from Militant of 11/9/62
Violence and terror against the campaign to register Negro voters in the South while the Kennedy administration — fully in“ormed beforehand of the threats — dodges its clear responsibility to afford protection and limits itself to "investigations" and timid court action, The violence is most severe in those counties where Negroes are a majority of the population and where they could win elections if they won the right to vote.
In Sunflower County, Illississippi, two Negro girl students, active in a voter~registration campaign, were wounded Sept 10th by shot-gun blasts fired throvgn the window of a house in the city of Ruleville, The girls, Vivian Hilliet and Iiarian Burkes were staying in the home of Vivian's 78-year-old grandfather, Herman Sisson, who had to take them to a hospital himself after attempting unsuc-— cessfully to summon the local police.
"T dontt expect the police around here will be arresting anybody anytime soon for what happened," Sisson said.
The Sunflower County voter—registration campaign for Negroes — who number 13,500 of the 22,300 persons of voting age in the county, with only 161 Negroes registered - was announced last month by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The county is in the Delta region of liississippi and is the birthplace of the White Citizens Councils and t.e home county of racist Senator James O. Jastland (dem). S.N.C.C. workers in the county found the registrar's office closed when they went there with Negroes attempting to register to votes Thereupon S.N.C.C. chairman Charles IicDrew wired Senator iiastland asking him to instruct the registrar to open his office or to resign from the Senate if "violations of voting rights are not corrected." President Kennedy was also informed of the situation and specifically informed of the threats of violence.
Following a raid by armed white men on a voter-training office August 17 in Greenwood, Miss. - also in the Delta — licDew wired the presidunt: "Request you send federal marshals to Greenwood, llississippi, to protect voter-registration workers. If no federal intervention is forthcoming in Greenwood and other Delta cities, there is great possibility of more iimmett Till cases."
In southwest Georgia, where S.N.C.C. has been involved since last fall in a voter-registration project in the rural counties surrounding the city of ilbany, renewed terrorist acitivity occurred Sept. 9 when two Negro churches in Sasser were burned down. Both churches - ]iount Olive Baptist and liount liary Baptist - were involved in the voter-registration drive in Terrell County. Only 53 Nezroes in the county are registered to vote. White voters there total 2,894 although Negroes are 64.4 per cent of the population.
Last month another church involved in the voter drive in Leesburg, 20 miles from Sasser, was also burned down. On Sept. 5 in Dawson, the county seat, shotgun blasts were fired into a Negro .home where a group of voter-registration volunteers were sitting. A white youth and a Negro girl were wounded. The iiount Olive Baptist church was the scene of a raid cn a voter-registretion meeting last July by Sheriff Zeke T. Ikathews, his deputies, and other white-supremacists. Fortunately, newsmen were present in the church. Under pressure of the widespread publicity given tis blatant act, the Department of Justice filed suit before Federal District Judge J. Robert slliot asking that the Sheriff be enjoined from further interference with voting activities,
But Judge Slliot, a notorious segr&¥ionist and a leading Democrat who was recently appointed to the bench by President Kennedy, denied the request on the grounds that nobody's civil rights were threatened. In Washington, the Department of Justice announced on Sept. 10 that it was “investigating” the destruction of the two churches. In Charleston, i:issouri ~ across the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, where $.N.C.C. integration met with racist violence - 31 youths were arrested Sept. 1 during a demonstration in front of a segregatod oi ne Seven youths are still in jail under bonds ranging from $100 to
LITLITANT DOUBLED IN SIZE
Commencing with September 17th issue,the Militant (New York) has incr— eased its size from 4 to 8 pages. At the sam +e editors have utilised the ‘new elbow room to make the paper more informative, useful and interesting." (as they put its ) We are sure that the increaso in size of the Militant will greatly facilitate sales in this country. We want to speedily amend our order for the paper, especially as we have found the orijsinal order far t@ modest even before the increase in size. Please write in and let us know as soon as possible how many you require.