Albany Racial Tension Near Boiling Point

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29891, 3 August 1962, Page 9

Albany Racial Tension Near Boiling Point

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

ALBANY (Georgia), Aug. 1. Disgruntled whites had offered guns and ammuniton and “people to use them.” to Albany’s police, the police chief told a Court today. United Press International reported. The police chief. Mr Laurie Pritchett, warned that racial tensions had reached boiling point in the city, the site of continuing negro demonstrations against racial segregation. The police officer told a Federal Court hearing the city’s request for an order to bar negro demonstrators that he had discouraged all persons offering his men assistance “from getting involved.” The counsel for the city cited evidence that pistol permits issued in the Albany area had more than tripled in the last month, United

Press International reported. While Mr Pritchett was testifying, the assistant police chief (Mr J. J. Lairsey) arrested five more negroes when they refused to leave an all-white restaurant. This brought the number of demonstrators arrested since the week-end to 112. In Washington, President, Kennedy sharply criticised Albany officials for refusing to confer with negro leaders. When asked whether Federal action was contemplated in Albany, Mr Kennedy told his press conference: “We are going to attempt, as we have in the past, to provide a satisfactory solution for the protection of the constitutional rights of the people of Albany and we will continue to do sb. “The situation today is completely unsatisfactory from that point of view.” he said.