NEWS RELEASE
STUDENT  NONVIOLENT  C««RDINATING COMMITTEE
197| AUBURN AVENCB
ATEMTA,   GEORGIA
688-§331
<2
ATLANTA, Ga,, March 22 - A series of nation-wide demonstrations was
held this week, protesting the arrests of three members of the Stu-
dent Nonviilent Coordinating Committee in Baton Rouge, Lgufiifitia■ -^
The three, SNCC Field Secretaries Dion Diamond: and Robert Zell-
:d SNCC Chairman Charles McDew, have all been
fiminal anarchy." Diamond was arrested on February 1 when he went
to the campus of Southern University to fullfill a speaking engage-
ment, and Zellner and McDew were arrested when they visited Diamond
on February 16 in the  Baton Rouge   jail*
The nation-wide demonstrations  began in Viaehington, D.  C,  on
February 28, when members of the Nonviiolent Action Group  (NAG)
picketed the home of Senator Allen J* Ellander   (D-La*) protesting
"cruel and inhuman treatment of Negro students" in Senator Ellender's
home state.    Later the NAG group presented  a petition bearing 1,154
names to the Justice  Department, asking tham to investigate  the Baton
Rouge arrests.
On March 13, members of SNCC and NAG staged a sit-in in the  office
of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy*    After  conferring with Justice
Department officials,  the group waited in the Attorney General's
office until it closed*    On March 16,  another group of demonstrators
was bodily removed in wheelchairs from the  Attorney General's office*
That same  day in Nov; York's Foley Square,  an integrated  group of
100 persons picketed  the Federal Court House in protest of the   Louisiana anarchy charges.    The New York demonstrations were   sponsored "by
CORE, SNCC,  and Students For a Democratic Society.    Other demonstartior
were scheduled for Chicago, San Francisco,  and  Los Angeles*
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