To Robert F. Kennedy
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: October 6, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Student movements
Details
Following the murder of local farmer and SNCC supporter Herbert Lee in Amite County, Mississippi, King wires the attorney general requesting federal intervention.1
attorney general robert kennedy
justice dept
dear mr kennedy
it appears an apparent rain of terror has begun in mississippi a little more than a week ago a mr. herbert lee of mccomb was shot and killed under very questionable circumstances by representatives hearst of the mississippi legislature you would want to know that mr. lee had been very active in the vote of registration project of the students non violent coordinating committee in pike and amit counties it appears that his association and work with robert moses contributed to his death as of today 113 students have been arrested for non violently demonstrating the expulsion of two fellow students from high school all but 31 have been released in the custody of their parents2 of those remaining 3 have been victims of police brutality and beatings these include robert moses charles sherrod and charles mcdew3 intimidation and general harassment have become the order of the day coupled with an obvious black out on the news as president of sclc and as a concerned american citizen i urgently request an immediate investigation by federal authorities in mccomb mississippi
very truly yours
martin luther king jr.
president sclc
1. As a SNCC volunteer, Robert Moses led voter registration efforts in Mississippi. Lee had escorted Moses around Amite County canvassing for potential voters (SNCC, Minutes, July meeting, 14 July–16 July 1961; Claude Sitton, “Negro Vote Drive in Mississippi Is Set Back as Violence Erupts,” New York Times, 24 October 1961). On 25 September, Mississippi state representative E. H. Hurst fatally shot Lee. Before a coroner’s jury, Hurst testified that his pistol accidently discharged when he hit Lee on the head with it, after Lee threatened him with a tire iron. The all-white coroner’s jury acquitted Hurst, ruling the case a justifiable homicide (“Amite Jury Clears Hurst,” Enterprise Journal, 26 September 1961). Elizabeth Allen, the wife of witness Lewis Allen, testified before the Congressional House Subcommittee in 1964 that her husband had received death threats before he lied under oath to confirm Hurst’s account (U.S. Congress, House, Congressional Record, 88th Cong., 2nd sess., 1964, Vol. 110, pt. 10, 14002–14003).
2. After spending a month in jail for participating in a sit-in on 30 August, McComb residents and Burgland High School students Brenda Travis and Isaac Lewis were denied reenrollment in school. In protest, over one hundred Burgland High students walked out of school on 4 October and were joined by Moses and other SNCC workers in a march to City Hall where they were arrested. Although the underage demonstrators were released, the SNCC staff members and other adults were charged with breach of the peace and contributing to the delinquency of minors (“Trials Set for 119 in Race Protest,” Washington Post, 6 October 1961; Charles B. Gordon, “15 Demonstrators Are Fined, Draw Sentences,” Enterprise Journal, 31 October 1961). More than half the student protesters were later expelled from school for refusing to sign a statement condemning the demonstration and any future demonstrations (Sitton, “Hard-Core Segregationists City in Mississippi Is Nearing Crisis,” New York Times, 21 October 1961).
3. On 29 August, after leading two McComb residents to the courthouse to register to vote, Moses was attacked by local resident Billy Jack Caston and suffered a head injury requiring stitches (“Negro Describes Beating,” Enterprise Journal, 30 August 1961). At the 4 October march from Burgland High to City Hall, Bob Zellner, a white SNCC staff member, was beaten by a local white man, and when Moses and McDew came to his aid, they were struck by police and arrested (Tom Hayden, “Revolution in Mississippi: Special Report,” January 1962). On the same day, SNCC field secretary Sherrod was charged with resisting arrest (Memo to Burke Marshall and J. Harold Flannery, 4 October 1961; “King Protests Dixie Vote Terror,” Baltimore Afro-American, 14 October 1961).
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.