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COMMUNITY RELATI0NS COMMISSION v1rJNOTE: 1203 CITY HALL ATLANTA, GEORGIA "Tt,a City of AH cnt9 · Pcli": ;.;. D,:;p~rtment is inyestigating all of the incidents which took pl ::c·'" in th1;; Di,xitl Hills area June 17th thru June 20th." _. July 12, 1967 REPORT ON DIXIE HILLS EPISODE R OU I\ 0 A memo in the files of the Community Relations Commission, dated April 5, 1967 states "Mr. Charles Hart suggests that the Commission hold a hearing in the Northwest area immediately ~ including, Troy Street area, Dixie Hills, Almond Park, etc. He pointed out several problems in the area. On . April 19th a meeting was held at Allen A. M. E. Church, at which time 24 persons spoke, and some 15 more subffiitted written statements about needs. (On May 4th, a meeting was held a t Wilkes Chapel, in Perry Homes area} The complaints included sewers; street paving; street signs; police protection~ "In Dixie Hills Plaza"; recreation; double session schools; charges in public housing projects; rats; maintenance of apartments. The individual complaints we re referred to the appropriate departments and the Commiss ion was informe d that an e ncouraging number had bee n handle d. The ma jor ones, of inadequate resources for young people would require ma jor res our ces and programs through the City Aarks and Recreation Depart ment or thr ough t he Boa rd of Education. On May 9th , the Center Hill - Grove Park Ci vic Associati on CNAC f or the West Central EDA c enter s ubmi tted r eques t s to Committee fo r 8 s pec ific pr ograms in the gene ral area . On same groups submi t ted t o the Polic e Committee reques t s for of a Police At hletic League. a nd the the Pa r ks May 10th development The Dixie Hills ~hoppi ng Center is in area of about one block by one- half block. It is surrounded by apartment houses with little open spac e - -a parking area for about 20 cars. On the evening of Sa tu r day , J une 1 7th, a customer left the Flamingo Gril l a t a bout 9:15 P. M. and wa s s tandi ng on a c orner in the pl aza. [He was drinki ng beer .] Accor ding to him, Eddie Wil kin s , who~wes. t hw one arrest3rl.: " I was standi ng on t he corner , had a c an of beer a nd I'm ol d enough, I'm over 21 ; then t hree securit y policemen f rom the Flami ngo Grill, cam3 up a nd t ol d me to move on. He's got. a grudge against me; the sec urity guards said 'You c an 't s tan d here on the corner ' I sai d ' Why?' The~ he pushed me . ( The security gua rd } Then we starte d t o f ight. And tt-: c.-. the city police came . " Ed -:! ~e \rJilkins' sister, Georgia Wilkins, was arrested later. He :-.· \:e:;-, ,.~. 1 ":!Jetec tive J. ~J. Bailey pulled me over and tried to ha11dr_· ...'. 1· + · :... . He · .aDped me and I s tarte d to fight back. My Daddy told me t~ i - ~ pn ~i ~~ ~a ka me on in and he would get me out. They put a b~ i •. tu~1,< ·o; JJ'L br ass knuc kles, beat the boy ans t hen started bea-!;·l.: i~ .~ :: ·. ··: ;;: ~s t r-1,,.:;;:,; ~ a nd bac k. I asked why they were arr esting and hi t t .:.,1; ;,.:.. : :1 :::1 NAgro of fic e r told me t o s hut up ! He said he ha d a rrested ;na ·f or l:c:d langu~ ge . I s aid they should a rrest eve r ybody t hen. I kept quiet so they would ' nt - beat me. " Wr.:i 'f • �Page # 2 Report on Dixie Hills Episode During this period, a crowd gathered and some protested the arrests. Another man was also arrested. A police officer said Miss Wilkins was hitting at them with her pocketbook and cursing. She was arrested on charges of an assualt on an officer, using obscene and vulgar language. Her brother was arrested on a miscellaneous mischief charge. The third person, Joseph Kendrick of Proctor Street, was char ved with interfering with an officer. They claim to have been beaten by the police in the car. The crowd gathered. The police officer denied the charges against him, saying that they were fighting and protesting. There were no disturbances on Saturday night and no police cars in the area. The incidents in the Dixie Hills area were sparked off as a result of the fight with the security guards on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon Stokley Carmichael and his SNCC companions were in the neighborhood. After a swimmin g trip at Mozley Park, they were arrested for loitering. It was reported by Howard Watson, a resident of the Dixie Hills area, there were about 4 police ca r s patroling. He held a meeting at St. Joseph's Church on Verbena Street, N. W., with some residents of the ~om~unity to decide whether they should pick et the shopping plaza. The meeting was held at 3:00 P. ~1 . , shortly after Stokley Carmichael's arrest. There were no incidents Sunday night. Monday afternoon, a young man was shot by a police officer. The incident was diecrib ed by an eyewitness as follows: "Somebody threw a brick in the shopping center and hit the window to a store, the burglar ala rm went off. A boy (the one who was shot) picked up a stick and started beating on the alarm to try to make it stop, as they had seen policemen do. The police drove up, on e man got out of the car and came o ver to the boy and told him to stop. The boy didn't stop. When the boy continued beating, the policeman demanded again that he stop. When the boy continued beating, the policeman pushed him. The bo~ 's friend sug ges ted that he defend himself. Th e n the boy retaliated by pushing the policeman back. They started to stuffle. The boy pushed the policen,an against his car and backed a way from him. The policeman pulled out his pistol and shot the boy." Marion Ward, 31 Shirley Place, gave this account of what happened Tues. night. He said : "The Police Department got nasty with us last night after people got shot . We tried to get police officers to help us out, he told us to wait, we should have been in the house, to wait, they would get to us when they could----- Fellow was dead, little boy would have died --told me to pick fellow up and bring him to him --- fellow was already dead --- the fellow I went to was the person who did the shooting. Police were scared to death, had shotguns . Fellow who threw firebomb was no where near us. Lady said 'We better go in the house' when firebomb was thrown, tried to get in the same door. I would know police officer who shot --- got a good look at him in light of bomb". �Page # 3 Report on Dixie Hills Episode The observations of Reginald Carter after Dixie Hills Rioting. (Community Relations Staff) I arri ved into the are a a bo ut 9:15 A. M., Tuesday, June 20th at Verbena Street at the EDA West Cen tral Neighborhood Service Center. I saw the bulldozers and tractors u f the City of Atlant a grading ground to be used for a play lot. The street cleaners we re clearing the streets. The sewers wer ~ being cleaned out and ma ny of the city officials were in the a rea giving directions a nd making pla ns about what is to be done next about play lots. The area was without incident. Later on in the evening, 10:15 P. M. , when I arrived back into the area, policemen were fully armed. I had heard that four (4) people were shot, one fatally. The area was high in tension and several shots were fired periodically. I went to Grady Hospital in an effort to get a n official report of the incident and possibly to talk to some of the injured. I was only able to g e t a story of what happened from a news reporter. She reported: "A Mr. Timothy Ross ~-Jas fat a lly shot while sitting on a step at his home; Marion Ward was shot between the eyes, his injury was not serious; Catherine Duncan was shot in the hand while in her apartment. The shooting re s ulted from a kid who thre w. 8 fire bomb at a po liceman. The policeman got excited and sta rted shooting". Reginald Rivers, age nine (9) was shot in the side. I r e turned to the area of Dixie Hills an d heard that the Mayor had been th ere f u r a short while. I listened while Reverend Boone, Rush Con gregatio nal Church, Rev e rend J, C. Wa r d, Hunt er Hill Baptist Church, Ben Perry, WAOK, and Douglas J ac kson who was shot by the police on the evening before, was interviewed about the shooting of the afternoon. I left the area about 12:15 A. M. , there were no further incidents. Wed nesd a y mornin g: Ma yor Allen rend eied a 9 P . M. ~ A. M. curfew und er powers granted to him on Monday, a nd request e d t h e Community Relatio ns Commission's Execu tiv e Committee to hold a meeting to h ear fro~ residents of the area --- notes attached: Upon r e commendation of the local leaders and the Community Relations Commission the Mayor extend ed the curfew to midnig ht . Was hingt on a nd Anderson Par ks are progressing. Meetings of residents with a partment ma na gers a nd store managers in th e riot area ha v e resulted in ag reeme nts for better maint e nan ce ser v ic e in the apartments and better quality goods i n the s tores . The Re ve rends Boone and J. C. Uard were ve ry interested in th is. At its meeting on Friday, June 23 , 1967 the Commu nity Relations Commission adopted resolutions: 1. Ur g ing the Reta il Food Deale rs Association to adopt membership qualifications and to dicipline its members . 2. Requesting an immediate surve y of Recreation resources . ,_.:·. ·. : . . ·-~r �1-- Page f/4 Report on Dixie Hills Episede 3. Asking the Community Council to convene a city-wide meeting for long-term plans for recreation, and 4. A resolution addressed to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, the text of which is attached. Minutes of the Hearing held by the Commission on Wednesday afternoon, are attached and copy of requests from Citizens Groups to Parks and Recreation Committee on May 9th and Police Committee on May 10th. Disposition of Cases. as of Julv 21, 1967: Miss Georqia Wilkins: In Municipal Court, fined $17 for resisting arrest; i lS for profane language; bound over to ·county Court on charge of assault and battery. Mr. Eddie Wilkins: In Municipal Court, charge of vulga r language, dismissed; bound over to County Court on charges of assualt and battery an d malisciou s mischief. Mr. Joseph Hendricks: In Municipal Court, for interferring with arrest, fined $25, or i lS and time,suspended; charge of profane language dismissed; bound over on charge of assa ult and battery . The cases have not been set f or trial in County cour t; probably in September . �