Mr. Taylor. Mr. Harris, would you please give us your full name, your address, and your occupation?

Mr. Harris. Jessie Lee Harris, 702 Wall Street, McComb, Miss. I am a field worker for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Mr. Taylor. How long have you lived in Mississippi?

Mr. Harris. All my life.

Mr. Taylor. How long have you been active in the civil rights Movement?

Mr. Harris. Ever since 1961 when I was arrested here in Jackson for breach of the peace when I went into the Trailway bus. station. Since then I have been active in voter registration in Mississippi.

Mr. Taylor. Could you tell us briefly about the program of your organization in McComb and what its purposes and goals are?

Mr. Harris. Well, in 1963, 1 was assigned to direct the third congressional district in which McComb is located in voter registration. I had been going into towns like Vicksburg, Natchez, here in Jackson, and into McComb, to set up a voter registration project -- or voter education project, you might say. Since then I have been mainly working in and out of McComb.

I think that everybody knew that the summer project was about to start right after the orientation took place in Oxford. Ten of us went into McComb to set up a voter registration project.

Mr. Taylor. What was the object of this project?

Mr. Harris. Mainly voter registration.

Mr. Taylor. To get more people to register?

Mr. Harris. Voter education, you might say.

Mr. Taylor. Could you also tell us briefly what the problems were that you encountered in the local community in trying to carry out your project? What problems did your organization and you personally encounter?

Mr. Harris. . . . . I mentioned before that before the summer project, we went into McComb. There was certain things that we was expecting to happen. We didn't know too much about McComb. I mentioned before that only two or three of us had went into McComb -- just to talk to people. We talked to people like Mrs. Quin, Mr. C. C. Bryant, and people that we had some type of contact with.

When 10 of us went into McComb to set up a voter registration project, we mostly expected to be arrested, you might say be beaten, or even killed. We knowed that we was going into an area where voter registration or activities had never got really off the ground before. We also know of the atmosphere that was created down there for the last, you might say, 4 or 5 years or so, so we was afraid to go in there. And after we went in there, it was pretty much true. We went in an bought a house in the city -- well, you might say leased a house for a year or two. We was followed by highway patrolmen all the way from Crystal Spring into McComb. When we got into McComb we were stopped by the highway patrol and taken to the nearest town somewhere in Lincoln County for investigation. We were questioned. This was practically the same pattern which we always expected -- we, would be stopped, you know.

When we got into McComb, we were stopped by some deputies and we were asked our names and where we were from and what we was doing there, and we was released without charge.

And I might say we went in -- it is kind of hard to really explain the whole line of fear, not only among us but among the people we worked with.

Mr. Taylor. Were there many arrests during the course of the summer of people in your organization?

Mr. Harris. Well, we had quite a few. I think after we arrived in McComb about 2 weeks -- about 4 days after that, after our house was bombed -- I knows in the last part of June and about a week after we arrived in McComb, we were stopped by highway patrolmens, and we was given tickets and so forth. At one time I was picked up and taken down to the jail for speeding. Most of all the staff there in McComb was arrested for food handling without securing a permit. We was arrested in October at the county courthouse for trespassing. We were stopped many times for investigation during the bombings and so forth.

Mr. Taylor. Were there also incidents of violence in connection with your project?

Mr. Harris. What do you mean when you say "incidents of violence"?

Mr. Taylor. Incidents of violence directed at the place where you conducted your project?

Mr. Harris. Well, 16 bombings took place in McComb, and we really feel that the reason for these 16 bombings, was because of our activities there in McComb. I spoke at Society Hill, tried to ask them to let us use the church for voter-registration class, and about two days after that the church was bombed.

Mr. Taylor. I mean particularly with respect to the place where you conducted your business, the Freedom House.

Mr. Harris. Well, the Freedom House was bombed.

Source: United States Commission on Civil Rights, Hearings Held in Jackson, Miss., February 16-20, 1965, Vol. II: Administration of Justice (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), pp. 57-64.