Legal Defense Fund Wins Release of McComb, Miss. 'Rights' Workers; Alabama Court Stops Prosectuion of Over 200 Core Demonstrators

    10 Columbus Circle 

New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers For Release 
Director Const SATURDAY 

Jack Greenberg October 24, 1964 
Associate Counsel 

Constance Baker Motley 

LEGAL DEFENSE FUND WINS RELEASE 
OF MCCOMB, MISS. 'RIGHTS' WORKERS 

McCOMB, Miss,---NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers secured release 
this week of the last 17 Civil Rights workers and local Negroes 
remaining in jail following a wave of arrests here last month. 

These arrests were carried out under a specially enacted 
Mississippi law which charged the Civil Rights advocates with 
"criminal syndicalism", 

This was culmination of a brutal summer here during which 
ten Negro churches in the area were burned to the ground and six- 
teen bombing; of Negro homes took place since May 28th, 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund spokesmen said this is the first 
time in four years that bonds have been secured for civil rights 
workers in Mississippi. 

Each defendant posted a $500 bond in order to make the 
$5,000 bail requirement. 

In another development, the Federal District Court here 
named a three-judge panel consisting of Judges Mize and Clayton 
and Fifth Circuit Justice John Minor Wisdom to hear the Defense 
Fund motion, filed September 25th, that the Court enjoin the 
prosecutions, 

No hearing date has been set for consideration of the 
Defense Fund's charge that the "criminal syndicalism" law--passed 
by the State legislature this past spring--violates freedom of 
speech, is vague and indefinite, and is being used solely to 
harass and intimidate civil rights efforts. 

On September 29th, the Defense Fund filed a further petition 
in the Federal Court here, this one to remove the McComb cases 
from the Pike County Circuit Court, where, the Fund argued, a fair 
trial could not be obtained. 

To date, Pike County attorneys have not responded to the 

Fund's contention. When they do, a date for hearing argument on 

the petitions for removal will be scheduled. 

The defendants, including white COFO worker Dennis Sweeney 

of Stanford University, face possible fines up to $1,000 and 

jail terms up to ten years, 

(more) 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 



ot had been summarily arrested and jailed in June, 1963, — 

“i 

-2- October 24, 1964 

ALABAMA COURT .STOPS ~PROSECUTION - te 
_OF OV ERY200 ‘CORE “DEMONSTRATORS 

ee ‘MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA--The Alabama Court of Appeals has upset 
«the contempt convictions of over 200 Gadsden demonstratozs who 

ay 

ee £ 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys, Norman Amaker of New 
York and Oscar W, Adams Jr. of Birmingham, hailed’ the favorable 

®, ruling but pointed out that the Alabama Court had held up action 
+ on the case for well over a year, thus tying/up over $50,000 :in 
bail money. i ae 

The convictions, deemed highly ifregular by Defense Fund 
hawyers, grew out of CORE's desegregation drive in Gadsden, when 

Oya Circuit Court issued an injunction on June 17, 1963 enjoining 
any sit-ins or large-scale demonstrations. 

; Immediately upon issuing the injunction, the Circuit Judge © 
verbally instructed the sheriff to arrest anyone participating 

fe protest marches. Within a week almost 250 persons were 
f upeetily arrested and jailed without being charged and without 
Ba . 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers then filed a petition for ~ 
rit of habeas corpus to secure the release of the jailed 

demonstrators. They asserted that the Civil Rights workers had 
received no notice of the injunction, had not been given a 
hearing, had not been charged formally, and had been denied bail. 

After a hearing, the Judge denied the petition but finally 
agreed to set bail. Fund lawyers appealed the ruling to the 
Alabama Court of Appeals, which has now reversed the Circuit 
court decision. 

The now famous case of Miss Mary Hamilton arose at the 
original hearing of the habeas corpus petition, as Miss Hamilton, 
a CORE field worker, was cited for contempt when she refused to 
to answer questions so long as the prosecutor addressed her by 
her first name. 

Legal Defense Fund lawyers won a historic U.S. Supreme 
Court decision last spring when the high court reversed Miss 
Hamilton's contempt conviction, ruling that Negroes be addressed 
by courtesy titles, as befits the dignity of all American 
citizens. 

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