EAST CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI 273 In Forest, there was a Negro CCC Camp and a reforestation lookout tower as well as a sawmill. Some CCC camps were integrated, but due to complaints and the views of the US Army and CCC administrators, integrated CCC camps were disbanded in July, 1935. The CCC held that “segregation is not discrimination.” Only 10 percent of the CCC’s overall membership were African American. There were ninety-five CCC camps in Mississippi: twenty-six categorized as forest camps, ten as state park camps, nine as military park camps, twenty-three as private land camps, and twenty-seven as conservation camps. CCC camps in the East Central region included: Morton, Quitman, Meridian, Forest, DeKalb, and Philadelphia. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed from 25,000 to 40,000 Mississippians. WPA documentary tours in the East Central region recorded facts such as Kewanee, Chunky, and Hickory were sawmill towns, while Whynot was a farming settlement. In Marion, the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Horticultural Experiment Station planted more than 100 acres of pecan trees, fruits, and vegetables. Other New Deal Program projects in the East Central region made possible the gymnasium for DeKalb High School, built by The National Youth Administration in 1938. The O’Keefe Airport (James H. Eason Field) was dedicated in Newton on November 12, 1934, with Major John O’Keefe, U.S. Senator Pat Harrison, and Mayor J. L. Summer attending. O’Keefe, a federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) employee, was instrumental in bringing several CWA-funded airports to Mississippi. Thirty-two post offices were constructed in Mississippi under the New Deal Administration, including offices in Philadelphia, Newton, and Forest. The Civil Works Admin-istration (CWA) added a jail to the Newton County courthouse in Decatur as a part of a temporary job creation program under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Most post office works of art were not funded by the WPA, but rather through commissions under the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture. Public funded art included works in Carthage (“Lumbermen Rolling a Log” wood relief by Peter Dalton, 1941), Forest (“Forest Loggers” mural by Julien Benford, 1941) and Newton (“Economic Life in Newton in the Early 1940s” oil on canvas by Mary and Frank Boggs). Racial Tensions Surface Financial strain increased racial tensions and placed the Africa American population under harsh scrutiny whenever a crime occurred. In Kemper County, on September 10, 1930, “Pig” Lockett and Holly White were lynched after they were accused of robbing a white couple of $45 and a wedding ring. The 1934 murder of 62-year-old Raymond Stuart spurred a white mob to beat several of Stuart’s Africa American tenants. Ed Brown, one of Stuart’s most trusted tenants was arrested for the murder, along with Arthur Ellington, and later Henry Shields of Kemper County. Evidence showed the three accused had been severely beaten until they confessed. Three attorneys from DeKalb were assigned to defend the trio. One was John Clark, the Senate Floor Leader under the administration of Sennett Connor. After thirty minutes, the jury found the three accused guilty of murder. Clark pursued an appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1934 and lost. Clark then suffered a mental and physical breakdown, and his wife urged a close friend, former Mississippi Governor Ed Brewer, to take the case to the high Court. The high court overruled the convictions. Rather than risk a second trial, the defendants accepted a plea bargain and served relatively short sentences. For Medgar Evers the civil rights struggle began in Decatur, his hometown in Newton County. His father James and his mother Jessie had six other children between them. One was Charles Evers, an older brother. At about age fourteen, Medgar witnessed the dragging of an Africa American man, Willie Tingle, behind a wagon through Decatur. Tingle was later shot and hanged after being accused of insulting a white woman. Medgar and Charles also witnessed an altercation between their father and white store owner in a dispute over money the store owner claimed the elder Evers owed him. When the argument got heated, James broke a bottle and told the store owner if he made a move for the gun he kept, James would kill him. Medgar and Charles were sure nightriders would come for their daddy. They never did. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed from 25,000 to 40,000 Mississippians.