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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. # # #