Word: byhalia
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Towards the beginning of August, the businessmen made their first attempt to legally break the boycott. They circulated a petition among themselves asking the county court to issue an injunction restraining the picketing and boycott; 18 of the 19 Byhalia merchants signed. The merchants also filed a $2,450,000 lawsuit against the blacks, claiming to be victims of an illegal conspiracy...
...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...
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...
...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...