TOWARD POLITICAL ACTION
By Evelyn Sell
The NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] has again warned the capitalist politicians in the Democratic . party that they must act on civil-rights legislation in order to keep the Negro vote, On January 6 Roy Wilkins, delivering his annual report to the Board of Directors, said: Although President Lyndon B. Johnson has given the civil-rights bill top priority, there is every indication that the House Rules Committee, under Chairman Howard Smith, of Virginia, may not_finish action on this bill seven full months after the President [Kennedy] submitted it.
"If Rep, Smith holds the bill unduly long, it may be that Negro ~ citizens of the country willbe forced to re-examine their reasons for supporting the party of which Rep, Smith is an ornament...
_ "Since Negro voters are not. able to reach and reason with Mr, Smith at ballot box time they may decide to put the matter on a party . basis, If this were done on any scale, some governorships and some congressional seats might. change . party labels, . .
"“Gongress is playing politics with the civil~rights bill now. Our turn to play politics will come next November."
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This latest threat to the Democratic party, - which in 1 past years has received 75% to 80% of the Negro vote, reaffirms and broadens Wilkins! November announcement that the NAACP would actively work:for the defeat of congressmen refusing to support civil-rights bills. Now. even a liberal Northern Democrat supporting civil-rights legislation: may be defeated at the polls if his party member ‘in the South does not help advance the cause of equality. Is the Threat Real?
Can the Negro enforce this kind of political threat? The facts. and figures say: Yes. American Negroes are concentrating in ever greater numbers in the large industrial cities of the North and South. Political control of these urban centers can mean political control in the state and greater power in the national government.
In important Northern cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, Negroes make up from 23% to 29% of the population. In New - York they represent 14% of the population, In addition, segregated housing patterns concentrate these city Negroes in the same area so that many congressional districts are overwhelmingly nonwhite.
In important Southern cities like Little Rook, Birminghan, Atlanta, Charleston, Memphis, New Orleans, the Negro population runs from 23% to 40% of the total in the city, In many rural areas of the South, Negroes actually outnumber whites, For example, in Dallas County, Alabama, 55% are Negro. On a state-wide basis Negroes represent a very
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significant proportion of the population in places like Alabama (308), Georges (28, 5%), Louisiana (32%), South Carolina (35%), Mississippi — (42.5
Even where Negroes do not represent a significant percentage of .the population they often hold the balance of power in elections, ; Although Negroes comprise only 14% of the voters in Georgia, they were credited last year with winning the election for governor of a moder~ate, Carl Sanders, who was running against segregationist Marvin Griffin. It was the Negro vote in South Carolina that helped John F, Kennedy carry that state in 1960. The “bloc voting" of the 9,000 registered Negroes in Savannah, Georgia, was decisive in the last general county election. In Detroit's last mayoralty election it was the Negro vote that assured the election of an unknown young liberal, Cavanagh, over the incumbent Mayor Miriani, who was held responsible for a wave of police brutality against Detroit Negroes. ©
Four Negro candidates won places on the ballot for the Democratic primary in New Orleans this month, A Negro minister, Rev. P.J.Griffin, challenged the political boss of Plaquemines Parish, Leander: Perez, an. arch segregationist, Perez received 5,110 votes and the minister only 191 but there were only 95 Negroes re istered to vote in Plaquemines Parish. This means that at least 96 whites voted for the Negro candidate. Great Potential Power
Negroes, North and South, have great potential political power, One of the reasons their power is still only potential is that but a Small number of Negroes are actually registered voters, Southern racists have gone to great lengths, including murder, to prevent Negroes from exercising their constitutional right to vote, Negroes represent. about 20% of the total population of the South, yet~ among 14,000,000 voters in that area only 1,700,000 are Negroes, The worst state is Mississippi where Negroes comprise 42% of the population but only 5,3% of the voters, In Alabama, 30% of the population is Negro but only 8% of the voters, In East Feliciana Parish, Lowisiana, Negroes actually outnumber whites yet there are 2, 600 white voters there and only 120 Negro voters,
During the past five years the number of white voters in the South. increased by almost 2,000,000. The number of Negro voters increased only 500,000 despite passage of bills and decisions of courts that . were. supposed to secure voting privileges for them,
Some of the methods used in the South. to prevent Negro registra~ tion are: payment of special poll taxes before a person is allowed to vote, economic reprisals against courageous Negroes who do register, and cold-blooded murder, More subtle means are used also such as special qualification tests, On November 27 a federal court in Louisiana threw out a voter test on the grounds that Negroes were asked impossibly difficult questions about obscure and technical provisions of the state and national constitutions but written answers like
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"frdum foof spetgh" (freedom of speech) were accepted from white applicants. De
One of the main projects of the militant SNCC [Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee] is a voter registration drive in the South under the slogan, "One man, one vote." Mass rallies at churches, door-to-door canvassing and literature distributions are used, Such a campaign demands great personal courage from the SNCC workers and the Negro com munity.
In Terrell County, Georgia, SNCC was able to raise the number of registered Negro voters from 51 to 140. The population of the county is about 13,000 and 60% are Negro, Why aren't more of them registered? | Last September three SNCCO activists were shot and in December the home of a Negro resident was bombed because she housed SNCC members and had set up. citizenship schools to give instructions in Georgia's qualification tests for voters,