Arizona sun., 1952-06-27
Negroes Claim,
"The Voting
Power" In sc
BY James l.. Hicks

the state in unprecedented num-
bers, colored political leaders of
South Carolina are now confident
ly proclaiming that 1--WE are no
longer the balance of power in
this state we are the power it
self" and study of political
trends in the state shows that they
could be right.
Nowhere in a tour of the South
can one find a more militant, more
progressive, more confident colOred
citizen than he can find in South
Carolina today. Spurred on by sue
cess in the high courts in the now
famed white primary" case. un-
daunted by defeat in the equally
famous school segregation suits,
colored people of South Carolina
today have taken an interest in
both local and national affairs Of
government which is amazing TO
everyone but themselves.
The reason is simple The white
primary case, and such things as
the school segregation suit of Clar
endon County have turned the spot
light of public attention on every
village and hamlet in this state
which gave the nation its first
Dixiecrat presidential candidate
and under this searching spotlight,
cCIored South CarolinianS suddnly
discovered that the whole world
was interested in something which
only he himself could control :
hfs right to vote.
He became interested himself =
ard now his interests knows no
bounds. The results are also SIM
pie. South Carolinians found that
they have a weapon which the
white man fears and they made
up their mind to use it to their
own best advantage
What they discovered is the un-
disputable fact that through sheer
weight of numbers alone they can
virtually control the government
of the state of South Carolina.
Here are the facts:
South Carolina has six Congress
sional districts. In three of these
districts colored people Outnumber
white people, The state has 4G
counties which elect ITO members
to the state legislature. In % of
these counties colored people out
number the whites. These % coun-
ties elect S8, or more than half Of
the members of the State LegiSla-
ture. In one of these counties rs
per cent of the colored people eli
gible to vote have already regis
tered and many other counties are
approaching that end.
Thus when John H. McCray, mill
tant editor of the Columbia, S. c.
Lighthouse and Informer, and
John Hinton, South Carolina state
president of the NAACP. say that
I'VE represent not only the balance
of power = we are the power
there is every reason to stop and
listen to what they have to say.
McCray and Hinton are the ac-
cepted political leaders of the state
and a tour of South Carolina will
convince one that they are not
just leaders in name only. South
Carolina is behind them SOlidly
and the two men have become re-
cogniZed by whites as the power
behind the balance of power in
South Carolina.
McCray is chairman of the Pro-
preSSiVe Democrats, statewide
organization which supports the
regular Democratic Party in oppo-
sition to the DixiecratS. Hinton's
statewide NAACP organization
with 81 active branches over the
state is recognized as one of the
most powerful and most indepen-
dent NAACP state associations in
the nation To make the marriage
of the two organizations complete
Hinton and McCray are friends OF