FREEDOM NOW STRUGGLE
By Evelyn Sell
The outburst of violence in Jacksonville, Florida, Marsh 23, made world-headlines, The resistance of racist-minded whites to two weeks of sitein demonstrations at downtown hotels and restaurants flared into open violence when a roving carload of whites shot down a Negro mother standing outside a grocery store,:
[The claim of a white racist that he. had been tied to a tree by Negroes and slashed with a razor was later admitted by police to have been a sadist hoax, The victim had slashed himself,] a
‘A high point in the battle was the reaction of a thousand Negro high-school students, They met armed police with bottles- and rocks, - and fell back: only after the cops drew their revolvers and fired shots in the air, .
The Jacksonville events would seem to bear out the forecast made by Negro leaders last January that civil-rights demonstrations. would resume in the spring on a bigger and-more militant scale, [See. World Outlook January 17. The truth is that this has, occurred on a nation- Lene Se. lbeemesmed e 2 J wide scale as the following survey indicates:
San. Francisco:
A group of youthful freedom fighters, the "Ad Hoc Committee to End Disorimination," were successful in gaining their demands for increased employment opportunities for Negroes and other minorities, About 1,200 youths began picketing the Sheraton~Palace Hotel the , night of Maroh 6, After five hours of marching and chanting they flooded into the hotel lobby, blocked exits and staged a sit-in, “Police began arresting them at four a.m, Early the next day one of the leaders of. the Ad Hoc Committee announced to the 600 youths still demonstrating inside the hotel, “We got everything we came for, We ‘came here: to protest against one hotel cand came away with. an: agreement for 33,
On Mareh 14 police arrested 110 demonstrators picketing a local Cadillac car agenoy. The action was sponsored by the National Asso=# ciation for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP]. in protest against discriminatory-hiring practices of General Motors Corp., makers of Cadillac. Over 300 demonstrators were marching inside the showroom when police arrived, Those who refused to leave the property were arrested,
These incidents climaxed a month-long series of actions involving picketing, sit-ins, lie-ins and shopsins. The latter tactic was used by the Congress of Racial Equality LCORE] in their dispute with a supermarket chain over job opportunities for Negroes, CORE mom bers would enter a supermarket, fill the large push-carts provided for the use of customers, wheel up to the cash register and then tell the cashier they couldn't pay for the groceries, The filled baskets would then be pushed to the side clogging up the aisles,
Ohio:
On March 14 Yellow Springs police arrested. 109 civil-rights pickets, They were part of-ia group of 250, ‘mostly Negro college students, who braved tear gas in a two-hour demonstration in front of the shop of a barber who refused to cut Negroest hair, After the arrests, the remaining students marohed back to Antioch College sing= ing "america the Beautiful, u a
Mississipp: :
Jackson City officials are preparing for a new round of ocivilrights demonstrations, Mayor Allen Thompson declared, “There's. no way for them to win. We've got all this tremendous equipment and personnel, . -
He was referring to 250 new shotguns, riot helmets and gas masks; two city trucks which have been converted into troop carriers to transport police; three flat-bed trucks which are now wire-enclosed in order to haul Negro demonstrators away in wholesale Lots $3 400 tough new young policemen and 35 more to come,
The pride of the police force, however, is "Thompson's Tank," a special riot-control car which carries ten policemen plus two drivers, shotguns poking out of slots. Alabama?
On Maroh 4 Martin Luther King, Jr., announced that. new protests would be held in Birmingham within 30 days because the city had failed to live up to its integration promises made after last summer's racial clashes. Plans include economic boycotts, an intensifiaation of voter registration drives and an appeal to Congress to reduce the number of Alabama representatives because Negroes do not have voting status and cannot be represented by these men, .
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Kentucky:
me A group of 10,000 Negroes marched on the state capital March 5 in support of a state civil-rights bill, Gov. Breathitt stated, "I> applaud the objectives of this march and congratulate its partioipants on their dedication. . . their enthusiasm, . . and the dignity of their appeal," Then the governor repeated his intention of supporting the weakest version of the two bills now before the state legis» lature .
Maryland:
On March 2 some 400 Negroes marched on the state capital to protest police brutality during some civilerights demonstrations held the- previous week in Princess Anne, 7
Herets what had happened: On February 22 a flying wedge of state troopers, using two police dogs, broke up a demonstration of 500 students in front of a segregated restaurant, One student was bitten on the leg and four were arrested, The next day the students marched in protest over the arrests and were attacked by adult ‘whites who threw eggs and punched a student in the stomach.
The next night a eross was burned on the football field of the almost all-Negro college, That same night a bomb was thrown at tho house of one of the student leaders, Leon Gates, Fortunately, no one was hurt but all the windows were shattered by the explosion,
On February 26 students and state police clashed again. The students were once more protesting racial discrimination at two res~ taurants when they were run into by automobiles and trucks driven by _ Pacist citizens, State troopers charged into the demonstrators, swinging nightsticks and accompanied by police dogs. The students retaliated by throwing sticks, rocks and bottles. A dozen students were clubbed to the ground, some were kicked, 59 received medical attention and 14 were bitten on their arms and legs by the dogs. The battle was finally ended when: the troopers turned fire hoses on the : students.
The Student Appeal for Equality, which had organized the demon= strations, said the city would fate 40 days and 40 nights of demonstrations until their desegregation demands were met,
In nearby Cambridge over 100 persons received free surplus food March 6 after demonstrations succeeded in reversing a local official's refusal to request the sorely needed produce from available federal stocks, The demonstrations broke a seven-month moratorium instituted when martial law was proclaimed in the town following racial clashes last year.
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New Jersey:
City officials are worried about demonstrations at the Democra~ tic National Convention when.it convenes-August 24, Leaders of CORE and the. NAACP warned of possible protest marches on the city, coupled with attempts to seat all-Negro delegations from.some states of the deep South where Negroes are disenfranchised and cannot. select their ewn répresentatives,
New York:
On March 2 about 10,000 persons participated in a three-hour ~ "Silent March" demanding better. educational facilities and integration of Puerto Rican children in New York City schools. This was the first city-wide demonstration, organized by the Puerto Rican com-~ munity, About one-fourth of the marchers were Negro and a number of local Labor leaders were also. present.
Some of the signs stated: ‘we demand more’ Puerto Rican teachers in our sohools," "If you cannot teach us out of love, teach us out of duty, and "Appoint a Puerto Rican to the Board. of: Education."
On March 8 the newly formed Bast River chapter of CORE staged a site-in-in police headquarters and several hours after this action other members blocked evening rush-hour traffic on the Triborough Bridge, Garbage was dumped on the bridge’ to protest school conditions in East Harlem, Some of the demonstrators lay down on the bridge am were dragged away and arrested,
on March 11 about: 300 - persons marched on the state capital, Albany, in order to present civil-rights and social-reform demands to the governor and legislators. They got sympathy but.no concrete neiPe At the rally held after the march, Norman. Hill of CORE said, "., . only if we light fires ali over the state, only if we disrupt | and dislocate in a creative.way, will we get what we want."
“Maloolm X, New York leader who recently resigned from. the Muslim movement, said he was urging the members of his new group to buy shotguns and rifles for self-defense since the government has failed to insure adequate protection for Negroes, He predicted "There will be -more violence than ever this year," oe ml,
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