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Hie Augusta News-Review - April 19, 1980 -
‘Hoover stopped Klansmens’ trial’
in ’63 Birmingham bombing
From The New York Timer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - J.
Edgar Hoover blocked
prosecution of four Ku Klux
Klansmen identified by agents
of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation as the bombers
who killed four black children
at the 16th Street Baptist
Church here in 1963, according
to a Justice Department report.
As a result, it was 14 years
before one of the Klansmen,
Robert E. Chambliss, was
convicted of murder. The
conviction came five years
after the death in 1972 of Mr.
Hoover, who was director of
the F. 8.1. The other three
Klansmen identified as alleged
accomplices have never been
indicted.
The report, obtained by The
New York Times, also discloses
that a fifth suspect in the
bombing was hired by the
F. 8.1. as a paid informer two
months after the children died,
despite polygraph, or
lie-detector, results that
convinced bureau agents that
he had been involved in the
crime.
The Klansman worked for
the F. 8.1. for two years even
though the bureau considered
him so dangerous that, in
1964, it warned the Secret
Service to keep him under
surveillance as a threat to the
President, the report states. In
addition, it says that field
agents knew the informer
engaged in attacks on blacks
while on the bureau’s payroll.
The disclosures are
contained in a 302-page
document compiled by a
Justice Department panel
assigned to investigate separate
but relate allegations involving
Discrimination
Continued from Page 1
discrimination.”
The Sth Circuit cited
practices including segregated
voting lists, segregated voting
booths, intimidation of black
voters by election officials and
the “unwarranted arrest and
detention” of blacks who
protested the discrimination.
Americus, located 10 miles
PAUL D. WALKER
the professional t . X.
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TH( EQVITABIt UH ASSVSANCf MXIHV Os IHf bMUOSTATB
3 company you can count on
ffcttEu Bus. 798-6691 P.O. Box 2808
\ y Res. 793-7775 Augusta, Georgia 30904
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Page 2
another F. 8.1. informer, Gary
Thomas Rowe Jr. The
department study was begun in
an effort to determine whether
Mr. Rowe was involved in
racial crimes while he was on
the payroll as the F.BJ.’s chief
informer inside the
Birmingham Klan in the
1960’5.
The report of the Rowe
Task Force was completed
seven months ago, but the
Justice Department has refused
to release it. An official said its
release could prejudice an
impending trial of Mr. Rowe,
who is under indictment for
murder in the 1965 death of
Viola grcgg Liuzzo, a white
civil rights marcher from
Detroit. However, there is
speculation, some of it within
the Justice Department, that
the report is being withheld
because the Senate Judiciary
Committee is drafting a new
F. 8.1. charter that could
impose stricter rules on the use
of informers.
No Evidence on Killings
The task force of four
lawyers reported that F. 8.1.
agents knew about and
apparently covered up Mr.
Rowe’s involvement in
nonfatal attacks on blacks. But
the lawyers added that there
was “no evidence from F. 8.1.
files” to support allegations
that Mr. Rowe was also
involved in the bombing of the
16th Street Baptist Church.
What the task force did find
were bureau documents
showing the previously
undisclosed role that Mr.
Hoover played in blocking
prosecution in the case, which
involved the largest number of
east of President Carter’s home
town of Plains, abandoned its
practice of racially segregated
polling places in the
mid-19605, according to ACLU
briefs. The city replaced it with
a system of segregation by sex.
Local blacks charged that
the new system was
implemented only to insure
deaths in a single incident in
the civil rights movement era in
the South.
The report shows that by
December 1964, the
Birmingham F. 8.1. office had
made what one of Mr. Hoover’s
top aides called “a significant
breakthrough” in the case.
Field agents had eyewitness
testimony from three persons
who said they saw Mr.
Chambliss and three associates
near the church about eight
hours before the bomb
exploded.
“The Birmingham field
office urged the bureau to
present this evidence to the
Department of Justice in order
to obtain a prosecutive
opinion,” the report states,
“but Director Hoover
overruled, explaining that the
‘chance of successful
prosecution... is very remote.’”
The report states that, five
months later, the Birmingham
office tried again, assuring Mr.
Hoover that it had strong
evidence “that the bombing
was the handiwork of former
Klansmen, Robert E.
Chambliss, Bobby Frank
Cherry, Herman Frank Cash,
Thomas E. Blanton Jr.” and
probably a fifth man, now
deceased.
Confirmation by Witness
Mr. Chambliss and the three
others that the task force
report identifies were members
or close associates of Eastview
13 Klavern, the violent Klan
cell here that Mr. Rowe
infiltrated. The report shows
that Mr. Rowe did not have
extreme racial views when
asked by the F. 8.1. to join the
Klan in 1960. But as a member
that white women would not
be required to stand in the
same voting lines with black
males.
Last December, the Justice
Department notified Americus
officials that sex-segregated
voting was a change in
procedure covered by the 1965
Voting Rights Act and could
not continue to be used
without prior approval to
determine whether it had the
“purpose and effect of
discriminating on account of
race.”
President Carter and his
family have a long history in
Sumter County of speaking out
against segregationist practices.
In 1972, then-Gov. Carter
joined with his mother, Mrs.
Lillian Carter, his brother,
Billy, and other Sumter
residents in a suit against the
school board which resulted in
the board’s current
configuration.
of Klan “action squads,” he
soon became involved in
violent attacks on blacks that
his F. 8.1. control agents, or
“handlers,” ignored or failed to
report, according to the task
force.
Field agents told the task
force that violence against
blacks was essential, if
regrettable, to maintaining in
informer’s cover as a militant
segregationist. This theory
allowed for the hiring of the
informer who was reported to
the Secret Service. He appears
in the task force report under
the pseudonym “Huey
Lipscomb.” His real name,
according to other documents
obtained by The Times, was
John Wesley Hall. Now
deceased, Mr. Hall was a
convicted felon known by the
Klan nickname of “Nigger.”
5420 Paid Over 2 Years
Mr. Hall was a good enough
informer for the Birmingham
office to ask Washington to
u pgrade him from
probationary to full informer
status. In two years, Mr. Hall
received $420 from the F. 8.1.,
a pitance compared with the
$22,000 Mr. Rowe received.
But it was Mr. Hall, unaware
that Mr. Rowe also worked for
the F. 8.1., who warned the
bureau that Mr. Rowe might be
planning the violence he was
hired to monitor.
Mr. Hall told the F. 8.1. that
Mr. Rowe was one of three
members on Eastview’s
Klokan, or security committee,
the task force found.
According to Mr. Hall, “any
violence which came from
Eastview Klavern 13 would
have to be okayed by all three
Paine students merge
books with business
Joseph Roberson saw a need
for a black business in
Waynesboro, and filled the
need by opening a record store
in February of 1976.
In managing Joe's Discount
Record Store, Roberson used
many of the principles he is
learning as a business major at
Paine College. Roberson earned
the capital to begin the
business in the United States
Army.
A first lieutenant, he is the
highest ranking black officer in
his Army Reserve battalion,
and will be in line for a
promotion to captain in
August.
With his savings, Roberson
bought fixtures for the
building. To aboid borrowing
money, he ordered his stock of
records on account from a
record company, and paid each
bill with money from sales.
Now he also pays a full-time
employe to operate the
I business while he attends
school. “I still worry about the
business, but I realize I can’t be
in Waynesboro and continue
my education, too,” Roberson
said.
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24, 1980, at 7:00 P.M. The meeting will be held in
Crawfordville, Ga. (Taliaferro County) at Heavy's
Bar-B-Q.
This meeting is open to the public.
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of these individuals,” including
Mr. Rowe. Mr. Hall added that
the year in which Mr. Rowe
held this power was 1963,
when, according to the F. 8.1.,
present or former Eastview
members and their associates
bombed the 16th Street
Church.
The task force could find no
record that the bureau ever
investigated to see if Mr. Rowe,
in fact, held veto power over
Klan violence. Nor could the
task force find any evidence
that the F. 8.1. ever investigated
another tip about Mr. Rowe
from Mr. Tarrant, the informer
who provided the main
information about the
bombing. He listed Mr. Rowe
among 11 Klansmen who,
whild not direct participants,
“had knowledge” of the
church bombing.
In 1977, when the Alabama
authorities reopened the
church-bombing case, Mr.
Rowe voluntarily took two
polygraph tests that seemed to
confirm what Mr. Tarrant told
the F. 8.1. in 1964. One
examiner said Mr. Rowe
“showed strong and consistent
unresolved deception
responses” when he denied
being with the men who placed
the bomb. A second examiner,
selected by Mr. Rowe,
concluded that his “deceptive”
answers were of the kind seen
on the polygraph “when a
person is withholding vital
information” about a crime
rather than covering his own
participation.
But The Rowe Task Force
report makes no mention the
polygraph tests, which are in
the files of Alabama
investigators contacted by the
task force.
At one time he considered
finding a partner for his store.
“But I’m protective of the
business,” he said, “There is
always a chance a partner
could eventually take over
your business.”
Another Paine student who
has owned his own stores went
out of business while trying to
form a partnership. Michael
Carter, a senior, business
major, decided to close his two
businesses in Warrenton.
Carter opened his first
business, Mike’s Record Shop,
at the age of 19, with money
he earned working after school.
Later, he acquired a beer
license and opened a second
store.
His opportunity for a
partnership came when he and
a friend decided to combine
the record sales and beer
license with a discotheque in a
larger building. A series of
burglaries ended the new
business before it opened.
See “STUDENTS”
Page 3
Carter to
nominate
Dr. Berry
President Carter announced
recently that he will nominate
Mary Frances Berry, associate
professor of history at Howard
University and former assistant
secretary of Health, Education,
and Welfare for education, as a
member of the Commission on
Civil Rights.
Berry, 42, was chancellor of
the University of Colorado
before she was appointed
assistant secretary of HEW in
1977. She resigned from HEW
earlier this year. She spoke at
Paine College’s Founders’ Day
observance in February. It was
her first speech since her
resignation from HEW.
Prior to her chancellorship
at the University of Colorado,
Berry was provost, behavioral
and social sciences at the
University of Maryland,
% ■PMBIHHBH ■-sf
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A UNIQUE GIFT was given to Paine College recently. Fifty United Methodist
hymnals, in the school’s color, purpose, were donated to the coUege by Woodlawn
United Methodist Church in Augusta. Pictured above (lr) is the Rev. David B.
Sargent Jr., pastor of Woodlawn Church, and Dr. Julius S. Scott Jr., president of
Paine College.
. ’ i ME
-JI
MICHAEL CARTER and J oseph Robinson congratulate one another on their
business ventures.
concern for the young black
golfers who cannot get
sponsors because of their color.
“So many sponsors backing
young players would rather put
their money behind a white
player because they feel he’s
better prepared. He’s able to go
to college and play golf his
four years in college and
compete against the type of
player he’s going to be playing
against on the tour.
“We, as blacks, still are not
able to get that chance. Black
kids in college find it too
expensive to travel to play in a
U.S. Open or U.S. Amateur. It
is so expensive that if he does
not have someone to back him
to go to these places, then he’s
not going to get the
House for Sale
At 7%% by Owner
3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, dining room,
den with fireplace, double garage, patio. Large
corner lot. Located in Meadowgrove area of South
Augusta. Assume at $59,000 or best offer. No
agents. Call 798-4718.
F
Mary Frances Berry
associate professor at Eastern
Michigan University and
assistant professor of history at
Eastern Michigan University.
Masters
Continued from Page 1
opportunity. And the
opportunity is not presenting
itself for the young black
player.
“There are several black
players who are outstanding
golfers who I have talked to
people about sponsoring. They
say we’ll consider it. We’ll talk
about it later, but that day
never comes.’’
1 know a man on the tour
who is backing five golfers - all
white. But yet I can name you
three black players that are all
superior to them. But yet he
has the white players under his
umbrella.”
Elder also feels that blacks
are short-changed by
manufacturers when it comes
to commercial endorsements.
Berry received her B.A. and
M.A. from Howard University
and her Ph.D. and J.D. from
the University of Michigan.
“I feel that my play on the
tour far exceeds a lot of white
players on the tour that have
far better endorsements, and I
have won more tournaments. I
know some guys who have
never won a golf tournament
that have fantastic contracts
with manufacturers. But then,
too, their skin just happens to
be white.
“But those are the type of
things that we run into, and we
will continue to run into them.
It will continue until we are
equal in number of players.
But I don’t think that is
possible because we cannot
generate enough funds so we
can have 100 black
professionals on the tour.
There is no way. No way.”
Byrd Station in Antarctica
stands on a mountain of ice
almost 10,000 feet thick.
The Tuscan dialect of
Dante's Divine Comedy be
came the language of literary
Italy.
WALLACE'S
REAL ESTATE
1132 Laney-Walker Blvd.
722-8838