” by Citi
zens Council officials, committee mem
bers asserted their mail “indicates
minds in Mississippi aren’t as closed as
some people may think.” They said
“most” of their mail has been favor
able.
The Citizens Councils have said that
“any scalawag southerner who fronts
for our mortal enemies will face the
well-deserved contempt and ostracism
that any proud people would feel for a
traitor.”
ISSUES CALL
Chairman Cox, who said he is not
personally opposed to integration, has
called on “people of good will” in the
state’s communities where there is
“racial irritation” to hold interracial
meetings in an effort to settle the dif
ferences.
He said that white and Negro min
isters in Harrison County, where he
lives, are meeting to discuss racial
problems. He plans to recommend to
the white ministerial association there
that Negro ministers be given mem
bership. If that fails, the Rev. Mr. Cox
said he and other white ministers may
form their own alliance with Negro
ministers on the Gulf Coast.
The other white members of the state
advisory committee are retired Adm.
Robert Briscoe of Liberty, former
NATO commander for Southeast Eur
ope, and Mrs. Wallis Schutt of Jack-
son, president of the United Church
Women’s Council.
The Negro members are Dr. A. Ben
jamin Britton of Jackson and James
Lucius Allen, Columbus pharmacist.
The next meeting of the committee
has been set for April 13.
Two bills pending in the current leg
islative session pertain to church inte
gration-segregation controversies.
High officials in all denominations
have expressed bitter opposition to the
proposals—the first in the current ses
sion dealing with the racial issue.
Most of the expressions favoring the
bills have come from laymen.
Because of opposition to the original
proposal embodied in identical bills in
the House and Senate, the authors of
fered another omitting direct refer
ences to the churches. However, op
ponents contend the second bill is
“nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s
clothing.”
The authors are Sens. W. B. Alex
ander of Cleveland and W. B. Lucas
of Macon, and Reps. Wilburn Hooker of
Holmes County (Lexington) and
Thompson McClellan of Clay County
(West Point).
The original bills would permit 65
per cent of the adult membership of a
local church to withdraw from the
“parent” governing body when the lat
ter’s change of social policies “results
in substantial and material change.” In
withdrawing, the local congregation
would gain title to the properties.
Opponents contended that the first
bills constituted class legislation in that
Catholic churches are excluded and
were contrary to the principle of sepa
ration of church and state.
NEW BILLS
The authors recognized those objec
tions and the new proposals “provide a
method for the removal of trustees
and others exercising authority over
certain classes of trusts and for the ap
pointment of successor-trustees.”
They described the “trusts” as those
“created for educational, charitable or
religious purposes . . .” The proposals
provide that when 66% per cent of the
local beneficiaries “shall determine that
there exists a deep-seated and irrecon
cilable hostility or tension between
them and any or all of the trustees or
others in authority exercising control
over the administration of such trust,”
they may go in court and seek removal
of the trustees and ask for new ones.
HEADS OPPOSITION
Heading up the opposition has been
the Methodists under Bishop Marvin
Franklin. The Baptist Record, official
publication of the Mississippi Baptist
Convention, condemned the legislation
and urged its defeat.
After the second series were offered,
Bishop Joseph Brunini of the Cath
olic Church in Mississippi came out
against the new versions.
Sen. Hayden Campbell of Jackson,
segregation leader and member of the
Citizens Council, attacked the legisla
tion as “the first step towards breaking
down this government’s traditional and
constitutional guarantee of separation
of church and state.”
Bishop Franklin said the first bills
“could be the first step toward the de
struction of the Protestant churches in
Mississippi and a serious blow to free
dom of religion—they have within
them the seed of death.”
Garner M. Lester of Jackson, presi
dent of the Mississippi Assn, of Metho
dist Ministers and Laymen, favors the
bills, as do the congregations of Metho
dist churches at Greenwood and Rule-
ville.
The John Rundle Bible class of the
First Methodist Church at Grenada en
dorsed the legislation “as the most ef
fective way of preventing ultimate in
tegration of the races within the local
churches.”
Atty. Gen. Patterson told the U.S.
Senate Rules Committee that the pro
posed federal registrar law is “designed
and intended for use in the state of
Mississippi and other southern states of
this union only.”
“I am confident that if those who so
ardently advocate this legislation
thought that the powers conferred by
the proposed legislation were going to
be fully and freely used in their re
spective states they would not be so
eager for its passage,” he said.
“If the Congress has the authority to
set up and put into operation the dicta-
toral powers of determining who may
register, who may vote and who may
have his vote counted, by the same au
thority, it could go one short step fur
ther and at some future date amend
the proposals to provide that a federal
registrar or referee may determine who
cannot vote and who is not entitled to
have his vote counted and then where
will the respective states of this union
find themselves with respect to their
elections,” the attorney general asked.
“The answer is,” Patterson added,
“the states will have been reduced to
absolute zero and will only be a geo
graphical part of a massive and all-
powerful, single state.”
Sen. John Stennis (D-Miss) said,
“These so-called civil rights bills would
put the federal government and more
into local affairs.” The junior Missis
sippi senator asserted, “The civil rights
issue is being overplayed for political
motives.”
ADDRESSES COUNCIL
Addressing the South Carolina Citi
zens Council banquet Jan. 29, Gov.
Barnett, a member of the Mississippi
Council, said:
“In spite of all the propaganda the
race-mixers can produce, in spite of
all the phony ‘brotherhood’ being
preached, the fact remains that the
average white American, wherever he
lives, doesn’t want integration. Maybe
he doesn’t know why—and maybe the
propagandists have even aroused a lit
tle sympathy in him—but that’s the
way he feels. He doesn’t want to in
tegrate.”
“We in the South must capitalize on
this feeling, before it’s too late. We
must give our northern friends our
backing, we must show them that seg
regation of the races is based on right
thinking. We must show them that
mixing the races leads inevitable to the
production of an inferior mongrel, re
jected by all of society, both white and
black.
“We must show the nation that con
tinued separation of the races is vital,
if we are to preserve the greatness of
America . . .
“The rest of the country is ready to
hear our story. In fact, they are, in
many cases, begging for it. They need
our moral support. And we cannot—
we must not—let them down.”
DEAN SPEAKS
Dean Farley told a group of Delta
lawyers and citizens that the South
cannot get away with defiance of fed
eral laws.
His remarks were at the dedicatory
ceremonies of a new federal building at
Greenville on Feb. 17.
Asserting that “today you can’t think
out loud hardly,” Farley said, “Any
one who talks in favor of world peace
is suspected of being a fellow traveler.”
He said that even though “many
Mississippians had tried to walk the
straight and narrow path between re
gional right and wrong there are some
people who demand that we stand up
and be counted.”
“But,” he added, “before I stand I
want to know who is doing the count
ing.”
“Never has so much tension existed
as now,” he said. “Friends won’t argue
among themselves. It looks like we
have reached the point where anyone
who pledges allegiance to the flag or
speaks with pride in our federal gov
ernment finds himself in a dangerous
situation.
“But, if he’s for federal subsidies,
he’s all right.”
“Our lawyers should protect our
courts from criticism and clamor as is
our prescribed duty,” he said. “We
should face the fact that our Supreme
Court is not bad despite contrary
opinions. We need the Supreme Court
as a branch of our government, as an
institution, as a vital part of our sys
tem.”
WIRE PROTESTS
Two Negro groups have wired Presi
dent Eisenhower protesting a “dual
system of justice practiced within the
state of Mississippi.”
One wire was sent by the Ministers
Conference of Meridian and was signed
by Rev. S. D. Williams, the president.
The other was dispatched by the Mis
sissippi State Conference of NAACP
Branches and signed by President C. R.
Darden of Meridian.
The NAACP telegram stated in part:
“We are disturbed by the dual stand
ard of justice as it is so observingly
administered by the powers-that-be in
Mississippi. We do not condone willful
or deliberate violence. We are opposed
to the ‘black shirt’ attack used by three
Negro boys in Tupelo on three whit?
men. We also observe that these Nesro
boys were sentenced to prison for
terms from 20 years to life, although
no one was killed.
“We, as well as other people of the
world, have observed the case of eight
white boys in Corinth who wilfully
and deliberately went out and mur
dered one Negro boy with a shot gun
blast and wounded another. Only one
of these boys received a sentence of
five years in prison, with four years
suspended.
“This is typical of Mississippi’s of
ficials’ double standard of justice . . .
We are appalled over the reluctance of
our federal government to take the
necessary steps to protect the rights of
Negroes.”
Concerning the Tupelo and Corinth
cases, the Ministers Conference wired
the President that “we assure you we
are aware of the fact that our stat?
cannot survive under such practices.
We do not want and cannot afford
violence in any measure.”
TENSION FREE
Describing his hometown of Green
ville as “an oasis in a vast desert of
troubled, tense country,” Editor Hod-
ding Carter addressed the Anti-Defa
mation League of B’Nai B’rith.
“Other Mississippi communities need
to rid themselves of hypocrisy, of dis
crimination before the law because of
race and from persecution of minorities
and the minority point of view,” he
said.
He said Greenville is almost free of
racial and religious tensions for a num
ber of reasons:
It is a river town and has connec
tions with the outside world; it is in a
rich section, able to afford leisure time
for thinking and planning; it has a tra
dition of community leadership, handed
down for several generations; and it
has a newspaper with courage.
Carter said one fourth of all Negroes
voting in Mississippi are in Greenville,
and that Negroes have been on juries
in Washington County for many years.
The Mississippi Legislature has com
mended William J. Simmons, a top
leader in the Citizens Council move
ment, for his “scholarly approach” to
the South’s segregation stand in writ
ing a chapter for the book, The Search
for America. It also commended his
participation in an interview filmed for
the Educational Television Network.
“The showing of this film and the
publication of this work is destined to
make a great contribution to a better
understanding in those parts of the
United States so prone to condemn and
criticize the South without investigat
ing and ascertaining any of the facts
involved,” the resolution stated.
INDEPENDENT ELECTORS
Rep. W. M. Colmer (D-Miss) told
the House Rules Committee during a
hearing on a civil rights bill that “six
southern states have set up machinery
to send independent electors to the
election into the House of Representa
tives, “we certainly would have some
strong bargaining power.”
Colmer said if three or four other
southern states had joined with the four
that bolted the Democratic ticket in 1948
and supported a Dixiecrat group, the
election would have been thrown in the
House.
# # #
Officials See
Use of Clause
On Voting Right
MEMPHIS, Tenn.
he 14th Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution might be
used to insure Negroes’ voting
rights in the Deep South, two of
ficials of the National Assn, for the
Advancement of Colored People
said at the southeastern regional
conference.
Clause two of the amendment says
the basis of representation shall be re
duced proportionately when the right
to vote is denied in any state, except
for participating in rebellion or other
crime, they said.
M. W. Evers, NAACP field secretary
for Mississippi, said this could vir
tually cut in half the state’s congres
sional representation. Use of the clause
also was predicted by Ruby Hurley of
Atlanta, the NAACP southeast regional
secretary.
The director of the NAACP Wash
ington bureau told a mass meeting of
1,500 Negroes at the final session Feb.
21 that they must make it “crystal clear
you’re not satisfied with second class
citizenship.”
The audience interrupted Mitchell
with applause a dozen times as he
urged them to sacrifice “until all jus
tice is color blind.” He predicted civil
rights “victories” in the Congress and
national conventions this year.
# # #