This is a report of racial violence, reprisal and intimidation in eleven Southern states from Jan. 1, 1955 to Jan. 1, 1959. Altogether, 530 cases, taken from the general press of the South and the nation, are listed.

They are evidence of the deterioration of law and order within the South since the school desegregation decisions of 1954 and 1955 by the Supreme Court of the United States.

They are reports of actions taken by private groups and individuals, and sometimes by mobs, who have wielded violence and economic power in a bitter and defiant protest against a new order of race relations.

Resistance groups, typified by the White Citizens Council born in Mississippi in 1954, have spread across the South. By 1956 they had an estimated 300,000 members. Their characteristic tactics have been economic pressure, propaganda and lobbying.

Other groups, such as a revivified but disjointed Ku Klux Klan, and some extremist off-shoots of the Citizens Councils, have advocated and participated in cruder methods of intimidation. Gunpowder and dynamite, parades and cross burnings, anonymous telephone calls, beatings and threats have been the marks of their trade. These attacks have been directed not only at Negroes, but at some white persons who have strayed from local customs. Also, overt anti-semitism flared, and synagogues have been attacked.

This record is one aspect, and the ugliest, of the intolerance of dissent, the dedication to conformity which has pervaded the South these last few years. It points to a widespread erosion of individual liberties. Although the political leaders of Southern states have declared their opposition to lawlessness, one may fairly ask whether legislative and executive policies of evasion and defiance of decisions of the federal courts have not set an example whose contagion is uncontrollable. A prominent lawyer and civic leader, Mr. Marion A. Wright of Linville Falls, N. C., has said:

Now, our political leaders without exception deplore violence such as this. They have no truck with the Ku Klux Klan. But my contention is they set in motion forces which bred the Klan and the very violence they now condemn. What they advocate, in essence, is disrespect for law. They choose to limit such advocacy to one law-that relating to the public schools. But when you enter the area of disrespect there is no such thing as limited infection. It spreads.

What right have they to tell me what laws I shaữ observe? My right of choice is fully as good as theirs They choose to flout school law. I may with as much right choose to flout the law which protects the life and property of the man who disagrees with me They seek to get results by chicanery. Men less subtle and sophisticated may perforce get their results by violence.

This report classifies and numbers the losses of liberties. It cannot show the coincident erosion of patienc of good nature, of relaxed social atmosphere. It recou 530 cases. One tells of the school bombing in Cl Tenn., another of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Al a third of Little Rock. These stories are known by all world, but there are 527 others within the time-spar this record. Though most have been less publicized their cumulative force they are just as indicative of weakness of discipline and the strength of lawlesse menacing the South today.

The list is derived from the pages of the general pri of the country. Other reports, however reliable the sou have not been used. The list is confined to occurren attributable to increased racial tensions after the Supres Court's school decisions; other cases of alleged or prov murder, rape, theft, juvenile delinquency and por brutality, that are part of a general social problem, ba not been included.

An alphabetical system is used to denote the sou of each item; a key, giving the names of the newspape and wire services, is at the end of the report. The date for each item is that of publication; the event may ha occurred on an earlier day. One periodical, South School News, is issued monthly, and therefore only month is noted for items taken from it. In two instanc field studies of academic researchers have been drawn for details.

Finally, this is not a comprehensive survey of South reactions to the desegregation decision. It describes their angry, violent side. Another accounting could be f of patience, responsibility, courage and good will by b Negroes and whites. Though this aspect of the South not in view in the report, it is an authentic and undimm face of the South, to which each of the sponsoring agend has paid tribute more than once. But we feel an obliga to call attention to the dangers posed by the record follows-dangers for which all of us, through silence inaction, must share the responsibility.

PART ONE

INTIMIDATION

There is a Southern tradition which equates "preserving order" with "keeping the Negro in his place." During Reconstruction and for many years afterwards, it was almost the "law of the land" in the region. Even respectable people could believe in it, though usually its enforcement was delegated to men lower in the social structure. The "law" is no longer so openly proclaimed, but neither has it been finally repealed. And though respectable Southerners do not actively encourage its enforcement, too many of them since 1954 have acquiesced However, throughout the South, others have shown anger and disapproval over the intimidation of Negroes. In any event, intimidation has continued. The old methods have had, however, a new refinement. Roving Troublemakers have appeared, perhaps an expected development in this age of specialization. This group has included even a few inverted carpetbaggers, of whom John Kasper has been the most notorious.

During his period, there has been a growing number of bomb threats, particularly to schools and other public tutions Police have been called to search an untold umber of buildings throughout the South, usually without fading any trace of a bomb. A sampling of these threats is included in this report. Those without any obvious racial connotation, even though they may stem brun the climate of defiance, have been eliminated.

The Ku Klux Klan, dormant for years, has made disorganized efforts at revival. It has been badly led, often merely ridiculous and ludicrous in its actions; it has een unpopular and unwelcome in most communities. Nevertheless, its very recklessness earns it the distinction of being taken seriously. In April 1958 the Anti-Defamason League estimated the membership of the U.S. Klan, Kights of the Ku Klux Klan, headed by Eldon Edwards of Atlanta, at between 12,000 and 15,000; the North Carolina Klan was thought to have between 2,000 and 6300 members, and each of the seven other Klan organias not more than 1,500. The ADL said the South has esponded to them with "intense hostility" and aversion, added that, “as a breeder of violence and an inciteit to the worst criminal elements in society, the KKK not to be dismissed or taken lightly." The Klan of the P57's has obstacles which did not exist in earlier years. Several states have anti-mask laws (sometimes Klansmen now wear dark-rimmed eyeglasses without lenses along with their robes and hoods), and many towns and cities force against it their ordinances regulating demonstra

and incitement to riot.

The question arises whether a mere Klan meeting comes the scope of this report, for it is impossible to assess degree of implied intimidation in an ostensibly peacegathering. Some meetings are listed where a note of dation seems clear, where something out of the ormary occurred or a particularly inflammatory statement

was made. For the rest, a quick sampling gives an idea of the scope of the Klan.

In Florida, at least 1,000 attended a Klan meeting near Jacksonville in September 1956, jamming suburban traffic for hours; the same month, Klan leaflets were distributed at Tarpon Springs on the west coast, where tension existed over reports that Negroes planned to use a beach. In February 1957, about 4,000 gathered at a private ranch outside Gainesville and heard one hooded speaker declare, "We are not a violence organization. But we are not a social club, either. We are not pussy-footing around." In August 1957, Klansmen paraded at a downtown theater in Jacksonville protesting showing of the movie, “Island in The Sun," starring white and Negro actors. (A,G)

At Stone Mountain, Ga., long-time Klan meeting place outside Atlanta, an estimated 1,200 cars brought KKK members from five states for a rally in September 1956. The same month about 300 members gathered in Macon. In November, about 3,500 persons again met at Stone Mountain, with the leader angered by the refusal of Atlanta police to provide an escort. About the same time, the mayor of Savannah denied the Klan use of the city park. In December 1956, a "gigantic" rally brought only 40 Klansmen from four states to Columbus, where 50 city policemen turned them away from the baseball park; by the time they moved to a vacant lot to burn a cross, only three Klansmen were on hand and they had to saw the cross to a size they could handle, while amused spectators watched. Knights of the KKK met at Warner Robins, near Macon. Maj. Gen. A.V.P. Anderson, commander of nearby Warner Robins Air Materiel Area, had warned earlier that the Air Force would initiate "additional security investigation" of any Robins AFB personnel identified as members of any Klan group. (A,E,D)

In Ozark, Ala., the city council on Dec. 13, 1957, refused to let the KKK use the city park for an organizational meeting. Mayor Douglas Brown said, "We haven't had any trouble with the Negroes and the people here all get along. We hope we can get by without trouble if we don't have a Klan or a White Citizens Council." The Klan had earlier appeared in Tuscaloosa, scene of mob rioting when Miss Autherine Lucy enrolled at the University of Alabama in February 1956. Hooded men paraded the streets the next month, and in April about 75 burned a cross six miles from town. (A, B)

The Klan also turned up again in North and South Carolina. Many in those states thought the KKK had been stamped out between May 1952 and December 1954, after its activities in southeastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina which resulted in the prosecution of 101 persons in flogging and kidnapping cases. (B).

Nevertheless, in October 1956 a "motley crowd of nearly 1,000 gathered, some out of curiosity" to watch for the first time a Klan meeting in Concord, N. C., according to

the Charlotte Observer. The sheriff and his 15 deputies were on guard. In December, about 300 attended a Klan meeting in Greensboro to hear a speaker standing on a flatbed truck with no license plates. At Statesville, a Klan "wizard" received only scattered applause and some heckling from a group of young people in August 1957. (C, O) KKK activity began again in the eastern part of South Carolina in August 1955, with a small group burning a cross in Florence County and about 1,000 converging at Manning. The following February, the first public Klan rally at Orangeburg in many years began with a motorcade of about 55 robed figures. In mid-June, some 1,000 attended a meeting staged by 75 robed Klansmen in the up-country area between Greenville and Pickens. The next month, hooded and masked Klansmen sought $3.00 memberships from a crowd of 2,000 at Camden and claimed they signed up 800. In September, at least three Klan meetings were held at Dillon, Gaffney, and near Hartsville. The largest Klan rally in South Carolina in years was held in Spartanburg in October; a Greenville News reporter estimated the crowd at from 6,000 to 10,000. That month smaller meetings were held near Pomaria and Rock Hill. In January 1958, more than 200 robed Klansmen formed a human cross on the Statehouse steps to advertise a rally. (A,Q,B)

In April 1957, approximately 1,500 gathered, about 500 in white robes, in Cleveland, Tennessee, for a rally of the Knights of the KKK. Speakers denounced both Negroes and Jews. (A)

Following is a list of additional meetings and action by resistance groups, telephone and mail threats and other instances of intimidation. The list, including the 27 Klan meetings mentioned above and those which follow, add up to a total of at least 210 instances. (In some cases an individual may have been threatened more than once but this is counted as a single instance.).

ALABAMA

Montgomery, Ala.: Two effigies were hanged in the court square, one representing a Negro labeled "NAACP" and the other a white man tagged "I talked for integration." Police and several hundred spectators milled around the gallows. (August 5, 1956-M)

Tuscaloosa, Ala.: Angry white men watching a Ku Klux Klan rally caught a Negro man and tossed him in the air "like a baby," Police Captain J. P. West said. Another Negro told police he was injured by one of the robed Klansmen. During the program about 25 Negroes approached the rear of a burning cross and shouted profanity, witnesses said. Unrobed white men chased them. State Sen. Albert Davis of Pickens County was applauded loudly when he said, "Give me segregation or give me death." (August 26, 1956-B)

Birmingham, Ala.: John Kasper, jailed for his part in the Clinton, Tennessee, race riots, applauded the appearance of Ku Klux Klansmen at a Citizens Council rally and said, "We need all the rabble rousers we can get." Kasper told the rally of about 500 persons that pro-segregation groups must use every means available to stop integration and said, "We want trouble and we want it everywhere we can get it." (September 13, 1956-C)

Mobile, Ala.: About 100 robed Klansmen burned a cross on the property of Mrs. Dorothy DaPonte, wealthy

Mobile widow. Mrs. DaPonte had tried unsuccessfully to enter a 12-year-old Negro girl, whom she raised and hac been educating in Europe, into a white school. (September 18, 1956-C)

Montgomery, Ala.: About 1,200 attended a Klan rally and heard one speaker accuse "Catholics, Jews, Com munists, Negroes and Northern agitators" of threatening the "destruction of the white heritage." Following the rally the Montgomery Ministerial Association passed a resolstion registering "disapproval of undisciplined and intoler ant remarks and acts at public meetings at which differen groups of our citizenry, including religious groups, are slanderously set upon as targets for hatred and violence." (October 1956-—A)

Montgomery, Ala.: About 1,000 persons, some 350 m robes, attended a KKK rally. Explosion of a firecracker started a stampede in an unsuccessful effort to catch the person who set it off; after a second explosion, one your was searched roughly, but unsuccessfully. Alvin Hor grand dragon of the Alabama Klan, told the crowd the way he felt about Negroes "who want to integrate is this they don't want an education, they want a funerai. Earlier in the day about 100 robed klansmen walked up and down Dexter Avenue; city authorities had refused per mission for a Klan parade. (November 25, 1956-B)

Opelika, Ala.: A cross was burned in front of the home of the Rev. W. F. Wagner, white Baptist minister, after ha church admitted a Negro high school group to hear the church's presentation of "The Messiah." (January 1957-A)

Montgomery, Ala.: The FBI disclosed that a cross was burned on a federal judge's lawn the night Montgomer city buses were integrated on a court order the judge signed. Two boys, 16 and 17, whom the FBI declined to identify were charged with the cross burning on the lawn of U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Fred Hallford, FBI agent in Mobile, announced that the boys were charged with obstruction of justice by trying to intimidate a federal judge in the discharge of his duties (Jan. 28, 1957-B)

Mobile, Ala.: White college students at Spring Hill Co lege, a Jesuit school, disbanded a group attempting to sel fire to a cross in front of a dormitory. The Catholic co lege opened its doors to Negroes three years ago and now has about 40 in the student body. (February 1957—A)

Tuscaloosa, Ala.: A group of about 70 robed Klansme gathered at the Methodist Student Center to protest again a meeting called to discuss racial relations. Gathered side were members of the Open Forum, a faculty-stude group at the University of Alabama, to discuss "The I pact of Segregation on the South." Two months late Klansmen again gathered outside a church-owned stude center where members of the Open Forum had assemble to discuss "Academic Freedom." The University grou was meeting at Canterbury Chapel, an Episcopal stude center adjoining the campus. Following the first Ki demonstration, the University Student Legislature recalle the charter of Open Forum. (March 14-B; May 10, 199 -G)

Sylacauga, Ala.: The Rev. Dan Whitsett reported death threat was made against the family of a young m ister who kicked over a KKK cross. Crosses were burne near the First Methodist Church, of which Whitsett