More Demonstrations By U.S. Negroes

Press, Volume C, Issue 29699, 18 December 1961, Page 15

More Demonstrations By U.S. Negroes

<N.Z Press AMOCiatton—Copi/ngfitl ALBANY (Georgia), December 17. The negro integration leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, was among 266 demonstrators arrested in Albany last night as they marched, hymn-singing, through the city. The negroes were staging their fifth anti-segregation demonstration in Albany in the last five days.

The new march was held after a break down in negotiations between white and negro leaders earlier yesterday. As the marchers, who set out from a negro church, reached the edge of the negro section of the town, they were met by a loudspeaker van. The police chief, Mr L. Pritchett, called through it: "Do you have a permit for this parade?” Dr. King, who is a minister, replied: “We are only going to City Hall to pray." Marchers Arrested The police chief then told them they were all under arrest. They continued their progress, as police fell in on each side of them. When they reached City Hall they were

herded into an alley behind it, and police began booking them. They were to be charged with . holding a parade without a permit. Negotiations between representatives of the integrationists and the city government broke down after the City Commission charged that the negroes had not observed the terms of a twoday truce in demonstrations. The arrest last night of the 102 adults and 164 juveniles brought to more than 730 the number of people arrested in Albany since mass demonstrations began on Tuesday. It was the largest number taken into custody in any one American city as a result of mass anti-segregation protests. The negroes had been standing by at a church yesterday singing hymns, praying and discussing while their leaders negotiated with white city officials. As they left the church, one of their leaders said it was the group’s intention to kneel in prayer on the Court House steps until “God comes to show the way.” The group then set off down the four-lane street, singing as they went. Police, who had been on the alert for days, quickly stepped in and blocked off the area to traffic.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, most of the 73 negroes being held in police custody for anti-segregation demonstrations began a hunger strike yesterday. The warden at the East Baton Rouge parish gaol, Captain T. Edwards, said the 57 men refused to eat at noon and at night and that the 16 women ate at noon but about half of them refused to eat at night. The hunger strike began as the Congress of Racial Equality, held in check by tear gas attacks and federal and state court orders, met further opposition in its campaign against racial discrimination. Leading members of the Congress were among 23 negroes gaoled on Thursday and 50 arrested on Friday. Officers used tear gas to break up Friday’s demonstrations. The Congress announced through a spokesman that it would abide by a federal injunction banning demonstra-

tions but that the order would be attacked in court. In Maryland and Delaware yesterday, hundreds of white and negro Freedom Riders carried their “non-violent" battle for integration into 40 restaurants. At least nine negroes were arrested on charges of trespassing. The riders singled out restaurants along a main super-highway after African diplomats in Washington and the United Nations complained of being refused service while travelling between the capital and New York. About 500 people took part in yesterday’s demonstrations. Y.H.A. Founder Dies.— Richard Schirrmann, founder of the international Youth Hostel movement, has died, aged 87. at his home in the mountain village of Graevenwiesbach.—(Bonn, December 17.)