Of People and Politics; 5; The Negro Voter

zhu zhu zhu village in nineteen eighty two and i tried to register the thirty first of all that the night in the camp he owned a plantation eighteen years playing barry and amanda ripley that is he says

i mean how many a national educational television network presents all people and twenty one programs about the way americans perpetuate the political system under which they live all the negro vote with richard di have since world war ii to the negro america has become increasingly conscious of his political rights in nineteen forty four the whites only primaries in the south were abolished and negroes began to vote in the south in medieval numbers for the first time since reconstruction cause they had long

since exercise this right in the not now in nineteen sixty four after two decades in most parts of the country the negroes right to vote like any other citizens isn't accepted fact and of course the negroes voting power can be listed among his most important assets in nineteen sixty the negro vote was highly import some say it's won the presidential election to john f kennedy the negro vote is becoming a crucial element in determining who has political control in our cities and indeed throughout the nation yet the negro vote is a great and intangible factor in this presidential election year how will the negro vote in nineteen sixty four billy vote in a bloc will race be his prime motivation with ego democratic willie perhaps vote republican what does the negro vote i walked by i may not i think we prove with leadership but i would vote certainly forms to fall again because

he is rewriting the growing congress he has a great deal of influence this morning a man in either leadership positions you can make because aware of the devices available he will be electing they grow candidates will be seeing what i can imagine and they think it's going to do that they can't possibly think that gets to have it the negro voter likely wait for her votes his interests economic social political he votes against the man who would push around or would deny him economically you vote for the man he thinks is for yet the group voting employees vary it depends on the

way you live south north water stay and it depends on negro numbers three areas of the country represent three stages of the development of negro vote and how mississippi were negro numbers are great but where nigro still find it difficult to exercise our most basic right the right people the liberal nor were negroes have been able to vote freely for years but when the growers are comparatively small percentage of the population the border area's and parts of the south when negroes have the voting rights of the north within the racial conditions of the self and where we grow numbers on great mississippi forty two percent of the population is white only six percent of the negro population in forest county there are fourteen thousand seven hundred and fifty to meet

those twelve are registered voters lights we're young charles evers other of the assassinated medgar evers was taken over microphone position as leader of the jackson mississippi and the lazy teacher what is charles evers think about the publicity especially nice what would happen if he goes in mississippi got to write about them are pulitzer prize winning mississippi newspaper publisher and those leaks those precincts will have a local subdivisions of revenue grew about the white vinegar were

allegedly and white this is not true and i counted i don't think it's true and it's not true on the gulf coast the city where the world of all there will be racial and better as it is racism is a part of this is that the politics <unk> a politician and state treasurer bill winters at issue dating yeah i'm even worse fortunately using the race issue negro political participation in mississippi will come in some distant day in the statehouse of mississippi free negroes candidate for congressional office tread on marble and register

their candidacies in offices which have been off limits to all but negro janitors will close to a center only hearing of a primary election campaigns are complain that if you feel that you have said that they have been slumping in this sense and it's a political meeting in mississippi candidate's plan and a woman as mrs fannie lou hamer from a poverty stricken mississippi delta does she think she has a chance to win no well you see are working on that are collected you know other people just not what i mean is the man that gave congressman now are the people didn't elect him well you'd be much weight opposition to the reserve

that are shut out because they get shot at about being in london but that they shot into how sixteen dance frolic at baptist tried to register the first is getting new leadership would here poverty line in about a world with the us rather than i mean we don't actually we don't actually want to take anything from a white person we do as well actually how and we're ready anyway

in eu and jamie people and again and that we and then

let alone now i hate how the church we visited in mississippi in which mrs hamer held her kickoff campaigning has since been are in the north and in many parts of the south on like mississippi niggers have been able to vote freely for years they can run for office for you have all the legal rights that any citizen has in the american democracy because of falling into a pattern common to many big city groups they tend to vote democratic because i think the party is more responsive to their needs kennedy got over seventy percent of the negro vote in nineteen

sixty johnson is expected to do as well every national election since the thirties many negroes voted for eisenhower negroes have voted strongly democratic law former postmaster general fall well i think that many of those came into vogue he did later on a larger numbers after mr oswalt was elected mr oswalt did everything he could to be helpful and then his first administration he made appointments viguerie ever it's really like a prominent role at the window as been overlooked show his leg and he did everything he could derail them and i think they have them and he wrote in my judgment of the democratic party well they're now in large measure do lawmakers vote in a bloc democrat in manhattan borough president eduard our deadline i went out and i have not discern any evidence of a block building apart from some local school issues

in small communities in the north you would probably find some of this but generally speaking i would think that the name was born abroad as an individual the fact that a great majority of them will vote one particular way so that means that the issues of the day and of the time in that particular community would direct the great majority of them to vote this way the democrat solidified their hold on the negro vote in nineteen forty eight at their national convention southern democrats walked out of the convention to do strong pressure for crows civil rights platform they nominated south carolinians strom thurmond as the dixie dregs candidate for the presidency and harry s truman ran on a pro civil rights but for to the surprise of many despite the split in his body truman what we were voting power is strong political leaders often balance their slates with negro candidates and what are doubly on the effect of the governing party in new york or first walked by the effect has been to

make it impossible for a land to the term mostly liberal candidates to be elected office politicians have been talking about the movie impossible for men who were alone or segregation but one here or anywhere near and get and what you couldn't be like about that presumably negro voting power has a more subtle effect and judge john dudley suggests but the ballot boxes colorblind so that each election national or local considerable effort is expended to get as many negro votes as possible but what effect has all this effort have in the negro communities negro voting participation is well below that of any other key american group in nineteen sixty some eighty one percent of eligible whites voted in the same year only fifty four percent of eligible negroes about why a former

aide to martin luther king jim would know news director of a chain of radio stances as an answer will the mormon ago traditionally have never been a part of the community you have to have a certain kind of patriotic pride in the community to take part in what happens and then those have been excluded by segregation and fear yes yes an ominous sign women it's iran the volunteer army although i have been involved in the morning you know wanting to be a lawyer and i don't want to apply don't mean it in a bind there can be little interest

in building when you feel the system does not work for you there is an important exception to the broad pattern of negro voting which seems to have emerged in the north where most negroes vote democrat in areas of the south and in border states places where negroes have the voting rights of the moth within the racial setting of the south there are almost as many negro republicans as democrats and this older pattern of negro voting stems back to reconstruction acts negros in cities like voldemort a bladder are frequently republican largely in protest perhaps against the segregation the story of the democratic party of the south but the question is whether through their votes in these places negroes have been able to achieve even comparatively meaningful gains can negroes get things done with the power of the vote even food segregationist politicians and old time atlanta negro leaguer eighty one yes because when they realize that our worries that

patient to effect re election they can change all of my some of them do one show you devote one burger electorate or atlanta constitution editor eugene patterson and then you can't very well off in baltimore you must sure where the judge will ensure a big white board well and they reward is another world as far as i'm concerned we we made a bomber in atlanta mayor ivan allen jr that was made up of citizens and that every man was entitled to an equal right of citizenship and this was not accomplished has not been accomplished is not yet accomplished in all areas no i don't think that the negro vote as a bloc i think he's driven into bach wrote the reapportionment of

fulton county george or three years ago permitted the election of a negro state senator lloyd johnston are you ready to be effective not only to help support a lot of legislators the element of this here in this relationship it was the judge which he

indicated that you began to get on the inside of politics in which alito both share their own senate bill was victim was seven relationship with the earth can a lonely grow officeholder like laurie johnson really accomplish anything in a southern legislature jim was illegal it was this is a hoax justice missions because it his job is to it i mean patients

the patient and begins this is in the south an intensive voter registration drive visited six hundred thousand negroes to the voter roles since nineteen sixty and increase of almost forty percent are now more than two million registered negroes in eleven southern states a fact which could have the most profound consequences on the future political structure of the south senator john sparkman of alabama or obama but contrary to the thinking of a lot of people obama has been the perennial go forward in the negro registration all we

are as far back as i can remember i can recall negroes registering in my county without any a restriction without any pullback registering just like white people and i think it was true generally of the state now it is true the civil rights commission picked out three or four counties in which they found irregularities all the thing we must remember is that it takes a it takes an urge to get people to vote on charges say that that's true in this house you know one hand and to hear that the education that was margaret jones more of dallas county alabama in dallas county there

are thirty thousand negroes out of a total population of about fifty five thousand but on the voting rolls there are one hundred and thirty negroes and seven thousand watts a great number of these negroes people like margaret jo more want to vote but can't as the united states civil rights commission has pointed out in one community however tuskegee alabama the federal government has had an effect the population is sixty one the core but recently registered negroes for the first time outnumbered reduced to what it is tuskegee is the home of tuskegee institute a fine negro koch and the negro population is largely middle class whites or a company nineteen fifty seven the alabama legislature afraid of potentially great political power jarrett member the negro districts out of the city of tuskegee but in nineteen sixty one in the million versus like what the united states supreme court ruled that such gerrymandering because of race is illegal come november negroes will be represented on all major

governing bodies in tuskegee many say that in nineteen sixty a call by john f kennedy to the wife of martin luther king would just been jailed in the south swung the election in kennedy's favor martin luther king on that call and on the possible effect of negro vogue thank you i think in the south

where the representation of the negro community and they will be elected to political positions that they've never been in full i think it would also like some politicians who are basically right who knows issues and if all of our civil rights and now i hope that these men are basically a solemn states by now have the courage to stand because they don't think they have

the votes to keep the far right and i think on the national political climate and i think it will remain in the coalition we know the facts the church we visited in mississippi in which mrs hamer held her kickoff campaign meeting has been far racial tension seems to exist everywhere not just in mississippi we see the headlines and we know that in some parts of the nation the negro is systematically denied his most basic rights what we know public things too that the negro one c looks like any man votes what he instinctively thinks best for himself he senses his interests and the votes that way like any there's

no question but that many negroes today with the possible exception of those in border in southern states prefer the democratic party whether republicans can make any inroads in negro democratic strength issuer is doubtful for lyndon johnson is a strong democratic candidate in the north however many negroes feel themselves to be in a in a never neverland i'm sure which way to turn on certain who their friends are and they don't know in the south largely because of the population ratio the negro opportunity in voting and the danger is greater the path before the negro and before those who would join with them is strong with obstacles even with violence but all the land the winds of change a boy the direction is certainly for what speaks

be able to pass by this is because beaks but it's been this is at a

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