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Or: vera, dd Re = * ers * ¥ % aes ‘s gare RE oo Highlander Friends Rap| Critics of Racial Plans | MONTEAGLE. Lenn. (P) — Director Myles Horton of the ighlander Folk School] has made public a statement strongly “criticising attacks on the institution as_a ‘“Communist-inspired and jed” school. The statement, dated Jast Friday, bore the type- written signatures of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Lloyd'G. Garrison,, former dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School; Msgr. ‘ Jghn_ 0’ Grady, National Confer- | —-————-- > > ence of Catholic Charities, and Dr. Reinhold Neibuhr, Protes- | tant theologian. . The statement attacked a) ysubcalion by the Georgia Com- | mission of Education in which it was alleged the school during last Labor Day weekend was host to “the leaders of every major race incident in the South...” Georgia Gov. Marvin Griffin is chairman of the 23-member ry. rommission, which was formed |{ by the 1953 _ Legislature to seek |f means of preserving segrega-| tian. “The seminar attacked by Gov. Griffin was one of a series of workshops, each from one to six weens in duration. held by Fughlander since 1953 to de- yveiop plans and leaders for an order ly, peaceful transition from segregated to integrated |; schools,” the three-page state- 1} ment aeid. ; STRIFE PLOT SEEN T. V, Williams Jr., executive secretary of the Georgia com- mission, said jlast October a state undercover agent had “in- filtrated"” the Labor Day mett- ing. Williams charged that the meeting was set up to ‘‘discuss methods and tactics of precipi- tating racial strife and tension.” The commission was told that’ a umber of persons accused by Georgia Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook ol having Communist sym- . wo e#liiliations had at- tended the seminar, It charged that the seminar constituted a “Communist training school. " ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS UNCLASS{71ED DATE_zie\ su, BY ZGJANS 1958 49° — owe ee we 2 Sh ee tt b en Tet 751 I- A- NOT RECORDED 199 JAN 9 1958 . wt ‘ even he should be able to wnder- “teachers incident, the Koinonia ! Horton was quota Gn te) 4 ‘statement as saying. “High- lander takes tide $2 assumes full responsibility for the dis- P cussion leaders. Highlander did/, not and does not welcome en-|_ roliment of anyone with a to-/j; talitarian philosophy whether|;, from the extreme right or ex- treme left. In, these froubled|, times, nothing but more trouble], ean come from the White, Citi- zens Councils and the Commu- nist Party's infiltration into groups earnestly seeking & dentocratic solution to our prob-| ' Jem. Both are morally bankrupt t and have nothing to offer... ." The statement said, “We deem it morally indefensible for any amen or group to inflict upon guch institutions as Highlander and upon any such individuals, both white and Negro, who at- tended the Labor Day seminar, the damage to reputation and position which may result from the wide distribution of this: slanderous materal....: |i * v.58. ‘PRESTIGE’ wt “Although a demagogue like } Governor Griffin may not com-|. prehend the practice of brother-|_. hood as a matter of principle, stand the tremendous damage sepregation is doing to our pres- tige abroad and the manner in which the Communists are forg- ing anti-American materia! out of the South's undemocretic} practices.” “Among those attending . the’ TLabor Day seminar were the q Rev. Martin Luther King, leader Ano - of the Montgomery, Ala. bus . boycott; Dr. Alonzo Moron, 1~-223 ->7 president of Hampton Institute; Charles Gomillion, dean of stu- dents at Tuskegee, Alg., sInsti- tute, ‘and Prof, John Hope I of Fisk University. ; ——-Witliams said in his ‘report there were also at the seminar). “representative leaders of the). Tuskegee boycott, the Tallahas-|. ace, Fla, bus incident; the! South Carolina-NAACP school]; interrracial farm, . Americus, |‘ ; Ga., and the Ctnton, -Tenn., 1 school incident, among athers. % Highlander was founded 25 } years &go with the announced goal of “creating leadership for democracy.” Horton, native of|+ Savannah, Tenn., and graduate/: of Cumberland University, has;] been its director since its found- ing. : . boro nmudVILLE ————