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ww — , , ‘et . ‘ . 4. Defendants’ Admissions. An uiusual feature of this litigatioa ‘is the defendants’ damning aémissior :, “he defendants admit that the klan's objective is to prevent Washington Parish _ . Negroes from exercising the civil rignts Congress recognized by - statute. In their pleadings, the defendants concede that they furthered their objective by -- (a) assaulting, threateninc, and harassing Negroes who seek to exercise any of their civil rights, ning and harassing per- oes should exercise or Ss and assaulting, thre and assaulting, threate sons who urge that Negr be accorded those right ~e (b) committing, threatening to commit, and urging others to commit acts Si economic retaliation against Negroes wic seck to exercise these . rights, and against any persons who urge that aa Negroes should exczrcise or be accorded these rights, ox who permit open, free and public discussion on the issue; . . oe we Bey (¢) threatening and intimiceting peblic officials and businessmen wno accord or seek to accord NegQves their rignzs without regard to race or color. The reason for the admissiscns vis evident at the trial and is evident in the defendants" brie=. 7..< United States subpoenaed over a hundred witnesses and, no doubt, was prepared to prove every allega- * = - a . 2 * . . tion in the complaint. Because of the defendants’ admissions, the dis- ' puted issues were few and only & lew witnesses were ealled. Asa ‘yesult, the klan avoided an airing of its activities that necessarily would have occurred had a large number of witnesses testified. Not eontent with the success of this maneuver, the defendants objected to the introduction of "any evidence pertaining to the activities of the Ku Klux Klan" on the grounds tha: (a) che klan had ceased to exist and (b) “delv[ing] into these unreleted macters” was solely “to expose" the Ku Klux Klan, an invasion of the “privacy and individual freedoms of all these defendants”. _ eee