P:ERHY
COUNTY
The attitude of t he PERRY COUNTY people yesterday was unusa u a l l y
peaceful in the fac e of attemp ts ~by more t han 600 adul~~ to
.c. ........ <=-·.mo rA. a ~ ,-:-: 5.f.!:r>o0 ·.rat or•t: in the P.l:!;r ry county seat of MArmon, Ala ..
All of' the av a il .3.b le sp&ce in t he oourthouse was completely us e
by prospective Ne gro Voters. Local N:op.-ro establishments aided
by many lecal Negr oes prepared food and drinks fo the voters.
While adul t~l attempted to register, their childre n, who
numbered between 600 and 700 stude nts tested the public eatir~g
.places ( accommodations) cov ered undB:e the Civial Right Law .. Tl:.
test of public accormnodation aided by SNCC fleld secre tary Geor ge
Bess and MR. Albert 'I'urnei' , P11e sidant of Per-ry County Clvlc
Lea ~u e sa id tha the testinf wa s feneral ly peaceful . However ,
Bess reporte d '
a numbe r 0f' e stablishments closed down when
confronted by nep-ro p8. trons. Other e stablishments raised their
prices in the face of the Negro pa trons~ Ac cording to MR . Turne r 1
the perry c6u nty civ ic l earue will wa it be f ore considerin€
furthe r action and they will pive the city a chance to prove
that it wants to c on ttnue in the same spirit of co 0pera ti on
anrl justice for the negro citizen before undertak ing further
act ion . Mr. Turner further explained that he had talk with cit
officals, who he did not specify about solvinp; some of the
ci tv 's nr obl erns . The civ ic le apue plans to continue holding som
ni evhborhood mee t i nf. s and mass mee t inP. , onc e a week . The
Marion, Ala. and Perry county civic league de cide d t o attack
se gre gation of all levels in the c ounty, and to set u p a ste~r lag
committee to investi p,ate such •
..
T here were a f ew peo ple who l os t theirjobs as a r esult
of the~~ part ici pation in the demon st r ation yesterday : One l a dy
was emnloyed at Juksin Colle p- e, an L13titutio n supp ort by the
Baptist Church of Al a . The co!l1Y.!unity plans cou nt eract this.
The co ~~unit y pl ans t o countera ct t his HP~RRASEMEN T tactic by
refusi ng , t o a ssume jods from which prospec tive voters and
civic rights a dv oc ates hav e been PIRED. This T,Jas unal'1m:mousl~
ado pte d by the more t h an !2 00 citizen of ~erry County and
I"Tarion , fila .
About II:45 p.m. in Perry Count y 850 peo ple was arrested for
demonstrat i ons a gai ns t the e r rest of the II students who were
testin ~ public eatinR places . They were arreste d along witht
the projector of Pe:rr y- County Mr. ~eor g e Bess of the Student
Nonviolate Coordina ting Cormnittee.
At Tuskegee - today.othe Student Body held a mass march
nrotestinv the arrest of the Tuskegee students in Selma, Ala.
and protestinp against the arre st of the people who attempted
to REG ISTER .
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FREEDO'H H01tJ ·· " .. ·· "