BY CLIFTON DEBERRY  
The atrocity against three young and courageous civil-rights workers in Mississippi demonstrates the imperative need of federal action in that state. I call upon President Johnson to immediately deputize and arm the Negroes of Mississippi and to dispatch federal troops there to prevent further violence against civil-rights workers, to restore law and order, and to enforce the U.S. Constitution.

The white-supremacist forces in Mississippi include not only the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council but also the state and local officials at every level. I am a Negro from Mississippi, and I know that these racists cannot be persuaded by any moral argument. They are prepared to defend the system of segregation by any means including the most heinous and brutal crimes. The only language they can understand is the language of force and the federal government should provide that force in sufficient magnitude.

The occupation force should arrest and throw into jail every cop or other official in any way connected with the kidnapping of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney. Just before they were kidnapped the three young men were arrested by the racist police in Philadelphia, Miss. It was reported that the rights fighters looked like they had been beaten by the police.

This kidnapping is the latest atrocity in a long list of crimes against Negroes in Mississippi. No one has ever been punished for the murder of Emmett Till, Mack Charles Parker, Medgar Evers, and many others. There have been five murders by racists in Mississippi in recent months alone.

When the first group of voter registration workers, with two of the kidnapped youths among them, was training in Oxford, Ohio, they were addressed by John Doar of the U.S. Attorney General’s office. “What are you going to do this summer to enable us to see the fall?” was one of the angry questions directed to Doar. When Doar provided a lame defense of the Johnson administration’s refusal to protect them, he was met with boos and hisses.

While the three kidnapped youths were in jail in Philadelphia, Miss., their co-workers became fearful for their safety, and telephoned the FBI in Jackson. The FBI agent, a Mr. F. H. Helgeson, refused to help and told the rights fighters that he wouldn’t have any more dealings with them. The federal government is aware of the situation in Mississippi. By not providing adequate protection for these young people who are helping U.S. citizens to register to vote, the administration shares responsibility for what has happened to the three young men.

John Lewis, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Mrs. Rita Schwerner, wife of Michael Schwerner, have gone to Philadelphia, Miss. Will President Johnson protect their rights and their lives?

President Johnson has sent troops into South Vietnam and all over the world. Whenever U.S. interests, as he sees them, are threatened, he is quick to act. But when Negroes and civil-rights workers are systemically brutalized by the illegally elected white-supremacist government of Mississippi, and when that government tramples the Bill of Rights daily, he cannot find the means to protect the lives of the people he is supposed to represent or to defend the Constitution he is sworn to defend.

Johnson’s record indicates he will not carry out his duty to protect Negroes from the racists. Negroes should not wait for him to act. In Mississippi, they have the right and duty to organize and arm themselves for self-defense. In the rest of the country there should be mass demonstrations putting unbearable heat on Johnson to send troops to Mississippi and to deputize Negroes there.
 
 
Related articles:
40 years later: Mississippi Klansman charged for civil rights workers’ murder
Is it justice, 40 years later?
U.S. gov’t inaction encouraged lynchings in Mississippi  
 
 
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