Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1959-04-04
See Fed eraI 49,.
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about trying to vote, all the more
skeptical about the ability Of the
Federal Government to help them
out.
In the same way, the. decision
is likely to encourage those Sou
thern elements determined to keep
Negroes from voting. The Attor-
ney General of Alabama, MacDon-
aid Gallon, hailed it as "a sound
defeat for the South-hating Federal
civil rights mongers."
The decision was handed down
by one of the most respected Fed
eral district judges in the South,
Frank M. Johnson, Jr., of Alabama.
He dismissed a suit brought by
the Justice Department to make
the registrars of Macon County,
Ala, register some twenty Negroes
evidently qualified to vote.
The tough legal problem in the
case was that the registrars had re-
signed before the suit was brou-
ght-in connection with an earlier
Civil Rights Commission investiga-
ton of their practices.
Justice Department lawyers
argued, first, that under Alabama
law the registrars resignation
could not be effective until success
sors qualified! Alternatively, in
case the registrations were legal,
they named the State of Alabama
as defendant and said the state
should be compelled to register
qualified Negro voters.
Judge Johnson rejected both
arguments. He said the registrars
had effectively resigned. And he
said the Civil Rights Act of 1857,
which allowed the Justice Depart
ment to seek injunctions on behalf
of would-be voters, permitted suits
only against individuals, not states.
The legal import of the case may
in fact be limited. For one thing
it will be appealed. For another,
in other cases the Justice Depart
ment may be able to sue recalcit-
rant registrars before they resign
and any attempted designations
while they are parties to lawsuit
would be much more difficult legal
ly.
But there remains the psycholo-
gical damage to a program that
whatever the reason-has been ex-
tremely slow getting off the
ground. Since the 1857 act was
passed, only two voting suits have
been brought by the Justice De-
partment. Others are being studied,
but no one can discern a massive
assault on Southern voting pat
terms.
The Impotence of Mr.. Rogers
Congressional questioners was di-
rected primarily to school and
housing segregation rather than
to voting. They wondered why the
Administration had not sought |
broad authority to bring injunc-
ton suits on behalf of any civil
rights-authority asked by the de-
partment but refused by Congress
in 1857.
Mr.. Rogers counseled the sub
committees to avoid excessive re-
lance on lawsuits for social change.
He said arming the Justice Depart
ment with such broad injunctive
power might simply increase re-
sistance in the South by feeding
it's image of a dominant Federal
Government trying to impose its
will on Southern communities.
The position taken by Mr.. Rog-
ers is based on the assumption that
the grudging accommodation the
Deep South has begun to make on
the school issue will continue.
The recent collapse of massive
resistance in Virginia and the ad
mission of a few Negroes to white
schools there are regarded by Mr..
Rogers as developments that should
be allowed to proceed without Fed
eral pressure.
Should there be new and more
forecful resistance to Indignation,
the position of the Justice Depart
ment may change.
Next fall may indeed see such
shift in the situation. School
litigation is coming to head in
Atlanta, and it is hard to predict
what course Georgia state officials
will follow.
But in any case the present ses-
sion of Congress is most unlikely
to approve legislation giving the
Federal Government substantial
new powers to seek injunctive re-
lief in civil rights matters.
Such a provision may be passed
by the House, but it is unlikely to
survive Senate attack except per-
haps in some sharply limited form.
The next civil rights act is like
ly to include provisions:
% to help the Justice Depart
ment obtain state voting records;