7500 Protest Birmingham Atrocities; White House Orders Troops to Area

More than 7500 persons gathered on the Boston Common yesterday afternoon to express sympathy and support for the integration movement in Birmingham, Ala.

While the speakers at the rally hesitantly praised the seeming victory of Dr. Martin Luther King in Birmingham, President Kennedy met with top military officials in Washington to discuss possible Federal action in the Alabama City.

Kennedy, disturbed by the Saturday bombings of a Negro motel and the home of Dr. King's brother and the subsequent rioting by thousands of Negroes, sent troops to bases near Birmingham for use if riots erupt again, the Associated Press reported.

Saying that "this government will to whatever must be done" to preserve law and order, the President sent Asst. Atty. Gen. Burke Marshall back to Birmingham in an effort to save the shaky truce announced Friday.

He also asked that a proclamation be prepared in case he finds it necessary to nationalize the Alabama National Guard.

Negroes Riot, Attack Police

Thousands of enraged Negroes rioted until dawn yesterday in Bermingham, setting fire to stores and attacking police and firemen with rocks and knives. Despite the violence, Dr. King said he thought the agreements reached could be implemented peacefully.

Alabama Gov. George Wallace called the retaliatory riots "disgraceful," and said the President's statement "only tends to aggravate and inflame." He claimed the use of Federal Troops in Birmingham would be unconstitutional. King thought Kennedy's remarks showed the Administration "is willing to take forthright action to preserve [Negro] citizenship rights."

Giving the Boston Rally an idea of the crusading, almost religious spirit of the Birmingham battle, the Rev. James Bevel, a leader of the movement, said he was "not willing to wait" for integration. "The whole country should stop until we end segregation," he urged.

Bevel, who was by far the most popular speaker at the rally, said "he was not about to listen to irresponsible public officials who play with the souls of people," and specifically named Attorney General Kennedy and President Kennedy as being "irresponsible."

"The President said the demonstrations were 'ill-timed'--he doesn't understand that segregation is ill-timed," the impassioned clergyman proclaimed. After his speech he said Kennedy should have thought a federal injunction to restrain Birmingham police from breaking up the Negro demonstrations.

Claiming that the President is primarily concerned with Communism, Bevel said "if it is bad for whites to be enslaved by Khrushchev it is just as bad for blacks to be enslaved by whites." He defended the use of children in the marches, noting that they would die from atomic bombing in any nuclear war to "preserve this country."

Gov. Peabody, whose entrance to the Common drew heavy applause, said he was "fed up with the protestations of the Southern extremists who claim it is none of our business since we live in the North. It is our business!"

But while denouncing the "atrocities" in Birmingham, Peabody noted "every indignity practiced openly in the South is practiced to a lesser degree in Massachusetts." He urged state citizens to remove the "last vestiges" of discrimination from Massachusetts to set an example for the South.

'March Only Beginning'

Attorney-General Edward Brooke told his enthusiastic audience that "this is just the beginning. There will be more marches, and little children will lead you." He said Massachusetts could set no example "for anyone" right now, as considerable discrimination still exists in the state.

A majority of the crowd were Negroes, and local civil rights leaders expressed hope the rally would help awaken them to the possibilities for mass action, such as selective patronage.

More than 200 Harvard and Radcliffe students walked to the Common from Cambridge, picking up several hundred persons on their orderly, quiet march.