The Miami times. [volume] (Miami, Fla.) 1923-current, 1956-12-22

State OF Georgia Friday slapped
a $25, 900 fine against the Allan
Ia branch OF the NAACP and
jailed an official OF the civil rights
groups for allegedly refusing to
produce books and financial rec
ords.
The action came in the Fulton
Superior Court of Judge Durwood
Pye, who presided over contempt
proceeding brought by the state
against the NAACP chapter.
j. H. Calhoun, president of the
Atlanta branch, was jailed with
out bond until the financial rec
ordS demanded by the state and
revenue commissioner are pro-
duced.
Calhoun also was given r.
month Jail term, but Judge Pye
suspended the sentence.
Four other Atlanta officials -
L. d. Milton, Mrs. Eunice Cooper,
v. w. Hodge and Atty. D. i. Hol-
Jewell = were found not guilty.
But Milton, an Atlanta bank
president, and Mrs. Ruby Hurley,
Southeastern regional secretary
Of the NAACP, were ordered to
produce records in their posses
sion sometime this week.
The state commended during the
Six-day trial that it wanted to
find out whether the NAACP
owes income taxes or not from
1947 through 1855.
The contempt hearing grew
out of failure of state revenue
agents to find records during
raid November 81, and the At
lanta NAACP's allegedly refusal
TO produce the records.
Throughout the hearing, the
state continued trying to estab-
lish a financial relationship be-
tween the Atlanta branch and the
New York headquarters Of the
NAACP.
The state also asked questions
about membership rolls. The
NAACP contends the real purpose
behind the states investigation
is to find names of persons con-
tributing to the civil rights group
in an effort to "intimidate" and
"use pressure to force Negroes
out of the organization.
During testimony earlier in the
week, Atlanta NAACP branch
president Calhoun testified that
1--WE have not attempted to keep
an accurate account of member
ship"
He said he certainly would
produce" any records the court
decided were pertinent in determ-
lining the NAACP's tax status.
Milton, president of the Citi-
zens Trust and Savings Bank,
and treasurer of the Atlanta
branch, described his duties as
those of "safeheeping" and not Of
administration.
He said he received deposits in
bulks and "do not and never
have" kept membership lists.
Attorneys for the NAACP have
commended that the contempt pro-
ceedings were in violation of the
NAACP officers constitutional
rights.
The lawyers had asked dismiss
sal of the case on the grounds
that an order signed by Judge
Pye twas a final adjunction of
the rights of the defendants" and
had constituted a denial of due
process of law as secured by the
14th amendment.
Earlier, Atty. A. T. Walden, one
of the five attorneys represent
ing the NAACP, called upon
Judge Pye to "disqualify himself"
because of "reputed denuncia-
tions of the colored race"
Judge Pye rejected the motion,
but not before he told a crowded
courtroom that he had strong
personal views on the mongre-
lization of the races"
Before his appointment to the
bench, Pye was executive eecre-
tary of the Georgia Education
Commission - a body created by
the Georgia General Assembly to
devise ways to avoid complying
with the u. S. Supreme Courts
school desegregation order.