The General v. the Cub

It was his first big story, and Associated Press Cub Reporter Van Savell was determined to do it justice. "I dressed as any college student would," he wrote in the dispatch that went out to all client A.P. newspapers, "and easily milled among the rioters on the University of Mississippi campus." On that September night in Oxford in 1962, two men were to die in the violence provoked by the registration of Ole Miss's first Negro student, James Mere dith. The A.P.'s Savell reported it all. He also reported the gaunt and commanding presence of onetime Major General Edwin A. Walker, 54.

"Walker assumed control of the crowd," Savell wrote of the man who had ended a distinguished military career by joining the John Birch Society and resigning his commission. Savell went on to say that the general "led a charge of students against Federal marshals on the Ole Miss campus," was met with a repelling volley of tear gas, then climbed the base of a Confederate monument to dispense tactical advice and rally the scattered segregationists: "Don't let up now. This is a dangerous situation. You must be prepared for possible death. If you are not, go home now."

"Bring Your Skillets." Last week, in the Tarrant County courtroom in Fort Worth, the general and the 22-year-old cub met again. Walker was there to plead his $2,000,000 libel suit, in which he claimed that the Associated Press had, in effect, charged him with helping to incite the insurrection at Ole Miss. Walker had that very charge leveled against him by the U.S. Government, and he had also been subjected to a psychiatric examination. But doctors found him sane, and a federal grand jury refused to return an indictment.

From two weeks of testimony, there emerged the picture of a man who had come to Ole Miss to play something more than an observer's role. Read into the record was Walker's battle cry to segregationists broadcast over a Shreveport, La., radio station five days before the riots: "It is time to move. We have talked, listened and been pushed around far too much for the anti-Christ Supreme Court. Bring your flags, your tents, and your skillets." Even some of Walker's own witnesses testified to his involvement at Oxford.

Appeal. The A.P. could produce no witness who heard Walker speak the exact words that Van Savell attributed to the general, although defense testimony seemed to corroborate the wire service. But to the Fort Worth jury of eight men and four women, the A.P. statements that Walker had assumed control and led the charge were both false and malicious. After 2 1/4 hours of deliberation, the jury awarded Walker $800,000. Still pending: some $27 million in Walker libel actions stemming from the republication of the A.P. story.

The A.P. served notice of its intention to appeal. "In the light of the evidence presented by both sides," said A.P. General Manager Wes Gallagher, "we are confident that the verdict will not be upheld."

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