Arizona sun., 1962-01-25
G0MLLI0N VS..
''' IIGHTFoo1

"Gomillion VS.. LighfoOt," the
first case involving racial gerry
Wandering ever considered before
the Supreme Court, is interpreted
by Bernard Taper in a new book
published by McGraw-Hill on JAN
uare oath. The author, who is a
staff writer for The New Yorker
first reported the case for that
magazine.
His book, in its approach, is an
unusual combination of the hum
ane. the sociological and the legal
mating and bringing to life one of
mating and bringing t olife one OF
the great constitutional cases OF
our time.
81 believe that this case will
prove most consequential" writes
Bernard Taper. 'It affected per-
haps the most important internal
problem America is graphing with
today-the problem of assuring
rights for Negroes as we'll as
whites, particularly the right to
vote, that most fundamental of all
rights" F."
In preparing the book, the author
first went to Tuskegee, Alabama
where the case originated, to see
how the problem appeared on the
scene itself, with all its local pass
ions, traditions and human con-
flicts. He then followed the case to
the Supreme Court to view it from
that lofty vantage point, and he
presents perhaps the most vivid
and cogent portrait yet gwen OF
the Supreme Court in action.
'The story began in 1857" he
writes, "when the white officials
of Tuskegee and the Alabama State
Legislature, afraid that the many
highly literate Negroes in that
area might succeed in registering
as voters and thus for the first
time play a significant role in
municipal politics, decided to ger
rymander them out of town. By
Alabama Act 14O, the towns
boundaries were rearranged from
a simple square to curious
twenty-eight sided figure which re-
moved nearly every Negro voter
from within the city limits
In Tuskegee, Taper talked with
a great many people and heard all
shades of opinion. He met the pro-
tagonists in the case-"Gomillion,
the Negro professor of sociology,
reserved, forceful, ascetic, dry in
manner; and Lightfoot, the mayor
of Tuskegee at the time the Act
was passed, an elegant, wistful
gentleman lamenting, as he talked
with the author in his ante-bellum
mansion, the changing, perplexing
times" He spoke with Negro fac
ulty members and farmhands, with
white businessmen and politicians.
Il spent a day watching educated
Negroes attempt to register in
face of all the obstacles put in their
way" Taper tells us. And he asks
these questions: why, for exam
pie did the whites make so little
attempt to hide their intentions in
passing the Act? How as it that
there was no violence in Tuskegee,
while there were outbreaks in
Montgomery and Birmingham"
Il have tried to describe South
ern community caught in the chal-
lenge of the current Negro de-
mand for equal rights, ~ the author
says. "This community is in a
striking situation for various rea-
sons. The Negroes outnumber the
whites by about four to one in a
population of about $500 making
the problem appear particularly
crucial to the white power struc-
ture of the town. Further, many of
the Negroes here are faculty mem
bers of Tuskegee Institute or pro-
fessionals on the staff of the Vet
erans Hospital nearby. Being such
a highly literate group they pre-
sent a constant embarrassment
to the Alabama politicians whose
aim is to deny Negroes access to
the ballot box. These factors have
made for considerable drama and
unusual revelations of motives
Taper then proceeds to describe
which in other situations are up to
be hidden. -
differing personalities o fthe judges,
the Interviewing issues of the case,
and discusses the arguments of the
two sides and what victory for
either side would mean.
AsRuah AaA a. AAAkUAuN