Negro vote test to come in Georgia
Many register for July 4 primary
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Atlanta, Georgia –
Here, symbolically on July 4, Independence Day, will come a test which will be watched all over the nation to see how far the South will go in accepting the Supreme Court’s decision that Negroes are entitled to vote in primary elections.
Several thousand Negroes have registered in Atlanta to vote in the first real test since the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating the Texas “white primary” law. The Mississippi primary is the same day, but apparently little is being done there to force a showdown.
A handful of Negroes voted in the Florida and Alabama primaries, and some few others who tried were stopped in one way or another.
But here, under the supervision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, lines of Negroes might be seen filing up to register at the county courthouse here. The books closed yesterday.
Given courteous treatment
They were given courteous treatment, and there was no challenge of the registration.
It is generally believed that there will be a challenge from election officials on July 4 to actual voting because of a statement by J. Lon Duckworth, State Democratic chairman. He said the Court’s decision did not mean that Negroes would be allowed to vote in Georgia’s primary.
However, an organization which has its headquarters here, the Southern Regional Council, is active in the interest of acceptance of the Supreme Court decision and is trying to create a public opinion receptive to voting by the Negroes.
The Council is composed of influential Southerners of both races, including churchmen, teachers, editors and some few businessmen and lawyers. It was created the first of this year when it absorbed the Commission of Interracial Cooperation, Inc.
Requires courage to join
Its president is Dr. Howard W. Odum of the University of North Carolina, distinguished educator and author of numerous books on the South and its problems. Dr. Guy B. Johnson, for many years at the University of North Carolina, is executive director, with Dr. Ira De A. Reid, Negro professor at Atlanta University, as associate executive director.
Only one familiar with the South can realize what courage it requires to join and work with an organization of this sort. It faces an uphill job. But it proceeds with the knowledge that there are many Southerners sympathetic to its aims, even if they do not dare to come out into the open.
The Council is making approaches to city and police officials on behalf of peace and order at the polls in the numerous primary elections still to be held.