CIA FUNDS AIDED NEGRO REGISTRATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000402470002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2013
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 7, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/20: CIA-RDP73-00475R000402470002-9
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'Rivers, are such Southern stal-
le:y Drew Pearson and
jack Zala.'erson
It will be vociferously de-
nied, but some of the South's
?
.right have either overlooked
most vocal opponents of civil
or sanctioned under-the-table
CIA aid to help Negro voting
registration and militant civil
? rights groups.
The CIA money was fun-
neled through private founda-
tions right under the nose of
the Central Intelligence
Watchdog Committee headed
by Sen. Dick Russell, Georgia
Democrat, and Rep. 'Mendel
Rivers, the South Carolina
Democrat. Both have made
speeches denouncing the civil
rights movement. Yet they
permitted CIA funds to go to
civil rights groups in the same
'manner that CIA money went
to student groups.
The disclosure emphasizes
;the importance of the drive
led by Sen. Eugene McCarthy
(D-Minn.), and Sen.. William
IFulbright (D-Ark.), to put
.1
!members of the Senate
!Foreign Relations Committee
;on the CIA Watchdog group,
now composed solely of mem-
ber from the :douse and Sen-
?ate Armed Services, Commit-
. ?:tee. This drive was defeated
'last fall when Russell emphati-
cally proclaimed that his com-
mittee knew what CIA Was
.doing. Obviously it didn't.' ? .
'On the Watchdog Commit-
tee, in addition to Russell and
????,
warts as John Stennis ,(D-
Miss.), Sam' Ervin (D-N.C.),
and Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.):
together with ? 0.? C. Fish-
er (Tex.), Elliott Hagan (Ga.),
and Alton Lennon (N.C.) ? all
Democrats.
CIA's Secret Channels
:rhe main conduit for CIA
money to help the Negro voter
registration drive was the
Southern Regional Council,
which received $60,000 of CIA
funds in 1963. The money was
channeled through . the New
World .Foundation..
- In 1962, $6000 of CIA funds
went to the Southern Regional
Council through the Aaron E.
Norman Fund. In ?1.96, the
Georgia Council on ". Human
Relations also got $2600 of
CIA money from the Norman
Fund.
The National Student Asso-
ciation, which received mas-
sive contributions of CIA
money, was also encouraged
by the CIA to push vofer reg-
istration drives in the South::
Justification for using 'CIA
funds was to quiet disastrous
foreign publicity caused by
civil rights violence. ? ?
The Norman. Fund, inciden-
tally; has ? also contributed to
CORE's scholarship and edh-
cational fur,d, ' the ' Lawyers'
Constitution.al. Defense Com-
mittee,. and the League 'for In-
dustrial Democracy, ,a11-...vigor7
ous advocatet.
,,Note:. Furicl officials 'deny
any knowledge of CIA finan-
cial ties; nevertheless ? they are
a fact
One Man-One Vote .
A drive to head off the first
Federal Constitutional Con-
vention in U.S. history has
been started in legislatures
which hitherto voted for such
a convention, The drive is led
by Illinois State Sen. Paul
Simon of Troy, Ill., home state
of a man who has chiefly
sponsored the convention,
Sen. Everett Dirksen, who
wants to nullify the Supreme
Court's one man-one vote rul-
ing.
Though Dirksen's home leg-
islature passed a resolution fa-
voring a? Constitutional Con-
vention in order to overturn
the Supreme Court, the Illi-
nois legislature has now found
that the Supreme Court was
right and that the equalization
of representation in the legis-
lature ?has worked for . Illi-
nois's general benefit. It has
also, incidentally, ? increased
Republican representation,
having given more votes to
the suburbs around Chicago
than to sparsely populated
downstate Illinois.
Despite this, Dirksen helped
to sneak', resolutions through
32 state legislatures favoring
the conventien. Never before
in the 180-year history of the
United States has the Nation
ever held . a convention to
change the Constitution; nor
has it come,Ahis close.::OnlY
9
gt"'"Al
it ;r.Y
k.via
?
two 'more states are needed to it
get 'the required number of
legislatures on record. '
This is why Sen. Simon, .a-f
..?
member of the Illinois legisla-:,
ture, which has already?votecl:;
for the convention, has intro-4:
duced a resolution to "rescind'..
the previous action." He has
also written to the majority:
and minority leaders of every.::
House and Senate in the 50'
states urging similar action, In
his letter, Sep. Simon points.;
out how easy. it is for state,
legislatures to go or....recore,
for a Constitutional Conven-
tion. ?
"There is no statutory?
framework for a Federal.:
Constitut ional convention."
Sen. Simon wrote his fellow, :
legislators. "There is somP.:
niestion whether such a Con?,.
vention can be limited to one;
? ''
tonic.
This means that a Con-.
Rtitutional Convention could ?
result in a fundamental chal-4
lenge to our basic freedoms. *,
"Under area representation;
in the past half century. gross:
lnequalities in representation;
became part of the American'
scene," writes Sen. Simon. ?
Nr.vada, 8 per cent of the pop-..,
controlled one housi.'
Tif the legislature; in Cali- ;
fornia,... one district hae.
S,038,771 /voters and anothe:.
Sistrict 14,204.: Are we seriouol
%bout wanting to ?returni.
Such a system?". ?? .. ? ? ?
. . ,
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/20: CIA-RDP73-00475R000402470002-9