Marchers Unite To Join Meredith

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31096, 27 June 1966, Page 13

Marchers Unite To Join Meredith

(N.Z.P.A, Reuter—Copyright) CANTON (Mississippi), June 26. Civil rights leaders closed ranks yesterday after a policy dispute and joined in the “march against fear” behind James Meredith, back on the road after recuperating from gunshot wounds.

Meredith, aged 33. a law student, who broke the colour bar at the segregationist University of Mississippi in 1962, set off down dusty Highway No. 51 towards the State capital of Jackson, with more than 500 marchers behind him. Dr. Martin Luther King, the moderate leader, said after a meeting with other civil rights groups taking part, that they cleared up a “temporary breakdown of communications” and would all march together to Jackson, where a massive rally is planned for today.

Meredith, who was shot on June 6, when he began the march alone, was apparently angry at the way other civil rights leaders were running the demonstration, and began his own cf-lumn from Canton yesterday morning. Another group had started at Tougaloo, 16 miles farther along the route, where they had finished the previous night. But after the agreement was reached, they returned towards Canton and joined Meredith’s column, which was protected by State highway police. A major rally is planned for late today in the grounds of Tougaloo College with Sammy Davis, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster. Anthony Franciosa and other film and stage stars taking part. Dr. King declined to comment on the dispute between his moderate group and the more militant members of the Student Non-violent Co-ordin-ating Committee, headed by Stokely Carmichael. He said that the differences would not affect the march’s objective increasing the number of registered Negro voters in the state.