Georgia coui
By THOMAS WAGNER
^Associated Press Writer
* ~
jl CUMMING, ^la. - Forsyth
^County, where civil rights activists
made a show of strength
Ithis past weekend, is a rural area
Inhere the 1912 rape and murder
Haf a white woman and the antiiblack
vigilante rampage it spawnZed
have been elevated to the
Status of folklore.
4'People who aren't from Forsyth
County can't even fathom
ibow obsessed people are about
Uh e incidents of 1912, about what
M
*those three blacks did to that
jwhite girl," said f Chuck
t^lackburn, 42, a resident for five
years whose plans for a
if T vtw ? y 1/1/
8.
jBy JOHN A. BOLT
Associated Press Writer
j! CUMMING, Ga. ? Nearly
#5,000 demonstrators, led by
tyeterans of 1960s-era protests
*ind protected by at least 2,300
^National Guardsmen and police,
parched peacefully Saturday in
^n all-white county to protest
' Jiacial intolerance <
,. 5 The civil rights activists ?
*black and white, and many with
^children - were met by more than
HLOOO coiinterdemonstrators,
Jjome waving Confederate and
^J.S. flags and shouting, "Nigger
tgo home." Authorities reported
,60 arrests but could not im- toMtiiuiiiiiiiiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
5
l?ll From Pagi
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'tyiarch, we at least wanted to do
Something to show support ,for
_i who did," he said. "Rather
than sitting back and doing
nothing, we thought it would be
good for us to have a silent
vioil "
?
Womble said that the group
doesn't plan to let the vigil be its
last activity to express concern
about racism.
"Whether the group takes the
form of a committee or an
organization or a network, I'm
sure there will be some activities
that will come from these con-'
cerned people that came together
for a common cause," he said.
Womble said that the group
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The NAACP also sent a
telegram to President Reagan last
Wednesday asking him to speak
out "immediately and forcefully,
as he has not done before, against
racism. We find it extremely
wrt-r*. _
ulsiical icuiug nidi iiic wnue
House has not condemned the
violence in Forsyth County."
If the county does not take affirmative
action to get blacks to
live and work in the area, the
lawsuit will seek the elimination
of federal funds for projects such
as housing, buildings and roads,
Hooks said.
Similar lawsuits were filed in
Cicero, 111., and Parma, Ohio,
where consent agreements to take
affirmative action were signed,
Hooks said.
Parma was found guilty in
June 1980 of violating the 1968
Fair Housing Act. U.S. District
Judge Frank J. Battisti said
Cleveland's largest suburb
followed a consistent policy of
refusing to make housing
available to black people.
Th#? rnmmiinitv ViaH mr\r#? than
1 IV VS/llllll V4tl? i?M\4 llivi V VMMII
100,000 residents at the time and
was estimated to have a 99 percent
white population. In the ruling,
Bartisti said, "Proposals for
the construction of low-income
housing projects which would
have had an integrative effect on
the community were objected to
vehemently by many of Parma's
residents on racial grounds,"
The suit was brought on April
27, 1973, and the city remains
under a remedial order.
,- The U.S. Justice Department
filed a lawsuit against Cicero in
1983 alleging racial discriminate
in the mostly white south
fcuburb of Chicago.
- - A
lty haunted I
*'brotherhood march" sparked
the uproar.
"The story has been passed
down from generation to generation,"
said B. Morris Crain, 69rfr
retired bank executive.
"When I came here in 1956
and bought a place on Lake
Lanier, that's one of the first
things I heard. Even today, you
hear young people talk about it
on the streets." ,
In 1980, a Forsyth County
woman wrote ''Savage
Sundown," a novel about the incident
that was criticized as poorly
written and exaggerated, but
"everyone in town read it," said
librarian Jean Potts.
Countv historian Don Shad)0
march for
mediately specify how many were
pari 01 euner group oi
demonstrators. . ,t
The march was a response to a
similar march the previous Saturday
by 75 blacks and whites that
was disrupted by about 400 Ku
Klux Klan members and supporters
who pelted the marchers
with rocks, bottles and mud.
Among the
counterdemonstrators was
former Gov. Lester Maddox, a
one-time segregationist. The
group, which planned a rally
after the march, dispersed when
confronted by state police.
The marchers, carrying signs
such as, "Do right Forsyth CounimiimiiiiiiiiiimiiimiimiiiiiiiiiiifftiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiii
B A1
has plans to hold a press conference
to make an official statement.
No date or time has been
decided yet for the press conference.
Some ot the local people par
ticipating' in the vigil included
former County Commissioner
Mazie S. Woodruff, former
North Ward Alderman Larry D.
Little, the Rev. John Mendez,
pastor of Emmanuel Baptist
Church, NAACP President
Walter Marshall, East Ward
Alderman Virginia K. Newell and
William Turner, a faculty
member at Winston-Salem State
University.
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Dm Page A1
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Cicero officials, as ^part of a
-consent decree, agreed in May
1986 to eliminate a rule that people
live in the town at least one
year before they could be eligible
to be hired for municipal jobs. In
addition, Cicero officials agreed
to take steps to end housing
discrimination.
Mel Jordan, executive director
of the Chicago NAACP, said the
civil rights group was only 4'the
r:i:? *t_ - ?
waiaiyai ill iiiing U1C lawsuil.
The NAACP did not file any action
on its own. ^
Additionally, Hooks said, the
civil rights association is calling
on all national manaufacturing
companies and national retailers
with outlets in Forsyth County to
use their influence to end "apartheid
in Forsyth County." If the
efforts prove unsuccessful, the
NAACP will ask the companies
to disinvest as Firms have done in
South Africa.
"If apartheid is intolerable in
South Africa, it is doubly intolerable
in America, and we do
not propose to let it flourish unchallenged,"
he said.
Hooks, who was in South
Carolina to talk with local
NAACP officials and to speak in
Myrtle Beach, planned to march
in Forsyth County Saturday,
along with William Gibson, the
national chairman of the^
NAACP, who is from Greenville,
S.C.
An C O 1 * ( ?? f 1 1 UA
vjiujuii 3<uu iiiw iuaiv.li will UC
one of the most important efforts
in the '80s, and hopefully one of
the largest."
"What happened in Georgia is
evidence of the disease of racism
that still exists in the country,"
Gibson said.
i
*
by 1912 rapt
burn, 46, said that although lynchings
of blacks were common in
Georgia 75 years ago, the inciAan*
t? . u
uvitk in t ui^yui v^uuniy is
- unusual because it has remained
so influential in the county's
development.
According to Shadburn, white
vigilantes drove about 1,000
blacks out of Forsyth County in
the fall of 1912 following the rape
and murder of a 19-year-old
white woman.
In the mayhem following the
murder, vigilantes also broke into
a jail in nearby Fulton County
and shot and killed one black
suspect, Rob Edwards.
Later, 200 troops were summoned
to control the crowd that
' tolerance in
ty," flashed peace signs at the
hecklers. The 114-mile march was
one of the largest civil rights
demonstrations in the United
States since the 1960s.
"We are here to tell our
brothers and sisters of Forsyth
County that we have learned to
love our neighbors as ourselves,"
Bernice King, youngest daughter
of Martin Luther King Jr.,
shouted above the noise of circling
helicopters from the Georgia
State Patrol and several television
stations.
"We are ready to carry the
torch forward," she said.
Sheriff Wesley Walraven said
he had heard of no injuries,
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yigilantism
turned out to witness the hanging
in Forsyth County of the two
blacks eventually convicted of the
crimes, Ernest Knox and Oscar
Daniel, according to Shadburn.
"A black girl suspected of
holding a lantern during the rape
was also disposed of in the
river," Shadburn said.
For years afterward, some
residents say, signs posted at the
county line warned blacks not to
enter. And the county remains
virtually all white today.
To combat what he saw as
racial intolerance, Blackburn, the
founder of a small private school
in Cumming, announced plans
for a "march for brotherhood"
Please see page A14
Forsvth
_ _
although there were a few reports
of bottles and rocks thrown at
marchers.
4This is a resurrection of the
civil rights movement," said
Ozell Sutton, regional director of
the U.S. Justice Department's office
of community relations in
Atlanta. 44This outpouring of
black and white and all racial
groups is an indication of a deep
and abiding concern/'
Robbie Hamrick, director of
the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,
estimated the number of
marchers at 20,000 to 25,000.
Among those marching with
the group were King's widow,
'Please see page A14
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The Correct Answer wins a
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Please See Page A14
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