◆ SpookStack

th . . . ‘ . > : , ‘ ’ + . . y Menorandum for the Attorney General action would be taken where justified, Mr. Marshali has never , answered my letter of May 14th or furnished any information which would permit me to investigate the charges madée L believe that Mr. Marshall's obvious hostility to the Bureau dominates the thinking of hts associates in the legal ~ operations of the Nattonal Association for the Advancement of. Golored Peoplee I might point out that when the Bureau was en= deavoring to conduct an investigation into the case involving an \assault upon Isaac, Woodard, Jre, by the chief of police at Batesburg, ‘South Carolina, the victim, Woodard, a negro, when interviewed by Bureau agents, declined to furnish any information to us on the grounds that Franklin H. Williams, Counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had instructed him not to talx to the FBI except in Williams' presence and with the permission. of Willtams. According to Woodard, Williams had. stated, in referring to the FBI, that "They are not on your side=- they are on the side of the government". -IG might be noted in this . situation that Woodard was the vietin of an assault and the key witness in the Bureau's efforts to conduct an investigation to . determine whether there had been a violation of Federal Civil Rights Statutes. The restrictions placed upon Woodard by the Mehr AeCePs representative resulted. in considerable needless delay — in the- investigation of this Cases Marshall.cites the RogerWalcolm lynching case near Monroe,. Georgia, as an example of the one-sided tnvestigattons conducted tn this type of case. IF believe that it should be pointed out to _ Marshall in connection with that case that a thorough and exhaustive investigation has. been conducted, in the course of which nearly. 2,800 people have been interviewed, and that the testimony of . approximately 106 witnesses was heard by a Federal Grand Jury at Athens, Georgia, which Grand Jury did. not return any indictments. Marshall refers aiso to the Columbia, Tennessee, race riot on February 25 and 26, 1946, an investigation of which was conducted by this Bureau and reports submitted to the Criminal Division under the caption "Ractal Violence Columbia, Tennessee; Civil Rights and Domestic Violence". You will recall that at the conclusion of.the investigation in that case all of the facts were presented to a Federal Grand Jury and that at the conclusion of the testimony, the jury. .expressed the opinion that there had been no violation of any Federal statute and further commended the law enforcenent officers for their manner in handling the situation. apm