Moses faced nearly relentless violence and official intimidation, and was beaten and arrested in Amite County. He was the first African American to challenge white violence, and filed assault charges against his attacker. The all-white jury acquitted the man, and the judge told Moses he could not protect him, providing him an escort to the county line. The next month in September 1961, E.H. Hurst, a white state legislator, killed Herbert Lee, a 56-year-old married local farmer in Liberty, Mississippi, who had been in a voter registration class. Hurst murdered him in front of a dozen witnesses and was cleared at the inquest that day, claiming self-defense; the courtroom was filled with armed white men. Witness Louis Allen was murdered in early 1964 after being boycotted and harassed for discussing the Lee murder with federal officials. Moses and other organizers had asked for federal protection from the John F. Kennedy administration but the Justice Department did not then provide it.