TO ANY LAWFUL OFFICER OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA-GREETINGS:

You are bereby commanded to summon

Mary G. Auburtin, Clerk of the

Circuit Court of Perry County, Alabama and Absentee Election Manager,

and to bring and produce at the time and place aforesaid, to be used as evidence, the following:

Any and all absentee ballot applications in your custody which were received by you in connection with the 1984 Primary Election; and any and all absentee ballots and envelopes in your custody which were cast in the September 4, 1984 Primary Election.

And then and there to testify and the whole truth to speak, concerning all and singular those things which may be inquired of by the said Grand Jury and concerning all and singular those things of which the said witness may have knowledge, or the sald Instrument or instruments of writing doth Import of, and concerning all things relating thereto which may now or hereafter be a matter of inquiry by the said Grand Jury, and then the said witness shall in nowise omit under the penalty of what the law directs, and have you then and there this writ, with your endorsement thereon in what manner you shall have executed the same :

APPENDIX 4

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRIKA
POST OFFICE BOX 6403
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009

The Honorable Don Edwards

House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights

Room 806

House Annex #1

New Jersey & C Sts. S.E.
Washington, D.C.

Attention: Mr. Stuart Ashimaru

September 25, 1985

Dear Congressman Edwards:

The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika is submitting the enclosed comments on the issue of the current repression against voting rights activists in Alabama.

We request that these comments be included in the official record of the hearings to be held on Thursday, September 26, 1985.

We commend your efforts in bringing added attention and scrutiny to this crucial issue.

Encl.

Sincerely,

Nkichi Jaka

Nkechi Taifa

RNA Minister of Justice

Comments

Provisional Government of the

Republic of New Afrika

in support of testimony delivered 9/26/85 on the issue of voting rights enforcement in Alabama.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) condemns the attempt by the U.S. Justice Department to prosecute activists organizing in the Alabama Black Belt on voter fraud charges. Such repression against people seeking to ensure that all have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote is an outrage and repugnant to democratic principles. These acts of U.S. governmental repression against Black activists are not new. The Department of Justice often seeks to criminalize legitimate actions by political activists. In 1971, for example, while in the process of peacefully organizing for a reparations election and plebiscite in Mississippi, the RNA headquarters in Jackson was attacked by federal and state officials, ostensibly for the purpose of serving a warrant on an individual who was not even present. Eleven Black persons went to jail for defending themselves, spending long years in prison as the result of what later was discovered to be a COINTELPROorchestrated conspiracy by the FBI, sanctioned by the Justice Department, to disrupt, discredit and destroy the Black Liberation

Movement.

The current misuse by the Justice Department of the Voter's Rights Act to prosecute Black activists is reminiscent of the discredit, disrupt and destroy tactics of the COINTELPRO era. Interestingly, in an article written eleven years ago, RNA President Inari Obadele stated that after the unjustified deaths of Medgar Evers, Reverend Lee, Goodwin, Schwerner, Chaney and a host of

others, the Voter's Rights Act of 1965 was "a breath of life for the Blacks of Mississippi, a hope that friends might once again be found and, to a point, relied upon, in the seat of United States power." (Black Scholar Magazine, June 1974).

These latest acts of repression against voting rights activists in Alabama however, indicate that the Justice Department has turned back the clock. It has abrogated its role as a protector of the rights of Blacks and returned to the position of an enemy of Black people. It is the hope of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika that the U.S. Congress act to stop the Department of Justice from returning to the practices of trampling on the legitimate attempts of activists to organize Black people to achieve what is rightfully theirs.

Re: Hearings on the voter fraud investigation and prosecution in Greene
County, Alabama, before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional
Rights of the House Judiciary Committee

Dear Congressman Edwards:

We are a group of Black citizens who represent the majority concern about
the negative image that is being portrayed about the Government's investigation
of voter irregularities in Greene County, Alabama.

The situation that exists has been presented by the media in a White-Black
Civil Rights context of oppression of the Black community's access to the
political process. The media would have you believe that this is part of
a design by Whites to manipulate certain Blacks in order to regain White
control of the political arena. The media has done this due to their willingness
to secure only half the story from certain Black leaders who want to cloud
the real facts and cover up the truth.

We submit to you that this is not the case. You are gravely deceived if
you believe this superficial analysis of the problem here.

For the first time in our history Whites and Blacks in Greene County have
come together, put the race issue behind us, and focused on the common problems
that confront us all. When it became apparent that our efforts were about
to become successful in the 1984 local elections with Whites and Blacks united
in support for responsible Black candidates, our opponents mounted an all-
out attempt to thwart our unity and direction. Hence, some very questionable
conduct was employed by the opposition - ethically and legally. As a result,
Blacks requested an FBI investigation to assure the decent people of Greene
County a fair election.

We are and have been the victims in this matter. This is the side of the
story the media fails to tell. Those who now are crying racism the loudest
in fact are the very perpetrators of it. Race relations in this County have
greatly improved despite the efforts of a few who now want this investigation
and the prosecution of those involved in the voting wrongdoings stopped.

Although thus far the Government has not prevailed in the prosecution of
the two (2) voting fraud cases out of Greene County, those cases have ended
in mistrials. Moreover, the voting of the jurors - 11 to 1 and 10 to 2,
respectively, to convict tells the real story.