IS
STILL ANOTHER LAW NEEDED?
By. Evelyn Sell
‘At the beginning of January, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., warned Alabama officials that Negroes would conduct a massive voter registration drive and break down segregated facilities in the state. On January 18 King arrived in Selma to personally lead the campaign there. Selma is a city of 28,000 where Negroes outnumber whites and could hold the balance of power if they gained voting rights. Selma has long been a hard core of resistance to integration efforts but last October a racial moderate, Joe Smitherman, was elected mayor. Smitherman has publicly stated, "I am a segregationist. . . The "people of Selma will never accept any integration except what legally is forced on them.'* (This defines "a moderate" in the south.)
Legal force arrived in Selma in the form of the new civil~ rights law and when King announced his plans to come to Selma the city's white leaders announced that they had decided to comply with the public accommodations section of the civil-rights law and maintain peace. This statement was quickly followed by peaceful integration of a hotel and seven restaurants and the prompt arrest and sentencing of a member of the National States Rights party who punched and kicked Rev. King.
The "peaceful" proceedings were abruptly shattered when the county sheriff James Clark began harassing and jailing Negroes lined up to register to vote. Sheriff Clark is presently a defendant in Justice Department suits which charge him with using his office to prevent compliance with the public accommodations section of the civil-rights law, The sheriff has jurisdiction over the county courthouse area where voter registration takes place; and‘at first his rough tactics with Negroes disturbed local officials who were trying to project a good image of their fair city. City police soon joined the arrest-happy sheriff; on January 21 they arrested six Negroes. trying to integrate a lunch counter. —
on January 22 over 100 Negro school teachers demonstrated on the courthouse steps demanding that the Board of Registrars set aside one day a week for employees of the public schools to regis-~ ter to vote, Sheriff Clark and deputies used electric prods to force the teachers away from the courthouse steps. This was the first time public school teachers had participated on an: organized basis in the couthern civil-rights movement. In most cases, teachers are in the power of white school boards who demand that their employees steer clear of civil-rights activities.
While these events were going on in Selma, facilities in other Alabama cities were being integrated and:-a Justice Department. ‘suit was filed against the state because of discriminatory voter registration tests, These literacy tests are purposely designed to deny Negroes the vote, A northern newspaper, the Detroit News in
Michigan, conducted a survey to see if highly educated persons could pass the literacy test demanded of Alabama Negroes denied adequate education. The results of the Detroit News survey: among those who failed the test were seven circuit court judges, eight federal judges, various city and county officials, three law school professors. Two people passed the test: the chairman of the Wayne State University history department and the county elections director, This literacy ' test was voided by a federal judge during the Selma campaign.
The campaign reached new heights of intensity after King was jailed on February 1. On that day he deliberately violated a city ordinance against parades which he had observed up to this point.. He was arrested along with 767 Negroes who were with him. The following days' demonstrations were marked by the participation of ‘hundreds of Selma's Negro school children. The "childrens' crusade" spread to nearby Marion and thousands of youths ranging from 10 years to 18 were arrested and sent to work camps in the area. The young people complained of being herded 50 to 100 in a room with no “ents, heat or beds and poor food,
On February 4a federal judge ordered changes in the voter registration procedure and President Johnson pledged that the right to vote would be secured for all Americans (a right guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution which the president is sworn to uphold). King sent word from his jail cell that Negroes should stop demonstrating and “hold what.we've got." Further. courthouse ‘marches. Were accordingly called off. oF Oe
On February 5 fifteen U.S. congressmen from northern and western states arrived in Selma to informally investigate the situation. Most of them later promised to seek new federal. laws safe= | guarding Negro voting rights in the south. King finally allowed... someone to post bond for him and he left jail with the announcement. that he would fly to Washington to discuss new legislation with . President Johnson. Johnson issued an executive order creating a cabinet-level Council on Equal Opportunity to be headed by Vice~ President Humphrey. The Council is to coordinate all civil-rights work by federal agencies. It was also reported that Johnson would ask congress for new legislation to eliminate barriers to the right to. vote.
The most significant aspect of the current voter registration drive is this request for additional legislation to protect voting rights of Negroes. The protection of, voting rights was precisely . what the 1964 Civil Rights Law was supposed to accomplish. A bare. seven months after the bill was signed into law its greatest verbal supporters are admitting that new laws are needed, President Johnson called passage of the bill "a major step toward equal opportunities for all Americans,” All the respectable Negro leaders hailed the bill, a new day had supposedly dawned for the American Negro, Yet -voter registration. drives in the south still run up against the brick wall of force, reprisal and legal subterfuge. .The great cry last
year was, "We need the civil rights bill!" The civil-rights bill was passed, The great cry this year is, "We need more laws, new laws}"
The truth of the matter has been: there are more than enough laws on the books already to protect life, equal opportunity and the right to vote. The question is: who will enforce the laws already existing? .
ALGIERS WEEKLY