Evening star., 1950-08-06
Melee Follows Test
OF Right Of Negroes
To Swim at Beach
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about, also were stoned, as was
a busload of about 20 Negroes.
White men dared the passengers
to come out, but the bus turned
around and left.
The detachment of Is State
police from Richmond, under the
command of Capt. R. C. Barham,
Immediately went into conference
with town officials at the Town
Hall, while hundreds of people
milled around outside. For a
time, tension was high, but as
time wore on the crowd became
more relaxed.
Spurred by word that some Co.
lonial Beach Negroes expected to
renew the test" tomorrow. Capt.
Barham said a strong force" of
State Police, adequate to cope
with any contingency, would be
detailed to the beach.
The Town Council also was ex-
pected to explore the situation at
a meeting at 10 am. tomorrow
Children Told to Leave.
The fighting broke out shortly
before 8 pm. when Washing
ton man told two colored children
to leave the beach.
Other persons began gathering
about so yards from the water,
waiting for the swimmers to
emerge. When the fighting broke
, out, an estimated 800 to 400 white
persons hurried to the board
walk.
Alvin Tate. 17-year-old farmboy
from nearby Rollins Fork, was
stabbed in the chest with a pen
knife. Police arrested Eugene
johnson, colored, of Colonial
Beach, and after failing him for
protective reasons, placed an as
sault charge against him.
Identified as ASsailant.
Town Policeman A. L. Meade
said the Tate youth identified
johnson as his assailant. DR.. Fred
c. Collier said the 4-inch-deep
knife wound cut an artery, caus-
ing the loss of considerable blood,
but that Tate's condition was
satisfactory.
DR.. Collier also treated Freddie
Pugh, %, of Orange, Va, for
superficial cut on the chest and
two unidentified white men for
bruises, one inflicted by a woman'S
pocketbook and the other by a fist
Others were knocked down and
bruised in the fracaS. Tate told
police he saw a Negro woman hit
a white man with her pocketbook
He said a Negro man then at
tackled the white man, he (Tate)
attacked the Negro. and another
Negro jumped on him.
Frank Trippett, a reporter pho
tographer for the Fredericksburg
Free-Lance Star, was knocked
from a table where he was focus
sing his camera on the crowd. He
said two white men attacked him
and knocked the camera out of
his hand, then knocked him down
and rubbed his face in the sand.
Unable to Retrieve Camera.
Someone else grabbed his cam
era and he failed to retrieve it.
Another photographer, William
A. Moffat, III, of Waldorf, Md,
who does free-lance work for The
Star and other papers, was struck
On the head with a pipe. His cam
era equipment case was wrested
from him.
The fight was broken up when
Town Sergt. j. T. Miller and four
other policemen walked into the
group and took away the Negroes.
The newsmen and photographers
took refuge at the town hall,
where two police stood guard out
side while State police talked with
Mayor Norman F. Brewington
Police Chief J. T. Miller and other
officials.
Swimming by the Negroes was
not unexpected. since Martin A
Martin. co1ored, of Richmond, an
attorney for the National Asso-
citation for the Advancement OF
Colored People, had said a test
would be made.
Lead Group Into Water.
About l pm. Mr.. Martin and
another NAACP representative, w
Lester Banks, colored, led half
dozen Colonial Beach Negroes in
to the water. They stayed there
awhile without incident, and later
were joined by others, some from
Richmond.
The Washington colored min
listers were identified with the
test but did not swim. They were
the Rev. w. H. Gibson, pastor
of the Glendale Baptist Church
1904 Gault place NE, and the