RACIAL CONFLICT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 69, 6 January 1947, Page 5

RACIAL CONFLICT

TWENTY-THREE NEGROES ACQUITTED

TWO DEFENDANTS FOUND

GUILTY

Twenty-three of -a 25 Negroes charged with participating in a racial disturbance at near-by Columbia nine months ago were freed recently—acquitted by an all-white jury.

The jury, which deliberated one hour and 53 minutes before bringing in a verdict, found two other defendants guilty of assaulting four Columbia policemen during the day and night of racial unrest last February. .

Robert Gentry, barber shop porter, and John McKivens were convicted of holding the shotguns which struck down Patrolman Will Wlisford and three other officers in Columbia’s darkened Mink Slide Negro business block the _ night of February 25, after a day of racial tension.

They were convicted of attempt to murder, and the jury set their sentence at ‘not more than 21 years” in the penitentiary. Defence Attorney L. A. Ransom of Washington immediately announced he would ask a new trial for the pair, a preliminary to an appeal to the State’s Supreme Court.

Another defence attorney, Maurice Weaver of Chattanooga, only white member at the defendants’ counsel table, termed the verdict “a victory for Americanism.” The defendants were all smiles—even the convicted pair-following the reading of the verdict by Circuit Judge Joe M. Ingram, after Jury Foreman Robert Patterson handed it to him on a slip of paper. District Attorney Gen. Paul F. Bumpus said: “The jury returned its verdict and I cannot complain about it.”

The verdicts climaxed a 14-day trial preceded by months of legal sparring by lawyers for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and prosecuting attorneys. The Negroes were indicted by a grand jury a month after the turbulent day and night of racial conflict at Columbia which left 11 wounded and later resulted in the fatal shooting of two Negroes being held in gaol. The two were shot during an escape attempt.