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whole of the ILD delegation was white. After conferring with the judge and the
court-appointed defense attorney (who was hostile to the ILD and felt no change in
venue was necessary), Ades and his ILD colleagues ran into trouble. They were
refused lunch at a nearby lunch room, then threatened and attacked by local whites
on three different occasions; their car was vandalized so badly it would not run, and
local mechanics refused to fix it. Not surprisingly, the ILD group had been aware
that they might be in danger in Snow Hill before they arrived; Ades' associate
Helen Mays carried a loaded automatic pistol in her purse and another loaded gun
was left in the ILD car. Mays' gun was noticed by authorities, and she was arrested
for carrying a concealed weapon ("JONES' LAWYER, ARMED WOMAN
AROUSE CROWD" the Evening Sun leered). Ades bailed her out immediately.
Finally the sheriff drove the ILD group out of town and across the Delaware state
line, followed by a state police escort.
In response to the lynching attempts on Lee and the attacks on Ades and his
associates, the Baltimore ILD raised its central demands for the first phase of the
Euel Lee defense campaign: a change of venue to the Western Shore of Maryland
and the inclusion of Blacks on Lee's jury. The ILD's strategy was not to focus on
the question of Lee's guilt or innocence, but to argue that he could not get a fair
trial because of racial discrimination. Furthermore, the ILD made clear that its
demands were made not solely to defend Euel Lee, but to expand the civil rights of
Black people in general. Characteristically, the ILD announced its intention to
back up its legal actions with mass agitation, and threatened an ILD march on
Snow Hill. In reaction, the mayor of Snow Hill blamed Ades and Mays for the mob
attacks on them and promised to meet any ILD march at the county border with a
group of "Worchester County citizens." Governor Albert Ritchie, in what would
become a typical effort to placate white Eastern Shore sentiments at the expense of
justice, refused ILD requests to guarantee the safety of the defendant and his
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