The Omaha guide., 1946-11-30

NEW YORK N. Y.-Thurgood
Marshall, Chief Counsel for the
NAACP was arrested and nearly
jailed in Columbia, Tenn, on a
trumped up charge of drunken
driving when a determined con-
tingent Of deputy sherriffs and
members of the Tennessee State
Highway Patrol set out to get
the lawyer who defended Negroes
charged with participating in the
riots in February.
The car in which NAACP law
yers Thurgood Marshall, z. A.
LOBBY, Maurice Weaver and re-
porter Harry Raymond were rid
ing was stopped three miles out
side of Columbia by State Patrol
cars. The lawyers were on their
way to Nashville following the end
of the two-day trial of William
Pillow and Lloyd Kennedy, which
eliminated in the acuittal of Pill
low and a sentence of five years
for Kennedy.
The three patrol cars, con-
tanning about eight troopers, pull
ed up in front of the lawyers car
and charged them with carrying
liquor in their car. In their inves-
tigation for the imagined liquor.
the troopers ordered the men out
of the car, tore out the seats and
demanded that tn four men submit
to a personal search of their cloth
ing. LOBBY and Marshall refused
to allow a frisking unless a war
rant was shown. The police then
produced a John Doe warrant,
charging that liquor was being
transported in violation Of the
Maury County local option law.
The officers seemed considerably
puzzled by the presence of Harry
Raymond. a white man whom they
apparently could not identify.
Finding not contraband, the
troopers held a quiet discussion
among themselves, out of earshot
of the NAACP counsel, after
which they came back to the car
and told the group to be on its
way.
Five miles further on, the law
yers were again overtaken and
stopped by the same three cars
of patrolmen, who flashed bright
lights inside the a and demand
ed that Marshall show his drivers
license, although LOBBY had by
now taken over the wheel from
Marshall. Upon seeing the license,
the troopers let the group continue
on its way.
Just as they started the al the
troopers returned and said to Mar
shall, We've got to charge you
with drunken driving. Then then
insisted that Marshall get out of
his car and into theirs to be taken
to Columbia. Instead of heading
in that direction, however the 3
cars, bearing Marshall, turned
into a dark back road, which did
not lead back to town.
LOBBY, Weaver and Raymond,
after a hasty conference, decided
to follow the car. After they had
gone about ten miles further, the
three cars ahead stopped, realiz-
ing they were being tailed, and
turned around, setting off this
time in the direction of Columbia.
The procession turned in at a
magistrates in Columbia. where
Marshall was charged with drunk
en- driving. Said Marshall to the
judge, IF you believe I've been
drinking. smell my breath, and
he blew it into the magistrates
face.
The magist. had to admit
that Marshall a, arently had not
been drinking. He therefore re-
fused to hold him. This apparently
angered the policemen, who SEEM
ed to want to see Marshall put in
to the Columbia for safe keeping
This is the same Jail where two
Negroes were shot to death by
State Commissioner of Safety
Lynn Bomar's patrolmen follow
ing their arrest after the riots
Following his release by the
judge. Marshall. LOBBY, Weaver
and Raymond drove to the Negro
business section where they felt
they'd be reasonably safe. There
Negro residents provided them
with another car, and, getting into
the lawyers car themselves, all
drove out to the main road to
Nashville. This ruSe successfully
threw the trooper filled cars off
the trail of the NAACP lawyers.
In their borrowed car, the men
reached Nashville safely, via a
back road.
Immediately upon arrival in