"Protest the jailing of Walter Collins and the situation of Black draft resisters" Page: 2 of 4
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The Collins draft case:
Collins lost his student deferment in 1966, soon after he began organizing
against the Vietnam War. He was classified 1-A by an all-white draft board-although
two-thirds of the people in the area it served were black. Only one of the board
members lived in that area. The chairman of the board lived in a different county.
All this was in direct violation of the draft law.
He was given the wrong information when he tried to apply for
conscientious-objector status. Twice, when he reported for induction and passed out
anti-war literature, he was sent home. Collins was finally indicted on six counts of
refusing induction-and convicted of five. He was sentenced to five years on each
charge, to be served concurrently-and fined $2,000.
Collins's appeal is based on the illegal make-up of his draft board. His lawyers
contend that if he was not represented on the board, he should not have to obey its
orders. The government says it doesn't matter if the board failed to comply with the
draft law-it is a "de facto" board. Now, government spokesmen are also claiming
that "a quorum" of the board members were legally eligible to serve on the board,
and therefore it was not a lawless board.
"There should be only one law for the governors and the governed," says
Robert Sedler, one of Collins's lawyers. "A draft board not contituted in accordance
with the statute and regulations is a 'lawless board' without the power to classify at
all, or to issue valid orders to report for induction."
Sedler also noted that the federal courts in New Orleans were inconsistent in
their rulings. Last April 24, the U.S. District Court in that city freed Oscar E.
Clinton, a white man, on a draft charge because only two members of his draft
board were residents of the area it served. Three days later, the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in New Orleans upheld Collins's five-year sentence-although only one
member of his board lived in the area it served.
Sedler also asked the high court why black people should be expected to serve
in the armed forces when they are not allowed to serve on draft boards-why they
are expected to "accept decisions affecting their very lives that are made by whites,"
but whites are not expected to accept decisions affecting their lives made by blacks.
The attorney suggests that this may explain why 22 per cent of the Americans
killed and wounded in Indochina are black, although black people are only 10 per
cent of the U.S. population. "These questions," Sedler said in a brief to the Supreme
Court, "relate to the very legitimacy of a system by which young Negro men are
asked to give up their lives for their country .... They call into issue the prejudice
and racism that are part of American society today."
Le t to right: Induction center protest in Atlanta, 1966-and the police response; draft resister Muhammad Ali.
"- 1L
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Alexander, Karen B. "Protest the jailing of Walter Collins and the situation of Black draft resisters", text, 197X; Louisville, Kentucky. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1940525/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.