
          The Cold Hard Truth
          By Chestnut, J.L., Jr.J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
          Vol. 10, No. 5, 1988, pp. 24, 23
          
          In the fall and winter of 1984, fifty
white FBI agents came bustling into five west Alabama black-majority
counties. The feds visited more than 1,000 black voters, often late at
night, and many of them elderly. Alabama State Troopers later joined
the feds, and it was once again a time of rotten infamy in Alabama
[Southern Changes, July-September 1985].
          I have been black in Alabama for almost sixty years and I wee
outraged. The feds announced they were investigating vote fraud in
regards to absentee ballots. For twenty years, the feds had refused to
investigate a single complaint by black voters of intimidation. I
announced that the feds were frauds themselves and using federal
criminal law to help the racist Republican administration in
Washington.
          As usual, I was accused by hypocritical whites and know-nothing
blacks of overstating the case and seeing racism everywhere. As usual,
some people felt the authorities were correct because they were the
authorities--classic, circular logic. Also, there is another group who
automatically supports the activities of the FBI.
          I knew that from 1979 to 1981, federal agents had prowled almost
daily through records of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in
Sumter County. The Federation was a training base for black political
leaders in the Black Belt. For that reason, a really sad bunch in
Alabama and Washington was upset with the Federation.
          The feds, of course, found no wrong-doing, but they crippled the
Federation and severely hampered fundraising for a very long
time. That was the intent at the outset. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby
(D-Ala.), then a Congressman, was a key force behind the bogus
investigation. He knows I know. He was representing a few white, local
political leaders and ignoring blacks.
          As to the vote fraud probe, eight blacks and one white were
indicted on 210 bogus charges that could have meant more than 1,000
years in prison. Elderly black people were saying, "I'll never vote
again." Certain blacks, as always, were claiming the investigation was
not racial and just a matter of enforcing the voting laws. I listened
quietly and wondered how much of this black nonsense was ignorance,
fear or opportunism. I still don't know.
          The federal election in 1984 was crucial in Alabama and
Washington. At the time it was felt that black voters might make the
difference in the re-election or defeat of U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton
(R-Ala.), and Republican control of the Senate might hinge on whether
Denton was successful (Demon was defeated in 1986 by Shelby). In
addition, Ed Meese had a long history of helping his friends.
          Not one of the 210 vote fraud charges held up in court. Recently, I
filed a motion to vacate the remaining charges and a guilty verdict by
an all-white jury against voting rights activist Spiver Gordon. The
government eagerly joined the motion and the motion was granted on
September 9, 1988.
          The federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals had said,
"...Gordon has sufficiently established the essential elements of
the selective prosecution test..." Thus, Gordon is entitled to
"discovery of the relevant government documents relating to the
local voting fraud cases the government has prosecuted and any voting
fraud complaints which they have decided not to pursue."
          Rather than provide that information to defense lawyers and the
public, the U.S. Attorney called and said if I filed a motion to
dismiss all charges against Gordon, the govern-

ment would join the
motion. How about that for vote fraud? Was there racism here?
          The appellate court took note that Gordon had "informed the
district court that in two similar voting fraud prosecutions, the
government had used five of six peremptory challenges to strike black
jurors in one case and four of six to strike black jurors in the
other. This proffer was sufficient under the circumstances to entitle
Gordon to a hearing..." on that issue.
          In the interim, however, Clarence Mitchell III, black legislator
from Maryland who came to Alabama and helped us in the vote fraud
mess, has been convicted in a bribery case investigated by the FBI and
prosecuted by the Justice Department. In 1984, Clarence went around
the nation saying, "The Ku Klux Klan and White Citizens Council can
close up shop, because the Justice Department is doing their work for
them."
          Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Mervyn Dymally placed in the
Congressional record an affidavit by former FBI informant Hirah
Friedman. In his sworn affidavit, Friedman stated that a program
within the FBI named "Fruhmenachen" (German for "primitive man") has
been established to investigate black public officials without
probable cause.  Friedman said the FBI assumed "that black
officials were intellectually and socially incapable of
governing..."
          I made a similar assumption about the FBI and the current
Republican administration way back in 1984.
          Recently, black FBI agent Donald Rochan charged white FBI agents
with a constant campaign of racist harassment against him and other
black agents. He said much more. The John Edgar Hoover legacy together
with White House racism impact heavily on the FBI.
          Black voters are not the only people harassed by that motley crowd
in Washington. Activists in the peace, labor and civil liberties
movements have had their problems. Two Congressional committees have
documented the outrageous, unconstitutional activities of the FBI
regarding people who oppose the Reagan-Bush Yankee nonsense in Central
America.
          Lord help us.
          Peace.
          
            J. L. Chestnut is an Alabama trial lawyer and
writer.
          
        