May 31, 1963 - About 600 Negro children, some of them of grade school age, were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi tonight and hauled to jail in trucks. Sheriff’s deputies, city policemen holding nightsticks, and members of the Mississippi Highway Patrol carrying riot guns moved in a double line to cut off the students, who were marching to the downtown shopping area. Police dogs were brought to the scene but were not used. Singing and waving American flags, the students waited in line to be arrested. After the youngsters, pounding on the walls of the trucks, had been driven to a temporary jail at the state fairgrounds, the police marched through the street, ordering all Negroes inside their houses or businesses. Medgar Evers (pictured with sign), state field secretary of the NAACP, called the scene “just like Nazi Germany.” Pointing at the police, who were marching in a platoon from the area, Mr. Evers added: “Look at those storm troopers.” Mayor Allen Thompson has warned the jails will hold up to 10,000 demonstrators. In addition to 2,500 who could be imprisoned at the fairgrounds, the Mayor said, others could be taken 160 miles to the state penitentiary at Parchman, Miss.
