American Notebook: The Cost Of Freedom Rides
Goldsmith, William
In the 1920s and 30s it cost something to maintain one's posture as a believer in civil rights. Radicals were personally involved in and were dunned incessantly in campaigns for strikes in...
...All the Freedom Riders who were arrested were brought before a local Jackson City court which is technically not a court of record...
...Sometimes board and room expenses are involved while completing tactical non-violent training for the protest, or simply waiting to coordinate a delayed departure...
...This is all to the good, but it has not been nearly enough to finance this fight and who can predict what the implications will be if CORE fails to raise adequate funds to meet its commitments...
...They were forced to remain in the city for a number of days waiting delayed arraignment...
...Many costs are approximateas not all bills have been received as yet...
...They were charged with disturbing the peace and given the alternative of posting bail until their hearing was set in a court of record, or serving a major part of their sentence in jail (45 days) before they could even obtain a hearing...
...By the end of July, 1961, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) had spent $138,500 directly in support of this campaign, and was committed to an outlay of more than double that figure before the summer was over in order to continue the legal struggle of all those arrested...
...Since practically every single member of its staff has been actively engaged in the field throughout the summer, they were simply not available to man a large-scale fund-raising campaign...
...Individual trials have been scheduled from the middle of August to January of next year...
...For example, there is the case of the three Freedom Riders who were arrested protesting against segregated facilities in Ocala, Florida in the month of July...
...Why haven't they used their tremendous resources to rally support behind these young people who, in such a short period of time, have achieved results that their predecessors have unsuccessfully fought for over a period of several decades...
...Already a number of the Freedom Riders have been forced to return to Jackson to serve out the remainder of their jail sentences because adequate funds for their appeal bail and legal costs were simply not available...
...There has indeed been some liberal and trade union support for CORE...
...Then their offense was divided up into several counts and trial was set for a later date for the first of these counts...
...This may or may not have been an exciting and romantic period for radicals and liberals, but there is no question that it was an expensive one...
...In the 1920s and 30s it cost something to maintain one's posture as a believer in civil rights...
...In the leftwing parties regular contributions were expected of members on the basis of a sliding percentage of their incomes...
...THIS ROLL CALL is incomplete, but there can be little argument that the response has been shabby from all groups in the liberal, labor, religious, socialist and even Negro communities...
...The callous neglect of the liberal community is forcing this agonizing problem on the CORE leaders just at the moment when their efforts have begun to bear fruit, and where everything dictates their continued activity to keep the pressure on...
...Many liberal, labor and religious organizations are enjoying a state of affluence in the 1960's that they have never approached before...
...with the contributions they have all made to many other worth-while causes in the past...
...Every meeting and social affair meant digging down for additional contributions, and if they weren't quickly forthcoming, good-natured banter and tireless haranguing were sure to follow...
...Several International and Local unions have come up with smaller contributions at the urging of leaders like Charles Zimmerman of the ILGWU who sits on CORE's Advisory Board...
...In the light of this record it is particularly surprising and distressing to note that liberal, socialist and democratic trade union organizations have been so backward in coming to the support of the recent struggle for human dignity and civil rights in the South...
...All 297 Freedom Riders had to be present in Jackson in August for the hearings where the trial dates were set (which meant an additional trip back there for most), and of course those whose trials are set ahead were not able to stay over for them, but will have to return to Jackson still again to stand trial...
...Practically all the money raised has dribbled in from regular supporters or individuals acting on their own...
...The first cost is transportation from their homes to the southern city from where the Freedom Ride will be launched...
...The delaying and obstructionist tactics of the courts in various southern cities have been an increasingly exasperating and costly factor to deal with...
...To mount a campaign of this kind requires professional experience and skills not likely to be found in the staff of an organization like CORE...
...To date 297 Freedom Riders have been arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbance of the peace...
...students or individuals of modest means who are usually not in a position to meet all the expenses involved...
...Fund-raising in modern America is a big-time business, and "cause" organizations have to battle it out with the hard sell Madison Avenue professionals...
...ALTHOUGH THERE have been other organizations participating in one capacity or another in the Freedom Ride campaign, CORE has done the major part of the organizational work, and has given the participants whatever financial support they have received...
...At the completion of the trial they were informed that they would be required to be present in court several weeks later for sentencing for this count only...
...We urge our readers to help this campaign by sending money directly to CORE, 38 Park Row, New York 38, New York...
...Why is it that the liberal movement has been so apathetic, so parsimonious in coming to the financial support of the new civil rights struggle...
...Nor does it include the expense of other activities...
...Furthermore, CORE's staff has been selected for these leadership qualities in the non-violent struggle for civil rights, and even if they had been available for fund-raising activities it is questionable how successful they would have been...
...Arrests normally followed the arrival of the riders in Jackson and here legal expenses for all and bail bonds for some were involved...
...This meant, of course, that they would be forced to spend the rest of the summer commuting back and forth to Florida at great expense to CORE, and maddening inconvenience to themselves...
...Most of the Freedom Riders elected to follow the latter course in order to dramatize their fight, but in effect it meant that they were suffering the major portion of the penalty for a crime they had allegedly committed before being given an opportunity to defend themselves in court...
...Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been contributed by the AFL-CIO and various International Unions to support democratic European and Asian unions in their struggle against Communist foes...
...Causes were supported with more than words...
...Then there is the bus fare to the destination where the protest is to be made...
...Radicals were personally involved in and were dunned incessantly in campaigns for strikes in the South, sharecroppers' relief, and the defense of victims of racial injustice...
...If the trade union leaders were courageous enough to go to their membership for these causes, why haven't they shown equal concern for the struggle for basic human rights for American Negroes, many of whom are members of their own organizations...
...The involved legal proceedings take a little explanation...
...Having jobs and families to return to in the North they had to leave Ocala and return to that city in several weeks to stand trial, but then only for the first of their several counts...
...Certainly these contributions are pitifully small in view of the millions of members the organizations speak for, and in contrast Even before receiving Mr...
...The AFL-CIO contributed $5,000 at one time during the campaign and the Industrial Union Department of the same organization another $5,000 at a later date...
...Goldsmith's article, DISSENT, despite its limited resources, contributed $100 to CORE...
...Even if CORE's staff could make a successful transition to large-scale fund-raising, the cost would have to be carefully weighted in terms of the moral initiative that the organization has achieved...
...Additional contributions, well into six figures have gone to pet charities, political campaigns (in and out of the unions) and bond drives to help struggling nations to meet their deficits...
...But total trade union contributions have not exceeded $20,000...
...Liberals and radicals should seriously consider the long-range consequences of their present estrangement from this genuine struggle of social protests which has inspired and brought to life so many heretofore uncommitted young people in the North and in the South...
...The estimates are based upon a totalof 300 riders going to Jackson, Mississippi-267 have already been arrested there...
...Protestant, Catholic and Jewish organizations have together not contributed more than $10,000...
...Most of these Freedom Riders have been Bail (Jackson, Tallahassee, and Ocala) Legal Fees Lawyer's Expense Travel to Stand Trial Travel for Riders Training for Riders Hospital Bills Phones, Telegrams Printing, Mimeo Already Spent 72,700 6,700 8,600 8,000 32,400 12,000 1,100 5,100 1,900 To Be Spent Before Labor Day 82,000 ? ? 30,000 27,000 6,000 — 5,000 — 138,500 148,000 The foregoing does not include overhead, office expenses, or fund-raising costs...
...A handful of New York artists were able to raise as much for CORE by holding a week-end sale of their paintings...
Vol. 8 • September 1961 • No. 4
