More Negroes Register

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30677, 17 February 1965, Page 13

More Negroes Register

(N.Z PA.- Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, February 16. 1 he civil rights drive to register Negroes as voters in the deep South broke through in Selma, Alabama, yesterday.

Three thousand Negroes have been arrested in Selma since Dr. Martin Luther King launched his registration campaign nearly a month ago.

Selma was chosen as a stronghold of segregation. Yesterday more than 2000 Negroes marched to the Dallas county courthouse in Selma in a massive demonstration led by Dr. King. The first wave, of 1200 adults, reached the court house where the board of registrars received voter applications. There was no trouble and no arrests. A second wave of about 850 Negro schoolchildren arrived at the court house within an hour but were turned back by the city's public safety director. 100 A Day When the board of registrars office closed shortly after 4 p.m. 120 applications for registration had been processed —91 of them Negroes. About 560 Negroes have signed a book requesting to register and the office will deal with them throughout the week, an official said. A Federal judge yesterday ordered the registrars, who have been criticised for alleged slowness, to process at least 100 applications a day. Dr. King described today’s demonstration as “magnificent.”