American Notes HOSTAGES

Got a grievance? Want to win national media attention? Take hostages. That seemed to be the guiding maxim last week in two Southern communities. In the first incident, shotgun-toting Indian Activist Eddie Hatcher, 30, and Timothy Jacobs, 19, a fellow Tuscarora Indian, stormed the offices of North Carolina's Lumberton Robesonian and held 17 of the newspaper's employees for ten hours. The duo demanded that Governor James Martin investigate the alleged mistreatment of blacks and Native Americans by local Sheriff Hubert Stone, who has long been a figure of controversy. They surrendered after Martin's office promised a probe.

Just 14 hours later, a drifter by the name of James Harvey, 42, aided by John Rhodes Jr., 42, whom he recruited at the local unemployment office, stormed the West End Christian School in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and seized 80 students and four of their teachers. "There are people on the street who don't have a place to sleep or anything to eat," shouted Harvey. "I am doing this for them." After twelve hours, Harvey fell for Alabama Governor Guy Hunt's false promise of a pardon. He released his prisoners, was arrested, and, with Rhodes, now possibly faces life in prison for kidnaping.