http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0520.html#article
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Force Due Today
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Agents to Bear Arms -- Injunction Sought Against the Klan
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By ANTHONY LEWIS
The Government acted after a mob of white persons attacked a racially mixed group of bus riders in
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy announced the Federal action in a telegram to
Marshals Due by Noon
The 400 Federal marshals will be in
Mr. Kennedy disclosed also that he would ask the Federal Court in
A Justice Department spokesman said that there were reports of Ku Klux Klan and Negro groups converging on Montgomery County and that he was afraid of larger scale problems than had already developed.
Attacks Deplored
The Attorney General acted immediately after President Kennedy issued a statement deploring the mob attacks.
The President said the situation in
"I have instructed the Justice Department to take all necessary steps," the President added.
He called on Gov. John Patterson of
"I hope that state and local officials in
The President said he hoped that all persons, whether citizens of
The Justice Department said that it was sending marshals and specially deputized marshals to
They are already on the way by air and automobile, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said.
Byron R. White, the Deputy Attorney General, went to
Justice Department officials emphasized that no members of the armed forces were being sent.
This was in contrast to the action of President Eisenhower in 1957. Paratroopers were sent then to end violence over school desegregation in Little Rock, Ark.
The marshals were dispatched to
The statute says that the President may use "the militia or the armed forces * * * or any other means * * * to suppress in a state any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination or conspiracy" under certain specified conditions.
These conditions are that a class of citizens is deprived of a constitutional right "and the constituted authorities of that state are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right."
Telegram Dispatched
Robert Kennedy announced his action in a telegram sent to the Alabama public safety director, Floyd Mann, and the Mayors of Birmingham and Montgomery, besides Governor Patterson.
In the telegram Mr. Kennedy reviewed discussions that he and other Justice Department officials had had with the Governor and his aides since Monday about "this very explosive situation."
He noted that just last night his own administrative assistant, John Seigenthaler, had met with the Governor and had been given the assurance that the state government had "The will, the force, the men and the equipment to fully protect everyone in
He added that the Governor had suggested the Justice Department notify the Greyhound Bus Company that a guarantee of safety had been given by the state.
"It was based on his assurance of safe conduct," the Attorney General telegraphed Governor Patterson, "that the students boarded the bus in
The suit that Mr. Kennedy said was being brought to enjoin interference with interstate travel was a most unusual legal step.
Ordinarily the Justice Department cannot bring an injunction suit unless there is a specific statute authorizing it to do so, and there is none here.
However, in 1895, in the landmark case of In Re Debs, the Supreme Court held that the Federal Government had inherent authority to go to the courts to break up any violence interfering with interstate commerce.
The issue at that time was a railroad strike that had shut off the mails. The
The Debs case stands as a rarity in American legal history. A Justice Department authority said today that it was on the basis of the Debs ruling that the department was asserting the power to go into the Federal courts and enjoin individuals and organizations in
The Government's moves this evening were planned at a meeting that lasted all afternoon in the Attorney General's office. President Kennedy, who flew to his country home in
Attorney General Kennedy was called into his office from an F.B.I. baseball game where he was throwing out the first ball. He was in shirtsleeves and still wearing a baseball cap as he conferred on the critical situation in
In the conference were virtually all the top advisers except those who happened to be out of town.
They included Mr. White and three of his assistants, Joseph F. Dolan, William A. Geoghegan and Clive W. Palmer.
Three assistant attorneys general were in the conference -- Burke Marshall of the Civil Rights Division, Herbert J. Miller of the Criminal Division and Louis F. Oberdorfer of the Tax Division.
Representing the office of legal counsel was Harold F. Reiff.
From the Attorney General's personal staff were his executive assistant, Andrew F. Cehmann; the chief of public information, Edwin O. Guthmann and David Hackett.
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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