Arkansas State press., 1948-07-02

These four persons had been ar
rested on May | while ATTENDING
the Southern Negro Youth Con
gress meeting in the Gospel Taber
nacle in the midst of brutal cam
paign OF terror and intimidation
against the SYNC and its leader,
ship
They were the Rev. Herbert
Oliver, courageous young Negro
minister, who had given his
church for the meeting; DR., James
DombroWski, director of the Sou
thern Conference Educational Fund
Mrs. Doris Sank Block of the
World Youth Federation, a /
speakers. and Eddie Forrey, white
NMU delegate from Mobile.
The police department (and all
the white supremacy elements in
Alabama political life back of it,
which had so arrogantly invaded
the peaceful assembly and arrested
the four defendants, and later the
Same day arrested Senator Glen
Taylor were on the defensive in
the hot night court room in city
hall where the trial took place.
In spite Of the fact that the
city attorney and the three police
witnesses made every effort to
show that the Enthusiastically involv-
ed segregation ordinance had been
violated, the Judge chose to issue
a verdict of not guilty" rather
than test the constitutionality of
the segregation ordinance in high
courts.
Counsel for the defendants
Thomas johnson of Macon. Ga.
made an hour long argument for
dismissal of the case on the
grounds that the constitutional
rights of freedom of speech, free
dom of assembly and freedom of
religious worship were violated
by the city segregation ordinance
and its carrying out by the police
He was assisted by Arthur Shoes,
and Robert Trawick, white, of
W it h Emmanuel
Block of the Civil Rights Congress
as consultant.
Mr. johnson. citing numerous
decisions of the U. S. Supreme
Court, argued that police power
must not be used as a cloak for
invasion of civil rights, and that
the very effort to say how people
shall assemble as in segrega-
ton ordinance, is a violation of
such rights The ordinance, he
said, was directed toward prevent
ing the free association of white
and Negro citizens in peaceful
assembly to petition for redress
Of grievances.
by this very ordinance we are
to substantiate the evil
theory Of an inferior and a ST.
race" he continued, "a
Hitler theory, which we have just
fought a war to destroy What
happens to these four people here
will resound all over the world, Ii
the United States is to assume NOR
al leadership in the world and set
an example, and help to avoid the
of new war, then
we in the South must learn to
live together as brothers"
The judge refused TO dismiss
the case, and the city went thru
a lengthy legal flimflam to show
that the segregation ordinance was
not violative Of the first and l4th
and the Bill of Rights
of the Alabama Constitution. Then
the judge, after a tedious perora- I
tion in defense of white supremacy
and segregation and Hitler, con-
tradicted himself by pronouncing
the defendants not guilty
The judge, the police officers
present, the whole courtroom had
an air of schi2ophrenia when this
sentence was pronounced, 1t was
clear that they would have liked !
nothing better than to defend their |
whole system of Jimcrow oppres-
sion of the people by meeting out |
a stiff sentence to those they |
charged with violating segrcga-
ton. Yet the four defendants who
had stood firm with the delegates
and the leadership of the SYNC
marched off without sentence at
all. The state power in Alabame,
of which the Birmingham police
are but a small and currently ar
rogantly vicious part, was afraid