On August 2, a county chancellor in Ripley, Miss., issued an injunction specifically prohibiting picketing, boycotting, threatening persons from trading and "otherwise interfering with the business." The chancellor said he based his decision on a state law making it illegal to conspire to boycott a business when there is no "responsible grievance" against it.

"There's no question on Earth that you folks are entitled to an injunction," the chancellor said during the hearing. "You have them conspiring and gathering and planning to boycott folks who have no control over what their boycott is about." Marchall County law officials told the court the boycott was "violent and unjust." Mayor Moore said it was caused by "outside agitators." The injunction was issued Friday morning, August 2.

At 2 a.m. that night, one of the downtown stores in Byhalia caught fire and burned to the ground.

Saturday morning, Byhalia was crawling with sheriff's deputies, Highway Patrolmen, and reporters from Memphis. The atmosphere of the town was a mixture of fear and panic as rumors spread that at least three other merchants had received telephone threats that their stores would be fire-bombed. The board of aldermen met in special session throughout the afternoon, and decided to deputize several local residents to assist county and state police in patrolling the town that night. After the meeting, a reporter asked the mayor whether any black residents would be deputized. He replied, "You can't get a Negro to stand up and do anything."

Though most stores were open Saturday, the businessmen were clearly terrified that the situation had gotten out of hand. With few exceptions, the merchants greeted reporters with hostility, refusing to answer questions and in some cases, physically throwing them out of their stores.

Not one person in the town questioned that the fire was caused by arson; the only question was by whom it was set. The whites charged that blacks had set the fire as a response to the injunction. The blacks charged that whites had started the fire--it destroyed a store owned by Hubert F. Mills. And Mills was the only merchant in town who had refused to sign the petition requesting the injunction.

Hubert Mills did not care who set the fire; to him it was an almost crushing tragedy. A placid and grandfatherly 80-year-old man, Mills had owned and operated the small general goods store in Byhalia for more than 50 years. He held no animosity for any person or any group in town. He said he could understand and even sympathize with the demands of the blacks, as well as the position of the whites. His reason for not signing the petition was that it would do no good, solve no problems. "You can force them off the street," he said, "but that won't make them trade with you." He was a man caught in the middle, and he paid a heavy price for it.

The Byhalia blacks halted their picketing that day as the injunction went into effect. Milling, but not marching, on the town square, they vowed to continue the boycott and take legal action to overturn the injunction.

Much of August was taken up with legal manueverings in court by the two sides. The United League filed suit in district court, charging that the injunction denied them First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of free speech and assembly. The blacks, who were not notified of the county court hearing and had not been given the opportunity to present their case, told the court that the boycott was "designed to publicize" the black community's grievances against the merchants and administration of Byhalia.

A week later, the district judge refused to lift the injunction. Noting in his opinion that the blacks have the right to picket and boycott, the judge said this had to be balanced against the "rights of merchants, who are in no position to correct the demands." The judge also told the blacks that the injunction prevented only picketing of stores, and he strongly suggested their cause would be more effective if they picketed city hall.

The situation was further complicated at the end of August when the grand jury finished its investigation. It refused to indict Hanna for manslaughter, and dropped all charges against him and the other officer involved in the killing. The district attorney called the grand jury probe "full, complete and very thorough." United League president Robinson called it "one of the lousiest investigations that has ever taken place in the state of Mississippi."

"The county attorney and the state investigator's plan was to not introduce enough evidence to indict these men," Robinson said. "The blacks here are quite disturbed about it. It is going to be a setback for Marshall County."

A certain amount of mystery surrounds the grand jury proccedings. Despite the initial report by the Byhalia police that Young died of a broken neck, the grand jury said there was no evidence of a police cover-up in the shooting. And, although grand jury proceedings are secret, the district attorney leaked selective evidence to the press to indicate that the killing was an accicent.

"The investigation reflected that the bullet which killed Butler Young actually hit another object before it ever went into his body," the attorney said. "The evidence shows that the bullet was partially mutilated. In my opinion, it hit something like a brick wall before it ever hit him. This would indicate to me that the policemen were firing around or above him."

But without the full proceedings of the grand jury, the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear. Last week, as the boycott entered its 11th week, events took an ugly turn when a group of white youths apparently tried to kill four leaders of the United League, including Robinson.