The only arrests related to civil rights activity made by Chief Robinson in 1964 were of civil rights workers. George Green, a Negro, was arrested for running a red light and then charged with auto theft "merely to check on him and to see who he was and to give us a legal charge to charge him." 24 When his white companion, Bruce Payne, went to the police station to seek Green's release, he was told to see the chief. Chief Robinson told Payne that he would not arrest him but that the police could not protect him from the local people who were “rough” and would "tear [his] head off." According to Payne, Robinson added that his officers were armed, and that if the civil rights workers caused trouble, there would be "some slow walking and some sad singing.":

99 25

Mayor John J. Nosser of Natchez, however, testified that in an effort to end violence, he called the head of the Klan in Adams County. The next day the mayor's house was bombed and severely damaged. The day after the bombing, Nosser met with the Klan leader.26 According to the mayor, the Klan leader subsequently told him that if they had not met, there “would have been bloodshed in the streets of Natchez." 27

As a result of the violence, the Negro community took steps to protect itself. George West and Reverend Willie S. Scott, Negro leaders in Adams County, told the Commission that "selfprotection is one of the first laws of nature," and testified that during the violence of 1964 "more guns and ammunition were sold in Natchez and Adams County than at any time in the history of Adams County."

" 28

One month following Mayor Nosser's meeting with the Klan, the Natchez Ministerial Society sponsored the publication of a

24 Testimony of J. T. Robinson, T. 157.

25

T. 73. Payne was, in fact, followed when he left Natchez the next day and attacked by four men. See pp. 50-51, infra.

26 Testimony of Mayor Nosser, T. 112.

27 T. 114. Mayor Nosser's discount food stores were first boycotted by whites in Natchez because of his suspected sympathy to Negroes and later by Negroes because of his meeting with the Klan. T. 112.

28 T. 131.

statement by local groups which urged civic assistance to law enforcement officials.29 A large number of patrolmen sent by the State Highway Patrol to the Natchez area stopped cars and confiscated weapons of both whites and Negroes. Negro leaders in the community expressed the belief that the presence of these officers was responsible for preventing further racial crimes.30 Violence broke out again a year later. On August 27, 1965, George Metcalfe, the president of the Adams County chapter of the NAACP, was seriously injured when a bomb attached to his automobile ignition exploded." This incident set off renewed demands by Negroes in Natchez for equal rights, including police protection. When they threatened to march in protest, Governor Johnson sent National Guardsmen to the city to prevent violence. The Guard was withdrawn after five days.33 No arrests have been made in connection with the Metcalfe attack.

MADISON COUNTY

32

Madison County, a poor rural county in central Mississippi, just north of Jackson, has a population approximately 70 percent Negro. Civil rights workers have been active in Canton, the county seat, since 1962. The violence which occurred in 1964 was primarily directed at them, at their headquarters, the “Freedom House," and at local churches. In Madison County from June 1963 to September 1964, five Negroes were wounded by gunshot and the Freedom House was bombed twice and shot at on three occasions. Three other buildings in the Negro community were bombed, and four Negro churches were destroyed by fire. There were also several assaults on Negroes and white civil rights workers. In only two cases were the persons responsible for this violence arrested and prosecuted, and in both in

29 T. 120-21. The statement is reprinted at T. 469.

30 Testimony of George West, T. 132, 136.

31

WCNS, UPI Washington News Wire, August 27, 1965, No. 123.

"N.Y. Times, Sept. 3, 1965, p. 1.

33 UPI, supra, September 7, 1965, No. 44.

stances the defendants pleaded no contest and received minimal fines.34

The testimony of Sheriff Jack Cauthen of Madison County concerning his handling of several of these cases revealed hostility to civil rights activities which evidently affected his conduct in office.

In 1964 Mirza Hamid Kizilbash, a citizen of Pakistan, was an assistant professor at Tougaloo College, an integrated institution in Madison County. Kizibash testified that on May 29, 1964, he was attacked and beaten on the head with a club by a gang of unmasked white men shortly after attending a civil rights meeting in Canton. The gang released him, warning that he would be killed if he returned to Canton.35

After receiving medical attention, Kizilbash reported the incident, as well as the license number of a car which he believed was driven by one of his assailants, to the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Two days later he described the attack in a letter to Sheriff Cauthen and invited the sheriff to contact him for further information.36 Sheriff Cauthen testified that he never received this letter," but that he learned of the incident from the Highway Patrol and through "rumors." 38

939

A week later the president of Tougaloo College, Dr. A. D. Beittel, telephoned the sheriff and inquired about the case. The sheriff testified: "I told him that there had been no formal complaint made to me and I knew nothing of the matter.' Beittel then gave him the identifying information supplied by Kizilbash. Cauthen testified that after receiving this call from Beittel he checked out the license number:

34

See U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Staff Report of Investigation of Incidents of Racial Violence and the ASCS Election, Madison County, Mississippi, 1963-1964, January 31, 1965, [hereinafter cited as Madison County Report] T. 473-79.

35 T. 225; Madison County Report, T. 475. Kizilbash believes he would have been murdered if his white companions had not told the gang he was an Indian and not a Negro. He found this "the greatest irony of my existence here." T. 228-29.

I found out that the owner of that car, who is a very
responsible person in Canton, said he had no control
over that car that night. The car was taken. It was
beyond his knowledge, without his knowledge. He
didn't know anything about it whatsoever."

40

Sheriff Cauthen testified that he never attempted to interview Kizilbash because any evidence proffered would be stale after the week's delay." He also stated that "if [Kizilbash] wanted to file a complaint, if he had a complaint to make, I felt that my office was the place to make that complaint." 42 He had no records pertaining to the case.

Although the sheriff kept no records of this or any other investigation of incidents of racial violence," the extent and nature of his efforts are revealed in reports of other State investigators.

One case involved the burning of the Willing Workers Meeting Hall at the Mt. Pleasant Church on August 11, 1964. The hall had been used as a Freedom School. The report of State investigators in this case mentions neither Sheriff Cauthen nor any of his deputies as present or participating in the investigation.*5 About two weeks later the sheriff arrested Joseph Lee Watts, a Negro civil rights worker, because he had reportedly referred to the Church as the "building we burned.” 46 Watts was charged with "investigation," given a lie detector test, questioned about his connection with the burning, and

40 lbid.

41 T. 245-46.

42 T. 254.

43 T. 425.

99 47

"Sheriff Cauthen testified that a deputy sheriff from his office participated in investigations of incidents which occurred within the city of Canton, but that no investigation records were kept by his office. He also stated that his men investigated incidents which occurred outside Canton in conjunction with State officials and the FBI. He did not keep records of these activities. T. 425–27.

45

Investigation Report of the burning of the Willing Workers Meeting Hall in Gluckstadt, dated August 11, 1964, T. 498-99.

released. The case was later presented to the grand jury in Madison County, which refused to indict.48

On the night of September 17, two more Negro churches in Madison County were burned to the ground: St. John's Baptist Church near Valley View and Cedar Grove Baptist Church near Canton. Sheriff Cauthen, according to the State report, began his investigation by going to the Freedom House in Canton at 3:30 a.m. and arresting George Washington, Jr., a Negro civil rights worker, for possessing a pistol without a permit." At the time of this arrest, George Raymond, another civil rights worker, told the law enforcement officers present that he had been informed that "a local police officer was seen at the [St. John's Baptist] church just before it was burned and was seen leaving the church after it had burned." 50 The sheriff told State officials that he intended to act on this information by contacting the District Attorney "to see if any charges can be placed on George Raymond for this accusation." 51

Because he had not kept any investigation records, Sheriff Cauthen prepared a special report which he submitted to the Commission. The report disclosed that the sheriff interviewed the two Negroes who were George Raymond's informants. They asserted that they had seen one of the deputies in the vicinity of the church at the time it had burned. The sheriff responded to this assertion by taking the Negroes to the Mississippi Highway Patrol Headquarters for polygraph tests. The sheriff was accompanied by the accused deputy. According to Cauthen's report, each of the Negroes was interviewed separately by the two officers and each denied he had seen the deputy. There is no indication that the accused deputy was questioned about the allegations against him.52

48

49

Interview with Carsie Hall, Esq., attorney for Mr. Watts, September 1964.

Investigation Report of the burning of St. John's Baptist Church and Cedar Grove Baptist Church, dated September 16 and 17, 1964, T. 500-01.

50

°T. 501.

51 Ibid.

52

Report of Jack S. Cauthen, sheriff, Madison County, Mississippi, dated Feb. 18, 1965, T. 481, 484-85.