https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/18935/archive/files/9f7b407d08b9111a984545046a5db977.jpg?Expires=1780531200&Signature=gwvOMBs9zYGKDP7mxTuSyVqb%7EynJVvfrLH%7EWRoxiAKNJJ4jm8EwfngHL%7ELYgWa4vcZ4Z-krFNoo0KVQVAuumlgksK3IMtSC86nj2avh7IC7L9zIdVGGVjrEF%7EBq0GjcgfM1mbXtrheKL8BL8igd4pI-eaJv7x5JpeUnXRg7LHJ4ydpxsyw7JuEh9r-26kuFF8XOB0ywz45M5begp1D0by2pm00DVcaI66z0mSWkYYpPCGEQXldwV8wfq0s6HdE4Y5gzeb5vik4svRf-1FuCYqbGugnhmW8diJTnZKK3rHh1KotOm0jUvhoyaTIL0z95BQfQut%7EI3%7Ep-p-KISn0Ok0Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3707e3797a6c0d14b7d9b026096966da Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SOUTHERN REGIONAL COUNCIL 63 Auburn Avenue, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia February 13, 1957 BACKGROUND SUMMARY OF VIOLENCE AT KOINONIA FARM, SUMTER COUNTY, GEORGIA Koinonia (Greek for “a community”) was founded in 1942 by a group of Southerners. Located on State Highway 49 in Sumter County near Americus, Georgia, the farm is an interracial religious cooperative with everyone sharing in the proceeds of the farm according to needs. Koinonia, which was started on 440 acres of land, now comprises 1,100. In 1955, Koinonia held its first interracial summer camp for children. The camp was approved by the American Camping Association. The Reverend Clarence Jordan, a Baptist minister, was co-founder of Koinonia and has remained as one of its leaders. April, 1956--Rev. Clarence Jordan announced that he was willing to sign entrance to Georgia State College of Business Administration (white) for two Negro applicants. Fact was headlined in Americus and other Georgia papers. Rev. Jordan did not actually sign application since he was ruled ineligible to do so by the executive secretary of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. The Koinonia newsletter charged that before Rev. Jordan got home from Atlanta, Governor Griffin had called the Sheriff of Sumter County, asking “who Jordan was" and what he was up to. Shortly following press accounts of Rev. Jordan’s Atlanta experience, the farm began to receive anonymous telephone calls. Within a matter of a few days, the first of the farm’s insurance policies were cancelled, retail merchants began to stop handling Koinonia eggs, and roadside signs were torn down. Pistol shots were fired at the roadside stand. June 9, 1956 - A temporary injunction restraining Koinonia from operating its children’s camp was handed down on charges brought by the Sumter County Health Department. The department asked that the farm be restrained from operating the camp on “health and sanitation ground.” July, 1956 - A Sumter County health engineer made an inspection of camp and farm and made minor recommendations, which, according to farm officials, "were carried out.” July 2, 1956 - At the hearing on the injunction, the county attorney asked that it be postponed to July 19 because he had not had time to prepare his case. July, 1956 - Wilson Finch, W. A. Helms, Sherrard Horne, and A. H. Jennings, four Sumter County farmers, sought to associate with the county in the injunction claiming that the sponsors of the camp had no license and would operate the camp “in a manner detrimental to morals.” Meanwhile, the camp was opened at a site outside Georgia. July 19, 1956 - At the hearing, Superior Court Judge Cleveland Rees looked at the crowded courtroom and decided that it would be a "wrangle between the gospel and law,” and so ordered another postponement with the cases to be presented by brief and affidavit. Material was to be presented to him by September 20, 1956. July 23. 1956- The roadside market at Koinonia was dynamited. The blast occurred shortly after 10 p.m. Damage was estimated at $3,000. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/18935/archive/files/596b3eb8c945d04432cc89597df7d46e.jpg?Expires=1780531200&Signature=MUfxNlulihWJgBQYUlP3b6PgiXdrIRXVcjaQgja4qe7IQqn2VfMaH9ntd5elKsCDbV2XqUhMMnHYdyGrNxSQeDVulgxHN5zgZqcnPQNEKI6xtZPdDtRENI-8UoA3BSmD7wyr9lyplTF3hUztSnmK9vInLfQvSAaWRSwdXlXg4-VYwyxdx-j9YyB6O7kp7HMgM5h7%7EY1ZPVSOKWxZSc1XlISdi3jJ90OwwwkxSMNrMzsnfcPcS2Ee72HAKEAzLGoWX4pf6haphm0Mk2Af9mulcKyYw8vXVZ843woWz1jIsrQcBiX2Q91mjgzTxStjXtEolT%7E8M1nnCt2bov%7ExDcrfbg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 0af415b4e9c178677bfed948d6221641 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 24, 1956 - Judge Rees signed an order dissolving the injunction, since in effect attorneys for both sides had agreed that the question had become moot. Tom Marshall and Tom Clark of the law firm of Dykes, Dykes, and Marshall represented the four Sumter County farmers. Sumter County commissioners were represented by Hollis Forte. Osgood Williams of Atlanta represented Koinonia. September 24, 1956 - The Koinonia newsletter declared that an “economic blockade is virtually complete....The gas and oil situation remains critical. No distributor in Americus or Sumter County will supply us ...Yesterday, another feed dealer, after supplying us for awhile, cut us off.” Koinonia officials said they took the one child attending a local high school out of the school and sent him out of the state. This was done, they said, because "on the bus and between classes the older boys beat him and harassed him in countless ways.” Farm officials reported that State Farm Mutual Insurance Company had cancelled insurance policies on six of their trucks and automobiles. Earlier, officials said that an airplane company had refused to dust their cotton for weevils and that a local fertilizer company refused to sell to them. “The auto dealer, with whom we’ve done business over the years and who did practically all our repair work, said he wanted our business no longer," farm officials said. November 27, 1956 - Several rounds of buckshot were fired into the roadside market. Shots ruined a refrigerated meat case valued at $300. January 14, 1957 - A dynamite charge exploded inside the roadside market. Damage estimated from $5,000 to $7,000. Pieces of market blown 240 feet. Building was 20 by 30 feet. (Also during this period, four shots were fired from a slow-moving car into a gasoline pump. The four shots all landed within an area six inches in diameter.) January 16, 1257 - A resolution was unanimously passed by the Americus and Sumter County Ministerial Association, condemning violence against Koinonia. The resolution adopted read: "We deplore and condemn the use of violence in any form against property and/or persons because of their personal beliefs which do not endanger the rights of others. As Christians and citizens we hold the right to disagree with others concerning their beliefs without forcing their agreement or yielding ours. "We further condemn lawlessness in any form and call upon every citizen and call upon every citizen and the forces of law to do all things necessary to protect the rights, properties, and lives of others in our community, state, and nation. "In these difficult days in which many nations and people look to these United States for moral as well as political leadership, it behooves each citizen - and especially each Christian - to assert positive efforts to strengthen the cause of civic righteousness.” The Ministerial Association also sent a letter to Governor Marvin Griffin. January 18, 1957 - The Koinonia newsletter stated: “A short while ago we were notified by Mr. Willis Shiver, head of the Shiver Lumber Company, that no more building materials would be sold to us. Mr. Shiver is a steward in the First Methodist Church. Fourteen of our buildings have been erected wholly or partially with materials obtained from him. He said that the reason he cut us off was “pressure from level-headed business men and that his own feelings made him receptive to the pressure.” January 18, 1957 - A house on the Koinonia Farm was burned. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/18935/archive/files/af4aecd83619f2825c2ca1ec177e08dc.jpg?Expires=1780531200&Signature=Ygz7G1putDd3-0cUPagDbDyBdHAXzLXRH3c1YG3MNOn01RJNa8MG9z8gTnitA8DshWmD%7ES8U33uJEZWUSJCc%7Eakksi4yFVx0ZewgzRUv-CcZAxuuUSIoSIM7ZZMHrjjmwmtyufyeLvLLSQBfc8JXOX0srsnb%7EXosUhQg3iAntpAQrgY-zvHQBLv0O82lWJhPTfTZe6QhFXvQiFKCzbWqSFsL4TPe4qDYqe5Kv4XPEquHuzu584ARiFVEQi3MVcepAkX4-GiXPCOAtkZGdHEBujTc4oJQLL63q4JTTt593XgJ8qKnXJnqUNdBmTfDkxLD64dWzvc8SuKdkHwtB6PYNA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 8bffc86bd30d0b0dd79e0df30fb3b53a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource January 28, 1957 - At least eight shots from a series hit a house on Koinonia Farm. The Sumter County sheriff said the shots were .45 caliber. Persons on the farm say they believe the shots were from a sub-machine gun. February 1, 1957 - Ten or eleven shots were fired at a house on Koinonia Farm. Some of the shots went through a window of the house nearly hitting an 11-year-old-girl. February 1, 1957 - The Georgia Council of Churches Executive Board and the Executive Committee of the United Church Women of Georgia passed a joint resolution condemning violence against Koinonia Farm. Copies of the resolution were sent to Governor Griffin, Sheriff Fred Chappell of Sumter County, The Editor of the Americus Times, and to Rev. Edward Carruth, President of the Americus and Sumter County Ministerial Association. February 9, 1957 - Koinonia Farm officials report that on three different occasions persons who had visited the farm were stopped by state law enforcement officers and quizzed as to why they were visiting the farm and asked to show identification papers. They also report that a man lost his Job with the South Georgia Trade and Vocational School after he had indicated in a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Historical Manuscripts Description An account of the resource These are resources that reside in the Historical Manuscripts Collection in Special Collections at the University of Southern Mississippi. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Background Summary of Violence at Koinonia Farm, Sumter County, Georgia Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Southern Regional Council Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Will D. Campbell Papers, Historical Manuscripts, Special Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Southern Regional Council Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957-02-13 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright not evaluated. Language A language of the resource En Type The nature or genre of the resource Text civil rights Georgia Koinonia Violence