The Detroit Tribune

Aids Farmers Penalized For Registering To Vote

NEW YORK, - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this week continued its two-front aid to the beleaguered Negro farmers and merchants of Fayette and Haywood Counties, Tenn., who, because they dared to register to vote, have aroused the fury of the counties' white supremacists.

The NAACP program embraces first, direct relief to needy families victimized by the economic squeeze and, secondly, sponsorship of a nationwide withholding of patronage campaign from major oil companies whose local dealers have refused to sell oil and gasoline to Negroes who register to vote.

W. C. Patton, the Association's special field secretary, has been assigned to the area to supervise the relief program in cooperation with the NAACP branch in nearby Memphis. Systematic distribution of bags of food was begun at Somerville, seat of Fayette County, on July 5. A team of workers headed by Jesse Turner, chairman of the executive committee of the Memphis branch, brought in a truckload of food for distribution to families to whom local merchants refused to sell needed supplies.

Mr. Patton's survey of the area indicates that between 350 and 400 families are in need of such assistance. These include not only those who have registered but also relatives of registered voters. Economic pressures are being exerted against Negro registered voters through discharge from jobs, denial of credit, refusal of supplies to merchants, and withholding of consumer goods from customers. Among chief offenders are some of the nation's largest oil companies whose dealers participate in the blacklisting of Negro voters many of whom are farmers and who need gasoline and oil to run their tractors.

In response to a memorandum issued by Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins on July 6, state and local NAACP units throughout the country have initiated campaigns to get their members and friends to refuse to buy gas and oil from companies whose dealers in Fayette and Haywood counties refuse to sell to Negro citizens.

Reports received here indicate that the movement is spreading throughout the country with many steady customers returning their credit cards to the offending oil companies.