First Fruits

FLORIDA First Fruits In late 1951, Florida was swept by a storm of racial violence. Miami's Carver Village, a housing development newly opened to Negroes, was three times the target of dynamite bombings; similar attacks were made on synagogues and a Catholic church. The climactic outrage came last Christmas when Harry Moore, state coordinator for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and his wife were killed in the bombing of their home at Mims, Fla.

Within a few days of the Moore murders, a small army of FBI men invaded Florida to investigate the bombings. A federal grand jury, which included three Negroes, heard 50 witnesses, many of whom were members or former members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Last week the long investigation bore its first fruits. Four of the witnesses who had appeared before the grand jury were indicted for perjury. To Miami's astonishment, one of those accused was Mrs. Helen Russell, 55, wife of a railroad engineer and onetime Sunday-school teacher. As vice president of a local "civic association," Mrs. Russell had led agitation against admission of Negroes to Carver Village. According to the grand jury, she had lied under oath when she denied asking Ku Klux Klan assistance in her drive to prevent Negroes from moving into the housing development. She had perjured herself again, it was charged, when she denied acquaintance with four Klan officers. Sobbed Mrs. Russell last week: "I've never lied in my life . . . I've got a fine husband and two daughters. I've never even been in traffic court."

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