At its height, the local Fair Play group probably never numbered more than about 20. On occasion, however, it was able to muster support well in excess of its actual membership.
IT HAS BEEN virtually defunct at Antioch for more than a year.
Referring to the Fair Play for Cuba committee, a spokesman said, "There's no chapter here now, and I can't recall there being any all last year."
The group was active in arranging a junket that took several Antioch students to Cuba during their Christmas break in 1960.
MOST OF THOSE students who were in Cuba when the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with the Castro regime returned with favorable comments about what they had seen in their tour of the island.
Many, in contrast, made it plain they were far from impressed.
Later in the spring of 1961 after the abortive Bat of Pigs invasion, several Antiochans - more incensed at America's use of force than fond of Castro - joined a demonstration against the military action at the State House in Columbus.
THEN, AFTER the October 1962 confrontation when Cuba was exposed as a vassal of Soviet ambition, the Fair Play committee lost whatever attraction it once held for students here.
Leaders of the local group, who were upper classmen at the height of their activity, have since graduated.
The Fair Play for Cuba committee, according to the Associated Press, first appeared in April 1960 with a paid newspaper advertisement signed by about 30 persons, many of whom have since broken away. The advertisement labeled itself, "A Declaration of Conscience by Afro-Americans."
THE AP described the FPFC committee as a pro-Castro organization, denounced in the U.S. Senate as financed and dominated by Communists.
Oswald was said to have claimed in a New Orleans radio interview last Aug. 21 that he was New Orleans secretary of the committee.
But Vincent Theodore Lee, national director of the organization, said in Buffalo, N.Y.:
"We have never issued a charter in that area. I don't know if Oswald is a member. He could be ... there is no one, however, named Oswald who is an official of the committee anywhere in the United States."
NEW YORK police, fearing possible reprisal from outraged citizens after news of Oswald's association with the committee became public, sent 11 men to guard the committee's headquarters on the third floor at Broadway and 11th St., New York.
During the night the force was reduced to six, who were reported still on guard.
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