Gary S. Sprayberry, “’One Does Not Integrate on Sunday’: The 1963 Desegregation of the Carnegie Library of Anniston, Alabama, and its Aftermath.” Alabama Review; Apr2008, Vol. 61 Issue 2, p105-138. Abstract: "The article offers information on creation of the Human Relations Council, a biracial group for racial justice as part of the origins of desegregation in Anniston, Alabama, from 1961-1963. It also looks at the role of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) for desegregating downtown business and its repercussions which included bomb blasts to assassinate civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Details related to social and governmental upswing in Anniston are also mentioned."
A contemporaneous article in the Birmingham Post-Herald about the "library incident":
2 Negro Ministers Beaten In Anniston
By JOE FOSTER (Post-Herald Correspondent)
ANNISTON, Sept. 15--Two Negro ministers were beaten by a mob of white men today as they 'walked toward the city library in an integration attempt known to the Anniston Human Relations Council, a bi-racial committee, and to city officials.
The Revs. N. Q. Reynolds, 32, pastor of the 17th Street Baptist Church, and William D. McClain, 25, pastor of the Haven Methodist Church, were attacked by 25 to 30 white men near the entrance of Carnegie Library in downtown Anniston.
They said a shot was fired from the mob and passed near their heads.
Later this afternoon, the City Commission issued a statement deploring the action on the part of the whites and offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible.
The statement said, "We are sure that the citizens of this area are outraged as is the City Commission at the cowardly acts perpetrated upon two of our Negro ministers this afternoon.
"We are determined that law and order will prevail in this !community. We will absolutely not tolerate violence or lawlessness of any kind."
The statement further said, "The police will leave no stone unturned or no time unspent to apprehend and convict these guilty hoodlums."
The two ministers called a news conference tonight at Reynolds' home and while reporters were there, the Negroes were visited by Mayor Claude Dear. The Rev. J. Phillip Noble, chairman of the bi-racial committee, and Charles Doster, member of :he library's Board of Trustees.
Dear apologized for the action and McClain replied that he real-[zed "today's action was not representative of the majority of the responsible white citizens of Anniston."
Asked whose fault the beating was, Reynolds replied. "We had hoped there would have been more police protection."
Confronted By White
The two men arrived at the library, which is open on Sundays after 3 p.m. and they were con fronted by a lone white who grabbed one of the Negroes by the arm.
They shook loose and about 10 other whites came up, attacking the ministers with their fists. Both Negroes were knocked to the ground but they got to their feet and ran for their car.
As they ran, they were pelted with stones and soft drink bottle by the white mob which by the] had reached about 25.
Negroes Beaten
The crowd overtook the Negros at the car and began wrecking the vehicle and heating the minister again. They fled on foot and were picked up by a Negro driving by about a block away.
Police arrived moments after the incident and blocked off the street and cleared away the crowd.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
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