Negroes March After Killing

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30956, 12 January 1966, Page 11

Negroes March After Killing

t.V.Z. Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, January 11. More than 300 angry Negroes marched on the local Courthouse at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, last night, demanding action after the death of the Negro civil rights leader, Mr Vernon Dahmer.

Mr Dahmer, aged 58, died in hospital from burns after a pre-dawn firebomb attack yesterday on his home and grocery store. He was killed one day after he announced over a local radio station that he would collect poll taxes and deliver them to the sheriff’s office for Negroes afraid to go there themselves. His wife and daughter were admitted to hospital with burns. His two sons and his elderly aunt, who ran the small grocery store for him. escaped injury. Mr Charles Evers, the State Field Director for the National Association for Advancement of Coloured People, led the march in memory of the dead man and urged an economic boycott of the city. It was the same tactic as used at Natchez. Mississippi, Last summer when a local

civil rights leader was injured in a bombing. ‘ “The only thing the white man understands is the ballot i and the dollar,” Mr Evers i shouted. “We’re going to get both of them.”