Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1963-02-14
Mississippi Segregationists
Get Answers From Home
And Abroad

fAAu ADIOdu
The Mississippi state sovereignty commission
motley aggregation set up by the White Citizens
Council controlled Mississippi legislature has been
busy for four years trying to convince the rest of
the nation that the white people Of the state should
have the right to unConsttutionaly keep the black
half of the states population in virtual slavery with
out Outside interference"
The Mississippi commission has used fairly well
written pamphlets to sell" the rest Of the nations
white population Wherever possible 1t has solicited
speaking engagements outside the South among the
service clubs like the Rotary, the Lions the Kwanis
or any group which would listen to the South's
(white) side"
The commission has enlisted some white at
torneys and few business to go into the other
states. ostensibly to tell Missssippis side of the
question It has couple of Negroes on its pay
roll. One was the editor of a Negro paper (poor
fellow and another Joseph Albright former
Minnesotan and former aide to the US. Veterans
Administrator. These two worthless were used as
hibit that the Mississippi Negroes were satisfied
with the oppression under which they have lived for
almost 100 years and didn't want outside interior
ence like the NAACP and the federal government
for example.
The Negroes on the sovereignty commission
payroll have not earned the filthy lucre they've been
paid because the whites who hired them do not
respect them, knowing full well they just
fortunate tools.
Northern chambers of commerce and the al
most Hlywhite service luncheon clubs have been be-
seiged by the Mississippi body which offers them
speakers for free.
Some Of the speakers are very effective In con-
vincing few northern whites Of the ranl1ly
alive type, that the oppression and disgraceful
treatment Of the states Negro in some way is justi
fled by the decadent states rights" doctrine.
I'm Tau, ~ he CIV aic1oi.
ty speakers James c. Pittman an attorney Of Green
wood Miss, was in Sioux City, Iowa trying to sell
the white Mississippi brand Of Americanism. Speak
ing before joint meeting Of the city's Lions and
Rotary clubs Pittman attempted to defend the role
which Gov. Ross Barnett and Mississippi state and
university officials played in the James Meredith
Ole Miss. case.
Pittman made the remarkable statement that
the "so-caed non-discriminatory policies Of the
Federal government actually discriminatory
themselves" which is the line, the white
premacists" both in the South and in the North also
using.
On January %, the same Lions Club heard from
Leonard Carter, Minneapolisbo field secretary of
the NAACP challenge the statements which the
sovereignty commission representative had made
at the previous meeting.
Carter secuted Pttman's statement that "95
per cent Of Mississipprs Negroes were happy and
want segregated life Carter also cited the states
history of lynchings and burnings of Negroes and
the fact that denial of voting rights prevent them
from changing the situation.
We do not know whether Carter impressed the
Sioux City service club audience in his recital of the
wrongs Mississippi has committed against It, but we
do hope that members Of the clubs read in February
6, daily papers the report Of bl-racial advisory
commission composed of seven white Mississippans
and one Negro resident of the state, which called
the state "a land of terror" for Negroes who refuse
to accept their color a badge of inferiority."
The commission headed by a white housewife
criticized the federal government for not providing
Mississippi Negroes the protection due them as
United States citizens.
The commission, one of the so state advisory
groups to the United States Civil Rights Commission
reported its efforts at fact finding were actively
opposed by agents and instrnentaties Of the state
government"
It reported that there is a widespread belief
among Mississippi police officers that they could
mstreat Negroes with impunity because officers in
the state rarely tried violation of civil rights
charges"
The commission urged that beyond doubt"
formal inquiry by the federal Civil Rights Com
mission into alleged denials in this state is an
urgent necessity"
Here we have the state of Mississippi spending
taxpayers money to send individual up to Iowa
to bear falsehoods such 100 per cent Of the Ne
groes of Mississippi happy" and Leonard Carter,
acting a one-man truth squad" following him.
Right behind the NAACP representative a
damming indictment of the state by seven white
citizens of the state and single Negro, supporting
into Carters statements.
we could be sure every luncheon service club
which avais itself Of of the jimcro apologists
from the Mississippi state sovereignty commission
would also invite representative of the NAACP to