The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1951-03-01
Only Five States
Have Poll Tax
S. Carolina Acts

Columbia, S. C. OPA) - The
General Assembly has ratified a
constitutional amendment approved
last year, discarding the poll tax as
a requirement for voting in gener-
al elections. The Tennessee House
has approved a bill killing that
states poll tax. That leaves only
five states with a poll tax-Ala-
bama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas
and Virginia.
North Carolina acted in 1921;
Louisiana in 1894; Florida in 1887;
Georgia in 1916. The Tennessee
legislature a few years ago passed
a repeater, but its state supreme
court ruled the action unconstitu-
tional. The current Tennessee bill
provides that a voter would have
to pay the poll tax assessed against
him 1871, the year after the con-
stitution was adopted. Such bill
would apply only to voters now lOl
years old. Also, there was no poll
tax in 1871.
A group of Southern Senators in
Washington has proposed an
amendment to the US Constitution
outlawing the poll tax as require
ment for voting in federal prim-
aries and elections. The group in
cludes Holland and Smathers Of
Florida; George of Georgia; O'Con-
nor of Maryland; Byrd and Robert
son of Virginia; Mcclellan and Full
bright of Arkansas; Ellender and
Long of Louisiana; and Hoey and
Smith of North Carolina.
In Alabama the poll tax can bel
cumulative to $36, but veterans of
all wars are exempt. In Virginia.
the tax can be cumulative only toI
$3.50. In Mississippi the voter must
have paid his So for two consecu
tive years.
The poll tax has not been great
deterrent to voting, but Negroes
have been kept from the polls byl
interpretations of the law
by registrars and local officials.
I'm Webster Groves, a suburb
of st. Louis, the city council ann
ounced it would keep its swimming
pool closed next summer rather
than admit Negroes. A court order
last December barred segregation,
and gave the town the choice Of
building equal facilities" for Ne
groes, mixed swimming, or alloca-
ting separate swimming periods.
I'm Philadelphia, the city's Fair
Practice Commission,
IN its third annual report, declared
job bias was on the wane, and that
IS new fields of employment had
been opened to minority groups in
,hree years.
In Trenton, NJ, counsel for the
Trenton 6" asked for a change of
,enue or jury drawn from anoth-
.r county for the third trial of the
'ix Negroes accused of the murder
If an old man in 1948. "After list
,ning to the prospective jurors an
lounce their prejudice in court,
EEL we cannot get satisfactory
ury here" said one of the defense
awyers. The case has aroused ma
ion-wide interest, because of
,harges that the six were mistreat-
ID by police, and had not had a
air trial.
lin Washington Federal Secur-
ty Administrator Oscar Ewing
termination Of the Ma
ional Negro Health week move
nent, sponsored and directed sincel
932 by the Public Health Service.
Co-sponsors have been Tuskegeel
institute, Howard University, the
National Medical Assn. and thel
National Negro Insurance Assn.
GIVING said termination was "inl
,eeping with the trend toward in
egration of all programs for the
advancement of the people in thel
of health, education
nd welfare" The Office of Negrol
Health Work grew out of a pro-
ram initiated by Booker T. Wash
ngton 35 years ago. In 1880 the
Annual Health Week Conference,
established the program on year
ound basis, and changed the
ame.) {
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