DEATH OF NEGRO PREACHER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27666, 24 May 1955, Page 13

DEATH OF NEGRO PREACHER

Political Murder Alleged 1 (Rec. 10 p.m.) BELZONI (Mississippi), May 22, About 400 negroes packed an audi« torium in this small delta town today! to hear civil rights leaders praise a negro clergyman who was alleged to have been murdered because he. wanted t vote. The crowd heard Mr Ray Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Col* oured People, say that the man, ths Rev. George Wesley Lee, was shot “because he thought he ought to vote like other Americans.” A mass memorial service for Mr Lee. a 51-year-old Baptist preacher, wad called by State and regional officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. Mi Lee was shot to death on May 7 as h« drove home from a laundry. No ar« rests have been made in the case. Mr Wilkins said Mr Lee’s death fob lowed a warning by “someone” wh<] ordered the preacher to withdraw hii name from the voting registration list “Mr Lee refused to do it because h< w£s an American and Americans have a right to vote,” he said.