A Different Day Read online

  69. H. L. Mitchell, “On the Rise of the White Citizens Council and Its Ties with Anti-Labor Forces in the South,” 30 January 1956, frames 0324–31, 0334, reel 13, part 20, PNAACP—Micro. See also “Labor and the Southern Negro,” The Nation, 27 September 1952, 261, and Griffith, Crisis of American Labor, 62–87. For reports on the spread of white supremacist organizations in Louisiana, some of which also indicate the links between antilabor and segregationist leaders, see “Candidates Say ‘No Comment’ on Secret ‘Ku Klux,’” Opelousas Daily World, 25 October 1955, 2; “Southern Gentlemen Group Formed in Lakeland,” Pointe Coupee Banner, 27 October 1955, 1; “Group Promises Legislation to Strengthen Segregation Barriers,” Opelousas Daily World, 26 April 1956, 31; “ ‘Klan’ Reborn in Louisiana,” Opelousas Daily World, 3 June 1956, 1, 40; and “State Klan Leader Announces Plans for Organization,” Opelousas Daily World, 28 April 1957, 1.

  70. “How Might Communism Attack the United States?,” St. Francisville Democrat, 15 August 1957, 2 (reprinted from Clinton Citizen-Watchman).

  71. See, e.g., “Segregation Rule Based on Reds, Claims Perez,” Opelousas Daily World, 19 February 1956, 3; Robert M. Stewart, “States’ Rights Party Held Last Hope of This Country,” ibid., 22 July 1956, 31; and W. M. Rainach, “Communist-Front NAACP Leadership,” ibid., 26 May 1957, 31.

  72. Record, Race and Radicalism, 162–64; Egerton, Speak Now against the Day, 443–48; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 137–47; Griffith, Crisis of American Labor, 139–60. See also Penny M. Von Eschen's illuminating study of the anticolonialist movement in the 1940s and 1950s, Race against Empire, esp. 96–166. As she notes, anticommunism weakened civil rights groups ideologically as well as organizationally by making them less willing to highlight the economic and political roots of inequality. An internationalist approach that had located the origins of racism in the economic exploitation of black people across the globe was replaced in the postwar decades by psychological explanations that portrayed discrimination as the result of individual prejudices.

  73. Morris, Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, 30–35; Daniel Byrd to Fay O. Wilson, 28 May 1956, file 10, box 2, DEBP; “Desire for Freedom Indestructible,” Louisiana Weekly, 12 May 1956, 3B; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 208; Arthur J. Chapital Sr., Affidavit, 24 November 1959, file 12, box 68, APTP; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 196–97, 207–11.

  74. Daniel E. Byrd, Activity Report, April 1956, 3, file 3, box 4, DEBP (quotation); E. C. Smith to A. H. Rosenfeld, memorandum, 16 March 1961, 8–9, file “Louisiana,” box 6, SS, RG 453; “Dissolution of the Citizens’ Council of East Feliciana,” clipping, Clinton Watchman, 11 June 1965, 7, file 7, box 1, CORE—SCDP; Ward E. Bonnell and Raymond H. Miller to A. H. Rosenfeld, memorandum, 29 June 1959, 1, file “Louisiana,” box 6, SS, RG 453; Nils R. Douglas, “The United States Supreme Court and Clinton, Louisiana,” n.d., frame 01068, reel 20, COREP; Kurtz and Peoples, Earl K. Long, 207.

  75. “Supreme Court's Unequivocal Ruling Is Hailed as Second Emancipation,” Louisiana Weekly, 22 May 1954, 1, 8.

  76. “Segregation Fading, ‘Diehards’ Die Hard,” ibid., 29 May 1954, 4B; “Statesmanship in Legislature,” ibid., 5 June 1954, 4B; “Louisiana,” n.d., file “Desegregation: Schools Branch Action—Louisiana 1954–55,” box 227, ser. A, pt. 2, PNAACP—LC; Southern Educational Reporting Service, A Statistical Summary, State by State, of Segregation-Desegregation Activity Affecting Southern Schools from 1954 to Present (n.p.: Southern Education Reporting Service, 1961), 19–22, file 9, box 1, CORE—SROP (“good moral character”); William L. Taylor to Robert L. Carter, memorandum, 28 March 1955, 1, file “Schools—Louisiana 1943–54,” box 143, ser. B, pt. 2, PNAACP—LC (“to promote and protect”).

  77. “2 Suits Ask Right to Attend White Schools,” Louisiana Weekly, 13 September 1952, 1, 6; Daniel Byrd to Thurgood Marshall, 9 April 1953, file 3, box 1, DEBP; Byrd to Marshall, memorandum, 23 August 1955, 1, file 26, box 10, APTP; “Tureaud Starts Legal Action in St. Helena Parish,” Louisiana Weekly, 11 June 1955, 1.

  78. Daniel Byrd to Thurgood Marshall, memorandum, 23 August 1955, 3, file 26, box 10, APTP.

  79. Lorin Hall, interview by author, THWC—LSU; Eunice Hall Harris and Lawrence Hall, interviews by author, THWC—LSU.

  80. J. K. Haynes, interview by Miranda Kombert, Baton Rouge; Martin Williams interview; Redden interview; Walt Benton, “Louisiana's Top News Story: Segregation,” Opelousas Daily World, 30 December 1956, 4.

  81. O'Brien, Color of the Law, 3, 12–19, 89–108; Tyson, “Robert F. Williams.” See also Umoja, “Eye for an Eye.”

  82. Lewis interview. See also Tyson, “Robert F. Williams,” 547–48.

  83. Lewis interview.

  84. Goldfield, Black, White, and Southern, 92–106.

  85. Bayard Rustin to Carroll G. Bowen, 21 February 1956, frame 00553, reel 20, Rustin Papers, ARC; William K. Hefner to A. J. Muste, 17 June 1963, frames 00667–68, ibid.; Dean B. Hancock, “Between the Lines,” Louisiana Weekly, 9 April 1960, 10; “Violence Makes Non-Violent Stronger,” Louisiana Weekly, 28 May 1960, 11; “Dr. King Deplores Move to ‘Violence,’” Louisiana Weekly, 17 July 1965, 1, 11; Farmer, Lay Bare the Heart, 11, 94, 155–56.

  86. “CORE Says Greensboro Shows that Nonviolence Can Change Society,” Louisiana Weekly, 6 August 1960, 7.

  87. “First Status Report, Voter Education Project,” 20 September 1962, frames 00662–63, reel 26, COREP; “Voter Education Project Launched to Stir Interest,” Louisiana Weekly, 7 April 1962, 2. The liberal foundations and government officials who helped to organize the VEP saw that increasing black political participation could strengthen the national Democratic Party; they also aimed to divert civil rights organizations away from direct action initiatives that too often resulted in violence, forcing federal authorities to choose between antagonizing white southerners by acting to protect activists or angering African Americans by failing to intervene. See Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 172–76, and Branch, Parting the Waters, 479–82.

  88. “The Montgomery Story Inspiring,” Louisiana Weekly, 3 March 1956, 3B; “Patience Beginning to Wear Thin,” ibid., 20 February 1960, 10; Martin Williams interview.

  89. Korstad and Lichtenstein, “Opportunities Found and Lost”; Bartley, New South, 64–69; Draper, Conflict of Interests, 17–40; Von Eschen, Rage against Empire, 7–21, 96–121.

  Chapter Eight

  1. Wiley Branton to James Farmer, 15 August 1962, frame 00930, reel 5, COREP; “Task Force: Freedom,” 13 November 1962, frame 00445, reel 26, COREP; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 160, 176–78; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 294–96.

  2. The six founding members of CORE were James Farmer, George Houser, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, Joe Guinn, and James Robinson. Two of the group (Farmer and Robinson) were African American, and the remainder were white. All were students except for Farmer, who had graduated from Howard University in 1941 and was a field worker for the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 5–8.

  3. Ibid., 26–27, 31, 63, 145, 163–65.

  4. “Summary of the Testimony of Ronnie Moore,” 25 May 1962, frame 00419, reel 17, COREP. For more on the student movement in Baton Rouge, see Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 107–8, 166–69, and Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 289–94.

  5. Ronnie Moore to Barbara Whitaker, 21 May 1964, file 6, box 2, CORE—SROP; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 177; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 302; W. W. Harleaux to Wiley Branton, date unreadable [ca. February–March 1963], and Branton to Moore, 7 March 1963, box 2, file 6, CORE—SROP.

  6. James Farmer to James McCain, 9 May 1963, frame 00694, reel 26; Marvin Rich to Wiley Branton, 10 May 1963, frame 00696, reel 26; Richard K. Parsons to McCain, 7 June 1963, frame 00853, reel 25; and “File 318 Voter Complaints in 5 Louisiana Parishes,” Core-lator, July 1963, frame 00164, reel 49—all in COREP; Ronnie Moore to Barbara Whitaker, 21 May 1964, file 6, box 2, CORE—SROP; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 261; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 297.

  7. “Task Force, Applications,” frames 00744–00
813, reel 44, COREP; Ronnie Sigal Bouma and Meg Redden (formerly Peggy Ewan), interviews by author, Baton Rouge. The papers of activists Meldon Acheson and Miriam Feingold held at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, also provide a good sense of the background, religious beliefs, and outlook of task force workers.

  8. Miriam Feingold, Speech, n.d. [ca. 1961], frames 0292–96, reel 2, MFP; Jim McCain to Mary Hamilton, 16 October 1963, frame 00672, reel 36, Bill Brown, Task Force Application, frame 01368, reel 44, Mike Lesser, Task Force Application, frame 01211, reel 44, Lesser to Gordon Carey, 27 April 1963, frame 01207, reel 44, Evert Makinen to Carey, 21 May 1963, frame 01209, reel 44, and Jim McCain to Mary Hamilton, 16 October 1963, frame 00672, reel 36—all in COREP; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 288; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 300.

  9. Bouma interview; Redden interview; “Assorted Papers Prepared for Use in Informal Discussion Workshops for Volunteers and Supporters of CORE's Southern Summer Projects 1965,” frames 00479–83, reel 26, COREP; Meier and Rud-wick, CORE, 176.

  10. Major Johns, a black student at Southern University, had instead organized a Student Welfare Committee to protest legislation passed by state lawmakers that made illegitimate children ineligible for public support. Johns to Gordon Carey, 22 August 1960, frame 01187, reel 36, COREP; Carey to Johns, 12 September 1960, frame 01188, ibid. For more on the welfare legislation and the black community's interpretation of the action as retaliation for civil rights activity, see “Welfare Cut Hits All Parts of La.” (30 July 1960, 1, 7), “Example of States Rights . . . Southern Style” (17 September 1960, 11), “Starving Tots No Distortion of Fact—Kerns” (1 October 1960, 1, 7), and “Child Welfare League Asks Probe of La. Welfare Laws” (1 October 1960, 2), Louisiana Weekly.

  11. Miriam Feingold, Notes on CORE Staff Meeting, 6 December 1963, frame 0802, reel 1, MFP.

  12. John Zippert, interview by author, THWC—LSU. St. Helena Parish had 351 black landowners in 1960, and St. Landry had 642. Bureau of the Census, Census of Agriculture: 1959, Volume 1, Part 35, 172.

  13. Bill Brown, Field Report, 6–15 December 1963, frame 01378, reel 44, COREP; Sharon Burger, Field Report—St. Helena Parish, 18–24 June 1964, file 6, box 6, CORE—SROP; “St. Helena,” n.d. [early 1964], 3, file 13, box 1, CORE—SROP.

  14. Court Docket, Zelma C. Wyche, Ike Oliver, Martin Williams, Earl M. Thomas, Harrison Brown, Willie Haynes, Willie Mitchell and T. I. Israel vs. Mary K. Ward, Registrar of Voters for Madison Parish, La., 1954–55, file “Louisiana Exhibits AA26-R4,” box 5, SS, RG 453; “Suit May End 36 Year Old Vote Drought,” Louisiana Weekly, 4 November 1961, 1, 7; Moses Williams, interview by author, THWC—LSU; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 395.

  15. Ronnie [Moore] to Jim [McCain], [ca. March] 1963, frame 00737, reel 25, COREP; Moore, Field Report, 1–25 June 1964, frames 00754–56, ibid.; Jim Peck, Louisiana—Summer 1964: The Students Report to Their Home Towns (New York: CORE, 1964), frame 00465, reel 26, COREP; Parish Scouting Report, West Feliciana, n.d. [ca. 1964], 1, file 20, box 1, CORE—SCDP (town of Hardwood); Bureau of the Census, Census of Agriculture: 1959, Volume 1, Part 35, 173; Miriam Feingold to Parents, 3 December 1963, frame 00738, reel 25, COREP; Ronnie Moore, “The West Feliciana Story” Core-lator, November 1963, frame 00167, reel 49, COREP; Vick [Ed Vickery] to [Moore], 18 September 1963, 4, file 13, box 4, CORE—SROP.

  16. There were some outstanding exceptions to this rule. W. W. Harleaux in Iberville Parish, Eunice Paddio-Johnson and Lola Stallworth in St. Helena Parish, and Hazel Matthews in East Feliciana Parish were all teachers who openly supported the movement. Black ministers Joseph Carter in West Feliciana Parish and Jetson Davis in Iberville Parish were key activists in their communities. In general, though, CORE workers found that members of these two professions preferred not to become involved in civil rights activity. Those who did usually were not solely dependent on a single source of income—female teachers were often married; Harleaux was a war veteran with access to GI benefits; and some rural ministers (like Carter) were farm owners and laborers in addition to heading their churches. Miriam Feingold, Parish Scouting Report—Pointe Coupee Parish, 14 April 1964, 1, file 20, box 1, CORE—SCDP; Feingold, Field Report—St. Helena, East Feliciana and West Feliciana Parishes, 28 June–5 July 1964, frame 00778, reel 25, COREP; FFM Newsletter, 15 August 1965, 1, MAP; “Morning Session—Saturday,” [notes for meeting], n.d., CORE—SHPP.

  17. Southern Educational Reporting Service, A Statistical Summary, State by State, of Segregation-Desegregation Activity Affecting Southern Schools from 1954 to Present (N.p.: Southern Education Reporting Service, 1961), 20, file 9, box 1, CORE—SROP; Miriam Feingold, Notebook, 19, 21 November 1963, frames 0781–82, reel 1, MFP; Field Report, Pointe Coupee Parish, January 1964, frame 00578, reel 38, COREP; Fred Lacey, “Student Movement on the Schools,” 15 February 1966, 2, 6, CORE—SHPP.

  18. Robert and Essie Mae Lewis, interview by author, THWC—LSU; “Negro Gas Station Burned after Insurance Canceled; Violence Continues in Ferriday, La.,” news release, 19 December 1965, file 1, box 1, FFMP; James Williams to Clarence A. Laws, 17 June 1963, file 11, box 36, APTP (activist in Iberville Parish); Notebook entry, 12 July 1963, frame 0772, and Miriam Feingold to Parents, 15 October 1963, frame 0327, reel 1, MFP; Feingold, Scouting Report, Pointe Coupee Parish, 14 April 1964, 1, file 20, box 1, CORE—SCDP; Feingold, Field Report, St. Helena, East Feliciana, and West Feliciana Parishes, 28 June–5 July 1964, frame 00778, reel 25, COREP; FFM Newsletter, 15 August 1965, 1, MAP; Spiver Gordon, Field Report, Iberville Parish, n.d. [May 1964], 1, file 3, box 5, CORE—SROP; [Wats Line Report], St. Landry Parish, 15 August 1965, file “Reports—St. Landry,” Additions, CORE—SROP; David Whatley to Zelma Wyche and Willie Johnson, 29 December 1965, file 1, box 1, FFMP; Special Report, Madison Parish, n.d. [1965], 2, file “Tallulah (Madison),” Additions, CORE—SROP.

  19. Miriam Feingold to Parents, 15 October 1963, frame 0327, reel 1, MFP.

  20. Miriam Feingold, Notes on Meeting, n.d. [July 1964], frame 0145, reel 2, MFP (Mr. Minor); Ronnie M. Moore, “Evaluation of the Citizenship Education Workshop, Plaquemine, Louisiana, December 16–18th, 1966,” 17 February 196[7], 4, file 4, box 23, SEDFREP.

  21. Kenny Johnson, interviewer unknown, ARC; “Student Civil Rights Strike Closes School,” news release, 7 October 1963, frame 00573, reel 31, COREP; Miriam Feingold to Parents, 15 October 1963, frame 0327, reel 1, MFP (CORE worker); Louisiana Field Report, 1 October–7 November 1963, frame 00542, reel 38, COREP; Bill Brown, Field Report, Sixth Congressional District, 6–15 December 1963, frame 01379, reel 44, COREP; Feingold to Maman, 5 January 1964, frame 0378, reel 1, MFP (last quotation).

  22. Lewis interview.

  23. Redden interview; Bouma interview; “Registration Drive in Rural Louisiana,” Core-lator, September 1963, frame 00166, reel 49, COREP; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 262; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 304; “ ‘Grand Lady’ of Clinton CORE Unit,” Louisiana Weekly, 18 January 1964, 13.

  24. Notes on Carter v. Percy, 1963, reel 1, MBP; Weekly Report, [East Feliciana Parish], 5–11 August 1963, 1, file 14, box 1, CORE—SCDP.

  25. Ronnie Moore, “The West Feliciana Story,” Core-lator, November 1963, frames 00167–68, reel 49, COREP; Carter v. Percy, Complaint, 1963, reel 1, MBP; Field Report, n.d. [ca. August 1963], frame 00666, reel 36, COREP; “Sheriff and Registrar Are Named in Suit,” Louisiana Weekly, 28 September 1963, 1, 8.

  26. Carter v. Percy, 1963, rough notes, reel 1, MBP; Mary Hamilton to James McCain, report, 14 October 1963, frame 00671, reel 36, COREP; John W. Roxborough, Julius J. Hollis, and Ezekiel C. Smith to A. H. Rosenfeld, memorandum, 8 August 1960, 6, file “Louisiana,” box 6, SS, RG 453; Parish Scouting Report, West Feliciana, n.d. [1964], 4, file 20, box 1, CORE—SCDP; “V.R. Meeting, Masonic Temple, Laurel Hill, (West Feliciana), La.,” 24 September, 1 October 1963, file 3, box 2, CORE—SCDP; “Louisiana Man Top Sweetpotato Farmer,” Louisiana Weekly, 5 November 1960, 12; Ronnie Moore, “The West Feliciana Story,” Core-lator, November 1963, fra
mes 00168–69, reel 49, COREP.

  27. Bob Adelman, “Birth of a Voter,” n.d., frame 00193, reel 49, COREP; Ronnie Moore, “The West Feliciana Story,” Core-lator, November 1963, frames 00167–68, COREP; James Farmer, Louisiana Story 1963 (New York: CORE, 1963), frame 00251, COREP.

  28. Ronnie Moore, “The West Feliciana Story,” Core-lator, November 1963, frames 00167–68, COREP; James Farmer, Louisiana Story 1963 (New York: CORE, 1963), frame 00251, COREP; “Four Negroes Register as CORE Drive Begins,” St. Francisville Democrat, 24 October 1963, 1; “Justice Department Files Suit against Registrar,” St. Francisville Democrat, 31 October 1963, 1; Mike Lesser to Terry Perlman, 4 November 1963, frame 00185, reel 5, COREP.

  29. Useful summaries of these incidents are given in “Intimidations and Harassment against Negroes and CORE Workers Summer 1963 to Summer 1964,” n.d. [ca. July 1964], frames 00530–33, and Judy Rollins, “CORE's Chronological Listing of Intimidations and Harassments in Louisiana from December, 1961 to August 1, 1964,” n.d. [16 October 1964], frames 00534–39, reel 20, COREP.

  30. Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 326, 373, 465; “The Citizens’ Council of East Feliciana,” St. Francisville Democrat, 28 March 1957, 3; E. C. Smith to A. H. Rosenfeld, memorandum, 16 March 1961, 8–9, file “Louisiana,” box 6, SS, RG 453; Parish Scouting Report, East Feliciana, n.d. [1963], 1, file 20, box 1, CORE—SCDP.

  31. On 20 August 1963, at the request of some white citizens and without notice to civil rights workers or a court hearing, Judge Rarick issued a temporary restraining order against CORE that prohibited the group from operating in the parish. The order was supposed to last only ten days, until a hearing on a preliminary injunction could be held, but when CORE's attorneys attempted to have the case removed to federal court Rarick kept extending it while postponing setting a date for a trial. The day before the case was finally to be tried, CORE obtained a stay order from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that should have automatically stopped proceedings until a decision could be made about whether the hearing should be held in state or federal court. Ten days later Rarick went ahead with the trial anyway, denouncing the stay order as “officious intermeddling designed to obstruct justice.” Lawyers for the prosecution accused CORE of being a communist front that aimed to “foster and promote civil disturbances, racial tension, and lawlessness by mobs of emotionally aroused misled people.” More hearings followed, and Rarick continued to defy the ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court by renewing his restraining order every ten days for several months. Nils R. Douglas, “The United States Supreme Court and Clinton, Louisiana,” n.d., frames 01068–70, reel 20, COREP; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 262.