Long, Hot Summer '64; Episode 9

Long Hot Summer 64 a weekly summary and in-depth report on the struggle for civil rights in the South. This is Ted Mascot, producer and your host for long hot summer 64 the FBI announced this week the discovery of three bodies in a shallow grave near Philadelphia Mississippi and later positively identified two of the bodies as Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. The two white civil rights workers missing since last June 21st. Upon hearing this announcement and reading that the three workers had been shot if not worse. I immediately thought of some of the Southern comments surrounding their disappearance that I've heard these past six weeks. I will not repeat any of it now except for a very interesting letter to the editor from this past Tuesday's Clarion-Ledger the largest paper in Mississippi. The letter to the editor in this Jackson Mississippi newspaper is addressed to the editor Lowell Liberator, Lowell Massachusetts. Dear Sir I find both interesting and gratifying. The guest

editorial credited to you in July 30 issue of Jackson Mississippi Clarion-Ledger your implication that the quote mysterious disappearance unquote of three agents provocateurs so groundlessly and smugly labeled murder by the Yankee absolutist press was planned and executed by communists or their agents coincides with the consensus of informed Mississippians. If they were murdered it is by no means the first case of such disposition by communists or of their dupes to ensure their silence. However the careful absence of clues makes it seem likely that they are quartered in Cuba or another communist area awaiting their next test. There is no reason to believe them seriously harmed by citizens of the most law abiding STATE OF THE UNION. It is encouraging to find a paper whose name so strongly recalls the absolutist heyday of Garrison. Some there and Beecher's Bibles for Kansas daring to publish an honest and fair minded

expression. If the Commonwealth meaning Massachusetts as many citizens as intelligent as you it should be able to junk the Kennedy plan of emulating the social and economic policies of Haiti Cuba Brazil and Harlem and strive for true civilization despite the absolutist objectors. You might point out to those objectors that we benighted Mississippians just possibly may be right in wanting to be governed by our peers rather than by those who have never been able to rule themselves. One word to comfort the civil rights agitators who are sorely puzzled by the failure of colored Mississippians to welcome them more gladly. The fact is they have been weighed and found wanting by their reluctant hosts whose long and friendly association with respectable and kindly white neighbors has given them standards of morality and conduct that these communist indoctrinated Yankee phoneys cannot even understand, much less meet. It is high time they

learned this basic truth about Mississippians of all races and re-oriented their thinking in accord with the facts. Cordially yours James Norman Hamilton 811 Oakwood Drive, Clinton, Mississippi. A letter he wrote to the Clarion Ledger the largest newspaper in Mississippi which was addressed to the editor Lowell Liberato, Lowell Massachusetts. Now for reports on some of the activity in Mississippi in the civil rights movement there. Here was a phone report received yesterday from Jeff Callan. Jeff has been working in the civil rights movement there are since the third week in June. I thought it might be interesting for you to hear a little bit about what now is the common, typical day here, a typical day of, of many, many events because this, uh, county of, uh, ?Panola? county has, uh, become so politically active. Tomorrow, uh, in, uh, one nearby community, community of

?inaudible? one, uh, important meeting of, uh, uh, of registered voters and non-registered voters to talk about political organization as they do weekly or more, or, uh, twice a week in that community. Uh, in another nearby community uh, uh there's going to be a similar meeting, an organization meeting for the local, uh, voter's league. And, uh, also a group called the, uh, a singing group called the Gateway Singers and a, uh, singer named Barbara ?Dane? both of whom I've heard of and both of whom are fine folk or blues singers, uh, are coming here to give a free concert. We only heard about that about three or four days ago so we haven't had time to really play that up, but there's going to be a picnic and a song fest for the kids in the afternoon and another concert for adults in the evening. Third community, this community here in ?Batesville?. There's all of that, and yet some of us are going to

have to miss that because there's the, uh, meeting of the, uh, the ?state? convention of the Freedom Democratic Party in Jackson tomorrow. So that's where a lot of us will be going. There are those four major things going on in, uh, those for major things going on i- in, uh, Panola Panola county just in that one day and that day is getting to be rather a, uh, typical day. To Cried another. Not on the day the next day there are a couple of other man made night, Friday night, there's going to be a meeting of, of all of those political leaders in different communities here in Panola County with a, uh, important political figure from Memphis, a man who went to the Harvard Law School and is now running for the state senate in Memphis, and who will talk to various leaders from, from all the communities around here, potential leaders and possible leaders about, uh, organization of a

political pressure group here in the state, and here in Panola County and here in Batesville, [unclear]. So that kind of thing also will be, is being done. [Mascott] I asked Jeff if he could tell us something about the drive to establish the Freedom Democratic Party in Mississippi. [Callan] The District Convention of the Freedom Democratic Party, the district convention was held in Greenville on Sunday afternoon and it stretched through the early part of the evening. The Freedom Democratic Party of course is an attempt of the Negroes in the state, and, and, uh, some whites, to have a political party in which, uh, all the people of the state could have some voice, because the political system doesn't really permit the Negroes even to, uh, to register to vote, and it doesn't permit them to, uh, be active in party politics either, in the Republican Party or in the Democratic Party. And the Freedom Democratic

Party would offer an alternative for those things but be part of the Democratic Party. In any case the Freedom Democratic Party held a, its district convention in Greenville, Mississippi last Sunday. And the district convention was handled by delegations from almost all of the twenty four counties which are in that district. The convention proceeded with a order that was precisely identical to the order of business of the regular democratic convention because that's part of the challenge that we're, that we're putting forth is to, to mimic exactly the, uh, the regular Democratic Party in the state. So, we, a temporary chairman was elected and a slate of delegates to go to the national convention was selected and a, or not a slate of delegates, but several delegates go to to the national convention were selected, and

the State Executive Committee of the Freedom Democratic Party was selected. The thing about this party is that I really can't describe how enthusiastic I was and how enthusiastic everybody at that meeting was about politics. For most of the people there, it was with the first time that they could really act in politics, the first time that they had anything that they were allowed to say, and people there were really really anxious to say something, really anxious to do something. I hope that at some point WGBH will be carrying a tape of what went on there at that meeting. But in each community, I imagine, as in this community here, people have a tendency to think that they're isolated, have a tendency to think that their interest in politics is, uh, is unique throughout the state. Because if all Negroes thought that way, then why would Negroes be so suppressed throughout the state, and with Negroes being as suppressed as they are, how can they be so active in politics? But the fact is that that at this convention there were extraordinary delegates of men from all over the, all over the district, and they were sixteen representatives from each district. Our, our delegation,

l think, chauvinistically, was the best there. One of the things that was most exciting about our delegation was that I could see it in terms of the Grand Old Party within itself. For example, two of the, of the 16 people were young, energetic school teachers in their late 20s, early 30s, very very bright guys, who themselves couldn't be delegates and couldn't really run for important office, but who could, on the other hand, help, help, help a couple of the county leaders to become, to get important offices. So they were sort of the, the Bobby Kennedys of the convention. They went around lining up votes and making deals and making sure that each of the, of the other counties would support our delegates and promising that we'd make, that we'd, support for another delegate in turn, and so forth. For them, of course, it's the first time they'd ever done anything like this but they immediately caught onto it and, uh, and loved doing it and were quite successful in it. And then there was also the grand old man, the grand old man of, uh, of party

politics around here, the grand old man of Panola County is a man named Reverend Middleton who's 83 years old and for the last year or so he's had a little bit of a, he's been slightly paralyzed but it doesn't prevent him from doing anything, it only means -- I shouldn't even call it paralyzed. He has sort of a tic, and any -- he fumbles with things a little bit but he still tells terrific stories and he's, his mind is still extraordinarily keen. And, uh, he was elected for a delegate, he was the first one of our people to be elected for a delegate, and even though he lost that election, his speech was one of the high points of the whole convention where he told about the days when it was a small group of men struggling for political rights here in the state, and he just gave a great, great speech, and it was the speech of an old warhorse, who's, who's, who wants to go to his last great battle as a man of stature. He was later elected to an alternate position for the convention, which we were all very happy about. Then

other, another person in our little party from Panola County was the, uh, the great political leader, the fair-haired boy, the, oh, the Republican party's Barry Goldwater, the Democratic Party's, uh, pride and joy, be it President Johnson or, or, or, maybe closer to what President maybe closer to what President Kennedy seemed to be. Uh, a man admiration and respect for, the old and the young alike, and whose victory they're working for. they're working for. Of course naturally, as you know, there's, there's the friction between the old and the young, the, the old man sorry to see his day go, but still he knows that, that, that he has to turn over the reins of power to the young man the young man. The young man is a man here named Robert Miles. Earlier I sent a report about the tear gas bombing of his, of his house, um, not only a great man in, in deed and courage, but a great man in personal stature. He's about 6'2"and has thick

lines in his face but very very handsome and raw-looking, and he has a wide brimmed Texas hat which was given to him by one of the volunteers and makes him, uh, makes him look a little bit like a, like a Western hero, but also like a fine rancher and a great farmer and he wears it beautifully. Great tall man, he stands above, in many ways, anyone he's, he's around. And he was our candidate for the State Executive Committee of the Demo-, Freedom Democratic Party which is really the most powerful body in the state of the Freedom Democratic Party. Democratic Party. And he made that, and that was really exciting too, having him there and having him win, but the party that the, the meeting itself which is one of the, one of the high points of the summer and my political experience, in 1962, two summers ago, I worked for a man who was running for the Senate in Illinois, a man named Sidney Yates who was running

against Everett Dirksen. Yates was a Democrat and during that summer I, at the end of the summer I spent about a week and a half touring throughout Illinois taking a poll, it was a private, secret poll for Congressman Yates, he was running for the Senate, and trying to find out how people throughout the state felt about Dirksen and Yates and various political issues, and I was very very disillusioned and I was very very disillusioned by the end of that summer because most of the people hadn't thought at the names of the candidates, didn't even realize that Dirksen was their Senator. But, all about the issues, didn't know but going to a meeting like this and working in a place like Panola County and a place like Batesville renews my faith in the American political process. And it certainly renews my faith And it certainly renews my faith in the American electorate, because here was a group of men who really knew the sort of things that they wanted, who were united behind the single great idea of freedom and equality of the Negro people, people, and who

numbers the Negroes white men ??who I've met here in Mississippi, and I've met with certainly 500 and upwards, maybe, maybe, maybe maybe a few thousand who I've had fairly long talks with this summer from all levels of Negro society, levels of Negro society, all of whom were really represented by these people. hundreds of, of, of fine, fine leaders that the Negro community fine leaders that the Negro community here in Mississippi despite the had managed to produce. And those leaders come clear. Their, their importance comes clear and their dignity comes clear and their determination comes clear at the kind of convention that we held in Greenville. There was a reporter there from WBAI who I talked to for part of a meeting, just for about 10 or 15 minutes and he told me, besides being struck by what a great, great convention this was, great, great convention this was, and he was taking a full tape of the convention, he told me that that no other news media was covering it, and it's true. There were no other reporters on hand

and yet this is, he said, is one of the most important political movements going on in the country, it's not the most important political movement going on today and if you argue that Senator Goldwater's bid for the presidency is the more important movement I would say that they fit right in closely together because of the time that he's trying to seize the Republican Party ??? that the people are trying to find seats in front of the Democratic Party??? the democratic party from ??? of Southern senators and to try to free it for people like, like, uh, [UNCLEAR] or even President Johnson to, to stand up for things that they really do believe in. But in any case, he point out that you have no trouble getting any news media to cover a bombing or killing or anything like that. Those things they're all covering in Mississippi, but the, somehow they're not really covering the Freedom Democratic Party the way that they should be if they really want to see what's

the long term, long term effect of our summer here. That's one story I wanted to tell about, I want to describe that and I don't think I really manage to tell as clearly as I'd like to just how exciting it was. There were, there were four girls who went along it either the wives of men who were and were delegates or who just want to specied??? all of just wanted to spectate. All of them expected to be bored within a matter of an hour or two and all of them were just terrifically excited throughout the, throughout the day and didn't leave, one of them left at one point to get Coca-Cola for everybody to drink and otherwise they just sat, entranced. It was that exciting. [Mascot]: Jeff Cohen, who was a student worker for the Council of Federated Organizations and who has been working in Batesville, Mississippi since the middle of June Jeff went on to comment on the projects in the Negril community after the summer workers leave Mississippi. Mississippi. [Cohen] Freedom Democratic Party is a part of the organization, of the political organization of the state and as I understand that ??? discussing earlier program there's been some

program, there's been some confusion and indecision and argument among the leaders of the Freedom Movement here this summer about just what priority to give to the Freedom Democratic party. Some people feel that all of a project's energy should be devoted to it. But Panola County isn't a typical, isn't a typical county because of the court injunction which makes it possible for any Negro to register who can, who can read at all. The injunction says that Negroes for this one year in ???? to vote. And it is a typical county offer because they have such strong also because they have such strong local leadership. One of the things that we've been most anxious to do in this, in this county is to build up local leadership which will continue to act in a political way. We've registered so far something like 600, 600 people here and hopefully will register more than a thousand by the end by the end of the year. Then there's the question what happens to those voters. What they do

What do they do with that political power, how do they use it. And now do they move into areas other than politics.??? own very real question here the question very real questions here, and they're questions that the Negro community has not, in the past, really been prepared to cope with because they haven't known the possibilities, and it's one of the things that we've done this summer, is to and some of the new office power is ??? to me about how much I know about to find how much I know about politics in comparison with these people. It turns out that I have a, that I, everybody here has a terrific sophistication just by virtue of our, our familiarity with the woman voters who ??? of presidential power ???power or congressional politics, the ??? process as citizens in the north. But one of the things we've been doing here is building up local voter's leagues, local precinct organizations which would have a number of responsibilities but the first thing is to get out the registered, to get registered voters and

then to get out the votes later, and to be a but also offer the must basic run in the latter Freedom Democratic rung in the ladder of the Freedom Democratic Party. But these groups should also have another, a number of other functions in the community. The same I suppose that the political parties had important functions in New York City or Chicago functions in New York City or in Chicago or in Boston when there were so many immigrants here, when they immigrants had to turn to them for everything from food to medicine to jobs, well, we're trying to avoid that in a sense here by making sure that there aren't political bosses. What we're trying to do is form an organization which can lobby for a problem which anybody has, and for an organization where people can go if they need a medicine, why the organization know who has the medicine, or medicine has been provided to this project for the summer and that medicine will be provided to them for free. Or they need, if they're fired for their jobs this would be a group which would have

the political sophistication to know that if they been fired because they're registered to vote, that's illegal, and which will have the mechanical set up to be able to call a lawyer right in to be able to get their job back for them. Um, that sort of thing. But there are lots of other problems here in Penola County, and some of them are being tackled by these civic groups already, by these local voter three. Now let me, I'd like to describe one of them and maybe I'll mention another one of them. There's an organization right here in Batesville that's met now four times. Its first initial reason for meeting, really, was the Freedom Democratic Party, and the Freedom Democratic Party served in large major as the excuse for the organization of these groups. But the third time is a group of block captains, I thought there were fifteen on them, each of them responsible for the vote on his block captain???before the discussion and uncovering the problems??? of people in the community of Batesville. So they

met for, when they met for the third time they picked the president and the secre-, and the secretary and decided to have a constitutional convention and an order to make a constitution for this group, and gave themselves a permanent name which is the Batesville Civic Club. Well, there were only seven people there that that time. But last night they met again and there were fourteen people there. Now, I wasn't at the meeting last night because, as I say, as independent as we can. So none of us did attend that meeting. But the meeting But the meeting last night I know went on there. And there were surprised me which I hadn't even thought about and which??? ???turn on initiative. There is a voice beaten There was a boy beaten, evidently for allegedly stealing some peanuts or something, at a nearby store called Fred's Dollar Store. Now I don't know all the facts about beating, but I do know that the rumor has quickly spread in the Negro community. And one of these things that they proposed at this meeting

last night was that a committee be formed to go to talk to the boy's parents and to him and to find out what the story was, to go to talk to the manager of the store, and if after they talk with the manager's promises or lack of promises. They started they'd start a boycott of the store. And the boycott would start on Saturday. They did this entirely of their initiative. I'm sure they'll carry it through on their initiative. There was one for a very very similar incident, a boycott of a different store in town which was successful And I think it could conceive ??? same sort of thing. A sort of thing which in my opinion your It's the sort of thing which unites the Negro community and shows them that they have real power if they want to use it. Second thing that they decided to do was to form a committee to go to visit the mayor and the board of aldermen. They have a series if they want to talk??? all women about but one of the most important really is extending of the most important realize is extending the town limits, city limits to include the school which is in

the, uh, uh, which should be in the city and to include certain other, which would include a number of other that is very important because we are in the city facilities including ??? , streets and lights ??? provided for those for that area which really in fact it's the city but it's within the city limits.And it's used to be the city limits, and it's, it used to be within the city limits and the city took, changed its limits to, uh, allow itself not to provide facilities to that area. Now, it may seem a simple thing for the group of political leaders to get together and go to talk to the mayor of the town. But for a group of Negroes in the south to go to talk to the mayor of the town is an extraordinary event and for them to make the decision to do that by themselves is for me a very exciting fact. And they have made that decision and they will talk to them and I'll report to you on what happens there. Uh, a third thing that they decided to do was, one of the people in the group is a so-, teacher of social sciences

and he feels it's very important that this community get to know more and more about politics, about national affairs, state affairs, international affairs and so forth. And so he has suggested that weekly discussions be held at the community center, weekly political discusions, and they will be and he will be in charge of those discussions. And they'll just be, and then it may be that every month or two they'll invite in a speaker from the outside. Now most people in this community haven't heard, let's say, of Henry Cabot Lodge. Many of them have, though. And if a man like Henry Cabot Lodge, or like, uh, Senator Edward Kennedy, to mention some Boston figures, were to come to Batesville, Mississippi, it would mean more than I think most people can realize. Because the people here in Batesville, Mississippi very rarely feel that they're part of the nation. A girl told me today, and this frequently happens to this, a woman, I should say. Well, person soon to graduate from college

told me today that, how much she admired us for having come down here to spend the summer working with them. And she said, at least it shows us that somebody cares about us and I think a lot of people really do feel that way. In any case I think they'd learn a lot from the series of speeches like that. They certainly would from this kind of discussion group. What else went on at the meeting was they decided to hold a mass meeting next week which they would run themselves and they made further progress on their constitution. That group, that civic group will meet weekly or biweekly, certainly monthly, to discuss (inaudible). And hopefully it will get to be known that it is an organization where people can bring their problems here in the Negro section of ?Batesville?. Now there's another similar group which is being formed out in the farming community near here, ?Macedonie? but it also includes other farming communities, but it has a lot of extraordinarily strong leaders, the few meetings its held has been attended by as many as 25 to 40 people. And they too have a list of things

that they're going to do, including boycotting the store. magic work I'm sure. The difficulty for the people in nearby of a community center for political meeting. Well now what they've decided to do-- you know that's the place? Sorry, I'm standing over a hornet's nest or wasp's nest which they're now destroying. That that group of of my group of leaders that community has so much difficulty using the community kind of radical activity. But now I or the community of ?Macedonie? will do is go do is to go to TALK OF THE INTERNET allowed to go

Again, this means the same sort of thing really is a committee going to talk to the mayor and the Negro group should mayor and the need to get together and demand the right word and if they have the political right is why the current system. [Host] You have been listening to a telephone conversation I had on Wednesday August fifth with Jeff Cullen, a summer project worker for the Council of Federated Organizations working in the Mississippi civil rights movement. This brings us to a close of another edition of Long Hot Summer '64, a weekly summary and in-depth report on the civil rights movements in the south. Long Hot Summer '64 is heard each week at this time and is written and produced by your host Ted Mascott of the WGBH FM staff in Boston. This is the Educational Radio Network. We remind our listeners that daily reports on civil rights developments, when available,

are heard daily on the New England Scene, Monday through Friday at 6:00 over WGBH FM eighty nine point seven mega cycles, Boston.