The Setting

The economic structure and living conditions in the black belt countiesprovide an illuminating background for assessing the status of civil rights.The decennial Census of Population and of Housing, and the Censusof Agriculture, the latter conducted at 5-year intervals, are rich sourcesof data for understanding this background.

THE ECONOMY

Historically cotton has been the dominant crop in the black belt. Itssignificance is found in its partnership with the old plantation system,and the prevailing use of Negro labor in a one-crop economy. 1 Whenslavery was abolished, the large plantation was often subdivided intosmall operating units worked by tenants and croppers who had verylimited rights in the lands. The plantation structure was thus often retained, though modified in its legal form2014the sharecropper-tenantsystem which replaced it retaining many of its features. 2

Where cotton is the dominant crop the economic life of both large

landholder and small tenant and sharecropper has peculiar characteristics. Since cotton is a money crop, the use of land for other purposes,such as raising food for home consumption, tends to be discouraged. 3

Consequently, the farmer often must rely heavily on credit for even his

necessities. Reliance on the harvest of a single crop and a fluctuatingmarket often results in debt-burdened landowners as well as debtburdened tenants and sharecroppers. 4

Until the cotton is picked, ginned, and baled, both cropper and

tenant must rely on the landlord or local merchant for the necessitiesof life. The tenant may own his own tools and even a mule or two.He may buy his own fertilizer and seed, and then pay the landownera certain percentage of the crop or a specified cash sum for the use ofthe land and tenant house. The sharecropper is not so well endowed.He is dependent on the landowner for all supplies required for planting,sowing, and reaping. For the use of these he pays dearly. When the

process is completed, however, tenant and sharecropper are apt to be indebt, for the profits seldom cancel out the indebtedness.

Cotton is only one among several crops and among many labors;and all these other crops and labors mean life itself. Cotton meansnothing of the sort. It demands more work of a tenant family andyields less reward than all the rest. .. . It is the one crop andlabor which is in no possible way useful as it stands to the tenant'sliving; it is among all these the one in which the landowner is mostinterested; and it is among all these the one of which the tenant canhope for least, and can be surest that he is being cheated, and isalways to be cheated. 5

Nonvoting counties

In 1930, the major crop in 15 of the 17 nonvoting counties was cotton. 6

Indeed, it was virtually the sole crop in all but two. 7 These (Lee,

Ga., and Williamsburg, S.C.) produced field crops in conjunction withcotton within a dual or a multiple crop system. 8 In 1959 the same groupof 13 continued to plant cotton as their major crop, while the other 2raised other field products in sufficient proportion to be no longerconsidered predominantly cotton counties. 9 Nonetheless the tenantsharecropper system survives in these two counties as well as in theothers; 10 indebtedness and dependence on landlord or merchant are therule in all 15.

In these 15 counties, the Negroes caught up in the one-crop economicsystem greatly outnumber the whites. In 1959, there were 9,685 whiteand 15,257 nonwhite farm operators in these counties. 11 About twothirds of the Negro group (10,728) were classified as tenant farmers(this number includes sharecroppers); only one-fifth (2,215) of thewhites were in this category. 12 (The number of sharecroppers was notavailable at the time of this report, but in 1954 there were 12,189nonwhites and 1,784 whites in this class. 13 Although these figures havedecreased since 1954, undoubtedly a considerable number remain.) 14

In 1959 few Negroes owned their own farms in these counties2014only

2,912 (19.1 percent) of the 15,257. In contrast, 4,996 (51.6 percent)of white farm operators owned their own farms. 15 Thus, while therewere far fewer white than Negro farmers, twice as many whites werefarmowners.

The dissimilarities between the economic positions of white and Negroare further illustrated by the size of the farm units. In 1959, 9,685 whitefarmers farmed a total of 3,000,013 acres2014or an average of 309.8 acresper operator. In sharp contrast, 15,257 Negroes farmed 644,9862014anaverage of 42.3 acres. 16

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In these prevailingly rural areas there is little or no industry; nonfarmemployment for Negroes is limited to some teaching positions, janitorial,and other traditionally "Negro" jobs discussed in chapter 4." But thiseconomic pattern is showing some signs of change.

The severity of life, the introduction of cottonpicking machines,and in some places changes in land use and farm consolidations,have resulted in a steady population decline in the 15 countiesduring the last decade. 18 One sign of the change is the fact that thenumber of both white and Negro farm operators declined sharply between 1954 and I959- 19 In some cases, mechanization has replacedthousands of hands once irreplaceable in the cotton fields. Machinescannot pick the cotton boll from its bur with the precision of a pair ofskilled hands, but they are faster and more economical. Machinesare expensive, however, and the transition, with its marked changefrom the old way of life, has not been rapid. Crop diversification isalso slowly changing the demand for labor. Where cotton once flourished, cattle are grazing and trees are planted for a future lumbermarket. 20

Two of the nonvoting counties2014Gadsden, Fla., and Hertford,

N.C.2014were not cotton counties in 1930, and continued to differ fromthe other 15 in 1959 as well. Unlike all the other nonvoting counties,which were mainly rural, Gadsden as early as 1930 was a smalltown,industrial county. 21 Its crops were corn and peanuts. The Agricultural Census shows similar crop diversity in 1959, with hay and tobaccogrown in quantity as well. 22 Hertford was rural and nonindustriallike the other nonvoting counties in 1930, but its crops were...