WATS Reports

WATS & Incident Reports

Before there were “800” numbers there was Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS). A WATS line allowed a company or organization to make unlimited long-distance calls in a specified geographic area for a flat monthly fee. In the early ’60s, a call from one county to another was often billed as “long-distance,” and long-distance calls were expensive. Cell-phones, of course, did not exist.

Many rural communities in the South did not yet have direct-dial for long-distance, so out-of-area calls had to be placed through the local operators who were all white (“Ma Bell” did not hire Blacks in the South for anything but the most menial positions). Operators in league with the Sheriff or Citizens Council would often block or tap calls from freedom fighters. But a WATS line allowed civil rights workers to bypass the local operators, which meant they could reach their offices when under siege by cops or the Klan. And with a WATS line, long-distance charges were billed to the organization and calls could be made from pay-phones, or the phones of local folk who had little money for phone bills. It was understood, of course, that Movement WATS lines were tapped and bugged by every law enforcement agency from the FBI down to the local beat constable. And anything said over the WATS line was passed on by the cops to the Klan and White Citizens Council.

At SNCC, CORE, COFO, and SCLC offices in cities such as Jackson, Greenwood, Atlanta and Baton Rouge, the life-saving WATS lines were manned (or, more accurately, woman-ed) around the clock, 24 hours a day, recording incidents of violence and arrest, dispatching doctors and lawyers to aid the injured and incarcerated, alerting organizers of danger and need, notifying media and Justice Department of abuses and outrages, and coordinating support and assistance nation-wide.

As the calls came in over the WATS line hour by hour, the substance of each call was added to each day’s “WATS Report” and summaries were prepared and distributed to the press and Movement supporters around the country.

There is no doubt that there are Freedom Movement activists alive today who would have been killed or maimed had word not gotten out quickly of Freedom Houses under attack by Klan night-riders or of activists being “detained” by southern sheriffs.

WATS Operations

James Forman. SNCC. June 24-26, 1964

SNCC? COFO? Undated possibly 1964

undated (possibly 1965)

WATS Report Incident Summaries

January 1-8 1964

October 1964

MFDP. Oct 18-Nov2, 1964

November 1964

January 1965

February 1965

March 1965

Raw Daily WATS Reports

Some of the reports listed below are from the COFO WATS line in Jackson, some are probably from the SNCC office in either Atlanta or Greenwood. We’ve tried to guess which is which, but we can’t be sure we guessed right.

Before Freedom Summer ~ 1964

1964

1964

Freedom Summer ~ 1964

June 1964

from June 21 & 22

July 1964

Note: By July of 1964 there may have been three different WATS lines in operation. One in the COFO office in Jackson, one in the temporary SNCC national office in Greenwood, and it’s probably that the original SNCC WATS line in Atlanta was also still in operation. We’ve tried to guess which report are COFO and which SNCC, but it’s all guesswork.

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SNCC July 1, 1964SNCC July 8, 1964SNCC July 18, 1964
SNCC June 30-July 1, 1964SNCC July 8, 1964COFO July 18, 1964
COFO Digest July 2, 1964SNCC July 8, 1964COFO July 19, 1964
SNCC July 2, 1964SNCC July 7-9, 1964SNCC Digest July 19, 1964
SNCC July 2, 1964COFO July 9, 1964SNCC July 19-20, 1964
SNCC July 2, 1964SNCC July 9, 1964SNCC July 20, 1964
SNCC July 2, 1964SNCC July 9, (MS) 1964SNCC Digest July 19-20, 1964
COFO July 3, 1964COFO Summary June 30-July 9, 1964SNCC July 20, 1964
SNCC July 3, 1964COFO? July 9, 1964COFO July 20, 1964
SNCC July 3, 1964SNCC July 9, 1964COFO July 21, 1964
SNCC July 3, 1964SNCC July 9, 1964SNCC July 21, 1964
COFO July 4, 1964COFO July 10, 1964SNCC July 14-21 Summary, 1964
SNCC July 4 summary, 1964Community Centers July 10, 1964COFO July 22, 1964
SNCC July 4, 1964SNCC July 10, 1964SNCC July 22, 1964
SNCC July 4, 1964SNCC July 10, 1964SNCC July 22, 1964
SNCC July 4, 1964SNCC July 10, 1964COFO July 23, 1964
SNCC July 4, 1964SNCC July 10, 1964SNCC July 23, 1964
SNCC July 4-6, 1964SNCC July 10, 1964SNCC MS Incident Summary July 23, 1964
SNCC undated, possibly July 4, 5, or 6 1964SNCC between July 10-14?, 1964. Undated.SNCC July 23, 1964
SNCC July 5, 1964SNCC July 11, 1964COFO July 24, 1964
SNCC July 5, 1964COFO July 11, 1964SNCC July 21-24, 1964
COFO July 5, 1964COFO Digest, July 9-11 1964SNCC July 24, 1964
COFO? SNCC? Digest July 2-5, 1964SNCC July 11, 1964COFO July 25, 1964
SNCC July 5, 1964COFO July 12, 1964SNCC July 25-31, 1964
SNCC July 5, 1964SNCC July 12, 1964Holly Springs Freedom Day, July 25, 1964
SNCC July 5-6, 1964SNCC July 12, 1964SNCC Summary July 21-25, 1964
COFO July 6, 1964COFO? July 12, 1964SNCC July 26, 1964
SNCC July 6, 1964SNCC July 13, 1964SNCC WATS Line Digest July 25-26, 1964
SNCC July 6, 1964SNCC July 13, 1964SNCC Incident Summary July 24-26, 1964
SNCC July 6, 1964SNCC July 13, 1964COFO July 26, 1964
SNCC July 6, 1964COFO July 13, 1964SNCC July 26, 1964
Moss Point Shooting, July 6 1964COFO July 13-14, 1964SNCC July 26-27, 1964
SNCC July 6-7, (MS) 1964SNCC July 14, 1964COFO July 27, 1964
COFO July 7, 1964COFO July 14, 1964COFO July 28, 1964
SNCC July 7, 1964SNCC July 15, 1964SNCC July 28, 1964
SNCC July 7, 1964SNCC July 15, 1964SNCC July 28, 1964
SNCC July 7, (Arkansas) 1964SNCC July 15, 1964COFO July 29, 1964
SNCC July 7, (Itta Bena MS) 1964COFO July 16, 1964SNCC July 29, 1964
SNCC July 7, (Laurel MS) 1964SNCC July 16, 1964COFO July 30, 1964
SNCC July 7, (Moss Point) 1964SNCC July 17, 1964SNCC July 28-30, 1964
SNCC July 7, (Selma AL) 1964SNCC July 17, 1964SNCC July 27-31, 1964
SNCC July 8, 1964COFO July 17, 1964SNCC July 31-Aug 8, 1964
SNCC July 8, 1964SNCC July 17, 1964COFO July 31, 1964
COFO July 8, 1964SNCC July 18, 1964SNCC July 31, 1964
SNCC July 31, 1964. Mississippi summary

August 1964

After Freedom Summer ~ 1964

WATS Reports ~ 1965

WATS Reports ~ 1966

1966

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