The blacks were standing outside the Marshall County Court House in neighboring Holly Springs when two shotgun blasts were fired at them. No one was hit, and police later arrested a 19-year-old white youth, the son of a Holly Springs policeman, and charged him with intent to murder.

The situation, as it stands now, has reached a stalemate. The blacks--strongly motivated and tightly organized--seem fully prepared to continue the boycott indefinitely if necessary. They may, in fact, attempt to broaden their demands and expand the boycott to neighboring Marshall County towns in an effort to push for wide-spread reforms.

The merchants--bitter, frustrated, and confused--are at a loss for what action to take to halt the protest. Suffering from a severe drop in their business, they agree with the district court judge that if the blacks have a complaint, they should tell it to city hall, not to them.

But Mayor Dudley Moore and his city hall have proposed no solutions to the problem. In his statements throughout the summer, the mayor professed a lack of understanding of what the blacks want, or why. No white political leader in Byhalia or Marshall County has stepped forward to provide any direction or creative ideas as to how the impasse may be broken.

Thus, as the summer turns into fall in Byhalia, the tension and fear remain. The burning of Hubert Mill's store and the apparent attempt to murder the United League leaders could be only a premonition of worse violence to come, as the businessmen lose more money, the blacks make more demands, and the political leaders flounder in indecision and inactivity. A clash of perspectives and values, unmediated by a viable and responsive political system, is inevitably a volatile situation.

The impression left to the observer is that what happened this summer in Byhalia is slightly anachronistic. The tactics of boycott, the picket signs demanding racial equality, the stridence of black demands, the inability of whites to respond--all are problems that confronted the South ten years ago, and were seemingly solved.

The still unresolved story of dusty, hot little Byhalia should belong to a traumatic and unhappy part of southern history. But the death of Butler Young, Jr., the tragedy of Hubert Mills, the threats to Alfred Robinson, the bewilderment of Dudley Moore indicate otherwise.

Some things--at least in Mississippi--never seem to change.