SHOOTING GIVES NEW URGENCY 10 SELF-DEFENSE
The most significant reaction to the wounding of James H. Meredith may have. been that of the victim himself:."I'm sorry Il didn't ‘have something to take care of that man. Tad never make that mistake again." : : .
_ Meredith told this to reporters from his hospital room in Memphis the day after three shotgun shells were pumped into his back from ambush during the second day of his march along the highway toward Jackson the capital of Mississippi. If Meredith's conclusion reflected sentiments among the Negro community as a whole, a historic turning point may have been reached in | the civil-rights movement in the United States. ©
Meredith set out on his march June 5. “His ene. was to
make a ‘personal test, and beyond ‘that -- if he survived the trip --
to inspire Mississippi Negroes ‘to. régister..to vote. and to help them, including himself, to conquer the. ‘fear they: feel while. diving and traveling in Mississippi.
‘A Nothing: can be more enslaving than fear," he said. "We've got to: Boot ‘this. (out " oe
‘Had the gunman, one Aubrey - ‘James ; Norvell, a 40-year-old unemployed hardware salesman, stood somewhat closer to his victim, the three shotgun blasts would have ‘killed Meredith.::As it. was he received sixty to seventy pellets which had to: be ‘removed by Surgery and whieh will leave permanent ‘Scars. 2 i
The ‘evidence shows that the shooting was planned in. advance. Police who accompanied Meredith stood by and watched Norvell raise his gun -and fire. According to. witnesses, the police made no effort to block Norvell. However, they easily apprehended hin as he walked away, mission accomplished, smolring his pipe. —
The June 8 New York Times reported the following exchange “a
Meredith' S room:
"yp Meredith said he never again would | ‘knowing 1y - expose ' himself in. Mississippi without protection. ee
oN civil- ~rights worker among his: guests. remarked with a chuckle: hat | s not in keeping with the nonviolent philosophy, Mr. Meredith.
"The normally soft-spoken Mr. Meredith replied:
"Who the hell ever said I was nonviolent? I spent eight years in the military and the rest of my life in Mississippi: '"
Similar reactions were reported from others prominently identified with the struggle for civil rights and civil liberties.
In Fayette, Mississippi, Charles Evers, a state field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and brother of Medgar Evers who was killed by a sniper in 1963, said that he was starting. a drive. to get thousands of-Negroes and whites to the spot where Meredith was shot in: " order to. continue | the march from there.
"T want to let the whites know when they shoot down one Neer » that doesn! 't stop the rest of us.
"There are’ many Negroes. who now feel: the only time we are . going to get response and action’ is when we start shooting whites, and many of them are ready to do it now."
Ina telegram to the Meredith family, Stokely Carmichael, president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating: Committee, said:. . "We note that Meredith was returning from a government sponsored
civil-rights conference called 'To Fulfill. These Rights' and we find . proved. once again that words will not stop bullets nor: will they end law enforcement committed to racism." _
At an overflow rally in Memphis. June 7, Stokely Carmichael urged Negroes to take power in the areas where they outnumber whites. "I'm not going to beg the white man for anything I deserve," he said; "Em going to take it. "
In Harlem, where: word of the shooting spread quickly, a crowd-. of angry peoplegathered in front of the Hotel Theresa in-the heart . of the ghetto. Several speakers called for.-caln. They. were continu-. ously interrupted by a man who shouted, "Let's get some guns and go down: and: retaliate. " :
|The Johnson administration and its ‘supporters mobilized as rapidly as possible to stem this trend of thinking. The tone was
set by Attorney General Nicholas B. Katzenbach. He was reported to. be looking through the law books to see if some federal offense was not involved in the crime.
Asked if he thought the shooting of Meredith indicated a worsening of race relations in the South, Katzenbach replied soothingly: "I think this was an isolated incident. It could have occurred anywhere." He meant, of course, anywhere in the United States, or areas of the world controlled by the U.S.
Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban League, sought to channelize indignation over the crime in the direction of urging "the Attorney General .to proceed forthwith to prosecute the criminals who are guilty of this vicious act. " He called for federal legislation "to insure protection of the lives of Negro citizens and. civil-rights workers.".
Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP, took a similar line of directing protests merely in the direction of Congress.
And in Washington further soothing words were issued about new momentum having been: given to. the. ‘passage of civil-rights laws.
The advocates: of "nonviolence," headed by the Rev. Martin Luther King, were rather silent about their philosophy and its. efficacy. King, along with others, rushed to the scene in order to.. capitalize on the publicity, which was enormous, and to appear to be in leadership of the continuing action.
As King and the others resumed the interrupted march, Mississippi troopers roughly shoved. them off the pavement onto the shoulder of the road. "Can't you’ stop pushing and ask us?" complained Nobel. prize-winner King.
‘His politics in'.a nutshell! But the question is, does it represent the mood)of the Negro people today? After the shooting of. Meredith? The pendulum would rather seem to be swinging away from the American disciples of Ghandi.