June 13, 1963 - In Jackson, Mississippi today, the police charged on adults and teenagers who were jeering and chanting “We want freedom” and struck them with clubs. A blow to the head felled John Salter (pictured), 29, a white sociology professor in the group. Six Negroes were struck or choked by police nightsticks drawn across their throats. Others were snatched or pushed from the porch of a Negro home. The incident came as the police were arresting 82 Negro youths who had staged a second mass march to protest the ambush slaying early yesterday of Medgar Evers, the 37-year-old state field secretary of the NAACP who had led the month-long desegregation drive in the state capital. The marchers were jailed on charges of parading without a permit. Professor Salter of Tougaloo Southern Christian College, who took part in a recent sit-in demonstration in Jackson, and Miss Lois Chaffee, 23, a former Tougaloo staff member, were charged with disturbing the peace. They were imprisoned. Mr. Salter was treated for head lacerations at University Hospital and then released to the police. He appeared later at a mass rally at Blair Street African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. His head was shaved and bandaged, and his shirt was torn and bloodstained. The police action today infuriated Negroes who already were angry over the slaying of Mr. Evers. Some threatened openly to retaliate with violence. “If Mayor Thompson don’t want no violence, he better stop his little boys in blue helmets from beating people up,” declared a Negro bystander. “And that don’t mean violence next week. It means violence right now.”
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