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Arrests 45

The Mississippi Highway Patrol yesterday arrested 45 students who had been the Pike County Courthouse days. Mississippi officials filed charges against them and set or date for their arraignment. of the demonstrators are Mississippi high-school students under 13. They decided to picket after the MFDP at which Glen Fortenberry, of Pike County, refused to take test which he administers. were protesting the all-white review board and the use of this test.

did not initiate the but they did support it. Yesterday COFO met with the students warned them that they would be under an injunction against public buildings. They decided anyway. Marshall Gans '65, a field secretary for SNCC, and ten other COFO workers also picketed and were arrested.

Al Bernstein, attorney for COFO, went to the Pike County jail shortly after the arrest and was reportedly beaten by jailer Ray Pound and two or three other men.

The students under 18 were released to their parents, but the COFO workers were transferred to the Hinds County jail in Jackson City, 100 miles from where they were arrested. The Highway Patrol gave no reason for their transfer.

The Hinds County jailer refused to explain the charges against the students and had no idea when they would be arraigned. "If you're talkin' about them civil rights workers, the Highway Patrol just brought 'em in 25 minutes ago and told me to lock 'em up. I can't tell you nothin' about it," he said.

Joseph Martin, a communications worker for COFO, said that the students believe that the injunction is illegal because it violates their constitutional rights to petition, and that the injunction should have been issued against the registrar.

COFO scheduled a mass meeting for last night to plan further action against use of the literacy test, which has been abolished in other Mississippi counties. They also hope to establish a mobile registration unit which would travel through Negro communities in an effort to increase Negro voting

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