peculiarly personal to these two people and which shed no light on the lynching at all. I make that statement on my responsibility as Governor of the State.

Senator LANGER. As a matter of fact, if there was any connection at all, you would offer protection to those two white people, would you not?

Governor COLEMAN. Yes, sir; but I can assure you they stand in no need of protection from anybody under any circumstances. Senator LANGER. If there is no objection from the chairman, I will insert this article of the AP in the record.

Senator ERVIN. No objection. It ought to go in at this point. (The article referred to is as follows:)

[From the New York Post, Tuesday, May 12, 1959]

TWO IN LYNCH JAIL TRY SUICIDE; OFFICIALS DENY ANY LINK TO CASE POPLARVILLE, MISS., May 12 (AP)-Two suicide attempts stirred Poplarville as officials denied any threats against the family of Mack C. Parker, 23-year-old Negro taken from Pearl River County jail and lynched last month.

The new developments connected with the Parker case included: Unsuccessful suicide attempts by jail janitor Houston Amacker, about 50, and Helen Van Ness, 32, a woman prisoner who witnessed the abduction. Both are white. Officials said the Parker abduction had nothing to do with the suicide attempts.

Official denial by County Attorney William Stewart and Lumberton Constable Boyd Howard that the mother or family of Parker had been threatened. Parker was lynched while awaiting trial on a charge of raping a 24-year-old pregnant white woman.

THE SUICIDE ATTEMPT

Miss Van Ness, who witnessed the beating and abduction of Parker April 25, cut her throat with a razor blade last Thursday. She was treated at Pearl River County Hospital 1 day and returned to the jail.

Amacker drank poison last Friday, officers said, and was reported in good condition.

JANITOR IN POOR HEALTH

"Neither of the suicide attempts had anything to do with the Parker case," said officials who asked that their names be withheld.

"Amacker was tired of people laughing at him. People kidding him about his spells and his small size and he couldn't stand the kidding. He was in an automobile accident a year or two back and hasn't been the same since."

Eliza Parker, 43, told reporters in Merced, Calif., that she did not believe her son guilty of rape, but that she fled with two young children because she feared for their lives.

Mr. SLAYMAN. Governor, the reference to one of these people, this white woman in the jail, Helen Van Ness, was that she had witnessed the abduction:

Miss Van Ness, who witnessed the beating and abduction of Parker April 25, cut her throat with a razor blade last Thursday. She was treated at Pearl River County Hospital 1 day and returned to the jail.

Governor COLEMAN. I think that would give you some idea of the seriousness of her injuries when she received treatment for only 1 day for cutting her throat. It was just a superficial scratch that the newspapers made a great deal of.

Mr. SLAYMAN. Governor, the Federal Bureau of Investigation got into the case, in the first place; how?

Governor COLEMAN. I was speaking to a high school group over at Newton, Miss., on this particular Friday evening. I returned to the

Governor's mansion in Jackson, about 60 miles away somewhere near midnight. I received a telephone call sometime after I had gone to sleep-I did not have a clock in the room-from the Mississippi State Highway Patrol saying this had taken place. I instructed them to notify the sheriff to talk to me. Within just a few minutes the sheriff was on the telephone undertaking to tell what had taken place. I instructed him at that time to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the incident, to ask them to come in promptly to help apprehend the violators. In about half an hour I checked to see whether or not the sheriff had carried out my instructions. Upon that check I found out that he had and that an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Gulfport, Miss., was already on his way to Poplarville. So that is how the FBI came into the case.

There have been some in Mississippi, a small number, who made lots of newspaper space by criticizing me for taking this action, for inviting the FBI in. That criticism doesn't speak for the people of the State as a whole. We have unlimited confidence in the honor and in the integrity of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In my years as district attorney and as circuit judge we apprehended and punished many violations of State law through the cooperation of the FBI.

At the same time, I invited these men in to show the world that the public officials of the State of Mississippi and the people themselves do not believe in mob rule, will not support mob rule, will not countenance mob rule, and will do all they can with anything available to them to apprehend and punish any of those who are in fact guilty of attempted mob violence or mob violence.

Mr. SLAYMAN. For the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be in any case, there must be an alleged violation of a Federal law, must there not?

Governor COLEMAN. Well, in this particular instance, as I understand the U.S. statutes, they could have come in after 24 hours on the presumption attached to kidnaping. But why wait 24 hours and why give these criminals, whoever they were, a 24-hour start? They, of course, frequently come in by invitation of local authorities as a matter of cooperation. For example, they conducted scientific laboratory tests on the clothing which M. C. Parker was wearing the night of the alleged rape and as a result of those laboratory examinations of that clothing, so far as I am concerned, with all due fairness to everybody, there didn't remain a shadow of a doubt of his guilt of this thing, which makes the lynching all the more regrettable because there is no question in my mind what a court of justice would have done about it.

Under no circumstances, by no stretch of the imagination, by any kind of sophistry, do I defend the lynching of this person in Pearl River County, Miss., and no other right thinking Mississippian does so.

Mr. SLAYMAN. With regard to any possible Federal law violation, Governor, was there any discussion concerning the Federal Criminal Code, title 18, section 241; "Conspiracy Against the Rights of Citizens," and section 242, "Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law"? Governor COLEMAN. That was all handled entirely by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and by the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington. They worked on this investigation for a month. They

40361-59-pt. 2- -40

gathered the evidence. And they themselves passed on that without any reference to the Governor. I had no part in that at all. But when they of their own independent investigation determined that there was no Federal violation of the law, then they turned a report over to me as to violation of State law.

I am sure that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the proper attorneys in the Department of Justice, if it were proper for them to testify on a proceeding of this kind, to tell you what all they did about Federal violations-I don't know of that.

Mr. SLAYMAN. Governor, there is an Associated Press story on page A-3 of this morning's Washington Post and Times Herald. The first paragraph is:

Government sources said yesterday the Federal Bureau of Investigation solved the Mack Charles Parker lynching and named the participants in evidence turned over to Mississippi Gov. J. P. Coleman.

The second paragraph goes on to say

According to this report, the list was accompanied by proof of the identities of the masked men who went into the Pearl River County jail at Poplarville, Miss., in the early morning of April 25 and dragged the screaming 23-year-old Negro feet first to their waiting cars.

(The news item referred to follows:)

[From the Washington Post and Times Herald, Thursday, May 28, 1959]

FBI REPORT SAID TO LIST LYNCHERS

(Associated Press)

Government sources said yesterday the Federal Bureau of Investigation solved the Mack Charles Parker lynching and named the participants in evidence turned over to Mississippi Gov. J. P. Coleman.

According to this report, the list was accompanied by proof of the identities of the masked men who went into the Pearl River County jail at Poplarville, Miss., in the early morning of April 25 and dragged the screaming 23-year-old Negro feet first to their waiting cars.

Parker, who was on the eve of trial on a charge of raping a pregnant white woman, was found dead on the Mississippi side of the Pearl River May 4. He had been shot twice.

Yesterday's Chicago Tribune reported an FBI solution of the case, quoting "informed sources on Capitol Hill." The newspaper said approximately 10 men were named in the list turned over to Coleman.

New Orleans television station WDSU-TV said earlier that the FBI report implicated at least 18 persons.

FORTY AGENTS IN AREA

The FBI, which sent some 40 agents into the area immediately after Parker's abduction, announced 3 days ago its investigation showed no Federal law violation.

A major factor was the lack of any evidence a State line had been crossed. The body was in the swamps opposite Bogalust, La., but there was nothing to indicate the abductors had crossed into that State.

In announcing its withdrawal, the FBI said its extensive evidence was being turned over to Governor Coleman for any action the State might desire to take. Coleman has stated the evidence will be submitted to the next regular grand jury convening in Pearl River County next November.

According to Government sources, the FBI investigation developed this evidence:

Parker was scheduled to face trial on April 27. About a week before that date, there was "talk" around Poplarville about the possibility of trouble developing around the jail, where he was locked up without guards with other prison

ers.

Local authorities decided, however, that there was no good reason to take him elsewhere because it appeared unlikely any violence would develop.

On the night of Friday, April 24, there was an outdoor meeting in the yard of a farmhouse outside Poplarville which attracted a large attendance, and which local indignation over the raping of the white woman was aired.

LOTS DRAWN

The meeting convened after 9 o'clock. When it broke up shortly after midnight, many of those in attendance got in their cars and drove back to their homes. Another group, reported to have numbered less than 10, put on masks and headed for Poplarville.

[Lots apparently were drawn to determine the members of the lynch gang, the Chicago Tribune Press Service reported. It learned from informed sources that FBI agents found at least one slip of paper at the meeting site indicating a drawing was held.

[Under threats from the gang, said one authoritative source, the jailer left a key readily available and went to his home. He was away from the jail during the April 25 abduction.]

It was reported that most of the indignation voiced at the farmhouse conspiracy meeting was based on the prospect that Parker's Negro attorney would cross-examine the pregnant white woman when the Parker trial was convened on Monday.

The most outspoken participants were represented as having said they would not "stand for this."

Governor COLEMAN. I might say that I have read that report. It has been published throughout the country.

I

For one thing, it does not identify the Government sources. don't think I want to shadowbox with any unidentified source of information, if I may be allowed that privilege.

Mr. SLAYMAN. Governor, further on in the story, and I believe this has appeared in other news items, is the statement:

Coleman has stated the evidence will be submitted to the next regular grand jury convening in Pearl River County next November.

Now, is there any legal or constitutional impediment to convening a grand jury to receive the evidence prior to November?

Governor COLEMAN. I am glad that you asked that question because there has been so much misunderstanding about it, apparently, at least in the newspapers.

The circuit courts in Mississippi which have general felony jurisdiction ordinarily meet once every 6 months in the various counties. Certainly that is true in the more thinly populated counties. The circuit court for the April term was in progress and this person was about to be tried before that court when the lynching took place. That means the next term of court is in November.

Under our statutes a special term of circuit court can be convened on 20 days published notice. However, for nearly 100 years the Supreme Court of Mississippi has held that to convene a grand jury for the special purpose of investigating and indicting a particular individual for a particular crime is unconstitutional and will reverse the conviction if one is obtained on such an indictment.

Now, I might give you an example of the application of that principle. In January 1950, in Attala County, Miss., three white men by the names of Leon Turner, Wendell Whit, and Malcolm Whit, went upon the premises of a white citizen and there killed a number of Negro people living on that farm. They did it without provocation. These colored people were at home attending to their own business, bothering nobody.

There was great revulsion to the crime in the State, so much so that the Mississippi Legislature passed resolutions calling on me as circuit judge to convene a special session of the circuit court and of the grand jury of Attala County to indict these men at once.

The legislature, of course, was filled with able lawyers, but somehow or other they overlooked that rule, and at that time I had to publicly announce as circuit judge that I would not convene a special session of the grand jury because it would be reversible error under our supreme court decision, that the court would meet in March, and these matters would be handled in due course of law.

I say then when the grand jury met, these men were indicted. Two of them were sent to the penitentiary for life on a jury verdict-10 out of the 12 men on the jury voted to give them the death penalty. In Mississippi it takes unanimous vote of the trial jury to inflict the death penalty. Ten out of the twelve voted to give them death. They went to the penitentiary for life. They have been there 10 years. They are there today. A third one who was along didn't do any actual shooting but he got 10 years for his participation in it, which I suppose is just about served. This happened in 1950. They were tried at the March 1950 term of the Circuit Court of Attala County, widely publicized in Life magazine and other publications.

Now, the whole thing in a nutshell is that if the circuit judge in that county were to convene a special grand jury on account of this particular matter, whoever might be indicted would be set free by the Supreme Court of Mississippi when the case got up there if they are convicted.

Senator ERVIN. Or, rather, he would be granted a new trial, wouldn't he?

Governor COLEMAN. That is right. The conviction would be reversed and it would go back for a new indictment and trial because they would hold the indictment invalid.

Senator JOHNSTON. I think for the record, too, you said the court was in session at the time this happened.

Governor COLEMAN. That is right. In April.

Senator JOHNSTON. Isn't it true that grand jury usually meets when the court first begins and makes their reports to the court? Isn't that right?

Governor COLEMAN. That is true, sir. Since Hucheson's Code of 1848, and I don't know how much further back, the grand jury sits only for the term of the court.

Now for many years I have been advocating in Mississippi, and I still advocate very strongly, the idea of the grand jury being a continuous body from one court to the next. In other words, impanel them to serve for 6 months and then let them be called into session anytime the trial judge thinks it is necessary. But we have never been able to get our statutes amended to that effect and the result is when the term of the circuit court adjourns, the grand jury adjourns at the same time.

Senator JOHNSTON. I want to commend you for that. We have something like that in South Carolina, in the South Carolina statutes, and the grand jury does meet about various things.

Senator CARROLL. In Mississippi, if I may follow this along for a moment-Governor, I am Senator Carroll.