Originally published in The Liberal News,
February-March 1965
[William Douthard was a CORE and SCLC activist in Alabama
1961-1964.]
The Summer of 1963 was very hot in the South, especially Gadsden, a
northern Alabama city of 75,000 of which 28-30,000 are Negroes. It was
there that local and state law enforcement officers waged their most
vicious and brutal assault upon negroes protesting the inaccessibility
of public facilities, voting rights and public accommodations in their
city.
It was there the "cattle prod," a battery powered instrument used in
most stockyards, capable of rendering a shock from 18-24 volts, was
introduced as a weapon against civil rights demonstrators. It was there
the theory of brutally beating Negroes in large numbers as a means of
creating a blanket of fear in the community was initiated in the
grandest of Southern style.
It was there that two CORE. field secretaries and three field
representatives (myself and one of the latter) along with staff
personnel of SNCC and SCLC learned the viciousness directed at Negroes
seeking their rights.
I was relegated the task of directing the demonstrations which attempted
to illustrate basic and constitutional rights denied Negroes in that
city. From June 11-August 5, we demonstrated almost daily in an effort
to bring the town to recognize the justice in our demands and the
injustice of their denials. And in those weeks, I saw men, women, and
children senselessly beaten without provocation, and then jailed for
daring to ask for what was already theirs.
Vividly I remember the night of June 19, when over 500 Negroes, men,
women, and children, assembled on the grounds of the County Courthouse
and jail, to hold a vigil of prayer in protest of the arrest of some 600
students and adults the previous day. While watching from my top floor
cell, I saw over 300 law officers of the city, county and state surround
the protesters and begin their systematic beating of all. As the Negroes
broke and ran they were chased on foot and in cars, overtaken and beaten
again.
Leaving jail on bond, I resumed my job as director of demonstrations. By
this time the pattern of resistance had formed and we were able to
anticipate actions by the city and state authorities. What we didn't
expect was the continuous beatings.
After sending out some 200 pickets, I left our workshop hall and started
to walk two blocks to our office. Lined along 6th Street were scores of
Highway Patrol (State Troopers) cars with two to four men. Not more than
3 feet in front of me, one driver, S. Trooper Brown, got out of his car
and said, "Get in the car, boy." He then walked across the street and
picked up CORE. Field Secretary Marvin Robinson, and placed him in the
back seat with me.
Ironically, Marvin was walking to the Federal Building to protest to the
FBI a merciless beating inflicted upon me the day before by State
troopers while a crowd of about 200 whites watched. After placing us in
the car, Brown, while the other trooper in the car watched us, called
Col. Al Lingo, Director of Alabama State Highway Patrol, and said:
"I've got Robinson and Meatball here, what do I do with them?" "Bring
them in," said Lingo, to which Brown replied, "On what charges?"
"Disturbing the peace or anything," said Col. Lingo. We were then taken
to the back of the Etowah County Courthouse, where awaiting us stood
Col. Lingo and his driver, Maj. Allen.
From our first encounter, Col. Lingo set the pace for our trip from the
basement to the fourth floor via elevator. Approaching the steps to the
basement of the courthouse, I was prodded by Brown. As we walked inside
I mistakenly walked by the door that Lingo apparently intended for us to
go through. Lingo then reached out, turned me around and slapped me
through the door.
Marvin then made his mistake, by walking up the stair instead of down
the corridor toward the elevator as I did. He paid for his mistake.
Allen ordered Marvin down, and then began punching him in the stomach.
After Allen had punched Marvin about four times, Brown began prodding
him toward the elevator.
Marvin and I were then herded into the alcove opposite the elevator.
Brown then began to consistently alternate in prodding Marvin and me.
While leaning against the wall under pressure of the prodding, Marvin's
leg gave in and he slipped to the floor. Immediately they pounced on
himAllen punching and kicking while Brown held the prodder to Marvin's
chest. When Marvin started yelling in pain, Allen ordered a halt until
we go in the elevator so as to minimize the chances of being heard.
After entering the elevator, we were constantly punched and prodded
until we reached the fourth floor.
This was Gadsden, July, 1963.
Copyright to this web page, as a web page, belongs to this web site.
Copyright to the information and stories contained in the interview
belongs to William Douthard.
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James G. "Jim" Clark Jr.
Charles Kenneth Roberts, University of Alabama
James G. "Jim" Clark Jr. (1922–2007) was the sheriff of Dallas County from 1955 to 1966. He, along with other Alabama officials, was responsible for much of the violence directed at civil rights protestors taking part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, including "Bloody Sunday."
He was defeated in 1966 in his bid for reelection, taking odd jobs and
spending a brief time in prison before his death in 2007.
Clark was born September 17, 1922, in Elba, Coffee County, to James Gardner and Ettie Lee Clark, one of two children; he graduated from Elba High School. He enrolled
Jim Clarkat the University of Alabama, but interrupted his studies during World War II
to serve in the Army Air Force as an engineer and gunner aboard bombers
in the Aleutian Islands, returning to college in 1945. Clark moved to
Dallas County after the war to raise cattle. GovernorJames Folsom,
a childhood friend, appointed Clark sheriff in 1955 after the death of
the previous officeholder. Clark won reelection twice at a time when
only about one percent of Selma's eligible African Americans was registered to vote.
As
the civil rights movement picked up momentum in the late 1950s and
early 1960s, Clark became notorious for his use of violent tactics and
intimidation of African Americans. He started a fight with Annie Lee
Cooper, a 54-year-old black woman standing in line to register to vote,
that ended with Clark's deputies holding her down while he beat her with
a billy club. Clark and his deputies used cattle prods on black youths
at a civil rights demonstration to force them to march until some
collapsed or vomited from exhaustion. Claiming that any attempt to gain
voting rights by African Americans was part of a plan for "black
supremacy," Clark wore a small button reading "Never" as a symbol of his
opposition to black civil rights.
Sheriff Clark and DemonstratorsMarch
7, 1965, the approximately 600 marchers made it only six blocks before
meeting state troopers and the Dallas County "sheriff's posse," led by
Clark. On the east side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the law officers
ordered the protestors to disperse and then advanced, making no attempts
at arrests as they violently assaulted the marchers in 30 minutes of
carnage that became known as "Bloody Sunday." The troopers attacked
first with billy clubs, then tear gas. Clark's posse rode on horseback
through the confusion, giving rebel yells and attacking protestors with
bullwhips, ropes, and pieces of rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire.
Fifty-six marchers were hospitalized.
Reporters captured
almost the entire attack on tape. That night, the American Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) interrupted its regular programming to run footage of
the brutality in Selma. Whereas the country had seen brutal violence in Birmingham in 1963 and during the Freedom Rides
in 1961, the massive scale of the state-sanctioned violence in Selma
shocked the nation. Numerous congressmen demanded federal action. Even Gov. George Wallace, recognizing the threat that the footage posed to the segregationist
cause, felt compelled to reprimand Clark and the troopers. The violence
of Bloody Sunday encouraged the passage of the federal Voting Rights
Act of 1965. That same year, repeated death threats against him forced
Clark to move with his wife and their five children to the Selma jail
for safety.
Wilson Baker and Jim ClarkIn
part because of the increased number of black voters in Dallas County,
which was majority African American, Clark was defeated in the election
of 1966. He took a variety of jobs, including selling mobile homes, and
faced some financial hardship after losing office. In 1978, a federal
grand jury in Montgomery
indicted Clark on charges of conspiring to smuggle three tons of
marijuana from Colombia. Clark was sentenced to two years in prison and
ended up serving nine months. He died in a nursing home in Elba on June
4, 2007, as the result of a stroke and complications of a heart
condition.
Along with men like Eugene "Bull" Connor,
Clark became a symbol of the total refusal of some white Alabamians to
accept any sort of black civil or political rights. He remained defiant
until his death, insisting that outside agitators caused the unrest of
the 1960s. Clark asserted that events of Bloody Sunday had been blown
out of proportion and blamed the demonstrators for the initial violence
of the day. In 2006, Clark said that given the same situation, he would
repeat his actions from March 1965.
Additional Resources
Bernstein, Adam. "Ala. Sheriff James Clark, Embodied Violent Bigotry." New York Times, June 7, 2007.
Fager, Charles E. Selma, 1965. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1974.
Fox, Margalit. "Jim Clark, Sheriff Who Enforced Segregation, Dies at 84." Washington Post, June 7, 2007.
Gaillard, Frye. Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.
- See more at: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2147#sthash.fvvHk9mI.dpuf
James G. "Jim" Clark Jr.
Charles Kenneth Roberts, University of Alabama
James G. "Jim" Clark Jr. (1922–2007) was the sheriff of Dallas County from 1955 to 1966. He, along with other Alabama officials, was responsible for much of the violence directed at civil rights protestors taking part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, including "Bloody Sunday."
He was defeated in 1966 in his bid for reelection, taking odd jobs and
spending a brief time in prison before his death in 2007.
Clark was born September 17, 1922, in Elba, Coffee County, to James Gardner and Ettie Lee Clark, one of two children; he graduated from Elba High School. He enrolled
Jim Clarkat the University of Alabama, but interrupted his studies during World War II
to serve in the Army Air Force as an engineer and gunner aboard bombers
in the Aleutian Islands, returning to college in 1945. Clark moved to
Dallas County after the war to raise cattle. GovernorJames Folsom,
a childhood friend, appointed Clark sheriff in 1955 after the death of
the previous officeholder. Clark won reelection twice at a time when
only about one percent of Selma's eligible African Americans was registered to vote.
As
the civil rights movement picked up momentum in the late 1950s and
early 1960s, Clark became notorious for his use of violent tactics and
intimidation of African Americans. He started a fight with Annie Lee
Cooper, a 54-year-old black woman standing in line to register to vote,
that ended with Clark's deputies holding her down while he beat her with
a billy club. Clark and his deputies used cattle prods on black youths
at a civil rights demonstration to force them to march until some
collapsed or vomited from exhaustion. Claiming that any attempt to gain
voting rights by African Americans was part of a plan for "black
supremacy," Clark wore a small button reading "Never" as a symbol of his
opposition to black civil rights.
Sheriff Clark and DemonstratorsMarch
7, 1965, the approximately 600 marchers made it only six blocks before
meeting state troopers and the Dallas County "sheriff's posse," led by
Clark. On the east side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the law officers
ordered the protestors to disperse and then advanced, making no attempts
at arrests as they violently assaulted the marchers in 30 minutes of
carnage that became known as "Bloody Sunday." The troopers attacked
first with billy clubs, then tear gas. Clark's posse rode on horseback
through the confusion, giving rebel yells and attacking protestors with
bullwhips, ropes, and pieces of rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire.
Fifty-six marchers were hospitalized.
Reporters captured
almost the entire attack on tape. That night, the American Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) interrupted its regular programming to run footage of
the brutality in Selma. Whereas the country had seen brutal violence in Birmingham in 1963 and during the Freedom Rides
in 1961, the massive scale of the state-sanctioned violence in Selma
shocked the nation. Numerous congressmen demanded federal action. Even Gov. George Wallace, recognizing the threat that the footage posed to the segregationist
cause, felt compelled to reprimand Clark and the troopers. The violence
of Bloody Sunday encouraged the passage of the federal Voting Rights
Act of 1965. That same year, repeated death threats against him forced
Clark to move with his wife and their five children to the Selma jail
for safety.
Wilson Baker and Jim ClarkIn
part because of the increased number of black voters in Dallas County,
which was majority African American, Clark was defeated in the election
of 1966. He took a variety of jobs, including selling mobile homes, and
faced some financial hardship after losing office. In 1978, a federal
grand jury in Montgomery
indicted Clark on charges of conspiring to smuggle three tons of
marijuana from Colombia. Clark was sentenced to two years in prison and
ended up serving nine months. He died in a nursing home in Elba on June
4, 2007, as the result of a stroke and complications of a heart
condition.
Along with men like Eugene "Bull" Connor,
Clark became a symbol of the total refusal of some white Alabamians to
accept any sort of black civil or political rights. He remained defiant
until his death, insisting that outside agitators caused the unrest of
the 1960s. Clark asserted that events of Bloody Sunday had been blown
out of proportion and blamed the demonstrators for the initial violence
of the day. In 2006, Clark said that given the same situation, he would
repeat his actions from March 1965.
Additional Resources
Bernstein, Adam. "Ala. Sheriff James Clark, Embodied Violent Bigotry." New York Times, June 7, 2007.
Fager, Charles E. Selma, 1965. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1974.
Fox, Margalit. "Jim Clark, Sheriff Who Enforced Segregation, Dies at 84." Washington Post, June 7, 2007.
Gaillard, Frye. Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.
- See more at: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2147#sthash.fvvHk9mI.dpuf
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