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lice mobsters to beat back the inexorable tides of social change in such cities as Gadsden, Alabama;  Danville, Virginia;  and Albany, Georgia.  While is such states as Alabama and Mississippi, the power remains still in the hands of such blatant Negro-haters and fascist-minded ultra-reactionaries as a George Wallace and a Ross Barnett.

THESE DIE-HARD bastions of Rebel resistance to the laws of the land, the rights of the Negro people, and the will of the nation, such as Jackson, Mississippi pose a special challenge and problem to the vital new crussade for Negro freedom which is abroad in our land.

The general offensive for freedom and equality on the part of the Negro masses of the South began in earnest with the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott in 1957.

Since then the movement of direct mass action has continued to develop with irresistible force.  Great struggles have been waged in Little Rock, Nashville, Tuscaloosa, Oxford, Albany, Birmingham, Atlanta, Greensboro, Gadsden, Jackson, Cambridge and a number of other cities.

These struggles have engaged hundreds of thousands of Negroes and numerous white supporters in direct assaults upon

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various features of the segregation system in the South.

IN THESE BATTLES the NAACP, SCLC, CORE, SNCC and a number of local organizations have provided organizational channels and leadership for this general uprising of the Negro masses against all manner of slavery-like restrictions which the brutal system imposes.

Under the inspiration and pressure of the masses, old leaders have gained new militancy and dedication and numerous creative and talented new leaders have come to the front ranks of the masses in the heat of battle.

The heroic mass struggles of the Negro people have a profound impact upon our nation.  The President has been compelled to heed their proclamation and has responded with a vigorous message to Congress calling for the urgent enactment of a Civil Rights Act of 1963 designed to legally secure to the Negro people the full measure of their citizenship rights and to outlaw segregation and discrimination patterns in the life of the nation.

This is expressive of the tide of our times.

But the willful defenders of segregation and Negro oppression have taken up positions of defiance and bloody resistance in such fortresses of white suprem-