daughterofthedelta

“After the Civil Rights bill was passed it was assumed that Negroes would attempt to integrate all of the restaurants which had previously only served whites. An article in the Commercial Appeal had stated that more than 100 Memphis restaurant owners had agreed to open their doors to all customers, regardless of race. The President of the Chamber of Commerce had indicated the agreement had been worked out by the restaurant owners at the request of city officials and civic leaders to keep Memphis a peaceful city.

“But Greenwood was not to give in so easily, and Hardy Lott and his law partner, Stanny Sanders, met with each of the owners and suggested that they draw up legal papers to become private clubs with members only being allowed in. Some of them closed until the necessary steps could be taken. I feel sure that Hardy and Stanny knew that most of them could not make it as private clubs, but they were willing to try anything to keep them from integrating and in the process probably made a lot of money from legal fees.

“Only the Crystal Grill (now the Crystal Club) [ed. note: this was written in 1990] survived as a private club, and in recent years they have served a few Negro patrons. At first we paid $1 for a membership card, and you had to push the card through a slot in the door to get in. Gradually, when no Negroes attempted to join, they became more lax and just left the door unlocked. Finally the club idea was dropped except for the name. Many of the restaurants went out of business.”

“On September 27 [1964] a fire grenade was tossed into the home of a Negro woman, Mrs. Ruthie Mae Jones, setting fire to a chair and a portion of the floor. Officers said when they arrived at the home shortly after 10 p.m. the house was filled with smoke and the fire department was called. Fragments of the fire bomb which appeared similar to one tossed into the Leflore Theater earlier were collected by officers. She told police she did not know of any reason any one would want to harm her.

“Police said there were no new leads in an investigation of an incident at the theater, when an incendiary bomb was tossed through a door, flying across the lobby and into the theater office where it burned a desk, a portion of the floor and a door.

“On August 13, De La Beckwith, Jr., 19, was taken into custody by the police and charged with assault and battery. He was arrested on a warrant sworn out by a 19-year-old white civil rights worker, Paul Saltzman of Toronto, Canada. The incident occurred when Saltzman attempted to attend a meeting of the Association of Christian Conservatives being held at the Leflore County Court House. The purpose of the meeting was to hear speeches against the proposed amendment to the Mississippi Constitution dealing with voter qualifications. Saltzman had been working with the Democratic Party in Greenwood and had been arrested in Jackson earlier while participating in demonstrations there. In a later hearing in county court, De La, Jr. was found not guilty of the assault and battery charges after several witnesses took the stand in his behalf.

“In July Ed Moore had sent in a story from the Greenville [Commercial Appeal] bureau with a picture of the Canadian making a financial donation at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Greenville. Ed wrote: ‘If he has a yen to include in future scrapbooks a picture of himself against a background of unsuspecting Klansmen, the donating method appears to be foolproof. All that’s necessary is to look and dress like scores of other teenagers. Son of a Canadian television personality, Saltzman gained attention when members of the Canadian House of Commons asked the Government to inquire into circumstances surrounding the youth’s arrest in Jackson in June.’

“I ran into Saltzman one day at the City Hall. There were trials for some of the summer workers and Negroes going on in City Court, and I don’t remember whether he was one of the defendants or just a spectator. Anyway, he approached me at the drinking fountain and wanted to talk. He asked me if Grand Boulevard was where most of the finer homes were. I would have loved to find out more about him but again was afraid I would have been run out of City Hall for talking to him.”

“In October, the Mayor told members of the Greenwood Rotary Club that there was nothing the city could have done about the incidents that had taken place at the theater. He said ‘We haven’t had too much racial trouble here this summer except for the few incidents at the theater, and there isn’t a thing the city could have done about it.’

“I don’t know who he thought he was fooling because everyone knew he and Hardy [Lott] had told the police not to break up the crowds at the theater. One Sunday night during all the trouble at the theater, I was at the Police Station, and the Reverend Jones Hamilton, rector of the Episcopal Church, who had stopped by on his way home from church, was standing by the counter talking to the police and [Mayor] Charley Sampson. The Mayor was rared back in a chair grinning about the whole thing, and Jonie, as we all called Reverend Hamilton, and I let him know that there was nothing funny about what was going on and that it was a serious situation. Of course, he just gave us a dirty look and remained seated like there was nothing going on.”

“In August [1964] Negro Academy Award winner Sidney Poitier and singer Harry Belafonte left Jackson after a fourteen-hour visit and flew into Greenwood. They went to the Negro Elks Rest [? sic; not sure what Sara is referring to here] where they spoke at a civil rights meeting. During the meeting Belafonte presented the workers with a check for $7000. He told a reporter in Jackson that they had raised the money for workers in Mississippi but did not disclose the source. Belafonte said they had come here ‘to get a first hand look.’

“One Saturday night in August, Silas McGhee was shot in the left side of the head while he was sitting in a car parked in front of Lula’s Cafe in the Negro section of town. He was taken to Greenwood Leflore Hospital and later moved to University Hospital in Jackson, where the bullet was removed. His condition was reported to be satisfactory, and apparently he suffered no ill effects. Immediately after the shooting, police called out the auxiliary units, and the late-evening shift was called to duty an hour ahead of time. Again, we went to the Police Station, and things were quite tense. As we left, we met some of the Kluxers in front of City Hall.

“The troubles continued on into September, when the Leflore Theater was splattered one night with bright red paint. The paint was splattered on the building by means of light bulbs filled with red paint. In all, eight 100-watt bulbs were thrown into the theater. A night or two before the theater was the target for pieces of concrete which broke two windows in the lobby doors and also broke the glass candy counter inside the theater.”

“The theater was not the only target during the ‘long hot summer.’ Small grocery stores operated by whites in the Negro section were also targeted, but this time it was the blacks trying to close them up. In August [1964] a crowd of 300 gathered one night at a grocery store on Avenue I operated by police officer A.E.’Slim’ Henderson. Two were arrested for using profanity. Two other Negroes and white summer project workers were arrested for disturbing the peace in the Saturday night episode in front of the store. One was a 20-year-old Harvard student.

“The Commonwealth stated that this incident was the ‘most serious that has occurred this year. The situation was so tense police closed all places selling liquor in the city and county and ordered them to stay closed. The sheriff’s department, auxiliary police, and several units of the Mississippi Highway Patrol were called to the police station to stand by in case they were needed.’ 

“We were in the police station when those arrested were brought in. One, John Handy, a light-colored Negro who had been involved in other incidents during the summer, was standing in the station when Curtis Underwood, one of the policemen, lost his temper and gave him a heavy blow right in his stomach. That was the night [City Prosecuting Attorney] Gray [Evans] set bond at $200 and Hardy Lott [City Attorney] came down to the station and raised it to $500.

“On another night three Negroes and a white man were arrested by police after a crowd gathered for the second consecutive night in front of a grocery store operated by a white woman in the Negro section. Tommie Lee Galloway, Jake McGhee and John Handy, all Negroes, and Michael Arenson, one of the summer project workers, were charged with disturbing the peace. Police officers said there were bottles and bricks thrown by the crowd and and that some windows were broken. Police officers and auxiliary police were on duty two nights to prevent further trouble. The grocery store was one of several which had been harassed by COFO workers during the summer when they attempted to prevent customers from entering the business.

“There were numerous such incidents occurring almost nightly and every so often a report that a Negro church had burned and arson was suspected. All of these churches were in the rural areas.”

“Frequently, crudely mimeographed hate sheets titled ‘A Delta Discussion’ were being thrown onto lawns during the night. They were tightly rolled and usually found near the street. They were distributed all over the white sections of town. The wording sounded very much like De La’s utterings, and everyone suspected that these were the work of him along with such characters as Gordon Lackey, Roy Jones and Ford Byrd, some of the more outspoken segregationists who were always somewhere around when trouble started.

“The Leflore Theater was a favorite target of the ‘Discussion’ in an effort to stop white people from going there. They watched to see who might go in and then you might expect to see their name in the next sheet. One hate sheet read: ‘Citizens of Greenwood and surrounding area, we feel that we should discuss with you some of the events and circumstances surrounding those events which have occurred in our area during “the long hot summer of agitation” inflicted upon us by the imported Communist and their fellow travelers in our midst. As you know, the Leflore Theater has been one of our most persistent trouble spots. The reason for this is plain. The theater is owned by a group of out of state people whose only interest in Mississippi and her citizens is money. The manager is a Massachusetts born man who has apparently never cared to adapt himself to our local customs. Within ten minutes after the so-called Civil Rights Bill was signed, this man gave orders to his ticket agents to sell tickets to all applicants. His employees, all native born Mississippians, meekly agreed to go along with and the trouble makers appeared. They knew in advance that they would receive support from the theater manager, owners and it’s jellyfish sorry employees. It should be kept in mind that if this theater sells no tickets, it cannot continue to operate. It is our intention to see that continued patronage of this theater by anyone receives full publicity. We fully support the right of any man to operate his business as he sees fit but we also intend to focus the glaring light of publicity on any business owner or manger, local or imported, who deliberately disregards our local customs in his business operation. We recognize the Civil Rights bill as mis-labeled, unconstitutional, freedom-destroying, vicious and un-American piece of legislation and we do not intend to obey it under any circumstances.’

“In later hate sheets the names of local white citizens who had been seen going into the theater were published as a means of intimidating them. After the incident involving the newspaper editor [Thatcher Walt] not many whites thought it worth the risk.”

“I was in Barrett’s Drugstore on the corner of Howard and Washington streets just a block from the theater one day. Garrard Barrett, the owner, and I were discussing the theater situation and agreeing that the city should try to do something to stop it, but Garrard said he did not dare speak out and that other businessmen felt the same way because he was afraid his store would be boycotted. The only move that ever brought it to a stop was when a group of local industry heads held a meeting in the auditorium at the City Hall and gave the Mayor an ultimatum that they would move their factories out of Greenwood if something was not done to stop it.

“Of course [Mayor Charles] Sampson and [Hardy] Lott and some who agreed with them wanted the theater to close so they could point to it as a victim of integration. It never did recover from the summer of ’64 and finally closed. The city decided to tear it down and put a parking lot there. Many people agreed that it could have been saved. It had been built in 1942 and was a very nice theater with large sepia murals of local scenes in the lobby.”

“A mass political rally was held on July 20 as a preliminary event for the arrival of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was bringing eight in his party and was to speak at two rallies to be held at the Elks Hall and Turner’s Chapel.

“Trouble continued the rest of the summer at the Leflore Theater, and white patrons had almost quit attending. On July 27 the glass at the ticket office was broken again during the night when someone threw a rock at it. Silas McGhee and his brother Jake received eye injuries from flying glass after the rear window of an automobile was smashed with a bottle as they were leaving the theater around 9:30 p.m. The Negroes and a group of civil rights workers were given an escort from the hospital early the next morning after an appeal for protection.

“That night we followed them to the hospital with Cathy and Mary Carol on the floor in the back of the car. When we went in to the hospital to check on them we ran into some whites who had followed them out there, and De La was in the crowd. A large crowd had gathered in front of the building.

“Stink bombs were thrown into the theater at night and on September 1 the local paper reported the theater had been splattered with bright red paint the night before. The report stated that the paint was splattered on the building by means of light bulbs filled with red paint. In all, eight 100-watt bulbs were thrown into the theater which had been the target of rocks, roller bearings and other missiles during the previous month. One night the theater was the target for pieces of concrete which broke two windows in the lobby doors and also broke the glass candy counter inside the theater.

“Thatcher Walt, who was editor of the Commonwealth, decided he did not want to be intimidated and kept from going to the theater by the roughneck whites and agitating Negroes and so attended a movie there. While he and his family were out of town the next weekend, someone shot into his home. Not long after he resigned his job and moved to Florida, saying he no longer wanted to live here. It was that bad. The decent respectable citizens who comprised most of the population were caught between two groups who were trying to stir up trouble.”

“On September 4 the Justice Department, in a suit released at Greenville Federal Court, charged Greenwood officials with ‘failing to provide adequate police protection for Negroes at an integrated theater and asked a three-judge Federal court to correct the situation.‘ Named as defendants in the action were Greenwood Mayor Charles Sampson, Police Commissioner B.A.Hammond, Police Chief Curtis Lary and Assistant Police Chief Miller Wyatt.

“In an article sent in to the Commercial Appeal by Ed Moore, he said the suits were apparently the last official acts of Robert F. Kennedy prior to his resignation the day before as Attorney General. Mr. Kennedy, who signed the complaint, labeled the case ‘of general public importance.’ Another suit, also invoking a three-judge panel, was filed by the Justice Department against Gulf-State Theaters, the corporation president T.G. Soloman of McComb and Mrs. Elizabeth Rogers, manager of the Paramount Theater in Greenwood. The second Greenwood suit said   it was corporation practice ‘to refuse, and they have refused, admission to Negroes on account of their race and color’ at Mississippi theaters. The department asked for a cessation of discriminatory practices in Greenwood and in other theaters owned and operated by Gulf-States.

“In the suit against the Greenwood officials were outlined charges of beatings, forcible ejection, uncontrolled crowds, tear gas and stink bombs unloosed in the theater, attempts to have criminal charges brought against Jake McGhee and destruction of theater property. The complaint said ‘Mayor Sampson on July 9 knowing of the previous events at the Leflore Theater…ordered Police Chief Curtis Lary not to disperse a crowd of white persons that had gathered near the theater.’ It noted that Negroes on occasion had requested police protection. It stated further that ‘on July 26 the McGhee brothers again entered the theater as a crowd gathered outside and pounded on the doors. Curtis Lary and two officers of the Greenwood Police Department were present and observed the conduct of the crowd. They made no effort to disperse or control the activities of the crow. As a result of the crowd and the failure of the police to take any action with respect to the crowd, the acting manager informed the Negroes that the theater was closed and that they would have to leave.’

“The article said Mayor Sampson replied to Federal charges with: ‘Our police force always maintained law and order and will continue to do so, but we cannot be expected to help the Federal Government integrate public places.’ He continued, ‘The statements made in the suit are ridiculous and untrue. As far as I know the police answered every call they had from the Leflore Theater, but we cannot be expected to stand guard at public places, and especially at that time with all the hoodlums we had in town.’ The suit also charged Greenwood officials with asking Leflore Theater manager Harry Marchand to file criminal charges against Silas McGhee when he became the first of his race to use the theater.”

“That same day [July 16, 1964] the police had arrested 111 civil rights pickets on charges of violating the state law against picketing. This was the third so-called ‘freedom day’ held that year, and this one was made up of local Negroes and the college students who had come to Greenwood.

“About a block away from the Court House, near the Leflore Theater, someone had a raccoon in the back of a pickup truck, and it ran into the street right in the middle of one p.m. traffic. The coon was grazed by an automobile before he scrambled onto the top of a car parked at a nearby service station. The local passers-by made impromptu plans to construct a sign for the coon so that he could join the picket line, but the animal never did appear at the Court House.

“While police were attempting to get the pickets to the police bus a Negro girl jumped forward and shouted, ‘take your hands off my sister.’ She flung herself at one of the police officers and slapped him. A scuffle ensued and Louis Post, Jr., an auxiliary police officer, was bitten on the hand and another had his night stick taken away by a Negro and was hit on the head. The stick struck his helmet and he was not injured.

“On July 21, trials were held in City Court for 98 of the civil rights workers, part of the 111 arrested for unlawful picketing at the Court House. The small courtroom was hot and packed with people. City Judge Orman Kimbrough presided, and I sat there all afternoon as they called out every name. Defense attorneys failed to show up for the trial. City Prosecuting Attorney Gray Evans said notice of the time and place of the trial had been given to the defendants’ attorney. All defendants stood mute when asked how they would plead to the charge of unlawful picketing. One Negro woman said she ‘stood brute’ and several said they ‘stood mutual.’

“They were each given a $100 fine and 30 days in jail except for one white girl from Virginia and one local Negro man who were fined $100 each. No bond was set.”