Marchers Pray As Cross Burns

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31090, 20 June 1966, Page 13

Marchers Pray As Cross Burns

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) ITTABENA (Mississippi), June 19. The Mississippi civil rights marchers yesterday confronted the first threat of organised hostility from the Ku Klux Klan—a burning cross at the roadside.

The sinister symbol of the Klan was lit in broad daylight as the 100 marchers penetrated deep inthe heart of the white supremacist State of Mississippi. They responded to the threat by kneeling in prayer beneath the cross. One leader said: “Obviously, if the Klan can burn a cross in broad daylight we don’t have any protection.” Harassment of the marchers has steadily increased since Governor Johnson, of Mississippi, withdrew a large escort.

Yesterday a white garage attendant turned a hose on them, and another group was roughly expelled from a courthouse lawn by police. Reporters travelling in a lorry with the marchers discovered a poisonous copperhead snake in a box inside the vehicle. They killed it. The march began as a lone demonstration against fear by James Meredith, who was shot down from ambush two weeks

ago. Meredith is expected to rejoin the march on Wednesday. The march will end in Jackson, the Mississippi State capital, where 25,000 are expected to stage a massive demonstration. Dr. Martin Luther King, the civil rights leader, said the rally would be entertained by Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis junior, Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Gregory Peck.