Hundreds of Police, Guardsmen Shield Mourners in Greensboro

GREENSBORO, N.C.--The funeral for five civil rights activists slain here last week proceeded peacefully under heavy security on Sunday.

Under a steady downpour, several hundred mourners chanted and carried posters along the mile-and-a-half trek to a city-owned cemetery.

Seven hundred and fifty National Guardsmen, 200 highway patrolmen, 175 city policemen, tanks, and two helicopters guarded the funeral procession. The governor declared a state of emergency and issued an unlimited search warrant allowing officers to search at random and arrest anyone carrying a weapon.

Those killed were William E. Sampson, a 1973 Divinity School alumnus, Sandra Smith, wife of Mark Smith '72, and three young doctors.

The five were killed last week in a "Smash the Klan" rally broken by members of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups who fired shots into the crowd.

Police arrested no one near the funeral procession, but officers arrested 35 outside the parade limits and impounded one vehicle loaded with guns and hand grenades.

Neither Guardsmen nor marchers would comment on the heavy protection.

The five slain marchers had been living in Greensboro and attempting to organize the local textile mills.