Evening star., 1947-12-18
Registration Stymied
lin Alabama County
With Negro Majority
BY the Associated Press

TUSKEGEE, Ala, Dec. 18.-The
legal machinery for registration of
voters in Macon County, where
Negroes outnumber whites to l.,
has been paralyzed for 18 months.
No registration board has existed
in the county-seat Of Tuskegee
Institute for Negroes-since the last
two members resigned in June, 1916,
and no one, regardless OF race, has
qualified as a voter Those regis
tered previously, of course, still have
their ballot.
Spokesman for both races blame
the breakdown on a Negros $1,000
damage suit against two former
registrars. The suit charged that
William P. Mitchell of Tuskegee was
denied the right to vote in 1945
solely because Of his race. Although
the suit was dismissed recently after
disclosure that Mr.. Mitchell previ-
ously had been registered but never
notified of it, Negro leaders say
that others may be filed.
Few Negroes Registered.
Negroes, many of them with COL
lege degrees, are demanding the
franchise and the Tuskegee Civic
Association has conducted classes in
registration. OF the $4,000 members
of the race who make up 81 per cent
of the county's populatin, however,
only few are registered.
Probate Judge William Warner
estimates the number at $50 to 300,
but Charles G. Gomillion dean of
education of Tuskegee Institute,
says it is 10.
The ratio of white voters is much
higher, approximately 1900 out of
a population of 5000, and would be
greater still If returning war vet
Grams and other youths just turned
81 had been able to register in the
last year and a half.
Former State Representative
Henry Neill Segrest, member Of
the Tuskegee Institute Board Of
Trustees, said several" white per-
sons, mostly veterans, had protested
to him over inability to get voting
certificates. He disagrees sharply
with Judge Warner, who said:
IF we had an open registration
every Negro at the institute and
every one who works at the veterans
hospital would come down here,
along with a few others who live
out of the county,"
2,700 Enrolled at College.
The college has an enrolment Of
2,70O and the hospital, located few
miles away, employs about 800.
Mr.. Segrest said, II don't believe
you would see more than 300 appli-
cations from Negroes in week."
Judge Warner said the demand for
Negro registration is nothing but a
scheme OF those Negroes at the in
stitute," but both Mr.. Gomillion and
DR.. F. D. Patterson, president of
the school, insist that Tuskegee has
nothing to do with 1t.
Mr.. Gomillion, former president
Of the civic association and a di-
rector In the Tuskegee branch Of
the National Association for the
Advancement Of Colored People, de-
scribed his activity as merely that
of a Citizen" and added:
about this business of mass Negro
voting, I do not think there would
be such q thing Immediately. My
guess Is that there would not be
more than 500 Negro voters in the
next IS years.
Displays Folsom Letter.
However, he remarked:
II think the feeling was that If
members served on the board and
did not register any more Negroes
than were registered by Mr.. Guthrie
and Mrs. Wright (the. former regis
|trars named in Mr.. Mitchelps suit) i,
they might find themselves facing
suits"
Mr.. Gomillion displayed a copy Of
a letter to Gov. Folsom asking ITS
it impossible to find three citizens