St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1962-01-05

NNlIiCNS SdlN IlIt COLl paint,
)artment'S first challenge of the
ting law. The Department has
brought a number of cases chal-
longing the administration of state
voting laws in specific counties.
The action, brought under the
Civil Rights Act of 1857, asked
that a three-judge federal court
be convened to declare that the
Interpretation test on its face viol-
ates the 14th and 18th Amend
ments to the United States Con-
stitution and to forbid state offic-
ials to enforce it.
Governor A Defendant
Named as defendants were the
State of Louisiana, Governor Jim
ME H. Davis, Lieutenant Cover
nor c. c. Aycock, J. Thomas Jewel,
Speaker of the Louisiana House of
Representatives, and Hugh E. Cut
rer, Jr.
The three state officials are
members of the Louisiana Board
of Registration which administers
state voter registration procedures.
Cutrer is director and ex offiCio
secretary of the Board.
Mr.. Kennedy said the Depart
ment action asserted that the eff
feet of the Interpretation test has
been to permit parish County,
registrars to deprive otherwise
qualified Negroes of their right
to register and vote.
THE history of the interpreted
ton test, the setting of white pol
itical supremacy and racial segre-
cation in which this test was
adopted and is enforced, and the
discretion which is vested in the
registrars of voters in the admin
istration of this test render Qt)
invalid on its face" under the us.
Constitution and the Civil Rights
Act of 1857, the complaint said.
The test has been used in a rae
tally discriminatory manner, es-
pecially since the 1854 school de-
segregation decision of the Su-
preme Court of the United States,
according to the Government.
Last October, the complaint
said, the Board of Registration
adopted a resolution requiring all
registrars of voters in Louisiana to
enforce the Interpretation test
strictly.
The complaint cited a pamphlet
entitled Voter Qualification Laws
in Louisiana - the Key to Victory
in the Segregation Struggle" which
has been distributed to registrars
and other public officials by the
state White Citizens Councils. The
pamphlet urged strict application
of the test as a means of preserv-
ing white political supremacy, the
complaint said.
White Citizens Councils Involved
Mr.. Kennedy said the White Cit
liens Councils, acting under a
procedure authorized by state law
the registration of
thousands of Negroes in at least
eleven parishes and caused their
removal from the rolls.
Registrars in some of the par
ishes had not used the interpreta-
ton test prior to the purge" but
did so afterwards, the complaint
said, applying it to Negroes seek
ing to regain their registration,
T.
but not to whites.
Between March and October
1856, the number of white voters
in the eleven parishes increased by
1 ,O33 and the number Of Negro
voters decreased by S,15S, accord
ing to the complaint. By Decem-
Der 1860, the number of whites
increased by an addi-
tional 1924 and the number Of
Negroes decreased by an addition
al 2,2O5.
Grandfather Clause
Unconstitutional
The Interpretation test was
adopted by the state in 1921 to re-
place a grandfather clause" OF
the kind which was declared I'M
by the Supreme
Court of the United States.
The grandfather clause" had
been adopted in 1898 when about
A percent of the States regis
tered voters were Negroes. The
clause exempted from literacy and
property requirements for voting
all persons who were entitled to
vote on or before January 1, 1867
and their sons or grandsons.
The purpose of adopting the in
depreciation test, the complaint
said, was to provide a means by
which the observation-disclosures Of
could be perpetuated." I'm
til 1914, when the Supreme Court
the exclusion of Ne
groes from primary elections, no