Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1963—PAGE 9
MISSISSIPPI
Legislative Investigating Group
Charges ‘Brutalities’ by Marshals
(Continued From Page 1)
dispatch of 30,000 federal troops and
556 United States marshals to Oxford
for enforcement of the court order.
The committee charged that the “556
specially deputized marshals followed
a pattern of brutalities—including the
detention of 100 people in a garage
adjoining the soil sedimentation labora
tory of the Soil Conservation Service
near the campus—clubbings and man
handling.”
It charged that a disabled former
serviceman was denied medicine and
that many prisoners were forced to
spend hours on a concrete torture slab
without food and water.”
“Many students were seized, incar
cerated in the Lyceum building base
ment and there hit with clubs, beaten
with fists, kicked and spat upon by the
marshals,” the report alleges.
‘Management of News’
Chairman Fox said “it took weeks of
investigation for the committee to learn
the facts concerning the brutalities be
cause the Department of Justice suc
cessfully concealed the actions of its
marshals from the press and other news
media by its management of news at
the university.”
He asserted that the “occupation of
the campus” on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1
“was officially designated ‘Operation
Rapid Road’ by the federal authori
ties.”
“The occupation was upon the direct
orders of Attorney General Robert
Kennedy under the personal supervis
ion of Deputy Attorney General Nich
olas de B. Katzenbach, assisted by Ed
Guthman, publicity director for the De
partment of Justice, Chief United States
Marshal James McShane, John Dear-
Norbert Schlei and other members of
the staff of the Department of Justice,”
the committee report stated.
State Attorney General Joe T. Patter
son has written the investigating com
mittee of his willingness to prosecute
the matter and present the findings to
proper grand juries if the names of the
witnesses and those accused are filed
with him.
Patterson said District Attorney Jesse
L. Yancey has joined him in his offer.
★ ★ ★
Report Branded
‘Untruthful’ by U. S.
The federal Justice Department in a
Washington release April 24 branded
a Mississippi legislative committee’s
c harges of brutality by United States
marshals in the University of Mississip
pi rioting as “untruthful.”
If right and justice are on the side
°, “ le - committee as it claims, then it is
s ocking to us that facts would be dis-
rted or ignored and incidents manu
factured,” the department said. “The
act that the committee did not inter-
ew any objective observers who were
j n er ®’ much less the federal officials
volved, is an indication of the accur-
and fairness of this report.”
e department said the report “con-
tains
no names or facts that could be
checked by anyone.”
jjj., appeal's to us that this committee
is Tv n° some self-examination. There
Pm® 8 40 ver y little possibility for
of ® ress and understanding among all
if as a people in this difficult field
h e ^j? > ? ns *kl e local officials put their
ratv,- ® the sand and manufacture
Tj, r ^an face the facts.”
Was * “ e P artm ent denied that news
Hen SUp P resse d, asserting that “news-
'*ishedl^ re * ree t0 go where they
^i°t Reported by Newsmen
s°, Ca i l fjl t:r ange indeed that none of the
file sev brutalities were reported by
tttg nj ® ra ^ hundred newsmen, indud-
radio a a ^ rom southern newspapers,
Hessed tu te ^ evi sion stations who wit-
'kpartm 6 riot an d its aftermath,” the
Pews,- sa id. “On the contrary, the
Md P ra ised the marshals’ courage
Of^M SS under fire.”
building raar shals around the Lyceum
27 Wound j 8< ! Were injured, including
said, e by gunfire, the department
rt turn’.i* 1 “the marshals did not
V S
^Ptured partm ent said the marshals
wfio werp 3 ? Ut ^9 youths and adults
tae *n “ U a ttack ing them and placed
of th er T in a basement
^ e Lyceum building because
i “The ”, 0 i . place else to put them.”
ut Wer e n ltlons were not the best,
°t nearly so bad as those
Mississippi Highlights
The General Legislative Investi
gating Committee accused federal
marshals in the University of Missis
sippi desegregation of “brutality”
and charged the Department of Jus
tice with suppressing news of it. The
Justice Department denied the alle
gations, accusing the committee of
“manufacturing incidents.”
District court hearings on three
public school desegregation cases
were delayed until May.
The U.S. Supreme Court post
poned until October arguments on
whether Gov. Ross Barnett and Lt.
Gov. Paul B. Johnson are entitled to
a trial by jury on criminal contempt
charges for defying federal court
orders for admission of Negro James
Meredith at the University of Missis
sippi.
Lt. Gov. Paul B. Johnson de
fended Citizens’ Councils in a state
ment denying they had lost their
“voice” with the Sovereignty Com
mission, the state’s pro-segregation
agency.
the marshals had to undergo. Many of
the marshals went without food and
sleep far longer than any of the prison-
ers.
The department said “other persons
were arrested by soldiers and national
guardsmen. In all, about 300 persons
were taken into custody, ranging in
age from 14 to 57. On Oct. 1, the
prisoners were removed from the Ly
ceum building to the airport. Some
were kept in a garage building. By the
afternoon of Oct. 2, all but a handful
had been released.
“Before being released the prisoners
were questioned by agents of the FBI
and complaints were filed against 13
men (four of these later were indicted
by a federal grand jury).”
The department’s statement stressed
the violence of the attacks upon the
marshals, asserting that vehicles were
raced at them full speed and that they
were attacked with gunfire, bricks, bot
tles, rocks, acid, pipes and Molotov
cocktails.”
Committee Members
Members of the permanent Missis
sippi General Legislative Investigating
Committee making the report were:
State Rep. Russell Fox of Claiborne
County, chairman, and member of the
legislature since 1936. He is a livestock
breeder.
State Sen. George Yarbrough of Red
Banks, newspaper general manager and
cattleman, and the state’s No. 3 official
as president pro tern of the Senate. He
was Gov. Ross Barnett’s personal rep
resentative on the Ole Miss campus
Sept. 30. He has served one term in
the House and is on his second four-
year stint in the Senate.
State Sen. Dennis Baker of Bates-
ville, an attorney with 12 years legisla
tive service.
State Rep. Luther Sims of Lowndes
County, a legislator since 1944 and an
attorney.
State Sen. Frank Barber of Hatties
burg, an attorney, serving his first term
in the legislature and a close personal
Community Action
and political friend of Lt. Gov. Paul
B. Johnson, also of Hattiesburg.
State Rep. Walter Hester of Adams
County, a merchant and Gov. Barnett’s
House floor leader. He has been in the
House since 1952 and accompanied Gov.
Barnett on one of his block-Meredith
missions to the University of Missis
sippi campus.
★ ★ ★
Senators Ask Probe
By State, U.S., Juries
Mississippi’s two United States Sena
tors—James O. Eastland and John C.
Stennis—said the charges in the com
mittee’s report should be placed before
state and federal grand juries.
“The acts of brutality and mistreat
ment of innocent people being held in
unauthorized custody demand the at
tention of the proper judicial forum,”
the senators said in a joint statement.
“Each charge should be examined by
the proper state and federal judicial
authority and those guilty of specific
acts of brutality and assault should be
brought before the bar of justice.”
The senators said “during the course
STENNIS EASTLAND
of this investigation (by the legislative
committee) it was a privilege for us
to co-operate fully with the committee
in furnishing material available to us
from all sources.” Both sent special
investigators to Oxford immediately
after the disorders.
Mississippi U. S. Rep. Jamie Whitten
asserted that “neither German nor
Japanese prisoners were given any
such treatment in World War H.”
“Truly the American people should
wake up before it is too late,” Rep.
Whitten said. “I hope the appropriate
(See COMMITTEE, Page 10)
‘Oh, It Was Brutal th’ Way
Those U. S. Marshals Treated
Our People at Ole Miss!’
Sanders, Greensboro Daily News
Kerciu and Controversial Art
Criminal charges were filed and dropped.
Paintings Spur Charges,
Controversy at Ole Miss
T^ive modernistic paintings de-
picting an assistant art profes
sor’s impressions of the Universi
ty of Mississippi’s desegregation
crisis last fall touched off a heated
controversy on the Ole Miss cam
pus during April.
Charges of obscenity and of desecra
tion of the Confederate Flag, used as
a background for the paintings, were
lodged against G. Ray Kerciu, the 29-
year-old assistant art professor, but
were later dropped.
Kercui covered one painting with
cruses, slogans and epithets which he
said he heard during the disorder when
Negro student James Meredith enrolled
in the university last September.
The charges against the teacher were
filed by Charles Blackwell, a law stu
dent and past state president of the
Patriotic American Youth organization.
They were dropped by Blackwell on
April 17, several days after the con
troversy erupted.
Assurances Cited
Blackwell said he withdrew the
charges after getting assurances from
Kercui’s attorney that the paintings
would not be shown at the university
or elsewhere in Mississippi.
“The man was here for only one
year,” said Blackwell, a candidate for
the state legislature. “He’s from Michi
gan and isn’t familiar with our laws,
traditions and customs. In keeping with
the traditions and integrity of the Uni
versity of Mississippi, I felt this was
a reasonable thing to do since he agreed
not to exhibit his paintings in the
state.”
Justice of the Peace W. H. Jones said
Blackwell told him he was dropping
the charges because “this thing just
got out of all proportion.” He said
Blackwell had complained he “couldn’t
study or do anything for answering his
mail and telephone calls” in connection
with the controversy.
Dr. Charles Noyes, university pro
Johnson Insists Council ‘Strong’
Lt. Gov. Paul B. Johnson, a candidate
for governor in the August Democratic
primary, has challenged statements that
the election of Erie Johnston Jr., as
director of the Sovereignty Commis
sion, the state’s segregation “watch
dog” agency, was an indication that the
prosegregation Citizens’ Councils “no
longer wield the power they once had
with that organization.”
The statements were based on a feud
between Johnston and Citizens’ Council
Administrator W. J. Simmons.
“The Citizens’ Councils’ voice is as
strong as ever with the commission
and their helpful suggestions are al
ways welcomed,” the lieutenant gover
nor said in a statement April 12. “The
battle for racial integrity corrals and
uses the combined and united effort of
all loyal, dedicated and patriotic
Americans.”
Johnson asserted that “those who
attempt to give the impression that
Erie Johnston’s appointment split the
membership and lessened the activities
and effectiveness of the State Sover
eignty Commission have seen their
poisonous propaganda fly back in their
faces.”
The election of Johnston was by a
6-to-4 vote of the commission. He was
opposed by the professional leadership
of the Citizens’ Council.
In an interview with United Press
International, Director Johnston ex
pressed the hope that “Mississippi seg
regationists will forget the past differ
ences and present a united front against
integration.”
“I will appreciate the co-operation
of all organizations,” he said. “We all
share the same attitudes and determi
nation to preserve our traditions,
though there are occasional differences
of opinion as to the best way to ac
complish this purpose and how to meet
certain situations as they arise.”
Johnston said he will accept “as
sistance but not leadership from out
side the commission.”
“Our program is not designed to
convert integrationists, but to create
an understanding of our situation and
to show that we who have lived with
it are better qualified to work out our
problems than persons who have little
or no knowledge of Mississippi,” he
said.
“We try to show that our population
ratio has inspired a system under
which both races can make progress
without either race forcing itself on
the other.”
vost, ordered the paintings removed
from Kerciu’s exhibit of nearly 100
works in the Ole Miss Fine Arts Center.
This action occurred on April 5, five
days after the paintings had been
placed on exhibit, and resulted in pro
tests from some faculty members.
Long Conference
The assistant professor and Dr. Noyes,
also a university attorney, conferred
for more than two hours before the
provost ordered the paintings removed.
A friend of Kerciu said the teacher-
artist was “terribly distressed at the
incident” but did not wish to make
any public comment at that time.
Kercui, who had posted a $500 bond
pending a hearing which had been set
for May 3, had this to say after the
charges were dropped:
“I feel very good about it, but Td
rather not make any further comment
until I talk with my attorney.”
Protesting Dr. Noyes’ order to re
move the paintings from the exhibit,
one faculty member said:
“I thought this happened only in
Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.
We are supposed to have freedom of
expression in this country.”
The faculty member, not connected
with the art department, declined use
of his name, contending that he feared
reprisals.
AAUP Statement
The local chapter of the American
Association of University Professors
unanimously adopted a resolution call
ing on the Ole Miss administration to
“support Professor Kerciu in the pres
ent case by making a vigorous public
statement . . . and to defend him openly
and officially through the services of
the university attorney.”
“If this is not done,” the AAUP
statement continued, “it is the belief
of this body that the individual mem
bers of this faculty can only conclude
that they will be abandoned to the
whims of any pressure group which
may be offended by the conscientious
and legitimate exercise of their acade
mic obligations.”
The State College Board was to con
sider a university request to hire an
attorney to defend Kerciu, but Black-
well dropped the charges before the
board met.
Phrases Pro and Con
These were some of the phrases
painted over the Confederate Flag
background:
“We will never surrender,” “Law
and order must be preserved,” “Bro
therhood by bayonet,” “Go home nig
ger,” “White supremacy,” “States
rights,” and others.
One of the paintings included the
word, “Never,” in 18-inch lettering.
Kerciu, who received numerous in
vitations to exhibit the paintings in art
galleries, had maintained that he was
innocent of violating the state law by
using the Confederate Flag as a back
ground.
Blackwell said he was “harassed”
after bringing the charges, He added:
“This suit has proven that the in
tegrationists will use every tactic and
method against me that Meredith claims
has been used against him.”