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| By the Associated Press | Published Date: 6/6/1956 |
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NEGROES FORM NEW GROUP REPLACING BANNED NAACP
BIRMINGHAM (AP) - Cheering Negroes hailed a new organizaion last night, designed to replace the outlawed National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in Alabama.
According to its sponsors, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights has no connection with the NAACP, but is dedicated to wiping out racial segregation.
The group adopted a resolution pledged to remove from society "any forms of second-class
citizenship" and the Opposition to gradualism in seeking to do away with segregation.
The NAACP to Alabama was banned by a temporary injunction granted by Circuit Judge Walter B. Jones at Montgomery last week, after Atty. Gen. John Patterson charged that acts of the NAACP "have resulyed in violations of our laws and tend in many instances to create a breach of the peace."
Rev. F. L. Shuttleworth, Negro minister of Birmingham who was elected to head the new organization, told reporters he believes the new movement will spread over Alabama, and "possibly over the South."
Shuttlesworth said the organization has made no further plans for expansion at the present. Asked if there is a possibility of the organization spreading, he said:
"There is the implication in the name, and with the Christian approach, I feel that there is a possibility of it spreading throughout the state and the South."
Shuttlesworth emphasized that the new movement is "organized by local Negroes. We are insiders. There should be no charge of outside interference."
He said the group plans to issue a press statement later on its aims and purpose.
But last night, he swayed a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 Negroes who packed a church here, as the minister deplored segregation.
The Sardis Baptist Church seats approximately 800, but there was no standing room, with spectators filling all available space.
"Our citizens are restive under the dismal yoke of segregation," Shuttlesworth declared.
"The Negro citizens of Birmingham are crying for leadership to better their conditions," he added. "The only thing we are interested in is uniting our people in seeing that the laws of our land are upheld according to the Constitution of the U.S."
The newly formed body passed a number of resolutions, one of which praised Negroes taking part in the Montgomery and Tallahassee, Fla., bus boycotts "for conducting themselves in the struggle so valiantly, and without rancor, hate and smear, and above all, without violence."
Shuttlesworth said there have been no plans for financing the new group. He said this would be worked out later.
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