Stokes: South may delay giving Negroes vote in primary
South Carolina leads way by abolishing preliminary elections; others may follow
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Atlanta, Georgia –
The South is in a ferment over the Supreme Court’s mandate that Negroes must be allowed, under the Constitution, to vote in Democratic primary elections from which they hitherto have been barred by laws making those elections exclusively “white” primaries.
The court’s decision, specifically applicable to the Texas “white primary” law, invalidates similar statutes in other Southern states which kept Negroes from participating in the only elections in the South which count – the primaries. Because of the lack of a strong second party, primary nomination is tantamount to election.
No clear, South-wide program of action yet has evolved. A majority of the people have adopted an attitude of passive resistance.
South Carolina leads off
South Carolina has led off, as in pre-Civil War days, with enactment of a doctrine of nullification by stripping from its statutes all authorization for primaries. All this done in a bitter atmosphere and with cries of “white supremacy.” A convention system will be instituted, with Negroes excluded.
This pattern may be followed elsewhere. Meanwhile, until a decision is reached on procedure, it is obvious that dilatory tactics will be pursued. It is likely that in some cases Negroes who try to vote in remaining primaries will be challenged. This will only postpone, for the Supreme Court has decided.
The convention system, itself, will inevitably be tested before the Supreme Court.
South at crossroads
This pattern of resistance appears now the probable course unless the South should be prevailed upon by a minority which is yet small and lacks substantial organization, but numbers some courageous and influential people.
This minority seeks the Supreme Court decision as the long-awaited opportunity for the Deep South to stir itself; break its ancient chains of tradition, and boldly take the first step. It holds that those Southern states should accept the decision without further legal to-do.
Some among this minority feel the South has reached a crossroads, that the Texas case may be comparable in its ultimate effects to the Dred Scott decision, that another movement for race freedom, like that which led to the abolition of slavery, is slowly gathering momentum, and that the South might as well accept it and accommodate its thinking to it.
Alert to opportunity
Negro leaders in the South are alert to their opportunity and are active to take advantage of it.
Campaigns of registration of Negroes are going on under the prodding of Negro newspapers, Negro schoolteachers, Negro ministers. In Atlanta, the aim is to get 15,000 Negroes on the books for the July 4 primary. It is doubtful that the total will be anything like that large. Negroes are busy registering in South Carolina.
The objective in South Carolina is to vote, in a separate Negro Democratic party, in the November election. Negroes can vote in the regular election.
This Negro registration has alarmed the whites. A negligible vote is cast in South Carolina in the regular election – 12,000 two years ago – so that the whites are compelled to take precautions that they won’t be outvoted.
