Weaver in Jail, Plans to Appeal

Claudo L. Weaver '65, of Dunster House and Atlanta, Ga., and another Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee worker, were fined $500 apiece and sentenced to six months in jail in Canton, Miss., on Feb. 10 for "conspiring to intimidate a family."

Weaver and his companion, Edward Hollender of Baltimore, were accused of threatening to harm a Negro woman's six-year-old child if she continued to work in a Canton store which was the object of a SNCC-organized boyott. The incident allegedly took place Feb. 4, and the pair were arrested Feb. 7.

According to Mary King, a SNCC spokesman, Weaver and Hollender were tried without jury before a Canton judge. She said that Weaver had pleaded nolo contendere and that Hollender had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Both maintained that they were at their residences at the time of the alleged incident.

Try for Appeal Bonds

Attempts are now being made to secure appeal bonds for the pair by Carsie Hall, one of Mississippi's three Negro attorneys. These efforts, however, are complicated by a Mississippi bonding law which demands that ball be posted in the form of a surety bond or a property bond. No bonding companies in Mississippi will agree to post bond for civil rights workers, and a property bond requires ownership of property in Hinds County.

Miss King termed Weaver's arrest part of a "purge" of rights workers by the Canton authorities. She noted that every one of the 20-odd CORE and SNCC workers in Canton had been jailed since Jan. 22 on charges varying from publishing libel to burning trash without a permit. Ball in every case was very high, she said. For disturbing the peace it was set at $1000.