Letter, P.D. East to friends; November 13, 1962
Transcript
[Personal address extracted]
November 13, 1962
My dear friends:
In my two letters to you I think I failed to convey my reason for what is, actually, fear for my safety at the present time. I have no desire to be dramatic, if you'll pardon the cliché, but I am of the firm opinion that a legal frame can be executed here without too much trouble and, frankly, I'm not alone in that opinion.
Up to now, I believe, all that has happened — the rumors, the legal section — has been an attempt to harass me. (If I have a complex about it, I invite you to live here for awhile.)
But the thing I fear is, as I've indicated, a legal frame. As to how it works, or worked in one case, at least, I invite you to see page 30, the Reporter, for November 9, 1962. I don't have a copy, else I'd send it along. Anyway, the article is a report on the case of Clyde Kennard, of this county, a Negro who wanted to register at the college here. What happened to Kennard is far too long to go into here, but let me just say that while his car was parked on the campus two constables said they found illegal liquor in it. At the time they said they found it, Kennard had already been arrested for reckless driving. He was not present when his car was searched.
Mr. Harelson, the gentleman who has expressed the desire to have me locked up, is the County Judge, and it's in his court that such cases are tried. While I don't think they'd be so foolish as to use the same thing twice, God only knows what they would, what they could, use.
Perhaps my fears are unfounded; after all, Mr. Harelson is a Christian gentlemen. I know, because he once told me. But no matter, the fact is, I just don't feel like working on the county roads for 30 days. Anyway, they seem in pretty good conditions to me.
Well, enough self-pity for today, but I did want to add this as something of a postscript to my letter of yesterday.
Warm and kind regards
P.D. East
