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5 The Impact of the Struggle for Black Political Participation on Mississippi Politics On March 26, 1987, Speaker C. B. "Buddie" Newman of the Mississippi House of Representatives announced that he was stepping down as Speaker, a position he had held since 1976. "I just think it's best for Mississippi if I get out of the way," Newman commented .I Newman's retirement marks the end of an era in Mississippi politics . A sixty-six-year-old Delta planter from rural Issaquena County, the smallest county in the state (population 2,513), and a member of the House since 1952, Newman was one of the most powerful forces, if not the most powerful force, in state government. For more than a decade, the Speaker ruled the House with an iron grip. Through his power to appoint committee chairs, make committee assignments, and control the House calendar, Newman single-handedly determined the fate of bills by manipulating their assignment to particular committees, determining their position on the House calendar, and timing floor actions. Once an avowed segregationist who cheered on Governor Ross Barnett's 1962 effort to keep James Meredith out of the University of Mississippi, in more recent times Newman frequently blocked efforts at progressive change in Mississippi. In 1982, for example , Newman abruptly adjourned the House, over the protests of lawmakers, to kill for that legislative session a bill-supported by Governor William Winter and a majority of the House members-that would have established public kindergartens.2 Newman's tenure as Speaker was the last prominent vestige of the white Delta planter elite's control of state politics. From the turn of the century until the legislative reapportionment of the 1970s, conservative white politicians from the Delta exercised a disproportionate influence in state affairs. Since 1944, except for a brief ten-year interregnum from 1966 to 1976, two powerful Speakers from the Delta, Walter Sillers and Newman, dominated the House. As veteran politi- Impact of the Struggle 131 cal observer Bill Minor noted of Newman's resignation, "Historically, it is more than the Newman era that is coming to an end. It could be said that it will be the end of the Delta Dynasty in the House.,,3 The end of Newman's reign symbolizes the changes in Mississippi politics brought about by the struggle for black political participation in the state. His departure was the result of a successful revolt against the House leadership spearheaded by a "New South generation" of young white legislators together with the members of the House Black Caucus who succeeded in enacting a change in the House rules at the beginning of the 1987 session that diminished the Speaker's power. The members of both groups were elected mostly from singlemember House districts in 1979 or later, and neither of these two political forces would have existed in the Mississippi House but for the reapportionment victories of the late 1970s. Thus, the struggle of blacks for political participation has substantially affected the alignment of power in the state legislature. First, as with other types of elective office in the state, blacks now hold a significant number of seats in the formerly all-white state legislature. Second, the same electoral reform, the adoption of single-member districts that made it possible for blacks to win those seats, loosened the iron grip of the old political establishment and enabled significant numbers of younger , better-educated, and relatively moderate whites to win seats in the legislature as well. This chapter will assess the impact of the black struggle for political participation upon Mississippi politics. The first section will discuss the political impact of state legislative reapportionment. The next section will describe the increasing influence of black voters in party politics and how black voters' demands for inclusion in the state Democratic party produced a merged state party organization. The chapter will then show how the continuing struggle against racially discriminatory electoral structures, such as racial gerrymandering and at-large elections, produced continued increases in black elected officials at the county and local levels through the 1970s and well into the 1980s. Finally, the chapter will address the impact of increases in black representation in government at the local level. Earl and Merle Black, two widely regarded southern political scientists , in their book Politics and Society in the South contend that while giving southern blacks the vote was important, nevertheless blacks overall remain "tangential" to southern politics because there are so few jurisdictions where...

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