This is George Berg speaking from the General Assembly at Oklahoma City. Even Presbytery business can be a basis of misunderstanding. The Reverend Geddes Orman and the Reverend Alexander Stusrt of the Union Presbytery, Synod of the Mid-South told the General Assembly of the beating they received while on Presbytery Business in Camden, Alabama, May 11th and 12th. This is a story as told to the General Assembly by Mr. Stuart.

Mr. Moderator fathers, brethren. I like to make one quick claim to distinction while before the General Assembly, I'm sure I'm not the only person to have addressed the assembly with broken arm. However, at this point, I am willing to claim the distinction as being the only minister to do it, who bore on his cast the signature of the stated clerk of the General Assembly

We met with the commission in Camden, Alabama, on the evening of May 11. That was a very successful heart warming and inspiring meeting. We discovered many things about the Negro churches in Camden that we had not known until this time. We discovered a wonderful spirit of concern, of interest, of cooperation, of desire and of need on the part of our Negro work in that section of the country. The commission meeting continued for some hours until approximately 11:30 Central Standard Time. The commission adjourned and we returned to Camden, where a minister who had traveled with us, the Rev. James Reese of Knoxville, was taken to the home of Mr. Hobbs, the Negro principal of the school in Camden. My companion and I then went to the hotel in Camden Wilcox County Hotel, and after ringing the night bell three times, we aroused the attendant who offered us the only accommodation he had, which was a single room with a double bed. I never thought of sleeping with the stated clerk of presbytery before, and I assure you I'll never do it again. The man was very gracious and apparently sincere in his desire for us to have this room. I filled out the registration form, using at his request, both names on the same card and inadvertently, I listed the wrong license number. I'm one of these people who have a car and I have to have a car. I drive by myself and the larger car, the family car I drive with the family or when I'm on business with other people. The only difference in the number is that one of the license numbers has a letter. The other the other is a non they're identical, except for those for that tax cut. So I listed the wrong number. We went into the room when directed bid coming to one another before going to sleep. What a successful day it had been and how we ourselves had been inspired and enlightened and challenged by what we had seen on behalf of the Negro community there in Alabama at about three o'clock in the morning. There was this loud pounding at the door. I was in a state of similar consciousness, as I usually am. At that time in the morning, my companion was much more alert than I sprang to his feet and sprung to the door, reminded me of the story of the poem of the night before Christmas, where it all happened. He opened the door and he saw what I had not yet seen, and that is a man standing. There was what I believe was a 12 gauge shotgun. It looked like an 80 millimeter howitzer when I saw it, but at that time I believe it was a 12 gauge shotgun and a pistol in his pocket. From this point on, I'll leave out the descriptive adjectives the man used for the sake of press relations. And because we really not had anything constructive to the nature of the reason for my being present here

You men get dressed and get out of here. I heard that and aroused a little more and asked what I thought was a relatively simple question. What time is it? Then he said, turn on the light. Well, I was about to turn on the light because in the first place, it just didn't occur to me that it ought to be on at that moment. And so he said, again, turn on the light. And when it was not turned on, he then said, Well, I'll turn it all myself. And he proceeded to turn it on at that point. So I'll just go. I got up out of bed rather willingly. Then Mr. I already had all of his clothes, including my undershirt. I recover that from him and began to get dressed. And incidentally, if you see someone who quotes an old proverb to you that says all men are alike, they all put their trousers on one leg at a time. You tell them, you know, at least one man who says that's not true. So the man began by accusing us of being there for the purpose of integration. We had come, as he said, to quote him to stir up these [Unrecognized]. We assured him that that was not the reason for our being there. This was a situation in which reason or logic did not prevail in any form. The first blow of the rifle, excuse me, of the shotgun struck me on the jaw quite without provocation. At least from my point of view, I was able to detect a motion of the gun before it did strike and dodged away from the blow and received a glancing blow on jobs. The second blow awarded with my left arm in order to keep it from landing on my head. The conversation then deteriorated completely

to the

other accusations were made as to who we were and the nature of our business in Alabama and the assurance in this man's judgment that he had put two and two together and gotten four. In spite of our trying to tell him that he had done it and gotten six, he just had the wrong answer from the beginning. He hurled a number of insulting remarks to me, turned to my companion and said, This goes for you too, and hit him behind the ear and immediately turned again to me was the third blow of the shotgun and this one fractured my right arm. I said immediately occurrence my arm is broken. And he said before the night over, you're going to be dead and be floating in the river. And at this point, I was beginning to think that perhaps he was right. My wife is always complaining that I carry too much if she says junk in my pocket, in my jacket pocket, the inside jacket pocket. I had a pair of glasses, a pipe, a baggage pipe cleaners, a little leather folio that I just refilled with fresh note paper and a fountain pen. The next blow of the shotgun caught me full force across that pocket and knocked me across the foot of the bed. When I was on the bed in this position with broken arm, he began, then in earnest to use the shotgun as a woodsman might use an ax or as a baseball player, might use a bat with no intent to use it at all as a gun. He gripped it by the stock end and began then to pound relentlessly with the barrel of the gun. I warded as many blows of the gun as I could with my arms and legs. One of the last blows shattered my wristwatch. The blow to my pocket broke the glasses pipe and the fountain pen. The gun disintegrated in his hands, it literally came apart. He said this doesn't make any difference. And he took his pistol from his pocket and ordered us to pick up our luggage

and get out of the room

as best we were able. We did that. Mr. Ormon had been hidden it twice on the head. He was in good running condition. And I understand now there's to be a report that a three minute mile has been accomplished. I started toward the car in the direction of the car. We parted directions. This somewhat instinctively. When one person is chasing two, he can't follow those if they go different ways. So Mr. Arman went to the right and I turned to the left of the car. He said, If you touch the car, I'll blow your brains out. So I proceeded not to touch the car very deliberately and walked on, passed it with my back to the man keeping as best I could. And on him and on his pistol, I managed to get to the car, which is about half a block away, and as I stepped around the corner, he fired the pistol. I first thought he had fired at me. I saw or felt no indication or heard, no indication of the truth of that. And then I felt that perhaps he had fired at Mr Ormon or had fired a signal for some companions hit in the bushes a few minutes in case the White Citizens Council was on hand and when nothing occurred. I continued to proceed down the street with the assurance that my right arm was broken and with feeling that my left arm probably what my left arm was broken and the possibility that my right leg was also broken. The only point of contact we had in Camden was at a Negro home where we had had dinner the evening before, and I had to walk a long way to that home nine blocks in the course of that experience. I recalled other experiences in hostile territory of the Second World War, where one had from whatever the news and discoveries, whether it is friend or foe, and if his uncertainty stays hidden. I did hide one time during that time from an approaching car. I saw the car coming two blocks away and scramble over a little hedge into a yard full of dogs. It seems everybody down there has at least two hounds. They began to bark as hounds can do, and I had a package of m and ms and a package of lifesavers in my pocket, which I immediately proceeded to feed those dogs. And this was a new experience both for me and for them. We we both enjoyed it, and the dogs and the dogs there did quit barking, and they began to pick up the bark across town so that every dog in Camden at about 3:30 that morning was barking out. We did rendezvous at the home of the principal, Mr Hobbs. From there, we were driven in his car to the Reverend Claude Brown's home in Selma, some 42 miles away. There, I received temporary medical attention from a doctor, Maddocks, who did splint my arm and give first aid medication to the bruises on my arm and other arm and legs, and gave us some medication for pain. We were driven then to Birmingham, where we boarded the plane for Knoxville, and I was met there at the airport and Mr Ormon was taken to his home, where he later went to receive medical attention, and I was taken to the Oak Ridge Hospital, to which I was admitted ending, which I spent five days. This is a summary of what took place at Camden. I would like again to underscore that it did not have anything to do with race as we normally think of involvement in the race question. I'd like to summarize, if I may, something of a feeling that seems to me to be important. As a part of the church, we are a part of what we believe to be a new community and if it were God's will and this new community should be formed and history a community based on faith in Jesus Christ and characterized by loving service, then this community. The church finds its reason for being in the reconciling work of Jesus Christ and in the reconciling work of one individual of one human being to another. Love so grounded is the essential contribution of true Christianity to the current struggle for human brotherhood, which goes far beyond civil rights without patient mercy. And Motivating Love, which springs from our knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ, our human Society would be more disintegrated than it is now, our weak efforts to secure full integration in the human community would even be more ineffective. It seems to me that integration is the only alternative to disintegration. The blessings of brotherhood are full integration of all men into the human community will far outweigh the burdens of brotherhood. Then and only then will we be able to recognize ourselves and all other men for what we are brothers with a common ancestry. In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, he has Shylock. Say these words if not a Jew, eyes f not a Jew hands organs dimensions. Since his affections passions fed with the same food hurt with the same weapon subject to the same disease he owned by the same means warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is. If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you poisonous, do we not die? Substitute. The name of any race or class or color of humankind for the word Jew, and you will come out the same place, we are brothers with a common ancestry, a common calling, a common destiny. And St. Paul, and speaking at Mars Hill said this he that is God created every race of men of one stark to inhabit the whole Earth surface epics, the epics of their history and the limits of their territory. They were to seek God, and it might be tough and find him, though indeed, he is not far from each one of us. Find him. We live in him. We exist, we are his offspring. This is the way God intends us to live. And so help us, God, we will live like that. I want to thank you for your hospitality and inviting us here and to be proud to go home to say to my kindergarten age son who told me when I left because he was angry that I was going way again. Well, when you get there, they'll break your other arm.

Look. But. Dr. Kenneth Nye of National Elections is going to have the final word in this presentation. Moderator. This is before you. For your information only and to indicate something of the difficulty in carrying on not only mission but the ecclesiastical

function of the church, the legal aspects

of this thing will be carried through to the very end by the Board of National Mission. And immediately after their report to

the Assembly, Alexander Stewart and Get US, Orman appeared before a special press conference with Frank Hines as

moderator of the question. Yes, this is day for work. What happened to your car is on your side while you were driven by a Negro? That's a cell in Birmingham. Did you abandon your car there? Yes, the car was left there and

the wiring was damaged

or black.

One was pulled from under the dash. The wiring under

the hood was also damaged, so the car would not run through as a manager. I never understood that.

This was the man who admitted us to the hotel.

Yeah, I heard it, and I can't think of the man who beat Alex Rodriguez. I'm sorry.

Yes, the man who who let us have the room is the man who later came and beat

us up as he was arrested. No, we're leaving.

Well, the sheriff, I think, would know about that order.

Somebody said they were part of the Negro Leagues to the end. You know what I mean by that?

Yes, we have consulted of counsel and you're in the process now of these kinds of consultations. And until they are completed, we will not know what

will take place in your chronology. I got hazing at one point said you were running in your came at the corner of the vampire pistol and you didn't push the fire. The pistol on, you ran away. What not to fire the system and the two? So far as I know nothing. We just went from that point. Yes. Installment, if you have any contact with law enforcement officials that we did not the did not enter. We did not. We were advised by the ones to whose home we were. That would best probably not too well. Have you ever made a formal complaint or has been brought to be efficiently at the law enforcement people handling? Yes, it has. Through your counsel? Yes. You a to be back. The one time I did was

one of the early blows. Shotgun struck my hand and I caught

it by the barrel and the gun ended up in the pit of my stomach. That's the nearest I ever got to actually getting hold of the weapon or to

being able to retaliate in some way.

When he said Let go as well and let go.

Well, he was a rather heavy man.

Oh, I'm not. He was not a tall man, not

particularly tall about Mr. Orman's bill, but

had much more weight in some places. And this was a way to do a Negro. Yes, he was his government. How did you get him? But when he opened them, when I opened the door and I saw the gun, I'm more or less frozen my position. And when he said, Get your clothes on. Of course, I got my clothes on, so I was in the front. And when he said, get out of the room, why we took him at his word and we were in a room right next to the lobby of the hotel. And it was a hotel with a front porch open, no cover on the porch. And just as soon as I hit the front porch, I saw open space and I thought the best thing to do was use it. So I just turned right start running and you run to. I ran right through the middle of town. It's a little town of, say, 750000 as a courthouse, as a business section. And I went right through the business section, but I didn't see anyone. I did. I just sold out and I happened to remember the turned to make to go to the Negro school. See, we had been the Negro School and the Negro Minister's Home and the principal of the school building next to the Negro minister, and we knew that the Negro minister that was with us was spent the night there. So this is the place we knew where to go. So I ran there and I was there approximately 10 minutes, I suppose, before Mr. Stewart arrived. And the principal had gotten the Mr. Reese up the minister and had gone over and gotten the minister up of the church there, and they were deciding what to do and about. This time, Mr. Steward arrived at the door. And their decision was to take us to Selma. They did. They did not ask, Gosh, what what we thought was best. They decided themselves among themselves. What was best at this point? Do you know whether they received threats? We do not. As far as I know, you know, I've only received just one anonymous call and all of it in Knoxville. And I, you know, I received none. Android. Roy Adams wouldn't mind. I'm a little vague on one point. You said that the firing of the car was the damage. Have you got your car back now? Yes, the car is back returned to you by some people down in this town. Ah yes, Mr.

Reese stayed behind and had the car repaired and drove it back

to Knoxville. The reason when they drove past there was a company that said there were three parts. That's right. Also, I think that you say that, you know, this man came to the room that he was a man who had given you the room in the hotel. Yes, he worked for the hotel. Get a room clerk or something. Yes and no. It was kind of wondering why, since this was about 10 or 11 or 12 days ago, there has been nothing out on the wire services at all on this. How has it been? Oh yes, yes. Yes, yes, it was out on AP and UPI. Both it was. It was amazing thereafter. Yes. In fact, that night on Wednesday morning, there was a little on because the community would not call. And then the U.P. of Montgomery called the U.P. of Knoxville and asked them to ascertain if we were there and if what they heard was true. Then this was the room clerk in the hotel, and everybody now knows who it is, and no action has been taken yet in this small town against this man. That's correct. And unless there's tremendous pressure brought to bear, it would appear to you that nothing is going to be done unless the church can do something. Well, that way that's under advisement. I think anybody would question Mr. Stewart. You referred to being reminded of hostilities of World War Two. Are you a veteran? Yes. Yes, I am. Did the chaplaincy or were you in the military? No, I was in the military service.

In the infantry, in Europe.

Yes. How long? Four years. Four years. How long you were in combat there. I think just just very, very slightly toward the end of the war.

I went in the service and my training was completed and I was stationed in Europe. First was in the mop up and occupational forces behind the lines. I never was actually what we say a frontline combat infantry, Mr. Military.

I do not. He does not have a track record to Dr. Nice. As a doctor, my general secretary, the Board of National Missions, is the doctor. Can you hear me? And I'll be glad to speak up. Well, there are several alternatives. One of the criminal acts and the other is a civil action. A criminal action, of course, has to be taken in the state of Alabama itself. The sheriff has been officially notified, as has been said, that the action will be taken. The other action is civil action, which can be taken in a federal court and they can be initiated immediately. We can't continue not using Federal Court Action Criminal Act for violation of civil rights. I suspect so that if we have, our counsel is not clear as to the direction, but the opinion that moment is that it will be a civil suit for money. Concerning criminal action in Alabama, added compensation for the prosecuting attorney, just whatever it might be in the Madeleine that none of it would be. So it would be a direct result of the legal counsel and our count Florida and also the District Attorney. There was a civil suit against the owner of the hotel. You know, the name of the clerk who did this beating only

as it was reported to the papers. This is an alleged name, yes.

What is the name? We don't know. I don't know.