1

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT, (right aligned)
Tony Harrison (right aligned)
Southern Elections Fund (right aligned)
(212) 666-5198 (right aligned)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 1970

Atlanta, Ga - The Southern Elections Fund (SEF) this week announced it had made grants to sixty-five candidates in four Southern states.
The Fund, established in 1969 to give financial assistance to Southern office seekers below the Congressional and state-wide level, "gives its support to those candidates whom we believe will empower the powerless, and will democratize the political process in the states of the old Confederacy," a spokesman said.
Candidates receiving SEF assistance in the past include Charles Evers, Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi; Zelma Wyche, Town Marshal of Tallulalah, Louisiana; and the present black members of the gGreene County, Alabama Board of Education.
"The Fund, which depends entirely on public, non-deductible contributions, is the only organization of its kind" Georgia State Representative Julian Bond said.
Bond, a member of the SEF Trustee Board, said the Fund "believes politics ought to be a grass roots affair, and that the political victories closest to the people - aldermen, county commissioners, sheriff, tax assessor - are in the long run, the most important."

more