NEW FREEDOM RIDE’ PLANNED IN SOUTH

Press, Volume C, Issue 29524, 27 May 1961, Page 11

NEW FREEDOM RIDE’ PLANNED IN SOUTH

New Orleans Group To Go To Mississippi

(HZ. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW ORLEANS, May 26. A group of negroes and whites prepared today to start another “freedom ride,” this time from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Jackson, Mississippi, United Press International reported. Six or seven negroes and whites would leave New Orleans aboard a regularly-scheduled inter-State bus today under the sponsorship of the Congress for Racial Equality, an informed source said.

The “freedom riders’’ probably would attempt to desegregate bus station facilities tn the two cities in spite of arrests on Wednesday in Jackson of a previous group of riders. No time was set for the ride. It probably would be the only C.O.R.E. ride attempted today. The C.O.R.E. last night established an intensive training programme tor more “freedom rides” The organisation decided to send field secretaries to various communities in the South to train the riders at the

“jumping-off points” for the bus trips. Two secretaries would be sent to New Orleans immediately, it was learned Other cities. including Jackson and Montgomery. Alabama, also would be outfitted with the training programmes. The “Minneapolis Tribune’s” Washington correspondent reported in a copyright dispatch today that "freedom riders” gaoled in Mississippi had refused an offer to drop the charges against them and release them from gaol. The correspondent said the offer was communicated to a representative of the riders. There were reports in Washington that the riders had taken a vote on the offer and then rejected it. The riders had been charged with breaches of the peace and refusing to obey a police officer. In Montgomery yesterday* a negro integration leader the Rev. Solomon Seay, was shot in the wrist by a white youth who fired from a passing car. Mr Seay, pastor of the Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Montgomery, said he had just left his home when the incident occurred. “I walked out the front door shortly after noon when I saw a car come up the highway,” Mr Seay said "What appeared to be a young white man stuck a rifle out the window and fired. 1 just happened to have my hand up in front of my face and the bullet stuck in my wrist." Mr Seay said that judging

from the sound of the shot and the size of the rifle, it was of small calibre, possibly a .22. He said there appeared to be more than two youths in the car. Mr Seay said: “The shooting didn’t disturb me very much. I have grown to expect such things. I got in my car and drove to the office of my daughter <Dr. C. Wilson), who treated me.” Dr, Jefferson Underwood, who X-rayed the wound, said the bullet still was in Mr Seay’s wrist. Mr Seay was the executive secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Association, a leading group in the integration fight. United Press International said. Seven more “freedom riders." including four white college professors from Northern States and three negroes, were arrested in a bus station when they tried to eat at the “white only” snack bar in Montgomery They were charged with

breaches of the peace. The seven had intended boarding a bus for Jackson Governor John Patterson of Alabama said in a statement later: “The agitators at the bus station this morning violated our law by breaching the public peace at a time when this city is under martial law, and when they knew feelings were running In Washington, the United States Attorney-General (Mr Robert Kennedy) announced the withdrawal of all but 100 of the 666 Federal marshals sent into Montgomery during last week’s violence The Montgomery arrests were made minutes after Mr Kennedy’s announcement. A crowd of several hundred whites— standing silent under the bayonets of National Guardsmen broke into cheers when the four white men and the three negroes were led from the Montgomery bus terminal to a sheriff’s car.