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Ed Spannaus correspondence, June-September 1964
1964-08-12 Ed Spannaus to his parents Page 2
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They were all charged with "Breach of the peace," and bail was set at $300 or $600 property bond, which is rather high. Conditions in the jail were pretty deplorable. It was extremely hot; they had only warm water to drink; some toiletss didn't work; one fellow was hit in the mouth; and a sick girl (17 or 18 yrs. old) wasn't allowed any medical attention, We got everybody bailed out by Thursday. COFO lawyers (mostly volunteers here on their vacations) were here right away and immediately began work on petitions to have the cases removed from Pascagoula City Court to Federal Court. This is a rather recently developed tecnique, based on the allegations that the constitutional rights of the petitioners were denied in that that meeting was a voter registration meeting, and that the city of Pascagoula maintains sagragated facilities, denies Negroes voting rights and jury duty, etc. Thelocal press printed distortions and outright lies about the whole affair. They said that COFO organized the meeting to stir up trouble and get attention, and so forth; and suggested that had not the quickly arrested those at the meeting with maximum force, it would have turned into a Harlam-type riot. The fact is that the meeting was completely peaceful and orderly; there wasn't even any singing until after the arrests. In addition, seven were charged wiht possession of obscene pictures; one of the seven is the Episcopel minister assigned to our project! Such are the working of justice in Mississippi. August 13 Well--I';m back after a slight interruption of two days. The immediate cause was the need to work on some of the 433 copies of the petitions for removal for the federal court. A little background on the local area here. Moss Point of a community of 7000 (30% Negro); it has been worked pretty extensively and is well organized. Pascagoula has a population of 17,000 of which 25% is Negro. There hasn't been too much work done in there by COFO except in the past few weeks. This is a relatively open area in terms of violence, harrassment, etc. The only really serious incident was a few weeks ago when night riders shot into a mass meeting and a girl was hit; she is recovered now. There have been a few beatings, and minor harrassment, but it's not like the Delta where one is almost afraid to walk down the street. There is quite a bit of industry here (such as shipbuilding) and some good unions; so many of the Negroes here are doing pretty well and own their own homes, etc. However, there is also a great deal of poverty with some appalling living conditions. Right now I am working on Community organization in Pescagoula. We are working on setting up block captains, so that there is continuing local organization after the summer project is over. This organization
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They were all charged with "Breach of the peace," and bail was set at $300 or $600 property bond, which is rather high. Conditions in the jail were pretty deplorable. It was extremely hot; they had only warm water to drink; some toiletss didn't work; one fellow was hit in the mouth; and a sick girl (17 or 18 yrs. old) wasn't allowed any medical attention, We got everybody bailed out by Thursday. COFO lawyers (mostly volunteers here on their vacations) were here right away and immediately began work on petitions to have the cases removed from Pascagoula City Court to Federal Court. This is a rather recently developed tecnique, based on the allegations that the constitutional rights of the petitioners were denied in that that meeting was a voter registration meeting, and that the city of Pascagoula maintains sagragated facilities, denies Negroes voting rights and jury duty, etc. Thelocal press printed distortions and outright lies about the whole affair. They said that COFO organized the meeting to stir up trouble and get attention, and so forth; and suggested that had not the quickly arrested those at the meeting with maximum force, it would have turned into a Harlam-type riot. The fact is that the meeting was completely peaceful and orderly; there wasn't even any singing until after the arrests. In addition, seven were charged wiht possession of obscene pictures; one of the seven is the Episcopel minister assigned to our project! Such are the working of justice in Mississippi. August 13 Well--I';m back after a slight interruption of two days. The immediate cause was the need to work on some of the 433 copies of the petitions for removal for the federal court. A little background on the local area here. Moss Point of a community of 7000 (30% Negro); it has been worked pretty extensively and is well organized. Pascagoula has a population of 17,000 of which 25% is Negro. There hasn't been too much work done in there by COFO except in the past few weeks. This is a relatively open area in terms of violence, harrassment, etc. The only really serious incident was a few weeks ago when night riders shot into a mass meeting and a girl was hit; she is recovered now. There have been a few beatings, and minor harrassment, but it's not like the Delta where one is almost afraid to walk down the street. There is quite a bit of industry here (such as shipbuilding) and some good unions; so many of the Negroes here are doing pretty well and own their own homes, etc. However, there is also a great deal of poverty with some appalling living conditions. Right now I am working on Community organization in Pescagoula. We are working on setting up block captains, so that there is continuing local organization after the summer project is over. This organization
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