U.S. Accuses Ala. Governor

Mar. 10, 1965 - The Justice Department asked today for a sweeping Federal court order to prevent Alabama officials from interfering with peaceful demonstrations on behalf of Negro rights.

In a complaint filed in Montgomery, Ala., the department accused Gov. George Wallace; Albert Lingo, director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety; and Sheriff James Clark of Dallas County of “preventing and discouraging Negroes from exercising their full rights of citizenship.”

Specifically, the department asked for an order preventing the officials from “summarily punishing, by striking, beating, tear-gassing, or other means,” any person for his participation in a demonstration on behalf of the rights of Negroes.

The complaint, filed under a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that lets the department intervene in court cases it considers of general public importance, asked:

— That the three officials and their agents be enjoined by the court from intimidating, threatening, or coercing anyone for the purpose of interfering with his right to register to vote.

— That they be prevented from interfering with “lawful, peaceable demonstrations on behalf of the rights of Negroes by attempting forcibly to disperse the demonstrators or seeking to impose unreasonable conditions on the demonstrators.”

— That they be ordered to provide ordinary police protection for those attempting to exercise the right to vote or demonstrate lawfully on behalf of Negro rights.

The department also said today that agents of the FBI were investigating the beatings of three white ministers last night in Selma, and the violent dispersal last Sunday of demonstrators setting out on their first attempt to march to the state Capitol.

The latter inquiry will decide whether there are grounds for indictment of any of the troopers who broke up the march with tear gas, clubs, and whips.

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