Evening star., 1946-11-03
Atlanta Police Charge
4 in Anti Negro Group
With Ineiting Riot
BY the Assoeioted Press

ATLANTA, Nov. -Four men,
bers of Columbians, Inc. an anti
Negro secret order accused by police
of trying to usurp their power and
by civic group spokesmen Of being
"hate-preaching" and "Hitler-like, -
landed in Jail today on charges of
'inciting a riot"
Police swooped down on demon
stration against colored family
moving into a house formerly occu-
pied by white tenants and jailed the
four on verbal orders of Chief M. A.
Hornsby:
Captain, do your duty-lock them
up"
The order was addressed to Capt.
w. M. Weaver, who with other high
ranking officers had accompanied
the chief to dirt road residential
area where about so persons were
demonstrating.
Booked For DisOrderly Conduct.
The four were booked on formal
charge of "disorderly conduct-in-
citing riot" and held in default of
S. 900 bond each.
They were docketed as Homer L.
Loomis, jr., 80; James M. Atkins, 18;
Jack Price, 27, and r. L. Whitman,
33. All except Whitman, the police
said, gave local headquarters of the
order as their address.
Chief Hornsby encountered the
Columbians leaders one after an
other, fatty accusing them of try
ing to stir up trouble and ordered
them jailed.
Loomis, local secretary of the Or
der, arrived in the midst Of the
police activity. Chief Hornsby
turned to him and demanded:
What are you doing out here?"
II came to help the people" !"
Loomis said.
Lock him up" the chief ordered.
Emphasizes Police Duty.
AS Negroes and whites faced each
other across the street, the police
chief raised his voice and declared:
Il want to tell you once and for
all, you Columbians, the Atlanta
police department is policing this
town"
This statement was in reference
to detective reports that members
of the order had openly boasted
that they would patrol the streets"
and do guard" duty in carrying out
their charter-expressed goal of
working for a progressive white
community
Hate of Negroes Expressed.
The police acted after a clergy
man and spokesmen of the local
American Veterans Committee and
the Georgia Association of Women
Lawyers had censured acts attrib-
uted to the order as being similar
to the totalitarianism of Hitler"
These spokesmen commended a po-
lice investigation of the Colum-
bians and urged that the orders
charter be revoked.
At meeting of the order Thurs
day night, Loomis openly asserted
his hate" of Negroes and Jews.
Several Jewish veterans attended
the meeting and detectives narrowly
averted a clash between them and
the Columbians.
Celebrating ON his assertion that
the police need no help" from the
Columbians, Chief Hornsby told
neWSmen:
Despite their efforts to pattern
an organization after Hitler,s brown
shirts, they are handicapped by the
fact that none of their leaders has
any brains. 1t would eventually fail
from its own shortcomings.
Ammunition Found in Raid.
Chief Hornsby said that, before
today's breakdown, detectives had
raided the orders headquarters and
found store of ammunition and
two blackjacks. All is being held, he
added, as evidence for presentation
Friday at hearing for the four
arrested leaders.
Assistant State Attorney General
Dan Duke, crusader against the
Ku Klux Klan. asserted that the
klan and the Columbians are one
and the same thing and ought to be
tarred with the same tar" He criti-
cized the police for not acting earlier,
adding:
IF the Atlanta police really want
to investigate secret societies, they
could do some investigating right In
their own department.
There, he charged, they would find
that one of their own patrolmen is
head of a local Klan unit.