Southern Justice Few people have commented on the trial of
Collie Lee Wilkins for the murder of Mrs. Viola Liuzzo in Alabama. Mrs. Liuzzo, you may re- member, was the white woman who was shot dead while driving with a negro during the dis- turbances in Selma last March. Four members of the Ku Klux Klan who had chased her car were arrested almost immediately: since one turned out to be an FBI informant, the State had a direct eyewitness. Wilkins, one of the party, was brought to trial; but it was a mistrial and he will be tried again. The significant fact is that a Southern jury in of all places Alabama divided ten to two in favour of conviction. There were of course special circumstances. The eyewitness was one of them. The trial took place in Hayneville, a small town which had known none of the tumults asso- ciated with Selma. To its people Victim and -accused were strangers. Thus a white man was tried for the murder of a white `niggerlover' in an atmosphere unusually free of emotion and per- sonal involvements. Yet these facts did not affect the tactics of the defence. Collins was defended by known members of the Klan who expected an acquittal. That they did not get it is an indication that the traditional tactics of the Klan are break- ing down. A Southern jury came so close to sending a white man to prison for a racial murder that the first time cannot be far ahead. The great change is clearly approaching.
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