Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1937-11-05

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Scottsboro Defense Committee,
which called the conference.
The Rev. Shelton Hale Bishop,
pastor of St. Philips Church, well
coined the conference and empha-
sized the enormity of the Supreme
Court ruling. He declared that ne
will stand with everybody fighting
for justice, and that che hopes that
as long as he is connected with it
(St. Philips Church), the doors
will always be open for every
such movement as this conference.
Mrs. Ada Wright, Scottsboro
mother, related the pitiful condi-
ton in which she found her son,
Andy, during her recent visit to
Kilby Prison, Montgomery, Ala.
She told how Aandy is forced to
work IL hours daily, in spite Of his
weakened body, as a result of a re-
cent operation, and how the rrison
officials refused to allow ner to
see the other boys. She pleaded
that everything possible be done
to effect the immediate removal OF
the boys from Kilby Prison to
Birmingham, and to win their free
dom.
Roy Wright and Glen Montgom-
cry, two of the four freed boys,
expressed their appreciation of all
that had been done during the last
six and half years to smash the
Scottsboro frame-up, and pledged
to "help carry on the fight to free
the other five boys"
New bred Scott Decision
Richard B. Moore, vice-president
of the International Labor De-
tense, and secretary of the Har-
lem Defense Committee, made the
main report and sounded the key
note for immediate action. Charac-
terizing the action of the Supreme
Court as a new bred Scott Deci-
sion, Moore declared that as Fred
erick Douglass and other abolition
lists appealed to the Higher Court
the people of the United States
and of the world-so we must now
appeal for the refeat of Fascist
reaction, which has been aided and
abetted by this decision of the
u. S. Supreme Court. He proposed
the following steps:
United mass protest meetings in
Harlem, and throughout the coun-
try.
A Scottsboro Week, of intense
activity, for securing tens of thou
sands of signatures in the drive
for more than one million sigma
lures to the petition for the release
of the five boys.
A campaign of Minute Men and
Women in theaters.
A Tag Day and a circulation
campaign to raise needed funds. A
delegation to Washington to call
upon the President and members
of Congress. Protest resolutions
to the U. S. Supreme Court. Pro-
test resolutions and kilograms to
Governor Rib Graves, calling for
immediate transfer of the boys
from Kilby Prison to Birmingham,
and for their unconditional release.
William L. Patterson, former
National Secretary of the I. L. D.,
recently returned from Europe,
supported the proposals, and called
for the sending of a telegram to
President Roosevelt, and added
other proposals.
Roy wilkins, editor Of The
Crisis, emphasized the significance
of the Scottsboro Case, not only to
Negroes but to white people as
well, citing the kidnapping and
flogging of Joseph Shoemaker,
white labor organizer, in Florida,
and the recent statement of Gov
ernor Gone of Florida that all such
people should be hanged to lamp
posts. Wilkins pledged the sup
port of the National Association
for the Advancement Of Colored
People to the united movement to
free the boys.
Other prominent speakers in
cluded: James Baker, chairman Of