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- -August 10, 1966

The President
The White House
Washington 25, D. C.

Last January, numerous poor, homeless Mississippi Delta
Negroes went to the empty Greenville Air Base seeking shelter fromthe winter cold.

They were forcibly driven off by ·Federal troops.

Some fled to Northern ghettoes.
Mississippi kinfolk.

Some burdened already overcrowded

Others are trying desperately to survive today

on 400 acres of land in Washington County . without adequate permanent
housing, jobs, education, on the verge of starvation, and with littlehope.

Another group of poor,

evicted Mississippi Negroes at Tribbett,

Washington County, Mississippi, struggled through the long winter intents because of the Federal Government's failure to respond to theirpleas for housing.

They have no jobs and almost no food.

Despitethe fact that over 477,732 Mississippians are helped by food commodity and food stamp programs, these men, women, and children have been
· unable to get the food they so desperately need.

Callous disregardof the Federal Government for their plight, and the plight of tensof thousands of other poor Mississippi Negroes makes a mockery of
all the humanitarian idealBthis Nation espouses throughout the world.
Today in the Mississippi Delta, over 75% of all adults in thelabor for.be fall beneath the poverty level.

Unemployment figures for

Negroes in the Delta are estimated at 66%. B1ut even theee shocking
figures fail to portray the many poor Negro and white citizens in
the Delta of Mississippi who are grossly underemployed and without

.../~ ·.~·.., '..
..

..:"-2adequate shelter and food.
Federal~

Immediate mobilization of new,_ massive

State, and private resources, human, physical and financia~L ..

to provide the poor with new hope and opportunity must occur toa'Toid an ever growing despair and bitterness.
An extraordinary opportunity to rectify the tragic effects~1.ponMississippi Negroes of State-supported and perpetuated raciald~scriminationin education, welfare administration, and employment

and of mass Negro unemployment in the Mississippi Delta will be lost
if the Greenville Air Base facility is conveyed in whole,or in part,to any public or private institution or agency steeped in these prac tices and traditions.

The Greenville Air Force B~se, containing

hundreds of buildings sui table for classrooms, workshops, and .li ii·ing
quarters, and located in the heart of the Delta, is uniquely suitedfor conversion into a huge center for providing training, housing,and supportive programs for the poverty stricken citizens of the!·J.ississippi Delta, most of whom are Negro.
Such an urgently needed training center must involve, and bec; gnsitive and responsive to t Le needs of poor Negroes, a sensitivity
a . . d responsiveness conspicuous ly absent from the Mississippi State
Board of Higher Learning, the Mississippi State Board of Education,l~l1eMississippi State Department of Welfare, and the Mississippi

Employment Security Commissi:o±l, agencies traditionally involved in~::,.: ogrammingfor poor people.

The State Employment Security Commissicn

and the State Welfare Department maintain offices in each countys taffed with less than one-half of one percent Negro employees inother than menial or custodial jobs.

The Mississ i ppi State Boardof Education maintains separate offices for Negro and white education and programming.

The Department of Welfare and the Employment

Security Commission to this day frequently fail to address Negro

.. ·-- 3 citizens with courtesy titles. The Board of Trustees of theInstitutions for Higher Learning, which we understand is being considered by the Federal Government and the City of Greenville for
operation of a project in the Greenville Air Base, is entirely composed of persons of the white race in a State where over 40% of thevopulation is Negro.

More than ?5% of the funds utilized by theState Welfare Department and 100% of the funds utilized ~ the State
Employment Secu1~:t ty Commission are Federal, and fall within the ambit
2f Title VI of the 1964· Civil Rights Act.

Distribution of additiopal Feder.al funds to these agencies,
presently in blatant noncompliance with Title VI, to support a program allegedly designed to aid members of the Negro nace and from · ·~vhich

they are excluded in any effective policy making positions,would represent an act of gross hypocrisy on the part of the Federalgovernment. It is inconceivable that the United States Government
can consider f unding for additional programs agencies which have notd3segregated existing programs.

We :. ~ specifically urge a thorough1-i...tle VI compliance review of every project or program being cons i dered _foT involvement in a Federally assisted operation at theGreenville Air Base.
~.J eforea-:;

Such a comprehensive review should be completed

any consideration is given to transferring funds or property

the Base to any public or private agency.

Such a review should

i:.1.clude not only services and other benefits distributed by theagencies, but also employment policies of the agencies involved inth9 program.

Disposition of the Greenville Air Base to any entity otherthan one composed of whites and -Negroes responsive and sensitive·~othe needs of the tens of thousands of presently unemployable,

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uneducated, homeless, hungry black and white people of the Mississipr lDelta would represent a missed opportunity of tragic proportions on
the part of the Federal Government.

Uneducated, untrained, andhungry people do not and will not disappear.

These people, UnitedStates citizens, want only an opportunity to participate in andbecome a productive part of the society from which they have thus
far been excluded.

Creative use of the Greenville Air Base for aliving and training center by the Federal Government would represent
an investment from which the State of Mississippi and America would
reap dividends for generations to come.
We specifically urge the following:(1)

That the program at the Base be developed and coordinatedby a group consisting of Federal and other officials and representative, able and concerned white and Negro citizens.

This group should

be responsible for approving the various projects submitted for funding by the Federal Government as well as for determining the natureand the selection of key staff for operating these programs.
(2) That immediate action be taken to provide decent housing
for hundreds of Negro families now critically in need of such housing.

The desperate urgency of the housing situation is complicatedby the fact that with the bad weather of fall and winter coming on,
hundreds of men, women, and children are now housed in completely
inadequate temporary housing without heat, electricity, or sewage.
The Office of Economic Opportunity, HUD, and other agencies should
move promptly to provide such housing.
(3)

Effective new and nondiscriminatory training programsmust be provided for training unemployed and underemployed Negroesfor jobs at every level from nonprofessional and unskilled to technical and professional.

To assure that the necessary resources and~··t• '...

expertise for- such programming i..s available_, _Federal _agencies should
supply consultant staff on a continuing basis to assure that themost effective and innovative programs are initiated and maintained.
(4)

Clear-cut procedures should be established for evaluatingeach component of the program at the Base and for instituting changes
as required.
Because of the gravity of the crisis we face and of the close
relationship between rural southern problems and the problems now
plaguing our northern cities, we urge that t~e Secretary of theDepartment of Health, Education and Welfare, the Secretary of Labor,
the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, theSecretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Director of
the Office of Economic Opportunity arrange to tour the Mississippi
Delta communities so that they may see at first hand the nature anddimensions of the problems for which their agencies must take thelead in providing answers.

Quite apart from the pragmatic valueof such a visit, this demonstration of National concern at thehighest level would provide unprecedented hope and encouragement
for tens of thousands of Negro and white Americans whose plight
has too long been ignored or given the lowest priority of consideration.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., PRESIDENT
AND THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
cc:Ron. John Gardner, Secretary, D~partment of H. E. W.
Ron. Willard Wirtz, Secretary, Department of Labor
Hon. Orville Freeman, Secretary of Agriculture
Ron. John Connor, Secretary of CommerceRon. Robert Weaver, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development
Hon. Sargent Shriver, Director, Office of Economic Development