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STUDENT MOVEMENT, SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY                          THOMAS

that he was much taller than they, Brother Sababu was to testify later that he believe the deputies were trying to shoot him, but missed him when he bent down. 

Similarly, when sheriff's deputies spotted one of the student leaders, Brother "Nate" Howard, one deputy reportedly remarked: "That's one of the niggers, let's get him." Students, however, formed a circle around Brother "Nate" and pleaded for his lice. The deputies relented and let him go.

Later that afternoon, the State Board of Education by a ten to one vote refused to accept the resignation of Dr. Bashful at SUBO. This action came after Governor Edwards announced a get tough policy on the Southern problem that morning. Edwards had declared a state of emergency in East Baton Rouge Parish and had also dispatched 600 National Guardsmen to the campus.

At its meeting that afternoon the Board had also expressed its unqualified confidence in President Netterville's administrative ability. Clearly, an example of the state protecting its own interests without regard to the Black students who had been killed. Edwards had stated over and over since the slayings that, "It was the students who initiated the confrontation." To counter this vicious propaganda effort by Edwards, the students at the Baton Rouge campus, along with their lawyers, convened a Black People's Committee of Inquiry to investigate the killings.

The Committee was composed of various local and nationally prominent figures from the Black community. They were Alex Willingham, a former member of Southern's faculty; Annie Smart, Welfare Rights organizer from Baton Rouge; and State Legislators Dorothy Taylor and Johnny Jackson. Representing the National Black community were Owusu Sadaukai, Malcom X Liberation University; Carl Thomas, student government President, Texas Southern University; Haywood Burns, Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers; John Lewis, Voter Education Project, and D'Army Bailey, City Councilman, from Berkeley, California, who is a graduate of Southern.

Another reason for the formation of the Black People's Committee of Inquiry was that Governor Edwards had launched an investigation headed by his Attorney general, William Guste. Students as well as large segment of the Black community feared a whitewash of the shootings. Therefore, they felt it was imperative that local and national Black communities know what really happened at the university. After hearing two days from students, community leaders,


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