Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive:

Freedom Summer Incident Summary by City or County

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H

Index

Harmony:

June 30: Freedom School teachers arrived. The school superintendent announced the first African-American summer school in memory of local residents.

July 2: The sheriff told the school superintendent that the community's abandoned buildings could not be used for freedom school. A cross was burned and tacks were strewn in the African-American community.

July 3: The sheriff and superintendent posted a "no trespassing" sign at the abandoned school. Local citizens moved books and other materials to an African-American church. Police flashed lights on homes.

July 11: Police visited local African-Americans who had contact with COFO volunteers and staff and forced them to sign peace bonds. Police came armed with a warrant to search for liquor.

July 23: Local residents planned to start construction of a wooden frame building for use as a permanent community center staffed by summer project volunteers.

Hattiesburg:

June 26: Hate literature was distributed by local whites. The notices said, "Beware, good Negro citizens. When we come to get the agitators, stay away".

June 29: Two cars owned by volunteers were shot by four whites in a pick-up truck at 1:00 a.m. There were no injuries, but $100 worth of damage to each car occurred. There were three witnesses to the incident. (The cars' owners were sleeping two blocks away).

June 29: A civil rights worker was charged with reckless driving and failure to give the proper signal. The worker was held overnight and paid a fine.

June 29: The phone rang and volunteers heard a tape recording of the last 20 seconds of his previous conversation. Someone goofed!

June 30: Whites in pick-up truck with guns visible drove past the office several times. The FBI checked into a June 29th car shooting.

July 2: Two voter registration canvassers were followed and questioned by men describing themselves as state officials.

July 2: The school superintendent threatened all janitors who participated in civil rights activity. This was also done at the Holiday Inn.

July 2: Local police stop an African-American girl and five white boys on their way home. The policeman cursed, threatened, and slapped one boy.

July 6: The owner's wife pulled a pistol as 15 -25 youngsters tried to integrate the drive-in. The youngsters ran, but they were soon arrested and put in the drunk tank by police. Three youths were roughed up by the police.

July 8: Rev. Robert Beech of National Council of Churches was arrested on false pretenses after allegedly overdrawing his bank account by $70. Bail was set at $2000

July 8: A bottle was thrown at a picnic by a passing car. There were no plates on the vehicle.

July 10: A Rabbi, two volunteers, and two local teenagers were attacked by two men as they walked in an uninhabited area. The assailants escaped after attacking the three men. On emerging from the hospital, the Rabbi encouraged Jews in Mississippi stand up for civil rights and decent behavior regardless of the risk or leave the state.

July 14: The State Sovereignty Commission visited the office.

July 16: Two voter canvassers were stopped by police.

July 16: Police questioned those who complained about inadequate protection for those going to Freedom School. The police said they may charge them with threatening the mayor.

July 18: Kilmer Estus Keyes, a white fromCollins, turned himself in to local police in connection with the beating of a Rabbi and two workers the week before. Keyes was charged with assault and released on $2500 property bond. (He was eventually fined $500 and given a 90 day suspended sentence).

July 20: A white volunteer was beaten downtown as he left the bank with two other freedom school teachers. The assailant hit the volunteer from behind. No words were exchanged. The volunteers and the attacker were all charged with assault.

July 25: The home of two local MFDP leaders was bombed between 1 and 4 a.m. A broken whiskey bottle was found that indicated a molotov cocktail-like device was used. This device was used on the home of Mr. and Mrs. Boyd, MFDP temporary chairman and secretary.

Aug. 2: In White America toured Freedom Schools.

Aug. 4: Pete Seeger conducted folk music workshops in two Freedom Schools. In White America was at the Freedom Schools.

Aug. 8: Two men, Clifton Archie Keys and Estus Keys, were tried for the July 10th beating of Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld of Cleveland, Ohio. The pair pleaded nolo contendre, waived arraignment, and paid fines of $500 each. They also received 90 day suspended sentences on condition of good behavior. The charge was lessened by District Attorney James Finch from assault and battery with intent to maim to simple assault and battery.

Aug. 12: Mrs. Dorethea Jackson, a local African-American woman, was arrested the day before when she would not give her seat to a white woman on the bus. Mrs. Jackson reportedly was pulled off the bus by a policeman. She asserted that a knife was planted in her purse. Details on the charges were unknown at that time.

Aug. 14: Local African-American citizen, Willie Mae Martin, was rearrested last night in connection with the charge of resisting arrest and interfering with a police officer last March. Billy McDonald, another Hattiesburg African-American resident, and MFDP chairman, Lawrence Guyot, were arrested at same time. McDonald and Miss Martin were charged with resisting arrest and Guyot solely for interfering with a police officer. Because of legal misunderstandings, the three did not know they were scheduled to appear for a hearing to be held six months after their charge. Miss Martin and McDonald were assigned $200 bond and 30 days imprisonment, and Guyot was assigned $100 and 30 days. It was doubtful that Guyot would be released before the Democratic National Convention.

Aug. 14: Freedom School teacher, Sandra Adickes, was arrested when she attempted to have six of her students check-out books from the public library labeled "for whites only". After they were refused applications for library cards, they sat down at tables to read magazines. A short time later Police Chief Hugh Herrin walked in and announced the library was being closed. Everyone was made to leave the library. The mayor Claude F. Pittman later stated the library was closed for inventory. This was the second time that year it had closed for inventory. Miss Adickes and her students were followed by police from the time they left the library. They went to an integrated lunch counter, where a waitress said she would serve only African-Americans. Adickes waited outside the lunch counter and was arrested a vagrancy charge. She was released under $100 bond.

Aug. 17: Four voter registration workers, 3 white and 1 African-American, were arrested on vagrancy charges as they left the public library that had refused them service. Susan Patterson, Ben Achtenburg, Tom Edwards, and Bill Jones were held on $100 cash bond or $250 property bond.

Hollandale:

June 24: The police and mayor told a summer volunteer he could not live in an African-American section of town and register voters.

July 29: An African-American SNCC staff member was chased from a traditionally white barber shop by a razor-wielding barber who threatened to kill him.

Holly Springs:

June 26: Beer cans were tossed at volunteers and car tires were slashed.

June 30: White teenagers screamed profanities and threw rocks at the office from a passing car.

June 30: A SNCC staff worker was jumped by a local white who threatened to shoot both him and his office with a 12 gauge shotgun.

July l: The Justice of Peace (and Mayor) had a local farmer arrested on assault and battery charges in the June 30th incident. Bail was set at $1,000.

July 8: A civil rights worker was arrested for reckless driving and fined $250.

July 11: An integrated staff picnic was broken up by police.

July 14: The Oxford police chief told a civil rights worker he should not come back to town. The chief threatened to hit the African-American over the head, especially if he did not speak to others with proper respect. (No major changes were issued).

July 21: A $200 bond was levied on a volunteer for failure to have a car inspection sticker.

July 24: A voter registration worker arrested for disturbing the peace at a Holly Springs Freedom Day event was held on $500 bond. The volunteer was charged with "using profanity in front of more than two people" the policeman told potential African-American registrants on the court house steps. Police insisted that the 40-50 potential registrants walked to the courthouse steps one by one, eight feet apart, and have a police escort from the steps to the registrar's office. Approximately 55 helmeted highway patrolmen and 35 helmeted local police were stationed at the courthouse for Freedom Day. Their presence in such numbers prompted cancellation of planned integrated picketing of the courthouse.

July 27: Precinct and county meetings were held.

July 28: Police cars surrounding the school where a MFDP precinct meeting was being held were themselves surrounded by approximately 200 African-American MFDP participants singing freedom songs. Participants gathered around cars as they left school late at night. Police recorded license plates of every car at the school stopped about 70 drivers to check licenses and arrested five on various traffic charges. The school superintendent said he would burn or tear down the school if meetings continued to be held there.

Aug. 1: Wayne Yancy, a 21 year-old volunteer from Chicago, was killed in a head-on collision. He was a passenger in a car driven by SNCC worker, Charles Scales. Both men were African-Americans. A highway patrol officer claimed Scales passed another car near the hill crest, crossed the yellow line and hit an oncoming car. He was charged with manslaughter and hospitalized with injuries. An SNCC staffer and summer volunteer nurse who tried to visit him were ejected from the hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Aug. 24: Local African-American sharecropper, Mr. J .T. Dean, was kicked off his land for no apparent reason. This was the latest in a series of economic actions taken against Dean since he applied to register to vote during Marshall County Freedom Day on August 15th. On August 16th Dean's credit was cut-off. He was told by the land owner he was no longer needed to work the land. His water supply was also cut-off. Howard Jones, a local African-American citizen, who made an application to register during Holly Springs Freedom Day on July 24 was told at the courthouse that his test had not yet been graded. At that time, none of more than 200 local African-American citizens who took voter registration test that summer had been notified as to whether or not he or she passed.

Holmes County:

June 26: Two staffers were detained for illegal parking and not having a Mississippi permit. One was arrested and bond was set at $60.

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Index

Indianola:

July 16: Of those arrested in Drew on July 15th, 10 women were held at the county jail and 15 men were held at the county farm nearby. The superintendent of the farm told a lawyer he could not guarantee the safety of those at the farm. The FBI was advised regarding the situation.

Aug. 14: Local white resident, Joe Hopkins, drove to Freedom School while classes were in session and questioned a volunteer about the presence of a New York reporter and Attorney, Andrew Goldman. The resident fumbled with a rifle and drove off. Earlier Hopkins told the African-American family living next door to the Freedom School site that civil rights workers had better get out of there. He threatened to blow up the Freedom school site and other white men threatend to "shoot up the place" that night. Local police stated they would patrol the area all night.

Aug. 17: Approximately 25 white citizens, some of whom were reportedly White Citizens' Council members, attended that night's performance of In White America. Eight to 10 helmeted police arrived in two cars and said there would be no trouble. The play featured an integrated cast of 8. It described the oppressions and victories of an African-American in his own country.

Itta Bena:

June 25: Two volunteers working with a local African-American handing out literature for a voter registration rally were taken to a gas station bus stop by four white men who told them: "If you speak in town tonight, you'll never leave here".

June 26: The FBI arrested three local residents for the June 25th incident. Two were released on $2,000 bail and one on $1,000.

July 3: Police questioned two volunteers about a robbery and said the volunteers were the only ones in the vicinity. No charges were filed.

July 6: Local police and the sheriff held a civil rights worker incommunicado triggering a wide search by federal authorities and SNCC.

July 12: A local woman was attacked by two white boys while baby-sitting. Both her arms were cut.

July 28: The voter registration house was broken into during the night. The front porch supports were broken, leaving a badly sagging roof. The door was half torn-off and all the windows were broken. Posters urging citizens to vote for Fannie Lou Hamer in the Democratic primary were ripped off the walls. Volunteers had received several threatening phone calls about the house and voter registration activities there.

Aug. 21: Perry's Chapel burned to the ground. The wood frame building was deemed to be out of the jurisdiction of the Itta Bena fire department.

J

Index

Jackson:

June 23: Shots were fired at the home of Rev. R.L.T. Smith. A white man escaped on foot and was reportedly picked up by a city truck. (Smith's home was then put under 24-hour guard).

June 23: A civil rights worker was held for eight hours after receiving $5 change for a $20 bill.

June 23: A white car fired a shot at Henderson's cafe. African-Americans pursued the vehicle. Three shots were fired, hitting one African-American in the head twice.

June 25: Two separate volunteer arrests were made on minor traffic charges. Seven were questioned in one case and charges were dropped in the other. (A law student presented his own case).

June 26: A CORE field secretary was beaten at Hinds County jail while being held as a federal prisoner. This was the third beating of a civil rights worker at the same jail in two months and the second of a prisoner accussed of federal charges.

June 27: Two phone threats were received.

June 28: A civil rights worker was held 8 ½ hours without charges being made. He was stopped for no reason while driving near the COFO office.

June 28: One white volunteer was kicked from behind and punched upon arriving at the local train station from Oxford.

June 30: A car circled the office with a gun pointed out of the window. A teenager leaned out and threatened an African-American with the gun.

June 30: A volunteer was charged with reckless driving and fined $34. (He moved from one traffic lane to another in an integrated car).

July 3: A lot of phone harassment occurred. The WATS line went dead then rang, a technical impossibility.

July 5: The NAACP integrated local hotels without major incident. Individuals integrated many other places on their own.

July 5: A local woman's leg was cut by a bottle thrown at the COFO office.

July 6: A voter registration group was harassed by police who said a "One man, one vote" sticker had been found on a city car. They threatened arrest for trespassing if anyone would sign the charge.

July 6: The McCraven Hill Missionary Baptist Church was damaged by a kerosene fire. The church had no ties to the civil rights movement.

July 6: An African-American youth was punched by a white person who fled in a truck.

July 10: J. Edgar Hoover opened the Jackson FBI office, the first statewide center since 1946. Hoover cited efficiency as the reason. He said 153 agents were then in the state. He also said the FBI could give civil rights workers no protection (beyond reports based on complaints and directions for investigation from civil rights division of Justice Department).

July 12: Half a body was found in Mississippi and was identified as Charles Moore, a former Alcorn A&M student. The second half of the body was found in the river. (In mid April more than 700 students, all African-Americans, were summarily dismissed from Alcorn after a nonviolent general grievance demonstration).

July 12: White teenagers slashed an African-American woman's tires and spit in the face of a volunteer after the integrated group ate at the drive in.

July 12: An elderly man attacked an African-American woman at the Greyhound coffee shop. She was treated for a cut head and hand and was charged with disturbing the peace. She was released on $50 bond. The assailant escaped.

July 22: A volunteer was beaten with billy clubs by two whites at a major downtown intersection. The police officer who returned the beaten volunteer and two colleagues to the COFO office indicated that a complaint had been filled out and a pick-up call had been issued for any cars matching the assailants.

July 23: Surprisingly, the police court acquitted three local youths on public drunk charges. The three youths were arrested on July 21 in Club 400 at Doodleville.

July 24: MFDP held precinct meetings

July 27: Aaron Henry, Ed King, and Mrs. Victoria Gray replied publicly to Sen. Douglas' (D III.) "conciliatory suggestion" that no Mississippians were to be seated at the convention or the delegation be half Dixiecrat, half Democratic.

Aug. 1: County meetings were held.

Aug. 2: There was a report of a local African-American man badly beaten after being arrested for an accident.

Aug. 3: A local African-American volunteer was arrested for vagrancy in front of the drugstore near his home. He had an SNCC button on his shirt and reportedly did not have his draft card with him. He was held on $225 property bond.

Aug. 4: After being refused service at a small cafe, a local volunteer was chased by a white man in a pick-up truck who fired two shots at him.

Aug. 6: Approximately 300 delegates from precinct meetings and county conventions attended the first State Convention of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Alternates and observers brought the total attendance to 1,000. A slate of 68 delegates and alternates was elected to represent Mississippi at the National Democratic Convention. Hattiesburg housewife, Mrs. Victoria Gray, was elected National Committeewoman, and Rev. Ed King, a white chaplain of Mississippi's private interracial Tougaloo College, was elected National Committeeman. Dr. Aaron Henry, Clarksdale pharmacist and president of the state NAACP, was named permanent chairman of the MFDP Convention and chairman of National Convention delegation. After the convention, the newly elected State Executive Committee named Pass Christian resident, Laurence Guyot, as chairman and Hattiesburg resident, Mrs. Peggy J. Connor, as secretary of the party. Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, a candidate for Congress in Mississippi's 2nd District, was named vice chairman of the delegation, and Mrs. Annie Devine of Canton was appointed secretary. The address of keynoter, Miss Ella J. Baker, who was currently coordinator of the Washington office of the MFDP, received a standing ovation and sparked spontaneous marching and a freedom song in the hall. Among resolutions adopted were a statement of loyalty to National Democratic Party platform & candidates.

Aug. 5: A community concert was given by Pete Seeger.

Aug. 7: A. Phillip Randolf, president of the American Negro Labor Council and longtime head of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, addressed a mass meeting of students and parents of Jackson Freedom Schools that opened that week.

Aug. 7: SNCC staffer, Ivanhoe Donaldson, was arrested for having an improper driver's license. He was not in the car at the time of his arrest. There were four integrated cars in front of the house at which he was picked up. Bond was set at $50

Aug. 7: White volunteer, Mary Zeno, and local African-American volunteer, Rommie Drain, were chased by white men with pistols in their belts as they canvassed for voter registration.

Aug. 7: Freedom School coordinator, Tom Wahman, was arrested and fined $17 for failing to yield to the proper lane.

Aug. 8: New York pathologist, David M. Spain, M.D., reported after the post mortem examination of body of James Chaney that Chaney's jaw was shattered, his the left shoulder and upper arm beaten to a pulp, his right forearm was broken completely across at several points, and his skull bones were broken and pushed in toward the brain. Under the circumstances, these injuries could only be the result of an extremely severe beating with either a blunt instrument or chain. The other fractures of the skull and ribs were the result of bullet wounds. It was impossible to determine whether Chaney died from the beating before the bullet wounds were inflicted.

Aug. 15: Between 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., a voter registration worker was beaten over the head with a baseball bat outside the COFO office. A carload of voter registration workers was shot at 8 to 10 times. Four simultaneous cross-burnings occurred, and a local student was shot by a white man. White volunteer, Philip Hacker, was working on a pick-up truck across the street from COFO office as three other workers (two African-Americans and one white) sat in the car behind him lighting his work with headlights. Another car double parked beside the car and truck. A young white man wearing Bermuda shorts went up to Hacker, hit him on the back of the head with a bat, and continued to hit him after he fell to the street. At 10:45 Hacker was taken from the office to Baptist Hospital, still bleeding around his head. At 11:00 crosses were burning: at Lynch street. and Terry road approximately three blocks from COFO office, at Sun-n-Sands Hotel, where many SNCC Summer Project lawyers, doctors, ministers, and national press correspondents stayed, at Millsaps College, and at Valley road and Hwy. 80, the site of a soon-to-be integrated public school. One white summer volunteer and four local African-American voter registration workers were shot at 8 to 10 times by two white men in car as they drove through Jackson. Civil rights workers stopped when they saw the parked police car. As soon as an Oldsmobile containing the attackers came close, the police drove off. The investigating plain-clothes-man found 5 bullets in the car. Willie Gynes was shot in the leg by a white man in a car passing by a location hosting a dance for teens. Gynes was admitted to the emergency ward of University Hospital.

Aug. 18: A 17 year-old African-American from Columbus formally announced plans to seek a state charter for Mississippi Young Democrat Club. Melvin L. Whitfield assumed the presidency of the new Young Democratic group at their August 10th convention in Meridian, which included representatives from about 25 Mississippi communities. He represented the body, along with 9 other Mississippi officers, at a meeting of the National Committee of Young Democratic Clubs of America August 21- 23 in Atlantic City. The group, all African-Americans, learned that the existing Young Democratic organization in Mississippi had never been granted a charter by a national body.

Aug. 22: As two Freedom School teachers, one white and one African-American, walked along the street a car with two white passengers doubled back, drove by slowly, and took their picture.

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Index

Lauderdale:

July 18: Two summer volunteers were arrested for willful trespassing while discussing voter registration on the front porch of two African-American women. No complaint was made by the women, however.

Laurel:

July 4: Police barely prevented a large racial clash after two African-Americans and two whites were injured in an attempt to integrate the drive-in. Police failed to respond to calls for help from injured African-Americans.

July 5: A civil rights worker who witnessed and reported the July 4th incident was arrested. Police say he had 4-6 months left to serve on a previous sentence.

July 5: Two volunteers were questioned by police who stopped their integrated car as it left Sunday school. Charges were dropped against the driver, but the passenger was arrested on a vagrancy charge. She left her pocketbook in the car at the police station and received a 10-day suspended sentence.

July 11: Four young American-Americans were injured during and after attempts to integrate Kress' lunch counter where African-Americans had eaten earlier.

July 11: The local NAACP president received two death threats for July 19th.

July 14: A gas bomb was thrown at a local African-American's home.

July 16: A canvassing volunteer was accosted by two white boys who accused him of not being from Mississippi. The boys knocked materials from the volunteer's hand and ran.

July 21: Rights workers believed the second ousting of summer project workers from a rented office that summer was due to intimidation of local African-American realtors by white persons opposed to the Freedom Summer Project.

July 30: Precinct and county meetings were held.

Aug. 15: One volunteer and three local African-American voter registration workers were beaten after sitting down for service at the theoretically integrated Kress' department store lunch counter. Ten whites approached as Levelle Keys, James House, Larry McGill and Ben Hartfield were being served. Two of the whites beat the group with baseball bats. Hartfield was knocked unconscious. A woman pulled a pistol on McGill. His mother yelled "Don't kill my son" to the woman. For this remark, McGill's assailant reportedly filed assault charges against his mother. SNCC staffer, Fred Richardson, entered the store earlier and was asked to leave, because he had a camera. Richardson was outside Kress' when the incident occurred and was beaten by whites who gathered at the scene when he called police. His camera was taken by one of his attackers. Police arrived and warrants were sworn out against several of the attackers.

Aug. 16: White volunteer, David Goodyear, was beaten unconscious at a gas station and his companion, Linnelle Barrett, was kicked and stepped upon. They were outside their car when two white men approached and asked if they were civil rights workers. When they replied "yes," several whites milling around closed in and began beating them. Police came in three cars immediately after being notified. Within an hour after the incident, police picked up the assailants' car based on license tag identification. The gas station attendant closed the station and left before police arrived. Two of Goodyear's teeth were loosened.

Aug. 17: Anthony Lynn was hit twice by a passing white citizen as he stood on a street corner. Lynn was with a local African-American citizen whom he had just accompanied to the courthouse to take a voter registration test. Lynn called the police and pointed out his assailant. The assailant denied everything and police had both parties file affidavits.

Aug. 22: A going away picnic given by local African-Americans for three white voter registration workers was broken up by an estimated 15 white men who beat one volunteer with sticks and chains and shot at two others. As the group sat around a private lake on an African-American owned farm, six white men approached and asked if the group knew "Dixie". When one student began to play the song a white man grabbed his guitar and threw it in the lake. About 9 other white men came out of the bushes surrounding the lake. White volunteer, Willard Hayden, saw at least two weapons among the men: a club and a chain. He was struck in the head with a weapon, and he and local voter registration worker, Robert Morgan, plunged into the lake to get back to the farmhouse. Shots, probably from a pistol, were fired at them. White volunteer, David Gelfand, was severely beaten by the white assailants. He sustained sprained - possibly broken - wrists, and bruises and lacerations of the back. His assailant had been tentatively identified as R.V. Lee, the man who was to stand trial that Friday for beating Anthony Lynn in front of the Laurel Courthouse the Monday before.

Lexington:

July 21: A volunteer was hit repeatedly by a white man while waiting outside the courthouse to take part in the voter registration campaign.

Aug. 12: In White America was produced in town.

M

Index

Marks:

Aug. 4: A LCDC attorney received head injuries, including a large gash over one eye, when he was thrown against a police car by the city marshal. The attorney was arrested for "obstructing officer in performance of duties" and held on $200 bail. He had gone to Marks to check the detention of a voter registration worker when he saw the marshal had stopped a car filled with civil rights workers. He went over to investigate and the incident followed.

Merigold:

Aug. 10: An elderly, African-American man was shot to death in a gas station that morning. Although reports vary, it seemed the man had ordered gas and either had forgotten his billfold and could not pay, or received more gas than he had ordered and refused to pay for the extra. The gas station attendant began to beat him. A local policeman shot and killed the unarmed African-American.

Mayersville:

July 27: A precinct meeting was held in Moon Lake Baptist Church. The owner of the plantation across the street threatened to burn the church if any more civil rights meetings were held there. (2,399 African-Americans out of a total population of 3,576 went to the meeting).

McComb:

June 21: The homes of two civil rights workers planning to house summer volunteers were bombed. One was damaged extensively. Seven dynamite sticks were left on the lawn of a third home with no civil rights ties.

July 8: The SNCC Freedom House was bombed, injuring two. Despite numerous requests by Congressmen, attorneys, pastors (and a personal visit with the mayor who also headed the White Citizens' Council), no local police were seen in the area prior to the bombing. Fifteen FBI agents, several packing pistols, showed up during the day. 150 local citizens attended a rally that same night.

July 15: The Freedom School enrolled 35 persons.

July 17: Mount Zion Hill Baptist Church in Pike County was bombed or burned to the ground. The pastor of this church let the Freedom Summer Project use his McComb Church, St. Mary's.

July 20: A SNCC field secretary was hit on the side of the head by a white man as both stopped for a red light at the intersection of two state roads and a federal highway.

July 21: Freedom School enrollment reached 75 in the core area.

July 22: Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church, organized more than 80 years before, was found burned. The FBI, sheriff, and police uncovered no clues. The fire was officially listed as being of undetermined origin. Neither the pastor nor his church was in any way affiliated with the civil rights movement.

July 24: Amite County's Rose Hill Church burned the previous night. The owner of a local African-American club near the Freedom House was arrested and beaten.

July 26: Two bombs were thrown at the home of a local civil rights leader. As the first bomb was thrown the leader's wife fired a gun. When a car's lights were seen approaching again, her husband ran outside but was knocked to the ground by a second explosion before he had time to fire. About 50 people attended a voter registration meeting at the home that day.

July 27: A white volunteer was arrested for failure to yield as he drove a group of local African-American children for voter registration canvassing and leaflet distribution for an MFDP precinct meeting. He was fined $16.50.

Aug. 1: A production of In White America was held at the Freedom School.

Aug. 4: Pete Seeger held folk music workshops at the McComb Freedom School that morning following an evening concert the night before.

Aug. 5: Two teenage African-American boys, who attended the McComb Freedom School, received harassing phone calls from two white girls. The boys were arrested and were sentenced to a year in jail each under Mississippi's recent phone harassment law.

Aug. 14: The supermarket across the street from the church site of the McComb Freedom School was bombed before 1 a.m. today. All the windows were shattered and the walls and roof were damaged. The blast left a large hole in the ground and almost knocked down a voter registration worker in the Freedom House two blocks away. Immediately after the explosion white SNCC staffer, Mendy Samstein, ran outside and jumped into his car. He followed the car of the suspect until he could record the license plate number. He had seen the car before and found it listed on the McComb SNCC's "suspicious car" list. Law student, Clint Hopson, was arrested for interfering with an officer as he worked his way through the crowd at the bomb site and spoke with one of the officers there. He was released on $52.50 bail. Local voter registration worker Roy Lee was arrested when he returned to the scene of bombing and was charged with inciting to riot, threatening the life of a policeman, cursing, and disorderly conduct. He was held on $900 bond. McComb SNCC spokesmen stated he was arrested for no apparent reason.

Aug. 16: The McComb office was raided at 1:30 a.m. by 24 policemen in five cars, representing city police, sheriffs and deputies, and highway patrol. Warrants were issued for illegal liquor. None was found, but the officers spent a good deal of time reading letters and literature found in the office. The workers had just returned from an evening of canvassing bars and restaurants in the McComb area, announcing rallies and Freedom Days. These were planned in response to a period of increased violence and harassment by the local, white community.

Aug. 18: After a series of bombings and intimidation, the first Southwest Mississippi Freedom Day was peacefully conducted. Twenty-five potential African-American registrants went to the courthouse and 23 of them were permitted to take the test. The registrar processed one applicant every 45 minutes. Police and FBI agents were at the Pike County courthouse in Magnolia throughout the day. (Of Pike County's 35,063 African-American voting age citizens, 207 (3%) registered, as contrasted to 9,989 registered whites representing 82.1%). Over 200 local African-American citizens attended a mass meeting the night before to protest terrorist activities against African-American citizens and voter registration workers in the area.

Aug. 18: An attempted house burning was reported by the SNCC spokesmen today. At 1:30 a.m. local African-American resident, Vera Brown, whose daughter was active in the civil rights movement, woke up to the smell of smoke. A gasoline filled jar was found smoking under the house. The conflagration was smothered with little damage. Mrs. Brown planned to attempt to register as part of Freedom Day.

Aug. 18: As white volunteer, Marshall Ganz, drove back from Pike County courthouse in Magnolia to transport potential African-American registrants, he was followed by four men in an unmarked pick-up truck. When he stopped at a red light, one man quickly got out of the truck and ran at him. Ganz quickly drove off and the truck followed him back to McComb. The truck's passenger threw a bottle that narrowly missed the window of Ganz' car.

Aug. 19: Three potential African-American registrants in front of Pike County courthouse in Magnolia were told they would be arrested if they did not move. The three sat in the car for 30 minutes. Ten minutes later white volunteer, Dave Gerber, was arrested for speeding en route from the courthouse to McComb. Bond was set at $22.50.

Aug. 22: Local voter registration worker, Percy McGhee, was arrested for loitering inside the courthouse. McGhee was held on $60 bail. A McComb police officer pulled a gun on SNCC staff member, Seephus Hugh, who went to post bond for McGhee. Four more workers went to the jail and successfully bonded out McGhee.

Aug. 23: A local, white citizen was held for 3 hours last night by five heavily armed, hooded men. He was described by a McComb SNCC spokesmen as living in an African-American neighborhood and having many African-American friends.

Meridian:

June 21: Three civil rights workers went missing after a short trip to Philadelphia.

June 24: One bomb threat was recorded.

July 2: A white, teenage girl threw a bottle at a civil rights group outside the church and cut the leg of a local African-American girl.

July 3: A volunteer's car went through a green light and hit a local station wagon. The volunteer was charged with running a light and reckless driving. Bond was set at $122.

July 23: A hearing continued to July 30th for an omnibus suit filed against the Ku Klux Klan, Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Price, the White Citizens' Council, and others in an attempt to enjoin acts of violence on the part of the defendants and the classes of officials and citizens they represent. This hearing was the first of its kind in Mississippi.

July 24: The MFDP held precinct meetings.

July 30: The Mount Moriah Baptist Church, an African-American church located in a completely white neighborhood, was burned to the ground last night. Although many homes were located close to the site, the fire department was not notified until it was too late to halt the fire.

July 30: A county meeting was held.

July 31: A white, summer volunteer was arrested for reckless driving and speeding. He was not informed of the charges until after being held at the police station under arrest. At the police station he was asked whether he was sure what his race was, and he was hit on the hand when he reached for the ticket to see what charges were being placed against him.

Aug. 4: A community concert by Pete Seeger was held in support of the Mississippi Summer Project. Four people were refused service at a supposedly integrated Dairy Queen. A bus driver refused to pick up a person wearing a CORE shirt.

Aug. 7: Over 200 persons gathered at four churches to take part in a memorial procession for slain civil rights worker, James Chaney. Walking in silence, two abreast, the mourners joined approximately 400 others for a memorial service at First Union Church. The procession and service were followed by the private burial of Chaney in Meridian. Immediately following the service the Free Southern Theater production of In White America was presented at the church in conjunction with a Freedom School convention that began the night before.

Aug. 8: Approximately 150 outstanding students from throughout the state gathered for the Freedom School Convention. Resolutions brought by student delegates from their community Freedom Schools were divided into four groups: Foreign Relations, Medical Care, Education, and Public Accommodations and workshops were held in each area. Seeds of Freedom, a Holly Springs Freedom School production based on the life and death of Medgar Evers, was performed during the evening, as was the Free Southern Theater production of In White America.

Aug. 15: Two local African-American voter registration volunteers, Sam Brown and David McClinton, and SNCC staffer, Preston Ponder, were fired upon today while driving on Hwy 11 in Jasper Co. The shot hit and cracked the front window of their car as they returned from investigating a beating of a school teacher and her mother several weeks before .

Aug. 19: A church burning was reported in Collinsville.

Aug. 19: Local African-American voter registration worker, Sam Brown, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $50 bond.

Mileston:

July 26: A SNCC car was burned outside a home hosting white volunteers.

July 26: A volunteer was accosted at the store by two whites who asked where he lived. He pointed to the community center. They went to their car, and each man took a pistol from the trunk and put it pistol in his belt. They came back and told the volunteer they would find out what was going on when they came back.

Aug. 9: Shortly after midnight a bomb was thrown in the road approximately 40 yards from the new Freedom Center. The bomb was thrown from a passing car by whites, and it left a hole approximately one foot deep and 5 or 6 feet wide in road. There were no injuries.

Moss Point:

June 23: The Knights of Pythias Hall was firebombed. The arson attempt occurred on the side of the building. The damage was slight. The building was used for voter rallies.

June 23: Two summer volunteers were picked up as they left the café and were relaxing on a private lawn. They were taken by police to the Pascagoula jail at 85 m.p.h. without lights. The volunteers were held in protective custody overnight, then released.

July 6: An African-American woman was shot twice at a voter rally while singing "We Shall Overcome". Three African-Americans were arrested when they pursued the car that the shots were believed to have originated. The car was not searched.

July 9: Five African-Americans were fired from their jobs for attending a rally. A woman was fired from work for housing two Summer Project volunteers.

July 10: Howard Kirschenbaum, the only volunteer to leave the Mississippi Summer Project because of arrests and harassment, returned with $2000 in gifts from New York.

July 23: A volunteer was arrested for improper turning and released on $40 bond.

July 23: At a mass meeting the night before, $33 was collected for a woman who lost her job two weeks before for housing COFO volunteers. Several people pledged to give $50 a week indefinitely to help pay the hospital expenses of a local resident who received back and side wounds when shots were fired into a voter registration meeting on July 6.

Aug. 1: County meetings were held.

Aug. 4: Approximately 62 people were arrested during a voter registration meeting held on the front lawn of the SNCC office. Five of the arrests were of civil rights workers and the rest were local African-American citizens. The meeting had been in process for 15 minutes when an assistant deputy sheriff gave the group five minutes to disperse. The group stayed. Within minutes 18 helmeted policemen with guns, bayonets, and clubs surrounded them. Fifteen minutes later a prison bus drove up. A total of 40 officers accumulated. Those at the meeting were put in the bus and taken to jail. They were held for breach of the peace on $300 cash or $600 property bond each.

Aug. 24: African-American citizens decided to boycott the nearby laundromat after a young African-American girl was arrested for attempting to wash her clothes in the "white section" of the establishment. A petition was presented to the laundry's owner the next morning by boycotting citizens demanding that discrimination end there.

Aug. 25: The owner of the local laundromat refused to desegregate facilities when presented with a petition by local, African-American citizens. He reportedly stated that he realized African-Americans constituted 80% of his business, but that whites would refuse to wash there if the partition was removed. He reportedly told the African-Americans that "Communists are behind this whole thing," and that "Negroes and whites had a good relationship in Moss Point until a few months ago when COFO workers came in". (On Aug. 26, six African-Americans were arrested for urging fellow citizens not to patronize the laundromat).

Mound Bayou:

Aug. 25: Seven young African-American members of the Mississippi Student Union were arrested today for allegedly chasing a white salesman out of town. The man shot at the students. Although Henry Martin, Wendel Ishman, Herbert Battle, Oliver Know, James McKay, Walter Ricket, and Gary Dillen were being held in jail, no charges were placed against them.

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Index

Natchez:

July 12: Jerusalem Baptist and Bethel Methodist Churches were burned to the ground. The home of an African-American contractor in Natchez was firebombed.

July 21: Within 45 minutes after 3 SNCC workers arrived in the area to set up a Summer Project office, one was arrested for failure to stop at a stop sign. The police chief told him that the police knew of their movements in detail. The police continued to follow the workers.

July 22: A local, African-American was taken into police custody while walking along the street with two SNCC field secretaries.

July 22: The mayor told the SNCC field secretary that most of the nationally publicized shipment of arms to white terrorist groups in the area had been done in Adams County, as opposed to the city. Police continued to follow the SNCC workers every minute.

Aug. 2: A passing car fired shots at Archie Curtis's Funeral Home. Curtis was beaten the February before by hooded men on a desolate road outside the city. He was lured to the spot by an unidentified caller who told him a woman was dying of a heart attack. Earlier, Curtis had participated in a voting drive.

Aug. 5: Mt. Pilgrim Baptist church in Finwick [?] was burned the night before.

Aug. 14: A tavern next door to the Freedom House was bombed. The owners of the tavern, an integrated couple, lived in the home attached to it. The tavern was owned by Jake Fisherman and Evangeline Thronton. He was white, and she was African-American. A Natchez SNCC spokesmen reported that police were circulating through a crowd of several hundred spectators, stating that the wrong place had been bombed. Firemen told one of the voter registration workers there "those outside agitators are in that house. The bomb was set for that house. They're here to stir up trouble. George Greene rents that place". Greene was a 20 year-old SNCC staff member working in Natchez.

Aug. 18: A five gallon can of gasoline, a bomb-like apparatus, was found under Blue Moon bar. The bar belonged to Jake Fisher, whose brother's bar was bombed in Louisiana over that weekend.

Aug. 19: The owner of a house rented by SNCC workers had indicated he did not want to rent it to civil rights workers for fear of bombing. The company holding the house's insurance indicated it did not want to continue the policy on the house.

O

Index

Oak Ridge (near Vicksburg):

Aug. 12: Three people who had supported MFDP were beaten and shot at last night by men in robes with hoods. Henry Ollins, his wife Lucy, and their next-door neighbor, Thomas Hick, were attacked by three carloads of men. The attackers broke the doors of both houses and fired a high-powered rifle at Hick's house. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ollins were beaten; she sustained a damaged hip, while he suffered a rather severe beating, according to the Vicksburg hospital. Hick managed to grab hold of one of the men, and delivered him to the sheriff.

Oakland:

June 30: Police found the body of a white man that was so badly mangled by a hit-and-run driver that no identification could be made at that time. (The incident was later found to have no civil rights tie).

Ocean Springs (near Gulfport):

Aug. 12: Two local, African-American men were shot at in two separate incidents. A 19 year-old city employee, Calvin Galloway, was cutting the grass near the beach when three white men drove by and fired pistols. The second incident involved Barney Brooks, a man of about 50 years of age. His attackers may have been the same as those of Galloway. Neither was hit by the shots.

Aug. 13: A report was made of the third shooting in 24 hours at local African-American citizens. None were hit. Also the previous night three white women in a pick-up truck attempted to run over a local African-American woman.

Oxford:

July 19: An Ole Miss student, who had contacts at Rust College, had his seat covers slashed while the car was parked outside the faculty home. A threatening note was left on the car. He had been harassed before but could not get the administration to act upon it.

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Index

Philadelphia:

June 16: Mt. Zion Baptist Church burned to the ground. The fire started soon after an African-American mass meeting had adjourned. Three African-Americans were beaten by whites. The church was also a Freedom School site.

June 23: A missing car was found burned, but there was no sign of the three civil rights workers who had been using it. The car was on a list circulated statewide by the Canton White Citizens' Council.

June 25: A southern newsman's car was deliberately rammed by a local citizen. The newsman received two tickets.

June 27: A local, African-American contact had a bottle thrown through the window of his home. A threatening note was found attached to the bottle.

July 17: A Columbia law student and writer was beaten with a chain by two middle-aged, white men in the early afternoon.

Aug. 16: A memorial service was held for civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, who were slain June 21st after inspecting the burned church site of a Freedom School.

Aug. 18: Shortly before 11 p.m. on August 15th a car stopped across the street from the Freedom School headquarters. The driver kept a single-barrel shotgun pointed at the office for about 5 minutes and left, only to return again. When two Freedom School teachers filed a warrant about the incident with the district attorney, the official put on it that the party was a COFO worker who made $9.64 a week, "lives off people in community, and has no other visible means of support". Freedom School coordinator, Ralph Featherstone, refused to sign the affidavit with this addition. His companion, volunteer Walter Kaufman, did sign the complaint. The name of the man with the gun was known and action on the case was awaited. On August 16th a rumor spread that the office and motel where civil rights workers ate would be bombed. By August 17th the rumor was widespread. A woman at the motel was threatened and told civil rights workers she could not feed them anymore. The FBI watched the office all night, but local police took no action. That morning Deputy Sheriff Price, the officer who arrested James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, came to the office and took films of all the Mississippi Summer Project workers. He came by three times. He was, reportedly, questioning local African-Americans about the workers' activities. A local African-American citizen was beaten by a white man when he went into a store with an African-American girl. The Philadelphia staff reports the man could be taken for a white man and was probably thought to be a Mississippi Summer Project worker. He came to the Freedom Summer office after leaving the doctor's office. He was frightened and refused to contact local police. The FBI was contacted, and the man was questioned for about half an hour. One agent was, reportedly, very hostile.

Aug. 19: Evers Motel, headquarters of the Neshoba Co. mobile Freedom School experienced increased harassment and intimidation. Between 8:55 and 9:15 p.m. two carloads and one truck of white men with rifles parked outside the headquarters on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Deputy Price was observed smiling as one carload of whites told him, "We're gonna get the job done tonight". Carloads of whites parked and occupants milled about in front of the office while other cars cruised the area. Threatening phone calls were received at approximate intervals of 5 minutes stating "Your time is up". The calls continued until 4 a.m. The new office had opened August 14 with 11 workers.

Aug. 20: Neshoba Co. law enforcement had used a questionable building lease to try to evict COFO workers from their newly-opened office. At about 11 a.m. Deputy Cecil Price, Sheriff Rainey, and District Attorney Walter Jones, presented an eviction notice indicating that the six COFO workers in the office would be arrested if they did not leave the premises by 1 p.m. The law officers claimed the building lease was invalid and that the old tenants still held the lease. Police frequently appeared at the office from about 1 to 4 p.m. with warrants for the arrest of the workers on trespassing charges. The former occupant of the building came to the office late that afternoon and agreed to terminate his hold on the building and to have all his property moved out within five days. COFO workers indicated their determination to stay in Philadelphia despite legal or other types of pressure. A local African-American woman told one of civil rights workers that morning: "If you leave us now, they'll kill us. They'll pile our bodies one on top of the other". Additional staff was moved into Philadelphia by late afternoon, and more would be sent as soon as needed, "to keep our pledge to the local people," a Jackson office spokesman said. That day's legal harassment had followed several tense hours the night before as the Philadelphia office was surrounded by carloads of armed whites. Following the eviction notice local African-American citizens came to the office and provided dinner for the civil rights workers.

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Index

Raleigh:

July 6: Methodist and Baptist churches were burned to the ground.

Ruleville:

June 23: Look and Time magazine reporters covering the voter rally at Williams' Chapel were chased out of town by a car at speeds up to 85 m.p.h. Early the next morning nine African-American homes and cars were hit by bottles thrown from a similar car.

June 25: Williams' Chapel was firebombed. The damage was slight. Eight plastic bags with gasoline were later found outside the building.

June 28: The mayor tells a visiting Methodist chaplain (white) that he cannot attend services at the white Methodist church since, he "... came here to live with Negroes, so you can go to church with them, too". He did attend church with three civil rights volunteers.

June 30: A man lost his job for housing white volunteers.

July 5: A local segregationist visits the COFO office and had a very friendly argument with civil rights workers. Police asked him to leave. He refused and was charged with disorderly conduct and fined.

July 8: A civil rights volunteer was bodily ejected from the county circuit clerk's office for accompanying a local woman to voter registration.

July 20: Two civil rights workers were ordered out of a local cafe. The doors were locked with people still inside.

July 24: An African-American woman was ordered off the bus when she sat down next to a white man. All but two passengers got off the bus.

July 24: A rabbi and Summer Project volunteer were ejected from the office of a Drew City Attorney where they had gone to attend a meeting of the parents of children detained and then released July 15th.

July 25: A rock smashed the windshield of a local African-American's car. He was housing civil rights workers.

July 29: A plantation worker was fired for being a freedom registrant and attending two voter registration rallies. (This type of incident occurred often, but it was seldom reported in detail).

July 31: Precinct meetings were held.

Aug. 1: County meetings were held.

Aug. 11: Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, a candidate for Congress, who suffered a brutal beating in County jail in Winona for her voter registration activities, was again threatened. One of the men involved in her earlier beating had been passing her home in a pick-up truck, and he pointed her out to his companions. Mrs. Hamer, who suffered a permanent back injury from her earlier beating, stated she felt the man "...is up to something drastic".

Aug. 12: Students at a local African-American school were promoting voter registeration among teachers. Only one was registered. They also emphasized the need for improved conditions at the school, and that the government should help finance the school's operations. Previously, the students raised money for the school by having "field days" when students went out in the field and picked cotton.

Aug. 12: Mrs. Hamer received a death threat over the telephone.

Aug. 13: Joseph Smith, a 19 year-old white summer project volunteer, was arrested in Drew on charges of conduct tending to incite a breach of peace while passing the high school campus.

Aug. 14: A local attorney informed voter registration workers that any white volunteer staying overnight in the African-American section of Drew would be arrested.

Aug. 17: Three local African-American youths were picked up by police and held for half an hour for distributing announcements of that night's production of In White America.

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Index

Shaw:

July 7: Stores refused to cash a civil rights volunteer's travelers check.

July 7: Police asked all volunteers to register. Only four did not.

July 11: A local African-American was offered $400 by five whites to bomb the SNCC Freedom House and $40 for a list of residents' home addresses.

July 31: Three white volunteers were made to leave an African-American high school cafeteria where they had been invited to a fundraising supper. They were warmly received by students and a supervising teacher, but were told by the principal they had to, first, secure the permission of the superintendent to enter the school. One volunteer called this an "excellent demonstration of the fact that not only Negroes but whites also are not free in Mississippi".

Aug. 4: African-American schools were closed indefinitely following a student boycott. This was triggered by an African-American principal's request that three white volunteers leave the cafeteria where they were invited for a school fundraising dinner the Friday before. Students declared a boycott of the cafeteria and asked the Student Union to assemble their grievances. The students then called a general boycott of the schools that was supported by 75 percent of students. The Student Union claimed that the boycott resulted "because of the inadequate education we're getting". They demanded up-to-date texts, workshops, laboratories. They also demanded a well-stocked library with African-American history materials and that the school offer foriegn languages and other courses needed for college entrance. The principal relayed these requests to the white school superintendent then notified students schools would be closed. Heavily armed sheriff's deputies in helmets soon arrived on the scene.

Aug. 5: Thirty-five parents organized an association to meet with the school board and high school faculty. In addition to the students' demands which led to a boycott and the closing of schools, parents would take action against the inadequate school lunch program and the mechanics of desegregation in the school system.

Aug. 8: Two cross burnings were reported on the nights of August 6th and 7th. Both were apparently intended to frighten local families involved in civil rights work.

Aug. 18: Three African-American members of the Shaw Mississippi Student Union entered the town library and successfully registered for library cards. When Eddie Short, James Johnson Jr., and Willie Wright left, they were followed by four police officers and watched by a number of bystanders.

Aug. 20: Herman Perry, an African-American cotton farmer, was elected president of the Bolivar Improvement Association at a mass meeting Wednesday night. More than 100 people attended. The BIA planned to organize African-American farmers and others for community planning and improvement. With widespread African-American unemployment and poverty in the area, the group hoped to become eligible for federal aid. To avoid complete economic dependence the group needed some kind of industry to employ African-Americans. The BIA grew out of a Freedom School class in politics. Mass meeting were scheduled for the next evening in Shaw to make plans for a school boycott and integration of public schools.

Soso:

July 3: The "Greasy Spoon," an African-American grocery and teen spot, was bombed and sustained minor damage.

Starkville:

July 18: The police chief followed two volunteers to various stops in African-American cafes and delivered a lengthy "anti-agitator speech" directed at local African-Americans talking to volunteers.

Statewide:

June 16: African-Americans attempted to attend the Democratic Party precinct conventions for the first time in the century. Results varied. Two African-Americans and two whites were elected in Jackson.

June 23: African-Americans tried to attend the Democratic Party county conventions. Thier participation was systematically discouraged.

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Index

Tallahatchie:

Aug. 8: Four members of a local family, the first African-American family to attempt to register to vote from this county in several decades, had been steadily harassed since they attempted to register the previous week. On Tuesday night two truckloads of whites with guns came by at 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and 3 a.m. The motorists shouted obscenities and threat. The family was afraid to go to work in the fields. The county registrar was currently under a court injunction to determine the qualification of African-American registrants by the same standards as whites, not to limit African-American registrants to coming in one at a time, and not to use the constitutional interpretation section of the registration form. Approximately 70 percent of the county's population was African-American. SNCC voter registration activity began two weeks prior to this.

Tchula:

June 30: Two carloads of highway patrolmen closely watched one civil rights volunteer for four hours.

July 22: The driver of a car carrying the man who attacked a civil rights volunteer yesterday was reportedly arrested.

July 23: A SNCC staff member was followed out of Jackson and arrested by police on a speeding charge.

Tougaloo:

July 3: En route to Canton, four female civil rights workers were chased by two carloads of whites. They decided to stop in Jackson for safety.

Tupelo:

Aug. 23: Voter registration headquarters were the object of arson early that morning. The damage was moderate. Workers arrived at the office to find the attic gutted, the windows broken, and the door burned. Neighbors reported the fire department had put the fire out at about 3 a.m. City investigators said there was evidence of arson. Tupelo had been the scene of MFDP organizing involving 20 to 30 local workers, as well as three staff workers. The office was opened six weeks before this incident.

V

Index

Vicksburg:

June 17: A summer project volunteer was arrested for driving while intoxicated. He was not allowed a phone call and was held overnight. He was acquitted at trial the next day.

June 27: The office received a threatening telephone call.

June 30: An African-American woman was threatened for registering to vote.

July 2: Several whites chased and shot at an African-American on a motorcycle.

July 7: White boys threw a bottle and broke the windshield of a car waiting to pick up a freedom school student.

July 8: A bomb threat was recorded.

July 9: Freedom school students were stoned en route to class.

July 10: Four civil rights workers were chased by two cars, one of which carried a man brandishing a revolver.

July 11: An amateur bomb was thrown through the window of an African-American cafe.

July 14: The milkman's assistant lost his job, because he attended the Freedom School.

July 14: A SNCC team confirmed the burning of Bovina Community Center on July 7th.

July 16: A white man came to the door of a home where a volunteer was staying. He had a pistol showing in its holster and asked to see the owner of the house. At another home that was housing workers, a car suspicously circled the block for 10-15 minutes.

July 28: Precinct meetings were held on MFDP Clarksdale. Also a MFDP county meeting was held.

Aug. 1: A MFDP county meeting was held at the Courthouse. It was the first MFDP meeting to be held in a government building.

Aug. 18: A bottle was hurled through the window of a barbershop owned by Mr. Eddie Thomas, a Warren County MFDP delegate.

W

Index

Washington, D.C.:

Aug. 4: The FBI announces that two of three bodies found near Philadelphia the night before had been identified as Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. (The third was subsequently identified as James Chaney).

Winona Co.:

Aug. 17: White volunteer, Tim Morrison, was arrested for having a faulty driver's license and fined $18.

Y

Index

Yazoo City:

July 9: A folk singer was arrested for reckless driving and paid a quick fine.

July 17: Three African-American men in their late teens or early twenties were arrested for looking at a white girl.

Aug. 18: Two local African-American citizens filed applications for cards at a local library without incident. Police talked with the two and later contacted the mother of one.

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