Scientists have reached general agreement in
recognizing that mankind is one: that all men
belong to the same species, _Homo sapiens_.
--UNESCO Statement on Race, 1950
We'd already had the highlights of the Mount Pelley story from the
local wire service but it had left a number of questions unanswered.
I looked in the stringer book to see who we had in Mississippi. To my
surprise I found that we had a Mr. Elbert Patterson right in Mount
Pelley. I sent him a wire asking for at least a thousand words, with
good color and quotes. His story was on my desk in less than two hours.
Here it is:
Mount Pelley, Miss., July 29.--The bus driver said, "Move to the
back of the bus." When the Negro passenger failed to obey, the
driver shouted at him: "That's a white man's seat you're in,
nigger. Get back where you belong or I'll throw you off."
The Negro, a neatly dressed man of about thirty, carrying a
briefcase, replied quietly, "This is an interstate bus. Under
Federal law I have a right to sit where I please."
Eleven other passengers were on the bus, which was due to pass
through this town on its way to Biloxi. Six were whites. The
other five Negroes sat without objection in the rear section,
traditionally reserved in this state for "colored."
The Negro man who refused to move was sitting alone in a double
seat three rows back from the door. He turned and looked out the
window.
His attitude infuriated the driver, Merle Cagle, who pulled the bus
to the side of the road, slammed on the brakes and strode down the
aisle.
"I'll give you one last chance, black boy," Cagle said. "Move back
or get off."
There is confusion among the other passengers who reported this
conversation today as to whether the Negro replied, "Don't touch
me" or "You'll be sorry."
A great deal of confusion surrounds the ensuing incidents. The bus
driver claimed the Negro passenger hit him with both fists and
kicked him. The white passengers said the Negro man hit the bus
driver with his briefcase, which they presumed contained something
heavy, using it like a club. The Negro passengers said the lone
Negro man sat still, making no effort to defend himself.
Whatever happened, Cagle was severely cut and bruised on his hands.
In addition, the big toe of his right foot was broken, a hospital
report said late today.
Cagle went back to the driver's seat and brought the bus here. He
parked it in front of the office of Sheriff Ellis Grout, whose
name became nationally known several years ago in connection with
the fatal beating of a 13-year-old Negro boy who was said to have
"sassed" a white woman. Grout had refused to arrest or question
the two white men who boasted that they had administered the fatal
beating, saying they were just big-mouths "trying to take credit"
for the crime.
Grout, an admitted Kleagle in the Ku Klux Klan and a leader in the
local White Citizens movement, was sitting in front of his office
in a chair tipped back against the wall when the bus stopped.
Cagle jumped out and pointed to the Negro man sitting at the front
of the bus. "I got somebody for your jail, Sheriff," Cagle said.
Grout asked a few questions, then said through the bus window: "You
must be one of them northern niggers. Well, this ain't the north,
so suppose you just come out of that bus."
When the Negro passenger gave no sign that he had heard, Grout went
into the bus, drawing his pistol.
"I gave you an order, nigger," he said. "Get your black ass up off
that seat."
When again there was no reply, Grout, using his pistol as a club,
brought it down toward the man's head.
Here again eyewitness accounts differ. Some say the Negro raised
his briefcase and the gun hit it, going off. Others say the Negro
did not move at all and that the gun went off as the Sheriff was
bringing it down to club him.
What is known is that the bullet ricocheted off something and
struck Grout in the left shoulder.
Grout staggered out of the bus, bleeding profusely and shouting
that he'd been shot. A crowd gathered quickly.