ON THE VERGE OF VIOLENCE

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am enclosing a facsimile of an article which appeared in the March 31st issue of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. It is one of several hundred 'scare' stories which have appeared in Mississippi papers since SNCC announced 'Mississippi Freedom Summer' last December. The CRIMSON'S editing of my remarks seems to have been carried several steps further by the Ledger. It is my fondest hope that I will not be jailed for insurrection when I return to the Sovereign State--at least not on the grounds of this one half-whimsical remark. Though nothing I could say could possibly damage SNCC's reputation with the white Mississippi press. I should like to set the record straight. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee remains nonviolent: we have no intention of forming a Mississippi Mau-Mau this summer or any other, neither do we intend to foment or encourage violent rsistance.

As an individual, however, I feel that the continued reckless disregard for human life and basic freedoms on the part of the officials of Mississippi--unless checked by responsible Federal action--will lead to a racial explosion of terrifying proportions. As the blacks of that state become increasingly aware of their supposed rights, as the state becomes increasingly brutal in its suppression of those rights, and as the Federal Government continues steadfastly to ignore its responsibility to protect those rights, it seems to me in evitable that Mississippi Negroes should take it upon themselves to defend them. Blacks, like other men, hunger for the security and protection of the laws. Where there is no law, men become a law unto themselves. Claude Weaver '65