the Governor's approval of chapter 256, a broad breach of the peace statute, covering any person who shall enter any other place of business and create a disturbance or a breach of the peace in any way whatsoever including, but not restricted to, the making of threats or attempting to intimidate.

That could not be done now, could it, in view of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Mr. COLEMAN. I don't think so at all, no, sir.

Senator JAVITS. Did you say, as quoted by the newspaper, the Clarion-Ledger on December 19, 1955, page 1, "Let there be no misunderstanding. I am for segregation. Mississippi will never integrate."

Mr. COLEMAN. It is entirely possible I said it Senator. I am not in a position to deny it because I don't recall the incident and I assume that is a correct quotation.

Senator JAVITS. Governor, this is a very serious matter. lawyer, so are you. You are an excellent lawyer.

Mr. COLEMAN. Thank you.

Senator ERVIN. Off the record.

(Discussion off the record.)

I am a

(Whereupon, at 1 p.m. the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 2:40 p.m. on the same day.)

AFTERNOON SESSION

Senator ERVIN. The subcommittee will come to order.

STATEMENT OF JAMES PLEMON COLEMAN-Resumed

Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Chairman, there are two or three matters that came out in the testimony yesterday and this morning that I thought I should straighten up from that point of view.

No. 1 was the testimony of Mr. Mitchell in which he raised the question as to whether or not the testimony obtained by the FBI had been leaked by me as Governor in 1959 to some parties not named with the result that the guilty parties, whoever they were, escaped prosecution and conviction.

I want to say that the absolute facts about that matter are that when the FBI completed the investigation I had a telegram from the head of the FBI, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover and from President Eisenhower, both thanking me for the cooperation I had shown as Governor of Mississippi in that matter and they gave me the complete FBI report on the evidence that he had obtained in the Parker case which I locked up in a secret place in my personal office and kept there until just a few days before the grand jury met, at which time I sent it by special messenger to the district attorney of that district who received it and used it before the grand jury, although nobody was indicted.

(The communication received from Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, is as follows:)

Hon. J. P. COLEMAN,

The Governor of Mississippi,

Jackson, Miss.

JUNE 15, 1959.

MY DEAR GOVERNOR: I have just received your very thoughtful letter of June 10, and I am deeply grateful for your generous remarks concerning Special Agent in Charge Ralph W. Bachman and Inspector Robert E. Wick.

Your wholehearted cooperation with our representatives who conducted the investigation at Poplarville left nothing to be desired, and both Mr. Bachman and Mr. Wick have advised me in detail regarding the judicious and capable manner in which you handled the many pressing and difficult problems which were of mutual concern to your office and our investigators. Such inquiries necessarily must be made with complete impartiality and objectivity, and it would have been impossible to bring this case to its logical conclusion without your freely given assistance.

You may be assured that I will always be grateful to your personally for your help, and I certainly hope that you will not hesitate to let me know whenever we in the FBI can be of service to you.

With kind regards and best wishes,
Sincerely yours,

J. EDGAR HOOVER.

So it was not leaked by me and as far as I know not leaked by anybody else. And I answer that simply because it was raised. I was surprised to hear it raised, but that being the fact, I wanted to state it.

Senator ERVIN. You were informed that the district attorney submitted it to the grand jury?

Mr. COLEMAN. He did submit it to the grand jury.

Senator ERVIN. You and I know in practicing law it is a require

ment

Mr. COLEMAN. It was submitted to the State grand jury and it was to a U.S. grand jury which also refused to indict. I have never revealed to anyone the contents of the document in any manner or form except I sent it in sealed form to the district attorney who under State law was the man who should have it and should receive it.

Senator EASTLAND. Is it not true that the circuit judge attacked you because you would not let him have access to it?

Mr. COLEMAN. The judge wanted me to send it down to the court. I wouldn't do it. It wasn't that I distrusted him, but it left it open to the proposition that others could get access to it and conceivably get in the wrong hands and the Government had trusted to me this information. It isn't that I distrusted the U.S. mail, not that the mails aren't trustworthy, but I took no chance at all. I sent one of my aids down with the report. I have never seen it since. I had done all I could do when I referred it to the grand jury and the district attorney.

Senator ERVIN. I do not know whether you have any personal knowledge of it and I cannot see its relevancy here, but there was a statement made, put in the record by Mrs. Virginia Gray concerning a man named Kennard.

Mr. COLEMAN. I was going to come to that next. That was the next matter I wanted to cover.

Long after I was Governor of Mississippi-I don't know how long but long afterward-I haven't checked the reports to see when it was-Kennard was prosecuted in Forest County on a charge that he was an accessory to the theft of poultry feed, was convicted and that conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court. He later went to prison and it was discovered, according to what I read in the papers that he was suffering from a malignancy, whereupon the Governor of the State at the time let him out and he subsequently died which I thought was a very sad story, but something I had nothing to do with.

Senator ERVIN. He died of cancer?
Mr. COLEMAN. Yes.

Senator ERVIN. You are not prepared to admit that you were the agency which caused his cancer?

Mr. COLEMAN. No, sir, I did not.

Senator ERVIN. You had nothing whatever to do with his trial, his imprisonment or his release or his death?

Mr. COLEMAN. Nothing whatsoever. I just wanted to get the record straight on that point.

Now, Mrs. Gray also brought this up in her statement which was read on her behalf yesterday. Of course, she is contesting at this time before the House of Representatives the seat of the Honorable W. M. Colmer who is the sitting Member from the Fifth District of Mississippi. On December 17 last year the four Members of Congress were in a meeting in Jackson and one of those Congressmen are here this afternoon, Mr. Abernethy, and they called me in my office in Ackerman and asked me if I was in a position to represent them in that contest and I told them of course I was, and I flew down to Jackson that afternoon and conferred with them and accepted their employment and presently employed-I am presently employed in that case before the U.S. House of Representatives.

Now, Mrs. Gray says in the statement that was read for her that I failed to keep some of the stipulations that were made in this case with opposing counsel in that case.

I just want to say to this committee that I have told the Clerk of the House on numerous occasions that any stipulation that appears anywhere in that record I will abide by 100 percent. I have been practicing 28 years and until this day-this is the first time in 28 years that anybody ever accused me of breaking an agreement made with opposing counsel. It just isn't done.

Senator ERVIN. I don't know about the laws in Mississippi, but in North Carolina you are required by the court to put stipulation in writing.

Mr. COLEMAN. But that is not required in Mississippi. We operate on the basis that when a man gives his word we will abide by it and we don't require stipulations to be in writing. But I have seen the time when I was a judge that in some countries in my district I had to require them to put them in writing because they would fall out with each other as to what they said and what they agreed to do and that would eliminate any discussion about what they had agreed to do.

I have no objection to them being in writing. However, in this case they were stated in the record and taken down by a reporter and I have told the Clerk of the House that anything that is in there with my name is worth 100 cents to the dollar and I say that here this afternoon, regardless of what was said in the statement made here to this committee yesterday afternoon.

I believe those are the three inaccuracies I wanted to clear up that I felt I owed myself the duty of clearing up.

Senator ERVIN. Senator, you may resume your interrogation.
Senator JAVITS. Thank you.

Governor Coleman, I gathered from the testimony that you felt there was some change in your thinking between the time of your campaign for Governor immediately on the heels of the Supreme Court decision in the Brown case and the later date. Would you tell us what was the meaning of the statement made in 1963 when you in

the primary, I gather, in the primary struggle with respect to the governorship, which is reported to have been as follows-on March 17, 1963, you were reported to have said in your gubernatorial campaign: There will be no necessity to abolish the public schools. Nor will there by any mixing of the races in none of the State-operated educational institutions.

Mr. COLEMAN. Senator, I made that statement during that campaign. However, I could not have made in in March because I did not become a candidate until about the 15th or 20th of May, but regardless of the date, did I make that statement?—I did make that statement. But I want to point out that nowhere in that statement did I say that that would be accomplished by defiance of the Supreme Court of the United States or by open rebellion against this country. I had in mind actually trying to operate as Governor again as I did the first 4 years on the basis of personal peace and good will among the people of Mississippi which worked very beautifully during those 4 years.

Senator JAVITS. And also, you were quoted as having said back in 1956, and I give you both of these things because it is a bracketed date, in your address to the Mississippi Legislature on January 17, 1956: I am pledged to maintenance of the separation of the races at all costs. But I want to say this further word to the Negroes of Mississippi, as Governor I shall always give sympathetic consideration to any of their problems which deserve the assistance of the State government. If you accept this opportunity it will mean better days for all of us. If you reject it the responsibility must be yours.

Mr. COLEMAN. That was in my inaugural address when I was sworn in as Governor and in that same address I stated it would be one of my duties as Governor that Mississippi be a State of law and order and no violence, and so forth. That inaugural address was addressed to three people, three sets of people-to the white citizens of Mississippi, to the Negro citizens of Mississippi, and also to the people of the United States of America in which I pointed out it would be my desire and hope and ambition that we could so manage our affairs in Mississippi that we would enjoy the respect of the rest of the country. That was certainly my purpose, although we were operating the State on the basis of local institutions as they had existed prior to May 17, 1954.

Senator JAVITS. Now, in respect to this matter of desegregated education, I show you an advertisement which allegedly was used in your 1963 campaign, and ask you to notice especially what is written at the very bottom of the advertisement in very small print. I will ask you whether this is a legitimate and authorized advertisement of your primary.

(A document was handed to Mr. Coleman.)

Mr. COLEMAN. Yes, sir; this is an advertisement that was issued by my State campaign headquarters over the approval of my State campaign manager.

Senator JAVITS. Mr. Chairman, I ask that it may be included in the record insofar as it can practicably be introduced. I do not know whether it can all be reproduced. It has a picture and some other things on it.

Senator ERVIN. Without objection, so ordered.