Kennedy Sends In Troops After Riot

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30130, 14 May 1963, Page 13

Kennedy Sends In Troops After Riot

IN.Z Press Association— Copyright)

WASHINGTON, May 13.

Specially-chosen Federal troops moved into position near Birmingham, Alabama, early today for possible duty if new racial violence breaks out in the southern industrial city, the Associated Press reported.

President Kennedy last night ordered the riot-trained troops into bases near the city and pledged the Federal Government “will do whatever must be done” to preserve order and life there.

The President, reading a statement to reporters, also said that he had directed troops of the Alabama National Guard to stand by if required.

Pre-dawn rioting by hundreds of negroes on Saturday followed the bombing of a minister’s home and a negro motel. About 50 persons, including police officers, were injured by flying rocks, knives and other weapons.

Racial trouble flared in Anniston, 55 miles east of Birmingham. Homes of two negro families and a negro church were hit by rifle fire. No injuries were reported.

Unnamed units went into Maxwell Air Force base at Montgomery, about 89 miles south of Birmingham, and Fort McLellan- at Anniston. Sources said that the likely choices would be elements of the 101s»t Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. Kentucky,

the 82nd Airborne Division f ort Benning, Georgia, and the Bnd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. North Caro-

The President called on Birmingham’s white and negro citizens to settle their differences peacefully so the troops would not have to be used. He declared he would not allow “a few extremists on either side” to defy the law by inciting violence.

He ordered back to Birmingham the Assistant Attor-ney-General for Civil Rights. Mr B Marshall, to consult with local citizens. Mr Marshall had helped to arrange a short-lived truce between B rm-ingham negroes and white businessmen Deeply Concerned The President, speaking with the utmost sternness said the Government was ready to do whatever must bi done in the tense situation which has developed in Birmingham. “I am deeply concerned about the events

which occurred in Birmingham last night.” he said.

■‘This Government will do whatever must be done to preserve order, to protect the lices of its citizens, to uphold the law of the land," the President said, with empha-

He said he was certain that the vast majority of citizens of Birmingham, particularly those who laboured to achieve “the peaceful, constructive" settlement of last week, could feel nothing but dismay at the new violence. The Presidents moves to send Federal troops to the area recalled the same stern nieasures he took at the end of September. 1962. when a negro, Mr J. Meredith, sought admission to the University of Mississippi. "Positive Action” The negro integration leader. Dr. Martin Luther King, said President Kennedy’s three-pronged plan to ease the integration crisis in Birmingham "shows the Administration is taking positive action."

Dr. King, at an informal press conference, said Pres'dent Kennedy had shown that he “will not let the

rights cf negroes be trampled

Dr. King said the bombings on Saturday night were ‘‘expressive death groans of a dying system.” He <id not think that the rioting would nullify the agreement reached between white and negro leaders.

In Montgomery, Alabama. Governor Wallace questioned President Kennedy’s right to send troops- to his State without a request from the Legislature or himself ‘‘The situation is well in hand,” he said in a telegram to the President. “Law and order prevail.”

The President’s statement “only tends to aggravate and inflame," the Governor said Birmingham has a population of about 340,000, of whom 125.000 are negroes.

Negroes knraged Heavily . armed police patrolled the streets of Birmingham today after thousands of enraged negroes stoned police .and firemen called to two bombing attacks on negro buildings.

Thousands of dollars in damage was caused by the rampaging crowds who set fire to a negro residential area. Looting of stores was reported. A policeman was stabbed twice in the back. A white taxi driver was dragged from his vehicle and stabbed His cab was overturned and set afire

A negro woman was hit on the head with a rifle by a State trooper. Large rocks shattered windshields of police and fire vehicles. The cars of passers-by were peppered with rocks. Tyres were slashed on parked cars—mostly police vehicles.

Thousands of negroes gathered at both bombing scenes and began pelting police and fire engines with rocks

Po 1 i c e reinforcements rushed up and were peppered with rocks. Knives flashed among the crowd. Tear gas was used on one

occasion to dispel a crowd. A 24-block area was sealed off and some firearms confiscated.

Many of the negroes reacted angrily when they saw the police officers and began cursing them and hurling bricks and bottles. Several policemen were beaten up badly. A State trooper approached about 5Q negroes who had sought shelter near the motel office and shouted: “Get the hell in there.” When one of them, Mrs Wyatt Tee Walker, the wife of one of the integration leaders, headed in another direction towards her motel room, one State trooper stepped up and hit her s .uarely on the forehead with the butt of his carbine Taken To Hospital

The woman fell over backward and was pulled into t' e lobby by two men. She was later taken to hospital with blood streaming down her face.

The effects of the rioting were revealed when dawn broke over the city. The negro section was a shambles

of fire-gutted buildings and the streets were littered with rocks, broken glass and other debris. It was three hours before negro leaders could calm the rioters and get them to return home. The Rev. A. D. King, whose home had been bombed, joined the effort to quieten the crowd.

Governor Wallace announced a 5000 dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of bomb-throwers, and blamed Communists for the bombing.

The Mayor of Birmingham, Mr Art Hanes, announced late yesterday that police were “picking up negroes by the carloads and they have all sorts of weapons—clubs, k Ives and even one carload of Molotov cocktails.” At the city gaol officials said they had picked up 33 persons within two hours this afternoon, of whom 32 were negroes. Of the 32 negroes, five were’ arrested and charged with carrying weapons which included brass knuckles and knives. One negro was charged with violating the State Firearms Act by carrying a weapon.