Young Dem Execs Vote to Support SCLC 'Summer Project' in South

The executive committee of the Harvard-Radcliffe Young Democrats last night voted to help the Southern Christian Leadership Conference recruit students for a "Summer Project" in four Southern states.

The Young Dems will set up a board of students and Faculty members to screen applicants for the program. Peter H. Weiner '66, president of the club, said last night that Archie C. Epps III, assistant dean of the College, has tentatively agreed to act as a member of the screening panel.

According to a statement signed by Martin Luther King Jr., president of SCLC, the summer project will consist of "massive voter registration drives and political education programs" in 31 counties in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. The ten-week program calls for 500 student volunteers.

SCLC might compete for summer volunteers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said Weiner. "If there is a conflict," he added, we feel that people should be presented with information on both programs and be permitted to make a choice."

Weiner stated that SNCC has not approached the Young Dems for assistance. "We would be very willing to cooperate with them if they asked us," he said.

The executive committee also decided to initiate a letter-writing campaign in support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Students throughout the Boston area will be urged to write letters to their congressmen and to politically influential members of their local communities calling for the ouster of the five congressmen from Mississippi.

The vote on the FDP challenge is expected to reach the floor of the House early in July. SNCC, which plans to send 2000 students to Washington this summer to lobby for the FDP, estimates that the Freedom party commands over two-thirds of the votes necessary to defeat the regular congressional delegation.