RACES: Thunderhead

Under the corporate laws of Georgia, a legal charter was obtained last August by the “benevolent and patriotic society” of Columbians. This disarming front shielded ominous trappings. The members wore Army khaki uniforms and startling insignia—a red thunderbolt. The Columbians also boasted a belligerent creed: “To create voting solidarity among all white American citizens. … To encourage our people to think in terms of race, nation and faith.”

Thus equipped, President Emory Burke, 31-year-old Atlanta draftsman and high-school graduate, began drumming up recruits. Secretary Homer L. Loomis Jr., 32, was an avid assistant. A war veteran and socialite son of a wealthy New York lawyer (“where I learned to hate Jews and Negroes”), Loomis moved to Atlanta last winter with the intention of “starting something.” Although the loose-mouthed rantings of Yankee Loomis were hotly denounced by civic-minded Atlantans, he was quickly able to find a following. His formula: “We tell the people what they want to hear. We excite them. Then we organize them.”

Last week organized, khaki-shirted Columbians staged a meeting in a downtown Atlanta hall. While a tinny phonograph blared martial music, Columbians stamped up & down, looking baleful and clenching raised fists. Secretary Loomis, in a crew haircut, excoriated Jews, Negroes and the “alien element.” President Burke, speaking with an affected English accent, presented a “medal of honor” to 17-year-old James Childers, just released on bail for allegedly blackjacking a Negro.

Two days later the Columbians gathered in public again. On Atlanta’s unpaved Garibaldi Street, Frank Jones, a 45-year-old Negro, was moving his family belongings into an unpainted bungalow once tenanted by whites. Columbians met him at the door, pointed to placards warning Negroes away from the neighborhood.

Columbian R. L. Whitman had brought along his wife and baby to watch the fun. On the baby’s sleeve was pinned the thunderbolt symbol (see cut).

Before the lightning could strike, Atlanta police swooped down on the crowd. Lectured Police Chief M. A. Hornsby: “I want to tell you once and for all … the Atlanta police department is policing this town.” Four of the leaders, including disgruntled Homer L. Loomis Jr. and Whitman, were hustled off to jail, booked for disorderly conduct and “inciting a riot.”

In Detroit’s cosmopolitan Petoskey section, hoodlums last week systematically scarred the windows of 41 kosher butcher shops with acid. Apparently well-organized, the vandals carried specially insulated buckets, drove cars with license plates covered. Police had no clue as to their identity.