Editors' Note: From Los Angeles to Hanover, N.H. (in the land of Live Free or Die), nonviolent student protesters are being met by riot clad police breaking up their demonstrations and arresting the perpetrators, including 65-year-old tenured faculty who dare to record the proceedings. The police and their many apologists, who by some odd coincidence tend to be white men, have justified their assault on speech as protecting us from lawbreaking outside agitators who deserved what they got. That rationale rang a distant bell. In the days when the Spy was dependent on The New York Times News Service to fill up its pages, it brought its readers other reporting of brave officers teaching lawbreakers lessons they wouldn't forget.
By Spy Archivist Aula Minerva
April 6, 1963
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 5 – Ten more Negroes were arrested today when they sought service at lunch counters in two downtown drugstores. 24 of those have been found guilty of trespass and sentenced to 180 days in jail.
 |
| Police put the bite on lawbreakers |
Mayor-elect Albert Boutwell said at a luncheon at the Advertising Club today that if “outside elements and agitators” would only go away Birmingham could work out its own problems.
The Negroes seeking service are asked to leave. When they refuse they are arrested under a local ordinance popularly known as the “trespass after warning” law.
June 14, 1964
JACKSON, Miss., June 13 – White Southerners are bracing for the planned “Freedom Summer” operating in Mississippi. The project includes voter registration drives, special academic programs for Negro youths, and nonviolent political action.
Whites refer to it as the “invasion.” More than a score of new laws have been passed to combat it. The strength of the Mississippi state highway patrol has almost doubled. Vigilante groups have sprung up across central and southern Mississippi. The Ku Klux Klan has experienced a resurgence.
In recent weeks, countless rumors have been circulating. These spurious reports range from one involving a planned mass assault on white women to another that cooks were polluting food.
Ten more Negroes were arrested today when they sought service at lunch counters in two downtown drugstores. 24 of those have been found guilty of trespass and sentenced to 180 days in jail.
A letter reflecting the tenor of thought in some white circles in Jackson, Miss. was published in the Jackson Daily News. It said in part: “It is incredibly criminal and cowardly for a group calling themselves a Council of Churches to send young students out to prepare a blood bath that would invite a death-dealing shower of hot lead... Have these Marxist-mannered ministers who plan to flood our state with their guerillas never heard of Scripture?”
Other white citizens, including Francis Bruni, Sr., have urged civil rights workers to understand the entirely legitimate grievances of white Mississippians. [Really, Aula? – Ed.]
March 8, 1965
SELMA, Ala., March 7
– Alabama state troopers, aided by volunteers from the Dallas County Sheriff's office attacked a column of peaceful Negro demonstrators with tear gas, nightsticks and whips to enforce Gov. George Wallace's order prohibiting a protest march from Selma to Montgomery. The suppression of the march, which was called to dramatize the Negroes' voter-registration drive, was swift and thorough.
At least 17 Negroes were hospitalized with injuries and about 40 more were less seriously injured by tear gas and police assault.
 |
| Outside agitators told to go home |
John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was among those injured with a skull fracture caused by a police attack. Before being taken to the hospital, Mr. Lewis spoke to the angry and weeping crowd who had taken refuge in a church sanctuary.
About 525 demonstrators embarked on their march by crossing the Pettus Bridge, where they were met by over 50 armed troopers and a few dozen other armed white men claiming to be a posse. When the demonstrators were 50 feet away from the police lines, their commander, Maj. John Cloud said, “This is an unlawful assembly. You are ordered to disperse.”
When a protest leader asked to have a word with the major, Maj. Cloud replied, “There is no word to be had.” As a result, Maj. Cloud was placed on the short list of candidates for the job of President of Northeastern University [One more Aula and you're fired. – Ed.]
A few moments later, the troopers rushed forward. The first 10 or 20 Negroes were swept to the ground screaming, arms and legs flying. A cheer went up from the white spectators.
Suddenly the police fired tear gas, but before the gas cloud hid the attack, fifteen or twenty nightsticks could be seen flailing at the heads of the marchers.
The Negro leaders continued to urge calm and nonviolence, but the Rev. Hosea Williams later told the protesters that the Germans he fought in World War II were less brutal than the Alabama State Police.
May 5, 1970
KENT, Ohio, May 5 – Four unarmed students, including two women, at Kent State University where shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded.
 |
| Mainstream Republicans supported the massacre of students |
Although National Guard spokesmen claimed they had been forced to shoot after a sniper opened fire, no such sniper fire was reported by students on scene.
In Washington, President Nixon said: “This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy.”
Area hospitals reported that six students had been treated for gunshot wounds. Three remained in critical condition.
General Robert Canterbury, commanding the Ohio National Guard troops at the scene, later claimed that the Guardsmen had been attacked by rock-throwing students. He admitted that no order to fire had been given.
In response, students walked out on strike on campuses from coast-to-coast. For the first time, many college administrators supported the students.
At Harvard Law School, exams and classes were cancelled for the semester, an action that Assistant Law Professor Alan Dershowitz termed “anti-Semitic.” [Aula, you're fired – Ed.]
May 5, 2024
[We're not printing this s***, right? – Editorial Page Ed.]
No comments:
Post a Comment