Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi After 1965

Foreword

Foreword Few events in American political life have had as profound or as far-reaching consequences as has passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That law ended a century of denial to blacks of the most basic right of American citizenship-the right to vote. Within a short time of its enactment, blacks in large numbers throughout the South were registering to vote, and voting levels quickly shot up to match and, in some cases, surpass black voting outside the South. Currently, voting levels of black Southerners are less than five percentage points below those of whites; more than half of the over 7,000 black elected officials in the nation are elected in the South; and black voters are a formidable force in the electorai processes throughout the region. But as stunning an achievement as enactment of the Voting Rights Act was, it did not end the effort by white Southerners to curtail the political rights of their black fellow citizens. Throughout the South, white public officials took the view that although they could no longer deny blacks the right to vote, they could certainly reduce the impact of their vote, especially in electing black candidates to office. Thus, these public officials quickly shifted their efforts, from denying the right to vote to diluting the vote of blacks. They did this by creating at-large and multimember districts, redrawing district boundaries , and even changing some offices from elective to appointive. In the two decades since the Voting Rights Act, civil rights advocates have vigorously and successfully fought against these and other devices aimed at diluting the impact of the black vote. In the process, they have not only eliminated most official impediments to the full exercise of the franchise; they have also clarified and deepened our conception of the one-person, one-vote principle by emphasizing the right to cast an effective vote. The voting rights struggle involved all of the southern states and now reaches outside the South, but Mississippi was easily the most challenging arena of struggle. There the black population was largest, the resistance to all forms of civil rights the most vigorous, and not surprisingly, the efforts to dilute black political influence the most massive. There, too, the gains have been among the most dramatic. For these reasons, it is especially appropriate that this study focuses on that state in studying the epic struggle for full voting rights that followed enactment of the Voting Rights Act. Foreword XVI No one I know is better equipped to study Mississippi's massive resistance to black political empowerment than Frank Parker. In fact, it is rare when subject and author are so well matched. Attorney Parker has spent virtually all of his illustrious legal career in the cause of voting rights for minorities, including twelve years in Mississippi, leading the fight for political rights for blacks.in the courts there. He, therefore, comes to this study with considerable familiarity with the issues, the strategies, and the actors. The Joint Center for Political Studies is pleased to have had the opportunity to host Mr. Parker as a MacArthur Foundation Distinguished Scholar for fourteen months while he wrote this book. We are grateful for the foundation's generous support of our Distinguished Scholars program, to the members of the program's advisory and selection committees headed by Professors John Hope Franklin and Michael Winston, respectively, and to the staff of the Joint Center who assisted in facilitating Mr. Parker's work. It is my hope that the result of our joint efforts will be a better understanding of the remarkable achievements of our society, the state of Mississippi, and the many individuals, black and white, whose deep commitment to justice and equality made the voting rights revolution possible. Eddie N. Williams President Joint Center for Political Studies Washington, D.C. Black Votes Count ...