Negro Voting

The foregoing chapter described the economic setting in 17 black beltcounties in each of which a white minority to a large extent determinesand distributes benefits and burdens to a nonvoting Negro majority. Italso described the setting in those four black belt counties where a significant proportion of Negroes do vote. These comparisons, it is hoped,will help answer the crucial question to which this chapter is addressed2014why do Negroes vote in some counties and not in others?

NONVOTING COUNTIES

In each of the 17 black belt counties studied by the Commission whichhave been termed "nonvoting" counties, 97 percent or more of theNegroes who attained voting age were not registered to vote in I958. 1

Since that time, nine of the counties have shown an increase in Negro

registration. Two of the nine are Fayette and McCormick, in eachof which Negro registration increased partly as the result of Federalintervention. 2 In a third and fourth2014De Soto, Miss., and Claiborne,La.2014Negro registration rose only slightly: in the former from i to 3, inthe latter from 15 to 28. A fifth, Carroll County, Miss., "recruited"three Negroes in 1960 (there were none registered through 1959) inorder to provide an "integrated" jury panel. (The recruiting wasbrought on by a decision of a U.S. Court of Appeals which had recentlyreversed the criminal conviction of a Negro on the ground that Negroeswere systematically excluded from Carroll County juries.) 3

The four remaining counties with increases in Negro registration are

Gadsden, Fla., Hertford, N.C., Quitman, Miss., and Monroe, Ala. InGadsden, 348 Negroes registered after county officials, early in 1960,indicated that any qualified Negro could register and vote. As a resultNegro registration jumped from 7 to 355. Hertford experienced anincrease of about 350.* Quitman County raised its figure from 234 to435, and in Monroe, Ala., Negro registration is reported to haveincreased from 160 to 200.

Not all the counties have moved forward, however. In three2014Tensas, La., and Tate and Issaquena, Miss.2014there were no Negroesregistered in 1958 and there are none now. The other five show adecline. 5 (Three of these counties show a percentage increase,although the number of registrants has dropped. This is due to population change.)

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While some gains have been made, then, the voting picture in the17 nonvoting counties has not changed markedly save in Fayette. (Seetable 3 below.) In the last 2 years Negro registration has numericallydeclined or remained at zero in eight counties. In only six (two partially as the result of Federal intervention) was there a sizable increase,and in only four of these did the increase raise the proportion of Negroesregistered above 3 percent. Three hundred and fifty additional Negroregistrants raised Hertford's proportion from 2.9 percent to 8.8 percent;

4.0 raised Monroe's from 2.7 percent to 4.1 percent. (Fayette has goneto 20.8 percent.) 6 This paucity of registration is part of a larger political picture in the nonvoting counties which at almost every point demonstrates the passive role assigned to the Negro.

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Just as the election of a candidate is almost exclusively the prerogative of whites, so too is the process of determining who shall run.Each county has at least one white organization controlling the localpolitical picture; Negroes cannot belong to it, although the few Negroeswho are registered presumably may vote in the primaries. 7 In only twocounties have Negroes formed their own partisan political organizations, 8 while in four others Negro nonpartisan groups exist to stimulateinterest in the voting process. 9

Except in Hertford County, N.C., candidates for office are always

white. Moreover, with the exception of Hertford, political candidatestotally disregard the Negro either as a registered or a potential voter.They neither address Negro groups nor seek Negro votes. Campaignissues do not acknowledge the interests of the nonwhite majority.When the Negro is the subject of campaign oratory, he is usually its butt.Since those running for office ignore them, the few Negroes who dovote have only a limited basis on which to do so. They are excludedfrom the usual political techniques of personal contact and persuasion,a particularly restrictive condition in these rural areas where the handshake and the church picnic talk often provide the political forum forcandidates. Excluded from every significant stage in the politicalprocess, the Negro citizen has little or no political existence except in therole of the "governed." 10 His isolation is profound.

That governing is the reserved bailiwick of whites is demonstratedeverywhere in the 17 counties. The elected officials are white, theregistrars are white, the judges are white, the juries are predominantlyif not exclusively white, the policemen are generally white, the firemenare white2014almost all official positions, excepting only menial ones, areheld by whites. In instances where Negroes hold responsible positions2014as policemen, teachers, agricultural extension agents, and the like2014theirduties are carefully limited and they deal only with other Negroes.Within the stable order of things there appears little need to remind theNegro of his place. He is already in it.

The United States has one of the lowest election participation recordsin the free world. Many reasons are advanced for this, and some ofthem no doubt apply to the 17 nonvoting counties. But they do notexplain the extremes found in these counties.

A reason frequently advanced by white informants for minimal Negroregistration in these counties was the low level of Negro education.While the level is low, 11 and may well keep many Negroes from beinginterested or qualified to register, there are nonetheless numbers ofNegroes with sufficient schooling to meet registration requirements.For example, in Tensas Parish, La., no Negroes were...