Rhodes Urges Investigation Of Violence at Lawrence

Joseph Rhodes, a Junior Fellow at Harvard and the only student member of the Presidential Commission on Campus Unrest. this weekend urged the commission to investigate the recent killings and disturbances at Lawrence, Kansas.

At a press conference at Logan Airport Sunday, Rhodes said, "The facts are all fuzzy. No one can agree about what happened."

"The President's commission could save lives by sorting out all the different events and coming up with some facts that, hopefully, would be objective," he said. "There is a good chance the commission would find out what really happened."

Unless the commission goes to Kansas, there will be no peace. Right now, everybody is going at everybody," he said.

Rhodes added, "It's not just whites and blacks. There are the older, established blacks and the young militants, people in power and out of power, the established whites and the young whites who dress outlandishly, the so-called hippies."

Rhodes was invited to Lawrence by a group seeking a biracial investigation of the rioting.

Two weeks ago six days of violence were triggered when a 19-year-old-black was shot to death by. police following an auto chase. The disturbances left two dead and two wounded.

Microcosm

Rhodes called Lawrence "a microcosm of the country, although some elements are a little rougher than in other places."

He said, "We have to study Lawrence and try to find ways of reducing tension. We have to bring the government in and let people see that the federal government isn't just interested in statistics, that it's trying to save lives."