The Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Labor Committee and other Jewish organizations here today sent special representatives to Miami to make on-the-spot studies of measures that can be taken to check terrorism there against Jewish institutions and those of other minority groups.
The American Jewish Congress today urged U.S. Attorney General J. Howard McGrath to make the fullest use of the Federal law enforcement machinery to apprehend and punish those responsible for the campaign of violence in the Miami area and to prevent further terrorism there. Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the organization, in a telegram to Mr. McGrath charged that the recent bombing incidents in Florida are part of an organized effort to deprive groups of American citizens, through intimidation and terror, of their basic democratic rights.
The Americans for Democratic Action, the liberal group in which Senator Herbert H. Lehman is active, today urged the Federal and state governments to take immediate action to apprehend those responsible for “terroristic” intolerance in Florida. A.D.A. chairman Francis Biddle, a former U.S. Attorney General, said the bomb killing of Harry T. Moore, Florida leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was a “shocking demonstration of violence” directed “at racial and religious minorities” in Florida.
Demands for quick action to prosecute the perpetrators of the series of attacks on members of minority groups in the State of Florida was also made today by the C.I.O. James B. Carey, secretary, who heads the organization’s Committee to Abolish Discrimination, called for immediate investigations by the Federal and state government, and for Congressional action to strengthen civil rights legislation. Telegrams were sent to President Truman, Gov. Fuller Warran of Florida, and to the Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress.
TWO MORE BOMB EXPLOSIONS REPORTED FROM MIAMI
Meanwhile, two more bomb explosions ripped the nerves of Miami today as a terrorist telephoned police that “we just want to let you know we’ve got plenty of dynamite left.” Police are investigating the two latest explosions which were reported from the Coral Gables area and from the vicinity of Hialeah.
Coral Gables Safety Director William Kimbrough said he received a phone call from a man who spoke with a heavy accent. Just what sort of accent was not specified. The voice, he said, warned that “we have no preference as to what kind of church it is. We intend to go on bombing churches.” The same voice warned of new attacks.
In Miami, the municipality passed an ordinance designed to control the purchase and use of dynamite explosive. This is the fourth such ordinance recently drawn up in an effort to halt local terroristic activity. Hialeah, Miami Beach and Coral Gables have already adopted similar statutes.
The 23-page law will require the licensing of dynamite distributors and the registration with distributors of purchasers of the explosive. Purchasers will also be required to explain the use to which the dynamite will be put. Other recommendations of the ordinance will prohibit the transportation of explosives by ear. Vehicles loaded with dynamite will be required to carry warning signs on them.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
