The Capital: Where Women Fear to Tread

THE CAPITAL

Walking her two dogs in Washington's Rock Creek Park at 8:30 one recent morning, the 48-year-old wife of a State Department official was seized by four Negro youths, dragged behind a wall, and raped by three of them (the fourth held the dogs).

During the twelve-month period ending June 30, there were 162 sexual assaults in the District of Columbia. This figures out at 20 per 100,000 population—roughly double the national average. Last month a teen-age Negro hid behind a stairwell door in the State Department Building, grabbed a 40year-old secretary around the breasts in broad daylight, fled when she screamed. Security guards were late in responding because they had been called to another part of the building to investigate an attempted purse-snatching. Last week additional guards were assigned to the building, and the head of the department's Passport Office, Miss Frances G. Knight, went a step further. She issued a directive urging female employees to "stand near the alarm button whenever riding elevators" and to "always work in teams," ordered that male employees, upon request, escort girls to the basement parking garage or the building's sign-out desk after regular working hours.

Moreover, at the direction of State Department authorities, carpenters began throwing up wood-and-Masonite barriers before the department's major entrances as a security measure. Henceforth, no one will be allowed admission to the building without showing an identification card or having the purpose of his visit verified.