Nation: Wisdom on Bogalusa

Another stinging setback for the Grand Knights came from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which severely enjoined Klan members from interfering with the civil rights of Negroes in Louisiana’s Washington Parish, whose biggest town is strife-torn Bogalusa (pop. 23,000). In a decision that may deter Klan mischief more effectively than any number of congressional investigations, Judge John Minor Wisdom warned Klan toughs all over the South that they face effective federal intervention at the smallest interference with Negroes’ rights, can no longer use economic coercion and threats of violence to keep Negroes from voting.

Klan intimidation earlier this year forced cancellation of a speech on racial peace by former Little Rock Congressman Brooks Hays and subsequently prevented Negroes from holding civil rights demonstrations. Judge Wisdom left no doubt as to his own opinions of the Klan, branded defendant Klansmen as “ignorant bullies, callous of the harm they know they are doing and lacking in sufficient understanding to comprehend the chasm between their own twisted Konstitution and the noble charter of liberties under law that is the American Constitution.”