Arizona sun., 1949-09-16
Refuse East Lake Band
Shell to Travelling Speaker

Mrs. Mitchell is the sister of
Coils English, % year old navy
veteran, who is one of the Trenton
Six. She gave the story of the case
and here is a sequence as she told
it.
William Horner, Trenton second
hand furniture dealer, and his wife
were attacked in his store at 1890
P. NJ, Jan. 81, 1948. Horner dies
in a hospital the next day without
regaining consciousness. His wife
tells police and press that three
men were in the store. She de-
scribes them as white or light-com-
plexioned Negroes.
Another eyewitness, cigar sales
man Frank Eldracher, reports two
ight-skinned, teen-age egro e S
came out of the store. Of the six
men in the death house, only one,
James Thorpe, is light skinned. He
has one arm and would have been
readily identified. No one men,
toned a one-armed man at the
scene of the crime.
In June, 1948, the jury is picked.
All Negroes are excluded by state
attorneys. Trial lasts 55 days and
was the longest, most expensive
trial in New Jerseys history. The
room rent and meals for the jurors
alone cost New Jersey taxpayers
$1,000, not including a relaxation"
rtip to the race tracks for the
jurors.
Guilty" AS the verdict is read,
a woman juror faints, another
woman juror collapses. The Tren-
ton Times reports that "the jury
decision without recommendation
for mercy, seemed to have stunned
the entire city" The court imposes
the most extreme penalty-death in
the electric chair for all six.
I personally conducted an ex-
haustive investigation and gathered
irrefutable proof that none of the
youths were even near the scene
of the crime.
For days, weeks and months, I
sought to get groups, individuals,
newspapers, government agencies
interested in just listening to me.
I went to the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People, but was told they didn't
handle murder cases." In despera-
ton I went to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
I was given the cold shoulder.
But I refused to give up. would
buy newspapers, scan them for an
nouncements of meetings of groups
and organizations, go to the meet
ings, walk to the platform, tell the
chairman I was going to speak.
Anywhere I saw a group of peo-
pie gathered, or standing still, I
would tell the story of the mon
strous franeup of the Trenton Six.
One August night, while walking
up Clinton Avenue in Trenton, N.
j., racking my mind for some place
to go, or someone to appeal to, for
aid and support, 1 saw a piece of
paper on the ground.
I picked up the leaflet, read the
name of the Civil Rights Congress.
The address was there, too.
That night I wrote a letter. It
told the case of the Trenton Six.
Two days later, the Civil Rights
Congress of New Jersey was on the
job. Mass meetings were arranged.
Four liberal attorneys were ac-
cepted as defense lawyers for the
Trenton Six: o. John Rogge, Will
liam L. Patterson, secretary of the
Civil Rights Congress; Earl Dicker-
son of Chica go, and Emmanuel
Bloch. The case is now being ap-
pealed to the state supreme court.
Stories have appeared in London,
Paris and other European news
papers.
If the people, the working people,
Negro and white, get to know the
truth, the truth will set free the
Trenton Six.
After Mrs. Mitchell spoke, James
Sellers, the brother of a Phoenician,
was introduced and he thanked all
xxyI1n ho1 haIDA1