<P> When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to abolish the Negro race, proper methods should be used . Among these are guns, bows and arrows, sling shots and knives . We hold these truths to be self - evident that all whites are created equal with certain rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers . </P> <P> The Citizens' Councils used economic tactics against African Americans whom they considered as supportive of desegregation and voting rights, or for belonging to the NAACP, or even suspected of being activists; the tactics included "calling in" the mortgages of black citizens, denying loans and business credit, pressing employers to fire certain people, and boycotting black - owned businesses . In some cities, the Councils published lists of names of NAACP supporters and signers of anti-segregation petitions in local newspapers in order to encourage economic retaliation . For instance, in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1955, the Citizens' Council published in the local paper the names of 53 signers of a petition for school integration . Soon afterward, the petitioners lost their jobs and had their credit cut off . As Charles Payne puts it, the Councils operated by "unleashing a wave of economic reprisals against anyone, Black or white, seen as a threat to the status quo ." Their targets included black professionals such as teachers, as well as farmers, high school and college students, shop owners, and housewives . </P> <P> Medgar Evers' first work for the NAACP on a national level involved interviewing Mississippians who had been intimidated by the White Citizens' Councils and preparing affidavits for use as evidence against the Councils if necessary . Evers was assassinated in 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council as well as the Ku Klux Klan . The Citizens' Council paid his legal expenses in his two trials in 1964, which both resulted in hung juries . In 1994, Beckwith was tried by the state of Mississippi based on new evidence, in part revealed by a lengthy investigation by the Jackson Clarion Ledger; he was convicted of first - degree murder and sentenced to life in prison . </P> <P> Many leading state and local politicians were members of the Councils; in some states, this gave the organization immense influence over state legislatures . In Mississippi, the State Sovereignty Commission funded the Citizens' Councils, in some years providing as much as $50,000 . This state agency, funded by the taxes paid by all citizens, also shared information with the Councils that it had collected through investigation and surveillance of integration activists . For example, Dr. M. Ney Williams was both a director of the Citizens' Council and an adviser to governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi . Barnett was a member of the Council, as was Jackson mayor Allen C. Thompson . In 1955, in the midst of the bus boycott, all three members of the Montgomery city commission in Alabama announced on television that they had joined the Citizens' Council . </P>

Who was involved in the massive resistance of white citizens councils