At 5 o'clock one afternoon last week, an all-white jury filed into the trial room of the Lawrenceburg, Tenn. courthouse and faced pink, plump Circuit Judge Joe Ingram. For two tense weeks, 25 Tennessee Negroes had been on trial, 23 of them charged with the attempted murder of four white policemen in the ill-famed Mink Slide race riot at Columbia (TIME, March 11). Now, after one hour and 53 minutes of deliberation, the verdict was in: two guilty; 23 not guilty. Exclaimed white Defense Attorney Maurice Weaver jubilantly: "A victory for Americanism."
Attorney Weaver was holding himself in. In the more...
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